Q1'25 FInished list (12)

My Pebble Beach Shawl matches the
Anthony Murphy
painting in the bedroom

Apparently I haven't been photographing things, as I'm finding a lot of mentions of items without any documentation. So this will be photo-heavy. What have I finished this quarter?

Knitting:

• Modular vest: it's proved to be a great little vest for around the house, keeping me warm when I'm a little chilly. 
• Pebble beach shawl: "finished" 7 years ago, but I hated it and put it away with plans to rip it out. I found it last month and don't hate it anymore. Hard to count it as a finished object since all I did was block it and weave in the ends, but will do so as it's no longer in the studio but living in the closet.

Modular Vest

• A gnome.

 Printing:

• An edition of snowflake postcards
• An edition of quail postcards

Weaving:

• 2nd pennywise runner (with issues)
• 4 towels; 3 with carrots, 1 with corn (not pictured).

Carrots hanging out in the kitchen

Spinning

• The Diver's Cove roving is now a 2 ply lace weight yarn, all except for the dregs on one bobbin. I'll ply that with something leftover from another effort.

Other:

• Bunny shopping bag: I used a machine embroidery pattern by Urban Threads with bunnies and carrots to make a shopping bag/tote using yardage from my stash. Why do I have carrot fabric in my stash? I have no idea. The bag is super cute, and is going to the same charity as the carrot towels.

FOR Q2:

I'll still be out of the studio a lot but should be able to finish:

• The April cardigan just needs button and the ends woven in...
• I have a bobbin of merino/tencel singles that I've started plying, more blues.
• Would be nice to ply up some of the oddball spools
• I'm taking a spinning class at CNCH, not sure what the result will be.
• 2-3 more prints, hopefully a 2 color print in the batch,
• Doubleweave pillows; pattern is drafted, yarn is on the shelf waiting.
• A waffle weave project for the study group.

And hopefully make some progress on:

• The pink hawaiian baby quilt
• The in-progress table
• And maybe some stepping stone. I'm rethinking designs.

(19 things as of 12/25/24)

All the Paper Shirt deets, all in one place.

In the Fall of 2021, I attended SOAR at the Boulder Colorado Chautauqua; one of my classes was on how to spin paper, taught by Judith Mackenzie. It took a bit of work to get the hang of it but I left the class with a firm resolution to spin some yarn and make something out of it.

Mulberry paper has been spun into thread and woven into cloth in Japan (shifu) for centuries; there are a number of descriptions on the internet of how it’s done.  We used a similar but not identical method to cut continuous strips of tissue paper and of old tissue paper sewing patterns and spin them into yarn! 

For my project, I used some of the old sewing patterns in my closet, and received some from friends. When I discovered I needed more, I went to Fabmo, a local “Non-profit that finds & sells reclaimed fabric” and found a bunch of intact patterns; I choose 1980’s patterns with large shoulder as they were unlikely to be reused.  Here are steps I took to spin the paper:

• Crumple the paper to make it more pliable.
• Check paper grain by tearing a strip or test spinning a strip; make sure you’re cutting with the grain or it will not be spinnable!
• Cut into 1/4” strips with a rotary cutter, then separate into continuous strands similar to shifu cut, then spin.
• I chose to ply with a very thin silk single for strength. 

Close up of finished fabric! 

I spun a 10 yard sample and wet finished it; the yarn was stiff and unappealing until I wet finished it by gently agitating it in a sink full of cold water.  It held together, and softened up enough to be used in a garment, so I kept spinning, 

My yarn was not suitable for warp but looked like it would work well for weft. My yarn turned out to be approximately the same grist  as my 8/2 cotton. I also tried knitting a bit but decided I’d rather weave with it.

I decided to weave the fabric in plain weave for the maximum number of interlacements so that the paper would be well supported. I sampled with a 8/2 cotton warp set at 16 EPI (because that’s what I had on my loom). I tried all paper weft, pick and pick with 8/2 cotton, pick on pick with a thin cotton boucle, and every third pick in paper. The fabric was stiff and unpleasant. I then machine washed the sample in cold water, to make sure it would hold together; it did; I line dried and ironed the sample and decided the pick on pick suited my purposes best. 

 

I had not yet picked out a sewing pattern so I guessed at the width I’d need for a camp shirt and warped up 5 yards of 8/2 cotton (natural color), 14.5 inches in the reed, and started weaving.  Meanwhile I started working on a pattern.

