Bare Feet, Cool Treadles....the joys of summer!

It's always good to stay in the moment, and, by the heat of afternoon, I am usually weaving on Hazle...Weaving on that project is as close as I can come to working in the garden, because I'm putting these lovely pink flowers all across the fabric.

While I'm weaving in this heat, by the time I am ready to move to the next part of the draft, the treadle I am using is warmed up and then, upon changing, there's the pure joy of cool wood  greeting my toes! Yes, stay in the moment and appreciate it ALL!

The photo is of Desert Nights on Jimmy. I decided to try some light colored wefts on Desert Nights just to see if I like it. It's nice, but, as you can see by the photo of the DARK edge of the fabric, the dark shades are pretty much compromised....I am enjoying the contrast and will weave until I run out of these wefts.... or run out of TIME!

That's all for now...must go hang the last load of laundry...there's another joy for you....remember? The sweet, lovely fragrance on clean, air-dried sheets and pillow cases at slumber time.....aaaaaah. Until, I have Miles and Miles of Smiles, Cat B.

"Okay...so...somebody has been weaving!"

It's the best way to start this post...with a recent quote from a visitor to my studio at the sight of this roll of fabric on Stanley!

When am I not weaving, more like!

This is about 13 yards of a fabulously simple cloth that was fun and fast and oh so plain a tabby.

The stripes are 20/2 rayon and 20/2 black mercerized cotton on a 16/2 black/charcoal cotton marl. I thought at the time that it might make good fabric for a men's shirt....that was my vision.

A gentleman visiting my booth in Taos recently commented that none of my fabrics were...well.....masculine. I really hadn't thought about that much, so I've decided to change that a bit!

In a previous post, I had told about laundry days and the efforts that go into my fabrics before they ever appear in my booth. This 13ish yards becomes 10ish yards after machine washing/drying, but there's a few steps in between that 13 and that 10....

First I have to "extract" the yardage where it started lashed onto the loom....yes, I remove the lashing and save it for the next project...satisfies the Scottish. It takes a little longer, but, for some reason, I like to do it.

Then I lug this big roll over to the sewing machine and zigzag.... Patience is needed now....and thoughts of new projects dance in my head!




This is the last of a long warp on Stanley and I'm about to make a big change on him, too...ah, but that's for another post!




This is when I begin to think that laundry days are just pretty darn cool....all the zigzagging stitch has been machine sewn at each end of the yardage, so that it won't unravel during it's finishing in the washer and dryer.

The end of this little story is that, after all my planning for a "masculine" fabric, a lovely lady came into my booth and immediately bought enough of it to make a SKIRT!

And, I'll bet she is looking just FABulous right now, too!

This has to be short for now.....so many demands in the studio...do you hear it calling? Keep laughing at life and dancing to your own tune. I'm sending out Miles and Miles of Smiles, Cat B.

Summer Days, Smokey Haze, Desert Daze...and other stuff!

It's been awhile since I have offered a new post and I'm in the thick of so many things now that I'll have to make several tries to complete what's on my mind....as though I can ever accomplish THAT!

Have you heard about our smokey skies because of the big fire down south? We are doing fine, effected by the smoke, keeping our windows shut and continuing to find our high mountain desert home a blessing....

I am back from the New Mexico Quilters Association's "Spring Fling" which was a total delight! You know how you make lists to help you remember things....well, I have a show packing list, but never thought to put my camera on that list.... until I was ready to take photos of my new booth set-up for when I have a double booth. My sweet friend, Carry Wilcox, came along and I asked her to take this photo on her phone...now bad, heh?

First, I want to mention that this show was absolutely delightful, well-run, well-set up, lovely location at the Albuquerque Convention Center, easy load-in, wonderful load-out....I highly recommend this show to vendors and shoppers alike!!!

Now, as I was saying....I had no idea that photos from a phone could catch so much light! I was so thrilled and grateful to Carry since this is the only....let me say that again....ONLY....photo that I have of the entire event!

I really liked my new set-up and I have exciting news as well. The reason I changed my set-up was that I will start to show clothing in my booth!

I should be all ready by Convergence 2012. I made the decision because people were coming into my booth, making a bee-line for one of my garments, dropping purse, bags and packages to start to try something on only to have me say...."Oh, I'm sorry that is only a sample of what can be made out of my handwovens!" So, I have begun my long-awaited collaboration with a wonderful clothing designer who lives right here in my village. I won't mention her name until I ask her purrrrrrrrrmission, but I think she won't mind.

