Repeating my mistakes

Well, well, well. I’ve done it again. Made the same mistake – twice – that I’ve made before and swore I wouldn’t do again. HAH!

What is that mistake? It’s forgetting to allow for take-up in my warp calculations. That’s why I didn’t have enough warp for 10 towels. If only I’d realized it before I planned and beamed the next warp, which was intended to be for 3 scarves. Fortunately I DID realize my error after that scarf warp was threaded. So I adjusted my calculations, working backwards from the length I actually had, and realized that I could weave 1 fringed scarf, 1 long cowl, and 1 short cowl. Better to know then than later. But still.......how many times will I make this mistake?!?!?!?

Anyway, here are the towels. The first photo shows the three that were special ordered. I’m not sure if she’ll want them, especially the one on the left. The woman wanted it to match exactly a towel she had from me, but I didn’t have enough of the weft yarn left, and since it was a custom hand painting job from several years ago, I’m sure I couldn’t have gotten more. So I did the best I could to make it coordinate, since it couldn’t match.

Here’s the original towel I was to match.

Then I had a friend tell me that he was looking for 3 towels that looked like they went together. So I tried to weave 3 or 4 coordinating in yellow and orange, since the colors looked cheery to me.

The one on the top is one of the shorties – only 21′′ long. He’ll see these towels, and 3 bumberet towels, plus the yellow towel from the last warp, on Friday. He may choose something – or not.

Here are the last 2 towels.

The one that you saw at the end of the warp while on the loom will go to my daughter. In addition to being short, the weft yarn has some looping at one of the selvedges, so I’d never sell it. She can wipe her hands on it. Or whatever.

Not that I’m OCD or anything, but that scarf warp I mentioned earlier was essential if I was to meet my March goal. I used the lace draft I’d created last month, modifying it to be scarf width. Warped the loom with a silver-gray 8/2 tencel and wove the first scarf with that as weft, too. The lovely lace pattern doesn’t show up much in this photo, but you can see it nicely in the next one

I wanted to ‘fancy it up’ a bit, so worked glass beads into the fringe. I really like it. Just enough glitz.

The long cowl got a medium blue weft.

The short cowl got a charcoal weft. I like the scarf and both cowls.

Now, if my friend buys 3 towels on Friday I need to weave more towels. Even if he doesn’t I need to weave more towels. I also need to weave more scarves. Which should I do next? Which will I do next? What yarns will call to me? What weave structure? Will the dyes in the basement start pulling on me? Decisions, decisions.

March 28th, 2018 | 

I am not old

 I saw that posted on Facebook and just love it – the photo and the poem.

On the weaving front, I’ve finished 4 pieces for March from my Happy warp. First I wove a flat shawl in what I call ‘huck-ish’ – weaving just half of a huck pattern. This is an example of necessity causing a design element that I like a lot. I started weaving with magenta Tencel, believing I had 2 tubes of it. I was about 8′′ from the second end when I ran out on the first tube and went get the other.

Uh oh. It wasn’t magenta. It was bordeaux. They looked the same in the darkness of the shelves, but not once they were out in the daylight.

After consideration I unwove several inches so that I could do some weft striping. I added three stripes – coral and pink – separated by thin stripes of the magenta, and finished the shawl with the end of the magenta yarn. Whew!

I liked the way that coral looked so well that I decided I’d use it for weft for the next piece. The coral is Bambu 7. which is substantially thicker than the 8/2 cotton of the weft. It’s also very loosely spun. So I chose to stick with the ‘huck-ish’ treadling to minimize floats. As planned, this piece is a mobius. Here it is on Dolly so you can see how it sits.

So easy to wear. And the bamboo gives it such a wonderful hand.

I chose an azure Tencel for the third piece, also a mobius. For this one I did a full huck treadling. I also like this one a lot.

It was clear I had enough warp left to weave a cowl. I picked a navy Bambu 7, and since the piece would be short I opted to do the full huck treadling again. This is far and away my least favorite.

