Pages

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

New Inkle and Knitting

I got a new inkle loom a few weeks ago from Frank Trozzo on Ebay and I'm loving it. The loom is well made and easy to use. This is the latest weaving band on this new loom. I have lost my loom room for a little while one of the kidlets needed to come stay with us for a while. Needless to say I was depressed that I can't weave for a bit on the big loom ;( But since I also knit, I decided to tackle a new sweater. The pattern is Checker Lace V-neck Sweater . It's a great knit challenging to keep me on my toes but interesting enough to keep it from being too boring.


Friday, September 16, 2011




It's been a while since I've graced the blogosphere, amazing how quickly time flies when you're all caught up in your tiny world.


I've been busy with some knitting projects and my inkle loom and I are the best of friends lately. I finished the Sky Wrap Shawl it was a really easy knit and went rather quickly.


I also finished this Panda Silk Shawl


which was also easy but had a lot of pick ups through out, each shell is knit separately through that method. My knit club did this one as a group project once everyone gets done we're planning on taking a picture of all the shawls together.










Friday, July 15, 2011

Didn't Work Out

I made the bag and started to sew the beaded embellishment on, but the warp thread began to give wan and the beads came loose. To say that I was disappointed would lack definition of what I was really feeling. I haven't touched it in over a week and I can't save it so... I have to think of a way to keep it from unravelling before I cut it off the bead loom. I'll be experimenting with a small piece and see if I can hemstitch a border or weave thread between each bead pass. Not sure, but it's a new challenge to figure out.

Oh well it's a learning experience no matter how annoyed I am for the fact that it didn't work.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

I finished the bead piece and inkle weaving this past week and am in love with it. I want to work on a prototype bag to use with these materials this week. I'll have to figure out how to attach and secure the beaded work to the bag and the basic design of the bag itself. In the mean time I'm hunting for some more cross stitch patterns to make a new beaded project.
I really excited with this work but feel guilty for ignoring my Macomber. Ah, so many looms so little time.. yet I keep hearing people tell me they can't retire cause they'll be bored to death. I'm really looking forward to having enough time to play around although I don't want to wish my life away, I do know that when the time comes I'll be ready and willing.

Monday, June 27, 2011

New Project

I started a new inkle band with inspiration from another piece of cloth. I'm in a blue stage this summer and being reminded of the ocean.

Along with the inkle weaving I also started a new bead loom project that will be incorporated with this inkle band. I haven't really worked out all the details, but I'd like to make the beaded portion the focal point of the bag.
I changed the colors of the flowers to compliment the inkle strap's and interior coloring and am having a ton of fun with it. Hopefully the vision I have in my head will work out into something tangible.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Bead Loom

I bought myself a small bead loom at the craft store, it was an impluse buy, but can I tell you I've had so much fun with it. Warping it is a snap and I couldn't beat the $ 4.25 price. I choose a cross stitch pattern from one of the many books I have on that subject, that was small enough to translate to this tiny loom. Once I got the hang of counting out the tiny beads and how to attach them to the warp, I was on a serious roll.











After a few hours and lots of tiny beads later I had this! I really enjoyed making this little piece of bead work and plan on using it in one of the small bags made from my inkle strips. I have some more ideas on what can be done with this little loom and love that an impluse buy turn out to be a creative muse.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

CURED!!

My issues with blogger have been CURED!! I'm so glad I can finally post and leave comments. Yeah!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

inkle purple 002

inkle purple 002 by DEEPENDOFTHELOOM
inkle purple 002, a photo by DEEPENDOFTHELOOM on Flickr.



This is a new bag that I finished and am starting on the strap. This by far is the most fun I've had in a while. I plan on constructing at least one bag next weekend since we have a whopping three glorious days off. Can't wait.

Tablet Woven Strap

cardweaving 002

The straps to the bag have been card woven, I used Sara Lamb's directions in Woven Treasures page 86. Took me a bit to get use to turning the cards in the right direction, but I figured a way to keep it straight and then it was non stop til I finished. The bottom strap is the front and the top the back, although I like the back better and is what will be the front of my strap. I'm having some difficultly with the selvages then again when don't I LOL.. but at least I'm enjoying myself.

inkle purple 002

inkle purple 002 by DEEPENDOFTHELOOM
inkle purple 002, a photo by DEEPENDOFTHELOOM on Flickr.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Q & A

I didn't expect you all to have so many questions about the inkle project but was ecstatic to see so much excitement. I'll answer the best I can and if you need more help or info drop me an email. If anyone is interest there is an inkle loom group on ravelry; inkle loom weavers. Nice bunch of people lots of information.


