This is what I'm currently working on. My sweet brother bought us a camera for Christmas so now I can take lots of pictures! These will be the first two of four placemats for my culminating project. I'm a bit stuck right now. I just fixed a threading error and I thought I was all set and ready to weave but once I started weaving tabby, I'm not as happy with it as I thought...So I'm taking a short break.

I ordered my Bluster Bay Mini End Feed Shuttle today!! I'm SO excited! I ordered some paper pirns to go with it so that I would actually be able to weave. They were pretty cheap. I went ahead and got 10 so I could get the discounted price. With my gift certificate I think it came out to like $47.95 or something. So that's really good. I can't wait for it to get here!

Ohh!! When we were coming back from South Carolina we stopped in Ashville at Earthguild It's a little weaving/fibers shop. They're a little expensive online and they don't have a really big selection, but it's great to get to go to the actual store because they have mill ends for sale for pretty dang cheap. I got almost 5 pounds of yarn for $31 bucks!





These three are the cones I got. The honey colored one and the red one are rayon blends. They are also Bouclé yarns so they'll add some texture. The green one (It's actually kind of more of a teal/hunter green) is 8/2 MERCERIZED cotton. It's kind of hard to find for some reason, so I bought it partially because of that, but also the color is just wonderful. I think the red and yellow could look really nice together. Or the green and yellow. I have some other rayon in my stash that I could put either with as well. I think the cotton would go well with some tencel perhaps. It would make a lovely scarf. (Of course!) We'll see. I'm always excited to find yarns for cheap! I still have a Webs gift certificate. Perhaps now I can buy some things that will go nicely with these three cones I just bought.
~JoAnna

Merry Christmas!!

Am I a nerd to be blogging on Christmas? Yes. I know. :) It has been a lovely day and I've enjoyed spending time with my family. Everyone enjoyed their hand crafted ceramic pieces and I enjoyed giving them!!

I received several items that will be a big help to me in my weaving endeavors. My mother bought me a 10 dent reed that I've been wanting pretty much since I got the loom. I also got Mastering Weave Structures by Sharon Alderman and The Handweaver's Pattern Directory by Anne Dixon from my sister. I got some llama silk yarn from my sister that knits up very nicely. (really soft!) Hmmm...What else?? Oh! My grandma gave me a gift certificate to Halcyon Yarn which I will be using to buy a Bluster Bay mini EFS. :D Aaaaannd my mom also gave me a gift certificate to Webs. Also fun and good. :) I'm super excited about everything and I can't wait to get home and get working!!
My brother gave me a camera which will also help me tremendously! Once I figure out how to load the pics, I can start putting pictures of my work on here!! YAY!!! FINALLY! Well I should go for now.
~JoAnna

Christmas traditions

Happy Christmas Eve!! :) I feel like this is the first year for a while that I've actually been excited and happy about the Christmas season. I actually decorated our tiny apartment a little. (Just some lights. We don't actually have room for a tree, but that's okay.)
I've been day dreaming about how fun it will be when I have time and a real house to decorate for Christmas. I would like to make a lot of our decorations. Towels, stockings, table runners, wall hangings etc. I think it's so much more meaningful to use things to decorate with that were made with love by someone. (Instead of at a factory in China...) Eventually I would like to have hand knit, fair isle stockings to hang and I want all sorts of other lovely things. I'd like to do some table runners and placemats and napkins in red and white overshot patterns.

I was reading one of my favorite Christmas books the other day while helping my mom decorate her house. It's Trouble With Trolls by Jan Brett(?) Anyway, I love the illustrations. It was one of my favorite books as a child. I was thinking how fun/cool it would be to make clay sculptures of the characters from the book. I especially love the little hedgehog that is in the sub story at the bottom of each page. He was always my favorite. I loved how the trolls prepared a lovely little home for him and he went through and just messed with everything. He's so cute!

I can't believe Christmas is tomorrow!! Here in TN it's pretty warm. :( Everyone was hoping we'd have snow on Christmas, but we probably won't. Unless something pretty drastic happens.

One tradition that we plan on changing when we have a family of our own is instead of giving gifts on Christmas, we're planning on giving them for New Years instead. Part of that is so that the meaning of Christmas is not lost in the desire and excitement for presents but in my mind, it just annoys me how everyone (especially stores, commercials etc.) get so caught up in buying, giving and other material things. Even if you're not religious or a Christian, I still think Christmas should be about family at the least (if you're not going to celebrate the birth of our Savior) even as a Christian, Christmas is still very much about being with family. That way we can all celebrate Christ's birth together. :) Well in case I don't write tomorrow, have a very Merry Christmas! (My favorite way of saying it because it's so cute!!)
~JoAnna

Two blogs...?

So I started another blog at Wordpress so that eventually if I want to, I could link it to a website...Well, for now, I just don't think I'm going to use it. I prefer my blogger one. It's simple, straightforward and I already know how to use it. So for now, I'm gonna stick with this one. Perhaps somewhere down the road, I shall use my Wordpress one. I have strange loyalty issues... haha.
~JoAnna

Updates and excitement

My plan since October has been to weave these stinking placemats and napkins over Christmas break and I still haven’t finished ONE warp! I don’t even have Mac dressed yet. ARGH! Frustration is setting in…

I’m planning on working on it this afternoon. I’ve gone back to my original idea and I’m skipping the overshot. It’s going to be too complicated and too much of a gamble. I don’t have time to do a sample and I really think the yarn is going to be too fine even if I use two shots per pattern pick. I’m okay with it though. I think it really does make it more like me if I skip the overshot blocks. I like to keep things simple. So I am and that’s just how/who I am. :)

In my world of ceramics, I’ve had some exciting developments. I made some mugs for a friend to give to his girlfriend for Christmas. I had been planning to make these for him since this summer (when I didn’t even know how to make them) I was not expecting him to pay me for them at all. It was a gift for him to not have to pay for his gift for his girlfriend. Well once he saw them, he insisted that he pay me. I tried to tell him no, but he wouldn’t allow it. So I am accepting a little. But I’m still giving him a really good deal. He also bought two bowls for his gf that I made. And I ended up giving him two more because he wanted them and I said they were HIS Christmas present. :) There are other possible sales coming up, but I shouldn't say anything until they're final.

Okay, I was not expecting to sell ANY of the things that I made this semester. Seriously. Not because I don’t WANT to sell them, I just didn’t think it would happen. But apparently, buying things from friends is cool and it doesn’t matter if the stuff is a bit sub-par (I’m sure those buying the items would disagree. It’s probably just me being all negative because it’s something I made and I only see the flaws when I look at it.)
Anyway, it just makes me super excited to get going with my clay work!! I must!! I must!!
Well my mother has an electric kiln she bought last year(?) for $65.00 (SUPER GOOD DEAL!!) Anyway, it needs a little work (new coils, new switch, new cord) but I don’t think it’s really anything major. So I think I’ll probably e-mail the ceramics teacher at school and ask if he would be willing to look at it if I brought it up there. He’s pretty easy-going so I’m sure he’d be willing to help me. Also, my husband’s grandfather is a master electrician so any electrical work that may need to be done shouldn’t be too much of a problem to get fixed. I’m hoping to make that happen when school starts back.

Also, I’ve been knitting more cowls lately. I think I’m getting faster I completed almost two yesterday evening. The only reason why I didn’t finish the second was because I was showing my sister-in-law how to knit and I stopped to eat dinner. (Both of which were good, fun things) I’m currently knitting with some acrylic yarn I have in my stash. I’m not really crazy about acrylic or any other synthetic fibers. I just don’t like them. They don’t feel or behave right. That’s partially due to only being able to use natural fibers with the dyes we use in the dye studio. But I just really prefer natural fibers. They feel nicer, I understand how they are supposed to behave and they’re NATURAL!! Anyway, I’m thinking it might be good to build up a little bit of an inventory of these lovely items and having some synthetic ones will be good because natural wool can be a pain to wash. So it’s all good. :) Phew! It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long since I wrote, but so much has happened!! Christmas is just around the corner and I’m looking forward to it. :) I’m excited to give mostly handmade gifts this year. I hope everyone likes what they get!
~JoAnna

Busy busy busy!

