I had a customer request a handwoven baby blanket for her new preemie granddaughter. Particularly because [...]]]> Despite the fact that my grandson gave me a terrific virus (a trade I’d make again in a heartbeat for a chance to watch him), what can be sweeter than cuddling a little one? Not much, in my book.

I had a customer request a handwoven baby blanket for her new preemie granddaughter. Particularly because the baby was a preemie, softness was of major concern. She also wanted something in the palest of shades, using pink, white, and blue, so that the blanket could be used equally well for a future sibling.

We settled on a hand painted blend of bamboo and cotton yarn because it is both remarkably soft and machine washable – critical for baby things. Tammy happily did some more custom dyeing for me while I drafted an 8-shaft pattern on my Fiberworks software. Here’s what I came up with.

A pretty straightforward threading and treadling pattern, and one that (a) has no floats longer than 3 threads (I sure double-checked on this one after my towel error!) and (b) emphasizes warp color on one side and weft color on the other – a feature that always appeals to me.

In fact, I like this draft well enough that I believe I’ll use it for some scarves in the foreseeable future.

I measured up my white warp yarn with enough length for three baby blankets, threaded my Mac (there’s a bit more story there, for the next post), and was off and running.

Because of the subtleness of the colors on the custom blanket, it’s not as easy to see the pattern as it is in the draft. But you can tell how soft the fabric is.

Always happy to weave what my customers want, my personal preference is for brighter colors for babies. So I wove a bright green weft for the second blanket…

…and a bright mulberry for the third.

On the brighter colors you can see the pattern better, and see how each side has a different predominating color. I think you can also see that my binding is a bit more “wrinkly” than is ideal. I worked all my prior binding magic tricks with some limited success. I think that it’s because the fabric is sooooo soft it made it more of a challenge. It was a compromise I was willing to live with.

I’m on the mend – just a bit of stuffy nose and occasional cough left hanging on, so I’m back to weaving. Unfortunately not as much as I’d like, since that means I’m back to my paycheck job, too. Ahhh, the trade-offs we make in this life !

Meanwhile, I’m loving our beautiful spring weather, and EXTREMELY grateful that we’ve not been struck by any of the weather terror in other states.

Your turn: what are you grateful for today?

So what of my new weaving sold?

First to go were the two eggshell huck lace scarves. With a show [...]]]> The Roycroft Summer Art Festival is over. The weather was conducive to selling scarves – not too hot & muggy. In fact, it was a bit chilly, making people want to look at warm things.

So what of my new weaving sold?

First to go were the two eggshell huck lace scarves. With a show that started at 10:00AM, I’d sold my first scarf by 11, one of these beauties.  I displayed one of them in the front of the booth, on these really cool stands I have, thanks to my wonderful sister and her talented hubby. I sold the second within the next hour. I’m sure if I’d had two more, I could have sold them before the weekend was over, too; people loved them.

Next of my new weaving to be sold wasn’t until Sunday morning, when I sold one of the cotton flannel shawls. It had drawn lots of admiring looks, but no takers. Then, a woman walked up to the booth, saw it, put it on, and bought it within a few minutes.

Later on Sunday I sold the cotton and linen Brooks Bouquet scarf I’d woven for a demo at the Kenan show. She really liked the mix of colors that still produced a scarf of neutrals.

Surely I didn’t sell just four pieces all weekend?! Nope. I matched the pieces sold at Kenan. What else was snatched up?

A variegated cotton flannel baby blanket. An alpaca houndstooth scarf. Several bamboo scarves woven in different colors and designs. Three cashmere & silk scarves, including a recent one in mango & cream. The drop-dead gorgeous purple & silver mohair scarf. A few rayon scarves.

It was a mix of fibers, sizes, weave patterns.

I’ve got some more rayon on the loom now, and can’t wait to get it woven so I can start working with my newly-acquired silk yarn.

I have 7 weeks before my next show, but then in the next 4 weeks I have 2 more shows, so I plan to build up my stock by weaving my way through July.

Your turn: what are your creative outlets this summer?

