New Year - New Weaving

My simple tabby weaving is finished, I got 3 place mats which is what I use for the island in the kitchen and a table runner. I guess I could have gotten about 5 mats in total with the warp I put on I'll have to adjust my measurements for the next one. I'm really happy with the results it was such an easy project I feel a renewed sense of accomplishment as if I can tackle some new weaving challenges. I also feel that way when I knit something simple and quick after being tied down to a long term project.

Fresh Weaving

I started warping yesterday during the sad and disappointing Dolphin's game as Mr. Deepend was screaming in his official armchair coach position, to start weaving on plain, beautifully simple place mats. It was sheer joy, I know most think plain weave is well boring but there is some comfort in the rhythm of tabby weave I can't explain it but I really truly love the monotony of the up, throw, down throw, it's calming. The warp behaved, the weft slid right through the shed it was utter happiness on my part, especially since I'd been having no luck with my previous weavings. I pickup this new yarn (more on that next post, trust me I didn't break my promise of the yarn ban) because I loved the colors, it's Bernat Handicrafter's 4 ply cotton I don't know the name at the moment, but its something Ombre, of course to me it reminded me of a cottage nestle among tall sea grass like you would see at any picturesque seaside retreat, you know the kind that costs 1.2 M steps away from the surf, yeah that one. The camera made the dusty blue almost grey in color which would be another interesting color choice with this palette. I must contemplate dying some yarn in the next year, I have some color combos in my head that I think would be interesting to put out, but one obsession at a time.

(Really doesn't that just scream beach, surf and sand)

I started weaving after an easy, effortless tie up, I was getting nervous because I had no mishaps, makes a girl doubt her abilities for a nano second.

By the end of the night I'd woven almost 18" and I was very satisfied with the results.

120- warp ends

120" warp length

7.5 dpi heddle

Long Weekends Rock!!

What do you get when you place a motivated weaver, a loom and uninterrupted weaving time? Well in my case I love, love, did I say love long weekends, because I get to start and finish a project. I warped my RH with a color exploration from Plain Weave is Anything But Plain, by Leslie Voiers, but I read the draft wrong and warp two end per instead of one and I added and extra color so I did mine with four instead of three. I really love the results and plan to recreate it with the right amount of warp for a scarf.

I hand hemmed instead of machine hemming, although the process is slower it was relaxing. I had extra warp and I wanted to experiment with the new Textures and Patterns book so I used the 5/1 pickup for window panes and used the remainder of my yarn that was on the shuttles, I made a mistake and missed one of the pick-up, leaving a extra long warp shot, so I need to practice, but I'm confident I'll turn it out and have some lovely towels to go with the mats.

I'm warping for a few more kitchen towel, but in a different sequence of solid color blocks to see if I get more definition on the patterns, as I think the pick-up's get lost in the variations. I'll also experiment with different pick up's and test how they look, that should be fun, I'll get towels, practice, and samples all in one shot.

I also got to snap a pic of the baby hat that I finished, here it is along with the cardi, which are now on their way to South Carolina. I decorated the hat with a pink bow and an ever so cute lady bug button, just perfect for a little girl.

Barely Made It!!

This picture is definitely a weaver's nightmare, I'm at the end, the very end of my warp and have 11 weft shots to go. At this point every warp thread is hand manipulated, because there is almost to way to tension it properly. Since I was so close, I needed to finish it.

Of course, not with out some fretting and slow as molasses picking, but the results were well worth it.

Here they are, before cutting them apart, now I have to hem and wash them. I have to say I really like the hem stitching it was really worth the time and effort it took to get it done, the edges are really neat and should easily sew up I also did the white header/ender to turn over. I will do a step by step for Leigh who did the best post on Hemming Hand- Woven Fabrics, which taught me a lot from the post and comments everyone gave.

The details are:

Before washing:

Size off loom: 15 1/2" x 23 1/2" I estimated they would be 16 x 24 so closed enough with the take up of 1/2"

Materials: Peaches and Cream 2 balls of 2 oz color Bubblegum weft, and White warp 1/4" of a 1# cone @ 112" measured warp.

Lost Studio, Found Inspiration

I also lost my studio,waaaahhhhh!! sniff sniff. My youngest step son move back in, so I've been downgraded to the seldom used dining room . Yes, I miss my room.

After all the feeling of loss and grief, I decided to try and turn it into a productive weekend, I organized my weaving journal and notes not a heavy task, since I haven't been weave long, but I noticed that on some items the notes are detailed other vague, some of my notes are in various notebooks, so I sat and printed pictures, wrote notes and details and I even wrote down some tips to remind myself how things work and how not to go down a path that didn't work. I'm not a neat freak by far, but I like to have my crafts organized, I always feel that I'm more productive in my thinking, creativity and vision of what I want, when I have what I need, where it should be. (my mom always said everything has a place and everything in its place, is the order of the universe, I use to think that was a load of crap, but you know, as always, true wisdom comes with age, now I truely listen when she sputters pearls of wisdom or should I say purls, hindsight is 20/20) Thank God my DH understands my need to create, because he's a neat freak, but not with my crafts that he leaves alone. The the garage is his domain, the rest of the house is mine :) love how that works, what's yours is yours and what's yours is mine LOL.Once I organized my work space I felt compelled to warp my loom after not working on it for 2 months, this felt really good and it eased my sense of loss.

I figured I wanted to try some lace patterns, I warp on for some place mats to play around with, since I can use them later I don't mind fiddling with them. I like they way they are turning out, I'm on the second mat with the first sequence of my pattern. I also hemstitched the edges, they look really neat and tidy, this is the first for both techniques and I'm really appreciating the process. I have already started thinking about doing the lace shawl, with the crochet cotton I was trying to knit in this post, since I love the colors and can't figure out what to do with the yarn I might as well try weaving something lacey and delicate. I downloaded this tutorial which is great, and it answered most if not all the questions that were in my mind.

You can see the hemstitch on the top.

On the right I have 2x2 leno

4 weft rows and 1x1 leno.