This is my latest rug right off the loom. I'll need to take a picture outside, because this doesn't show it to it best. I liked the way the shading turned out around the center tapestry. I have some yarn in brown tones and want to do a rug with that, but first it is time to rewarp the loom. I don't like warping the loom, and consider it a necessary evil, something that has to be done properly, and so I always enter into the process with a little trepidation.

The weather here is still very hot and humid and it's hard to be motivated to work. I hope to someday live in a cooler climate with a true change of seasons and cold enough to wear sweaters,scarves etc. It would also be nice to live where in addition to the humidity there is also rain. Arizona teases you with the possibility of rain - off in the distance - and you pray that it makes it close enough for it to rain right where you stand. So, even though the county where I live has had flash flood warnings and watches for most of the month, it really hasn't rained much where I live. I can't imagine living where you grow to hate the rain, although I did go to college in western Oregon many years ago and actually did get quite depressed from the continuous cloud cover, rain and wind.

So now as soon as I get motivated, I'm going to starting winding a long warp for the rug loom.

Well, here's my cat. This is Yowie and like most cats, she loves wool, and also my rugs. I had this yarn out to look at to decide what to make with it, and as soon as I turn around, she's laying on it.


This is a scarf I'm weaving on my Glimakra loom. The picture doesn't show the colors at all accurately. Anytime the flash goes off, the colors are distorted. This is some merino/tencel handspun yarn, that I spun several years ago. I'm trying to use all this handspun that I've got.. It's wonderfully soft and springy. I'm so use to weaving rugs, and beating hard, that I'm having trouble beating without beating it hard. It's an undulating twill that you can somewhat see in the picture. I'm enjoying the weaving as it's something different from what I usually do.
The unweaving continues on the other loom.

We are all enjoying a somewhat quiet Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow night I start a class at the local community college. I haven't been to school in so long, it should be interesting to see how I do.

Unweaving

I'm learning quickly how to unweave a disaster. The color changes in the rug didn't look right, and it turned out not at all like I had envisioned. So, I am unweaving - it's hard to admit that an idea didn't work - but I'm not finished yet. I liked working with the 3 strands of yarn - it opens a whole new world of color and color transformation. I liked the feel of the rug. It's very solid and thick and will wear well. My edges were nice and straight. With the price of yarn, I have to try and save the yarn I won't use, at least for this project. I even had done a small sample and liked what I did, but somehow it looked bad in a larger piece.

I also have to try again. I recently watched a TV show about Hershey's chocolate and how he discovered his own version of milk chocolate because the Europeans wouldn't share their secrets on making milk chocolate. Success comes from not giving up. He experimented over and over until he came up with his own recipe for milk chocolate. I have trouble dealing with failure. I want to be right the first time out, but real success comes from the process of trying again and again.

So, I will continue with this idea I have, but in a slightly different format. I'm going to add a bit of tapestry work that defines the change of colors. I'm also going to limit the number of colors. So I will start with dark grays that lighten up to a creamy white and back to dark gray. There will be some tapestry work in black that will add to the rug. But I have to order more yarn as I am out of the grays.

I'm also going to start working with some block weave with color gradations. I have to order some linen warp which is so expensive!

I'll keep you updated.

It's hard to get good images in the middle of the day - at least for
those like me whose photo-taking qualities are lacking. This is a hibiscus - the flowers last only one day. Beauty is fleeting! I do enjoy some of the knitting blogs I read that have such beautiful photos of landscape and flowers, in particular - Smatterings - her pictures are wonderful.

This is a new rug - note the yellow rug is off the loom! - can't show any pictures until I finish the fringe etc. There are some issues with the rug due in part from being on the loom for so long.

This rug is an attempt to do something that weaves quicker and yet is still fun to weave and hopefully pleasing to eye. I decided to weave in plain weave and have subtle color gradations. The colors really are nicer than the picture shows and once again, I find myself really fascinated with how colors react to each other. This rug starts out in a dark gray and blends into a lighter gray and then I used a gray wool that had been overdyed in a green. The greens will progress into a gray purplish color. I'm using 3 strands of wool and as I change colors, I replace 1 strand with the new color and then 2 strands with the next color and then 3. However, the blending is still not as subtle as I had hoped and think the next rug I'll use 2 shuttles (1 with the current color and one with the new strands of color. I'll problably have to use 2 throughout so that the edging is uniform.

I've also taken some handspun and wound a warp for my other loom and plan on weaving a scarf in an undulating twill. I had originally planned on doing a shadow weave, but the one yarn is space dyed and as I was winding the warp, it blended in too much with the darker color yarn and I didn't think the shadow weave would work.

Blogging is not as easy as I thought. I read numerous blogs everyday and look forward to what I might see. They are inspiring. However, the actual writing and thinking about what I want to put on this blog is more difficult than I had anticipated. For example, I spent several days thinking about the next rug, but when I go to write about it, I seem to only have a short paragraph to say about it! So, all those bloggers that have been blogging for several years, my hat is off to you!