Again with the snow? I was not expecting this. Neither were the flowers. But they are hardy, and the snow will pass.
As my term of office on the Board of the Friends of the University of Washington Libraries came to an end, I wanted to make some bookmarks as a “Good-by and thank you” gift for the people I worked with. Inkle weaving makes a sturdy and pretty bookmark, and you don’t even have to have an inkle loom to do it. My Baby Wolf holds an inkle warp just fine, going through the heddles but leaving out the reed.
As a bonus, the beater, locked into place with no reed in it, makes a great shelf to hold the shuttle, scissors, and other odds and ends I used.
The color scheme was based on the UW colors of purple and gold. The shuttle seen above, with fat gold yarn on it, was just being used as a spacer between bookmarks.
Here’s the weaving off the loom. Next step was a bath in warm soapy water, followed by a rinse and air drying. Then, I cut the long strip into separate bookmarks. A great way to get even cuts across a woven band is by using a rotary cutter.
I ended up with 25 bookmarks, just enough.
A nice little commemorative gift!
Pretty much everything I have to say in terms of me making cookies this time of year was said last year, so go check out that post, which has recipes and pictures. I like to crank up the Christmas CDs while cranking out the Brune Kager, and lead-off tune is alway Feliz Navidad by the sublime Jose Feliciano. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGuCvFdrWPg&feature=related
Yes, it’s an actual post here at Moominmama’s Memoirs! And with weaving content, to boot.
It’s been a busy summer and fall here at Chez Moomin, and rather than catch you up with the wonderful times at Sock Summit, the delights of ComicCon, WorldCon, and World Fantasy Con; the quick junket to the US Virgin Islands in December (and I’ve still got the bug bites to prove it!) . . . well, rather than that, I’m just going to show off the quicky scarf I made as a Christmas present for a friend.
The yarn is a mystery yarn I bought from Elsa at the Seaview Weavers Plaid Llama sale. It’s sett at 6 epi, and wove up quickly into a soft, warm scarf, 9 inches wide, and about 5 1/2 feet long. A bit boardy as it came off the loom, but a soak in Soak followed by a spin-out in the front-loading washer beat it into submission, and now it’s cushy and lovely.
What’s that? You want proof that I left the vale of greyness that is often Seattle in December and went to a tropical place? Okay, how’s this?
And we’ll close with the sunrise the day we left.
Celebrate the return of light as we round the Solstice and head towards Spring.
I’ve just delivered a commission to Syne Mitchell – 15 sets of warp and weft yarns, dyed in vivid colors for her rigid-heddle weaving class at John C. Campbell Folk School. Here are the weft yarns
and here are the warp yarns.
Yes, they are vivid! Especially the two at the lower left. I think of them as parrots. Syne cleverly has her students warp the looms so that the colors flow in a pleasing way. The coordinating weft yarns will tone down the wildness, and the students will end up with a lovely scarf.
I delivered the skeins to Syne at her new high-tech job, and we went out to lunch to discuss future projects for each of us.
One is Sock Summit: Syne will be teaching, I’ll be a vendor, and we’ll be rooming together. Plus we talked about dyeing, weaving, knitting. As Syne said, definitely a high-fiber lunch!
I’ll be putting together more of these sets of skeins for warp and weft. It’s 300 yards for the warp, 250 for the weft, dyed on Louet’s Gems fingering weight yarn. Drop me a note if you’re interested. They will be for sale at Sock Summit, but I may not post them on the Etsy site unless requested.
