Weaving at Asilomar

In early May, I went to a weaving conference at Asilomar Beach and Conference Grounds.  What a wonderful place to stay.  There are many historic buildings designed by Julia Morgan.  Asilomar was first conceived as a place for members of the YWCA  from around the country to meet.  If you are interested you can read the history of Asilomar here

 Merrill Hall

     We gathered in Merrill Hall for meetings and speeches and our vendor.

Looking up in Merrill Hall

More ceiling views

Fireplace in Hearst Building

There were paved and board walks all around the facility.  We were right on the beach.

A boardwalk leading to the ocean.

Ah, the ocean.  So beautiful. 

Well, as I mentioned I was there for weaving.  I took a class on weaving with neutrals.  This was bold for me as I prefer color and more  color.  But I enjoyed it very much.  There were 20 students and therefore, 20 looms in a light airy room (but it was pretty cold outside most of the time) We learned a lot about what one tie-up can produce by varying the threading and the pattern.    Below are some of our work in progress.  We were weaving only samples so there wasn't a finished piece.

My start

Another's loom

Another

When we were done we cut our samples up so everyone got a 2" square of everyone's efforts for future reference along with the patterns.

When I arrived home I still had unused warp on the loom so I  wove a bit more.

I enjoyed seeing what differences just changing the shades of weft would do.

Just below a very light view our our classroom.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Rejoice!  this is a day the Lord has made.

Current and Proposed Projects

Howdy

I will, I will, I will finish the duffles.  There were actually 4 to do and one is done. One is half done, another is cut out and waiting,  I can't remember about #4.

One on the right is not finished, No lining.

See.

But the one on the left is complete.





I had trouble with the piping on the ends of the bags. Perhaps practice is what I need.  Piping does add a certain je ne sais pas to the duffles. Also to other things.

I think when the lining is added to the bag on left. it will help smooth out the wrinkly piping.




I found the pattern as a tutorial from SewCanDo by way of Sew She Can.  I changed the pattern a bit.
#1  I found that lining the straps with the same fleece as the bag made them too difficult to turn right side out.  I left the fleece out of the straps.  A lighter interfacing though might make them less floppy.
#2 I had to change the way I added the zipper because when I did it like the photo, it didn't work.  So I looked at the photo taken after the zip was sewn in and worked backwards.
Otherwise I think they are cute.  So hoping to finish all by Thanksgiving.

I have some spinning to do.  Well, actually, plying.  The spinning's complete.  Oops, what I should have said is, 'some' spinning is done.

This one is plied.  It's called Salsa Caliente.  



The one I need to ply is below. However, I have forgotten it's name.

It's all ready, I just need to do it.



Weaving.   Finally got the new warp tied on to the old warp.  New experience for me.  It worked!

It's tied on but not beamed.  I have no photo of that.  

What I have is a picture of the start of a new set of towels.

This was meant to be a  more sagey green that this or maybe just a deeper hue.  It's a Finnish twill pattern.

There are soooooooooooooooo many more projects in my world to be completed. These have been 5 of them.

May God make His Face to shine upon you and give you peace.

I Can't Believe

I went all through April without posting even once.  What kind of blogger am I anyway?  And yet some people view my blog.  Who are they?  Perhaps they are people just passing through.

Here's what's new.

I went to CNCH, but by the time I arrived in Modesto about 2:30 PM  all of the handmade items which the committee hung out were gone.  Tags had been put on them stating that if someone was cold they were welcome to take one. Apparently there were many cold people that morning.  It would have been nice to see the items on display, but alas it didn't happen for me.

I took 2 classes. One was on weaving with hand spun yarn and this is what I made.

I spun this.

This one small piece I wove.  The large yellow yarn was handwoven by my friend, Pam. I like the contrast.



My other class was an illuminated bookmark.  I will show you the lighted and unlighted photos.  My actual weaving is not so good, but the illumination is fun.

I bought a stand for my rigid heddle loom and here's the bookmark in progress as I didn't finish it in class.

Here is the bookmark finished but not lit. At the top is a small pouch for holding the battery.  As you can see I didn't get my led lights very even.

Da dah! It works.  Pretty cool, eh?














While at CNCH  I bought some bright 5/2 cotton with which to weave a towel or two to match my decor.   Again, my weaving was not without errors. Photo 1: errors in plain view 2: errors hidden  3: the towel looking good ( at a distance ) in my house.

A couple of posts ago I showed photos on another sleepover satchel I made.  I had the manager of the state park gift shop look at it and she thought they could sell it.  Here is a photo of it hanging in the shop with it's tag on.

