No Really...

I really do intend on weaving, and blogging about it.  But since it has been over a month since my last post, I am sure it is hard to believe.  July was a hard month, looking forward to August being more...colorful, yarn-filled and fun.

So here I was Saturday afternoon and again this afternoon.  I am 3/4 finished with the project so maybe tomorrow afternoon?  or Friday? I can show it off the loom.

I am so ready to move on from this project.  The tension has been really weird making weaving very slow.  I hate weaving slow.  I have another project in mind and need to get some notes down.  Maybe I can share those soon as well...maybe even some samples?

I was tempted mid-July to scrap this project and come back later, but my tiny weaving room wouldn't allow that.  I have two looms, but they can't both be extended fully at once.  I had started this piece of fabric so I couldn't fold up the loom and work on the other.  It is probably for the best.

Winding Warp

Most weavers I have known come close to hating warping the loom.  I strangely enjoy it.  I love the repetition and counting when working on the warping board.  And then through the slow process of drawing through (or this time just tying on), I am always so excited to see how the yarn will look on the loom.  Drawing the yarn on the loom has to be one of my favorite parts because I love seeing this terrible mess...

Become a beautiful sheet of yarns!  This is the rainbow warp I was working previously.

New warp knots coming through!  It really was difficult to wind this warp on.  The yarns are set 30 epi (ends per inch) and I am using a 10 dent reed.  In English, there are 10 holes in every inch, but I have 30 yarns in every inch.  So things are quite tight and trying to move knots through that same area made for and even tighter situation.  Btu I can now happily say the new yarn is wound on the loom.  Time to tie on the front and get back to weaving!

Weekend's Warping

On Friday I was making such great progress warping and said "maybe I will be weaving by the end of the weekend."  I was doing so well it seemed like that would be an easy goal to accomplish.  

But oh yea...today was Father's Day so I spent all day Saturday preparing food for my favorite husband.  I did find sometime for warping this afternoon and here is my beautiful progress.

The full width of this weaving is made from sixteen - two inch squares.  I have eleven areas re-tied.  As I was  at the warping board preparing the final five and thinking about colors, it hit me.  The last two blocks I had tied up were wrong!  Ugh!

Basically, if you look at the bottom two corners of this sample piece, they are both light blue.  Then the two in from there are purple, then blue, pink, green and so on.  This is not how the cloth looks in my head.  It should be a rainbow going from blue on the left to purple on the right (this is why I am re-warping).

Somehow I already forgot about this change that needed to happen (mom brain) and was tying up my new summer colors cloth with this same flaw.  Thankfully, I will only have to re-tie two squares and then the remaining five.  Tomorrow of course, I just didn't have the heart to do it today.  And then I should have sixteen different beautiful squares to weave with!

New Color Way

Started re-warping my pockets blanket and I am really excited about the summer colors!

Warp #1

Warp #2 (There will be 3.  This weaving is so wide, it won't all fit on the warping board at once)

I can optimistically say I am about a half finished.  Maybe by the end of the weekend I can be weaving again.

Rainbow Pockets

Nearly two years ago, I started a project thinking I would make a baby play mat.  I wanted to use a rainbow warp and weft and this was magically going to line up so I would see squares of color in certain areas.  The blanket was to be a double weave with 2 inch "blocks" and I wanted to stuff the pockets to give some textural interest to the blanket.

Warped the loom (480 yarns, wow that took a long time) started weaving and saw multiple problems with my idea.  And then...the big remodel happen.  More on that in another post, but basically I stored my looms away thinking it would be 6 months at the max.

But this week I can happily say I am back at the loom!  Would love to say I am weaving like a crazy person, but all of those issue didn't resolve themselves while in storage.  Go figure.  I started with just white weft in hopes I could make at least one blanket with this warp...no.  There were some tie up problems that were easy to fix...and some warp color issues that although "easy" to fix will require re-warping the loom.  Sigh.

I did make a small sample so I could see how the fabric will behave off the loom.  Good news, I am going to be able to do the original rainbow pockets I had in mind!

The sample before washing.  Threw this beauty in the wash and dryer with a load of towels and it did great.  Nothing is a priceless heirloom here...get used to it.  The pockets puffed more during washing, but other than that there were no changes.

Welcome to my new blog. Exciting things coming soon!