After much consideration, I decided that my to-be-grandson needed one of my handwoven hearts baby blankets. To make his even more special, I [...]]]> Way back in the dark ages, 1965 to be exact, Herman’s Hermits released a hit with the memorable lyrics of this blog title. It strikes me as just right for this post.

After much consideration, I decided that my to-be-grandson needed one of my handwoven hearts baby blankets. To make his even more special, I embroidered his initials in one corner of the binding.

Now I just need to go modify my website to make the blue blanket no longer available.

I also made two hats.

On the left is an adorable little crocheted baseball cap that one of my volunteers showed me. You can get the pattern free at crochetville. I must say, I think my crochet gauge is a bit off; I really think the cap my volunteer made was a bit bigger than mine is. If I were going to make it again, I’d add at least one more round before I did the brim.

On the right is a regular old knitted cap, in a tiny size, made with the same yarn I used for those baby socks back in February. I’m sure I got this pattern free online, too, I just don’t remember which one I used.

I think both the caps are sweet. They remind me just how tiny babies really are. These hats will likely fit him for about 10 minutes before he’s too big for them.

I got to pass these on to my daughter at her baby shower, which we held at Hurd Orchards. Such a gorgeous location, such great food, such pleasant people.

She got lots of other swell gifts, too, some of which I’d never heard of before. Times sure have changed since I had my babies!

Your turn: Have you shopped for baby things lately? Found anything surprising?

The pink hearts have a pale pink binding, the blue hearts a pale blue binding, and the cranberry & aqua have white binding. I did get these up on my website, as this is the time [...]]]>
I promised to show you the four handwoven baby blankets when I finally had the binding on them.

The pink hearts have a pale pink binding, the blue hearts a pale blue binding, and the cranberry & aqua have white binding. I did get these up on my website, as this is the time of the year that I tend to get more orders for or sales of my handwoven baby blankets. (I do realize that the blue & aqua look pretty similar in the photo, but they’re not so much in real life. The aqua has much more green in it.)

In addition to the four heart blankies, I also wove three cotton flannel baby blankets in a variegated yarn. These were really popular last time I had them. The cotton flannel is so very soft, and the colors are just right for baby.

I wove these blankets in doubleweave, since I wanted them to be wider than either of my looms would accommodate. I’ve done this before on my sweet, little counterbalance loom without difficulty. But I’d just finished the heart blankets, which required all 8 harnesses of my Macomber, and so decided to do the doubleweave on the Mac, too, even though I only needed 4 harnesses. I knew I’d get a better shed, and it would just make my job easier.

I admit it, I’m getting used to the Mac. I still love my counterbalance, and hope that it remains my favorite; only time will tell, I guess.

Back to the topic I wanted to talk about – binding these baby blankets. I admit it: I hate sewing on the binding. Previously, I’ve sewed it on and then taken it all off and re-done it. I’ve lived with binding that looked less-than-professional, reducing the overall look of my carefully woven blanket. At my show last weekend, I even tried to get one of the other women there, whose product is handsewn purses and bags, to do the binding for me. She wasn’t having any of that. So I wasn’t looking forward to the task of binding 7 blankets. YUCK!

I did one each of the hearts and the cotton flannel prior to the show. I hated it as much as I’d anticipated. And I still had 5 more blankets to go.

Then I got a brainstorm: I can’t be the only one who has difficulty with this slippery fabric. I looked online, and found lots of places where people asked the question of how to do this without pulling your hair out. Several of the sites didn’t offer me any helpful insights, but a few did. I’m going to pass on to you the information I found useful.

First and foremost, blanket binding has an top and a bottom. For me, with the narrow binding (1″) that I’m using for my baby blankets, the top of the binding is a scant 1/16″ narrower than the bottom. So little difference I’d never noticed it before. Trust me when I tell you this was the most important hint I got! Putting that ever-so-slightly-narrower edge on the top of the blanket as I pinned & sewed completely eliminated the likelihood of missing the edge of the bottom portion of the binding. I can’t believe that it made so much of a difference, but it did.

Second, don’t worry about ‘filling up’ that binding. If you leave a little bit of space at the top of the binding, it’s okay, and gives you a little room to fool around with as you machine stitch.

