Butterfly Scarves 🦋

 You have been very patient and waited for some time.... so right at the top of this post is some 'eye-candy' 🍭

So if I'm down to one loom, and must weave in shorter time increments, then why not have fun with it and try out new ideas, colour blending, new drafts?    So I worked from my existing stash and found three tencel colours that are close in value (depth of shade intensity) and work well with each other.  Why tencel? Well, I have a lot of it and there are some lovely colours to work with.  I used the gradient program in Fiberworks for Mac and did a 3 colour gradation. Some minor tweaks to soften it out and then printed off the colour order.   

I wound the warp one thread or a few more at a time on my warping mill, inching little 'post it notes' across the colour guide.   The draft I had chosen was very open ended for where the colours landed. No points in the draft to hit the mark, so that is a good thing. 

Each of those bouts are hung with 3 pound weights on an 'S" hook. I shifted them every 2-3 feet or so. It was a lot of back and forth but so worth the nicely tensioned warp!

The colours flowed on nicely and looked wonderful! Dark Teal, Iris and Red-Purple

When I took this picture I didn't know that there were two threading errors lurking in that huddle of heddles! 😬

Sleying also had an issue with crossed threads behind the reed.   I was feeling like a real newbie and it seemed like this start was the slowest ever!

Then I finally started weaving and this is what I saw.... I'm weaving it upside down!   So I'm committed to weaving this one, this way at least. The weft is an old gold / bronze age gold (?) 20/2 silk  from Treenway Silks from the stash. 

I end up having some difficulty with the far right teal edge thread. No matter what I tried, it would fray and break.   Advance the warp more frequently, sit closer to the right on the bench, subtley shift the reed in the beater.  I checked for spurs on the dents.   Lifted the floating selvedge up at the end of a session so it doesn't unwind the plies.... and so on.   Eventually, I could see when it was starting to soften, and I would lift and pin the selvedge thread and start again. It was easier to  needle weave stronger ends in than wispy bits of nothing!

Here is the result of the first scarf.... and now you can see the right side.    Its more warp dominant one side, weft faced the other.... but you know, it works nicely to compliment the whole scarf.   The back side does have a ghosting of the pattern visible.  As you can see from the pictures.

So for scarf number two I had to audition some new colour choices....and there was no silk in something suitable unfortunately.   I found  this salmon shade in tencel. They've tried calling it other names such as red clay etc.  I called it the right colour !  I also wove this one upside down and decided that I liked the big reveal when it came off the loom and so would be a surprise. 

The salmon is rather powerful, but still melds all the colours with a blush of colour throughout. It's my favourite of the two scarves.

They measure 9 inches wide by 73 inches long, plus the  swishy fringe.  

This is the draft I used and you may notice somethings are missing.    This is not my draft, or come from a public source such as handweaving.net or other places.    Its not mine to share and credit must be given to the designer / author.

You will find this 16 shaft draft here in this book, on page 122, by Janna van Ledden who designed this and other drafts inside and authored the book.  It has drafts for 8 shaft to 32 shafts and is presented in both Dutch and English. I do recommend reading the section on how to use and read the drafts *first* and to also seriously bump up your heddles on shafts one and two. Or at the very least count them against the draft.  It's a twill and half basket weave as was related to me by Marion Stubenitsky.

There really aren't much for fresh inventive weaving books right now but this book and also Marion's (such as Echo and Iris)  are ones for your book shelf. 

🌷🌷🌷

Leaning into Fall 🍁🍂

 Trees in our area are either showing signs of drought stress, or starting to turn early.   Since we had some generous rainfall, it must be the start of Fall. The sunlight comes in at an angle now and there's a golden glow, and the nights are cooler.  Having said all that, we are going into a few days of summer heat again. 

  Its all about change...

Speaking of which, there are a changing of seasons in my weaving room and I undertook the last tie up on my Spring.   I took my time and listened to my back and grateful it was only 8 shafts and 8 treadles ( and not the full 12!)

Then in keeping with the slower approach, I played with some Danish medallions.  Its been a while since I've done them so I'm slow, and the yarn is fine, and there 714 ends.... but the first two rows took me three hours! I told Hub that I wove an intense half inch today!  😳  Usually they are done in a heavier 'gimp' yarn but I wanted them to be more subtle and be an accent at the start of the shawl.   There may be seed beading added later.... I'm still deciding.  It will be a good test for my new glasses on order.

