A Crepe is Not Just a Pancake

I love that title which is the title from a monograph by Alice Schlein that I used that is on a weave structure called crepe.  Decided to try that structure since it is one of the structures that is part of our Cross Borders study group.

So I am back to catching up on documenting last years weaving projects.  I like to maintain a record of my weaving with documenting the weave structure used, the planned and finished size along with a picture of the piece.

These two scarfs are of tencel, with some of the warp commercially dyed yarn and some yarn that I painted.

First scarf I was not as happy with.  I love black but this is the first time I wove with a black weft versus  a partially black warp.  Not happy that I lost too much color in the warp.

Second scarf I was much happier with.  Used silver in the warp and also added some stripes of another weave structure to break it up a bit.

Warm Winter Scarfs

It is a cold, snowy day outside.  So it is time to post the pictures from the heavier, wool scarfs that I finished last fall.

As part of the Cross Borders Study group, our 2013-2014 study is titled "Off the Grid".  It is all about weave structures that do not lay flat.

I put on one warp and wove three different scarfs with new to me, weave structures.

8 Shaft Brighton Honeycomb

8 Shaft Waffle Weave
Weft Yarn from Greenfield Village Sheep

Ribbed Squares

Frank Modelling one of the Scarfs

Todays Lesson

If you cover your mouth and cheeks so they do not freeze - it steams up your glasses.  So you get to shovel out the end of the driveway after the plows went through - without your glasses.

Too cold to take pictures - so here are a couple Belle Isle pictures from before the great snows.

It was nice to see that the state had already started working on the island even though they do not take over until February.  They were cutting down dead trees in the picnic areas that they have not yet removed.  Hope they plant new one come spring.

Casino Floor

Aquarium

New Year Revolution

If you watch TV I am sure you have seen the commercial with the little kids where one of them says he has a "revolution".  I believe that is a better description than resolution since change is hard.

This year I have two related ones that should be fairly easy for me to keep.  One is to take more photographs and to post on my blog.  I have been taking photo classes at the community college, one - to keep me busy and out of the house and two - to learn to take better pictures.  This past semester the class I took was a black and white film photography class, and this semester I am taking the advanced black and white film class.  It has been interesting developing your own negatives and making prints, but I find you tend not to take as many pictures as you do in digital.   Last semester I hardly had my digital camera out at all.

So this year I am resolving (or is that revolutionizing) to take my camera out more and post more.  

From my walks in the neighborhood playground the past two days.

Pricing Nightmare

This weekend I am part of the Michigan Weavers Guild Holiday Sale.  This is the first time I have attempted to sell any of my weaving.  Pricing is a nightmare.  Still working on how I will be pricing.   I am sure you know that not only can you not get rich weaving, you cannot even pay the bills.  My new goal is to make some money to buy more yarn.  I did a calculation, price of yarn x number of hours (at minimum wage) x amount of commission charged by the center where the sale is.  Not many will spend that for a scarf.  So it is a good thing that I love to weave and enjoy making the items.

Here are two of the scarfs that will be for sale.   I wove them a year or so ago.    I will be adding more pictures to my blog I finish taking pictures of the items.  

Indigo Toes

My yarn and a shibori sample

Finally getting around to loading the pictures from last Thursday.  The monthly Cross Borders Weavers Study Group was held at the studio of one of our members (I am jealous - she has an ENTIRE house a her studio).  She had an indigo dye bath going for us to dye our yarn.  I learned many things that day.

1. If you wear sandals - you go home with indigo spotted toes.
2. Silk doesn't dye as dark as cotton (or at least the silk I had)
3. If you wind a long warp the same way you do for painting a warp and dump it into an indigo dye vat - you get a tangled mess.
4. But all in all it was great fun - even if the yarn is not a dark as I wanted it to be.

Mary's shirt

Various shades of blue

Our visitor from Japan
with her Shibori dyed socks

A Week Early

I realize I haven't posted much of my weaving lately.  The Cross Borders Weaving Study Group I belong to is entering items that we wove using the structures from the last two years study topic.

I needed to get it done to give to someone to take by next Thursday - done an entire week ahead.

This is a dishtowel woven in unmercerized cotton using an uneven tied overshot.