Finishing out October

I’m closing out October with 9 finished pieces. My plan is to get enough ahead of my goals that I can spend some time weaving not-for-sale items, such as a transparency or two. So I managed to fringe and wet finish a few more pieces.

I beamed the 10/2 tencel red-orange-yellow warp I’d hand painted earlier this month. I loved it going on the loom.

I’d been waiting to try a few things. One was a draft that I was calling ‘wobbly eyes.’

The other was experimenting some more with creating iridescence with color. So I chose an 8/2 periwinkle tencel weft. I was no in love with it on the loom, nor after it was all done.

I wasn’t happy with this while it was on the loom, and finally remembered to listen to my own advice: either color or weave pattern can be the star of a piece, but if you combine the two they just fight with each other and it rarely ends well. So I cut the scarf off the loom and rethreaded for a simple point twill. I chose a dark red rayon 8/2 weft. I knew on the loom that this would work, and I was right. Due at least in part to the season, I’m calling this scarf Red Maple. (Note that the colors aren’t quite as intense as they appear in the photo.)

I thought I had enough warp left for 2 short cowls. I was wrong – there was only enough for 1, but this turned out to be my favorite of the 3: Golden Maple.

In fact I liked it so much that I wore it to the NYS Climate Summit I attended yesterday.

Right now I’m getting an almost-redo shawl warp on the loom. It’s 8/2 cotton and a fine vintage synthetic treated as a single thread in the heddles.

It’s an almost-redo because I couldn’t find any of the ‘lumpy’ cotton yarn I’d used as weft last time, so I bought the closest thing could find. We’ll see how it turns out.

Completely unrelated, some weeks ago a friend introduced me to a local dance class. Actually, I invited myself to go along with her. I. Am. Hooked. This is a soul line dance class, offered in a rec center in the city. The women in the class are so welcoming, the dancing is great fun, and unlike lots of other exercises I’ve tried, this one doesn’t hurt my knee. I often make mistakes when new dance is introduced – which happens every single week – but it’s all good. When I get home I watch YouTube videos of the new dances and learn them as the week goes on. So I get more exercise every day. I am having a GREAT time AND losing weight – win-win! Here’s a clip of one of the newer dances, one that gets the heart rate up, especially if you do it several times in a row. Enjoy!

October 29th, 2017 | 

Met my goal, plus

 With my goal of 6-7 finished scarves or shawls per month, I’ve just met that for October. It’s possible that I’ll get 3 more done, bu they may end up not getting finished until November.

In my last post I showed you 3 warps I’d hand painted. The first to go on the loom was the 5/2 bamboo. I chose a simple block twill weave; I just like this weave structure.

For the first scarf I used an 8/2 cotton weft that I’d immersion dyed a year ago that was waiting for the right opportunity to play. This was it. I like the way the sheen of the bamboo and the matte finish of the cotton play off each other. I also switched the size of the treadling blocks randomly. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, but I do.

I used a commercial 5/2 bamboo for the second scarf, and because I wasn’t sure if I’d like the random treadling, I used a consistent pattern for this one.

I had only enough warp left for a short cowl. I opted for a navy tencel, wanting it to make the warp colors pop. I also chose short treadling changes for this short piece. I was surprised that this is my least favorite of these 3 on this warp.

I also got those bumberet towels you saw me beaming in the last post woven and finished. I learned something with this warp... prefer it when I have more of a main color predominating in the warp than I did in this one. They’re fine, just not my favs. From the top down, in the weft color order in which I wove them, you see blue, medium blue, pale green, periwinkle, peacock, mauve, aquamarine, and lilac.

All of these towels, and a few others I have in stock, will go to the Weavers’ Guild Holiday Sale in a few weeks. History tells us that people like to have small purchase options, so I’m hoping the towels will do well there. Although I like making towels, they’re not big sellers at my show, so towels do not count toward my monthly goal.