I haven't had time to post lately because I've been so busy with the end of school. I took my last final of the semester yesterday. Yay!! I got an A in the class. (Good feeling) Another yay!! :) I'm still waiting to hear back on three other grades, but I'm pretty sure I'll get A's or B's. Very unlike me. I haven't had a lot of semesters where I didn't get at least ONE C. Math and chemistry classes mostly...and my history classes. Or when I had two fibers classes at a time.

Speaking of fibers classes... :) I'm SOOO excited about next semester! I'm finally getting back over to the fibers studio (After a year's absence) I've been taking ceramics classes (And enjoying them very much) But I really do miss the fibers studio. I'm very excited about Weaving II. My instructor said it will be very different from how she has taught it before. It will all be very experimental and conceptual. It will be a big challenge for me going from two semesters of functional, 3D work to 2D, conceptual/sculpture-like (possibly) work. I'm kind of intimidated. But I know it'll be good for me to stretch my brain and push myself in a different direction.

I haven't had time to work on my placemats for a few weeks. So it's just been sitting there half in the reed, half out. I had some minor setbacks and I'm going to re-sley the reed because I think 30 epi is going to be too close. So I'm gonna re-sley at 20 which is frustrating to do in a 15 dent reed because it means a sleying sequence. (1-1-2 in this case) It's not really hard to remember, but it's annoying. Plus I wound off two bouts that I don't need now that I've changed the sett. I think I can still pull them off and save them (Even though I've already cut the ends. If I just put a bunch of ties on it and make sure I tie the cross really well, I should be fine. I wound off two extras on the blue warp too and I would need 5 bouts to make something else. (Towels, runner etc.) If I have time, I might make a runner for the set in a plaid. That could be really nice. The warp isn't really long enough for anything else so that would be lovely. I just have to decide what to do for that last bout. I was thinking I might throw a bout of the variegated that I'm using for the napkins in there to sort of tie everything together. But we'll see. At least I have a plan. Now I just have to get weaving!!
~JoAnna

Beginning of the end

I began putting the first warp on for my culminating project in college. I scared myself pretty bad the other day. I got to thinking, I won't be living in our little apartment in just a few months. We may not even be living in the same town! I've lived here since I was 5 years old! I'm scared and excited at the same time.

More about the project though. (I'm excited) I think I've already said this somewhere, but sometimes I just need to write things again. It's like hearing it out loud and I'm a very auditory person.
I'm supposed to combine my two concentrations within my major of interdisciplinary studies. My concentrations are interior design and art. Well, personally, I think those two things go hand in hand anyways. I started trying to formulate exactly what I was going to do.

I've decided to make four place settings for a table. I will be weaving placemats and napkins and I have thrown ceramic plates and bowls. They all have the common colors of green and blue. (because those are the colors of yarn I had...And I love those colors!) I'm going to weave two green placemats and two blue placemats. The napkins will be a variegated yarn that combines the blue and the green. I have made two plates that are primarily green and two that are primarily blue. Same goes for the bowls. I wanted all of the pieces to have a common theme, which is the colors. I have also used a motif that is constantly stuck in my head, three stylized leaves.

I have been considering weaving an overshot edge on the placemats that uses a honeysuckle pattern, but I'm afraid that my sett will be too tight. I guess I really should have sampled. I think I'll have some space to sample at the beginning of the warp. So I'll probably do that and see what happens. The placemats only need to be 22" long. (compensating for shrinkage and hems. I would like them to be 19") Anyway, I have 108" (3yds) for warp length. Minus 27" of shrinkage gives me something like 80" to actually weave. Well 80 divided by two does not equal 20 so I should have enough room to sample a little at the beginning. It just seems strange for the warp to be so short, but I'm getting exactly what I need. Two placemats.

Anyway, I'm almost done sleying the reed (I warp front to back) Threading will be frustrating...It usually is. Mostly because I don't really have enough room in my apartment to fold down the back of the loom so I can actually get to the harnesses. Perhaps warping back to front would make more sense, but I've not learned to do that yet. So we'll just ignore that and do this the only way I know how.
For the actual project part of this whole thing I have to write a ten page reflection paper explaining why and how these two majors are combined and why I chose to do what I did. I think of it like an artist's statement. Although I really prefer my artist's statements to be about a page long when talking about a project. Oh well. I can do this! Now, if only I was at home working on it...
~JoAnna

Magic in the water

I washed the three scarves from the scarf set warp I just took off the loom. They came out...AMAZING. They were pretty stiff when I took them off the loom and I was a bit concerned that they would stay that way. No. When you hold one, it's like holding a liquid it's so soft and drape-able. It's wonderful. I don't want to sell them!! :) Of course I will, but I'm definitely going to try and buy more of the 6-ply rayon before it all sells out. I'll probably make one for myself at some point. I'm so happy with how they turned out!! I can't wait to get more yarn wound off and on the loom.
~JoAnna

Twisting Fringe...Changing plans

For both of the scarves I've sold/traded I hand twisted the fringe. It looks great, but my poor fingers still hurt. I'd better get used to it. I have to twist the fringe on the next four scarves that come off the loom. I can feel the pain already.

So I think I might be changing the plan a bit for my place mats... I'm thinking now that I'll do an overshot pattern on the ends of each to add a little more visual interest. True, it will be covered up on one side by the napkins, but that's okay. I think it will help tie the place mats to the bowls and plates better. I'm planning on weaving a pattern called honeysuckle. It looks like the flowers that I constantly draw and that I painted in slip on the bowls and plates. I can't wait until I get all my stuff fired so I can glaze it and get to the fun part: taking it out of the high firing! It's like they say, it's just like Christmas every time you open that kiln door. I can't wait!
~JoAnna

Sale and Trade

I sold another scarf!! I'm pretty excited. It's kind of funny, way back in September, my textiles professor stopped by the Fall Fun Fest booth and I happened to be there. She saw one of my scarves and said she LOVED it. She told me that day she would probably be back to buy it later in the day, but she never came back by.

Yesterday in class she asked me if I would be selling any of my work in the annual Holiday Sale that takes place at the Craft Center after Thanksgiving. I told her I wouldn't because I am not a member of the Visual Arts Society. (VAS) She then asked if I still had the blue scarf that she was looking at and if I would want to sell it to her. Here's the picture of the scarf I'm selling to her.


OF COURSE I said yes!! I went home immediately after class and twisted the fringe so that it would be machine washable. I had forgotten to twist it after I took it off the loom. But it's all ready now and I will be charging her $60 for it. It was originally $50, but I think since the fringe was twisted by hand, it was acceptable to charge a little more.

Well funny story, I took the scarf with me to the clay studio last night just in case I had some time to work on the fringe a little more and I was telling a good friend of mine about how I was selling it. She asked if I had any other scarves and I said I did. I told her I had one that was green and purple. (This one)

Well she got really excited and said those were her favorite colors! She asked if I wanted to trade something for it. That was pretty much as exciting as selling it to her. So I'm trading her the scarf for three serving bowls. :)

I really like the idea of people I know having the things I make. I love sharing them with people. (Selling, trading, giving etc) It makes me happy to know that something I made, enjoyed making and loved is going to someone that will really enjoy it. I know my textiles professor will love the scarf she's getting because the moment she saw it, her eyes lit up. She loves textiles and fabric and fibers so she appreciates it on a different level.

I know that my friend will love her scarf because she has an appreciation for crafts, weaving, and loves the colors. It's so encouraging and fun to have work to sell. I really need to build up an inventory so that I'll have MORE things! As of now, I have one bag left from the work I made this summer and that's IT!! Crazy!! I've sold (or traded) three scarves, a bag and a hat. And the hat and two of the scarves were in the past week! I need to get planning projects and get warps wound off so I can get projects going! Success (even in a small form) is very exciting and encouraging.
~JoAnna

Scarf #3

Perhaps it was in response to the Weavezine article, or maybe it's because I've never tried it, but for my 3rd scarf on the warp I'm trying a basket weave. I was trying to figure out something that wasn't twill that I could do on a tabby (straight twill) threading. I was trying to get all complicated with it and it didn't work. So I ended up with a nice tabby variation. I'm actually pretty excited about it.

