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.  

Abalone Shimmer

 Winter hit here in a hurry.   We were enjoying a regular fall day and the next morning we woke to snow and rather cold temperatures.   It was a shock to us but more so to the trees and garden who were still wearing leaves and in some cases, flowers!    I cut these little rose buds the night before to enjoy in the house and good thing I did or they'd be frozen stiff the next morning.

The snow is gone now thankfully but now we are wrapped in fog and its been here for several days now.  I couldn't see my neighbour's house last night. Its eery and quiet.     It also means there have been delays to getting some pictures taken for you.  

Eventually, it brightened up enough to try my hand at fog photography.   Too much direct sunlight saps the colours out of the subject and so I thought this might just work.... 

This scarf warp was a blending of five colours of solid 8/2 tencel shades: Ming Blue, Aquamarine, Grey Blue, Greyed Teal and Dark Teal.   I used the gradation feature in Fiberworks (for Mac) and after some tweaking, I wound the warp one thread at a time.   I find it relaxing and quite enjoy the process. Seeing the changes build on the warping mill is a treat for the eyes.   This picture from its early start on the loom shows the warp colours best.

The weft is 30/2 silk from Treenway, dyed in a colour called "#42-Velvet Opera".  It was left over from this project.  Its pretty fine stuff so its a slower weave working through repeat after repeat.

But the results are lovely. Its a fine cloth, with a very soft touch.... its as light as a feather!   As you can see, the base warp colours still manage to make their presence known.   The burgundy /wine colour works with the blues on one side and also the teal greens on the other.  This scarf is called Summer Wine.  🍷🍇

Subtle iridescence ?  😊

This picture is my favourite of this bunch.   I guess they could be brighter but sunshine would have drained the colours away.

So.... what to choose for weft for scarf number two?   I had some criteria set: it had to be silk, it had to come from my stash again, and it hand to shake hands with all the colours in the warp.     So I checked my Itten Color Star for a nudge in the right direction. Then I got digging through my silk bins....    I found an antiqued apricot 20/2 silk I bought from Etsy shop "Sericin" some time ago. I think they may even be naturally dyed.    I wound some up and did some test weaving..... and liked what I saw!

I had one weaver who saw this picture and she described it as abalone..... and so its called Abalone Shimmer. As you can see from the pirn in the picture, the silk weft is also not dyed to one base colour but it varies in tone, which adds so much more depth to the overall affect.    It also seems to help in blending the warp colours better so they seem to flow.   Its thread magic!  

And the final scarf?   Well, you can see for yourself..... and like a favourite child, I took more pictures of this one than the last.     (oops)

The pattern is an 8 shaft twill progression and uses only 8 treadles. To get this length of repeat is a lot of dancing on the treadles in twill runs to and fro, progressively in one direction, then another. 

Someone thought it was a 16 shaft twill so all the dancing was worth it! 

My husband took some picture of the scarves too and he took the one below which I really like.  Its shows all the nuances of colour.  I told him I was going to try my hand at photography in the fog and I think he didn't want to be left out of the experiment.

So what's happening in the studio now?

I have a single scarf in silk and tencel again on the Spring and more table runners on the Megado loom that have a 348 repeat or 15 inches.  😳    Three repeats gives you a whole runner!  Plus my legs are getting quite the work out.   They, the runners that is,  are coming along well.

I'm about to wind another colour gradation  as I really like the effect and its using what I have on hand which is a good thing.   

I have succumbed to more yarn and have some dandelion yarn coming.... and also green tea.   This new use of other plant fibres just fascinates me.    Now to come up with a project for that.   I'll decide when it arrives and I have it in hand.

Stay warm.... and keep your shuttles moving! 

Tropical Sunsets 🏖🌴

This is the  sort of image that I saw in my mind when I saw the painted warp shown below.  This picture of the warp is 'borrowed' from Carr Park Artisans (at Etsy) as Christine uses it as her header image.  Her name for it was Dazzling and it didn't disappoint. I sadly didn't take a picture of the warp all chained up before loading it on my loom.

So what goes with all these colours and does them justice? I auditioned many colours from my stash, but only two did the trick.   Black and a touch of gold.   Next up was what pattern would accentuate the warp and pull the eye along?    A twill progression / advancing twill?    I set up a simple 8 shaft point twill on the Megado and let it keep track of an extensive treadling plan.    It worked... the pattern just slowly drifted through the colours.

Here's the draft showing two versions of threading and treadling. I used the point twill and treadling as shown on the right.

These were taken soon after loading the loom and getting started. They show the colour transitions along the warp.  The weaving was always fun as the view was always changing!

A closer shot showing the black and gold border and how the pattern played through the gold stripe.

Ending the shawl got tricky as I got closer to my planned 85 inches. The pattern fell short and so I did one more repeat and then went over.    A case of 'close enough' and it was time to move onto the second shawl. 

Again, I wanted the feeling of movement through the colours and played with this advancing twill.  I simply inserted my draft on the right and took a look at what it looked like.   It resembled flowing raindrops.  Nothing more tropical than a rain shower !   I can recall visiting Fiji many years ago and it rained every day about 4 pm.   It was like clock work!

We had a particularly cold and snowy January and so I had plenty of weaving time.  Next thing I knew I was bumping into the back of my heddles!  I was able to get two full sized shawls plus a bonus table runner from my 8 yard warp.  I decided a runner was preferable to a few samples and lost warp.   I have contented myself with pictures of the shawls and a thread or two of the painted warp  for my sample notes.

Then life conspired to get in my way of taking pictures!   If the sun came out, we always seemed to be away from home.  At home?   it would be a dark and dreary day.  Finally, it all came together a couple of days ago.

Tropical Sunset Feathers

I must admit this one is my favourite of the two.

As my cousin in the UK said "all you would need is a black dress to be totally elegant".    I agree with her completely.

Tropical Rain Sunset

Here it is completely undraped to show the full range of colours.

Now, all swayed up and as elegant as having no arms can do!  

Not the best shot but it does show the pattern and how deep the colours are.

Then we have the bonus table runner!

It was 34 inches before hemming  so that was a lot of left over warp!  I did my usual small turn and hand sewed. After the steam press did its magic, it lays perfectly flat and no obvious stitching shows at all.  It looked kind boring so I plonked a little plant down.

Close up of my favourite part of the colours! 

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I almost have two more scarves woven off on the Spring, so you should see them here soon, and a new 9.5 yard cotton warp for kitchen towels has gone onto the Megado.   In the garden we already have primroses and crocus up, with flowers on the viburnum, and the heather is in it glory. The camellia buds are opening by the front door. Ducks are back on the pond and its definitely lighter out each day.

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