Weaving A Gem Of A Life » alpaca

Rigid Heddle Weaving Sells!

Peg Cherre — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:49:24 +0000

After I finished the last post, I went to bed. Like sometimes happens, although my body was tired, my mind wasn’t completely shut off. As I lay there thinking about my sales, I realized something.

Of the 15 scarves I sold at Roycroft, 4 of them were woven on my rigid heddle loom. Which I only use at shows to demonstrate.

That made me really happy.

So what were those four scarves? With the one I made most recently first and moving backwards in time, the cotton and linen Brooks Bouquet I wove at Kenan earlier this month…

…the drop-dead gorgeous purple & silver mohair I wove at a local show in May…

…the alpaca I wove at a show in Canandaigua in November…

…and some bamboo I wove at a show sometime last summer.

It’s not like I needed either any proof that rigid heddle weaving is real weaving, or that it’s a great draw and teaching opportunity to demonstrate at shows, but having 26% of my sales be pieces made on this small, light, extremely portable loom is just one more reason to keep doing it.

Your turn: have you had any pleasant surprises lately?

Roycroft Festival Sales

Peg Cherre — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 01:13:21 +0000

The Roycroft Summer Art Festival is over. The weather was conducive to selling scarves – not too hot & muggy. In fact, it was a bit chilly, making people want to look at warm things.

So what of my new weaving sold?

First to go were the two eggshell huck lace scarves. With a show that started at 10:00AM, I’d sold my first scarf by 11, one of these beauties. I displayed one of them in the front of the booth, on these really cool stands I have, thanks to my wonderful sister and her talented hubby. I sold the second within the next hour. I’m sure if I’d had two more, I could have sold them before the weekend was over, too; people loved them.

Next of my new weaving to be sold wasn’t until Sunday morning, when I sold one of the cotton flannel shawls. It had drawn lots of admiring looks, but no takers. Then, a woman walked up to the booth, saw it, put it on, and bought it within a few minutes.

Later on Sunday I sold the cotton and linen Brooks Bouquet scarf I’d woven for a demo at the Kenan show. She really liked the mix of colors that still produced a scarf of neutrals.

Surely I didn’t sell just four pieces all weekend?! Nope. I matched the pieces sold at Kenan. What else was snatched up?

A variegated cotton flannel baby blanket. An alpaca houndstooth scarf. Several bamboo scarves woven in different colors and designs. Three cashmere & silk scarves, including a recent one in mango & cream. The drop-dead gorgeous purple & silver mohair scarf. A few rayon scarves.

It was a mix of fibers, sizes, weave patterns.

I’ve got some more rayon on the loom now, and can’t wait to get it woven so I can start working with my newly-acquired silk yarn.

I have 7 weeks before my next show, but then in the next 4 weeks I have 2 more shows, so I plan to build up my stock by weaving my way through July.

Your turn: what are your creative outlets this summer?

Alpaca Houndstooth

Peg Cherre — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:31:25 +0000

Continuing my custom weaving orders, I wove this handsome alpaca scarf. My customer has a forest green coat with brown trim, and wanted these colors in the pattern I’d woven earlier in the red, gray & black. Since both of the colors in the new scarf are a similar value, the houndstooth pattern doesn’t show up quite as well, but the scarf is really quite lovely, nonetheless.

Alpaca is very lightweight and yet quite warm. In fact, if you look very closely near the bottom center of the picture, you might even see a bit of the white background through the scarf. It’s woven with a moderate weave at 12 ends per inch for warp and 12 picks per inch for weft, making certain that the scarf retains a beautiful hand and drape. I believe it’s the hairiness that makes alpaca warm.

Like the red, black, & gray scarf, I wove this one on my rigid heddle loom. Why? Alpaca isn’t one of my big sellers, so I decided to buy just enough yarn for this special order. Once I’d made that decision, I wanted to make the weaving as efficient as possible for both use of yarn and motion. The rigid heddle wastes very little yarn and I’ve gotten better at warping it, so it seemed the logical decision.

My customer plans to order another skein of each color and have her mom knit her some mittens. I think they’ll look great, and hope she send me a photo of them.

Your turn: what are you wearing to stay warm when the cold winter winds blow?

Handwoven Alpaca Scarves

Peg Cherre — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 14:56:15 +0000

This past weekend I did another show – Christkindl Market in Canandaigua. As always, I wanted to bring my rigid heddle loom to demonstrate weaving, and as always, gave a great deal of thought to what I’d weave. Although my little LeClerc works fine and there are lots of options of what you can weave on a rigid heddle loom, there are some limitations. I like to make my weaving demos relevant to the season, so I don’t usually weave with wool in June, nor make light, cotton lace in November. So what yarns did I have in my stash that would work well at 12 ends per inch?

Some beautiful alpaca!

I chose to use two colors. If you look at the fringe, you can see that each color is really two colors spun together. The gray & black strand are natural alpaca colors. I dyed the red & black, which started out as the gray & black, in cochineal to achieve the deep red. Although I am NOT a dyer, I was able to do this successfully at the 2009 Southern Tier Fiber Arts Guild‘s Dye Day. Our Guild holds such a day every year, thanks to the skills, talents, and generosity of two of our amazingly talented members: Carol Wood & Deb MacCrea. These two women travel around the east coast teaching all-natural dyeing, and offer their skills to us for just the actual costs.

As always, many show visitors were fascinated with the weaving process. I had warped the loom for two scarves, and didn’t get them finished at the show. The hairiness of the alpaca made weaving slow, with me having to physically separate almost every shed. I wanted to have the scarves with me for my display at Shea’s Shopping Soiree on Wednesday, so I finished them at home yesterday.

I’m quite happy with these handwoven alpaca scarves. I think they’re very classic and classy looking. Unfortunately for me, I can’t wear any wool around my neck unless I have on a turtleneck. Fortunately, my hands can handle working with wool without too much of a problem.

Your turn: how often are you attracted to garments or accessories that you can’t wear?

Knox Fiber Farm

Peg Cherre — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:52:56 +0000

On Saturday, before the bee man came, I headed to East Aurora to the Knox Farm Fiber Festival. I’d never been to the Knox Farm State Park before, and was looking forward to the visit.

It wasn’t hard to figure out that I was almost there when I saw what seemed like miles of stone wall. I don’t have any idea if this wall was built by the famous Knox family while they owned it, or the wall was built by the CCC or WPA, like the gorgeous stone walls at Letchworth State Park.

Several people brought alpacas. I’ve tried to convince Margaret that she needs to get an alpaca ‘cuz they’re so cute & I’d love to visit one. She just laughs.

Plenty of people there had yarn for sale — in addition to alpaca there was sheep’s wool and blends, pretty much all wool based. Although I do make some handwoven scarves with wool, I find that most of my customers prefer cotton, bamboo, or rayon, so I didn’t buy any wool while I was there.

I did buy some mini-pumpkins to use in my display at the Letchworth Arts & Crafts Festival. Come and visit my booth!