My new garment label !!!

So, I am feeling pretty happy about this development and she and I have just ordered our clothing labels and mine is just to the right.......

I'm feeling sort of like a school girl on this now. I used to have labels, but they were very....what's the word....understated.

But this new label is MEEEEEEE!

Let me know what you think!

I will be showing the garments once they are ready for that and they will be totally designed and made by my new designer....yes, that makes me her new weaver!

Here's an example of works that my dear friend, Rachel, has made with my handwovens and they recently appeared on runway!

This is Desert Nights fabric from my loom named Jimmy. It's 4-Harness Shadow weave and it has the same concept in all my "Desert Series" of earth on my right and sky on my left...that's as I wove it and as it will be when Rachel wears these. The wefts are chartruese and purple 20/2 and 10/2 cotton threads.

I soooooo wish I could have seen them on the runway...to see them come ALIVE when someone is wearing a piece that is my handwoven cloth is just stunning to me. She titled this one "Desert Daze Jacket".

Here's is another of her new works...I love this! Can you see the moon/star pieces hanging from the bottom of the front lapels/collars?

Rachel's creativity and design is unsurpassed and I know that she looks like an ANGEL whenever she wears this piece...I hope I get to see THAT!

Thank you Rachel, for making my fabrics soooooo much more than it ever was before! This fabric is the same Shadow Weave, but here I wove in Lurex which is a silver metallic thread that's so tiny, it take 88,000 yards just to get a POUND of it!

Rachel entitled this piece "Midnight in the Desert Jacket".  It certainly does glitter, doesn't it? This fabric was very similar to fabric recently selected for exhibition at Convergence 2012 in Long Beach California. The title of that piece is "Midnight's Desert in Moonlight" and will appear from July18th (?) to July 21st.

There sooooooo much more I want to show and share, but I am currently completely redressing Stanley and winding on 62 yards on Margaret right now and they are calling....can you hear them, too?!?!? Also, I have decided to sew a backing on another fabric that was chosen for exhibition in Convergence 2012...that's other happy news.....they chose TWO of my pieces!!!!!!!! I just about fell OVER!!!!!

There will be more soon, either added on or a new post. Until then, think happy thoughts, enjoy summer, do something peaceful and quiet for yourself, and I'll add my good karma to all that by sending out Miles and Miles of Smiles....Cat B.

I went, I saw, I had FUN!

The Taos Fiber Marketplace was a complete delight! The whole event was set-up so nicely, run in a very professional manner, PR was excellent and I'm ready to go back again next year!


I was invited to participate in this show and was so thrilled to be a part of it. I have wonderful memories and look forward to seeing everyone next year!

During this time at the show, and for about a week+ before, I was able to mend up from my sciatica and can weave again! I will have to change places around the studio more often to give myself a break from any one movement or position, but I'm soooo happy to be weaving again. I am continuing on a sofa throw on Doris and starting a baby blanket on The Old Structo! I'm so happy to be weaving again.

Also, I wanted to mention that, down near the bottom of my blog, near my pageviews, above my "Well...the Cat's out of the bag photo"....you can see a slide show.....check it out!

And this is what I see outside my studio windows! Have a happy spring....live every day as though it is new and every flower as the wonder of nature that it is.....I'm sending you Miles and Miles of Smiles, Cat B.

Okay, Taos...here I come!

This post comes with instructions....COME TO TAOS! This weekend, there's a lovely new event taking place and I am sooooooooo glad that I was invited to be a part of it!

Here's more instructions....LOOK FOR THIS BOOTH!

Really, look for this booth at the Taos Convention Center....it's mine and, if you can come to Taos this weekend, you will find this booth all set up and stuffed with my handwoven yardage, stoles, blankets, scarves and Raggy Cat Pin Cushions!


There is so much for going on at this event that you just can't MISS it!

Make your plans now...no, not just to see so me....though that would be FUN,

But to see the whole event:
April 20th, 21st and 22nd
Taos Fiber Marketplace
Taos Convention Center 
Friday andSaturday, 9-6 
Sunday, 9-2


Here's the link to their website:  http://www.taosfibermarketplace.com/


Okay, here MORE instructions.....if you see this face...come say "HI" ! ! ! ! !

My sciatica is getting better every day now and I'm looking forward to this event....I'll be very careful with moving boxes and setting up and will do my best to be healthy enough to weave when I get back to the studio!

