A Tale of Three

So this was nine yards of  8/2 tencel. Painted warp centre and solid 8/2 tencel borders.  I was weaving this (slowly) during a what felt like never ending heat waves and thinking of the cooler fall to come. As this is Labour Day, it should be here anytime.

Slowly as my right shoulder has been dictating my weaving time and days. I can do some but not as much as I would like. 

The picture below is right after coming off the loom and the scarves being separated.   Each looks so different and yet come from a similar base.  Reminds me of people.    😁

The painted warp came from Iridescent Fibres which sadly has stopped business as other adventures and obligations came along.    This warp was called Chardonnay Flagstones.   I sure wish I had taken a picture of the warp before I started to uncoil it to beam the loom. It was a transition of purple mauves, to golds and russet, to moss greens. A vineyard in the fall. 

I added black, purple and a soft gold as border details.

The draft used was a favourite:  16 shaft straight draw and twill progression treadling designed by the late Ingrid Boesel (of Fiberworks-PCW). Her drafts are now freely available at Handweaving.net   I used this draft before with a painted warp to amazing results and hoped to have a repeat. You can see it here

I leave the centre empty as I simply don't have the patience to enter the colours! 

The first scarf I used basic black as my weft and it actually shows the painted warp as close as it appeared before weaving started.  The colours are not all that vivid or intense as some of Carrie's other warp combinations (as shown in the link to the past project)

This time of year with intense sunlight ( and heat!) makes it difficult to photograph tencel outdoors with out bleaching away the colours.  Day after cloudless day went by until I finally got a day with some high cloud and I set up Judy outside.    I'm not a professional photographer so I simply do my best with automatic settings and try to get realistic colours.

So here are a variety of shots to get differing views..... Meet "Vineyard Midnight"

When it came time to weave scarf number two I auditioned several colours and my friend Lynnette (of Dust Bunnies Under My Loom blog) recommended navy blue.   It worked beautifully and I must say that this one is my favourite.  Meet "Vineyard Dusk"

I had one weaver say that the gold in the border looks like gold leaf!

For the last shawl I tried a colour or two and pulled them out..... and finally settled on weft colour Pompeii (now called red clay).  I call this scarf "Spice Market". It some how reminds me of the baskets of piled up spices in a bazaar somewhere like Morocco.  This scarf was about pushing my boundaries on colour.

The colours are a bit deeper and richer but the cloud cover was breaking down by this point. The last picture is the best colour wise.  *There seems to be a correlation between this scarf's colours and my spinning below, purely by accident... (really!)

                                                                        🍂 🍇 🍇🍂

Its been a hot and dry summer and the gardens are starting to look tired.  Lots of dew on the ground this morning so the change is under way.   I'm keeping a mental list of the chores needed to be done outside before things get cold and frosty.   

I have spent time this summer spinning and plying and enjoyed a break from endless projects pushing me. I quite like the slower pace and find it gives me time to really consider a project before it goes to the loom and becomes organized threads.    So they will appear here in time as they are ready.

So enjoy the Labour Day holiday  and we'll all resume our normal schedules starting tomorrow. 

🐿 🍂

Frost on the Pumpkin

If we had any that is.....   The grass sure looked crisp this morning but in the time for me to run for the camera and come back, the sun had warmed parts of the lawn.  You can see it recently got its last cut for the year and a newly purchased leaf rake and leaf bags are waiting for the inevitable!

You have to admire those last few roses that keep on blooming! (bottom right corner).

Meanwhile, inside is all organized chaos.   These were taken Saturday and shows the ceiling getting its second coat of paint.  By my reckoning, the tall guy on the right should be on the higher ceiling to the left and vice versa. Its interesting how they use the lighting conditions to show them where they have done and where the next stroke of the roller should be.    Much like using a play of light on tone with tone weaving... 

Normally there is just the two painters. Lovely couple who have been painting homes for over 30 years together. 

Much of this plastic drapery disappeared today and they are settling in on the walls.  Bathroom has its two coats on both ceiling and walls.  

Meanwhile I hope to get this big pile of stuff back into the room soon. Bruce is emptying his den / office and they are heading to the other side of the house next.  I can't imagine what doing the main open areas will involve next spring....   I'm going to like the end results, but no one said I had to like the process of getting there!

