Sum Sum Summer Time

My main focus this summer has been advertising and promoting work for this year. It may be only July but one can never start planning too early. Basically it's just a matter of finding the market and then finding how much time to spend promoting in that market or, of course, to pay someone else to do it, in some cases. With that said, production should be back in full gear in a couple of weeks........we've definatly been part time during the summer for product production but full time in promotion.

Right now my main focus is two knitting projects, one of which is an order, the other is a gift. The entire time I work on them, I think of how much I miss my loom and wheel. :( It's not that I don't like knitting, it's just that I LOVE spinning and weaving. The gift is for my darling Mother-in-law, a knit in one piece sweater and the order is a vest in all hand spun alpaca. I'm pleased with the progress of both of them but, have yet to take pictures:P.

Since there is more rayon yarn here then I will ever know what to do with (ha, I'm sure I could come up with something), I have decided to hand dye and sell some of it. I have been very pleased with the results of the scarf line for this fall and am hoping to share some of the color combinations with others. The newest is listed on Etsy with free shipping. 720 yards of yellow and purple for $18. I purchase yarn in bulk so, I'm able to drop the price to make some of it back. Here is the latest.

Comments

A New Loom!

I’ve been weaving on a Glimakra 8 harness countermarche loom for almost 10 years now. I love it! It weaves like a dream, it’s super heavy, I get an excellent shed when all is going well, and I have a bit of an emotional attachment to it. The only thing that I don’t love about this loom is that I have to climb on the floor to tie up the treadles. Depending on the pattern, I could be under there for quite some time. I’m pretty limber and in pretty good shape but climbing under the loom is back breaking work. So much so that I’m sometimes out of commission for the remainder of the day after. Look how pretty this loom is though! I cleaned out the area that this loom has been designating as it’s home and prepped for the replacement. I got an amazing deal on a Louet Spring and couldn’t pass it up! I’ve been doing a lot of research o...

Bring On The Color....Even In The Fringe!

Last year my number one seller was the Rainbow White Pinwheel and Rainbow Black Pinwheel towels. I had a bunch of 8/2 unmercerized cotton and thought a pop of color would do the shop some good. Turns out, a lot of people thought a pop of color would do their kitchen some good! I love the way the colors interact with each other and this pattern and color combination is quite mesmerizing to weave. When I had placed the order for more colors since I was nearly out, the black was back ordered, so I’ll get to those when it comes in...if I have any of the other colors left. Towels have been a hot commodity! Another hot seller was a run of red, orange, and yellow sunburst towels. I wound a warp only 8 yards long because I had used some of the main color, orange, in the rai...

You know when you make something and the entire process just seems seamless? Well, that’s how this project played out. I have some 10/2 tencel that is natural and I dyed a bunch of it over the summer. I wound off bouts of around 1700 yards each and now know that I would like to make larger skeins so that I can get a couple of scarves using this pattern again...just a bit longer. This picture was taken in natural sunlight of the braid after counting the ends on the warping board. Let’s get this thing on the loom! I learned a new trick for spreading the warp in the raddle. Since this is an A B color pattern, it’s important to not separate the colors in the raddle. To never “separate the twins” makes beaming the warp a piece of cake! Another cool trick I learned was to put the warp under ten...

Sunrise Lodge Fiber Studio

Search This Blog