The Take Your Time Sale!

If you’re like me, then you, too, don’t like to be rushed when shopping, especially at this time of the year, so this sale runs from Wednesday, 11/29/23 through the end of Sunday, 12/3/23.  

Everything in my Etsy shop is 15% off – knitting and crochet patterns, handspun yarns, handwoven scarves, and handwoven rag rugs.

No coupon is needed, no minimum is required!

As I’m beginning a new line of weft-faced rugs, I have dropped the price of my current rag rugs by 50%.  

The 15% sale is an extra discount on top of thealready reduced rug prices!

Happy Holiday Crafting!
Dawn
 

Satisfying Plain Weave

I finally added 2 blogs to my sidebar, for now, as I’m rather particular about such things.  I enjoy, and learn from, both Peggy’s and Karen’s blogs and I’ll surely add some knitting blogs.  Peggy has great general weaving information and Karen often posts about her rag rug projects, though not in detail!

Many weavers seem to have fallen down the multi-shaft rabbit hole, where I have always been content with 2 shaft or more basic 4 shaft weaves. I love simpler traditional textiles - plain weaves and twills, stripes, plaids, tweeds, and weft-faced and plain weave rugs. They may not provide the wow factor like other weavers’ work, but I find them to be comforting and relatable.  

When it comes to textile gymnastics, I prefer it in knitting, via color patterns or cable patterns.  

Needless to say, any snafus which occur whilst knitting are far more easily dealt with than a complicated weaving draft errantly threaded!  At this point in my life, I don’t need unnecessary stress!  (Although, is *any* stress really necessary?  I wish I could avoid it entirely, and save my heart the distress that ensues, undoing the good work of my heart meds.). Keeping it simple doesn’t mean it will only be boring!

More complex weaving drafts are lovely, but they do not *speak* to me.  Even Overshot, which I used to love, and have several books on, but we no longer own an antique home, at least for now, so I want whatever I weave for this non-fussy circa 1947 Cape Cod house to not look out of place.  And as we live on the Cape, a simpler seaside decor suits it well, although it will take me a while to weave and sew all that I want in the house!

As I may have mentioned, my floor loom (a 45” Hammett CB with sectional beam) is in pieces now, moved upstairs into a room where I will actually have space to weave easily.

Moving it also allows us to use my work table for Thanksgiving dinner, as the rest of my studio supplies and FO’s (handspun yarns and handwovens) need to remain in a room that is constantly heated or cooled.  I’ve BTDT enough, dealing with having to rewash linens that were stored in an unheated and non-cooled room.  I won’t do that to my hard work!

But this does mean it will be a while before hubby and I can get to putting the floor loom back together.  I only had time to weave one weft-faced rug, the warp for the remaining 3 rugs was rewound back onto the beam and taped down.

So, with the floor loom out of commission for a while, my small RH loom has been getting a workout.  It is not an unenjoyable process to direct warp the RH loom, even the more persnickety color and weave designs, although I think I prefer the actual act of weaving on the floor loom!  Passing a stick shuttle isn’t the same as throwing a boat, ski, or rug shuttle.  Floor loom weaving also gives my legs some exercise, like handspinning, which I also spend quite a bit of time doing

I now have 10 wool and alpaca scarves on Etsy thus far, and recently finished 3 more: another Houndstooth Tattersall, an all white Tweed, and a pattern I call “Faux Rib”, aka Log Cabin, as the pattern reminds me of offset panels of knit and purl ribbing.  LOL, I don’t like log cabins, much preferring Federal, Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, or Shingle Style. 

Actually, I was never crazy about most of the Log Cabin threadings and treadlings I’ve seen.  Many appear murky and confusing to me – I prefer clear, crisp, repeating patterns, which are easily readable.  This one, a 9-st rep both in warp and weft, please my sense of order!

Below are some other drafts I plotted and have been weaving.

Although I have a handful or rwo of 4+ shaft weaving books, I’ve only had one RH book, although the only thing that interested me in that book was how to weave a palindrome skein, which I have yet to do.  I'd much rather play around on weaving software to try to create interesting designs.

As you can see from the following 3 drafts, although they are similar, the first draft varies from the last two. Warping the first one is easier, with its solid blocks of color, but weaving it is slower, requiring 2 shuttles.  So, I decided to shift it, by moving the alternating color ends to the warp, making it slower to warp, BUT allowing the weaving to be solid blocks of color – just one shuttle for a # of picks.

