The end of a line

I have completed my outdoor art fair season. I was in Westlake, OH (Cleveland area) this past weekend. My wonderful friend Deb Nelson came from Richmond, VA to help me. We set up in a light rain. Light rain, but we still looked like two drowned rats by the end. After putting up both canopies and the grids we decided that it would be best to not put up the merchandise. The problem with two canopies is that the rain comes in between the two.

We got up early on Saturday and set up before things started. It was still chilly and cloudy when we got there, but the sun did come out. I was doing a demo for this show so I had my little loom. I was weaving tote bags out of plastic bags. I wonder how many times this past weekend I said that. We went until 8:00 on Saturday. By the end of the day I had a jacket on. For those who know me you know that it was cold.

Sunday the high never got over 50 degrees. I had on two pair of socks. I had to keep taking my shoes off so that I could weave and my feet got pretty cold on Saturday. I did discover that I can weave, right a receipt and run my charge machine all with gloves on. The gloves were a big seller.

Deb spent Sunday trying to untangle a sari silk warp for me. Her fingers were getting pretty cold by the end.

We took down in 47 degrees with a cold wind. I was not real efficient at this. I think that my brain was cold.

I have unpacked the van and put the canopy away for the season. I have three shows coming up in the next couple of months then I will pack away the stock until the spring. Or if I need a present.

Post Ann Arbor

Well, another show has passed. The sales were not what I had hoped for. I had a better spot than last year, and the weather was wonderful. Then again, there is the economy. I got mixed reviews on how artists did. Some did really well, some were not happy.

I wove tote bags out of plastic bags. This really got people to stop and watch. If only I had some done before the show. That is the story of my life, "if only."

I do have some bags sewn now. Here is the picture:




Now hopefully they will sell at Arts, Beats & Eats.

Rug Warp Done

I finished weaving the last part of the rug warp. Instead of weaving one or two more rugs I wove material to make tote bags. I am going to start making tote bags along with my rugs. I have asked a few people to save plastic bags for me. I figured that would be a good thing to make bags out of plastic bags. Why do I have visions of me digging through the recycle bins at store to retrieve more plastic bags? I wish that I could get my hands on some Sendick's bags from Milwaukee. They are red and very heavy. My next warp will be black and grey. All of the white bags that I have will go well with that, so with Kohl's grey bags.

While this may not have all of the creativity that I crave I must weave to sell. I am going to make it fun at least. Some of them i will line and put pockets in. Maybe I will find some cool material for the lining. There are some beautiful batiks out there.

How to weave a rag rug

Most of the rugs that I weave are woven with byproducts of the textile industry. I do weave some out of material that I cut. I like the look of Madras plaid after it is woven into a rug.

These are the steps that I take in weaving a rug:

First I wash the material. Here is what it looks like before I start cutting:

Then I cut one end off at a 45 degree angle so that I can make a large bias tube out of the material. I take the selvedges of the material and line them up. Since one end of the material was cut at an angle you have to pull one end up. You can see the end of the material is now a bias.

I sew the selvedges together with a straight stitch.

I take the piece that I cut off of the end and sew on the opposite end so that I have a complete bias tube. (Sorry, no picture)

A bias tube of this length would be too hard to handle in the rag cutter so I cut it into sections of about 30" each.

Then I take each section and feed it into the rag cutter, this makes things go very quickly. You do have to be careful to not allow the material that is under the rag cutter from getting cut.

After I finish cutting a bias section I have enough to fill one of my rag shuttles. Coming off of the rag cutter you will have a nice little pile like this:
and yes, I do realize that I need to vacuum.

Here is the rug that I am working on with a piece of the original material:I made this warp to be used with several different wefts. I do wish that with this filler I had left the natural warp out.

Good Day

I had a very productive day. I finished the green wool rug that I started last night, turns out that I did have enough "worms" for it. I cut all of the plaid material that I started cutting last night. I think that i have figured out the best way to do that on the new cutting table. Then I wove two rugs out of that plaid material. They turned out better than I had thought that they would. I checked the filing cabinet, there are some that will work out well with this blue/green/cream warp, and some that I think will work better with a grey/black warp. I had planned to put a 10/2 black perle warp on next and weave up the batik butterfly material that I have stockpiled. People really like black and white clothing. However I think that I am going to put a black/grey warp on next for more rugs. The rugs are selling well so I should stick with that. I probably won't put on as long a warp as I did with the current warp. I do want to get to that batik material.

