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I really do pay attention to what my customers, and potential customers, say they want. At the Kenan show, I had some requests for more cotton scarves. I don’t usually do a lot with cotton other than my lace, because personally, I prefer the feel and drape of rayon & bamboo. I sure do want to keep people happy when I can, though, so I went to Tammy to see what she already had in stock in handpainted Egyptian cotton. (No time between shows for custom dye work.)
She only had one size, 5/2, dyed up. I bought two batches, Visionary, a colorway I’ve used before in rayon, and a new one called cayenne in rich reds and oranges. It’s always interesting to me how different fibers take the same dyes, and the cotton is quite a bit darker than the rayon. Still, I new I needed to add some blues & purples to my stock, so I started with the Visionary.
I also knew I had to sett the cotton farther apart than I had previously to make the scarves softer and more pleasing to me. After all, I have to please myself before I please anyone else. So I decided on 15 ends per inch, and threaded the loom for Ms & Ws.
I wove the first (in the middle) using a solid periwinkle cotton weft. I particularly liked it. But for the second, I decided to go back to the ‘dark enhances colors’ theory. Since the Visionary yarn includes blue, purple, and green, I chose a solid dark forest green cotton for the weft (on the left), and again treadled it in the Ms & Ws pattern. It’s so dark, the distinction hardly shows up at all. Well poop on that!
So for the third scarf, I used the Visionary yarn as weft, and treadled in a straight 1-2-3-4 twill. I like this one substantially better than the green.
As for the sett, 15 ends per inch was okay, but I’ll make it even less dense next time around.
Last summer I wove a shawl from a semi-heavy white cotton, using an all-over huck pattern in a way that created what I call window panes. That was fine, except that it’s difficult to be sure you’re not making any treadling errors as you’re weaving.
When it came off the loom and was wet finished, my errors were clear, and, to me, glaring. I did some needle weaving to correct some, but others were simply not fixable. It made me hate the whole piece. So I sure wasn’t going to offer it for sale.
My sister had seen it however, and wanted me to bring it to a summer show this year. In order for me to even consider it, I had to pull it back out and think about how I could make it ok. I decided some subtle beadwork might do the trick.
I wrapped each row that contained errors with small, transparent glass beads with an aurora borealis finish. Then, of course, I had to add some beadwork on rows that didn’t have errors to make it look cohesive. I picked the rows rather randomly; since I couldn’t make it symmetrical, choose artsy.
I spent far too long on the bead work, and this shawl will never be my favorite, but at least I’m no longer embarrassed by it. I think it will suit someone to a T. Time will tell.
I love producing rayon scarves. I like their drape and the fact that rayon is made from cellulose. So I went to my stash.
I had some lovely handpainted rayon boucle from Tammy in a colorway she calls Surreal. She’d done some custom dyeing for me, with a coordinating navy-black yarn. So I set the counterbalance loom up to do a point twill.
For the first scarf (on the right in the photo) I used that solid color yarn. Although usually a dark color yarn brings out the richness of its surroundings, in this case it made everything too dark. Especially for a summer scarf.
So for the second one, I used a solid bright blue rayon (on the left in the photo). I liked it, but not enough to make the third one the same. I chose a light purple for the third and final scarf. I like that one, too. In reality, both the blue & purple scarves are still darker than I’d envisioned, darker than I wanted for summer weight scarves.
The one made with all boucle is an interesting texture. It doesn’t have rayon’s typical smoothness and sheen, but is rather nubbly, as a boucle should be. The weft on the other two is a smooth rayon, so the overall scarf is much smoother.
I’m happy with the quality of all three scarves, and with their light weight. I’m sure someone will like them, even if they don’t sell this summer.
One of the things people wanted at the Kenan show was more scarves in white or eggshell. I’d ordered the silk in white, and thought I’d get it in time to weave with it, so wanted to make something in eggshell.
I recently bought some eggshell cashmere & silk yarn, so perfect. I decided to try a new lace pattern in a diamond shape. I wanted to use a 7-thread huck instead of my usual 5-thread huck, and combined those two ideas. I sett the yarn at 18 ends per inch, which is the sett I used for all the cashmere silk lace scarves I’ve made, all of them successful.
These scarves may look ok in the picture (I chose what parts to show you, after all), but using the three new ideas in combination was a recipe for disaster. There wasn’t enough plain weave surrounding the lace for stabilization. The 7-thread huck had floats that were too long at this sett. And the Macomber, which I had to use for the pattern, is hard on the cloth on the cloth beam when I advance it. So all in all, the scarf is a failure and can’t be sold. (It’s the scarf on the left in the picture.)
So since I’d warped for two scarves, I decided to make some changes for the second scarf. I modified the treadling to make the pattern more stable, adding much more plain weave in the pattern. The scarf on the right is much more stable, but…
…there’s one place on the scarf that the Mac really smushed the weft threads together. I could not fix it in the wet finishing, so this scarf, too, is unsaleable.
Poop. I think I’d better start changing my attitude about sampling, don’t you?
At the Kenan show I sold 2 shawls and donated a 3rd as a door prize. I only had one shawl left, so making some more was a big priority before the Roycroft.
As soon as I got home I ordered some lovely undyed silk, but it hasn’t arrived yet, and won’t get here in time for me to weave with it before the show.
I had to make several things, so using fibers that would work up quickly was a serious goal. I decided to use up some of the variegated cotton flannel I have in pinks and purples.
I threaded my counterbalance loom in a straight draw (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4…), and sett it at 9 ends per inch. The first shawl, on the left, I wove in a tabby. I was a bit surprised at how the colors seemed to turn into little windows.
For the second shawl, in the middle in the photo, I used tabby again, but this time I used a thick & thin lavender cotton. I think I like this one better than the first, but somehow it looks sort of rag-rugish to me.
The third, on the right, is definitely my favorite. I used that same variegated yarn for weft, but wove it in a simple twill. I like what it did with the colors.
The cotton flannel is really soft, and I think the colors will be popular. Without touching it, people might think it’s too warm; fortunately I encourage feeling my finished pieces, and when they feel this one, they’ll see that it’s perfect for a summer evening.
Day 2, stay tuned for my next weaving….
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