RH to Mac

Earlier this month I blogged about some 10/2 tencel I had dyed and put on my rigid heddle loom for demonstration at a show.

After I took that photo of the 2 heddles threaded, I tied on to the front of the loom and did a few weaving experiments. I quickly learned that at a show was not the time to use the 2 heddles independently as too much thought was required. So I clamped them together to weave as 1, with double density of 22 ends per inch and off I set.

I started with 5 rows of Danish medallions. I’d never woven them before, but as usual, that didn’t stop me. The first motif got quite squished as I wound it on the front beam. Hmmmmmm, I wondered.

Then I simply wove plain weave. Because of the double density, it was actually more like basket weave, with 2 warp threads side by side in each shed. I didn’t get much woven in the 3 days of the show because I was encouraging people to weave on the tapestry loom (more of that in an upcoming post), only about 10″.

I hated it. It was clear to me that it would produce a sleazy fabric, one that would not stand up to regular use and that I would not be willing to sell.

So when I came home I put a set of lease sticks in the warp, unwound and unwove what I’d done, getting back to the beginning of the warp.

Then I untied, carried it over to the Macomber, and beamed it.

For the first scarf I used the pale blue I’d immersion dyed to match/coordinate. Although I only sett it at 24 ends per inch, the fabric was turning out fine. I can’t really explain this, I just accept it.

For the second scarf, which would be a cowl, I used a commercially dyed tencel. I really like the texture – actually the appearance of texture – in this shot.

This morning I fringed the scarf and sewed the cowl, subsequently washing, drying, and pressing them.

Although these colors are much lighter than my usual palette, I think they’re perfect for summer. So much so that I decided to use similar colors for my next project.

I measured out 4 bouts of 30/2 silk, 216 ends each, long enough for 2 shawls. I knew that this silk would need a really good scour, and it sure did; look how dirty the water was!

I mixed up some dyes, using some leftover blues from the scarf warp, went down to the basement at 5PM yesterday, and came back upstairs around 8 with my painting and clean up work complete. Look how much blue and green dye I had when I was done with the painting – NONE! Good thing I didn’t need more – although I could have come close with the greens as I’d measured that, I never could have matched the blues since I was using up leftovers.

After steaming, overnight batching, and rinsing, here is the dyed silk hanging on the line along with the tencel scarves. You’d think I’d planned that similarity or something! 😉 In reality, I’m not good enough to claim that – a happy accident.

Here’s what’s going on the loom today, from dyeing I did back in April. These are more my typical color values.