Week 15 of 52

This week I finished weaving a set of tea towels -

The pattern is Turned Twill Towels, 

from Jane Stafford Textiles School of Weaving, Season 5, Episode 1.

Woven in Maurice Brassard 2/8 cotton, and cotton bouclé.

I ended up with 8 towels, and 2 small clothes from the end of the warp.

More details are on my Ravelry project page.

Lots of warp ends to tie into a thrum ball to use as weft for more towels - no waste.

I also made a piece of stained glass. I drew the design after looking at lots of Mackintosh Rose pieces online. It is about 5.5"x12", made to fit a side light on the front door (I am trying to use up supplies I have).

Photos from Around -

I tried planting onion seedlings in the snail planting method, I am really hoping this makes planting onions in the garden easier.

Big hunter - I think he saw a leaf blowing in the mulch.

Lots more snow to melt - it is so dirty and mucky outside.

The chickens roamed free for the first time this year - we learned they don't like to walk over snow banks.

All the best!♥︎

Stained Glass & Pets

This week I made a piece of stained glass for over the kitchen sink-

Inspired by pieces on Pinterest (I am trying to use up glass). It is about 6.5"x38".

Pets-

We had another snowstorm this week, Molly was enjoying herself.

She hears voles under the snow.

Maggie keeping an eye out.

Afternoon walk.

Doing her best to avoid puddles.

All the best!♥︎

A Couple of Cooperative Projects

I recently was involved in a couple of cooperative projects-

This is a pair of quilts for my parents.

I cut out the fabric, my Mom sewed them and I quilted them.

The pattern is Twilight Hopscotch by Kim Diehl from her book 'Simple Comforts'. We modified the size to make bed sized quilts (72"x100" - 4x6 block layout with a 6" border). The fabric is from Connecting Threads. We used wool batting. They are free motion quilted with an all over meander (on my domestic sewing machine), and a hooked feather in the outer red border. I quilted them with Connecting Threads Essential Pro polyester thread and I couldn't believe how well it worked (normally my machine has bobbin issues when free motion quilting).

My also Mom made the pillows on their beds, and my Dad made the cross stitched pictures on the wall (my parents are in their late eighties and are just amazing!).

 This next project is a piece of stained glass that our eldest son designed, cut and ground the glass, and I soldered and finished. It is 3"x11".

Photos from around and the pets-

Sunrise and blowing snow.

Lot of tomatoes under the grow lights.

Lettuce and swiss chard under different grow lights.

Gray Partridges trying to keep warm.

Miss Maggie

Miss Molly

All the best!♥︎

More Weaving, Spinning, and Stained Glass

I finished a couple of weaving projects recently-

This first one is an overshot scarf, the last of my kits from the Yarn Barn.

The pattern is "Latte or Mocha?', made with bamboo. It is the first scarf that I have woven that is nice to wear. It is silky, 'drapey' and so soft. I thought it would be my last handwoven scarf (I find weaving narrow things harder), but I'll probably make some more like this. It looks nice on each side, the sides are opposite.

The last three projects I wove were all overshot - woven with two shuttles, with complex treadling sequences, all on four shafts, so I thought  I would have a bit of a break and weave something simple.

 Turned twill tea towels, on 8 shafts, woven straight draw with 2/8 cotton.

I finished spinning a few skeins of yarn-

A wool and mohair blend, leftover from last years spinning for socks. This is a local fibre blend, and for me, it is too rough for socks, I'll probably make some mittens.

This year my plans for spinning is to spin for weaving.

This first one is some Knit Picks Wool of the Andes roving that I dyed, and spun.

This is some linen. I am looking forward to weaving with this.

My brother-in-law asked me to design and make some stained glass windows out of the old coloured glass from when they had the windows replaced in his church.

The above is a photo of how some of  the windows looked.

Here is what I came up with. I wanted to keep the simplicity of the original windows (I even repeated the  four vertical windows in a few places). Since there was a red glass that was different from the rest I made that a feature (a path going through all the windows). Each window is 11"x25". These were a real family affair - my brother-in-law, sister, husband and two children all had a hand in these. I was a bit daunted when I was first asked, but we were all super happy with how they turned out.

