What's Up On the Loom?

It has been a rather busy winter but I have found some time over the past two weeks to do some weaving.  

I decided to do a Mardi Gras themed shawl for the market and found some lovely yarn to use at Southern Twist Yarns in Fairhope (This shop and Dixie Knits in Pensacola are my go-tos for quality yarn; as a small business owner, I love being able to support other small businesses).

I walked in to the shop and told Rebecca I needed Mardi Gras colors for weaving.  She had the perfect yarn.  It was a little thin for weaving so she found me a beautiful gold yarn to double-strand.  I like the gold so much I have gone back twice to buy more!

I bought yarn Tuesday, got busy Wednesday, and had it off the loom, washed, blocked, dried, and priced by Friday evening. 

Saturday I took it with us to the market.  My sweet friend who was going to a Mardi Gras ball the following week stopped and fell in love with it but asked me to leave it and sell it if someone else was interested.  We agreed if it sold I could make her another one.

Sure enough, a lady stopped by, saw it, loved it, and bought it.  It is nice when someone loves my things enough to pay me for them! 

I called my friend that evening and let her know it had sold; we made arrangements to go yarn shopping together the following Tuesday as soon as Southern Twist opened.

Over the weekend I went ahead and wove up another batch of yarn I found when I got the Mardi Gras yarn.  It is the softest cotton I have ever felt.  I think this will make a lovely Easter wrap, don't you?

 

I love the color gradient.  It's not your eyes or my camera that make the back look darker than the front; that was the work of the one who dyed the yarn.  I surprised myself by getting this finished Sunday evening.

Tuesday my friend and I went shopping.  She had a picture of her ball gown and Rebecca stepped in to help us again.  It wound up being a somewhat different color base mixed with the gold yarn I had fallen in love with.  My friend is a sparkly girl so we found a couple skeins of some gold and green metallic thread to mix in with it and I got to work.  I knew I had to work fast; we did not get the yarn until Tuesday and the ball was Friday.  Once the weaving and fringing was finished it would have to be washed and layed out to dry/block.  Weaving with four strands, two of them quite thin, was a new experience for me and I learned a lot doing it.  I got it finished and washed Wednesday night and by Thursday it was ready for pick up.  

 

We were both happy with it and she reported receiving multiple compliments on it at the ball.  I promoted her to Vice President of marketing!

That was 3 shawls done in seven days; not something I regularly do but nice to know I can if I want to.  We won't talk about the state of my house, the meals that were eaten, or the backlog of book-keeping that met me when I finished.

I did get another Mardi Gras themed wrap done last week, once again using that lovely gold yarn.  I'm quite happy with how it wove up.  

 

Over the next few weeks I have some pretty pastels to weave up your Easter wraps.  As these are completed I will take them to the market one week and then anything which does not sell will be listed on our Etsy shop, NowHere Farm Treasures.

I can also do special orders if you are interested!