Pinwheels for May

 April and May are generally good months for wind. The weather is changing and with it comes, at the very least, breezes. It’s often time to take your kite to an open field, or go in your backyard with a pinwheel.

With that in mind (okay, not really, but it makes for good text) I decided to weave another warp of four 8-harness black & white pinwheels. They really are eye catching.

It’s pretty amazing how different the 8-harness vs. 4-harness pinwheels turned out.

Now, in addition to having more harnesses to do more twirls with the pattern, and having less contrast in the colors, I had sett th 4H scarves at 21 threads per inch. The 8H scarves are 18 threads per inch. I intended to sett them at 21, but when I pulled out my records from my prior 8H pinwheels I had sett them at 18 and they turned out fine (not too long floats, not too unstable cloth so I did that again this time. Again I’m happy with them, so if I decide to do 4H pinwheels again I will sett them at 18, too.

Back to my first show of the season for the second day in just a few minutes. Hopefully we’ll be busier today.

May 11th, 2013 | 

Half a dozen

 

Weaving Gems » « Make New Friends... Half A Dozen

I haven’t been blogging but I have been weaving. And doing some garden cleanup. And visiting my grandson. And working my increased schedule at Pfeiffer Nature Center. I’ve been busy, can you tell?

Weaving-wise, I stayed on my hand painted bamboo-cotton kick for a while longer. This time I was using a thinner yarn, an 8/2 cotton. This yarn has 3,360 yards per pound vs. the 1,680 yards per pound of the yarn I used earlier – twice as thin. (In fact, I’d never realized before I was writing this entry that the typical bamboo-cotton is a 4/2 weight.) It was also in a colorway I hadn’t used before, one that Tammy calls Blue Spruce. For the scarf on the left I used a weft Tammy dyed for me in solid Emerald; on the right is a solid yellow.

Personally I find the yellow far too bright. I could never wear that color – it would look really awful with my skin tone.

Then I wove with an alpine blue, on the bottom in the photo – lovely, at least to me. Finally I decided to weave a plaid-ish one. Because the warp is variegated I couldn’t do a true plaid, so I went with consistent blocks of color in the weft. As I was weaving I wasn’t at all sure I liked it, but once it was done I thought it was fine.

After weaving these four I decided to go back to weaving with Tencel and tried out a 4 harness pattern for pinwheels. They were both less of a pain to weave and less delightful as finished products than the 8 harness pinwheels. Then again, maybe they would have been more striking if I’d used black & white instead of dark coral & sienna.

April 14th, 2013 | 

Weaving lace

 

After Fire in the Hills I decided I’d go back and weave some single color scarves, adding more handwoven lace to my stock. I lik the lightness of lace, its symmetry, and the fact that it seems so complex when it’s complete. I like huck and I like Swedish lace, using them each to achieve a slightly different look.

I also like weaving lace. I’ve woven enough of it that at this point it goes pretty quickly for me. I use tie ups that make my little counterbalance loom happy – it would much prefer that I step on a treadle with 3 harnesses tied to it than with 1 harness.

This time I chose to weave different sizes of Swedish lace blocks, using tencel as my fiber. I’d just received some royal purple yarn I’d ordered, so on the loom it went, for a warp of 4 scarves. I know people will like the color – they always do.

I had such a good time weaving this rich, dark purple scarves I decided to do another run of four, this time in natural.

Same pattern, same fiber, but I’m betting these two colors will appeal to different people. Time will tell...my first (very small) sho of the season is this weekend – just in time for Mother’s Day. In case I don’t get back here before then, have a great one with and for all the important women in your life.

May 8th, 2013 |