Off The Loom And Feeling Good..............

Finally!  Finally finished weaving 7 yards of handspun cotton--

I had several skeins of single cottons spun--white, brown, green

I tried to use the two ply cottons that were in my stash--

I found this multi indigo dyed cotton so thought it would work

I'm not sure it looks great, but it's in the towel now and I don't plan to

unweave!  

It was fun to just play with my cottons as weft--

Cutting off this yardage was a happy point of my day!

nothing like taking off a warp of woven fabrics and to have this

handspun cotton as my prize--Double Happy!

I've sewed the warp at both ends and in between each towel--

now, I can hem and wash and admire even more!

I'm so delighted with my handspun cotton towels!!

Hope you are excited about one of your finished projects!

Knitting For Cool Weather--Shoulder/Cowl

Shoulder Cowl is the perfect answer to handspun yarn--Have this awesome yarn

just waiting for that special pattern?  I think you'll be happy with this look

Here it is knitted in solid color--I saw a similar cowl/shoulder wrap in an exclusive

store in Las Vegas--it was totally neat looking as it featured that bumpy, sparkly

yarn!  I thought to myself--this is IT!  But, I couldn't find a suitable pattern

to recreate that expensive look--now, I have!

  

Want To Swivel?

Here is your chance to learn more about Swivel--

Heddlecraft is a new weaving magazine that strives to offer something new and different!  It's a digital weaving magazine designed for weavers who love to weave and want to know more!
Heddlecraft is published six times a year and in includes weaves and weaving techniques for weavers with with four- and eight-shaft (or more) looms .Heddlecraft is published by Spady Studios and is edited by Robyn Spady.  To learn more about Robyn, go to www.spadystudios.com

They're At It Again...........................!

Expatchers gathered for another day of sharing--

we swap stories of our adventures as we work on our current project.

Sometimes, there are sad tales but most of the time we laugh till we cry;

give encouraging hugs all around for the tough times--

Here's what went down on this day!

Brenda was working on her half square triangles

to create magically pinwheels

Everything is cut and ready for assembling

Here is her goal--

Our hostess Judy is quilting either Ronald MacDonald or Binky quilts

Here she's hand stitching the binding on this colorful children's quilt

All lined up and ready to sew--Debby is working on our friendship square swap quilt

Annette has her paper pieced grandmother's square pieces all ready for stitching

Karen was doing the binding on her finished quilt--Trip Around The World

Then we take a trip around Judy's wonderful studio to enjoy the festivities of the season

She always has the most wonderful creations in her studio

Ready for fall holidays

No witches here!  Just friends who are 'bewitchingly ' blessed!

The Bird Did What??

I think you'll find this a fascinating read, much as I did!

This is small excerpts from Hyperallergic post on how the bird based

color system became Patone 

An effort to describe the diversity of birds led to one of the first modern color systems. Published by Smithsonian ornithologist Robert Ridgway in 1886, A Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists categorizes 186 colors alongside diagrams of birds. In 1912, Ridgway self-published an expanded version for a broader audience — Color Standards and Color Nomenclature — that included 1,115 colors. Some referenced birds, like “Warbler Green” and “Jay Blue,” while others corresponded to other elements of nature, as in “Bone Brown” and “Storm Gray.”

Ridgway’s scientific work was inspired by Milton Bradley, who, along with selling board games, was a proponent of color education. He published Elementary Color in 1895 and manufactured a color wheel that, when spun, visually mixed different hues. Daniel Lewis, author of a 2012 biography of Ridgway, wrote in an article for Smithsonian magazine that the ornithologist paid tribute to Bradley in his color system with “Bradley’s Blue” and “Bradley’s Violet.” Lewis added that Ridgway’s “book evolved into the Pantone color chart,” the first edition of which was printed in 1963.

Math and Knitting

When I saw this--I was blown away!  I know math is involved in most aspects of our lives, but 

to think Pat Ashforth & Steve Plummer - Mathekniticians did this with knitting--

like oh WOW!

Plunge yourself into their world of Woolly Thoughts and you'll be magically transported

I've down some Illusion knitting, but this takes the cake!

This is their fanciful afghan--okay, my brain is in overload!  I'm so glad

their brains are working for me!

Waulking The Cloth

I was walking through my memory album the other day--this album contains all my memories of adventures, trials and tribulations.  I came across the photos of the days when we would Waulk cloth for a demonstration at a local plantation.  In those days, I would weave wool yardage in traditional Scottish fashion to be Waulked at these demos.  And we would waulk the cloth with our Scottish friend singing a Gaelic song for us to keep time and pound the cloth!  

  

Waulking (in Gaelic ruadh) is the technique of finishing the newly-woven tweed by soaking it and thumping it rhythmically to shrink and soften it - all done by hand in the old days. The songs served to keep the rhythm and lighten the work.

Here you have the sounds of waulking with gaelic song.

Here are some of my photos from 1996 when we did several rounds of waulking with Norman Kennedy at Oakley Plantation, Audubon State Park (the location where John Jay Audubon painted his famous bird scenes--but there's another time for the blog on that)

The wool fabric is wetted, waulked around the table and once fulled to the master's satisfaction, laid out and wound around a board that allows it to dry.  Norman, or the master waulker, blesses the blankets for future generations.  These blanket was woven for my grandkids.

An article was written on this topic for Handwoven magazine--Waulking The Web--

if you ever have a chance to participate in waulking, jump right in!

I've retired from weaving blankets--I've done my 12 as required for the Acadian hope chest.