Running into Spring 🌷

 🌱

Spring arrived yesterday but you wouldn't know it by looking outside. Stormy day with blustery winds blowing in a steady drizzle of rain.   It looks cold too.   There are valiant early spring flowers poking their heads up and birds are returning and looking for nesting spots.  The starlings that nested in our eaves last year will be in for a surprise as that was well barricaded to evict them!

So we have been super busy with many medical appointments.  The ones that were put off due to the omicron wave, and the heavy snowfall in December.   There seems to be something on the list for almost every day as we catch up so weaving has been hit and miss while we be 'good adults'.  Even the taxes were done....   😳

So I do have a project to show you but must say that these pictures are not their best and brightest. They were taken indoors and in order to show you the 'white on white' pattern blocks, I needed some awkward lighting.

Draft 246 from  Carol Strickler's classic " A Weavers Book of 8 Shaft Patterns" seems to be a favourite among weavers. The satin blocks, when using colour to best advantage seem to look woven over and under each other.   I love some of the colour combinations I have seen but it can look rather 'busy' visually.  I decided to try some table runners in a finer 10/2 mercerized cotton, sett 28 epi. A snowy white and softer muted colours as striped defining the borders.  Cameo Rose, Sponge (moss green), Frost grey (silver mauve),  and Autumn blonde. Without really trying, I was weaving something that said Spring.  🌷

After six inches of hem allowance, I did ladder hemstitching. The cotton has some bite to it so you are able to pull tightly and have it stay put as you work. The 'ladders' are nicely defined.

This picture above shows the changing blocks and how the stripe appears to do a side step.

A screen snap of my draft.  I was originally going to use a soft silver grey weft for the cross stripes, but my actual cone of silver grey was too dark for my liking and I preferred the white instead.  As you can see, the blocks can be of any size you like, depending on the yarn size used or the look.

I serged the runners apart and hand washed them. After drying on a rack overnight, they were steam pressed and then shifted to the ironing board to turn the hems.   Dividing it into thirds and pressing.

With the final third brought up to the bottom of the hemstitching, it was pressed again and pinned.  It all folded nicely and stayed put as I worked.   Then I hand sewed the hems using a running blind stitch and also closed the end open loops of the hem.    Pressed it firmly again.   Most women hate ironing, but its a valuable tool in the weaver's arsenal of finishing tricks!  (Don't skimp on price and buy a heavy one.  I get compliments on the appearance of my final woven projects, but the main secret is my iron ! )

Front and back of the hems.

I wove three runners:  17 inches by  46 inches and 17 inches by 55 inches featuring just lengthwise stripes.

The last runner I decided to try cross stripes and wove a runner 17 inches by 58 inches.  I think with a colourful table cloth underneath, such as mossy green, it would be a nice runner for Easter.

My big table is approx 94 inches long so even 58 inches looks short here! I have chairs for six but it can comfortably seat 8 people.

I'm trying different angles here to get the light!

This last darker shot is to show the changing blocks. Next time I use this pattern 246, I'll try the more colourful versions and weave up some happy kitchen towels. 

So what's up next?   Scarves and they are under way. After that?  I have a warp would for kitchen towels and a friend is having a baby so I'm looking for drafts and cones in the stash for that.

🌷🌷🌷

Caribbean Twilight

I have been spring cleaning. Every nook and cranny has been swept clean,  inside windows sparkle and now I'm pressing and re-installing the draperies after cleaning.  I must say it feels darn good!! I'm going to keep on whittling things down further by diving into drawers and closets in the coming days.

I'm continuing to downsize in the studio also and have vintage and even two antique books listed at my Etsy page.    The antique books are 99 and 101 years old!

So no new weaving has been under way but I have managed to finish off the last project from the Louet.   The loom is currently naked but I hope to beam a warp on her either today or tomorrow.

