🍋 Very Nice, but not what I planned ....

At first, managing colour and colour- pairings can be intimidating, then a challenge..... and eventually addicting!  You find yourself thinking "okay, this will look nice together" with some confidence. 

So when I had an idea /concept come to me of shawls with old golds, bronzes, mossy greens and rich purples I ordered a custom painted warp in just these colours.    I'm simply not set up for dyeing my own warps any longer  and a lower back injury means the long standing as you work your way down a long warp just isn't something I can or want to do anymore. 

I placed an order with a wonderful dyer and what arrived came as a surprise.    All the rich tones I asked for.... and .... periwinkle blue.    😳   It looked so out of place and  I thought, well may be it will work.   So I beamed it and since this blue was right at the start, I could try weft colours out right away.    NOPE

There were rather large patches of it, with runs of all the requested colours inbetween.  I did have a conversation with the dyer and there were apologies, financial adjustments made and  now it was up to me to make a mental adjustment  and work out what to do with this 8 yard warp.  (yes, I will and have ordered from them again.... with great results!)

I made table runners.... three of them.  Using this draft: F055 from the Thrilling Twills CD Collection by Ingrid Boesel. (also available on Handweaving.net # 79845)

My first, safe choice weft, was amethyst  8/2 tencel. The blue undertones in the purple and the mossy green sure show at one end.  The pattern is clear and rich looking.

Since I was weaving blind so to speak, I decided to opt for short fringes opposed to full hems as I wanted as much runner as possible and I couldn't know how much 'okay' warp there was on the warp beam.  It meant a lot of hem stitching, and later fringe twisting, which I reckon took longer than the actual weaving!

This runner finally finished at 22" wide by 47" long, with a 2 "fringe.

When I started to get tendrils of periwinkle blue appear at or near the beater, it was time to finish it off, and then advance the warp past the blue section until it was okay to start again.    Yes, this was such a waste of warp but as it stood, it was the best way to move forward and achieve something.

The second runner was a bit shorter:  21" by 36"  I shifted to a 10/2 cotton weft called Lizard Green (Webs Valley Yarn, now discontinued).  Cotton shrinks, tightens up more.   But I love the look of this one....

In this case, the blue transitioned into a softer purple and it looks wonderful as the fringe and start of this runner..... and the opposite end is a rich gold tone.   Its my favourite of the three!

The final runner came in at 21" by 50" and had yet another surprise mid way.   It became a case of embracing yet another dye mistake and calling it just fine.   Otherwise I would only get two runners off this 8 yards.    Adapting on the fly.....again.

Oh, it looks fine.... and very pretty in fact.

In the purple section, there appears to be lighter bits??    Yes they are there.... as undyed warp yarn showing as a very pale purple to white-ish. 

Here's a closer look.... now that its woven. Is it okay?   Yes.... and a few people have told me that it looks lovely and adds a nice variation to the cloth.    

Okay .... it is what it is then.

As weavers we have a deep internal image of what we are hoping to achieve whether its pattern, colours,  or overall presentation.  We know every little thing that went right, and every little  thing that went wrong. Where all the mistakes were made, and what we would do differently next time.   In the mean time, the project, while not as planned or intended, is lovely and a success in it own right.

We can be our own worst critics and every weaver ends up having to manage their expectations.  

Now that's the hard part!   😁  🍋

... and Baby Makes 3 🍼

 I'm back again already with some new weaving show and tell.   

Our family doctor is a lovely young woman who has taken good care of us and in particular, my hubby with his complex health issues.   She had a baby girl in early July.  They decided to wait the full 9 months  and let it be a surprise.  Rather old fashioned and I love it, but then, I'm an old fashioned, old lady now. 

I had a lovely salmon pink but no soft blues in the stash so I decided to wait and see who arrived, As luck would have it, it worked well with my existing stash.    {although my white is now seriously depleted}.  So one blanket is a gift, and I added two more for the shop and they will nicely pay for my gift.    Less loom waste too.

I used Brassards 8/2 cotton, sett 24 epi and the project used 32 inches of my 34 inch loom!   I had to tie back the unused heddles. 

The draft came from Handweaving.net and no, I don't have the number. My Bad... 

It looked like this:

...and I played with colours and did this....

Then it came out looking like this: (I left the weft blue for pattern clarity)

This one is for the new little girl. I wove 6 inch hems in the pink which nicely showed the pattern over all.  Then I hemstitched every 4 ends. I used a slippery synthetic cord doubled to create my ladder space and wove with white, all using it to hemstitch along that edge. 

Three runners,  12 rows of hem stitching, each 32 inches wide.... I swear it took longer to hemstitch then it did to weave the blanket !    But it looks so wonderful and worth every minute....

Later, I turned the hems, into thirds  to the back of the hemstitching, pressed well and then hand sewed them using a running blind stitch and slipping a needle into the back of every little ladder.  I steam pressed them again once done. 

