Seeing Sparkles

The rainbow clutch is done! Because I assembled most of the pieces along the way, the final assembly went a lot faster than I thought It would, and honestly I was not ready for it to be over. I originally planned to sell the clutch,  but the little details I put in along the way gave it character, and those details have made it precious to me.

I learned that my purse frame used to be a part of a chainmail purse, and it used to have a small metal rod to hold the fabric to the frame. Although the rod is no longer there, the holes that held it in place are, so I threaded some strong yarn through the holes, and around some beads to "replicate" the rod.

I found some brass bead spacers from some old bracelets to use.

Then, there was the problem that, also because the frame used to be for a chainmail purse, there were no holes in the frame to secure the fabric. I decided to improvise by wrapping some silk yarn scraps from my weaving mentor over the sides of the frame, and then secured the fabric from there.

And finally, the last piece. I went to the local craft store to pick up some bronze chain for the purse strap, but the only kind they had wasn't strong enough. So, I used about 80 tiny 4mm jump rings to connect two lengths of the chain! The new and improved chain is VERY sturdy, but I think I don't want to see another jump ring for a week or two. Let's just say that the tinier they are, the more frustrating they become to work with.

I know that this all sounds like I was just making life more difficult for myself, but once I had all of the pieces I knew exactly what I wanted the finished purse to be like. I love all of it, from my crazy yarn, to the tiny little jump rings. I wouldn't change a thing.

Smeagol is FREEE!!!!!!

Or rather, the Leclerc is!

 Ok, I know that I said I would finish the rainbow clutch first, but I really wanted to get that overshot warp done, so I finished it! Ladies and gentlemen, the most annoying warp in my (considerably short) weaving history IS DONE. I did weave through all of the warp, and once I fix the many, many mistakes, it will actually be a nice looking piece. Maybe then I will post some pictures of it... maybe.
Also, I have decided what to do for the scarf. It will be in dark and light green with some sparkle added in. Also, I have decided against the crackle pattern. I finaly found it again in a handwoven magazine, and it was just as gorgeous as I remembered. But there was a bit of a problem... just looking over the pattern made me seriously in need of some chamomile tea. I will get back to that one in a year or two, but for now it is way out of my league. So, for now the scarf will be woven in a M's and W's pattern. Which brings me to one of my favorite parts of the planning process.
Which pattern to choose?

Ah the possibilities!
Meanwhile, I did finish sewing all of the squares together for the rainbow clutch. I want to lightly felt it before I finish sewing it together.

And lastly, my supervisor (aka my cat) decided to add a little cuteness to my "photoshoot". I decided to take the picture of the rainbow clutch on my loom bench, so I had to move the sheepskin cushion. I folded it up, placed it on the floor, and proceeded to take photos. When I turned around to put it back, well...

It is good to know that I'm not the only one that appreciates MY sheepskin!

Weavette

(sorry, the sparkles don't show up in the picture too well)

The rainbow yarn is finished! I love how it turned out, and it has a ton of sparkles!  I decided to weave it on a Weavette loom to showcase all the colors. I originally envisioned to making a tote bag or a table runner, but since I only have 116 yards the options are placemat or clutch. I am still not sure which one would be best. I am leaning more towards the clutch.

In other news, I am almost done with my "spring cleaning", and the area around the Leclerc is slowly looking less like a tornado hit. ;-)   Once everything is cleared up I will weave off the rest of the infamous overshot warp. I think my next project will be a scarf in a crackle pattern, but I will write more about that when I get there!

Tabby picks and playing with color

Scrolling down through my posts I have noticed that I usually start with the word "today". So, in a true breaking of the norm, this time I shall start with: (suspense)

YESTERDAY!
Ok, so yesterday I decided to dust off my spinning wheel, and something magical happened! I decided to whip up some crazy colorful yarn just for fun, and I was so surprised by how much I liked it that I finally got up the courage to start blogging again.

Poof! Magical colorful yarn appeared!

The truth is that I haven't been spinning, weaving, or blogging, because I had (as us "in the know" crafters like to call it) a string of complete and total DISASTERS.  It all started when I forgot to check which size of whorl I was using on my spinning wheel...
I usualy spin lace, which requires a lot of twist, and I had 200 grams of my favorite beautiful roving, so over several nights I spun up the roving into fine lace singles. Then it came time to ply. For a few inches everything went alright, and then the singles broke... again, and again.... and again. Completely baffled I started checking everything from the bobbin, to the oil, and finally, the whorl. For all that time, through 200 grams of precious roving, and hundreds of yards of lace singles, I had been spinning with the LOW twist whorl! Essentially, I had turned all of my work into a pile of disintegrating nothingness. I even tried re-spinning the singles to add more twist, but they were so weak they broke during the process. Frustrated, but refusing to put fiber down I moved to my loom. I decided to try something "fun and new".
That was the beginning of another mistake.
 I chose to try out Overshot. After warping the loom I treated the pattern like any other I had used before, completely oblivious to "tabby picks" and doubled threads. After a few inches of weaving I could tell that something was very wrong. I looked over the pattern again, and saw that the weft should be doubled, and that the TABBY PICKS in the SECONDARY WEFT COLOR were white. I should have asked for help then, but ignoring what I didn't understand, (always a bad idea) I doubled the thread and wove on. I tried several different things, distorting the pattern in several different ways, (one looked like the Bat Signal eating a bunny) until I finally threw in the towel and sent a picture to my weaving mentor asking her what she thought.
Being the wonderful person that she is, she firstly said that my horrible bat signals were beautiful, and then asked if I remembered to put a tabby pick between each pattern row.
Some small shred of recognition surfaced in the back of my mind and I promptly replied with: "Huh?"
My ever patient mentor then told me to look at my pattern again. She said to look for a secondary weft color, and this (super mysterious) thing called a "tabby pick".
I reported back that these suspicious aspects were indeed listed in the pattern, and finally asked the million dollar question: "What is a tabby pick?".
It turns out that a tabby pick is one pick of plain weave, that overshot patterns have between every pattern row. (insert my facepalm here)
I applied this new knowledge to my weaving, and lo and behold, the pattern finally looked the way it should. With a thoroughly deflated ego (probably a good thing) and a lot of frustration I put the loom, and all of my fibery treasures away...where they slowly collected dust... until yesterday.
As the weather slowly becomes more livable the need to have a good spring cleaning arose, so I dedicated last weekend to cleaning out my room/studio. I finaly made my way to the spinning drawer, and as I opened it a group of roving remnants caught my eye, and then some sari silk in a rainbow of colors, and lastly a small pile of metallic "icicle confetti" that I had picked up in the discount bin at the store a while back.

Boom! My previously hibernating crafting genes kicked in with full force. The blending board came out, and my plans of spring cleaning went in to a dark corner to be completely ignored. And so, my "Rainbow art yarn" was born! I will plan on making another post when it is finished, but for now this post is already definitely on the "very, very, long post" list.
Thank you for reading my blog, and I will see you next time!