Weaving for the Holidays

While certainly not exclusively for the holidays by any means, these handwoven cashmere & silk scarves are such a lovely, rich color, they make me think of the mid-winter holiday season. Hopefully people who come to either the Roycroft Winter Festival and my local Holiday Show think so, too.

I again tried a new huck lace pattern – the one at the bottom of the picture. And again, I much prefer the old standby of Swedish Lace, at the top. The lace diamonds don’t show up in the bottom until you view it at just the right angle, and it doesn’t do the lacy thing anywhere near as well as the Swedish Lace blocks. But I’d never have known that without trying it.

So I wound a warp for three scarves, threaded up for the new huck lace diamonds, and wove the first scarf. Even while I was weaving I knew it wouldn’t be one of my favorites, so I cut it off and totally re-threaded heddles and reed, and wove the last two in the Swedish Lace blocks.

November 22nd, 2011 

Lacy Handwoven Silk Scarves

Being an early riser, I have a few minutes before I have to leave for the show this morning, so will sneak this post in.

I knew I only had two handwoven silk scarves left after Elmwood, so wanted to give my customers at least one more option. I had enough dusty rose silk left to weave two more, and chose alternating blocks of Swedish Lace. I sett this 20/2 yarn at 18 end per inch, and was off and running.

They worked up quickly. As usual, I made these handwoven lace scarves on my counterbalance loom.
I was pleased with the results, and quite surprised when I saw how clear and lovely the color was in comparison to the last/first

time I’d used this yarn in the gray twill blocks – it really muddied the color more than I realized.

I thought that would be all I’d have time for before the show, but had a whole day left (woo hoo!), so decided to weave a few more cashmere silk scarves, too. I intended to weave two, but my habit got the better of me in measuring the warp – when I finished winding the last bit, I realized I’d measured for three. No problem. Put three on the loom, and if I can only get two done, that’s fine; I’ll just cut them off and weave the third when I return home.

OCD me of course got all three woven.

Two of them are an all-over huck lace pattern, one is a woven with huck spots. I’m less thrilled with the look of that one. Spot Bronson would be a much better choice for spots, but of course my loom was already threaded for huck. The lavender color is much nicer in person than in this picture, which makes them look more gray.

Ok, now you’ve seen them all, and I have to get ready to leave the house.

Your turn: is the weather as gorgeous where you are as it is here this September weekend? Sunny and warm – great!

September 11th, 2011 

Where does the time go?

 How is it possible that another 10 days have passed without a blog post? Answer: I’ve been really busy.

Last weekend I had another great show in Buffalo. People were particularly interested in my scarves on Sunday, when the weather was cooler.

And next weekend I have another big show – Clothesline in Rochester.. So now I have to weave, weave, WEAVE! I’ve gotten six scarves done in the last 4 days, and will put a warp for 3 more on my loom today. I’ve taken a few days off my paycheck job to give me more time. The new scarves are in the drying process, so haven’t been photo’d yet, but I can show you a few more things I finished before the Elmwood Ave. show last weekend.

First I finished the two purple & silver mohair scarves I’d put on the rigid heddle loom for the Chautauqua show. I do love how these scarves look, and am getting better at wet finishing them in soft-as-a-cloud delights. Many other people agreed, so I simp re-created the one I’d woven in May.

I knew I needed to stock up on some cashmere silk blend scarves, so I started with the light blue. I would have made 3 of them, as is my usual fashion, but I only had enough of the blue yarn to warp for 2.

I put a cream stripe down the center, and wove lace along both edges. I think they’re lovely. Interestingly, although I did sell four handwoven cashmere silk scarves last weekend, these were not among them. That’s not a problem, just a comment.

I also had some black cashmere silk yarn that I hadn’t used yet, so I could definitely warp for 3 of those. And did. (Warning to non-weavers: weaving terminology follows. Simply skip down to below the picture if you don’t want to read this part.)

