Oh my, time flies.....

I see it's been two weeks since my last post and I can't believe how the time got away from me.  Last week the entire week was so much fun as we had adult art camp at Studio Channel Islands Art Center.  In the afternoons, I had a wonderful class with 5 new rigid heddle weavers and 3 new 4 harness weavers in the evenings.  Generally my classes are much larger so it was a relaxed atmosphere and we all got to know each other.  Everyone took to weaving and it was a great time.  Being away from the normal routine at art camp was like a vacation!  It was a special treat for me to spend time with these creative people and help them discover weaving.  Here are several images from the rigid heddle class.

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures in the evening class, but they worked on samplers.  It's so interesting to me the way the same stack of yarn can come out looking so different depending on who is using it.  Each person uses the color and texture in a unique way to produce an individual piece.  Some favor thin smooth yarn, while others like sparkle or fuzzy or fat and stretchy.  So many choices!

I'm already thinking about what to offer at the next adult art camp.  If you have any suggestions, just let me know.

So now this week I'm getting ready for TNNA.  It's in Long Beach so I don't have to fly anywhere, just get up really early on Thursday and drive down to teach a class starting at noon.  I love teaching at TNNA because it's mostly yarn shop owners or employees and they're always wonderful to have in a class.  And I'll get to see many friends and check out the new yarns for the summer.  I love my job!

Scarves

Ok, here are the images.  I tried to post them before from my iPad, but I obviously don't have that completely figured out yet.

Scarves!

All the scarves for the order for the Coast Gallery in Big Sur are on their way.  So the warps I showed hanging on the loom in my post from the January 2 post are all woven!

I'm so happy with how they turned out.

Where does the time go?

A week ago, a group came up to my studio from Anaheim and Los Angeles to hang out for the afternoon and have some informal instruction on the rigid heddle loom.  Helen from Newton's Knits is great about arranging classes and field trips and I certainly thank her for putting this group together.  A couple of ladies were finishing their their stash vests from the class we had at Newtons in December on that. The class project is the stashbuster vest that was published in the September/October issue of Handwoven magazine.  But Mary Still had finished not one, but two stash vests!  Here are her beautiful pieces.  The pictures don't do them justice as she incorporated lots of mixed yarns to give the fabric great texture.  What a great job.

The last week went by in a blur.  I stayed at the studio most evenings until 9 or 10 pm getting lots of weaving done.  Tomorrow I'll take pictures of all the scarves I finished and post them. It's been a weaving frenzy, but I finished 25 rayon chenille scarves during the week!  Tomorrow morning I go up to Ventura to pick up my pieces from the exhibit at Fox.  They had several of my scarves for sale in the window, so between getting a few of those back and the new ones I finished last week, I will have some scarves for sale in my studio again.

Saturday and Sunday I taught a beginning rigid heddle class at the Southern California Handweavers Guild.  We had such fun.  On Saturday afternoon everyone made an open weave felted scarf for their first project.  The project for Sunday was the stashbuster scarf.  I'm always amazed and delighted at how beautiful and different all the pieces turn out.  We had 17 in the class and each piece was unique.  It's wonderful to see the creative ways each person interprets the same project.  Here is an image of some of the class members and some of their projects from the open weave felted scarf class.  The stashbuster scarves were mostly still on the looms at the end of the class on Sunday, so I didn't get an image of those, but hopefully I'll get some photos emailed to me.

My course on Craftsy.com is giving me the opportunity to interact with weavers from all over!  It's so exciting to answer questions and chat with people I otherwise wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet.  And people are posting projects on the site so I can see what they're working on and how they're using the lessons to make their own designs.  The more interaction I have with Craftsy, the more impressed I am.  They offer a great way to learn things in the comfort of your own home!  If you are interested in my rigid heddle weaving course, remember you can get a 50% discount by using the link www.craftsy.com/rhdj.

This week I hope to get more samples done for the Great Wall of Yarn at TNNA and for some new Trendsetter Yarns I have.  And I'll be preparing for Adult Art Camp at the studio January 21 - 25.

Leno with silk

Working with some of the Trendsetter Yarns has been wonderful this week.  For one project I used a ball of their Lotus Yarn "Silky Cashmere" to make a scarf with some leno detail on the ends.  Oh my, I just love  it.  The yarn is 55% silk and 45% Mongolian Cashmere, so the piece has a fabulous hand.  It's light as a feather, soft, and has a beautiful luster.  It's such an easy project that is mostly plain weave with just one row of 2 x 2 leno a couple of inches from each end to create a bit of a border.  I used a sett of 12 ends per inch in a balanced weave structure.  This is one of those projects that gave me a lot of result for minimal effort.  

I enjoyed this one so much, I decided to weave another one using a ball of silk I also had on hand.  This one is using Sweetgeorgia yarn "Spun Silk Lace" 100% silk in amethyst sett at 20 ends per inch with 13 picks per inch.  It has the same leno detail on each end for a border.

There might be several more of these so I can use them both as class samples and to wear myself!

A New Year

This afternoon I spent a few hours in the studio getting organized.  I was able to get several warps wound for rayon chenille scarves and lay them out in preparation for being put on the loom.  The first one I'll be working on is purples and it's now on the loom ready to weave.  The warps are all long enough to make 5 scarves.  Generally I weave each one with a different weft color so the scarves are all unique after they're finished.

I wound 4 additional warps and draped them over the front beam of my biggest loom which isn't being used right now.  It is so satisfying to see the warps all lined up, waiting to be worked on.  For these scarves, I've wound 5 warp chains for each total warp.  The buckets hold all the cones of yarn that I used in the warp so if I break a warp thread, the replacement is handy and I don't have to search for the right color.  And there is a nice sense of completion when I put the cones away after finishing working on that warp.

I'm also looking forward to working on a warp I put on the loom right before Christmas.  The customer wanted a ruana with colors suggesting a Monet painting.  Here's the warp on the loom.  I did get the ruana finished and sent off before Christmas, but still have more to weave as I put on enough warp for an additional 2 garments.

So part of getting organized is deciding what to work on first!  I'll be weaving the chenille scarves so I can get a dozen shipped off to the Coast Gallery in Big Sur during the next week.  At the same time, I'm working on some patterns with some beautiful new yarns from Trendsetter Yarns.

I love my job!