Weaving A Gem Of A Life

Finishing out October

I’m closing out October with 9 finished pieces. My plan is to get enough ahead of my goals that I can spend some time weaving not-for-sale items, such as a transparency or two. So I managed to fringe and wet finish a few more pieces.

I beamed the 10/2 tencel red-orange-yellow warp I’d hand painted earlier this month. I loved it going on the loom.

I’d been waiting to try a few things. One was a draft that I was calling ‘wobbly eyes.’

The other was experimenting some more with creating iridescence with color. So I chose an 8/2 periwinkle tencel weft. I was not in love with it on the loom, nor after it was all done.

I wasn’t happy with this while it was on the loom, and finally remembered to listen to my own advice: either color or weave pattern can be the star of a piece, but if you combine the two they just fight with each other and it rarely ends well. So I cut the scarf off the loom and rethreaded for a simple point twill. I chose a dark red rayon 8/2 weft. I knew on the loom that this would work, and I was right. Due at least in part to the season, I’m calling this scarf Red Maple. (Note that the colors aren’t quite as intense as they appear in the photo.)

I thought I had enough warp left for 2 short cowls. I was wrong – there was only enough for 1, but this turned out to be my favorite of the 3: Golden Maple.

In fact I liked it so much that I wore it to the NYS Climate Summit I attended yesterday.

Right now I’m getting an almost-redo shawl warp on the loom. It’s 8/2 cotton and a fine vintage synthetic treated as a single thread in the heddles.

It’s an almost-redo because I couldn’t find any of the ‘lumpy’ cotton yarn I’d used as weft last time, so I bought the closest thing I could find. We’ll see how it turns out.

Completely unrelated, some weeks ago a friend introduced me to a local dance class. Actually, I invited myself to go along with her. I. Am. Hooked. This is a soul line dance class, offered in a rec center in the city. The women in the class are so welcoming, the dancing is great fun, and unlike lots of other exercises I’ve tried, this one doesn’t hurt my knee. I often make mistakes when a new dance is introduced – which happens every single week – but it’s all good. When I get home I watch YouTube videos of the new dances and learn them as the week goes on. So I get more exercise every day. I am having a GREAT time AND losing weight – win-win! Here’s a clip of one of the newer dances, one that gets the heart rate up, especially if you do it several times in a row. Enjoy!

Met my goal, plus

With my goal of 6-7 finished scarves or shawls per month, I’ve just met that for October. It’s possible that I’ll get 3 more done, but they may end up not getting finished until November.

In my last post I showed you 3 warps I’d hand painted. The first to go on the loom was the 5/2 bamboo. I chose a simple block twill weave; I just like this weave structure.

For the first scarf I used an 8/2 cotton weft that I’d immersion dyed a year ago that was waiting for the right opportunity to play. This was it. I like the way the sheen of the bamboo and the matte finish of the cotton play off each other. I also switched the size of the treadling blocks randomly. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, but I do.

I used a commercial 5/2 bamboo for the second scarf, and because I wasn’t sure if I’d like the random treadling, I used a consistent pattern for this one.

I had only enough warp left for a short cowl. I opted for a navy tencel, wanting it to make the warp colors pop. I also chose short treadling changes for this short piece. I was surprised that this is my least favorite of these 3 on this warp.

I also got those bumberet towels you saw me beaming in the last post woven and finished. I learned something with this warp…I prefer it when I have more of a main color predominating in the warp than I did in this one. They’re fine, just not my favs. From the top down, in the weft color order in which I wove them, you see blue, medium blue, pale green, periwinkle, peacock, mauve, aquamarine, and lilac.

All of these towels, and a few others I have in stock, will go to the Weavers’ Guild Holiday Sale in a few weeks. History tells us that people like to have small purchase options, so I’m hoping the towels will do well there. Although I like making towels, they’re not big sellers at my show, so towels do not count toward my monthly goal.

In keeping with the small-items scenario, I decided to make polymer buttons for the Holiday Sale, too. I tried some new things, and there were lots of buttons that didn’t make the grade after baking.

I am happy with all those that did. I made a little leaf-vein etching on this set of 3…

…and did what I think is neat striping on some.

I decided to paint a glaze on the buttons for a finished look that I prefer, and turned them into button lollipops for 2 coats of glaze front and back.

Once they were all done I had to develop packaging that would show them well. I printed on cardstock, sewed the buttons to it (a task that took much longer than I’d anticipated), inserted it into a cellophane bag, stuck my business card in the back, and closed the bag with decorated tape. We’ll see if they sell.

After this show I will put any towels and buttons left up in my Etsy store, and try to get some more photographic views of woven scarves and shawls to post, too.

Starting strong

October started really strong for meeting my 6-7 finished pieces per month. That’s mostly true because I don’t count scarves as done until they are fringed and wet finished. The 3 scarves I’ll show you were off the loom at the end of September, but not fringed or wet finished till early October. Way to start!

I had a dark royal purple warp on the loom, threaded for a complex twill. First I used a green that is almost chartreuse, longing for that iridescence that comes with complementary – or in this case split complementary colors. I much prefer the side that’s more purple.

I auditioned a salmon weft for the second scarf, again going for that split complementary color, but really hated it. So I used a very pale blue-green. I was tired of the treadling pattern for the first scarf, so changed it for the second. My overall reaction? Meh. It’s okay.

I really wanted something that would send me for the third. I tried out a few things and settled on a gold silk that I’d immersion dyed a few years ago with natural dyes. It’s a bit thicker than the 20/2 of the warp, so the hand isn’t quite as nice, but I really like the colors. I also changed the treadling pattern again, and this one is my favorite weave pattern as well as favorite color combo.

