Yep. Today is March 10 and I’m just getting around to the post for the 3 shawls I mentioned in my last post that just needed wet finishing. I am definitely compulsive enough that I made it a point to finish them on February 28 so I could count them for last month’s tally.
I really do like weaving lace. A lot. Since I haven’t woven lace in a while I was eager to get back to it.
I’m very happy with the lace design. Not only do I find it visually pleasing, it’s one of the first (maybe the very first) time that I was able to look at a photo of a fabric I saw online and turn it into a weaving draft! This is a skill I’ve wanted to learn for a few years, so I was thrilled that I made it work this time. It only took several hours. 🙂 I spent hours with Fiberworks one evening, not getting anywhere, and around 11PM decided I had to go to bed as I needed to get up early the next morning. Of course, simply getting myself horizontal had no impact on shutting off the brain. All of a sudden the lightbulb went off! I got a brainstorm, got out of bed, spent about 15 minutes at the computer and voila – there it was! I could then fall asleep.
I warped for 2 regular shawls and a mobius with a natural 5/2 pearl cotton from my stash.
I’m a person who almost always prefers lace with the same or very similar color in both warp and weft. So the all-cream piece is my favorite. But I didn’t have enough of the cream yarn for another, so had to choose among my limited range of other 5/2 cottons. Using up more stash – yeah!
The other flat shawl uses a red earth colored weft. Here you can see both sides of the lace.
For the last piece, the mobius, I used a spring green.
In addition to working on that Happy warp I showed you last time, I started March by doing a little sewing. Cindie over at Eweniquely Ewe made some, and put a link to a YouTube video with the instructions. I’m happy to share it here, too.
I had some cute cotton fabric ready to go to the craft thrift store, and a broken tape measure from my son, so made these 3 bags. Easy peasy. Especially after the first one.
I’m giving the middle one as a birthday gift to a friend, using the hot pepper one in my purse to replace a worn out little bag, and so far not sure what I’ll do with the third. I’m thinking that if I weave some scraps at the ends of future warps I can make some with my handwoven fabric, at least for the outside fabric, and then I can sell them in my booth. We’ll see.
We all have bad days. I had a few in a row, and after waiting for my head to turn around on its own, I decided I had to do something to make it. For me, that’s almost always about action. Sometimes a wonderful walk will take care of it, sometimes it’s being around friends; this time they weren’t enough.
So I decided I needed to wind a warp that was really colorful and would make me happy. I quickly decided on a multi-colored cotton warp that I would weave in a huck lace variation, like the ‘huckish’ shawls I did in 2013 & 2014.
I opened bins and pulled out several colors, mostly cotton, mostly 10/2 with some 8/2 and an occasional 5/2 thrown into the mix, and started winding a warp. Here’s bout 1.
It makes me think of sherbet and Easter eggs and springtime in general. All pleasant things that make me smile.
I just changed colors when the mood struck me, no order, no advance planning.
In addition to the colors, winding this warp made me happy as I’m seriously committed to using up stash this year, and this uses yarns I haven’t looked at in many moons.
Here’s bout 2.
I made the warp long enough for one regular and two mobius shawls. Although I haven’t yet planned the wefts, my intent is to use rayon or tencel, probably a different color from my stash for each piece.
Here’s the entire warp going on the back beam. I won’t get these woven to count for my February total, but they’ll be a great start for March.
Besides, I already showed you 5 finished pieces for February and have 3 more that are just awaiting wet finishing and pressing. I will definitely get them done tomorrow!
I think I’m done with a concept or a fiber, but then I’m not.
I’d woven hand painted black and white tencel scarves in December, and black and white shawls in January. Then last week I decided I needed to jump back and revisit black and white, this time in crisp delinations. I haven’t woven pinwheels in a few years, and decided it was time to revisit this 2-shuttle weave. I stuck with 8/2 tencel, but didn’t dye anything myself. Took me several days to get to the fringing. Yesterday I wet finished and pressed 2 scarves and a long cowl.
