Yarn dyeing, triloom weaving, and studio arranging

Well, I've got sausage and potatoes cooking upstairs, and yarn cooking downstairs. As long as I don't mix them, I should be ok! This is Platinum sock yarn from Wool2Dye4, that I'm dyeing with Jacquard acid dyes in my crock pot. The colors look all sorts of tasty, but I think I should eat this with my eyes, and stick to my potatoes for dinner, no?

So, dinner, watch the sunset...

....and then get back to weaving, I think. I just finished this grey and pink triloom shawl, and have another of the black and jewel tones on the loom now.

I did rearrange my studio a bit between that picture and this next one.

I'm only using one of my floor looms right now, so I folded the dobby loom against the wall and moved my triangle loom over to that corner. That means I can set up the antique sock knitting machine over where it used to be. So, I have 4 work stations currently: the floor loom, the triangle loom, the sock knitting machine, and the work bench where I have the dye station currently up. That ought to keep me busy!!

I want a bigger studio. I always want a bigger studio, no matter how much room I have. But I'm making better use of the space that I have, and that is a good thing.

Shawls, carding wool, and setting a crafting schedule

I finished up this shawl today! It is made of my new favorite yarn for my triloom: Lion Brand Homespun Thick and Quick. This particular colorway was their Tartan Stripes. The yarn works up soft and fluffy and cuddly, and I'm really pleased with it. And I love the self striping yarn that does the color work for me. Anyway, this beauty heads out into the mail tomorrow for its new home.

I've got some felted juggling balls heading out tomorrow too, which means my stock of those is getting low. Time to make some more! Especially with the holidays coming up, they are a good seller for gifts. I like to use a more inexpensive wool at the core of the balls, and then cover that with the more expensive colored wool. I had a bunch of roving tag ends from the last batch of mill end stuff I got, and it wasn't really in a form that was usable to me. Luckily, I have hand carders, and know how to use them. A few hours of work later, and the mish mash on the right all turned into the lovely fluff bits on the left. Satisfying.

In other bits, I'm trying to set a more regular studio time for myself. I work in my own home, and it is so easy to let housework, or kids calling, or the husbands home to hang out with, or the internet (Facebook is my downfall) luring me into spending time looking at craft things instead of making craft things, or...or.... My art work was taking a back seat to just about everything else in my life. I figured I would fit in some fiber time after the busy times of the day, but then the evenings would be taken up with other things until I just wanted mental down time. As a result, very little was actually getting done.

So, I am a serious night owl. I love being up until 4 or 5 am (yes, am as in morning), and then sleeping until noon or 1 pm. But, by doing so, I fell into the pattern I just outlined. So, for the last few weeks I started moving my bed time back to 2 or 3 am, and setting my alarm for 8 hours after that. And, I've told everyone that I've set aside the hours of noon to 4 as my studio time.

So far? I'm easing into it. Facebook is still a danger. And Twitter. And Pintrest. And YouTube with the craft tutorials. (I feel kind of virtuous watching those, because I'm learning stuff. But I'm not doing stuff, so it is mixed there.) But, for the last bit I've actually gotten things done. Two triloom shawls, some experimentation with finding yarns for the sock loom, and I've got a warp painted project on the floor loom. Juggling balls are on tap for tomorrow, and I have dye on the way for the next warp painted ruanas. Now, if I can keep this momentum, and really form a habit of taking time for the creation! It is so easy to get in my own way...

Shawls and Ruanas

I've been busily taking pictures and listing a couple of months' worth of hand woven shawls and ruanas in the Etsy shop today. I'm feeling all accomplished, and wanted to take a moment to bask. They don't look half bad when you get them all together, do they? The Etsy shop is here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/tangibledaydreams

Lion brand Homespun 'Thick and Quick' on the triloom follow up

I finished up the triloom shawl tonight, and I love love LOVE the way it turned out. I have finally found the PERFECT yarn for my triloom. Before, I was using yarn that was either too thin, and the weave ended up 'sleazy' (holy and unstable, kind of like cheesecloth), or too thick and the resulting shawl didn't drape well. But this is just right. I took it off the loom and tried it on, and it was like wrapping up in your favorite cuddle blanket. I had my husband try it on, and he said it was like wearing a hug. Soft, and thick, and warm, and I am sooo making more of these for the Etsy shop because I want everyone to have one!

Yes, I like it. :)

Lion brand Homespun yarn on the triloom for shawls

I saw today that Joanns had the sock yarn I prefer on sale, so I popped over to stock up. While I was there, I found a new-to-me yarn that looked like it would be perfect for my triloom shawl making. This is Lion brand Homespun, but in a 'thick and quick' size that is bulkier than the stuff I've used before. So I grabbed a few skeins to try out.

