Playing with color (lots of pictures)

Yesterday I went to Monrovia to the Griffin Dye Works dye workshop.  I took with me some wool skeins, a pound cone of 16/2 natural linen, 3 balls of #20 Hemp twine and some silk caps.  I wasn't sure what I was going to us so better to much then watching everyone else have fun.  When I got there there were three others busy at work, so I dropped off the spinning wheel (just in case I had time) and set up my little area. 

The dyes we were "working" with was Logwood (purples), Kamala (yellows), Walnut (browns), Alkanet (reds), Brazilwood (pinks) and the ever popular Indigo (blues).  There was also a pot with Alum for pre-mordanting the yarns of fabric (whatever you brought).

Now, I happen to be doing a dye demo in October (one of five others - see Great Western War) and thought this way I could play with Indigo and so when I got my Woad going, I'd have a better idea of what is going on.  The other dye I will be using is Weld (yellow) and I was going to use wool yarn and needed to decide between hemp or linen (of the same family).

I had made up some 1 oz / 50 yard skeins of wool singles (sheep unknown as this was gifted roving, 16 twists per inch) and put two in the alum water.  I also had a 159 yard skein (also single, 16 tpi) and added it to the pot.  While those were soaking I skeined off about 100 yards of of the linen and skeined one ball of the hemp.  Now, do I remember where I got this hemp?  NO.  It was ten balls of a box of twelve I acquired many years ago - it may have been at a fiber sale, it may have been "hey, you want for free?".  And I had been assured that it would get softer as it was used and wash.

So by this time the wool was more then ready and so out came the wool and in went the linen  and hemp.  At this point I had to pick Bjo's brain - how long should the linen and hemp soak?  I haven't tried to dye linen as I once was told that it can be difficult and won't take color well.  She said it had to really soak well and to untwist it to make sure it was wet through and through. 

So back to the wool.  First the Logwood with the full skein, one sample skein in the Kamala and one sample skein in the Indigo.   At some point I noticed that the Kamala was boiling.  Kamala is one of the heat sensitive dyes that will going orange when it gets to hot.  Darn!  After 1/2 hour I pulled the wool out of the dye pot and gave them a rinse.  I got to watch the Indigo change from green to blue and set it aside to rest for a while to see if I wanted a deeper shade of blue (I didn't).

The Kamala came out a deep yellow with a slight orange tint. 

The Logwood was a deep purple.

 

 

The Brazilwood was doing strange and wonderful things.  One of the others (Gunger) had put a cotton cloth in the Brazilwood.  When she took it out of the pot it was a nice coral color, but once she rinsed it, it turned pink.  Steven, on the other hand, use a silk scarve and it was the nice coral color.  I used an un-mordanted slien of wool and got . . .

 

 



Both the linen and the hemp were checked and then taken to the Indigo pot and left there for about 1/2 hour.  So what was next?  Bjo decided to make a new Kamala pot so we could get a nice yellow.  After it was ready I through in a sample skein that I had wetted in just plain water and added it to the pot.  I got one more skein wetted it with water and put it in the Brazilwood pot. 

The skein in the Kamala was in there for about 10 minutes and then moved to the Indigo pot for 10 mins.  The Indigo overwhelmed the Kamala and I didn't get a green (insert sad face).

I pulled out two of my silk caps, soaked them for about 5 - 10 minutes in the alum water and one went into the Logwood and the other went into the Kamala.  By this time Bjo had removed some of the Indigo and watered it down (so it would be more of an exhaust).  Some of the others had used it as well, so I pulled the cap out of the Kamala (a very pale yellow after rinsing) and put it in the exhaust for just 5 minutes.  Again - more blue, no greens.  I guess I have some work cut out for me.

Here is the silk cap in Logwood

And the cap that was in the Kamala and Indigo

But wait!  What about the linen and hemp?  After 1/2 hour in the Indigo put, I pulled them out and let them rest.  I then checked to see if the dye went through - it did so I rinsed them.

I was not happy with the "feel" of the hemp.  It was stiff and felt like there was a glue on it.  The linen had a nice hand and would really soften with use and washing.  But is the color going to stay?


