Rugs

I was off for a week, so I had the chance to finish my mom's rug. I threw orange in the top and bottom and now I'm not sure I'm happy with those color decisions, but it is what it is. I was in Amish country when I was getting the idea for this design, so thus the purples and oranges, etc. I learned from this rug that the Stitch Nation Full o' Sheep yarn, though lovely and easy to dye, is too lofty for a rug. It just didn't beat down tight enough, and I gave it a major beat down. I'll post a pic when it's hemmed and wet finished. Still plenty of warp on the loom so I'm thinking of a krokbragd table runner. I have a nice 3 ply wool yarn that I got from the Mannings. That should work well.

Catching up

Haven't written anything in a while. I've been taking an online art class and I kind of always feel like I'm behind in everything. And it's a "go at your own pace" kind of a class! That's pretty pathetic. And of course, now there's Christmas just in case I wasn't feeling harried enough.

Well, at least we got our tree up and decorated. Only took us 2 days. This is the largest tree I've gotten in a long time. 7 foot. It's the first year since my AN diagnosis that I've felt like decorating and stuff. It really helped to go on a brief trip to NC with beloved friends to visit beloved friends and the cold and Christmas feel just really helped ...

Haven't made snowmen in a long time :)

Here is the progress on the rag rug I'm crocheting. I'm surprised I've made progress on anything.
I thought maybe I could just use ready made fat quarters on this, but after using the art cloth I made last summer, I sort of think I'm going to have to just make my own cloth or it won't come out right.

And the "piece de resistance" .... I'm getting a spinning wheel for Christmas! I'm sooooo excited!
http://www.woolery.com/store/pc/Babe-Production-c120.htm

Progress

Love this pattern. Krokbragd is too cool. I'm using colors inspired by Amish colors. Throwing in orange in small bits just to make it interesting.

Sampler rug

Strange but I totally forgot to post this picture. This is a rug done in weft faced, balanced weave patterns. The selvedge got a little jacked-up in that one spot but hey, only God is perfect, right? This rug has gone to live with someone else. I've had a request for another, which I will do, honest! But I have to finish my mom's rug first. She's 86 years old, and as she has reminded me, "I'm not gonna live forever! Where's my rug?!"

Well looky what I found!

I was looking in my closet among the ancient papers and junk for our marriage cert. so that Comcast would let my husband hook up digital in his own house...don't even ask. I'm surprised they didn't ask for DNA samples. Anyway, I found this neat-o little linoleum block I carved waaaaaay back when I was 17 years old. That is a long time ago. It is a picture of a monk harvesting wheat. I had a thing for Medieval art and still do.


I rolled some linoblock/screen printing ink for fabric on and printed on some old shirt fabric I had laying around. The linoleum block is cracked. I thought maybe I could fix that with some Elmer's but no go. It's 32 years old so I'm lucky it printed anything. I'm not sure how long these things last.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a wonderful gobble gobble. I sure gobbled...up everything in sight! My little stomach organ itself felt like it was going to burst. It was pretty disgusting, really.

This is that little rug I was working on at the rigid heddle. It came out pretty good. I used a bulky wool that I dyed this yummy red and threw some little color stripes in here and there. The color stripes are left over Lion Brand Landscapes. Then I tried to felt it a bit and puff the wool up to make it thicker and that was it.

I was thinking about putting it in front of the bathroom sink but I liked the way it looked on this stool better.


Check this out....this is so cool! I tried the whole tying the warp to a belt around your waist, etc. and my back just wanted none of it. So I started looking at websites looking for a card weaving loom and found this really helpful video about using your rigid heddle loom. I set mine up like this,... not exactly like the video but I have a different loom. It works great! No more back aches.

As the belt weaves, I wrap it over the breast beam and clamp it with these little clamps that I got from Home Depot. You just keep advancing as you go along. It's the bomb!

The rug on the 8 shaft is going very slow, but going. I screwed up on the sleying. Don't ask. However, it just means that the rug will take a while to finish and eat up a huge amount of costly 3 ply wool ... no big deal. No, not at all.

Was a happy camper

...when we were up at the Pioneer Day Festival in Barberville, FL. That was a lot of fun. Good music and lots of crafts. I got to meet the resident weaver, Steve. He was really nice. And above is Barbara the spinner, who was totally cool. I want to be her when I grow up. She had some good stories.

These are manatees that live in the spring at Blue Springs S.P. where we camped. See the ity wity babykins poopy doopy doops! Isn't he cute! He was so tiny (compared to all the others). It was chilly at night up there, but this time I did not freeze to death. Gerry took me to the HD and we got a lovely little space heater for the camper. That made all the difference.


This is the stash rug I was working on a while back. I'm not loving this at all. I was hoping for a more sporadic color combination and more knobby-ness, if that's even a word. Che liked it a lot, however, so I gave it to her. I'm going to weave a mat (smallish rug) next on the rigid heddle. I've got this white, bulky 3 ply wool that I have a ton of. It's like on an industrial size cone or something. I inherited it along with Kessy. I got some wine and tangerine Rit dye so I'll see what kind of damage I can do with this wool and dye.

This I am happy with! The colors came out just great. I love card weaving. This is from a pattern, but you can really go coo-coo with card weaving and come up with your own ideas. It's just a matter of how you turn the cards. Oooo that sounds very metaphorical, doesn't it?