Sledding

Today was like a scene from one of my favorite books. We went to lunch with mom and dad and my sister, Sarah. That's not the book like part though. After a lovely luch we returned home for sledding!

We pulled out all the winter snow clothes and I happily went through all of them, remembering something for each one. The hat and scarf I wore as a child, the pom pom hat that my dad wore to play with us which was almost always aconpanied by sweatpants and newspaper bags on his feet in lieu of waterproof boots. I found the "swamp thing" gloves that belong to my sister and were named by my brother. I found several hats that my mother made as well as a lovely pair of fleece lined wool gloves. (one of the only pairs of gloves that has actually kept my hands warm.)

We pulled out the wonderful old sled that was my father's when he was young. It's wooden and was made in Canada. Ben did not trust it at first. He kept thinking it would break. To me, it was like seeing an old friend. We quickly tested it out on one of our favorite runs toward the left side of the yard. It was a thrill a minute with shrieks of joy and terror as we rushed down the hill toward the inevitable ditch at the bottom.

The ditch is the best part though. You hit it and just go right up. My habit is to just fall backwards after it stops. I would lie there for a moment and then hop up and attempt to run back up the hill to let someone else have a go.

The book it reminds me of is Louisa May Alcott's Jack and Jill, as the beginning of the book has a scene where the children are sledding. That scene is what creates the rest of the story. It's a wonderful book.

I found a lovely mustard yellow scarf in the box of snow clothes which I have adopted as my own. It's long and thick and warm. Just the way a scarf should be. I can love knitted garments as well as woven ones! Even if it wasn't knitted by hand. I can't wait to put it with an outfit. I also wore my new leggings today which went wonderfully with my snow boots. I felt like I was all ready to take on the snow. :)

It has been a lovely day. I only wish I'd had the chance to build a snowman. The snow was too icy to be able to pack together for a snowman. That's okay though. It was fun to be with family. I'm so glad Ben was home today. I was so worried about him coming home from work last night. He only had one slipping incident but boy howdy did it scare the crap out of me! We were on the phone, as we often are when he's on his way home, and he starts yelling, "Shit shit shit shit oh shit!" and then the phone went dead. I thought he had wrecked and was dead. I immediately started praying and crying. He called back after about a minute and reassured me he was fine. I made him stay on the phone until he wad practically in our parking lot. And I gave him a big hug when he came inside. I hope we're both okay going out to the craft center for school this week! Hopefully the snow will melt fast.
-JoAnna

Going boldly into the unknown

So I'm doing it. I'm winding yarn off for the 20/2 sampler. I'm not sure I can, in good conscience, call this stuff yarn. It seriously is like sewing thread. I could probably buy serger cones of thread and it would be the same thing. Actually, I think I remember reading somewhere of someone (Maybe Sharon Alderman?) USING serger thread to weave with. So I'm a bit intimidated. Also, probably if the tension is uneven in the SLIGHTEST it's going to show up.

The first time I wove with 10/2 cotton, it was the same thing. The tensioning part wasn't so bad, but I had to learn how to beat in all over again. You can't just beat the crap out of it. It makes the fell line (where your last weft shot was) all wiggly. It's more like placing the weft shot.

Well anyway, I should really be altering cloth or paper right now. I just don't have any idea what to do with this assignment. I'll probably try to get a few pretty cool looking pieces instead of a ton of them. I just really don't want to do it at all. It's frustrating. It's supposed to be helping my creative process but I just feel like it doesn't relate to weaving at all. Ugghh!! Well I'm going to try to be productive.
~JoAnna

20 Miles of yarn!!

I forgot to mention something!
A friend from weaving class and I decided to go in together and order 30 pounds of the 6 ply rayon from Webs. We'll each get 15 pounds. It's all white so we can dye it if we want/need to. We definitely nerd-ed it up in the weaving studio yesterday. We were oggling over Weavolution together and talking about weaving books and structures. It's so nice to be around other nerds of the same type. :) haha. It makes me feel less weird about my nerd-dom.
~JoAnna

Waffles in my future

I've been trying to come up with ideas for what I want to weave this semester. I sat down with the Handweaver's Pattern Directory and Mastering Weave Structures last night and went through both of them looking for different structures, projects, etc. that I'd like to learn how to do.

