This is a keeper scarf, actually for myself. The baby llama rivals just about anything in softness and I love the little bit of sparkle the stellina it's mixed with brings to the piece. It was surprisingly slippery. For such a fluffy soft yarn, this had no grab. It might be nice mixed with the overly grabby mohair I also like.
Terribly impractical for me being white, but that's okay. I am rarely impractical when it comes to clothing. In fact if they made horse slobber colored clothing with say a dog hair texture built in I would probably have a wardrobe of it. Hey, wait a minute, I do! It just didn't start out that way. ;-)
Needless to say, I didn't get painting yesterday. The siren song of seeing the pattern appear was too great. What I did get done besides the scarf was to start collecting information on weaving programs. Since I work on a Mac, I'm pretty limited. Of course I could probably support a Windows program on this new Mac somehow, but
there is a reason I have a Mac and it isn't to make it work like Windows.
The two programs I'm looking at are ProWeave and WeaveMaker. Both are probably WAY more than I need. I have been sitting on this decision for a year waiting for PCW to come out with a Mac version but the last word I got directly from the company is maybe at 2010 Convergence. Too long to wait for a maybe.
On farm news not much going on. Yesterday and today we are having a terrible amount of smoke blow into the area from a large Douglas County fire. It's no good to ride in or even be out working in either for people or animals. I did go out and give everyone a nice little quick brushing. The winter coats are coming in thick and shiny and heavy with curls. Imp is beginning to look every bit the Berber carpet, Boo is getting intricate swirls on his butt and neck, Dandy is getting fuzzy and growing his upper lip mustache. He is the only horse that has one. Cooper, who is not the curliest of curlies is getting ridges on his neck and Nick, who has no curls at all (even though both parents did), is beginning to look like a chia pet with his heavy long and straight coat. It has the texture and softness of a rabbit. Few course guard hairs and it grows to be about 4 inches long.
Barn cats Buzz and Juno are also starting to lay in winter coat. They have found good warm caves in between the hay bales. Over the winter they will lose some of the hidey holes and gain others as we feed down the bales. They also have a heavy wool felted bed in the tack room. It's not uncommon to walk in and they are curled up together having an afternoon nap.
I'm off to feed and do a Bond check and then to town a little later this morning. The painting will still be there tomorrow!
7 comments:
Yes - I always support putting painting off for another day!! (I have the feeling I'll be painting on any day when the temperature allows it in the next few weeks!)
The scarves are beautiful!! I like what you've done combining patterns.
That's great that you're investigating weaving software. Even though I haven't done a lot with mine, I'm glad I have it. Hope you find a program that suits you!
Weave on!!! Baby llama sounds absolutely luscious!
Sue
I didn't know you have curlies! Have you spun Nick? He sounds perfect for it!
The scarf looks great, the colors and the pattern are so delicate! I use my weaving software quite a lot (and I have an ordinary 8 shaft countermarch loom), and I have learned a great deal by using it. For me it was really worth the money I invested in it.
Thank you all for the encouragement to delve into a computer program. Darn things are rather costly so it's nice to know that folks are getting good use from them. I'm leaning towards the WeaveMaker even though it is the more expensive. .
Thank you Charlotte and Sue for the nice comments on the scarf. I feel it's doing justice to the beauty of the materials.
Michelle, I left an answer about Nick on your blog. The one thing I didn't mention was when they shed in spring, they are usually so muddy and wet I have let the fiber go, but this coming spring I am determined to at least get some from each horse, even if it's only a little. I want to find some nice roving to mix with the horse roving. I'm thinking maybe a Corriedale.
The scarf is lovely- I really like the soft colors and bit of shine. I have a Mac, and WeaveMaker. I tried the demo version of ProWeave too, and it has a few neat things, but I got the WeaveMaker first and I use it a lot just to doodle and design. Even if I don't think I will weave something up, it is great fun to play with. You can learn a lot by playing with a drafting program.
Kimmen
Your scarf is just beautiful!
Your work is always inspiring - thanks for allowing me to weave in my mind - thru you and your blog!
It looks fantastic!
I use Linux and so am reluctant to spend a lot of money of a weaving program. However, Brunold Software's DB-WEAVE runs on Linux with an emulator and is said to run on MAC if you have Windows VM software. It's a absolutely excellent free program! Their website is here.
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