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I’m so proud of my son. He’s smart, he’s hard working, he’s as nice as they come, he’s humble, he’s funny…I could continue, but I won’t. Last summer he decided he’d completely had his fill of working in the restaurant industry so took a huge leap, quit his job & went to school. He graduated on Wednesday, top of his class.
He now proudly holds 54 different welding certifications (CORRECTION – He has 59 certifications. Clearly I can’t remember anything.) He so impressed the teachers and owner of the welding school, they’ve offered him a full-time job there. It’s wonderful that more people appreciate how terrific he is.
Meanwhile, I did manage to get 13 placemats (1 extra, just in case) and a sample napkin woven. The auxiliary warp beam worked well, although I had to make some modifications from Sandra’s directions based on what I had on hand. I didn’t have a mailing tube, which weighs next to nothing, but I did have a tube from the end of a roll of newsprint from my local newspaper. The tube itself weighs at least 4 pounds, which was too heavy, putting too much tension on those extra 48 threads. I called my son to help me think through how to reduce the weight and we collectively came up with an idea – run a stiff piece of something through the tube (I had metal), tie strings to it, run those strings up over the beam and hang weights from the strings. The weights on those strings would take weight off the tube. I used 2 pounds, 1 on each end, and it worked for the entire 11.5 yard warp.
It sure looked pretty ugly, but fortunately I’m not judged on things like that, only on the final outcome. Now I’m working on the second warp for this project – no auxiliary beam needed – YAY! A dozen napkins & I’ll be done with the weaving itself for this order.
On a nature note, I don’t remember ever having as many deer in my yard as I have in the past few weeks. They’re hungry. This was such a bad year for tree fruits and nuts that there isn’t enough for deer, other mammals and turkey to eat. This afternoon I watched a deer eat my wintercreeper for over 1/2 hour. How many photos does it take before you can see her?
I don’t begrudge the deer the wintercreeper. It’s not a plant I much care for. I’d intended to do a severe trimming before winter, and now I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t know how much nutrition it has, but it is still green so hopefully can offer some food value.
Back to the loom!
Have I mentioned before that one of my least favorite tasks is tagging my finished pieces? Probably.
It’s true. I wish I had someone else to do this job for me. For every scarf, baby blanket, and towel I have to print tags, cut them to size, measure the piece, write down the size, color, and other pertinent info on the tag, and pin it to the piece along with a price tag.
Even that last bit, which should be easy, isn’t. I know I don’t charge enough for my weaving. Almost every year I increase my prices, but they’re still not where they should be. I just read a good article that a friend recommended. I agree with everything in there. Now, can I follow the advice? I’m working on it.
So that meant that I had to totally rethink what prices I’d put on the 4 baby blankets, 14 scarves, 9 towels and table runner I was tagging. I upped them from what I had, but probably without enough thought. So now they’ll sit on my ironing board for a bit while I do that thinking.
And when I decide, I’ll make myself some notes and then go in and change all the prices on all my already-finished stock. Yuck. At least I’ll only have to change the prices, not do all the measuring & rest of the tagging work.
My body’s been failing me lately. I had that nasty stomach bug, thankfully short-lived, while I was playing grandma. That post-nasal drip I came home with turned into a full-blown cold within a few days. So my routines changed dramatically, involving LOTS of naps interspersed with spurts of health care.
I was drinking a hot tea created by my herbalist friend and loaded with honey, eating raw garlic, downing yogurt, taking zinc & elderberry, drinking orange juice and plenty of water, and using my neti pot. Meanwhile I went through lots of kleenex and kept my throat coated with Vicks and a cloth wrap.
I do believe it was a bad cold, not the flu, and that I’m over the hump with it now. Still if I talk too much (with my now wimpy voice) I get into coughing, so am avoiding conversation. Easy to do when you live alone. My wood stove keeps the house toasty warm but also really dry – I’ve finally smartened up and have a large pot of water steaming on my stove. My house and nose are grateful for every bit of moisture we can absorb during this cold weather.
Meanwhile I’ve gotten a little weaving done. Again I don’t yet have pictures – soon, soon.
Here’s what I’m preparing now.
I’m getting the new warp on the Mac – solid natural 8/2 unmercerized cotton – using my warping valet – for the placemat/napkin order. I’m hoping this will all work better than the prior barber pole warp.
Funnily (NOT), as I sat down to write the post I realized that I’ve messed up. Again. My notes from the first warp said that I sett it at 18 ends/inch, and that’s what I wound for. Only now do I realize that my weaving draft shows that I sett it at 21 ends/inch. So I have to measure out & wind on an additional 50 ends. That’d be simple if I had a supplementary beam, but of course I don’t. I’m going to have to work it out with a fake beam I’m creating from a big, heavy cardboard tube. I’m going to use Sandra Rude’s method – hope it works!
