Saying goodbye

Today I sold my Cambridge loom. Now parting with my looms is not easy for me. I wonder why that is? Maybe they have become old friends, family? The truth is, I just didn't have room for it in the studio. Looms need to be used. Not left to sit languishing in a corner. So today the Tuesday Weaver's loom moving crew took the loom to Ann's house. Here it is during the reassembly process.

Here it is all put back together in it's new home. I know Ann will use it and make some pretty wonderful things on it. After we were all done Ann treated us to lunch. I wish you could have tasted her potato soup! Yummm.

Linda

Is it spring?

Today was a beautiful day! 63 degrees, sunny with a breeze. I just couldn't let this beautiful day go by without doing some yard work at the studio.

The previous owners planted lots of things near the house. Too much for my taste so later this spring things will get moved around. The area near the front door was looking a bit jungle like so that is what I tackled.

Here is a before picture.

I chopped down all the dead branches and raked them away. I should have taken an after picture!

Here are the piles I had to haul off.

It may not look like much but it took several trips with the wheel barrow to get it all taken away. Whew, am I going to be sore tomorrow!

Linda

More snow?

Today is going to be a weird weather day, here. The temperatures are supposed to get up to 50 and then go down. We are supposed to get more snow tonight but from what I can tell it won't be much.

I don't have much in the way of anything new to talk about. DH and I have been working on a mantle for the studio living room. We set it in place last night. I still have more spots to paint. The white areas are putty that I was waiting on to dry. The area in the front top of the mantle had a label on it. I had to get the sticky off before I can paint. There is still some small decorative parts that need to be put back on but unless you bend over you will probably never see them.

I am playing around with what I want to put on there. I also still need to buy wood molding to go around the bricks. After we set it in place I stepped back to take a look. I couldn't believe what a difference it made in the room! Don't you just love the color barn red?

I am heading back to the studio to sectionally warp the Union for shaggy rugs. I started to do it yesterday afternoon but my phone kept ringing! Today I will turn it off. I enjoy making shaggy rugs. They are a bit messy but when they are done I like to run my hands over them. I see in the stores that shaggy rugs have made a come back.

I have a small TV at the studio. I tuned in to the retro network the other day and discovered one of my favorite shows from a while back, Magnum PI. Now I get to watch it while I weave!

Have a wonderful day and enjoy the snow! When God gives you snow........make snow angels!

Linda

Sometimes you just get lucky

My husband and I love to stop in Goodwill stores. It isn't that we need anything. We just like to look to see what we find. This afternoon we stopped at one in Chattanooga. It was late and we weren't even sure it would still be open. When we went in the store we went our separate ways. A few minutes later I turned around and saw my husband motioning for me to go to him. As I got closer I could see what he had found. Yarn! The two on the right are cotton flake, four are rayon, and one is a rayon/wool blend. Did I need more yarn? No but I didn't want to pass this up. The price for all this? $21.00!

Linda

My mug rug revealed

The other Tuesday Weavers, and the Clinch Valley Handweavers Guild, are at the arts center dying warp, having a pot luck lunch and having lots of fun. Unfortunately, I had to miss today. We are going to the grand children's combined birthday party. Yesterday, I dropped off my mug and mug rug for the swap. So, since they are all busy and won't see this for a while, I can show it to you! What we were supposed to do is buy a mug and weave a coordinating mug rug to go with it. Since the mug had a snowflakes on it I wanted to do an overshot project with snowflake in the name. I had a hard time finding a draft so I asked a couple of weaving friends if they knew of one. They each send me drafts! Aren't they wonderful? Since I waited so long to weave this ( I had a whole year! ) I only got one of them woven up but I have warp left to try the other one. My plan is to weave a few of each draft.

We were also supposed to do a scarf challenge but that just never happened for me. Maybe this year I should weave the challenge at the beginning of the year instead of waiting until the last minute!

And  now the other side. For the warp I used red poly/cotton rug warp and for the weft I used white Peaches and Cream. I really wanted the white to stand out and look like snow.

I am excited to see what I get. I will post a picture so you all can see.

I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend. The sun is out here and it will be above freezing so all the snow could be gone by tonight. I sure have enjoyed the sound of the snow crunching under my feet. It reminds me of my childhood where we had tons of snow.

Linda

Helpful gadgets

Tina at the Tuesday Weavers blog was talking about her homemade temples today. That got me to thinking about some of the things I use to make weaving easier. I thought I would show you a couple.

I, too, have homemade temples but they are different from Tina's. I don't think I knew about the nice clips she found when I made these a few years ago. I found these clips and decided to give them a try. They have  holes in the handles so I could attach the strings. At the time I couldn't decide what to use for weights. My husband came up with tuna fish cans! They still have the tuna inside! He put two cans in each sock and attached the string. Pretty silly, huh? Not too pretty but I do have to say they work well. I use a pair of antique lease sticks with them.

I used to have small baskets attached to each loom to hold shuttles and scissors. Now I use this small cart. I can move it from loom to loom and I don't have to use the baskets anymore. Instead of having multiples of what I need I can just scoot this around.

There is one more thing that I think would be very handy. It would be so nice if there were little warping fairies who would come at night and warp up empty looms!

Linda

New loom bench

We are snowed in. We have been since yesterday. That is ok! It is so nice and quiet outside. No one is going anywhere. I really like the quiet we have when it snows. Even the birds get quiet.

I love staying home. Especially if my DH and DS are home, too. We get some good family time in. Yesterday we were all at the studio. DH and I were working on the mantle and then DS and I listened to a new cd he had bought while he helped me check for threading errors. I also enjoy the times when we just sit and talk while eating fresh baked cookies.

A couple of weeks ago my husband had the day off so we went exploring. We love to pick a town we haven't been to before and look around. Once when I was out of town he went exploring without me. He took me recently to show me what he had found. We went to Lafollette. There is a small furniture store there. Shopping for new furnture isn't my thing. Now show me an antiques shop and I will run right in! I did find something, though. It is a stool that I thought would be perfect for weaving. I tried it out this week and it IS perfect! It doesn't cut into the back of my legs like some stools do. The best part is that it didn't cost an arm and a leg! Want to see it? Isn't it nice? I really like that it has a curved bottom.

Linda

Max is growing!

Every day I am amazed at how much Max has grown in the short time he has been here. Here is a picture of what he looked like just a few weeks ago.

This picture was taken today. Big difference, huh? He seems to know what his job is supposed to be. He stays with the goats all the time. If they move to another part of the farm so does he. I got to see him in action the other day. A neighbor's dog came up to the fence and Max went into action! He gave a low growl and then he started barking. I believe he is going to make a great livestock guardian!

I have an order for two table runners that I really need to get done. Here is the first one that I finished today. The warp is sage green and the weft is a verigated cotton yarn. The customer wants the next one to have shades of browns and beige in the warp and the same weft as you see here. It feels so good to be weaving again!

Linda

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope this year will be filled with love, laughter, family, good friends and lots of weaving!

This will be the year I build up my weaving inventory. That is what I said last year but it didn't happen. We bought another house that eventually became my weaving studio and then I had double knee replacement. Those two things consumed most of my year! So now, this year is it. I begin on Wednesday. So if you are in the neighborhood stop by and say hello!

So, until next time Emma, Esau, Max and Kami and I wish you the very best of the new year!

Linda