I decided this was a great opportunity to try something I’d been wanting to do since the MAFA workshop in July – name drafting in overshot. Since I was only making a scarf and wanted to have a reasonable number of repeats, I didn’t want to use my entire business name – second wind weaving – so just used the first two words. I played with star fashion vs. rose fashion and an assortment of assignment strategies, ultimately choosing a standard arrangement in rose fashion. I really like the visual.

I used a gray silk for the pattern on the black cashmere, making a border that’s about 4′′ wide. The rest of the scarf is plain weave. I enjoyed weaving the border.

It is funny to me how I forget things. When I wove the first border on the first scarf, I was being very careful to follow the pattern correctly, and used a very light beat. After I got my border done I thought my beat was too light — the fibers weren’t packed in tightly enough — and the pattern was therefore more vertically oval than round. I had to make the other end of this scarf the same, so used the same light beat.

For the second scarf, I beat the pattern in more firmly, making the pattern more rounded. Looked great to me. Until, of course, I took them off the loom and wet finished. DUH!! Of course those vertical ovals on the loom reverted to circles when they were released from the tension of the loom, and circles on the loom became horizontal ovals. I think only a weaver would notice these details, it just made me chuckle.

So here are the two scarves.

I really like them, both on the loom and off, but can’t decide if they’re classy scarves or grandma scarves.

I had planned to make the 3rd scarf different – no border and a lace treadling. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it. I found the black yarn to be problematic from the beginning. Lots of broken warp threads, something that hasn’t happened with any of the other colors I’ve used. However, I did have the same experience with black rayon chenille last year, and did some online research tha told me that black yarn can be troublesome. A solid black can be a challenging color to achieve in dyes, and as a result, it can sometimes weaken the fiber.

I was clearly having that problem. By the time I’d gotten to the end of the second scarf, I was fixing lots of warp threads. That was enough of a pain, but the yarn along the selvedges was become really troublesome. As a result my selvedges were thick and uneven. I tried several strategies to try to correct it, all unsuccessful. I ultimately decided it was better to cut off the 2 scarve and waste the rest of this lovely fiber than waste my time weaving a scarf I was not going to be happy with that was not going to be saleable.

After this frustration, I needed to weave something quick and easy. So I put on a narrow warp (42 ends) of cotton and wove 25 bookmarks. I used a periwinkle overshot threading, an assortment of weft yarns, and an array of treadling patterns.

September 2nd, 2011 

Eggshell Cotton Huck Lace

 My eggshell cashmere silk scarves were a failure, at least as far as being saleable. So I combined my customers’ requests for white or eggshell scarves and their desire for cottons into one product.

After my recent experience with the 5/2 handpainted Egyptian cotton, I knew that I wanted to sett the eggshell cotton farther apart than the 15 ends per inch I used then. I also wanted to make them be handwoven lace, because that would help with softness and drape. Lace weaves need to be sett and beat loosely, so I took a gulp and set the neutral 5/2 pearl cotton at 12 ends per inch. I threaded the loom for an all over huck, and sat down to weave.

I LOVE THESE SCARVES!

They’re soft drape really well for cotton. The color and lace provide a very classic look; the cotton ensures great versatility. I’ll be amazed if they don’t sell at the Roycroft summer show this weekend. I’m sure I’ll be making more of these. (Hope I don’t end up eating those words.)

Like with most of my handwoven lace, I made these scarves on my delightful little counterbalance loom. It is totally possible to weave with 3 shafts against 1 on a counterbalance. It just takes a bit more care, since the shed (the opening where you pass th shuttle through) isn’t as large.

No, once again I didn’t sample these scarves. I am much more confident when I’m working on my little loom. We operate on the same mental plane, and I just knew this one would work.

June 24th, 2011 

Cracked Eggshell Scarves

One of the things people wanted at the Kenan show was more scarves in white or eggshell. I’d ordered the silk in white, and thought I’d get it in time to weave with it, so wanted to make something in eggshell.

I recently bought some eggshell cashmere & silk yarn, so perfect. I decided to try a new lace pattern in a diamond shape. I wanted to use a 7-thread huck instead of my usual 5-thread huck, and combined those two ideas. I sett the yarn at 18 ends per inch, which is the sett I used for all the cashmere silk lace scarves I’ve made, all of them successful.

