Daisy supervises the goings-on around here and looks after the cats.

ho-ho-ho and a jolly old OUCH!

Well, the bookmarks are going really well and I hope I will be ready to email everything off to Syne well in time for her deadline. I might already have buyers for some of them! HOWEVER, I know enough not to count my chickens too early-on! Right now, I am mulling over whether I want to go out to the weaving shed or lie around and write instructions. I took a tumble last night and my knee hit the concrete first...have some bruised ribs as well and numerous scrapes from the concrete and the piles of acorns. Well, we shall see. Writing the article itself is really the hardest part of this whole thing. This could be the "weaving god's" way of making me get down and get writing!

Happiness is..

Somebody put the "mother lode" of Lily pearl cottons up on ebay this week and I got most of them! Paid 'way too much, so I had better weave up lots of wonderful little towels and sell them! The stuff is just so gorgeous, and the colours are so wonderful. It's like getting soft jewels! Anyway, I'm very happy right now!!!!

more sampling

well, triumph to "harrumph." Working on a Xmas design, part of which involves a little bug. I decided to re-thread at a different epi and the bug now looks like somebody stepped on it. Back to the drafting to "stretch" the whole thing out a bit. Happy to say, though, that the 16-shaft version is perfect! Now I am just fooling with an 8-shaft version. I had had it threaded up at 36 epi and the design proportions were great, but, at 24 epi, it's a little, well, squashed.
No big deal, just tedium.
Ok, stretch, yawn, open "Weavemaker" and GRAB THAT MOUSE!
Thrilled to death to see both my doglettes outside, enjoying the cool weather and playing...sometimes TOGETHER. This is BIG step for little Cedric! His going up AND down stairs is already a biggie for him, but, now he's up and down all afternoon and has figured out the commands for "let's go to the weaving-shed" and "let's go back to the house." I am SO proud of him!!!!! I love to see him out in the yard, investigating sights and sounds and having doggie-type fun!

YAY

well, my "anti-xmas-card" design just wove up damn near perfect in the 16-shaft version! THe 8-shaft is threaded up and ready to go. I really wanted to stay in the weaving shed all night, but that would be a bit silly, I guess. Well, tomorrow is midweek Communion and breakfast with the "Wednesday group" then I can get back to it. I also have to prepare to "guest" at Liz's art class on Thursday, then prep potatoes for the Lobster Fest, so I'm glad I've gotten my samples well-under-weigh!

sampling time

"Production Line" sampling going on. I am working out one design in two different shaft sets: 8 and 16 and I still have the "Ivy" going on on the other WDL.
whew. Good thing I enjoy threading! Issues with the shafts on the 16/24, though. Number 6 keeps rising and I get "neighbouring" shafts rising with the others. I am doing a "threading wif" so maybe it has to do with just raising one shaft at a time. I'll have to see what happens when I start weaving. I've checked the solenoids, the shafts themselve, the cables. Well, wait and see!

when machinery talks back

My AVL e-lift is being a pain in the arse. I am seriously thinking about trading it in for the air-lift. WE shall see. At present, we are talking packing it up and sending it off to AVL for testing.
Soooo, I shall be confining my attentions to the WDL's. Lord knows there is PLENTY to do there!

Drafting and size matters...

My A-Series is talking back to me these days. The e-lift keeps going "whomp" and stopping.
Looks like it's time-out time! I've been wanting to work on drafts for a while lately, anyway, so I am preparing my sitzfleisch for a long haul at the big monitor.
Finally got "Grid n Weaveit" installed. For some reason, the download version would not install, and I couldn't find the disk. After paying out $15 to replace it, of course, it turned up. Oh well, now I have two.
Back in the early days of computers, there used to be this big mystique about back-ups and dupes...I had a friend who actually kept his backups in a safe-deposit box. The other frequent solution was giving your backups to a friend. Well, this was in New Orleans, where burglaries were frequent.
Then there was the guy who ran the art guild's Mac lab in New Orleans. All regular users were shown by him how to break in to his office to get master app disks! We had a generic serial number so it was Adobe heaven! Just to give a perspective here: one of the guys got a 1 GB storage drive and we were all hysterically jealous! It seemed so huge...she muses, gazing at the 640 GB drive on her iMac.
Well, get up, get dressed and get the nose on to the grindstone. I'd rather be weaving, but this needs doing. I can get back to warping and dressing and weaving next week, with all my drafts in order...YEAH!!!!

