Golden Fairy Garden

Some time late last year I bought a painted silk warp from Carr Park Artisan's similar to this one. It was 200 ends and 6 1/2 yards long.   Not really wide enough and not really long enough but I loved the colours!    Also, it's *silk* , the princess of natural fibres!

I knew the 16 shaft draft I wanted to use as it has the beautiful effect of playing with colour and make them appear to flow and shift.  Draft #78116 at Handweaving.net /  designed by Ingrid Boesel in the Thrilling Twills Collection.

Picture 'borrowed' from Carr Park Artisans  

I dug deep in the stash and found a silk bronze gold and a rich silk purple and these gave me nice borders and a width for the scarves I could feel good about.    At 28 epi, the 200 ends would have looked like a neck tie! Here's a peek at the warp on the loom and you can see the flow of the colors.

 I got it all set up in late November 2023 and made a start.... and then I hurt my back in early December.   It would be 7 months before I healed enough to be relatively pain free to weave again.  I also took some time to be depressed and think over my options.

At first I thought I might never be able to weave again.  We use our backs so much in the motions of everything we do at a loom.    Then an MRI showed that I have several disc issues and stenosis, plus my spine moved forward by 9 mm at L3-4 with the disc shifting out the back by 6 mm. Bending forward is a risky thing for me.    I raise up my Spring onto crates to do the tie-up and sit on a low stool. This involves bending / leaning forward and I'd rather not do this.  I love this loom and bought it new 16 years ago and have kept it full and busy all that time.  But with the Megado, there's no tie up to deal with at all.

Besides, there isn't any weaving I can't do on the Megado loom from 2 shafts to 16, and as I always said "there is only one bum for a bench"   😁     I have also acquired a LOT of tools, equipment and books over the last 28-30 years and its time to downsize voluntarily and not end up as one of those "dead weaver estate sales".  I have to say the extra money, space and reduction of stuff is liberating!    Once the Spring loom has moved onto a new home, I'm even thinking of getting a nice comfy chair so I can sit in the empty alcove and read. 

But the Spring is still has a warp being woven (slowly) off and that is all down the road for now.....

Meet Fairy Garden.... woven with olive 8/2 tencel and measures 11" wide by 80 inches long.  Yup, I lost count from weaving one session 7 months ago to more recent.  My notes vanished in the meantime.

The colours flow as I had imagined....

Yes, it's the same scarf but the sun washed out the colours. The true colour is the other photos.

For the second scarf I had to think hard about a warp colour.... and the best option was a 10/2 tencel in a pale gold.  I bought a 3 pound cone of it off of Ebay years ago and it never disappoints. Its also not available anymore sadly.

This is Fairy Gold.... and it's a much softer blending of the colours and it's a quieter beauty.

It's 11" by 72".... so a good length.  Seems the 6.5 yard warp was enough after all as I took my fringe length from the loom waste at either end.   I also didn't get my customary sample for my notes.

So finally some show and tell at long last.... thanks for waiting. 💝

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!

🐞🐞🐞

In a Blink of an Eye

Things were ticking along.  Days getting longer, brighter and even warmer.... I was making plans,  winding future projects.  Finally getting my weaving groove back....

Then I was awakened at 1:30 am one night to find my Hubby in pain and before too long, called an ambulance for him.    That was the start of two to three weeks of  hospital ER visits, medical appointments and diagnostic testing and specialist appointments as he struggled to pass kidney stones.  The one currently trying to vacate is 8 millimetres  (that's this long: ------- ).   After a week something passed but tests show that both kidneys are full of large stones  and one is 2 centimetres! They want to get that one asap.   Then just over a week ago he woke to find he couldn't walk on his right foot and it was exceedingly painful.    Another week of rest and foot elevation before he could even get to the Dr and its gout.  It makes sense given his ability to make rocks.   There's a medicine for that and he's on the right side of that experience and now armed with glasses of water and a new diet.

Its a rather rough  start to the new year: a funeral and then all this...   We have been just dealing with things around here one day at a time.