These scarves may look ok in the picture (I chose what parts to show you, after all), but using the three new ideas in combination was a recipe for disaster. There wasn’t enough plain weave surrounding the lace for stabilization. The 7-thread huck had floats that were too long at this sett. And the Macomber, which I had to use for the pattern, is hard on the cloth on the cloth beam when I advance it. So all in all, the scarf is a failure and can’t be sold. (It’s the scarf on the left in the picture.)

So since I’d warped for two scarves, I decided to make some changes for the second scarf. I modified the treadling to make the pattern more stable, adding much more plain weave in the pattern. The scarf on the right is much more stable, but...

...there’s one place on the scarf that the Mac really smushed the weft threads together. I could not fix it in the wet finishing, so this scarf, too, is unsaleable.

Poop. I think I’d better start changing my attitude about sampling, don’t you?

June 20th, 2011

Weaving Catch Up

Yes, I’ve been gardening, mowing the lawn, and making jelly, but I’ve also been weaving. What I haven’t been doing is blogging So I’m going to cram the last 3 warps into one post.

First I wove three scarves in some of Tammy’s hand painted 8/2 Tencel, in a colorway she calls Silver Linings. I used this last summer and it was popular, so decided to make some more.

These scarves have a huck lace ‘windows’ border. At least I call them huck windows. I’m sure there’s a correct name, but I don’t know what it is. I like the various versions of huck, but this is the one I use the most.

Next I went back to working with cashmere-silk yarn. My first big show of the season is coming right up — 100 American Craftsmen at the Kenan Center next weekend — and I decided I really needed to expand my cashmere-silk stock. I’d recently ordered more, and tried a few new colors. One of them was an interesting green – sort of a sage-y spring green.

I’ve woven huck blocks plenty of times before; this time I decided to change it up and make the blocks alternating sizes. I find th design aesthetically pleasing. As usual, I made this handwoven lace on my counterbalance loom.

Then I decided to make some cashmere silk scarves using two different colors. I spent quite a bit of time in front of my compute working out designs. The options are endless, time isn’t. So I ultimately settled on a relatively simple design that’s sections of plain weave alternating with bands of twill in a second color. I had to use my Macomber for this, as I needed 6 harnesses – 2 for the plain weave and 4 for the twill.

I set the yarn at 18 ends/inch, just as I do with this fiber for my huck lace, and started weaving. 18EPI was far too loose. Even after wet finishing, the fabric is entirely unstable.

This was a case when it was totally inappropriate not to sample. Anyway, I cut it off the loom and re-threaded the reed, this time at 24 EPI.

They worked up fine at this sett, but I made notes that it could have been even closer.

I’m working on a batch of 2 scarves in rayon in the same threading and treadling pattern, using 3 colors. I need to get them off today so I can twist the fringe and have them ready for this weekend’s show.

May 30th, 2011 

Jelly Guessing Game

I'm betting you won't guess what kind of jelly I made here. It's a brand new thing for me -- not making jelly, but making this kind. Here's a hint - it can only be made in the spring.

When you're ready to know the answer, go to my new blogsite.

Weaving with Mohair

This past weekend I wove this purple & silver mohair scarf on my rigid heddle loom. I'm rather in love with it, even though it's May and the scarf probably can't be worn now till October.

You can learn more about this scarf, or why I wove a mohair scarf in May, at my new blogsite.

Doubleweave Workshop

I spent Saturday & Sunday at a workshop the Southern Tier Fiberarts Guild sponsored. It was all about doubleweave. We had a small group – only 6 of us, so we were each able to get all sorts of guidance from Pat Edwards, our teacher.

Three of us were working on floor looms, three on table looms.
Here Joan’s warping up her little Mountain loom. The swinging beater was fascinating to me. Hinged at the top and moving free at the bottom, her hand applied all the pressure, not the beater itself. Interesting.

