Dyeing Day!

Such a productive day!  Made skeins out of lovely yarns from Henry's Attic.  They sell naturals to the trade for dyeing.  Lovely rayon/cotton blends with seeds, lovely rayon/cotton ribbons, yarns with twists and bumps.  I am smitten with all of it.  And dyes from Dharma.



Then every skein has to be rolled up in saran wrap and left for 24 hours to "cook."  Then rinsed, rinsed, rinsed...

and finally hanging on the line on the porch because it is actually raining out...weird winter.

xo

Rainbow Mist II

Ahhh...another Rainbow Mist.  This time with no wool.  Without wool it turns out just a little brighter, a little bit more shimmer, a little dressier.  I don't actually have one completely woven but maybe today!  Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the pictures!

On the warping mill

Threading



 Sleying

Weaving

Tomorrow is a dyeing day with a friend...I'll have to remember to take some pictures!

xo



Nancy's Scarf #2 (maybe...)

Scarf number 2 for my customer, Nancy...So I pulled some yarns...no wool, she is allergic...and she wants primary colors...mostly blue and red with some green and yellow.

So I made a warp, transferred it to the loom, threaded it, sleyed the reed, tied it on and was ready to weave.  Then off to my Mom's for a couple of days.  When I got back I had a note from Nancy to please make this one less textured.  Hmmmmm...

Soooooo I dropped some yarns off the back and added some ribbon yarns which were flat.  But there is a limit to how many I can do that way...

And I'm not at all sure it made too much difference and it is going to be hard for her to tell without actually touching the scarf.  Here it is finished.  I like it and will sell it anyway so I can always begin another for her. 

I should know better but I was excited to try these colors...always an adventure!

xo



Winter Walk

 Went for my walk the other day...looking back at the house and barn from our partially finished new road...

 Our pond...

 Horse paths...

 Got a little ride in a sled pulled by my woodsman.

And back around to see what my two offspring have accomplished!

Now I'm off to see my Mom in NH and won't be back till Tuesday but I hope to blog from there if I can pick up any stray signals! 

xo

Nancy's Scarf...finished!

Taking the warp off the warping board and chaining it up so it doesn't tangle.



A lovely pile of warp on the floor...



Winding the warp onto the back beam (beaming) to ready it for threading.



Threading through the heddles...

No picture of sleying the reed but here it is ready to tie.

Ahhhh...weaving.

All three scarves woven, washed, ironed, labeled and ready for me to tie tiny knots in the fringe so that the yarns don't unravel and get messy.

Now to email Nancy and put one on Etsy!

xo

Noah's 21st Birthday!

OK here I am playing Little Susie Homemaker...birthday cake time. Cake looks nice, doesn't it...just whipping up a little frosting...

This is not the first cake. I made a cake (both from scratch) starting at 7:30 AM even before I had coffee because I had so much to do that day.

This is the first cake. I beat it (though I swear I timed it TWO MINUTES) and filled the pans. Put it in the oven, set the timer, and got online to check email. After a while I smelled it cooking. OK if I knew how to cross out I would have crossed out cooking and put in burning. This fire is not my first. The cake rises, overflows, and starts a fire on the bottom of my oven. So I put out the fire, scraped out the burning mass and hoped for the best. Which obviously did not happen. The cake deflated (DUH, the oven door was open for a while) and I had to scrape that out of the pans. And start over. I had coffee first. This time I filled the pans and poured some of the batter down the sink (it was extra).

And this is not the first time...I seem to have a mental block about cakes. But we got candles on it and celebrated and Noah went to the obligatory liquor store and bought a six-pack.

Oh and we had a lovely guest, Sofia, up from her home in Manhattan. She stayed for a few days. I love it when the house is full. Noah brought her to Plattsburg and she took the train home.

Alex being cute...

Time goes by so swiftly...Really...do they look old enough to drink?????

Alex and Noah

Noah in a quiet moment...

My little guys.

xo

Nancy's Scarf...

I have a commission for a few scarves designed by my customer and me...this one will be pinks and purple with hits of teal and black. The first thing I do is pull anything I think will work. Anything with any of these colors goes into the pile and I will cull as I design the warp.

Then I start winding on the warping board. A couple of threads of this color, a couple of threads of that color and I build the scarf warp. Here it is about 1 inch wide and three scarves long.

Starting to add more purple...about 3" wide now.

Loving the texture...needs a little more pink...

Adding a bit more pink and now it is 5 inches wide, still 3 scarves long and I'm finished. The scarf will actually be about 4 1/2" wide when it is woven because as I weave it comes in on the edges and then washing will shrink it a bit more.

I hope everyone's Christmas and New Year was wonderful. Today is Noah's 21st birthday and I'm off to make a cake! Stay warm. Be happy.

xo