First of all, I eliminated the things I DON'T want to do...At least not yet. I skipped over most of the twills and the tabby section in Pattern Directory. I'm trying to focus on structures that are a little bit more complicated.

The first one I've decided to work on is Waffle Weave! (The Brits refer to it as honeycomb) Here's a picture of what the structure looks like.


I borrowed this photo from the Schacht website. I'm pretty excited about it. I'll probably just start with a 8" wide, 3 yd. warp. I'm still trying to figure out what sett to use. She uses a sett of 10 on a rigid heddle loom. (Which means she was probably using thicker yarns) I'm planning on using a 5/2 perle cotton. It's on the larger side, but still much smaller than knitting yarn. It's about the same size as lace weight knitting yarn. It's actually a pretty simple structure. It uses a basic twill threading. (I believe) Anyway, that's what I'm going to put on the loom at school. I'm still not sure what's going on Mac (at home). I may put the 20/2 sampler on him. I'd like to test the yarn before I put a whole 8 yd. warp on there. It's just really intimidating because the "yarn" is basically sewing thread!! I'm hoping it makes for really soft cloth. I'll probably just do a simple plain weave on it. I may put in some white stripes of 10/2 perle cotton to add a little texture and interest. :) I wish I were home so I could get to work!!
~JoAnna

Getting Cable

As in the knitting pattern. I'm currently working on my first cable project. It's a beret. I had a few minor problems with increasing (also a first) but I think with practice I'll be fine.

Note: I need to change how I knit my knit stitches. Frustrating! But I think it'll make my stitches look better when I use purl stitches with knits.

I've printed off a bunch of different patterns to try. I'm excited. Still on a quest to find the perfect cable knit hat that I can mass produce and sell.

I'm going to try knitting a scarf pattern that I tried previously and ended up pulling out. I stopped because I hate regular knitting needles. But now that I have the circular needle set, I can use the flexible needles. That's the plan.

I'm looking forward to lots of knitting and learning!
~JoAnna

A slower paced day.

I love Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester because I only have two classes Tues. and one class on Thurs. And weaving happens to be on those days. :) I felt pretty chill in the studio today. I've got quite a few projects I'd like to try. Most of which have come from the Jan/Feb Handwoven.

Idea #1:
Ruffled scarf/sampler.
By using stripes of wool in the weft, I should be able to get an interesting looking ruffle when I wash the sampler/scarf. If it goes according to plan, the felt stripes will shrink and felt and the other fiber will not. My original idea was to try this with some lace weight wool and Tencel. The colors are almost exactly the same and it would be the coolest thing to take before and afer pictures.

Idea #2:
Weaving with wood inserts.
Another idea that came from Handwoven. With this one, you cut pieces of wood in curved shapes and use them as your weft. You use a sett that gives you a warp faced weave and it creates interesting shapes within the warp. Super cool looking.

What I'm currently doing with the sampler on the loom at school is testing wool as weft and cotton as warp. I want to see if it shrinks in horizontally. Jeanne said she doesn't think it'll do much because there isn't a lot of room for the wool to move around. But I figured I should try right?

I have a lot of other projects in mind right now that I'd like to try. I really need to get another rayon scarf warp wound off. I may skip the 20/2 cotton idea for now. After weaving with this "big" 5/2 cotton, I don't really want to go to something sooo small!! I like how quick I can weave a warp off the loom. And the rayon is on the larger side.

Jeanne wants us to experiment with altering fabrics. I'm not really sure what that entails. She said she wants to see what we think altered means. At this point, altering kinda means destroying. I guess I'm partially thinking in HEC Textiles mode where you put a fabric through all sorts of tests in order to test the stability and other characteristics of the fabrics. What could I use as altering tools? Some of my thoughts have been sand paper, bleach, exacto knife, weathering effects. I think it would be cool to leave fabric out in a tree or something and see what becomes of it. Hmm...Perhaps that could be an idea. She said to consider time as an altering tool.
I have lots of thoughts running through my head right now. But that's a good thing. I want to plan more projects to try out.
~JoAnna

A bit overwhelmed

I have a lot of homework this semester. :( It's really frustrating. And I'm trying really hard not to freak out. I had a minor meltdown last night. I just have to remind myself that I just have to get C's. That's a low goal, but I can pretty much make C's without really trying. I just gotta pass so I can graduate!