I ended up choosing the Natalie pattern by Seamworks, which unfortunately has a dart; I decided I didn’t want a dart in this bulky fabric… I redrafted the pattern without the dart and made a muslin, then a test garment from linen, and a second test garment from a Malay Batik my husband brought back from a business trip.  By this time the 5 yards of fabric was off the loom so I was almost ready to sew!

Sewing the shirt

There were a few sewing design decisions to make. My fabric had drawn-in/shrunk 13% down to 12.5 inches, so was not wide enough for my pattern pieces.  Also, I didn’t want to put button holes in this fabric, so I solved the problems with the front by making the button bands of unbleached muslin. To complement the look and so that I didn't use the bulkier paper in the collar, I made the collar from muslin as well. The two pieces that would make up the back were also not wide enough, so I put a stripe of double thick muslin down the back (to approximate the same weight as the paper fabric). I followed Daryl Lancaster’s suggestion of using a Hong Kong finish on all the pieces to stabilize the seams before  sewing them together; this worked very well except I had to fuss with the underarm seams to eliminate some bulk.

My biggest surprise was that the plain wood buttons I’d bought for the garment simply did not work. I dug through my mother’s button jar and found 5 silver toned buttons which were perfect!

I wore the shirt open with a tank top underneath to the CNCH 2023 Barbecue and Fashion Show and to my delight it was comfortable and perfect for a summer evening.

Many thanks to Judith and to the folks in that spinning class for the inspiration and to my Sewing with Handwovens Study Group for their suggestions and encouragement!

So happy it's done!

Big swath of muslin in the back

Things From SOAR

I often take classes then don't practice what I learn, then I forget what I learned. I promised myself I wouldn't do this with the classes I just took at SOAR. So...

Here's a lovely finished object from SOAR... a tablet woven mask lanyard. It's 20 cards of 10/2 cotton in Egyptian diagonals pattern (iron age tech), started in a class with John Mullarkey. It's about 3/4" wide and 35" long with lobster clips. I sloppily zig-zaged it together by machine; I need to find a better way.  The double diamonds in the center section were a mistake! You'd think I could have watched my weaving and caught it... but I liked it enough to replicate it (with John's help). I have notes!

Speaking of card weaving, my new friend S. pointed out this delightful site: http://ladyelewys.carpevinumpdx.com/. She's hosting a weave-a-long for historical card weaving that includes historical or archeological information. I'm hooked.

I took a break from The Quilt That Must Be Finished this morning to practice a couple things from SOAR. I had cut up some pattern paper in 1/2" strips and tried spinning it on my Kromski wheel; it spins beautifully but will not feed on. The orafice is more convoluted than on the Louet, and all the little hooks seem to be a bit of an issue. I'll go back to the Louet and try it again. I've also bought some colored tissue paper from Target; one of the ladies had brought it to the workshop and Judith had declared it fabulous, so I'll give it a try some morning. 

I also tried some tweed. I took the green fiber from the CNCH Return to Sender challenge and carded it with about 15-20% Zwartbles wool  and some silk floor sweepings from John's class; it ended up being a lovely olive green with the little silk bits showing through. My spinning technique, however, needs some work... So I'll spin something else up with a woolen draft before I go back to this. The good parts are very good but there are some unattractive lumps...

Zwartbles

Zwartbles, by the way, are a Dutch sheep breed that are naturally black in their un-unburnt state; the wool goes a little brown on the older sheep.  Here's an awesome photo of them from https://zwartblesireland.com/. They're milk and meat sheep; the wool has a good crimp but is in the 30 micron diameter range which makes it a little itchy for next to the skin use.

The aforementioned quilt will be done this week!

Monagamous! and Fricassee

With all vacations cancelled, we're back to the cookbook challenge, and DH picked Marcella Hazan's The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking again. I wanted to cook a recipe that seemed more like home food than restaurant food (although I can't tell from the book), something that isn't typical to Italian restaurants in the US, and something DH did not expect: Chicken Fricassee in Red Cabbage. The cabbage is cooked down with onion and garlic, then the browned chicken and red wine are added and cooked a while more. It was excellent!  I cooked and served it with a California pinot noir, and accompanied it with polenta and spinich and shallots sauteed in pan drippings from the chicken. I'll make this again!

On the fiber front, I continue to be monogamous. 