Third, pull the binding really tight as you pin. (Or baste, if you’re a baster. I’m not.) That way it’ll be tight when you sew and not bunch up.

Not from hints online, I also did three other things.

• I used a layer of tissue paper underneath the binding as I sewed – between the feed dogs and the presser foot. This helped ensure that I wouldn’t have slippage there, and the tissue rips off cleanly when you’re done sewing.
• I used a sort of long stitch length – a bit higher than the middle of my stitch length options on my machine. I also sewed sort of slowly, not at my usual get-’er-done speed.
• I pulled the blanket-and-binding combination rather tightly both in front of and behind the presser foot. My goal was to maintain the same tension as I did with my pinning.

The result? The binding on those 5 blankets went on like a dream! Not a snag, not a bunch, not a curse word while sewing on 10 ends. Yippee! I’ve apparently found the magic combination of techniques to make this once-horrible task not bad at all. I’m really pleased with the results. If I was a bit more obsessive than I am, I’d rip the binding off those first two blankets and redo them. (You can see how much smoother the binding is on the heart blankets than on that cotton flannel.) But I won’t. I may be crazy, but not that crazy.

Your turn: have you used online tips to make your life easier?

…and started an aqua one.

Liz asked for the draft, which I’m happy to provide. I’m actually showing three similar but different tie up and treadling patterns, with the threading the same simple point twill for each.

The first draft is how I designed it, requiring 12 treadles, [...]]]> I’ve finished weaving the baby blanket with the pink hearts…

…and started an aqua one.

Liz asked for the draft, which I’m happy to provide. I’m actually showing three similar but different tie up and treadling patterns, with the threading the same simple point twill for each.

The first draft is how I designed it, requiring 12 treadles, if, like me, you want to do several rows of plain weave on at the beginning and end where the binding will cover.

In the above draft, the tie up for treadles 3 & 9 is identical, as is the tie up for treadles 6 & 7. So if, like me, you only have 10 treadles, you can tie up your loom like this, once, and never have to change the tie up.

While the above draft makes the most sense to avoid changing tie up at the beginning and end of each blanket, it requires the most complex treadling, so it isn’t what I decided to do. I used the following draft.

Using this draft is the easiest treadling for me, and I simply change the tie up on treadle 9 when I need to do the area of plain weave. I did use floating selvedges.

I used a 5/2 pearl cotton for my baby blankets, sett at 16 ends per inch. Obviously, I haven’t yet taken these off the loom to wet finish, but believe they’ll be nice and soft and flexible next to baby’s skin.

When the fourth is woven (blue), they’re wet finished and bound, I’ll show you another picture of the four of them.

Your turn: got any weaving patterns you particularly like that you care to share? Or ideas for other patterns I should try to develop?

In one of the weaving blogs I read, Unraveling, Meg showed the design of baby blanket [...]]]> After weaving several scarves, I decided I wanted to add some more handwoven baby blankets to my stock. I only have a few, and I had to re-do the binding on two of those to make it right.

In one of the weaving blogs I read, Unraveling, Meg showed the design of baby blanket she was weaving, made of hearts. I really liked it, and Meg gave me permission to use it. However, Meg’s design is uses more harnesses than I have.

I have a good software program for weaving design, and I’d drafted some lovely twill patterns, but nothing as complex as hearts. I was pretty sure I couldn’t do it. But I sat down and gave it a shot anyway. (Actually, when I went back to it to link to this post, I realized Meg’s design only uses lots of harnesses in doubleweave, which I wasn’t planning to do. But that’s what I thought when I sat down to do the design work. Her design does use 17 treadles! I have 10.)

It only took five attempts to get a pattern that I liked. On the computer screen that is. I’m never sure if things will turn out on the loom the way they look digitally.

Semi-confidently, I measured 498 threads for the warp for 4 baby blankets, threaded the heddles, tied up the treadles, and held my breath.

YAHOO!! I really like the pattern! I loosened the warp so that I could get a shot of both front and back at the same time to show how the hearts show up in reverse.

I’ve finished weaving this one in cranberry. I’m going to make one pink, one blue, and the last? I’m not sure – maybe green, maybe lavender, maybe repeating one of the other colors.