On a happier, more exciting note: I finished the napkins for my culminating project!! I'm pretty happy with how they look. I took some pictures last night, but I forgot to upload them. I'll try and do that sometime this week. I have to wash everything and hem all the edges. I'm still debating whether or not I want to have one of my glass major friends make some glasses for the set. I kind of wanted everything to be made by me except for putting silverware on the table. But perhaps Ben is right and it would look better if I had the glasses. I'm going to have to figure out how to take professional pictures. I'm getting better, but I don't know if I'm up to it by myself.

As for weaving, I'm planning on weaving with some 20/2 cotton. It's the smallest gauge yarn I've ever worked with. It pretty much looks like sewing thread on the warping board. I'm a bit intimidated, but I want to keep myself challenged and try lots of different yarns. And since this was one of the cones mom and I bought from the loom guy, it was cheap and I don't feel bad sampling on it. I really should probably put an actual SAMPLE warp on first, huh? I'm currently winding off an 8 yd. warp. But I'm not sure what sett to use. I was thinking 30 epi. From what I've read on various yarn info pages, the sett for 20/2 cotton should be somewhere between 24 and 36. Somewhere even said you could go as high as 40. So 30 should be somewhere in the middle. I don't want it so close that it's stiff. But I'm hoping because it's so fine, it will have more drape than a 10/2 cotton. (What I wove my scarf set out of...Not pleased with the drape) I also really want to design some Tencel scarves. (Since I have 6+ pounds of it!)

So anyway, I guess I really just want to experiment and see what kind of cloth I get from weaving with this tiny yarn. In the book Mastering Weave Structures (Sharon Alderman) pretty much all the cloth is woven with 20/2 cotton. And the drape seems better than with thicker cotton yarns. That could be part of the trick of the photo though. I guess I'll find out! And hopefully soon.
~JoAnna

Different looms

Being in the fibers studio is strange and not strange. It feels almost like I never left. Everything is familiar and comfortable, but it's strange that it's the same...

I was hoping to be able to get on one of the 8 shaft Macomber's that's in the weaving studio but Jeanne wants us to work on the 4 shaft LeClerc's because we don't need more than 4 shafts for a plain weave sampler. :( Haha. I thought, "Okay, well I like LeClercs. So it's no big deal." ...Wow. I can't believe how different it is from Mac. After weaving on a Macomber for close to a year now, I just can't get used to the way the LeClercs work!! I can't believe I ever wanted one. *lol* I mean, it's a good loom, it works and it weaves fine cloth, but I'm beginning to agree with the review I read when I was first looking at buying a loom. LeClercs are like your average car (Let's say Chevy) and Macs are like Mercedes. Or at least something a little nicer than a Chevy. Mine's a little old and beat up, but I think it's somewhere like 20 or 30 years old. It still needs some minor repair work and DEFINITELY needs new heddles. That might have to be my next loom repair purchase.

The looms at school use wire heddles and the ones that were on my loom when I bought it were these weird, flat heddles. They're a lot louder, heavier and less flexible. I think I'd like to try and get some wire heddles. I think I said I had been considering switching to Texsolv heddles, but I just can't bring myself to use string heddles. I think they would frustrate me. I haven't used them so I can't really say. But I do know that it wouldn't be a bad thing to have lighter shafts. Since Mac has metal shafts they're a bit on the heavy side anyway. But perhaps if I had lighter heddles it might be less heavy. When you're treadling, there's a fine balance between tromping and pressing. You have to treadle with some force or the shafts won't lift, but you really can't tromp too hard or the tie up rods jump off and you have to craw under there and fix them. That may be something else I need to invest in. I need more tie up rods. I have just enough to use two rods on each shaft. And they're all wonky and different heights which is bad because your shed isn't even all the way across.

