Yardage update

This is the beginning of the yardage. I'm finding that the hardest part is staying with cotton and light yarns - weight not color. My inclination is to do everything in wool, but I want this to be light enough to wear between seasons. 

Is it autumn yet?

Instead of ranting about how much I hate summer I'll show you what I'm working on this week to beat the heat-blues. 

This is a cotton warp that I'm putting on the four harness floor loom. The yardage is for a vest. As I sit in front of the AC I like to plan what I might like to wear this fall. The plan here is for a Saori style vest. 

The black, brown and orange are easier to see in the cross. 

This is with the reed sleyed at 10 dpi it is 26" across and the length is four yards. 

Check back to see how I'm progressing!

Break

Vacation is a state of mind. This week while Kym is visiting our nations capital and the store is closed I am weaving near the air conditioner. It is a good thing it is Kym and not me who is in DC today as I could not possibly keep my mouth shut about the Supreme Court ruling against women's reproductive rights. I'd probably end up in jail with no yarn in sight. So I'm weaving a boa instead. Please note that all the yarn used was hand spun and Did Not come from Hobby Lobby. 

I will post a picture when it is done so you can see what this tangled mess looks like. 

Stay cool - wherever you are.

Happy new year

A new weaving project for the new year!

One of my hopes for the new year was to figure out how to update this blog from my phone. Being on the high side of 40 this was more of a challenge than it should have been. I finally gave up and asked someone who has teenagers and she told me what to do. Upload an app of course. 

New Scarves

These are two of the new scarves that are finished just in time for the Solstice/Christmas holiday. The blue is a dark lapis blue with complimentary colors  in the warp, the cinnamon has complementary colors in the warp and stripes of matching variegated color on both ends and the middle. Two colors that look great with most things. They are woven in plain weave of rayon chenille and measure 7 1/2" X 65". They were woven on my old Harrisville four harness, as it is kinder to chenille than the big Herald.

The weather here has finally gotten a little cooler, there was frost this morning and the outside water bowl had ice in it. NM is finally catching up with the rest of the nation.

Ramble Preview

Just a couple of items I will be showing off during the Ramble tonight and the Market tomorrow. The shawl is a soft cotton boucle in terra cotta with a subtle turquoise stripe of rayon ribbon. It comes down to a V in the back.

Front with one side draped over the shoulder.

The V in the back is very flattering.

 The cowl is one of my merino and silk creations. All hand dyed and knit - they come in various colors.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Studio Update

 One must have a place to sit occasionally in a studio. In my perfect scenario it would be create/nap create/nap ad infinitium. This napping place is often used by Frisbee who is very creative in her demands for snacks all day.

Here you can see the other trees that I've put on the wall behind the loom. I actually have something on the loom I will show you soon. There will be a show in September at the Gallery where I will show new handwovens. All very exciting. These pieces are made from cotton/rayon that is all hand dyed.

Weaving Revisited

It has been a long time since this blog has talked about weaving. Spinning and dyeing have taken over for several years, but just recently weaving came back into my life. I began to think about how colors would play together in a warp and weft. The big loom is in storage so the smaller loom is having to do duty until I can find more space. The wonderful studio my sister helped me set up back in November is packed with all my fiber production from roving and spinning to sock yarn dyeing. Here are some pictures of where I'm working:

In this bottom picture you can see one of the new weavings that I will be taking to the Ramble this Friday at the Studio off of Water Street here in Las Cruces. (From 5-7 in case you can't remember - at the Quillin Studio and Gallery behind COAS bookstore)
This is a better picture of the art yarn and drum carded batt that is currently on the Ashford Country Spinner - what a great workhorse that spinning wheel has been.

For those of you who took my class in Corespinning last summer at the Retreat in Sacramento, NM - we will be having another class in using drum carded batts to create art yarn with lots of locks and novelty yarn this summer. It is the last weekend in July up at the Methodist Assembly Camp (contact me for more info).
And finally for those of you who wanted to see the weavings I'm just finishing up - they are a celebration of color and texture for spring.

