Tea time

I love love love when I have Saturdays off! My daughters and my BFF get together and go yard sale-ing on those Saturdays. Scored a candle stick that matches the lamp I got on the last yard sale expedition and a very cool little tree for $5. Then it's back to Che's nifty apartment for tea and pancakes :)

On the weaving front ...

I cut the sampler off the loom (accompanied by a glass of Chardonnay... I always toast the cutting off of anything) and started the finishing. I twined and then started to go with a longer twist tassle and changed my mind.

Instead I decided on a 3 in. plain finish. Here are photos:

This will come in handy as a reference on all the different techniques. And it's kind of pretty in a weird sorta way. So it's over my work table as my guide. I've started warping Big Kay for the actual rug. It will be periwinkle and salmon and I'm calling it "Stilt City"

The party's over



So my vacation is over, or staycation really. I did absolutely nothing. Partly because it rained almost every day. I had one day where I was able to go to sunny Hollyweird Beach and that was nice. Felt good to swim. We also went out to dinner a bunch and rode the scooter around town. Just relaxing. And I thought I would get more done in the loom room but, no. I was really in relaxation mode.

This is the block weave / shaft switching sampler. I have pretty much figured this out and am playing with a simple design idea for a rug. I have some math questions though, which I'll probably post on Weavolution. I've been reading Peter Collingwood's book; the chapter on block weaves and he started using fractions...I saw 3/4 and 4/3 and my eyes glazed over. You could tell this man was a surgeon ... the man was SMART! So I need to find someone to dummy the math parts down for me. Math and I have never been friends.

I finished the scarf I was weaving on the rigid heddle. I was a little concerned at first that it would be too stiff and have no drape. I realized halfway through weaving it that I had a lead foot on the beater, but I figured I should just be consistent at that point. But once I washed it and steam ironed, it came out nice and soft. Will make a nice Autumn scarf. 

Realized that I never put a picture of this up...the finished krokbragd wall hanging. I am not really jazzed about the colors. But it is an exercise in Fibonacci numbers. I made the grey's and white in varying Fibo-numbers in inches. That was fun...I'm not totally anti-math.

Blocks and stuff

Check out these uber-cool things. These are fiber cards made from teasels. I had lunch with a very good friend and weaver who got these when she was in the Peace Corp back in the 70's in Ecuador. Thought I'd share.

I really wanted to take the class with Jason Collingwood at the Mannings this summer, but unfortunately, I can't get away from work in the summer. That's our busy time. So next best thing? His video on block weaves and shaft switching. Above picture shows the floating warp ends tied to the heddle eyes on shafts 3 and 4. The warp ends on shafts 1 and 2 are not floating and have no effect on the pattern. I have to say that when I was finally finished warping the loom, I was one sore puppy. I tried to take breaks but I didn't take enough breaks...I was just getting so into it. Definitely need more lighting though in the Weavatorium (as it's come to be known). I'm having a hard time seeing in there.

And here you can see the little blocks starting. Neat-o! I'm using a lot of left over stuff because it's just a sampler. I have a 6 epi reed so just sleyed it single to sort of conserve materials. And I didn't have a temple small enough for this piece so I'm not using one, but like I said, it's a sampler. I'll use one on the first rug. I'm really loving block weaving. It's like doing puzzles. And the video is really good.

Meanwhile, here's old man Sam hanging out with his doppelganger.