Happy Sheeple & Weaving

The lambs have doubled their birthweights now, and are nearing 30 lbs. Moms are keeping up with their milk needs, and we’re trying to keep up with the Moms’ nutritional needs by giving them extra grain. It’s a bit of a balancing act, trying to get enough food in them without giving them “bloat”, which, in sheep can be a real problem (like fatal). All is going well, and although last night Pebbles looked distended, she’s fine today.

I’ve had a bit of time for weaving lately so thought I’d show you what I’m doing. I can’t take any credit for the design, as it came out of The Best of Weavers THICK & THIN. While the design was originally intended to be a rug, it’ll be tote bags. Don’t know how many yet. The pattern suggested putting on a long warp to allow for experimentation with color/design. The thing about rag weaving that I am not horribly fond of is that the fabric strips don’t stay on a ski shuttle all that well. I end up just scootching the strips through by hand. I can’t seem to get a rhythm like I do with regular weaving. But on the other hand, the weft shots are wider, being that I’m alternating 8/4 rug warp with 1/2” wide cut strips of cotton fabric. Timewise, it probably comes out about even.


The photo here shows the warp, sett at 24 ends per inch, 8/4 cotton rug warp. The idea is that part of the weaving is warp-faced, and part weft-faced, so the colors of both the warp & weft show at different times, depending on which sheds are used. When I get tired of doing squares & rectangles, I may just get random & see what happens!