Hemp on the left

   
                          Linen on the right





Bjo says the best way she has found for the Indigo to take and not crock (come off easily) is to wash it in Orvas paste or a non detergent soap (I use Ivory), rinse it well and then let it soak overnight in cold water.  I did that and as I was washing the hemp, more and more color was coming out.  The water it soaked in also had a green color to it this morning.  The hemp itself is still stiff although it doesn't have the glue feel to it.

So a last look at the Indigos

And the Logwoods

 

Can't wait to start spinning the silk!

Better late then never

I decided it was time to do a patterned piece - but what to weave.  Then it dawned on me that Sven and Cassandra might like something different to give out goodies in so I thought a gift bag of sorts.  Big enough for a bottle of wine or to put other types of goodies in.  So in May, I sat down, figured out the yardage, how much would need ot be dyed and ordered the dyes from Cushing.  Yes, Cushing dyes.  They are a good union dye and I used them 25 year ago when I first was learning about spinning and weaving.  And some of the yarns I dyed back then are still in excellent color.  And now Cushing has two types of dyes - for wool and other animal protein fibers and then dyes for cotton, rayons and reeds.

So my weft was a little over 1 pound of fiber and it should have fit in my large dye pot with no problem.  SHOULD is the key word.  I dyed my stuff and rinsed it and thought - maybe . . .

So I let it dry.  Now the skeins on the bottom of the pile looked really good, but the ones that more on the top of the pile - well, you know the color was not consistent.  And did I have another packet of dye - no.  So I sent off for more dyed and started warping my loom.  The dyes arrived, I re-dyed the blotchy skeins and they evened out nicely.

I did have everything ready to go including a weekend of demos - two days of all the weaving (and talking) that I want.  And I made great progress with the weaving.  The treadling was easy - maybe too easy because I would be explaining the weaving process to a group and then have to take out an inch or so of weaving (the treadling was 1,4  1,3  1,4  2,4) but I still got about 4 yards or the 9.5 yard warp done.  I was proud of myself and thought I'd have these done and sewn up for Coronation easy.

Then life happened.

And before I knew it two weeks had pass and the loom sat.

And then I tweaked my knee - and it was two more weeks before I could go out there - and then it was only for an hour.  And when I was home, the temperatures were in the 100s.

Then I called myself all kinds of names for being a weather wimp and a poo - poo weaver.  If I was a REAL weaver - I'd get this done! OK - and I have another demo to do on July 20th and I wanted something else on the loom.  So I went out to the garage - studio at 9PM in the evening when it had cooled down a little and wove for about an hour for a week.  I thought it amazing that such an easy treadling required so much concentration.  I would be weaving along - my mind would catch an idea and then before I knew it I was taking out 3 - 4 lines throws and figuring out where I goofed.

Then I ran out of weft (in the blue) with about 2/3rds of a yard to go.  So I got up extra early this last Tuesday morning, wove the remainder in a green and finished weaving it.  That afternoon after I got home from work, I cut it off the loom and washed it.  This last Thursday I started sewing and got 4 of 19 bags done.

There they are - nicely pressed and ready to go.  Now to finish sewing the lot this weekend and start warping the loom for the demo next Saturday - what to do, what to do.

I like doing patterned pieces and plan to do more.

I'm dyeing out here!

So it dawned on me shortly after my last post that I needed to get a move on creating things for the Great Western War (or GWW for short).  I need new stock and more stock (shameless plug for GriffinCliffe designs).  So all of this month, I have been telling myself to get my butt in gear.  And I have ignored myself.  So I plan a dye day.  And then life happens, so I postpone it and then it was the weekend of the Griffin DyeWorks Fiber retreat.  Except that I twisted my knee and was reclining and reading all weekend.  So here we are - with a really nice heat wave this weekend.

I can't put it off - Its bad enough I can't weave more then an hour a day (heat and knee) and today its suppose to be 99 degrees out there - it was 107 degrees at 5PM.  Nevertheless!!  Up at 7AM(ish) - dress, eat breakfast, trim the roses (front and back yards), water the compost pile and feed it (saw a nifty dung bettle come out of the pile - very pretty), uncover camp stove (oh Hunny - come kill the black widow for me), move the tables to the back yard (need them there for the 4th anyway), open dye crate, get roving, pot, dyes, water.  And I'm ready.  Time for some water - for me. 
9AM and I'm ready to play.

