Whew!  Managed to keep my resolution for the second month, but just barely.  Finished the third wrap (the one on the right) last night.  I thought these wraps would be easier and weave up faster than last month's, and actually they did.  In January, I experimented with mixed warps, which posed more challenges.  These were relatively easy, made with all one yarn which did not present any tension problems.  They were a joy to weave, and February, despite being short, was an epic month for creating something indoors!!  It snowed for days, nay weeks, at a time, accompanied by below zero temperatures.    

But today is a new month and a new day!  It's sunny and gorgeous today, a true wonderland out there!  I'm hoping for time to put on the snow boots and go for a trudge.  I do love Montana, snow and all!  

​Barb

I didn't want to say anything for fear of jinxing myself, but having achieved a smidgeon of success, I'm ready to reveal my 2019 resolution:  I will try to weave 3 wraps a month.  I squeaked in just under the wire, finishing my third January wrap on the 31st.  But still!  I'm hoping it's a pace I can keep up, as I want to have some inventory to sell by summer.  By the way, if you want to buy one you don't have to wait until summer.  I hope to get these in my Etsy shop by the end of the week.  I hope you all are enjoying winter and staying warm!  Wool helps :)

​Barb

     I've been having too much fun so far this summer.  Well, that's to be expected.  Our Montana summer is so short and so sweet that every moment feels packed.  So far, my highlights have been lots of relaxing fun with family and friends, and the ANWG (Association of Northwest Weaving Guilds) conference in Victoria, B.C.    I'd been looking forward to the conference forever and wow.  It did not disappoint.  I'll have to write about some of my conference experiences later.  I am currently trying to come down from the clouds and get back on track with my many fiber projects!

     I used a new (to me) strategy for these towels.  I found a pretty ball of variegated cotton yarn at my LYS (local yarn shop) and used it as the basis for my color choices.  Amazingly, all of these colors were on the shelves in my studio!  Yay!  I used one thread of the variegated to separate the colors in the warp stripes.  The effect turned out to be subtle, but I like it!  I recommend this strategy as an easy way to get you thinking outside the box of your favorite colors.

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     And here are the towels, all ready for the farmers market, 2017.    Today's take-away?  Play with color... always!

In Bozeman, we are working through our transition to winter, but we are enjoying our usual lovely fall.  There is still plenty of color in the trees and warm, sunny days.  I've been working like crazy to spin up every bit of wool in the house in preparation for a long winter of weaving.

Here is the last of my colored wool, freshly spun and washed.  This will add some zip to a rug!

Here's a ginormous bag of natural color yarn which I'll soon be taking up to Mom's house where my rug loom resides (bless you, Mom).

I also love taking advantage of the warm weather to dry on the line my most recent rigid heddle weaving project:  yardage for a warm and wonderful fall poncho.  I adore these colors!

Our grass is astonishingly green for this time of year, thanks to a recent rainy (and last week, snowy) spell we've had.  Today the doggie and I are just grateful for a little sunshine and warmth.  We'll soak it up and savor it, knowing that soon our landscape will be dressed in it's winter cloak of white.

Back in the hopeful month of May, I thought this was going to be my first towel warp of Summer 2016.  Well, it turned out to be my first, last, and only towel warp of the summer.  The summer heated up as did my busyness.  I really had too much fun this summer, attending the MAWS 2016 conference on Flathead Lake, the Montana Baroque Music Festival in Paradise, MT, and a trip to Oregon for a four-day dyeing marathon with a dear friend.  No wonder I didn't get more towels made!   I'm happy with how this last batch came out, however,  and they are headed to the farmers market tomorrow.  I love these colors and hated to see the end of that warp.  But it's a good feeling to know they'll bring a touch of bright cheeriness into someone else's kitchen and life!

I finally managed to get on  something of a roll with my farmers market towels this week.  Isn't this a purrrrty warp?  I'm going to have fun crossing it with many different weft colors to play and experiment.  But I decided to start with white. 

So far the first towel has been fun, but sheesh am I ever making a lot of boo-boos.  I'm not exactly shocked however.  It seems like it always takes me a while to get in the zone:  to stop making treadling errors, keep (fairly) even tension at the selvages, and maintain an even beating of the weft threads. 

