I don’t think I’ve used this colorway in the past, but I’m sure I’ll be going back to it in the [...]]]> The title of this post implies that I somehow used semi-precious gemstones in my handwoven scarves. That is misleading. Instead, I wove with a bamboo-cotton blend in a hand painted colorway Tammy calls Sapphires.

I don’t think I’ve used this colorway in the past, but I’m sure I’ll be going back to it in the future. Being a gemtones girl, these colors call to me.

When given a choice among three scarves on the same warp but with different wefts, I usually choose the one with the most purple first, and the one with the same variegated weft as warp last. But not this time.

The scarf on the bottom, with the lilac weft, is my least favorite of the three. I can’t decide if I prefer the middle scarf, woven with a teal weft, or the top one with that Sapphires weft.

I think it’s the enhancement of three warp colors that pushed me into appreciating the scarf with the variegated weft. But then, this is always true of those hand painted wefts. So what’s different about this blend that makes me like the faux plaid look? I really have no idea.

While I was weaving we had one of those interesting spring storms that produces lots of hail as well as rain. It might be the biggest hail I’ve ever personally experienced. You can see it piling up next to my propane tank as the pachysandra stands tall nearby.

Meanwhile, the gardens I’ve already weeded & mulched were getting their own sprinkling of white on the darker mulch.

It looked interesting, and didn’t make me worry about the plants since the temperature wasn’t too cold. As it turned out, nothing was harmed at my house. I was glad that my car was safely tucked in the garage, and heard that some people had lots of dings on their vehicles post-storm. Others never saw a bit of hail. All within a radius of just a few miles. It was very isolated, which is always interesting to me.

Your turn: what weather patterns choose tiny regions near you?

I’ve had some of Tammy’s hand painted rayon boucle yarn in my stash for a while, and decided now was the time to use it. I build little ‘treats’ for myself, something I’ll let myself do when I reach a certain point. In this case, I decided I wouldn’t let myself use all that [...]]]>

I’ve had some of Tammy’s hand painted rayon boucle yarn in my stash for a while, and decided now was the time to use it. I build little ‘treats’ for myself, something I’ll let myself do when I reach a certain point. In this case, I decided I wouldn’t let myself use all that delicious new hand painted bamboo cotton yarn till I’d used up the rayon boucle.

Tammy’s surreal colorway is one that has looked quite different depending on the fiber. Sometimes it really speaks to me, sometimes it’s too dark for my personal tastes. The latter was the case with the rayon boucle, which is why it sat for so long. “Make it better,” I told myself.

I played Goldilocks for a bit.
At the top I used the same warp as weft. Too dark.
At the bottom I used a hand painted wisteria weft. Too light.
In the middle I used a turquoise bamboo weft. Just right. Unfortunately, I didn’t think I had enough of the turquoise to weave the entire scarf, so I had to be creative. I wove with about 25″ of turquoise at each end of the scarf, with a navy in the center. I’ve not done this before, but I think I like it. At least this time.

Now I can start on the bamboo cotton!

Your turn: do you set yourself up with goals and give yourself treats when you reach them?

This batch is all a blend of bamboo & cotton, providing some of the best of both fibers. I tried a few new colorways to push my typical color sensibilities. Can’t wait to make them into yummy [...]]]> More of Tammy’s delicious hand painted yarn, dyed just for me, arrived!

This batch is all a blend of bamboo & cotton, providing some of the best of both fibers. I tried a few new colorways to push my typical color sensibilities. Can’t wait to make them into yummy handwoven scarves!

The scarf is wonderfully light and airy. It looks and feels like the picture my mind conjures up when I think the word [...]]]> Back in April I told you I was trying my hand at weaving with some VERY fine silk. Somehow time got away from me in showing you the finished handwoven silk scarf.

The scarf is wonderfully light and airy. It looks and feels like the picture my mind conjures up when I think the word ‘silk.’ Despite the fact that I have learned well over the years that there are many types of silk – many weights, many textures, many qualities of silk, this is the default type in my head. I think it’s a silk charmeuse. Isn’t that a great word? Charmeuse. I think it even sounds rich and luxurious. Comes from the French, meaning charming, which I certainly think this fabric is.

