Too busy to blog?

It's been months, faithful followers, and we apologize. Did I say "we"? Yes!

I (Chris) now have a RETIRED husband and he has jumped in to help with the studio. I'm thrilled. He's also agreed (since he was a newspaper editor in his pre-retirement life) to help with this blog so you'll be hearing from the Homesteadweavers more often.

We're almost ready for the 13th annual Brown County Studio and Garden tour, which we'll be a part of for the 11th straight year.

The forecast is calling for cool afternoons and only a small chance of rain (YEAH!) for the tour which goes from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. this Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

We'll have a full selection of rugs, placemats, clothing and all things woven, including the Mobius shawl, named after the famous Mobius curve, which is a two-dimensional plane with a twist in it, meaning it has no beginning, no end, no inside and no outside. The shawls are finely woven pieces made of carefully selected cotton, rayon, bamboo, silk, and polyester yarns. Stealing a line from The Who, this year we're encouraging people to "touch them, feel them" and enjoy them.

We'll have two guest artists again this year: Painter Doug Runyan from the Fort Wayne area, who will be demonstrating his plein aire style during the tour, and weaver Marla Dawson from Ellettsville, who specializes in clothing items, including hats, scarves and gloves. Doug, who recently had work accepted into the prestigious IHA show, has an impressive assortment of his paintings on display, while Marla will have a full contingent of her work available.

We'll be demonstrating weaving for anyone who's interested, and we're making peace flags, our own version of Tibetan prayer flags, as a special feature this year. These are weavings with messages. All who are interested can write their thoughts on a strip of cloth and weave it into the flag. We hope this is a meaningful work of positive energy to wave in the peaceful breezes of Brown County.As usual, we'll have the "community rug" set up on a loom where all who are interested can take a shot or two at weaving. When completed, the rug will be donated to a charitable cause and auctioned off, with all proceeds going to the charity. In the past, the rugs have been given to auctions for Habitat for Humanity, UMC missions, and the annual soup bowl benefit, which funds Brown County's "Mother's Cupboard" soup kitchen for those who otherwise would not have nutritious meals on a daily basis. Most years we end up with two or three rugs to donate.

As usual, our gardens are in bloom, with red, orange and gold day lilies, multicolored zinnias and hostas, and a few surprises thrown in. Look for a new shade of zinnia in the front yard, and some new additions to our plate garden, with the border collected from garage sales and thrift stores.

A whole wall of hollyhocks is attracting the bees and butterflies ...

Free goodies include chocolate chip cookies, healthy turkey and ham wraps around lunchtime, iced tea, chips, trail mix, and as always, freeze pops for the young and young at heart. If the weatherman is wrong and it turns hot, we'll have the misting fan going to cool you off. And we're offering a 10 percent discount for cash purchases, plus a free mug rug for each $50 spent on rugs.

We're one of 12 studios on the tour this year with 27 artists to meet. It's a free, self-guided tour and the drive is gorgeous this time of year through the gently rolling hills.

We hope to see you out here sometime this weekend. Visit the website for the tour and print off a map or pick up a brochure at one of the map pickup sites listed on the website. Don't be intimidated by our steep driveway. It seems to be a little easier to navigate this year than in some other years (less gravel on it!), so just put your car in low gear and come on up.

See ya here!

Out from under the blankets!

Are you sick of snow/ice/winter pictures yet???


The dreaded baby blanket warp is finished. The shawl above is my favorite piece off the warp.


These two are adult-length shawls ... peach is cottolin and rainbow is acrylic.


These five are the actual baby blankets and there were two more that were woven at the beginning. These are cotton, cottolin, or acrylic. I'm very pleased to be able to move on with my next, very belated project which should have been started in November.

I hope we all have safe, happy, productive days this week because I know spring can't be far off now.

Chris

Lament of a production weaver ...

