All Dressed and Ready for New Years

Fully dressed and ready for the New Years celebration.

 

The loom that is, not me!

Some weavers like to start a new year with the loom dressed with something new, full of potential. I'm wanting to do more weaving in 2020 than I did in 2019 so I felt a fresh new warp was a good place to start. Ironically, as I pack up the Christmas decorations, this warp will likely be for Christmas stockings to be sold at the Christmas Craft Market next November. 

Well now ---

That's not the kind of thing you want to see late in the evening on December 23.

While attempting to preheat the oven for dinner last night we discovered a problem -- an especially BIG problem since I'm supposed to be cooking a big turkey dinner with all the fixin's for 8 people tomorrow.

The lower element in my oven has died. Looks like it went out in a twisting and firey wreck, bit it did so quietly and unnoticed under a cover/ false oven bottom, likely during a recent self clean cycle. That ashy bit completely crumbled and fell apart when it was touched later.

The moment businesses opened this morning my husband was on the phone making numerous calls and hunting down a replacement. By 9:00 AM he was on the road to a supplier in the next community over. 

Amazing Feat

Behold my fearsome wrapping skills.

You never know when previous experience with wallpaper and/or sewing pattern drafting might come in handy. Please note that the Santas are all upright -- and perhaps salute my Mad Skillz. I know I certainly surprised myself!

First Project

The first project sewn in the newly renovated and redecorated sewing room is a Christmas outfit for a dear friend,

my walking buddy, Kona.

She doesn't look overly excited about it does she?

What's She Hiding Anyway?

A few of the Facebook comments on my last blog post made me realize that people might feel the room was too tidy to be believed. Maybe they are thinking that a creative person's domain could not possibly remain that way for long? I've decided to show you what is hiding behind that wall of Kallax cubes.

 

The white bins that are not open hide all my sewing patterns, my boro stitching supplies, and other crafting things like pine needle basketry, a glue gun, doll wig supplies and more. 

The drawers store all my sewing and serging threads and bobbins, sorted by size then colour of course.  ;) 

The bottom baskets are chock full of fabric, sorted by type.

The needed, but rarely used, small shaped ironing board and a sleeve board are hidden between this unit and the wall.

It is all well organized, but it is still an awful lot of visual clutter and I prefer to keep it behind closed doors. I don't work well in a chaotic environment. Along that same line, I have no television, radio, or stereo in my creative workspaces. I prefer working in silence.

On the other side of the room the doors on the pressing station hide my iron and other pressing tools. The baskets on the lower level are full of fabric, sorted by type. The drawers hide all the measuring, cutting, and pinning supplies I like on hand as well as dressmaker's tracing paper, small cutting mats, rotary cutters, and rulers. On the floor hidden underneath the unit is a couple of mid sized cutting mats and a longer grid ruler. I keep my larger cutting mats hanging from a skirt hanger behind the door to the room.

The drawers to my sewing table hold all of my interfacings and stabilizers, machine manuals and accessories, machine and hand-sewing needles. Under the table and just visible to the left of the drawers is a rack I use to hold taller rolls of dress maker's pattern vellum and a roll of butcher's paper. 

The little bit of "clutter" I allow out in the open are things I grab for frequently while sewing; pins, clips, various scissors, snips, tweezers, a sewing awl, elastic glides, my handmade needle book with my favourite hand-sewing needles, a bobbin winder, and a collection of sewing machine feet. The mint tin actually stores broken needles and pins and will eventually be safely discarded. 

So there you go, my mess hidden behind closed doors, for the sake of my peace and sanity. 

The weaving room next door is much more crowded and cluttered, but I'm working on it!

Unveiling and Grand Tour

Welcome to my new and improved sewing room! Let me give you the "Grand Tour".

The decorating theme of the room is "boro", a type of patching and simple stitching technique originating in Japan. In keeping with that theme I made a welcoming rag wreath for the door using this tutorial found on Pinterest, with some changes. For one thing I used denim from jeans so the strips needed to be longer so I could tie them. I also added strips from quilting cottons in indigo prints and finally added small white artificial flowers.