It is working up beautifully!!! Thick enough to be a secure weave, and soooo soft and cuddly. I'll finish this up tomorrow and run it through the wash to see how it works after wet finishing. But I think I may have found the holy grail of triloom yarn finally!!

Triloom weaving with Loops & Threads "Cozy Wool" yarn

I've been searching for just the perfect yarn to weave shawls with on my triangle loom, and I think I finally found it. My pegs are spaced just a little further apart than on most triangle looms, and I've been dealing with the fact that most yarns are a little too thin to give a good, solid fabric when they are that far apart. But this week I tried 'Cozy Wool', by Loops & Threads. (I bought it at Michaels.) It is a 50% wool, 50% acrylic blend, and is not only very toasty warm from the wool, the acrylic makes it really soft against bare skin. My only real complaint is that it comes in a limited range of colors so far.

This is what the shawl looked like on the loom. I used purple, dark blue, and light blue to give a nice plaid effect.

While it was on the loom, I was afraid that this yarn was going to be too skinny for what I had in mind, too. You can see the gaps between threads. (I did go back and wiggle the threads around to even up the weave.)

When I took the shawl off the loom though, the yarn immediately blossomed some as I released the tension.

And then I wet finished the shawl in the washing machine, with hot water in the delicate cycle. After the shawl dried, the fabric looked like this:

The fabric has transformed into a very stable weave that is thick and luxurious, and soft to the touch. Yes!! I finally found my yarn. I'll be making more shawls from this brand for sure.

The finished shawl looks like this:

Triloom weaving with Red Heart Swirl, card weaving, and project planning

I've been weaving in my studio recently, while I'm in between silk painting projects. I've finished one project, started one project, and have another one in the planning stage. Hey, at least one is finished!

This is the finished one: a new shawl on my triangle loom. I'm still hunting for just the perfect yarn to use with this loom. The pegs are kind of far apart, so the yarn needs to be super bulky. The result needs to hold together securely, drape beautifully, and be super soft against bare skin. This attempt used Red Heart Boutique 'Swirl' yarn, which is a mix of polyester, acrylic, wool, and alpaca. It certainly passes the skin test! And it drapes wonderfully. But I think it is a hair too thin to be really structurally sound. I'll need to wear it for awhile to see how it works.

I'm thinking the way to go with the yarn hunt might be to use a double thickness of yarn, instead of trying to find a really thick chunky yarn. That would give me more of an opportunity for color blending, too. The materials would cost more, since I'm using twice as much, which is why I haven't really experimented with this yet. But I think I'll try it out for the next shawl.

After I got the tri-loom put back away, I dug out my inkle loom and got it warped up for card weaving. I clamp it to the cone holder my husband made me, which makes warping much easier. In fact I just leave the loom on there for the weaving part too. It puts it at a nice height when I'm sitting here in my computer chair.

This project will be a belt, inspired by the colors in the heraldry of my local SCA group. I'm doing a card weaving pattern that relies on having two light and two dark threads in each card. I paired the white and the yellow threads for the 'light', and the blue and the purple threads for the 'dark'. They are close enough in value that the eye visually blends them at a distance, and you just see the contrast. I used the red for the border. The store didn't have 4 balls of the same shade of red, so I got two light and two dark. I set it up so the pattern subtly continues on into the border. I think I like that effect!

I'm finding I really prefer card weaving to inkle weaving. The pattern opportunities are very flexible, the resulting fabric is much sturdier, and it is easier to get a clean even selvedge.

The project that is in the planning stage was inspired by this post, by Susan of 'Thrums': http://weeverwoman.blogspot.com/2011/07/between-two-pages.html . She is a most inspiring weaver, and a very gracious lady. She was weaving book marks in very fine linen and cotton. I was particularly caught by the results of the 'tromp as writ' pattern half way down the entry. Is that not spectacular? I realized that my dobby loom had the capability to weave that pattern, and asked if she minded if I took inspiration from her work. Not only did she not mind, she sent me the pattern draft. Did I mention that she is very gracious? Lovely lady.

I can see this pattern slightly larger, made up in yardage to be turned into a Medieval tunic. I wove yardage recently in my hand spun wool yarn, and sewed it up into a super warm winter tunic. But I wanted something for summer wear too, seeing as I live in Arizona. So I went ahead and ordered dark blue and green yarn in 10/2 mercerized cotton from Webs. I'm eagerly waiting for it to get in!

If I have time in and among other (paying) projects, I'd like to get that worked up in the next few months. I've also got some sewing that I want to get done, and there is a possibility of a large scale scarf order in the works.

I do love staying busy here in the studio!

