Posted in Methow Valley, weaving on November 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Well, it’s been a race to the finish but I did get everything done for my weaving guild’s annual sale this weekend. So here it is… I will post some pictures of the event in a couple of days. We also have friends from Ashland, OR coming to visit for 2 nights so it should be a busy and fun weekend.
Posted in Methow Valley, weaving on October 12, 2015| 1 Comment »
This past weekend our weaving guild brought in Mary Berent from Eagle, ID (near Boise) to teach a 2-day workshop on “Combining Common Cottons”. It was set up as a round-robin format, where each loom had a different setup and then we took turns weaving a sample on each one. We had 10 people and 11 looms setup, so it was busy and kind of intense, but we got through it all.
The idea is to combine commonly available and relatively inexpensive plain cotton weaving yarns with other types of yarn (novelty knitting yarns, more textured or heavy cotton yarns, linen, and other fibers – including mohair!) for a variety of reasons. These could include: making a more interesting fabric, making a fabric better suited to its purpose, saving money when using expensive yarns, not having enough of something you really want to use, etc.
Mary brought lots of examples:
At the end of the second day, we took the entire length woven off each loom and discussed what we were seeing, before cutting them apart so everyone could take their sample home to be wet-finished and stored in our notebooks.
We also asked Mary to give a 2-hour lecture Sunday evening that was open to all, not just our guild. The topic was “Inspiration, Color & Design” and we had about 22 people in attendance down at TwispWorks. This was the community outreach part of the grant we got from ANWG last year (Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds). Again, she brought lots of samples for people to pore over. I think everyone, including the non-weavers, found it interesting.
I took her to the airport in Wenatchee this morning and am now home – tired, inspired, and ready for a vacation. We head off for Seattle and Vancouver BC for the rest of the week, so that should fit the bill!
Posted in Methow Valley, weaving on September 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The Okanogan County Fair was postponed this year because of the fires over in the Okanogan Valley to the east of our Methow Valley. It is usually the weekend after Labor Day but there was a big fire camp set up there, and so the fair committee decided to postpone by 2 weeks rather than cancel. It was last weekend (Sept 24-27).
This was a problem for kids back in school, and especially those raising livestock, as they aim to have optimal weight and condition by the usual projected date. But it’s still better than cancellation!
Our guild (Methow Valley Spinners & Weavers Guild) put together our usual display, which features items woven for our current year’s challenge project. This year the challenge theme was “Twill” and we had a wide variety of items, which made it kind of hard to display – but the women who put it together did a great job. We got a “Special Award” for the display. I am sorry I do not have a picture – I didn’t make it over to the Fair and seem to have deleted the picture that was sent to me by email.
I submitted 4 items for the spinning and weaving departments. I got blue ribbons on all and some other ribbons on 3 of them. The purple ones are Grand Champion and the yellow and green one is what they call a Special Award.
“Handknit from handspun cowl” and one of the crackle weave towels I just finished:
Extended manifold twill shawl in fine cotton and tencel:
I wrote a blog post back in April which shows and explains the shawl and the cowl. You can find it here.
Down at the weaving guild room, I put on a third and final warp for the crackle weave towels and have been weaving away. Took it off the loom today.
This may be my favorite of the 3 colorways. I will post pictures once they are finished!
I had to clear off my loom there because we have a workshop coming up in about a week and half and I will need my loom for one of the projects. This has been my other major activity – I am the chief organizer and it has been a lot of work. We are having Mary Berent from Eagle, Idaho (just outside Boise) come to do her “Combining Common Cottons” workshop and also give a slide talk for our guild and the general public down at TwispWorks. It is a round-robin style workshop and we have 10 people signed up. Each person has to set up one of the projects, so I had to make sure we had the right number of looms with the right attributes in the room – some of them are there now, some have to be brought in. Also needed to make sure we have the right materials, and order what we didn’t have, etc. This has been going on for a month and I am so ready to have it finally happen and be over with!
Posted in home life, Methow Valley, weaving on September 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Well, the studio tour has come and gone. It was a lot of work getting ready but we had a good time and enough, but not too many, visitors. We had a mix of neighbors and friends, people visiting the Methow for the weekend, and “part-timers” here for the weekend. It was kind of quiet both mornings, but picked up in the afternoon, and never so busy that we didn’t have time to really show people around Rick’s shop and my weaving studio, and get into some interesting conversations.
I set up a display of my work under a canopy out in front of the woodworking shop. Sales were actually pretty good, so I was pleased!