WonderWhyGal said...
I keep toying with taking an inkle weaving class at fiber festival this year. I am a beginning weaver currently working on my Cricket loom and eager to absorb all sorts of weaving techniques.Your colors are beautiful. Thanks, if you get the chance take the class, I wish I would have had the availability of one. Inkle looming is really easy once you get the idea that no matter what you do it's a warp faced band. When I need a really long band I can do it on my floor loom it's only two shaft and narrow enough to go really fast, oh and I don't even need the reed.

Acorn to Oak said...
Wow! That's really pretty and the colors look like a perfect match to your fabric. I've been wanting to build or buy an inkle loom lately. I've even been watching videos online of how to warp them but it seems very confusing. I was able to try weaving on one a few years ago at a fiber festival and it was really simple. I'm wondering if it would make sense once I got one and some books with diagrams. Is it fairly simple to figure out? Yes, it's very simple. I learned online and with some handouts I downloaded this one in particular is wonderful. Once you get going it's so much fun and you'll realize just how simple the concept really is.

Cindie Kitchin eweniquely ewe said...
Perfect match! Can't wait to see the finished pocket purses. Thanks I plan on doing a few of them you'll be bored with me posting about them after a while LOL..

Delighted Hands said...
Very pretty and a PERFECT match! I want more info, too-are you doing plain weave? How does it turn out so pretty.....can you give a little tutorial?! I can do a tutorial but, it would take some time. If you want to view a few really good ones on youtube (this one is great) so you don't have to wait. It's plain weave tabby, warp face, you can even do it on a floor loom or backstrap loom, just 2 shafts, no reed.

ASpinnerWeaver said...
You did a great job of matching colors! What string/yarn are you using to get all of those subtle colors? ~Anniewww.ASpinnerWeaver.com. Thanks on the color compliment, I'm using crochet thread #10, so it's 10/2 I guess. I found that my Michael's has a ton of colors so I usually stock up when I get coupons and they take competitor's coupons too. I'm always looking for a bargain on yarn can't help myself, actually I don't want to help myself in that department.

bspinner said...
I agree with ASpinnerWeaver "great match on the colors". What yarn are you using? Thanks, see above for the yarn specs :)

Hilary said...
Yes, what are you using. Is it 8/4 cotton?I love it......I have two inkle looms, but haven't really done much with them. I have used 8/4 but I found it too thick to produce a really nice band, although it did make some nice quick coasters. I would love to see you make some straps for your soulmate sock totes on the inkles, the color combos would be endless.

Monday, May 02, 2011

New Inkle Weaving

I started on a new inkle loom weaving for some new pocket purses. I used the material that will be the inside of the bag to govern the color I would use for the exterior. I'm really enjoying the weaving and love the exercise of pulling the colors from the fabric itself.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

I have been having trouble with blogger for a few weeks. I can't get onto anyone's blog and keep getting error messages. There are time like this one rare moment that I can actually get on to post, so I'll update you on what's been happening in my world.

I purchased two weaving books, one was a gift from my kids and the other one from myself. I'm excited to read them through and start planning some new projects. I gave up and conceded defeat on the scarf, it kept breaking down and I just could not deal with it any longer. I started warping for the simple baby blanket and that should give me some easy work for a bit.

I also had the reeds sandblasted to get the rust off them, after a few months of trying and not really getting to far I decided it was the best route to go. I need to clean them and take a steel wool pads to smooth them out they feel a bit rough. Hopefully I'll be able to use them without any damage to the warp, if not then they will be tossed and I will have to acquire new reeds.

So far that's what I've got going, I hope you all are doing great. Once I figure out what's happening with my access to blogger I plan to visit with everyone for a bit.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Welaka Maritime Museum

We visited the Maritime Museum in Welaka, it was truly dedicated to wooden boat restorations and building. Mr. Richard Speas was the man behind all the boats and the reason the museum exists today. Walking through the museum I got the feeling the Mr. Speas had an incredibly well lived life, someone who enjoyed his passion and as a result left a legacy to his family.
With the remains of the wood from his boat building and restoration, he made these vases. The are bits of wood that have been epoxied together, then sanded and varnished. Although the boats were gorgeous it was the vases that captured my total attention.

Close up of an unfinished piece
This one vase is 11' high
and this one displays the art of his carving. This was a pleasant surprise among the Spanish moss and tranquility of the St. John's River am although I would have loved to have met Mr. Speas in life, I'm grateful that his family has preserved his memory and artwork for the rest of us to enjoy.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Welaka, Fl




Wonderfully relaxing getaway.


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

did someone say bread?


I made Focaccia bread, from SCRATCH. Yeah, I know your not really impressed if you bake bread often but this is the FIRST time I did so it's eventful. At least to me and Mr. Deepend's stomach that thanked me for rewarding it with substance after the wafting smell from the kitchen, the man couldn't keep his nose out of the oven.


I can say it was really easy and fun, and sure to become a staple with our Italian dinners.


