Weaving A Gem Of A Life » handwoven scarves

While I waited

Peg Cherre — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:40:14 +0000

I’d ordered quite a bit of yarn, some of it for orders I had, some to build my stock for the spring & summer. While I waited for it to arrive, I couldn’t sit idle! I needed to weave with some of my stash.

I decided to use up a bunch of really bright red bamboo I have. But I wanted to tone it down some. So first I paired it with a weft of black bamboo.

I really like how different the two sides of this scarf look. For me, I prefer the dark side, with black predominating; others may prefer the red side. Here’s a close up of the two sides.

It’s a very simple 4 shaft threading & treadling to achieve this look.

The simplicity makes it even more pleasurable – virtually no counting in either threading or treadling!

Anyway, I liked the black & red, and would have woven a second the same, but, of course, I didn’t have enough black yarn. So I decided I’d take the opposite tack. I didn’t have white, but I had quite a bit of pale gray. Figured I’d try that.

Yeah, now I know why I still have that gray yarn — I’m not fond of it. While I prefer the red predominant side on this scarf, it’s far from one of my favorites. I’m betting that it’ll end up being something that I donate for a giveaway. Maybe my customers will fool me — they do that with some regularity.

Anyway, I sure didn’t want to weave the third scarf with gray, so I opted for a rich navy. But I didn’t want to weave the same pattern. I simply changed the tieup & treadling for a whole new scarf.

I must say, that while my little counterbalance loom doesn’t mind weaving lace, it’s not overly fond of tie ups with just one treadle tied to a harness. That treadle slams to the floor every time I step on it, no matter how I tie it. Three harnesses tied to a treadle? No problem? One? We don’t like it.

Here’s the finished scarf, both in distance…

…and a close up.

Again, the two sides are quite different, although certainly not as dramatically as the first design. This bamboo has a remarkable sheen, making getting these shots a challenge. I think the end results are pretty accurate. The navy & red create quite an iridescence, while neither the black nor gray do. In this case it’s mostly pattern-dependent; those ziggy stripes are close together, not blocks of color like the black & gray.

Your turn: do you have difficulty using up that yarn that only seemed like a good idea at the time?

Loom Issues #1

Peg Cherre — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:13:42 +0000

When I was weaving those eggshell cashmere silk lace scarves, I noted a problem that I thought might have been caused by an old reed, and decided to order a new stainless steel reed. That reed still hasn’t arrived, but I haven’t stopped weaving to wait for it.

After the eggshell scarf problems I decided to use my (rather disliked) 6 dent reed while I awaited the new 12 dent SS reed (likely a few weeks). A customer had ordered a black lace cashmere & silk, and I didn’t want to make her wait that long.

So I put in the 6 dent, warped and threaded my wonderful, little counterbalance loom, and set off.

It all went great. I had a total of 3 broken warp threads for the entire 9 yard warp – not uncommon with fibers this fine. This confirmed for me that my old reed really was a problem.

After the black, I wove three 100% silk scarves in a lovely pale mint green. This was an 8/60 silk — I sure do wish I had a MUCH better handle on what these numbers mean. What I THOUGHT, incorrectly, was that I’d multiply the 60 x 1000 and divide that by 8 to get the yards per pound (ypp). Hah! That math would give me 7,500 ypp; in fact, it’s about 2,400 ypp. As is some 12/60 silk & linen blend I bought. WHAT??!! How can this be? Maybe I should just give up trying to understand that and be sure I get the ypp from the yarn seller.

Anyway, the mint silk has a beautiful sheen to it. It’s thicker than the cashmere silk, and way more expensive. So I didn’t want to screw it up. I set it at 16.5 ends per inch (epi), (2-3-3 on my 6 dent reed) as opposed to the 18 epi I normally use for the cashmere silk. It’s nice, but a bit stiffer than I’d like. Next time I’m going to try it looser – maybe 14 epi.

On a completely different note, here’s an odd tidbit. Flies that die upside down on your stove retain their iridescent blue color for days. This one died right by my burner a few days ago.

I didn’t see it at first, and then when I did, I was amazed that the color was still there. He’s been there long enough now that I don’t need to wait any longer to clean him up. Goodbye, fly.

Your turn: do you understand yarn counts and yardage?

