Shuttle & Pick Up Stick Giveaway

I came across a post on Ravelry for a free giveaway for Shuttle or Pick Up Sticks from a fellow 1000 Market Vendor to enter go here (she provides all the details and links) Good Luck and have a great weekend!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Scarf Weaving & other Tidbits

It's been so long since I've posted or woven anything that this feels a bit strange. Mr. Deepend and I started a business just about the time I stopped posting to this blog it's been really busy, stressful and exciting, but there hasn't been any time left over for my weaving, which I truly miss. I've been knitting quite a bit and if you follow my other blog you know I've mastered socks. LOL..

We have wound down for the summer (YES!!) and I am finding that I have some spare moments to weave. I'm rusty and have forgotten some more complex structures with my pick up sticks and whatnot, but it's like riding a bike after so months, it just seems to come back and you get your balance. I started a simple scarf with some stash yarn and Patons Bohemian Chenille, it's soft and super duper fuzzy, really cute stuff.

I warped my loom albeit only 84 warp threads in 1 hour and was weaving in less than 2, I'd say not bad, for a kid whose loom has sat in the corner of the dining room for about 6 months or more. I patted my own back and really got excited to start working again. I have quite a few other project in my creative mind and will be working on them diligently especially since my kids prompted me to open a 1000markets shop, yes I didn't go to Esty although I know it's every ones choice, but I really like 1k markets and it should grow at my pace and give me time to catch up with my loom.