Now I'm so used to Mac that the LeClerc shafts are SOO light! It's a light loom in general. Macs are sturdy beasts. I'm really glad I ended up buying Mac instead of a LeClerc. I'd never even used one I just felt like I wanted to try this thing that everyone was raving about. And when it came up on Craigslist for $450 (I talked him down to $400) AND in Lexington, KY (about 3 hours away) I couldn't pass it up. Ben, as always, was sweet and supportive. I'm so thankful that he's patient with me and puts up with my loom taking up about half of the living room in our little apartment. True, I have been able to make some money off the scarves I made on it, but he totally didn't have to let me get it. Anyway, I'm thankful for my sweet Mac, my sweet Ben and being able to weave at home. :) Speaking of which, I've got some napkins that I need to weave up!
~JoAnna

Recent weavings

I am happy to report that my apartment is warm. :) I am currently only using TWO blankets instead of three or four. A new person moved in downstairs and apparently they are extremely cold-natured (always cold) because my floor is literally warm to the touch. Not hot, not uncomfortable, just warm. Pleasant. And WE don't have to pay for it! Yay!!


Mom is participating in a craft show/sale tomorrow and asked if I had anything to give her. I'm going to give her these three scarves:










I think I finished them...Hmm...About mid December. But I didn't have a camera so I couldn't take pictures until now. I think I wrote about it...Well anyway, I'm EXTREMELY pleased with how they turned out. :) Their hand and drape is amazing. It's like holding a liquid. Yes. I'm pleased. I think I shall sell them for probably...$50. I don't think I can really charge more than that and still expect people to pay. But I also don't think it's an unreasonable price because they ARE handwoven and the fringe is twisted by hand as well. I'm also going to give mom the three hats I have left...Wait...I might have more than that. And if I have time tonight, I might try to felt the other three that I have finished. We'll see. I need to wind another scarf warp off though! And I need to try my new calculations to see if I can get a better length/width ratio. I feel like these three are too wide and not long enough. Practice, practice, practice! And if someone wants to buy my practice, that's completely fine. :)
~JoAnna

Weaving for school = fun

I forgot how fun it is to have weaving be part of school! I'm not really sure what I'm going to do, but I'm excited. :)

I put on a warp of some natural and tanish brown 5/2 perle cotton sett at 18 epi, 8 inches wide. My instructor, Jeanne, said that we don't have to feel pressured to do something crazy. She said we need to figure out what we want to do/learn and be true to ourselves and our path. A bit new age-y perhaps, but that's okay. I get what she's saying. I WAS feeling pressure to do something crazy. I was going to try weaving with some corn husks, but now that I don't HAVE to do crazy stuff, I want to. So I think this warp will be to try out the corn husk plan. It could be horrible, it could be wonderful. But either way, I think it will be fun.

After that, I'd really like to try weaving a collapse weave scarf. I want to try it two ways: wool in the warp so it shrinks lengthwise and wool in the weft so it shrinks widthwise. But not in the same sampler. It was pretty quick to get a warp on there. I sat down and did it all in about 3 ish hours. But it was only 144 ends. I forgot how quick a scarf width warp can get on there.

What else have I been really wanting to try out? ...I'll have to look and see if I have lists anywhere. Well I definitely want to do a painted warp. I was thinking it might be cool to do a painted warp with tea for the dye. It wouldn't be color fast, but I wouldn't have to wash it. I'd also like to try some weird slubby yarns to get some texture in there. There was a really interesting slub yarn over on the shelves in the weaving studio. I might try some of that. Jeanne also keeps talking about skip dent fabrics so I'm interested to see what that might be like.

Gracious! I thought I was frustrated with how Macombers worked. But now, having used Mac for almost a year, going back to the LeClerc is horrible. *lol* The main thing that I like about going back to the LeClerc, is the tie up system works better than mine (because mine's a bit dilapidated) and the heddles are better. But I can BUY heddles! That's not hard at all! I think I'd like to have wire heddles. I have been considering Texsolv. But I just don't want string heddles. Seems icky and annoying. I think the wire ones would be quieter, lighter and less directionally inclined than whatever these are that I currently have. They're frustrating. And they don't all match which is annoying.