May your days be full of creativity and warm sunshine. Blue vest is sold. Contact me through email if you are interested in the pink one. Thanks.

Wind and dust and sand, oh my - this is no day to be in the garden. Out here on the plains we have many days like this in the spring when the wind begins before dawn, or never quits from the night before. The light is hazy from the stuff in the air and being outside for any length of time is like being sandblasted.


A good day to get back to the looms. All this red chenille is very cheering. It will be a V-back shawl for one of the librarians here in my hometown. Chenille is so soft and has such a nice drape when finished it is no wonder so many people enjoy wearing it.

If you are new to chenille, this is rayon chenille in Ruby from Webs http://www.yarn.com the 1450 yd per pound put up. When you are deciding on the length and width of a piece be sure to add in some extra for the shrinkage. I usually add a couple of inches to the width and at least six to the length. When you take it off the loom and wash it be sure it is in a gentle cycle so it doesn't get too mangled, but then when you put it in the dryer (one of the few things that really improves by going in the dryer) put in a towel (one that does not shed) or two and dry on medium/low heat until completely dry. It should come out with that lovely hand and drape we love in chenille. It needs that abrasion in the dryer and also the warmth to make the rayon fibers fill out. Check your lint trap because it can shed quite a bit.

This is one of my assistants, George who is practicing the art of taking up the entire six foot sofa so that the dog cannot get up there. This necessitates a lot of deep sighs on the part of the English Cocker who has to lay on her big round cushion on the floor. Life is so unfair....

Fingerling seed potatoes sit on the table near the south facing window in my little dining room. They are dreaming of days in the earth, very soon now when they will get to make whole plants and reproduce more fingerling potatoes. I thought these potatoes were lost as I had looked all over the house for them, in cupboards and closets over the past few weeks. Then I had a call from the seed company http://www.seedsavers.org to tell me they had not yet shipped. Of course I thought they had already come and been put away somewhere that I would know not to eat them but would remember for spring. You know, the kind of place you find five years later. So I was glad to see them arrive in the mail this week, one step further in their journey to the garden.















Below is one of the broccoli plants I put out last week, being very optimistic about the weather. After it had been in the ground about three days we had wind that was terrible and a bit of snow and the temps got down to 24 in the night. Fortunately it seems to be doing well as are it's brother's and cousins the brussels sprouts. Some Yukon Gold potatoes went into the ground on the equinox along with onions but since they are well buried I think the weather will not affect them much.

You may wonder why this blog suddenly became about gardening and not so much about weaving, for weeks now I had been thinking about just doing away with this blog since my ability to write about weaving had taken a vacation and been supplanted (small pun) by gardening. My latest strategy is to write about both, depending on where my interests are at the current moment - and those of you who know me will remember that I have a very short attention span. So you may hear about raspberries and yarn all at the same time.

Folly is defined in the dictionary as any foolish act. There is something about knowingly committing a folly that is like a daring chance -- you know it may not turn out well but it is hard to turn your back on an idea once it forms. Recently a woman approached me with an idea for a project. She had some yarn she just could not bear to throw away but she had tried knitting with it and wasn't getting very far. She warned me the yarn was old but since it was 100% wool it seemed like it might be salvageable. I agreed to look at the yarn and see what might be done. When I went to pick it up I was floored to find that this yarn is older than I am (40+ years). The little yellow sticker declares that the yarn came from Kress - a store that has been out of business for many years, but it does have a pedigree 100% Italian Mohair. It even came with the nifty free pattern shown at left - don't you love her hair??? Who could resist a challenge to finally put that yarn to use? Knowing the mohair could only be used as the weft, I choose a Donegal tweed in cream and rust for the warp. The variegation in the mohair made an interesting square type pattern once it was woven. Of course being mohair I brushed it once it was finished and the whole thing is now very fuzzy. I will present it back to her as a shawl this week and one can only hope she still likes the yarn after all these years. The mohair and wool is so warm that we will need a blizzard before she can wear it -- but hey that is all part of folly, sometimes you just have to love what comes your way.

