Reasa's Scarf

I have fallen terribly behind on keeping track of my projects, so it's time to catch up!


This scarf was woven for my cousin Reasa. The warp is painted by Carrie May in her Autumn Harvest colorway. It is 8/2 Tencel sett at 24 epi. The weft is brown wool crepe from Habu.

The draft for this scarf was inspired by and is very similar to Jill's scarf. It is a straight threading on 12 shafts, with a plaited tie up and an advancing twill treadling. When I wove Jill's scarf (and its sample), I noticed that it had a tendency to collapse slightly. I thought that maybe I could use the same thing successfully with an overtwisted weft, and it worked! I love the way the plaited tie-up created subtle curves, rather than the straight linear pleats seen in an eight shaft 3/1/1/3 collapse piece. Bonnie Inouye's Advance! workshop really gave me the tools to design this.

Scarf for Jill

It has been more than a year since I bought a 4 shaft extension kit for my Louet Spring. Life happened, and I just recently installed it, giving me 12 shafts in all. My plan is to work through "Exploring Multishaft Design", but first, I wanted to make something. I decided on a straight threading. I used a plaited tie up from Bonnie Inouye's "Advance!" workshop handout. I played with several treadlings and chose advancing points. I first tried to weave a scarf with slubby rayon, but the texture of the yarn hid the pattern. I cut off that warp and used Bambu 12 instead. I sleyed it at 30 epi. I used the color cilantro for the warp and coral for the weft. I am trying to weave scarves for all of the girls in my family, and those colors made me think of my cousin Jill.

I was a little anxious about whether I could comfortably use 14 treadles, but that was no problem at all. The loom squeaked some when I treadled, so I used a little silicone spray on the rollers. That did the trick.

I actually remembered to measure the scarf before I gave it away. It was 5 5/8" x 70 1/2" on the loom and 5 3/8" x 67 1/2" after finishing. I added some of the coral yarn to the cilantro fringe. The cilantro by itself just stood out way too much.

I had a hard time getting any good pictures of it because they yarn reflected the light so much. Here is a shot showing both sides:
And here is a picture showing the front in more detail:
I was pleased with the way it turned out, and, more importantly, so was Jill!

"It is more blessed to give than to receive"

It's the time of year in which many of us think about helping those in need. This year, in my town, where the local economy depends heavily on Chrysler and GM, there is no shortage of opportunities to give. I was afraid that this year, having taken a cut in pay, I wouldn't be able to help much, but when I received a list of needs for some local senior citizens, I was inspired. The list included the normal socks, puzzle books, sweatshirts, and... knitting supplies! I immediately thought of my stash of handspun. Over the past couple of years, I have accumulated quite a few skeins for which I had no particular project in mind. So I washed the skeins that looked useable (not my beginnery handspun), wound them into balls, and took them to work to be included in the gift bags for the seniors. I can't tell you how good it felt! After hearing the stories of some of these seniors, many of whom have no family or friends to care for them, I was amazed to think that something I made could touch them.

Earlier this year, I decided to play with echo weave. I wove two scarves on one warp using Mora yan. They turned out pretty well. Since I'm getting to the point where I have more scarves than I can wear, I decided to donate them to a local charity auction, and they were sold this weekend. Those scarves are pictured below:

I was hesitant to write this post because I don't want to pat myself on the back and talk about how good and generous I am. But my hope is that someone may read this and be inspired to use their own talents to reach out to others in their own, individual way. If you aren't sure where to start, I would suggest contacting a local church or the United Way in your area. They can surely direct you to someone who would be encouraged by your gift of fiber (or whatever else). If you have any other ideas for giving, please leave a comment!

Advance! warp samples

After Bonnie Inouye's Advance! workshop, I had plenty of warp left on the loom. I had a lot of breaking ends because, I believe, the tencel warp wasn't getting along with the flat steel heddles on my Baby Wolf. I'd had that issue in the past, but it had been a while, so I kind of forgot about it. Anyway, I didn't want to fight the warp to make a scarf or anything, but it was perfect for weaving more samples.