I dare say this will get a fair amount of laundry time given what babies are known to do!  It will hold up to both machines. 

Both the gift blanket and the blanket below with a green hem are the same: hems woven to 6 inches, main part of blanket woven to 46 inches. Final measurements after draw in, shrinkage, hemming and wet finishing:  28 inches wide and 45 inches in length.   Quite a bit of loss over all!  That's cotton tightening up and it will relax some with use.

The colours used are white, seaton (green), salmon pink, and purple.

The pattern is all threaded over 8 shafts, but it does use 12 treadles.   The bands of braided twill are quite eye catching and I have always enjoyed weaving it up. 

I like to think this blanket and the third are fairly neutral gender wise  inspite of the salmon pink. Its not the girly bubblegum pink but some entirely different.   The purple was too dark for my tastes as a colour for the hems so I stuck with the softer colours.

My husband commented that the cotton was quite soft and can be used right against the skin.   Absorbent, cool in summer, insulating in winter. 

The third blanket is 28 inches by 51 inches finished, so generously large. It cold be used for a full crib blanket or spread out and let baby play with toys and such. 

I had full pirns of all the colours and decided to try out a plaid version and I liked it

A final close up shot reveals the pattern nicely.  

 

🍼👶🍼

The Spring loom is being cleaned up and readied to beam another warp starting today.   Something colourful.   The main focus of my time will shift to the big loom and two shawls already underway there. 

We are starting to compile a list of all the end of season details that a house and yard need to be done before the weather turns wet, cold and nasty.    

Looking a bit further ahead, I even ordered in some Christmas cards so I can write them up when time allows.   Too soon?  😁  Its 13 weeks to Christmas....   🎅🏻 🎄

A Tale of Three

So this was nine yards of  8/2 tencel. Painted warp centre and solid 8/2 tencel borders.  I was weaving this (slowly) during a what felt like never ending heat waves and thinking of the cooler fall to come. As this is Labour Day, it should be here anytime.

Slowly as my right shoulder has been dictating my weaving time and days. I can do some but not as much as I would like. 

The picture below is right after coming off the loom and the scarves being separated.   Each looks so different and yet come from a similar base.  Reminds me of people.    😁

The painted warp came from Iridescent Fibres which sadly has stopped business as other adventures and obligations came along.    This warp was called Chardonnay Flagstones.   I sure wish I had taken a picture of the warp before I started to uncoil it to beam the loom. It was a transition of purple mauves, to golds and russet, to moss greens. A vineyard in the fall. 

I added black, purple and a soft gold as border details.

The draft used was a favourite:  16 shaft straight draw and twill progression treadling designed by the late Ingrid Boesel (of Fiberworks-PCW). Her drafts are now freely available at Handweaving.net   I used this draft before with a painted warp to amazing results and hoped to have a repeat. You can see it here

I leave the centre empty as I simply don't have the patience to enter the colours! 

The first scarf I used basic black as my weft and it actually shows the painted warp as close as it appeared before weaving started.  The colours are not all that vivid or intense as some of Carrie's other warp combinations (as shown in the link to the past project)

This time of year with intense sunlight ( and heat!) makes it difficult to photograph tencel outdoors with out bleaching away the colours.  Day after cloudless day went by until I finally got a day with some high cloud and I set up Judy outside.    I'm not a professional photographer so I simply do my best with automatic settings and try to get realistic colours.

So here are a variety of shots to get differing views..... Meet "Vineyard Midnight"

When it came time to weave scarf number two I auditioned several colours and my friend Lynnette (of Dust Bunnies Under My Loom blog) recommended navy blue.   It worked beautifully and I must say that this one is my favourite.  Meet "Vineyard Dusk"

I had one weaver say that the gold in the border looks like gold leaf!

For the last shawl I tried a colour or two and pulled them out..... and finally settled on weft colour Pompeii (now called red clay).  I call this scarf "Spice Market". It some how reminds me of the baskets of piled up spices in a bazaar somewhere like Morocco.  This scarf was about pushing my boundaries on colour.

The colours are a bit deeper and richer but the cloud cover was breaking down by this point. The last picture is the best colour wise.  *There seems to be a correlation between this scarf's colours and my spinning below, purely by accident... (really!)

                                                                        🍂 🍇 🍇🍂

Its been a hot and dry summer and the gardens are starting to look tired.  Lots of dew on the ground this morning so the change is under way.   I'm keeping a mental list of the chores needed to be done outside before things get cold and frosty.   

I have spent time this summer spinning and plying and enjoyed a break from endless projects pushing me. I quite like the slower pace and find it gives me time to really consider a project before it goes to the loom and becomes organized threads.    So they will appear here in time as they are ready.

So enjoy the Labour Day holiday  and we'll all resume our normal schedules starting tomorrow. 

🐿 🍂