I'm looking forward to getting into the meat of this class. I'm happy to be back in the fibers studio too. It's like being back home; almost like I never left.
~JoAnna

Around the farm

I forgot! Scarf length

I was thinking about scarves the other day and I really don't like the length I've been using as my standard. I've been going for 75". (I forgot if that's including fringe) But I feel like that's really too short. Nowadays you see all these people walking around with really wide scarves wound in various ways around their necks.

My point being: I think I need to weave scarves that are at least 84" long, AFTER finishing, NOT including fringe. I think my width is okay, could be wider. I usually weave scarves somewhere between 7 and 10" wide. They could be wider. I may try to weave some that are. I just wanted to have a record of this thought process somewhere that I can actually find it again! I'm really bad about keeping notebooks. They're so handy, but I forget to put all the notes I jot down, patterns I find and print, etc. in one place where I can find them again. Perhaps if I at least had one ROOM to put everything in, it would be better. Or a desk...Ohhhh! I need a studio...Or a desk...Or a bigger apartment!

Class tomorrow!!

I am SO excited about weaving class tomorrow! I'm a bit nervous as well because I doubt I'll know anyone in there, but I usually make friends pretty easily so I should be fine after a week or two of awkwardness. I just feel like a betrayer because I haven't been in there for a year. But I really wanted to take the clay classes that I did. I'm glad I decided to take them. I very much enjoy ceramics. It's so different from fibers. Very much instant gratification (especially with throwing). And I need that sometimes because fibers is pretty much the opposite of that.

Anyway, I really can't wait!! It's going to be really different. Here's the e mail that I got from my instructor last week regarding the first day of class:

Hello All,
Welcome back. Warmer weather starts the Spring semester, a good sign! Class starts on Tuesday, the 19th. Come prepared to walk about the Craft Center campus (we will be walking about on a regular basis). This is a class about generating ideas related to weaving. Lots of exploration, experimentation, talking, looking, walking, and whatever else happens as a result of all that. We will cover the course outline and start to look around us for ideas, so dress accordingly. This will be an adventure in discovery. I look forward to seeing all of you on Tuesday!
Jeanne

So I kind of don't know what to expect. (Besides walking around) But even that will be fun. :) I love the grounds at the Craft Center. They're beautiful!! I think it'll be a good learning/growing experience. Hopefully I'll be able to blog lots about it and it'll help my creative process. As I said, I can't wait. :)
~JoAnna

Tencel madness!

My yarn arrived!! I'm super excited!! This is what I saw when I looked in the box!

Yup. I'm excited. The aqua and lemongrass look pretty cool with the gold and the red looks good with the black and gold. I can't wait to get to making things with them!! I have to finish the napkins first...Which aren't even on the loom yet... :( I will not let that get me down! I'm too happy.
~JoAnna

Fiberly thoughts running through my head

1. I bought some micro fleece to line hats and cowls with and it's awesome! I might go back and buy a few more yards so I can make some pants out of it.

2. I need to learn to cable knit! Where can I learn?!

3. My 6.7 lbs of Tencel is on its way to my apartment right now. I'm really excited!

4. I'm experimenting with some new acrylic yarn I bought yesterday. I'm trying to make a neck warmer for Ben to wear while working out in the COLD.

5. I need to finish weaving the second placemat today!!

6. Next week I'll be back in the fibers studio!

7. I'm learning to love my mini EFS. I feel disloyal to my Leclerc boat shuttles

8. I would really love to do some painted warps while in the fibers studio this semester. (Even if I have to buy my own dyes)

9. I might be learning how to spin this semester!

10. I want to make leg warmers...Would woven legwarmers be weird? *lol*

~JoAnna

Picture update!

These are some pictures of the Bluster Bay Beauty, the blue placemats, the green placemats etc. :)







~JoAnna

I lied...Computer!!