 

I was going with 4oz. of roving for each dye batch.  I had some unknown wool (from an estate sale last year) so I braided it loosely and with some short fiber unknown wool I got in the raffle at last year's Fiber Retreat (in a "delicates" bag) put those in my big dye pot with a 1/2 oz. of Cushings Peacock dye and let that simmer at about 160 degrees for about 1/2 hour. 

 

While that was cooking, I painted the next 4 oz. of roving with some Jacquard dyes (red, blue, yellow and green).

 

        

One nice thing I've learned about dyeing - the uglier the roving, the prettier the yarn.

So after this, it was remove the braid and bag from the dye pot and let them cool down.  So I went to another roving I had and made a tighter braid and put it in the big pot.

The next space dyed roving I used only 3 colors - as it was hotter then hell out here - I'll make my own fire.  So this was with red, yellow and orange.  yes, I know red and yellow make orange.

 

 

 

Nevertheless (I love that word), This gave me two differnt shades of orange.  So with this done, I turn my atterntion back to the Big Pot.  I pull the final braid out and set it aside to cool.  I dumped the dye water out (it was fairly clear - just  a little bit of green in it) and put in freah water to steam my other two dyed roving.

 Here are the two braids - I did the first one loose (I think I said that) and second one a lot tighter - to have more "white" space

 

The day's work

Done at 1:30PM - and I went inside the house and died.  Next week - natural dyes stuff (got to get spinning).

Oh, and Hubby - The cement is only a little bit dyed - You'll never notice (much).  :-)

 

Read the instructions FIRST

So, I had a few good sales the first of this year and last month I decided I was going to get the Freedom Flyer for my Joy wheel.  It had been a toss-up over saving for a Country Spinner or just getting a new flyer set-up.  $600 vs $100.00 - you can guess which one.

Why get a new flyer setup - well, I'm spinning more chunky yarns (not art yarn yet) and as I love to add beads to the yarns, the beads would get caught on the hooks.  In fact I'm working on a hand dyed green Tussah silk and I wanted to add green, blue and purple glass beads (plyed with a pale green cotton / poly sewing thread).  With the Freedom Flyer there are no hooks. - So I order the flyer on a Wednesday and Friday it was in my hands!

I pull every thing out of the box - there's the flyer and the BIG bobbin and a small bag 'O parts.  Parts.  I grab the instruction sheets (there were 2) and starting reading the sheet about the parts bag.  It said I had to change the shaft that you screw the flyer / bobbin in to.  Drat!  I had hoped for a "plug and play".  So the instructions  talked about removing the "E" clips (beware - they fly) and taking the back off, then tapping out the old shaft, etc.  I'll do that later.

So later is 2 weeks later - I NEED to spin up the blue wool and ply the pearls into it for this weekend.  Try as I could, I was not able to remove the "E" clip.  Drat!  I'm going to have to take everything up to The Village Spinning and Weaving shop and hope they can change this out for me.  Then I decided to read the other sheet - the one on setting up the bobbin.  There was this little note that read something like - if your Joy was made after 2002, don't worry about changing out the parts.  Fix the brake band and go for it.  I didn't have to change anything <palm to forehead>.

Sometimes I swear I am such a guy.

Still De-Stashing

Every once in a while I open a bag or box or crate or basket and there is an old fiber friend.  Not to long ago I found my journey into cotton spinning.  It was a pretty little batt called "Country Garden" and I remember loving the colors so much, I splurged and bought a full pound of it also.  In my spindle collection I inherited a high whorl that at first glance looks like a double whorl, but is in fact a small bobbin on a spindle.  I had spun at least 1 bobbin full of the cotton and had started a second.  Then I put it down - that was about 10 years ago.  I'd find the bag with the spindle, batt and ball every so often and think I really need to finish it (by now I had given the pound batt to a friend who did spin cotton).

But I am firstly a wool spinner, then my next favorite is silk.  Cotton is my least favorite.  Why is that?  Well as many of you know (those of you who spin) cotton is a short fiber.  To spin it (for me anyway) takes more concentration, it takes more twist and it didn't seem to move as easily.  BUT - I'm de-stashing and the idea is to get it spun up and used (or sold).  So I took what little I had on the spindle off and put it on the wheel - adding a little more twist in the process.  I then remembered to set my wheel to the smallest ratio, so it would add more twist.  Eventually, I was getting the hang of it and was actually able to do some long draws, letting the cotton spin itself (almost).  I think it took me about 2 - 3 evening to finsih spinning what I had and then to ply it.

