Shawls of Summer ☀️

 This post is a tad bit overdue.   The weaving was finished a couple of months ago and I managed some pictures outside.  The photographs I took of one shawl looked bleached out by the sun and didn't do it justice at all so I planned to take some indoors.... but on a sunny day.   Then the clouds rolled in and it seemed that any sunny day had us going somewhere.  Finally, everything aligned and I got the photos taken. 

But let's roll the clock back to my old Megado and a mystery warp.  I bought a painted warp from Carr Park Artisans a couple of years ago and it was  7.5 yards and 400 ends of painted tencel.    No name of the colour way on the card and I asked Christine and she doesn't recall.

So I paired it with solid  mineral green tencel  and slipped in some of the extra painted warp left over into the borders. I didn't want to waste any!  Above you can see the warp being beamed, and below you can see my "S" hooks and weights I use to tension as I wind on. Yes, it means a bit of to'ing an fro'ing but I don't mind as I know the warp is on tight and will behave later on during the weaving. 

This is the draft I used. Rather than using a straight draw, I decided to modify it and use a 16 shaft point twill instead. I did have some straight draws on either side as part of the border.   It's a mind boggling 63 treadle run so usually woven up on a dobby loom.    The blank white part is the painted warp and later on where the gold stripe is, I replaced that with spare painted warp instead.  I'm making choices right up to the last minute usually.   The draft is from Handweaving.net and is #78089

The weaving was straight forward  and took some time. The first shawl I used the mineral green as weft as it seemed to work with all the colours in the warp.   It was woven to approximately 87 inches to allow for some shrinkage. It was fun to weave as you were always trying to anticipate the next colour zone and how it would look. The transitions were softly done which I prefer. 

This is the shawl complete and measured as 19 inches wide by 84 inches, plus twisted fringe.   It's fully reversible too which is nice for the wearer.      I see it as a 'summer time wrap' and of course, that time is now passed.

Now for some various pictures showing drape, colour, and my late summer garden

The sedum is colouring up to pink-red so taken mid September.  

The second shawl was entirely different. I used a different 16 shaft point twill tie up #34777. It's a draft I have used before and quite like it. It has a delicate flower / star like pattern, and this time I used greyed teal as my weft. The whole overall effect was softer and more gentle.

A couple of pictures taken shortly after starting.   Love the pink transitions!

Finally, indoor pictures taken, in a house with extra sunshine brightening the house up. I like to think my grandparents approve.... that's their 1930 wedding photo in behind.

This section of the warp had more of the gold-yellow colour, but not at all harsh.  All quite soft.

This shawl is also 19 inches wide by 84 inches too.

These pictures show the iridescence

So one more project was woven on the Megado 110 and then she was off to a new adventure in the Okanagan Valley. (see Oct 4th post about the table runners)  Life intervened here (again) and much of the delays here were due to medical appointments as my husband has leukemia, but it seems its low grade.  Tests will determine whether they treat it or not so we will find out more on the coming weeks.

Weaving has been a wonderful experience for me in the past 30 years. A source of new friendships, learning a new craft and constantly evolving as time, looms and circumstances change.   It's patient when you can't visit the loom or you dabble with a new toy or craft.  It gives solace when times get serious and you need a refuge. The magic of putting colour and threads together is joyful.

I have no regrets about going down this marvellous rabbit hole!    🐰

Golden Fairy Garden

Some time late last year I bought a painted silk warp from Carr Park Artisan's similar to this one. It was 200 ends and 6 1/2 yards long.   Not really wide enough and not really long enough but I loved the colours!    Also, it's *silk* , the princess of natural fibres!

I knew the 16 shaft draft I wanted to use as it has the beautiful effect of playing with colour and make them appear to flow and shift.  Draft #78116 at Handweaving.net /  designed by Ingrid Boesel in the Thrilling Twills Collection.

Picture 'borrowed' from Carr Park Artisans  

I dug deep in the stash and found a silk bronze gold and a rich silk purple and these gave me nice borders and a width for the scarves I could feel good about.    At 28 epi, the 200 ends would have looked like a neck tie! Here's a peek at the warp on the loom and you can see the flow of the colors.

 I got it all set up in late November 2023 and made a start.... and then I hurt my back in early December.   It would be 7 months before I healed enough to be relatively pain free to weave again.  I also took some time to be depressed and think over my options.

At first I thought I might never be able to weave again.  We use our backs so much in the motions of everything we do at a loom.    Then an MRI showed that I have several disc issues and stenosis, plus my spine moved forward by 9 mm at L3-4 with the disc shifting out the back by 6 mm. Bending forward is a risky thing for me.    I raise up my Spring onto crates to do the tie-up and sit on a low stool. This involves bending / leaning forward and I'd rather not do this.  I love this loom and bought it new 16 years ago and have kept it full and busy all that time.  But with the Megado, there's no tie up to deal with at all.