Since October was starting off so strong with numbers, I wanted to spend a bit of time in my basement, hand painting some warps. I did three warps, and decided in advance that I’d (a) make decisions in advance, (b) take better notes, and (c) not use up any leftover dyes, mixing up new so I knew what I’d get.

First up is 5/2 bamboo. I dyed in a blue->green->blue->purple pattern, using a 3% dye solution. I also immersion dyed 2 skeins for weft. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough containers to give them each a vat with sufficient space, and then I was so involved in the hand painting that I failed to stir them. So the skeins aren’t a good solid color. That’s fine for warp use for a future project, but not the weft for this one. Live and learn, as usual.

Next I painted some 10/2 tencel. This time I used a red->orange->yellow->orange pattern to my painting, and a 2% dye solution. (These colors aren’t particularly accurate, but the best I could do.)

The third warp is also 10/2 tencel. This time it’s a 1% solution, in red->orange->yellow->green->blue->purple that then doubles back on itself, going purple->blue->green, and so on. In an ideal world I would have had just one ROYGBV run per scarf, but I couldn’t exactly make that work in my calculations, so I think each scarf with probably be more like 1-1/3 of that rainbow. I hope it looks okay woven. I also hope that the patch of white, where I obviously failed to saturate the yarn with color, doesn’t land in the middle of a scarf. 🙁 I can wish that it’ll be where I would normally cut for fringes, and just cut it out. A girl can hope, right?

While I was waiting for the yarns to batch and dry, a process that takes a few days, I decided to put on a warp for some towels. Although they don’t sell particularly well in my booth at shows, towels tend to sell at the Weavers’ Guild Holiday Sale, and I don’t have very many. I opted for more bumberet.

I learned in the process that I prefer it when I have more of the predominating color, in this case intended to be blue or green. The towels, which won’t count toward my monthly goal, are in the finishing process, so you’ll see them later.

I’m always eager to see how my hand painted warps turn out in the weaving, so am looking forward to that adventure.

Oh, yeah. Meanwhile I also made some Christmas gifts. In my canner. No peeks at what’s inside!

Closing out September

I finished the month with 12 completed pieces – 6 shawls and 6 scarves; all in rayon chenille.

As always, reds are very hard to photograph. I struggled to get pix that I thought were reasonably accurate in color. I did a run of 3 scarves I’m calling Pop of Red.

There are 3 different solids and 1 variegated red in the warp. Each of the scarves has a different solid weft.

Like all rayon chenille, these scarves have a marvelous drape and sheen.

They’ll keep you warm when the cold winds blow. And if life slows down enough, I’ll put them up in my Etsy store.

The blue scarves, which I’m calling My Favorite Jeans, use the same variegated yarn for both warp and weft.

Surprisingly, these were even harder to photograph than the reds. No matter what I did when they were draped on Dolly they turned black and basically disappeared. So unless I can figure something else out for pictures, these will not go up on Etsy.

I mentioned last time that I was working on a final run of 2 rayon chenille shawls. These go from a blue-ish silver to deep royal purple. I’m calling them Midnight Moon.

I purposely made this quite a lot longer than usual so that I could do that center back angled seam and still have enough in the front to drape it over your shoulder.

Before I sewed the seam I spent hours with some inexpensive doubleknit fabric I bought so I could try out different seaming and draping styles. I had decided that I didn’t really like the pointiness that came with the dart-like structure I’d used in the first two. After much playing I decided I’d take a tuck at the bottom; even though I knew that the chenille was much thicker than the doubleknit, I also knew it was better than the point.

Here’s the back of the shawl. I’m happy with it.

I didn’t remember to take a photo of the rayon chenille Midnight Moon piece that I sent to the Roycroft campus. It was an unusual length because I made a mistake I haven’t made in years – I forgot to allow for takeup in my measurement, so ran out of warp. My piece ended up roughly 21″ wide and 54″ long. I sewed it into something that I called a versatile cowl-wrap. I made a separate little card for it outlining some of the ways it could be worn: a single drape around the neck; include your shoulders for added warmth; bring it up over your neck for a hood; use a brooch to wrap it closer around your neck; wrap twice around your neck for lots of thickness.

UPDATE: I found a bunch of photos of that cowl-wrap on my phone. Here you go.

I’m moving on to other fibers now, and returning to some hand painting. I hope I can hit my monthly goal for October.

Parting shot: THAT DARNED SQUIRREL!

More rayon chenille shawls

You saw the blue & green rayon chenille shawl that I’d sewn in the back for that V shape, but I never posted photos of the one that I left straight.

I like the clarity of the colors without that variegated weft. I also like the fact that since there’s no seam, it can be woven with either the blue predominating…

…or the green.

Of course, once you toss an end over your shoulder you see both colors well.

After those spring-like colors I went for more saturated, rich colors. I think I’m going to call these 2 royal gems. Here’s the one I sewed.

You can see that I made it a bit longer than that first one. Much better, I think, although #3 will be longer still.

And here’s the back.

Yesterday I finally made it to Joanns and bought a few yards of a cheap doubleknit so I can play a bit with the correct angle of that seam. I want to avoid the pointy-ness that a long dart creates, and instead round that bottom seam a bit, I’m just not sure how to do it. I didn’t think muslin would drape enough to show me, ergo the knit fabric.

Here’s the wrap I didn’t stitch.

I really like these colors. A lot. And rayon chenille never fails to thrill me with its drape, sheen, and luxury. I’m confident both of these will sell.

I’ve also woven 3 each of red and blue rayon chenille scarves, but haven’t photographed them yet. I’m working on one more run of 2 rayon chenille shawls, and then I will move on to other fibers. I just wanted to get these done ASAP so I can send one of each to the Copper Shop, and they are needed there before 9/29.

Weaving A Gem Of A Life

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