Flower Petals and Lace

Its a busy time of year, with gardens, annual house and yard chores,  and I'm not "nose to the grindstone  or loom" quite so much anymore.    Besides, Hubby hurt his lower back and so there's been that to deal with.  Its had work convincing a hurt man to stay still and let his back heal!

Spring chores sort of ground to a halt but we're planning on resuming what we can soon.

the rhodie on the verge of blooming (taken last week)

So enough of all that.... lets talk some weaving shall we?   This draft below is a blend of weft floats that produce flowers and areas of 3 thread huck lace (or mock leno).  I've had this draft for years and not entirely where it came from originally.  It uses special denting and sleying to open the lace areas more.

• using a 12 dent reed, sled two ends per dent in the plain weave and flower sections.
• in the lace sections, sled three ends to a dent, *plus* leave an empty dent on either side of the three end grouping.

I'll tell you that it does make predicting how wide your warp will be a tad bit difficult but from this project and past ones, it adds  1 1/2 inches to every 15 inches planned, so 17.5 inches in width for my current project.  There's a bit of 'fudge factor' with this one. 

Then there's the plain weave treadles.... both far right treadles are for plain weave. This would be your hem allowance or small border before starting the main portion of the draft.    You see, treadle 3 is also a tabby treadle too. Yup, confusing as heck.    Its meant to used as part of the treadling sequence for the lace squares. You treadle lace squares and go directly into weft floats.   You can make the flower larger, or the lace squares bigger, but go directly from one part to the other and do not hit the far right treadles along the way!   Clear as mud? 

8 shaft draft- basic

Draft showing empty dents  between lace groups

I've woven this before....  here it is in  20/2 silks. 

Here is 10/2 cream mercerized cotton and a light moss green silk/ flax/ acrylic weft, with little flecks of colour.

... and here is the same weft used with a 10/2 ink blue mercerized cotton warp in my recent project. It changes the whole look huh? This is on the loom and so under tension ....

Also, same warp but this time I used a dark navy blue 8/2 tencel. You can clearly see the effect the empty dents have on the look.

I also used a silver blue version of the silk flax acrylic yarn I have in my stash  and it gave a more denim loom. It was also a bit slubby  and I went ahead with it, but its not my favourite.

The cloth roll had some distortion where the lace areas collected on each other and so I cut off after 3 runners were woven.    They were secured, washed and pressed, then made ready for hand hemming.

They are all nice but lacking something.... so I decided to try a different colour for the fourth runner.

Our back patio is summer ready now....

A lovely place to sit with a cool drink and spin, or twist fringe on runner number four! The mat on the table is from Nepal and is needle woven by using chain stitch into intricate patterns on a cotton backing cloth.  My brother bought it from a woman along a Kathmandu road side for me some years ago.

This runner is my favourite and has some pizzaz!  I used 8/2 tencel in dark teal and the cloth comes to life with this blending of colours. In the plain weave sections, there is an iridescence effect.  The weft float flowers are a burst of teal green. The over all effect is light and lacy.  It's 17.5 inches by 54 inches. Fringe is 2 inches.

I also used Italian hemstitching on a whim instead of the usual basic hemstitching. The little row of boxes along the edges are quite sweet and compliment the lace boxes.

Yes, more flowers and garden shots. This is my garden's prime time of year, so I'm showing it off!  The chestnut tree is simply loaded. The hummingbirds and bees are giddy with excitement and there is a cascade of flower petals under the tree so it looks like pink snow.

chestnut tree flowers

Not sure that this is but they are happy to be out!

 ...and finally, this is a rock garden plant (again nameless) and there is a literal cloud of tiny flowers on long stems above the little tight leaves. Edit: the little pink and white rock plant is Saxifraga x urbium, commonly known as London Pride.  Thank you Amanda! 

The loom is being reloaded as I write.... and some threading is under way.  All the doors and windows are open and there is a delightful breeze.   We waited all winter long for days like this....

In Between Times

summer phlox... can you smell the perfume?

With just a gentle breeze, the scent of these flowers fill our house! Its the first of September so not many warm days left ahead. The nights have a decided chill to them. The trees and gardens are looking tired.

This post is, well, all over the place! In between times for many things. First up I have a picture below that I wanted to include in my post on the Vancouver trip but it was missed. I found a lovely roof top garden next to our building and it looked like an oasis in the city.

A lovely Japanese style roof top garden!

It gets better! Once at home and downloading my camera, I got to zoom in and take a much closer look. If you click on the picture, you'll see it  too!  There's a good sized pond complete with koi. I wish I could have gone there and taken a closer look...

There's fish in there!

