I was weaving as fast as I could in preparation for the Roycroft Winter Festival, and barely had time to take photos of the [...]]]> 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.

I had an order for a custom shawl made predominantly from the Steel yarn, but I wound a few strands of Starlight in [...]]]> WHAT?! Weaving with steel?! Yeah, I was trying to be smart – not too successfully, I fear. Steel is the main color in the warp of this rayon chenille handwoven shawl.

I had an order for a custom shawl made predominantly from the Steel yarn, but I wound a few strands of Starlight in there randomly for added interest. I liked the colors, so, throwing caution to the winds, I decided to make my first ever attempt to warp for two rayon chenille shawls. Yes, I routinely warp for three or four scarves, but shawls are more challenging, at least when working with rayon chenille. The yarn is so fussy while putting it on the loom, and the wider it gets, the more difficult it becomes to tame. So even though it’s exceedingly INefficient time wise, I’ve only warped for one rayon chenille shawl at a time up to now. (I do warp for more cotton or silk shawls – they’re not a problem.) Since warping difficulties are likely to become more apparent as you weave, I figured that the worst that was likely to happen was that I’d weave the ordered shawl and then cut the rest of the warp off and throw it away. I felt like now was the time to take that chance.

Woo Hoo! I wove both shawls without a hitch!

The custom scarf had a weft that was entirely that deep, rich Steel color. The woman has received it and sent me a note that she loves it. Her shawl used up most of the Steel yarn, so I had to use a different weft on the second shawl. I tried a few options, and decided to use that Starlight for most of the weft, putting a 6″ band of Steel at each end. In hindsight, I’d have preferred the results with just the Starlight, but it’s fine the way it is.

Good news – I woke up yesterday morning feeling like I had just a cold, not the flu. That feeling lasted all day, and that’s how I feel this early morning after turning my clocks back, too. I’ve turned a health corner – yippee! Now I can get back to cranking out work before my next show. I want to not only do more weaving, but I really want to have some of my Victorian Christmas ornaments for the show.

I’d seen some gorgeous weaving with [...]]]> I know I need to make more shawls before the Roycroft Winter Show. I also have a special order for a shawl and three special order scarves. While I was waiting for final input from my customers on the special orders, I decided to make a rayon chenille shawl.

I’d seen some gorgeous weaving with many different colors of yarn, offset by black. I’d not done anything like this, and wanted to give it a try. I ended up with 16 different colors, arranged in a prism fashion. I used 8 strands of black in between each color. (Next time I’d use less black – perhaps 4 strands between each.)

After I got it spread out on the back beam, it was clear to me that my colors needed a bit of adjustment. The orange was way too bright, and there was too much purple.

I was okay simply removing several of the purple threads and having the shawl be 8-10 threads narrower. At the other edge of the shawl, however, I thought that while the orange was too bright and overpowering, I should have had more of the red. So I wanted to insert as many red threads as I removed of the orange. I also wanted to get rid of a few black threads from the right edge; I wanted it clear that I intended the width of the black selvedges to be different, and if they were too close in thread counts, it would look like I’d made a mistake.

After making all those adjustments, and having a few broken threads, here’s what the back of my loom looked like. Pretty ugly.

The final result of the shawl is a bit more subdued than I had envisioned, but that’s part of the reason I’d make the bands of black narrower next time around. Other than that, I’m happy with the design. (I’m also happy that the photo shows the sheen of the rayon chenille; that’s usually quite hard for me to achieve. I shot this one on my bathroom counter. I’m going to try the next one there.)

I also enjoyed being a bit random in my planning. I had no preconceived notion of how wide I’d make each color band. I simply picked all the colors first and set them out in the order I’d use them, and wound as many wraps as I thought would look good. This is different than my usual very planned methodology. It felt good, and I’ll do it again.

Your turn: has changing your methods brought you successes?

So I’ll play catch up here, and show you several finished pieces, all of which were completed prior to my participation in the Chautauqua Crafts Alliance a few weeks ago.

I really wanted to [...]]]> I have no idea how two weeks goes by so quickly! I thought for sure I’d posted since August 10, but apparently not.

So I’ll play catch up here, and show you several finished pieces, all of which were completed prior to my participation in the Chautauqua Crafts Alliance a few weeks ago.

I really wanted to try another undulating twill. I wasn’t overly happy with my first attempt some months ago, but had a different threading that I’d seen being woven, and thought it’d look smashing in a silk shawl.

But then I got chicken. What if I sett it too far apart and the cloth was not stable? What if I simply didn’t like it? That was a lot of silk to potentially waste! So I decided that I’d sample the design first making a scarf using a similar size cotton yarn. Sure, the two fibers (cotton & silk) would behave differently, but at least I’d have something to go on.

So I used a rich, burnished copper color in 10/2 cotton, sett at 24 ends per inch.

Actually, you did already see this scarf when I told you Dolly could stand independently, but the distance shot doesn’t give you any idea of the weave structure. I really like both the color and pattern of this scarf, so decided to move ahead with the silk, but thought I’d like it a bit softer, so sett the 20/2 silk at 22 ends per inch. (For you weavers, my 20/2 silk is 4,500 ypp, and my 10/2 cotton is 4,000 ypp; they are similar grist, despite the tale their numbers might tell.)

When I started weaving with the silk, it became clear to me that it’s slipperiness was potentially a problem, that it might not be as stable as I wanted it to be. I didn’t really want to unweave and re-thread the reed closer, so I decided that I could offset that potential to some extent by changing my treadling slightly, changing directions periodically. In my usual fashion, I did these symmetrically. The end result was a beautiful shawl that reminded me of butterflies. I’m not sure the picture shows it well, but I can’t shoot it again — I sold this piece in Chautauqua.

Again, in my typical fashion, I didn’t want the second shawl (I’d warped for 2) to be identical. I wanted to use the wave pattern without reversing it, and decided I had to cut the first shawl off and re-thread the reed at 24 ends per inch. Once that was done, I decided to take advantage of the wave structure and use blue silk to enhance the watery look.

Interestingly, I thought the 24 ends per inch could have been even a bit closer in the silk. I sold this one, too. I sold lots of pieces in Chautauqua – good thing I’d been weaving consistently for months on end, since I have two more big shows coming up!

I wanted to have small things people could pick up on a whim, too. I’d been weaving bookmarks at the ends of many of my scarf warps, some more successfully than others, and had what I thought was a decent supply.

Hah! I sold 16 of my 18 bookmarks. So right now I have a very narrow warp on my loom to see if I can get some more made by this weekend. They won’t be as varied as the prior batch, since they’ll all be made on a white warp, but it’s all I have time for. I can, and will, of course vary both treadling and weft color.

I also decided to use some of the learning from the MAFA conference, and threaded my loom with the end of the warp I had from that workshop, using a periwinkle overshot threading. I made four sets of mug rugs, using many different treadling patterns.

That orange is really bright! Anyway, I had envisioned the ‘set’ being four of the same color. I laid them out that way, but hadn’t gathered them with a ribbon or otherwise restricted selection. Of course, the first purchaser, a young girl, chose one of each color. Fortunately, the second purchaser also chose one of each color, because she was a weaver and wanted to get different patterns. Then I sold the remainder of the forest green and royal blue from an email order, making four more of each color for sets of six – I had to really squeeze that last one out of the warp on my loom!

So now you’re caught up. I’ll have to be sure to take pictures of what I’ve woven since Chautauqua before I pack them up for my next show. Gotta run and weave!