I had given you a sneak peek of the second color gradation scarf.  I used the eggplant (or aubergine) and magenta again but this time I teamed it up with azure and dark teal. I also changed the blending area in the centre to shorten up the sequence.  You have to love weaving programs as you play around and try different things long before you get to the loom or waste expensive yarns. Well, actually .. you can still get a pleasing draft on the computer and still have a disappointment at the loom. The mixing of colours and the play of light all have a hand in what counts as a success or failure, not to mention what you like or don't like personally!

I love the concentration of colour on the warp beam!

I had the scarves finished before we went to the birthday party and they only needed to be beaded and washed and pressed once we got home. Once again, I had no purple aubergine beads so had to go for the teal and turquoise.  Not too many of those to choose from either. I end up emptying my entire bead collection out on the desk and then spent much time reorganizing them that so I can actually find things!

I accidentally dumped an entire container of turquoise beads on the Berber carpet. I was down on the floor for about thirty minutes picking them up when Bruce found me and got down to help me.  I must have knocked them far and wide over six square feet. Now he's a real pal! They were the right color that I needed to use so I had to save each and every bead. I'm grateful I had vacuumed just the day before so not bring up too many surprises along with the beads!

I made a list of the gaps in my colour range and so will carry that list in my purse for future shopping trips. I had only one spool of thread that came close in colour too so there's another gap to fill as well.

I took pictures of the beading process and unfortunately I didn't check them on the camera as I went and it seems that none of them turned out. My camera settings had been changed and I didn't see that. Oh, well.... I basically followed my usual routine and that is found here .

So  the project basics are: 8/2 tencel, sett 24 epi, two scarves and samples from 6.5 yard warp. The finished dimensions were 7 inches in width and 71 inches in length, plus generous length of twisted fringe.
So here they are...

There is a beautiful sheen to the cloth that doesn't seem to come through in the pictures. Also, it seems to be hard for the camera to accurately get the colour mix and they are richer in person. The colours remind of what I imagine an evening twilight time by the Caribbean might be like.

Not sure what the next project on the Spring will be but if its scarves,  it will be a two scarf warp again. That way I get my mileage from the loom waste and not get bored with the same treadling or variation. 

To be truthful after doing my planning, colour choices and playing with it in PCW Fiberworks....then I see the first repeat on the loom and I'm ready to move on!  Crazy huh?  Newbie weavers can't wait to get to the "real weaving part" and later on down the road, somehow the picture can flip. The fun part is the creating and design. 

If you are still following written drafts, then make a safe, slow start to taking your weaving forward.  Start by taking a pretty draft you have used and familiar with and add in borders, or isolate one portion of the treadling and try that as your treadling plan. Try weaving as drawn in...   what ever takes your fancy, but try something different. 

That was my goal in the first few years of learning to weave. Each and every (short) warp had to include something I hadn't done before, either fibre, colour or draft. We can get stale when we don't push ourselves out of our comfort zone. The weaving takes on a sameness and next thing you know, you're avoiding the loom and you don't know why. That can be a good time to start an in depth study of a weave structure that you've always admired but have yet to do more than flirt with.   All food for thought....

Edit: Now I originally had an article written by Laurie Autio here but Ms Autio said the article was close on 20 years old and she wants to rewrite it to make it more current for today's situation.

I hope to be able to repost it at that time.... or link to another copy. Thanks for your understanding. 

Snowflakes That Won't Melt

If you have been a regular reader of my blog, you'll know that I love the complexities of snowflake twill. In a previous post, I ran through a number of projects I've done featuring this pattern. I left you awhile ago with a brief view of the current three scarf warp on the big loom. I had found a streak on the underside of the warp. It looked fine on the top side! It was from a mis- threaded heddle where the thread went below the eye, so it produced a visible line, but not where I could see it.

