It happened again

Once more, weeks have gone by without a post from me. And this time I can’t even claim to have posted things on Facebook; I haven’t.

Some days I feel remarkably unproductive. How did I ever get things done when I had a full time job? Other days I’m totally caught up in doing lots of mundane, routine tasks. But there it is. I can’t change the past. So here’s an update on what I have done in the past few weeks.

I took an online class through our Weaving Center on deflected doubleweave. I’d done a bit of it before but had limited experience with the structure. Plus I really wanted to see how it all worked, classes on Zoom, and how the Center might be able to support more of our teachers doing more online classes. I, for one, don’t see myself taking in-person classes for the rest of this year.

The class met once/week for 3 weeks. On our meeting days, we had 3 meetings, each an hour or more. And we were to be doing things in between meetings and weeks. So I spent a lot of time on that. I learned a lot, but I’m not sure how much of it I wi use. The instructor is a big fan of collapse weave, using yarns that will shrink differently – for instance a wool and a cotton – and that’s just not my bag. But here are a few shots of my samples, showing measurements before & after wet finishing. Note that the pink warp & weft was tencel, the dusty rose, when used, was rayon. Their shrinkage differentials were surprising.

Then, since I had enough warp on the loom, I decided to weave 2 scarves with these techniques. My opinion of them? Meh. If you would like one of them let me know & I’ll give you a screaming deal.

This one is woven partly with colcolastic thread/yarn. My intent was that the plain weave sections would really ‘pouf out’ from the colcolastic sections. The effect wasn’t as dramatic as I’d wanted.

I kind of liked the ‘bubble’ effect with the wool in the sample, so I dug out some baby lace-weight alpaca I had and wove the second scarf with that. I may have over-fulled the alpaca a bit; lack of experience. In any case, here’s that scarf.

Here’s a closeup of those bubbles. And what appears to be a treadling error I didn’t see until just now.

So with all of that it was taking forever to weave the next batch of Safe At Home towels. I finally have them off the loom, but haven’t begun to press or hem yet.

Unrelated to weaving...strike when the iron is hot, right? Well, it’s berry time. A woman who lives not too far from me has a cher tree. With her permission I picked quite a lot of fruit in 2018 and made jams and more. Last year almost no cherries developed. So this year when I saw her tree and again got her permission to pick, I did so. The cherries were mostly really high, much highe than I could reach with my ladder, and not so great. I only picked about four quarts of cherries, ended up throwing out about a quart of them, and got one batch of jam. One of those jar went to the tree owner, of course.

Then my son found some wild black raspberries near his house. He’s picked, I’ve picked, and we’ve picked together. Here’s the first of three batches of black raspberry jam I’ve made.

Then my second online fiber course started. This one is on painting two warps and using them in one project. I’ve done this before, too, but again wanted the experience of the Zoom structure. Working well ahead of the course plan, here are photos of my warps just after painting, and then when they’re steamed, rinsed, dried, and chained. It’s all 20/2 silk.

The first warp is purple, orange, burgundy, and reddish-fuchsia.

I had already partially wrapped this one before I took my photo. It’s gold, avocado, blue-green, and light indigo.

I’m very happy with the results and am looking forward to getting these on the loom.

I think I’m going to go outside my personal comfort zone and do random stripes, with a simple straight twill. (Random???? For someone with my control issues?? Oh my!!!)

July 15th, 2020 |

This and that

I asked for a specific things for Christmas, and my kids came through in spades. Most aren’t particularly photogenic, but these 2 are, both from LaBrise Stained Glass.

A cardinal pair in my front window...

...and a sweet chickadee in the studio.

On the weaving front, in a reply to a comment on that post about the weavies, it occurred to me that I didn’t know if a single weavie would reasonably suffice as a mug rug. Would the wool transfer moisture to the table/surface underneath it? I wanted to know, because I didn’t think I could sell any if I priced them high enough to account for the work involved in making 2 weavies, sewing them together, and stuffing them. So I did an experiment.

I got 3 different of my test weavies. From left to right they are a single strand of sock yarn, a double strand of sock yarn, and a single strand of worsted weight wool. I put a paper towel under the row of 3 and a glass of water with ice cubes on each. I figure I’d be able to more easily see if the paper towel got wet/damp than my table top.

I waited. The ice melted but nothing happened. The glasses didn’t sweat, which was needed for the test. So I dumped out most of the remaining water, and filled each glass up with ice. Now they’d sweat for sure.

