Creative glitches...hate 'em!!!

Well here it is December 21st...I only have 2 small things left to weave, everything else is packaged and out the door.  Seems, as usual, that I have been thinking about Christmas for months.  Oh yeah...thaaaats right I have.  Takes a pretty long time to do all of these gifts by hand.  Not a single thing was bought for my Christmas, except the yarn to produce the pieces of course.

Just a little bit of update...since I haven't posted in over a week.

Carol went to Jacksonville about a week and a half ago...got broke down.  So I have been on my own for ten days (makes for alot of conversations with my dogs) LOL.  At that point I guess I decided mentally to take a break for all of the hub ub about Christmas.  At that point the GLITCH set in.  I should never have stopped long enough to take that breath, because since then I couldn't seem to weave anything...until yesterday. 

I want to make a cell phone pouch, (she just got a new Droid) and a one skein project bag ( she says she needs a 'small' project bag) for my weave workshop student, Dana.  So I warped up after looking at empty looms for a week...double threaded (meaning two threads in each heddle) and 75 warp ends.  On another project, which must remain a mystery due to the holiday thing, this became exactly 4 in wide.  Keep in mind alot of my yarns do not have tags on the cones.  So I have no way, most of the time, to know what size my thread is.  I think one of the ones I am currently looking at on the loom is a 20.  Very fine!  Much finer that I would choose.  Thus I only got 3 in. on this project, instead of the 4 in. I got on the other project that I warped the same way.  Bummer.  Droid won't fit in a 3 in. wide pouch, especially after the sides are stitched up.

So ALL I could do was stare at it and rethink my ideas.

SOOOOOOOOOO I loaned her one of my own pouches for her phone while I figure out what to do.  Then I warped up the small tapestry loom and thought I would make her a bag of each technique.  A weftface phone pouch and a warpface project bag.  Even though I would use my own homespun for the tapestry bag.  Turns out the roving is prettier than the yarn it produces.  First time that ever happened...not feeling the tapestry weave (weftface).  So I benched that one too.

After several days I thought that since I need to piece the warpface together to produce something larger...because it is too narrow as it stands... I would make her one project bag in panels.  Each panel will be different.  Dana only wants it to be about 6 to 8 in. wide and 12 in. long.  I figure I need at least 6, 12 in. x 3 in. wide panels.  Once they are sewn together that will produce a bag the size I need. She wants the long side to be the one that opens so we even discussed her sewing the bag together herself so that she gets exactly what she wants.

She is a huge Florida Seminoles fan as she went to college in Tallahassee, FL.  She also likes jewel tones.  I had her some over and we chose garnet and kind of a coral with gold trim.  Unfortunately the coral looks much pinker next to the garnet...hope she still likes it.  This project is definitely challenging me. 

I completed the first 12 in. band yesterday.  I did the 3d effect and it is stunning.  I think this is going to work.

I was also loaned the largest of the Gilmore Wave looms.  There is a picture of it here on the blog, it is the loom with the blue/purple warp on it.  Mine is the smaller Mini loom by the same company.  This way I can do a few larger pieces of warpface before I return it to my friend KraftyMax whose parents own Gilmore Looms.

Since we have no art stores here in Moultrie I asked Ms. Carol to also visit Joann's ETC. (much larger than a normal Joann Fabric store) in Jacksonville, FL.  I have a hard time finding mercerized cotton here so I had her spend about $40.00 there for me.  Lots of new colors to play with now.  After I complete my last 2 Christmas projects of course!  I promised Carol 2 red, white, and blue inkle bands to hang her dogs' pictures with.  She has these cut out mat boards that spell their names and the boards are red/white and blue.  Behind each letter she can place a picture of the appropriate dog, cute.  Piece of cake. 

Then I want to concentrate on trying double weave...or at least somehow figure out how to have a solid background on my warpface lifts.  No stripes or specs...it is possible that double weave is the only way to achieve this - that I have been able to understand anyway.  Remember all of the info I get is via books and internet.  The only weaving instructor around is me.  Also keep in mind that my loom is just as much table loom as inkle loom.  Not all inkle information works exactly the same way with a cloth and warp beam on the loom.  Lots of translating going on.

So No all I have to do is post pictures of these various activities.  Most of those will be posted through out the up-coming days...I realize that reading my blog is not of the UTMOST importance during the holidays.  So I will only post occasionally during the next couple of weeks.  Things will go back more to the norm after the New Year.

Hope you and yours are happy and enjoying the holidays to the fullest and in the safest ways possible.