Weaving a wool shawl

So I am working on my first non rug. I bought some beautiful hand painted wool from Brown Sheep Company in Mitchell. It is gray, blue, and purple. For the warp I bought some wool call blue fog. I'm not so sure about the warp though. Maybe it's just not as strong as the rug warp, because I keep breaking them. I have tied them back on and now I have adjusted the tension so that it is not so tight. Hopefully that will work. It's going to be too warm to wear it soon, but a least I can say I made a shawl.

Weaving with my Niece

My niece was here and she helped me do some weaving. She sat next to me on the bench and I would throw the shuttle from one side and she would catch it. Then she pushed the peddles and threw the shuttle back. It was quite fun and we laughed a lot. I can't wait for her to come out again and we can do some more weaving.

Faux suede rug

I made a black and dark purple faux suede cloak a while back. I had all of these scraps left over so I decided to make a rug. I used black warp and about 2.5 inch wide strips. I decided to use two shuttles, one color on each. It gave it thicker ends where I had to overlap the colors, but I like it. It is soft and thick and cushy. Feels great to walk on. I listed it today. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23543379

Custom cloak

This cloak is the last of the 5 that I did. The red is a stretchy velour. The brown is almost a crushed velvet with sewn sequins and vertical ribbing. The red was so stretchy that I had to have it with another stretchy fabric. I tried to do the red with the satin and it would sew right. I pinned and sewed and ripped out stitches. Several times until we decided to switch to the brown.

Blizzard

So the blizzard came and left us with lots of snow, huge drifts and no electricity for 24 hours! I spent the quiet day reading and weaving. I put a table by my loom and set candles and a lantern on it. It made me think about how in the old days they would have lived without all the modern conveniences. It was kinda nice. I got a lot done on my new flannel blue and sage rug. It's going to be a long one. Plus it's super soft. Now I'm off to do all those things I couldn't do yesterday. Like laundry. Yeah for electricity!!!

4th custom cloak

This is the fourth custom cloak of five. It is a marbled blue/magenta/purple with sparkles and reverses to magenta satin. I've really enjoyed creating these. They are fabrics that I normally wouldn't have used but they turned out really beautiful.

Fabric flowers

I use a lot of my fabric scraps from making the cloaks in my rugs. Sometimes I have fabrics that I am unable to use in my rugs. Mostly the satins and brocades. I was working with a black brocade and I had lots of scraps and I was trying to think of something I could use them for. This brocade is beautiful. Black with red flowers and then the underside is red with black flowers. So I thought about making 3-D flowers that could be used to pin on clothing or purses or even shoes. So I checked out the books when I was at Joann's and I found " Fun to Wear Fabric Flowers" by Elizabeth Helene Searle. It is an amazing book. It has about 35 different flowers to make. Pansy's, roses, dahlia's, daffodil's, camellia's and many more. It tells about many different kinds of fabric to use and several different technique's. And the pictures are out of this world. Very nicely illustrated with great, easy to follow directions. I can't wait to try them all out. Stay tuned for some pictures of my new spring flowers.

Custom cloak

This is the third cloak. A hot pink satin with the almost tie-dyed fabric. It is reversible, so either side can be worn on the outside. I just love the tie-dyed. You can buy several different versions of the fabric at Joann's. Just make sure you have a coupon cause it's a little pricey.