I used a lovely 30/2 blend of  55% silk and 45% bleached camel. Its a soft creamy colour and soft as a cloud. The sett was 36 ends per inch and just about eight inches in the reed.  After fixing my little oops, I decided to change my weft to something shiny as the warp is rather matte in finish.  I end up weaving all three scarves in more subtle shades. The pattern can be a bit busy when brighter colour are used. I prefer things a bit more subtle.  I wove two scarves to seventy two to seventy three inches and the last one went  a bit long to seventy six inches! Its amusing how the warp that couldn't seem to get started, and then I  couldn't get finished and then on the last scarf.... I wouldn't quit weaving!

Here's the bronze-gold bamboo weft (the last, longer scarf) on the fringing board.

This one has a fine 10/2 white tencel. Nice play of light on the pattern with the shiny weft and matte warp.

The picture above shows the silk/ bleached camel warp and a 45% regular camel and 55% silk for a lovely soft gold tone. This scarf is butter soft to touch! I twisted the fringe in fine bouts on all scarves for a more feminine look.

This grouping shows the sewing of beads and bling.  I used various fine glass beads, Swarovski crystals and fresh water pearls. There are twelve pearls and twelve crystals per scarf!

Madge Mannequin looks elegant all decked out. She's modeling the bamboo weft scarf.

In these below, you can see the camel/ silk with camel /silk. The pattern wove up  'to square' and smaller. More petite.

Below are shots of the white tencel and creamy warp. The contrast between matte and sheen is wonderful and so you get good pattern definition. Its just hard to shoot with a flash as the tencel shine takes over!

An interesting thing happened when I measured them up for their hang tags. The length was puzzling! Two scarves woven to seventy two or seventy three inches were now only sixty eight inches!. The extra long bamboo went from approx seventy six inches down to seventy two inches! The length wise shrinkage with the camel silk yarn is quite considerable. I will be making notes to add to the balance of the yarn for the next project.

Silk...its a lovely fibre to weave with. Plied, it has great strength on the loom as warp. Its lovely natural colour or takes a dye beautifully with acid based dyes. I've used Telana dyes with great success. My stash of 20/2 and 30/2 silks are running low and so I started to search for a source.  At $117.00 to $135.00 per  pound, it can get expensive fast. I checked all the usual places and then went looking for other sellers on line. and I found  an Indian direct silk seller. (edit: link removed)  I ordered five- one hundred  gram skeins. That's just a bit over a pound... for $50.00 plus a small postage fee.  It took some time to arrive and when it did, it was a marvel to behold! The postal clerk was amazed it was still full! So was I. The paper wrapping had a mesh backing and the silk was enclosed in a cellophane bag. It was unscathed but we all marveled at why... The only places on the parcel that was okay was where there was tape. They just didn't use much! I had a email conversation with the seller and the pictures convinced him that shipping changes were in order. Either to completely tape it, or use a box. Those Indian postal clerks play rough!

As you can see the silk inside was untouched and simply beautiful!

Edit: ... and at $10.00 a skein, I  would like to order more but won't.  They have repeated the poor shipping to another weaver and her parcel barely arrived in one piece too. My complaints about the wrapping didn't change a thing!  They have also changed from a 'buy it now'  to a bidding process which means the price is driven up considerably.   Back to looking again!

Gothic Diamonds

I have been resisting climbing onto the Christmas merry-go-round this year. It just  seems far too much hype this time around. From carols being played *before* American Thanksgiving dirty dishes were washed and put away,  to ads running on the television showing perfect homes and holiday decorations and the (well dressed and coiffed)  Hostess pulling the perfect roasted turkey from a spotlessly clean oven. I'm not trying to be a "Ba Humbug"  but it seems like we have all gone slightly bonkers.  This topic could get quite socio-political, so enough said for here.

There have been just grown-ups in our immediate family for some time and while its great fun to visit family, the real sparkle in Christmas comes when there are small children. That puts the fun back!  I spent an interesting time at a Toys R Us toy store a couple of days ago shopping for our grandson who will be eight months at Christmas! We are looking forward to seeing him and his parents during the holidays.

