Weaving A Gem Of A Life

Showing more shawls

I got the 5 shawls fringed, wet finished, pressed & labelled, ready for the show this weekend. If this show goes like my last 2, I’ll return home with fewer shawls than I left with, so here’s what may be your only view of them.

In order of weaving….first up is a silk shawl in a rather traditional snowflake twill. The warp for all 3 silk shawls is a natural, undyed silk; for this one I used a warm, light brown weft.

Then, as planned, I changed the treadling and used a twilight blue silk weft. I definitely prefer this treadling pattern, although I think I’ll change the threading before I use a snowflake again.

Finally, I used a 50-50 blend of cashmere & silk in a lovely, light lilac. Here it is in close up to show off the pattern — the same modified treadling as the twilight shawl. This is the first time I’ve used that cashmere-silk as weft only, and it won’t be the last. I really like it.

Next, as planned, I put on a cotton warp similar to my huckish shawls of a few years ago. I intended to make the warp a few inches wider, but miscalculated and ran out of the orange cotton. Here it is with a dark coral weft.

And here it is with a cherry red rayon weft. I have to say this is the photo with the least realistic color. Tried several times.

Then I did get the MY-JM baby wrap threaded through heddles and reed. I couldn’t go any farther because I had to spend TWO HOURS messing with my rigid heddle loom to prepare it. I’d put on a warp that was nothing but problems, for a variety of reasons that I caused myself, but I really liked it and wanted to use it. So I unwound from the back beam and on to the cloth beam, messing with tangles the entire length. Retied on the back beam and re-wound. Unwove the 12 or so inches I’d already woven. Untied & retied on the cloth beam. I THINK it will go smoothly for my demo this weekend, but if not, it’s all gonna go in the trash.

Doing it

Do you know that saying, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person”? Well, today was like that for me.

I’d purchased some local eggplant on special on Tuesday, and figured I’d better use it up, so I started the day baking some panko-breaded eggplant slices for an eggplant parm.

As the eggplant slices were baking I realized that I needed to either bake some bread or simply revive my sourdough — might as well make some bread. Then, of course, clean the kitchen.

Made a few needed phone calls, including one to my car guy when I realized that not only is it time for an oil change, my inspection is up in just a few days. My appointment isn’t till next week (my choice), so I’ll just need to cross my fingers that I don’t get stopped before then.

Wound the 3rd bout in MY & JM’s warp, and while I was doing so, realized that if I want the realtor to show my house this weekend, and I definitely do, I can’t wait till Monday to mow the lawn, it’s simply too long.

Mowed very quickly, in bursts between bread rising, oven preheating, & bread baking, and then it started sprinkling. Came back in and finished fringing that 5th shawl. Washed it and got it on the drying rack.

The rain stopped so I went back out and mowed the last section of the lawn. Still have to wack weeds, but that’s only about 45 minutes, sometime by noon-ish Friday. Even if it’s wet, I can do that.

Came back in and wound the 4th and final bout. Did a small piece of online required work, then spread the warp in the raddle.

Replied to a few emails that were waiting for me, then beamed that warp.

Whew!

All the threading still to be done; I’ll start tonight, but won’t get it finished.

I’m actually hoping for rain tomorrow morning — that’ll put off the firewood, which will be fine with me. If not, I’ll do what I need to do.

Quickies…..sort of

So I got the 5 shawls woven. Four are now fringed, washed & dried, awaiting only pressing. One more to fringe and wash.

The other thing I really needed to weave before my show this weekend is bookmarks. I wound a warp of 44 ends of white 5/2 cotton and threaded up the counterbalance loom in rosepath. I used up a bunch of stuff on bobbins for weft, including cotton, bamboo, and rayon in both solid and variegated colors.

I probably should raise the price of these little guys. Because I hand hem the start and end of each bookmark instead of doing a machine hem off the loom, my bookmarks take much longer than I’d like. It’s important to me to have them, though, so I keep doing it when my stock is low.

I got 24 woven, although it put me a day behind in my planned timing for winding the warp for the next baby wraps. That and the fact that I’ve spent about 4 hours in the last two days moving & stacking firewood.

Today I did get 1/2 of the warp wound for the baby wraps for MY & JM. If I don’t have to spend too much time tomorrow on firewood and other essential tasks, I’ll finish that. I’m ignoring the fact that my lawn needs to be mowed. It will still need to be mowed on Monday, which is the first time I might be able to get to it.

Working Hard

A few years ago my sister gave me this mug. In fact, she had it made special just for me.

In case you can’t read what it says, here’s a close up.

That’s what my life is like at the moment.

I got the 3 silk shawls woven and I now have the 2 huckish shawls on the loom. The silks need to be fringed, washed & pressed, and the same will be true of the cotton & rayons, but at least I can do that while I sit in my comfy chair.

But there’s no housework, yard work, or much of anything else going on.

Actually, as soon as my neighbor gets his chain saw fixed, I’ll be stacking some firewood. I have to be honest, I’m sort of glad it broke after his first 2 cuts yesterday.

Shawl Heaven

My show last weekend at Chautauqua Institution was great! The weather was perfect, the location is marvelous, the crowds come and are respectful and pleasant.

And interested in buying.

Clearly this is the year of shawls. At the Roycroft show in June I sold 4 shawls – 1 rayon, 1 rayon chenille, and 2 silk (woven just before the show). So before the Chautauqua show I wove 7 new shawls – 5 silk and 2 rayon.

I sold 7 shawls – 1 rayon, 1 rayon chenille, 1 cotton, and 4 of the 5 new silks. Plus a committed order for another silk shawl, exactly like the silver lilac silk & linen with the beaded fringe, and, if I can find the right color yarn, another silk shawl. One of my customers from this weekend has also expressed potential interest in the one silk shawl I have remaining.

Wow, wow, WOW!

So because I have another show in 2 weeks and the yarn for the next baby wraps isn’t here yet, I’m getting 3 more silk shawls on the loom now. I’m going to use that snowflake twill and do the 1 committed order in silver lilac (I’ll need to order more crystals for the fringe), weave the second in twilight, and weave the third with a different treadling pattern.

At the top of this post is the draft I used last time and will use for the first 2 shawls in this run of 3. To be honest, I like snowflake twill better in computer draft form than in real life – the Xs disappear in the actual weave. So I want to modify the draft for the 3rd scarf. I played with Fiberworks, my weaving software, ultimately coming up with this draft. It still has the Xs, although they are smaller and rather broken up, while the stronger, more distinct elements take center stage.

I have to name the files in the computer to save them, so called this one playing with snowflakes. Initially it was just because that’s what I was doing – playing with the draft – but I like it as a final title, too. I wonder how it will look woven up.

I’m not sure if I’ll weave the 3rd in twilight or if I’ll use a winter blue I have in the silk-linen blend. We’ll see.

I also need to weave bookmarks – I sold 20 of them this past weekend and only have a few left.

And I’d love to weave 2 of my cotton & rayon huckish shawls. Do you think I need to sleep?

Weaving A Gem Of A Life

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