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Although I dearly love my handmade 4-harness counterbalance loom, it’s not very portable. My little, old LeClerc rigid heddle loom, on the other hand, moves around with ease. I really like taking the rigid heddle loom to shows and weaving actual pieces on it as much as possible during the show.
In general, two kinds of people stop and watch me weave — people who’ve never seen anyone weave anything, and people who’ve woven themselves, mostly years ago. If I’m anywhere near Buffalo, there are more people in that latter category than you might imagine. LOTS of people went to Buffalo State College and took weaving. Not just fine arts majors took this class; it was apparently quite popular.
Anyway, I was weaving with some of Tammy’s gorgeous hand painted bamboo yarn, in a fairly thick gauge to work in a 12-dent rigid heddle. I wanted to warp the rigid heddle loom for 3 scarves, so I knew that in order to fit it all on the back beam I’d have to wind under tension and use thin cardboard spacers, not the continuous roll paper I prefer. This went pretty smoothly.
For the first scarf, I used the same hand painted yarn for weft as I had used for warp.
As always on a scarf warp, this creates a somewhat regular plaid effect. People were fascinated to learn how hand painting is done, the reason the pattern repeats, and how different it would look on a wide warp.
For the second scarf I wove with a solid green weft.
Tammy also hand painted the solid color for me, specifically to coordinate with the variegated yarn. I often have her make coordinating solid colors, as I tend to prefer stripes over plaids. Fortunately, she’s really happy to do custom dyeing. I like the green scarf, even though I don’t find it as different visually from the plaid as I had expected.
Once those two scarves were woven, the front beam was about as full as it could get. There was no way it would hold the third scarf, so I had to cut the first two off the loom and re-tie. People were interested to watch that process, too, although it didn’t hold their attention for long. There were all surprised to feel the two scarves I had cut off — really hard and stiff. I explained that they would feel very soft and drape well after they were wet finished; I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have believed me if I hadn’t had several completed bamboo scarves. (I didn’t bother pointing out to them that the finished scarves were a finer gauge bamboo and would feel different.)
I wove the third scarf with one of Tammy’s coordinating solid blue yarns for the weft.
Obviously the blue is a very rich, intense color. It really pops the scarf. I think some people thought it was too much, but not me. I really like it.
Over the course of the two days, several people wanted to buy the scarves I was weaving at the show. I explained that they wouldn’t be ready for sale till the next show, and I think some of them will likely show up…not necessarily to buy those scarves, but because that’s also a well attended show.
Whether they saw those scarves being woven or not, I think people will be surprised by how different these three handwoven scarves, all made on the same warp, look with the 3 different wefts.
Your turn: how do you use color creatively?
A few weeks ago, my sisters, my daughter and I had our second annual celebration at Hurd Orchards. We had a really delicious lunch, made on site from fruits any veggies grown on the farm, with everything from salad to mini muffins, applesauce to quiche, finished with a wonderful cheesecake.
Each of the tables had a beautiful, large centerpiece of fresh flowers, with huge ones places on center and side tables. A variety of sunflowers and dahlias were offset by peegee hydrangea blossoms, and given height and greenery by….yep, cornstalk tops! I’m sure I never would have thought of putting in the corn, but it looked really lovely.
After lunch we made some wreaths from dried flowers, then picked peaches and nectarines. We finished the day by buying yummies from their little market, including purple basil jelly, blueberry bread, and fresh-picked fall red raspberries. It was a wonderful day. Hurd’s have plenty more opportunities to enjoy the farm throughout the fall and right up to Christmas. Check it out if you’re within driving distance.
This photo is also an entry in Carmi’s thematic photo of the week – flowers. Check it out and join the fun.
Like many dog owners, when I leave the house I leave my little dog with a filled kong toy to entertain him for a while. In fact, we have this game where I tie it in a bandana and hide it before I leave so he has to go search for it.
I have two kongs. I lost the first one temporarily so had to buy another. Then, of course, the first kong showed up. No need to keep two in play, so I stored one on top of the refrigerator.
A few days ago I reached for that extra kong, planning to fill it and freeze it. Huh, that’s weird, it’s stuck to the top of the frig. WHAT?!?! STUCK??? Yep. Apparently the heat that refrigerators put out sort of melted the kong toy into it. Didn’t know that could happen.
I decided to just let it sit on the counter for a few days and see if it would firm back up. It never did. It left these marks on paper four days after I took it down from the frig. And you can see that the bottom of the kong looks like raw meat.
Fine. Throw it away. No problem. But do I need to worry about the one I use regularly? Might it be slowly releasing rubber into what I stuff into it, and therefore into my dog?
Dog owners and kong users out there – should I be worried?
This is the last batch of scarves woven before my show this weekend.
These scarves are made from handpainted Tencel rayon in a color blend called Pond. The top scarf has the same variegated weft and warp, and I wove it in a tabby weave.
For the next two scarves I used a solid dark green weft over that variegated warp. It’s amazing to me how much different the overall look is — much more muted. The bottom scarf is the one I thought I’d like best with its diamond twill. But in reality, I like the middle point twill the best. I think it shows the natural sheen of that rayon the best, and the weaving pattern also shows up well.
Although I don’t have time to weave anything else before the show, I’m busy in my mind, planning some more table linens — some for the 8-harness Macomber and some for the 4-harness counterbalance loom.
Your turn: what’s the sweetest green in your life right now?
I know it’s only August, but out here in the sticks our evenings are already getting chilly. Fall is in the air at night, and sometimes even during the day. So I figured it was time to weave some more shawls. Since summer will last another month, I didn’t want to make anything too heavy or dark.
First I made this handwoven shawl from 100% cotton. It’s bright white and obviously woven in a very lacy pattern – a huck lace, in fact. Like most of my handwoven lace, I wove this shawl on my four-harness counterbalance loom. For this piece I used Cotton Tale 8, an 8/4 cotton yarn. It offers a nice weight without being too warm, and remains flexible.
 I got inspired by the white, and decided to weave some rayon chenille. A bit warmer than the cotton lace shawl, the clarity of the the bright white still seemed summery to me. This one was fun to plan, going from 100% white to 100% blue across the width of the handwoven shawl. Like all rayon chenille, this has a great drape and lots of sheen.
I must say, however, that it wasn’t the most fun to weave. It was my first experience with yarn that had clearly been woven on the cone backwards. In fact, when people talked about it before, I didn’t really know what they meant. I do now! The yarn twisted on itself constantly. There’s lots of white rayon chenille left on this cone, but you can bet I’ll find it worth the time to wind it off into balls, effectively reversing the direction of the wind, before I use it again!
Because the white chenille is a tad thicker than the blue chenille, it was also a challenge to maintain even tension across the width of the weaving. In fact, when I was about 1/2 way through, I rolled it all forward and re-tied it on the back beam to even it out. I still ended up with a fair number of hanging weights by the time I was done. I’m sure glad I didn’t warp for more than one of these!
I don’t yet have either of these handwoven shawls on my website, but I will be bringing them to the Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts this weekend. Stop and visit me if you’re in the area – I’ll be near the corner of Elmwood & Auburn. If I come home with them, they’ll go on the web next week.
Your turn: what have you learned the hard way?
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