I hope to see you there and, until later, I'm sending those Miles and Miles of Smiles!!!!!

I'm stopped...

This has been really difficult, but I've not been able to weave now for about a week....and when I was trying last week, the pain grew increasingly intolerable....I'm totally stopped. I've got a lovely blanket in progress on Doris and I am done with the stole order on The Old Structo, so I would love to be able to start weaving a baby blanket on it. Margaret is in the process of getting a new soft white warp dummied-on to her old green warp and I haven't even tied back on Hazle, Grace or Stanley...they just have blankets draped over their front beams....

The tulips and the daffs are busier that I am!

I have put more items into my Etsy Shop and I'm happy to say that I finally added some of my fiber art.

I don't like to whine, but I cannot even work in the garden.

Things are starting to improve, but I still have a painful time just sitting on a weaving bench.

Oh, yeah, guess, if I'm whining and moaning, I might say what I have...It is sciatica.

I've had it once before and it totally stopped me then, too. But I was being so careful about how I moved and sat during some very long hours with the stole....I thought I was doing okay.

The stole came off without a hitch. I had 16 wefts to weave in on a constantly changing order.

Here are ONE of the trays of colors.

I would weave all from the right tray, this one, then all from the left tray.


Yes, there are some wild and crazy wefts in here, but the client was fun and adventurous and we just WENT for it!

Here was the left tray.

Needless to say, the weaving went very, very slowly compared to how I can weave off a yard in an hour on some of my looms!

I weave on The Old Structo for all of my stoles, because, since it's rather a slow friend, I feel more calm and patient if I'm doing stoles on it.

I think it's okay to show here...

I'm carrying up ALL the colors on the selvedges!

I have 8 going up one side and 7 going up the other side.

I used a big craft needle to sew the threads into the fringe area prior to twisting the fringe...the few that you see there (lilac) I had to put in as I stitched the hemstitch because I would not have been able to sew them in...they would have stretched out to nothing...

I didn't get a photo of the finished stole. I decided, because I'm getting ready for a show in Taos, that I would photograph IF the buyer decided that the stole was not right for her.

They loved the stole!

But....no photo.

I try to "bloom where I'm planted", so, when weaving HAD to stop so I could heal, I decided to use the time well. I added a bunch of items to my Etsy Shop. I've got my fiber art up there, more scarves, more yardage and tons and tons of This-N-Thats. I would like to show some of my scarves here instead of in some of my pages (where I show things for sale).

This photo shows a 'batch' of my scarves...I call them Camille Scarves.

These scarves are made to give away as part of a service project that my guild has taken on.

These scarves go to chemo patients at a cancer treatment facility in Albuquerque.

I had crocheted a bunch of them and, as they lay over the back of a rocking chair on the living room, I must admit, I felt a sense of pride that I was helping in such a worthy cause.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/97536640/crochet-scarves

As I looked, I began to realize that there was over $40 in yarns there...I want to continue to contribute to this project, but decided it might be a good thing if I started making some scarves to sell, just to help me fund the ones I give away.

So, I began to look for good quality wool fibers to make the same 'version' of this scarf, but for sale.

I have priced them reeeeeeeeeeeally low, just the cost of the yarn times 2, so I can fund the other scarves. I don't know how well it will go over, but I have these crochet scarves over in my Etsy Shop, and....I'll see how they sell, if at all, but, it's worth a try, right?

Which brings me to a point where I want to mention that I've changed my blog a bit....

I have added pages that are about items for sale from this blog and in my Etsy Shop. I just want to say, that the followers of this blog are NOT the targets of a sales campaign!!! Please know that I'm just trying to offer more sources of photos and the blog seemed a purrrrrrrrfect place to do it. I can only put so many photos up on my TAFA List page, and, though I've been trying, I can't list everything in my Etsy Shop either.

I still have my loom pages, and hope to be able to post more ordinary stuff again, now that I've got my global stuff going....if you are curious about where I am, just click on "Find Me on the World Wide Web". I've had fun learning about some of these places....some are for networking, some are for showing what I do and how I do it.....FaceBook is fun...I try to add a photo everyday.

To put it simply and straight forward....

I'm not trying to get followers of this blog to buy stuff!

I've got to end this post for now as sitting in this nice soft office chair is getting painful all the way down my right leg. I have to mend before move-in at the Taos Fiber Marketplace on Thursday. The show is from April 20- 22 and here the link to their site:  http://www.taosfibermarketplace.com/

Okay, I've had a break, stood around for quite awhile, had lunch....now on to my Trick on the Trade!

