Last weekend, our guild was fortunate to have Robyn Spady present her Fab Four workshop. This was a round robin workshop of four shaft structures. It was a great workshop. Robyn was so thoughtful, organized, and generous. Everyone in our group, from beginner through advanced, got something out of the workshop. I came home wanting to try all kinds of things, especially diversified plain weave, cannele, swivel, and overshot-patterned double weave. Below are a few of the samples I wove.
Corduroy:
Cannele (with different cell sizes):
Overshot patterned double weave (top) and turned swivel (middle, light weft, and bottom, dark weft)
Swivel:
Diversified plain weave:
Some ideas I'm thinking of... Diversified plainweave towels, table runner; cannele place mats; swivel, framed like needlepoint for my walls; a messenger bag with corduroy on the front... I wonder if I ought to quit my day job...
Robyn was also kind enough to go through her presentation on making jewelry from thrums. She had a lot of great ideas, and I was glad to order a copy of her new monograph on that topic. I'm thinking maybe I could invite some of my non-weaver friends to a jewelry-making party to use up some thrums!
Last year our guild hosted a workshop with Bonnie Inouye, and the topic was "Advance!". The workshop left me with so many ideas. For this project, I took an advancing points threading and wove it as overshot, to try my hand at weaving curves. The the warp and ground weft were a rayon / flax blend, and the pattern weft was a hand-painted bamboo / silk blend. I liked the idea of a shimmery pattern over a matte background. This was a lot of fun to weave; I enjoyed choosing the directions of the curves as I went. On the loom, the scarf looked very cool. After I finished it and looked at it from a distance, I wasn't as impressed. I can see that I definitely need more practice weaving the curves to make them appear smoother. In some places, they look a little abrupt to me. But I'm happy I tried it and intend to practice some more. And I will enjoy wearing my new scarf! :-)
This sideways photo shows the front of the scarf:
And this one shows the front and the back:
Some ideas I'm thinking of... Diversified plainweave towels, table runner; cannele place mats; swivel, framed like needlepoint for my walls; a messenger bag with corduroy on the front... I wonder if I ought to quit my day job...