Progress

I am back from the vacation from Hell, almost over my pneumonia and back to weaving. I have so many ideas and need to organize them. I want to get a lot done be Ann Arbor. That is generally my big goal for the year, have the booth filled for Ann Arbor.

I wove some rugs out of "by products from the textile industry." I sold two of them this past weekend. I am weaving more. I thought that I had more of the forest green "worms" from Pendelton. I am hoping that I have enough to weave a rug. If not I am going to weave them singularly and not doubled. I might be able to do a twill weave that way. I opened the big case of wool scraps that I have. I was not aware that there was fringe on these pieces. I did some test cutting, I am going to have to sew the ends together before I cut, the pieces are just not long enough the way that they are. I think that I will take four pieces, trim the fringe, then sew ends together by lapping them. then just cut and hope that I have guessed correctly. I am cutting them at about 1" wide. I will see if this has to go plain weave or if I will be able to do a twill weave.

We toured the Crafts Center at Berea, KY. There were some beautiful things there. A man wove rag tote bags. He made the handles out of the weft. As near as I can figure he would leave about 6 ends out, braid them then weave those six ends back into the body. These handles were not going to go anywhere. I had decided that I wanted to weave some tote bags, I think that i will be sewing my handles on unless I suddenly figure out how he did this.

I also finally figured out what I am going to do with the sari silk that didn't work out. I am going to put on a 5/2 black perle cotton warp and weave some bags out of the sari silk. I can put those really cool buttons on that I bought from Terri.

OK, lots of plans, now how much will I actually get done before the next show?

Today

Today I went to a meeting for Creative Arts Council. Donna and I are trying to get this group back on track and actually focus on marketing. We got a little bit accomplished, but left a little frustrated.

Donna brought a tote bag that she had made on Cafe Press with the logo of the "Fine Art at the Village" on it. I am going to look at that again. I want to get a tote bag with my logo on it. I might even get a shirt made. The shirt would be nice to wear for shows. Someday i will loose enough weight so that I can weave something that I will wear at shows.

Last night I finally got my www.etsy.com site set up. I showed that at the meeting and started to explain how to set it up. It really isn't that hard, just hard if you don't read the directions. My "store" looks cool, I got my logo on the top of my page and it really looks nice.

We met at Terri Voight's house. We went downstairs to look at her studio. She had bins of fused glass buttons sitting out. This was a very expensive meeting for me. I have some awesome buttons. I may make some purses for these, or put them on jackets as just decoration. Then Terri showed us how to needle felt. I had been thinking about this, now I really want to try it. Janome makes a needle felting machine, that is all that it does is needle felt. Terri's needle felted purses were so cool. She printed fabric for the linings. I got so many ideas, but I don't want to copy, but I loved what she did. Oh well, this will have to wait until after my next show.

Progress

I signed in today to post something hopefully interesting and found out that I have a follower. YEAH! Thanks, Debbi.

Yesterday i wove three rugs. All of the rugs on that warp so far are from recycled materials. Things that would have previously gone to a landfill but I am now making used of them. I want to make a sign for my booth something like "Ask Me about My 'Green' Weaving." People always like to hear what these are made from.

Yesterday when i was weaving I saw an ad on TV about getting a reusable shopping tote. Inspiration, I could weave tote bags on this warp. I wonder if people would be willing to pay enough for these. I have several balls of denim strips from cut up jeans. I think that would make some good bags. I also have rolls of material cut from the ends of decorating yardage. They would not be as heavy duty, but colorful. So many things that I want to weave and so little time.

A Good Day

Today was a good weaving day. I woven 2 1/2 rugs and would have woven more but I had to go upstairs upstairs to wind more bobbins for the headers. The current rugs that I am weaving are done with the trimmings from girls' uniforms. Someone gave me a big bag of these strips. I thought that these would be just from the hems of individual skirts. I think that it is the selvedge from entire bolts. It is nice, I have long pieces, which is nicer when you are doing this sort of thing. I have two different colors of plaids. This one is mainly white with medium and navy blue. Then I have some that are navy blue and forest green. I figure that I will weave that one with a forest green heading.

