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.

22 weeks

Me and 'Baby Bazooka*' at 22 weeks
We were supposed to go to the maternity clinic this afternoon for a monthly checkup, but the doctor got called into surgery. We did a few other things in town and came back home to work on a computer project.

Susan: Yes I'm sure the day I can't get out of the bathtub or up off sitting on the floor will come soon and not looking forward to it!

I'll definitely be glad for the day my jeans fit me sitting down the same way they do standing up. Currently I have to unbutton them when I sit, and tighten my belt when I stand up... which makes for some interesting adjustments in public ;) These are the same jeans that were 'WAY too big' two and a half months ago... finally my belly had grown into them but somehow I change shape drastically at the waistline when I stand up vs. sitting down.

* Mark's nickname for her ;)

Happy Fourth of July!

We have Fireworks! (they are legal in Tennessee, but are not in Minnesota)

Yesterday was a long day, we went to the flea market in the morning, a town trip in the afternoon and at about 8:00pm we decided to go to the Transformers movie in Murray, KY with a stop at the fireworks store while we were up there.

Tranformers was extremely fast visually, hard to see things because they were moving so fast. It was like a video game, with everything going on all over the screen at once very fast and hard to track it all. Plot-wise it wasn't too bad, but it was funny to see Ebay used as a plot device ;)


Our Pogo-face
When we were at the flea market we saw a kitten that could have been Pogo's twin. She was very small and scared of dogs, though. I'm sure Pogo is glad we left her there for someone else to adopt.


Cotton Shirting Fabrics
I also picked up some men's cotton dress shirts from one of the flea market booths. At 25 to 50 cents apiece I don't mind using them for fabric - they'll be great for toys!

Wishing you all a happy and safe Fourth of July!

'Magical Lights and Messages' 07/04/2007

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.

I am divorced.

Finally received my judgement for divorce this morning in the Chancery court. I'm very happy to have it finished legally. From the time I went to the lawyer (last week of January) to now makes about six months.

Beaky

I signed up for a swap called 'Handmade Happiness.' You sign up through swap-bot and send two handmade items to your partner. It sounds like a fun and quick thing to do! Link for swap page: here

Stuffed owl made from an original pattern, available here. Mark suggested the beak curve. Handmade toy by KnitOwl 6.5 inches sitting, 11 inches standing.

Toymaker's Rant: Etsy used to have a lot more 'quality' toymakers, people who took some visible time with their toys when making them. Lately I see a lot of amateurish work and things that look more glued together or hanging together by luck alone than that good quality work I was used to getting inspiration from.

Quality toymakers like Hop Skip Jump, Loobylu, Jhoanna Aranez and Little Birds, all of whom I greatly admire.

I'm wondering where all the other 'artisans' went? I still see some, new and old, on Flickr. A lot of them have their own shops now..

Etsy used to be great because we were all in the same place. It was a benefit to post toys there because it put you into a search engine that was used by lots of people every day. It was like Ebay, but everything was handmade by a real person (often with a blog, who you could start a conversation up with). Not to say there aren't still a lot of nice things on Etsy... their yarn, beads, clothing, handbags etc... are still on the most part looking very professional.

Note: my work is nowhere near as 'professional' as those artists I listed above, but I do put some time into making sure my toys will stand up to normal handling and not look thrown-together. I should invest more in some materials like wool or linen, but does that make the toys too fancy for real children to get to play with them?