Just Playing.... 🌈 with Colour!

I like to play with my Fiberworks (for Mac) program and try my hand at  creating colour gradients. I know what colours I have on hand, and what I feel looks nice when paired together.   I even like winding it up on the warping mill thread by thread. Weird huh?   😁

This is mineral green, greyed teal, blue Ming and royal  8/2 tencel (from Webs) when blended.   This is the draft I used to wind the colours.  Looks different  but that's because I need to see the colour changes clearly or else go blind trying to see what is next!

I wanted a large open feeling pattern; not so much grids and lines that can occur with some drafts.  This 8 shaft crackle weave suited nicely.

So for the first scarf I used coral 8/2 tencel as my weft. I felt it would pair nicely with the blue's and green's and it didn't disappoint !

But what really woke things up was lemongrass!   It adds "zing"   🍋🌱 and is my favourite of the two scarves!

It was an enjoyable weave, interspersed with Life chores and summer outings.    Fringes twisted up and wet finished.... pressed and trimmed and then time to snap some pictures. 

Coral weft and look how it turned out between the blue and greens!   It's a real chameleon!  The coral looks orange near the greens and pinkish near the blues.

Then it's lemongrass ..... which also changed the under tone colour depending on which side of the scarf you look at.    

It turned out even better than I had in my mind's eye and I can also see other future projects for this draft.   Hard to believe it's just 8 shafts huh? 

Play Results

 I'm reaching back to a post I did in April.....  called Permission to Play.   Sorry to the long wait but it's been a busy spring and now its summer.    Hubby was not well shortly after that post and spent 4-5 days in hospital so everything was paused.   He's okay now thankfully but he does like to keep me on my toes.

This picture might refresh your memory from when I wound the warp on.    It was about seeing what I could do with one inch of left over painted warp  from an older project.    I saved one end in case of breakages, and the other 24 end became the one inch in the middle.   My draft was a 12 shaft twill progression, modified from a 16 shaft version,  so this way there are two repeats in the one inch.   

I had been doubly blessed with greyed blue tencel. I ordered one but received and apparently paid for two.   I goofed up I guess so will be more careful going forward with my ordering at Webs.    I paired it with blueberry and layer with a transition sort of mid way.   The painted warp stripe looked 'blah' so I perked it up with a soft pale gold on either side. 

 To be truthful, I should have left then both sides solid blue's and just use the stripe to separate them, but that's hindsight.... 

I took many pictures of the scarves under way on the loom and they all came out looking very grey, with no hint of blue.  I couldn't work out what I was doing wrong and then I saw this meme on FB about optics.

I wondered about taking pictures later when it was all finished.... but while some turned a weird grey brown, I did get some that were okay.   Still not as good as the real scarves but ....

I used greyed blue tencel as weft for the first scarf and this one is my favourite.    The painted warp strip has colours that shift from plums and blues to bronze and moss green and you can only really see it up close and in person. The one thing that does sparkle is the gold.   I'm glad I added it. 

So of the three pictures shown above, the first one is the best for colour..... but all three look different.  There's that optical weirdness thing happening.

The second scarf I used navy tencel as I couldn't see any other suitable  choice.   Even with the darker blue it also photographed different in each picture. These are the best and closest, with the first being the best of the bunch. 

So that ended the 'permission to play' project and it was time to move to something new.   Here's an 8 shaft version of my modified draft.  (the 16 shaft version is also at handweaving.net)

We are staying close to home this summer and really enjoying our back yard and new wildlife.....

Our two resident rabbits enjoying some relaxation time.  Our garter snake  must have moved on. 

Clematis

Clustered Bell flower

Honeysuckle on the back fence

Peonies were spectacular !

Irises

We are tackling small 'fix-it' jobs around the house.  Just little things such as new heat registers, fresh caulking on kitchen sink, new drawer pull knobs, a lick of paint here and there.    Little things that draw the eye and once fixed they fall back into obscurity.    I'm also carefully going through drawers, closets  and downsizing.... seriously downsizing.   We are going to assess the real estate market once again next spring and see about finding a smaller home and yard. It's time, so   🤞     The markets and interest rates might settle down  by then.  A lot can happen between now and then, but it feels good to start preparing.  It's turning into a buyers market here but we know our worth very well and we're very patient.....

Back soon.... with another weaving post.    Happy Canada Day!  🇨🇦 😎 🍹

Simply Happy Towels 😊 🌈

 

Sometimes I go back and revisit a draft and work with it again. Perhaps modify it, sometimes leave it as is.