Red & I are happy to be home again. We had a great time in Rochester playing with & caring for my grandson, but as Dorothy learned, there’s no place like home…sleeping in our own beds, taking our usual walks, knowing where everything is. And I just watched 3 deer make their way across my yard.
While I was away I had a horrid stomach bug that was passing around. The good news is that it really only lasted about 1 1/2 – 2 days. You can live through almost anything for that long. Now I have my standard post-nasal drip annoyance that may or may not have anything to do with little kid germs. I’ll beef up my immune system, gargle with salt water, and this, too, shall pass.
I brought TONS of stuff to do with me and I was able to accomplish some of my work when the little boy was sleeping and the 2 days he was in day care that I wasn’t sleeping with the stomach flu. I don’t have pictures of anything so I’m just sticking in some nature shots again.
I got 50 pillowcases cut & sewn into 185 bags for my packaging. I figured out how to get 4 bags from most pillowcases. Except for my bulkier baby blankets and shawls, the small bags are all I need. I will make a dozen or so larger ones. I still have to string the ribbon through the casing & put my tags on them, but I can do that in relative leisure in front of the TV at night. I also got all those dish towels & the runner hemmed and washed, although not pressed.
I knit the little guy a hat that fits him well. It’s not very warm, though, being made from Deborah Norville’s Serenity Garden yarn on a size 6 needle. I’ll probably make another on a much smaller needle because the yarn is nice and soft — but not now.
After a false start, I got my Missouri loom threaded with the warp I’d wound on before I left home and wove off four black lace scarves. I didn’t get any fringes twisted, so I’m working on that today so I can wet finish the 10 scarves that are in that stage of development. I also have 2 more warps I wound and brought with me that I can now put on my sweet counterbalance loom to weave off.
No time to waste now – gotta get up out of my comfy chair and get to work.
I’ve become friends with my Mac. It took time — time checking out other looms, time buying and then selling what I thought would be my ideal loom, and time weaving on Mac. I believe we’re there now.
I told you about that sample placemat I wove on the Mac. Well, not surprisingly, it wasn’t what my customer had in mind. The barber pole of the warp yarn created unpleasant eyeball effects – reminded me of 1970s doodles.
Instead we’re going to use a solid natural cotton for both warp & weft.
I didn’t want to waste all the warp I’d put on so decided to weave some towels. First I used the same natural weft, figuring someone would like it. Then I used the same barber pole yarn for weft. Interestingly, using this same yarn for both warp & weft had a dramatic effect, and that disturbing waviness of pattern was gone. I liked it well enough that I wove a runner after the towel.
Then I tried a variegated weft in earth tones. I liked this, too, and changed up the treadling to show the variegated yarn more. I liked the treadling enough that I figured I’d try with another variegated weft, this time in muted pastels. It’s okay but too subtle for me.
Next came a mercerized cotton (everything up to now was unmercerized) in a bold variegation. I modified the treadling to make it a bit easier – no counting how many rows of pattern I’d done. I finished out the warp with a solid medium blue. Although I would have chosen more colorful yarns if I’d been planning on making towels, I think someone will like these and they’ll sell, and it was better than wasting warp. Plus I learned some things about color and pattern and got more Mac weaving time, so it’s all good.
Next I wanted to try an effect I’d seen on Weavolution – creating rayon snake skins. Now I’m not a snake lover, although I will admit some are very beautiful. But the concept appealed to me. I spent a looooong time working out the pattern, threaded heddles and reed, and quickly discovered that the 18 ends per inch I’d planned was too loose for this pattern. So I rethreaded the reed to 21 EPI and it was perfect. However now the scarves would be narrower than planned, and I would have modified the sides of the pattern slightly had I known I could add more threads.
I wanted to use a gold warp but didn’t have enough gold yarn for 4 scarves, so decided on black instead.
First I used a relatively bright orange weft. Does it look a bit snakey to you?
I liked it, but it was brighter than I had in mind so went with that gold I’d wanted to use for warp. I think this one best displayed the effect I had in mind.
Next I chose a deep red weft – a bit shiny in this photo, and there’s not enough contrast in the black & red yarns to show the pattern well.
I rounded the set out with a white warp. Although I didn’t expect it, I think this one is my favorite of the four.
Now I’m playing grandma for a week, caring for my sweet, little grandson while mama & papa take a mid-winter vacation. We’ve finished day 2 just fine. Five more to go — I’m sure we’ll be good. And closer than ever – YAY!!!
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