I was still at work when I wrote the last post about still not having the computer...Well right after I left and went to work out, the friends that were fixing it called and told us it was done and they were in town so we could pick it up! Yay!! I left immediately and picked it up. It's so nice to have it back. :D
I might try to update with some pictures later today. (when I'm back at home) I need to put pictures of the Bluster Bay Beauty on here as well as how the blue placemats are coming along. (I'm only about 5 or 6 inches into the first one...) It's been really cold and I haven't woven much at all because of it. I have a lot of errands to run today so I still may not get to weave at all. But I shall try to make an effort. :)
~JoAnna

Still no computer...

I don't really have many updates about weaving or fibers. It's been really cold in the house and I'm trying not to spend a lot of money by running the heater. I'm so cheap. It's sad sometimes. haha.

The computer still isn't back yet. The friend we gave it to to fix said it's virus free (as far as he can tell) and they should be able to get it back to us soon. We would have gotten it back Sunday, but their roads were very icy and they couldn't get out. So I again have no pictures to show. That's okay. :) I'm not distraught.

We had a fun day hanging out with friends yesterday. We had lunch with a friend and his fiancee (newly engaged!) and his family and that was lots of fun. We've both known him for a long time and we're all really close so we're happy for him. She's a great gal. ;)

We went to Nashville for dinner to chill with some friends that we hadn't seen since school ended. That was lots of fun too. We went to the Opreyland Hotel and walked around the garden areas. One of my good friends and I were acting quite silly and it was fun to just be dorks and laugh and act like kids. There's not really any reason to stop doing that every now and then. Yeah, we all have to grow up, but sometimes being silly and acting crazy can be really good for you.

I've been trying to knit more hats. I have two done and ready for felting and another one almost done being knitted. I also have a cowl that I want to try and felt to see what happens to it and if it's something that I could use. It'll probably get too small, but I think maybe felted cowls could be cool. We shall see. :)

I can't remember if I said or not, but I ordered a bunch of Tencel from Webs the other day. After the horrible experience with Halcyon, Webs didn't seem so bad and I was happy to order from them again. I'm pretty excited. I got some fun colors!
Here they are:







I love them!! I'm really excited to use the lemongrass green with the aqua, natural, gold and a navy that I had from a previous order. A friend did a rep weave rug using those colors in cotton and I fell in love with the combination so I'm stealing it. :) I think perhaps a scarf. Of COURSE!! I always think scarf. But Tencel is good for wearables. I might use it to make a shrug like the one she makes here. I Love this idea. It's really simple. I wonder if a blanket would be nice out of Tencel...Hmm...I could also do this project. She weaves it in sections and sews them together. I have the width for a blanket, but it's SO MUCH YARN!! AAAHHH!! I think I'd like to try my first blanket out of cotton because it's cheap... :D I have so many projects I want to do!! :( maybe someday I'll have time to do them! I hope so! For now, I'll just plan them and keep the calculations in my notes.
~JoAnna

Bluster Bay Beauty

Alright...So after my Halcyon rant, I checked my mail and saw that my Bluster Bay mini EFS came. :) I must say I am quite happy to have it. I rushed to finish putting on the second placemat warp. And I (Thankfully) only broke ONE warp yarn. Yay!! I was hoping not to break any this time, but one is better than 5. I am getting better at winding on. And part of that is because I'm doing the one man winding technique correctly now. Yay!! I think part of the reason why the one yarn broke was because there were three yarns per dent (10 dent reed, 30 epi) and they became a bit tangled. I sometimes get a little clueless and forget to stop and check if anything is unusually tight that I need to fix. Well...Hopefully I'll be able to get these two done pretty quick.

Oh! So back to the shuttle. First of all, winding a paper quill on an electric drill is a bad idea...I don't have a bobbin winder so I usually borrow my husband's drill and stick a pen or pencil in it and then stick the bobbin on and wind it. I've discovered that it really doesn't matter how you wind a bobbin as long as you don't go too close to the edges...But pirns are a whole 'nother story. They need to be wound a certain way so that the yarn will pull off smoothly as you throw the shuttle. This is difficult to achieve when using a drill. :( Ben said he would build one for me but we have to find some plans for it. So we'll see. Hopefully we can figure something out.