Next up is the studio. I have steadily worked through all my finishing and you are totally up to date with completed projects. I spent a few days winding warps and have one on Lilibet and two additional spare ones for her. Meanwhile I did another adjustment to the 20+ tie up cords on Emmatrude to prevent irregular sheds and then started to wind another towel project. When in doubt, do towels!
Last fall, I made kitchen towels using the pattern 'breaks and recesses' that were very popular with buyers. I like them too as they are a straight 8 shaft draw and same easy treadling as all the pattern is in the tie up. The kind of weaving where you can get just throw the shuttle and get into a wonderful rhythm. No nasty long treading plan to memorize or keep track of.

Triadic colour arrangement again

Here are my colour choices on my warping box. The box was made for me by a friend's husband who was a nifty carpenter. The pegs are removable for larger sized cones and the thread is fed up through smooth holes on the top to the warping board above. The green, and salmon pink cones all have a bit of a yellow undertone and so the soft yellow cone works well with them. The plum works nicely with the green and white is the base colour. This is the triadic arrangement on the colour wheel again, except I picked them first and realized the association later!

Eleven yards of 8/2 cotton,  25 "wide at the reed, sett 24 epi

So, this is where the project sits right now and I'll be working on threading and sleying and starting to weave this week.

stripes of 20/2 silk plus painted variegation of similar size

On  Lilibet, my Louet Spring 90 I have another reprise of a popular pattern. Last year I made runners using cottons, and when I found a hand painted silk skein by Fleece Artist in soft greens, I saw it coupled with cream silk and featuring "Flowers and Lace" again. I won't elaborate too much on the project here as it will have its own separate post sometime soon, but a few details won't hurt!

special denting involved

Its has the green sections of 3 thread huck lace, or mock leno, which is dented three to a dent on a twelve dent reed, with empty dents on either side. The white silk sections are dented 2 per dent (for 24 epi). A bit fussy? perhaps... but look!

silk version of flowers and lace

Its very pretty! I've only just started and now wishing I had done a warp for three scarves and not just the two on the loom. The weft is cream bamboo.

Okay! Now for a seismic shift and taking you out of my studio to the Outside!  We have more renovations under way again but this time not in the middle of my private spaces. The expansive cedar decking has had its day and is slowly rotting away and its time to be replaced. We plan to rebuild it pretty much the same, but there is a portion we are going to return back to lawn and possibly this fall if weather permits, or next spring.

Add two young men with strong backs and eager to get going!

First you hire two young men with strong backs and endless energy. Meet Colin and Pat (in red). Colin runs his own yard maintenance business and is a most enterprising young man! They are removing the railing and glass on the upper deck.

This thing is HUGE! 40 cubic yards

Bruce called for a large bin to be delivered for the wood waste and I was stunned to see this behemoth in the driveway! The walls of this thing are roughly 8 foot high! We'll never use all that....

Add one Hubby who wants to keep up with two twenty year olds!

Meet Bruce, who like the young lads, loves to cut things up and play with power tools and tractors.

young men love to rip things apart... with power tools!

So on day one, the guys got all the lower decks cut up and into the bin and even did clean up of the area. There were tons of little toys under the old deck from children past who used to live here. Most likely they are full grown as the deck is at least 20 to 25 years old.

The lower decks are in here...

The bin is filling but we have lots of room still....

lower side deck and stairs ... gone!

So the side deck beside my studio is now history.  The front entry, which you can see on the left, will be taken down later and replaced when the carpenter comes mid to late September to rebuild everything. That will be a two week process...

...its gone from much  too big, to, maybe too small?

The bin is much fuller now and we have lots of upper deck and posts to go yet. I'm actually wondering if it will all fit in now!

removing the concrete footings

Bruce used the Kubota Kub to remove the concrete footings. The section where he's working is the area we plan to return to lawn. Its level and flat so a load of top soil/ sand mix and a large bag of seed should do it.

Has an open 'post and beam look' to it now

On this day, there's just Colin and Bruce and they have joists and beams to go. The saws sounded so loud inside... my ipod came in real handy! The house looks so small with no decks...

... and down she comes!

Colin did the cutting and Bruce guided it down with a huge *thump!*  They wore big smiles, especially when things unexpectedly fell down and didn't hit something like windows, patio doors... or them!

They have filled it!

Okay, the bin is full, with more to go in.... so what to do?

not only full but trying to make more room!

You get in and rework things a bit.... and turn into  dumpster divers!  They managed to free up room for the heavy posts

Colin operating the Kub

Colin was thrilled when Bruce told him to try his hand at operating the tractor. I watched the whole thing and he was very good at the controls and even parked it in the carport. (Our tractor is under cover and our car isn't... what does that tell you?)

looking smaller and a bit naked!

So at the end of a long day, there's a lone post and a small section of deck to go. The post has mason bees in it and we hope to move it down to the garden so they can help with the fruit trees next spring.  There's three weeks to finish the final portions so for now, sore back and muscles are being rested. Earlier this morning after a night of rain a large Kenworth truck backed up the driveway and picked up the bin. The old decks will be ground up, have composted manure added to it and turned into bark mulch for gardens. I like that whole concept.....