Saturday Night

First let me apologize for not posting in a while. I have been working on many things simultaneously and just wasn’t able to blog while I was doing all of that. So now I can blog and let you know what I have been up to.

This past weekend I was at an art show held in the Riverview Arts Center in Phillipsburg, NJ. They are going to be having a show the first Saturday of every month thru the summer (except July that one is the second Saturday, the first Sat. is the 4th).

There were a total of 12 artists showing, with a real mix of mediums being shown. There were paintings, photographs, drawings, pottery and there was even someone there show his painting that he dos on cars and motorcycles.

The cool thing about these shows is the artists don’t have to pay a both fee and the center also looks for people that has never shown there work before. To make money the center does charge a $4.00 entry fee, that $4 gets you food, drinks and live music through out the night.

The reason I was there is of course to check out all the art work, and too show off my work as well. I was able to get six pieces done. Four of them are wall hangings and two are summer shawls. While I was working on them I was also trying to get the garden ready, with fencing, tilling so when the weather would stabilize I could start to plant.

The next show I’m going to be in is the August show. That will give me time to make up some more things. Also thru out the summer I will be working in the garden that is, if it will ever stop raining.

PVC Loom the project

Last week got a little busy for me, so I wasn’t able to finish the project I started on the inkle loom until this week. I was able to get the rest of the band woven last night. I tried to do the pattern that was in the magazine but that wasn’t working out right. So I figured it would be best to just weave the band in normal fashion, instead of trying to use a pick up stick for the first time out.

After I warped the loom I did notice a little bow in it. What I did was loosen the tension and that corrected the problem without making it to loose to weave. The other problem I had was attaching the heddles, I didn’t understand the directions but I figured that out too.

After I got it all set up weaving went real easy and quick for me. I was weaving on my bed so the loom wasn’t slipping around on me. If you do you a table or hard wood floor I would take caution that the loom doesn’t scratch the surface. So a recommendation would be just to put a towel under the loom, this should help with slipping and it will protect the surface of the table or floor.

I did loosen the loom to advance the band forward and retightened when I had it in the correct spot. I was amazed how the tension stayed for me throughout the weaving; I had no loose threads or really tight ones. As I’m typing I realized part that is from the continues warp, if not all of it.

I do recommend this project (the making of the PVC loom) if you have never inkle woven before or have a son or daughter that would like to weave. This would be a fun project for them and they get to say they made the loom them selves. I am going to try the loom out with a card weaving project as soon as I get a chance. Perhaps in my free time, wait a minute what free time!!!!!!

Plam Weaving

Something that I have been doing for the past several years is palm weaving. That is when you take a palm crown and weave it in to a display. (see picture to the right, of the palm crown not the very hammy kitty cat) I am told that this weaving is an Italian tradition that is only done for Palm Sunday. The different weaves have meaning to them, such as nails, the crown of thorns and the beating that Jesus received before he was crucified.

This year I got to make a display to place on the altar at my church. Which is a cool honor so what I did was I got three palm crowns. Just in case I didn’t like the first one I could make a second or if need be third piece. It turned out that I made two pieces for the church and I had enough left to make some pieces for the cemetery.

During the Pastors sermon she was pointing out all the gifts that were displayed in the church and giving credit to the person or persons that made them. The point of doing this was to show how much God given talent we all have and not to let anyone stop us from using those talents especially our selves. So she finally got to the palm pieces, [which I had hoped she was going to forget (I’m to humble to take credit) alas she did not forget about the palm pieces].

She begins by holding up a palm cross that she had made and is telling everyone how taken a back she was when she saw the palm pieces. At how elaborate and beautiful they were. Then she proceeds to say (to embarrass me of course) “Who needs the little old Italian women of south Philly when we have Chuck.” The sanctuary was in roar with clapping and whistling and praises of thanks.

So I sure hope the little old Italian women of south Philly don’t find out.

Inkle Loom

As I was reading the latest issue of Handwoven one of the articles tells you how to make an inkle woven hat band. Pretty cool I thought, you know what’s even cooler. The article also tells you how to make an inkle loom. This loom is made out of PVC pipe. So the strength of a wooden loom may be missing. The only way to find out is to make one.