Michelle, modeling two of my triloom shawls

We took a road trip up to Flagstaff, AZ today. That is where my daughter is attending college, and her theater show was this evening. So we made a day of it, hunting for housing for her for next year in the afternoon, and seeing a delightfully fluffy romp of a show in the evening.

While I was up there, I took advantage of having my model on hand to take a couple of pictures of my newest shawls. Isn't she wonderful? These two shawls will be up in the Etsy shop this coming week, as soon as I finish with pictures and listing. They're woven on my triloom, of Lion brand 'Homepsun' yarn.

Weaving Sunbeams

I love weaving in my studio in the late afternoon, when the setting sun streams through my open windows. I feel like I'm playing with soft strands of pure light...



I do so love my job!

Planning colors for a triloom shawl, in Lion Brand Homespun yarn

I was sitting and talking with my sweeties last night, taking some time to actually come out of my studio and interact with real people. Yes, I'm starting to come out of my Estrella induced hibernation. Anyway, I kept my hands busy by balling up the yarn for my next couple of shawls. I prefer to wind the skeins into balls for a couple of reasons. First, I clear up any of the dreaded yarn barf tangles before I have to deal with them while I'm weaving. And second, I find any knots or weak spots in the yarn before they find their way into my shawls. I'm using Lion Brand 'Homespun' yarn for these wraps, and that particular yarn is bad for having bad spots in occasional skeins.

Anyway, I laid out the color combinations this afternoon, in preparation for weaving. I had chosen one shawl in 3 shades of blue, and one in purple and white. Very safe, monochrome color combinations.



But, you ever have one of those times when the project shifts on you? Looking at the yarn, the dark blue and the white just wanted to swap places, like so:



That gave the blue shawl a lighter feel, with the light blue and the cream mixing nicely together. It looks of like the tops of the ocean waves down on the beach in Mexico. And the purple shawl gets a shot of the darker blue, moving it into an analagous color way instead of a monochrome one.

I put the balls back where they started...switched them again...mixed them totally up...and decided on the ocean waves and the blue/purple mix.



Here's the blue/purple heading onto the loom. Yup. That looks pretty good! (But I still want to do the purple and white one sometime!)

The Dreamsicle Shawl, with Red Heart Baby Clouds yarn

I finished fringing the most recent tri-loom shawl! I swear, every time I look at it, I'm thinking dreamsicles. The campground we went to each summer used to carry those, and we could have one each night after the dishes were done. We'd walk down to the little general store and treat ourselves, enjoying what was left of the sunset...and trying to beat the mosquitoes back to camp. It would have been nice to have this wrap back then, to keep the evening chill off the arms.



It is made of Red Heart's "Baby Clouds" yarn, so it really is as soft and cuddly as it looks. I've already got several shawls that I made though, so this one has been listed in the Etsy shop. I hope whoever ends up with it enjoys dreamsicles too!

Kicking into gear

Estrella War, the SCA event I went to last week, was absolutely marvelous. It was a week long party with 3000 of my closest friends, including folks that I really only get to see once a year. And I got to help out at the period demo center on Friday morning, talking to scads of grade school age kids about what our ancestors went through to make clothing. I think they were most impressed by the idea of the pink/purple color of the yarn that we dyed with cochineal, especially when I explained that cochineal was bugs that you find on prickly pear cactus around here. Color from squished up bugs is just the thing to grab the attention of bored grade school age kids--especially the boys.

But now Estrella is over, and I've almost got resulting laundry and dishes done. I was feeling kind of let down and at loose ends, coming off of the high that that event gives me. I wasn't quite sure the direction I wanted to go...and then my husband came home yesterday to tell me that he had lost his job. Which is actually probably going to be good for him personally, but the timing seriously sucks.

Well, I have a direction now. I've been letting the Etsy shop slide over the past few months as I worked on the fabric for the Estrella arts display. Now it is time to kick the Tangible Daydreams business back into high gear, so I can make more of a contribution to the household than just my life drawing modeling gives. Over the next while, I'll be putting in many more hours in the studio, and listing lots of items.

For instance, yesterday I dug out the golf balls and the wool roving, and made up four new sets of juggling balls. These are actually my best sellers out of the Etsy shop, and my stock was getting low.



While those were drying, I also started to rummage through my stash of shawl yarn. Before Estrella, a friend found me a batch of Red Heart 'Baby Clouds' yarn. I put it aside at the time, but dragged it out yesterday and started matching colors. I decided on a pretty pastel peach and some bright white, and mapped out a two color plaid on the triangle loom. I've gotten the weaving part done, and now I'm working on cutting and tying the fringe. I'm actually rather pleased with the way this one is turning out. The colors make for a very subtle and delicate pattern, which I could totally see as a wedding shawl. The yarn is a little thicker than the Lion Brand Homespun that I often use, so it is packing in a little tighter and making a more stable weave. But it isn't as tight as some that I've tried, so it should still drape well once I get it off the loom.



