Weaving A Gem Of A Life

Custom Rayon Chenille

One of the great things about custom weaving is that I get to experience all sorts of color combinations that I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen. I’ve learned a lot while weaving the baby wraps, and this rayon chenille scarf for KW had lots to show me, too.

First, I had to use a warping paddle. This scarf had 4 colors in the warp – 3 reds and a gray. The only way I knew to measure the warp is with a warping paddle. But I don’t own one, so I made my own temporary paddle out of doubled card stock. Not beautiful, but effective.

I should say it seemed effective. Since I’d never used a warping paddle before I’m not at all sure that I was holding it correctly, and I don’t think I did what I was supposed to at the cross. I measured out enough warp for two scarves, beamed & threaded it without too much trouble, and went to work weaving.

Honestly, I can’t imagine how anyone gets a decent picture of reds. I can’t begin to tell you how many shots of this scarf I took. On the loom I didn’t have many lighting options, but off the loom I tried all sorts of camera settings and all sorts of lighting options. Nothing could come close to looking like the scarf itself. The fact that the rayon chenille has lots of sheen, making light bounce like mad, didn’t help, but that clearly wasn’t the whole problem.

Like all rayon chenille, I just LOVE the way this scarf feels. And I find the 4 colors interesting. The 3 reds certainly provide much more depth of color than 1 alone would, and the gray adds a nice accent.

Still waiting for some decisions from moms wanting wraps, so I’m going to weave the custom shawl next.

What a difference!

I’ve woven, wet finished, labeled, and mailed the custom baby wraps for MG & TA. They are SO DIFFERENT!

I’ve done wraps with different wefts and different weave patterns before, and I’m always impressed with how dramatic the change is. Here are the wraps flat.

Wow!

I’m waiting for moms to continue with their planning, so meanwhile I’m working on the order I have for a custom rayon chenille scarf. It’s measured, beamed, and threaded. Tie on later today or tomorrow.

The REAL Reason

This warp, weft, & weave combo is great. But……

…as I wove and wove and got the near end… What the heck?! OH! MY! GOD! It happened again?!?!

I measured and counted and counted and counted and counted again the number of wraps around that warping mill. The warp can’t possibly be too short again!

But it is.

So I need to walk away from the loom and do something else to clear my mind. Those two buckets of gardening did the trick. When I came back in I went back to my calculation papers and looked again. OH CRAP!! I forgot a step!

Weaving all begins with math.

Here’s my math on the MG & TA warp.

And here is it on an earlier warp. Can you spot the difference?

On the earlier warp I took the necessary step of allowing for take up and loom waste, circled in red here. (Non-weavers, don’t worry if you don’t understand the terms, just pay attention to the math.)

I neglected to do that in MG & TA’s warp. If I had done that, I would have added 66″ to the warp length. Actually, based on the fact that I always wind warps longer than my math says is the right amount, just to be sure, I would have added more like 80″ or more to the length.

I went back to the last warp planning, and saw that I’d made the same error, not allowing for take up & loom waste. So when I assumed that I’d miscounted the number of wraps around the warping mill, I stopped looking for the cause of the problem. That incorrect assumption led me to make the same mistake again.

Now that I know FOR SURE the REAL reason for the problem, I KNOW I won’t do it again. I’m going to go email TA and give her the bad news and suggest alternatives for her.

I’m Loving It

I finished weaving MG’s wrap – black weft, hearts pattern – and started weaving TA’s – dark pink weft, zigzag pattern. What a difference! Although the colors are not at all accurate, the difference between the two is as striking in real life as it is in the photo – maybe more so.

I really liked the black hearts, they made the weft colors pop. But oh, that dark pink weft and the zigzags make the weaving sing!

Still, I didn’t get much weaving done today, only about 16″ all day. I did, however, get lots of gardening done.

I did my two buckets and then two more. I did what should have been done at least two years ago: dig out a large patch of creeping sedum that had been overrun with quack grass. Throw all the weeds and most of the sedum in the compost. Put some well-cleaned sedum back and cross your fingers. If it grows, it grows, if not, c’est la vie.

I went inside and did a bit of weaving, but I was at odds. Couldn’t get comfortable and in the groove. The beautiful outdoors was calling to me. So I went back out to the same garden area and did a major fall trim on my red hot pokers, pulling weeds between them. If my wheelbarrow was functional this would have been a heaping barrow full.

I think this garden spot may be done. I’ll look at it again tomorrow and see if it needs more work before I can bring in the mulch.

Two A Day

Now that Labor Day is behind us, it’s officially the fall season, at least in my world.

For decades I have consciously chosen not to do any fall ‘put the garden to bed’ work. By then I’m too busy, tired, and just plain over it. Never a really good idea, I decided that this year it is a particularly bad strategy. If I want to sell my house (and I do), I have to make it look as good as possible all the time.

So I’ve set my September goal. Two buckets a day. Pull two buckets a day of weeds, trim two buckets a day of perennials, spread two buckets a day of mulch, whatever. Just do two buckets a day, every day. Sometimes those two buckets will take 1/2 hour, sometimes 3 times that long. Doesn’t matter. My goal is quantity, not time. If I do it every day, it will eventually get done.

Today was my first day. I pulled two buckets of weeds and carried them to my compost bin. I’m going to continue in that garden patch tomorrow, and when I get it done, whether that’s tomorrow or several days hence, I’ll mulch it. My springtime mulching was, in hindsight, foolishly, done more for looks than for utility. I was hoping my house would sell quickly. I’m paying the price now. Oh, well.

On the loom-y front, I’m making good progress on MG’s baby wrap – over half done. I’m working with my next batch of 4 moms to plan their wraps so I can get their yarn ordered. With the holiday that’s taking a bit longer than usual. That’s okay, too, ‘cuz I have other non-baby-wrap weaving I have to do, too.

I also did my prep work for my fiberarts guild‘s annual dye day. Instead of making this one more ‘must do’ for me, I decided that I’d use this day just for play.

So I bought some pre-mordanted muslin, ripped it into roughly bandana-sized pieces, made a resist paste, and goofed around. I used my fingers, bottle caps, a cardboard tube from yarn, a piece of foam, and string to make designs (I’m using the term very loosely – I don’t consider these particularly artful) on the muslin. They’re drying on my rack. On Saturday I’ll dye the cloth in indigo. It will either work or it won’t. The cloth will either look good or it won’t. If it works and looks good, I’ll either hem the squares for bandanas or I won’t. No pressure, no stress. Just for fun. Yeah!

Weaving A Gem Of A Life

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