Hello and goodbye for a while

I know I haven’t posted in a while, I am more active on Instagram and Facebook now than I make blog posts.

I am going to be working outside the home and am going to stop teaching for the time being. I intend to keep my website and may post occasionally as I weave and knit for fun rather than money. I will let you all know if and when I resume teaching. I do enjoy it a lot, but working outside the home 40 hours a week will be a big adjustment for me and I still need to spend time with my family.

Here are the socks I made for my family for Christmas.

Classes

Update:  Currently I am not teaching due to working full time.  I will post when I have more time in the future to teach.

The classes below are the ones I usually teach in the order they appear.

The first one is Beginning Weaving on a Rigid Heddle Loom,  In this class you learn to weave a scarf in a day! NO experience necesary.  Loom kits are available to rent for class.

The second one is Waffle and Pick Up on a Rigid Heddle Loom. This class requires you to have previous successful warping of your loom and your own Rigid Heddle loom, since you must warp it on your own prior to the class. If you are a guild member, a loom rental can be arranged from the guild.) you will learn how to use a pick up stick to create textures and patterns in your weaving.


Party Feet!

Love these socks, I am tempted to keep them for myself.  (That’s the danger when I make a pair in my own size).  If they don’t sell soon, look for them on my feet! I cannot get any more of this yarn, so when they are sold, they are gone…  UPdate SOLD!

A Study in Black and White

 

I bought a new dress to wear for a wedding tonight, it just needed the right accessory to make it look great. So this morning I pulled out one of my silk scarf blanks and mixed up a little Jet Black Jaquard Acid Dye in a jar with boiling water. I made a shibori “donut” by folding the scarf in half and rolling it around a piece of cotton twine on the diagonal. You then pull the  twine tightly and tie it to make a little silk donut.  Then I wet it and dunked it into the jar of dye.  After microwaving it on and off to keep it hot and stirring it with a chopstick, I added the vinegar to set the dye.  I microwaved it a little more, then rinsed well with synthopol and ironed it dry. In less than an hour, I had the perfect accessory!  Check out my Instagram feed, measuredthreads, for a few more photos.

All Wrapped Up

I’m getting ready to wind my warp for a workshop I am taking at the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati.  Nationally renown weaver Rosalie Neilson (of rep weave fame) is conducting a workshop on block design and color with huck lace at the Guild house and it starts next week.  First I had to get my vintage but new-to-me 4 shaft, 4 treadle,  22″ Harrisville Designs loom ready for the workshop.  I wanted to use it rather than my Dorothy loom table loom since it has treadles.  The HD loom was a freebie from a neighbor of a friend who was cleaning out her basement. I was so excited to get it because I really like my bigger HD loom.  The “new” loom needed shaft cables and tie up cords replaced along with a good cleaning.  I also rearranged the direct tie up from 1, 2, 3, 4 on the treadles to 1, 3, 4, 2 so that I can “walk” the treadles while weaving.

I finished up the restoration yesterday and started to prepare my warp today.  I had to choose 4 colors, one is for a border to separate the blocks and the other three are the colors for the blocks.  We were instructed to make a wrap of our warp colors to see how they all went together. Making a wrap is a common part of design in weaving. I dithered a lot and finally settled on the colors I had originally been drawn to and wrapped them up. They are a bit bold aren’t they?  Now to wind the warp!