Tuesday, January 25, 2005

The next blanket

Last week, I pulled out all my bags of assorted handspun from the closet, sort of hoping I would find something to weave another blanket. I really hit it lucky! I found some beautiful dark gray, lustrous wool from a sheep named Sparky, a ewe from the coast of Maine where the fleeces are said to be "fog-washed". I also found some even more lustrous white wool from a sheep named Dawn, probably a Lincoln cross from my friend, Suzan Shearin in Tennessee. There is a lot more of the gray so the white is going to be borders on all 4 sides. I am weaving it double so I have a fold down the middle on a 40", 4H loom so it will be plain weave but the borders with the white will have color and weave patterns. It has been a long time since I have woven something that is just natural sheep colors, no other color at all. But I am enjoying the simplicity and the contrast of these 2 colors, probably because it is so different for me, usually I have as many colors as I can possibly use. So far, I have it warped through the reed and heddles so just have to tie it on and wind the warp. The hardest part is over. By the end of today it should be ready to weave.

The kids have done a lot of work on my website and so it shouldn't be too much longer until it is up online. I am getting more and more excited about it as it gets closer. They show me what they have done so far and I can't believe that it is really my work.

Although I have done a good amount of weaving this year so far, I haven't done any drawing or given much thought to tapestry weaving and I really want to get back to doing that. My last tapestry made me happy and so I don't want to lose that momentum by letting too much time pass by. I have been spinning some tapestry yarn in the evenings the last week or so. I looked this morning and I couldn't even find my sketchbook so that was frustrating too. Besides several other chores I have to do today, I really need to finish warping the loom and find that sketchbook.

1 Comments:

At Fri Jan 28, 09:05:00 AM MST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi and Welcome to the blog world!! I'm anxious to see your gray and white blanket - it sounds wonderful. I'm trying to chip away at spinning several pounds of Navajo-Churro in various colors for some rugs in the coming year.

And Montana looks beautiful. We just moved to Utah from Vermont and I miss all our snow (and moose!)

Anne
http://beavercreekfarm.typepad.com

 

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