I had thought I was done with rayon chenille for a while, too, but apparently not. As soon as those black & white scarves were off the loom I jumped back again and wound a warp for 2 rayon chenille shawls. I am committed to using stash yarns, so went with several blues for this warp. (I have A LOT of blues, purples, reds, and earth tones, so we’ll see more rayon chenille in the coming months. My gem tones always sell so much better than my earth tones; I must try a different combo of them – or something.)
Anywhoo, here’s the latest blues rayon chenille shawl.
Now that I’ve got the whole mobius thing figured out, I’ll make more of them. Here’s this one, in which I used 4 different wefts in wide stripes.
I am mentally committed to weaving lace next. In cotton. I’m working on design and calculations now, and should be able to start measuring that warp tomorrow.
On Valentine’s Day, it takes two hearts to share love.
In my case, it also takes two photos to attempt to show the color. Neither is correct; the reality is somewhere in between. It’s those blasted reds – nearly impossible for me to capture accurately.
Here’s my latest rayon chenille work while it’s on the loom. In this photo the colors are a little brighter and bluer than in real life.
Now here’s a shot of the finished shawl. Here the colors are distinctly browner and duller than in real life. So imagine something in between these two shots for color.
It also takes two pieces to make my brain click. I’d made a mobius shawl before, also from rayon chenille, and hated it. There was no way I could make it sit on my body correctly. It sold, and the person who bought it liked it, but I didn’t.
I wanted to try again. So I looked online for measurements, and made mine match theirs. Hemmed it and sewed it up, and once again, hated it. Again it would not sit right on the body. I was seriously frustrated, and was convinced that (a) I would never make another one, and (b) there must be something about the rayon chenille fabric that was part of the problem. I unhappily resigned myself to my failure to produce what I wanted.
Then this morning, a light bulb went off in my brain. I had made the mistake of sewing hem to hem. In fact, I was supposed to sew hem to selvedge! Thankfully I had done all the sewing by hand, so I could easily take it out. This afternoon I sewed one of the hems to the selvedge, and VOILA! It immediately sat right on my body – no muss, no fuss.
Now I know I will make some more of these, in a variety of fibers.
Two completed pieces toward my monthly goal. Three more off the loom awaiting fringing and wet finishing. Plus I have 2 short pieces of the rayon chenille that I’ll make into collars, since the last ones sold quickly.
I got 8 towels woven. Natural (unbleached & undyed) cotton threaded in point twill, 4 different tie ups, 2 of each weave pattern.
First I wove what I call a flower pattern. Wasn’t my favorite in real life, nor did I like dark that yarn – which was very cool on the cone – as much as I thought I would.
Next I wove snowflakes. Started with a traditional blue, then went to some handpainted bamboo-cotton blend I’ve had hanging around for far too long. I was very happy to use up some stash yarn in small amounts, so went with more of that handpainted bamboo cotton for the next 4 towels.
For the 3rd pair I used a simple V weave structure. The warp is 8/2 cotton, and red-purple yarn is thicker than that. The green-purple yarn is the same weight, but the lighter colors don’t show the weave pattern as well.
Last up was some Xs. I wasn’t at all sure about this, since I had used the draft once when I was doing baby wraps and wasn’t crazy about it, but in fact I really liked it for the towels. Again, the pattern shows up better with the darker color, but I really like the stripes on the yellow one.
Two of these towels will go to my friend, the rest into stock.
Now I wish I had more of that natural cotton. I can see something like that end-striped-towel in several colors, and by using a natural warp I can use up lots of odds and ends of nice hand painted yarn. The only downside is that the handpainted yarn (I didn’t dye it, I bought it) has a tendency to bleed in the wash. Could I wash all the yarn before I used it? I could, but I know myself well enough to know that I won’t. Anyhow, I don’t have much natural cotton left. Might pick up some at the Guild’s annual stash-reduction sale next month. We’ll see what people bring in.
On the needles, Friday night I finished a pair of socks I’d been working on. (Don’t tell me I don’t know how to have a good time on Friday night!) They look perfect with some of my favorite leggings.
Finally, Cindie over at Eweniquely Ewe inspired me. Yesterday I got all the rest of the pre-accountant work done for my taxes. Ugh. But it’s done – yay! Just waiting on a few things to arrive in the mail.
Now I’m off to the warping mill to start working on this month’s weaving goal.