I really like how my selvages are turning out. I think it's because it's the basket weave and it goes around two yarns instead of just one. I am weaving with two shuttles because I find it easier than to have to wrap around the selvage yarn each time I throw a shot. I am using a rayon weft that matches the tan stripe down the middle. I did some striping at the beginning of the scarf to give it a little more interest. It was a little annoying to do because I kept changing the bobbin every 10 picks to change to a different stripe color, but it looks great so I don't really mind. It's only 5 inches of striping. I think I can handle that. I used a bright yellow for the stripes. It looks really neat!

I've been trying hard not to complain about my lack of tools, space, yarn etc. But unfortunately, I can't stop thinking about Bluster Bay mini end feed shuttles. :( It would probably be beneficial for me to test one of the things first, but I don't have any way of doing that. I have thought about getting a different brand because I think Schacht or LeClerc might be cheaper (I can't remember) But the thing that I really like about the BB is that it's a MINI. It's only 11" as opposed to 13"-15". I generally do narrow warps (Which I'm sure won't always be true) but right now it doesn't make sense to have a shuttle that long. Perhaps when I weave my first blanket I can use it as an excuse to buy a larger one. :) I WISH I could weave my first blanket now. But I'm really just happy I'm able to weave at all. I have to remind myself of that...(Often)

I'm a bit torn because I also really want to get this lovely set of interchangeable circular knitting needles from Knit Picks.

Aren't they pretty?? So I don't know what I want to get. Yeah, yeah. Christmas is coming up. I know. I'll probably ask for fibers tools. (A first, actually) We'll see.
~JoAnna

Plain Weave

I read a WONDERFUL article on Weavezine today. It's about the many different things you can do with a simple plain weave structure.

It really did my heart good to read it. I am a huge fan of plain weave (Which article author, Tien Chiu points out, there is NOTHING plain about it!) I love the simplicity that is tabby. It's simple and beautiful. I don't see that a weaving pattern needs to be complicated in order to be beautiful. It goes back to my entire philosophy as an artist of simple is beautiful. I would like to try collapse weave and see what it does. Now...To get my hands on some wool...
~JoAnna

Balling up a skein of yarn

My yarns arrived on Saturday and I have been very excited to try them out! I finished the first scarf on my warp in a bit of a rush in order to get to the new yarns.

Alright. I have never used skeined yarn before. The kind that looks like this:

I figured it worked like anything else, you pull out all the ties that are holding it together and you pull the loose end. This quickly turned from an exciting moment, to all out war. Both ends came loose and I didn't know how to hold it on tension (or that you needed to) in order to wind it on a ball winder. It turned mostly into large piles of knots. I decided that before I went any further, I should probably look up HOW to ball up a skein of yarn...Since I don't have a swift, I looped each end of the circle of yarn onto my knees and held it taut. While I did this, I pulled one end completely out until all the yarn was lying in a pile on the floor and had the other end attached to the ball winder. This whole process ended up taking me about an hour or so to get several small balls of yarn (because I kept having to break the yarn.) and one larger ball. Who would have thought yarn could be so confusing?!

Well anyway, I've tested a little of the yarn (The Spice colorway) in a twill on the warp. It feels SO SOFT!! It's lovely yarn and I think it will weave up nicely. I'm not particularly attached to it, so I might end up selling this scarf. Also, I have another scarf that is pretty much the same colors. I think I'll probably weave up the green and aqua scarves for myself. (well it was MY birthday present!!) I was thinking I'd use the olive Tencel I have with the Dill Heather (the green) and then use the aqua (Shallows) with the navy Tencel I have. I don't like scarves that are cotton. I have one and the only reason why I like it is because it's the first scarf I ever made. But it's not particularly warm, it wrinkles a lot and it can get a little itchy because of the weave structure.

I'm sure those scarf warps will not go on next though. I'm going to try to weave napkins and place mats for my culminating project over the break. I need to make 4 place mats and 4 napkins. I am making plates in my throwing class this semester that will match the place mats and napkins. I can't decide if it would be better to have the place mats be variegated or the napkins variegated...Hmmm...I am getting a bit excited about weaving all this nonsense. I'll just have to hurry and get those scarves off of there!! I'm still not sure what I'm gonna do for the third scarf...I might use the yellow and tan in stripes that match the warp. I'm actually kind of not crazy about the twill that I'm using for the current scarf. I don't really like straight twill...But maybe I could try going up and down to create a zigzag pattern instead. I like that a lot on my overshot scarf. I need to stop blogging when I'm in an office. It makes me want to go straight home and get on my loom!!
~JoAnna

November already?!

I can't believe it's November already! School is keeping me so busy and it's going by so fast! I can't believe that I only have one semester left and then I graduate!

My yarn still isn't here. The tracking info says Monday. :( I don't want to wait that long! I got to weave a little last night on the scarves. I'm still on scarf #1. I got the pattern at the bottom of it done though. I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with it...But that's okay. I can maybe sell it. I'm also not sure I'm crazy about the tabby on rayon...For the second scarf I might try a straight twill and see how that looks. We were talking about different weaves in my Textiles class and my professor said that twill weaves are usually looser than plain weaves. Maybe I could try a basket weave variation too...I just wish I had the time to sit down and weave more!! Maybe I should have sampled a little more at the beginning. I was just worried about not having enough space to weave three scarves on a warp.

Ohhhh!! What if I did the cordovan, orange and red scarf/runner in a basket weave?? Here are the colors:




I was thinking of using the rayon (Cordovan/plum) for warp and then using the orange and red for weft. Seems like a good idea...For now anyway...I want to start using longer warps though. I got frustrated with short warps this summer. It seemed like I was always dressing my loom. Which was good, because it taught me quickly how my loom works and how to dress a loom quickly and efficiently. But weaving is the fun part. And longer warps allow for more weaving time. I'll keep thinking about what else I could do.
~JoAnna

A little bit of weaving

I got to weave a little more last night. I have finished the sampler section of the warp which is a bit short for another scarf, but perhaps it could still be used for something. It was helpful to figure out what I DON'T want to do. Seems a bit backwards, but that's okay.

I found a scarf striping pattern I liked on a friend's facebook. The main body of the scarf is cream but at each end it has a series of stripes in brown, yellow and green. Since I don't have any brown yarn to work with, I will be using an ash color instead. Perhaps I will be able to test it later this week. But right now, I'm pretty busy with school. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to do for the other two scarves on the warp...But my yarn is on the way from Knit Picks so perhaps I'll end up using some of that to weave with.

I ordered some lovely variegated lace weight yarn in a colorway called "Spice".

As you can see, lovely. I'm very excited about it. This might end up looking nice with the warp I have on there. We'll see!
~JoAnna

More yarn

My sweet sister gave me a gift card for Knit Picks for my birthday. I have been really excited about it and have been agonizing most of today over what to get. Originally I had thought I wanted to buy a kit to learn Fair Isle knitting, but I changed my mind after looking around for a while. Once I got to thinking about it, I decided this was a good chance for me to test out some yarns with new and different fiber content than what I have previously used.

I bought a few skeins of lace weight yarn that I plan on using for weft in weaving. And a bought some more skeins for knitting hats (that I will most likely end up selfishly keeping for myself.) And I also bought a skein of merino, alpaca and silk that I plan on using to knit a scarf...also for myself. :D

I know, I know, I'll have to sell things eventually. But right now, I need to get a handle on how things work and all that jazz. And I can't very well go around selling all of my tests right? That makes my selfishness justified...Almost...haha. Anyway, when I have an actual budget set aside for buying yarn specifically for projects to be sold, I won't keep everything I make. Also, we agreed that I'm not going to be using weaving to make money with. It's pretty much for my enjoyment. (What a blessing!)
Ceramics...that's a different story. I plan on makin' money off of that. I've been thinking a little about it and considering how I want to run my studio. I don't think I really want to make entire dinnerware sets to sell. My instructor said he did that for a long time and he ended up getting out of it because, basically, he got sick of making the same thing over and over again. And customers just wanted to add to their sets not try new and different things. He said if you can be successful making different things, then you're set because people will want you to do new things. I'd like to make small sets...As in like a set of 4 mugs, pie plates, etc. Or maybe use the same glaze or surface decoration but not have the shapes match.

