Triloom Shawl

About a year ago we put our house up for sale and the realtor asked me to clear out a few of my craft items from around the house. "it looks like a lot of clutter" he matter of fact stated, little did he know that all that clutter, is just a wonderful therapy session for my busy mind, but since I wanted to try to sell the house I obliged, under protest of course. The office building I work in is huge we have exactly 9 vacant offices and I asked my boss if I could take the smallest office and put some boxes in it for storage, he agreed and I was happy. I also asked if I could hang my loom in the lunch room so that I could work there during my lunch breaks, he said "I like to watch you work on that thing since I have to earthly idea what the hell its for", jackpot I thought, so I get to play on my lunch break and educate the masses (well the four that lunch with me at least). I've been working on this shawl for about two months now, and am at the point where I need to get it finished and off the loom. I'm at the last 7 pegs and these always seem to be the hardest, they are, by this time really tight to weave over and under takes a lot of pressure from my hands and after 15 mins I get cramps so this this the slowest part for me.
I remember when I made this loom, and I was in the Triloom Group on Yahoo, there were ladies that put these shawls out in an afternoon, I was always amazed that they could put one out that quickly, it's never been that way for me, but I always work at my own pace, since I want to enjoy the process.
This is a close up of the weaving pattern, it's a cut thread shawl with the simplest plaid for some color effect. I have already had a few requests, for it, but of course no one wants to purchase it, they want it as a gift, pfffftttt.. NO, this is going on to the 1kmkt store and needs to be sold, I have to support the fiber habit( hrmm addiction) and this stuff ain't cheap. LOL.. But only other fiber artist understand that bit of frustration, when they are told "oh you could sell that for like $30.00 and make so much money", yeah right, I could just get rich on that.

Once it's is washed the the weaving stabilizes all the unevenness will subside and the shawl will be wonderfully soft and warm. I have to think about the fringe, I'm so tired of the twisted fringe, I need to come up with something else maybe I'll cut it and just let it be this time.

Thoughtful Thursday

When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others. ~Peace Pilgrim, spiritual leader

Burn Test Results

I finally got around to burning the mystery yarn. They burned and extinguish almost immediately, smelled like hair, but didn't have the ash that wool would have had. I think it's a blended yarn, some animal hair with acrylic or polyester as the label says.
my whole office smells like burn wet dog LOL everyone has come in asking "What's on fire, please don't tell me the toaster oven caught fire again?" (yeah we had this happen and it was scary, fire extinguishers, water, a really big mess, I think the troops are still weary of the new toaster oven).

Thoughtful Thursday

Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
10 "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

UPDATE: On the Mystery Yarn

Of course I posted on Ravelry, and got the response that it may not be what the ball band says, because someone else bought some yarn with the exact same label in another part of the country and it turned out to be wool. I think I should break out the lighter and cigar ashtray for a a burn test parrrtaaayyy.

" And that is when my spark got hot I heard somebody say Burn baby burn! - Disco inferno!Burn baby burn! - Burn that mama down, yo! Burn baby burn! - Disco inferno !Burn baby burn! Burn that mama down

Okay, now that song will stay in my head for the rest of the day!

New Yarn - It's a Mystery

My mom went to Big Lots and found these for a buck each, I am now the proud owner of 18 skeins of this yarn.
I have been searching the Internet and Ravelry for the manufacture of said yarn and have had no luck. They are 50g Polyester and Acrylic although I don't have any % on which is more prominent in the yarn, it's kind of hairy, and somewhat soft. The only thing that strikes me as odd it that it untwists with ease and in it almost has no twist as you play with it. I was trying to figure out the weight I think it's sport weight, but I'm not sure. Well regardless, I have them and I'm already thinking of what to weave them into I really like the colorways.

A Tribute

For the Families of the Victims, the Country in mourning and horror, the Honor of the Fallen, may God hold you in the palms of His hands.

