"A Trip to Michigan!"

I hadn't visited the kids since last October, when I went over for my granddaughter Abigail's 2nd birthday, so I drove over last Friday to spend a few days with them. They do not have internet at their house, so that is why I haven't written any blog posts since last Thursday.

I found out later that night, that lower SW Michigan had gotten some major lake effect snow after I passed through the area. "Major", as in 18-20"!!! During the heaviest snowfall, they were getting about 4" per hour!

I'd stopped at the rest area upon entering MI, so Copper could get out and stretch, and saw the beginning of what would become a doozy of a storm. Of course, at that time, I had no idea I would be so lucky as to have gotten into MI when I did. A few sporadic snow flakes started floating down as we got back into the car. I'd phoned Don to let him know of our progress and mentioned in passing that a few snow flakes were starting to fall. I did have snow the rest of the way to the kids house (about 4 hours of driving), but nothing unusual for MI. Little did I know what was taking place behind me. ;)

Here is Abigail wearing a few of the things that Grandpa had knitted for her. The hat had been sent over earlier, but I knitted the matching cowl a few weeks ago. This "potato chip scarf" is my 1st attempt at knitting one....following the directions exactly made too short a scarf for Julie, so I "adjusted the pattern" and knit her another. The original one is a perfect size for a child though, so Abigail and Julie now have matching potato chip scarves. :) These things certainly bring out the blue of her eyes, eh? ;)

We decided to go out to dinner that night so we piled into Patrick's truck and went to Trak's, a local bar/restaurant in the village of Brethren, MI.

When we arrived, Abigail saw a little boy pushing pool balls around the pool table, so, of course, she wanted to see what it was all about.......

She was much more interested in taking tiny licks of her honey mustard sauce than dipping her chicken tenders into it.

She's wearing about as much as she has licked.......

Abigail's Dad, and my oldest son, Patrick.

I didn't take into account just how much honey mustard Abigail had on her face when I took this photo.

More photos of my trip to follow......

"Madison's Men's Knitting Group....."

The Madison's Men's Knitting Group that I participate in (there are actually 1 or 2 more), held its monthly gathering this past Sunday. Originally, we all met on Ravelry, an online fiber community. (http://www.ravelry.com/)

This time, instead of meeting at a local Madison coffee or fiber shop, we took a mini road trip to Lake Mills, WI, which is about 30 minutes east of Madison. Our destination was a fiber shop called Kaleidoscope Fibers (http://www.kaleidoscopefibers.com/).

Here are 2 of the members of our group (L to R), Jamie and Larry. Both do some very intricate knit pieces and are very knowledgeable about yarns, patterns, and books. Larry is also a weaver and gave me the suggestion of using a thicker weft for my twill sampler in order to have the designs show up more clearly.

Cory, our Lake Mills representative, who suggested we meet at Kaleidoscope Fibers. :)

Patrick, our newest member, from Lodi, WI. I first met him when he worked at Lakeside Fiber in Madison. I also know his Mom, Diane, who is a circular sock machine enthusiast.

On the right is Karen, the owner of the shop. Unfortunately, I did not hear the names of the other 2 women. The woman on the far left (in Packer colors) was there for a lesson with Karen, learning to knit mittens. You can see a completed one on the table in front of her. They are not just "plain knitted mittens", but are lined with links of dyed roving (clean, ready to spin fleece)......that is what creates the speckled color pattern on the mitten. The roving will "felt" inside the mitten as they are worn, compacting to a smooth, solid, thick, and very warm interior.

We had a very enjoyable time in Lake Mills and I'm sure we'll make it a destination for more of our gatherings.

"Annual RV Show"

Don and I went to the annual RV show at the Alliant Energy Center last Saturday, and friends, Rebecca and Marti, joined us this year. They're interested, at some point, in possibly getting one that could be used for some business traveling, as well as recreational times.

Rebecca going for the gold , pretending to pilot one of the "BIG" rigs. And, oh yes.....the convention center does have beer, wine, and liquor available to purchase. What better way to loosen inhibitions to sign on that dotted line? ;)

Here is one of the few photos that Don is in....checking out the bed for comfort.

Also checking for comfort....Rebecca experiencing the "coziness" of a campers shower. ;)

It is truly amazing to see how campers are being designed for comfort, convenience, and luxury. Thankfully, the designers are also coming up with new innovations that help keep the campers weight down, too. Yes....they are proud of it. ;)

We had a wonderful time at the show with Rebecca and Marti. This was their first RV show, and "I think" their first time physically in a camper. What an experience for them, eh?

Afterwards, we went over to their house for dinner, with another friend of theirs, Stephanie, joining us. We had a lot of fun both at the RV show and at dinner. What a great day!

"Twill Sampler #2"

My 2nd twill sampler was completed last Sunday. It has 9 variations, 6 which are for use as borders, all from one particular threading, each using a different treadle sequence. The "Border samples" were all separated by a regular twill sequence (1,2- 2,3- 3,4- 1,4). I liked how that looked in both a color and plain white and could see myself using it both ways for a complete piece.