A closer view

I still need to finish setting the twist, but first I need to read up on how to do that. I know it involves PVC pipe with holes drilled in it and boiling water and time.

So the other night I sat down at my wheel and proceeded to spin up some more white wool (you can never have to much white).  The bobbin is full and I just need to remove it to spin more.  Then I noticed - I hadn't changed my rtio back.  This batch of wool is a little on the fluffy side.  Oh well.

Felted Soap

Tomorrow at the Griffin Dyeworks Fall Fiber Frolic (say that 3 time quickly - OK old joke) I will be teaching a "How to Make Felted Soap" class - Also teaching "You Gotta be Warped to Weave".  But I wanted to show off some of the soap I've made this week - just brushing up on my skills.

The soap on the top is a bar of Ivory and other is a bar of Zest.  I don't think Zest works that well - Not sure if it was the shape or not enough "soap" ingredients.  I had two bars of the Zest and the second bar just would not felt.  I may have wrapped the roving around the bar to loosely, but in the felting process the wool moved around to much and left to many large holes where the soap peaked through. I used what wool I have hanging around, I've recently found more roving that I think were gifts and this last few months when I did some dyeing, I would throw in a few yards of roving in the exhaust.

Either way - go check out the Griffin Dyeworks Fall Fiber Frolic - lots of great classes at affordable prices.

Two new wheels

Gotta love estate sales.  In the last 6 months notices of 2 estates sales have come my way.  Both of them were in Long Beach, not far from my sister's house and she LOVES estate / garage sales.   Notices came my way because both of these sales had spinning wheels pictured.  The last one (in June) was at the home of a weaver who had moved and didn't take any weaving or spinning stuff with her.  Now I have two new wheels in the house.  

The first one looks like a traditional wheel - it's not an Ashford - there's no name on it.

 

I'm assuming that it was made in Helen Ga.  It's cute, the parts move, but it not very functional.

Mt second wheel came from the home of a weaver / spinner who has no passion for it any more.  It seems that she and her husband travelled quite a bit as they had collect things from all over.  Some of the weavings in their home were from the same weaving class I took so many years ago, so I must have had the class with them.  But her husband became ill and the last 10 years were spent caring for him.  Not only did I get one of her wheels, but I also acquired cones of linen and silk and quite a few balls of wool.  I've got plans for the linen - got it in two shades - beige and a golden beige.

This one has no identifying marks on it.  I like that it came with its own stool.  Here they are - in the place on the hearth

OK - so it's the mantle.  But aren't they cute!!

When to Weave During the Summer

As many of you know, my studio is the garage. As many garages are, especially here in Southern Calif, it is neither finished, nor is it insulated. So in the summer it is hot, in the winter, it is chilly.

I've had this project of weaving garters to match a belt I woven since this last June. When I started to gather my yarns, I didn't have enough of the proper shade of blue. I attempted to dye the shade of blue, but it was either to dark, to grey or to purple. I now have many shades of blue to work with. So I broke down and ordered the Cobalt blue from Harrisville. Got the other yarns I ordered rather quickly, but the blue was on back order. <sigh> Isn't that the way it goes.

So finally, last week I got the blue cone. And it was 100+ degrees outside. Now most of my straps I am weaving on one of the floor looms now. This way I can weave 3 - 4 straps (each being 2 1/2 yards long) at a time. Most of these are sold as belts or are used as straps for the bags I've been weaving. Anyway - I thought I'd bring my table loom in, warp it up with the 4 yards I needed and weave in the comfort of the living room. Except for whatever reason, I could not get the tension correct or tight enough to weave a good strap. Not out of wool anyway. That left the floor loom in the oven - I mean the garage.  Saturday morning I went out and warped the loom. It was only 65 ends, so I was able to get it all ready to weave on by 11AM - when it got to hot - even with the fan going (you know when you start to "glow" and the flies start buzzing around and you don't have any Yard Guard around). So I went into the house until evening.

