Ordinary Time

I don't really have much to show this week because I haven't made much of anything. What I spent a ridiculous amount of time doing was organizing the fabric in my studio closet. It had reached that state where I had begun just to shove things on the shelf anywhere it would fit. Any order that had been there at one point was gone.  And the scraps!  I tend not to have hoarder tendencies unless it is a raw material that might be useful in the future. Fabric scraps certainly fit in this category. I realized I had more scraps than I could ever do something with and it was time to clean. By the time I was done I had one large garbage bag of actual trash, I gave one large garbage bag of decent scraps away, and I gave away one large garbage bag of decent yardage I'm never going to use. Any other scraps that were left are either cut to be added to my English paper pieced quilt I'm working on or are sorted into the bags of quilting scraps by color. (These I already had, it was ju...

When everyone got home from their classes today it marked the start of their college's spring break. There was some discussion at dinner about what we should do. A trip to the library was at the top of some people's list because they plan to curl up and read for fun for much of the week. There was interest in going to see the new Cotswold lambs at a nearby living history farm. Well, G. and I were interested in going to see the lambs. I'm not sure it was universal. And we've been talking about taking a trip to IKEA, so we'll try to do that as well.  When I'm not doing all the usual things I do in a week or adding in spring break activities, I'll be compulsively making things because it is the only thing that stops my overactive imagination from catastrophizing about current events. That should help me finish my second Melt the ICE hat that I am very close to finishing. 

In my pattern drafting class, we finished drafting the trouser foundation which meant that we turn could move on to drafting patterns for actual garments that we wanted to wear. I ended up with a very long list of patterns I would like to have. It was kind of hard to choose what to start with. In January, when it was so cold, all I could think about was making a pair of barn pants out of boiled wool. If the weather has stayed brutally cold, I'm sure that is what I would be working on. Thankfully it is now trending warmer and my motivation for creating a pair of very warm pants and buying the expensive fabric to make them out of has plummeted. I decided to pick something else.  Here is what I decided on. I loved this skirt and literally wore it to death. I loved it so much that instead of throwing it out, I tucked it away hoping I could make a copy of it. I even moved it in its present ratty state. I'm very excited to have a pattern for it.  First, since I've owned it for de...

While I've been working on lots of projects this month, I realized this week that I'm just not up for anything terribly complicated. Take my doubleweave sampler I've been working on. The original project that I planned to do and put enough warp on for involved maybe ten or so different variations of different things that can be done with the structure. The last half were fairly complicated in that it involved picking up different warp threads by hand. Normally I am all for time consuming and complicated, but not right now it seems. Today I decided I had learned everything I would ever use doubleweave for and cut the project off the loom.  I did learn a lot and I'm glad I did it. You can't tell from just looking at it, but I learned to weave two separate layers of cloth, how to move the bottom layer to the top then back to the bottom, how to create cloth connected on just one edge and how to weave a tube. This was all great and I wove a few inches of each.  Now look ...

I realize that I seem to have a penchant for choosing things that are somewhat labor intensive. You have probably already figured this out. Why buy something at the store when you can spend a million hours making it yourself? Which is why my newest craft to learn is English paper piecing. Here was my first trial run to see if I enjoyed the process.  I chose the colors pretty much at random from the bags of scraps I have. This will probably become nothing because I'm not overly fond of it design-wise, but I love the possibilities. It also didn't as long as I thought it might.  For those unfamiliar with the process, you begin with little paper hexagons such as you see in the top of the photo. Fabric is them wrapped around them and basted in place. The hexagon pieces are then sewn together.  When the project is sewn together, the papers are then removed and can be used again. This whole process was made a lot simpler because of the cool template I had. W. and MC have a 3D pr...

My weekend with other fiber friends was lovely. Lots of conversations, lots of making things, lots of food. There was absolutely nothing strenuous about it, but I'm exhausted. I think it's due to an entire weekend of socializing. I also realize that even just a couple of days of sitting (and it was a lot of sitting), does horrible things to one's muscles. Getting the barn done this morning felt far more strenuous than usual. I'm hoping that after one more good night's sleep, I'll be back to my normal.  So what do I have to show you? Not a lot. Before I left I had measured out a warp for my floor loom. I decided that I would spend January teaching myself to weave double weave. This is where one weaves two layers of cloth at the same time. It annoyes me that I don't fully understand how it works so I have decided to do something about it. I've also almost finished with the project I have on my rigid heddle loom. I probably have about fifteen more minutes o...

My project this past week to clear the decks in terms of projects was pretty successful. I'll start with the finished knitting project since I had been working on it for nearly a year and it feels good to have it done. It still needs to be blocked and that will take care of the funny waves in the fabric. I'm very happy with how it turned out, plus it fits pretty perfectly, so my adjustments were correct. It feels very good to have this done.  I was also able to get through nearly all of that mending pile. I was correct that most of the items took just minutes to fix. Here's the list of things repaired: 3 sweaters, 1 towel, 1 pillowcase, 1 sheet, 1 weaving project hemmed, 1 pair of pants hemmed, 1 pair of trousers repaired, and handles attached to a woven bag. The only thing on that pile of mending that I didn't get to was the three pieces of clothing that I need to use my embroidery machine to add my business logo. I'm hoping I can get to that this week. (It's a...

I'm now to the most time consuming part of weaving: the threading. Every piece of yarn on a floor loom needs to be threaded through an individual heddle. (Heddles are on the shafts and they determine when a piece of yarn is raised or lowered.) The blanket I'm weaving for B. and HC's wedding gift has something like 960 ends (or individual pieces of yarn) and is forty inches wide. This is not something I'll be able to finish in a couple of afternoons. It's actually already been a couple of afternoons and I'm four inches shy of the halfway mark.  Here is what the 16 inches that are threaded look like.  And here is what is left to do.  You can see all the yarn that is tied off behind the heddles. Pretty much all that empty space will be filled by the time I'm finished with the threading. It's always a relief to be able to start actually weaving, but because this piece is so wide, I'm anticipating the weaving portion having it's own challenges. This w...

I need to go back to some semblance of a schedule because it's the only way to stay sane while the world turns upside down. It's Monday, so we're going to talk to fiber.  I mentioned last week that I found myself compulsively combing wool and listening to books because I couldn't seem to do anything else. I feel as though I can begin to venture slowly into other things, but having started this project, I want to keep working on it. In just a few days, I have managed to comb 100 grams of fiber.  I'm looking forward to spinning this, not only because it will be fun, but because I can't really figure out where to store all of this, so it's currently on my studio table. I love spinning combed wool. The trouble with combing wool is that it creates a bit of waste as the combs pull out the too short pieces. This is what I'm left with after making a few little nests.  It's not necessarily bad (because I try to get out as much vegetable matter before I start)...