I'm quilting away, often on the deck by the pool, when I can negotiate with the cats for access to the quilt. I'm more than half way done with the background, then it'll just be the borders! This afternoon's task will be to mark more quilt. I did sign up for a ruler quilting class at PIQF in mid-October, and I'm invited to the local quilt group meetings where I hope to find out if anyone can coach me through quilt-as-you-go.

Negotiating who gets
which part of the quilt

I'm weaving hand towels for the bathroom, and those are going well. I finally conceded that I need 6-8 inches to get used to pattern and beat before my project looks good. I just signed up for another Janet Dawson Overshot class so will warp the little loom for that; I'm also about to order fiber for the rug by the kitchen slider and flirting with a bound weave project for later in the year.

I'm only really working on my knitting one evening every other week. Two weeks ago, I encountered an error but put it out of my mind, so last night I rediscovered it and spent an hour picking it out. I'd picked this project for travel and now that travel isn't happening I confess I'm looking at other projects.

I hosted two spinning classes taught by guild member BP; I brought out my wheel and continued to spin that blue merino mix that has been making me so unhappy. The good news is I'm almost done with the spinning, then I'll ply that and the brown singles I have (not together). I also took out the charka and tried some cotton but I fear that'll have to wait until my class at the end of September.

I've also been spending lots of time in the garden; I've convinced the gardeners that we need to finish one project before we move to the next. So large parts of the garden are looking much better.

January has been very productive for me!

Destined to adorn nightstands

More from Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food: I served the braised pork with chiles with polenta, and it was fabulous. The lemon sherbert was excellent, as was the sauteed fennel. We had the same baked fish again, this time with a garlic, lime, and jalapeno butter. I'm officially closing that cookbook now and moving to February! I'll publish the name of the cookbook in a later post, but it's one of Julia Child's... On February 2, I made the Provencal fish with some halibut and tomatoes that needed cooking up. Very nice with a French Chardonnay.

It's found a home on this table, 
but the table is moving

The same day I finished the overshot runners;  the star fashion and rose fashion runners, and a 3rd runner of my own design adding a second pattern color. My design looks very much like other designs in the group but I did work through all of the design particulars so I feel good about what I'm doing. 

I finally finished the baby sweater from JC Briar's class; it just needs a bath, a better photo, and a toddler.

Baby sweater in search of a baby.

I finished spinning and plying the purple/brown merino that's been in my stash forever. 

Newly born yarn

I also embroidered up a couple of hockey motifs that'll go on a bag; I haven't made it back to my sewing machine yet, but I will!

I'm going to put a list of the weaving projects I'd like to take on while I'm still in captivity... I'll do it here.

1. Turned monks belt warp shibori scarf in tencel for my study group. (March deadline)
2. Double weave sampler in Jennifer Moore's class (March deadline)
3. Doubleweave pillows from MA05 (the cover photo) in colors that match our living room.
4. M's and O's towels from Handwoven JF06, for the towel exchange (May deadline)
5. A new rug for the den slider.
6. Towels for the powder room.
7. A overshot coverlet.

Q2 '20 Finished things (9 or more)

My time to work on things has been curtailed a bit by pandemic and other activities. For awhile, I was doing my own housecleaning and yard work; thankfully I've surrendered that back to the experts. Still, I'm cooking a lot more often, and more project menus, and I've been working out a lot more because it helps me sleep at night. DH has also involved me in a few house projects, and I've spent a lot of time in the Guild library, and in fostering Guild social activities. So I expected to see a list with very little "finished" things on it and was super surprised to see that I've actually done a lot!

Wonderful handmade cotton fabric!

• I aspired to do a shadow weave fabric of my own design for the study group, and in fact spent some time researching shadow weave and came up with a couple of fun designs... but then decided to reverse engineer a pattern from a shirt one of my guild mates was wearing as an exercise to see if I could do it.  I wove this is mostly 20/2 cotton and one mystery yarn. It's approximately 14 inches wide and very very long and it's destined to become a shirt or vest!

It's almost
opalescent
in real life

• I finished spinning 250 grams of silk I dyed more than 10 years ago. It's not particularly even and is under plied in some areas... But I had fun and have a great feeling of accomplishment. 

• I wanted to finish the Festivus quilt but didn't realize exactly how much work it would be! I did finish quilting all 12 of the blocks (well, mostly, I'll go back and add a little more to two of them), and I'm about half way around the border. My biggest impediments to finishing are Owl and Ziggy who think it's a great frame for laying on my lap.