Anyway, back to yarn. I truly am excited about all of it. :) It will be fun to plan projects for each skein. For the lace weight I'm planning on using it just in the weft...Possibly in a mixed warp, but probably not. (It scares me too much) I bought one in green that will go really well with an olive green Tencel I have, one that is sort of an aqua color that will be pretty with a navy Tencel I have. (Love Tencel!!) And I got one that is variegated in fall colors that I plan on using a rayon warp with. All of my rayon cones are in natural colors which will go really nicely with the colors and tones of that skein. I can't wait to hold them and feel them!! AAAAHH!!! Oh dear. When did I become SUCH A NERD?!?! Oh well. At least I'm in good company.
~JoAnna

So little time!

I haven't been able to weave much lately. I've been too busy with school. I'm working on another round of projects that are due next week. Yuck. About all I've had time to do is knit a little here and there. I'm working on hat # 7 from the yarns I bought. Mom gave me some more yarn for my birthday so that's stretching my yarns a bit further. I'm hoping to be able to sell some of them at the craft fair coming up next(?) weekend. I can't actually remember when it is...

I was telling my husband the other day that I usually have about 4 or 5 weaving projects in my head at the same time. It drives me crazy because I can't get them all out! I had this idea for a scarf or a table runner using a dark plum purple (almost brown or black) and a dark orange and red. I also have some lovely 20/2 cotton in a royal blue that I have been wanting to try weaving a scarf out of. I wound off some warp when I was at school in the spring and it was also 20/2 cotton in a lovely teal. I only wound off a few pairs of the teal because I wanted it to be an accent stripe for the scarf warp I have on there now, but it turned out to be too much thinner. (A fact I was not considering at the time) So I've had it sitting in my stash for 8 months.

I've also been thinking about making a scarf set based on a book that I'm reading called Dune. (I think I mentioned this project) Yes, I keep saying scarves, but they're my favorite thing to do because they're quick and easy and you can wear them. I love things I can wear. :) Also, I like to show off a bit by wearing and accessorizing with my handwovens. Can't help it. haha. Anyway, the scarf would be a navy blue with a sandy brown. I was thinking I'd do it in a log cabin pattern. I've never tried log cabin, but it's just color and weave. It can't be that hard. :)

As for other projects, I'm really fascinated by Fair Isle knitting and I REALLY want to learn how to do it! I think mom and I are planning on trying to learn how it works over my winter break. I didn't feel confidant enough in my knitting skills to attempt to learn how to do it on my own.

I'm always finding inspiration for colors and patterns everywhere!! Now if I could just get them out of my head and onto a loom or some needles...
~JoAnna

Stumbling...A favorite past time.

I don't mean actually stumbling and falling. A friend told me about this site: StumbleUpon.com go here and start stumbling! Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the neat things I've found.



I love this. It's fun to see a weaver from another culture.





I LOVE the colors in this one! I wouldn't normally think of putting a teal/aqua with orange, but it's beautiful. Perhaps I could use colors like this for a weaving project...




I love fibers and textiles in all their forms. I love the shapes of these lamp shades(?) I suppose that's what they are.




I wish I had this on a t-shirt!! So cute!




As a former dancer, this speaks to my heart.




I want to hang out here! The colors are wonderful! It makes me want tea...haha




I want to make this hat. :)




I would love this for my kitchen!




I love this because it's abstract and random. It's still a quilt but not what you would traditionally think of.




Isn't this a cool idea?? They call it a vertical veggie garden. Good for an apartment. I should make one!




This is called "Free form knitting". I think it's beautiful. Go here to see more!

Anyway, I get sick of not having any color or pictures, so I thought I'd post some. :) I love looking at photos on Stumble for color ideas. It can be a really good inspiration source.
~JoAnna

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! It's my golden birthday. The day your age and date of birth are the same number. 23!!

Quick and Painless

I finished putting the scarf warp on Mac this afternoon. So now I'm all set and ready to weave. The part I've been dreading is winding on. All summer I've had so many problems winding on every single warp. It's taken me over an hour to wind on a 3 yd. warp. I think it once took me 4 hours to wind on a 5 yd. warp. Ridiculous!! No wonder I've been dreading it!

Well a while back I posted about how I had been performing the technique I saw in Syne's blog incorrectly. Today was the first time I tried it with correction. It took me about 15 or 20 minutes to wind on an 8 yd. warp!! And that's with stopping to fidget with choke ties, thrums, texting occasionally etc. Wow. The yarns were all orderly and I only had one warp yarn break right near the beginning because I wasn't paying attention and pulled too tight. I'm still a bit in shock right now. So that makes getting to my favorite part (weaving) even easier. I don't mind taking the time to dress my loom. It doesn't really bother me because I know what I'm going to get out of it.
But if it doesn't have to take upwards of 10+ hours to get a warp on and ready to weave, I'm perfectly okay with that. Anyway, the yarns look really nice together. I was a little worried that the tan might be too tan and make the yellow just look icky. But it looks nice together. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing for weft right now... (Which is why I'm blogging not weaving)

I don't have much of the yellow yarn left. Perhaps instead of trying to get a 4th scarf out of the warp I'll sample some ideas to get a clearer picture of what I want. That would give me about 30-40 inches for a sampler...Or something like that. Yeah. that will work. I'll sample some yarns and some ideas and then weave 3 scarves. Well I'm glad I have something on there. I'm still not sure that any weaving will actually get to take place before school ends, but that's okay. At least it's on there. I choose to remain positive.
~JoAnna

Wishing...

I made the unfortunate mistake of looking at Webs and Yarn Barn today to see what's new. Well not much is new, but it still made me want to buy yarn. :( There are these two lovely rayon colors from Yarn Barn that I wish I could buy!! Gold and curry.
*sigh* It goes with my current kick of fall colors. But it's not just fall. I'm just discovering them because it IS fall. Well...I've always loved that gold color. :)

Anyway, I am hoping to start sleying the reed and threading today. I hope everything goes smoothly since I haven't woven anything in about 2 months or so.
Back to the note of wishing...I wish that I could buy a new reed. :( I really do need a new one. Since the reed I currently have is metric (6dpc. Which is APPROXIMATELY 15 dpi) approximately is the problem. Since I'm using a sleying sequence to get a different sett than the reed "automatically" provides, the project is always off center by about an inch...sometimes less.

I was taught to measure the width of the reed, find the center, measure to the left of center half the width of the project and begin sleying from left to right. Generally this comes out only off by a few dents, but with the metric reed, it ends up off more than that because cm aren't the same as inches. And since 15 dpi is pretty tight, it doesn't matter how much I clean the reed or how many things I weave, it still seems to catch the yarn when I'm weaving.

Well...Lets not get all depressed. I'm still happy about the lovely weaving I get to do. I have an 8 yd. warp going on, and I SHOULD be able to get 4 scarves out of that. I know I used 11 yds. when weaving my last 4 scarf set, but I'm planning to make these shorter. I calculated a full yard of waste (which I'm sure I won't need) But generally (depending on the yarn's fiber content) I end up with aprox. 28" of waste. I calculate high because often when I am winding the warp on, it gets really tangled by the end and I end up just cutting it off. It's one of those decisions you make about yourself as a weaver. Am I more concerned with not wasting yarn or enjoying the process? Answer for me: Enjoying the process. If I end up frustrated and walking away from it because it's too hard to get the knots out without breaking yarns, I cut it off.

Anyway, I still have to work the numbers out a little more to make sure I have everything right, but I think it should be no problem to get 4 scarves. I was reading in my handy-dandy Weaver's Companion that the "normal" length for a formal woman's scarf is something like 45-48 inches. CRAZY!! I prefer my scarves long and lanky. I like them to hang down to my hips when wrapped once around my neck. For me, that's aprox. 72".
Since I am just going to weave tabby I've been thinking of ways of spicing things up a little. I found this lovely project on the Schacht Spindle site: http://www.schachtspindle.com/yearning%20to%20weave/lesson_03.php

One of the things she does in this lovely little scarf is weave in loose roving for spinning/felting.

