Navajo

So, cutting right to the chase... this shawl is Navajo and the third one in a series I have woven recently.  The other two were Little Lochmaben and Aurora. I made some subtle changes to not only colours but the stripe arrangements and  the colours of course.

I let my eyes choose the colours and I pulled together a variegated warp that had a turquoise blue that ranged through to soft burnt orange. The main colour is called adobe and I also used black as part of the stripes to frame the colours and to use as weft. The warp is 8/2 tencel and the weft is 10/2 tencel. I was trying to reduce the size of the pattern blocks a bit, which it did by a small amount. (Details and data on setts and such are in the previous posts.)

It loaded onto the loom nicely and threading went well....

I wove for a sample to start and used it to check my threading for errors and it was fine and so weaving got underway. I chose the first treadling I had done in Little Lochmaben which was "treadle as threaded".

Oh, there were some issues... I had missed two ends of variegated warp in one stripe and three ends in the adobe section. Add those to the two floating selvedges and it was quite a sea of cannisters and weights at the back.  I used cardboard separators to keep them from hopelessly tangling!

A bit of a pain in the ar$e but it is what it is!  So weaving got under way but some days  it sat and waited as the receiving blankets took precedence (of course!)  When I had 43 inches woven I could see the back side under the loom as it wound on and something didn't look quite right in one small slim black section. That is when I found the crossed thread behind the reed. Louet looms give you a BIG shed and so even a crossed thread doesn't interfere with a determined weaver. I can't recall the last time I had a crossed thread....its been years!  Apparently I've become a little complacent...   There was a huge long float that ranged for inches on the back side as a result and had to be fixed....

So I cut and picked out all 43 inches of what I had woven, fixed the crossed threads and started again... *sigh*

Finally it was off the loom and sat to cool its jets for a bit on the fringing board. Some bouts I braided and for the main part I twisted! This past week I  completed the beading that has a unique flair.   Here it is hanging to dry after its wash yesterday:

This morning it was given a hard pressing and the fringe trimmed up and 'we'  (that be Calli and I)  snapped a few pictures for you.  It was hard to get a photo without a dog in it! There would be a tail in a corner... or a nose.

The special finishing feature?  feathers.... little feathers in the beading.

I also like the way the variegated colours flow and add life to the darker shades...

While I wove three very different shawls, they are all very similar but have a different tone or feel when you wear them. Almost a 'mood' if you will. 

And now because I'm a new Nana and its MY blog:

Here's...

Here he is sleeping away under the blanket that Nana made for him at one week old, this past Monday.