(Ignore the dark shadow down the middle of the weave. That is the support for the easel behind the shawl.)

I should be able to get that shawl finished up tomorrow. Then I've got several more shawls worth of the same yarn to work up, as well as yarn enough for a dozen or so pairs of socks. Oh, and while I was at Estrella I picked up a copper focal pendant that will make a great center bit for one of my gourds. Come to think of it, I probably have enough materials in my stash to work steadily for a month or so, without having to buy supplies.

Now, it is time to quit freaking out, buckle down, and do the work. I need to have my crafting finally take the step from a hobby into a real, bill-paying business.

Eep.

Deep breath...Ready? Go.

Cooking and Creating Love

A follow up to yesterday's posting (http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/01/measuring-warp-dried-apples-and.html). My daughter finished her shawl. Is it not wonderful? I am so proud of her. I really enjoy teaching the fiber arts, and love seeing the next person in line light up and make the process their own. Particularly when it is my own kin. My mother is a wonderful knitter, and my dad was awesome with a torch and metal. Though I don't follow either of those arts, I did learn to really value creativity and handwork from them. I am extraordinarily tickled to see my own daughter taking up those family traits. Down through the generations it goes!

My own project yesterday is not as impressive...


...but quite tasty. And the value of creating good food for my family came straight down from my folks too. Boy, can my folks cook! Among other things, I remember the dehydrator going as a kid, making wonderful fruit leather out of local harvests. There was a year my folks picked up a bushel basket full of slightly bruised peaches from the orchard, and mushed them up for the dryer. I still remember the house smelling wonderful! As I recall, the resulting peach roll-ups didn't last long at all. Yummy.

My family shows its love by feeding each other, and creating beautiful (and useful!) artwork for each other. And that? Is not a bad thing at all. From mother to daughter...and on again to the next. All good.

Measuring warp, dried apples, and teaching my daughter to weave

It was a day spent doing this and that, but all in all a peaceful, creative time. I'm starting to work on prepping food for my upcoming Estrella trip in February, and apples were on sale for 88 cents/lb. That meant making up a batch of dried apple chips in the dehydrator. My daughter snapped a picture of me using my apple slicer/peeler/corer gadget. It makes this task go so much quicker!



My spaniels were delighted that I was slicing and peeling their apples for them. Of course, they were getting some of the peel as a treat. I think they were not quite clear on the idea of peeled apples, but they had a grand time. The apples slices went in the dehydrator, and the rest of the peel and the cores went out in the compost bin.



Since my daughter snapped a picture of me, I figured it was only fair to get one of her. We went yarn shopping together the other day, and she picked out a color combination that she wanted to make into a shawl. I showed her yesterday how to weave on the triangle loom, and she took to it like a pro! I just now took a break from typing to show her how to add the fringe. Yes, she's been doing little else but weaving today, and having a marvelous time doing it. She's trying to get the shawl finished before she goes back up to college on Saturday. I think she'll make it with no problem.



When I wasn't teaching, or cooking, or taking down the Christmas tree (yes, that is going slowly this year), I was rearranging my studio to make room for my weaving project. I've finished up spinning the yarn, made my calculations, and early this evening I started measuring out my warp. The hand spun skeins go on the umbrella swift to keep them under control and to easily feed onto the warping mill. I love having the right tool for the job! I'm making 7 warp chains, each containing 48 threads, each 11 yards long. I'll set them on the loom at 12 threads per inch, so the fabric will start out 28" wide before shrinkage. I'm aiming toward a finished fabric of 21" wide, 8 yards long.



And then, I also took time off this evening to go out to dinner with my sweetie. We wandered the mall afterward. I took this picture as we exited the mall at closing time. I really like carrying a pocket camera around--it lets me capture just little things, like the way the green tree trunks curved in front of the lights. Beautiful.



And now, I should head off to bed. I have more warp measuring on tap for tomorrow, and we'll need to get my daughter packed up and ready to go for the semester. But I can sleep knowing it was a full and productive day, full of quiet creative moments.

The color changes on a triloom weaving

I wove a shawl on the triloom the other day. When I was first introduced to these looms, I couldn't quite picture how the color changes worked to create a plaid that was mirrored on both sides of the shawl. (Now I know that when I tie the color on at the right side, it is carried across and up the other side.) So, just for kicks, I took a picture of this piece in work every time I tied on a new color. This sequence will also give you an idea of how the weaving progresses, working in from the corners and down toward the bottom:














After I finished the weaving portion of the shawl, I tied on a nice thick fringe to give the piece some extra pizazz, and to hide the places where I tied on new colors. Here's the finished shawl, ready to come off of the loom: