Food and Wine Festival @ Epcot

We went to Epcot @ Disney World for the weekend. The Food and Wine Festival was going on and we thought it was a great idea to take off for the weekend.

The featured state was Oaklahoma this year and they had a chuck wagon that was 110 years old on display I thought it was the coolest thing I'd seen that day. There was a teepee and the history of the state. The day was overcast and it sprinkled but at least it was not hot and sunny, I know that sounds kinda a wierd but when your walking around as much as you have to to get to see everything going on the last thing you need is heat and a sunburn. So I appreciated the overcast and sprinkles.

We had little bits of food throughout the day, Samosas and Butternut soup from India, Beef Ravioli with yogurt and butter sauce with pistachio baklava in Turkey, Pastilla which is Chicken and spices in a pastry in Morrocco, and the Austrialian Wine Walkabout, four samplings of wine from twelve choices.
Hubby enjoyed the wine tasting which was a ton of fun and we learned the difference of wine making and tastes for each region. If you every get down this way, the Food and Wine Festival is a must do.

TABLE RUNNER #2

This one is my SIL's present for Christmas,

I'm in the middle of twist fringing and am having my usual difficulties I can't cut the suckers even no matter what I do so. I will fringe long tie then re-tie higher and cut across. (if someone has a trick, tip for this I'd appreciate some help as it seems I can never get it right LOL) This piece measures 114" of woven fabric and the fringes are 8" or 7" depending on which one you measure hehe.. I need to wash it and am concerned it will shrink too much, her table with some drop measures 112" so 2" of shrink would be great, but since I used cotton I know it's going go a lot smaller. I guess I'll wash it and not dry it in the dryer and that should help. I've never blocked anything and don't know if this would help the stop the shrinking, I guess this is a question for the groups.

I have one more table runner to make for Christmas ( the 122" one)and then I'm done with those creatures for a while, I was thinking of making matching dishtowels but, those will be either needle knitted or loomed. I've asked my RugTalk group on yahoo about pile rugs, if I get my answers from them and it's positive that will be the next project.

A Weaver!

Lona just left me a comment about how she's never heard a "weaver" call the top portion of the tri loom the hypotenuse side you can read the comments and my answer from the previous post. But what got me is being called a "weaver" that in itself is so satisfying to be actually acknowledge as a weaver, you have no idea Lona, but you made my day.

I know that some of you are going oh well big deal, you know it really is a big deal at least for me, see my family, mom, grand and aunt all on my mom's side are all crocheters, knitters and sewers, my mom is a seamstress, pattern maker and all. Since I was a kid I've always dabbled, first it was macrame, then some sewing, scrapbooking and so on. In recent years I've loom knitted, board knitted, needle knitted, tri loom weave and now most recently weaving on my RH loom. Since I've always dabbled, I guess I never really felt accomplished or recognized by others as anything other than a really "crafty" person or I was "very good with my hands". Even my hubby and kids always say "you know mom (honey) what you do is really for little old ladies", which for some reason or another always made me feel like I should be doing something else with my time other than my hobbies, after all I'm only 42 and don't feel like an old lady LOL. Of course there is always the self doubt that no matter what you do your never as good as the other person in the other blog, group etc. you were just reading or looking at, but today I really feel like someone actually looked at my stuff and said she's a weaver, and that feels really good. It feels acomplished, funny not even in my professional life have I ever felt satisfied with my title, but weaver just fits the bill, it feels right.

RUANA!!

I can't believe it's finally finished, wow I love the results. After much fringe twisting and cutting, washing and drying it just what I wanted the finished fabric to look like, warm and wonderful. The first two pics are of the ruana crossed and un-crossed the right pic is of the back detail. I chain crochet the hypotenuse then crocheted the two tri's together a little less than half the length. I hope it will handle the stress point alright if not I will need to come up with some other solution. I'm planning to take this one on my trip to SC in November, once I get back I can re-inspect it and see how well it's holding up. The last photo is of the fabric close up, although it didn't do the tabby effect I wanted I still think it looks great, basket weave stripes is what I see.

Blue/Brown Scarf

I finally finished this scarf yet another present. I have also finished two panels on my knitted sweater top. My sister in law has also placed more orders for those hair net thingys, you know I'm shocked that they're selling as they are, but I don't really feel like make anymore. Must be some sort of weird psych thing or just my strange personality, I don't mind making things for gifts, requests etc.. but once I'm asked to make things especially repetitive things, I tend to not want to make them and procrastinate until I need to hand them over.
Does anyone else feel this way, react this way? God only knows I like getting paid for the items, but getting them done well that's another issue, I know I'll finish them and get it out the door, I just don't feel motivated, weird huh?

New Knitting

I've started a new sweater with the yarn I had left over from the cabled sleeve I did for the jean jacket I want to do the sweater that's in the magazine (the white only) only not so long and with long sleeves, that one is short sleeved, which IMO is worthless if I can wear short sleeves I don't need a sweater. But whatever the buyers were thinking it's irrelevant at this point. So I found this pattern and I thought it would be a great top substitute for the sweater and the bottom I'm getting from my Cables Untangled book, I plan to make the sleeves kimono style like the pattern but with some of the open weave cable stitching to match the bottom. This should be an interesting if not challenging knit. So far I can purl and knit without even thinking about it so I guess my needle knitting is coming along. The picture above is of the back of the sweater, since I have different yarn than what the pattern called for I'm measuring and adjusting as I go for my body shape and size. I really excited about this one and hope I can get through it.

There hasn't been much weaving this week, I had a biopsy on my uterus (ouch!!) and that put the kibosh on weaving and exercising. But once the results are in it will be all worth the discomfort and cramps.

Honoring Mom's Everywhere

I usually don't put u-tube stuff in my blog but this one is great. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGoelj7l668

Gee Looky here yet another scarf!!

I know I'm killing you all slowly with the scarves, but presents can't wait, and some of you are leaving comments so I guess it's not as boring as I thought ( yeah right). So here is the latest, I love the colors on this one, just my style. The yarn is good old Red Hart, for the weft I forgot the name, and Caron Simple Soft for the warp. I like the sequence of the striping on this yarn nice and even.

Remember these hair nets, well my sister in law sold them for $10.00/ea.!! My nieces go to ballet class and they have wear their hair in buns, so she put these on the girls and the other mom's went wild. Trust me I know they are over priced, sort of like the pidge scarf, which has made it's rounds on the groups, see here (but I'm not complaining). I think that you can price your work for as much as the market can bear. I have to make three more and send them to her, hey I consider it yarn money and who can't use more of that!

COLORFUL SCARF

I finished the colorful scarf and I have to say I really like it. It's for a 11 yr old and I think she will like it also. Since I'm on a learning curve, what I got from this one project, is to not roll out the fabric to peek and see what the colors look like, if your weaving is even etc.. cause once to start rolling the cloth beam up again you will not have the same tension, believe me I did it this time and it's not a good habit to have. My ends on this project were uneven and it posed all kinds of problems for me. So that is a definite no-no.

I'm warping the loom once again for another scarf, I know the never ending scarf and table runner posts, hehe, but hey I have presents to get to before the holidays. I know it seem early, but I'm one of those pesky people that get all the Christmas shopping done before November, sometimes if I'm lucky even October. I can just see you rolling your eyes at me, but I refuse to be stressed out, in a mall with thousands of angry holiday shoppers, just not my style. I rather be home looking at them on t.v. and thinking they're just masochists, doing the same thing every year and expecting different results.

COLOR!!

I've been weaving table runners and place mats for what seems to be all my projects, but I decided to take a break from that and weave a scarf. This one is for Marilyn in SC, she's 11yrs. old and I think she's going to love the colors. They are much , much brighter in real life than this pic. I'm just weaving in random stripes with no rhyme or reason, I don't plan to repeat any weaves to make it match. I thought it would just be fun to do without having to count, measure, etc. I like weaving for the sheer pleasure of making a unique piece. I think I'm going to enjoy this project the most, it's just plain fun.

Comparing Weft/Warp and Place mats

I finished the place mats, which are not what I expected, but that's another story. What we have in these pics are the comparisons between the warp and the weft yarns. On the bottom is the table runner which I used ecru as the warp and multi yarn for the weft. The weft is very pronounced therefore leaving the color light and subtle. On the left is a smaller table runner that has both weft and warp in multi color the color is very visible and form an erratic but pleasing pattern. On the top is my place mat that has 4" of both weft and warp multi color and 10" of warp multi and weft ecru, where the ecru is the weft the color is pronounce as if it were painted on the place mat is wide strokes. The differences between them is really interesting I like the results of the multi/multi and the multi/ecru weft. This was a great experience and experiment in playing with color and position of yarn. I have made my decision on the table runners one will be multi/multi and then multi/ecru with stripes.

SCARF SWAP, PLACE MATS

THANK YOU!!! Cathy I just got my scarf ohhhhhhhhhaaaaaahhhhh, so warm and fuzzy, it will be great to wear when I visit my friends in South Carolina this November. Just the colors I love greens, browns hint of gold and rust.