So long story short, I have been nurse, cook, dishwasher, housekeeper, banker, laundress, and driver to appointments.  Not a lot of weaving going on and all of this was hardly anything you'd want an accounting of....   so no blogging for the past month.

All that being said, I do have some show and tell for you now.....

The warp is 20/2 silk in a lovely champagne colour from Treenway Silks. Its a pale pink at first appearance but then you notice a slight peach to it as well.  It was difficult to find a weft colour that didn't swamp the champagne but this slate grey 8/2 tencel from Webs has a soft way of picking out the pattern.

The draft is a 12 shaft twill from Handweaving.net #55861and modified by me to allow for borders.

It has a definite front and back side and while much darker, its quite attractive as well.

I knew that the scarves needed a little something extra and that possibly could have been beads.... but then the the zig zag of the pattern made me think of this fringe technique.  I think it goes quite nicely!

 For the second scarf I auditioned a few weft colours but none of them seemed to work with out dominating the silk.    Then my helpful Hub dug around in the stash and suggested this olive green 8/2 tencel.

It seems to work well with the champagne  and is a fresh spring like scarf!  Being green, it does tend to bring out more of the peach tone of the silk.  Its quite the chameleon.

Again, there is a definite front and back side to the scarf.

 I also used the same fringe technique on this scarf too and it seems to get first notice before the pattern, the colours....    Amazing how something so simple can grab the eye!

All yarns used came from my stash which was a nice treat.   I do have another warp just beamed and all yarns are also from the stash.   There's no danger of running out any time soon...  😊

 So its going to be a busy month ahead with ongoing medical stuff but the specialist is onto this and moving quickly.    Spring is definitely here and all the neighbours are out tidying up their yards, pruning and planting.  One neighbour has already mowed but its more of a move to clean the lawn than to cut the grass.    I'm drawing up a mental list of outdoor things to do like hose off the house and then clean windows.   Not just yet though......   first I'm going to see about throwing a shuttle for while.

Hellebore that bloomed in early January (Victoria, BC)

Paint the Town Red

This past late spring I was thrilled to be asked to weave two all silk scarves for a client!  She was very particular about what she wanted as far as pattern, colours and fibre which is great.  She had purchased one of my linen / cotton book marks a few years ago and loved the intricate twelve shaft pattern.

yes, this is the same draft as the scarves!

As I had some projects under way on the loom and another special order to go so I had time to order in the silks.   The black 30/2 silk came to me via a friend in California who had done a bulk buy. She has a modern jacquard loom and it eats yarn like crazy! It arrived and looked wonderful!

Meanwhile I found some lovely red 30/2 silk from a Canadian supplier.   When it arrived it was decidedly an orange based red and not the requested blue based red.   It had looked just right on the screen... and of course, all screens are different.  Nothing replaces a real sample and I had clearly overlooked that fact, even though I often tell you just that.   My Bad. 

So my client found what she envisioned as the perfect colour and sent me a link to Treenway Silks and their dye number 42 "Velvet Opera".  Oh, yeah!   Rich, deep and  lush.... and rather burgundy compared to the other reds in the lineup.

So I ordered 30/2 silk, dyed to number 42 and waited for my order.   I was thrilled when it arrived as the colour was simply beautiful!  Then I noticed it.   It was not 30/2 silk. It was 60/2 .

Oh, geez...

I last ordered bombyx silk from Treenway under the old ownership and when it was here on the west coast on Saltspring Island. They called their yarns by their actual type of silk and the size of the grist.  The new owners have given all the various yarns names, which is lovely, but apparently confusing to me when I ordered. 

I called and spoke to Susan at Treenway and asked if a rush order could be done on 30/2 silk and  in number 42 Velvet Opera?   After hearing my story she kindly offered to take back the finer silk but I declined as firstly, it was my mistake, and secondly... I love the colour!  Susan drove some silk over to her dyer who did it right away ( and was about to go away on holiday for a month... talk about cutting that one close! ). It arrived quickly and it was perfect!  