Besides, there isn't any weaving I can't do on the Megado loom from 2 shafts to 16, and as I always said "there is only one bum for a bench"   😁     I have also acquired a LOT of tools, equipment and books over the last 28-30 years and its time to downsize voluntarily and not end up as one of those "dead weaver estate sales".  I have to say the extra money, space and reduction of stuff is liberating!    Once the Spring loom has moved onto a new home, I'm even thinking of getting a nice comfy chair so I can sit in the empty alcove and read. 

But the Spring is still has a warp being woven (slowly) off and that is all down the road for now.....

Meet Fairy Garden.... woven with olive 8/2 tencel and measures 11" wide by 80 inches long.  Yup, I lost count from weaving one session 7 months ago to more recent.  My notes vanished in the meantime.

The colours flow as I had imagined....

Yes, it's the same scarf but the sun washed out the colours. The true colour is the other photos.

For the second scarf I had to think hard about a warp colour.... and the best option was a 10/2 tencel in a pale gold.  I bought a 3 pound cone of it off of Ebay years ago and it never disappoints. Its also not available anymore sadly.

This is Fairy Gold.... and it's a much softer blending of the colours and it's a quieter beauty.

It's 11" by 72".... so a good length.  Seems the 6.5 yard warp was enough after all as I took my fringe length from the loom waste at either end.   I also didn't get my customary sample for my notes.

So finally some show and tell at long last.... thanks for waiting. 💝

Kitchen Elegance (yes, more towels!)

The first time I saw this draft at Handweaving.net it was in a rather stark combination of red and white.  I almost went by it but took another look and I saw a very pretty pattern that had a lot going on.  Kinda busy but it intrigued me.

When weaving up a busy pattern, I usually lean towards the motto 'less is more' and go with more neutral shades or softer colours. Let the pattern do all the talking!   The size of the yarn you choose also has a role to play.  Smaller grist means a smaller pattern, shorter floats (if they are over 5 ends).    I decided to go with 10/2 cottons. 

It will give a lighter weight cloth, and at 28 epi a smaller, tighter pattern.... plus I had a nice two pound cone of 10/2 Venne cotton from Lone Star that had been sitting in my stash long enough.  Sadly, they don't carry it any longer as I tried to get some more.  It's beautiful quality!   Venne cotton is carried by many dealers so it's just a matter of hunting it down. Thrill of the hunt and all that....

Here's the draft  #57312; 16 shafts. As you can see the threading isn't all that complicated or the treadling. The magic is in the tie up.   This went onto the Megado loom and I let it do all the hard work.  

This is what it look like in weaving mode on the Mac. It just chugs away at it line by line!  This is my new 'old' Mac as I had a recent computer crisis. It seems a 2013 Mac Air decided to up and quit on me and there was a frantic dash to find another with the right OS on it to run my loom.   All fixed now thankfully.  A good search, help from a long distance friend and money fixed it.   Otherwise my loom would be a large paperweight.....  

So deciding on finer threads means more of everything.  725 ends to this warp, making sure I had enough heddles on each shaft. Fiberworks gives me those numbers as a count per shaft and all I had to do was count the heddles.    Winding the warp was done in six bouts, all nine yards long. That took time as you can imagine.

Winding on took time and this time I opted to do it all by myself and used weights on the bouts and just took my time. It took an afternoon with lots of breaks in between.   I used the "helping hands" from Lofty Fibers again and I must say that I really like the devices.   They give much more stability to the process.

Threading was straightforward and I normally take my time as I'm not a fan of correcting threading errors if I can help it.  Happily, there were no errors!

Weaving also takes longer as you have to throw the shuttle many more times to build an inch!  One repeat of the main pattern plus the V was 133 treadlings.  Six full repeats plus the top and bottom border for the hem allowance gave you 36-37 inches.    I worked it out: 926 throws for one towel.  I wove six towels and one table runner of 46 inches in length.   The total shuttle throws for just the six towels alone is 5,556  😳  The runner was 1,160.   The grand total was 6,716 throws. Just looking at those numbers makes me wonder why I counted.... crazy right? 

Then came the serging the towels apart, washing, pressing and turning hems.  Hand sewing the hems and a final press of the hems again.

The runner was pinned to a foam board and fringes twisted, hand washed and pressed.

There they sat during some very gloomy days where we had lights on at midday and it poured rain.    The discovery of a leak in our 13 year old roof kept us busy with insurance claims, roofers and all. 