I love it!!

I warped my loom for my place mats and am almost finished with the first one. I warped with the multi color cotton and wove 4" of the same color, then I switched and wove 10" with the ecru color. I saw a difference with the colors and I like what I see. I like the look of the 4" which is the same weft and warp. I also think that the ecru weft is less prominent than it was in the table runner (last pic). Why is this I don't know. I'm weaving very carefully and evenly, maybe the warp is too tight too loose? Questions, I have loads of those but I will try to read my book and see if it offers any help on that. Or it just maybe the yarn repetition. The bottom pics are where I loosen the cloth beam and laid the weaving flat to note the color changes. Hopefully I'll get the mats done and washed, take a decent picture that the colors can be seen.

Completed Table Runner

I finished the table runner, or in my case a buffet runner, because my loom is permanently occupying my dining room table, hehehe.. What did I learn on this project?? Well for one thing I learned that I can't make even twisted fringe. I also learned, as you can see in the top pic vs the bottom pic, that Peaches and Creme cotton shrinks after the wash and drying process, which was okay I didn't mind, but I'm going to make two table runners as gifts this season and the shrink will effect the overall length and width which I need to adjust for. When I first laid the runner out it was 19" x 92" after washing it 17" x 86". That in itself is quite significant, considering I need one runner to be 17" x 112" and the other 20" x 122" as finished sizes (I can't figure out why my family has such large dinning room tables that are never used, but whatever makes them happy). So now I know that the width I started with is fine for one but the length is definitely a reconfigure.

I just got my Hands on Rigid Heddle Weaving book and there is a formula in it to figure out how to get the measurements correct, so I will put my math skills to the test. ( that will be scary) I also found that the warp color was very prominent in the weave and that the weft is very subtle in the variations of color. I think I may want to change the colors around and see how that would work or maybe use the same colors for warp and weft and take a look at that combo. Regardless I will need to make some samples before I weave the two next big projects so, the place mats will be the testers, at least I'll finally get those place mats I've been wanting, and I get to try my color variations. The last thing I learned is that there is a lot of loom waste, which being a knitter doesn't really make me happy, so my solution for this is that loom waste will become stuffing for the couch pillows. There I feel better about the waste now, hehehe.

Placemat OOPS!

I bought some Peaches and Cream cotton yarn for some place mats I wanted to weave. Ecru for the warp and Harvest Omber for the weft. I counted my heddles, marked my start and stop points as I was suppose to do, measured my warp and dressed my loom (which by the way, I think I'm getting much better at) I was so impressed with myself thinking, wow this went relatively well without a hitch, no tight ends, all the warp wrapped up in my separator paper just straight as can be and tension is good. I even went as far as putting my measuring tape on to the first weave so that I could consistently weave each place mat the same length and insert my seperator between them.

I've been told there someone named Murphy and he has this law stuff----well, I waltzed in to it. I knew it was going to good not to have something go wrong "I" having the mathematical prowess of a knat, (trust me I can work an Excel spreadsheet to make a grown accountant cry, but need a calculator to do simple math) took the measurement for each place mat's length and made it my width, so my place mats were 18" wide instead of 12", mind you I work with length and width all day since I've work for a Sign Co for quite a few years you'd think I would have this down by now?

See the top markers that's where the warp needed to be for the width. Can we say six (6) inches to wide "ARRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHH" enough to make a Christian woman curse.

Okay exit stage left and enter the new and wonderful TABLE RUNNER. Which is looking quite nice if I do say so myself, as it turns out I needed one of those too, **wink wink** whether by accident or necessity depends on my point of view.

I will give the place mats another go as soon as I finish and I will use the old carpenters rule "MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE" words to live by.

In knitting news, I have the pic of the scarf I made for Jennifer in Alaska, for my loom knitted scarf swap. I made this one with my Fine Gauge Knitting Board, and four skeins of Bernat Chunky yarn, I also used Eyelash yarn for some fun accent stripes. I hope she likes it as much as I enjoyed knitting it for her.

Woven Baby Blanket & Scarf Swap

I finished the woven baby blanket, spent two nights twisting fringe, a big THANK YOU to Gail for the instructions on how to accomplish that task. The colors are subtle and the blanket is soft and warm,The final blanket measures 27" x 34" without the fringe. I used Red Hart for both warp and weft, white for weft and a multi in baby tones. Now I know that the width of my project are 27" with all the heddles warped.

I have also finished the scarf for my swap now that picture can't be posted until I mail the package tomorrow. It's going to Jennifer who is in Alaska.

