Weaving with silk...and cotton

After warping up the Varpa and getting everything all tied up correctly, I decided I’d change the treadling for each of the three handwoven silk scarves, as well as the weft color.

For the burgundy scarf I used ‘tromp as writ’ — meaning I danced across the treadles in exact same pattern as I’d threaded th harnesses.

For the next one I decided to treadle basically a straight and point twill, eliminating the advancing twill sections.

Here’s what it looked on the loom like with a Pacific Blue weft.

That one was a bit harsh for me, I think because of the combination of the sharp angles in the weaving pattern and the dramatic difference in the warp and weft colors. So for the third I softened everything up. I treadled only the advancing twill with just a small point between each pattern.

Then I used a light coffee weft, which also softened the look. Again, here it is on the loom.

These scarves were not quick to weave. I had to get used to treadling the Varpa, and had to pay attention to 360 threads to make sure I wasn’t making weaving errors. After that, I really needed to get a quick, easy warp onto the counterbalance loom so could feel reasonably productive in preparation for the upcoming show. So I decided on bookmarks. I threaded in a rosepath pattern, treadled in a variety of patterns, and got 32 booksmarks woven.

That made me feel good.

So now I’ve wound a warp of 170 ends of natural 8/2 tencel and have beamed it on the counterbalance. (By the way, I’m a complete warping valet convert.) I’m going to thread in a modified Ms & Ws pattern treadle in a variety of ways, and use a different weft color for each of the four scarves. Gotta keep moving!

August 17th, 2012 |

Silk lace handwoven scarves

Back in May I wove some lace ‘checkerboard’ scarves in bamboo. Although I called it huck at the time, it’s not really. It’s a Swedish lace. I’m certain that’s neither important nor meaningful to anyone but a weaver.

Anyway, I liked the way the scarves looked even if the checkerboard pattern only showed up if you caught the light just right. I only had three handwoven silk scarves for my July show, and since I had some lovely 20/2 undyed spun silk I decided I’d repea that weaving pattern.

This time I remembered to snap a few pix while it was on the loom, since the checkerboard pattern shows up well while I’m weaving. Thank goodness, or I’m sure I’d make lots of treadling errors!

Even here, the design isn’t as pronounced as I might like. So I enhanced the next picture to show the lines clearly.

With the scarf wet finished & pressed, I think these silk scarves are elegant, even if the design is somewhat subtle.

Interestingly, although my July show was really wonderful, I didn’t sell any of these silk scarves. Nor did I sell my ice green silk lace. You just never know what people will buy. Or at least I don’t.

I’m sure not complaining — I sold 6 shawls and 47 scarves at that show!!!! So now I’m weaving like mad again. Fortunately, I lef myself almost seven weeks between the July & August shows, so I’m not making myself crazy.

For you weavers, here’s the draft of the checkerboard lace if you’re interested.

July 26th, 2012 | Tags: handwoven lace, handwoven scarves, silk | Category: Weaving | Edit this post 4 comments to