A bit of Everything Friday

Good God it's hot down here! No not in hell people, but in South Florida. LOL.. This is the time of year I wish Adam and Eve had not screwed up and clothes were optional. Well of course if you go to South Beach, it actually is optional. What I saw last weekend on the beach is scorched into the memory bank, I need a Clorox wipe to remove, but anyway here is what the beach was like with out the various degrees of lady bits. (this btw is a family, public beach but I guess visitors are not aware, oh and ladies over 55 should not, really not go topless there is nothing sexy about gravity trust me I know).

We had a great time and it was relaxing, I always come back from the ocean feeling calm, if we ever move to the mountains this is what I will miss the most, being able to get to the ocean in 20 mins or less. Mr. Deepend says, I'll appreciate it more because it won't be as available as it is now, we'll see about that.

I also attended WWKIP day at the Broward Library, our small group joined a larger one and we sat, talked and had some good fun. There was one lady with a Schacht Spinning Wheel, with this wonderful yarn she was working on, I was amazed actually stood there with my mouth open like a numb nut, in my defense, I've never actually witness really spinning so I was allowed the stupid expression and idiotic questions. I talked to her about her spinning and told her my spinning is still in it's art yarn stages, she agreed (as everyone has told me) that it takes some time to get good enough to produce anything worth knitting or weaving with, but eventually you get there. I need to practice more.

I made a bag with some extra woven warp and purse hardware I had stashed for my spindle and roving. I need to start carry my spinning to knit club and to work for lunch time spinning (part of the practicing agreement I made to myself). This bag is deep and has lots of pockets, I can also carry some knitting in there if I have to, or as my DD so graciously put it "daaaaamnnnnn woman, you can carry a small tribe of babies in that bag", yeah, she's proof that the apple doesn't fall far from the ol' tree in the odd humor department. I was also thinking I may take my spinning with me for my wait at the hospital with my mom. I wonder if anyone would care if I spun yarn in a waiting room??

And finally some warp on the RH loom. I'm going to make the bible cover for my son. It will be loosely based on the Folio Cover from pg. 64 of Woven Treasures by Sara Lamb. I don't have the double heddle and know I'm not going to get the sett she's getting in the project specified, but did double up on the yarn to create a stiff fabric. I also plan on doing the twining and maybe a pick up technique for some texture. I have copper brown linen, 3ply cotton in teal, red and light green that will be the accents. After the weaving of the fabric, I will be doing some card weaving to add page markers to the cover before assembling the whole project. I'm really excited to start weaving on this one.

Weekend Redux

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, I hope your day was wonderful. I was busy this weekend with a lot of activity none of which was at the loom, but I did get some sewing projects finished. Another tissue box cover this was a gift for my cousin, for Mother's day, she loved it, couldn't stop raving about it and how proud she was of my creativity. My SIL got the last of the brown warped covers and was equally impressed. Thank God, I thought they were going to be like WTH is this crap, but I was pleasantly surprised, I guess they're coming around to the fact that handmade gifts are gifts of time and love rather than what they cost and name brand.
My DD got me Card Weaving by Candace Crockett from my wish list, that was really exciting, something new to learn and have fun with. The boys also got something from my wish list but it was delayed in delivery so I'll have a surprise this week. I finished this new bag from recycled jeans and some extra woven fabric that was stashed away, I used it Saturday and the weaving started to give out at one of the sewn edges, I have to repair it or decided to use some other woven fabric, still planning what I'm going to do with it.






Did some more knitting on my June Marinella Shawl .
In which I just found out the instructions are written incorrectly the lace portion says SSK which is slip1 slip1 knit tog, well the designer meant s1 k1 psso, arrrrghhhh, well regardless it's staying the way it is, I'm on my 5 repeat and it's 15" long I don't want to rip it out since I actually wanted any easy summer knit.




And finally the big TADA!

I've lost 15 pounds and am really excited I broke through the 10# barrier.

Leno Lace, Beads & Inkles

I started working on the table runner and finally decided how I was going to incorporate the beads into my leno lace work. I did a generous 4 x 4 leno, which open up some really great space and inserted the beads in between the spaces. I really like the way it looks and the natural wood beads really go with the beachy, sea foam theme on this one.

After the leno beads I did a more conservative leno in 2x2 above it. Since it's a table runner and my SIL loves to put a lot of tchotchkes on her tables, I have to limit the decorating touches to the ends. But I think I may take liberties with the extra warp and do some serious bead enhancements, I'm thinking of doing some squares of tabby and squares of beads, I really do like the effect and it's fun to experiment. I love when I work and get a creative influx of ideas, this time around though I writing and drawing as I go, it makes for slower weaving but I tend to lose the creative thoughts after I finish the actual piece, this way I can keep a record of what my mind is visualizing as I'm working. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but I'm hoping it will help me concentrate and keep me focused on what I want to do next.

I really enjoy the closeup on the camera, really gives you a good look at what's going on.

Along with the table runner, I started warping my inkle for what I'm calling a baja bag. It's a small bag to carry around a cell, id and some cash and lip balm what more can a girl want? Small, compact and flirty. I started with some black, variegated yellow, royal blue. I have neon pink to add and maybe some purple not sure yet. I'm trying a new technique on my loom since it's not open on one end I always run into a warping issues. I'm warping individual strands tied together, it's slower but the tension seems to be better and the ends are really tidy, which I like.