The trouble with being a production weaver is, well, sometimes you get tired of some of the projects. I'm there right now.
I haven't made baby blankets in years and, after getting some requests, put on a thin cotton flake warp last summer. About 20 yards. About 12 baby blankets. What was I thinking?
I am SO SICK of this warp. I'm not having any problems with the warp, I'm just over it. Pastels. Who would have thought it? I actually have changed my focus on this warp and I'm making shawls on it instead of baby blankets ... that's helping some, but it's still slow going.

I'm not allowing myself to cut the finished pieces off because I know if I do, I won't want to go back to it. As it stands, with 7 or 8 pieces already woven, I'm *slightly* motivated to keep going. I really want to use this loom for my next clothing warp. I love this loom. It's in the living room with all the family pictures and a nice little TV for entertainment or music. Only 6 yards to go ... give me strength. Or maybe just another cup of coffee ...
Weatherwise, I'm still stuck on the hill, or at the top of the luge run, however you choose to look at it. Perhaps just a touch of cabin fever ... I haven't left here for over a week. My sweet hubby brought home a pair of Yaktrax for me yesterday so I will be able to walk on the ice now. What a guy!
There is hope of an early spring, if you believe groundhog prognostication. Here's the view from my back deck this morning.

The studio is closed for business for the time being ... no rugs being woven on the porch this week for sure. I think the cow needs a scarf.


Ok, back to the loom. At least I'm inside.

Cairns and giving thanks

Cairns

Two years ago, we had to pull a tree down because it was leaning and almost fell on the studio. My husband worked on cutting the base and then put a tow strap around it so we could pull it down. Once it was on the ground, he cut it into chunks, which he placed around the meadow by the studio.
Around here we have many wonderful rocks. A heavy rain a year ago broke a whole bunch of them loose from the creek bed so my husband brought them up the hill and built cairns. I had just been waiting for a nice snow to take a photograph. So these are Bob's cairns ... don't they look like statues? Pike likes them.

While weaving today, I found myself ruminating about things for which I'm thankful. Yes, I did that in November, but I'm doing it again.
So as not to belabor the point, I'll just name a few, in case you're interested.
I'm thankful for my family (my long-suffering husband, my doctor-daughter and brainy son), for my weaving business and the good health to continue to pursue it, for the wonderful piece of heaven where we live, both house and land.
I'm thankful for my friends, especially the ones that don't sound peeved when I call them on the phone.
I'm thankful that although I could draw Social Security, I don't need to so I'm not. And I'm thankful that I am able to ask for senior discounts and not be doubted.
What are YOU most thankful for? Does it change as we age?

So, here is the rug that was woven yesterday ... blues for an early spring. With just a hint of snowflakes ...

Chris

A brief breath of spring

It was a nice winter day. Some sunshine, warmer temperatures ... enough to thaw some more snow. I had projects at the studio, and one of them was on the porch.
Since I weave A LOT of rugs, I try to keep the mess outside the studio ... as in outside-on-the-porch. It's easier to clean up when I'm done weaving, and often I just get out the green leaf blower and round it up that way.
But today the porch panels were shut tight and the only heat you get is that which you make yourself. In my case, it's an old heating pad on the loom bench.
The rug I wanted to weave was shades of blues, greens and lavenders; just what I needed for this time of winter. I was determined to finish it and I did. I had on three pair of wrist warmers and a pair of those tiny stretchy gloves. I must have looked pretty funny, but it got the job done.
Never mind the cold feet.
The cats wanted to see what was happening at the big bird feeder ... here's Smitty having a conversation with the birds ...Perhaps tomorrow a picture of the rugs that came off the loom today?

