5th shawl update

It took a while to actually decide on a pattern and then changed slightly while half way through winding the warp, when I realized that I needed use less green and more of another colour. I think now, I could have added a second stripe of yellow into the pattern, based on how much yarn I have left. However, weave a checky pattern is a pain in the patootie. I'm using 2 boat shuttles and a stick shuttle. They need to be switched every few shots; either after 4, 6 or 12 threads. It is time consuming to do so. While I could have knocked off one of the solid coloured weft shawls in only a few hours at the loom, this one is forcing me to slow down and enjoy the process. This isn't such a bad thing really.

While I do have a few more projects in the wings, nothing is tugging at me insisting it be done right away. Those that are trying to tug aren't actually weaving projects. There is a ton of spinning, a couple of garments to make from commercial fabric and some dyeing. I've got a bunch of lac that I just re-found in my dye storage bin and a pot of madder which has been sitting in my garage most of the winter. I'm almost afraid to check it. I'd covered it and set it in an out of the way spot when we had people coming over and forgot about it. The lac is a dye vat I've wanted to try for a while, but I need to do more research into how to extract all the red colours. It's supposed to be a very strong, stable red dye. What I have are the bits of lac right off the tree, which I have just found out are the dead femael bodies of the lac bugs, piled on one another after they've laid their eggs... uggh.

I even almost considered doing another logwood dye vat - which last time started off lurid purple - stayed lurid purple until it finally faded somewhat to a purply grey and then wouldn't exhuast at all. I had purple yarn, purple roving, purple fleece everywhere - it was quite the interesting experience verging on the horrendous.