Sherwood Forest 🍁 🍂

 I fell for this rich painted warp from Blazing Shuttles a couple of years ago and bought it.   Then it sat in the stash to 'mature'  😉   I also wasn't sure how choose the right weft colour and decided that a rich burgundy would be nice.... and I'll defer  the other choice to later on...

The was was 7.5 yards in length and 400 ends.... and I used 397 of them!   Some spares for possible mishaps...

This picture shows the general idea of the colours but they are essentially a burgundy red, forest green, and a tawny gold.   It seems we fall in love with the rich jewel tones and then are faces with choices. 

Here's the warp loaded onto the Megado 110 and is ready for threading.  The Helping Hands really do work at making things feel more stable as you work. 

Then it was time to start weaving and I'm using my burgundy tencel.  It does blend into some parts but that's where a play of light will reveal the pattern.

Then it shifted to the green section and the burgundy sure tones down the red. They are opposite on the colour wheel

Then it shifted to the tawny gold.... which I really liked.

This is the 12 shaft draft I used from Handweaving.net. It's draft #55882

For the 8 shaft weavers out there.... here's the 8 shaft version.    I reduced this one down for a friend but there is an 8 shaft version at handweaving.net. Sorry I don't know the number off hand.

So all done and finally photographed  and the red version  (Dante's Garden) turned out quite nice!  Very rich looking.   The width is 12 inches and length is 74 inches. Soft to the touch and a touch of shine. 

So, no more deferring .... time to choose a weft colour for the second scarf.   I auditioned several choices, including a bronze gold silk and nothing seemed to work.   So I went with basic black.

It turned out quite nicely and very different from the first.  Rather than working in with the warp's colours, it made them stand out, much like leaves in the autumn, in varying degrees of change.      🍁🍂 🌲

This scarf end up being a bit shorter at 64 inches but we oldsters call that a 'coat scarf'.   In my parent's day, scarves went around your neck and  under your coat. This scarf is wide so it can be double folded and would look marvellous under a black wool winter coat.

 So an Autumn project being released on the equinox's eve..... and the funny thing is, I wove these last Spring.  Slightly ahead of my time I guess  😁🍁

Looking for a Change? We Are.... 🏠🤞

 

Dear Readers:   we have our house up for sale, and an accepted offer on another, smaller rancher style home. All pending on the sale of  the home above ⬆︎    

Ever thought of living in Campbell River on Vancouver Island?  Backing onto a world class golf course with a new luxury hotel?   NO LONGER ON THE MARKET.... sorry!

Our realtor told us to use what ever social media we have to get the word out and since we're motivated by the new place we'd like to move to, you bet!

The larger shed will hold a golf cart and there is a large swing open gate at the far right to access the golf course.  Campbell River Golf and Country Club.   We're mid way of the 541' long fairway.    It's just beyond the pond.... yes, pond. Actually there are three in a row....

We love this place but it's time to shift into something smaller, more manageable. So we have an offer on another patio style home just down the street and around the corner at the same golf course.  Why quit a good thing huh?

So it's going to be a chore downsizing our stuff as we go from 2322 sq ft to 1324 sq ft but it will be so much easier on both us ultimately.    Neither of us will be 100% happy and have to give up something so that's a fair compromise.  

I've been downsizing my studio for 5 + years now and gone from three looms to one.... and while Hub has done some serious work in his garage, it's still where most of the culling will have to happen.      They say divesting one's self of clutter is very liberating!  Let's be frank here.... we didn't come into the world with anything and when we leave, we exit the same way.    It all has to go eventually....

I have two scarves that are completed but I have been busy as a one armed paper hanger with all the paperwork, viewings and real estate stuff..... and do have a 2 scarf warp on the loom and just about finished scarf #1.    I'll give you a peak...   4 colours in the gradient

8 shaft Crackle woven as twill.... and if it looks familiar, yes... I wove it before and really liked it so giving it another go. 😊💕

Butterfly Scarves 🦋

 You have been very patient and waited for some time.... so right at the top of this post is some 'eye-candy' 🍭

So if I'm down to one loom, and must weave in shorter time increments, then why not have fun with it and try out new ideas, colour blending, new drafts?    So I worked from my existing stash and found three tencel colours that are close in value (depth of shade intensity) and work well with each other.  Why tencel? Well, I have a lot of it and there are some lovely colours to work with.  I used the gradient program in Fiberworks for Mac and did a 3 colour gradation. Some minor tweaks to soften it out and then printed off the colour order.   

I wound the warp one thread or a few more at a time on my warping mill, inching little 'post it notes' across the colour guide.   The draft I had chosen was very open ended for where the colours landed. No points in the draft to hit the mark, so that is a good thing. 

Each of those bouts are hung with 3 pound weights on an 'S" hook. I shifted them every 2-3 feet or so. It was a lot of back and forth but so worth the nicely tensioned warp!

The colours flowed on nicely and looked wonderful! Dark Teal, Iris and Red-Purple

When I took this picture I didn't know that there were two threading errors lurking in that huddle of heddles! 😬

Sleying also had an issue with crossed threads behind the reed.   I was feeling like a real newbie and it seemed like this start was the slowest ever!

Then I finally started weaving and this is what I saw.... I'm weaving it upside down!   So I'm committed to weaving this one, this way at least. The weft is an old gold / bronze age gold (?) 20/2 silk  from Treenway Silks from the stash. 

I end up having some difficulty with the far right teal edge thread. No matter what I tried, it would fray and break.   Advance the warp more frequently, sit closer to the right on the bench, subtley shift the reed in the beater.  I checked for spurs on the dents.   Lifted the floating selvedge up at the end of a session so it doesn't unwind the plies.... and so on.   Eventually, I could see when it was starting to soften, and I would lift and pin the selvedge thread and start again. It was easier to  needle weave stronger ends in than wispy bits of nothing!

Here is the result of the first scarf.... and now you can see the right side.    Its more warp dominant one side, weft faced the other.... but you know, it works nicely to compliment the whole scarf.   The back side does have a ghosting of the pattern visible.  As you can see from the pictures.

So for scarf number two I had to audition some new colour choices....and there was no silk in something suitable unfortunately.   I found  this salmon shade in tencel. They've tried calling it other names such as red clay etc.  I called it the right colour !  I also wove this one upside down and decided that I liked the big reveal when it came off the loom and so would be a surprise. 

The salmon is rather powerful, but still melds all the colours with a blush of colour throughout. It's my favourite of the two scarves.

They measure 9 inches wide by 73 inches long, plus the  swishy fringe.  

This is the draft I used and you may notice somethings are missing.    This is not my draft, or come from a public source such as handweaving.net or other places.    Its not mine to share and credit must be given to the designer / author.

You will find this 16 shaft draft here in this book, on page 122, by Janna van Ledden who designed this and other drafts inside and authored the book.  It has drafts for 8 shaft to 32 shafts and is presented in both Dutch and English. I do recommend reading the section on how to use and read the drafts *first* and to also seriously bump up your heddles on shafts one and two. Or at the very least count them against the draft.  It's a twill and half basket weave as was related to me by Marion Stubenitsky.

There really aren't much for fresh inventive weaving books right now but this book and also Marion's (such as Echo and Iris)  are ones for your book shelf. 

🌷🌷🌷