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Some months ago I bought some ‘zing string’ — cotton thread with hand-tied beads strung along it. I haven’t had time to use it till now. This is a plain weave scarf, cotton warp, rayon weft, with the zing string adding some bling at random intervals. I wove two scarves with the silver rayon weft & plain weave.
Actually, the first one on the warp had a black cotton weft and I wove in lace blocks with the bling randomly placed. It was fine, but when I tried the tabby with the silver rayon, I knew I’d do the other 2 scarves in that.
Off the loom, I like them both. I like the black better than I thought I would, actually. But I showed you the tabby first because the bling shows up better. I sewed all 3 into infinity scarves.
I did a bunch of ‘not-weaving’ today. Although I wasn’t wasting time, I’ll be darned if I can tell you exactly how the day went – beyond seeing a black bear cross the road 63 steps in front of me on my morning walk!
I’m calling this weaving draft I came up with for my next warp of 3 scarves corkscrews & waves.
I got 262 ends of 20/2 natural silk measured, beamed, and threaded on the Macomber. I have all of about 6″ woven…enough to know I don’t have any threading errors. I hope I can get all 3 scarves woven tomorrow.
Here’s a funny thing….I intended to start & end the scarves with the ‘corkscrews’ at the top of the draft because I like them better than the ones on the bottom; I think they have more movement. But is that how I treadled the beginning of the first scarf? Noooo! I’ll end it the same way I started, and do the 2nd scarf in the way I intended. I hope. 😉
On this last baby wrap warp I had the opportunity to use 3 different wefts for the 3 warps. I’m glad for this chance to review the 3 wefts.
First was a wrap with an organic cotton/hemp blend from The Woolery for weft. It’s the first time I’ve used this yarn. It was easy enough to work with, although I was a little concerned while I was weaving. The hemp was a bit ‘hairy’ and made the whole yarn feel rougher than the 100% cotton. Once it was wet finished, all roughness was gone. It’s still a bit hairier, with some little bits sticking out in a few places, but it has a nice soft feel for baby & mom.
Next up was an Egyptian cotton weft, followed by my standard Maurice Brassard weft. Both were black, so I wouldn’t have to wonder if black dye vs. undyed or some other color had an impact. I’d be comparing apples to apples.
Frankly, my hands can’t feel a difference between the Egyptian cotton and the Maurice Brassard cotton. Therefore, although I’ll continue to be happy to use Egyptian cotton at mom’s request, if I’m asked for my opinion I’ll suggest the Brassard cotton as it’s more cost effective.
I got all 3 wraps in today’s mail. I also hemmed & wet finished the 3 scarves I wove yesterday. I still have some thread-trimming to do, and hopefully I’ll get a shot of them tomorrow. Plus I plan to beam, thread, & start weaving on a silk warp I planned & measured today.
Ok, not an inkling, an inkle. And it’s not mine, a generous woman in my Fiber Arts Guild lent it to me yesterday. (Note: an inkle is actually the band itself. This is an inkle loom.)
It’s not a great photo, but this Schacht inkle loom is so easy to weave on! I think it took me almost as long to warp the loom as it took me to weave 90+ inches on it. I’ve never warped an inkle before other than that PVC inkle I tried. So that was part of the reason it took a long time, but more, I was following a pattern in Anne Dixon’s book, and had to learn to read an inkle draft, and I had to change colors MANY times, which is time consuming no matter what type of loom you’re warping.
It took me some time to figure out the rhythm of the weaving, and to get my selvedges straight, but I’m quite happy with my first attempt.
Some of this band will be straps for those treasure pouches, some will be turned into button loops for them. I’m sure I won’t have any left over. If I need more, I’ll have to consider how much time I have available to make more. I am now completely confident that a brand new weaver can produce a bookmark on it without too much difficulty.
Today I also got JJ & NB’s wraps hemmed and through the washer & dryer. Tomorrow I’ll press & label.
Then, just because I didn’t have anything else to do with my time, 😉 I planned, measured, beamed, and threaded a scarf warp for my counterbalance loom.
It was a productive day!
For the last few days I’ve spent my time weaving & weeding, and enjoying them both. All that construction took me away from both of these activities, both of which bring me joy.
Not only did I finish JJ’s short wrap, I only have 55″ left of NB’s to weave tomorrow! The weft for JJ’s short wrap is black Egyptian cotton, NB’s is black Maurice Brassard cotton, same as the warp. Since those two look the same I thought I’d show you the two sides of the wrap.
I’ve been doing other things, too. I’m doing a weaving demo at the Roycroft summer show later this month, as I often do. But this year the Roycrofters are organizing a whole demo tent, and several of the artisans are doing demos. So I thought I’d have my regular rigid heddle loom set up for the demos, then have an inkle loom in my booth so people could come over & weave a bookmark. I’ve never used an inkle loom, but that kind of thing never stopped me before.
So I downloaded free plans & directions from Weaving Today for an inkle loom made from PVC pipe, and my son got all the parts together for me. Seemed pretty easy.
Warping was a challenge ‘cuz the instructions weren’t making sense to me, but I got it done. Weaving? Not easy. Two hands required to change sheds, and not something a first-time weaver would enjoy or do well. I’ve gotten info/advice from other weavers, and am rethinking the strategy.
On another note, I realize I never showed you the finished product from the doubleweave bags I made. I machine sewed the bottom seam and the upper hem. I plan(ned) to put straps on some, closures on some…hasn’t happened yet. Will I get there before the show? Hope so. We’ll see how these little ‘treasure bags’ sell. I may never do them again, or may weave many more. Only time will tell.
JJ ordered 2 wraps from this warp – one on the short side and one quite short for a ring sling.
The first is that cotton/hemp blend of my last post. I want to clarify here that although I chose not to unweave the two heart motifs at the beginning of the warp, I won’t use these as part of her wrap, even in the hem. I always have enough warp left at the end to make my life easier, and this inch or so will simply leave my ‘loom waste’ at the end a tiny bit shorter. No big deal.
Now, J is clear that she wants the side of the wrap that you saw already as the ‘good’ side when I hem. That’s just fine; now I don’t have to choose. But I thought you might like to see both sides of the wrap. I did finish weaving it today, after I spent half the day mowing the lawn and wacking the weeds.
Her second wrap, for the ring sling, uses a black Egyptian cotton weft and my usual hearts weave. The color is almost the opposite of the hemp.
This is a short wrap so I plan to get it all woven tomorrow. Then it’ll take me 2-3 days to weave NB’s wrap.
After that, I’ll be doing weaving for my shows in late June & early July. Baby wraps will be on hold for a few weeks. That’s just the way it is.
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