PHOTO 1

THIS IS HOW I ADD COLOR TO AN OTHERWISE PLAIN WARP. I use this method if it's, like the photo, there's an all white warp, but I weaving in colors. If I did nothing, the fringe would be all white, not at all like the stole, so I add color to the fringe.

I do this WHILE I am hemstitching, so, when I'm ready to twist fringe, it's all ready to go!

See the PHOTO 1, directly above...If you don't know how to hemstitch, any stitches book will show you....or, if you are a former student, it's in the student packet that I gave every one of my students. Referring to photo to right, this shows Step 1 of hemstitching...it's the 'horizontal stitch'...parallel to the fell, purrrrrrrrrrpendicular to the warp...hee!  hee! Perform that step completely.

PHOTO 2

To see the next step...PHOTO 2. See where I lay the colored thread over where I just performed Step 1 of the hemstitch? This colored thread needs to be long enough to reach the end of the fringe in one stitch and to the end of the fringe in the next stitch.

PHOTO 3

See PHOTO 3 where I perform Step 2 of the hemstitch. This is where I do the diagonal stitch...I go right under the colored threads that's laying there. Once I finish that step, the first 1/2 of the colored thread is now trapped in the hemstitch.

PHOTO 4

Next, I do a new hemstitch, Step 1 as normal (horizontal stitch), then Step 2 (diagonal stitch) and begin to pull that stitch through just like all the others.....BUT WAIT...just before you close that last stitch of the second hemstitch....see the PHOTO 4.

Just as your about to pull that last loop through, crasp the colors threads that are laying there and PULL THEM THROUGH THAT LOOP!!!

Now you have sewn in the colored thread as you are hemstitching. You can do one thread at a time (if that's what looks right to make the fringe look like it matches the cloth of the weaving (scarf or stole) or you can add as many threads as you want. I have been known to sew in as many as 12 threads into the fringe with each hemstitch pair....they were tiny.

PHOTO 5 shows the process done and you are ready for sewing another group of colored threads into your hemstitch.

It takes 2 hemstitches (or 4 steps) to sew in each group.

I lay pre-cut lengths of my colors threads up across my warp purrrrrrpendicular to the warp) and extract what I need from one end which I hold gently to the other end of the mass of threads laying there...everything stays neat, if you do this, too.

Now, when you are doing this whole process, don't pull tightly anywhere....just pull things up NEAT, but not overly tight. You want the bridge from stitch one and stitch two to be smooth, not loopy or loose, but neat and smooth. These 'bridges' don't seem to be noticed after the fringe is twisted and the stole/scarf is washed and dried....it just all looks like it 'belongs'. I've been using this technique since I created it back in the early 80's....I'm sure it's not new, just never saw it before and made it up on my own.

I'm glad I could finish this post the way I wanted....the Advil has kicked in and the pain is just so-so. I'm going to go stand up and work on my fabric that's been accepted for exhibition at Convergence....standing up is good. I will try to help pack up the trailer tomorrow...I hope this sciatic nerve swelling has gone down more by then....wish me luck.

Until next time, I wishing you, from the bottom of my heart, Miles and Miles of Smiles, Cat B.

I'm going GLOBAL...no, I'm still not a worldly woman...

I've just joined this wonderful, beautiful site called The TAFA List...The Textile and Fiber Art List! I'll be adding pages soon, just as I am adding pages to my blog here....did you notice? Check out my new pages to the right of this post, under The Work...with a little help from my friends. I've added "AAAh...Those White-on-Whites" and "My Fun This-N-Thats"....check them out!

And, to go learn more about TAFA go to here:  http://www.tafalist.com/
I highly recommend this site to any fiber related artist who is interested in learning how to market their work. I have learned so much. And, it's great fun to click on the MAP, click through to +s and arrows to find people. I'll bet you can find me in New Mexico without much effort!

And see my profile in paaaaaaaarticular.......here I am!
http://www.tafalist.com/members/cat-brysch-creations-studio

I have had an Etsy Shop for quite a long time now and have had lots of fun with that. My Etsy Shop can be easily found by clicking here:   http://www.etsy.com/shop/CatBryschCreations

Another I joined quite some time ago is Weavolution. This is a wonderful forum to learn, share, teach...it's such a friendly place. Weavolution is at:  http://weavolution.com/

And my very own page is at:  http://weavolution.com/weaver/cat-brysch