Twisp of Fate

Last week I turned my attention to making two items I had promised to the Confluence Gallery in Twisp for the silent auction at their December 8th fundraising event.  This year it was called “Black Tie:  Denim & Diamonds” which gave folks a chance to dress up (or down) for the evening.  I actually didn’t attend, as I was headed to Seattle that day for a get-together with friends and various errands – but Rick went and he said it was well attended and a lot of fun.

I was asked for a denim rug for the auction.  Well, that meant I had to put rug warp on the big loom!  I usually put about 50 yards on the sectional warping beam, enough for at least 30 rugs.  This time I remembered to try an idea I had seen on the Macomber Looms and Me blog (it’s also in her PDF manual that you can buy and download from her blog).  This is to use short sections of 1/4″ plastic tubing to “fence off” the sections on either side of the one you are winding, so the threads can’t jump the tracks, as it were.  The original tipster said they bought the tubing at a pet store (used for aquariums).  I got mine in the plumbing section of our local hardware store.  For about 50 cents it solved all my problems with having to watch the section-winding like a hawk to make sure the threads didn’t get into an adjacent section.  I needed 8 pieces of tubing, each about 4-5″ long, so I could place two on each fin of the beam on either side of the section being wound.

I still have several boxes of pre-washed denim strips that came with the loom, which I purchased from a woman in the valley in 2007.  I pulled out 6 shades of denim, from white through pale blue to dark blue, then black and charcoal, and sewed them in sequence.  This produced the rug below:

Then I turned my attention to finishing the polychrome summer & winter scarves that have been “underway” for months on my Baby Mac (Macomber model CP portable loom).  I had put on a warp in shades of blue and it was perfect for the Denim & Diamonds theme.  There was enough warp for 3 scarves and I wanted to finish them all if possible, rather than cut one off and then re-tie.  I had finished the first scarf quite a while ago and was partway through the second one.  So I did get them all woven, but only finished the fringes and washed/pressed this one, to have it ready for the Confluence event:

I really love the colors in this one, and wove a second one like it that I am planning to keep!

Also finished one more Mosaic Mojo Hat:

handpaint Blue Face Leicester held with Kidsilk Haze, plus charcoal Cascade 220

I am now taking a rest on these and actually <gasp> KNITTING SOMETHING ELSE.