I have some roving that my instructor gave us that she didn't want anymore and I think it would be fun to try weaving in some of that. It is 100% wool, but since it will be in such small quantity, I don't think felting or shrinkage should be a problem. Again, it's an experiment. I'm also going to try the stripe idea I had. Now if only I can get out of this office and get to my loom!!
~JoAnna

Weaving on the mind

I can't seem to stop thinking about weaving lately.
Today I had some thoughts. I think I'd like to do some scarves with some simple stripes in them. It could be quite pretty. I think knitting is teaching me about proportions and stripes. It just translates a little differently to weaving.

For example: I was thinking I'd do green Tencel stripes in the scarves I'm planning on weaving. (or at least in one) If I was knitting a hat, it would be like knitting 10 rows of green, 3 of white, 7 of green, 3 of white, 5 green, 3 white, etc. But in weaving I'd have to throw quite a few weft shots to get the green stripes to be the same length they would be in knitting. It depends on how thick the yarn I'm weaving with is, but since it would be 8/2 Tencel, that's pretty thin. I'll just have to experiment. I'll have to measure exactly how many inches the striping takes up on the first side and then weave the middle and when I get to the right number of inches left, I begin the stripe pattern again, just backwards so that they match. This could work!
Sometimes I just have to say things "out loud".
~JoAnna

Christmas Came Early...

It came home in the form of to boxes full of handmade ceramic bowls, mugs, tumblers and tea bowls.
I am taking a ceramics throwing class this semester in school and it has been difficult but wonderful. Our mid-semester critique was yesterday and I got to bring home 17 bowls, 13 mugs, 11 tumblers and 25 tea bowls. They're all lovely. I must say, I feel about the same about tea bowls as I do about pinch pots: useless. But that's okay. I made some really pretty ones.

I was rather saddened by one of the comments another student made about the clay bodies we use at school. She asked if there was a clay body we could use that didn't have speckles in it. :(
My professor's response was, "Ohhhhh! I cannot believe you're asking me that." The most wonderful thing about handmade pottery is that it has the speckles and doesn't look like commercial/manufactured pottery. My Fiesta-ware is about as close as I can get to "handmade".

Anyway, I'm certain I won't keep everything I've made, but I'm not sure what I want to give away because I love everything that I've made SO much. We shall see. I know it will feel nice to know that my lovingly made pieces will find nice homes in my family and friends but it's still hard. It's like giving someone a small piece of yourself. Which is good because then they have it, but it's hard too.

On another note: I MISS WEAVING!! I haven't woven anything for a couple of months and it's very sad! My poor Mac sits empty and unused. I feel guilty! I just really don't have time this semester! I'm so busy! Two jobs, and a full load of classes is a lot. I never have time to just sit.
I keep hoping that maybe over fall break (this weekend) I'll get to sit down and at least dress the loom so I can weave when I have a chance. I have an 8yd. scarf warp ready to be put on and I think I'm going to just thread it for tabby. That way at least I'll be able to get some scarves out. I think it could be quite simple and lovely. And I'm all about simple and lovely. It's a Rayon in natural colors and I think I'd like to just let that speak for itself.

Just talking about it makes me want to do it! I'm a bit nervous about winding an 8yd. warp on the loom in my tiny apartment, but I somehow managed to do it on the little Dorset that I borrowed from mom last fall so I'm certain I can do it!! I'd like to try twisted fringe on the scarves and see how it works. I've never tried that form of finishing before and I need to learn sometime. Now if only I could find some time...
~JoAnna

Hats...Pumpkin hats!

I'm already halfway done with my first hat from the Knit Picks yarns I just got earlier this week. I'm so excited!! If I get a chance I'll try to put pictures up...It's difficult not having a camera... Well, here's some pics of the colors I'm using for the hat I'm working on. (Pictures from Knit Picks website) Anyway, I especially LOVE the orange. It's called pumpkin which is perfect for fall. Hopefully I'll be able to get this one done soon and get it and two others felted. I've been so busy going back and forth to the craft center that I haven't had a lot of time to do other things.

Friday is the day that Weavezine articles typically come out and today was no exception. This summer I couldn't WAIT until Fridays because it meant a new article! (And because it was the weekend.) I just glanced over the article, but just that and some Weavolution forum surfing made me miss weaving SO MUCH!! I'm definitely enjoying my time in the ceramics studio and I'm super excited about all the lovely bowls, tumblers and mugs I've made, but I miss the wonderful feeling of yarn and a shuttle in my hand. I'm hoping that maybe over fall break I can get that scarf warp on the loom and be able to just sit and weave every now and then in the evenings. It's not like I have homework or anything. Seriously...I don't study. Never really have. And I still manage to have a pretty good GPA...I don't really care that much about grades.

I want to buy more yarn. (For weaving this time) haha. It's a never ending cycle.
~JoAnna

Fall, yarns, cold weather, ceramics

I suppose I shall go with the trend. Everyone here is talking about the wonderful fall weather we're having. It was chilly this morning when I woke up. I love the smell and feel of fall. I love that it's sunny but crisp when you walk outside. I love the sound of leaves crunching beneath your feet, I love walks in the woods (but I love that any time of year.)

Anyway, it feels like when fall hits I want to craft even more. Maybe it's the whole idea of preparing for winter (even though there's pretty much no chance of getting snowed in here in TN) I just always feel like fall is a time to buckle down the hatches and get ready for the real cold that's coming in a few months.

I got my yarns yesterday for knitting. I can't tell you how much I miss weaving!! Knitting does dissipate the feeling of longing to work on my loom, but it's still there.
Anyway, I'm excited to knit up some lovely hats. I plan on making some and trying to sell them at my mother's booth in an upcoming craft fair in Nov. I don't think selling them for $30 is unreasonable. Most quality hats and beanies sell for about that much. Or at least the ones from the outdoor stores do. I guess they sell for between $20-$30. But I'm going with $30. :)

I have been SO tired this week! I've spent...14 or more hours working in the clay studio in the past 4 days. And I'm going back later today, tomorrow, and probably over the weekend too. I have made so much stuff!! It's been a lot of fun but it's exhausting. Spending that much time bent over a wheel makes you ache all over. But the majority of my stuff is currently in the kilns being bisque fired. Then all I have to do is glaze it all and high fire it.

I've been a bit nervous about using the kilns, but my instructor showed us how to use them yesterday and it wasn't really all that complicated. (kinda like a microwave...*lol*) The main thing is keeping track of time. For a bisque firing, you have to set it for 8 hours to come up to temperature because you don't want anything to crack by heating the kiln up too fast. I'm not really sure how high firing works. I suppose I should read my book. That's what my instructor would tell me.

At any rate, I'm excited that I'm learning things. I really can't wait until I have my own studio so that I can fire things right when I'm ready instead of having to wait for everyone else in the class to get there stuff ready and all fire at once.
I'd like to get one of the electric kilns like we have at school. My mother has one that needs some fixing up, but it's a good little kiln. I was really surprised how much fits into just one! you just put shelves in it and you can stack and nest everything and pack it in very closely. It's pretty cool. Most everyone's stuff fit into just one 23" electric kiln. And we all had about 6 mugs, 6 tumblers, 4 bowls, and a variety of other things that got put in.

Needless to say I'm very excited to start setting up my own studio. I think I could be quite happy weaving scarves, knitting hats, and throwing bowls for a very long time. :) I really enjoy bowls. I think I just need more practice with pulling handles because at this point, I don't love it. Someday soon I shall be able to do this all the time and make what I want.
~JoAnna

Happy as a clam...?

Is that a phrase or am I making things up? ...Oh well. I'm very happy. I had a fiber filled day today. I'm currently taking an art history course at school and we get extra credit if we go to a reception/gallery talk/show opening. We have a small gallery in the student center on campus and there was a show opening today. My husband (who is also taking the class) and I decided to go. I was dreading it slightly, mostly because I thought it would be paintings...And while I like paintings, I really prefer crafts and find them more interesting due to the different skills and processes you have to learn to produce work.