The bottom line? The sock yarns, which are a fiber blend, transferred a tiny bit of moisture to the paper towel; the worsted wool transferred none. So I think I’ll make some to sell this summer and see what kind of interest I get. Weavies are a great thing to d in the evening while I’m watching TV.

Moving on, I did get those ‘beach’ towels from the last post woven and off the loom. I intended to do the hand hemming last nigh in front of the tube, but Jack decided he MUST have more attention, so that was the end of that.

While I was weaving the towels I tried to figure out what I wanted to weave for jury photos. I decided I’d try the circle shawl from the November/December 2014 issue of Handwoven.

I’ve looked at it several times since 2014, so now I was going to jump in. Of course I wanted my own interpretation, basically jus using their measurements for a finished piece.

I planned the whole thing out with some beautiful, thick-ish mercerized cotton. Then it was time for bed. By the next morning I realized I wouldn’t like the plan. Why? My warp would be in stripes because I didn’t have enough of any single color of the yarn, and those stripes would end up being horizontal in the finished piece. I don’t like wearing horizontal stripes, and figured others would feel the same. Hmmmmmm.....think again, Peg.

I didn’t really want a solid color warp. Using a variegated yarn in the weft has never pleased me; I really only like them in warp. How would I solve this problem?

Another lightbulb, and another pass through the stash and I found some beautiful bamboo-cotton yarn that I’ve had for a few years, hand painted by another fiber artist. I’ve now measured out that warp and plan to get it on the loom tomorrow.

While I was winding I realized I have 3 very cool options for some novelty yarn that would look smashing with this warp. But again, they’d be horizontal stripes. So I’m going to try to use them in the weft. We’ll see how that goes.

January 3rd, 2019 | 

Dyeing, knitting, weaving

 Like most people’s lives in December, mine has been busy. Here are a few highlights.

I helped out at the Weaving Center, providing an extra pair of hands for a talented felter and teacher who taught 8 teenagers to felt a little bag. So creative!

I knit 2 hats for my grandson. He requested the one on the right, identical to one I’d made for his little brother last year. I made the one on the left in his school colors, which he’s definitely into. I don’t know if that one will fit or if I’ll need to remake it in a larger size. I found the pattern on the internet, but didn’t mark it and can’t find it now.

I decided at the last minute to dye some socks for my 2 grandnephews. I had 3 pair that I thought would fit them, so used 1 method I knew would work and tried 2 others. First up is the known method – tying in marbles with little rubber bands.

Then the pair that didn’t work as well – but I know how to make it work next time.

One side of these socks look cool, but the ‘inside’ didn’t get any dye. Next time the rubber should be clamped onto both sides of the socks.

The 3rd pair was also successful. First I mildly scrunched them on a length of PVC pipe. I knew from experience that too much scrunching on the PVC would leave too much white on the socks.

After the mild scrunching I wrapped them in rubberized shelf liner, then tied it on with some rubber bands.

I like the results of this experiment.

Those socks got mailed out yesterday.

Now I’m working on a modified circle shawl. I used an online random stripe generator, going through at least a dozen variations produced, and warped with 8 colors of 8/2 unmercerized cotton. I’m using an interesting flecked wool for the weft. We see how it all works.

I also hand painted a bunch of 8/2 tencel, preparing for a series I’ve mentally planned in black and white. This dyeing has also been a learning experience...the black hasn’t always behaved well, even though I actually did dye samples (regular readers will know I almost never sample).

I’ve also added more time learning dances with the ROC City Line Dance Express group. Those women are GOOD! And make me feel good, even though it takes me LOTS of practice with YouTube videos to learn the steps.

For the next few days I’ll be cleaning, wrapping gifts, and otherwise preparing for the holiday. I may be able to fit in some more time at the loom on that striped warp...or maybe not.

December 20th, 2017 | 

Dyeing experiments

I’ve heard about dyeing with koolaid but hadn’t tried it. Then I read Karen’s post about speckle dyeing, and figured I’d try it on something small first. I’d recently finished knitting these socks. Very nice, but all white.

So I read a bunch of online how-tos, then went to the store and got 3 packages of koolaid. Sprinkled it on from a spoon.

Wasn’t crazy about how it looked in the pan, but had hopes I’d like them when it was all done. At least one of the sites I read sa that it had to sit for 2 days. So in the meantime I read more directions about speckle dyeing yarn and measured out a cotton warp for 3 scarves. Learned my lesson about dyeing outside so am set up in my basement.

Meanwhile I spoke to my dyeing teacher who strongly recommended I not do it with the dye powder for safety reasons, so I use the eye dropper technique I’d seen here. As suggested, I left plenty of white areas.

