LACK-ity LACK

I was sidetracked from weaving recently by the need to re-organize my space. My weaving space needs to do double duty as a guest room. The room is 12ft by 14ft. I have two floor looms -- a 45" LeClerc and a 36" Harrisville -- plus a desk. The guest part is an xtra-long twin bed along with a small side table. I wanted to give guests a little more elbow room so I decided to trade a free-standing shelf unit with some wall mounted shelves.

Since I have alot of storage space 8 feet up, my long term plan is to mount shelves high on each of the walls. The first installation is the IKEA LACK style floating shelfs and wall mounted units. IKEA has a number of choices for small spaces and wall mounting. I originally was going to do narrow free-standing units. But I like that the LACK shelves have open sides so that the cones can overflow. The first high shelves are now mounted above the closet. These are very convenient for large and seldom used cones...well maybe more convenient when I get a bigger stepstool!

Calculating Warp and Weft Needs

I was (finally) reading my Fall 2011 "Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot" magazine and found an interesting take on warp/weft calculations for a project. There are many good references on the web for doing these calcs. (for example: http://wovenfibers.com/thrums_calc.html or http://allfiberarts.com/2011/bl092599.htm)

What I liked in Marcy Petrini's approach is that it looked at yarn requirement from the yardage (as in square yard) perspective, not just the linear perspective. Marcy uses the square yard technique when doing on-the-fly estimates ... probably when in a shop lusting over a new find. While it seems to be most useful for weavers who are creating yardage, the article did cover how to think of any project in terms of square yards. I was not able to find the article online, but if you get SS&D have a look at the "Right from the Start" column.

Baby Blankets

I have completed several baby blanket projects over the last 3 years. The last project was two wool blankets in the M & O pattern. I loved the finished blankets pictured here. I need to make a few more blankets and have decided to do the M & O in cotton. Since the gender is not known at this time, I am going to stay with yellow and green. Maybe in combination with a multi colored flake cotton. I will post warp pictures as soon as I get it on the loom.

New Year

New year resolution is to weave more!! My goal is to weave a little bit every day. Maybe I should move a loom into the family room?

I also plan to take a workshop or two, and to use more handwoven in garments. So many projects, so little time.

I just took these lovely holiday guest towels off my harrisville. As usual, the holiday weaving extends into the new year. It gives me a really early start for next december.

The towels are cotton warp at 20epi with cottolin weft (doubled). The complex pattern slowed me down a little, but I loved watching the pattern emerge again and again.