What is on the Loom?

Amanda's snowman

My husband's placemats, love the pattern, the color
not as much.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and got everything they wanted! We had all our children and grandchildren here for dinner, a little game playing and of course the opening of the gifts. Then this morning my husband and I did a little running around,we had to buy food for the dogs, cats and for us too. And you could tell that the hops were being processed. The smell of hops is very distinctive and if you have ever lived near where they are grown, you know what I am talking about. I don't find it  an unpleasant smell. We have many hop ranches in our area and you would recognized the fields because they look like large support poles connected with wire throughout the field.
So what is on the looms-my husband has started some placemats. He is not so sure about the color (I am not so sure either) but he has already finished 4 with white yarn and is now working on a gold color. I have a scarf warp on my table loom, it has been there forever, but I am not worried about it. The scarf warp is one the I have set up to take to Project Warm-Up meeting. So I am not worried about doing everything here at home. I have also started another scarf warp on my Gilmore with bamboo yarn and my husband has been warping wool for wool rugs.
I also received a super cute ornament from Amanda www.weave-away.blogspot.com. She talks about her snowman weaving on her blog. And I got one! Thank you again Amanda, I love it.

This is a cotton warp and weft. 

Amy

Merry Christmas

This little lady was given to me by a friend. I think
this looks like me. She even has glasses.
There are things on her that represent my
teaching time and a little woven
piece on her right shoulder.

This is a sweet collage that my sister made. Yes that is
a cupcake but it also has some special family things on
it too. Sweet enough to eat!

My husband took the picture and I don't know why
he put him up like a kangaroo, but I think you
can get an idea of how he looked. 

Merry Christmas! We have cleaned the house and tomorrow our oldest son will be coming over the mountain pass to spend Christmas with us. Our other two children live in the same town we do, so they will be over too. I am hopefully that the pass will be okay since it is snowing here, which means it usually is really snowing in the mountains. I haven't checked the pass report on the net, I will do that tomorrow. I want to show everyone the little armadillo that I made for my sister. She collects armadillos so I made one from the book"Weaving a Zoo." I know that Amanda from www.weave-away.blogspot.com has made some of the animals from this book, but I was just interested in the armadillo. When my grandson saw it, he wanted one, so I made two of them. 

Enjoy and have a Merry Christmas, Amy

Check these out

Hoping I am able to post some photos here for show and tell....how lucky I am to have sisters who are so gifted...true artists....we have lunch about once a month where we share ideas/gossip a bit, solve world problems and bring supplies to share....we all do some crafting......this month was our Christmas luncheon of course and look what I got!!!   My sister Amy and along with her hubby are weavers....beautiful weavers....he wove the fabric and Amy created the sweetest purse for me...check out the big fat red button and zipper for the closure...I love it....and Gail is a paper artist and created a huge box of handmade cards...but how can I send them off to others when I want to keep them all myself...and last and it is a tiny thing, Charlotte made lapel pins for us and she began with a big button, strung on some beads and glued and wooolaaah...I have a special piece of jewelry......

Ornament #8

In order to make this ornament you will need to know someone
who has a kiln for glass fusing. Or maybe you already have
one. This is left over glass formed into a star. Super cute and
very sturdy.

Ornament #7

These are little birds cut from a pop can with a die cutter.
They are painted and a little bit of sparkle is added.
Enjoy, Amy

Ornament #6

The first one is a heart cookie cutter that has been covered
with fabric. It has a lot of detail in a very simple package.
The second one is a ball of yarn, yes just a ball of yarn,
wait there is a hanger on it. This one is so simple.
it is just too cute. 

I was posting an ornament a day for awhile and then the flu bug hit me. No one that I know has had the flu but I picked it up somewhere. It has hindered me finishing my Christmas prep. I have been trying to get everything purchased but still do not have the tree decorated. I also had to miss my grandson's Christmas program and he was playing the second elf. And before anyone asks, I did have my flu shot. So next ornament.
Enjoy,
Amy

Ornament #5

This little poinsettia was made by heating pieces from plastic bottles! It has a clip on the back, so it can be worn by the tree or me. I think that it was heated over a candle but I wonder if a heat gun would provide enough heat for the plastic to be formed into shape?
Enjoy, Amy

Ornament #4

This ornament was made by my sister. She used an old measuring stick with a tag, a little "fluff," a ribbon and a bell.

Enjoy, 

Amy

Ornaments #3

A little red wagon ornament, made from a sucret box. Spray painted red and with button wheels.

Another recycled ornament.

Enjoy, Amy

Ornaments #2

The ornament on the right is a little plastic holder that you get when your children use a quarter in a machine for a ring or a small toy. It is filled with beads and covered on the top and put with felt oak leaves to become an acorn. The ornament in the back is a pinecone turkey. I am not sure what my sister used for the head. Maybe she will post and let us know. If you haven't notice we had a theme this year, it was "red and recycled." These two ornaments really live up to that theme.

Enjoy,

Amy

Ornaments

Yes, I am still here and yes I have been working on some Christmas gifts. Not very many but I can't show them just yet. I have made something for my sister and my grandson. It is the same thing and I know she is wondering what she would want that a 5 year old would want also. But she will have to wait until we have our Christmas lunch. Actually my sisters are probably wondering which one of them the present is for-but they will have to wait until the Christmas lunch.
The day after Thanksgiving we had our annual Christmas ornament exchange. This exchange has been going on for almost 30 years. So I am going to be showing a few of the ornaments that I received this year.
Enjoy,

This is a little ball made out of Christmas cards-I
have seen them made bigger than this but never this small.
The other one is an egg with a reindeer painted on it.