About 8PM I went out - hoping it was cool enough but it was still in the 80s, but I was there until 10PM - got one garter woven (60 inches).

Yesterday I was out again at 8AM, put in the spacers and started weaving. Made it until 10:30AM. It was cooler then Saturday, but 97 degrees is still warm.

I grabbed an hour this morning and finished the last garter. Tomorrow I'll cut them off and finish them. Then off to the new owner.

I am hem stitching both ends of the garter.

So here you are - "inkle" straps on a 4 harness floor loom.  Next up are the remaining straps for the 6 bags I have waiting.

P.S.  I have an electric heater that I aim at my feet for the winter time and I have the garage door closed.  So far, so good even if the hours are kept short.

I'm showing my age

So I have this great backyard with a fruitless mullberry and an English Walnut tree for shade.  During a lot of the spring thru fall, I would spin or weave under the trees in the afternoon.  And sometimes I'd just read.  I'd think to myself - I need a lounge chair out here so I can relax and nap.  At least once a month I'd say that to myself.  So I final bought one - a nice bright green one and this past Sunday I opened it up, took my Kindle and my glass of Kool-Aid out and flopped down on it.  And read until dinner was ready.

Then the dilemma - I couldn't get up out of the chair.  It was to low to the ground and my knees and hips couldn't push me up.  Darn I hate getting old!  So here I am - trying to roll off the chair onto the patio so I can get my feet under me and stand up - and I'm laughing at myself.  So what has any of this got to do with fibers?

Well - as many other people seem to be doing, I am going through my Stash 'O Fibers and what do I find - Dryer Lint!!!

You remember Dryer Lint!  About the early - mid 90's when the hand spinners were getting a little bored with the "all one fiber, all one color" spinning batts and roving, there appeared a spinning batt that was usually 1 color, but it had texture to it by blending in other fibers.  I happened to find a 4oz bag of lavender wool with Bombex and Tussah silk.

I don't usually care for lavender - purple, yes but as I bought this back in the 90's sometime - I'm sure I liked it.  Spun up it is even more interesting

It is spinning up nicely and by it's nature has a lot of thick / thin areas.  I was thinking of plying it with a white silk into a boucle type yarn - We'll see.

Secret Stash Contest - thanks Spin Artiste

This last weekend was the 8th annually Griffin Dyeworks Fiber Retreat held at Verdugo Oaks Boy Scout Camp in Castaic, CA.  This is where a group of fiber geeks (male and female) get together to spin, dye, weave, knit, crochet, learn and teach fiber.  Fiber in the morning, fiber after lunch and fiber into the WEE hours of the morning.  We don't have big name teachers (although this year we were able to have Barbara and Linda Teller - Navajo weavers) and the weekend doesn't cost that much (compared to some weaving conferences or Convegence).  This year we had 6 dye classes alone.  This was natural dyes (indigo, logwood) a tie dye class and other dyeing techniques.  There was Tunisian Crochet, spinning and fiber processing, color blending and even some copper etching classes.

Over the years Griffin Dyeworks have offered scholarships to people who can't afford the cost.   The way teh money is raised is through a raffle or the Scholar-sheep table (bring something you don't want any more and if you take something, feed the sheep).  This year I sponsered a "Secret Stash" spinning contest.

I got the idea from another blog a read - Spin Artiste.  Every month or so, she gathers up fibers and stuff and then you not only spin up the fibers but you have 1 month to create something with it.  One month she included paper cranes, more recently a doll's head.

So I did the same.  I gathered white and yellow dyed Corridale, white mohair, red and blue hand dyed pima cotton (that my brother sent me from Arizona and then I dyed), some grey / purple silk cap, about 1 yard of a black / silver eyelash yarn and then a copper metallic fiber and a good piece of white Starfire.  I had 10 packets and they went quickly Friday afternoon.  They had until Sunday morning at 10AM to spin the fibers and get them to me.

Each one came back totally different and it was very hard to pick a winner - so with some help fro Ercil, I picked 2.  Each lady got about 4 ozs of white Merino Mix and 4 ozs of Black Welsh Mountain roving.  Here is a picture of all the yarns - sorry it's not that great.

I want to thank all the spinners - you all made the decision really difficult.

Thank you Ercil for helping me pick the winners.