Silk

Thank you, little worms.
I LOVE silk. I've been weaving up some bookmarks to sell and to give as gifts and just enjoying the look of the silk woven up. I've been using 20/2's yarn and I like the way the sheen on it catches the light and looks so pearlescent. the finest I've used is 60/2's and, it has its' own pleasures, but the slightly thicker yarn seems to have a nicer response to light. Right now, I am doing some "gifties" since I am using one of Lillian Whipple's drafts. No time to dream up an original, test it etc, since this was kind of a last-minute idea. One thing I'd like to do during "downtime" in London is draft up some more 8-shaft designs since I can pop one of those on and weave while I am watching tv in the house. I have one set up with a double-weave "fiddle-around" warp on it.
Also have to say what a pleasure the "Northwest" Looms are. Tony Klissus builds these to order and even builds the crate for shipping. They are so well made, work so smoothly...they're just a delight to use. I am always amazed that he also sells them for so much less than the "biggies" like Leclerc and Schacht, etc. Definitely a "find."

fixing the draft

the Tree of Life draft isn't all I'd wish it to be, so spent most of the afternoon fixing it. This is the case with most of the drafting I did pre-Lillian's workshop, where I "got it."
thank the Lord for BBC7...good listening while I do what amounts to "busy work." I am actually "hijacking" the presentation of "Proof" with Nigel Havers so I can listen at leisure when I can pay more attention.
NO, "Auntie Beeb" I am NOT planning to pass it around, just store it where it's handy!!!

talking / weaveing trash

I decided to bring home the "Turkish" yarns I bought that have the bits of paper spun in...kind of "eyelashy". I thought the kids would gobble them up, but they really liked the furrier stuff, so I am going to weave off some nice, "tacky-chic" scarves and stuff with this. It's fun to use, and I might get some more if they items sell.
Fell across an ebay auction with "buy it now" for almost every colour of the "Lily" cottons...from 1 to 10 of each colour. I need to start actually using my "collection" of those!!!
"One never knows, do one?" (Fats Waller)

Art camp weavers

One of the wonderful things about teaching kids, and just "turning them loose" as I like to do, on the prepared looms is the work that comes out of it. They have a "no-holds-barred" approach to their designing. They will grab anything, from regular yarn to a piece of old lace and slam it in there! The results are sometimes astounding. Of course, often, "Miss Nancy" has to perform what I have come to think of as not so much a "finishing" as it is a "rescue operation" but they are just fun little things.

I always come away from a week with the kids having my own ideas of what "works" shaken up in a good way and start thinking in terms of what sort of outrageous stuff I could put into some of my own work!
Pictures here: http://web.mac.com/carlowville707/Site/art_camp_1_2009.html

Peacemakers sampling

Sampling is under weigh for the "Peacemakers" design. I love sampling. Even though sometimes the actual weaving turns out to have only a nodding relationship with the original draft, it's fun to work through the "fixes."
This has a way to go, but I am very happy with the initial sampling, in that the lettering "works." I love the alphabet, which I found in one of the cross-stitch collections I ordered. It's one book just of alphabets! I need to do something about the borders and selvedges.

Getting warped!!!

As usual, I leave the warping of the kiddo's looms to the last minute. Stocked up on "Peaches and Cream." BIG sale on, so I am supplied ad infinitum with that stuff.
I think that I will finally make TOWELS. I need to do the ones I promised Alison, and Lillian paid me the compliment of asking for some of that design....SOOOOO, some nice "WEBS" cotton is heading my way for the kids and the towels.
Once the art-camp dust settles, I want to finish off the "Ivy" design and re-warp the A-series for some of those 40-shaft drafts I made this year.

the virtual sampling

I got one whole "verse" done. I don't know if I will put the whole Beatitude on here.

