Bath Mats & Recovery

My surgery went well, I feeling as good as can be expected and will be fully recovered in about 4 weeks. I like to thank all of you who prayed for me and sent me well wishes, I appreciate it. During my few days off I finished my bath mats, I can't call them rugs, cause they are so lightweight I'm going to need a boulder to keep them in place (lol). I'm going shopping tonight and plan on getting a plastic bath mat that has the suction cups on them and see if I can figure something out with that, or maybe the non slip rug backing. I tried to find the plastic spray on stuff or the Saf T Back, at the craft and home improvement centers but they don't have any. If my ideas don't work then I'll order online. What I learned from this project is that my spacing the warp threads every other heddle made the beating difficult once the fabric started to take up I used a fork to tighten my weaving, this made the process much slower. I also learned that just because the yarn has a bulky rating of 5 it doesn't mean it will have weight to it. I don't think the pile rug is going to work with my loom from this experience I know that the weaving will not be tight enough to hold the yarn in place, the last thing I want is to have pieces of yarn floating around in the guest bathroom. This project I will save in my files for when I get a floor loom.

I won an ebay auction for Rigid Heddle Weaving, Swanson, which I'm looking forward to getting, and learning from it as I have from my Hands On book, I will be starting a log cabin weave baby blanket for a co-worker that is having a baby girl, this one will be in light pink and dusty rose, I think there will be some nice contrast in the colors. I will try to warp my loom sometime this week and have pics to show.

This n' That and Thanksgiving

What to post , what to post, Hummmmm...

Well I figure I should post about the sweater since it's the only thing I've been working on I had to frog the back and start over, I'm half way there and hope to finish it before my trip on Saturday, let's see if that really happens. I decided not to dye it till I get back and think about it some more. I'm also debating on a knitting project for the car trip, I have 12 hours to knit and can't seem to decide, baby blanket, or dish towels to match the table runners I've made. As for the rug on the loom, I removed a portion re-lashed the warp that remained and am making a companion rug. I need to buy the product that makes the back non slip since:

1. It really doesn't have any weight to it.
2. They're going in my bathroom.
3. Don't want to slip and kill myself or the hubby for that matter, LOL.

I have to go to Michael's cause I looked in Walmart and they didn't seem to understand what I was talking about, we so could use a good craft store, I'm not partiularly fond of Michael's well not really the store itself although the one close to me is a mess, but the employees are really not at all helpful, if you can find one and sometime even rude, I limit my visits there, maybe on my trip I'll find and AC Moore or something else.


I think that's about it, I'll be in South Carolina through Thanksgiving week and hopefully I can squeeze in some yarn shops (hehe) maybe even find a weaving studio and drool.

HAVE A BLESSED THANKSGIVING!!!!

May the Lord grace you and your family with good health, may your kitchen always have plenty to share, your family always be joyful and your hearts be full of laughter, love and praise.

STUDIO & RUG WEAVING

I finally got my frame for my loom, I put it together last night and was so excited I couldn't wait to weave. I also received a new heddle 12.5 DPI and wow those eyes are tiny and the spacing even smaller, but I tried my hook last night and it went through just fine, so the crochet yarn in my stash is starting to itch. A funny thing happened when I got my boxes at work, I of course opened them immediately (like a kid at Christmas) as I pulled out the heddle one of my co-workers was in my office and she looked at it, scratched her head and said "What the heck?", I laughed and said to her "I see a potential wrap, a beautiful baby blanket, a soft and wonderful table cloth, maybe even a blanket." her response "All I see is a replacement for the blinds in the front office, and that's why your the creative one." So I had to explain what and how to use it, now since she's pregnant, guess what I'm going to make for her? hehe such fun stuff.

On the home front, I took our vacant room and now I have a small studio it's only 10' x 12' but it's great, my own little piece of valuable real estate within my house. LOL I kept the furniture that was in the room and have total use of the drawers for my knitting boards, knitting looms, my knitting needles and most of all, my yarn. I still have two bins in the garage that I need to sift through and relocate into the room.

Now for what's actually on my loom, that is a rug that I'm trying to weave, although I don't know if it will be heavy enough to lay on the floor, but I figure I'll finish, wash it and see, I could use it under my loom if it doesn't work for the original intention which is a bath mat.

For the warp I'm using Red Hart in Royal Blue, Caron Simply Soft in Lime and Electric blue (these were left over from the bright scarf I wove) and for weft Red Hart Super Bulky in Ocean. I love the colors and the super bulky is huge yarn, I love it I loved it from the first time I set eyes on it, but could never get it to work with my knitting loom so here we are at the weaving loom. I warped my loom on every other heddle eye which gave me a good space between the yarns so I'd have room to beat the weft in, I was advised on the yahoo groups that the weft needed to be really tight, I may need to start using my tri-loom comb for this one. Since I spaced the warp the way I did, this will be a weft facing fabric, I am learning my terms and following instructions with my Hands on Rigid Heddle Weaving book (this is so much fun).

I also found out that there is another Betty Davenport Book; Textures and Patterns for Rigid Heddle, which I can't find anywhere because, of course it's out of print. I need to find someone who has moved on to more elaborate weaving and would part with this book, sounds like a mission, but I'm patient and quite entertained with what I'm doing now. By the way if anyone out there has this book and wants to sell it, drop me an email.