Friday, July 31, 2009

great day for Tiger

Do you follow the PGA Tour? I do and especially like to see what Tiger is doing. Yesterday was a terrible day for him but today, oh boy, he was going great guns. I have the computer set on his play and do desk work. Wonder how many mistakes I have made today? You know what I will be doing over the weekend.
Taught a couple more to weave this week and piqued some interest in another two who wish to learn. Teaching others to weave is still the part of the job I like the most. .
The yarns intrigue me and I am drawn to some that we just got in called Mary,s Little Lamb which is a merino and nylonThe colors are wonderful and I want to weave it, probably in the apricot or chocolate. Another one is the Kauni Effektgarn yarn which is luscious. Come in and be wowed. So what have I to show this week? I finally put a handle on this purse woven with Paint Box yarn. I had tried an I-cord handle that my granddaughter Kierstin had done for me. The I-cord was fine but I did not like it on the purse and had put the purse to one side but decided this week that I needed to get my act together and complete it.
So there it is in the picture with some handles that I had Doreen order for the shop. We have a small collection to sell.
The small afghan is one I did following a knitting pattern that I liked the way the rows angled. It is easy to adjust the joining so that one gets that look but it does require using the two by four and four by four looms as well as the four by six. The serving of tea in the afternoons has taken off and we find several women most days sitting around the shop "joining us for tea." We have cookies and whatever to feast on also. Come and join us, we would love to meet you. God Bless You All, Elaine

Friday, July 24, 2009

A busy week--untangled

It all started on Monday evening when Doreen and I came out to the shop to do some cleaning and set up for the Chamber of Commerce to be here at eight on Tuesday for a continental breakfast. The different businesses in town sign up to host these each month and it was our turn. It is good to see what others are doing and do a little net-working. I may post one of the pictures but I was wearing the same outfit I had on in the first pic, oh well. Maybe you wouldn't have noticed if I kept my mouth shut. The vest is still in progress, back and sides are finished, hope to have at least one of the front sides on by next time. Linda knitted a tea cosy for me to use at the afternoon teas.
It is so pretty, roses no less, and I added a touch of weaving in the leaves. A group from Cincy are to be in this afternoon, they liked the idea of sharing knitting and tea with us. Maybe I can interest one of them in weaving. I already have a couple of Weavette users there. Oh, there was a young woman, maybe late forties, in from New Orleans, who had heard about our shop from a seatmate on the plane. She came in, saw the looms and had to learn how to use them. Long story, short, she now has three looms and lots of yarn. We look forward to seeing her when she comes back to Powell in December. I have included some pictures again of my projects, a felted purse and a baby afghan. The purse was woven from Sheep Shop One on a four by four loom.
If you enlarge the photo you see that the joining of the squares has completely disappeared. The way I attached the handles is a bit funky but it works. The afghan is woven from Merino Five, a superwash wool yarn and is very soft.
I delibertly made it smaller to fit on a stroller or a car seat. If you look closely you will see a slit I left to be able to fit the seat belt through. Very handy. I really enjoy having my weavers come in with their projects, sometimes for help, but always because they know that I care. Never hesitate to ask for advice or come in just to sit and chat, and of course to join me for a cup of tea. Joy and Peace always, Elaine

Friday, July 17, 2009

Let us chat a bit ---then weave

Do you really care that I won at mah jongg this week but didn't play bridge, just set it up for the others. Or that I haven't finished reading the Northern Lights by Nora Roberts. Just too tired when I go to bed to read for very long. Something interesting did happen though, my daughter, Denise, has bats coming out of the soffet at their house. We counted eighteen Wednesday evening but they have had up to fifty-four. The problem is to be taken care of today, and we can only wait. The tea time with me has started now and I would love to have you join me at tea-time on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. Actually, any day at three.

OK, let's get down to weaving. The vest is progressing, have the back well along as you can see by the picture.
I am using the Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran tweed. I choose to use five of the colors we carry to get a pattern effect. They really are fall and winter but it is Ohio and we will have cold weather eventually. I will share more pictures as it grows. I also promised to show some of my other projects.
The purse pictured is one of my first and is a messenger bag made using the Classic Elite yarn, Waterlily. It is great to work with and could be felted more than I did .
The other bag, out of Noro yarn, is not felted at all because it has a good texture already. I used the heavy seams on the outside to give it a rugged look. This was leftover yarn from a scarf Doreen had knit and I just wanted to try it. Hey, you can use those odd and ends of yarn you have in your stash to weave neat little items. Remember a four by four loom can be woven with just eight yards of yarn and the four by six uses only eleven yards for a piece. So go for it, there is no excuse for not weaving if you have yarn falling out of your stash. And if you need a new yarn to make something special, come in and let me show you what we have for beautiful scarves, purses and shawls. Let me inspire you to take a leap into weaving. Until next Friday, God bless.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Let's weave again!
