I did finish hemming the second set of towels on Friday night.
It was really quiet on Sunday morning, so I set up my big electric dyepot on the front deck of the house and started pre-dyeing the silk scarf blanks for another round of my “tie dye” scarves, which I hope to get to work on pretty soon.
Posted in Methow Valley, weaving, woodworking on September 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »
This coming weekend, Rick and I are participating in the 2015 Artist’s Studio Tour presented by Confluence Gallery, Methow Arts Alliance and TwispWorks. 27 Artists. 18 Studios. 2 Days. SAT & SUN, SEPT 19 & 20, 9-5pm. Profits will benefit non-profit artist programs here in the valley. The idea is to buy a ticket at Confluence Gallery or TwispWorks, for which you will receive a wristband and map.
Rick has been consumed with a major cleanup of his shop, which was badly needed anyway. I have been consumed with weaving and finishing towels down at the guild room, as well as cleaning up my workspace. Even if we don’t get a lot of visitors, it is a good thing to have an excuse to reorganize and clean!
Last night I finished hemming the other 7 crackle weave towels from the first warp. There are only 6 pictured here because two of them are quite similar.
Last week I wound and tied on a second towel warp in a different colorway, and have been weaving away on those:
I took them off the loom yesterday afternoon, brought them home and washed and dried them. They are stay-stitched and cut apart, but whether I get them hemmed or not for this weekend is kind of up in the air!
Posted in Methow Valley, weaving on September 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Last week I finished the next 3 towels after fixing the warp on my loom at the weaving guild room. There are 3 different treadlings given with the pattern instructions so this represents all of them.
Here is a closer look at the one that was offset by one thread (on the left) compared to the correct version (on the right).
I have been down at the guild room a lot this past week, weaving more of these and using different color combinations for the wefts – so all of them will be a little different. Should be able to finish up today and then, of course, there is the hemming and washing and pressing to do – but I should have more pictures coming up.
Last night there was a really fun event down at TwispWorks. Bluebird Grain Farms had its 10th anniversary celebration and organized a Farm to Table Paella Feast featuring paella made with their emmer farro as the main dish. There were about 300 people in attendance!
The paella dinner was designed by Cameron Green (she is a local chef and caterer). John Sundstrom of Lark restaurant in Seattle, one of Bluebird Grain Farms’ earliest customers, came over for the event and prepared his signature seafood paella dish. There were three huge paella pans going over wood fired outdoor cookers, plus several salads, bread, desserts, and a no-host bar featuring local beer and wine. Almost all of the food was sourced from local farmers, bakeries, coffee roasters, etc. and some of the proceeds went to support the Methow Made program (in 2013, TwispWorks started Methow Made as a collaborative marketing program to help Methow Valley food and beverage producers reach new customers).
Here are some pictures from last night’s event:
seafood prep
John Sundstrom from Lark restaurant
one of the wood-fired paella pans
Cameron Green, chef & caterer extraordinaire
a beautiful evening among friends at TwispWorks campus
Posted in Methow Valley, weaving on August 30, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Before I go into the weaving saga, let me just say that things have calmed down considerably here at our home since my last post. There was an article on regional fire activity yesterday (Saturday August 29) on Methow Valley News Online if you want more information. There is still some bad stuff going on in the lower Methow Valley, over in the Okanogan Valley, and around Lake Chelan. It was terribly smoky here this past week and we had to stay inside as much as possible and not leave any windows open. But our area is back to level 1 “be alert” and we have moved back in and brought the Airstream home. We had some rain and wind yesterday and the air this morning is lovely and clear. They are hoping to open the North Cascades Highway today, although there may be occasional closures due to mud and rock slides, continuing fire fighting efforts, etc.
This past week I have been down at our weaving guild room putting a towel warp on the loom I keep there. It is a project from a 1994 Handwoven magazine called Country Rustic Towels. This was re-published by Interweave Press in “Best of Handwoven – A Dozen Projects in 8/2 Cotton” which I purchased as an eBook (PDF download) back in 2012. So that was the source I was using to set up my project. It is a Crackle Weave structure, which is something I have not done before. There are 4 blocks or units and each color stripe is a different block, with what is called an “incidental” or transition warp end between blocks.
I brought my AVL warping wheel down there and wound a 12-yard warp onto the sectional beam.
Country Rustic warp on the loom
Threaded it, sleyed the reed, tied it up and started weaving the first towel yesterday morning.
What’s wrong with this picture?