Well when we got to the opening, it turned out to be a fibers exhibit! How WONDERFUL!! I was very excited. The artist's name is Jennifer Sargent. She is a British textiles artist who moved to America years ago. She was wonderful. She gave an overview of how she got started, what inspired her work and how her inspirations changed as she moved and learned more as a fiber artist.

She is a tapestry weaver, screen printer, surface designer etc. etc. Her work was lovely. I found it so interesting because she combined weaving with surface design and printing. I have been trying to figure out a way of doing that same thing and making it look appealing and...well...good. Well she's done it. Look her up. :)

I finished knitting another hat today. It looks a little weird (maybe) because I ran out of yarn and just had to cinch it up and I had a lot of decreases still to go. It actually might look okay, it just has these interesting pleats or ridges at the top where it wasn't prepared to draw in. I think it could actually look quite cool. But I'll have to wait and see what it looks like after felting it. Needless to say, I'm excited.

I also got to order more yarn for knitting today. I have been looking at different places and shopping around. I found some nice wool from Knit Picks that was pretty cheap. I ordered 9 hanks of 50 grams each. I'm using three colors per hat (gives it more interest than just two IMHO) and I can get about 2 hats per 3 hanks. So that's like...6 hats?? Well, I am trying to sell them. Perhaps I shall make leg warmers too though. Either way, it should keep me knitting for a while.

I have been looking longingly at my loom lately. I really want to get a warp on it. But I was hoping to get a new reed before starting my next project. I should probably just suck it up and use what I've got. I've got an 8yd. scarf warp wound off and sitting on my loom ready to be put on. Perhaps after the first round of tests in school I can get it on there.

Anyway, it's been a lovely little day and I've been very happy and excited about fibers today. I love being a fibers geek/nerd. It's lots of fun. I like having something to think about that isn't school or work. Knitting gives me something to keep my hands busy that's completely portable. Though weaving still captures most of my heart. :)
~JoAnna

Wet Weather Days

The rain has been falling for two days now. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow too. On days like this, I wish I could be inside weaving, knitting or doing something productive with crafts.

I'm getting quite tired of being wet all the time...And though I love ceramics and throwing pottery on the wheel, yesterday I just didn't want to do it because it was wet, cold and dirty. And when it's wet, cold and dirty outside, it makes it hard to want to do a thing that feels the same as being outside.

I'm sure I'll have many of those days. Perhaps what I'll end up doing to balance more than one craft is do ceramics during the summer (warm weather, when I don't mind cold, wet clay) and weave and knit during the colder months. (since you generally want to be doing something inside anyway when it's cold and icky out)

We shall see. I doubt I'll stop doing either craft completely during the "Off Season". I love them both too much. At least I'm taking throwing in the semester that starts off warm. It was awful taking intro to clay in the spring. It was freezing and it made it very hard to want to get in there and work.

I am very excited though to watch my skills improve as I continue through the semester. I've already gotten SO much better from last semester... And even just since the beginning of this semester! Right now I'm just experimenting with what I can do with the form. I can pretty much make a form every time I put clay on the wheel now. I have no trouble centering, coning, or entering and expanding the base.

Well I feel like I should be talking about weaving. But at this point it's all just dreaming. I don't have anything on the loom right now. :( I had planned on putting an 8 yd. scarf warp on Mac before school started but I ran out of time. My craft time had to be spent prepping for Fall Fun Fest. Oh well. Perhaps if I get some extra time on a weekend or something I can get something on there.
~JoAnna

Pictures and Fall Fun Festival

It's all over and done. FINALLY!!! I have been stressing and trying to prepare for weeks. The annual Fall Fun Fest was this weekend. I shared a craft booth with my mother and helped set up, take down, arrange and price things. I was there for about 6 hours on Friday and hmmm...10ish hours on Saturday.
It was lots of fun. We met a very nice lady in the booth next to us who decorated gourds, which were quite lovely.

I actually did fairly well. I sold two bags and a scarf. Here's some pictures of my work before it went into the show.



















I sold this lovely little orange floral bag.




































And this lovely rayon and cotton, red and yellow scarf.





















The little runner below got quite a bit of attention and I believe I have a custom order to make some scarves similar to this.

New fiber discoveries!!

I've been pretty busy with school lately and haven't updated for a little while. I've been busy sewing messenger bags for the craft fair coming up this weekend. I'm getting excited! I've got three woven bags and one made from commercial fabric ('twas a mock up). I've also got three scarves and a small runner (possibly for a dresser or something...It's not really long enough for anything...)
Anyway, that's going to be very exciting. :)

But onto the reason for the post. Alright. I've known how to knit for years. I think the first time I ever knit anything I was probably 10 or 12. Not very old, not very patient. Needless to say, I gave up on it pretty quickly. It was boring and frustrating and took far too long. I'd start projects randomly and I managed to knit two scarves at some point, but I never really enjoyed it.

Part of this is due to the fact that I'm a very tight knitter. I get frustrated because thus far in my life I've mostly used acrylic yarn...It has it's place, but that place is not in my hands. When I wrap the yarn around my finger to keep the tension, it rubs my skin in between my fingers raw. Not cool. Well I was over at my mother's house over Labor Day and she knits like a mad woman. It's wonderful and I love the things she makes. She knits with 100% wool yarn so she can felt the things she makes. They're all lovely. I have been trying to convince her for months to give me one of the hats (or a bag) that she's made. *lol*

Well I asked if I could try using some of her wool yarn. She pulled out her stash and gave me three skeins and a pair of circular needles. Now, I've never really knitted with circular needles so I didn't really know what to expect...It. Was. Wonderful. I knit for about 4 hours straight. I've never been able to do that. I am now most of the way done with a lovely wool hat which will be felted once it's done. It's like I've re-discovered knitting and it's possibilities and I've also discovered felting and all of its wonderful possibilities. I'm very excited about it. I like it because it's something that I can take with me where ever I go (too bad I can't knit in class!!) and it uses yarn. My favorite. :) I must say I still love weaving far more than knitting, but I'm very happy that I can finally put an unused skill to good use.

I think I shall knit a few hats first. I get too frustrated knitting scarves. They're too long. I like the circular needles. So I'll stick with those and just knit up a storm of hats for now. I love hats anyway, and perhaps I can give them to people or sell them at some point. Obviously I'm quite excited. I like having something to keep my hands busy when I can't sit at my loom.
~JoAnna

Fall is finally here!

Tomorrow ends my summer. I will be starting back to college for my senior year. It's definitely been a good summer and I've learned a lot about weaving. It's been wonderful having a loom and hopefully I can continue weaving this fall. But it probably won't be as much or as often.

I didn't manage to get my loom re-dressed for another project before school started, but that's okay. I'm planning scarves for my next project and a scarf warp doesn't take long at all to dress. I'm thinking I might just do a tabby scarf set in some lovely natural colors of rayon that I have. I'm excited about them.

The weather has been lovely this weekend. Fall is my all time favorite season. I especially love the smell of crushed leaves that have fallen from the trees. (yes, I'm a bit of a romantic at heart.) Anyway, I really want to make things for people this fall so I'll have gifts for Christmas and birthdays. (I have several birthdays in my family in Feb.) I'd definitely like to make a scarf for my sister-in-law. She's 12 and she keeps asking me to make her one. :) It makes me happy to know that I have that ability to make her something lovely and hand-made.
Ack. My brain is a bit all over the place right now. I'm going to talk more about this scarf thing. I think the longest part of dressing a scarf warp is winding the warp. I wound off an 8yd. warp so that will take longer than the other projects that I've done this summer. But it should go pretty smoothly since rayon doesn't tangle and stick together as much as cotton.

I'll be using a lovely pale yellow with a khaki stripe down the middle. I used almost all the yellow yarn up winding off two 8 yd. warps. I only had one lb. of that color and there's 2500 yds. per lb. so that's pretty much spent. I think I have enough to use it for weft for one scarf and the other two that will be on the warp shall have to be something else. I'm wondering if I can use the green, yellow, tan, and white variegated yarn I used a little of earlier this summer for one of them. It's a lovely cotton(?) slub yarn and should weave up very nicely. For one of them I plan on using the khaki color that matches the stripe in the scarf.