I took close ups of sections so the design could be seen easier. The designs all looked somewhat "squished" in comparison to the photos in the book. In case you don't remember from my earlier post, I'm using Anne Dixon's, the Handweaver's Pattern Directory. I mentioned the "squished look" to another weaver and he suggested I use something a bit thicker as weft, rather than the same size as the warp. I've used 3/2 Cottolin for both in Samples #1 & #2. He thought perhaps doubling the Cottolin would work or I could use something like Sugar and Cream yarn, which I do have in my stash, leftover from some knitting projects. I'll most likely try both, although I like the Cottolin colors and sheen best.

Here are 2 of the borders......

One from the previous photo, plus 2 more......

2 more borders and 1 of the designs which could be used for cloth........

The last 2 samples for cloth.

Now to re-thread the loom and weave Twill Sample #3, experimenting with different thicknesses of weft. ;)

"Temple Rods on My Ashford....."

I decided to add 2 steel rods on my Ashford Table Loom as I had done on my Oxaback Floor Loom so that I would have a true horizontal tension when using a home made temple, rather than one with a downward angle.

I found out doing this on the table loom was much simpler. When searching for small screw eyes, I came across these Coaxial Cable Straps, which just happened to be the correct size for the steel rod I planned on using.

The 2 steel rods are thinner than what I had used on my floor loom, leftovers from a failed attempt to replace the wooden warp and cloth rods. The rods proved too thin and bent under tension, but now they have a new use, which I think they are perfectly suited.

The coaxial cable straps needed only to be lightly tapped in and they were in place. The rods will slide in and out easily when the ratchet arm is loosened and held horizontal. The straps won't be in the way when the loom is folded for storage either. If need be, the nails can be replaced with long thin screws, too, which I will most likely do to make them more secure.

The newest home made temple works well on the table loom, too, after tying up the cord to make it shorter. Working with them on my 2nd twill sampler was a positive experience, so I think I will replace the mitten clips/string on my 1st temple with alligator clips and nylon cord.

Again, my thanks to Sarah from Woolgatherer's in Fond du Lac, WI, for the temple plans. ( http://www.woolgatherers.com/id105.htm )

"Oxaback Lilla and Temple"

In some correspondence with another weaver, Matt, the other day, he'd mentioned that the Oxaback Floor Loom couldn't use one of the homemade temples because the frame on the loom does not have a horizontal support for the temple's cord to hang over. I should say it doesn't have one at the height "needed", as there is one lower. If a homemade temple was to be attached to a piece of weaving, the support has to be very close to the same level as the weaving, otherwise, the woven fabric is pulled in a downward angle....not a good thing.

So I got to thinking about how I could rig something up to accommodate a temple. I had a couple of lengths of steel rod left from when I had Home Depot cut some longer ones down to a custom length to replace the flat wooden warp and cloth rods on my Ashford Table Loom. They were the correct length, why not use them? So I went to the hardware store and bought 4 screw eyes. I wanted something thinner with a long shank, but those weren't available, but found some that would work fine.

The Oxaback's "beater" sticks out a tiny bit from the loom's frame so I was not able to have anything that laid flush against the frame, so only screwed the eyes in far enough to catch firmly.

Here is how it looks when finished. It is easily detachable and does not threaten the integrity of the loom's frame. I could have used "L" screws, but felt a rounded piece of hardware would be better.

The steel rods (wooden dowels could be used, too) are held in place with a rubber band.

The other side of the loom has the knob which controls the folding section of the loom. It is used when one would bring the warp beam up for storage, or down for work (as it is now), tightening to keep the section firmly in place. Thankfully, all I had to do was remove the knob, screw in the eye and replace the knob again, although, it still was a tight fit. It, too, is held in place with a rubber band, but on the other end. The "L" screw would actually fit into this space much better.

Another look at the set up.......

While at the hardware store, I also bought a few things to experiment with for another temple. Again, thanks to Matt, who got me thinking about improving the temple.

This time, I used alligator clips, found in electrical supplies, nylon cord, and fishing weights/sinkers. The weights are the same as I used before. The alligator clips have a shank on them, which is for wire to be fed through, then attached, but I found a nylon cord thin enough to pass through it and then melted the end of the cord, which caused a large, hard bubble on the end, too large to slip out of the shank. The same was true for the wire loop on the fishing weight, too, so no knots were needed to secure the cord at either end.

A close up showing the melted cord ends......

Unfortunately, I don't have any weaving on the floor loom, but I was able to "stage" its use using my twill sampler. They're clipped to each side of the sampler, hung over the rod, and gravity does the rest.

I don't know how much weight the alligator clip could handle, but I imagine more weight could be added to it. A close eye would have to be kept on the clip and what its attachment does to the woven fabric. This is all speculation on my part. I'm sure I will have some opinions after testing everything out. ;)

"Maxing Out......."

I maxed out my warping board yesterday, measuring a warp for all the samplers I want to weave on my table loom. After sitting down and figuring out how many variations I could weave without too many re-threadings, I came up with about 30 sample weaves......"if" I figured correctly. I guess we'll find out, eh? ;)

Here is the measured warp being wound onto my Ashford 8 Shaft Table Loom. I will only be using 4 shafts for these samplers.

I've never had this much warp on this loom yet. As you can see, I got very close to having too long a warp. Good thing I hadn't put in more warp sticks, eh?

The warp is ready to be threaded for the 1st sampler. In this 1st sampler, I have 6 treadling variations to try using one threading. My plan for the samplers is to hem stitch each one individually, cut them off, then re-thread for the next one. I will, of course, make sure I take photos of the process.