Catching Up

So where was I? 3 months of silence. I really meant to keep you up to date... Best intentions, best laid plans, etc. Anyway, I've been spinning and knitting and weaving and even crocheting, and I haven't taken the time to tell you about any of it, have I?

So far in 2014 I've spun 7.5 POUNDS of fiber. Seriously. Look - I've been keeping track on Ravelry and also on Flickr. That's a lotta yarn. I've also knit a vest, finished knitting a sweater and started knitting another one, and started weaving some soft cotton napkins, random rainbows like the dishtowels I love to weave. Since the napkins were started this week, you get a picture:

When they're done, I plan to list them in my shop in pairs. I'll let you know when they're ready.

I also have TONS of the aforementioned yarn to photograph and list in the shop. Photograph - ah, there's the rub. My least favorite part - but it has to be done, otherwise you can't see the yummies.

What else? Well, we tripled the size of the vegetable garden this year. Mr. Debbie has gone all out - he put down black garden cloth, planted the veg, and mulched everything. My part was planting the seedlings indoors and nurturing the little guys under lights. We have a lovely crop of lettuce that we've already been harvesting for salads, and I'm hopeful for tomatoes, zucchini, spinach, and beans. We have some other things planted that I'm not so sure about, but only time will tell.

Hmmmm... Oh! I got a breadmaker for my birthday in mid-February, and I have been baking all our bread since then. Mr. Debbie is in heaven - he adores bread, and has declared that my bread is tastier than store-bread even the few times it's lasted long enough to get slightly stale toward the end. The smell of the bread baking is delightful.

And I bought a bicycle to ride back and forth to my Jazzercise classes. It's a 3 mile roundtrip, which is a nice addition to the Jazzercise workout. I worked out a route that only requires crossing 3 busy intersections, all at traffic lights. I haven't ridden a bike in years, I'm having so much fun! And of course I'm wearing a helmet, something we never did as kids.

So much to tell you... I'll try to be good and update more often. Promise!

Ocean Towels

Dishtowels, Linked Birdseye pattern, 6/2 unmercerized cotton, blue and green and very pale blue (looks white in the picture):

I've warped for 8 towels - one for a swap partner, one for me, 6 for the shop. I love this color combination!

Fotography Friday

Forgive the spelling - I couldn't resist. :)

I've got such a backlog of weaving and spinning to photograph - I'm trying to play a little catch-up here!

I've got 2 scarves and a table runner to show you - they've all been finished for awhile, but haven't had their beauty shots until now...

Handwoven Purple Illusion - this is a shadow weave scarf, woven with 10/2 in two different shades of purple:

Handwoven Northern Lights Scarf, woven in a faux-faux-ikat style - the warp is "fairy dust" yarn from Enchanted Knoll Farm, with a lovely subtle sparkle, and the weft is tencel:

Handwoven Overshot Runner, in 10/2 cotton and 5/2 cotton:

And for reading this far, your reward is a sneak peak of the warp I'm winding for the NEXT batch of random rainbow towels:

This is 1/5 of the warp - with a 13 yard warp, I can only fit so many threads (110) on the warping mill before it cries "I'm full, I'm full!" So I chain it off, set it aside, and start a new bout. This warp will be 5 chains, since I need 550 threads for these towels.

Handwoven SAORI Blue

I have so much catching up to do - the fall sweater's body is done and I'm knitting the sleeves, I've finished the tencel twill scarves and the shadow weave scarf, and I've spun several skeins of yarn - but the only thing I've got photographed right now is the SAORI Blue shawl/wrap/scarf:

I used mixed cottons, bamboo, rayon, and fun novelty yarns in both the warp and weft. I love weaving Saori - it's "no rules, just fun!"

Handwoven Rainbow Towels, Done!

Remember these rainbow dishtowels? I finished them, hemmed them, and washed/dried them, and then neglected to take pictures. I'm such a slacker photographer. :)

Here they are!

They were great fun to weave, and they're so pretty. Each one is unique - I used a different weft for each towel (drawn from the warp colors) so they're fraternal rather than identical. I've listed them for sale - 3 have already sold, but I still have a few colors left.

I want to do another run of these, mixing the colors up a bit and perhaps using a different weave structure - so many possibilities!

Imagination

This video is amazing, and gave me numerous ideas today for letting creativity out of its box.
Janet Echelman - Taking imagination seriously:

Handwoven Napkins - Chocolate Covered Cherries

I've participated in several weaving exchanges with the Jane Stafford Textiles group on Ravelry - we've done towels, placemats, and this spring we did napkins. The group chose lace as the structure, and 8/2 cotton as the yarn. I prefer a finer thread for napkins myself, but as I have plenty of 8/2 in stash, I decided to go with it.

I chose a light brown and a good medium red, and a 4-shaft draft from the Best of Handwoven: Atwater-Bronson Lace ebook. I wound the entire warp at once on my warping mill - I prefer doing that, rather than winding in smaller bouts.

On the loom and ready to go! This is my Macomber loom from the back - you can see my hanging metal harnesses and inserted eye heddles.

The lace blocks alternate with plainweave in an easy-to-remember repeat. I'm not a fan of changing weft colors so often - those little end tails are tiresome to tuck in over and over!

The draft calls for a hem - I decided to hemstitch instead, and leave a 1" fringe. I think it adds a nice touch. Ready for mailing!

They're on their way to Canada, where the coordinator will sort out all the napkins received and send back an assortment. I'm looking forward to seeing the creativity of my fellow exchangers.

I'm planning to weave myself a few sets of napkins - our household is doing our best to move away from using disposable paper towels and napkins, and it's one step closer to my dream of weaving all our home textiles. My next set will be in finer/thinner cotton, and believe me, it won't have so many weft color changes!