Snow overnight

There was a nice snow overnight and more in the mountains so everything is quite beautiful. Not sure if it will last very long because the sun is trying to peek through the clouds but it is pretty and white now.

We have 4 cats, 2 boys and 2 girls. One of the boys, Amigo, is a Maine Coon cat and the other boy, Punky, is a flame point Himalayan. My one girl, Genny, is a tortie point Himalayan and Thyme is a blue cream Persian, so all are beautiful cats and were show cats before we got them as adults. Now they are retired so sleep and occasionally play but are always ready to be petted and purr.



PUNKY


AMIGO in a handknitted baby sweater I made

Focusing and destashing

There are so many interesting techniques in the world of fiberarts and even if I just concentrated on the realm of weaving, there is enough to keep one busy trying different structures for more than a lifetime. And I pretty well did just that for many years, bouncing from one thing to another. But about 5 years ago, I decided that I needed to focus more on a narrower range and I knew that would be weaving tapestries. I have spent a long time developing the yarn that I spin and how I dye and blend the colors for it and I'm still working on designing and trying to draw every day (not that successfully lately!) I also still enjoy weaving blankets, bags and some other small items because it is good to have projects that although they take awhile, are much quicker than a tapestry.

The last 2 years or so, I have also tried to reduce my stash to fit the needs and reality of what I am weaving. I used to just buy fleeces or yarn in a haphazard manner so I ended up with a huge hodgepodge of fibers that didn't blend together or work for what I wanted to do. With just a couple of small exceptions, I haven't bought any fibers or yarn for a couple years and have forced myself to just work from the stash. I have woven several blankets that were the best I ever did. I sorted through yarn that I knew I would never use and gave that away to friends who used it to make some wonderful things. I have knitted and woven smaller items for gifts, etc. Probably having to use up some of this fiber without buying more, forced me to be more creative and try some color schemes that I might not have used or toss in small amounts of a yarn to see what it would do and I ended up learning a lot by experimenting. Also, some of the handspun that was years old, did not seem so precious as it was in the beginning and I had no trouble mixing commercial and handspun yarns in a project. That used to seem sacrilegious to me and I would have been too much of a purist to mix them, but anything to use up the stash.

I still have a hefty stash and like it. But it is under control because what I have, I know I will happily use and I will be careful when I start buying fibers again to be sure they will not end up a burden.

Happy to be Here!

My purpose for this blog is to share some thoughts and ideas about
weaving, some of the things that I have learned, and to show off some of my finished pieces.

I AM happy to be here and wouldn't be if it weren't for the hard work of my 2 children who did everything to set up the blog and are working hard to get the website done. All that from a long distance, too, since my daughter is in Utah, my son is in Kansas and we are in Montana. Not an easy task to coordinate. So a huge thank you to them. I love you both!

We just moved to Montana in June and are still surprised by the great beauty here and the ever changing moods of the sky and mountains. I know already that these colors and scenes are influencing my work. Lately, I have mostly focused on weaving tapestries and dye and spin all the yarn for them, but I often weave blankets and other things for fun and to try out different weaving ideas that I have. I love ethnic and historic textiles. I have been weaving since I was young and haven't gotten tired of it yet. And funny, I still mostly do plain weave!

At some point the website will be finished and I will also try to post photos on the blog to show what I've been working on. Welcome to my WeaveWorld.

Coming soon...

Tips, techniques, inspiration and ideas from MountainWeaver.