Since I don’t have an inkle loom I decided to do just that make one of these looms. Also since I do card weaving I was looking for a loom to use for that as well. I think I may have found it. So we shall see if this works out the way I’m hoping it will.

The first thing I did was cut all the pieces to length and marked them. Since you can take the loom apart for storage I wanted to mark all the pieces so I knew who went where when I put it back together.

Next I got the threaded rods step up with the nuts and washers to the correct places on the rod.

Then all I did was assemble the loom and it’s ready to go. The final thing for me to do is to warp the loom and try it out. I will be doing that later this week, or at least that is my goal.

This project cost me less then $20.00 for all the parts. I do remember reading on one of the Yahoo groups about a PVC warping board that was in a previous issue of Handwoven. There was some concern that it might not hold up to the high tension that it would receive. That may be true with this loom also, but since I don’t have an Inkle loom and I really can’t afford a pre made one. I figured I would try this out. Since the cost is minimal and it takes no time to make I don’t see the harm in experimenting with it.

Knitting 8

Here is this weeks knitting, well actually this weeks and last weeks. I found out, now that spring is here and I’m going to be outside more. Gardening manly I’m not going to be able too get all the knitting done that I have been. So I won’t be posting it as often. Unless of course we have a lot of rainy days this year that end up keeping me in doors a lot.

I was able to get 15 swatches knitted up so that isn’t too bad. So now I’m up to 75 completed swatches. Still a long way to go but I’m getting there.

More Seeds Planted

Today was seed planting day. I got all my summer seeds sowed and in there warm little incubators so they can germinate. A total of 36 different varieties of plants in 4 flats of 72 cells per flat, that a total of 288 seeds that I sowed today that’s a lot. I do have a couple of more trays to plant yet one for the front yard of the house and one for a garden near the vegetable garden. I have to wait for the seed I planted today to germinate so I have room for the next two trays. Below I have a list of all the seeds I planted if you would like to check it out.

• Delivious Tomato
• Principe Borgehese Tomato
• Chrimson Cushion Tomato
• Amish Paste Tomato
• French Marigold
• Parsley
• Basil
• Nastrium
• Pomigranate
• Egg Plant
• Dill
• Cheese Pepper
• Paprika Pepper
• Cayanne Pepper
• Hungerian Black Pepper
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Sesame
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Amaranth
• Indigo
• Woad
• Henna
• Weld
• Dyers Broom
• Fullers Teasel
• Eucalyptus
• 2 Variaties of Zinnia
• Ipomosis Rubra
• Kiss me over the garden gate
• Snapdragon
• Cosmos

Natural dying

On one of the yahoo groups there was a discussion on soaking wood chips in alcohol. As I was reading, it reminded me that I had some wood chips soaking for six months. So I decided to do some test samples to see what I would get if anything from what I had soaking.

What I had soaking was nutmeg, hickory chips, apple wood chips and I remembered I had some mushrooms in the freezer as well. So I decided to do some dye experiments. I don’t remember were I herd or read this but someone uses small baby food jars when sampling. I liked the idea and decided I would try that for my experiments as well.

I did this for all four sample batches.

1 Made a mordant solution of each mordant (a pint of each mordant)

2 Made the dye bath

3 Placed the sample yarn, 1/4c of mordant solution and 3/4c of dye in each jar (one jar for each mordant)

4 Placed each sealed jar in a large pot of hot water (just like you do to process can goods)

5 Left the jars simmer in the water bath for and hour

6 After cooled I let them dry, rinsed, washed, rinsed again and let them dry.


So I had a total of seven jars one with no mordant added, alum, tin, copper, iron, vinegar and washing soda. The dye baths were simmered at 212 degrees and the water bath was at 202 degrees. I like the way this worked out and have decided to use this method again when I have new dye stuff later this year to try out.

The fun stuff that I’m going to try out this year after I get them growing is, henna, amaranth red dye, dyer’s broom, eucalyptus, French marigold, weld, bull’s blood beet. If you take a look below you will see the finished results.

This is Nutmeg from left to right no mordant, alum, tin, copper, iron, vinager.

This is Hickory wood from left to right no mordant, alum, tin, copper, iron, vinager and washing soda.

This is Apple wood from left to right no mordant, alum, tin, copper, iron, vinager and washing soda.

This is Mushroom from left to right no mordant, alum, tin, copper, iron, vinager and washing soda.