Hand dyed, hand decorated and
hand sewn mask now in the
collection of a master gardener.

• I wanted to do some other sewing thing. Does 38+ cloth masks count? I made 18 for the niece in ABQ to give to those who need them, 5 for DH and I, and the rest to friends and family. I must confess, I really like some of my masks.

• I completed a muslin for the Shirt Number One in size large (pattern loaned by a friend)... It'll need some dye on it... but the sewing is done. I'm unlikely to make another one of these; it's too boxy; but it probably would have been better in a softer fabric.

This fabric doesn't exist
anywhere else!

• I deep cleaned the studio and found a shirt I started while still at Canada College... The choice: find a place for it to live or finish it. So I finished it. The fabric was printed to my spec by Spoonflower, and I tailored the pattern to fit. The broadcloth is a bit stiff but causes the shirt to stand away from my body resulting in a cool, comfortable top.

• I started knitting the Double Your Pleasure cowl; I'm just started and already will have to unknit some of it. But I'm liking the pattern so far. Pictures will appear in later posts.

• An ikat project is dyed and about to go on the loom.

• I finished a black and white scarf in crackle. I learned a lot about crackle but not sure if I want to do more. I had some issues with the beat and the sett as well, so not proud of this scarf. 

How can I not have a colorized version?

• I carved a frog stamp, water colored and stamped post cards, then released them into the world. So far I've gotten lots of positive feedback!

• And I can take "make peanut brittle" off of my bucket list. I crumbled up most of it and added it to peanut butter ice cream; that was a little too sweet, but the peanut brittle was glorious.

• I made a small piece of garden art and it failed. But as a recent guild speaker commented, if you're not failing 50% of the time, you're not trying!

I got no traction on these list items...

• The eye mosaic; and there's another partial piece down there...
• The woven jacket with knitted sleeves.

I'm unsure how to count what I've done this quarter... Do 38 masks count as 38 or as 1? Do 17 postcards count as more than one? I'll take one for each of these, knowing that a lot more were made...

What's up for Q3? I'll put the last quarters leftovers on this quarters list:

• Complete one of the started 3D mosaic project.
• Finish the woven jacket with knitted sleeves.
• Would it be too much to finish the border of the Festivus quilt?
• Dye the Number One shirt.
• Trial another shirt pattern (Patternworks Akita).
• Carve another stamp for August.
• Weave the two ikat scarves.
• Spin the wool for the scarf I'm making with Carol.
• Design and begin work on a table for the grill area. It would be nice to use it this season.
• Weave a sample for a coverlet.
• Make masks for family in Utah.
• I'd like to explore doing Zentangles on fabric, and also making fabric wrapped rope baskets...

Food first, then fiber!

A trio of shibori fabric masks.

Food first!

I've continued to cook out of Great Foods without Fuss. I made a lovely curry shrimp, which I paired with a sweet and sour eggplant recipe (the eggplant was heavily modified because of ingredients). I also cooked cod with mint and onions, an Italian recipe, and was frankly shocked at how well mint goes with fish.

I also tried the easy pot de creme recipe.  I don't know where my brain was but I used unsweetened chocolate instead of semi sweet chocolate in a recipe with no sugar. The resulting product was really very interesting but not enjoyable to eat.  I'll have to try it again but with the right chocolate.

Saturday we had a zoom with some friends... DH adorably asked for some tapas, maybe patatas bravas and chorizo. Turns out I had everything I needed! I used The Food Lab's recipe for oven roasted crispy potatoes (I swear they taste crunchy fried but without that much oil), made a bravas sauce with a recipe from the internet, and made chorizo braised in red wine, also from the internet.  Sunday we had ribs off the grill and some cole slaw. I'm rockin' the SIP impromptu "what can I cook with these ingredients" menus. This week it's back to rice cakes and fuzzy water!

DH has chosen one of Rick Bayless' Mex cookbooks for June.

Graduated to the yarn stash!

On the fiber front,

• I raided the hand dyed fabric stash, and make this trio of shibori masks; one for my sister, one for my landscaper, and one for me! I fussy cut some of the other fabric and came up with some crazy designs. I really need to have more mask fun. Anyways, tally 4 more masks to my total. 

• I finished spinning and plying the silk... I now have 250 grams of silk yarn instead of 250 grams of silk roving. 

