Earrings

My sister and I spent a few hours on Sunday felting. It was a super hot day and we were able to sit outside on the deck and make some small felted items to make in to earrings.

I will be selling these at Carter House this summer. I will try to remember to take a picture of the finished earrings tomorrow.

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First sale

So today is a monumental day for me... I had my first sale! The first thing that anyone has ever paid money for (in terms of fibre art things) sold today. It was a hand dyed silk scarf. Not my most expensive item, but it's something! I feel like I've crossed an invisible threshold and can now claim to me a real fibre artist. That sounds lame. But I feel like its just the beginning!

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Starting work

I start work on Friday. Well, I've started working with the volunte board a while ago, but the tea room officially opens on Friday. Since I'm the manager, I've been given a lot of things to do and make decisions on.

One of them is whether we should wear uniforms. At first I was against it because some people alluded to requiring us to wear white shirts and black pants. I HATE that combination. I think I was required to wear that uniform too much as a kid in choir concerts and such. Now we're looking at requiring everyone to wear white shirts. Which isn't ideal in my mind, but they've told me the organization will provide two shirts to each of us.

So today I went shopping for white shirts to see what our options are. One woman had bought a few too but I didn't like them. Which comes to my rant. Almost all of the white shirts for sale right now are see through. They're knits but it's a slubby yarn that is knit... Therefore some parts are thick and others are thin, resulting in a see through type shirt. What's the point in that? You'd just have to wear another shirt underneath anyway. Unless you're an exhibitionist, which I am not.

I found a few good options. Hopefully the students agree with me. But really - who cars if they agree. They have to do what I say!

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Spinning weekend

A couple girls from school (Jasmine and Anna) and I got together this weekend to spin and help warp a loom.

The Artsy Girls

We decided before school ended that we should visit each other this summer since we each live in a different city. And since Jasmine just got a new loom and was a bit nervous about setting it up all on her own (she's dressed a loom a few times, but never without other people around to ask questions to), so we went to Shediac first.

We caught up on each other's goings on. We had some wine and spun some yarn, while Jas made up her warp.  Today we went to the Shediac market and did some yard sale shopping and finished dressing the loom. 

Beautiful studio set up in the garage

Overall, a very successful fibre-filled weekend!

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The loom is on the move

So I am taking a leap and moving my smallest loom (36" wide) to my summer workplace. Since I'm managing it, and have known most of the volunteer board of directors the majority of my life, I decided to bring my loom at set it up in the tea room. Some of the people I talked to were all for it, others not as sold on the idea.  That's why it's a leap. Better to ask forgiveness than permission? Maybe?

I realize that I'm not putting it there so I can weave on all of my spare time, because likely I won't have a ton. It's more as an educational thing for people who come in and are genuinely interested. It's in the upstairs if the tea room which is set up as a museum of sorts, so not everyone goes up there. But hopefully the word will spread that someone is weaving there and we will get a few more customers that way.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am making tea towels - all white plain weave except for a band of colour on one end. This way, if anyone wants to try weaving, I can say of course and tell them the two treadles to push.  Obviously the coloured band is going to be a bit more involved, so the white will be the only time I'd let anyone try. And if they royally mess up, we'll, I can always undo the weaving - although I HATE that.

Taking it apart

Putting it all back together again!

I'm heading to Moncton area this weekend to hang out (and spin!) with a couple of girls from school. I'm really looking forward to it :)

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Next set of tea towels.

So I'm making another tea towel warp. This time I'm going to do it all white and in plain weave, with a small section of coloured pattern near one end. This way, I can change up the colour if I want (where with my first set of towels, I could really only use blue).

I am being inspired by this tea towel I found on etsy. I think it's simple but beautiful and classy.

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Scarf two is done!

My silk hiro scarves are both done... Just a bit of fringing left and I will be able to add them to my pile of "for sale at Carter House" items. I will start work next week, and there are a few more things I have left to do, but I have a few good things to add to the gift shop.

I'm planning to take my smallest loom to Carter House too. And I will set it up with tea towels probably. I likely won't have a lot of time to actually weave, but I hope some people will see it and ask questions and go away with a better understanding of what weaving is and how it's done. I will probably bring my spinning wheel too. 

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Scarf two

I've started the second silk hiro scarf. It's quite different colour wise, but I'm using the same threading and treadling. So same pattern.  And I'm going to try to make them the same length - even though it's super long.

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Scarf number one is done!

So my first silk hiro scarf is complete. It was a nice feeling pulling it off the loom last night. I finished the fringe up today and sewed in all the ends and it turned out really nice... Except I over compensated for the shrinkage part and ended up with a 98" long scarf (before the 6" fringe is added on each end). It's SOOOOO long. But it actually wraps around my neck twice and then it seems to be a wonderful length. So it will definitely keep your neck warm.

I am planning on selling it at 1810 Carter House this summer where I will be working. The price tag will be more than people will likely expect to pay, but that's ok. If it doesn't sell this summer, I'm sure it will eventually.

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Finally weaving the silk hiro scarves!

So I've finally dyed the weft for the silk hiro.

Hanging the weft to dry on the line

And now I've also started weaving the first scarf! FINALLY! I can say that I probably wasn't as proactive with this as I should have been. It should have been done ages ago. But I should get it finished in the next day.

It's looking pretty good, if I do say so myself.

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Silk Hiro Weft dyeing

Well, I've dyed the weft for the first silk hiro scarf. Yesterday I was going to, but I decided I needed to get a bit more yarn out of my massacred skein before I dyed it.

It's a subtle colour. About 1/3 of the weight of the skein. I think it'll look nice. Hopefully I don't have to dye more. But if I do, fingers crossed it will work out ok. Otherwise it might end up being a shorter scarf than I first envisioned.

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Silk hiro scarf weft

Well, I have what I hope is enough silk hiro untangled from the skein. I've weighed it, so if I need to dye more, I can. I hope it doesn't come down to that though. Now as I'm writing this, I wonder if I should be a bit more patient and untangle some more.

I've talked myself into it. Back to untangling!

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Blanket

I've starting making the warp for my first set of blankets on the 60" loom. I haven't finished yet because I ran out of one colour, so I'm going to have to improvise. There's very little possibility I will find that colour in the same die lot. That's ok though. I'm sure the blankets will be nice regardless!

Warp chain

Once I get the warp on the loom, you'll be able to see the pattern a bit better. Until then, it's a surprise!

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