Here it is Friday again and time to say "hello." I decided that this is a good day to meet with you out there and "God willing and the creek doesn't rise" I will. The little baby jacket is finished and I posted the picture somewhere on this page. I hate to give its location because on the last posting a picture wasn't where I said it was, oh well. It turned out to be really cute but rather small, I need a very young baby to try it on. I am certain that the same idea for constructing it could be used with larger pieces. Need to try that. The scarf you see pictured is woven with the Shepherds wool that we have liked so well for knitting and weaving, it felts well also. We will soon be carrying Kertzer also which will add to our wools and work like the Shepherds. The scarf was created using my 4x4 inch loom and a checkerboard pattern. My one question came when finishing the ends. I had thought of using fringe but have not really liked what I had done in the past so went with continuing the checker pattern around three sides of each piece to sort of square off the ends. I liked the results but was still bugged by my inability to create good fringe. So back to work and success at last. Those of you who have tried, know that it needs to be tied very securely or the piece falls apart. In the past I have just tied a couple of places, and guess what, the piece would loosen and fall apart. This time after stopping the weaving I carried the weft back over every other thread across the loom then returned doing the same thing. This actually gave a nice finished look and seems very secure. Once you remove the piece from the loom the yarn will drop down from the warping and you can now trim it and you can decide what to do about the fringe, leave it in loops or cut it as I did.

I have included a lovely purse created by one of the women that starter to weave here at our shop. She brought it in to share with us and we asked her to allow us to share it with others. It just goes to show what can be done with an assortment of colors and pieces when combined. She used two sizes of the looms and then felted the purse after she had put them together. I would love to see any of your projects and would like to share them with others.










Time to get back to work, it's a vest this time. Maybe it will be finished by the time I need it to wear. Next time I will share a purse and a shawl I made this summer. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me, or stop in for a cup of tea and we will sit and chat. Next week, same day, "see you" then. Elaine











Friday, July 3, 2009













Hello out there in the land of yarn, I am going to tell you a short story of my weaving. First of all, I am the old lady on the right in the picture. Doreen, my daughter with whom I own the shop in Powell, Ohio, is on the left, and our friend in the middle is Janet Szabo whom many of you know as the guru of cable knitting. She has led classes in our shop on two occasions and written books on the subject. Really, this story is more about me and my passion for weaving, not the table or glued -to -the -floor type of loom but the the small, hand-held looms. It all started back in the 1950's when my mother-in-law and I were making afghans using the four by four Weave-It looms. Now, with the passage of time and owning a yarn shop I have become fascinated once again with the possibilities of weaving these small pieces of cloth and creating all kind of things from them. Unfortunately, there are not many people or places where one can go to get new and interesting ideas and patterns for their uses. In the past year I have put my love for geometry into my designs and the purpose of this blog is to share these with other small loom weavers and answer your questions on using your pieces. Though I am not an expert on the subject, I feel that those of you who have bought your looms from us and have requested help can get it from this blog. My hope is that we can support one another in this way. My wish is that those of you who can, will still visit us in the shop and those of you who are led to the "dark side" of yarn usage will come in also to see for yourself what it is all about. We carry the five sizes of looms now available to us. The rectangular ones are new and of sizes that work well with the original square ones. These square looms are found only on ebay and we have to acquire them there. A word of caution, if you go this route be aware that often the pins on the looms are rusted. This is more apt to be the case with the wood looms than the molded plastic ones. I try to weed out any that are not fit to be used but this has become an expensive source of these looms. The new rectangular looms are very well done and fun to use. I was fortunate to get an old Bakelite framed loom off of ebay and it is the greatest. I suppose this comment will now raise the cost of any of these higher than they already are, oh well. If you should desire to purchase any of the looms they are available from us here at the shop or by calling. I personally use all five sizes and have created some designs that are of interest because they are allowing more possibilities of color and arrangement. I will be posting pictures of many of these as time goes on and offering patterns for you to create your own items. Some of my favorite ones are handbags, some of which are felted. Scarves are fun also and in one I used four of my looms to create a very interesting design. I am always asked about what yarn is best to use. Hey, if you have a stash sitting there in front of you, use some of it to find out what you like and maybe make some small purses or coasters. If you need to buy yarn, and who doesn't enjoy that, then come in and I will suggest that if you wish to use wool then go with the Taos by Crystal Palace for lovely multi or get some Shepherds by Westminister that comes in many, many beautiful colors. The square to the left used both of these yarns and four sizes of the looms, plus the yarns felt very well if you want to do that. The time has come for me to get back to my weaving, I am working on a baby jacket with a cotton chenille yarn by Crystal Palace and it is cute. Stop in again and let us visit for a bit. Elaine