Amazing how different they look with the different colored wefts, isn’t it?

There’s 4. I’m counting this next one as 5 for the month, even though it’s sort of cheating. I actually finished this piece in September, but it was never right. I didn’t know how to do the mobius at that time, and sewed it end-to-end. It was just a mess.

So once I knew how to do the mobius I took it apart and fixed it. It’s a bit shorter than my typical, but it’s totally fine.

So. With actual garments, simple as they may be, I needed a cloth label. I’d looked at several designs online and planned to order some.

Then the lightbulb went off in my brain. Wait! I had cloth labels that I’d designed for my baby wraps. I’d ordered something like 300 of them, so I had roughly 250 left.

They had info that I didn’t need or want on the clothing, so I had to get rid of that. A serger would have done the perfect job, but my machine with a narrow and tight zigzag stitch worked, and I could sew a string of them, one right after the other.

The color is correct in the photo above, not in the one below.

On the left is the full label, created for my baby wraps. I use them for my towels – at least most of them. Some of my towels hav some bamboo in them.

In the center are labels I can use for things like the 100% cotton mobius – I don’t want them machine washed & dried. On the left I can use for my other mobius and the center-seam shawls.

March 16th, 2018 | 

Finishing February

 Yep. Today is March 10 and I’m just getting around to the post for the 3 shawls I mentioned in my last post that just needed wet finishing. I am definitely compulsive enough that I made it a point to finish them on February 28 so I could count them for last month’s tally.

I really do like weaving lace. A lot. Since I haven’t woven lace in a while I was eager to get back to it.

I’m very happy with the lace design. Not only do I find it visually pleasing, it’s one of the first (maybe the very first) time that I wa able to look at a photo of a fabric I saw online and turn it into a weaving draft! This is a skill I’ve wanted to learn for a few years, so I was thrilled that I made it work this time. It only took several hours. I spent hours with Fiberworks one evening, not gettin anywhere, and around 11PM decided I had to go to bed as I needed to get up early the next morning. Of course, simply getting myself horizontal had no impact on shutting off the brain. All of a sudden the lightbulb went off! I got a brainstorm, got out of bed spent about 15 minutes at the computer and voila – there it was! I could then fall asleep.

I warped for 2 regular shawls and a mobius with a natural 5/2 pearl cotton from my stash.

I’m a person who almost always prefers lace with the same or very similar color in both warp and weft. So the all-cream piece is my favorite. But I didn’t have enough of the cream yarn for another, so had to choose among my limited range of other 5/2 cottons. Using up more stash – yeah!

The other flat shawl uses a red earth colored weft. Here you can see both sides of the lace.

For the last piece, the mobius, I used a spring green.

In addition to working on that Happy warp I showed you last time, I started March by doing a little sewing. Cindie over at Eweniquely Ewe made some, and put a link to a YouTube video with the instructions. I’m happy to share it here, too.

I had some cute cotton fabric ready to go to the craft thrift store, and a broken tape measure from my son, so made these 3 bags. Easy peasy. Especially after the first one.

I’m giving the middle one as a birthday gift to a friend, using the hot pepper one in my purse to replace a worn out little bag, and so far not sure what I’ll do with the third. I’m thinking that if I weave some scraps at the ends of future warps I can make some with my handwoven fabric, at least for the outside fabric, and then I can sell them in my booth. We’ll see.

March 10th, 2018 | 

Towels & tootsies

I got 8 towels woven. Natural (unbleached & undyed) cotton threaded in point twill, 4 different tie ups, 2 of each weave pattern.

First I wove what I call a flower pattern. Wasn’t my favorite in real life, nor did I like dark that yarn – which was very cool on the cone – as much as I thought I would.

Next I wove snowflakes. Started with a traditional blue, then went to some handpainted bamboo-cotton blend I’ve had hanging around for far too long. I was very happy to use up some stash yarn in small amounts, so went with more of that handpainted bamboo cotton for the next 4 towels.

