Weaving A Gem Of A Life

6 + 2 does not equal 8

My grandson learned to add in kindergarten, so he would not be happy about the title of this post. The 6 are scarves toward my May monthly goal, the 2 are something entirely different. So let’s start with those different things.

The Rochester Central Library is collaborating with Rochester Technical Institute on an exhibit called Crafting Democracy. As the home of both Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, the area has a rich history to pull from. They put out a call for fiber pieces, and my interest was sparked. I decided I wanted to make a clasped weft piece with symbolism representing the work of these two historic figures. Here’s my finished piece, which I actually wove in April – one reason that the ‘2’ don’t get added to this month’s ‘6.’

I do realize that all the colors don’t stand out well, especially in the photo, but it is what it is. White represents the people in power, generally white men. Black represents those without power, often people of color. Purple represents women’s struggles for gender equity; red stands for blood shed in the struggles; gold is for voting rights – or lack thereof. The title, “Will it Ever End?”, refers to the fact that gender equity, racial justice, and voting equality remain unresolved today.

If I were to weave it again, I would make some changes, but I don’t have much white rayon chenille left and didn’t really want to weave the scarf again anyway. So I got the ‘itch’ to weave a tiny tapestry that was more the look I had in mind. I wanted to try Sarah Swett’s 4 selvedge method. Like almost everything else in life, it was not as easy as Sarah, a very skillful tapestry weaver, made it look. Here’s my loom, warped up and ready to weave, after some number of hours. I’m sure it’ll go a bit quicker next time.

Now, bear in mind that this is only the 2nd tapestry I’ve ever woven, the first being done a few years ago in a class. That being true, I’m satisfied with the results.

It’s pretty wonky, but looks much better in a frame that doesn’t show the selvedges. Since this isn’t something I’d sell, this is the second reason why the ‘2’ doesn’t get added to the ‘6’.

Still, I don’t know if I’ll submit it to the show. I’d really like to try again. So I need to get my May pieces woven to give myself time to play with tapestry again.

UPDATE: Oooooo…just got the thought that this would make more sense turned on its side. Shows more oppression and reaching for justice.

That being true, let’s not waste any more time, but get right to the 6!

First I went back to that deflected doubleweave structure I first wove in January. I used 2 hand painted warps again this time. Both warps were 8/2 tencel, with each layer sett at 24 EPI. Next time I’ll sett them further apart for a lighter scarf.

I wove the first scarf with a rather gentle beat, and then was a bit worried that my floats were too long, so wove the second scarf with a much firmer beat. After wet finishing, it’s now clear to me that the gentle beat was fine, at least at this sett. The 2 long, fringed scarves were woven with yellow and blue tencel wefts.

The cowl has a purple bamboo-cotton and a gold mercerized cotton weft, again with that firm beat.

Next up is the last of the painted warps I made in April. I went for twill blocks this time, moving from all terra cotta at one selvedge to all blue and green at the other. This time you’re getting my least favorite first. It’s a short cowl with a black weft. It’s fine, just not my fav.

I really can’t decide which of the next two pieces I prefer. I think they’re both very attractive. First I wove with a medium blue weft, organizing the weft block shifts in relation to the width of each block. Required a lot of thought and planning, and that may not have been worth it, but the colors are swell.

Then I wove a regular pattern of 24 picks each block with a sienna weft. Also yummy.

I was planning for the next warp of three when I realized I’d really better see what I’ve already woven and how that compared to my sales last year. Learned that I really need to weave more silk scarves, so that’s the warp that’s on the loom now. I’ll get it done in the next few days so I can try another tiny tapestry before the month ends.

See why it takes me so long to do a blog post? I’m busy!

Not as planned

I think in my prior hand painting I pretty much always mixed colors. This time I decided to use a few straight. My goal with this 8/2 tencel warp was red and orange. I used mixing red and tangerine. What I got was a dark pink and a pale orange. A learning experience.

I also learned that I like the painting more when the colors are not as different as they are here. That is, when the eye doesn’t stop and start where the colors change, but rather shifts smoothly along the length. Another learning experience.

I threaded the loom for a twill weave I’ve used several times before, what I call feathers. For the first scarf I used a tencel burgundy weft, hoping to shift the whole look to more red. It did that, but didn’t excite me. I’m also disappointed that there’s a section of the ‘red’ that’s really pale where I clearly didn’t get quite enough dye on the yarn. (The colors are not as garish as they appear in this photo.)

For the second scarf I decided to use a gold weft, and to change the treadling to create long zig zags. I prefer this color combo.

