Skip to main content

I Play Inlay! Yay!

Cheesy title but, I couldn't help it! :)

I first wanted to start with saying that the Compact Loom has been fixed! Thank God!!! I sat back down and just starred at it wondering what in the world could be wrong! I scanned each inch until my eye hit the obvious. The piece of wood holding the front cloth beam in place is crooked......just a little. It wasn't even that much. I peeked under the loom and low and behold there was one little screw that I've never tightened. I didn't even know it was there! Just imagine my joy as I tightened the screw and watched the cloth pull on that side! Woo hoo! I've never been so happy to see such horrible tension on my loom! :)

A very special thank you to Karen for the Louet dealer recommendation. I'm thrilled to know that next time I head upstate for a camping trip I have a new place to stop in at! The Spring has been on my mind for quite some time and I'm making a plan to start saving. ;)

So the project that was on the loom was another run of towels and has since been completed. The warp was long enough for 8 towels but, I only wove 6 leaving enough room for some 'play'. I've been talking about combining efforts with New Prospect Pottery for a line of custom/unique table decor. Well......it's happening. Lynn was very interested in seeing some cloth napkins and I have a C.O.E. to start.....perfect playing ground for getting some of the requirements done! The last yard and a half of the towels was used for a fun fiesta feel of color and inlay. This is the first time I've ventured into inlay purposefully and was happy with the results only after I started to show the accomplishments. This first piece to me felt like practice.
I need a little more practice and I'm sure I'll be creating some more soon. I serged the ends with a rolled hem and LOVE the way they came out! I think they'll be fabulous addition to the table setting line!

I have so much yarn, it's honestly ridiculous! I've been slowly trying to empty boxes of yarn laying it out on shelves in the studio closet as I think of projects. I found a wonderful rayon boucle on Ebay years ago and bought close to 15lbs! I'm down to the end of it and have been playing with cellulose dyes to create some fun painted yarns to weave light colorful Spring scarves with. I dyed nearly 3,000 yards of it in a beautiful pink, blue, and purple and put it up on the swift to count out ends. Well, the weight of it all made it quite hard for the swift to move so I asked the 'hired help' if he could pop in the studio for a minute and help me out. I demonstrated what it was I wanted him to do and he readily agreed with one stipulation, "Sure.....but I need something to sit on!" A boy after his mother's own heart! He helped me count the ends and I can't wait to share pictures once it's on the loom:) Such a good boy!!!
I'm finally near the end of the towel orders as well. On the loom currently is another set of olive green and burnt orange. In the back of my mind...................reduce the stash.........reduce the stash! :)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...