Here they are up in the church.

Photos from Around-

Best friends playing their favourite game.

Our youngest son grows yellow tomatoes (as well as lettuce) in the basement, they are really starting to come in.

All the best!♥︎

A Few Finishes

I finished weaving the M&W fabric (M&W is the threading pattern of the warp on the loom) -

This was a project to see how the crochet cotton I was given would weave up (to determine a good Ends Per Inch - EPI - the spacing of the warp thread on the loom), and what kind of fabric it would make, also to try out dyeing warp and weft threads. It was a good experiment, and I learned a lot! If you are interested in more information see my Ravelry project page for more of the weaving details.

I put the long piece of fabric on the buffet in the dining room. I was told by my children that it looks like a stained rag, but I think the colours are interesting -

close up of the dyed warp threads

When I was weaving I tried out a stretcher system on my loom (to keep the warp from drawing in too much during weaving). I had seen a fancy set up similar to this for about $80 (Leclerc Clip Temple System),

but I used $4 tarp clamps from Princess Auto, some string and a couple of old glass door knobs as weights (now that I know that it works I will add some eye screws to the loom, and figure out some better weights). I was amazed with how much it helped with the weaving.

I also crocheted a little thing out of a small amount of cotton I had dyed a few years ago. I wanted to see how the variegated thread would crochet up (since I plan on dyeing more of the gift cotton), I was also trying out some different patterns.

This past week I dyed some yarn (this is a Merino wool and cashmere blend from KnitPicks). This is for my sister.

This next finish is a little quilted mat - 10"x12" (the Thimbles are just over 1" tall).

I keep little cut Thimbles next to my sewing machine to use as 'leaders and enders' when I am sewing, then all of a sudden I have enough to make something with them (they are also a great way to use up the smallest scraps of fabric). This mat used beige fabric leftover from a GO! cutter project for something different.

This last finish of the week was a joint effort between my oldest son and I. He had wanted to learn stained glass so we made this together (the idea is from Pinterest - feathers are so popular these days). I just demonstrated each step, and he did great. We finished it off with some real feathers, a strip of moose hide and beads for decoration.

I am still working on a piece of embroidery, knitting the Tealeaf sweater, sewing,

and I have also been combing some wool for spinning. I am amazed how lovely it comes out with a couple of passes of the combs.

All the best!♥︎

The New Year!

Happy New Year!

I don't make resolutions for a new year, but I do like to make 'crafting' plans - usually involving trying something new, a year long project etc. 

For 2018 the plan is to diversify my crafts. 

Lately I have heard of people calling themselves - a quilter with a capital Q, or a knitter with a capital K. I can't say that I am obsessed with one particular creative outlet, I enjoy everything that I do. So for this new year I want to try a larger variety of crafts - lots of old, but hopefully some new ones too.

This plan did start at the end of 2017 when we remodelled our storage room and I now have an area for stained glass (the boxes of glass had been packed since our last move 10 years ago!)

My first piece of stained glass in 10 years - idea from Pinterest

I used to make a lot of stained glass, it was really nice to try it again, and this is what motivated me to expand my crafting experience.

At the same time Craftsy introduced a membership plan. I have been a Craftsy fan for a long time, so signed up for the year with the thought to try as many things as I can.

This is the first project from a Craftsy class - a sampler cowl from 'See It, Crochet It: Reading Diagrams' by Charles Voth. I know how to crochet and made a lot of things when I was young, but I just made things up as I went along. Finally I learned the names of the stitches, new stitches and how to follow a pattern. Now I remember why I enjoyed crochet so much as a child. This cowl is made out of leftover silk and merino, fingering weight handspun.

This is a new project that I started today - the 'Tealeaf Sweater Knit-Along' by Bristol Ivy, another Craftsy class.

I just wanted to show something else new that I tried recently -

Soft and Stable batting to make a bucket bag. This stuff is fabulous.

The bag is lightweight and sturdy.

It is a perfect project bag.

I also tried some cross stitch again. This is a pattern by Veronique Enginger.

Another plan for the new year is to blog more regularly - I'll see how that goes!

All the best!