Saturday, October 21, 2006

Getting a Dog off the Loom


I've had the same project on my big loom since weaving class which ended last month. It was supposed to be my final project, but alas, all I finished by the end of class was the sample. It's a summer & winter design, a photo of which I found in a book, and then tried to construct by figuring out the block threading & treadling. It worked. It's now done. At least the weaving part. When it gets out of the wash it will become a tote bag. Woohoo!

Since the end of the class, my head has been spinning with other ideas I want to do. . . just haven't been able to get back to the loom to finish off this last little bit of work. It didn't help that I decided after doing the sample to add just a few threads for selvage and therefore, had to devise some way of providing tension. Eventually. . . I came to a solution. So you will see, in the photo, that the added threads are weighted with two hemostats, two wrenches and some of my hubby's fishing weights. Just barely adequate. I could have probably used a bit more weight but stopped short of borrowing a downrigger ball.


Now I just need to decide what to weave next. . . the badly needed kitchen towels, or placemats which will actually *coordinate* with my dishes.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Whatcom Weaving Guild Sale




The last two days were busy with the WWG show & sale. I worked on setup committee this year in just a "helper" capacity. Last year we moved to a new venue, Fox Hall at the Hampton Inn in Bellingham WA, and I worked with a very capable group of women to plan setup for the show there. This year, my commitment was much lighter. I showed up on the designated day & worked along with several others to dress tables, place props, and then arrange sale items for display. This year, we divided items into two categories - wearables & decor, and from there arranged the sale items by color. So color predominated, and the room looked stunning when finished.


Yesterday afternoon I spent demonstrating weaving on a Baby Wolf loom, which was set up with a sample warp on which we wove plain weave & twill variations. I also demonstrated inkle weaving. There were lots of people that stopped by to ask questions & watch, and I saw a lot of familiar faces. It was a fun two days, very busy, but very much fun.

Next year, I hope to have many more woven items in the sale. I just had a few dishtowels this year. The items that sold best for me were my hand-dyed yarns (something I love to do). I dyed ten hanks of sock yarn (75% superwash wool/25% nylon in 460 yard skeins). I have three left over, and am pretty happy because I have ideas for all of these colorways. The photo shows just a few of the colorways I did this year.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Banfffff




Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I have not fallen off the face of the earth, and I am happy to report that the cold I had is gone. I did not pass away.

So here are a few photos of our trip. Canada was wonderful. We drove to Kelowna first, which has a marvelous yarn shop, as well as a pretty cool farmer's market on Wednesdays, and, being in the heart of the Okanogan, has some wineries, too. :-) We loved Gray Monk. Definitely have to go back.

After a couple of days in Kelowna, we drove to Banff & stayed at the National Park. Very nice facilities for trailer or RV, but no cable TV or WiFi. How spoiled am I? So many places do have that now. Anyway, we saw a bear along the side of the road, several mountain sheep, and elk. And mountain peaks everywhere. Glaciers. Lakes with glacial melt, making the water brilliant blue/green & opaque. Stunning.


We took the gondola up Sulphur Mountain in Banff, and climbed to the very top where the view was incredible. We wandered the Banff Springs Hotel, read about its history, & admired the kilts of the hotel staff. We visited Lake Louise and wandered the grounds of the hotel there. Took lots of photos.

I'm still playing catch-up with the laundry, and trying to get back into the swing of meetings & the upcoming Whatcom Weavers' Guild Show & Sale, so I'll have to cut this short for tonight. Enjoy the pictures!