Finished Objects trickling down

 crochet cat / kitty toy  

(Available: mariemeyer.etsy.com )

'whale shark' woven sketchbook and pens pouch

I was working on keeping my mind off other things, so I started finding things that needed some work on them.

on the finishing table : crochet orange / yellow / gray striped rug (just have to tie up ends)

in progress : pink cat and grey sheep small knit toys (might be a bit on those)

textile play

just playing around with textile stuff - again, not sure what I might actually get done or not, but it's a journey and I do like the processes.  I usually find a use for whatever I end up with... sooner or later.

 

 

 

It is about 8 inches across and could perhaps weave something 3 times that in length when it is finished - we'll have to see.  I do like knowing what kind of dimensions I can get out of a setup.  I've saved that somewhere else for the other looms.

Took Esme out to town for breakfast, and library, chicken feed and grab groceries on the way home.  We also stopped in a thrift store and she chose a small sweater with lots of cables on it - and I picked up another picture frame to do more experiments in weaving on, but this one I didn't want to go through all the wrist-breaking action of putting screws in it right now, so I warped it up as it was with a 'pull over' warp that can be woven twice the length of the frame if pulled over the top once the one side is woven.  I've also been playing with the crochet techniques for the thread - although I'm using some 15-20 year old embroidery thread that we had bought on a closeout and I've never gotten to using too much of in the past.

 

I work again tomorrow, and Friday and Saturday and Sunday again after that.  But it was nice to get out for a girl's morning again, to break up the sit at our screens all day that we otherwise end up getting sucked into.

 

Mark is making dinner with the groceries we bought, after installing his new printer parts and getting that working doing what he wanted again.

 right now, the weaving is reminding me of this - a whale shark, but I'll get a little further up in a minute and start working on the red stripes - I really like this look, but I'm worried that the other grey yarn I have is not a perfect match, and I want to break it up a little with other colors so that doesn't matter quite so much

Notes : 7.5 inches wide, 4 inches gray (undetermined length, spare stash ball of yarn), 25 handwraps red to start next color

Weaving project, birthday and swimming

 

I strung up a little bag on the small frame loom last night, and since it was only plain weave, I had it done pretty quickly.  Sewed up the ends this morning and made a pouch for my pens to put into my other woven purse.

 

  

It's a tight fit in there with wallet and phone holder - but it does fit 

It was my birthday today - and we did quite a lot.  I took my pre-sunrise walk and took it slower than yesterday, staying out there to see the actual sun rise through the tiny keyhole in the woods where I finally found it.  I know of three places where I can see it at different points - all the way to the horizon, through the leaves - but it is finding them that is part of all that.  I also found the morning glories and took a picture of them.

 

Early in the morning we got groceries and a new garden hose and fittings that I've been planning in order to extend the reach in the raised beds in the garden.  A few weeks ago Esme helped me measure and our 75 foot hose wouldn't quite reach the back two beds that I've been having trouble with - needed 89 feet to make it.  So, over the next few days I will need to find time to put that on and test it all.  After we got home from that excursion I took Esme out to the swimming lake and we spent about an hour there.  There was a small school of bluegill fish that were curious at first, and at one point decided to take a taste.  Esme: One bit me!'  We fell out laughing, but were a bit wary about them after that - we'd already been swimming an hour, and both of us have sunburned quite badly in the past in relatively short amounts of time in the water.  I wore my big floppy hat - which looked ridiculous, but I think it helped.  

After we got back from that I threw all the wet and sandy things through the washer, and made myself a cake (with trying out the frozen lemon trick, so-so results), and then fell asleep for a few hours.  We made a pizza and watched one of my favorite movies 'Dark City', where the protagonist does not give in to repeated attempts to tell him who he is, he knows who he is, and it isn't that - and in the end when he has this amazing powerful gift to mold the world he could do anything with it - and he makes something beautiful, that reminds him of all the good things he wanted to be in the world but was having such a hard time finding and questing for... and it ends there, where we hope that he will continue to use his power for good, but we don't get to see.  Mark says it is a twisted flick, and he likes a lot of very twisted flicks.  He's compared it to 'Brazil' before, but I think the message is much more impactful and human in this one.

Now I work tomorrow, have two language programs to complete (did one earlier today) and fold laundry and get some more sleep.  It will be over 90 tomorrow again.

Dream bag is finished

I started this weaving in February and it is finally done. The old one is now in a box, and it's contents are in this one. I also asked a pottery artist I love on Etsy to make a new ceramic rabbit tile for me. If I decide not to use it as a replacement for my current tile I can save it for our little girl.

Overall I'm really happy with this bag. It was looking very uneven on the loom, and making me wonder how it would work out. It sewed up with just a little bit of strangeness on one side, and that isn't really distracting to me. The two sides have very different looks, while the old one was the same pattern front and back.




Materials: cotton warp, mercerized cotton embroidery thread for the weft in purple, blue and white.

New Loom

I've wanted a 'real' loom since I was a teenager. I tried to build one several times, but it never stood up to the wear, or missed key pieces. I've woven items on picture frames, cardboard, books, doors and most recently, the found frame that used to be part of a table. Yes, that is what the big frame I've been using for the dream bag is - and it has done quite well! However, I still wanted a loom with a heddle, and something portable. A few days before my birthday I ordered this.


It's a Beka loom from Dick Blick catalog.


A few minutes work with their already-warped setup gave this.

How to Warp a Rigid Heddle Loom <-- so I'll remember later.


I'm hittinng the home stretch on the dream bag, as well.
This will be one side, and you've seen the other. I'm still using the finger pick up method to get the shed on this, or it would be going a lot faster. Those long bars with all the slots are called 'heddles.' They allow you to pick up the sheds just by pushing the bar up or down and scooping them all up at once.

Baby Update: We see the doctor again on Thursday. She has been kicking me furiously between eight and ten at night as her chosen 'awake' period - but also at random times during the day. I'm finally starting to feel awkward bending over for things and will be asking the doctor what is the best way to do that - since my book only shows the proper way to 'lift small packages'... How long will it be before a piece of paper on the floor defeats me? *grin*

Thanks for all the well wishes yesterday. In all but the law, I was 'divorced' that morning in January when I made my final decision. I am happy to have the legal part finished though finally.

Weaving Tutorials

You might remember I ran a teaser about making a weaving tutorial last week. It is ready! Please visit: KnitOwl Patterns and Tutorials at SovereignIT website.

Mark took a lot of the pictures, and I spent some time trying to make the document clear and well organized. If there is something that is hard to understand, please send me a comment here.

I've moved the pink pocket owl howto and the designing your own toys article to the knitowl.com site as well.