I rarely work on a table loom myself, but didn’t have a reasonable way to get my beloved floor loom to the workshop site. It’s sweet, small, and light, but doesn’t fold at all, so it’s pretty bulky. Carol was very gracious to loan me her table loom, but there’s nothing like working on a loom you’re familiar with. And there’s really little comparison in shed size between most table looms and most floor looms – floor looms have it beat hands down. Weaving puns intended.

Regardless of the loom used, each of us were working with 4 colors, warped in a straight draw. One side of warp was 2 colors, alternately warped ABAB. The other side was all 4 colors, alternately warped ABCD, ABCD. I wanted high contrast in my warp s I could see the impact of what I was doing, not colors that I necessarily liked or would use in other circumstances. My 2 main colors were a bright orangey-red and a basic blue. The other two were pink and dark purple.

With 4 harnesses, there are six color combinations for top & bottom warp colors. We used each of these combinations, using on of our two main colors for weft.

Carlyn chose colors that all look lovely together, not like my gaudiness.

In addition to the six color combination blocks, Pat taught us how to use doubleweave to weave hinges, tubes, and envelopes.

Doubleweave hinges allow you to make a piece that’s twice as wide as your loom. I’ve used this technique before to make some of my handwoven baby blankets.

Woven tubes come in handy. You can easily make bags & pillows, but if you’re clever and creative, you can do lots more. I’m going to think about a new cowl-hood design that’s tube woven.

I’m less clear on how useful a woven envelope is. Or maybe just less creative in my thinking. Regardless, it is an interesting technique.

After learning how to do those three structures, Pat taught us how to do doubleweave pickup. We each created a little design, called a cartoon, that we’d weave into the cloth. It’s very cool, in that what’s light on the front is dark on the back. Pat encourage us to keep it simple, to start with angles, not curves.

Here’s my second attempt at color blocks.

I kept messing up on the first, so just considered it all a learning experience, but DON’T need to take pictures of it. You’ll see at glance that my selvedges are a mess and my beat is uneven. You can pay attention to just so much at one time, and the purpos of this part of the workshop was to learn the doubleweave pickup technique, not to produce a finished product.

I did want to see if I could do curves. Tried my hand at the yin-yang symbol.

Again, not work of quality, but that wasn’t the point; learning was the point.
Val was quite brave, making a little running rabbit for her first attempt at pickup.

While we were all busy learning doubleweave in her cozy studio, Carol decided to weave some yardage using a combination of wool, silk, linen, and (I think) cotton. She plans to dye it in her beautiful natural dyes, then make it into a garment. She knows each of the fibers will take the dye differently, making for some interesting variegation. Whew! I don’t think I’d have the oomph to dye it – the undulating twill with those natural colors is too beautiful for me.

Once I get the handwoven hearts baby blankets off the loom, I plan to do some doubleweave double-width baby blankets in a sweet variegated cotton flannel I have. They’re always popular when I have them in stock.

Gotta go back & hit the couch – I’ve been battling the flu for a week, and it struck back today.

April 20th, 2011 

RIver Birch

This tree isn't sick. In fact it's quite healthy. My Heritage River Birch has exfoliating bark - it peels in layers. This spring it's showing an exceptional number of layers. Perhaps it's due to the long, cold winter we had??

This photo is part of my entry in to the V7N photographic blog challenge. Go to my new blogsite to see my other entries.

It's Still Snowing

This March is not meeting the old saying -- it came in like a lion and is leaving like a lion.

Still, it's really quite beautiful.

Want to know what I see as the upsides? Visit my new blogsite.

Weaving Napkins

 After finally figuring out how to draft a design in block theory, I spent a long time designing my actual napkins for the International Napkin Exchange. I wanted to do something with a sort of architectural feel to it, something that reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright’s sensibilities. This sounded relatively straightforward to me. HAH!

I should know by now that it takes more skill to make a clean, attractive, simple design than one that’s crowded with activity. Frank certainly was a master of his craft, and I would certainly not call myself a master weaver!

So I spent hours drawing. First on graph paper, then on my weaving software. Then I realized that I didn’t have the graph paper design right, and I didn’t have enough graph paper to do what I wanted, so I went to Excel and created a grid that resembled the squares of graph paper. I spent hours getting the design that I thought I wanted, then went back to the weaving software.