Thoughtful Thursday

I was thinking I would start Thoughtful Thursdays which will include a pic I taken over the course of some outing and a verse or thought for the day.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination

Warp, Shrimp and Coffee

(I'm sorry if your blood rushes to your right ear as you view the pic but blogger is special when pictures are involved.) This of course is my sad attempt at log cabin, ahem shall we say NOT. It's okay one day I will actually just follow the directions and do it right, but I have to say I love the color combination on this one and am just going to weave randomly a bit of green, gold, sage and light green. This reminds me of sea grass at the shore, so that's what we'll name it. I warped 9ft of cotton chenille with my 12.5 dpi heddle, tabby weave I may do some waffle pick ups and see how it goes. After a few hours of warping and weaving, I needed some chow and this was definitely a welcome treat. I love shrimp pasta with lemon butter sauce it's the bestest, (as my kids use to say) with some white wine and garlic toast, it made me forget about warps, wefts, house, kids, husband, yeah it's that good!

We are also gearing up for another festival and have been doing the maintenance work on the coffee cart. We always have to get it cleaned and make sure all the equipment works before we go to any festival, nothing beats a properly maintained espresso machine, trust me we found out the hard way but as all the concessionaires we've met say, you'll never do it again after you learn the hard way, which is very true. There's the packing and sorting of all the syrups, cups, lids, various sugars, stirrers and straws. Before we started this venture, I never knew how much really goes into a specialty coffee drink and for that matter what it took for the food vendors and craft people to set up at the festivals and fairs, I have new found respect for these hard working people. There is the espresso machine, the regular coffee maker, coffee grinders for each machine, air pots, and the ice tea dispenser. Then inside the cart is the clean filtered water tank and the dark water tank, pump and various hoses and electrical wiring to make the whole thing work. It really is a neat little setup and we've enjoyed the festival circuit as much as we have been able to do, it gets tricky with full time jobs and we only have so many vacation days.
These are some pics of the cart at a few festivals we have attended.

If your in the Stuart, FL area we'll be at the Martin County Nautical Flea Market and Seafood Festival Sept 18-19 & 20, stop by and say hi, I'd love to meet a few bloggy friends.

Visualizing Concepts

I was contemplating doing a log cabin weave scarf with different colors, of course I can picture it in my mind but can't seem to picture what the threading would be like I've played with it in my mind for a good part of two weeks. I went to my reference books in which I found my tried and true Plain Weave is Anything But Plain by Leslie Voiers , this is my go to reference, especially when I have something in my head that needs some structure and explaining for such a small booklet, it packs a ton of useful information. The draft for log cabin is simple and really not complicated unless you muddle it up in your head and it comes out as something else I know I did that with this baby blanket. (after finding that post I'm in shock I've been weaving for a while and still feel like a newbie baby weaver, does that feeling ever go away?)

But my concept of the cabin with subtle changes in the color is really appealing to me. So of course I studied the book and think I have come up with the right sequence, although someone with much more experience is probably going DUH, I still have trouble putting my thoughts to actually fabric. I'd like to use the green colors of my cotton chenille with the the one constant color of the gold (although the gold might be to bold of a color) if that doesn't work then I will stay within the greens from bolder to lightest. I have a small frame loom, I'm going to play with before I warp my loom. I thought I would start with the deeper green and finish with the light green and have the color gradually form a faded effect. Both these sets of yarn have enough green to play with.

These are the days I wished I had a warping board, although I would know how to even get the yarn to the loom after that. I must really consider and save up some $$ to take a weaving course at J. Campbell Folk School in NC, that of course is on my bucket list, some people want to go to Europe or Japan, me I just want to go there, I guess I don't qualify as a having lofty travel dreams. Heck Mr. Deepend and I have even discussed selling our house and traveling the country in an RV for a year or two, but it's always the $$ issues that put a halt on all that mighty talk of just get up and go, ah but for the burden of responsibility.