Honey Berries

That silk warp that I dyed, shown in the last post, was definitely much more pink than I intended. No idea what happened to the purple. Although I was inspired by the Honey Pie photo I showed, the pink in mine had me change the name to Honey & Berries Still I liked it well enough, so beamed it and started weaving. I used draft 22076 from Handweaving.net.

After auditioning a few different weft colors, I set off with a tan-ish color that I’m calling cafe latte. It worked well with all the warp colors, creating a more subtle overall look.

Next, in keeping with my ‘must-use-stash’ mantra, I went to the shelf where I had a few small cones of very fine cashmere-silk blend – roughly 9,000 yards per pound. I knew from experience that I couldn’t use this as warp, so weft it would be. I used double strands of this yarn, and at 4,500 yards per pound it was still thinner than the 20/2 silk. First I used a natural weft. Definitely toned everything down, but in a way I liked.

Back to that shelf of cashmere & silk, I chose black for the third scarf. As it always does, the black both popped the colors and darkened the overall look.

I usually have a definite favorite when I weave 3 pieces with different wefts. This time it’s a toss up for me between the natural and the black.

After I finished weaving with the black I had more warp left than I usually do, more than I wanted to just cut off and toss. So I used 2 strands of undyed 30/2 silk for the weft. This made the fabric a bit stiffer, and while I was weaving I could see this as a back yoke for a yet-to-be-planned garment. I’m not sure this will ever happen. Maybe it’ll turn into something else, maybe it will simply hang around and not get a ‘purpose.’

February 15th, 2020 | 

Planning ahead

I usually plan ahead, mentally working on the next warp while I’m still at the loom on the last one. This planning and activity wasn’t really anything like that. I was looking 11 months out. But it wasn’t my weaving.

After I’d made a bunch of Christmas presents (oh yeah, you still need to see them; next time...if I remember) I was very much in the Christmas spirit. I’d recently been to an evening meeting of the Weavers’ Guild, one where we all were quilling, something I haven’t done for 40 years or so. I got inspired to make a bunch of cards for Christmas 2020. I’m showing them here, figuring by next year the intended recipients will have forgotten about them.

I started by quilling 240 little ‘light bulbs’ while I watched TV.

Then I ordered the card stock and envelopes I needed, and set them up on my kitchen table, gluing lengths of green cotton to the cards to represent wire.

Still working at the table, I glued on the lights, and decided I had to make little ‘plugs’ of black. Although the plugs look sort of like little cat heads, it was the best I could do. I made 20 cards; here’s a sampling of them.

Simultaneously to quilling those light bulbs in the evening, I was also working in the studio during the day, setting up triaxial ribbon weaving for a different kind of card. The totally traditional Christmas colors of pink and black uses 3/8′′ ribbon, the rest is 1/4′′ ribbon.

After it was all woven and pinned to the bulletin board, I taped the segments off with craft tape and took it to my sewing machine to stabilize all the places where I would cut.

In addition to ordering the cardstock and envelopes for the quilled cards, I also ordered window cards for the triaxial weaving. I have 6 of the pink and black and 3 each of the green/white/red and blue/white/red.

So next year I can send out 32 handmade cards. Wonder who will get these versus some store-bought ones.

I haven’t woven anything since mid-December, giving my thumb tendonitis a rest. I wondered why I wasn’t dyeing fibers like ma so I’d have plenty to do once I was back at weaving, but somehow I just wasn’t inspired to do so. Then the other day on Facebook I saw this posting. The dyeing was done by Blazing Shuttles, the work of Kathryn Weber, whose work I admire.

I loved the look of that warp and wanted to do my own version, adding substantially more purples. I wound 3 narrow bouts of 20/2 silk and went down to the basement. Here’s what I ended up with.

The purples are more pink than I’d had in mind, but I’m happy with the way it turned out. Now I have to decide on the weave structure, whether I’ll offset these bouts with some solids, and then what I’ll use for weft to keep the loveliness of the colors.

Now, because Kathrin called her colorway Honey Pie I’ve had this earworm for days. Here you go.

You’re welcome.

February 2nd, 2020 |