Today I also finished off my waffle weave towels. It is alternating blocks of plain weave and waffle weave. It has stripes of red, blue, purple and yellow. I woven the towels out of each of those colors and black. The black looks very striking. The red is OK, the purple and blue look good and the yellow is, um, bright. I am making a twisted thread loop that I am sewing in the hem of each towel. I got the blue and the purple towels hemmed tonight. Tomorrow I hope to get the rest done.

I also need to make warps for deflected double weave scarves. So much to do and so little time.

Ann Arbor

I made it, I got my spot in the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair. I had hoped for the other side of Main Street and further down. I could get other side of street and further up or same side of the street and further down. I took the latter. I will be in spot #194 just a couple of booths from Williams. I will have electricity so that means fans, YES! There is a parking lot and a parking structure right around the corner and the shuttle bus stops at the end of the street. I am closer to the food and the hospitality area.

Now I just have to hope that this will mean more customers, at least more customers who have money to spend.

One warp done

I just cut a cotton scarf warp off of my little floor loom. These are cool scarves. There are stripes of a lycra cotton yarn alternating with stripes of a textured cotton yarn. The lycra shrinks when it gets washed so it a bumpy scarf. I washed one and will see how it looks tomorrow. I wove these longer and narrower than previously. People want scarves that they can fold in half and loop through. These will be nice summer scarves.

I also got another towel woven today. They are going faster than I had thought that they would. I hope that this ambitious streak holds up. I could have a lot of work done for my shows this summer.

Handwoven Items that I Sell

Here is a list of the handwoven items that I sell:

^Scarves
^Shawls
^Jackets
^Vests
^Rugs
^Greeting Cards

These are the fibers that I use for weaving:

^Silk
^Cotton
^Tencel
^Wool (merino)
^Rayon
^Bamboo
^Alpaca
^Silk/Wool Blend
^Bamboo/Cotton
^Bamboo/Silk

Good Day

I got two and half towels woven today. I would have gotten more done if I hadn't overloaded my bobbins and had to untangle quite a mess more than once. It was nice to really accomplish something. I am working on discipling myself to keep working, that is the most difficult thing form me. I went downstairs to get more cotton for my towels. I went past the cutting table where I am preparing the weft for my current rug. I wanted to stop and work on the rug for a while. I made myself gather up the colors that I needed and went back upstairs.

Tomorrow I take the cat to the vet. Then I have the rest of the day to work. Goal: finish scarf on little loom, weave three more towels, and find the top of the kitchen table. It can't all be about weaving.

I'm back to weaving again

I have had a pretty productive week, weaving wise that is. I got my Baby Wolf threaded, tied up and started to weave. I am weaving towels in blocks of waffle weave that alternate with blocks of plain weave. I have no idea what I had in mind when I made this warp. It is stripes of red, purple, yellow and blue. It is 8/2 unmercized cotton. For some reason I had it made at 14 ends per inch. I really don't know what I had in mind. I have threaded it at 20 epi. I know that I will have make adjustments in the tension as I go along since it is wider on the back beam than in the reed.

I got a rug warp on the big loom in the basement. It is stripes of blues, forest green and natural. I wove a rug yesterday out of selvedges. Selvedges are created when they weave tripple weave blankets. You those things that have pictures on them? Well, in order to have a fringe on all sides they have to weave a selvedge. These are trimmed off to create the fringe on the side. These used to go into landfills. Something to add to my booth for my "Green Weaving." I need to figure out a sign for that. I am planning to weave a lot of rugs out of recycled material. I will also weave some out of plaid. Those sell well. I dug through just a part of my rug making supplies and I am pretty sure that I have more than enough for this warp. I have some worms that will work with this warp. Worms are from the Pendelton Woolen mills. When they make felted blankets they trim the edges and I get worms. These also used to go into landfills. Right now I am cutting up my son's old caddy shirts. I am cutting the body and the arms into strips. Then I loop the pieces together. I cut the crests off and add them to the chains. I want to call this "Walking on Knollwood Country Club."

I have a scarf warp on my little floor loom. It is stripes of textured cotton and stripes of cotton/lycra. After it gets washed the lycra shrinks and the rest bubbles up. Next I am getting some verigated ecru/taupe/natural cotton yarn. Hopefully this will make some nice summer scarves.