Reasons to sample

I started sampling the "Tree of Life" today and right away saw where I needed to re-do the draft: the "fruits" looked like somebody sat on them. SOOOOO back to the drawing-board where I re-adjusted the whole thing. I guess I could sit down and fuss with the ratios, but I am such a visual designer that I kind of prefer the hit-or-miss version. Maybe I will sit down and do some math at some point. I also need to fix some more draft errors. Sometimes "sleeping on it" helps to see where the errors are happening, whereas, continuing to stare at it means you miss more of them.
Anyway, there is so much to be done this week, I don't know if I will get to the second round of sampling. right away.

"Tree of Life" finally getting "planted"

Well, I have the workshop dobby half-warped and I guess, with the garden only needing a passing glance at the moment, and awaiting potato tubers, that will be the focus this weekend. I am setting up to test the "Tree of Life" draft.
I am very excited that I decided to keep the 16/24. Firstly, somebody had offered to buy it off me instead of my trading it in on the 24/24, but, it occurred to me that I'd really rather have the two sampling looms. For one thing, the 24/24 is sturdier than the 16" and, having actually ground out "production" scarves on the 16" I know I can use the 24" to "produce" as well. That leaves me the 16" for experimenting. I think, in future, I am going to keep a standard S&W threading on it so I can go sample things asap. I now have: an 8-shaft table loom, the WDL and the 16-shaft Structo, so I can fiddle around with just about any threading. The nice advantage of the Structo is those spools on the back, eliminating the necessity of making a warp.
When I get back from London, I want to tie the A-Series up to do some yardage, and I am still putting a rug warp on the old Macomber when I have a spare moment. I think that will be one of those, "Gee, I don't want to WORK on anything today" projects.
Wish I had the patience to hook a rug. They are so lovely, and I am enjoying the new rug I got for my bedroom so much.
Oh well....I am hoping, secretly, that reincarnation will be an option, so I can get back to weaving at some point in the far future. Well, God has his/her plans for me, so I just go with the flow.
As to reincarnation...as I always point out to the kids who come up with the "Dallas Academy Ghost" tale every year: when you die, you know, you get to hang out with God, Jesus, the Saints, and all the angels. Would you really rather come back HERE to hang out?
Don't think so!!!!!!

charted designs

when I realized how easy it is to take a ready-charted design and work out a taquete chart from that, I ordered just about every collection or charted cross-stictch designs I could find, between ebay and amazon! They ALL arrived while I was in Georgia, so I had "Xmas Morning" unwrapping them all and skimming through! Such a wealth of inspiration, from new designs to traditionals. I confess a leaning towards traditionals.
I am also looking for a good fractal generator.
My "stitch painter" programme had also arrived. Since this is my "pre-art-camp" prep period, I am going to really have to exercise self-discipline to NOT spend every waking hour adapting patterns.
I kind of stink at putting things into grids, so this is a wonderful help! I have a tendency to take one of the S&W or Taquete "templates" I spend HOURS making and just design directly on the draw-down. Hey, it works!!!!
A Happy and Blessed Easter and Passover to everyone!!!!

The Big Rock-candy Mountain and little butterflies

the "butterfly" and he's going to live in the "butterfly capital!"

The "Big Rock-candy Mountain" is AKA "Pearl Paint."
If you ever lived in NYC, and were an artist or art student, Pearl Paint was THE "candy store." Five floors of every art supply item you could imagine, and some you hadn't, plus studio furniture and some little fun things! I used to spend all my Xmas and birthday loot there.
Well, they have branched out and there is one in Atlanta, so, since it was cloudy and chilly, making it ok to leave dogs in the car, "Mom" took the plastic and hit Pearl Paint! I wisely made a LIST so that my impulse buys were "contained" and I just got some small items that looked like fun, like "artists' trading cards." The idea is that you create something small and trade with others. Well, to heck with that...I will make something
small and sell it! (Not the dog, of course!)
Also picked up some blank cards so I have a reference for ordering of the 'net in future, but the BIG DEAL was great blocs of grid paper for graphing out weaving designs. Lovely stuff.
Today is heading for home. Yesterday's storms would have been on top of us all the way to Birmingham so we stayed put. Also needed to finalize Cedric's adoption.
Oh, of course, the real aim of this trip was to meet an adorable Papillon who was at one of the rescue organizations' foster homes. We hit it off right away and Daisy seems ok with the new family-member so, stay tuned for more on this.

next rough draft

thought I'd try a different alphabet