Woven Baby Blanket

I started a baby blanket for a co-worker, the colors are pink, blue, mint and yellow for the weft and white for the warp. This little blankie gave me a run for my money, I warped the loom and started weaving and on the 10th pass I saw that the end warps were so tight that I could roll the fabric into the front beam. Problems, you guessed it, loads of them, since this is only my second project did I freak, you betcha. I undid the weaving, unrolled the warp not once, nor twice but a whopping four yes, four times. Every time I re rolled I got the same problem so finally I saw what was going on. I put pattern paper in between the warp to separate the yarn and keep it straight. Well I was not being careful with the end warps and they were wrapping around the beam instead of on top of the paper along with the other warps. So I finally fix the issue and started weaving, what a relief that was, since I'm a baby weaver, little issue like that are stressful. I know your laughing, but I sure wasn't at the time, I thought I was going to trash the whole project and I wasn't looking forward to re-warping the loom after spending two nights the first time. Definitely warping is a process, I need to learn to enjoy.

WEAVING

I took my new Ashford home Friday, and assembled it, only took 20 mins,(I didn't realize how large the loom was until it was put together) I then warped it which took another 40 mins and started to weave, I finished this scarf in about two hours. I used the project suggestion that came with the loom, but I didn't want to use the novelty yarn as suggested so I used for the warp Caron Simply Soft in Heather Grey and for the weft Red Hart in Sea Blue, which formed some great looking stripes. I wove the scarf in two hours, I thought it would take longer, but the weaving was easy and rythmic, just wonderful. This scarf will be a gift for Elizabeth, who's studing in Maryland, I'm sure she'll love the colors. I can fully appreciate why weavers, love this craft, I can't wait to start something else, hehehe.

Now I need to learn what the DPI stands for, how not to squish the right side to keep my weaving ends even, how to cut the fabric, so I can sew it instead of fringing, and how the heck to do a twisted fringe, cause no matter what I did, the stuff wouldn't twist. I have some research and reading to do today on these subjects, hopefully I can find what I need online.

The only thing I wish I would have ordered was the stand for the loom, it's definately needed, I used my dining room table and sat the loom on my lap as the instructions suggested that was okay until I noticed this morning I have a bruise so, I have to order the stand as soon as I save some more $$.

NEW ASHFORD LOOM

I got my new Ashford 32" RH loom, ****super happy dance**** ;oD. I love it, now I have to put it together, yikes, but it looks simple enough (famous last words before I screw up) haha.

Na I'm pretty much mechanically inclined, love to build furniture and if I can knit, loom and weave, tools do not faze me as long as they are small ones LOL. Hopefully I can build it, warp it and get my butt in gear before the weekend is out. So what should I make first, you know 32" is a lot of loom space, especially since I've been doodling around with that baby Brio, I got a whopping 5" of width on a scarf I'm weaving , thank God it's for a little girl and it's a fashion scarf so thin and long is the way to go on that one.

So what should me first project be, any suggestions??

WEAVING, SCARF SWAP

The pic on the left is my weaving sample with peaches and cream cotton yarn on the Brio loom, the finished fabric is 5" wide, which is good for a scarf, I'm going to visit friends in SC in November and I think I will weave the little girl there a scarf. It went pretty quickly and I enjoyed making my sample. I ordered an Ashford RH 32" loom, which I'm excited about. I hope I made the right choice, I guess I'll see when it show up and I get to looming on it. The pic on the right is for my scarf swap partner Jennifer in Alaska. I make the scarf on my FGKB and it's coming out soft and warm and just wonderful. I snuck in some eyelash yarn for whimsy. Once it's finished and received I will post the scarf in it's entirety, mean while I don't want to spoil the surprise.

I also started a needle knitting ghan in the beach yarn that I was going to use for my sweater and wound up frogging it , so the yarn has been re-purposed, which I love to do. I'm trying to convince myself that I need to knit, weave and loom with my current stash. I know I've said this before but really, I have to try, so I have challenge myself that I will not buy any new yarn after Sept 1, 2007 through December 1, 2007 and see how I do with using up what I currently own.

That should be fun!! hehehe.

NEW TABLE LOOM

I started weaving on the kid's loom I got and I have to tell you, I'm hooked ridiculous you say, can I possibly be interested in anything else in the fiber world? I don't know, but I must control the impluses, the little voices, and the drowning bank account. hehe. Here are some pics, for those of you who have real looms and have experience I know this is boring, but I'm just starting and I'm excited. I will be ordering either a Krominski or an Ashfored 32" Rigid Heddle loom, still undecided but it will be soon.