As for the shuttle itself, it's beautiful. It obviously has been made with care. The one thing that...Not really bugs me...but bugs me...is... Well the inside of the shuttle wasn't sanded as smoothly as the outside. The only reason why I even noticed this is because my husband is a woodworker and a sanding freak. He loves sanding and sand paper. Strange? No. Nerdy? Yes. :) But I love him and I think it's cute. Anyway, I took an intro to wood working class a few semesters ago and that's the one thing that I always got "points off" for on my pieces. I never took as much time to sand down the bottoms of the pieces because I figured, "No one's gonna see that part." But one of the main things that we are taught at the school we attend is good craftsmanship.

It's continuously drilled into our minds no matter what medium you are in. In fibers, you take the time to press open all the little seams so that a wall hanging will hang flat. In clay you use just as much care finishing the bottom of a pot as you do the shape. And with wood, you sand and finish the entire piece equally. What our instructor told us when we were building tables was, "If someone is drunk at your house and falls under the table you want them to be able to look at the bottom of it and think, 'That's just as nice as the top of it.'" :) Silly, but it gets the point across. The entire shuttle (Minus the interior) is smooth as silk and feels wonderful to the touch. But the interior is still a bit rough. It was sanded to an extent, but not treated with the same care as the exterior. Oh well. I'm climbing down from my soap box now. I just believe with my whole heart that craftsmanship is of the utmost importance in any and every craft endeavor. Which is why I bought this shuttle in the first place: To help my weaving craftsmanship.

It will take some getting used to because it's a bit lighter than my Leclerc boat shuttles and thus throws differently. Also, I think I miss the sound of the bobbin rattling around in the shuttle as it throws. That will also take getting used to. But so far it has already kept my selvages even. I'm still learning how much tension to use so that it's not drawing in too much, but I like the whole thing so far. I can't wait to get weaving!!
~JoAnna

Halcyon Yarn Saga

I recently placed an order with Halcyon Yarn for a Bluster Bay Closed Bottom Mini End Feed Shuttle and some paper quills to go with it. I had received a gift certificate from my grandmother for Christmas that was to go towards the EFS. I was really excited about it!
Well a few days after I placed the order I got a strange email addressed to someone else and saying that "my" perle cotton was on back order. Naturally this confused me and so I called to see if something had gotten messed up with my order. The lady that worked in the retail store was actually pretty nice and helpful and said I would need to talk to someone in shipping about this, they were out and would be back in on Monday. She said she would leave her a note and shipping would call me back.

Well Monday rolls around and I get a call around 3:00pm. The lady from shipping was a bit short with me and "apologized" for the confusion. She said they missed my order and hadn't even shipped it yet. (I ordered it on 12/28, it was then 1/4) So then I asked a simple question of whether or not my gift certificate had been applied. She got all flustered and upset and said she didn't know and needed to check into it. I asked if she would need the number again and she said, "No I can figure it out on my own." and basically hung up on me. Okaaay...so they're pissy. Got it. Well at least I knew my order had shipped and they took off the shipping charge because they missed the order.

Then yesterday (Tuesday) I was checking my bank statement online and I had TWO charges from Halcyon. One for $87.50 and one for $27.50. So I had to make another call to Halcyon to find out if I was being charged twice. Well, they were no more friendly than the last phone call. The woman tried to be (I think). I explained the situation and that I was confused why I had two charges. Well the lady got all flustered and said, "Oh you'll have to talk to someone in bookkeeping. Let me put you on hold." Okay, not a big deal. Well she put me on hold and about 2 minutes later came back and said she would tell the lady to call me back because she didn't want me to have to wait.

I was pretty upset because I don't really see how it's a difficult question to answer. Was I being charged twice or not? So I called back about ten minutes later and asked to speak to someone in book-keeping. The same lady answered and said the book keeper was at lunch but did I want to leave her a voice mail. I'm pretty sure they're on eastern time so I didn't understand why she was at lunch at 1:30 in the afternoon...I left the message clearly explaining the situation and asking her to please call me back so we could resolve this.