Quite the wait

Peg Cherre — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:05:22 +0000

This is not the way I wanted to start a new year – by having 10 days between blog posts. Writing a blog post has been on my list of things to do for over a week, and somehow, other things kept taking precedence. There’s nothing I can do about that now; I can only try to do better as we move forward.

In my last post I showed you some cashmere silk eggshell lace scarves on my counterbalance loom, and promised more info about them. Here it is, finally.

At one of my December shows a customer ordered two custom cashmere silk lace scarves. I’m always happy to comply with these requests, although I had to tell this woman that she couldn’t have exactly what she wanted. She wanted a scarf just like the one I was wearing. Should have been simple, shouldn’t it? But it wasn’t.

I was wearing one of the eggshell lace scarves I’d made on my Macomber when I was trying a new pattern. Those scarves were not stable enough, and can’t be sold. I often wear one at a show because they go with everything, and when I’m wearing the scarf the problems are not obvious. So I explained why I would have to modify the pattern in her scarf. She understood, but was clear that she wanted me to get as close as possible. I assured her I’d try.

I knew that I couldn’t really know what would work by using another fiber; I had to do my testing with cashmere silk yarn. I also knew I had a limited quantity of the eggshell, a popular color, and I didn’t really want to use any of it up in samples/tests that may or may not be successful. So I decided to use my least-requested color, a bright Christmas red.

I also decided that I would only use a lace pattern I could weave on my counterbalance loom. The cashmere silk scarves I’ve woven on the counterbalance loom have been almost completely successful; the ones I’ve woven on my Mac not so much. I think it’s a combination of the loom and the weave structures I’ve chosen, but I almost always make the tension too tight and distort the scarves.

So I spent some time with my Fiberworks software, and using block design strategies, created a Swedish lace draft. I measured out enough warp for two red scarves, and threaded up the loom. I set off weaving, and was pleased with the results. Although it’s clear that while a piece is still on the loom you can’t tell for certain what it will look like after wet finishing, with practice you can get a good idea.

As I was weaving the first scarf, I decided that I could get even closer to my customer’s wishes. So I cut off that scarf, wet finished it to be sure I was right, and re-threaded the loom. I was also happy with the second scarf. Here are both of them.

After wet finishing the second scarf, I decided I could make even more changes to get even closer to my customer’s wishes. I also figured that I ought to warp for four scarves instead of my usual three, since I have had lots of customer interest in eggshell scarves. So I was off and running.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as smoothly with the eggshell scarves. It had nothing to do with the modifications to the draft. For reasons that I never could quite identify, I had all sorts of problems with the threads near the selvedges. They broke often, they fuzzed up, the refused to produce straight selvedges. I tried all the tricks I knew — weighting the selvedge threads, doubling those threads, using a temple — nothing made any difference. Ultimately, I did get four saleable scarves woven, but I’m embarrassed by the selvedges on all of them to one degree or another. I’m not showing you a closeup of them with good reason. But here are two of the scarves. (You can tell at a glance I haven’t pressed them yet.)

Actually, I did have one idea about the selvedge problem with the eggshell scarves. The reed I use on my counterbalance loom is the one that came with it when I bought the loom, after it had sat in a damp garage for more than a year. The reed was very rusty, and I was poor, so I cleaned it with naval jelly, a stiff brush, and lots of elbow grease. Although it didn’t hassle the red yarn, I guessed that the eggshell yarn was just a bit more delicate, and that there were possibly tiny burs on the red that frayed the yarn. So I bit the bullet and ordered a brand new stainless steel reed. I figured that my little loom got enough use that it (and I) deserved a new tool. The reed was out of stock, so I’ll have to wait a few weeks for it to arrive.

Of course, I’m weaving in the interim (tempus fugit, ya know), but I had to work on another order before I went back to the cashmere & silk. The eggshell was pretty frustrating, and the other special order is for black. The only other black cashmere silk scarves I made had a similar selvedge problem, and I didn’t think my brain could handle it. I’m hoping (probably without much chance of success) that the reed will come in quickly and I can use it for the black scarves.

I promise, I’ll try to post more frequently. I want to show you what I have on that little rigid heddle loom (and I want to get back to that!), the order that’s on my counterbalance now, and my plans for the towel exchange I joined this year.

Your turn: what have you been doing since the year changed its number?

Weaving Catch Up

Peg Cherre — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:42:07 +0000

I know, I know, I’ve been away from my blog for weeks. I’m guessing it bothers me more than it bothers my readers, especially since there aren’t thousands of you.