I used this recipe: (thanks to allrecipes.com although Dave Daniels recipe is next)

Ingredients 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon white sugar 1 tablespoon active dry yeast 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon dried thyme ( switched this to rosemary) 1/2 teaspoon dried basil 1 pinch ground black pepper 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 cup water 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese 1 cup mozzarella Directions: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, basil and black pepper. Mix in the vegetable oil and water. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Punch dough down; place on greased baking sheet. Pat into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Brush top with olive oil. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm.



did someone say bread?

Monday, April 11, 2011

I must have pissed off the Mohair Spinning Faerie, maybe my offering of weaving a beautiful scarf was just not enough for her? Maybe a burnt offering might appease, because that is what I was about to do to this warp, while manically singing "BURN BABY BURN". This warp has been abusive to me! The white mohair is tearing after a few pics the beating of the reeds is wreaking havoc on this yarn or my tension is or both I dunno. It's been over a month and I've only woven 12" with a lot of breaks and re-tying. I've also left it on the loom after one extremely frustrating session, not only did the damn yarn break, but my hooks holding the lamms would come off every other pick, the selvage yarn kept breaking off and I just ran out of the room before, I lit the whole thing on fire. Ever see those commercials where someone takes a bat to a computer or their car because they're at their wits end, yeah I was there about two weeks ago. The loom and project has been on timeout, me too as a matter of fact since that fateful day. In the interim I went on vacation and had a great three days off with my hubby, I'll show you all some pics later this week. I came back refreshed and decided to try again before I just cut the loom loose of this warp and have a ceremonial burning festival. I rolled my beam and started fresh with a new determination. I figured my tension was the cause of the breakage plus that the beat needed to be more gentle. After about an hour I wove 18", this might just get done without much more delay this week, I'm keeping my toes crossed because Lord knows I need my fingers. As an incentive to finish, I started warping for a new baby blanket. I have these funky fuzzy yarns in baby colors and want to weave them up for a cushy, soft blankie, in the most simplest of tabby. After the current warp I need something mind numbingly simple, ahh the luxury of simple tabby dances in my mind's eye, woohooo only two shafts, two treadles and a stick shuttle, basic, simple, yet refreshing. These are the moments when I wish I would still have my RH loom, and regret selling it.
Don't those colors just scream baby, spring and Easter?

Monday, March 07, 2011

Cutting Up


Whew, it's been a while I'm rusting at this posting stuff, hehe.




I've been cutting up strips of plastic department store bags, or better yet making plarn. My DD and her friends are providing the shopping bags, they love to shop.

Did you know that Forever21 has John 3:16 printed at the bottom of the bag? No.. I didn't know until I started cut them up. Or that Love Culture's bags have reinforced handles, yet Gap has string handle that gather, yep all new discoveries once you take scissors to plastic. These bags are also made of thicker plastic than the regular grocery bags, although awful to the environment, good for weaving plastic totes for shopping, beach and project bags.
Mom gets her final Chemo session tomorrow, she's happy it almost over and her head is starting to get some peach fuzzy all over.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Salpicon (sal-pee-con) Cuban Meatloaf


Ingredients:

1 lbs of Lean Ground Sirloin
½ lbs of Ground Pork Medium each fine chop of green Pepper, red Pepper, Vidalia or Yellow onion

1 tbsp of minced garlic 6 tbsp of Badia Complete Seasoning or ( 1tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, ground cumin, crushed bay leaves, parsley)

½ tsp of kosher salt
1 small can of tomato sauce
¼ cup of extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 hard boiled eggs
2 cracked eggs

Take the meat and add ½ the seasoning, salt and cracked eggs and combine well. Place a piece of aluminum on the table and dump the meat mixture on it, pat it into a rectangle. Place the 3 hard boiled eggs in the middle and wrap them with the meat sort of logroll style. Take another piece of aluminum and wrap the log in tightly. You can pressure cook this in a water bath for 45 minutes or leave it in the crock-pot with water at med temp for 6 hours. I don’t use a pressure cooker to I go with the crock-pot method. Once it's hardened let it sit and cool for a good 30 mins or so.

While the meat is cooling take the onion, peppers and oil and sauté in the pan until they are soft and the onions are translucent add the garlic the rest of the seasoning and tomato sauce.
Slice the meat roll into ½” slices and place in pan with sauce. Cover and simmer letting the slices pickup the sauce and flavors for 15 mins or until meat is heated through. Serve over white rice, mash potatoes or with a salad. If you have any slices leftover they are great in a sandwich the next day.