Well she didn't call me back. I called them AGAIN this morning and asked to speak to someone in book keeping. The lady told me she was on the phone with someone else and asked if I wanted to hold. So I said I would. The book keeper got on there and was also very short with me. I had to spell my last name (Which is NOT that difficult to understand) FOUR TIMES. And she still couldn't pull it up. Then she asked, "It's Joann right?" And I was like, "No. It's JoAnna. There's an A at the end." Why is that so hard to hear? My entire life I've never been able to understand why people can't understand that there's an A at the end of my name?! Well at this point, she was annoyed with me. (Or at least she was certainly acting that way.) And in my defense, I really had been nothing but pleasant. I was getting frustrated, but after three years of working in food service and two in other forms of customer service, I've learned how to sound pleasant when I don't feel pleasant. She finally figured out that they had charged me once without the gift card and voided it and then charged me again with the gift card.

Was that really THAT difficult? Is it so horrible that a customer is confused and wants to know what's going on with her bank account and her order? Look, normally I don't like it when people stereo-type northerners because I'm from the "north" (Ohio kinda doesn't count as the north, but it does to southerners) I'm a pretty honest and truthful person. I'm not always southern sweet. But this lady had absolutely no reason to be upset or hateful with me and yet she was. If you're going to be talking to people at all or be in ANY form of customer service, LEARN TO BE PLEASANT!!

Even if you're angry. Get over it and deal with the customer kindly. Even if they're being horrible to you. That's how it works. It sucks, but that's customer service. Suck it up, do your job and don't take it out on me. It's not really that hard. If you're really annoyed with the customer, deal with them pleasantly, and if you're still fuming afterwards, bitch about it to your co-workers when you get off the phone. I don't care if you're unpleasant then. I can't hear it and I would probably do the same thing.

Anyway, I am NEVER ordering from them ever again. They're incompetent, unpleasant, hateful and ignorant. And their prices are far too high. Once I get my shuttle and quills, that's it. I'm never dealing with them again. The End.
~JoAnna

New Year!!

Happy New Year! Yes, I'm a couple days late, but my poor computer is very sick with a nasty virus and I haven't had access to it. Which also means that there won't be pictures on this post. Oh well. I survived most of last year without pictures. I think I'll be okay. :)

I'm not really the type of person that makes resolutions. My family never did it. My husband's family goes about it in a little bit of a different way. Sometime soon after the new year starts, we all sit down with various lists of goals that we would like to accomplish, whether big, or small, we share them and then we discuss how to make them happen. We all try to help each other accomplish each goal that the other has as best we can.

I haven't really sat down and thought about what goals I want to set for myself for the year.
I try to categorize things for myself. Like I want to set personal goals as well as goals for my business/crafts.

Personal Goals:
1. Continue working out on a regular basis
2. Don't shut down over the summer! Get up and do things!
3. Where ever we end up, make new friends. Be bold.

Craft Goals:
1. Continue weaving regularly
2. Try to do some at home dyeing
3. Start an Etsy site!
4. Start looking for kilns, wheels, ceramics equipment.
5. See if Vince can look at the kiln mom has.
6. Sell more work!
7. Build up an inventory of items to sell
8. Participate in a craft show/Festival(?)

This may not happen so I don't want to set it as a goal, but I seriously hope we end up being able to move to Colorado. I think it will be really good for us to be able to be somewhere else before we settle down in Spencer.
We're hoping for Denver. The thought behind this whole thing is for Ben to be able to get some practical experience working for a woodworker building furniture. And for us to be somewhere else and experience something else.
We both just thought it was a little scary to think about graduating and then settling down to the place we're going to end up living for the rest of our lives...ACK! So we're putting it off and trying to go somewhere else.

Another thought (sort of plan B) is moving to Knoxville for a while. We have some friends there and it would be a new place that's NOT here. :)
Denver would be nice because Ben would have woodworking and I might be able to get involved with a weaving community. Boulder, CO, from my understanding, is a hot spot for weaving. It's actually where Schacht Spindle Co. is based.

I did a little research and there are a lot of different weaving and textile things of interest in Denver. There's a textiles center which holds workshops, classes, etc. It also has a gallery and volunteer opportunities. One of the museums (I can't remember which one) has an entire section devoted to just textiles. Awesome! All in all, whatever happens, I'm excited and scared all at the same time about the big move to the unknown. :)
~JoAnna