Weaving A Gem Of A Life

Grandma & moms

I got to play full-time grandma on Thursday. We had fun – walked to the favorite breakfast place, walked to ‘the train store,’ walked to the playground. It was all fun until the little guy bumped his face on a slide at the playground. Then it was time to go home, get a snack, & take a nap.

After nap time we played with probably 5 pounds of bright-colored stones I found in a container at my house. It sort of looked like fish gravel, but not quite. I have absolutely no recollection of what we had it for, or of how many decades that plastic tub sat in the cupboard. Or an understanding of why, since the cupboard was outside, the plastic container hadn’t completely hardened & cracked. Anyway, I thought my grandson might like playing with it, and he did.

I came home and mowed part of the lawn till it started pouring. Finished it up this morning.

In between playing & mowing I finished weaving KM’s custom baby wrap.

I especially like the way the twilight silk warp looked against the navy cotton warp. I tried hard to capture it on film – ok, on pixels. I tried with the compact fluorescent light bulbs I usually use, and 3 different camera settings. I tried with Reveal incandescent light and 3 camera settings. I brought up my halogen floor lamp and tried 3 settings with that, too. None of them really worked for me. So KM’s just going to have to wait till it’s in her hands to see how great it looks.

I found working with the 20/2 silk as weft to be really interesting. It’s certainly not the first time I’ve woven with silk, but it is the first time I did so using cotton warp.

I can’t wait to get it off the loom and wet finish it. I’m really anxious to get the ‘hand’ – or feel – of this fabric. It felt just delicious working with it. Soft, smooth, and lightweight. Somehow the silk weft made the warp feel silky, too. Some kind of synergy, I’m sure. I think it’ll be well worth the fact that this wrap won’t be machine washable.

Busy, busy, busy

The last two days have been sort of crazy busy for me.

Like many people these days, I piece together my income with a variety sources. Part of that includes doing some administrivia (a term I borrowed from Laura Fry) for a few projects. Usually that’s fairly quick – about an hour a week. Not this time – I had to play catch up, so spent about 4 hours. Then I had to do a few months backup of my own administrivia – another 3 hours.

The outside called to me, and I probably spent 3+ hours weeding and mulching. Those parts of the gardens that are done look great – sorry, no photos.

I did have a few other feel-good accomplishments. I made my first ciabatta bread, using my sourdough starter, and it turned out pretty well for a first attempt. I’m happy enough with it that I may try again. I need a bit more holes, and the recipe I followed – as the book told me it would – had a really hard crust when it came out of the oven that softened as it cooled. I prefer a hard crust when it’s cooled, too.

I also got that 3-color warp threaded through heddles and reed and tied on.

Then a problem hit. I bought a brand new stainless steel reed for my Mac. It would make my life a bit easier for these baby wraps, and every bit easier counts when you’re weaving. After I was tied on I saw that the new reed had left marks on the light colored warp.

I tried wiping the reed with a paper towel, but couldn’t get in between the dents (teeth, for you non-weavers). I tried pushing it with a scrub brush, but it only tore the paper.

Then I tried using a cleaning pad, but that was too thick & wouldn’t go between the dents at all.

Then I used toothbrushes. Two of them. Got ’em all filthified, but wasn’t convinced I’d gotten all the manufacturing oil off the reed.

So I took some old white socks and used a fingernail to go between each of the 400 dents with the sock. From the front. Then from the back. Then from the front again. You’re imagining how much time that would take, aren’t you? I purposely didn’t look at the clock – it would have been discouraging.

Then I wove with some scrap yarn for about 7″ to get past the marks on the warp before I could start weaving with the real weft.

Finally, I’m using the lovely twilight blue silk KM chose.

This is the first time I’ve used silk for weft on one of my baby wraps. Although it will make laundering more of a pain (I will hand wash & line dry and will tell mom to do the same), I’m sure it will be really lovely. And while the color in this photo – like all my on-the-loom photos is horrid, in real life that twilight is lovely.

A New Gradient

I’ve been busy in the last few weeks. I joined 6 of my friends for a small, local show – 2 full days plus prep & post. I visited my daughter, son-in-law, & grandson. I enjoyed Mother’s Day with my son. I gave my lawn the first mow of the season – although a mere four days later you would never know I did. I did a bunch of other things, too, but obviously I didn’t blog.

Now I’m back to having fun weaving. (Of course that means I’m simultaneously thinking about the fact that I should be weeding & mulching my garden. And mowing again. And all those other things that are on my list.)

KM & TA are warp sisters. They’ve never met, but they’re sharing a warp. Three colors in the warp, separated by gradients. Here’s bout 2, going from navy blue to lavender.

And here’s bout 3, going from lavender to pale gray.

I really like the way these colors look together. Here’s how the entire warp looks while under tension while I beam it. As usual, the colors at my loom are not good – the ones on the warping mill are much closer to real life. I wonder if I bring up my halogen floor lamp if that’ll give me good color. Maybe I’ll try it.

Tomorrow I’ll thread the heddles. I think I’ll also get some weeding done, and I’ll pick up some mulch from town. I may even try again to get what I seek as the perfect chicken barbecue – the fireman are cooking one tomorrow. My family can usually may WAY better barbecued chicken, but I do love it so keep trying the local ones.

Yes sir, yes sir, 3 bags full

I had a coupon for 25% off my total purchase at Joann Fabrics, so although it was months before I need it, I took advantage of the sale and bought all the yarn I plan to use for the Richburg Community Weaving Project.

My choices raised some questions while I was standing in line, and again while I was checking out. It’s certainly not common to buy a few hundred dollars worth of yarn – one skein of each, in a variety of colors, textures, and weights. I simply said it was for a community project and that people would get to choose what they wanted to weave with. I didn’t think I could reasonably explain the whole thing in the checkout line. Besides, my little dog was waiting in the car for me, and it’s certainly not his favorite thing to do.

It will be so much fun, and so interesting, to see what people choose, and if the music has any impact. We’ll have one evening of classical, one of old rock & roll, and and African drum quartet to close out the season.

I hope the weather is pleasant each of the evenings.

Finished Towels

Today I pressed the finished towels and I’m tagging them for my show this Friday & Saturday. Some will be priced & sold as seconds. 🙁

Here are the 8 towels, matched up with their weft partners. Remember, I told you the differences are subtle.

Even close up, their differences are not striking. Clockwise from top left, the weft colors are pale green, medium blue, white, and pale blue.

Weaving A Gem Of A Life

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Grandma & moms

Busy, busy, busy

A New Gradient

Yes sir, yes sir, 3 bags full

Finished Towels

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