Brilliant or bad-early on

Here’s the ‘brilliant or bad idea’ piece early on in the weaving. I am loving it. However I know from experience that what I love on the loom isn’t always what I love once it comes off, is finished, and I can see the whole of it from a distance. In this particular case, I think I’ll weave the second piece with a natural/white weft, maybe in cotton, to tone the colors down a bit,...may be too intense for some folks.

With the black weft, I kept trying to think of what it reminded me of: stained glass windows? Wrong color schemes. Kaleidoscopes? Not enough shifting of colors. This afternoon I think I got it. Although I’ve never seen them in person, it reminds me of photographs and videos I’ve seen of the northern lights. To those of you who have actually seen the northern lights, does give you that impression or no?

Regardless of what they remind me or you of, I will say, I will say that so far, this concept seems brilliant to me, and I plan to do this again. Time will still tell.

I’m now thinking I’ll make one shawl, one wrap, and one other sewn piece – a 30-minute jacket. Trust me when I tell you this site doesn’t do it justice. I’ve got one pinned with a cotton warp and weft, and it’s pretty great.

October 4th, 2018 | 

Brilliant or bad idea?

My friend had lent me her dyes to shibori those socks, and while they were here I decided to use a little more of them. I got my color inspiration from somewhere on the web, and if I knew where I’d be happy to credit them, but you know how it is...you scro around and click on this and that, and then the phone rings and you close windows and have no idea where you were.

Before I measured our my 8/2 tencel warp chains, I had a brainstorm. Or maybe a bad idea. Only time will tell. I wound 3 warp chains on the mill as usual, but wound the amount needed for 2 more chains into skeins. I hand painted the 3 warp chains and the 2 skeins with the same colors, using boysenberry, chartreuse, and ice blue dyes.

After they batched, steamed, rinsed, and dried I measured out the 2 skeins on my mill as usual. Here’s what the results look like.

My plan is to wind and thread the loom as follows: warp painted, narrow dark strip, skein painted, narrow dark strip, warp painted, narrow dark strip, skein painted, narrow dark strip, warp painted.

I’m not saying it hasn’t been done before, but I personally haven’t seen this done before. So maybe it’s brilliant, and maybe it’s a bad idea. We’ll learn together.

October 1st, 2018 | 

3rd time isn't the charm

I’m working with a friend from my book club to hold a little pop up shop between now and Christmas. We’re not sure how this wi work, how many customers we’ll get, but I know I won’t sell a thing while it’s sitting in bins in my closet, so I’m committed to tryin it. If you’re on one of my email lists, look for an email with details later today or tomorrow.

I think it’s really important for this type of thing to have a broad range of price points, so decided to (a) weave a bunch more towels (more on that in another post), and (b) do some dyeing.

First I dyed 6 pair of bamboo socks. I used some empty plastic yarn cones that had provided the best results last year, scrunching and tying the socks shibori style. I’m very happy with all the results, and am hopeful that they’ll sell.

Then I ice-dyed 6 onesies. Well. This wasn’t as successful. For the first round I was quite disappointed in how poorly the dye took on the onesies. After some time pondering this I realized I had neglected an important step – soaking the onesies in a soda ash bath. So I did that, bought more ice, and tried again. One I really liked, 3 were just ok, and 2 were unacceptable. So I soake those 2 in another soda ash bath and tried a third time. Still just ok. Don’t know if these will sell or not.

I wanted to use colors that were not obviously ‘boy baby’ or ‘girl baby.’ So greens, yellows, and reds were high on my list. The greens were the hardest to get what I wanted. In fact I still didn’t get anything close to what I wanted. Sigh.

This next photo are the ones I like better, with just 1 that sings to me – that red/dark orange onesie on the left side of the photo. am more hopeful these will sell.

I have 6 more onesies. I think I’ll try wrapping and shibori dyeing 1 or 2 and see how that works.

On the weaving front, I realize I’ve already taken one of the newer shrugs to the pop up shop, and hadn’t photographed it. Mayb I’ll snap it while I’m there this weekend.

This morning I took some shots of the other piece, although it would have been better if Dolly was still here; she’s also at the po up shop. This one isn’t a shrug, isn’t a shawl, it’s a...well, I don’t know what to call it. Your input will be appreciated.

So here it is from the front.

I used 3 buttons that I’d made last year from polymer clay. This wrap is mostly cotton with a bit of linen in the colored stripes. It i pretty heavy and warm, and therefore not as drape-able as most of my work. This looks pretty old-fashioned to me, but it is comfortable. Except that it doesn’t cover much of the back.

My daughter, who has always been infinitely more fashionable than I, particularly liked it when it was put on sideways, with the buttons roughly on one shoulder. She thought this look was fashion-forward. This is the one I could have shown it much better o Dolly.