September is beginning with a flourish! The temps here in Eastern NM this morning were mid 50's and I wanted to dance around and celebrate the end of hot weather. Fall can't be far behind.

A celebration of autumn oranges with undertones of blue -- this short sleeved jacket vest has a handpainted warp of pearle cotton and a weft of cayenne tencel. The tencel gives the garment beautiful drape and the hand dyed warp moves the colors subtly from burnt orange to blue and bronze. The lapel has a twisted braided fringe with bronze faceted glass beads. This will be my entry into our local art show that takes place in October.

Have you ever fallen in love with color? Maybe that is the advantage of being a fiber artist, color is all around and in a variety of sensual textures. In July I fell in love with hand-dyeing cut velvet silk scarves. They are all over my house right now as I get ready to take new inventory to the gallery that represents my work. There is something a little Arabian Nights about having scarves draped over every available surface. I feel elegant beyond my usual weaver-spinner persona.

I have been reading the new book "Foolsgold" by Susan Wooldridge who also wrote "Poemcrazy." These books are about accessing the creativity that makes life as an artist hum along like gas in the tank. While I will probably never be much of a poet, I am always interested in how other creative people tap into what they do, where their passion comes from. Surely being an artist is all about passion. These two books are lifesavers and have opened doors for me that seemed firmly closed. They gave me the desire to blog again and write on every available surface - all the ones not currently covered in silk scarves! Thank goodness for authors like Wooldridge and if you get the chance to read these please do, and then write and tell me what you think. Write and tell Susan too, I think she likes to hear from us.

One of the great things about learning to spin is that you can make yarn in any color scheme
your mind can think up. I love the colors of the Southwest and have wanted to make something that seemed very New Mexico. I spun this single from domestic wool roving and dyed it. Then I had the idea that I wanted to weave with my own handspun. The warp I used was a shetland in green, blue and rust and the pattern is a twill with a basketweave stripe (the rust). It all seems very NM now that it is finished and drying over the gate in the backyard. I'm planning to sew it into a vest to wear to an art opening this weekend at the local Center for the Arts in greater downtown Hobbs.

Sometimes in February here we get these perfect days when there is no wind (a rare thing) and the temperature is in the upper 70's. I've been sitting out on the back porch in the sun spinning wool for several hours. If there is a better way to spend time I don't know what it is.

The yarn on the left was spun first and then dyed and the yarn on the right was dyed as roving and then spun. The difference is subtle. I like the way yarn looks when it is dyed as roving first but sometimes the roving is so fragile that I end up felting it instead of dyeing it, hence the yarn on the left. I have read recently a lot about people dyeing roving in their dishwashers. I just use a heavy bottom canning pot on the top of the stove. If any of you out there have done both and would like to share the pros and cons with me I would like to hear it.

I'm just about to start the weaving on a shawl that will have all handspun natural browns for the weft. I'm cheating a little and using shetland for the warp.

Whatever you do with yarn I hope you are enjoying it!

Art yarn from yesterday's post, finished and dried. It is wool, cotton and rayon, 116 yards.

This evening I've been knitting. This seems such a decadent pastime to me as I always feel like I should be spinning or weaving. However, my house is full of this beautiful hand dyed, hand spun yarn and my fingers just itch to get into some of it and make something before it flies out the door. I am making a hat. It is orange and olive greens and much nicer color combination than it sounds like it would be. Autumn is my favorite time of the year and this yarn is like having Fall in my hands. Of course where I live it was in the 70's today and not very Fall like, but I'm an optimist and I'm hoping someone will see the hat and decide they want to make one of their own, using my handspun preferably. I love to see people wearing hand made hats, or really hand made anything because I think things made by hand are a thousand times better than stuff made on machines or by slave labor overseas. I believe all gifts should be hand made! Let's start a revolution!

