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This past weekend I did another show – Christkindl Market in Canandaigua. As always, I wanted to bring my rigid heddle loom to demonstrate weaving, and as always, gave a great deal of thought to what I’d weave. Although my little LeClerc works fine and there are lots of options of what you can weave on a rigid heddle loom, there are some limitations. I like to make my weaving demos relevant to the season, so I don’t usually weave with wool in June, nor make light, cotton lace in November. So what yarns did I have in my stash that would work well at 12 ends per inch?
Some beautiful alpaca!
I chose to use two colors. If you look at the fringe, you can see that each color is really two colors spun together. The gray & black strand are natural alpaca colors. I dyed the red & black, which started out as the gray & black, in cochineal to achieve the deep red. Although I am NOT a dyer, I was able to do this successfully at the 2009 Southern Tier Fiber Arts Guild‘s Dye Day. Our Guild holds such a day every year, thanks to the skills, talents, and generosity of two of our amazingly talented members: Carol Wood & Deb MacCrea. These two women travel around the east coast teaching all-natural dyeing, and offer their skills to us for just the actual costs.
As always, many show visitors were fascinated with the weaving process. I had warped the loom for two scarves, and didn’t get them finished at the show. The hairiness of the alpaca made weaving slow, with me having to physically separate almost every shed. I wanted to have the scarves with me for my display at Shea’s Shopping Soiree on Wednesday, so I finished them at home yesterday.
I’m quite happy with these handwoven alpaca scarves. I think they’re very classic and classy looking. Unfortunately for me, I can’t wear any wool around my neck unless I have on a turtleneck. Fortunately, my hands can handle working with wool without too much of a problem.
Your turn: how often are you attracted to garments or accessories that you can’t wear?
Remember back in school when you were taking tests regularly? One of the aphorisms I was taught was “don’t erase.” Although my first answer wasn’t always the right one, there were many times when I erased my first answer and entered the wrong one.
This scarf is an example of that same principle.
When I first saw it in a Handwoven Magazine pattern book, I said to myself, “that scarf’s not for me.” Later, when I was looking through the book again, I said the same thing.
Months later I saw another photo of it in a Halcyon Yarn catalog, and said, “you know, maybe I would like that scarf.” I had some fine-gauge wool in my stash so I wound the warp, threaded the loom, and set off weaving. Finished weaving and wet finished it. Hate it.
Don’t like the look, don’t like the feel, don’t like the way the end virtually always came loose where I made the horizontal spaces, don’t like the fact that this scarf will not wear well. Definitely won’t add this scarf to my display for shows — won’t sell it. I will only sell work that I’m proud of, and this certainly does not meet that criteria.
As luck would have it, in a few weeks my Guild is having their annual fundraising auction. It’s very small, just Guild members buying each other’s stuff. But I’m bringing this scarf, and the rest of the yarn that made it. I’ve tried several patterns with this yarn, and have concluded that nothing will make me like the yarn. It’s scratchy and stiff, no matter what I do. I’m thinking that, despite the fact that the yarn is supposedly “fulling proof” (meaning that it won’t shrink and become thick like that favorite wool sweater your roommate accidently threw in the washer), some of my fellow Guild members who are experts at felting wool may want to try it. If no one wants to buy it, it’ll re-enter my stash, for who-knows-how long.
Your turn: does changing your answers often work for you, or do you find yourself wishing you’d stuck with your first reaction?
As I mentioned in the recent post about the Chino scarves, Tammy’s recent batch of dyeing was remarkably deep and rich in color.
Just like with the Chino, I’d used her Poinsettia colorway before and liked it, but I LOVE the new one. Made from three colors — two reds and a purple — the resulting handwoven rayon chenille scarf is beautiful.
I do love both red and purple, and wear them both fairly often. Nope, I’m not a Red Hat Lady. I’ve just always liked bright, rich colors. And Jenny Joseph’s poem that gave rise to these groups around the world. But I’ve liked both the colors and the poem for decades, long before I was old enough to qualify as an old lady. I distinctly remember being in my 20s when someone asked me what my favorite color was, and when I answered “red,” they told me it couldn’t be. Something about my personality made them think that red couldn’t be my favorite color. But it was. I wore it often then, and still do. Ditto purple.
(As planned, I did get these handwoven rayon chenille scarves up on my website before I wrote this post.)
Your turn: what colors do you find yourself wearing often?
 As a woman who needs to make a significant portion of her income on this weaving and jewelry business, I am truly thankful for the people from hundreds or thousands of miles away who buy my products from my website.
But as a member of a small, rural area, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of spending our dollars locally, supporting local businesses. Having spent most of my life working in the not-for-profit sector, I can assure you that the overwhelming majority of support for service agencies comes not from the big box stores, but from the mom & pop businesses. They are there for the community time and time again. Economists have proven the benefits of $$ recycling locally. So I have long made it a commitment to get my new pliers from Friendship Hardware, my groceries from the Cuba Giant, and my gas from Miller and Brandes, three local stores, instead of the huge multi-state retailers that are nearby.
Ginny, a fellow member of New York Crafters, wrote a great blog post about buying locally and/or handmade. And her reuse-the-bag project is interesting, too.
Your turn: when do you succumb to the draw of the bright lights and endless rows of displays, and when do you run in the opposite direction?
The lovely Tammy has come through again, hand painting yarn that’s absolutely stunning! Of course, I love all of her work or I wouldn’t keep buying it, but this last batch of rayon chenille is truly amazing. Tammy says that her process remains the same, what changes is the actual yarn she buys. Some manufacturers (or is it some yarn-making processes?) make yarn that accepts dyes particularly well.
In any case, I ordered her Chino colorway, which I’ve used before & liked. When I was winding it into balls & measuring it on the warping board, the colors seemed more vibrant than usual. But when I got it on the loom — oh, my! There were at least three shades each of brown, green, blue, and purple, each distinct and beautiful.
I’d ordered solid brown yarn to use as weft, which is what I’d done before and liked. This time, I thought the brown was nice (right in the photo), but that it didn’t show off all the colors in the warp to their best, completely obliterating the lighter colors. So I used the rule that dark intensifies, and did the second scarf in the warp using a very dark rayon chenille I had — a machine-dyed yarn that’s black, dark purple, and dark brown (left, above). It certainly presented a different look, but those light colors still got lost. I reverted back to the solid brown for the third scarf.
Unlike my usual pattern of behavior, this time I actually got the scarves up on my website before I put up this post. With the cold weather right around the corner and my prior stock of rayon chenille scarves dramatically depleted, I want to get all the new scarves up ASAP to give people choices. I have more handwoven rayon chenille drying in my bathroom as we speak, so I hope to get it photographed and posted on both website and blog in the next day or two.
Your turn: what colors near you have really struck your eye lately?
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