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!

🐞🐞🐞

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

I haven't forgotten you. In fact I have been madly looking around for what I can share with you and very conscious of  how long its been since the last post. There's no project ready for a big reveal. In fact it seems that everything is "in between" and no matter how much time I spend weaving, there's nothing to show you. So I thought I'll show you what I do have...

There's a satisfying inch and a half on the cloth roll on the Louet Spring.  I'm on towel number seven of nine and doing plaid turned twill.  I'm calling this 'Drall Style' treadling... (my invented phrase) and its a slower slog now that I'm constantly changing colours.

I'm mindful that the end is eventually coming to this apparently never ending warp and so have a project planned and dug out some likely yarns for winding the warp...  silks!

Looks like I have a whole lotta ball winding to do first!

The Woolhouse loom has the snowflake twill scarves on it and nothing has changed there.... and its keeping nicely.

The Megado has seen action. I cut the old warp off and had to get something on it right away. I wanted to be able to have a learning warp, use more shafts, practise the program and weaving action, be able to have something useful and not be worried if I had to start over...... so, book marks fit that that list!

Another linen and cotton combo, sett 50 epi and a draft that I made up one evening playing on Fiberworks PCW. This is treadled as threaded and its two inches wide. I already had one bookmark go south on me and so I simply moved the warp and started again. Perfect! I'm having trouble learning how to 'unweave' when a mistake or float is detected as I have to go into the program and scroll through and click unweave. In a long treadling sequence, if I miss the right pick I have to work out how to get back etc.  Its  a lot slower than simply going backwards on the other "Luddite" looms.  Perhaps once I learn how to do it right the first time, I won't have to go through quite so much effort!

Want to see something silly?

Yup, a two inch wide warp on a 45 inch loom.

I also started knitting last spring and stopped when the weather got too warm. It felt icky in my hands and too hot on my lap. So here's my first effort!  

Its not washed or blocked as yet, which I'm told will improve the overall appearance. Its soft like a cloud and it is for me. There are a few 'questionable' places but bunched up around my neck this winter, it will look just fine. The yarn was Louet's Kidlin and its a softly plied (barely plied) yarn and I had difficulty with the plies and so it was slow going. The entire scarf used one skein which I think was 50 grams. Knitting and weaving use very different terminology and such. Another learning curve!

So I'm making another....same pattern.

Its a merino wool and the feel is quite different. It keeps my hands busy at night (and keeps me from aimlessly wandering the internet.)

I also have been reorganizing my samples..... here's one of two binders for my personal samples:

You can get a fair amount into one binder!

Here are a couple of pages from recent projects you might recognize...  I use the heavy duty non glare protective sleeves (don't let the flash fool you!)

So, in addition to my two full binders, I have these six more filled with samples from individual weavers and guilds:

Now bear in mind that I have been slowly collecting samples from guilds and friends since 1996. Two friends have their own dedicated binders!

This one alone is Dorothy's  and its full. Time for a new one. (Happy Birthday Dorothy by the way!  :)   When you are stuck for ideas and inspiration, nothing beats sitting down and looking at a real sample.  So, its starts with a little 12 inches extra on your next warp!

So that's about it for news. Its our usual winter rains and very blah. Halloween tonight but no one ever comes for treats as we're the creepy house at the end of a long driveway in the trees. But we have to have some candy in the house just in case you know!

Bye for now