Hmmm....still not right. The basis of a summer & winter pattern, which is what I wanted, is that what’s light on one side is dark o the other. To keep me happy, I had to like both sides of this piece. So back to the drawing board.

To add to the challenge, the napkins had to be a certain size, 18′′ to 22′′ square. So I had to have the right number of threads across both the width and length of the piece. Again, my obsessive-compulsive nature slowed my design time — I really wanted a pattern that was completely symmetrical, both left to right and top to bottom. And one that had a reasonable balance of light and dark on both the top and the bottom.

FINALLY I got a design that I liked, got the warp prepared and on the loom, and started weaving.

The above picture shows you both the top side and underside of the weaving, so you can see how the colors reverse themselves. It still amazes me that I can do this bit of weaving magic, particularly on my little 4 harness counterbalance loom. This type of weaving is possible by using two shuttles, one with your background color (white) and one with the alternate color (purple for the napkin below).

To make things look the way I wanted them to, I had to use two of my colored threads and one thinner white thread. If I were a spinner, I’d have spun those two or maybe even three purple threads together to make one fatter thread, but alas, I don’t spin. S I had to be satisfied with two threads and use my double shuttle for the purple, sending both through simultaneously.

I’m pleased with the way they’re weaving up. The warp is presenting some problems, however. The right side is substantially looser than the left. I’ve hung weights on it to even out the tension, but I doubt that this will be enough for the entire length of the warp. Time will tell.

March 16th, 2011

Second Wind Survey

I like taking surveys. Online surveys and telephone surveys. Political surveys and consumer surveys. I have an opinion about lots of things, and am happy to give them to people.

I hope you feel the same way. And that you love a bargain.

I’ve created a really short survey to get to know my readers and customers a bit better. And I mean short - there are only 5 questions, and 1 of them is optional. It shouldn’t take more than 2-3 minutes to complete it. Created with SurveyMonkey, your response is completely anonymous and confidential.

To sweeten the deal, I’ve built in an incentive. Take the survey and get a coupon code for 10% off any in-stock merchandise you order from my website! When you finish the survey, you’ll get the code, and you can use it anytime till the end of August.

What are you waiting for? Go take the survey!

Fishy Scarf

In my last post I showed a scarf that was a heart. This time it's a scarf that's a fish.

"Huh," you say? "Doesn't look like a fish to me," you say?

Go to my new blogsite to see why I think it's a fishy scarf.

When the student is ready...

...the teacher will appear.”

It’s a pretty famous Buddhist saying. And it just became real for me.

When I posted my 2010 wannas, one of the things I mentioned was that I wanted to learn new weaving techniques. And that I’d joined a Su Butler’s napkin exchange as one concrete strategy to help me do so. I’d already told Su that block weaves was one of the options for things that I’d like to try.

I hadn’t done any block weaving before. The last few times I’d looked at that chapter in Deborah Chandler’s Learning To Weave book, she may as well have been speaking Zubulian — I didn’t understand anything she was trying to tell me.

At the February Southern Tier Fiber Arts Guild meeting, I asked a woman if she had a good handle on block theory, figuring I could get the concept if someone was telling me vs. reading a book. Unfortunately, she didn’t.

A few days later I got the new issue of Handwoven, and there were designs in there that were similar to what I had in mind for the napkins. So I got out my graph paper and started drawing, thinking that was the place to start.

Hah! I couldn’t even replicate the design in the magazine, much less create one of my own! And I sure wasn’t any closer to understanding what the heck I was doing.

So I pulled out Chandler’s book again. I started reading. Still looked like Zubulian to me.

Then all of a sudden something clicked and those foreign characters start to turn into English! I went back to the graph paper again, and could actually draw something that made sense! And I understood that each of those graph paper squares represent 4 threaded heddles and 4 throws of the shuttle, and how to plan all that detail.

Amazingly, within about 24 hours, I got an email hawking a new book – delivered electronically in PDF format – all about weavin block theory.