The pattern is shifted by one thread! I went over and over what I had done, and yes, it matched the published instructions perfectly. Then I went to our guild library shelves and got out the original Jan/Feb 1994 Handwoven magazine. It turns out they edited the original pattern and did indeed add some useful information. But they got one thing backwards – the warp color order chart! Actually it is just a little thing – it should start with 13 blue threads on the right, and end with 12 blue threads on the left, not the other way around. It is correct in the original instructions, but not in the Dozen Projects in 8/2 Cotton book.
I consulted with another guild member, and we agreed it is most obvious in the light gray stripes. She suggested that I finish the first towel, then selectively replace some of the warp threads on either side of the gray stripes to at least improve the appearance (I have 10 towels to go, mind you). That would mean having extra weighted threads hanging off the back for the rest of the weaving. When I left last night, that was my plan.
But at 3:30 this morning, during an awake period, I decided to bite the bullet and re-thread the darn thing. That will fix all of the blocks, not just make the gray ones look better. And it won’t be as hard as the original threading, as I already know it is threaded correctly. I will have to remove the left-most blue thread, then go through from left to right moving all the rest of the threads over one heddle. Then add one new blue thread on the right.
If only I knew more about crackle weave, I would have realized when I started threading the heddles that the transition threads were the wrong color. That would have been the chance to remove the left-most thread and add one at the right, before I started threading. But no, I was being a “blind follower”. Live and learn!
Posted in home life, Methow Valley on August 24, 2015| 3 Comments »
We just went through a big fire event and I thought I would post a few pictures. It was a fire up the Twisp River Road that started last Wednesday (August 19) and just blew up in a matter of hours. Both Twisp and Winthrop were put on level 3 evacuation (which means “get out now”).
From our house about 3 pm Wednesday afternoon, looking south towards Twisp
Some folks have asked how we knew about the evacuation level. After some neighbors came around and told us we should start preparing to leave, we started to listen to our local radio station KTRT. Then we got an automated call on the home phone from Okanogan County Emergency Management with the evacuation notice. Later, around 6 pm, a state patrol car came around the neighborhood. By then, we had most of our things out in the car, pickup truck and cargo trailer. We wound up staying 2 nights with friends about 6 miles south of Twisp.
Looking up Twisp River Rd about 7:30 pm on our way south
Things were just as bad or worse over the hill in the Okanogan Valley, by the way. A lot of this was on the national news. Three firefighters died and another one was terribly burned last Wednesday when the fire first broke out – that is the worst part of this whole thing.
On Friday they seemed to have things under control near Twisp so we decided to head back home but leave our things packed up in the vehicles for the time being.
Smoke column north of Twisp on our way back into town
There was still fairly active fire in a wildlife management area north of Twisp River Road, and Friday afternoon they started up with the DC-10 fire retardant planes and water bucket helicopters. That seemed to knock it down quite a bit but they are still working on containing that end of the fire as I write.
Friday morning
Friday afternoon about 4 pm from across the valley
There was a good update on Methow Valley News Online yesterday (Sunday, August 23). The Twisp River Road fire is just part of the bigger Okanogan Complex and is being managed by a Type 1 Incident Team as part of that bigger complex.
We are mostly moved back in now and I actually got to spend some time weaving yesterday. We know we are very fortunate compared to what some other folks have been through this past week.
Posted in home life, Methow Valley on May 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Earlier this week, a friend came by who has started a business making Nice Nests, “breeding boxes made from salvaged scrap wood and reclaimed hardware, designed specifically to provide functional breeding habitat for cavity-nesting birds. He also offers installation and consultation services for landowners interested in enhancing breeding habitat for more than three dozen species of cavity nesters in the Methow Valley.” The quote is from a recent article about him in the Methow Valley News.
Rick had quite a bit of pine soffit material to give him (left over from building our house), and also a big box of miscellaneous hardware, some of it old. Patrick was really excited about the hardware – he uses “found objects” and cool old stuff for perches and handles.
Yesterday morning he came by with 4 Nice Nests for us! They will go up on pine trees around the house next week, and hopefully we will get some bird families to move in. They all are easy to open up for cleanout, and he uses rough wood or scores the inside face of the doors so the little hatchlings can get a grip to climb out when it is time to leave the nest.
The hole on the green one is 1-1/8″ and he said it would only be used by wrens, chickadees or pygmy nuthatches. The orange one has a 1-1/4″ hole and would be for red or white breasted nuthatches. The two bigger ones have 1-1/2″ holes and would attract western bluebirds and also tree or violet-green swallows (but these boxes are also the most flexible, as some of the smaller birds could use these too). Now we are going to have to get out the bird book and binoculars and learn to recognize these species!
