Fabric Making

I've been dying to make David a pair of pants from the 8-shaft pinwheel pattern, but I always chicken out at the last minute because I'm afraid that the 4-thread float will be too long.  But this time, I decided to not let it scare me!  I made it out of 16/2 thread so it will be very fine fabric and also the 4-thread float can be very short!  While weaving the pinwheel fabric, I decided that I really wanted to make a matching fabric, since the pants pattern I have takes two fabrics.  But I had to think about what wouldn't clash with the already busy pinwheels.  I chose plain weave with the green and one thread of the teal every 1/2".  I wove 8 yards of the pinwheel fabric, and I'm currently working on weaving 5 yards of the plain fabric.  I'm about 75% done with the plain weave!

While designing these fabrics, I decided that I really liked the designing part!  I started thinking while weaving the fabric if I could actually print on fabric.  After a little research, I found some ink that is oil-based, but cleans up with soap and water.  It's the Speedball brand, and you have to let it set 1 week before washing.  I just barely made the samples last week, but here they are!  I just washed them up today and the ink seems to be holding ok!  Here are my samples:

Hand-carved fox stamp:

Hand-carved orange stamp:

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Catsup and mustard, and nothing having to do with food

I can't believe January is almost over, and I never even shared my Christmas towels I made for family!  "Where is 2016 going?" I'm already asking myself!

Here are the Christmas towels that I promised to show you so long ago!  These were so much fun to make and didn't take as much thought to do as you would fear!

I didn't follow any particular pattern. When I sat down to thread my loom, I did more of a profile draft style threading but I didn't write it down first I just do it from my head. Same thing for treadling- I didn't have that written down first I just followed a profile-like draft from my head. So it was all somewhat of a surprise to me as I went!

The towels I made were from 12/2 cotton.  I warped 6 yards, and the epi was 24. Made 8 towels total.

Just a little reminder... When threading for summer and winter….
block 1 = 1 3 2 3
block 2 = 1 4 2 4
block 3 = 1 5 2 5
block 4 = 1 6 2 6
block 5 = 1 7 2 7
block 6 = 1 8 2 8

Party Animal Pants

Pants, pants, pants!  We're all about pants now that there is a great fallish chill to the air.  I decided during the move that I have way too much yarn, so I really need to work on using up my stash.  I intended to drop a few low cones with this project, but unfortunately, I didn't use up any colors!  Some of the cones are very low, but I guess that means I will have to do this rainbow plaid again! 

I decided to cut this one up into fancy pants for David.  I used the "Big Butt Baby Pants" pattern, made by Rae.

It is the only pants pattern I have used for David's entire life, and it's my favorite!  These are 24 mo, and the pattern goes to 2T, so I have another year and a half before I really need to find another great pants pattern for him!

We decided to do our photoshoot at Garden of the Gods, which is an amazing place to visit!  It's so pretty there!

Here's the pattern for you.  It's a broken twill so the floats are no longer than 2 threads. So far, the pants seem to be holding up to all the wear and tear he puts them through!  No snags even!

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Spinning complete!

Spinning for this project is now complete!  Time to warp!

Sunday Yarn

Spinning some yarn for a project I have in my head.  It should be super awesome!  I got this ashland bay roving at Paradise Fibers in Spokane, WA a few years ago.  I found it the other day and started spinning.  It felt good to be spinning again!

Project Fancy Pants Complete!

David will be stylin’ in these handwoven houndstooth pants come Oct-April! The fabric is woven with 100% cotton so they are super soft and thick! They are 18-24 mo size for winter weather. I am thinking of making a matching suit coat and bow-tie… since there is plenty of time to plan it all out!  Oh yeah, and I'm also going to sew him a white button up shirt.  It will be the complete handmade outfit!

It will be like being wrapped in soft dishtowels all day long… oooohhh… ahhhh… who wouldn’t want to be wrapped up in soft dishtowels?! I’m a little jealous! I’ll have to make some in my size.

The cool thing is, if I run out of fabric, I can just make some more! Forget Hobby Lobby and the fabric stores... 17 years down the line, I could totally re-make these for his senior prom... because he's going to love them THAT much.

Square Samples

I have been working a lot with squares lately!  I don't know why, but I love squares right now.  They are so predictable, but you can do a lot with them.

Here is one in 3/1 twill.  I was worried about the stability of the fabric and wondered if it would curl with washing, but it didn't!  I will work more with this pattern later!

These squares are done in summer and winter, only because I have an 8-shaft loom.  If I had a 24-shaft loom, I would do them in 3/1 twill so that I could use whatever colors I want to use!  Right now with them woven in summer and winter, I am somewhat limited on my color choices because the colors will mush if I put too many in.  I will still experiment, but I have to be careful with the combinations I come up with.

Fancy Pants

My current project is weaving fabric for new pants for David!

I was going to make them in his next size up, but the fabric is very thick so I might go for the next size after that so it will be wintertime next year (18-24 mo size).  These will be awesome!  I have had a goal to make him hound's tooth pants for months now.  I'm glad to finally sit and do it!

Speaking of hound's tooth, I can now share with you the Christmas gift I made for my sister.  I wove her a blanket in hound's tooth, but I had to weave in with doubleweave because my loom is too small to do it the regular way.

It turned out perfect!  You could hardly see the fold when it was all washed up.  And she loved it!  She loves ANYTHING hound's tooth!

Stocking... check!

David's stocking is complete, and if he were awake, I would set him next to it for a picture!  I'll save it for tomorrow because you never wake a sleeping baby!  :)

The inner liner is handwoven pinwheels made of perle cotton.  It's nice and soft for little hands to go digging into this stocking!

What a fun project!

Finished projects

I finally took the time to finish 3 different projects!  I had to do it over several days during David's naptimes!

The pastel towels are done, and hemmed.  I just turned the edges over on these ones because I don't have any white thread that works well in my serger.  

I ended up using 3 different designs.

 

The blue echo project is also done.  I ended up making 3 baby burp clothes for a friend having a boy in the spring.  

 

I also made 2 gigantic towels out of the zigzags... they are so big, I could probably use one as a blanket for David on our chilly morning walks!  :)

And I turned my first echo weave sample into a handtowel for the bathroom!  It's nice and thick because of the tight epi!