So runs of bad luck usually runs in threes.  I started to wind my warp and it was going well. I had about 50 ends wound when I started to notice little bits of black dyed 'fluff' stuck to the smooth yarn.  They picked off easily enough and I carried on.... but they started to increase and within a yard or two the yarn was covered in little bits.   While they picked off okay and in time would wash out of a fabric, it was not the smooth  silky look I wanted for this project. These are going to New York City!

I located some black 30/2 silk at Sanjo Silks in Vancouver and happily my friend took back the  other 'fuzzy' silk (minus the weight of what I had wound off)  It was a shame as the cone had started out so well

The only other yarn used was a natural off white  bombyx silk, also a fine 30/2  and I'm happy to say, problem free!  From that point on there were no more issues to deal with. The beaming of the warp went well, threading was straight forward and no mistakes, no sleying errors and after lacing on, the warp tension was great!

It was just a lot of weaving as the yarns are so fine!  I listened to podcasts as I wove and mostly CBC's Quirks and Quarks, a science program.   There are several ways to treadle this pattern but I used two of them by the client's request.  Next post I'll discuss the various options and show you how they look.  It also took a bit longer due to Life happening (Calli's surgery) and summer in general (gardens and getting out more).   Then, they were done and I cut them off, leaving a third silk scarf on the loom for later.

The lady's scarf: I twisted a finer fringe this time and made it seven inches in length.

The gent's scarf: was a more regular sized twist bouts and cut to four inches in length.

Time to hand wash them!

I had a feeling that washing the scarves separately would be best and it would seem my intuition was right! The dye job was a rushed order and so perhaps was not rinsed till clear.   I did several rinses and used a drop of synthrapol to help but this scarf will have to go with a warning to handwash separately. 

As you can see from the pictures below, the black really wasn't an issue with minimal bleeding. There was no greying of the white silk at all.   A good hard pressing with my trusty steam iron and out popped that lovely glow that only silk has!

This is the gent's coat scarf:  eight inches by fifty six inches with a four inch twisted fringe.  ( thirty six ends per inch and forty six picks per inch)

Picture above and below how both sides of the scarf. one side is a bit darker, the other a bit lighter.

I can't imagine anyone who would not feel extra special wearing this red and black beauty! The burgundy red is simply rich as this picture shows...

Then there is that silk sheen as this one reveals

The fabric is fine and feels soft and light under the fingers.  It made all the tromping worth while! The finer fringe was also a good idea and it gave a graceful movement to the fringe. It measures eight inches by sixty six inches, as requested.  (Interesting points: both scarves were three inches longer when woven. Relaxation of the warp and wet finishing reduced both by a full three inches in length only.  Drawn in and wet finishing  reduced width by half an inch.)

close up of right selvedge

These two final pictures are my favourites as they really give you a good idea of how lush this colour is!  I think my client is going to be very happy once she opens her parcel.  I know it was hard to part with it myself.

Meanwhile back at the loom, I laced up the warp again and checked my stash for options.  I found a full pirn of fine silk yak blend left over from a recent shawl project. It made sense to me as since I wasn't entirely sure of how much warp I had left. If it was a bit short, then it could be a man's scarf  and if my luck held, then a full length lady's scarf.... plus my pirn would be empty and back in use again! The colour is also nicely neutral too.

Sorry for the slightly fuzzy focus picture but it does give you an idea of how things are progressing. In a word: slowly.  It seemed like I'm treadling a lot for little gain so I set a fine coloured cotton thread into a shed and wove for an inch. Using my trusty pick glass I counted forty six picks per inch!

Well no wonder it's a lot of work.....  Its labelled 30/2 but it looks and feels much finer than the bombyx 30/2 I just used.

So my next post will be a follow up from this project on treadling variations and how you get more bang for your buck out of a tie up and threading! 

Calli report:  she's doing just fine and had her stitches out this past Thursday. Its healed very well and the nasty onesie has been washed and put away.  She will need to see her vet in six months time for a check up.

Me? I broke my recently completed (spring 2017) root canal molar and waiting for yet another crown.   I was planning on getting a crown on it this fall but apparently that wasn't soon enough.   😳