 

Standing just inside the doorway and looking across to the window you get a good view of the wall colour (Behr paint's "bootcut") and the beautiful vinyl plank flooring my husband laid. The floor colour is "driftwood". I love it!

Together he and I made the pressing station on the left. More details on a previous blog post if you follow the link. I keep all things related to pressing and measuring, along with much of my cutting tools, in the drawers and behind the cupboard doors. The baskets below are full of fabric.

Directly under the window is a narrow table that was originally for a knitting machine. I didn't initially plan to use it in here but I have found I need a convenient "landing place" for things that I want available, yet out of the way, when I'm working on a project. It allows my pressing station and sewing table to be clutter free when they are in use. The little table also works well for spinning with my charkha and yet it is narrow, only 16" deep, so it doesn't take up much room. The runner on the table right now is a Saori weaving and it's just there for the Christmas season.

General lighting is provided by the LED track lighting on the ceiling, purchased from Home Depot, while bright task lighting is provided by shop lights mounted beneath Bergshult/Granhult wall shelves from IKEA.

As practical as all those lights are I think my favourite are the little dragonfly lights. I leave them on when I'm not in the room and the main light is off. It provides a very inviting, soft, "mood" light.

Standing at the window and looking back towards the other wall you can see my Linnmon/Alex desk from IKEA, another task light mounted under a shelf, and a little shelf bought ages ago at Micheal's. I keep most of my embroidery floss clipped to it and sorted by colour number. The chair is a Langfjall purchased at IKEA. Yes, we made several trips to IKEA. 

Continuing the Boro patching/stitching theme I sewed custom covers for each of my machines, sewing, serging, and coverstitching. The covers might look lumpy and bumpy but it's because they follow the shape of the machine underneath. 

And here's the real workhorse of the room. My 25 cube KALLAX unit. It's not in the configuration I originally intended. Once I started putting my stuff away I found that I wanted more doors and less bins. A lot of what I had to store worked best on a shelf, rather than in a pull out bin but I really did not want all the visual clutter of filled shelves showing so we bought more of the doored inserts. I love the clean, clutter free look.

I reserved the centre top shelf as a living space for "Willie", my little creative mascot, a Dream High Studio House Elf.

As we leave my little sewing sanctuary I want to show you a few small details up close.

Beside the door and visible from my sewing chair, a cute little clock purchased from an Etsy seller some time ago.

Above the door more sewing mice. This time in a framed cross-stitch my daughter made for me years ago.

And shutting off the lights as we leave the room -- a light fixture decorated with alcohol inks. 

If there is anything else you'd like to see up close, or if you have any questions about items you've seen in the "tour" just let me know and they may be covered in a future blog post. 

It's NOW the Christmas Season

It's now officially the Christmas season.

For some the start of the Christmas season is the American Thanksgiving, for others it's "Black Friday" when they hit all the sales. For many children it's the opening of the first window on their advent calendar. For still others it's when they decorate a Christmas tree or shop for a present for a loved one.

For me the start of the Christmas season has always been marked by the baking of the first batch of shortbread. That's usually the 1st of December for me, so I'm a little late this year. A relatively new tradition for me, discovered a few years ago, is enjoying a glass of cranberry liqueur. I'm by no means a "boozer" and this delicious small treat is reserved for the Christmas season.

Dragon Mist Liqueur is made right here in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, Canada. 

A Restless Night

Like a young child on Christmas Eve I didn't get much sleep last night. I woke at 3am with visions of sewing room renovations dancing in my head! Excited for our trip to IKEA to finally get my desk and storage unit, I just couldn't sleep a moment longer. I laid there quietly like a good girl though and counted the minutes until morning.

The flooring is in, and I LOVE it. It's exactly what I wanted. The Linnmon/Alex desk and 25 cube Kallax storage unit (5 tall, 5 wide) won't be built until the mouldings are in, but that will be soon. They are painted and ready to be installed, perhaps tomorrow. 

Along with the actual Kallax unit we picked up an assortment of inserts. I'll have 8 cupboard doors, 6 drawers, 5 white and 5 blue Drona boxes, and 5 Branas baskets, shown above with the boro patched and stitched liners that I just finished making for them. 

