From One Extreme to Another

Look who stopped by for a brief rest on the railing!? Well, not so brief actually. I had time to get the camera and snap a few pictures, get closer and shoot some more.

Pretty darn soon I was breathing down her neck! Must be female to be dressed up so pretty! Click on either image to enlarge and see the iridescence in the wings.

The second white shawl came to an end with no more drama and came off the loom and is awaiting special post loom treatment. The first shawl should be arriving at my sister's soon! As you can imagine, I'm looking forward to hearing what she thinks after she opens the box!

So with no further delays I had another warp on the loom before it got cold! In fact, within an hour of taking off the old one. More tencel (of course... I have a ton of it) This time its 8/2 in a burgundy red, black and some variegated tencel called " Northern Lights" that I bought at Laura Fry's booth at Fibre Fest in 2006.

It's for two scarves and narrow. Just 192 ends which was a delight after 708 ends in the last project!

It will be plain weave on four shafts which is also a change from the full twelve shafts in use last time. From twelve treadles down to just two! Actually its my first all plain weave project other than the tabby in some overshot pieces I have done.

The emphasis is on the colour. These pictures just don't do the depth of shade justice! I took many and settled on these...

These two (above and below) are the best. Its the warp beam roll where the colour was concentrated and set quite close. See where the all red stripes are? The next warp has a moss green there instead so I'll get a set of four scarves altogether over two warps when all done. I might just do something different in between though to spice up the mix!

The next task was to try various setts and see how my fine 30/2 black silk looks. Its the finest black I have (besides sewing thread). 8/2 normally is sett 24 epi for twill so I went to 28 epi to start. It showed too much of the weft for my liking, so I resleyed to 32 epi and tried once more.... Nope! I went to 36 epi using a 12 dent reed and I'm happy with it. Its definitely warp faced but still shows a small amount of weft but nothing that swamps the colour of the warp.

So at day's end this is all I have to show for my efforts: its fashionably narrow and right now only one inch high but will be much longer later today! I suspect it might have to wait as with some high cloud out there today, it makes dead heading the garden much more comfortable.

I heard from Dianne in New Zealand that my parcel to her caught a tail wind and was there in 5 days! That's amazing time! (Sometimes I can't get a card to Vancouver in that time...)

Martha has hers too and also in record time for postal services and holidays in the mix! She says that she may combine it with tencel to make a shawl. That would be pretty!

Martha also tells me she is on the verge of having her looms all set up again and back in business. She just did a big move from Illinois to Utah and has unpacked in record time.... that or the looms took priority over the kitchen? Maybe not....

So Happy Canada Day to all my Canuck readers! Take a visit to Yarn Harlot's blog and read her annual message on Canada. Its not to be missed...