Thank you Griffin Dyeworks for putting on this retreat and to all the teachers who GIVE of their time and knowledge.

And thank you Spin Artiste - for the idea.  Next year I'll have 20 packets and I'll be looking for something - unique to add to the fiber.  Bwhaahaahaaha

Still catching up

First - OMG!!!  It's been June since last I wrote.  That's not to say I haven't thought of things to post, nor have I been just sitting around playing games on FaceBook (OK - so maybe a little).  I finally buckled down and said "I can sell my stuff".  At first, it was "I'll get an Etsy store going".  then it was, I'll tag with my sister's store.  But after spinning up a lot of my fibers, marking them, pricing them, weaving bags and stuff (and marking / pricing them) I thought "I really don't have that much stuff".

In Janurary I opened shop at Queen's Champion / Angel's Melee.  I did quite well.  Paid for ga, site fee and made a little (to buy more fiber of course).  It was funny.  I wasn't getting any foot traffic and then all of a sudden - BAM!  People noticed what I had. 

Also at the last Griffin Dye Works Fiber retreat (last June) I taught a class on warping your loom and Woody and I did just that on my small loom.

This is the tangled mess I had at one point.

It soon became this;

I warped enough for 5 bags.  I've also started weaving the straps on my floor loom.  I goes much faster then each strap woven on the inkle loom, but I need to remember to pull the weft tighter so it's a warp face cloth and not a even tabby. (sorry no pic of the strap.  I have to remeber to take a pic).

More soon (I hope)

I AM Boiling Mad!!

For years I have been weaving and dyeing and brewing.  And all this time I have been taught - don't let your water boil! It will ruin the dye / brew.  So for years I've kept my water temperature at about 180 degrees F.  Not quite at a simmer - just hot enough to see that nice little steam rising off the surface of the water.

So just before we ran off to the wilds of Washington state, I did some one pot dyeing of eucalyptus and stinging nettles.  I'm a lazy dyer and haven't made the time to mordant my yarns for dyeing at a later date.  So I fill my pot with water, dye stuff and the correct amount of Alum (usually about 1tsp) and light up the stove.

The eucalyptus leaves I have received about a year ago and the bag O' leaves have been sitting on the patio in an open bag so they were a little dried out.  Nevertheless, here are the colors I got.

The yarn on the left was in the bath 1/2 hour - the right was 1 hour.  The color is nice - a different shade of yellow with slight ornagey tones.

Then after we came back from our trip, I was at another friend's home helping her shear her sheep (I skirt the fleeces) and we got to talking about the eucalyptus.  She told me that she had heard the longer you BOIL the dyestuff they more orange (almost red) you can get.  BOIL!!!  BOIL THE WATER???!!!!

So I got fresh leaves and went home.  Four weeks later, I MAKE the time to dye and boil the leaves for 2 hours.  Here is the result -

Big change!!  So I guess there are times you should boil.  So, I had also dyed with some stinging nettles from my backyard.  I got a very pale yellow-green (sorry - no pic).  So I thought, let's boil.  So I boiled the water for 1 hour, let it cool down and then added the yarn.

The color is a lot darker then the first attempt.  So now I think when using a lot of the plant stuff, if I don't like the color - try and boil.

Dyeing and Weaving - More Playtime!

OK - so I'm still catching up on my last few months.  March 19th I met a friend of mine down in Carson for the Rubber Stamp Show sponsored by Stamp in the Hand.  I have a few places I like to gather wild daisies at for dyeing, so I left home a little early and headed down to my old stomping ground.

And things have changed in the last 3 - 4 years.  Weed Abatement.  Many of the good places were gone, some had been fenced in, but I was able to get a good gallon bag of the daisy heads.  Now, the family was leaving the following Friday evening for a trip to visit family in SE Washington and I knew I had to have a dye evening otherwise the daisies would be moldy when we got back.  My family let me take over the kitchen for the next few nights to play - because I couldn't just do the 1 plant.  I also grabbed some of the stinging nettles from the backyard (ouch) and I had some old eucalyptus leaves and did 1 pot dyeing for three nights in a row.  Lets say the house had some interesting fragrances that week.  I will have to post pictures later.