The "Fun" Never Ends

My poor husband. The "fun" never ends with this sewing room renovation. After ripping up the old carpet in preparation for laying new vinyl plank flooring he discovered that the floor is more than a little uneven and all that has to be dealt with if the new planking is to sit well for years to come.

A "self levelling" compound was poured.

In the background you can see a bit of the wall with my chosen paint colour. It's "Boot Cut S510-2" by Behr. Only one coat so far. Another is still needed.

This photo also gives you a pretty good idea of the size of my little sewing room. That's the door on the lower right of the photo and it is only a couple of inches from the wall on that side. The boots on the other side of the photo are against the near wall.

All's Well that Ends Well

It was quite the journey getting to this point so I hope you'll enjoy this photo of a textured ceiling. LOL

It's a good thing my husband doesn't give up easily! He started off bright and early this morning to rent a machine to do the spraying of the ceiling since this community does not rent the type he was after. After driving all the way there and back, unloading the thing, dragging it up the stairs, setting it up, and mixing a big pail of the texturizing goop (sorry, don't know the technical terms for any of this!) he starts up the machine and within only a few minutes I hear some muttering and the machine is shut off. 

I nervously approached as the muttering continued. The machine doesn't work and water is spewing everywhere. 

After carefully covering the bucket of "goop" the whole machine had to be packed up again, dragged out to the truck, and off he went again to Abbotsford only to find out that the other machine there also does not work. Back home again (these round trips took hours), to do some research and attack the problem from another angle. 

Different type of machine, not what he wanted, was rented locally and again had to be set up. I left to pick up my grandchildren just as the machine started up and when I returned the job was done. And perfectly I might add!

Long story short? All's well that ends well.

Progress!

Preparation is complete for tomorrow's spraying of the ceiling in my sewing room.

Progress!

Unusual Fibre Arts Tool

I've joined the ranks of power tool users. Though I can't grunt like Tim Allen of "Home Improvement" the thought is there.

This cordless electric screw driver is not borrowed from my husband. It's brand new and it's mine, all mine! It's a gift from a wonderful husband who understands that there are more thoughtful things than flowers.

Although perhaps my use of it is a little unconventional?

I'll be using it to speedily wind the cops of cotton singles from the limited capacity (about 0.25 oz) charkha spindles to a storage bobbin that will hold much more length. When the storage bobbins are full I can then place them on a Lazy Kate and use my wheel to ply two or more together.

Pressing Station

While I wait for my sewing room to be completed I am keeping busy with little projects related to the rennos going on in there.

 

Before the room was even started my husband and I got to work on this sturdy new pressing station. My old ironing board was rickety and threatened to toss my irreplaceable iron to the floor. I am very protective of that iron since it very well might be the last of the ones available *without* an automatic shut off. I find turning around, mid project, to use an iron and finding it off and cold to be infuriating! 

My husband and I built a standard 4 x 2 cube KALLAX unit from IKEA then he added sturdy pine boards, cut to size, to the top and the bottom. Another board, with slightly wider and longer dimensions and a bit of an added rim, allows the entire padded surface to be lifted off if a cover change becomes necessary and yet it is very sturdy and doesn't move around.

The top is 3 layers of cotton quilt batting, a layer of heat resistant ironing board cloth, and then the outer fabric which is a heavy cotton decorator fabric. For now, with my sewing room down for renovations, the pressing station is set up in our home office area and has been seeing a fair bit of use. It's a delight to use!

We finished off the pressing station with 2 drawer units (total of 4 drawers) and 2 doored units. Those additions did come with drawer pulls but they just didn't have the personality and crafty look I wanted for a creative space so I got to work and transformed 1 1/4" wooden knobs from Home Depot with paint, a simple decorative flower motif, and several coats of Varathane. I'm very pleased with the way they turned out.

The lower row of cube cubbies is filled with BRANAS baskets and I've been busy making liners for them of boro patchwork and accents of simple, bold stitching.

Speaking of patching -- here's how the progress in the room is going. The closet is out, the drywall is up, and the seams are being mudded and sanded. Next step will be priming the whole room and then spraying texture on the ceiling. Or maybe it's the other way around? Anyway, I'm not the one in charge of that so all I can do is pace, peek in now and then, and continue on with my little detail work.

