April Showers bring….Dosia and a few others back!

April was another busy month and winter still seemed to cling on with cold weather and grey skies but in the barn we had lots of colorful weaving projects to dispel the gloom. Our warp painter extraordinaire - Dosia Sanford - was back this month to try another cotton warp for pillows. She is fine tuning the dye mixture consistency so that there is more control in the painting and learning a few other useful skills in laying out the warp, etc. Stay tuned for a class this August that Dosia will be holding for students who want to experiment with this technique. Of our regulars, Sue Carpenter finished another great napkin warp and Susan Osterman tackled a monumental project of a summer blanket/winter sheet on a linen warp. She used a 40/2 linen for the warp and some fine wool from Jagger Spun for the weft. As you can see, her middle seam matched up perfectly! Our VT. Folklife grantee, Joann Darling, was also back to continue her work with linen and this months projects were to feature natural dyed yarn in the warp and weft. Her second project of using a 30/1 linen was truly a labor of love and though not without a few broken ends, yielded a beautiful end product. Now on to May and we'll see what warmer weather brings.

Dosia painting her new cotton warp.

The finished warp for three separate pillows.

The warp on the loom.

The finished dress from last year's bobble fabric!

Close-up of the tufts that we all cut by hand.

Sue Carpenter with her finished napkin project.

Arianna - Justin's friend from Sweden - weaving a fine 3/1 twill.

Susan Osterman and Norman with her finished summer blanket/winter sheet.

Nancy Hart with her checked wool throw.

Joann Darling weaving her hand-dyed linen.

Close-up of the napkins.

The first warp of napkins - each one a different hand-dyed color.

The dyed and sized 30/1 linen for another set of napkins.

The 30/1 checked napkins.