Opal Stars and Waves

The last finished project for the year is now all done and photographed.  One loom is empty now (gasp!) and the other has a runner project about mid way.   Not to worry about the loom being naked as a warp is being wound and is half way completed.

I used to have new warps all wound and waiting ahead of time, but now seem to take more time considering the next project and being more choosy. 

All to the good I think. There's far too much rushing about nowadays.   Between Christmas preparations and making up for lost covid time.... I'm quite happy to take things at a slower pace. 

I'm very pleased with how this project turned out and I'll say that both scarves sold within hours of being listed on Etsy.   That was the fastest part as everything else was slow and measured (literally).   I used my Fiberworks (Mac version) and created a colour gradation using four 8/2 tencel solid colours: royal, grey blue, greyed teal and aquamarine. I had the program create it in quarters and then flipped the centre  so it reversed to the opposite side. The colours are very close so I had to create a second copy with bizarre colours so I could see the colour order better.  Old eyes and glasses that slip all the time can make for a miserable time of it.  I think I spend as much time planning and selecting yarns and colours as I do the actual physical weaving...

So the threads were wound one at a time according to the chart on my warping mill, cut and tied each end.  I actually enjoy the process and have nice music on. Its relaxing to me.  I also like to watch the colours shift and grow on the mill:

The draft is one I found on Pinterest, with no accreditation unfortunately.  If you know who designed this please leave a comment.   This draft creates the 'waves'.

I played around with some treadling variations and when the pattern is reversed, you get stars and long ovals:

That's the beauty, the fun of a weaving program is that you can try all these things out and see a great deal before you commit time and yarn.   You can see the back view, check how long your floats are etc.  There's also an almost infinite selection of colour! 🌈

So, its been too cold or even too sunny to get decent pictures out doors so I'm doing my best inside the house. This is the Opal stars and ovals scarf.   I used the 8/2 tencel colour adobe as weft. The scarf is 10 inches by 72 inches, with a 5 inch fringe.

Below you can see the shift in colours and it would seem that aquamarine (turquoise) is much like yellow, in that a little goes a long way! It does seem to boss the other colours around a bit.

Then there is the Opal wave scarf. A bit shorter at 62 inches by 10 inches wide, but very pretty! Again I used adobe for the weft. It just pulled all the other colours together nicely. Green or blue.

So I listed them just before dinner and when I woke the next morning they were sold.  They are on their way to Maryland! 

We are on the verge of yet another snow event which is to arrive late today or over night.  We have an Arctic cold front to boot, so we'll be staying close to home and keeping warm.     I have done some online shopping and have some dandelion yarn and also green tea yarn coming. Some silk fell into the cart at Treenway too.    Merry Christmas to me!  🎁

In time I plan to show you my new 3D printed lease stick holder for the Megado loom.   A weaver's husband in the States look at her set up and thought: "I can make something better" and he did! I'm looking forward to trying them out next warp.

I would like to take this time to thank my regular readers who patiently wait for me to write.  Wishing you all the joy of the Holidays, how ever you celebrate!

I will be writing my usual annual weaving year in review post on January 1st.