The Start of An Exciting New Kit

Irene, of Cotton Clouds, suggested a Color Horoscope Weaving Baby Blanket Kit in a soft pastel palette, so I decided to give it try.

After much back and forth we settled on these colors:

R #919 carnation

RO #493 coral

O #159 conch

YO #048 honey

Y #875 buttercup

YG #300 willow

G #883 cilantro

T #106 aruba

B #799 sky

I #199 light lavender

P #444 crocus

RP #620 raspberry

I think we substituted something else close for "sky", but I can't put my hands on that just now.

The next question I had to answer is how to make a horoscope weaving that would equal 18" sett at 20 epi (and 15" sett at 24 epi) to come out to be 36" wide. The obvious answer would be to go around the horoscope twice, but Irene asked for another solution. I decided to try making each of the 10 planets a 1" stripe (making the width 28"). Then I will add a 4" solid colored (well, in this case "pearl") border making 36" on the loom.

I am really curious to see how this is going to look.

Amazing Memphis

I am sure this was my best Color Horoscope Weaving workshop ever. I know I say that every time, but they just keep getting better. I believe having students come to class with their looms all warped and ready to go is the best way. Since the workshop was postponed at the last minute from November (when I got the flu), it really gave everyone plenty of time to get ready.

I don't know why I didn't take pictures of the students at work. I just took a close-up picture of their weaving. When I returned home, I had to play around with the images and came up with this---a virtual Memphis class quilt.


And Kaaren even finished her weaving in time for me to actually take one picture of a student.


Everything they say about Southern Hospitality is true. The biggest surprise for me was that the workshop actually took place in Mississippi. I would have gotten low marks in geography. It did make me feel a little better when everybody I asked in Seattle "What state borders Tennessee to the South?" nobody knew the right answer. (grin) I also liked the fact that when it rained, nobody blamed me as if I brought rain with me from the Northwest.

The only slight glitch is the baggage inspectors busted the zipper on my (used to be) trusty workshop suitcase. I won't be able to use it again. But everything else was perfect.

Moving Forward

It seems as if this new decade is moving very rapidly. The workshop in Memphis, postponed because I got the flu, is happening this weekend. I fly out on Friday morning. Lists are being made along with all the last minute scrambling.

Here is another picture of the Birthday Mitzvah actually hanging on the wall, it's new home. The thicker bars are 1" wide (forgot to measure, but it must be 22"-24" wide).

Imagine my surprise to discover this bamboo/ un-knitted cashmere shawl actually looks Guatemalan. The dark ikat along the edges is another weaving. I just happened to be hanging there.

I am donating this shawl to the YWCA RAGS Guild of Tacoma for their annual show and sale. More to follow on this.
In fact I shipped it off today. (and checked it off my list)

The gaps in my blogging this past six months can't be retrieved. Once I stop moving forward, inertia seems to seep into the blogging part of my brain. Hopefully I will be able to get back on track. Everything seems to be shifting, and things I felt sure of no longer seem so.

Yes I Still Weave....

TWO TOTALLY UNRELATED PROJECTS

This is wrapped bamboo--Blessing Mitzvah
Created for a surprise 60th birthday party this evening. A great success!


And I have this 2/3 woven---and the delivery deadline is Monday! Well, I probably have a little wiggle room, but one good weaving session should do it.

AND most exciting of all, I once again am packing for Memphis! I leave on the 22nd. The Memphis group has decided to add a lecture. I still hold out on the power point front, but I vow to get that mastered this year.

I have a Northwest Designer Craftsmen new member brunch tomorrow, late morning, so enough for today.

I've Fallen Into Photoshop Elements 8 and I Can't Get Out

Words cannot express my excitement as I create Conceptual Quilts from my weaving images! Gary and Grace are weeping on the far side of my studio. They call to me, but the computer has plugged into my brain. The "power of repeat" cannot be denied. Resistance is futile.

Turn the Page

Before I take down my holiday decor, I really have to show off my virtual candles (grin)

WEAVING= BREATHING

Sometimes I breathe more deeply.
Sometimes I hold my breath.

Here is a Woven Words project I will talk about in later posts. This warp has been waiting patiently on Gary for the past month. I have been holding my breath.


I have also been pondering Syne's Weaving Resolutions. My comment to her didn't reflect the thousands of hours and scores of years I spend echoing her very words, trudging down those very roads. I am awed to think I have spent half a lifetime seeking answers to questions I didn't know I was asking, and I NEVER figured out how to find the balance between weaving and the rest of life.



In all of my years of weaving, I have never woven a hound's tooth check. When I received 20 more cashmere sweaters from this lovely man, Stephen, (making his sweater total 50!) he requested a hound's tooth check in bamboo and cashmere. How could I refuse? It was easy, fun, and oddly satisfying. I used Habu bamboo. I can't recall the weight, but I doubled each end and sett at 20 epi. I can't believe this is actually plain weave! The whole effect is achieved by winding 2 ends of each color and weaving 2 picks of each color.