Finally, the main pattern is underway and what you see here is 3 repeats and this is where I stopped for the day yesterday.   Its rather pretty!

I'm also fringe twisting the two scarves that came off the Megado, and then washing and pressing. I hope to get some photos of them in that golden light outside this weekend.

I've done some spinning / plying so some skeins will be washed and hung outside to dry. 

Getting things done again and enjoying the process.    

Now..... Isn't that the whole  point?   Because......

Helping Hands 3: Conclusion

So... to refresh our collective minds: This is the project where I was using my new Helping Hands to beam a warp and then thread on my Louet Spring loom. (Please read part 1 and part 2 if you haven't already.)  I must say that in spite of my newbie mistake of clipping the lease sticks in the wrong spots with the pegs, it all went smoothly after that. I'm sure it will get easier with each new warp and become a valued addition to the 'tool kit'.

I bought a set of the Helping Hands for the Megado loom too and will report on that experience at a later post.

So this third post is to conclude what happened with the warp that I beamed onto the Spring using the Helping Hands.    

I had an interesting 10 shaft crackle diamond draft # 13414 from Handweaving.net and when I started to weave, I decided very quickly that I did not like it at all. The weft floats were all raised up like an old chenille bedspread and it was very "not me" at all.    It also had a threading error mid way to condemn it further. I had been so slow and careful threading too, and so I took it personal.   🥺

So UN wove and removed it, reinstalled my lease sticks (for which the Helping Hands holder was  quite perfect really)  and pulled back the warp and was ready to start all over again.    EXCEPT the tie up.  That's the big part I really didn't want to do all over again.

So I went in search of a 10 shaft draft that looked good with the old tie up left in place.   I found this:

The new threading is draft # 13889, and actually the tie up for this draft and the old one were very similar. I also went stash diving and found a pretty lace weight / 20/2  silk alpaca yarn that is soft and has soft muted mix of colours and it seems to go very nicely with the navy 8/2 tencel. The yarn has a bit of loft to it.    It's a large over all pattern that up close is actually hard to see, but pops out when you step back. It's also a very long repeat of 238 or 7 1/2 inches of weaving. So no phone calls please, and don't talk to me unless you are on fire! 🔥

As I have mentioned before, I use the automatic settings on my DSLR camera and so not that smart when it comes to adjusting settings to compensate for shade or strong sunlight.   So I took pictures in sun and shade and hope that the overall scarf comes through.    Shade shows the truer colours and the bigger pattern is revealed above but the close up below shows a more diffuse patterning.    The 70% silk / 30% alpaca makes for a lovely soft hand.

Then in the sunshine, you can see the sheen of the yarns, although it doesn't do the colours justice.

Now, I had wound pirns of magenta tencel to do the other draft that I disliked and so decided to use them for the second scarf. I've used magenta and navy before with great results so I hoped to do so again.   So these two shots are the sunshine version:

Then the shade:  The colours are richer, the sheen more evident.

The Spring has been reloaded and then next four warps (two  on the Spring, and two on the Megado) are all about kitchen towels.  Lots of them.    I'm busy setting things up and winding warps.   I'm also enjoying our summer and spinning outside.

🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

Happy Canada Day!  

    

and.....

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Happy 4th of July!

Making Waves 🌊

Every now and then, I feel the need to try something new or do something old differently.  Weavers can get into comfortable ruts like anyone else.    Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, so you try a different angle.

So speaking of angles.   I have woven "Wall of Troy" in the past but found this nifty tessellated twill progression at handweaving.net  #78316      If you get right up close, it has a series of little pattern boxes all neatly marching along.   The effect is almost 3D and looks like waves or ripples.

I have this painted tencelwarp from Carr Park Artisans called Blue Lagoon, but at 200 ends, it's rather narrow.  I added a double black (two threads used as one) and a soft gold tencel.     The final band is 8/2 tencel in Mineral Green.  So I'm also trying out an asymmetrical  design as well.   Lots going on....but let's back up a bit to the beaming part....

Some pretty pictures of the threading...

The view of the back where I was testing out 3D printed lease stick holders from GingerlocksHandwovens.com    I had some difficulty keeping them in place and that seems to be on me as I had them turned the wrong way  😳   I must say the lease sticks being firmly wrangled and not bouncing on a cord was quite an improvement!