For the 3rd pair I used a simple V weave structure. The warp is 8/2 cotton, and red-purple yarn is thicker than that. The green- purple yarn is the same weight, but the lighter colors don’t show the weave pattern as well.

Last up was some Xs. I wasn’t at all sure about this, since I had used the draft once when I was doing baby wraps and wasn’t crazy about it, but in fact I really liked it for the towels. Again, the pattern shows up better with the darker color, but I really like th stripes on the yellow one.

Two of these towels will go to my friend, the rest into stock.

Now I wish I had more of that natural cotton. I can see something like that end-striped-towel in several colors, and by using a natural warp I can use up lots of odds and ends of nice hand painted yarn. The only downside is that the handpainted yarn (I didn’t dye it, I bought it) has a tendency to bleed in the wash. Could I wash all the yarn before I used it? I could, but I know myse well enough to know that I won’t. Anyhow, I don’t have much natural cotton left. Might pick up some at the Guild’s annual stash- reduction sale next month. We’ll see what people bring in.

On the needles, Friday night I finished a pair of socks I’d been working on. (Don’t tell me I don’t know how to have a good time on Friday night!) They look perfect with some of my favorite leggings.

Finally, Cindie over at Eweniquely Ewe inspired me. Yesterday I got all the rest of the pre-accountant work done for my taxes. Ugh. But it’s done – yay! Just waiting on a few things to arrive in the mail.

Now I’m off to the warping mill to start working on this month’s weaving goal.

February 4th, 2018 | 

I'm in love

I know, I know, I usually love whatever just came off the loom, but this time I think it’s a long-lasting love, not just a passing crush.

In the last post you saw my work hand painting two bouts of yarn – a terra cotta and an intended teal that was actually turquoise Neither was exactly what I’d had in mind, but I was hoping they’d play nicely together for my weaving plan. I was happy with the colors while beaming.

This is a deflected doubleweave structure, so it meant twice as many threads (480) as usual for a scarf, and 2 shuttles to weave I picked 2 colors of yarn and started weaving. I really like this cool on-the-loom shot.

As always, although I liked the look on the loom, I couldn’t be positive about the pieces till they were off the loom, fringed, and wet finished. Especially since this was a structure I hadn’t woven before, and the number of threads involved in a narrow piece, had my fingers crossed that it would work as planned, that the ‘hand’ or drape and feel, would be pleasing, as well as the color choices.

You just have to trust me when I tell you that none of the photos I took show these scarves to their best advantage. I couldn’t ge the colors just right. But I know I will be using this scarf for one of my jury photos...I think it’s a show stopper! Sometimes I think looks like a fish, sometimes like jewelry, sometimes like a watercolor painting with metals in the paint.

I used the same light teal for the green-ish/blue-ish weft throughout, but changed the terra cotta warp with each piece. The differences are subtle, and not noticeable unless you see them side by side.

I will absolutely use this weaving draft again, even though as a 2-shuttle weave it’s slow. So where did I get the draft from? A woman in my Guild bought a scarf and brought it into a weaving class, where she and the teacher analyzed it and wrote out the draft. A third woman wove it up, brought the finished scarf to a Guild meeting where I drooled over it, and later shared the draft with me. Thanks, Toni, Joyce, & Eleanor!!

In other weaving news, I did finish weaving the black and white shawls. Had to get them off the loom to do the terra cotta & turquoise. Just like the scarves, I much prefer the look of the shawl with the white weft. Don’t know how others will feel. I wanted a contrast with the creamy white of the warp yarn and a weft. This isn’t as noticeable as I’d desired, but was the best I could do... mercerized cotton white weft.

So I’ll finish January with 9 completed pieces. Feeling good about that.

I’ve reconnected with a friend from years ago, and since she’s moved I want to bring her a few towels for her new home. My towel stock was woefully low, so I put a quick warp for just 8 towels on the loom and am weaving them. Towels won’t count in meeting my monthly goals, so I’m mentally planning for February’s weaving while I’m weaving those towels.

