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After loving the Carnations handwoven scarves, I decided to use another new-to-me colorway – Chestnut Rose.
The bamboo-cotton variegation was very earthy, and while that tends not to be my favorite to wear, I know lots of people like those colors. I measured the warp for four scarves, dressed the loom, threaded for big twill diamonds, and set to weaving.
I wove the first two scarves with a bronze weft Tammy had dyed to match for me.
I found it interesting how differently the two scarves look simply by changing the treadling pattern. The diamond twill (on top) seems cleaner, with more sheen, while the color definition is better on the more complicated twill scarf below it. No matter; they’re both nice.
As per my usual, I wanted to mix it up for the other two scarves in this warp. So I used a curry rayon for the third scarf, and a lipstick cotton for the fourth. Here’s all four of them together.
Given my affinity for red, I’d think the bottom scarf would be my favorite, but it’s not. I prefer the curry rayon. I suppose since I like the orange Carnations scarf so much I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was.
I just gotta keep on weaving to build my stock for this year’s shows.
When we first came to this property there was nothing here but trees. We had to clear a few acres to make a nice, open space for the house. Then I had to start planting things to make the yard not look barren.
I started with perennials, knowing they’d give me years of color for my efforts. I made it up to more than 250 varieties of perennials before my age started creeping up on me at about the same time that my available time & energy for gardening seemed to shrink. What to do now, I wondered, to keep the yard pleasing while diminishing my workload?
The answer? Shrubs!
They take up lots more room than a perennial, so a few shrubs can replace a dozen or more flowers in the same amount of space. That equates to less weeding. Plus, shrubs can create a visual barrier that most perennials can’t achieve. If you choose shrubbery with a mixture of leaf color and texture, even when they’re not in bloom they can add lots of interest to a garden.
Here are a few of my current favorites.
Grancy’s Greybeard, aka Fringe Tree (Chionanthus virginicus) up close for detail and one arm to show a bit of the shape.
I planted these three shrubs for color & texture variety: doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum tomentosum – it’s a poor flowering year due to the weird weather), purpleleaf ninebark (Physocarpus opulofolius “Diablo”), and tri-color Japanese willow (Salix integra “Hakuro Nishiki”). That willow is quite assertive – I have to cut it back every year, not only to keep its size in check, but also because the 3 colors (green, white, & pink) only show well on new growth.
I planted this purple smoke bush (Cotinus coggygia “Royal Purple”) more than 10 years ago, but it’s never really taken off. It’s still quite small. Still, I love the color and shape of the leaves.
But smoke? Not so much. Here are flower buds, which is all I’ve ever seen. They’ve never once opened into the ‘smoke’ for which the plant is named.
Here’s a domestic azalea in an interesting salmon color. A bit out of focus, but I like the impressionistic nature of this photo.
By contrast, taken at approximately the same distance from the plant, here’s a native azalea, commonly called Pink, known by me as The Queen.
The flowers are much smaller but more numerous. Their tongues delicately reach far out from their throats, and they have a wonderful aroma. Most domestic azaleas have no fragrance.
Also taken at a similar distance, here’s a plant that’s part perennial, part shrub – it’s a tree peony.
You can tell it’s related to the typical peony, but sort of in the same way that a small, caged parakeet is to a large parrot in the Amazon.
My yard is best considered a zone 4, so I can’t reliably grow a Florida dogwood, which I love. Instead we planted a Japanese dogwood (Cornus kousa). There are lots of varieties, and I don’t know the name of mine, but it’s more bush-like than tree-like, and the flowers are not as showy as some.
Still, it’s amazing in that the flowers start out looking just like the leaves, and then gradually lighten up as the days pass. The center of the flower eventually grows to about an inch in diameter turns bright red.
This sweet little thing is the best type of shrub ever – it’s a volunteer! No planting needed.
It’s tripled in size in just one year. I wonder how long it will take to produce fruit?
Last, and certainly least, is this poor, sad, little sugar maple.
It’s had a rough life, suffering through 3 transplants and 3 late freezes. Intended to provide summer shade to my house, now it will never be anything more than a maple shrub. I’ve decided it’s worth it to me to talk to a landscaper and have them bring in & plant a real tree, one that will grow with some reliability. I’m going to start shopping around in the next few weeks.
Your turn: have you discovered the joy of shrubs?
Since I haven’t posted in a week, today will be a twofer. And you may get more tomorrow, too.
When I received my latest batch of hand painted bamboo-cotton yarn, I got to see some of Tammy’s new colorways that I’d ordered. Some I thought were stunning, some verged on being too bright for my tastes.
I decided to start with one of the latter, a colorway Tammy calls Carnations. It’s the bright pink & orange in the center of this photo.
Because I was concerned about it being a bit too much color, I decided to tone it down some with a stripe of burgundy cotton along one edge.
I measured the warp for three scarves, beamed the loom, threaded the heddles and set to weaving.
The first scarf I wove was the one on the top in the photo. I used that same burgundy cotton for weft. I like the way it shows the stripes, but I knew even on the loom that it would be a bit stiffer than I prefer in my scarves.
So next I used a solid orange bamboo-cotton weft Tammy’d dyed up for me. I find it interesting that with that orange weft, the burgundy stripe appears to be brown, not burgundy at all. Interesting what colors do when they play together, isn’t it?
