More Weaving Going On....

More weaving.

I've put aside my wool, and pulled out my cotolin. I've woven with this often for kitchen towels and love the feel and drape. So why not baby blankets?

At the bottom you can see the hot pink/purple one is finished, and I am working one in teal.

I am really enjoying weaving with a two color warp.  This time alternating pastel pink and yellow.

The result with the more saturated teal (and the purple/pink) is very subtle.

The last stripe....there is one on each end.  Only 8 more inches and I can cut these off the loom and start on the next thing!

A Day at Juniper Moon Farm

 

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day for a sheep shearing! My drive to Juniper Moon is now an hour and a half, rather then the 30 minutes it used to be.  But what a gorgeouse drive it was! Driving through the Virginia countryside AND being able to totally avoid highways makes me very happy.

This Shearing was even more fun since I was finally able to meet in real life (IRL!) people with whom I "talk" to every day on Ravalry. Friends from Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts.....Just a fantastic day. 

Of course it was a working day too, as I brought along my Juniper Moon Pottery.  Everyone is always so enthusiastic!  I had some trouble with my Square....cell service is a little spotty out there and the wifi was down.  But business was still good.

Jerry the Llama

Of course the main reason for the event was that it was time for Spring Shearing.  Emily is amazing.

Got to see the Maremma puppies!  Only 2 weeks old!

(Still just a pile of cuteness!)

These are working dogs.  While Susie makes sure they are well socialized they are meant to live with the sheep and goats day and night.

Lucy is a good mama.

AND the new dairy cow was delivered.  She is bred and ready to have her calf any day.

Susie, Caroline and Zach are working hard to diversify a bit to keep the parasite level down in the fields.  Different animal families counteract each others parasite types through pasture rotation.

Plus they are really enjoying working with the dairy GOATS.  A cow just seemed to make sense!

The goat milk ice cream provided for dessert was heavenly....

I managed some spinning time before I made the drive home.....

Then I packed up my yarn prizes (there is always some sort of raffle and the yarn prizes this time were absolutely wonderful!) and headed home.

All in all a fantastic day.

Thank you Susie, Caroline and Zach for welcoming us!

Weaving Away with Clay on My Mind

Now that we are relatively settled in our small rental (I can't call it TINY since that is a whole different kind of house!) I have realized pretty quickly that for us to manage to exist in our small cluttered with boxes space I need to get out as much as possible! The good thing is that means time spent walking Layla along the river (all the Canadian Goose families are so fun to watch!) and many hours at my weaving studio at LibertyTown.

You may have heard that the show for the month of May is the annual Patron Show.  Fantastic work is donated, however number of pieces that that is (I think 51 this year...) that many $150 tickets are sold.  At the end of the month all ticket holders come for the Big Drawing.  When you ticket number is called you choose your own piece to take home!  This year tickets sold out in TWO DAYS.  Below is the blanket that I donated to the show.

My next project is another wool blanket. You may (or maybe not!) have noticed that the blanket for the show has a dark brown back.  This effect is created by the type of twill weave I used.  It also creates a somewhat heavier fabric. (For those of you in the know, a 3/1 twill creates a warp faced side, thats the colors in this example, and a weft faced side, that is the brown side.)  My next project is a more balanced twill that allows for both sides to be similar.

The warp, the yarn set up on the loom first, is an alternating cocoa brown and deep earthy red.

Nearly finished.....

....at the end....

To finish the piece I twist the fringe (that takes about 2 hours worth of Bones on TV.....) and run it through one hot wash/cold rinse cycle in my washing machine.  Last is to trim any loose ends.

I'm really happy with this one.

The colors are not quite true.  The yellowish color (the weft in this case) is actually more of a lemongrass green.....)

So now the weather has turned warmer for good I think.  So I am putting my wool away and pulling out the cotton and cotolin (50% cotton, 50% linen).

I have two blue baby blankets in stock.....Now I think I'll work with some light weight baby blankets with girls in mind!

BUT I have plans to start making pots in the LibertyTown pottery school space....so stay tuned!!

We Have ARRIVED!

Hello all!  Greg, Layla and I are squuuueeeeeeezed into our rental in Fredericksburg! The move went VERY smoothly.  Which is a little surprising.  I have moved many times in my life and it seems there is always a story to tell....Oh WAIT THERE IS!  This is the move of the permit and highway road signs.....

Close to the last minute I discovered that the City of Charlottesville required us to buy a road closed permit and to acquire two road construction signs.  (Our old place was on a busy road with no roadside parking.)  After several days of frustration (and I admit some tears)With NO help from The City, I finally was able to find a local utility company that would rent us the signs we needed.  Our movers were fantastic, they helped put up the signs along with all their cones....STILL some City Rep called the City to report us.  The City Permit Person (no names here) actually called us to state that apparently we did not have "Appropriate Traffic Control" installed!  I had to remind her that SHE was the one sold me the permit!! UGH.  Though she said she was going to come by to check us out, I have no idea if she ever did since no one stopped.  (Ha!  No parking remember???) But that is our 2012 moving story.  It seems so innocuous now that I read over it.....but at the time it was stressful enough to make me feel that uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach.....(And in case you are wondering there were no signs, no permits and no issues when we moved in 1 1/2 years ago.....)

The other good news is that we had two gloriously sunny days for the actual moving.  It POURED on Monday and it is pouring as I type this.  It's a Moving Miracle.

So today we head back to the old house for one last time.  A few more boxes to move ourselves (I have to remind myself that rain today is a small payment to make for two sunny mover days....) and the last minute cleaning.  Then back to our cozy, albeit crowded, little rental on the river.

