MacLaren Tartan : a multi country experience 🇨🇦 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇺🇸

 I just discovered today that I have yet to post about a finished weaving project. Clean forgot all about it with all our summer activities! 

Every so often I get the urge to weave a tartan and go cruising at Handweaving.net for inspiration, along with a list of available colours in my stash. This time I was wanting to use some of my 10/2 cottons.  A tartan with not too many colour changes .... and this time I chose Maclaren.   Now the draft below is much brighter than the authentic tartan would be.  Also brighter than my actual cottons but I just quickly went for 'close enough' colours for the draft.     I also spread the draft over 8 shafts from 4 so I would have enough heddles per shaft.   Moving heddles on a Megado is a real bear!

My sett was 28 epi and I used a 14 dent reed.    The colours used were all Valley cotton:

• nautical blue
• porcelain green
• autumn blonde
• red
• black 

I put on 8 yards and got 7 generously large towels.  Rather than weave each towel separately, I wove continuously for the full length and would cut apart later.   I felt it gave me less to consider other than to keep weaving and not worry about where an ending could be. 

Here's the warp being beamed and it was  bright and cheery!  I found that the warp used most of my stash of the blue and green. I got another nautical blue from Webs but they were out of the green.   I put out a call on Ravelry's Warped Weavers Marketplace and had  Nancy from New Hampshire come to the rescue with a cone of porcelain green.   It would work nicely as the warp was all from one cone and the weft would be from another.  They would blend together just fine.   *phew*    Same thing for the blue cotton.

Here's a picture of the weaving underway. I was able to carry some colours up the side, by wrapping when switching shuttles, and some I had to cut off and change.    There was very precise number of pics so I was counting constantly.  No doubt about it, it a slow weave..... but once you get into the rhythm of it, it moves along. Not having a boundary set of a certain number of inches for a towel length meant you didn't need to keep track of that..... just keep on working to the next colour.    I just kept going until I saw the rod at the back of the loom come over the back beam.

Here's the freshly cut off the loom warp all laid out.... all 8 yards. There was very little yard waste.

And a closer view. Not that its relaxed, the squares all look square!

I found that 37  or 38 inches (can't recall which right now) occurred at a regular spot in the pattern, so serging apart was straightforward.   No big table for me but a cluttered desk will do.  It works and I just take my time as I go.

They were washed and dried and here I'm about to snip all the tails off prior to steam pressing them.    Hems were turned, pressed and pinned. I had a few evenings where I hand sewed all hems. I quite like the hand work and you feel productive as you watch the telly.

Now for some beauty shots....

They measure 22 inches wide and approximately 30-32 inches in length . Yes, there was a lot of shrinkage plus the hems.

A nice satisfying stack of softness.   Once again, thank you to Nancy of New Hampshire for the cross border assistance. Weaver are wonderful everywhere!    🌎 😊

Just Playing.... 🌈 with Colour!

I like to play with my Fiberworks (for Mac) program and try my hand at  creating colour gradients. I know what colours I have on hand, and what I feel looks nice when paired together.   I even like winding it up on the warping mill thread by thread. Weird huh?   😁

This is mineral green, greyed teal, blue Ming and royal  8/2 tencel (from Webs) when blended.   This is the draft I used to wind the colours.  Looks different  but that's because I need to see the colour changes clearly or else go blind trying to see what is next!

I wanted a large open feeling pattern; not so much grids and lines that can occur with some drafts.  This 8 shaft crackle weave suited nicely.

So for the first scarf I used coral 8/2 tencel as my weft. I felt it would pair nicely with the blue's and green's and it didn't disappoint !

But what really woke things up was lemongrass!   It adds "zing"   🍋🌱 and is my favourite of the two scarves!

It was an enjoyable weave, interspersed with Life chores and summer outings.    Fringes twisted up and wet finished.... pressed and trimmed and then time to snap some pictures. 

Coral weft and look how it turned out between the blue and greens!   It's a real chameleon!  The coral looks orange near the greens and pinkish near the blues.

Then it's lemongrass ..... which also changed the under tone colour depending on which side of the scarf you look at.    

It turned out even better than I had in my mind's eye and I can also see other future projects for this draft.   Hard to believe it's just 8 shafts huh? 

Play Results

 I'm reaching back to a post I did in April.....  called Permission to Play.   Sorry to the long wait but it's been a busy spring and now its summer.    Hubby was not well shortly after that post and spent 4-5 days in hospital so everything was paused.   He's okay now thankfully but he does like to keep me on my toes.

This picture might refresh your memory from when I wound the warp on.    It was about seeing what I could do with one inch of left over painted warp  from an older project.    I saved one end in case of breakages, and the other 24 end became the one inch in the middle.   My draft was a 12 shaft twill progression, modified from a 16 shaft version,  so this way there are two repeats in the one inch.   

I had been doubly blessed with greyed blue tencel. I ordered one but received and apparently paid for two.   I goofed up I guess so will be more careful going forward with my ordering at Webs.    I paired it with blueberry and layer with a transition sort of mid way.   The painted warp stripe looked 'blah' so I perked it up with a soft pale gold on either side. 