In keeping with the small-items scenario, I decided to make polymer buttons for the Holiday Sale, too. I tried some new things, and there were lots of buttons that didn’t make the grade after baking.

I am happy with all those that did. I made a little leaf-vein etching on this set of 3...

...and did what I think is neat striping on some.

I decided to paint a glaze on the buttons for a finished look that I prefer, and turned them into button lollipops for 2 coats of glaze front and back.

Once they were all done I had to develop packaging that would show them well. I printed on cardstock, sewed the buttons to it ( task that took much longer than I’d anticipated), inserted it into a cellophane bag, stuck my business card in the back, and close the bag with decorated tape. We’ll see if they sell.

After this show I will put any towels and buttons left up in my Etsy store, and try to get some more photographic views of woven scarves and shawls to post, too.

October 23rd, 2017 | 

Startiing strong

October started really strong for meeting my 6-7 finished pieces per month. That’s mostly true because I don’t count scarves as done until they are fringed and wet finished. The 3 scarves I’ll show you were off the loom at the end of September, but not fringed or wet finished till early October. Way to start!

I had a dark royal purple warp on the loom, threaded for a complex twill. First I used a green that is almost chartreuse, longing f that iridescence that comes with complementary – or in this case split complementary colors. I much prefer the side that’s more purple.

I auditioned a salmon weft for the second scarf, again going for that split complementary color, but really hated it. So I used a very pale blue-green. I was tired of the treadling pattern for the first scarf, so changed it for the second. My overall reaction? Meh. It’s okay.

I really wanted something that would send me for the third. I tried out a few things and settled on a gold silk that I’d immersion dyed a few years ago with natural dyes. It’s a bit thicker than the 20/2 of the warp, so the hand isn’t quite as nice, but I really like the colors. I also changed the treadling pattern again, and this one is my favorite weave pattern as well as favorite color combo.

Since October was starting off so strong with numbers, I wanted to spend a bit of time in my basement, hand painting some warps. I did three warps, and decided in advance that I’d (a) make decisions in advance, (b) take better notes, and (c) not use u any leftover dyes, mixing up new so I knew what I’d get.

First up is 5/2 bamboo. I dyed in a blue->green->blue->purple pattern, using a 3% dye solution. I also immersion dyed 2 skeins for weft. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough containers to give them each a vat with sufficient space, and then I was so involved in the hand painting that I failed to stir them. So the skeins aren’t a good solid color. That’s fine for warp use for a future project, but not the weft for this one. Live and learn, as usual.

Next I painted some 10/2 tencel. This time I used a red->orange->yellow->orange pattern to my painting, and a 2% dye solution (These colors aren’t particularly accurate, but the best I could do.)

The third warp is also 10/2 tencel. This time it’s a 1% solution, in red->orange->yellow->green->blue->purple that then doubles back on itself, going purple->blue->green, and so on. In an ideal world I would have had just one ROYGBV run per scarf, but I couldn’t exactly make that work in my calculations, so I think each scarf with probably be more like 1-1/3 of that rainbow. I hope looks okay woven. I also hope that the patch of white, where I obviously failed to saturate the yarn with color, doesn’t land in the middle of a scarf. I can wish that it’ll be where I would normally cut for fringes, and just cut it out. A girl can hope, right?

While I was waiting for the yarns to batch and dry, a process that takes a few days, I decided to put on a warp for some towels. Although they don’t sell particularly well in my booth at shows, towels tend to sell at the Weavers’ Guild Holiday Sale, and I don’ have very many. I opted for more bumberet.

I learned in the process that I prefer it when I have more of the predominating color, in this case intended to be blue or green. The towels, which won’t count toward my monthly goal, are in the finishing process, so you’ll see them later.

I’m always eager to see how my hand painted warps turn out in the weaving, so am looking forward to that adventure. Oh, yeah. Meanwhile I also made some Christmas gifts. In my canner. No peeks at what’s inside!

October 14th, 2017 |