This scarf told me it wanted some beads on the ends. In hindsight, I wish I’d secured the beads between the fringes instead of contained within them. Next time.

I had only wound enough warp for these two long, fringed scarf and a short cowl. I debated quite a bit about what to use for the weft for the cowl. I really wanted to shift the colors to the orange that I’d tried to dye for, but I don’t have any orange tencel, and none of the browns, siennas, or red-oranges did what I wanted. Then I remembered that I had some orange mercerized cotton. I thought with its sheen, it would look good. When I opened that bin I saw that I had two oranges, one a 20/2 and the other a 16/2 (non-weavers: they’re both quite fine). One is a red-orange, the other more of a true orange.

Neither would work alone, so I decided to try winding both onto a bobbin at the same time. I have no idea what weight the final yarn ended up being, but I love the way it worked with my warp colors, and it was still plenty fine to give the cowl a good hand. While I could easily see both colors on the bobbin and while I wove, once the scarf was wet finished those two oranges blended quite well into one. Interesting.

Like photographing red, the colors here aren’t accurate. But this is my favorite of the three.

These scarves were woven and finished in April, bringing my total for the month to 9. Yippee!

Unrelated – the spring weather is crazy. A wet, spring snow was falling on my walk on Sunday morning, yet the grass has been growing so rapidly that I had to do my first lawn mowing on Tuesday. Nuts!

Diamonds & silk

Once I got that silk from my last post threaded, weaving went smoothly. Although as I noted, it was 20/2 silk, not the 30/2 silk I’d planned on. So the sett was closer than I’d have made it; as a result, the motif was substantially elongated instead of square. I figured as long as I was consistent, it was fine.

First up was a medium blue weft. It is my favorite of the three.

I’d planned on 1 fringed scarf, 1 long cowl, and 1 short cowl. The long cowl was the next up, and I used a red-violet weft.

For the short cowl I considered several weft options, finally settling on a burgundy weft. The warp color made the overall look much more brown than the burgundy on the cone, but I was okay with that. Because of the elongated design pattern and the fact that this cowl would be short, I changed the treadling. The only way I could show that pattern was with the cowl lying flat.

I used this weaving draft, my modification of a draft from Handweaving.net, last summer, but apparently never posted either the draft or the finished scarves. So here’s the draft; if you have weaving software and would like a .wif file, let me know and I’ll happily email it to you.

Next up – one of my recently painted warps.

Not about weaving

It’s very unusual that I write a post that has nothing to do with weaving. This is one such post.

I’m catching up on my Radiolab listening, and just listened to this podcast. I found it thought provoking, and it covers a topic that I believe is definitely in need of discussion and consideration in our society: reasonableness, especially as it relates to police actions toward Black men. Just my two cents. You get to choose whether you will listen, and your reaction if you do.

Making time…and losing it

I successfully wove, fringed, and wet finished the three scarves on the ‘springtime’ warp. All 3 are commercially dyed 8/2 tencel for both warp and weft.

First up has a black weft with a straight treadling. Here’s the full scarf and a closeup so you can see both sides of the finished piece.

Next I used a cranberry weft. Although I really liked it on the loom, I’m just okay with it finished…the change in treadling doesn’t really show well.

Last I wove a short cowl with a red-violet weft. The way these colors play together make this is my favorite of the three.

As planned, while I was waiting for the hand painted warps to dry, I planned, measured, and beamed a warp for the loom. This time it’s 30/2 silk in a pale greenish-bluish-grayish color. I chose a weave pattern that’s complex both to thread and to treadle. 304 ends.

I carefully threaded more than 250 ends when I realized something was wrong. I had too many threads left. I looked at the threading guide I printed out and was working from.

AAAARRRRGGGGG!!!

I had inadvertently started that printing 11 ends from the beginning edge, and started the threading where the printout told me to. I sat for a few minutes and thought. If I wanted the design to be symmetrical, and I did, I had 2 choices: eliminate the last 11 ends or go back to the beginning and start threading again. I didn’t want to waste 22 ends of silk and make the scarf 3/4″ narrower to boot, so I went back to the beginning.

I did make my life a little easier for the second threading…as I unthreaded, I tied my heddles in threading ‘bundles’ so I didn’t have to carefully count out all the heddles the second time around. But still, it took a lot of time to thread again.

Finally threaded. Hope there aren’t any threading errors!

UPDATE: No threading errors, but after weaving the first scarf I realize I am working with 20/2 silk, not 30/2. Should be sett farther. Not gonna do that.

Weaving A Gem Of A Life

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