Weaving A Gem Of A Life

The weaving went smoothly for the black weft. The second wrap on TA’s warp is white Egyptian cotton. Here I’m changing colors.

Just before this shot I had a period of panic. I should have had 2 tubes of the white yarn, but had only 1. I checked the invoice – yep, only 1. I went to my notes where I figured out how much I needed – 2. So apparently I made a mistake when I ordered.

I immediately contacted T & explained the problem. We discussed a variety of solutions, and she asked me to weave the first 6″ in another white I had, as close as I could match, since it would not show as she’s having it turned into a ring sling. Then weave all I could with the Egyptian cotton (about 75″ according to my calculations), finishing with navy.

That what I did. I marked the end of that weft and started with the Egyptian cotton. I wove about 60″ and it looked like I might be able to get all 112″ of the wrap woven with the Egyptian cotton. I contacted T & asked her what her preference was – try to weave it all in white or do the navy tail anyway. She opted for about a foot of the navy.

I’ve got it all woven now. Tomorrow I’ll cut it off the loom, hem it, and get it into the washer.

Next up…a special order rayon chenille scarf. Then a sample of my next jurying piece to see if my concept will work. By then the yarn for the next batch of baby wraps should have arrived.

TA already has 2 of my handwoven baby wraps. But she was the ‘sister’ on both of those. That is, she wasn’t able to choose the warp colors, only her weft color & weaving pattern. She wanted a chance to start from the beginning.

Today I was able to finish weaving that second bling scarf AND wind all four bouts for TA’s warp. (I’m so happy that my knee didn’t hurt! I can’t usually stand for that long without ending up in pain. YAY for happy knees!)

I’m really liking the subtlety in the transition from one warp color to the next…

The first bout is aquamarine to turquoise – CORRECTION: aquamarine to peacock.

Then turquoise to bleu moyen – CORRECTION: peacock to bleu moyen.

Next bleu moyen to charcoal.

And finally charcoal to mauve.

The 3 blues are more different in person than they are in these photos, but still subtle. And the charcoal to mauve also has some subtlety. I think this will be a really stunning piece when it’s woven!

On Saturday I finished the weaving on JS & LYY’s wraps. I cut them off the loom and took them to my sewing machine. Things went okay for the first 5 straight lines I needed to sew. On the 6th my presser foot start jumping – the problem that caused me to trade in Mom’s Riccar for a new Janome in October. What?! How can that be?!

So I got out my instruction manual and followed the directions to remove the foot plate and clean out the inside of the machine. I put it all back together, started sewing, and bam – the same presser foot jumping! I was both frustrated and angry. After all, I had taken some of my fabric to the store with me, and shwon the salesman exactly what I needed to do. This machine is only 3 months old and having the same problem?!

I called the store where I bought the machine, got a very calm man (not the one who sold it to me) who assured me that since the store was closing in an hour and I’m 40 minutes away, if I brought the machine in on Monday they would fix me up while I waited. Bah! I didn’t want to wait until Monday to be able to hem, wash, dry, press, & label these wraps!

Without much hope, I thought maybe I should try taking off my walking foot and putting on the regular presser foot. Amazingly, the machine ran smoothly – no jumping – and noticeably more quietly with the regular presser foot. Huh. I wonder if there was really a problem with the Riccar or if I got a new machine needlessly. Oh well. I can’t worry about that.

I figured why not take that walking foot apart clean that, too. Mistake! The guts fell out in many pieces. That walking foot is dust. Since it apparently had a problem I wasn’t upset about.

Anywhoooo, using the regular presser foot I got the last straight stitch line done, the hems sewn, and the wraps into and out of the washer & dryer. On Sunday I got them pressed & labelled, packaged and ready for the mail. I brought them to the post office today.

I like this picture. From left to right is a 2.1M wrap with a lavender Egyptian cotton weft, a 3.4M wrap with a seafoam Egyptian cotton weft, and a 4M wrap with a burgundy tencel weft.

A bit of a positive note: the 2M wrap was getting shipped separately so I could squeeze it into one of those padded priority mail envelopes from the Galeffi shipment.

Next up – a scarf warp that I hope will serve me well for jurying.