I was weaving as fast as I could in preparation for the Roycroft Winter Festival, and barely had time to take photos of the finished scarves, much less write about them. In between weaving, I was also working feverishly with a score of volunteers to sell, decorate, and distribute 381 wreaths for Pfeiffer Nature Center. So here’s what I got finished in the last weeks before the show.

First I wove up some gorgeous hand painted rayon chenille in a Silver Linings colorway.

On top is a scarf that has the same hand painted yarn for both warp and weft. For the bottom scarf, I used a solid weft in a bluish-grayish color that coordinated perfectly. I sold the one with the solid weft at the show.

Then I wove with another hand painted yarn, this time in an amazingly deep, rich Ocean Waves. I’ve used this colorway before, in a variety of fibers, but this time the dye was darker, deeper, and more luxurious than ever before. The photo doesn’t do it justice.

I sold two of these over the weekend.

Next I had to try a new fiber – bamboo chenille. This was a solid color that the manufacturer called cliff, but I’m calling Sand. I think it will provide the same great wear results as rayon chenille, because I believe that both fibers are created in essentially the same process.

I was surprised that these scarves didn’t attract a lot of attention at the show. I thought their neutrality would be really appealing.

Then I finished up my weaving with another solid color rayon chenille weft, one the manufacturer calls Tangier. From left to right are scarves that use the same weft as warp, a darker solid weft, and a space-dyed weft.

I called the middle one Burnished Copper, and the scarf on the right Fire In The Hills. Again, I was surprised that these scarves didn’t attract more attention over the weekend. Interestingly, my sister (who helps me at many shows) and I had completely different preferences for the scarves. In order, I prefer middle, left, right; she likes right, middle, left. Apparently most folks chose none of the above.

In addition to these scarves, I sold two of the brick cashmere & silk scarves (sorry the photo makes them look more orange than they really are) and one of the dusty rose silks, along with a variety of other scarves. Both of my new rayon chenille shawls (rainbow & gray) jumped off the shelf – I’m sure I could have sold each a few times if I’d had duplicates.

I also sold 4 Victorian Christmas ornaments, including my two most recent creations, and 14 bookmarks – glad I had woven up a 13 the day before set up!

Among other post-show duties, yesterday I made a sterling silver necklace I had an order for — my customer had been waiting patiently for two weeks.

Now I have to buy Christmas gifts, write & send out Christmas cards, and make some more gifts. In between working. And having another show, thankfully small & local, this coming weekend. And trying to eat right, exercise, wash dishes, etc., etc., etc. YOU know how it is! I’ll get back to this as I can, showing you the cool stuff I wove as a demo at the show.

Weaving for the Holidays

Peg Cherre — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:31:59 +0000

While certainly not exclusively for the holidays by any means, these handwoven cashmere & silk scarves are such a lovely, rich color, they make me think of the mid-winter holiday season. Hopefully people who come to either the Roycroft Winter Festival and my local Holiday Show think so, too.

I again tried a new huck lace pattern – the one at the bottom of the picture. And again, I much prefer the old standby of Swedish Lace, at the top. The lace diamonds don’t show up in the bottom until you view it at just the right angle, and it doesn’t do the lacy thing anywhere near as well as the Swedish Lace blocks. But I’d never have known that without trying it.

So I wound a warp for three scarves, threaded up for the new huck lace diamonds, and wove the first scarf. Even while I was weaving I knew it wouldn’t be one of my favorites, so I cut it off and totally re-threaded heddles and reed, and wove the last two in the Swedish Lace blocks.

Custom Weaving Scarves

Peg Cherre — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:37:52 +0000

Unlike most weavers that I know, I am happy to do custom weaving for people. Last year I made a very bulky organic cotton scarf for a woman with multiple chemical sensitivities. This year she wanted to order a few more scarves, but in a lighter weight for when it’s cold, but not freezing. She ordered two for herself and one for her husband. I sent one of hers and her hubby’s out on Saturday morning, so they should get them on Tuesday. Unfortunately AFTER the entire northeast was hit by a heavy October snowfall.

She picked the colors and designs — all the yarns are organic cotton chenille. I like her first one a lot.

The dark color is called heather, an apt name for this lavenderish-brownish color. There’s plenty of contrast with the ice yarn to make a great houndstooth pattern. The white is more prominent in the design as it’s a bit thicker than the heather.