• I cleaned up the studio and came across a shirt that I'd stopped working on because it had frustrated me, but honestly can't figure out what is wrong with it. Faced with a decision of finding a place to put it or finishing it, I finished it. Photo to come later.

• Just last night I finished weaving my shadow weave project! I now have 3 1/2 yards of 14" fabric; I'll have to wet finish it (and it'll shrink up a bit more) before I figure out if it's suitable for a shirt or if it needs to be a vest. 

And one more photo just because he's so darn cute...

Back in the studio, getting caught up

Sheep to Shawl fabric closeup

I'm finally back in the studio and wanting to post some photos of stuff I did but did not post...

The first weekend of October I was in the Dixon Lambtown Sheep to Shawl contest as a spinner and we won! Too much fun, and it felt a lot easier than it did the other two times. Here's a close up of the fabric; with an natural off white warp and natural grey-brown weft, it was lovely.

Whoops! This is ungrouted.
I need to replace it with a grouted photo

The substrate class I took with Wilma? I came home with a few substrates, lots of ideas, and two finished objects. One is here,  molded in an ice cream mochi tub and featuring money. This was a total pain to grout. The other was molded in a toilet paper tube and features leftover glass from some of my fellow students past projects; it feels nice to have something that reminds me of them. We laid out the pieces on contact paper and rolled it on just to see if we could do it.

About the size of a toilet
paper tube

I've also been knitting on the sleeves for my woven jacket while being terrified of the next steps; I now have silk organza for the underlining, a zipper, and a lovely batik for facing, so really no more excuses other than I'm unsure if I want pockets.

I'm also weaving two baby blankets; I'm about 1/3 done with the first of two on the loom, woven in summer and winter.

I started knitting a cardigan from yarn I bought in Ireland; it's a top down raglan sweater with a slightly funnel neck and a big cable down the back. I started that as "easy knitting" after I got my sleeves to a certain point but turns out it won't be idiot knitting until I get past the armholes... Luckily the worsted weight wool knits up fast and is feeling lovely in my hands.

I'm not sure if I listed the reason I've been away from the studio... For a variety of reasons we've had to do a major yard cleanup including removing brush 10' from flammable fences, removing a lot of foliage from next to the house, and cutting the trees back from the roofline. Most of the work has been done with others, but I was spending 4-6 hours a day doing some of the finer work (cutting out deadwood, etc) while the guys tackled the larger tasks. I did do a fair amount of sawing down brush and hauling it around, some with a handsaw and some with my brand new battery powered reciprocating saw; it was exhausting. The landscape, both visual and aural, has changed so much that I find it very disturbing, but it's finally starting to settle down again and the cats and I are making peace with it. I am feeling pain and grief for the loss of bird habitat.

The first project of 2019!

Handspun and Toyon dyed

I'd wanted to make a scarf for Peter... he's greatly admired everything he's seen of my weaving, and frankly the way to my heart is to love my craft... I've only seen Peter in jeans and jeans jackets (probably because he's always working), so I made this scarf to go with denim. It's the last of the hand spun that I used with the Ligeia shawl, combined with some commercial MCN (Merino/Cashmere/Nylon) sock yarn that I dyed with Toyon from my yard. It's sett at 15 EPI and woven at 15 PPI in a simple birdseye-ish twill. I just took it off the loom and will put it in the mail to him soon. (Hint, if you're reading this and want a scarf, feel free to say something).

I like the drape of the scarf, but would like to sample fingering weight sock yarn at 12 EPI; I think it would drape better for a scarf. I'm currently warping up fingering weight sock yarn for some yardage for a class I'm taking at Stitches; I'll be setting/weaving that at 18 EPI as I want it to be firmer for a garment.

Five dishtowels, finished in December

Other than  that,

• I finished the Melon Shawl I'd started in December and blocked it on New Year's Eve! 
• I finished a run of 5 towels and set two to friends in Sweden, complete with card woven hanging loops.  
• I've got a couple of knitting projects in flight; some fingerless gloves to match the ram tam, and I'm working on the skirt again.  
• I'm ready to start on my next stained glass mosaic project.
• I'm getting ready out to a week long mosaic class, then to my knitting retreat, leaving my DH to manage the barbarian cats.

All that and I'm looking at remodeling the kitchen later this spring; we want to do it anyways, and it was the best way to attract someone to fix the leaky deck. So I've been researching appliances and looking at granite slabs. I'm not unhappy about all this! But it is getting in the way of my fiber work.