Finishing up Loose Ends

When I got back from Vancouver I took a day to settle in and get my laundry done and then turned my thoughts to the studio again. It was time to bring the black silk project to a close and move onto something new! It's had a lot of obstacles thrown in its way, along with me simply ignoring it for a time but now I had to bring this to a happy ending!


First I have twisted the fringes into small groups and you can see how I do this here. In the picture above, I'm hand sewing some bead embellishments to the edges. My full 'how to' on this can be found here. It gave me a chance to browse through my bead boxes and that's always fun. In fact I reorganised the boxes into colour groupings and labeled them. A nice side diversion!

I used mainly black seed beads and featured a bronze bead on the silk yak blend scarf. The silk camel blend weft is brighter and has a subtle colour to it. A soft beige cream and so I used a mix of small black seed beads and an irregular beige bead. They were both a bit stiff as some warps can be off loom but they headed straight to the laundry tub to be gently hand washed.

Once rinsed and tugged into shape, I hung them outdoors to drip dry. It was such a lovely spring day and it didn't take long before they were just barely damp. I brought them in and gave them a good hard pressing and hung them back up to finish drying. The next morning I have them a final light pressing and then sewed my label on and attached a hang tag. Done!!

Here's the pressed silk camel blend scarf showing my bead selection. The drape is soft and beautiful! Now these are rather dark coloured scarves for this time of year so I expect they will sit in my inventory till later this fall.

Here's the front and back of the silk camel scarf. It is fully reversible and has a 'summer and winter' kind of effect colour wise. You can choose which side suits the occasion!

Here's the drape on the silk yak scarf (which is also on the manikin at the very top of the post)

silk camel weft

Now I have an empty Louet loom and it just so happens that I have a sister who is planning an exchange of vows later this year. So I have some ideas I'm mulling over to mark the occasion.

More on this later!

Reno news (yup, there's *still* things being completed...)

The stairs were recarpeted while I was away and it sure looks nice. Seems that one small remnant in the warehouse was just enough (barely!) to do the job.

Next up is the tile back splash in the kitchen and the tile guy is coming Monday to do the job. Then the kitchen is finally D.O.N.E.

Last job of the current interior renovation is to get a new hand rail for the stairwell and we are looking at various wood profiles. The standard ones are too wide and heavy for the space.

Mother's Day was a nice one! Not only did I get an orchid I bought for myself but I received a second larger one. Turns out that Dorothy got one almost identical to mine. It hovers over my wee one like an older sibling! Another flower bud has opened since I took this picture and another flower spike is well under way.

Phalaenopsis or Moth orchid

*if you click on the link, it takes you to a web site with care instructions for this variety of orchid*

If you have a reasonable humidity level in your home and a bright spot, but not direct sunlight, then you can grown them in your home too.

I want to thank you all for your comments and good wishes on my father's recovery! Unfortunately he's been moved into intensive care after some other problems appeared and now we wait some more. That's the hard part... the waiting! I have been weaving to keep my mind off things and some tricky treadling means I have no room for thinking other than numbers. That's a good thing.

Okay, I have a bridal shawl to go and plan out...

Moths and Camels and Yaks... Oh My!

Okay, this doesn't look too different from my last picture of this scarf warp. The difference is this is scarf number two and the weft is a soft creamy beige. It's a blend of bombyx silk and soft camel top that I bought at Diane Sanderson's Studio on Granville Island in Vancouver two years ago.

Even with a reduction in the size of the images, Blogger liked it better this way and it works for me this time as I want you to notice the selvedges. I'm loving it! I have the treadling memorized and keep the shuttle moving in a steady rhythm and my edges are beautiful! After all that trouble with the previous pattern and not being able to remedy it, this is proof that rethinking a pesky project sometimes works out for the best! I'm actually enjoying the weaving now and look forward to sitting down at the loom.

The silk warp is 2/30 grist and is sett at 36 epi. I'm not sure of the yardage of the silk camel blend but it must be identical. I'm getting 36 pics per inch and a perfect 45 degree angle line. So nice when that all comes together. I have zoomed in (above) to show you the orderly little world you find when you look at close-ups. Let there be no doubt that I'm a structure weaver first... colour second.

So despite cutting off a ten inch length of the older abandoned project, I seem to have scads of warp left. That would be the bonus of factoring in 12 inches each time for samples. I may get a third scarf, weft undecided right now, but no new samples to share. I'm sure my friends will understand....

Not sure what to put on Lilibet when this is done, so must mull over some ideas. I will be turning to the 'experiment' on my big loom which is stretching my colour boundaries and then some!

Reno report:

So we have some new trims and moldings as of yesterday and should be finished next week, to follow with more painting. The stairwell now has skirting and is waiting for the 1930's style bead board paneling and then paint. This is the one other area in the house that has had a big change from when we moved in and will get a post later when complete.