I went onto buy a set of Lofty Fiber's Helping Hands as well and so plan to see which one suits me best.    

The draft from Handweaving.net #78316

It's a tough grouping of colours to team up with.  After a black weft, I replaced the double black ends with amethyst and used amethyst as weft.    It's nice, but not great.... hindsight says I should have stuck with the back as it has the best impact for all colours and visuals.    Given so many new things being attempted, something had to fall short in expectations.     Can't hit every one out of the park!

The show and tell portion......

I tried some in the shade and some in the sun.  I'm not that good a photographer to compensate beyond toggling my camera to automatic settings.    You do your best.... and try again.

So the learning curve?

• I loved the advancing twill and will weave it again sometime.
• asymmetrical is kinda nifty but the OCD part of me likes things in balance (but I will try it again)
• go with your gut when it comes to colour choices.
• don't be afraid to try!  
• failure is how we learn and grow.
• I'll try the Gingerlocks lease stick holders again but the right way around. 
• Try the Helping Hands version next and see.  Then compare experiences.

Act in Haste and Repent at Leisure

 Some of my regular readers will recall this scarf woven last year?  I wove them in the fall of 2022.  I used a gradation feature in Fiberworks for Mac and blended five colours of tencel.    The first scarf used a rich wine coloured 30/2 silk and the second (shown below) used a hand dyed 20/2 silk in a browny apricot. There was only one small skein and it made the warp spring to life.

I listed the two scarves for sale on Etsy and later that evening just before bedtime I decided to take the Abalone shimmer out of the shop in the morning and keep for myself.    You guessed it, in the morning it was sold to a lady in Maine.   

Next thing I know, I received a private message from another Etsy customer positively begging me to make her one. I explained that I don't have any more of that silk weft yarn. That didn't deter her and she kept on asking.

So I contacted the seller I had bought the original silk weft yarn from.... in 2014 no less!   She had just moved her home and there was no dye kitchen set up or likely to be for some time. No, she didn't have any of that silk / colour.

So I went to my favourite silk shop, TreenwaySilks.com  I have been shopping with them since they were on Saltspring Island and then owned by Karen and Terry Selk. Now in Colorado and owned by Susan Du Bois.   A few shopping trips at the web site brought orange / pumpkin / peachy toned skeins my way (um, and a few other unrelated silken skeins).  I mailed Susan a sample of the coloured silk I needed and we did a colour consult via phone.   Susan handling the skeins at her end and me peering at the online colour card at mine.  (Yes, we had a discussion about getting real colour sample cards and their complexity to set up.)

I ordered  two more colours:  Arbutus and Spiced Cognac and waited for the mail delivery.    Spiced Cognac was a perfect match!!     Now all this silk skein hunting took place over a month or so. It took some  time to find just the right shade. Mean while I wound another warp for two scarves.   One for the customer and one for ME.  😁

I used my previous notes and records from the first batch woven and it went very smoothly. The test was when I started to weave with the new weft yarn:

Big sigh of relief!   I got the first scarf woven and cut it off the loom.   That's when I got a nasty muscle spasm in my back earlier this year and couldn't weave for some time while it 'unclenched'. I did get the fringe twisted, then washed and pressed the scarf and mailed it to its new owner.   She was thrilled. 

My customer who nudged me to weave it again said:

It is BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT in every way!  
I simply could not be happier:)
Your exacting workmanship, artistic eye, and deep care is woven into every thread....so not only is it gorgeous, the feeling of it is delight-full when put around my neck. I cannot thank
you enough for carrying through with my longing to have this scarf, finding just the right shade of 'peach' to put in it....the subtlety of the blue changing to green....oh my....it is a artful wonder that keeps ongiving. I will treasure it and your kindness, always:)

So my scarf took some time to lace on and resume weaving again.... but it is done and is ready for me to wear (once I have gone clothes shopping to have something nice to go with it).

This is the second iteration ..... and now I can enjoy wearing this!

The spicy  peach tones brings out all the best in the warp colours. In fact it even makes colours appear that aren't there.... such as the green below.   There are teals and aquamarine.....see the warp pictures at the top.

See you again soon!

🐞🐞🐞