So my latest project is off the loom and had hand sewing of the hems done, then washed, dried and the "bejesus" pressed out of the linen using the steam press and regular iron and board.   Then tagged, wrapped and boxed to go off to Virginia.    Sorry no pictures this time round.  It was two runners 15 inches by 58 inches, plus a third one of 15 inches by 77 inches.     I had planned for a fourth runner of 15 by 58 but it came up short at 45 inches.  Being a thicker grist yarn, the take up was more than I allocated for. Notes will be made on the record sheets to that effect for the future! It seemed safer to get them wrapped and protected and shipped on their way rather than leave them in this chaos. I had no where to take pictures of them anyhow.

There's going to be one last warm summer like day today and I'm going to sit outside and spin on my wheel and enjoy the Fall colours in our back yard.  Apparently from tomorrow onwards it will be below freezing at night and just barely above freezing during the day. Possibly snow on Thursday or sometime on the weekend.   oh, joy!    Hub has tuned up the snow thrower and brought in extra gasoline to run it. 

Happily, it will be a dry night for the little ones trick or treating on Halloween!

Change is the Only Constant

 The chestnut tree in our back yard is right on the point of letting go.... and all these leaves will drop soon.   The rest of the garden has been cut back and tidied for winter.   There have been three substantial wind and rain storms in one week and now we are enjoying a brief time of sunshine and warmer air. So much so  that the furnace is turned off and the windows open to air out the house.  I count us lucky right now as parts of northern BC received 55 centimetres of snow yesterday!

The Japanese maple is turning deep red, with a few last rose buds on the shrub below.

Out in the front yard our ornamental cherry tree at the end of the driveway is looking more like sugar maple! Beside the driveway is a bush I can never recall the name of but I call it burning bush.  Its an eye catching red!   We're supposed to get an early snowfall and possibly as much snow as last year, but maybe be warmer over all compared to last winter according to the Farmer's Almanac.

We moved here just a year ago but spent much of October 2016 unpacking and indoors due to rain. We never really got to enjoy the Fall at all.  By the time we lifted our heads out of boxes, it was snowing!    This Fall I'm sitting outside and spinning, but there's a good reason for that.....

Under all this mess is my dining room table..... and the mess is books and such from the studio. I had to empty the room as much as possible so it can be painted. I came up with the idea, signed on for it and looking forward to the conclusion, but in the meantime its chaos here!

It was a photo finish to get the last warp off the Louet Spring and here I am, late at night,  pressing hems and pinning them for some hand sewing. 

These are taken the morning after.... and the looms are waiting to be covered while they work around them. The ceiling, walls and trims are all being done.   Yes, I'm keeping the burgundy feature wall.... just refreshing it.  The other walls will be done in a light dove grey. Down at the opposite end is an ensuite bathroom with white tiles, malachite green and a touch of grey. I decided to go with the hint of grey.  Its neutral and helps to counter the accent rose wall.   (I had to cover a deep forest green wall once at one home we owned and three coats of primer later plus two top coats and the green still came through, so I thought, "why fight it?")

Then the following pictures were taken at the end of the first day. They were bringing in equipment and supplies and organizing the paint, plus double checking what's to be done.

Its not an overly large space but they managed to bring in and set up five ladders (there are some little shorty ones out of camera view).     Day 2 went well with paint being rolled on doors and trims already...  Day 3 is about to start with walls being done.   The ceiling will be Saturday's job! I think they got the right height ladder worked out now.

Once this room is all done they will move onto hubby's den and office, then the bedroom, main bath and a small hallway.... and this is our life for the next two weeks. We're up bright and early every day..... have I ever mentioned that I'm not a morning person? At least I can set up the studio again while they work on the other side of the house.    We have yet to decide where and how we're to sleep while they paint the bedroom ! Indoor camping anyone?   

So this post is likely the only one for October and I'm sorry about that.  I had intentions of posting more, and had some weaving underway but we were busy with end of the season house and yard maintenance, plus some medical appointments regarding my feet.  Plain and simple, they hurt and its osteoarthritis.  I'm not looking for sympathy here but simply saying that I needed to take things slower and that doesn't translate through to much in the way of interesting reading!   So once the painting is done and my house set to rights again, we'll get the looms moving again!

