A Fiber Arts Studio | Weaving & Knitting | Teacher & Purveyor
Well, I’m back to doing the things I do, I just haven’t been posting about them. The photo is a sample for a class I’ve developed and will be teaching at the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati in the fall. I’ll let you all know when it’s scheduled. It is a symmetrical mixed warp scarf that I direct warped, right onto the rigid heddle loom. It’s quite the stash buster.
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.
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!
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.
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!