Eventually the sun came out and so did the camera!

The towels came in with finished dimensions of 22 inches in width and 30 inches in length.   Turning the hems, take up and shrinkage accounts for a loss of 7 inches in length. The width lost 3 inches due to drawn in and shrinkage of the cotton.  This sort of dimensional loss is something more veteran weavers can account for in their project calculations. It's also comes with sampling and simply weaving and getting to know your yarns. 

First up was a pretty weft that Webs calls 'sponge'. Hardly an attractive name so I call it Lichen instead. I wove two towels in this colour.  (above and below)

Next up was one towel woven in a colour that Webs call camel. Rather rosy camel don't you think?   So I call it Tawny Rose.  Its very pretty.

I have a lot of 10/2 colours but not all are softer or more neutral shades. I chose this crisp green shade which I think is actually called Willow and finally a name that suited! One weaver wrote that she thought this would make a lovely table cloth in this colour, paired with a formal table setting and candle light perhaps?  My choice would be a cloth using Tawny Rose....or Lichen.

Reaching into the stash, I found this bronze gold called Ochre Gold.   A bit darker than I was looking for but it's also rather nice once all done.  Since these are being sold and / or given as gifts, I have to appeal to all sorts of tastes and decor.

~bonus loom shot because I finally remembered to take a picture! 

The final towel was woven in a colour way called silver cloud but when you look at it, especially against the green of the table centre, you can see plum or mauve tones.   So I call it Mauve Frost.

I had a lot more warp left after six towels and an almost full pirn of the silvery mauve and so I left room for a fringe allowance and simply wove until I ran out of warp.   The result is a runner that is 22 x 46 inches with a neat and tidy 2 inch twisted fringe.

A peak of the reverse side. The darker side was my view throughout the entire weaving process, so cutting it off the loom and seeing the lighter side was a pleasant surprise.

So that's the end of this post and I'm apologizing for how long it's taken to post something here for you.  It's been a busy Fall getting ready for winter, plus some medical appointments, dental surgery and crown work.   💰💰💰     The roof leaked, the washing machine has been acting up, and our new cook top developed a thermal crack so lots to deal with and arrangements to make and people and warranties to chase.

There is one more towel warp under way on the Spring loom. I have two towels done of six, so more weaving for me and waiting for you. The Megado is being dressed in painted silk finery for two scarves.   So a return  to more normal fare. 

Now we're off to get our covid and flu shots. Be careful out there....it's not gone away! 😷🤧 💉🦠

Making Waves 🌊

Every now and then, I feel the need to try something new or do something old differently.  Weavers can get into comfortable ruts like anyone else.    Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, so you try a different angle.

So speaking of angles.   I have woven "Wall of Troy" in the past but found this nifty tessellated twill progression at handweaving.net  #78316      If you get right up close, it has a series of little pattern boxes all neatly marching along.   The effect is almost 3D and looks like waves or ripples.

I have this painted tencelwarp from Carr Park Artisans called Blue Lagoon, but at 200 ends, it's rather narrow.  I added a double black (two threads used as one) and a soft gold tencel.     The final band is 8/2 tencel in Mineral Green.  So I'm also trying out an asymmetrical  design as well.   Lots going on....but let's back up a bit to the beaming part....

Some pretty pictures of the threading...

The view of the back where I was testing out 3D printed lease stick holders from GingerlocksHandwovens.com    I had some difficulty keeping them in place and that seems to be on me as I had them turned the wrong way  😳   I must say the lease sticks being firmly wrangled and not bouncing on a cord was quite an improvement!

I went onto buy a set of Lofty Fiber's Helping Hands as well and so plan to see which one suits me best.    

The draft from Handweaving.net #78316

It's a tough grouping of colours to team up with.  After a black weft, I replaced the double black ends with amethyst and used amethyst as weft.    It's nice, but not great.... hindsight says I should have stuck with the back as it has the best impact for all colours and visuals.    Given so many new things being attempted, something had to fall short in expectations.     Can't hit every one out of the park!

The show and tell portion......

I tried some in the shade and some in the sun.  I'm not that good a photographer to compensate beyond toggling my camera to automatic settings.    You do your best.... and try again.

So the learning curve?

• I loved the advancing twill and will weave it again sometime.
• asymmetrical is kinda nifty but the OCD part of me likes things in balance (but I will try it again)
• go with your gut when it comes to colour choices.
• don't be afraid to try!  
• failure is how we learn and grow.
• I'll try the Gingerlocks lease stick holders again but the right way around. 
• Try the Helping Hands version next and see.  Then compare experiences.