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Saturday, August 15, 2026

Cabbage Rose Shawls


I had a  long painted warp from Carr Park Artisans  patiently waiting for me to bring it out to play.   It's called "Cabbage Rose" and what you see below is all that's left of it.      I finally found a pretty draft that I thought would do justice to the soft pastel shades. 


It's this 16 shaft one by Rebecca Logan and you can find it at Handweaving.net #81232.   Rebecca has 4 shaft point twill in the middle section and I modified that to 8 shaft and played a bit with the far left and right borders.
Both of those were solid 8/2 tencel Ecru.   The green section was 8/2 olive and portions are alternating olive and lemongrass.   Sett is 24 epi.


The centre section is all the painted warp and I used ecru as my weft yarn for both shawls.  No other colour did it justice. White just bleached out the pastels even more.
 

Some pictures of the project underway.  The transitioning was a very interesting effect!


Here's a close up of the green border on the top side.


Photographing it outside was not a good option with the high intensity sunlight.  So I tried in the studio and then again in a brighter part of our home.





This one on the mannequin was sold very quickly to a houseguest.   I was glad to have woven up two!


Here it is again in more natural lighting.



The pattern simply supports the  soft pastels and the border frames it.  The border in the picture below is the reverse side .   Its pretty either way!


Below you can see the pattern's 'x's and o's .



So I think it was well worth the wait.....

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We have been having a quiet summer at home.  Very grateful that we are not directly affected by extreme heat domes, drought (although we do have water restrictions) and wildfires (though we did have lightening strikes start some up island).  Our new heat pump we installed last December was the best investment ever!

We have been doing a lot of small improvement projects around the house.  Replace this, paint that, plan to get carpets and furniture steam cleaned and...... we bought all new appliances.   It was time and actually beyond time.  They were all dated 2006 and so 20 years old.  The dishwasher worried me the most as when they fail, it can be a devastating 'inundation'.  😳 The washing machine was plain annoying and I had to babysit it through the wash cycle as the dial got 'stuck' and the machine would grind on and on.....   The dryer was more like a cool fluffer.... not much heat at all.    We got a new fridge as well as the other was either too warm or too cold and froze our (expensive) veggies. Frozen lettuce anyone?? 

My new LG washer and dryer set are apparently smarter than me and I may set the cycle I want but then it jiggles and weighs my clothes and adjusts the water level and  then locks me out to do its job.    The dryer insisted the dryer vent was not open.    We called in a company to check and apparently, the dryer was right and it was 80% reduced by lint.   Not a good thing!    So AI in my dryer helped to prevent a house fire. 

Gee Whiz....      Go check yours now....... 🏠🔥 😳    



Friday, August 7, 2026

First Anniversary! 🎉

 My Megado 90 arrived in boxes one year ago today! I think we have bonded nicely and been making some nice cloth together and in that time we have made:  

  • 4 shawls, 
  • 7 scarves,  
  • and 20 kitchen towels in the last year. 
I'm also 4 towels into another set of 6 or 7 ... so




It took me about 7-10 days to put her together and I only needed some help with the bottom rails due to back issues.  Nothing helps you to understand a loom, the parts and how they work than putting one together!


Do I miss my larger 110?  yes.... there are some project widths that push the limits of the 90.  Maybe one day my 'future' living space will allow for a larger loom. Until then Maeve and I will continue together.



Saturday, August 1, 2026

Handweaving.net :: A Weavers Resource

 Such a wonderful resource for weavers of any level, and any number of weaving shafts!


As featured in the summer issue of Handwoven 2026

Handweaving.net draft #78116, original design by Ingrid Boesel

16 shaft, 28 epi,  20/2 silk warp and tencel weft, 

woven by Susan Harvey on a Louet Megado floor loom 

Painted silk warp (centre) by Carr Park Artisans (on Etsy)

Solid dyed silks by Treenway Silks

8/2 tencel from Webs



A warm thank you to Kris Bruland of Handweaving.net for inviting me to submit photos!