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! 

⏳ The One Question All Weavers Get.....

Yesterday I was asked again, and by another weaver no less, "how long did that take to make?"  You know, the question that makes you pause, take a deep breath and then quickly mentally evaluate how much time you have to answer and the questioners patience and level to understand weaving terminology?

I answered: "which part?"

The designing, the selecting colours, the project calculations, the warping winding with all the colour changes, the warp beaming, the threading, the sleying, the (actual) weaving part, the fringe twisting, the washing and pressing or the photography?   

Then because I do sell my work: the computer work or building a business page, managing it, adding the listing,  wrapping the sold item and a trip to the post office.

Its quite the little 'hobby'  😳    Obviously I must get some enjoyment from this process as I keep on doing it...

Its more a series of steps. The thought crosses your mind "can I get a smooth enough transition across a warp to have colours flow from one to another?" Closely followed by "what do I have in my stash that I could do that with?"

The draft below intrigued me and I liked the complexity of the intersections. I used the gradation feature in the Mac version of Fiberworks to flow from blue purple to greyed blue to greyed teal to dark teal, using 8/2 tencel.  The colour changes between the greyed teal and dark teal was a bit sharper than I would have liked, but close enough! The rest flowed very nicely one to another almost seamlessly. 

I left the weft as white so I could see more of the pattern and the warp. I also didn't know what I would choose for weft colours as yet.  I was in love with the warp for now! 

The warp colours on the cones.

The transitions on the warping mill. Yes I had to keep very close track of where I was in the colour order. Thank the gods for sticky notes is all I can say!

Then I started weaving. I auditioned several colours and for the first of two shawls, I chose amethyst.  It didn't really excite me but it did work and meant I was weaving and could work out the second shawl's colour later. Besides, I didn't want to reach for black weft yet again.   The pattern in the program looked fine front and back but once on the loom, I didn't like it at all.  Much too warp dominant one side and too weft dominant the other.   I wanted a more balanced view front and back so it could be reversible.

So I left the threading in place as is and went looking for other options for the tie up and treadling.    Version 2 didn't work and so finally I settled on the draft below, Version 3.  This shows the back view and this was my view on the loom.  Its nifty that I can choose which side is up with a click. 

.... and now the project is fully underway and I'm very happy with what is showing up on the loom.

I started to have some tension issues I wasn't happy about and so cut the first shawl off the loom and finished it up.  Finished dimensions (for both shawls) are 21.5 inches wide by 82 inches long, plus a 5 inch fringe.

The colour shift is more subtle here but the sheen and iridescent effect is lovely!

I called this shawl "Verdigris"

For the second shawl, I decided to be braver and I used my Itten Color Star and found that an orangey tone or a gold was something that the blue-purple and green- teals had in common. My cone of  'old gold' was too brassy but the muted pumpkin shade of adobe seemed to fit nicely.     

So here it is underway and finally with only 20-25 inches to go,  it sat for some time as I pulled a muscle in my right shoulder blade area.  Ice packs became my new best friend.  The larger arm movements of throwing a shuttle on the Megado really aggravated it. 

I was able to weave on the Spring as that was the tartan scarves and rather slow going and smaller arm movements.  Okay, anything to stay in the game....

I finally wove off the last bit, plus a sample for my records this past weekend and it was off the loom.  It looks so vastly different to the first and its even more magic in person.   So taking the time to find other options was well worth it and taking a chance.  Nothing much comes from mediocre.

The colour shift in the warp is accentuated by the weft colour....and it sings! This shawl is called "Desert Verdigris"

Change the angle and the light and it looks different again.

The breeze was blowing so you can feel the 'swish' of the fringe.

⏰🕰⏱  So back to the question of time?   I started the planning in January, wound the warp in February, started weaving in March and finished in April.  I had other projects on the go and so everything was done in due course.   Life also intervenes as well.    Its about the finish, not how fast you get there. 

Now how to sum that up in 50 words or less when asked the question?

🐢   🏆  🐇

Eggplant and Olives

Well, I've been chipping away at these projects and showing you snippets....but the time has come for the big finish.

To be truthful I would much prefer to show you an entire project from start to finish in one post but I must multi-task in the studio .... and then there's that real life stuff to deal with too.
Is it wrong to envy weavers in eastern parts who have snow days still?  They can weave away guilt free!  I look out the window and the weeds smirk at me and the lawn is growing two inches a day.
Enough of my whining...

So last time I wrote, the first two scarves "Eggplant to Olive" tencel were off the loom and a new colour set under way. As part of the multi-tasking, I would take a break and work on fringe twisting.

I usually put on some snappy music to accompany the twister workout. It moves along nicely and soon, with many breaks for tossing a ball for Calli,  they were finally done. I rummaged through the bead stash and found I had nothing suitable to match the eggplant / burgundy. (There's that mysterious hole in the stash again.) I had various greens and even olive tones so I worked on the olive scarf first.

Then, time to tackle the eggplant version...

The centre colour is an old gold shade and so I decided to play off of that colour and I have a good selection of gold tone beads to choose from. I settled on gold stars and multi toned gold seed beads and kept it simple. The eggplant weft seems to suck the green out of the olive warp and tone it right down. That's because they are opposites on the colour wheel (well close enough).

Not long after that, I had a friend Lindi over and she was looking at the finished scarves that had yet to go into the laundry tub for hand washing. Now she's familiar with tencel when its all soft and drapey and so it came as a big surprise when she felt the 'loom state' cloth. Its stiff, bumpy and quite unappealing. I told her the washing and pressing is what really completes the project. Especially the pressing part! I hard press the cloth like no other owner of the scarf would ever do. I bear down with a steam iron and flatten the cloth. It sets the threads into place and from then on, just normal hand wash and a light press will be all it needs.

If you buy commercial made fabric its full of sizing and smells funny. You wash before wearing it or using it for sewing.  We do the same with our handwovens because they are not ready for use until you do.

In these two pictures above, I've tried to capture the cloth before and after washing/ pressing. The difference is noticeable!  See what I mean about the eggplant sucking the green from the olive?

So that's Eggplant and now meet its alter ego, Olive:

I really enjoyed weaving these  and looking forward to showing you the next set when they are done.  I'm half way through the second scarf , but with a trip away coming up soon, there will be a debut of an older project next time...

I'll leave you with a new studio acquisition (after all my sales!) My first Bluster Bay end delivery shuttle and some African wenge wood shuttles:

Its made from curly walnut and I can't wait to give it a try on the next new project!