I ordered 1″ binding; the 2″ binding that I can buy at the store seems too large for a little baby blanket to me. These blankets will be off the loom for some time before the binding arrives, but that will give me time to wet finish them. (I learned that I must do this prior to sewing on the binding; that’s why I had to re-do the ones I mentioned earlier.)

Your turn: have you done something you didn’t think you could do lately?

The most exciting presents were made for Amanda & Ryan, who are expecting their first child next summer. [...]]]> I’m sure you’re dying to see what I was working on so feverishly for Christmas gifts. There are many, so I’m going to do the reveal in a few posts that are logically (to me, anyway) grouped.

The most exciting presents were made for Amanda & Ryan, who are expecting their first child next summer. I’ll be a grandma of an actual human (I only have grand-dogs at this point) in a short 7 months! I know that my spring & summer are usually quite busy with weaving, plus I wanted to get a baby-related Christmas gift in. After knitting all those (25) mug cozies, I was in a knitting mood, so decided to knit a baby blanket with a lovely mint-green color baby yarn I’ve had for years. (Why have I had acrylic baby yarn hanging around for years? Before I started my business, I used to make baby blankets for people I worked with — lots of young women. I enjoyed the creative outlet. So I picked up yarn on sale. Then I changed jobs, started a business, and time ran out.)

So here’s the blanket.
I must say, as I was knitting this blanket, I was AMAZED at how much longer it takes to knit than to weave! I hadn’t knit in a long enough time that I’d really forgotten the time commitment. It took me at least 5 times longer to knit that blanket than it would have taken to weave one of a similar size. Granted they’re very different processes that produce very different results, and knitting was what I wanted to do then, so it was all good, just quite surprising.

As you can probably now guess, the little things I figured I could whip out on Christmas eve were booties. I started with a little crocheted one. Much cuter with the buttons on than without. Crocheted the first one Christmas eve, made the second Christmas morning.

Since the first one wasn’t so cute sans button, I decided to try a knitted one.
Cute, but would only fit Baby Huey. And took a lot of time. So I decided I’d only make 1 of these–Amanda & Ryan can simply appreciate it for a while and toss it, or can use it for a Baby’s first Christmas stocking next year.

While I was knitting the green blanket, I figured that since I have 7 months before Baby will be born, I can weave a nice blanket, too. Then I said, “Hey, you should go get that quilt out that your sister made for Amanda when she was a baby.” When I did, I was really surprised by what else was stored with that quilt — there were 2 receiving blankets, 2 blankets I’d crocheted, one my other sister knit, and one my mother-in-law crocheted. Wow, that’s a lot of blankets! I washed them all and hung them on the line for a few days to really air out. The MIL crocheted blanket is fraying in several places, and the sister knit blanket quite stained, so neither will go to Amanda. Here are the others on the line.

And a few close ups.

Yes, I sure do see all the stains on that animal blanket. I just had to bring it to Amanda, and let her toss it. It’s a blanket I crocheted and one that she used in pre-school as her nap blanket. I thought she might want to see it before it hit the trash bin.

In my next post, I’ll show you all the woven Christmas gifts.

Your turn: did you make or receive handmade gifts?

I’d just finished winding these threads on the back beam of my counterbalance loom when I shot this. The colors of this to-be-woven [...]]]> Carmi’s photographic challenge this week is parallel. Weaving is nothing if not full of parallel lines. It was impossible for me to limit myself to one photo, so here are several.

I’d just finished winding these threads on the back beam of my counterbalance loom when I shot this. The colors of this to-be-woven rayon scarf are so appealing to me, I think because they mirror the colors on the trees out my window right now.

I was in the process of making a handwoven baby blanket when I shot this one. I like the contradiction of all the parallel lines on the loom and the wavy pattern of the handpainted cotton yarn.

This is what’s on my loom right now – I making a handwoven rayon chenille scarf. I like the angle of this shot – you can see all the parallels, but only if you tilt your head sideways :>)

This one – so artsy! It’s yarn being measured on my warping board so I can put it on the loom and weave a cotton chenille scarf.

Your turn: parallels are everywhere in our lives, so play along with Carmi this week.