I haven’t yet figured out how many threads I’ll need in the napkins, so haven’t begun to do the final planning yet, but I KNOW I can design what I want. Even more surprising to me, I know that there’s at least an 85% chance that the design in my head can be woven on my beloved four-harness counterbalance loom.

Sometimes life is sweet. I try to really appreciate it when it is.

February 12th, 2011 

Braided Beauties

When is a heart not a heart? When it's a scarf, of course!

I've created a new style of scarf just in time for Valentine's Day. They're fun, they're fashionable, they're fanciful, they're furry!

Scarf #1 - I Y You

Red, pink, & black with hints of brighter colors. Black & white 'eyelashes' just for fun.

Scarf #2 - Am I Blue

Multiple shades of blue, with green accents. A modest amount of purple 'eyelashes' to bring a smile.

Scarf #3 - I Got The Blues

Predominantly light blue with some highlights of several other colors. Lots of purple 'eyelashes' to tickle your fancy.

Scarf #4 - It's Easy Being Green

Greens and blues, accented with both white & black. A good amount of cream & purple 'eyelashes' lighten the mood.

Scarf #5 - Green Is Good

Several shades of both green & blue, with touches of white, black, yellow, and more. A multitude of yarn types. Don't want anything fuzzy? This one's for you!

Scarf #6 - Earth Girl

Brown & tan with plenty of cream & a bit of black -- earthy colors. This one has both some creamy 'eyelashes' and cute, fuzzy pom-poms.

Scarf #7 - Brown Beauty

Tan, burnt sienna, cream, & black, this is a bit darker than Earth Girl above. The fuzzy pom-poms and sienna 'eyelashes' add fun & interest.

I only made the seven scarves you see here; once they're gone, they're gone. Don't miss out - order now! How? Send me an email (peg at secondwindjewelry dot com) or give me a call (585-973-7110) to place your order. These soft braids are $17 each, plus $6.50 shipping. They range from 72" - 86" long - plenty of length to wrap, drape, or style.

Want to see my woven scarves? Visit my website - I have lots of colors, fibers, styles, & sizes in stock.

Am I Blue

My blue LED Christmas lights make me happy. Will I take them down or leave them up? What about my other decorations?

Learn the answers to these burning questions and more on my new blogsite.

If you can say it...

Moving forward on my third custom order, the same woman who wanted the rice bamboo scarf also wanted one in snow white. wanted to give her some diversity – not the same weaving pattern in both scarves.

So I played with my weaving software, Fiberworks, to come up with a design that I liked. Here’s what I decided on.

While it may just look like an interesting design to many, this type of graphic tells a weaver how to thread and treadle her loom to achieve the pattern.

So I prepared the warp, dressed the loom, and was off and running.
Uh oh. It was IMPOSSIBLE for me to see the pattern in white on white as I was weaving.

I tried squinting, tilting my head, moving the light — all tricks I’ve used successfully with other weaving patterns. No luck.

The only way for me to see this pattern was to get up and walk about 3 feet from the loom, then catch the fabric at quite an angle.

Now it’s perfectly clear! And lovely, if I do say so myself.

But with 30 rows to a pattern repeat and no way to see it as I wove, the odds of making a treadling mistake were great.

So I reverted to a lesson from my original weaving teacher: “if you can say it, you can do it.” I sat there at my loom saying, “1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4. 1, 2, 1. 4, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 1. 4, 3, 4, 3, 2.” As I was saying those numbers, my feet were moving to those treadles.

Interestingly, if what my voice was saying (yep, I was saying it out loud) didn’t match what my feet were doing, some part of my head knew it, and made me stop. My voice was always right, my feet were always wrong. By saying it, I never had to go back more than 1 row.

I wonder how far that morsel of advice – if you can say it you can do it – applies. Will it work if I’m at the table and tempted to reach for a second helping I don’t need? Will it help me to express kindness more often? I’m going to give it a try!

January 11th, 2011

Handwoven Bamboo Scarves

I made new handwoven bamboo scarves for a custom order.

To learn more about the pattern, and what else I've been up to, visit my new blogsite.