Or at least it would be — no, will be — once I have some more experience under my belt with it, and maybe a little help from a spinning friend to ply it for me. From the beginning, I considered this scarf to be a sample, a test piece, something that I was weaving to get the feel of the yarn and learn some of its ideosyncrasies. And I did learn some. Undoubtedly I’ll learn more in my future experimentation with it. And it will be different when it’s twisted and plied. Maybe I’ll love it, maybe not — only time will tell.

Anyway, this particular scarf won’t be sold. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll keep it for my own or gift it to a friend who’s not so fussy about its imperfections. Let me share them with you.

For reasons that are completely beyond me, there’s this ‘mushy’ section near one end. Although there doesn’t appear to be a treadling error or threads skipped with the shuttle, this imperfection sure didn’t come out in wet finishing and pressing. It looks like I took my thumb, pressed down really hard and forcibly pushed the threads into a rough elliptical shape. I suppose I could try again to wet finish, paying particular attention to this spot, but I don’t know that it would help.

Then there are the selvedges. This scarf has 72 threads per inch in both warp and weft. In order to achieve that, I used 2 threads together all the time. (Otherwise I would have had to have 144 threads per inch in each direction – an amount of work I wasn’t willing to contemplate.) Two threads went through each heddle, 2 threads were wound on the bobbin. As a result, there were plenty of times when one of those bobbin threads wasn’t pulled as tight as the other at the selvedge.

To the untrained eye, it might look like a very fine halo in places along the edge. Heck, the untrained eye might not even notice it. But I sure do.

Nonetheless, I’m pleased with this first attempt at using the tram silk, and eager to see how it looks after my spinning friend tries his hand at it.

I made lots of little pick up designs. [...]]]> Remember way back in January when I showed you a little bit of what I had on my rigid heddle loom? Well, I finally finished weaving the entire warp. I had to cut it off before it was completely done because my cloth beam was full.

I made lots of little pick up designs. Some are small enough to fit into little magnetized photo frames, others are large enough to fit into window cards. I bought the frames & cards to have small items available in my booth at a particular fall show. I thought the weaving would be quick so I could sell the finished products inexpensively. HAH! Pick up designs are not quick, particularly when, like me, you don’t want a lot of the same thing so you have to keep coming up with new designs.

Everything I’m showing you now still has to be machine stitched on all 4 sides to make sure it doesn’t unravel, pressed, and then put into its finished format. More time.

Next time I try this concept (and there will be a next time) I’m not doing pick up! I’ll make lace, or little overshot designs, or something I can do on one of my multi-shaft looms.

I’m not commenting on each of the designs – they’ll have to speak for themselves. Some worked much better than others; you’re not seeing the complete flops here, so just imagine what they look like!

2 versions of flowers

I’m really not happy with these candy canes, and likely won’t use them.

But I did like the outside diamonds, so tried a different interior. Much better.

I decided I wanted to try a clasped weft. This small format seemed the perfect time to give it a shot.

I like it!

I read the weaving blogs in my blogroll for inspiration. All these weavers stretch my mind and imagination. Others do too, of course, but I find them in places other than the blogosphere. Two years ago Ngaire, over at Dust Bunnies, made this AMAZING full-size piano keyboard scarf in rayon chenille. No way I was going to attempt that, but thought I’d try a small bit. Too much white showing, but other than that, I’m pretty happy with it.

I haven’t yet figured out what I have to sell either the magnets or the cards for. Hope it’s something reasonably affordable. If not, I’ll try another concept.

R is generally a happy little boy. [...]]]> My kids and I celebrated Easter several weeks late this year, ‘cuz that’s when it worked for all of us. So I got to spend a day & half with my sweet little grandson again. And joy of joys, he was well so I came home well, too!

R is generally a happy little boy. He smiles and laughs easily, is easy-going in general and is interested in everything. He’s started crawling up a storm – watch out now, Mom & Dad!

He loves this little footstool, playing it as if it were his conga drum. Those little fingers have also helped pick the piping into a not-so-pretty sight, but he sure doesn’t care.