Someone asked how my hubby was doing since his knee surgery?  Well, for the most part, he's okay but he seems to still have pain and swelling with his knee. Its a slow recovery this time round, and this is his third time for this procedure.  He's not a very patient 'patient' but has been writing his railway stories.  He's soon to publish part three of a story of a tourist train on which he was he was the engineer during 1999-2000. I had a lot of rides on that train and had a hand in some of the shenanigans!

Another person mentioned that Calli hasn't appeared for a while... well, she's doing just fine. She is well settled into our lives and has us wrapped around her paws. She is a real creature of habit and certain things MUST happen at certain times of the day, and she's quite the "Supervisor of the Day's hours".  If you are late with something (usually food related), then you get The Stare until you realize your terrible error:

Most afternoon's she stays with me in the studio in this pose:

I had the Louet Spring up on crates for a new tie up and she was close by. She really is a sweetie and is very gentle. She hardly ever barks and when she does, the squirrel was asking for it!

Weaving has been slowed by the impending Christmas prep and I didn't have anything to show you but  I do now!  Some time ago I saw a scarf somewhere on the internet where the weaver had used clear lines or borders to divide a double pattern. It seemed to throw more emphasis onto the pattern and was quite effective. Granted they had used a variegated warp which added to the drama but I thought I would give it a go myself.

I found this eight shaft twill pattern in Carol Strickler's  "The Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns" and played with it to make it fit my needs:

I used a cream 20/2 silk and a hand dyed muted violet 20/2 silk that I bought in 2000 from Treenway Silks. I used a 30 epi sett and a 15 dent reed. The 245 warp ends measured 8.16" at the reed and was 6.3 yards long.  As you can see there is something of a twill progression here and so close attention was required.  While I don't have it memorized as yet, portions of it run nicely one into the other and make sense as you treadle.

Here is the first scarf under way (all silk) and the colours here are very close to the actual scarf. I've discovered that this violet shows more gray than anything!
I quickly realized that between using some of the violet for warp and then weft, I was running short and there was not enough for scarf number two. It's a difficult match but somehow I wasn't worried (for once!)
Scarf number two was woven using an orlec yarn (yeah, I know...) but the colour was a dead match! That seemed more important this time round...

Here's one on the fringing board and with the slightly yellow halogen nearby, the scarf turns more gray. Of course that nicely demonstrates that purples and yellows are opposites on the colour wheel and where they meet is gray.

Next up was adding some glitter. It seems to be my trademark feature. These scarves have a lovely soft hand to them. You can't tell the difference between the all silk and the one that has orlec but I *know* the difference. I changed the beading arrangement so I could keep track of which is which for sale purposes.
I used 11/0 Japanese Delica beads in a soft violet that are lined with silver so they sparkle, creamy seed sized fresh water pearls and rich purple Swarovski bi-cone crystals. There's fifty six pearls per scarf alone.  Its totally feminine.

In this picture above, when you enlarge it, you can see the natural pearls, wispy little strands of silk made by the caterpillar, all along with computer made beads from Japan. Quite the amalgamation!

We had some brief sunshine this morning and so I set them up on a white background, all the lights on full and flash on the camera... but I think they are too dark. There's nothing like real daylight to show something off naturally.  (Hurry back sun!)  I think I will re-shoot them another, brighter day...

This is the all silk scarf  (above) There is cleaner colour definition between the cream and violet.

This is the orlec weft scarf. It has more of a purplish cast to it. The yarn seemed finer too.

I'm in the middle of threading the Louet Spring to weave two table runner in the same pattern (but no stripes!)  Its a slow go with all the Christmas running around going on right now but I suspect many of you are having the same difficulty.  The snowflake scarves are still under way on the big loom and calling loudly.

I just keeping thinking that weavers 'down under' don't get interruptions in the middle of their prime weaving season. Their winter is in July!