The Second Time's a Charm

I delivered the shawl this evening, and it was very well received. I must admit it was hard to let it go (on one hand) and a great relief to be able to cross it off my list (on the other hand)

I really liked this picture although I had to remove some annoying kitchen appliances from the background on the left. Do you think it is too strange to have half light background and half black background? I can change it, but I can't decide if I should.


Onward!

Saturday Night Weaver

My silence has not been due to the fact that I haven't been working. I don't know if you remember this beautiful bamboo warp? Please click here to read A Cautionary Tale. I can't stand retelling the story although it was necessary for me to re-weave the shawl. I put it off as long as I could....

I knew I had to weave this piece before I could move forward into a new year. I did change the colors a bit and the spontaneous ikat stripes are a bit different.

The problem I faced with my first try is I couldn't make myself pack the weft tight enough because I didn't want to cover the warp with the chenille, and ended up weaving too loosely. I didn't make the same mistake this time.


Miraculously when I washed the shawl, the warp colors came through-- muted but certainly there. The tennis balls in the dryer worked really great! I will be delivering the shawl on Monday. I will attempt to get a picture of the owner wearing her shawl.

This was certainly a character building exercise, and I heartily resolve to never make the same mistake again!

Now I am moving forward again with just 11 days until my first Blogiversary. I am planning something special, so stay tuned....

A Walk in the Winter Garden

When I first moved to the Northwest in January of 1980, I was thrilled to discover it was already spring. I believe many fail to appreciate the subtle beauty of a long slow spring (lasting up to 6 months and sometimes bypassing summer altogether). Walking through the Winter Garden uplifts the spirit and is an activity I look forward to each January.

From witch hazel
to hellebore

to plants too mysterious and fantastic to identify, what more could a "virtual gardener" ask for?

I'm sure some actual gardener out there knows the above plant. Mystery solved!
Thank you Karen.

Now back to the studio for some actual weaving.

Looking Forward

Sometimes I feel wrong sitting in my comfy warm studio weaving away with beautiful yarns on my wonderful looms while much of the world is in chaos (or worse). How can I justify weaving ?

To explore my feelings, I wrote a list of my wishes for the world and my wishes for myself. Each item on my list I imagined as a color. Then I decided to turn these color lists into collages. (4" x 5") The collage above represents my wishes for myself, and the one below is my wishes for the world.

Then I made color copies of the collages. I cut the wishes for the world copy into vertical strips and the wishes for myself copy into horizontal strips and wove the wishes for self into the wishes for the world.

I taped the tops of the vertical strips to a piece of graph paper, so I could maneuver the strips easily.

This symbolic gesture has helped me to feel that in some small way by working towards my personal goals I am also working towards those things I wish for the world.

Happy New Year!

Looking Back

I had a perfectly wonderful trip to California! The picture above is the part of Christmas dinner in which I participated. Roasted Vegetable Medley is what I call it, and the veggies are about to go into the oven. I will be happy to share the recipe if anyone is interested.

The entire trip seemed to revolve around food and not around weaving at all.

OK, more food! Here is the outside of Cafe Gratitude in Berkeley. I loved the food there AND the weaverly fence out front! Actually Cafe Gratitude is a lot more than just a restaurant. I ended up eating there 3 times, twice in one of their San Francisco restaurants. I wish they had one in Seattle. I'd eat there every day.


I spent a couple of days visiting with my step brother, Mark whose hobby is making chocolate confections. He is a famous landlord in Berkeley and gives chocolate to all of his tenants. Consequently he never has to put an ad in the paper and has a waiting list of people who want to rest his apartments.


Here is the Free Store! Don't you just want to move to Berkeley? Mark gave me so much chocolate I couldn't fit it all into my luggage. I shudder to think what will happen at my next Weight Watchers meeting.

Tomorrow I will be Looking Forward....
The vacation gave me lots to think about. I have already started dressing the loom. My goal is to have both looms ready to weave by the stroke of midnight on the 31st.

In Lieu of Packing...

Early Tuesday morning (12:17 AM) I finally cut this weaving off the loom.
Early Wednesday morning (8:30 AM), I walk out the door for 10 days in the Bay Area.

I apologize for not having more pictures of the process or more explanation. All I can say is I played around with many cashmere colors and had a great time. I tossed this piece in the washing machine (gentle cycle cold water) and then in the dryer on low. (Yes, I said I put cashmere into the dryer!) Someone once told me to pop a tennis ball (or 3) into the dryer along with the piece. I happened to have one tennis ball, so I put it in. I don't know if the tennis ball made any difference, but the shawl came out softer and more wonderful than any of the other bamboo/cashmere weavings I have laundered.

Here is the happy recipient! It came out exactly as she had hoped.

I wish you all could feel the bamboo/cashmere combination. It is heavenly. I will answer any questions you post, but it is getting close to midnight. I really haven't begun to pack and am starting to run out of steam.

I am planning to check my blog along the way.

Happy Whatever Holiday You Celebrate!

Onward and Upward!

It is quite a different look from the natural spectrum based Color Horoscope Weaving. I really like the look of it, but that will be nothing compared to the feel once it has been laundered.

A closer look.

I am in a weaving mode, so it is back to work.

I am often asked how many hours a day I weave. I am thrilled if I can ever calculate in hours the amount of time I spent a day weaving. A better question might be "Do I weave every day?" or "How many minutes a day do I spend weaving?"

In my advancing years and after 47 years of weaving, I find I weave for no longer than 15 minutes at a time. Then I stand up and do something else. Having 10 to 20 alternate tasks in process makes life more interesting. When I am weaving with a deadline (like now), I cycle back at least once an hour and try to spread that out over a 12 hour day. I can pull a piece off the loom (a 3 - 4 yd warp) in 3 - 4 days.