Don't you just love toys? The next best thing after yarn is new toys to make yarn! I love my Ashford Joy spinning wheel, but the orifice is just a little too small for all the stuff I want to add in to my art yarns - and the bobbin is too small to hold enough yarn once the plying begins. So I ordered a Country Spinner from Ashford. It came a week ago and I spent most of those days since staining and varnishing it. This morning my husband and I put it together and I got out the yarn. No time to waste, get busy!!! It works so differently from the little Ashford Joy that it took me some time just to figure out how to get the fly wheel to move freely and twist the yarn, then I had to get used to the slower pace. A couple of hours later and I think I get how it works and how best to use it. I can't imagine having this as the only spinning wheel in the house because it doesn't make small yarn, but it is great for plying and that huge bobbin will hold 2.5lbs of yarn. This terrible picture is of the yarn I worked on today.
It is a gold and purple with eyelash and cotton boucle all twisted around an antique gold colored thread. Will try to post better pictures soon but it is now drying in the bathroom.

We had a wind storm out here in Eastern New Mexico today. The wind got up around 65 mph this morning with lots of dust in the air. It was a good day for staying in and working with wool.

If any of you have experience working with the Country Spinner I would love to hear what you think about it.

The Joy of Art Yarn

The only thing more exciting than spinning up beautiful singles from hand dyed wool is making it into fun art yarn. The yarn on the left is a single in pinks, reds and purples that I call Heart's Desire and the one on the right is Pink Party Yarn, that includes wool, eyelash and small pom poms all coiled around gold lame thread. While I like them both there is definitely more going on with the yarn on the right. Art yarns are taking off all over. I was in London in January and saw people everywhere wearing scarves made from hand spun wool with all kinds of stuff woven in. I think an accessory item knitted up with art yarn is just the thing to chase off the winter blahs. Look for both of these new yarns on my website: http://www.quillinfiberarts.com .

Also for all of you who emailed me about not posting more, I will try to mend my slothly ways. After four years working overseas my husband returned home this past weekend. While he is trying to decide what to do next I am working on building inventory for the show in June and spinning as much yarn as my fingers can! It is great to have him home.

Dyeing wool is almost as bad as eating chocolate. I find myself thinking about it at the oddest times. Different color combinations dance through my imagination. In the produce isle I find myself thinking, orange and purple, how would that look in roving? The world has become yarn for me, I'm seeing through a haze of fiber.

The red roving that I dyed a few days ago is slowly becoming single ply that I'm planning to make into two ply. This bobbin is single ply and the second bobbin is almost full. There may even be a third. I think it will make a lovely scarf woven in plain weave with some rayon thrown in the warp for sparkle.

Surely Santa would approve.

Today is the full moon. On my calendar this moon is listed as the Mourning Moon. Perhaps it is so named this year because it falls so close to the Day of the Dead and All Hallows Eve. Certainly this is the time of year to honor those who have gone before us and the dying of the year that is mirrored in the landscape.

I have finished the first project from Susan Barrett Merrill's book Zati: The Art of Weaving a Life. It is an amulet bag. In history an amulet bag was like a concentration of intention, held together in a very small bag or bundle. Traditionally a stone, pollen, shells, feathers or any other sacred items could be included that would represent the intention of the maker and/or wearer. For this bag I followed the instructions that placed a red thread at the center of the weaving. The red reminds me to remain centered in my life. That only when my mind is calm and my heart centered can I make the right decisions and see life in the right way -- to follow the sacred path. I tried to keep that in mind as I wove the little bag. It is made entirely from wool as it seemed to me that something with intention to honor the natural world should be made of natural fibers. The two little light colored beads at the top of the bag are made from hand carved bone. I put them on the necklace part before braiding it together and was amused to find that they ended up looking like two little souls

who had come to ride along in the bag. They seem happy enough so I left them. The rest of the fringe (I do like fringe!) sports small glass red beads. These red beads remind me of the red thread that runs through the weaving representing the sacred path, and like life, the sacred is scattered all around us.

This bag has inspired me to make more, in fact I think it could become addictive!

On this beautiful fall day my wish for you is that you may walk your sacred path with peaceful heart and a happy soul.