 To be truthful, I should have left then both sides solid blue's and just use the stripe to separate them, but that's hindsight.... 

I took many pictures of the scarves under way on the loom and they all came out looking very grey, with no hint of blue.  I couldn't work out what I was doing wrong and then I saw this meme on FB about optics.

I wondered about taking pictures later when it was all finished.... but while some turned a weird grey brown, I did get some that were okay.   Still not as good as the real scarves but ....

I used greyed blue tencel as weft for the first scarf and this one is my favourite.    The painted warp strip has colours that shift from plums and blues to bronze and moss green and you can only really see it up close and in person. The one thing that does sparkle is the gold.   I'm glad I added it. 

So of the three pictures shown above, the first one is the best for colour..... but all three look different.  There's that optical weirdness thing happening.

The second scarf I used navy tencel as I couldn't see any other suitable  choice.   Even with the darker blue it also photographed different in each picture. These are the best and closest, with the first being the best of the bunch. 

So that ended the 'permission to play' project and it was time to move to something new.   Here's an 8 shaft version of my modified draft.  (the 16 shaft version is also at handweaving.net)

We are staying close to home this summer and really enjoying our back yard and new wildlife.....

Our two resident rabbits enjoying some relaxation time.  Our garter snake  must have moved on. 

Clematis

Clustered Bell flower

Honeysuckle on the back fence

Peonies were spectacular !

Irises

We are tackling small 'fix-it' jobs around the house.  Just little things such as new heat registers, fresh caulking on kitchen sink, new drawer pull knobs, a lick of paint here and there.    Little things that draw the eye and once fixed they fall back into obscurity.    I'm also carefully going through drawers, closets  and downsizing.... seriously downsizing.   We are going to assess the real estate market once again next spring and see about finding a smaller home and yard. It's time, so   🤞     The markets and interest rates might settle down  by then.  A lot can happen between now and then, but it feels good to start preparing.  It's turning into a buyers market here but we know our worth very well and we're very patient.....

Back soon.... with another weaving post.    Happy Canada Day!  🇨🇦 😎 🍹

Simply Happy Towels 😊 🌈

 

Sometimes I go back and revisit a draft and work with it again. Perhaps modify it, sometimes leave it as is.

This is my third time using this simple 6 shaft herringbone twill (four times if you include a scarf some years back too).   I have been asked to make more kitchen towels and when I ask them why, or what it is about the towels, they say "they are fun and colourful and make me happy when I use them".

A kitchen towel..... bringing smiles to household chores.   😁

Shared stories: A husband who asked where his favourite towel was, and going to the dryer to get it.   Two kids arguing about who gets the 'good towel'!

People who now use a clean fresh towel to rest dishes to dry rather than a draining board that gets slimy if not washed every day.... and who washes them every day? 

So I wound up an 8 yard warp and planned on 7 towels woven to 37 inches each and approximately 25 inches in the reed. They end up after wet finishing and hemming as approx 22 1/2 inches wide by 30 inches. 

I've had nice compliments on my colour choices.  I use rich deep colours in the little 2 end stripes and place colours that compliment each other.  A sampling across the rainbow or colourwheel.  The photo above shows the latest grouping.    If I could go back and change one thing, I would use a royal blue and not a navy blue.... but they are done.    The stripes are doubled ends of 8's cotton, treated as though they are one end.   I thought about using 8/4 cottons but I feel the ply would be rounder than two 8/2's and be more of a physical bump in the fabric.   If someone actually tries this, let me know how it went.    

Anyhoo.... I used 8/2 as I have more of it and a greater variety of colours and that was more important to me. 

The neutral in-between in this case is natural undyed 8/2 cotton.   It supports the stripes and let them shine and is the frame work for the 'best supporting actor' or weft yarn.    Also 8/2 cotton and I purposely go looking for medium to neutral shades such as the light grey, taupe and ivory cream.  But then you get braver and play with some  candy or gelato colours / flavours:  pale orange or 'creamsicle'.... light lime or 'limeade'..... or soft turquoise or 'mint'.    I carried on the candy theme and taupe became 'caramel' and ivory became 'Devon Cream'.    Salmon pink became 'bubblegum'.   You help create the fun right there on the loom!

Here's caramel 

Lime-ade was popular on my FB Thrums page. Over 800+ clicks!  😳

It took me  a while to weave off due to Life intervening (Hub was in hospital again) and also my policy of weaving for shorter time periods and stopping before I get tired or start to hurt (lower back etc). Kind of a less is more philosophy.  

But they were soon off, shown here serged apart, washed and steam pressed, waiting for hems to be turned.

Then I hand sewed the hems while we watched the TV. Thank goodness for longer daylight!  A final steam press on the hems to flatten after sewing and they were done. 

Simple and happy!   Can be a towel or a table runner. 

Hub wanted to keep one of us and I said sure! Which one?

While he was making up his mind, 4 sold to one customer..... I told him to hurry up! 😁

Here's the draft and that's a handweaving.net number so you can go there and download the WIF file and then play with colour.    8/2 set for twill is 24 epi.      Show me what you can do with this!