I'm sorry I have no pictures in this post.  But as I am a bit shocked by the change in the looks of Blogger it probably is for the best that I learn how to work with it SLOWLY!  (But YAY!  It has spellcheck now!)

I'll be back soon!

This and That...packin' up!

My mind has been scattered these last couple of weeks. I partially pack a box in one room, eat a cookie, check the kiln, sort the weaving tools to keep from storing them, pack the spices, sweep the front porch, finish a box in the laundry room...eat another cookie. So this post is a bit scattered as well!

I finally treated myself to one of Tracey Broome's houses...doesn't it look spectacular next to Dan Finnegan's tree with birds (he created this just before his imagination opened wide and released his fantastic flock of birds.)

Spring is officially here and the wisteria is blooming!  I think I trimmed it back at the wrong time a year ago...since this is the first time I have seen it bloom.  A sweet good bye.

AND I have been throwing pots.

My friend Lynette requested sheep themed garden stakes...I'm making more of these!  They were so fun to make.  Though made like tiles, the fact that some warped a bit was not a problem since they are now on posts and in her garden!

I've temporarily closed my Etsy shop.  I've priced and packed pots for the Retreat I'm vending at at Graves Mountain Lodge on the Saturday before our move, I've moved most of the other pots to Fredericksburg....the roof is being repaired one last time as I write this, the kiln is being moved next week and stored (unfortunately.)  Closing is scheduled for the 23rd, official packers and movers the 23rd and 24th.  We are almost there!!!

Field Trip!

In the midst of throwing pots (boy do I owe ya'll a pottery post!), sorting unmovable-by-movers stuff, weaving commissions, driving back and forth to Fredericksburg and the general stress of limbo I decided a break was in order! Pat from the Fredericksburg Spinning and Weaving Guild arranged for members to visit Misty Mountain and Solitude Wool.  Since I am crazy for Solitude Wool's Karakul wool and had limited time I opted for a quick trip to Solitude.

I love what they do.  Suzanne raises Karakul sheep at her farm Red Gate Farm, shops for other local breed fleece and is the washer of fleece and the dyer.....Gretchen raises Romney at Solitude and weaves and seems to be the master of their internet presence (though that is my own observation.....)  Together they are Solitude Wool.  While they each have their own farms, they have finally found a warehouse location between their locations to centralize all their woolly products.  It's an amazing space.

Sue discussing "skirting".  When you lay out a fleece and sort out the short cuts and unusable wool.

The Tunis (the type of sheep grazing at Mount Vernon during George Washington's life time) fleece on the skirting table.

Just LOOK at that crimp!  This is what handspinners are looking for.

Sue and Gretchen sell mostly breed specific yarns and rovings.  Each is well labeled with a picture of the sheep.....

This basket of Karakul was somewhat depleted after my visit.....

Solitude Wool's product is available on their website.  But if you are lucky enough to live in the DC area they are regulars at the DC Farmers Market!

Ron Philbeck and Michael Kline and Trista Chapman, OH MY!

Last Wednesday was a date I had saved on my calendar for several weeks. DRIVE TO FREDERICKSBURG. (I am still going back and forth until the house changes hands officially.) Wednesday was the workshop with the boys from North Carolina, Michael Kline and Ron Philbeck. In addition, Trista Chapman of Fredericksburg was signed up to join them in the giving of deco secrets!

Liberty Town was VERY lucky to have a bit of time with Michael and Ron as they were heading to Cape Cod to teach a weekend long workshop. While we only had them for a quick evening of pizza, beer, comedy and decoration tips it was a night that I am so happy to have been in attendance!!

It was a fantastic sampling of their work.  And I just have to say that Ron you are so funny!  Just what I imagined while reading your blog.

Dan doing the official introductions (with Michael Kline waiting in the wings)

Ron Philbeck works with earthenware clay fired at low temperature in an electric kiln.  He applies white slip and utilizes sgraffito to decorate his pots.

Ron warming up the crowd.

Explaining his sgraffito techniques.  (That's a laundry line bowl in his hand...one of his older but very popular designs)

Trista Chapman is another potter who works with low fire clay, this time white clay, and fires her brightly colored pots in an electric kiln.

Trista showing a finished plate with her color technique.

Plate in process.

Finished plate.  I found it interesting that she does all her decorating at the bisqued stage, not as greenware.  Definitely gives her a big window for decorating.

I had to document Trista's, er, messy, glaze jars.  If you are using them every day why waste all that underglaze by washing out your brushes???

Michael Kline wood fires.  A very different and time intensive technique.  He uses wax to resist a slip.  Then fires in a high fire salt atmosphere in his wood kiln to produce his beautiful pieces.

Michael introduces us to his style of decorating with wax resist either on its own (that allows warm browns after woodfiring) or colored with oxides and colorants to darken the design.

The purple jar holds straight wax colored with food coloring to help him see his design as he applies the wax to the pot.

The brown jar is the colored wax that you see him painting on the pot.  He strives to make literally every stroke just right!

Examples.  That little one on the right went home with me!

Can't attend a workshop without taking home a souvenir....I have a couple of Ron's pots from his etsy shop, so I bought only this wonderful goat mug.....

The pitcher on the left is the wee one from the previous picture and is deco'd using the plain wax.  The cup to the right uses the colored wax and the vines show much blacker.

I own a pot or two of Trista's as well.  Since she is local I know I will make my way to her shop again soon!!!