January 31st, 2018 | 

Not like me

My regular readers will know I am not a sampler. I don’t put extra warp on the loom, weave a piece, cut it off, and wet finish it to learn things. I just go for it.

Why, then, did I feel a need to do some sample dyeing? I can’t really say. But I did it with the black and white to learn what strengths and techniques would work for my concept. And learn I did. So I did it again, with 6 mini-bouts of yarn. It was sort of a pain, measuring out those bouts, carefully marking them with threads so I’d know which was which later on, preparing them for hand painting, mixing the dyes, doing the work, and then waiting. But I did it. AND wrote everything down! What a crazy concept!

The reality is that I was using such tiny amounts of dye for these mini-bouts that I likely can’t match those color results exactly, but I can get closer to achieving an actual outcome of what’s in my head. I’m sure that I’ll often choose to go with serendipity, bu I had a concept I wanted to try out, in hopes that it’d be a great jury piece, and it would require actual planning.

After those dye samples I prepared two fairly large bouts – 248 threads each, 8+ yards long. I dyed one in terra cotta (remember my terra notta experiment of months ago?) and one in teal. The terra cotta is lighter than I wanted teal is actually turquoise and brighter than intended, but both will work for my purpose. I think.

I’ll be warping my loom with these yarns today. Keep your fingers crossed that I can achieve my vision.

So in addition to actually sampling, here are two other things that aren’t like me. A bit of politics on my blog. Although I have strong opinions, I won’t share them here. I will tell you that I think voting is a critical thing to do, and that there is a unique

opportunity in 2018. If you’re not already registered to vote, do it now! And then vote in November. And if you’re so inclined, run for office yourself. Stand up for what you believe in in whatever way(s) you can.

My last not-like-me is actually sort-of-like-me. My participation in the soul line dance group has reminded me just how much I always liked dancing, and how happy I am to re-introduce it in my life. I distinctly remember having a sweatshirt with this image and words when I was a kid. Not sure if it was black or navy blue, but I loved wearing it.

So when a friend told me about a silent disco being held here in Rochester, I was all over it. Sign me up! We went on Friday nig and met a few other friends there. I. HAD. A. BLAST!! Can’t wait for the next one, likely months away. (The photo is lame, as people were just starting to arrive, and none of the photos I took later in the evening turned out well.)

Parting shot: I was down with a cold/flu for 2 days this week. Jack was very patient with me, but was clearly extremely bored – even more than usual with my activity – or lack thereof. I always find it humorous when he uses this little bed as a pillow.

January 22nd, 2018 |

Black and white and more

I’ve completed four pieces so far this month: three scarves and a shawl.

You saw the beginning of the new-to-me-Tara-Oftenorth weaving draft here. I wove off all three scarves, fringed, and wet finished them.

My favorite is still the first one, with the marine silk weft.

Although it works fine in closeup, I’m still not sure how well it will look when the whole piece is photographed at once, as is required for jury images.

For the second scarf I used sax, which is a pale silvery blue color. I like it better off the loom than I did on, but I the contrast of the colors doesn’t move me.

Because I really liked how close the marine and pansy were, and wasn’t excited by the sax and pansy, I decided to use a color that was closer for the third. I didn’t have what I wanted in silk, so chose a periwinkle tencel. It’s a tint of the pansy – the same color but with some white added; at least to my eye it is. The tencel is a bit thicker than the silk so the weave pattern is slightly elongated, but that’s okay with me.

Meanwhile I was working on the black and white shawl I’d started in the last post. I wove off the first one, cut it off the loom, fringed and wet finished it so I could decide if I needed to re-sley the reed closer for this undulating twill structure.

I like the hand of the piece and believe it to be stable, so I won’t be setting the warp closer for the next two shawls.

I am fine with the way the black dye ‘broke’ – separated into some of its component colors, with red coming out in some places and blue in others. It doesn’t detract to me.

January 11th, 2018 |