More Weaving Going On....

More weaving.

I've put aside my wool, and pulled out my cotolin. I've woven with this often for kitchen towels and love the feel and drape. So why not baby blankets?

At the bottom you can see the hot pink/purple one is finished, and I am working one in teal.

I am really enjoying weaving with a two color warp.  This time alternating pastel pink and yellow.

The result with the more saturated teal (and the purple/pink) is very subtle.

The last stripe....there is one on each end.  Only 8 more inches and I can cut these off the loom and start on the next thing!

A Day at Juniper Moon Farm

 

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day for a sheep shearing! My drive to Juniper Moon is now an hour and a half, rather then the 30 minutes it used to be.  But what a gorgeouse drive it was! Driving through the Virginia countryside AND being able to totally avoid highways makes me very happy.

This Shearing was even more fun since I was finally able to meet in real life (IRL!) people with whom I "talk" to every day on Ravalry. Friends from Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts.....Just a fantastic day. 

Of course it was a working day too, as I brought along my Juniper Moon Pottery.  Everyone is always so enthusiastic!  I had some trouble with my Square....cell service is a little spotty out there and the wifi was down.  But business was still good.

Jerry the Llama

Of course the main reason for the event was that it was time for Spring Shearing.  Emily is amazing.

Got to see the Maremma puppies!  Only 2 weeks old!

(Still just a pile of cuteness!)

These are working dogs.  While Susie makes sure they are well socialized they are meant to live with the sheep and goats day and night.

Lucy is a good mama.

AND the new dairy cow was delivered.  She is bred and ready to have her calf any day.

Susie, Caroline and Zach are working hard to diversify a bit to keep the parasite level down in the fields.  Different animal families counteract each others parasite types through pasture rotation.

Plus they are really enjoying working with the dairy GOATS.  A cow just seemed to make sense!

The goat milk ice cream provided for dessert was heavenly....

I managed some spinning time before I made the drive home.....

Then I packed up my yarn prizes (there is always some sort of raffle and the yarn prizes this time were absolutely wonderful!) and headed home.

All in all a fantastic day.

Thank you Susie, Caroline and Zach for welcoming us!

Weaving Away with Clay on My Mind

Now that we are relatively settled in our small rental (I can't call it TINY since that is a whole different kind of house!) I have realized pretty quickly that for us to manage to exist in our small cluttered with boxes space I need to get out as much as possible! The good thing is that means time spent walking Layla along the river (all the Canadian Goose families are so fun to watch!) and many hours at my weaving studio at LibertyTown.

You may have heard that the show for the month of May is the annual Patron Show.  Fantastic work is donated, however number of pieces that that is (I think 51 this year...) that many $150 tickets are sold.  At the end of the month all ticket holders come for the Big Drawing.  When you ticket number is called you choose your own piece to take home!  This year tickets sold out in TWO DAYS.  Below is the blanket that I donated to the show.

My next project is another wool blanket. You may (or maybe not!) have noticed that the blanket for the show has a dark brown back.  This effect is created by the type of twill weave I used.  It also creates a somewhat heavier fabric. (For those of you in the know, a 3/1 twill creates a warp faced side, thats the colors in this example, and a weft faced side, that is the brown side.)  My next project is a more balanced twill that allows for both sides to be similar.

The warp, the yarn set up on the loom first, is an alternating cocoa brown and deep earthy red.

Nearly finished.....

....at the end....

To finish the piece I twist the fringe (that takes about 2 hours worth of Bones on TV.....) and run it through one hot wash/cold rinse cycle in my washing machine.  Last is to trim any loose ends.

I'm really happy with this one.

The colors are not quite true.  The yellowish color (the weft in this case) is actually more of a lemongrass green.....)

So now the weather has turned warmer for good I think.  So I am putting my wool away and pulling out the cotton and cotolin (50% cotton, 50% linen).

I have two blue baby blankets in stock.....Now I think I'll work with some light weight baby blankets with girls in mind!

BUT I have plans to start making pots in the LibertyTown pottery school space....so stay tuned!!