Chris

Studio Tour preparations

Every year, for the last 10, we have taken part in a county-wide tour of artists' studios. It's called the Brown County Studio and Garden Tour. Originally the tour included spectacular gardens in addition to the studios and then morphed into gardens AT the studios. Many of the artists (32 this year) already had gardens at their studios but we pretty much started from scratch. ... and kept going. The gardens now are a big part of the preparation for the tour and take about 4 months of my husband's and my time.
Meanwhile, we have been having odd weather ... high temperatures and lots of thunderstorms, tornado warnings, high winds. Just keep the good thoughts for those of us living here in the tornado belt of Indiana.
The studio is being cleaned and rearranged to make room for my two guest artists on the tour: Rose Poe, who does baskets and weaving, and Norene Mara who is a painter and jewelry artist.We usually have about 400 people through the studio during the 3-day tour. Lots of fun and meeting and greeting.
On another note, our primary phone line, which also includes our Internet service, has been down for one week. As I write this, it still isn't repaired and AT&T has missed three chances to fix it by their "estimated" deadline. I will be briefly borrowing a family member's dialup number to upload this, which I have written offline.
I guess the bright side, if there is one, is I've spent less time online in the last week than any other week since we went on vacation last year. I have been using this extra time to organize and make room in the studio for the guest artists.

As a final note, I received an email this morning from an overseas company who was wanting to sell me rugs. I was particularly intrigued with their salutation:
Hope you are leaving life with great pleaseure.

Well, I hope so, too.

Enough of the snow already!

This is my meditation circle. It's an area in the woods across from the house and studio that has paths through the trees and a few places to sit and think. There has been plenty of time for that this winter, but it's not been happening out in the snow.

Dear Saint Francis looks like he has his work cut out for him.
Everyone has probably seen their fill of snow pictures this winter. So that's it from me.
I've been weaving in the house for the last month because I have an art show in Indianapolis tomorrow and Sunday. Hoping for good weather and to see some friendly faces ...

Hungry for color

I have a new toy. It's a walnut scarf loom. I don't usually warp without a sectional beam, but this one doesn't have one so I wound a "spool-cleaning" warp where I get rid of odds and ends of yarn left from other projects. This is a rather southwestern colorway, and it feels warm. It helps that the loom is right in front of the wall heater, too. Pike, the studio cat, loves the loom.

The snow was coming down in big puffy flakes when I spotted this gray squirrel hunting for missed acorns. He'd walk a bit, dig, walk some more ... all the while dragging his tail behind him. It just kept collecting snow on top of it. When he got some distance from the oak trees, he flicked the snow off his tail and scampered away.

Winter respite

We've been having a mid-winter thaw here in Indiana. Always welcome this time of year. Our driveway was snow-packed, then ice-packed, and is now just muddy.
I've been exploring more uses for these organic dyed T-shirt scraps ... quite small pieces and odd sizes, like maybe they were neck opening cutouts? Not sure. But very time consuming. I had been through the box once and what was left was up for grabs to anyone who wanted them. Until Hilary asked if I had ever made a rag rya rug. Which got me thinking ... with a little bit of effort (like just a few more hours) these remaining scraps would work for that. So, here is the end result, front and back:
There is a dark blue ground weft that is constant throughout the rug and the cotton scraps provide the alternate rows. If my blue weft had been thinner, I might have included the short pieces in each row. As it was, I only put them every other row, overlapping by a few threads and leaving the ends to stick out.
A fun project for a winter day. My husband says it looks like a flower garden ... I think he's thinking spring, too!
You could also use quilting scraps or pieces of clothing for the rya.
If you try it, send me a picture!

Five days of sunshine

Today marked the fifth day in a row of sunny (but frigid) weather here in Indiana. I feel recharged. Something about January and February ... even if we have storms, I feel optimistic because we have crossed the threshold of December and are headed downhill into spring. I know that's not necessarily true, but that's HOW I FEEL.
I spent some time warping a little loom and weaving in my new sunroom. I love it. You can't see it in this picture, but the loom is in front of the chair on the right. The large windows face south west and the room warms up nicely on a sunny day. The cats love it, too. However, they have their own area on the screened portion of the porch when the weather is warmer. They spend most of their day there.
Smitty, the sweet Siamese, joined me in the sunroom today.
This porch project was born of necessity. We had water damage to the back of the house and had to replace the doors to the deck. We also needed to replace the decking so my husband and I settled on a plan. We turned our 9' x 32' deck into an 8' x 11' deck, a 16' x 11' screened porch, and an 8' x 11' sunroom. We repurposed the doors and sidelights from the house and turned them into the windows of the sunroom. We used composite decking instead of wood and installed a rubber roof because the slope is minimal. Once the sunroom was finished, we closed the floor gaps by putting down a large sheet of vinyl and filling part of the gaps underneath with insulation. Today, for instance, the temp outside was 23 degrees but the sunroom was about 65. Since I often work on the porch of the studio, even in the winter, 65 degrees in balmy to me.
Happy New Year to everyone. Stay safe.

