January Musings

It's hard to believe I haven't posted since Thanksgiving. Christmas came and went then New Year's Eve when I had time to weave, finally, I got sick and spent the first part of the New Year in bed.

Over the last few weekends I have been able to get the looms warped. The Wolf Pup has more Orange and Blue Houndstooth scarves. I finished one today to photograph for Etsy. I've got a multi-red warp on the 45" Schacht for V-shawls. I finished the first shawl today and started a second with a very soft, fuzzy red yarn from Hobby Lobby. The Mighty Wolf is ready to be warped with black and white alpaca for 8" Houndstooth scarves. I had a brown striped warp on the Mighty Wolf and had so many problems with it I finally just "cut" my losses, literally. In another two weeks I will be able to weave on Mondays and Tuesdays. I have lots of weaving to do this year.

Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is Coming!

I can't believe that it's almost Christmas and the end of yet another year. I have had such a successful year that I am basically starting over with my weaving inventory. I had a jewelry party last week and ended up buying weaving too! It's a good thing and a bad thing, because it takes so long to get things woven for Kentuck. One great thing though, as of February I will be cutting back on my transcription so I hopefully will be able to weave more (theoretically speaking). I'll be off Saturday through Tuesday on my main account. However I will still have my other two accounts that I usually end up working on during the weekend. Another announcement: as soon as my daughter gets pictures taken I will put some things on Etsy. Lately I have been weaving houndstooth in orange and blue thanks to Sarah. Those have sold very well and I'll be putting on a new warp soon. I also need to start some more alpaca black and white houndstooth. I'm glad it's fun to weave houndstooth. I have a brown alpaca on the Mighty Wolf which I am really not liking to weave. So far I've tried three different patterns and haven't liked any of them. It's what I call a "dog on the loom" (an alpaca dog this time). I've started winding a red warp for V-shawls as I have only four V's left, three pink and one gold. They are a staple and I haven't done any for a year. It's time. Red always sells, also need to do a mixed warp using up small cones of yarn using black or other dark colors as a warp. I always have more ideas than time and/or energy.

Kentuck is over

Well, Kentuck has come and gone and was great. It was cold, windy and muddy but it was well attended and I estimate that we sold two-thirds of our stock. We sold all but one of the black/white houndstooth scarves and two of the alpaca shawls (and I traded one for silver/dichroic jewelry). We didn't even need many bags because people wore what they bought.

I warped up the Wolf Pup last weekend with the first blue and orange Houndstooth scarves. They are made from Perle cotton and if I say so they look pretty good. I still have tencel shawls to weave and some brown alpaca scarves on the Mighty Wolf. Sarah worked on one of those at fiber group on Monday. The warp seems a little sticky. I hope to play with the Weavebird and weave off the rest of the warp on it and then put on white bamboo to make some baby blankets. So many ideas, not enough play time!

Kentuck is coming...

I've been busy weaving houndstooth scarves and haven't gotten very far on the tencel shawls. Not much time for weaving but like it or not Kentuck will soon be here. A funny on me, I wove one houndstooth scarf double the size needed. It hung to the floor and beyond on me. We'll have to cut it in half and hem both of them. I've been requested to weave some houndstooth in Blue and Orange WAR EAGLE! Those will be next on the Wolf Pup. I have another alpaca warp on the Mighty Wolf, camel with dark brown stripes, may throw in some white in some of them. Kind of a window pane pattern. I hope to get at least a couple done before Kentuck.

Good news, we finally got the Weavebird going. I haven't gotten to weave on it much but will play more after Kentuck. When I get the practice warp woven off, I'll have to learn how to warp it differently than I do the other looms. I do enjoy weaving on her though.

I entered a contest sponsored by Schacht Looms for the 40th Anniversary. My entries were one of the "Fire" tencel shawls. The other was a bamboo table runner. They had 400 entries (spinning, weaving, and videos). Out of those they chose 158 as finalists to send their articles in. I was in the finalist group with the shawl, but didn't make the final cut. I think about one-third was chosen altogether. I was happy to be a finalist. I hope they put the winning pieces on their website.

We are having a great time in our fiber group. I hope to meet the mothers of our two Auburn students. They both happen to be Home Ec teachers in different parts of the state. Hopefully they can come to our group while they are on a school break. I get more weaving done on Monday nights than the rest of the week.

Tomorrow is Saturday, have to start tagging, pricing and packing but hopefully will get some weaving done also.

Houndstooth and more....

I got to weave most of Saturday and Sunday afternoon last weekend. In between while resting my shoulders and neck I worked on kumihimo. Choosing different fibers and colors to put together is fun and it's restful and soothing to work on. You don't have to think, your fingers just move and a beautiful braid is finished before you know it. I taught my 8 year old granddaughter when she spent the night Friday and she's doing an "Auburn" braid. I finished three Houndstooth scarves and a 104" yellow table runner and am working on a varigated tablerunner in fall colors. I'm trying to get that warp off so I can put tencel shawls on. October will be here before I know it. I'll put pictures of the blue shawls, houndstooth and runners soon.