This is my third time using this simple 6 shaft herringbone twill (four times if you include a scarf some years back too).   I have been asked to make more kitchen towels and when I ask them why, or what it is about the towels, they say "they are fun and colourful and make me happy when I use them".

A kitchen towel..... bringing smiles to household chores.   😁

Shared stories: A husband who asked where his favourite towel was, and going to the dryer to get it.   Two kids arguing about who gets the 'good towel'!

People who now use a clean fresh towel to rest dishes to dry rather than a draining board that gets slimy if not washed every day.... and who washes them every day? 

So I wound up an 8 yard warp and planned on 7 towels woven to 37 inches each and approximately 25 inches in the reed. They end up after wet finishing and hemming as approx 22 1/2 inches wide by 30 inches. 

I've had nice compliments on my colour choices.  I use rich deep colours in the little 2 end stripes and place colours that compliment each other.  A sampling across the rainbow or colourwheel.  The photo above shows the latest grouping.    If I could go back and change one thing, I would use a royal blue and not a navy blue.... but they are done.    The stripes are doubled ends of 8's cotton, treated as though they are one end.   I thought about using 8/4 cottons but I feel the ply would be rounder than two 8/2's and be more of a physical bump in the fabric.   If someone actually tries this, let me know how it went.    

Anyhoo.... I used 8/2 as I have more of it and a greater variety of colours and that was more important to me. 

The neutral in-between in this case is natural undyed 8/2 cotton.   It supports the stripes and let them shine and is the frame work for the 'best supporting actor' or weft yarn.    Also 8/2 cotton and I purposely go looking for medium to neutral shades such as the light grey, taupe and ivory cream.  But then you get braver and play with some  candy or gelato colours / flavours:  pale orange or 'creamsicle'.... light lime or 'limeade'..... or soft turquoise or 'mint'.    I carried on the candy theme and taupe became 'caramel' and ivory became 'Devon Cream'.    Salmon pink became 'bubblegum'.   You help create the fun right there on the loom!

Here's caramel 

Lime-ade was popular on my FB Thrums page. Over 800+ clicks!  😳

It took me  a while to weave off due to Life intervening (Hub was in hospital again) and also my policy of weaving for shorter time periods and stopping before I get tired or start to hurt (lower back etc). Kind of a less is more philosophy.  

But they were soon off, shown here serged apart, washed and steam pressed, waiting for hems to be turned.

Then I hand sewed the hems while we watched the TV. Thank goodness for longer daylight!  A final steam press on the hems to flatten after sewing and they were done. 

Simple and happy!   Can be a towel or a table runner. 

Hub wanted to keep one of us and I said sure! Which one?

While he was making up his mind, 4 sold to one customer..... I told him to hurry up! 😁

Here's the draft and that's a handweaving.net number so you can go there and download the WIF file and then play with colour.    8/2 set for twill is 24 epi.      Show me what you can do with this!

Simply Silk

Yup, I'm back again....  the sun came out and so did the camera.  It's so nice to have extra daylight once again and it will only get better from here on.

I was digging around in my three bins of silks (gulp)   ... yes, 3 and decided it was high time to use some. I had small skeins of several colours but not enough of any one thing to do a substantial project such as two scarves (so to reduce loom waste).   I thought about it and realized it was never going to be used unless I was willing to combine them, and do one singleton project.  

I reckoned a colour and weave project such as houndstooth might be nice or a tartan.   I have an 8 shaft draft from handweaving. net that is called "The Spirit of Scotland".  I decided to make it a 4 shaft draft and looked at the colour arrangement and my colours were not close but  close enough to say "inspired" by the Spirit of Scotland Tartan.   😉     The colours below were close approximations....   I almost changed the yellow thin stripes for white but left it as it.  The yellow is opposite of purples and so provides a nice tug on the eyes.

Winding it was fun as the colours built up on the mill.  It went quite quickly and I think winding the skeins into cakes took longer to do.    3 yards is a short warp.   My shortest in years!

So what time I saved on winding was soon lost to weaving. It's a slow process changing colours and in some places, such as the smaller stripes, carrying colours neatly up the sides.  I often wondered who thought up this great idea as a day's work was measured in inches..... and that would be me. 😳

But it was worth it. There's nothing like the soft hand of silk.  I set it at 28 epi and I'm not sure that was correct as it covered the warp yarn in places.   So not appearing like a proper tartan per se. It is an inspirational plaid project after all.  Its all done now and I quite like the effect and colour mix together.

