Lovely Throws

I just got the new Pottery Barn catalog in the mail a few weeks ago, while flipping through it, I saw these. They are just gorgeous, but what really caught my eye was the woven one, although now I know what that Thick and Quick yarn can be used for. I have seen it in person at the local Pottery Barn store and can I tell you, I'm in lurve in a big way. "yarns are woven in a thick herringbone weave", yeah that's what I'm talking about, these throws are sooooooo soft. Well as I'm standing there in the store inspecting (much to my Hubby's dismay), um browsing, I got to thinking that I have a bit of Lion Brand Suede, which I never knew what to do with so I was wondering can this be done on my loom? The warp being Suede, which is really bulky stuff and the weft being fine cotton chenille? or the other way around (taking into account how annoying that chenille really is as warp thread) dunno but I know I want to experiment.

What do you guys think?? Or should I just buckle and pay the $ 79.00 and buy it.

Tomato, Tomahto

You say eether and I say eyether,
You say neether and I say nyther;
Eether, eyether, neether, nyther,Let's call the whole thing off!
You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto;Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto!
Let's call the whole thing off!

I remember the first time I ever heard that song I was 9 yrs old , watching an old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie, they were singing and rollerskating to that song in "Shall we Dance ". I loved watching those movies, since I was enrolled in tap dance and ballet classes, my inspiration was to become a Radio City Music Hall Rockette, and dance with Mr. Astaire, lofty for a kid.

This is our first tomato of the season although she's blurry, she was really sweet.

This is how the plants are looking so far there are about 12 or so on one and four on the other. I have to figure out why one is producing so much more. But for now we're waiting for them to ripen.

And because no post can go without some fibery goodness this is my log cabin afghan that I have been working on. I put it together yesterday to see how large the final ghan would be. It's plenty long but I think it still needs another row to widen it. I'm going to use it tonight, since its really chilly here 53 F when I got up this morning, and see how it works out if it can't cover me the way I want it to, then I'll add more squares before the edging to finish it off.

The afghan that never was.

I started with high hopes as evident in this post, but wound up with this:

What is it you say, well its a small curtain for my master bath, why you ask? Because cotton chenille is the devil's yarn spawn!! I hate that yarn, no matter what I tried, how tight the tension how many pick up sticks I inserted to get it tighter, it didn't work it damn nearly killed my patience, that's not to say that I have a lot of it, patience that is, but really how annoying. After a few choice words and some internal screaming, this is as far as I could fathom working on it without pulling the last bits of my hair out and thinking wow, this is suppose to be fun? As soon as I freed the loom of this devil's yarn, and I can attest, I loved taking the scissors to it, that my friends was one of the best feeling I've had since I started the whole project. I promptly pulled out my sewing machine and put together this window covering. I figured if I didn't do it right away I'd be so disappointed I would put it away not to be seen in like forever. At least it didn't all go to waste and I got a cute window covering that actually matches the walls and shower curtain. I have more of this devil's yarn spawn, I think I'm going to offer it up to someone that can appreciate it, I don't plan on using it for anything else, I'm done, thank you very much.

I started warping my loom with what will be easy cotton place mats we need some and I need something simple, that can actually be accomplish and used as planned.

Christmas Presents

One of my goals on my vacation was to weave I wanted uninterrupted time with my loom, I got some of that not a lot but some and it was fantastic.

I started on one of the few Christmas presents I"m weaving this year. I warped my loom with 6 ft cotton chenille, 12.5 dpi Heddle and 220 warp threads later I came up with this design. I like the colors, of course they are earth tones, which is the realm I drift to. I have some jewel tones just to add spice, but really these are the colors of my SIL's house because it's going to be an afghan for her and her walls are Cafe of Lait the sectional is Espresso leather and the wood is all rich deep walnut, really how could I go wrong. I did the Brooks Bouquet lace pattern on the edges and the rest is straight tabby weave. I'm finding that this time the chenille is sticky and the warps are not lifting properly. I've added weight to the back of the loose warps and cranked it as tight as possible. Hopefully I will finish this week, and wrap it up for Christmas. I'm debating with myself about warping for a table runner for my other SIL, or maybe some place mats, but the troops at my house(actually Mr Deepend) is complaining that our place mats and dishtowels are looking ratty, so I may just skip my SIL's and do some as a gift to my kitchen.