I saw in a previous article on Weavezine a scarf (or...some other woven article...) that was done using natural dyes (fermented persimmons...But I can't remember the name of the dye) and it was this lovely natural khaki, brownish orange color. I can't really describe it. But it's quite lovely. Well, I can't get the color variation, but I have colors similar to that. So perhaps I can weave something similar. :) That's my next plan. I still have so many things that I want to weave!! I can't wait to have a studio to work in. And time to work in it...
~JoAnna

Messenger bag #1

I'm done sewing the first messenger bag. FINALLY!!! It looks SO GOOD!! I think it's really cute. It was a bit of an ordeal to finish it. haha
So I was sewing along and everything was going well. And all of sudden something catches and it starts making this clunking noise. Well, I didn't really freak out so I just kept trying to sew. But the clunking and catching persisted which was when I took the cover off the bobbin holder and there was something loose.
Amazingly at this point I still didn't freak out. (I usually do...) So since it wasn't working I took it immediately over to the store in town that does repairs and where I purchased the machine. The guy said it was something like a weight or a pin or something that holds the piece in that is loose and he can have it fixed by tomorrow. Yay! Good! Because I need to finish these bags!! I have to sew two more! I'm sewing mine last, but that's okay. So I guess I just have one.

Anyway, once I got home from the quilt shop I was determined to finish the bag I was working on. There wasn't much left to do and I still have my old Singer. My Viking just sits on top of the cabinet that the Singer is in. And the main reason why I needed a new machine was because the bobbin winder broke off of my Singer. It's not much good if you can't wind bobbins...And it's a little old and finicky. I still have a love for it though deep down in my heart.

I unfolded the cabinet and pulled it out. Thankfully I had some red thread wound onto a bobbin for that machine! It's really picky and you can only use these certain plastic bobbins in it. Anyway, I was most of the way done sewing on the strap (the last part I needed to do besides a little hand stitching) and wouldn't you know it, the needle breaks. At this point I just laugh at the irony. I left the sewing machine needles in the OTHER machine's storage compartment! Well now I'm just determined to get this thing done. I finished sewing on the strap by hand and did an invisible stitch to close up the top where I turned the bag right side out.

I still might need to do some stitching around the edge of the flap to make sure it stays in place instead of floating around. It looks REALLY nice though! I'm so happy with it! Especially the strap. I used some really pretty embroidery stitching that my Viking has and I think it makes the strap pop. It's pretty awesome. :) Hopefully I'll be able to finish the other bag during the first week of school.
~JoAnna

Still sewing

I think I'm finally done with mock ups. I'm currently working on sewing the actual messenger bag. (Just the first one. I still have two more!) It's going pretty well so far. I'm having a hard time getting the flat bottom of the bag. I don't sew it as a separate piece, I just sew across the corners so it makes like a triangle shape which creates a flat bottom. But I can't remember how I got them so even on my last bag...So far on two mock ups and the actual bag, I haven't been able to get them even. I had to pull the stitches out last night...This is especially hard to do with handwoven fabric.

I'll get it eventually. I was just too tired to still be working on it last night. I've pretty much turned our entire apartment into my fibers studio. There's fabric everywhere and bits of yarn and thread all over the place. There's a trail down the hall to the bedroom (Where my sewing machine is) of fabric, yarn and thread. Ben has been very sweet and told me that since I'm there a lot more than he is, he doesn't mind if I use the whole house as my studio.

I finally figured out a strap for the bags though. I was trying to come up with something that wouldn't look like it was just stuck on there with no thought. What I ended up doing was using a lovely dark brown canvas. Canvas is a tough fabric and holds up well as a bag strap. But I still wanted to tie it in somehow to the bag. So I used an embroidery stitch on my sewing machine and ran three stitches down the length of the strap in red, yellow and pink. (three of the colors of the woven fabric.) I'm SO excited about how it turned out!! Hopefully when I get them finished I can put up photos of them.
~JoAnna

Mock ups!

I've learned the hard way that if you don't do mock ups for a piece you're planning on sewing, it's going to be a disaster. So I'm currently working on a mock messenger bag so I remember how to sew them. I have to sew three...Well...four with the mock up. But I know this is a good thing. I got to go buy some mock up fabric (i.e. cheap fabric) and I also got some lovely cotton for the liner of two of the bags.

Since I can't dye the fabric myself I was determined to at least try to find some fabric that wasn't...tacky. Hancock had some lovely fabric that looks similar to a low water immersion. So I bought some in a peach and some in a pink variation. That way each bag will look completely different while having similar elements. It kills me that I have to buy "hand dyed" fabric instead of making it, but I'm just trying not to think about it too much and reminding myself that someday I shall have a beautiful studio space to work in and I won't have to buy fabric besides white.

I do love buying white fabric. It's so much fun to get it ready to be dyed. You scour it and then depending on what process you use you might throw it right in a pot of dye or you dye it and pin it down to a table to be printed on or do surface work. Goodness I miss that!! I love having my little stash of tools and my apron and gloves on, all ready to go. Creating things is such a wonderful process. I love it. It's crazy to think that I'm going to school to create things. Like class is creating and learning new and better ways of doing that. How fun!

Whenever I'm in a studio working on a project and I start to get a little stressed or frustrated, I remind myself that I could be doing homework on paper or a computer instead of working with my hands to create art. I mean I could be writing a paper or doing math problems or studying a book. But no...My homework is do surface work on 12 samples of fabric, make 15 pinch pots, do a mock up of your wall hanging idea, build a foot stool from wood.
I have loved each of the classes that I have taken at the Craft Center. I loved wood working because it was something that I shared with my husband. We learned together and helped each other with our projects.
I've always loved fibers and taking the four fibers classes has opened my eyes to this vast medium that can be used for practical as well as artistic and sculptural.
Clay has been a wonderful experience after three semesters of fibers because it's so much about instant gratification. It's difficult to go from a 2 dimensional art form to a 3 dimensional one, but it's so different that I love it! I love being able to make things so quickly. The only part of the process that takes a long time is firing, but it so worth it because you can create these wonderful pieces that are so beautiful and unique. I have sculptures, mugs, bowls, jars, pots, masks and all kinds of different things that I made in my last clay class. I can't wait for clay on the wheel this fall! One full week left before school starts! I'm SO EXCITED!!!
~JoAnna

Too exciting!!

This doesn't really have anything to do with weaving, but I wanted to post about it anyway.
We got a new computer!! I am currently sitting on my couch with a 4lb. notebook on my lap. It's an HP Mini and it's very nice. I'm still getting used to the keyboard since it's a little smaller but overall, so far I really like it. It'll be convenient to just whip this sucker out in class. Very handy.

We're gonna have to find some kind of case for it. I'd thought about weaving something and then sewing it up to fit around foam pieces so it would be a case that actually protected it. We shall see.
It will be nice to have a computer that is actually ours again. My parents lent us one of theirs and we haven't felt like we should put anything on it since it didn't belong to us. I did install weaving software, but other than that, I don't think there's much else we put on ourselves. I'll have to download Weave Design for this one. I'm pretty sure it'll be more difficult editing drafts on this computer because the screen is much smaller, but I can't really complain. It's still faster than drafting by hand.

It's funny that I hate hand drawing drafts but when it comes to architectural drafting, I would much rather do that by hand than learn how to use the AutoCAD software. I'm generally good with just about anything that will speed up the process (usually computers) but for some reason, AutoCAD was one of the worst classes I ever had to take. It was right up there with my remedial maths, college algebra and chemistry. Ick!! So glad I'm done with all of those yucky classes.
Well since I'm now completely off the original topic, I'm going to go. I should be weaving right now anyways. I've gotta finish that shawl right?
~A very happy JoAnna

Weaving along

I'm not very far into the canvas weave shawl, but at least I'm actually weaving! I wove about 3.5 inches of tabby to fold up and sew a hem on later. I'm hoping that will be enough.
So far I've had a few minor problems. Nothing terrible though. Broke a warp yarn that was twisted (Thankfully just the one and not both that were twisted) I've found one weaving error, but I'm not going to go back and fix it. It's really only evident to me because I'm the weaver. Also, I don't mind having one or two errors in my cloth. I feel like it shows that it's woven by hand and not machine. My instructor would completely disagree with me and tell me to fix it, but I have to become my own artist and my own person.