Now I have several small balls of left over silk to work out what to do with.  And still 3 full bins of silk to work through. 

Spring is coming.... we have primulas and snow drops up!

🌷🌷🌷

Under Way with Maeve

 It's been a busy time here this October and we're now into November, complete with shifting clocks back an hour to standard time and into what I'd like to call "the Dark Times".   You know, the time period where you can have lunch and watch the sun set at the same time?  😳

It took some time to tweak Maeve up and get her running smoothly. Heddles needed thinning, then layering shaft by shaft so not cause the shafts to float. I discovered that the apron rod at the breast beam (stick is more accurate) is actually 1/4 inch too long and jams under the breast beam when starting a warp. Nothing more complicated other than being simply a tad bit long for the space.  I know a man with a saw who can fix that so not a problem.   

The loom doesn't come with beater blocks anymore like my old loom so we had to make some from maple and install. Funny thing is, they still pre drill it for the blocks and then don't add them. I didn't like looking at the holes, and I wanted the beater blocks as it meant a further reach for arthritic shoulder joints.

The black rubber 'feet' under the loom and bench leave black marks on the carpet, so I ordered clear 1 inch foot cups and after cutting down the soft side to the right height, slipped them onto the bench's feet. No more marks!   The loom's feet will be done at some future date when I have some big burly helpers to tip her side to side to slip them on.   Its little details like this that drive me crazy and so I look for a solution.

In her spot so I can see the garden.... or watch winter storms.  

This plum shade is the start where I wove just to get the feel of the loom and check for errors. Happily none!   I chose a handweaving.net draft #79912 as it used all 16 shafts and is basically a point twill and sequentially a reversed point twill.   The heddles were all bunched up and so each and every one of the 728 had to be teased apart,  cut either top or bottom loop if missed and so this took a fair amount of time to do.

I could see lines in the warp so I carefully checked and they were threaded correctly.  I had used a 14 dent reed, sleyed 2 ends per dent so that reduces warp streaking.     I would stop and check every little thing that looked 'odd' and there was nothing to fix.   

I had double soft butter yellow ends as a design feature in the coloured stripes. I wasn't too sure about that but it worked out okay to have them than not.

It was 7.5 yards of 10/2 cottons from Web's; sett 28 epi.   Approx 25 inches in the reed and I wove each of the 6 towels to 37 inches.    Three has cream weft, one had khaki, one was a plain version of the three main stripe colours and the last was a plaid where I wove a plaid and also included the butter yellow. That one is my favourite.

Here are the group of 6 towels with the Cameo Rose pink stripe facing out.  There was also a silvery purple and a deep mossy green.   The neutral portion of the warp was a cotton colour called Shell and I used a neutral cream as weft on three towels.

This is the plaid:  I also noticed that there were lines in the weft every pattern repeat now that it was off tension.    It also happened on the reverse but in the second portion of the repeat.    It looked like skips!   It affected every towel, front and back.   So I checked the draft, the tie up plan, did the shafts misbehave?     Everything was correct and fine.    So its a feature that appears off tension that looks like a mistake but isn't.    It still bothered me though. 

I have another warp that I was planning to use the same draft again and now was changing my mind on that.  I will use the same threading but a different tie up plan. 

Here my favourite as the soft yellow perks everything up.   I turned the hems and hand sewed them.  I'm not a fan of the 'stitch ditch' line.  Some of my buyers use what I call a kitchen towel as a table runner instead so this makes them more versatile.

The khaki towel.   

The three towels with an off white 10/2 weft.

The towels end up being 21.5 inches wide by 30 inches with the shrinkage and hems turned.   Quite a bit of shrinkage but they are still generously large sized towels.

Things well under way on Maeve: The name Maeve is of Irish origin and means "she who intoxicates" or "she who rules". It comes from the Old Irish name Medb, the name of a powerful warrior queen in Irish mythology, also linked to the Proto-Celtic root *medu- for "mead" (a honey wine). Another meaning associated with the name is "the cause of great joy".  

Well, once we have all our initial  kinks worked out, Maeve will rule the studio and be the cause of much joy !

My newly set up winding station. Current weft yarns on top and the next projects weft yarns on the second shelf.  Third layer has a series of 3 pound weights to use while beaming a warp.  Towel under the winder is by dear friend Wayne Nicholson.

Finally, for those of you out there with 16 shaft looms, the draft and  you'll see there are a few treadling variations to try. I have the number wrong below and the correct draft number is 79912 at handweaving.net.  I call it a senior moment  😉