April 17, 2006

Finally a day off work. Here's the yarn I made from the roving I displayed. It's the style of yarn I sell on ebay or etsy. What I spin for myself is finer, and usually from a fleece that I've bought. My current favorite wool is CVM. It's so nice and soft and is easily spun. I also have been spinning some churro that I bought on ebay that will make a great rug wool.

I am making progress on the rug and in fact, when I finish here, I'll be out on the porch weaving away!
Only 25 more inches and I'll be done.


I have some rugs to make for some friends to complement the entertainment center my DH made for them. They want some kind of a 'yei' picture rug which is something I said I'd never make because it has religious meaning to the Navajo. So maybe I'll talk them into buying one made by the Navajo and I'll weave something else. The two doors which hide the TV have inlaid pictures of a Navajo woman receiving a gift from a Yei. He also did other inlay work on the the smaller doors.

This is a closer view of the inay feathers on the loom that my DH built for me. This picture was taken when he was building it about 2 years ago.

This loom sits on my front porch because there is no room inside for this loom. My house has been taken over by weaving and spinning stuff! One of the reasons I started this blog was hopefully re-invigorate myself to weaving rugs. The rug on this loom has been there for awhile and it's time to finish it!

Due to the high cost of medical benefits, I've had to go back to working full time so we can have decent healthcare, which doesn't leave much time for doing what I love to do. So I find myself doing more spinning and knitting, which I can do in the evening.

This is some roving I recently dyed. I handpaint roving to spin into yarn to sell on either ebay or etsy. After I'm done handpainting, I take the leftover dye, put some roving in a pot of water, and heat it up to about 175 or 180 and pour the dye in - lots of fun to see the colors blend. The one on the righ was only 2 colors - turquoise and yellow. I have an account at etsy - www.skyweaver.etsy.com . If you haven't taken a look before, check out etsy.com. Lots of crafters selling there craftwork on this site. The cost for selling is very reasonable. I do better there than on ebay, where I barely break even on costs.

First Post

Well, for so long I have been reading other people's blog about weaving,spinning,knitting that for some reason, I decided it was time to start mine. I'm not even sure why. I love reading blogs, it's inspiring to see what others are doing and who knows, maybe I'll inspire someone.

I am firstmost a weaver of tapestry rugs. I learned Navajo style weaving about 10 years ago and then spent time in Northern New Mexico Community College in El Rito New Mexico learning Rio Grande style weaving. The tapestry techniques are similar, but the looms are very different. I have come to prefer the 'standing' or 'walking' loom. This picture is my current long term work in progress. It's a take off of the 100 stars style of rug that would have the 'stars' throughtout the entire rug instead of a zigzag line. I like several types of rug wool. This is Wild & Wooly from Burnham's trading post in Sanders AZ. I bought white and dyed it in bright colors. I also like to weave with Churro wool. Churro is my favorite. It has a wonderful history in that it came from the original sheep brought by the Spanish into the southwest hundreds of years ago.

I am fortunate to be married to a woodworker. My DH made this loom and if I can find the pictures I'll post some of the inlay work he did on it. It's a walking loom with a 36" weaving length with 4 harnesses.

Anyway, this will have to be it for a first post. I know nothing about the workings of blogging, but I guess I'll learn as I go.