Here’s some twists on the Log Cabin, which I’m calling “Peepers”, after the spring peppers we had so many of in the acre-sized pond back in the mid-Hudson.  I would even find them in the evergreen, off the porch.

These are next on my list to weave up.  As you can see, a simple adjustment to the color pattern in the warp and weft creates 3 options - a single set of alternating horizontal and vertical bars with horizontal peepers, a double set of alternating horizontal and vertical bars with vertical peepers, then a double set of alternating horizontal and vertical bars with *both* horizontal and vertical peepers: peepers on the ground, peepers up a tree, and peepers everywhere!

So many drafts, so little time!

Onward!
Dawn

Two Yutes!

Remember the court room scene in “My Cousin Vinny”, where the clash of Brooklyn, NY and Alabama accents come to life?  In case you haven’t seen it.  

Well, when I was thinking of a title for this blog post, that’s what came to mind!  Though, in my case, it’s not yutes, or utes, but utensils.

I have been wanting to get new kitchen utensils for quite some time.  Sure, we have plenty of wood ones, which are used all the time, but wood, by its nature, does not provide the kind of surface and edge some cooking and baking requires.  So, we also had a selection of silicone (and I don’t know what) utensils for use with non-stick pans. 

Unfortunately, we’ve had them a *long* time, likely even before they started making BPA-free.  And forget about heat resistance, hence the tips on some of them had begun to melt.  Not acceptable.

So, I went searching, and found this company’s wares on Amazon. I started by replacing the spatula (which hubby uses) and the spoonula, which I exclusively use.

I love it for both mixing and lifting up/turning foods during cooking, especially after I whacked cake batter onto my face using a spatula!  That never happens when using a spoonula. Then came the set of flippers - one slotted and wide, the other not slotted and narrow. 

They’re BPA-free, safe to 600º, and well made, if you’ve been looking to replace yours.  

Please note: I post links to products or  sites that might be of interest. I have no stock in this company, or Amazon (despite how much I need to buy there!), and if you click on any links in my blog posts, I do not earn anything.

Onward!
Dawn

Like Words on a Page

I still haven’t worked at the floor loom, as I’m engrossed in weaving on the RH loom!  For every scarf I weave, I chart 5-10 more drafts, so as soon as a scarf comes off it, another warp goes on.  Only a few of my ideas don’t translate well into a scarf, although they’d be fine as yardage, where too thick selvedges don’t matter.  

In this Handwoven article about Nell Znamierowski, it says, ”For Nell, sampling was the joy of weaving. Making an actual project—yardage, scarf, or whatever was a byproduct.”

I understand what she meant.  I’ve long been in love with color.  Not masses of every color everywhere, but instead, carefully chosen and placed color.  Like words on a page, color needs white space.  They also seem to need at least one other color to *bounce off of* –  colors singing in a harmonious voice.

These days one doesn’t need to warp and weave in order to sample color placement, there’s software to, at least, get the ball rolling by creating a visual. I’ve only used PixeLoom (on a Mac), so I can’t speak to other software or hardware, but PL is easy to use, at least for 2 or 4 shaft weaves.  I haven't yet put the software through all its paces, just using the basics thus far, but, I could sit all day and play with colorways for drafts, working to find patterns that sing to me!

Here’s the first grouping of scarves for sale in my Etsy shop, with a few photos below.  I just finished the 10 listings. One more scarf is lying flat, blocking, and I can't wait to get another warp on the loom, using the squishy, supersoft, extra fine (19.5 micron) merino and heavenly baby alpaca yarns which arrived yesterday!

Along the way, some scarves may be gifts, and one or two may go to a local charity which collects warm clothing for the poor (along with some other wool handknits to also donate). I would like to weave a scarf for my two grandkids, and already have a few drafts created just with them in mind.

I wonder if Nell ever repeated her designs.  Some drafts I may only weave a few times, others please me enough that I want to weave them in many alternate colorways and in different yarns.  But they all came about through play.  And who ever gets tired of playing?  It’s what keeps us young!

Onward, Dawn

Yarn Sale and Coming Soon!

 Yarn Sale!

All the handspun yarns in my Etsy shop are 15% off, from today, 11/6/23, through the end of day 11/13/23.

Falkland wool yarn is available in 5 weights, as well as Romney and yearling mohair yarns.

Stock up now for all your winter and holiday crafting!

No coupon needed!

Just a few of the yarns on sale:

Coming Very Soon!

Handwoven wool and alpaca winter scarves!

Happy Crafting!
Dawn