Slipping into a new Season

There is a nip in the air in the mornings now, and even a whiff of smoke as our neighbour lights up his wood stove to take the chill off the house.  A bit early as its still August!   Then you notice the bracken ferns are turning gold, some trees are already making the shift, and geese are flying over head in "V" formations!

I love the richer golden colours that come with Autumn and so when I was digging around in the stash I pulled out some autumn tones.

pictures credit: Heike Rische

alltheprettyfibers 

I was waiting for a yarn order to come from Brassards in Quebec and thought to weave off a single scarf real quick (well, as quick as I can go right now  :)    I used the lace weight alpaca / silk blend as warp and it sort of self striped itself as I wound. A regular colour pattern  repeat.  I wanted to  keep the colours in the warp lengthwise. So for a weaving draft, I used an 8 shaft Drall which was quick and easy to thread up and even tie up.

The weft is 20/2 silk in a nutmeg brown and the weaving was much different to my usual fare. I had to gently press the weft into place and be careful of the edge threads and drawn in. The end delivery shuttle was crucial with its adjustable tension. I also used  a wider 8 dent reed to minimize rubbing but I did have some some breaks. So my intent to "whip a scarf off" turned into a slow motion press and change sheds.

It was quite different to anything I have woven in some time! Especially the colours...

Then it was done and I decided to leave a fringe over twisting to show the original colours. No beads also as this could be for either gender. Hubby was eyeing it and checking his closet for something to wear with it (seriously!)

Excuse the light spots.... it decided to rain today and I had to turn on all lights and use the flash.

Here you can see the traditional squares of the drall pattern

The yarn order has arrived and I'm busy winding the fine 16/2 warp for the commission order and doing some weaving on the big loom. I've also been 'paper' planning some projects to come: more lace and more of the recent 12 shaft magenta project (again) as I have sold both scarves and three of my four on hand shawls! I'm not sure what is going on, but it seems the Christmas shopping season has begun.

In other news...

We have begun our usual fall chores: windows cleaned, doing yard tidy up, and have booked our annual hedge trimming for October. Tonight we had our first really drenching rainfall since last June. We actually turned off the television volume to check out what the noise was and realized it was rain drumming on the roof!

I'm also officially on the wait list for a full knee replacement and my name should come up in 6 to 9 months.

What shall we talk about then?   Hope you're not squeamish!   :)

The Dancing Ladies

I thought it was time for a little weaving relief and so hubby and I went for a drive yesterday. We headed north and went to a city call Nanaimo. Although we were shopping, it was a great day as we took time to photograph some fall colours. The trees above are 'sisters' and belong to a long and large family. We have been living in our present home and community for just over 2 years now and are heading into our third winter here. I noticed these special trees two falls ago and they literally come to life this time of year. Have you ever noticed how trees become a solid wall of the same green each spring and summer... but then in the fall, they become individuals as they play out their last gasp. I know that I for one miss the vivid greens of summer during the winter months. I resort to looking at my green ferns out my kitchen window for my green fix until the snow covers them.

There is an avenue of ten trees and another by the large home at the end of the drive. They have whimsical branches that give them the appearance of being whirling dervishes.... or better still, Dancing Ladies. We stopped and took these pictures but didn't get any closer as it is someones private drive, but I'm thinking of asking their permission to shoot them closer. The home has a lovely vista looking due east...over rolling fields ...

This is their view. I sure wish I could convey more adequately how open and rolling this terrain is! Lush and very pastoral. I live a bit north of this road about 1 1/2 kms away. Between the notch of the hills lies a little community called Maple Bay and then an island, then the waters of Georgia Strait. Beyond is Vancouver, or as we call it "The Big Smoke", approximately 22 miles away as the crow flies ( or the ferry sails) We call it our moat.

The hillsides that you see on either side way off in the distance are Mount Maxwell on the left and a large hill to the right and both are on Salt Spring Island.... home to Treenway Silks, Jane Stafford Textile Studio and much, much more.

It's just there, and oh so close! I keep my 'draw bridge' up as I would be beyond broke if I took the leap and went island hopping! (My husband likes it this way too!)

Just south of our town of Duncan, a new public retail weaving studio is being set up and opened soon. The weavers in town are hoping that the owner will offer retail weaving yarns to go along with her weaving classes! Be nice to get a local quick fix when we're caught short. I hope to feature the studio in a future post and introduce you to Leola.

I have something special for my next post... a guest blogger! Stay tuned...