Her husband wanted sage & mocha, and also a log cabin design. I probably should have been clearer that the design wouldn’t show up well with these two colors of such similar value – it’s extremely subtle. The scarf is still nice and soft, so hopefully he won’t be disappointed.

I can’t make the other scarf she ordered until I finish weaving the bookmark warp I put on my Macomber loom. I warped it up so that people could try their hands (and feet) at weaving while they were here for the Allegany Artisans tour. I need to cut off their bookmarks and mail them out to them, then weave the rest of them up. I was hoping to do it today, but the flu hit, and I’ve spent virtually all day on the couch. Maybe I’ll feel better tomorrow.

Mohair Blues

Peg Cherre — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:01:27 +0000

While I was at the Letchworth show, as usual I was weaving on my rigid heddle loom. This time I chose two shades of blue. And since it’s a three-day show, I warped the loom for two scarves, figuring I’d have enough time to weave both while I was there. I planned on and warped the loom for scarves with checks of the two colors.

The mohair was working well on my rigid heddle, as always. But about 3/4 of the way through the scarf, I got an idea. What if I cut the first scarf off, rethreaded the loom, and did the second one as a log cabin? I’d never done log cabin with mohair, and these two colors had enough contrast that I thought it would work well.

So I did just that. Here’s how that scarf turned out after wet finishing.

I like this one, too. I am, however, amazed at how different the two scarves look. Same colors, same quantities of each color, but what a difference!

The checked scarf really is bold in its appearance. With just a glance in it’s direction it waves and says, “Hi! Here I am!” Conversely, the log cabin scarf is much more demure, quietly batting its eyelashes and waiting for you to notice it.

I like them both for their own beauty, I just didn’t expect this contrast in overall appearance.

Your turn: what’s surprised you lately?

Lacy Handwoven Silk Scarves

Peg Cherre — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 11:10:09 +0000

Being an early riser, I have a few minutes before I have to leave for the show this morning, so will sneak this post in.

I knew I only had two handwoven silk scarves left after Elmwood, so wanted to give my customers at least one more option. I had enough dusty rose silk left to weave two more, and chose alternating blocks of Swedish Lace. I sett this 20/2 yarn at 18 ends per inch, and was off and running.

They worked up quickly. As usual, I made these handwoven lace scarves on my counterbalance loom.

I was pleased with the results, and quite surprised when I saw how clear and lovely the color was in comparison to the last/first time I’d used this yarn in the gray twill blocks – it really muddied the color more than I realized.

I thought that would be all I’d have time for before the show, but had a whole day left (woo hoo!), so decided to weave a few more cashmere silk scarves, too. I intended to weave two, but my habit got the better of me in measuring the warp – when I finished winding the last bit, I realized I’d measured for three. No problem. Put three on the loom, and if I can only get two done, that’s fine; I’ll just cut them off and weave the third when I return home.

OCD me of course got all three woven.

Two of them are an all-over huck lace pattern, one is a woven with huck spots. I’m less thrilled with the look of that one. Spot Bronson would be a much better choice for spots, but of course my loom was already threaded for huck. The lavender color is much nicer in person than in this picture, which makes them look more gray.

Ok, now you’ve seen them all, and I have to get ready to leave the house.

Your turn: is the weather as gorgeous where you are as it is here this September weekend? Sunny and warm – great!

Rayon and Bamboo Scarves

Peg Cherre — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:51:24 +0000

I had to pick up and pack the rental van this morning to head to the next show, and I didn’t stop weaving till 8:00PM last night. After that I pressed all the scarves I’ve woven in the last two weeks, measured a mohair warp for my rigid heddle, and wound that warp on the back beam. This morning I still have to finish threading that loom and tie on to the cloth beam, and label the 18 finished pieces.

18 finished pieces?! All made since August 29 – 11 days ago?! I can hardly believe it myself. I have been B-U-S-Y! My back is really glad that today is the last day of that craziness. It’s tired of sitting at the loom for hours on end.

As promised, here are more finished scarves.

I wove these three scarves with Tencel rayon hand painted by Tammy. I used her Visionary colorway for the warp for all three, with a different weft for each. All have Bronson lace along the borders. On the left I used the same hand painted yarn as weft; in the middle is a solid deep purple rayon, and on the right is another of Tammy’s yarns, this time Silver Linings. The colors are more alive in person than they are in this photo.