Then it’s a 2 day process from here, too. Batching overnight till the next day, then sitting in water for another day.

So I figured I’d do some immersion dyeing of weft yarns for the speckle-dyed warp. First time I’ve done this, too, except for with Rit dyes. Here are the 3 skeins in their individual dye vats.

They only had to sit in the dye bath for about an hour, than overnight in water. Here they are at the end of that overnight sit.

And an unlovely picture of some really lovely yarns. Very solid colors, lots of depth of color – much more than I’d intended, actually, but I love each of them.

By now I could go back to the socks. Ugh. I didn’t like them at all. Looks like something from a horror movie.

So I figured I’d overdye them with the blue koolaid. Even worse! Now they look ugly and dirty!

Back online I went. The ‘real’ dyes I have are meant for plant-based fibers (cotton, rayon, silk), not protein based fibers like my wool socks. But I read how to dye wool with these dyes, and figured nothing could make them any uglier. Again into blue, this time real dye and a relatively dark blue.

Here’s an unlovely picture of beautiful socks (ok, sock-singular)! You can barely see the koolaid splotches, which is just fine with me.

Now back to the speckle dyed warp. Oh no! There are no longer ANY undyed areas. Everything that was white is now pinky- lavender.

Not what I had in mind at all. Sigh. Would I overdye this yarn? After thinking about it for a few days I decided I’d warp it. If I hate it when it went on the loom, I could always take it off dye it then. Or I could cut my losses and just toss it out. Or give it to someone as a prepared warp. So here it is going on the loom.

I don’t hate it anywhere near as much as I did in the skein, so decided I’d try weaving with it. Instead of using my beautiful immersion-dyed skeins, though, I chose a lavender cotton that would almost match the lavender in the warp, hoping it would mute everything out a bit.

And it does. Looks like it’d make a nice baby wrap. Will it make a scarf anyone likes? I can’t tell yet. But I can always choose to overdye it after it’s woven, now, can’t I?

October 18th, 2016 | 

Handwoven Swedish Lace Scarves

 I’ve been a very bad blogger, but at least I’ve been a good weaver. I have good excuses. In the space of 21 days between May 22 and June 8 I have two shows — Routes to Art and Kenan Center’s 100 American Craftsmen — a major fundraiser for Pfeiffer Nature Center where I work, and, most importantly, MY DAUGHTER’S wedding!

I won’t bore you with a post on every scarf I’ve made; instead I’ll show you the recent scarves by grouping.

Although when I’m showing new handwoven scarves to Margaret to gather local critique I always show her my favorites last, I’m going to reverse that here, and show you my favorites first.

And what are those favorites, you might ask? It’s the new Swedish lace scarves. I wove them in alternating blocks. I was initially afraid it’d look a bit like a checkerboard, detracting from the classy look I was going for.

First I did them in a fine gauge Mora wool, approximately 4,700 yards per pound (ypp).

Yippee – I liked the way they looked! Although that wool is pretty fine, they look clunky compared to the next batch...

Now it was time to move to the fiber I really wanted to do them with, a VERY fine cashmere-silk blend in a lovely orange color. Â This yarn is about 6,000 ypp

I’m not usually an orange person, but I really love these scarves. Obviously, the scarf on the left is the Swedish lace blocks, and the one on the right is a simple tabby weave. In both cases, the finished product is light as air, soft as silk, and drapes like a dream.

Like my other handwoven lace scarves, I wove these on my little counterbalance loom. I do love this vintage, handmade beauty, and use it whenever possible, and it never complains, even when I ask it to go outside its comfort zone and weave 1 harness against 3, such as when I’m making woven lace.

I took them to Routes to Art this weekend, my first show of the season, and got lots of great feedback. I will DEFINITELY be making more cashmere silk scarves! In fact, I think I’d better go order more of that yarn right now!

May 22nd, 2010

Weaving with a Wool-Silk Blend

I made these beautiful scarves from a handpainted wool-silk blend yarn. I purposely used a very loose set, making the scarves nice and light.

Even though I'm very sensitive to wool, I can wrap these scarves around my neck with no trouble at all. Check out my new blogsite for more information, or go to my website to buy one.

Fiber Fest

On Saturday I went to the Knox Farm Fiber Festival in East Aurora.  The weather was initially pleasant, then go so windy that vendors' tents were in grave danger of making it to Kansas.

I think alpacas have really sweet faces, and they are reportedly very gentle animals.  

Check out my new blogsite to read more about the Fiber Festival and other things posts related to weaving, jewelry, bees, and more!