Why, I was asking myself, do I not stop weaving this first towel as soon as I notice all these mistakes?  I could just start over.  But I guess I know myself well enough to know that I need the practice.  The zen-like moments will come; the weaving will start to flow like breathing if I'm patient.

So here's hoping that, with a bit a luck, I'll get most of my mistakes out of my system on this first towel, the boo-boo towel.  It will ease me into the weaving and I'll be grateful to it for that.  Later, it will be gifted to my Mom or a good friend, someone who loves me anyway.  Or it may end up in my kitchen, colorful, useful, and a wonderful reminder that we humans are not perfect and it's ok.

Holy smokes, it's mid-May and the farmer's market is coming up fast!  In an attempt to have a decent kitchen towel inventory this summer, I zipped to the warping board this week and started winding.  And oh my gosh how I love these colors!  I wound my threads in four bouts (groups of thread), designing the color sequence as I went.  I know this would make some weavers' hair stand on end; I have friends who are some of the most extraordinary planners ever.  But I'm more of a "Surprise!!!  Let's see what happens!" kind of weaver.  And, as usual, I'm in love with the colors and can absolutely barely wait to start weaving and see what does indeed happen.  I'll keep you posted.  Meanwhile, I have three little words of wisdom for today:  Play. With. Color.  It makes life ever so wonderful.

I've been on somewhat of a mitten bender lately.  Well, it is that time of year in Montana.  Time to wear all the wool you've got or risk being sad.  And cold.  So… I've been cranking out mittens for two shows I've got coming up:  tomorrow, friend Tina Gilchrist and I are doing our farmers market thing at the Gallatin Valley Farmer's Market, Holiday Edition!  We'll be at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds from 9:00 till 5:00.  Next week, Friday the 4th and Saturday the 5th, is the Bozeman Weavers Guild Show & Sale downtown at 25 W. Main Street.  I'm so excited about both of these  opportunities to bring warm and wooly wonders to the folks of Bozeman and the valley!  
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Anyway, back to my mitten kick:  this fall I came across a forlorn bag of forgotten wool in many colors.  It simply begged me to turn it into mittens.  It was rather a challenge using up every bit of the yarn in different colors of stripes and blocks but was So. Much. Fun.  And satisfying beyond belief!  If you ever have a chance to turn a bag of wool into mittens, I recommend you take it.

My mom is of the "Greatest Generation" and fits the type to a T.  She is intrepid, optimistic, always ready to roll up her sleeves and tackle whatever challenges come.  Now, at 85, she's given up driving so I ferry her to her aerobics class at the Senior Center in the mornings.  Since we live close, I drop her off and return in an hour to get her.  When I pick her up, she always asks if I was able to "get some things done" at home in that hour.  Oh yes, I tell her.  I just don't usually go into detail about the things I got done, which usually were:  sitting on the couch, drinking coffee, and knitting.  Those "things" are incredibly important to my mental health.  I have a hard time smiling at the universe if I can't start the day with coffee and knitting.  For Mom, on the other hand, those things might seem a little lazy.  (Sorry for the profanity - the "L" word is definitely a four letter word in my mom's world.)  To Mom, there are only three reasons that one might be sitting on the couch during the daylight hours:  1) you have just vacuumed and mopped the entire house and are taking a five-minute break; 2) you are ill; or 3) you are morally weak.  I'm afraid the vast majority of my couch sitting falls under the morally weak category.  

I'm not of the Greatest Generation although I look to my mom's amazing life as a standard to attempt to live up to.  I'm a Boomer, and Boomers seem to be ok with taking a little time for ourselves, including our mental health.  I like to think that with my morning centering, I'm better able to tackle all of life's other challenges in a way that would honor that most important guiding star of my life:  Mom.

Well, green and lots of other fun colors.  I've been experimenting with a tea cozy design.  This funky weaving represents my prototype.  I will continue to play with the form, but it seems to be functional as it fits my tea pot perfectly and it adds some nice bright colors to the kitchen.  I'd like to make more of these; with my free-form weaving, each will be one of a kind!

Happy St. Patty's day, all!  I toast you with a lovely cup of tea!