Wearing it this way covers similar amounts of the front and back of the body.

I have to get back to work now. Busy, busy.

September 27th, 2018 | 

How I spent my...

...Tuesday afternoon. Before:

After:

Although this color – Dried Lavender at Sherwin Williams – wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, I really like it. It makes my house looks more like me. Since I plan to live here until I can’t live alone anymore, I am not concerned about what the next homeowne might think; I’m much more focused on what I like, what makes me happy. This was one more step.

I took the shutters down in the morning (with some difficulty as the old flathead screws were very rusty and I had to be careful n to strip them), then started painting at noon when my daughter and grandson left after their visit. I got 2 coats on the front door, the shutters, and the side door, and was putting things away at 5PM. Not bad for 5 hours work! This morning I got new phillips head screws for the shutters and put them back up in literally seconds per shutter.

A few days ago I also got some shots of recent weaving. So here you go.
You’d seen the flat black and white hand painted Tencel shawl. I turned one of the three into a mobius. A standard shot first.

What happens when you turn it sideways? A slightly different look. If Dolly was larger than a size 8, it would be easier to dress her differently.

And if she had arms, even more so. Photographing my shrugs well seems impossible to me. So how the heck will I display them at a show? I have no idea and am hoping you have suggestions.

Here’s the first one, with a mostly cotton warp (the hand painted parts are a bamboo-cotton blend) and a natural cotton weft.

And the second, with a black tencel weft.

Since that photo doesn’t really show it well, I tried another way. Not better, just differently not-good.

I have two more pieces woven and finished, but no photos. Next post...

September 19th, 2018 | 

Shrugging along

 I really like making the mobius wraps, and my customers seem to like them, too. I’ve wanted to expand beyond straight flat pieces for a while, and mobiuses (mobii?) was my foray. Next up for me are some shrugs. Again, weave something flat and sew just a few straight seams to turn it into something else.

In the use-up-the-stash mode, I wound a warp long enough for 2 shrugs, starting with 5/2 pearl cotton and moving to some hand painted (not by me) bamboo-cotton blend I’ve had for some time. I really like the way the warp looks going on the loom.

I decided to use an undulating twill I like and sett the warp at 18 ends per inch. For the first shrug I used a natural 5/2 pearl cotton. Although this isn’t a great photo, I like it the overall look.

I have very little 5/2 left, so for the second am using 2 strands of 8/2 black tencel. Ooo la la!

Eager to get these off the loom, wet finished and sewn.

September 2nd, 2018 | 

From baby to mobi & the warp from hell

August has been crazy busy for me, in a good way. Another night of silent disco with friends. A trip to Longwood Gardens, meeting my BFF from West Virginia there, and watching a wonderful, uplifting concert by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. They sang this beautiful song, among others. Shopping with my son for his first home. (He’s putting in an offer today for one he’s really hoping for, so send all your positive thoughts this way.) So far less weaving than usual for me.

I did, however, come across a custom baby wrap that a mom had ordered and subsequently didn’t buy. (Just one of several reasons I stopped weaving baby wraps.) I decided to turn it into a mobius wrap. Based on comments I received at my last show decided not to cut the length, instead making it into a large size wrap. We’ll see how it goes. I can always shorten it later if needed.

I also squeezed in time to weave that red-violet and teal warp I’d hand painted. Decided to use a huck lace pattern. Wove the first one with a red-violet warp that was almost identical to the color I’d dyed. I was surprised that I didn’t like it better. Even as I was weaving it, it was too dark, too much red-violet for me.

For the second scarf I used an azure weft that was almost identical to the blue I’d dyed. I also modified the treadling slightly to weave what I’ve called huck-ish...only half of the weft pattern as above. Love it!

I’d planned to weave 1 long cowl, but based on my sales in July, modified that to 2 short cowls. Wove the first, again with that huck-ish treadling, using that green that I’ve-had-hanging-around-forever-and-hated-but-loved-when-I-used-it. Love it here, too.

For the next cowl I went back to that red-violet weft, this time using the huck-ish treadling. Meh.

Then my loom magician and the parts from Macomber lined up with my schedule and my Macomber was fixed! I knew I didn’t have time to weave all 3 shawls I’d warped it for, but believed I could do 1. I did, but it wasn’t fun. This warp is turning into the warp from hell. Although I completely re-tensioned it after the loom repair, my shed was consistently full of threads hanging low, so the weaving was slow with plenty of unweaving as I spotted a skipped thread some picks back, and there are still some treadling errors. Nothing that will impact the usefulness of the shawl, but it annoyed the heck out of me. Just like my weaving wi rayon chenille, it’s a good thing I like it so much when it’s complete or I would have cut it off and thrown it all away.