Bird-brained thoughts

Driving home from a meeting this afternoon, I saw a flock of wild turkeys along side the road. They are a lot like families at Christmastime ... huddled together, pecking through the dried grass for seeds. I love seeing them in the sunlight when their feathers glisten, but it was cloudy today.
I read Hilary's post a couple days ago about photographing the red-tailed hawk and was drawn to the symbolism ...
I'm probably giving myself too much credit, but I really feel like I'm doing my best to help Mother Earth with my recycling.
When I rescued the young hawk after the storm in August, I wondered what it meant ... why the hawk was trying to get my attention ... and now I am glad I didn't just ignore his cries. As it turned out, he was able to be released in October to migrate with other Broad-Winged Hawks. So he's probably down on the beach in Florida by now ...
The runner I was working on is finished and ready to be a Christmas present. It's 15 feet long. Here's a bad picture of how it turned out:
It's a gift for a man ... think he'll like it?

Some pictures from the weaving studio ...

This is my weaver's garden ... a small terraced patch off the front deck of the studio. It includes flax and cotton plants, dye plants, herbs and plants with scents like lavendar and scented geraniums.
It is a joy and butterflies and moths love it.
There's a wonderful ceramic garden totem with frogs and dragonflies that was made by my friend Cheri Platter. It's spectacular.
The St. Francis statue holds a small bowl for water.

Working on the porch to design my rugs, I get inspiration from the beauty I behold before me.

Here is a shot inside the studio during the tour last month:

The tours have been a great way to get people to visit the studio and see what we do here.

This rug rack was acquired from a gallery that closed last fall ... it holds more than 50 rugs!

It's a rainy day and probably a good opportunity to do some weaving inside where it's dry and warm. Even WeatherBug is confused today ... it's reporting 33.8 degrees at Columbus, Indiana at 10: 49 on July 22. I don't think so ...

so far behind ...

When you get this far behind in posting to your blog, what can you do to catch up? Just ignore the three-plus months since the last post where I was waiting for spring? It's now mid-summer (although the weather for the last week has been divinely spring-like) and I don't know where to start.

Much of the intervening time was consumed with preparations for the Brown County Studio and Garden Tour which took place the last weekend of June. Gardens had to be designed, flowers planted, weeded, watered (not much) and deer-proofed. There have been years where the local deer population wandered in the week before the tour and ate most of the daylily buds, the roses and the hostas. This year, they were considerate and only ate beans off the fence of the vegetable garden ... I was very grateful. I suspect that they remembered the taste/smell of the home-made concoction I sprayed on plants last year.

In addition to the gardens, I was busy weaving rugs and clothing for the tour and for stores I sell to ... business is still solid, if not brisk.

During the tour, we had more than 350 visitors over the three days.

I'm amazed ...

at how much time I seem to spend online. Writing emails, checking out websites and blogs, visiting Facebook (when did I start doing that?) and writing in this blog ... all seems to take hours out of the day. Filling orders from the emails at least gets me out of the house and into the studio for awhile.
Snow's melting here but groundhog saw his shadow. But, I saw robins yesterday ... so spring can't be too far off.
I've been finishing purses and tote bags and building a page for them on my website. I think handwoven totes are a great way to go green!

