Melda's Inspirational Weaving

Melda brought in some wonderful weaving she's been working on.  She weaves on a 24 harness AVL, which is a monster loom.  She wove some curtains to hang in her weaving area.  Wouldn't these be wonderful to stare at while you weave?  This is 24 harness uneven tied overshot using 20/2 perle cotton in approximately a zillion colors.

She used many colors in a shaded wash across the warp.  I couldn't get the entire width in the photo, but you can see how the color changes across the width.  Lovely! 

Here is what the reverse side looks like:

Here are a couple of the leaves a little closer:

 

  

  

 

Melda did some sampling of colors to get just what she wanted.  Here's one of the versions:

I'm just so impressed with this, I thought you'd like to see it too.  Lovely lovely weaving!

Some new spring yarns

Spring must be coming, because the spring yarns are starting to show up!  It's always such fun to see the new yarns.  I love meeting with the yarn reps twice a year to see what the various companies are bringing out.  Course, it's really hard not to want to buy ALL of them, so restraint must be shown.  Rats. 

Rowan is bringing out a recycled yarn in their Purelife group, called Revive.  It's tweedy and wonderful! 
There are 8 colors - some rather earth-tone ones:

 

And some brighter shades:

And here's a close-up of the purple shade: 

 

I think this will be on my needles before too long!  

And the other yarn is a sock yarn from Regia, called Hand-dye Effects.  

 

Pretty fun stuff!  

An Incredibly Gorgeous Loom

We got a used loom consigned recently that is just amazing.  It's a J-Made 16 harness walnut beauty.

 

It's tough to get a decent picture of it in the warehouse...  but it's WALNUT! 

There is a bench too, with a laminated top:

If this loom weren't computerized it would be going home with me - what can I say, I'm a Luddite.  But at least I get to walk by it and pet it every day while it's here.

J-Made looms are made right here in Oregon City, and his looms are wonderful. Furniture quality.

Goal settings & resolutions

I haven't set any resolutions in a few years, although I always like the idea of them.  So I decided maybe I'd try setting some monthly goals for my fiber stuff - knitting, spinning, weaving, whatever else might wander in.  Usually my resolutions would run along the lines of "spin more" - more than what?  When I participated in the Tour de Fleece my goal was "spin as much as I can"....  really - so any amount could in theory be "as much as I can", since if I spun it, I could and if I didn't spin it, evidently I couldn't.  Too wishy washy. 

So, my January goal is to finish weaving the scarf that's been on there for entirely too long.  I've debated cutting it off, I've let it sit for months on end, we moved the loom into the living room so I'd have no excuse, but still, there it sits.  Lately I have spent more time on it - after spending a frustrating 20 minutes searching high and low for the weft material when I needed to fill a bobbin.  Oh great, finally decide to do it and now the weft is gone.  Naturally.  It turned up, right where I left it - in the side storage of the loom bench.  Sheesh. 

For Christmas I got an iPod - my very 1st mp3 player!  I know, I'm rather late to the party.  I've loaded it up with probably more podcasts than I can possibly listen to, and have been happily weaving and spinning along to the voices in my head.  It helps keep me in place instead of weaving one little repeat and deciding I should be doing something else - I'll weave for the duration of the podcast instead!  yay! 

What helps keep you focused on working on a project when the 1st blush of starting a project has worn off?

Oh, other goals - finish knitting that pretty Fresco cowl I started a few entries ago, and finish spinning up some raspberry colored roving I started who knows when and then abandoned in favor of another fiber (I have a number of those - I'm a little scattered for spinning pounds of the same stuff). 

I've only got another week to go on this, so I'm gonna need some luck - and days off in the middle of the week!  My only reliable day off is Sunday, and sometimes I take a day off mid-week, which is wonderful. 

What are your goals for January?

Spinning Class at Woodland Woolworks

Our next introductory spinning class will be held February 6th and 20th!  For the full write-up, please see our website.  You can take one, or both sessions, depending on where you are on the spinning journey.

Hope to see you there!

Knitting Along

A couple of weeks ago I was enchanted by a pattern from Classic Elite, sent out in their email newsletter, for the Fresco Basket Whip Cowl (free pattern here).  I printed it out, thinking it would be fun to do "sometime"...  I must have queued it in Ravelry too...  Then the very next day, I received an invitation on Ravelry to join a Knit Along (KAL) for the very same pattern!  Queue the Twilight Zone music! (do do do do, do do do doo).  Oh yeah, I queued it - she's not reading my mind, right?  (do they know about the felted double knit trivet-y thingeys I'm thinking of trying? - no pattern, just want to try out double knitting... is there a Knit Along for that too??)

Anyway, I joined and found a lovely shade of blue and am enjoying making this!  It's a quick knit (I'm NOT a quick knitter, alas), it only takes 2 skeins of Fresco from Classic Elite.  I ADORE this yarn!  It has 60% wool, 30% baby alpaca and 10% angora so it's wonderfully soft.  In the skein it's not overly remarkable, but once you start knitting it, it softens up and the angora halo introduces itself and is as charming as it can be.  ("Hi, I'm Angora, and I will be caressing your neck, and keeping you warm").

The Ravelry KAL is ongoing, so feel free to join in!  I put Fresco on sale to make it even easier.  I put a couple of Dale of Norway yarns on sale too - check it out!

Miniatures

One of our lovely customers recently gifted us with a beautiful spinning wheel and loom - miniatures!  The detail is amazing on these, and you can even actually weave on the loom.  Paper clip added for perspective...

 

Would you just look at that little reed!  I think it's threaded with sewing thread. 

Thank you so much, Mary!!