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 .