Our Strange Winter

The weather this year has been so strange.  I have enjoyed not driving on snowy roads, and shoveling the driveway.  But I have also missed snow covered trees,  ice cycles on the roof, and I am really worried about the lack of snow for our water needs next summer.

I got early daffodils also

We did get some snow this week, but the ground is so warm that it melted.  I hope it added some moisture to the ground and the bushes that we planted last year.  I have already been out watering them, since the snow didn't this year.

I finished a piece from the January Guild Workshop.  We had Joanne Hall teaching Swedish Art weaves.  The first piece looks pretty good and I want to weave two or three more to make into pillows.  The goal is to put them on a sofa/bed in the guest room.  We'll see how that goes.

Swedish tapestry and inlay patterns on a plain weave ground

You weave from the back, so this is what you see as you weave.

I used a mirror a lot when I was weaving to make sure I was putting the inlay in the correct place.  I only missed a couple of times!  The technique is not as slow as I thought it would be.  

For the Dukagang, I used a 1/3 lifting instead of the 1/2 that she showed in the workshop. The loom was threaded with a straight draw, so I was able to just use the shafts instead of doing pick-up to weave it.  That make the weaving much faster.  The Dukagang is the pattern that looks like columns.  I will use that technique with a different pattern in the other pillow fronts.

Since the warp is only about 10" wide.  I will add some fabric borders around the piece before I make the pillows.  I figured about 2" on each side would give me 14" pillows.  They should look great, and the loom is on the dining room table so it is an inducement for me to weave some each day!


I have been having fun with the rigid heddle looms.  I did some pick-up lace and I really like the scarf.

Scarf on the table

Scarf in front of the window

I found a skein of wool from a yarn rep's samples that I had been given years ago.  I like the white with the brown slub or tweed in it.  It reminds me of the winter snows and the shades of brown that we see in the trees (or at least what I remember of previous snowy winters)!  The pick-up made a Bronson lace and because it was pick-up and not shaft controlled, I was able to change the area of the lace and make the curving lines.  I was very pleased with this piece.  

Nice mat but not the square shape I had hoped for

The mat I made was not so great.  I didn't have much of the white cotton left and I made the warp too short.  Instead of the square mat for the center of the table I got a rectangular place-mat.  I will have to redo that piece when I get some more white 3/2 pearl cotton.