Weaving A Gem Of A Life

Finishing and Starting

The day was nice enough this morning for me to get some more outside work done. I spent about 3 hours outside yesterday, half of it weeding and half turning my compost. Or attempting to turn the compost.

The bottom half of my compost was frozen solid. Given the way my compost bin works (3 bins – fresh, mid-range, finished), I had to turn all of bin 1 from last year into bin 2 so that I could start re-filling bin 1 with all my fresh weeding work.

That involved a shovel – not too bad but not effective – and a pick-axe – lots of swinging, lots of energy. I got about half of the bin moved yesterday, and decided I needed to let it sit and the warm temps overnight and today do their work. Two short-ish work sessions today and it is done. Whew!

So then I took some pix of HR’s finished baby wrap on my porch with the overcast sky. The color is very good.

Given all the Federal requirements, I had some custom weaving labels made. They’re quite nice….until I have to add the required model number & production date to them.

Still they’re about 1,000 times better than the ones I made on my computer. I do have a problem when the mom orders a cotolin weft, or a silk weft, since all my labels had to be the same, with a minimum order of 300 labels.

Anyway, it was time to start measuring the warp for AT & her friend. This warp has 8 colors – more than I’ve used in any other wraps so far.

The day was warm enough that I carried my warping mill outside to the porch. Seemed like a good idea. Hah! The wind was so strong that I couldn’t wait to finish up a color and carry everything back inside…I watched the top half of a tree near my pond snap off with the wind. YIKES!

Here’s bout 1 of AT’s wrap on the mill: colors from top to bottom are jeans, jeans & pale mauve (1 thread of each), and pale mauve.

Now pale mauve, cayenne & magenta (1 thread of each), and bright yellow & pale orange (1 thread of each).

Next up is the rest of bright yellow & pale orange (this shot is more accurate for the color), then turquoise & bright yellow (1 thread of each), & turquoise.

And finally, turquoise, peacock & turquoise (1 thread of each), and peacock.

By now the rain had come so I was back to taking indoor photos of HG’s finished wrap.

Whew! A busy day!

Back in the saddle

As planned, on Thursday I got back to weaving. Not as many hours as I’d planned – life always intervenes, but still I finally finished HR’s custom baby wrap.

Here’s a shot of how the space-dyed yarn works in her wrap. In hindsight, we might have wanted to choose a variegation with a bit more contrast to the aquamarine.

Then I got started on H’s wrap. She wanted zigzags at the beginning and end of her wrap, with a stripe of fuschia. No matter what I did, that fuschia yarn would not show up right in a photo. It is much more vibrant than what’s shown here.

I should be able to finish the weaving of H’s wrap tomorrow.

I’m also working in my garden. After a L…O….N….G winter, it feels so good to be outside and playing in the dirt. Here I’ve cut off all the old stems from my peony bed.

Their little pink noses look so happy now!

All Duded Up

Every spring I can’t wait to cut Red’s hair. He gets very shaggy over the winter, and then mud season hits and it’s a mess. I think he likes being lighter, too.

Here he is pre-cut.

About an hour later, he looked like this.

Fifteen minutes later he needed a nap – getting your hair cut is hard work!

I don’t use a razor – I’m sure you can tell. Just a pair of good scissors. After the initial go-round, I have to go back over the next day or two and do some trimming, but we both like it MUCH better than going to the groomer.

You can also tell that my little guy doesn’t like to have his picture taken. He won’t look at the camera so you can’t see his cute face. Oh well.

5 of the last 6 days have been consumed with tasks other than sitting at my loom. This, too, shall pass. By Thursday I’ll be back there, making progress on HR’s baby wrap.

Starting a New Baby Wrap

HR had some new-for-me requests for her baby wrap. First, she chose a weaving pattern no one had yet used – Xs & diamonds. Next, she wanted a space-dyed yarn (a type of variegation) for her weft. I was really eager to try this, having used space-dyed yarns successfully for years in my scarves, shawls, & baby blankets.

Then she wanted me to choose 3-4 different colors, anything the weaving muse inspired, to weave about an inch each at each of the tails. No restrictions on me at all. “Interesting,” I said. “How would I like it,” I wondered.

Well, it IS interesting and I DO like it!

Here’s the beginning – you can see the space dyed weft first – doesn’t show up well in this photo, then pale orange, turquoise, cerise, and royal blue.

Next I’ll weave the body of the warp with that space-dyed cotton. Can’t wait to see how it looks!

Moving Forward

Today I hard pressed & labelled MP’s two wraps, the last steps in finishing them.

Here they are, full width. On top is the hearts & flowers weave pattern with a black cotton weft, on the bottom is zigzag with a marine cotolin weft.

And here they are up close.

Although the colors pop a bit more with the black weft, I still think that the zigzag shows the gradient better. It’s generally my opinion that it’s best to have either complex color patterns or complex weave patterns, but not both. Maybe it’s just my eyes that get distracted…..

Still, I’ve definitely used both at times. Sometimes more successfully than others.

This is the last shot of these two wraps before they’re packaged.

After I got back from the post office, I went back to my warping mill and finished winding the warp for the next 2 wraps – for H & H. These two women don’t know each other, but are becoming baby wrap sisters.

This is the most colorful section of the warp. From the top down it’s aquamarine, rose fonce (dark pink), bleu (blue), and seaton (pine). The color names are all in French since the yarn comes from Maurice Brassard, a French-Canadian company.

This section is mauve pale and aquamarine.

The other two sections are solid aquamarine. I really do like that color.

Weaving A Gem Of A Life

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Finishing and Starting

Back in the saddle

All Duded Up

Starting a New Baby Wrap

Moving Forward

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