Charleen's Fiberblog

32 Years Ago

And the fun hasn't stopped! No, that's not a black wedding dress. I was a bit of a nonconformist back then. I made a dark green velvet dress and we were married by the mayor of our little town in my parents' living room. All fifteen of us trooped off to a local restaurant for dinner. Our honeymoon consisted of one night at the Holiday Inn. When fire alarms woke us up at 5:00 AM we got up and went back to my parents. By the time everyone got up, I was sewing at the kitchen table and Howie was sleeping in an empty bed! Some things never change

What did we do to celebrate our anniversary? We took a drive to East Berlin (PA that is, home of The Mannings).

Look what followed me home! I cashed in last year's and this year's gift certificates. I also picked up the Relaxobak Cushion I heard about at Creative Strands, but never got around to ordering.

Here's one last picture.

What happened to those legs?

Lovely Shades

Here's what I started with (all Sabracon F dyes from ProChem):

	Blue F-42
Yellow F-11		Fuschia F-35

The yellow is not showing correctly on my monitor - it is definitely a clear yellow, not gold. The blue and fuschia look true to me.

Here's the results:

The left column are 1%DOS; the right are .5%. I switched to a smaller brush after the first few rows and there weren't as many blotches. For the next samples I'm going to have to keep an eye on how much dye I'm laying down. I guess there's a limit to how much moisture the paper can absorb!

On the back of each strip:

I'm not sure how I'm going to store these. Maybe page protectors or maybe punch a hole on each end and keep them on a binder ring. It's heavy watercolor paper so it should be sturdy enough for that.

Something for you to ponder - why did finding this make me so happy?

Fingerless Mitts

Claudia inspired me to make a pair of fingerless mitts. So much faster than fingerless gloves, and they'll serve the same purpose. My purpose? I wanted them for weaving in the cold basement.

The herringbone tweed was looking fine, but the singles wool I was using for both warp and weft was a little too soft. Duh, Charleen, you have heard of the snap test. After a yard or so, I decided to cut if off and wet finish. It was feeling mighty scratchy and I was hoping it would soften up. If so, I was willing to work with those end threads to keep them strong. No such luck, it felt like sports jacket material, not next to your neck and face scarf material. But all is not lost, I can sample different wefts and have plenty for my twill exchange. When I get bored I'll cut the rest off.

Here's what I did this afternoon. A three color triangle - that's 66 samples. Actually 132, since I did 1% and .5% DOS. Today's colors were: blue, yellow, and fuschia.

How much CAN I cram into the next five days???? Stay tuned.

Last Leg of the Triathlon

Today is the annual Koerner Family Exchange. I leave you with this:

a 17" flat screen monitor (from my kids)! Cool, huh?

Wishing You

What Am I Doing?

Well, I could be cleaning up the kitchen, or wrapping presents, but instead I choose to start weaving this:

Now it's time to take a break and work on my fingerless mitts. I'm going to need them if the basement gets much colder.

Here's the Problem

I like the blankets, but I'm not thrilled with the plain weave border. It is wider than the rosepath pattern. I can live with it, but next time I'll just do the pattern for the whole length.

close up	close up	close up

Blankets are Done

I finished weaving the third blanket tonight. - behind schedule, as usual. I sewed two rows of zigzag between each blanket and popped them in the washer. Tomorrow when I get home from school I'll hem them. Two will go in on Thursday for baby presents.

Next up: Herringbone Plaid scarves. I'm winding an oatmeal 1/8 wool warp and I'll use the same wool in sand for the weft for one and a black tweedy wool for the second. I wound a long enough warp to give me samples for the twill exchange I'm involved with next month. You can see similar scarf in Handwoven Nov/Dec 1996 (p. 69), but I like the narrower herringbone in Davison's draft (page 26).

Two more school days!

Walk, Don't Run

After sampling, I decided to change the treadling sequence to a walking draft. Things went well after that and I was able to complete 2.5 blankets. Of course, my legs and lower back are feeling it today.

The first one was done in a very pale violet 8/2 cotton. Since I was going so fast I forgot to run upstairs for my camera. Therefore, you'll have to settle for this proof.

The warp is a 6/2 Egyptian cotton in natural. This one is with a deep wine 6/2. Here's a
close up.

Here is the third one, not yet complete. The weft is a medium, dusty blue. I had no idea what the fiber was, since it came with my loom. So I did the burn test to make sure it was cotton (and just to make sure, I burned some known cotton for comparison).

If I hadn't cut off two samples and washed them I never would have believed that this open, meshy looking cloth would wash up so well. Do I have another warp wound yet? NO. But I hope to have the wool wound for two herringbone scarves tonight.

Back to Weaving

After a long break - since Nov. 6 - I finally got another warp on the loom. Let's see if I remember to have a warp wound and ready as soon as these baby blankets are done. Since I have to have some twill samples ready by the middle of January, I think that should be next on my list.

Blending

While taking a retreat class with Deb Menz at SOAR in October, we learned how to strip several different painted rovings and then blend them by attenuating together. Below are three strips from the rovings - and the resulting nests - all ready to spin.

I wanted to be able to make something from the roving spun in the class (3 ounces) so I spun a soft single, with plans for a scarf.

I've started the scarf, which will have a pattern on each end for about 10" and then garter stitch the for the middle. There's not enough done for a picture yet.

How Deer

They're back!!! Don't be taken in by this peaceful grazing scene. They have completed obliterated my roses. You may not want to be near them when they burp up those thorns.

They've knocked down the fence behind the shed, but I guess the don't hold to the superstition of leaving the way they came in.

"Hey, guys, smile for the camera."