Sarah Knits and Weaves

That leaves me less than two weeks till Thanksgiving, and a while still until Christmas. But we "do" Christmas with a certain subset of my family at Thanksgiving. This is a very early enthusiastic list of what to make by Christmas, or it's varying dates.

Two pairs of socks (3/4ths of first sock finished)
Four felt covered soaps.
Four Christmas tree pins, needle felted and beaded
Two felted purses as gifts, hopefully one as a comission.
Three bathroom washclothes either knit or woven for my mom to decorate with.

The term log cabin is used in both weaving and quilting though they are different patterns. I'm sure you have seen the woven form many times in upholstery fabrics or in tiles and other designs. Weavers like it because it can be done using two color on two harnesses (or a rigid heddle). The warp or vertical threads are put on so that in one inch increments the a color is on top and the b color is in the bottom, then switched all the way across. In the weft you have a shuttle of each color, and alternate them then every inch run one color twice and that switches the pattern.

I wanted to say thank you to anyone who purchased any of my pieces at the show and sale. I was glad you did and only came home with a few. If you picked up a card and are interested in any of my pieces or a comission please let me know.

Thank you for all of the support.

When I decided last summer that I was looking for a loom I came across rigid heddle looms. There are many choices available and three or four that are considered most popular. Right when I was ready to buy the Ashford Knitters loom which is portable and made for thicker yarns than normal rigid heddles (you can't usually use chenille with them) was very popular. I liked the heddle options with bigger yarns, but didn't know how often I'd fold it up to be portable and I knew I wanted more than the twelve inch width.

Felting in the simplest sense is hairs sticking to each other. Almost all animal hairs felt, the exception being musk ox down. One thing that has freaked out my friends is dreadlocks are felted hair.

Fiber arts have been with us for centuries. They are often considered to be very mundane and household female tasks of spinning, knitting, weaving, or sewing, but fiber arts can light up a room. Now weaving is taught in art schools, with new inventive techniques coming out all the time. Hollywood stars, both male and female, are knitting on the sets of movies and television shows to relax and produce a product, busy professionals nationwide flocked to yarn stores in the days, months and years following September 11, 2001 for some sort of comfort.

Buy your special holiday gifts at the 22nd annual fiber art show and sale.

Friday November 2nd 5-9pm
Saturday November 3rd 10am-5pm
First United Church
2420 E 3rd Street
Bloomington, IN
West of College Mall between St. Charles and Prompt Care

All of the work from my sales gallery will be available at the Spinners and Weavers guild booth.

On Saturday I went to the Southern Indiana Fiber Festival in Corydon, IN. The weather really was perfect, I needed a sweater in the morning but was down to a t shirt for the afternoon, the sky was gorgeous, everyone seemed happy. I was not an exibitor and didn't participate in any classes, just went for the nice shopping. My mom picked up needle felting supplies and roving for that purpose, then won a door prize of a needle felting book. Shes going to make felted soaps and holiday pins as gifts throughout the year. I just got a ball of sock yarn and some gorgeous lavender 28/12 cotton.

Currently testing blog entries to see how they interact with the rest of the site.

I wonder how this will show up on the front page.