Here is Nice Nests on Facebook and also his Nice Nests website (very well done, by the way).
Posted in home life, Methow Valley, weaving on November 29, 2014| 2 Comments »
My Dad rather pointedly reminded me that I haven’t posted since the one titled “A Month Went By” – and that was over a month ago. Well, it’s not like I haven’t been doing anything.
The end of October brought the Seattle Weavers’ Guild sale. I didn’t go over for it this year, but did send my handspun wraps and some Mosaic Mojo hats over to a friend to take in for me. I sold 4 hats but nothing else – my friend brought what remained out to me at an annual knitting retreat I have been attending for decades. That was a lot of fun, as always – 4 days of hanging out with old friends, knitting (and going out for some nice dinners in Port Townsend). There is always a de-stashing sale and I once again pared down my knitting yarn collection – although it is still SABLE (stash acquired beyond life expectancy). I also sold three of my handspun wraps! To say I was thrilled doesn’t quite cover it.
Gone, but not forgotten. Of the 9 shawls I made in the late spring with my handspun, I now only have 3 left. Considering I wasn’t sure I would sell ANY of them, I am quite pleased!
Right after I got home, we went down to Wenatchee for Rick’s knee replacement surgery on Nov 4th. That went very well and he is now about 3-1/2 weeks out and definitely on the road to recovery.
When we got back to the Methow, I went to work on finalizing the rugs I was making for the winter show at the Confluence Gallery in Twisp – the title of the show is “In A Land of Snow and Indigo”. Now, imagine a winter wonderland: the quiet of snow, shadows stretching across the horizon, cold, crisp air, and magnificent icicle stalactites. Peer from the warmth of your home through the windows or reflect on a day of snowy adventure – artists tell us what they see. I made some rugs that I thought would would work color-wise – and there’s nothing like a cozy wool rug underfoot in the winter!
Rick was actually up to attending the opening on Nov 15th, having moved off the walker and only using a cane at that point. He lasted for about half an hour before getting too uncomfortable to stand, but I think he enjoyed getting out of the house for the first time and visiting with folks.
The next event up was Methow Valley Spinners & Weavers Guild annual “show and sale”, which is always the weekend before Thanksgiving. We made some extra efforts at advertising this year, adding some radio ads on our local station KTRT “The Root” to our local paper ad and putting up posters around town. Don Ashford at KTRT does a fabulous job with his ads (97.5 FM if you are over here). We also had a reporter from the Methow Valley News come by the guild room the week before the sale, and the resulting picture was on the front page of the MV News:
photo by Laurelle Walsh
We also had a reporter for the Wenatchee World come by with a photographer and wound up with a story about our guild on the front page of that paper the week before the sale! The link no longer seems to be working, so you just have to trust me on this one.
Here are some pictures I took of the weaving guild room after we set up for the sale:
For several weeks before the sale, I wove 10 towels on my loom at the guild room, finishing off the warp I had put on for the Robyn Spady workshop in September. I tried quite a few of the treadlings/patterns we had covered in the class, so each one was different. My threading was for overshot, what we learned was how to get additional kinds of patterns by changing the tie-up and treadling.
Lace with overshot borders in a cotton/linen blend
Lace with blue overshot borders
Lace with brown overshot borders
Summer & Winter Fashion – Pairs
Summer & Winter Fashion – Dukagang
Monk’s Belt
Double-Faced borders and plain weave in nubbly cotton
Shadow Fashion borders and plain weave in nubbly cotton
all-over Shadow Fashion
one of the Twill treadlings
For the last 6 weeks or so, I have also been on a roll to make these “fiber beads”, which I am making into earrings for the holiday sales season. I did some up using my handspun yarn especially for the guild sale. These have been a lot of fun, and something I can do in the house in the evenings while hanging out with Rick and the cats (and the nice warm fire). Rick made me the display racks a day or two before he went into knee surgery!
Well anyway, we had quite a good turnout for the guild sale, and I personally did very well – 17 towels (including all the new ones), 7 scarves, 5 rugs, 3 pairs of earrings. That’s the good news and the bad news! Now I have low inventory and commitments to Winthrop Gallery, Confluence Gallery and the holiday gift show coming up next week at Local 98856 in Twisp.
So now I am weaving more scarves.
Twisp of Fate 