It takes two

On Valentine’s Day, it takes two hearts to share love.

In my case, it also takes two photos to attempt to show the color. Neither is correct; the reality is somewhere in between. It’s those blasted reds – nearly impossible for me to capture accurately.

Here’s my latest rayon chenille work while it’s on the loom. In this photo the colors are a little brighter and bluer than in real life.

Now here’s a shot of the finished shawl. Here the colors are distinctly browner and duller than in real life. So imagine something in between these two shots for color.

It also takes two pieces to make my brain click. I’d made a mobius shawl before, also from rayon chenille, and hated it. There was no way I could make it sit on my body correctly. It sold, and the person who bought it liked it, but I didn’t.

I wanted to try again. So I looked online for measurements, and made mine match theirs. Hemmed it and sewed it up, and once again, hated it. Again it would not sit right on the body. I was seriously frustrated, and was convinced that (a) I would never make another one, and (b) there must be something about the rayon chenille fabric that was part of the problem. I unhappily resigned myself to my failure to produce what I wanted.

Then this morning, a light bulb went off in my brain. I had made the mistake of sewing hem to hem. In fact, I was supposed to sew hem to selvedge! Thankfully I had done all the sewing by hand, so I could easily take it out. This afternoon I sewed one of the hems to the selvedge, and VOILA! It immediately sat right on my body – no muss, no fuss.

Now I know I will make some more of these, in a variety of fibers.

Two completed pieces toward my monthly goal. Three more off the loom awaiting fringing and wet finishing. Plus I have 2 short pieces of the rayon chenille that I’ll make into collars, since the last ones sold quickly.