All links in my blog posts are there only for your convenience. I get no reimbursement if you use them.

Storage Bobbins

The cotton spinning continues but lately I've been transferring the singles to Bobbins-Up storage bobbins and allowing them to add up so that plying will result in bigger skeins rather than the tiny half ounce ones that come directly from the charkha spindles.

 

The protruding "bits" of these storage bobbins fit directly into a standard drill for faster, easier transfer from the spindles. Later the bit is removed and the bobbins can be placed on a Lazy Kate for plying on a spinning wheel.

Under Construction

We've been very busy lately. My sewing room is getting a much needed overhaul. Over the past few days, with a whole lot of work and many, many trips up and down the stairs, I've gone from the photo on the left, to the one on the right.

Much of what had been in the sewing room landed in the family room downstairs where it will have to stay until the sewing room is once again habitable.

Plans are in the works for new flooring, new paint, a large Kallax cube storage unit, a desk from IKEA, and a sturdy new pressing station made from a Kallax cube unit. The biggest ordeal will likely be the removal of a built in closet and patching the scars it leaves behind.

But this closet takes up way too much space in the tiny 9'5" x 9'9" room and doesn't store a lot in return. My new desk will go there instead.

Twilight Fuschia Squid

The "Twilight Fuschia" yardage has now found its way into a garment. I've sewn it up into a Saori top/dress that is, amongst Saori weavers, commonly called "The Squid". Usually it's a shorter top, I've lengthened my version.

I really love the draped collar on this design. It's great for showing off interesting fringe treatments like the "finger fringe" I've done here. 

Finger fringe is tedious and time consuming to weave, but the results are, I think, worth the effort.

My Squid is 100% cotton, mostly 2/8, but with some 2/10 and 2/16 included as well. The wandering pattern is "travelling inlay" done in commonly available "kitchen cotton", the kind used to knit dish cloths.

The Squid design is based on a folded layout that makes the front completely on the bias, 

while the back has one side with the warp situated vertically and the other side horizontally.

I'm very happy with the way my "Twilight Fuschia Squid" has turned out and I'll be wearing it often. There will be more variations on this theme in my future, I'm sure.

Step Lively

5 ounces of 20 wpi., 3 ply handspun, 70/30 dark grey New Zealand wool/Mulberry Silk in the "Step Lively" colourway, which was hand dyed by Allonsy-y! fibre arts. The fibre was a gift last Christmas from a very generous friend. I finally got a start on spinning it at the Chilliwack Spinner's and Weaver's Guild's annual Spin-In and then finished spinning, and plying it at home in the days following the spin-in.

Cameo appearance by "Bella" my betta fish.

Back With the Yak

The yak I mentioned spinning on my charkha the other day is now a tiny 3 ply skein.

I should have thought to include some sort of size reference in the photo. In the photo the yarn looks like it is thick, but that's just a matter of perspective. The skein itself is very small. Only 0.72 of an ounce, and still 32 yards of 3 ply. It's very soft and squishy but I won't be looking to spin more yak in the future. It's not that it was terribly difficult, it just didn’t want to draft as easily as the cotton and turned out rather uneven with tufty bits as well. I'll happily return to the cotton.

Yakety Yak

Way back in May of 2007 I purchased some yak down and tried to spin it, unsuccessfully, on my Little Gem wheel.

Well now that I have a charkha I figured I'd give it another whirl (pun intended). Hmmm, still not too good, lots of thick and thin, but better than it was when spun on a wheel. I also have 12 more years of experience spinning! I'll ply the yak tomorrow and call that little experiment done, and happily return to spinning cotton on the charkha.

Gottcha!

We have stumbled upon the trick to keeping Venus Fly Traps healthy and growing.

Let them fend for themselves!

We've had this one since early May. Other than keeping the plant constantly wet and warm we simply put it outside. It seems Venus Fly Traps are quite capable of "feeding" themselves.

I don't know how it will fare when we have to bring it in for the winter. My home is pretty much fly free.