My clay instructor purposefully leaves the seam lines in the coffee mugs he builds using the soft slab technique for the same reason. He wants the buyer or viewer to understand that it was made by a person and not in a factory. I've always loved that idea and so I don't freak out and go back if I've woven about 4 inches past the error. My instructor was once going to have me un-weave 11 inches just to fix a weaving error. That's not something that I will ever do in my work that is not done at school. Some may say that's bad craftsmanship, some say it's laziness, whatever.
The main point of weaving for me is to enjoy the process of making my own cloth. It takes away from the enjoyment to fix every single error. I end up getting frustrated and stopping.

I believe I posted about this canvas weave shawl before and how I was concerned that a sett of 25 wouldn't show off the lace weave enough. It actually looks quite lovely. It's still soft enough and open enough for the canvas to be evident and catch the eye of the viewer. I'd forgotten how lovely canvas weave is. And I can feel when I release the tension to advance the warp that it will be a wonderfully soft shawl. I'm fairly excited about it. I still hope to be able to put the rayon scarf warp on before school...but that's seeming less and less likely.

I also really need to sew up the messenger bags that I wove yardage for. I want to find nice liner fabric for them though and I haven't had a chance to go to the fabric store yet. I guess part of me doesn't want to. I'd rather dye fabric to be the liners, but I don't really have that option right now. :( Someday...Won't it be nice to have a studio to "play" in?
~JoAnna

A picture's worth a thousand words...And now I know that

Sometimes re-reading things and examining pictures more closely can be extremely enlightening...I have been having major problems winding my warp onto my back beam and I just discovered part of the reason why...

I have been using a technique that I saw in the Weave Geek blog on Weavezine.com where you tie onto the back and pull the warp tails through the loom and hold them in one hand to tension while you wind on with the other hand. Okay here's what I've been doing wrong. I didn't look closely enough at the photo but upon second, closer look and re-reading the description provided, it appears that you are supposed to pull the warp under the front beam and not still have the warp threaded through the lease sticks...This has been my problem. I learned to wind on by leaving the lease sticks in. If you've ever done this then you know that there's a lot of fiddling that goes on with the warp due to the yarns tangling around each other or essentially felting together if they're more fuzzy.

Well now that I think about it, if you took the lease sticks out, that would basically fix the problem of yarns wrapping around each other. Also, the front beam is much stronger than flexible lease sticks held down with masking tape. I shall have to finish fixing the errors on my canvas weave shawl that I've been putting off and weave it up so I can try this "new" technique.

It's not that I haven't wanted to weave the shawl! I definitely have. But when it takes about 2 hours to wind on a 3.5 - 4 yd. warp, you just don't want to look at the project for a while. I'm really hoping that the actual weaving part goes more smoothly. I'm still a bit nervous about canvas weave and that my sett is going to be too tight. But I suppose that's part of learning. And since that's what I'm trying to do this summer, it's good for me.

I've got a hankering to weave scarves though. All the more reason for me to get this shawl off the loom, washed, hemmed and ready to use! I have a 6" wide warp that's 8 yds. long all ready to be woven up. 8 yds? Goodness! I could weave that up into 4 scarves! Oh my! I need to get weaving! If I can get focused again, I could have all this done before school. Scarf warps don't take long at all to put on. And if I can get a handle on this winding technique, it should go beautifully. Now to figure out what to do with each scarf...
~JoAnna
P.S. It's also possible that I have been winding my warp bundles too small. It appears in the photo that the instructor is only holding one or two bundles for a warp that is aprox. 12 - 15 inches wide. Perhaps I should try that as well...I've got a nice strong warping board that my wonderful husband built for me. :)

Ideas for class

I'm back on the teaching brainwave. I talked to my mother this morning about teaching the weaving class for the girls. I'm now even more excited. (If that's possible...I might explode...) Anyway, she said definitely start with rigid heddle. It's quick and easy and since one of the girls already has one (Not sure she knows how to use it...yet) that gives us enough looms for all three girls. (Which was one of my initial concerns) So now I just have to get the looms and figure out how to use them...I also want to find yarns that I think they'll like. I know that it's a good challenge when learning weaving color theory to experiment with colors you love and colors you hate together, but I don't want to do that with them for a first project. We can do that later. I want to like weaving!
And when I first wove and had to pick colors I hated (Which is hard when you don't really hate ANY color!) I got frustrated. Actually, I didn't get to use the colors I picked. We worked in pairs and she said my colors and my partner's colors went to well together. She told me to change my "like" color to one that was dark. I think we had a teal, lemon yellow and a muted purple...And I think my "like" color was aqua or blue. She made me switch it to a maroon. :( I guess the purple (my "hate" color) wasn't ugly enough for her.

That was partially why I didn't like weaving...Also I'd just come from learning about dyeing and it's so simple to just throw some dye and fabric in a pot and sprinkle a little soda ash in it and see what happens. I dearly love weaving now though. I even like planning the projects out. Hopefully in the next three weeks before school starts back I will be able to figure out how to use each of the RH looms I have.
~JoAnna

Frustration sets in over the weary weaver

I love little phrases like that in books. Yes. I'm frustrated. I keep making stupid mistakes. And I SWEAR it's this reed!! I get so confused because I have to do sleying sequences instead of just either one yarn per dent or two yarns per dent.
I was supposed to have a sett of 20 epi but I have sett of 25.5 epi. That's way too tight for a canvas weave! I don't know what to do. I don't want to pull out 4 hours of work but it's not going to look right if I don't do something to it.

As I see it I have these two choices: Re-sley the entire reed and end up with 6 extra inches of width (Which will be harder to weave because I only have 11 inch boat shuttles) or I could make the project something else...
I can't believe this...But I think I'm going to just pull it all out. I chose this yarn specifically because it's soft and would make an excellent shawl. And if I leave the sett this tight it won't feel as soft. Ugh. Well, here goes nothing.

5 minutes later...
BUT WAIT!! Hope springs anew in the heart of the weary weaver! *lol* I could just thread everything, wind on and then pull the yarn out of the reed and re-sley it before I tie onto the cloth beam and tension everything. It would still be about 30 inches wide instead of 24 but that's okay. The main thing is that I really don't want to re-sley the enitre thing right now. So perhaps this will work. I don't like sleying the reed from the back like that, but it would be less frustrating than sitting for another 4 hours doing the exact same thing I did yesterday...Hmmm...Yes. I choose this path instead. :)
~JoAnna

At last! Another project!

I began sleying the reed for the canvas weave shawls today. I wound off a little over 4.5 yd warp so hopefully I should have no problems getting two shawls out of that. The yarn, so far, is a bit frustrating. It has a bad habit of essentially felting together while pulling the yarns through the cross. I'm trying to remind myself how bad it was the last time I wove canvas weave which will, hopefully, cause myself to realize that this really isn't that bad.

I've decided that the only part of dressing the loom that is really not so much fun is threading. I pretty much don't mind any other part. Yes, all of it gets frustrating at times, but threading hurts my back the most and is frustrating. I guess winding on is also frustrating. But at this point that's mostly due to having a large loom in a small space with too much furniture...And no trapeze. (which I've decided I must have once I have a studio with a taller ceiling... :) Otherwise that part isn't so bad. I can't really understand why it was so much easier at school. Seriously. I wound on an 11 yd. warp in probably about the same time it takes me to wind a 5 yd. warp now... I did have help on that one, but that wasn't until I was about half way done winding it on.

I think part of it is probably just having a space devoted to weaving alone. It's really hard for me to focus when I'm surrounded by...well...my house. I know that sounds silly, but I'm beginning to realize how important it is to have a seperate space in your house to do your craft. I've...probably already posted something along these lines. Oh well.

I really need to figure something out for pictures. This drives me crazy that I can't post pictures on my blog! Oh if only I had a simple digital camera! Someday I shall. What a boring blog it is without images of me working, my work, and other things that need to be seen. Like keeping records of working! Well, I was only taking a minor break between winding off and finishing the reed sleying. I shall continue to work and rant more later. :)
~JoAnna