Kitchen is waiting for the staining and assembly of the wood wrap for the centre island and you can't rush that process. All is contingent on the weather and humidity for how long each layer of finish takes to dry.

Laundry room now has a ceiling and now, even new stipple texture applied as of yesterday.
The short story is: we went from no ceiling after the dishwasher overflow...

To a new ceiling with it getting better day after day (it seems to take forever!) Mind you, they might think the same about my weaving!

{My loom is about 15 feet from the laundry room door and the young man doing the work loves to listen to Euro-techno beat dance music while he works. I found the pounding 'boom-boom -boom of the bass beat helpful to develop a rhythm on the loom, but I eventually put my iPod on and went for something more my style! } Next, the sanding of the walls in the laundry area and perphaps progressing to paint this coming week. I get to do my laundry once a week when they kindly slide my washer and dryer back in!

Our dog Connor who used to bark at a squirrel in a tree now ignores the endless progression of people trooping through my house and naps through the whole thing. Smart dog....

Geesh... I have never vacuumed and cleaned up so many days and after so many men at any time in all my life! :)

When to Throw in the Towel

Blogger is turning things sideways again... sorry 'bout that. Do you recall this one? I posted about it here, with a further link in that post back to Nov 15th! Wow, now that's some time ago! I managed to ignore it quite well huh? That's because I had trouble with crummy edges and nothing seemed to work to fix it. I doubled the floating selvedges and added extra weight... nope! I tried many other wefts and they all looked the same. Lynnette suggested rethreading the edges and I tried various combos and .... all looked crappy. So, I got busy elsewhere and ignored it. I had plenty of legitimate reasons to 'be busy' but in a recently posted blog picture I saw my Lilibet Louet with a sheet over her and realized it had gone far enough. I don't normally do warp avoidance so this was unusual so its time to get this puppy off the loom! I'm not cutting it off but rethinking the project and reworking it. I now have a 10 inch long sample and I'm left with 8 yards of 2/30 silk.

I slid a lease stick up and under the warp and then used a smaller stick to push down on the warp and pull the ends out of the heddles and lay nicely. I can reach for a few ends at a time and keep a fairly orderly sequence.

Okay, that's done. Now what pattern to use? Given the edge issues, I thought something with plain weave for at least half an inch on either side. The warp appears shiny in this picture but in reality, not so much. Its also fine and subject to static and clings to every little bit of roughness on my fingers. I flipped through all my sample binders to review what I have done before and from my weaver friends....but nothing spoke to me. I have a love of complex twills and suddenly I recalled my iridescence scarves. Why not try that draft with the silk and some interesting silk blend mixes?

I went slowly through the threading but apparently I did make some silly mistakes so after three tries, I finally got them all corrected. Then I accidentally snipped a warp thread with my new super sharp embroidery scissors and had now had to place a repair end. What is going on? so many darn mistakes? Oh, well... take a deep breath and carry on.

I sure hope this works!

So what do you think?

The weft is a pewter coloured silk yak blend. The back side shows the pattern as black. I tried to get a picture of it but perhaps later when its heading to the cloth beam. Here's a close up:

I'll leave extra length for fringes and longer scarves... and get two off this warp, plus samples.

This is a compromise I can live with! It was good to change horses in mid stream. :)

Reno News:

Well, it was a relatively quiet past week. We now have matching trim around the dishwasher and microwave. We have also made a choice of stain for the wood parts for the island this past weekend. That red tone radiating up from the walnut floor confused things, so we are holding our breath to see what will happen next!

Our new painter Shawn has been here and repainted the skylights so they are the same colour as the new cupboards. Looks way nicer! The 'green faux wall of shame' in the stairwell is now properly painted and a thing of the past. Now the paneling of the lower portions can go ahead soon, as well as the new stair skirting.

The paint job (done by the other painters) in the kitchen must be redone as it has gazillions of fibre bits from a (cheap?) roller that stick up everywhere! This can't be done until the new patio doors go in and that's happening today and will be a day long event. There's three patio doors and two entry doors, plus a new door for the garden shed. Then they must all be trimmed out and then painting can recommence. We have decided to go ahead and paint the living room as well as the existing paint is tired looking. We may as well just get it done now as its no extra difficulty. The house is already a total mess and I'm sure that later won't happen. Once this place is back to normal, I don't want to see another can of paint or brush for a long time!

Having said that.... a reality check.... and now back to the laundry room! (which suffered the most damage from the old dishwasher overflow last November) is close to be worked on! The plumber came yesterday and again this morning to reposition some pipes and move the laundry tub. When done the restoration company has the green light to come in and get busy! A new ceiling will be going in and then re-stippling... followed by patches/ repairs and paint. They won't be trooping through the house but coming and going by the back door directly into the room so that's a huge relief. They will even do the clean up!

Slowly but surely we're inching our way back. What a winter this has been!