Monday, February 21, 2011

A Blog Awards

I few weeks ago Melanie of Nailventures
tagged me for this award. I of course don't really think my blog is particularly stylish or fashionable, but am flattered that someone thought it was. The rules are to share 7 things about myself, which I know I've discussed just about everything and pick 15 bloggers. If you want to play along, please take the pic and run with it, because I love so many blog to just pick 15 is really not fair, and tag back to my blog. 7 items I want to share about me:

1. I'm good under pressure, can' get through some hard stuff, hanging tough but after it's said and done I fall apart.
2. I have an internal fight always present between sharing my off time with my knitting or my weaving.
3. I'd like to take a year long sabbatical from everyday life and travel cross country in an RV
4. Sometimes I brutally honest, not always tactful, but working on it.
5. I wish work did not dominate most of my waking hours, seem like such a waste of life although necessary.
6. I have never understood the comment "once you retire you might as well die there's nothing to do", really??
7. I love the fall and winter seasons.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Lapping Waves Scarf

For those of you that choose along with Mr. Deepend, well you guys won! (once I reach the end of this scarf whatever is left will be in the navy, maybe I can get a moebius cowl out of it).
I started weaving last night and wove about 8" before I threw in the towel, The mohair was making my arms itchy and I could only get through that length without scratching my skin off. My hands not so much but the fly aways getting on my arms whoa, that was amazingly itchy and uncomfortable, I admire folks who find it soft and wonderful, of course they're not sensitive to it, which is why I'm happy for acrylic, cotton, bamboo, silk, linen, cashmere and alpaca.
I came up with a solution for the weaving session tonight, which is to wear a long sleeve tee. I have a very soft and lite one that will work great without making me sweat, yes it's hot down here already, today's high is 78* and the A/C has been kicking on regularly at night :( I so do miss the cooler temps and it won't be long before we're in the high 80's - 90's ugh!
I like this pattern it's simple to weave and gives an interesting movement to the fabric. I had to drop 5 threads to the end to make the pattern work, I guess I needed to keep a more accurate count while warping. I will next time.


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I have always found that as I work I tend to improve or at least make life easier for myself. I'm the type of person that if I can get things done in two step then four is a waste, unless the steps are necessary. To improve my short time at the loom I asked the sheet metal guys at work to make me a draft holder, nothing fancy just a piece of metal that was sanded
with double sticky tape and voila instant pattern holder of course with the help of a magnet :) I had been taping up the drafts but they would fall off and I'd loose my place, very annoying but not any more, it's the simple things that make me happy hehe.. (I'm so easy to please)




I started weaving the scarf and am at a stand still. I woven all four colors to see what would work out the best. The turquoise although gorgeous is just too thin and doesn't work the way I thought. The Country blue is nice but no oomph jsut not special. I 'm torn between the navy and white, both show up the pattern nicely although the white is fluffier the twist is loose. I asked Mr. Deepend his pick is the white he states "it looks more wintery" uhhh?? Okay not much help, I still like the navy, but the white is really nice too, so I'm paused and undecided. What say you weavers, navy or white help me decide please?




Monday, February 07, 2011

Bit of Everything

I've been searching for a decorative pillow for this chair since I moved into the new apartment. We bought the chair and side table for the living room since we only had a love seat and Mr. Deepend's throne (recliner) for seating it was a challenge when we had more than two guests. As I was looking around in all the stores I was a bit floored by the fact that a 1/4 yard of fabric and some stuffing = $26.00+ pillow. I thought that it seemed expensive and never mind what Mr. Deepend thought, which were along the lines of "pillows, we don't need no stinking pillows" said with a heavy accent (yes, we are talented in recalling movie lines, if you could only hear the Scarface impressions it's scary and not in a good way either).
As I was walking around in Joanne Fabrics this Saturday perusing the fabric section, I found this eggplant fabric in the clearance section. I was so thrilled that I did a happy Snoopy dance in the isle, got some odd looks but I didn't care, no sir no one bit.


A while later and some stitching and we have a pillow that passes Sasha inspection and all, the best part it only cost me $4.50.
After my pillow accomplishment I was ready to start warping my loom has been nekid for a week and that is just too long not to weave. I picked these yarns from the inherited bins. Navy - 100% wool, Country Blue 100% Mohair, Caribbean Blue 75% wool, 25% alpaca and white 75% Mohair 25% wool. I wore gloves to wrap the warping board and to handle getting on the beam. The two yarns with Mohair gave me a bit of a workout since they kept sticking to each other and getting stuck on the lease sticks. I only broke two warp threads and was able to tie them back together.There is no rhyme or reason to the warp, I just picked the colors and randomly wrapped only counted the threads at the two ends for finishing symmetry the middle is whatever I felt like doing at the time.

Since the colors remind me of the ocean I thought this draft would be interesting to work. (blogger has put the pic sideways, ah Mondays they're tough on everyone) I like the fact that the draft looks like waves and the theme just continues. Will it work on this warp? I dunno but I'm planning on having some fun and finding out.