As you can see in this close up the Brooks is done correctly this time, amazing what can be accomplished if you follow instructions, hehe..

This is the previous attempt see the difference, those little cross hairs? Yeah I know live and learn, but I like them both and who knows I may use the mock Brooks again.

Working on Overdrive

Just as the title suggests, I'm bored with the baby blankets and have been putting them off. Of course I learned that both baby showers are on the SAME Sunday, they can't be put off any more. Now I'm under a deadline, which I don't like, they're just plain evil, but must finish. I'm looking forward to the embroidery part of the blankets, which I have not done in a few years. The weaving is dragging on, like an endless wave of blah.

The top pics is of the lighter weft and the bottom the darker weft

On the second blanket, I changed the weft to the darker pink and its a drastic contrast from the first, still girly but no so much, I am enjoying the color change as I weave with the different wefts although I should have woven a sample in the beginning this way the change would not have caught me by surprise. I have extra warp towards the end and I think I'll do a sample with the three colors as a keeper for color contrast reference. I know I should do sampling before weaving the actual project, I will keep in mind to put on extra when I warp , make my sample in the beginning and then start my weaving project, with the colors I liked the best in the sample. I know most of the experienced weavers are shaking their collectives heads at me thinking "geez that is so elementary, why doesn't she just get it or do it" and by now I should have. But you know, I like the adventure of not knowing what it will look like until I start weaving, it's part of the excitement and it feeds the kid in me, but granted I should see before hand what I'm doing, that way I avoid the mishap of not liking the color combos. I guess I'm starting to grow up in my weaving journey, and the newbie fly by the seat of my pants is starting to wear off, hopefully not totally gone, maybe just a bit more mature.

With this new maturity in my thinking about how and what I want to accomplish I've been collecting different yarns during the summer for a project I've been visualizing in my mind I know what I want the end project to look like and for then next exercise, I will plan my warp and weft, sample and then dive in. This one should be a lot of fun and a good amount of texture to boot.
This is an up date of my Folk Shawl Ruana, it's been slow going because of the heat, but we are starting to get some relief and I'm starting to get the "I want to finish" on this one, it also helps that the coffee shop our knit group meets at is freezing, so I can wrap myself in something while we knit and gab the night away. I dragging this one to work so I can knit it up at lunch time, it should be done by the end of November.And last but not least the afghan progression I'm on row 27 and have three more rows to go before I start the garter edging. Woohoo, it starting to look finished and hubby is happy, since he's been commenting on how "you work on everything else but my colchita" ( kol-cheeta - little blankie in Spanish) Of course I took a pic where it will eventually have permanent residency, his *cough* ahem *recliner, which I finally broke down and agreed to since it was the trade off for my much needed new living room sofas.

Do I take this or that??

I planned a trip to visit the Mouse House "Disney" for my hubby's b-day, for Labor day weekend the man just loves to go to the "Happiest Place on Earth" and since it's only a four hour drive, I can't complain. I wanted a cruise but our passports are not in and we kinda need those cause not being let back in is scary, and God only knows that Cuba is not an option.

As a fiber person, you know I must take along some knitting, if I could fit the RH in the car I'd take that too, but since we are going in his Corvette, it doesn't fit, I hardly fit but that's another story.

I find it amusing that other people worry about what clothes to pack and me; I worry about which project needs undivided attention for an 8 hour car trip, but I know in my heart that I'm not the only one as I have read countless blogs on this very topic.

So should I take the entrelac ghan which is languishing because it's too hot to have it sitting on my lap or

the Ruana which has befallen the same fate.

Should I start on the baby wash cloths that will go with the woven baby blankies for babies that are due in December, or the tunic which is frustrating me to no ends and finally the Incan Tunic that has but the collar started, ah all of life's decisions should be this complicated.