Weaving A Gem Of A Life

Woven Skyline

I’m going to start by saying that I am happy with this clasped weft scarf, but not happy enough to send it to the Roycroft jury. I plan to make another, going even slower and more carefully. I do think it’s a great concept, and I am definitely not done with clasped weft. (I wove 2 clasped weft scarf with baby alpaca after this. Both much quicker and easier to get right, neither my ultimate show piece for the jury. I’ll probably show you these later.)

Without further ado, here’s the entire length of Skyline #1. I took this shot before wet finishing.

After wet finishing, I decided you might like to see details. I’m showing you from one end to the other, but you’ll notice it’s backwards from the full-length view; I wasn’t careful for the photo set up and laid it out the other way for the photos.

I purposely ‘overlapped’ the images by one building so you can see how it all fits together. Here goes.

You might notice that I hadn’t yet hemmed the scarf when I took the photos. This was a mistake. I should have done the hemming prior to washing and drying. I am not happy with the hem, even though I did each end twice, cutting off and running another machine stitch when I didn’t like it the first time. Again, good enough to sell for sure, not good enough for the hands-on Roycroft jury.

New Year Looms, 2014

Every year Meg over at Unravelling asks weavers to post photos of their looms on New Year’s Day. In all their glory — or not. No glamming things up for the shots. Here are my looms, now numbering four (gasp!) as is and where they sit.

First in my home and my heart, my beloved little 4H counterbalance loom.

I took my cityscape scarf off this loom on Monday night. I’ll post about that soon. So the loom is waiting for my next project, which I’ll be starting today.

Next up is my 8H Macomber.

Mac and I took a good long time to become friends; I had to experience other looms to realize the benefits of the Mac. Here it sits with enough warp for a baby wrap; I’m awaiting feedback from my testing mamas on sample wrap #2 before I tie it up and weave it off.

Third is my LeClerc rigid heddle.

I really only use this loom to demonstrate at shows. I warped it up with white mohair, planning to weave it at the Roycroft winter show, which I had to miss due to my nasty stomach bug, so it sits in its spot on top of my bookshelf just waiting for me. It’ll likely wait a good long time.

Last, and least I’m afraid, is my 4H Missouri.

In fact, this loom is so far from top-of-mind for me that I had started this post when I realized I hadn’t taken a picture of the Missouri. You can see it’s sitting between a table and a dresser, as out of the way as I can make it. The warp on it is from the pick-up workshop I did with Su Butler last spring.

I’m sure I won’t finish this sample warp. I should just cut it off so I can fold up the loom and at least be able to get into that dresser. Why haven’t I?? Maybe doing this post will inspire me to do that. I could even carry it upstairs and cover it from dust — that’d really be out of the way. I’m gonna go do that, right now.

Wishing you all health & happiness in 2014.

New Hats

Elmo didn’t make it. That is, the hat was definitely not accepted by my grandson. He was clearly not going to wear it; it was a struggle just to put it on his head so I could see how it fit. The little guy loves red, so that wasn’t an issue; his mom assumed it was the eyelash yarn I’d used to make the hat fuzzy.

So I needed to remake the hat. Without any eyelash yarn. Also, it was too short, that is not deep enough to cover his little ears. I started knitting it with the solid red yarn I’d made the original hat from, but was not happy with it. Cheap yarn made it too stiff and hard; it wouldn’t feel good.

Joann’s was having a sale — all yarn was 25% off, so I picked out a different red, a nice soft wool-acrylic blend, and knitted a new hat. I’m quite sure this one will fit him.

Then I phoned my daughter to see if she thought the Elmo features were desired or if they should be left off. She voted for put them on. This took two attempts, since the first time I’d sewn them on too far from the brim. Now I’m happy with the hat.

Hats knit up quickly. When I was at Joann’s and looking for a nice, soft red, the fact that all the yarn was on sale made me pick up a blue, too. It’s only acrylic, but I liked the colors. It’s larger – the brim will likely need to be folded up on this one, which I’m also sending along.

Maybe he’ll like one of the hats. Maybe not. This little guy knows what he likes and what he doesn’t. I’m told one of his current favorite hats is the duck hat I knit him two Christmases ago — it was way too big at the time.

I’ll just wait for the report once the package hits Rochester.

Christmas Towels #2

It’s December 26 so now I can show you my second batch of Christmas towels. I still have to give two of them tomorrow morning, and mail one to a friend who won’t be home for weeks, but neither of those people will be reading my blog, so it’s safe to proceed.

After I made the eight towels on the neutral weave, I had to do something with more color. So I set up a warp with white, red, and black in it.

I wove these and the neutral towels in 8/2 unmercerized cotton, sett at 21 EPI. I was a bit concerned that they’d be too loose for towels, since this was the sett I’d used for plain weave, but I liked the neutral ones fine after wet finishing so stayed with it for the second batch.

I wanted to weave half of them in plaid, half with a solid white weft.

The first time I made a mistake in my treadling, repeating the 1-2-3-4 treadling with the colored weft, not realizing that I was only supposed to do that with white. I didn’t notice it until I had a set of red and black woven, and by then I decided I didn’t want to unweave it all, I’d follow that pattern for the rest of this towel. Here’s how the elongated plaid looks.

Then I wove two more towels with the correct treadling for a true plaid. I really like the interplay of colors in these towels.

I felt like I was running out of time, so needed to do some with a solid white weft to make myself feel better. I used two different treadling patterns…

Here’s how they turned out.

I decided that for the last one I’d do plain weave. My friend had seen the red & white towels I wove last summer and really liked the red parts, so I started weaving with a red weft. I decided I’d do some white and black in the middle, then go back to red. This is my least favorite towel, for sure. I gave it to my neighbor, not my friend.

Now I have to get back to weaving for the juries.

Christmas Towels #1

I got my first batch of towels for Christmas hemmed and pressed at about 8PM Saturday night, just about 12 hours before I needed to put them in gift bags and then into my car for a family holiday celebration. Not that I was cutting it close or anything. 🙂

Sunday morning I photographed everything, without a lot of time to make sure the photos all turned out as well as I’d like. What you see is the best I have.

Everyone is getting two towels that are the same but different. That is, the same yarns in both warp & weft, but different weaving patterns. Most had the same tie up, too, just different treadling. They all obviously have the same warp – a solid cream 8/2 unmercerized cotton.

These set of two, to my nephew and his bride of 6 months, is a waffle weave (my first attempt – a 4H) and a twill, both using a barberpole variegated weft.

The next set, to my niece and her husband of 2 months, is another waffle weave and a different twill, all with the same barberpole weft.

Next came a set for my middle sister, who lived through weddings of both her kids this year and a move to a new house, then hosted our holiday get-together. What a woman! Her towels have weft of Fox Fiber, that colorgrown cotton that deepens with use.

I was bored with all the neutrals by that time, so my oldest sister got some color in hers! Her kitchen is also neutral colors, but I didn’t care. She got a medium blue weft.

Now I have to do the tiny bit of hand stitching along the side of the hemmed edge and hard press some more today to bring with me tomorrow.

Weaving A Gem Of A Life

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New Year Looms, 2014

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