When we got home from the trip I was reminded of a weaving / spinning demo I had volunteered for on April 16th.  I didn't want to warp my loom for just 1 or 2 bags, so I put on enough warp for 5 bags (about 6 1/2 yards).  Tuesday night I measured out my warp, Wednesday night I threaded the reed, Thursday night I got half of the heddles threaded and that left panic time on Friday.  Now, like most of you others, weaving time is limited and most of the time I can't start until after 8PM (family dinner, family time, etc) so Friday night was a "I'll be in when I get in" night.  And I got my little loom warped in only about 4 hours.

When I got to the park I started weaving and I wasn't sure what color weft I wanted, so I wove about 1 inch of white, then black and then grey.  Bridget and Cat Ellen thought I should continue weaving that way.

And here is a closeup picture of the cloth.

The lav / pink is a logwood exhaust, the yellow is from the daisies and the eucalyptus (it's hard to tell there are 3 shades of yellow in there).

I think I wove about 2 yards at the demo, then finished it up the following week(s) (after I repaired the loom).  Here is the cloth after a gentle wash to do a light fulling

Here is a finished product

The band is a weft faced band I woven on the loom as I am weaving for 5 bags.  If it was just 1 bag, I would have done it on an inkle loom.

Now to start planning to next group of bags.

So how long can jute last?

I have been working the heck out of my 4 harness counter balance loom.  It's a little thing so I tend to take it places when I'm doing demos and if I have a small project I will use it instead of the 54inch loom.  I just finished a 6 yard piece of cloth and have a 4 yard weft faced band on it now (more viking or messenger bags).  Now I've had this loom for a good twenty years and when I got it, I replaced most of the ropes with new.  And I used a jute rope.

Now, I need to have two bags done Saturday morning.  I've been out of town and had a few other set backs, or nights where I couldn't grab an hour or two for weaving, So i thought I'd push through tonight, I should have only about 2 yards of the weft faced band to do.  I got started about an hour ago.  So why am I here blogging. 

One of the ropes broke. <sigh>

And I can't find any of my cotton rope around <another sigh>

Is this the Gods way of telling me, it's time to slow down?  To accept that there is no way in hell I'm getting these bags done.  Poopies!

I had been thinking of blogging about the joy of working in the evening in the studio, with the big door open.  As the town quiets down for the night and the Chinese restaurant slows down, I start hearing the frogs in the river bed.  The occasional bird, or possiblyy an owl calling to it's mate. And the steady noise of the loom; change the shed, throw the shuttle, beat the cloth, repeat.  I'm glad my studio isn't in the house.  And maybe someday, my studio will be more out of town . 

Meditation and Doddleing

So what to these have in common.  I can't do either.  No really.  One of the latest things to do is Zentangles.  Again - go and google it.  It's suppose to be relaxing, just let your mind go and create.

I can't - never had.  But I liked the looks of this little art form and how it's being used.  So I gave it a try.  I have a best friend who lives about an hour's drive from my house.  And after a long dry spell of not seeing each other and having a "girls day", we are trying to get together one Saturday of the month and create.  Wendy was over on a rainy, cold Saturday in February (again with February) and as she is this skinny thing with no insulation, we didn't last long in the studio.  Wendy loves doing art journals and she's a really good artist.  Some of the things she was doing were these Zentangles.  So I thought I'd give it a try.

This one piece took me the better part of an hour to do.  I just didn't know what to do in the empty spaces.  So I went back to the various websites and looked at what others were doing.  My second attempt:

One thing I noticed, I like to work around words and phrases.  Sometimes it's an idea (the mushroom in the first one, hugs and kisses in the next.  One site had the paper in grids and they filled each grid with a different technique.

I really thought the jigsaw pieces were kind of fun and then the lower left corner was "inspired" by a piece of jewelry on a Chinese statue at work.  The final (unfinished) piece is all David Bowie's fault.

I also had to add a little color to it.  After all, magic happens with red shoes.

Why I don't / can't doddle.  Most of the art I do tends to be structured.  Weaving, Spinning, dyeing, sewing, quilting . . get the picture.  Even my "random" stripes in my weavings are structured (same number of each colored yarns on each side).  I don't know how to turn off that side of my brain, or if Ieven can.  But as a decoration with some of the other paper things I do, I can incorporate parts of this art form.