Magenta Mood

Its the Dog Days of a long, hot summer. There was a light sprinkle of rain yesterday that was more of a tease than anything.  The rain specks dried in no time.   I don't want to spoil anyone's summer but a little rain sure would be nice right about now.   Its nice and cool in the lower level of our place and we have every door and window wide open to catch a slight breeze.

I've been working away on the Louet Spring and enjoying my current project very much! Remember my post about keeping a 12 shaft tie up from a past project and then using the old tie up with a new threading?  I kept this tie up: (click on any picture to enlarge)

Then I found this draft with its patterned tie up:

Then when I blended the old tie up with the M's and W's, I got this:

I could see the potential in this one and so got started right away. I wound a warp of 187 ends of 8/2 tencel, six yards long in a bright magenta for two scarves. I just love this colour and I seem to be using it in mixed warps lately. So how about all by itself?  The draft above looks complex. It even seems to have areas of subtle shading around the 'cross arms'..... so how would this look woven up on the loom?

I had some help....

Hubby, Bruce offered to tension the warp and then kept goofing around. I don't think he knew I had the camera so close and handy.... or maybe he did!   The beaming didn't take long, even with his help...

The tie up was already in place and so after lacing on, I got busy! I have been using lacing with tencel as it can be slippery.

First up was navy blue weft and trust me, it was hard to get a decent shot where the sheen didn't take over.  A repeat measured about seven inches. So it became difficult to judge the precise end to the scarf. You have a good length but still a little short, but add one more repeat and it goes a bit too long!  The navy blue weft scarf ended at about seventy  three inches. They lose some length off tension and after washing. It ended up a final seventy one inches by six inches in width)

I've used dark teal and magenta together before and loved the combination so I thought I'd try them together again....

I think you can see some of the iridescent effect. Its beautiful when it works like this.... Both colours are of similar values and depth of shade. The teal scarf end up being a bit longer and final length was seventy four inches by six inches.

Then they were fringed as per my usual method:

I went through my bead stash and found a couple boxes of teal beads, and even a close navy blue. I know I don't have any magenta on hand. I tried a couple of arrangement variations but in the end I took them all out and left the scarves plain.  The pattern seemed to be intense and the colours seemed decoration enough by themselves.   So I washed them up and hung them outside to dry. From dripping wet to just slightly damp took two hours with our heat wave.

I gave them a  firm pressing and left them to completely dry over night. I trimmed up the tassels and I got out the camera for their photo shoot. You have to get the angle just right. They have a different mood depending on which way you look at them! The sett was 24 epi and so they have a nice hand to them.  First the teal version:

I love this shot!

Then the deep and mysterious navy blue....

I had big plans to try the old tie up once more time with another threading pattern but I got a commission at my Etsy store to weave a couple of runners so that's the end of this experiment.  As soon as Brassard's opens their door from their annual staff vacation time I'll be placing my yarn order for the customer's requested colours.  So I'm back over to the big loom and winding on a project there.  

How are you enjoying your summer?   Are the fall colours in your stash starting to call you yet? 

I woke to cloudy skies and light rain today. Yippee! You can hear the garden sighing...