\n
![\"two](\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2-big-cotton-cones.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI bought the cotton for 2 reasons: I loved the fact that it was grown and processed right here in the United States, and I wanted to do some more hand painting with a fiber that would be more affordable to potential customers than the silk. <\/p>\n
First up was trying a new-to-me technique – dyeing the warp for a cotton shawl in the same colors, but with sections offset partly or in whole. Of course I had to be begin by measuring out the sections of warp, scouring it, and soaking it in the dye activator before I could start dyeing.<\/p>\n
Let me say right off that the bed risers did, in fact, raise my table to the perfect height for me to work on. HOWEVER, I have learned my lesson with this job. I will NEVER AGAIN do my dyeing outside for this type of dye job. (It was relatively simple when I was dyeing one warp at a time for the scarves.) It takes only the faintest breeze to make handling plastic wrap insanely challenging, and it felt like I needed to use miles of the stuff for this job. For each time I covered the length of the table, which I think was six times, I needed four widths of the plastic wrap. So lay down a length of wrap the 6′ of the table, attempt to hold it in place while I laid the next length next to it, and so on. Needless to say, by the time I’d gotten to the 4th length nothing was straight and even any more. I was frustrated for sure. Wishing I had octopus arms and hands with lots of fine-motor control and patience.<\/p>\n
Here’s the first length of the 6′ table when things were relatively in control. Seven sections of cotton – needed for the width of the shawl – laid out and painted. After each 6′ length was painted I had to roll it up the length of the table, again cover the table with the plastic wrap (grrr), then lift the already-painted roll up over the newly-covered table for the next 6′. So in addition to the wind, as you can imagine it became increasingly difficult to lift the already-painted roll up over the newly-covered table as it became heavier and heavier. Again wished I had octopus arms and hands, this time strong ones.<\/p>\n After I had it all painted and rolled up, I set the whole thing in a tub to batch – or set in warmth to get that dye to bond with the cotton fibers. Since I could certainly not fit this into my steamer, I decided to leave the tub in my garage, with the door closed to really build up the heat, for two days. I thought it looked like a caterpillar, one that might even be recognizable.<\/p>\n After two hot days I carefully unwound the big roll, dividing it into three tubs to keep the lengths from getting irretrievably twisted. <\/p>\n Then I draped it across my clothesline to dry. It took almost 40′ to spread it all out.<\/p>\n Here’s a tub full of the dried yarn. You can see how much lighter it is dried than it was wet. I still have to get used to this in choosing my dye colors.<\/p>\n Finally I could start getting this warp on my loom so I could get some real idea of how it looked. I decided to do about 1\/2″ on each selvedge with some solid color cotton I had so I didn’t have to worry about selvedge breakage like I did for those towels.<\/p>\n Once on the loom I auditioned several wefts. It seemed like I had plenty of choices.<\/p>\n I decided on a lavender cotton for the first shawl. I am loving the way the colors gently bled along the length of the cotton for such nice transitions.<\/p>\n Enough of the process. I wove all three shawls, fringed, washed, and dried. I still have to do the hard press, but the conditions were right to get some photos so that had to wait. First up is the shawl with lavender weft.<\/p>\n Woven next was a shawl with a dark purple weft.<\/p>\n And finally I used that lovely undyed cotton for weft.<\/p>\n My daughter says the shawls, especially the dark one, remind her of a long-standing Rochester event, the Lilac Festival. I think I’ll use that for their name.<\/p>\n Just quickly, while I was waiting for the dye to batch and then set, I wove four rayon chenille scarves. That was before I knew that it would be warm the weekend of the Clothesline Festival.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n