I’m hoping that when I return to it, again re-tensioning it, that I can eliminate the frustration. Keep your fingers crossed.

Now, if you’re anywhere near Buffalo this weekend, do come to the Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts. I’ll be there with all my wares. Gotta run now – time to drop Jackie off at my daughter’s for the weekend.

August 24th, 2018 | 

Lots of learning going on

 Warning – long post. Read at your own risk.

Apparently lot has happened in the last week. As soon as I got that black & white shawl warp on the Macomber and saw that there was a loom problem, I dyed a tencel warp for a run of 3 scarves. I wanted the blue-violet and periwinkle I’d used before, s pulled out my formulas and set to work. The colors going on the tencel looked just as they should...that is, just like I thought the had last time. But as the dyes batched, soaked, rinsed, and dried, my brain was confused. Where was the blue violet? And where the periwinkle?

That is red-violet and turquoise/teal. So I went back to my sample that I’d dyed using this formula. Yep, they were the same colors as what I had here. While those colors are very nice, there is no blue-violet and no periwinkle. Perhaps those were the colors I was going for when I created the formula, but they’re not the colors I got. Yet I never re-named my notes or my samples DOH! Still I think the warp is beautiful, so it’s all okay.

While I was waiting for the Macomber parts to be ordered and shipped, as planned I got a towel warp on the counterbalance loom. I opted for a red-based bumberet. In the must-use-stash mode, I chose color combos outside my general comfort zone. Here it is on the loom, with the first towel I wove, using a red weft.

That was too much bright red for me. I used a white weft next and really liked the way it muted the colors, so wove 2 towels of that. Then I wanted to use that peach/coral color that was also prevalent, but didn’t have enough left for even one towel, so matched it the best I could. Next I used one of the dark blues in the towel, then a cranberry. Here’s the batch of them.

Interestingly, now I like the red. Not as well as the lighter colored wefts, but definitely better than the darker colored ones. The cranberry one is too short to be a towel – not enough warp on the loom – so I’ll hang onto that for generic kitchen use.

In between weaving the towels I also finished weaving the warp that I’d put on my rigid heddle loom for demonstrations at the July show. Since I generally weave with relatively fine yarns, I have a challenge finding yarns in my stash that work well on the rigid heddle loom. So this time I thought I’d try a thick-ish variegated sock yarn in the knitting stash.

Looked nice, but O.M.G., what a pain to weave! The yarn was loosely spun, and the movement of the heddle kept abrading it. After a few broken warp threads I got wise and used the heddle only to raise and lower the warp threads, packing the weft in wit a weaving sword that I’d fashioned a few years ago out of a paint stick.
Fancy, eh? But it was with me at the show, and it worked. Not a great demonstration of what the loom could really do, but this was another live and learn situation.

First I used an orange rayon chenille weft for a long scarf.

Then a red rayon chenille weft for a cowl.

Moving on...you know that saying that no good deed goes unpunished? This next segment is like that. I suggested an ice-dying activity for a winter evening meeting for my Guild. Would I teach it? Um...sure. However, since I’d never actually done it, I’d nee to practice and work out some kinks.

First I dyed two little Tshirts for my youngest grandson. This was a test of whether it was better to use the dyes in powder form o after they’d been mixed with liquid. I was hoping the liquid would be just as effective, since I didn’t want to have to deal with the powders with a group of people, as they’d all have to wear masks.

Here are the Ts after I’d sprinkled on the dyes. Red & orange were sprinkled on dry, blue & green after mixing with liquid.

The next morning, after the ice had all melted, they looked like this.

After that I rinsed till clear, then washed and dried with other laundry and a color catcher. The reds are quite nice, I think.

The blues & greens, not so much.

Ok, so we’ll use powered dyes. (Or maybe I mixed them with a bit too much liquid...that’s for the next experiment.)

Then I realized that I’d planned on using little silk scarves I’d purchased for this process. But uh oh, silk needs to be steamed for the colors to set. No way will everyone who takes home a scarf covered with ice and dye at the end of an evening meeting have a dye-dedicated steamer at home. So next up was a test to see if other heating methods worked as well. Three little scarves are under this ice and dye.

After the ice melted, I steamed one and let the other two dry on the line in the basement. Then I tossed one in my dryer for about 20 minutes, and pressed the other with my iron set on silk. After that I rinsed all three scarves – it didn’t appear that any color ran at all.

An apparently successful experiment. Here are all 3 scarves after pressing.

Personally, I prefer the top one, with the most variation in color, but that’s a function of how it was in the container when I put the dye on, nothing to do with the method used to set the color.

Next experiment, which I’ll be doing with a few friends, is to try koolaid and other food dyes, and also to use both some cottons and some silks. That won’t happen till September, so the learning will continue. Glad the evening meeting isn’t until winter!

August 9th, 2018 |