Winter Weavings….

Finally catching up to write here…winter has been a whirlwind of holidays, flu, colds, and rainy days.  Haven’t been in the studio as much as I would like, but sometimes a break can be a breath of fresh air for inspiration.  Spring is surely on its way, as the daffodils are blooming and peepers are peeping, and i have a lot of projects i am excited about….

First off, i will tell you about this amazing dye recipe book i have in the works…the amazingly talented Sara Lamb of  Woven Thoughts came up to my studio to teach a handful of us ( Woolydaisy has some pictures in her blog of our day!) how to create our own Dye Sample books.  Using Sabraset Acid dyes, we worked on mixing an amazing array of two and three color combinations using primary colors. Using beakers, syringes, and , we mathmatically (and metrically) made mixes of different proportions of dye to make a great gradient of color.  Out of this, my love for the metric system has increased tenfold at least.

We got the jist of it while under Sara’s guidance, and will be meeting monthly to complete the long list of dye combos needed to make our dye books complete.  After that, we will have a go to reference to easily replicate nearly every color you can imagine!!   Here’s a few pictures:

this mess of sample cards we made on our first day:

will soon transform into a neatly organized book like this one Sara lent us to finish! I can’t wait!!!

As for weavings…i am in a warping zone these days…both my floor looms need warps, and i am warping my two rigid heddle looms too!  Always tough to get motivated sometimes to get to warping, but the promise of a new project is also really inspiring.

First, i warped up this table loom for some tea towels in a 4 shaft Bird’sEye twill pattern.  i think i have enough warp to make 3 towels, so i will make them in three different colors.  Here’s a shot in progress:

Next, i am warping my rigid heddle looms for a couple of projects.  I’ve been super inspired by Sara Lamb’s new book Woven Treasures…

Sara is in our Fiber Guild, and i’ve seen her exquisite bags firsthand.  So inspiring.  so i am using her book to learn to warp and weave with two heddles.  Her instructions are clear, and photos very helpful.  Here is a picture of my warping in progress:

I am using 4/2 unmercenized cotton i got for cheap in the bargain bin at Paradise Fibers.  I am weaving yardcloth for either a bag or a top for myself…i haven’t totally decided which, i will see how the fabric is once off the loom.  the weft will be an 8/2 cotton.  i am using 2 -12 dent reeds, for a sett of 24 epi.

And other exciting news is that i am passing on my love of fiber arts to my daughter Maizie, who is learning to weave and drop spindle at the ripe age of 5!!!  we got her a little rigid heddle loom for the holidays, and she loves it!  she will spend hours weaving, and has already cranked out several scarfs and a wall hanging.

Here’s a few pictures of her work: a scarf in progress on the loom…

Her wonderful wall hanging, complete with embellishments and braided fringe ( she did all of it with very little help from me!!)

Here is a picture of her spindling:

She makes me smile in so many ways.

I have a whole pile of new handspun yarns ,and a whole basket of knitting works in progress, but i will save those for another post…

Life is full of spring planting in the greenhouse, rainy days with the house alive with noise and play, and the gentle whir of the spinning wheel.  Thankful for inspiration of color and texture to enrich our already abundant lives.  Peace.