Making snowcones, weaving shawls

Making snowcones
When nature give you lemons, make lemonade. But what if she gives you snow?
I figured this would be a good time to try out that sour lemonade snow cone syrup I picked up for a dollar at Big Lots. Took my polar bear mug that a local potter made and went out to dig for a clean cup full. Not a problem ....
added the syrup, and voila! Delicious.
Now I need some coffee to warm up.
So, whatcha weaving?
I try to keep most of my looms contained in the studio. Especially the rug looms, because I'm a messy rug maker.
But I've moved a couple looms back to the house, and with it being a new year, I thought using up some stored yarn would be a good exercise for me. I selected two boxes of Jiffy (Lion Brand) that I had bought at Wal-Mart a decade ago ... it's aged enough by now. Put together some colors that worked and here's the first shawl off the warp.
This was done on my 8H Baby Wolf.
The next warp will be some "Homespun" seconds that I bought off eBay about 6 years ago ... pretty, but not what I'm into now. That warp will go on the 4H 30" Norwood and will also be shawls. So that's what I'm weaving, looking out the windows at the snow.

Stuck on the hill

It seems to be done snowing for now. We received 6 inches yesterday, then about a half inch of sleet and freezing rain, then another 6 inches on top of that. The path is cleared to the studio and the sun is trying to shine. Yesterday's list in completed and today will be a loom warping event.
I love living in the country. It's a good thing I don't get cabin fever very often.
There is some weaving getting done this winter. Although most of the rug weaving is done on the studio porch and is dependent upon temperatures above 40 degrees, we've had a few nice days. Here's a picture of a plastic bag rug I finished recently and I love the way it turned out.If anyone wants to try working with the bags, there are instructions on my website.
Off to the warping!

Snowed in, making lists and mentoring

The beginning of the snow ... how beautiful.

No rag rug weaving today.
So we had snow overnight here in the Heartland ... not a lot, by Wisconsin/Minnesota/New York standards, but enough to cause cancellations and travel problems. My hard-working husband drove the 20 miles to his job and I had the whole day to finish some projects. I made a list. Only about 7 or 8 items. I have a pad of paper from decades ago when I was a Mary Kay consultant. It says, "The Six Most Important Things I Must Do" ... so my list was simple, housework things ... copy tax forms, get mail ready, unload dishwasher, do laundry ... etc. Now it's almost dinner time and the list is only half finished. Do I expect too much? Or am I just easily distracted? Or both?
One of the items on the list was to update my blog. My last entry was in April. How embarrassing. Of course, it was about Obama ... and now that he's president, it looks pretty good in retrospect.
But I digress ...
My weaving friend, Hilary, paid me a compliment in her blog this week. We have been buddies for years, talking through emails, IMs and on the phone. But we've never met face-to-face. Someday we will, I'm sure of it.
Our relationship began when she bought a rug from me. She's a late-blooming weaver, but catching up quickly. She occasionally would call with questions about weaving ... which usually were preceded by, "Have you ever ...?" And I almost always had, so I offered suggestions to solve her dilemma. Among other things, she has the coolest studio name, "Crazy as a Loom" and she has more energy than people 20 years younger.
As she notes, we're technically competitors. But I've never felt that way. Hilary likes to weave fabric rugs and I prefer shaggy selvedge rugs. Besides, there are plenty of people needing rugs (especially now, when you want to put your money into things that are beautiful and will last). Sometimes we compare our customers and find that the same person has contacted (and even bought from) both of us.
We've shared other things through the years, but that's business. We've even talked about mounting a joint-venture rug weaving website, but that's still a ways off.
When she had knee replacement surgery last year and was having trouble getting back to the looms, I was there to kick her b**t and tell her she could do it.
We've joked that we're siblings raised separately because we're close in age and very close in the way we view things. I just know that I'm proud of her and what she's achieved in her short weaving experience.
I know she's shoveling through snowbanks to be at her studio, stoking her pellet stove, and I wish I could just sit there with her and dream up even more bizarre things to weave. You go, girl!