Anyway, I really like it the orange scarf; in fact, I’ve worn it a few times. (It’s not as vibrant, in a good way, as it appears in the photo.) However, although I love them, my orange scarves haven’t been big sellers, so I didn’t want to weave the third with that weft also.
Instead I chose a bright raspberry bamboo-cotton. I was hoping it would be bright without knocking your eyes out of their sockets. I think it is. I also like the way the many other colors in that variegated warp show up.
All three scarves were threaded in a simple point twill, and treadled simply, too. I’m trying to remember that “simple pictures are best” saying, to make it my new motto.
After all that 1-2-3-4 threading & treadling, I wanted to weave something with more creativity in the weaving pattern, less in the color choices. You know I love to weave lace, so decided I’d try some larger blocks of huck, with alternating warp and weft floats. I call it a huck checkerboard.
I picked a lovely off-white bamboo and threaded up the loom. I wish I’d taken pictures of this while it was on the loom — to my eye, the monochrome warp and weft floats showed up better then than they have since. C’est la vie.
Anyway, after I wove one in solid off-white, I thought it would be fun to try one with a contrasting weft, and picked a medium-bright red rayon. Although the floats do show up much better, I’ll stick with the solid color, myself.
Before I even began weaving the red scarf, I decided I’d give it an added feature of an off-white border with ladder hemstitching. In the past when the weft color differed greatly from the warp color, I’ve found the fringe a bit unsettling – the color difference jarring to my eyes. So I thought the edging would not only make the scarf a little dressier, it would make a nice end transition from the off-white fringe to the red weaving.
Do you agree?
Your turn: Are you having any celebrations this Memorial Day weekend, or is it a somber time for you?
I’m a woman who doesn’t really care what the calendar says about holidays. After all, does it really matter if we celebrate Mother’s Day on May 6 or a few weeks later? I don’t think so. What matters is that we share a day and our love.
I had a show in Belmont with some friends on Mother’s Day weekend, so my kids and I agreed to wait until the 19th. I took a ride up to Rochester on a gorgeous spring day to enjoy my two terrific children and my sweet, little grandson. We played with R a bit when I got there, then it was nap time. While he slept and I supervised (didn’t want to dirty my new shoes – couldn’t have worked that better if I’d planned it), Michael & Amanda planted a trunk full of shade-loving perennials I’d dug up & brought from my yard: lily of the valley, Canadian ginger, lungwort, and Solomon’s seal. They also put in a nice new edging, making the garden look crisp and clean. I should have taken a picture, but didn’t think about it.
After the nap, Michael headed to work, while Amanda, R, & I went to the garden center for some veggie plants. R was flirting with people most of the time we were there, and they were all enchanted.
Back at home, I got to play with the little one while Amanda got her tomatoes, peppers, and herbs in their large pots for patio growing.
As soon as the basil was on the porch, R just had to check it out. The colorful pot was a big draw, and it was heavy enough that he could pull himself up on it, but it was still a bit too tippy, so it got moved away before he could end up with ceramics, soil, and basil all over himself.
“No problem,” he said, “just leave me with my key and I’ll find something else to do.”
In fact, R kept the key tightly in his grasp for well over 1/2 hour.
Unlike some babies who need to put everything in their mouths, R needs to shake everything. If it doesn’t make noise by itself, and sometimes even if it does, it will be tapped on everything to produce different sounds. I wonder if this will lead to a career as a drummer?
After crawling on the deck for a while, we headed to his swing. That was fun! Notice that he still has the key gripped tightly in his hand.
When swinging started to get old, we went back to the porch. Rusty found something great to tap that key on – the front metal plate of the gas grill – good sounds!
We went back inside for dinner, played a bit more, and I headed back home. A great Mother’s Day, if I do say so myself.
Your turn: Is it important to you that you celebrate holidays on the calendar-correct date?
The title of this post implies that I somehow used semi-precious gemstones in my handwoven scarves. That is misleading. Instead, I wove with a bamboo-cotton blend in a hand painted colorway Tammy calls Sapphires.
I don’t think I’ve used this colorway in the past, but I’m sure I’ll be going back to it in the future. Being a gemtones girl, these colors call to me.
When given a choice among three scarves on the same warp but with different wefts, I usually choose the one with the most purple first, and the one with the same variegated weft as warp last. But not this time.
The scarf on the bottom, with the lilac weft, is my least favorite of the three. I can’t decide if I prefer the middle scarf, woven with a teal weft, or the top one with that Sapphires weft.
I think it’s the enhancement of three warp colors that pushed me into appreciating the scarf with the variegated weft. But then, this is always true of those hand painted wefts. So what’s different about this blend that makes me like the faux plaid look? I really have no idea.
While I was weaving we had one of those interesting spring storms that produces lots of hail as well as rain. It might be the biggest hail I’ve ever personally experienced. You can see it piling up next to my propane tank as the pachysandra stands tall nearby.
Meanwhile, the gardens I’ve already weeded & mulched were getting their own sprinkling of white on the darker mulch.
It looked interesting, and didn’t make me worry about the plants since the temperature wasn’t too cold. As it turned out, nothing was harmed at my house. I was glad that my car was safely tucked in the garage, and heard that some people had lots of dings on their vehicles post-storm. Others never saw a bit of hail. All within a radius of just a few miles. It was very isolated, which is always interesting to me.
Your turn: what weather patterns choose tiny regions near you?
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