The Dreaded Task of Cutting

  It's really, really hard to cut into what you have woven.  One, because Whatifitunravels!!!!!!!! And two, I spent a month weaving these threads together and now I'M GOING TO CUT THEM APART?!!  I imagine it's rather like a baker who makes a glorious, four-tier wedding cake with all the decorations and fondant, takes it to the reception hall, and hands someone a knife to cut into it. Just kinda breaks your heart.
  But, as they say, you have to break the eggs...

   I, of course, zigzag stitched the edges, because of number one above.  The pillows are suppose to be 18 inches square, and what I wove was too big, which made me have to cut off two corduroy stripes on each end.  I was not happy about that.
   On one hand, yay, unexpected sampler! On the other hand, I could have saved those materials!
   Too late, moving on.
   The plain-woven back is in two pieces, with a zipper sewn to connect them. I had everything cut, pinned, reinforced, sewn, turned right-side out, and the pillow form inserted in a matter of hours.
   Baby Girl was amazed that I could just sew up a pillow like this, when I hadn't ever done it before.  This is the only child who still sees me as Mama Miracleworker.
   Here's the finished project:

  Next time on Nicole's Weaving Art: Alpaca/silk/wool shawls.

I've Never Woven Pillow Covers Before

   I saw something in a Handwoven magazine recently on pillow covers with corduroy stripes made of embroidery floss, so I thought I would do those next. The warp, thank God, was easy enough to put on, it being entirely perle cotton and I was done with them in a month.
   It helped that most of it was in plain weave, no delay in keeping track of a pattern, and I had no tension issues.

 

   There were six rows of two sets of embroidery floss, with one shot of the background perle cotton in between to keep it stable. Then I had to cut the long floats of floss to make the corduroy.  It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. If I wasn't distracted I could cut a stripe 20 inches wide in fifteen minutes.

 Thank goodness for those skinny-bladed stork scissors I bought a long time ago from an antique store.

Cut and Uncut

    After the weaving came the hardest part for any weaver.....

   Cutting up what you spent so much time putting together.  I'll leave that for next time.

   Toodles!

What I'd get from Etsy if I had the money (and no husband)

  ZoMG, I LOOOOOOOVE the colors this woman uses!  They are absolutely gorgeous!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/130343165/platter-with-crane?ref=shop_home_active
   Her name is Elisabeth Maurland, and I'd like to support her like the artistic patrons used to in Medieval times.  If it weren't for having to feed children, and pay bills....

It started so well, and it all turned out okay. Eventually.

  So, ALL that warp fell onto the floor behind my loom and I had to get it back on.  I pulled all of it back through the reed towards the front, and then wound it back onto the back beam. This is what it looked like:

I used a ruler to try to keep the former tension.

That's how much I had already woven.

  And that's the lovely tension I had to fix. I had to untie and retie it on the front beam several times.
  Eventually:

  Aren't they pretty?  I called them the Providential Color Cotton towels. I love the texture of them, too. My fingers like the up-and-downness of it.
  So, that's done. Next is a pair of corduroy-striped cotton throw pillows.

What I'd get from Etsy if I had the money to spare (and no husband)

  Okay, I know this isn't really weaving-related, and I haven't finished the story from last time. Soon. Promise.
  The problem is that I don't weave every day. Most Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, I don't go anywhere near my loom for various reasons. (I do have a Day Job, ya know.) So what is there to say?  "I worked today", "Oooh, I wove 2 more inches!"  Yeah, thrilling stuff.
  So I'm branching out a bit. Hence the title.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/128096821/unakite-earrings-beaded-earrings-stone?ref=af_circ_favitem&atr_uid=17369407
 
  Are they not gorgeous?  I love the colors and the simplicity of the beads.

It Started So Well....

    The next project to be worked on is a set of four cotton towels, using leftover yarn of differing thicknesses and and textures.  The colors are chosen randomly to be put through the reed.  Speaking of the reed...

    See the tape?  To put in the amount of ends in an inch I need, I need to put it in 2 in a slot, then 3, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, etc.  To keep track of that, | is 2, and - is 3.  So easy, I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier.

Here you can better see the colors.
    It was all going so well. I got it tied on to the front and the back, loaded 3 shuttles with dark purple, sienna, and very light lavender, and started to weave.  I wove a good eight inches and then....
    POP.
    ShuffleshuffleshuffleshuffleBAP.
    The ratchet on the back came loose, and the weight of the bamboo shades I put between the layers of warp brought them and all FOUR YARDS of carefully-tightened yarn to the floor.
    I about cried.  I had to take a break before I started screaming. 
    What I did about it next time.

Better Pictures. And something extra

    I finished the scarf for my co-worker on Christmas Eve, took it off the loom, finished it, and took it to her the same day. She was very happy! 
    I ran out of the red Orlon three-quarters of the way through the second scarf, so I finished it with a linen that I happened to have of the exact same shade!

    I was worried about shrinkage differences with the two different materials, but it doesn't seem to have mattered.  This was hand washed and hung to dry and didn't seem to shrink at all.
    And I still had three feet of warp on the loom.
    I really suck at math.
    I continued to weave and now have a table runner to sell on Etsy!

Now THAT looks red!

    Too bad I didn't have this done before Christmas, someone would have loved to use this to decorate!  I just hope that is not ALL they think of when they see these colors.
    NEXT!
    Coming soon to the loom in my living room: random-color waffle weave cotton towels, because the other ones I made sold out.