Next I wove three more rayon scarves. The weft is a variegated boucle in red, purple, and blue.

Interestingly, I think the picture of these three scarves looks ‘cleaner’ than the scarves themselves; that’s the opposite of usual. Although the colors were crisp on the loom, they got rather muddy when wet finished.

Anyway, the first two have a solid red rayon boucle weft, one in a diamond pattern and one in a wave twill. The third has a solid purple rayon weft in diamonds. Because my purple rayon was much lighter weight, I used my double shuttle and threw two strands of rayon at once. I liked it better on the loom than off, when that purple really predominates.

The last scarves in this post (hopefully I’ll have time to post the last new scarves this weekend) are hand painted bamboo.

This is a colorway Tammy calls Blue Violets. I just love it. I’ve used this colorway in bamboo, rayon, and rayon chenille, and think it turns out gorgeous in all of them. I wove two scarves with a diamond twill, one with twill waves. I think it’s odd that the scarf on the right is so much darker than the one on the left; it’s not just the photo – they’re like that in real life, too. Weird.

Gotta get in that van right now – check back for the last five scarves.

Hoping you’re not in the midst of either flooding or fire!

Weaving Frenzy

Peg Cherre — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 01:22:05 +0000

As planned, I’ve been weaving just as fast as I can. I’ve made 13 scarves in the last six days. Everything’s been wet finished, but nothing’s been pressed yet.

The first thing I did was tie the fringe and wet finish the log cabin scarf I wove on the rigid heddle loom at my last show. The gray is a bamboo, the blues are hand painted rayon boucle.

Although the scarf wove up quickly, getting it on the loom was anything but speedy. I recently bought a second 10 DPI (dents per inch) heddle for the loom so that I could weave fabrics that needed to be sett more closely. With 2 of these heddles, I could make the scarf be between 10 and 20 ends per inch. I wanted this scarf to be 18 ends per inch, so it should be easy to do. I’d never threaded two heddles like this, so I opened my Betty Davenport book, Hands on Rigid Heddle Weaving. I tried to follow her directions to thread both heddles at the same time, but was having difficulty since I had to turn the page in the middle of the process each time till I had it firmly implanted in my brain.

That wasn’t working, so I printed off instructions from Schacht. They seemed easier to follow: thread all of 1 heddle first, then pull them into the 2nd. Sweet.

So I got my first heddle threaded in log cabin pattern, and proceeded to thread the second. This wasn’t working anywhere near as easily as I’d hoped. The fact that I was trying to do 18 ends per inch (EPI) instead of 20, and keep it in log cabin pattern at the same time, wasn’t helping. And it sure wasn’t a good idea to try several new things at once the afternoon before I had to leave for a show. I couldn’t spend any more time on it, so I had to change my plans. I’d use just one heddle and thread at 10 EPI. I’d used the bamboo at this density before, but the rayon boucle was way too thin; I’d have to double it in both warp and weft.

After all that, fortunately the scarf worked up nicely. I do like log cabin and want to weave more of it as soon as I have time. (Because it requires using two colors in the weft, and therefore two shuttles, it takes a little longer than using just one shuttle, so I won’t be doing it in my rush before my next show.)

Then I made six rayon chenille scarves: three in rich red and three in deep blues. I wanted to add that bright red to my stock for the show, and I had an order for the blue; the other 2 would make a nice addition for next weekend.

Although rayon chenille is always more challenging to work with than many other fibers, I just love the finished product and can’t give it up. I’ve used both of these yarns before, both purchased from the same supplier, both made by the same manufacturer. The red worked up beautifully, the blue – not so much. I had an above-average number of broken warp threads. Now, I know how to repair a broken warp thread and have done plenty of it, but I did not want to take the time now to do so.

In addition to the warp breakage, the chenille was massively shedding while I was weaving. So much so that I had to vacuum after weaving each scarf – unheard of for me. Again, I wasn’t happy about having to take the time, but I was mostly concerned that after wet finishing they wouldn’t be as luscious as usual. Thankfully, they are just fine. Why did this yarn behave badly this time? Wish I knew. Actually, if I’m wishing, I’ll skip wishing I knew, and just wish it would never happen again. Why waste a perfectly good wish on knowing why something in the past happened?

I’ll share the next six scarves I wove in the next post.

Your turn: what’s worked well, or not so well, for you lately?