Amy

Lincoln and Weaving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We went to our son's place in Seattle and had a great dinner. We spent a night at a motel close to his apartment and returned home the next day. We had a lot of that wet Seattle weather on the way home. As soon as we got to the summit of the pass, the rain stopped and it was dry all the way home. I was looking at the Beekman boys website and they have an interesting article about the shawl that Lincoln wears in the Lincoln movie. http://www.beekman1802.com It is listed under "recent posts," "The Lincoln Connection." If you haven't read it, you may find it interesting.
Amy

Tessellation

On Friday, my husband went to an estate sale and bought a really neat woven rug. What made it so wonderful was that it is a tessellation. Haven't decided where we are going to put it, for now it is on the back of one of our rocking chairs. On the weaving front I have to finish a weaving for a Christmas present and start one on the little Kombo loom for a scarf. My husband and I have decided to try a Christmas bazaar this year, we have never done one, so this will be an experiment.

Henry helping me warp the loom.

Can you see the two animals?

Amy

Etsy

I have put just a few of my husband's rugs on Etsy. It is under the name Beachtree.www.etsy.com/shop/beachtree. I have had an Etsy shop before but have not put anything on for ages, so I restarted it. I have used Beachtee, because my maiden name is the same as a beach and my husband's last name is the name of a tree.
Amy

finally finished working on the big load of weeping birch and finished up with some nests....with acorn eggs....one of them has a pearl in the acorn.....will take them to our Thanksgiving/Fall centerpiece class this coming Thursday for someone to put into their arrangement

No weaving going on here...but it sure is happening at Amy's house.....lovely work and so glad she took the classes....so fun for her...................but here it is still outside work.....cows to feed until the 20th of November which is the 'processing' date....we now say that instead of butchering..political correctness.....the meat is for the kids....and one of the MG members brought me a pickup load of weeping birch and I worked on it for a few hours today until it began to rain...making some twiggy hearts....and last picture is of the mountain ash and it is so beautiful this time of year....

Warped Weekend

My husband and I spent some time warping this weekend. We started with getting the Hammett ready to do some more rag rugs. All went well with that warping. Next I was threading the Gilmore when I realized that I didn't have enough heddles on shaft 1. Yes I know that I should have counted the heddles but I didn't, so now I have left that for awhile. Then I purchased another loom, a Louet Kombo,  I had everything ready to tie on when I noticed that I had misthreaded. So it is sitting there.
Other news, my two goals this year were to take a class and sell something. I have achieved both of these goals. I attended the Weaver's School for a week and I sold my neighbor one of my weavings that I did at the school. My husband has also sold his first two scarves to a friend. When he gave the scarves to his friend, his friend said,"I didn't know they would look this good!" Well they did look good!

Little Kombo-I found the extension kit and ordered it
so I can make this little one into an 8 shaft
and still be able to take it to classes.

There was a nice article about the Weaver's School in the Seattle Times today. http://seattletimes.com/html/travel/2019515051_trcoupeville28.html
Enjoy,
Amy

Road Trip-Guess Where?

 Outlet store

Yarn waiting to be wove

More yarn

Loom

Putting yarn on cones

Roving

Carders

Yarn being put on cones

Eye Candy

Loom

Loom and the cutting of the selvedges-those selvedges
are like the ones that we buy

Another loom

This is where they are looking for any flaws-there is
a light in back of the fabric and you can see a
chair that someone sits in and views the fabric.

All Done

This lady is using a needle and fixing one of the blankets.

Yesterday my husband and I went on a road trip. The really nice thing is that we live within driving distance from Pendleton Oregon, which is the home of the Pendleton Woolen Mill. We toured the mill and brought home some selvedges from rugs and 3 cones of wool. While we were getting our things a lady from Nevada came in and bought so many bags of selvedges that she was poking holes in the bags to get out the air, so she could buy more. The woman in the shop said that she comes once a year and stocks up. 

Sample #8

Yes I am running out of samples! Number 8 is a deflected double weave. This looks like a great scarf to me. That is mine on the loom, not the one above it. Today my husband and I went on a road trip, tomorrow I will show some pictures of our little trip. Enjoy, Amy

Sample #7

How about some Bronson lace this morning?
Enjoy, Amy

Sample #6

This is an 8-shaft advancing twill design called "Swedish Snowflake Twill." It was the first design that I wove in class. I love it. I think it would look great in bamboo as a scarf. What do you think? Enjoy, Amy

Sample #5

Sample 5 is an overshot pattern. I had trouble with this one. I was following the directions but didn't realize that I was suppose to just use the directions for the start. Since I had already finished 3 rows, I decided to continue and just to be consistent with the pattern. It turned out looking okay, so okay that my neighbor wants to buy it!

Enjoy, Amy

Sample #4

I just got back from the Goodwill store with a couple of wool sweaters. Hopefully I can get them to felt. I am teaching a needle felting class next Wednesday. This is with a group of currant and retired teachers. There will be about 20 people. We have about 3 quilters in our group and a couple of knitters but none of them have done any needle felting. It took me awhile to get all the supplies for the class but I needed more wool felt, hence the 2 sweaters. The next sample is a color gamp with twill. Enjoy, Amy

Sample #3

I have just started a Christmas present on the loom, so I can't show what is happening there. Hopefully after Christmas I can show what I have made. So for now here is sample #3, huck weaving. Enjoy, Amy

Sample #2

This is doubleweave and is the first time that I have done any doubleweave. I will have to try some more of this, I like the look and the blocks that you can make. And yes there is a mistake in there.

Amy

Sample #1

This is a pic of one of the samples that I made at the www.weaversschool.com. It is a shadow weave structure. I love shadow weave and have used it in scarves. I will post more when I have all the pictures taken. Enjoy, Amy