I have made 2 more satchels since this one.  I will do a post on them soon.  And perhaps other interesting things, like clouds.

Have you ever heard of a horseshoe vortex cloud?  It's a new one for me.  I will post a photo soon, not taken by me.

Come back.

A Thing for the Wall

It's true I made 'a thing for the wall'.  After I took that class on Saori Weaving,  I was eager to do some more so a warped my rigid heddle loom.   I started out with some yarn for the weft, but then switched to strips of batiks. You know I love them.

I'm enjoying it at this point so decided to take a photo.  The warp is some blue cotton, a bit finer than I wanted, but I didn't have what I wanted.  I'm not sure I even knew what I wanted.

A close-up after it was done.

There it is hanging in the hallway. The wall is a pale lavender.  None of the photos I took of it looked true in color.  This one came the closest.

A close-up of the fringe with beads.  Okay it's not much of a close-up.  Alas,  I am not a photographer.









That's all for the 'thing for the wall'. However I also finished another sleep-over satchel.  Here are two photos of it.

I think this makes 12 of them I've made.  There's another like this one all cut out and ready for sewing.  Might head on in there and 

Get Started.

Later.

Spinning

Hey there

I have certainly been lazy lately including blogging.  However, as I was spinning yesterday I thought I could do a short one featuring fiber and the wheel.

The wheel 

(the dog and the TV)

A stormy fit of fiber on my knee

Some single ply yarn it has become.

Fiber, fiber everywhere but not a bit of pink

(okay that was silly)

The bright one is called 'Saddle Blanket'.

Working on this one for CNCH, which is Conference of Northern California Handweavers. The gathering is in April and I must have 360 yards of 2 ply yarn for my class.

Recently I took a one on one class on Saori style weaving. Here is my sampler.  It needs some further attention, but I like it.

Now when you look at this remember I am a beginner.

That's all folks.

More SnowPeople and Other Things

Some might say I got carried away making snowpeople.

Well, I did.   A bit anyway.  See the one front left?  He's from a child's sock.   They make me smile.

I gave one to my nephew, it's not in this photo.  I used toothpicks for arms.  I forgot to take a picture before I gave it to him.

These little creations of mine were gifts to members of a hand weavers' guild I belong to.   I didn't get anything woven as gifts but my goodness what I received!   See the beautiful towels.

 I love every one of my towels, but I sure wish the photos did them justice.  I do appreciate the love and artistry behind this work.   

Do you remember these?   I love my towels too.  Watch for more towels and maybe some other gorgeous things in future.

In closing I leave you with the cloud photo.(oh, no, not another picture of clouds) Yes, because clouds are amazing!

Doesn't it look like bits of cloud are being pulled off  the large finger-like clouds?   This taken from my front porch.

More sooner than later.

I am a Dud

That's with a capital D.  A blogger dud.  But I haven't been idle.  Well, not very idle anyway.   I've made some bags for the Coop, and a couple of aprons for people I like (love).  You will have to take my word on this as I failed to take any photos.   Also I have wound a warp for my next weaving project.   I have a photo of it waiting to be tied on.   It is a natural colored 10/2 cotton for towels. The weft will be red for 2 towels and a lovely blue for 2.  More later.

Today I have a goal of cutting out 2 men's shirts and a skirt.  I have bought some cool fabric with a kind of Halloweeny feel.  There are photos of the fabric here today.

Meanwhile I am continuing to study watercolor painting online.  I finished my pear class.  See :D

Since I received a tablet for my birthday, I have not only resumed online classes in a variety of subjects, but also begun studying Italian and Swedish on DuoLingo.   My head is almost as full as when I was in nursing school.   Okay, not really.

Jag ar en kvinna.   (2 dots over the a in ar)  means "I am a woman."
I can also say  Jag ar (2 dots) en pojke.   This is not a true statement, however, as it means "I am a boy."

In high school I had 4 years of Spanish and 2 of French,  I've studied Italian on my own or with Rosetta Stone for several years.  So why not Swedish, eh?

One more photo for this post.  Was that a sigh of relief I just heard? Oh, anticipation?  I see.   I took this one last evening on the deck. The air was cool and soft.  Watching my new watercolor class seemed like a good idea,  on my new tablet. Heehee.

I call this one "Tabby and Tablet".  Good choice,  I believe.

Hejda for nu.

This is "good bye for now" in Swedish.  There's a tiny 'o' over the a and those 2 dots over the o.  I haven't learned this on DuoLingo so I used Google translate.