Piling Up

Four bins of shawls (55) tagged and ready to go into storage for the fall sales.  Well, actually, some of them will come out again next week for the Spring Arts Fair (aka Chilli Cook Off).

But the 'recovery' shawls are now officially done.   They were a nice gentle re-introduction into weaving and served their purpose well.  Not to mention I desperately needed more, anyway!

All the same, I am relieved to have finally gotten them complete to point of sale so I can concentrate on all the other things that need doing.

Thank you to everyone who contacted me about the Olds weaving program.  I'm not sure I can get something organized for this year but I'm going to suggest the week of September 21-25 and see what administration says.  It might just be too soon.  On the other hand, nothing ventured, nothing gained?

More Wheel Pics

Flyer - wheel only came with one bobbin, which I understand is pretty typical

Tension system - tilt tension with what looks like a hand made wing nut

Typical metal treadle

Mother of All

Happy camper...'Larry' and moi

Proof of Progress

Colours aren't quite accurate here - they should be more green-ish.

But here it is - about 28 tea towels all in a roll.  I cut the warp off this afternoon and began cutting them apart and serging them.  Doug will go pressing on Sunday and then I will have lots of hemming to be done.

Tomorrow I will begin beaming the rose warp and thread the mat warp I beamed onto the small loom last night.  Also wound another mat warp, ready and waiting in the wings.

All the yarn for the Olds classes is on order and en route.  As soon as it arrives it will be coned (thanks, Doug!) and then I will wind the warps for the students.  Just three weeks until we leave and I have a lot of teaching aids to pack up as well as yarn for sale (some of it also en route, needing to be broken down from large cones to re-sale size cones - again, thanks, Doug!), everything loaded into the van and another trip through the mountains.

After Olds is done, it is time to do the Power Point presentation for the webinar in July and get the house tidy for a guest coming in July.  Then...it's August and getting very near to the fall sales.  My goodness, this year is just whizzing by!

New Toy!

Only had a few minutes to try her out but what can I say?  I'm smitten!  This may very well be the wheel of my dreams.  It is an antique - likely made sometime around the turn of the century - and I don't mean this one...late 1800's to early 1900's.  I was told it is a Laurence Canadian Production Wheel.  The drive wheel is huge - I didn't measure it but apparently 30 to 32" is common.

I joined a group on Ravelry devoted to this type of wheel and I've been learning more about the typical characteristics of this type of wheel - the spokes are 'three bead' - I think you can just make out the three bumps on the spokes.

This picture isn't great - cell phone camera, after all.

The wheel will reside at the guild room for the time being.  It really is a very large wheel and there isn't room in my living room for it right now.

Spring Flowers..and a trial balloon

We had a huge thunder/lightning storm last night.  Cracks of lightning felt like they were directly overhead - close enough the house shook from the special effects.  Eventually we lost tv/internet although not electricity, thankfully.

We read for a while, then I decided that - since I was officially over the half way mark on the current tea towel warp - I would work on the draft for the next pink warp.  It felt fitting that some 'roses' would be in order.

The first part of the warp will be treadled with an advancing progression - until all of the cotton/linen pink slub is used up - and then in this as drawn in progression using some of the fine linen in my stash.  I don't know that I will be able to sell that many pink tea towels, but...the yarn has to be used up, so...

As for the trial balloon...

Over the weekend we talked about the Olds College program, specifically the master weaver class.  Olds is a small community college, interested in outreach and as such has had satellite classes of their master spinning program.  I know they are interested in doing the same for weaving.

It might be possible to have the first two levels of the weaving program here in Prince George.  If so, is anyone interested in coming here?  In order to convince the college to try this, it would help if I could say that 8 (or more) people are interested.  So far the people who have expressed an interest have asked for it to be held in the autumn.  They would do the program in Olds except June is not good timing for them due to work, etc.

If anyone is interested, email me laura at laurafry dot com

Currently reading Death of a Scholar by Susanna Gregory

Rolling, Rolling

Not the greatest picture in the world, but shows the pattern off quite nicely, I think.  Click to biggify and maybe see a little more detail of the colours in the warp.

And it turns out that this 30 yard warp isn't going to be long enough to use up all those cones of cotton/linen slub!  Once I'm done weaving these, I will see how much is left.  I may give the left overs to a friend who also liked the yarn.

This afternoon I pulled the yarns for the next warp.  You see I have a huge cones of this same yarn - in rose.  I'm so happy with how this is turning out that I'm looking forward to weaving the rose.  The two colours should display well together, too.

Once I have them finished, finished, I'll do a glamour shot.  I'm also investigating an on-line marketing site.  If I decide to pursue that, I'll post a link.  Just one more thing on my to-be-done list, which only ever seems to grow, not diminish...

Forest Part Deux

It took a bit of looking, but with the rest of the warp secure, I was able to pick through the repeat more easily than if all the threads were just 'loose' in the heddles.  By having them through the reed, there was less room for them to tangle and get out of sorts while I rooted through the threads...sure enough I'd missed a heddle on shaft nine which threw the entire sequence out of sync.  Here is where I've pushed the heddles to each side to free up the field of attack...

A quick tying of a repair heddle on shaft number nine and a 'spare' end inserted into the proper place.  The end will dangle off the back of the loom while I weave off the 30 yard warp.  Actually it will dangle off the rod in the ceiling, installed specifically for that purpose many moons ago, and which has since seen double duty as a warping valet.  After each two towels I will take a break, let down another couple of yards of yarn so that for my next session I'm all set to go.  At the same time I will take up the tube with the 'spare' ends - I'd wound a few extra ends just because it was easier than making that one section 'short'.  And besides, my narrow goods friend will be happy to take it off my hands so it won't go to waste.

And here it is, all sleyed, tied up and ready to go.  Since I'm weaving with a slubby cotton/linen yarn I'm not sure how many picks per inch the cloth will be until I weave a sample.  Then I'll set the auto cloth advance appropriately, generate the treadling for an entire towel and away I go.

After lunch!