Pages

Monday, August 17, 2009

I finished Midnight, I love the way it turned out. It took some time to get this one completed but I feel it was worth the work. I haven't measured it but it's a behemoth I wrapped myself up in it and it was wonderfully soft and warm and long and just lovely.I then started on this scarf, still in the spirit of grab any yarn you like and run with it.I have cotton chenille, rayon chenille, wool blend and eyelash yarn. The color indicator for this piece was the eyelash yarn, brown, beige, tan and steel grey. Lucky for me I had all those wonderful colors in my stash.I finished the piece yesterday, and I do like the look of it the weft is the rayon chenille and it's almost weft face but not quite and has a shadow effect with the color underneath it that I really like. It's almost a whisper of color, under a steel gray cloud, my DD called this one
Storm at the Beach.
Storm on the Beach Scarf = 7.5 dpi reed, 80 picks, 9ft warp, tabby weave. Bulky Rayon Chenille, Cotton Fingering Weight Chenille, Eyelash Yarn.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Stock for 1000Markets Shop and Art Fair.

I have a few FO's to share, I completed the table runner or scarf not sure yet what it should be, but I haven't twisted the fringe because I just finished paying for a hair twister gadget on Ebay. I hope to get is before the end of next week and twist fringe to my hearts content.
At this angle I could also say this is a shawl. This is a confusing piece, I really need to decide before I put it out for sale, although I could not name it and allow people to just use it as they see fit. This is the chenille scarf I was working on and the scarf that set my weaving mojo in motion again. It's soft, cushy and warm, if you wear this around your neck in winter it will definitely be toasty.

I had left over warp once I finished the chenille scarf and decided to make a short dual button scarf which my daughter named Tasto, which is Italian for button, she thought it would be great to give each piece an Italian or French name. I don't know yet but I do like Tasto, it just sounds right.
To achieve the button holes I wove to the point I wanted them, wove the first 12 picks on each side for four passes with scrap yarn on yarn bobbins which acted as tiny shuttles for me and woven the center with the main shuttle it wasn't hard to do, just kept all the yarn pieces going at the same intervals to make the buttonholes even. Once I had the right size for my button I took the main shuttle and woven two passes really tight to close the top off.

This is the finished piece it really is more like a cowl than a short scarf, I really like this piece and have a few more in mind with some thinner yarn for extra drape.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Solutions

For a while, I've had problems with my separator material, I use banners that my company makes and customers never pick up. I've been gifted what seems miles of this fabulous material and have cut lengths to fit my loom. The issue is not the material itself but what happens when I advance my warp. The banner material falls behind my loom, on to the floor,under my chair basically all over the place. It's messy and cumbersome when I need to move my loom out of the way and when I'm working. I took a trip to Walmart, yes I know, but really they had everything I needed and were the closest store to me at the time. I found these great hooks and the dowels I needed in the perfect size to fit my loom and they had them in stock. I screwed the hooks in place, this took some will power, because since this is my first loom I baby it. I'm always very careful, cautious I never bump into it with my chair, when I move it I pick it up and not drag it, you get the idea.
Hooks and dowels in placeI had my friend at work make me these end caps for the dowels they are 4" in diameter and were screwed to the dowel ends. Mr. Deepend did this I could trust myself with the 3/4" dowel a sharp wood screws and a tiny center hole. I didn't need a trip to the emergency room, so I let the finish carpenter of the house do those. ;o)

This is how it looks finished and tidy, now I advance the warp and I turn the separator dowel and suck up the banner material. It's such a simple thing but it really helps me out.
Another project I was working on was how to display scarves at the Art Fair I've been invited to in September. While shopping around I saw these curtain rod rings and thought I wish those came in really big sizes so I could display my scarves. I got back to work and spoke to the guys in the plastic department and they came up with this idea. ( I love those guys, so much talent)I tested it out and was thinking I could hang them on the side of the canopy and since they are clear it would almost look as if the scarves are floating around. I don't know if that's a good display, but we'll see how it works out.