When you see his papa holding him, you see immediately how much R looks like his dad. Here you can barely see dad in the background.

This little guy is also interesting to me in that he often seems to be lost in thought, sometimes almost a bit worried about something too deep for me to grasp.

The fact that his dog here is giving him a kiss really doesn’t have a negative impact on that expression – R is just as likely to be laughing and grabbing onto the face fur of his dog.

It’s a pleasure watching this little one grow day by day and week by week. I’ve taken to singing the same little song to him (one that I made up to the tune of K-K-K-Katy) every time I see him and that mom calls me on speakerphone. It won’t be long that when he hears the song over the phone he’ll know it’s Grandma Peg.

Your turn: what’s bringing joy to you?

First, you know all those newly-woven scarves and shawls I’ve been posting here on my blog since early January? Yeah, well, they were all sitting in nice, neat piles on my dining room table, waiting to be tagged and put [...]]]> I’ve just spent three days on tasks essential to my weaving business, but not actually weaving.

First, you know all those newly-woven scarves and shawls I’ve been posting here on my blog since early January? Yeah, well, they were all sitting in nice, neat piles on my dining room table, waiting to be tagged and put away.

Each scarf gets a tag that has my logo, identifies the fiber(s) it contains, care instructions, the size, and the color name(s). I hbelieve the law requires most of that information, just like any other garment you buy. Even if it didn’t, I know it’s appreciated by my customers. I haven’t made the transition to tags that have a whole list of fibers and care instructions and I just chedk the appropriate ones – all my tags include the information just about that particular scarf or shawl. So I make them all as needed on my computer. (Not one-by-one. I made a full page of each particular fiber or blend of fibers. I keep a little box with the extras so I don’t have to print every time.)

Then I have to measure each piece, write the size & name on the tag, make a little price tag, and pin them together on the bottom of the scarf. After that, I fold them roughly in half, roll them into a loose jelly roll, and carefully stack them sideways in a plastic bin.

Because I’d waited so long before doing this task, I had to go back into my yarn invoices and/or my blog posts to confirm the fibers on some of them. It was beyond me to tell by look or feel the difference between 100% bamboo, 100% tencel, and a bamboo-tencel blend. So that took more time than necessary. Certainly more time than if I’d tagged them as I went along.

I like the way they look in their little bedroll state. When I’m at a show, I have many scarves draped over rods and the like, some laid casually on tables, and still more on a hanging shelf system in one corner of my booth. I used to group them on those shelves by fiber, but last year another vendor suggested I group them by color, saying, “When you go into the store for towels, you want to look at the purple towels, not all the towels of a particular size or weight.” She was right. We are attracted by the colors that call to us. That being said, I’m still getting used to this, because my weaverly self prefers them grouped by fiber.

Once those scarves were all tagged, I had to face another task I’ve been putting off. Not a single one of those scarves one shawls was put up on my website. This meant I had to go back to my original photos, save it once in the ‘large’ size I use on the web, crop it for detail, and save it again in my ‘small’ size. Since, as I’ve mentioned, my internet speed isn’t really high, uploading photos, even ones that are relatively small and optimized for the web, is painful from home. I opted to spend hours in a little coffee shop that has free WiFi.

After I had all the photos loaded, I could go to my Dreamweaver program and start writing descriptions and laying out the pages. I’d wanted to update the organization of the site for a long time, and decided that if I didn’t do it now, another year would roll by with the same clumsy structure. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Don’t make your customers do a lot of work to see the results of your labor. At least not if you want them to buy from you!

Once again, my trusty MacBook worked just as hard as I did.

So I think I’ve got the pages done and uploaded. But it’s to the point that I can’t know anymore what I’ve already looked at and proofed and checked the links on. I’ll really appreciate it if you have the inclination to look at it and tell me where you find broken links, missing pictures, misspellings (I think I did spell check on them all), or bad grammar. Click around my website to your heart’s content (actually, don’t bother with any of the jewelry pages – they need to come down), then leave me a comment or send me an email (peg at handwovenscarves dot com) with your helpful suggestions. I’ll be grateful for your time and attention.

Now I’m going to get back to my loom!