The warp was 8/2 tencel sleyed at 28 epi. Each of us in the workshop was assinged a different threading. Mine was an extended advancing twill: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc... I enjoyed this threading because each pattern had a large scale. That was one of the points that Bonnie tried to make, that it's nice to be able to see that a textile is interesting from across the room. Below I'll show the samples that I wove, both during the workshop and at home.

The first sample, below, is tromp as writ, with wide bands of color moving diagonally across the sample.

The next sample, below, starts out with a regular 5 pick advancing treadling. Then I moved to an extended advancing treadling, and you can see the slope of the lines change. Then I reversed the treadling, and you can see mirror symmetry at those points.

The next sample below shows an advancing and descending treadling. Here, you can see the slope of the lines reverse, but the twill continues without the mirror symmetry seen above.

The next sample below shows an advancing point treadling. This one was a lot of fun. It was really easy to change the slope and the direction of the lines.

This sample shows an overshot treadling. For the tabby weft, I used Bambu12 in a color that blended with the warp. The pattern weft was 8/2 tencel. Here I played a little, trying to get some curves. I had my for the other samples, I had the treadles tied in a walking format, so I decided to re-tie the treadles for this overshot sample so that the tabby treadles would be next to each other. After I was done with this sample, I figured out that one of my pattern treadles was tied up wrong.
This sample is the last one I wove during the workshop. It has a network treadling. At the beginning of the sample (the left in this picture), I used the treadling that Bonnie gave us in her workbook. Toward the right, I treadled freestyle, using a technique that Bonnie explained in her lecture. I started to get the hang of it, but to be able to create curves that really look good, I'll definitely need some practice.

This sample, I wove at home after the workshop. I wove all of this freestyle, using the techniques that Bonnie taught. The far left, light blue, is a combination of advancing and extended advancing treadlings, which changes the slope of the diagonal lines. The middle sample, dark blue, is an overshot treadling. The tabby weft in this sample is rayon chennile, and the pattern weft is the Bambu 12 that I used as tabby weft in the overshot above. The effect was very subtle, and the sample looks nicer from a distance than it does close-up, which is shown in the next photo.

The sample below shows overshot with Bambu 12 tabby weft and 8/2 tencel as pattern weft. To the right, I played some more with advancing and decending treadling. I need to study this a little more since I understand the basics, but something about it hasn't quite clicked. I think I'll understand it more if I continue to play with it.

Finally, the last sample, on the right, shows network treadling. I'm starting to get a better feel for this, but, again, it will take some more practice to really get the hang of it and create some nice curves while I'm at the loom.

At our guild meeting this weekend, we all brought our samples from the workshop for show-and-tell for the other members. One thing that stuck out to me after our discussion was how many of the samples (mine and others) looked better from across the room than they did close-up. As people across the room would hold up their samples, I thought, wow! Then, as they were passed around and came to me, I thought, well, that's interesting, but I don't love it. That wasn't the case for all of the samples, but for some. This is something I'm definitely going to play with more and practice, to see what I like best, and how to use it best.

Alpaca Merino Shawl

I finally finished the shawl I was working on. The draft is an advancing twill from Twill Thrills. The warp was Angel Face, a lace-weight alpaca from Briar Rose Fibers, and the weft was merino wool from Jaggerspun. I used this fiber combination on some scarves a couple of years ago and was really pleased with the results, and I am just as happy with this shawl.

I thought I would share some of my observations from using this yarn as warp.

First, the yarn is sticky. Not sticky, as in I couldn't get a good shed. Rather, sticky, in that little fuzz balls kept forming at the lease sticks while I was beaming the warp. I was continually separating warp ends with my fingers because they were being glued together with all these little fuzz balls. I didn't remember this from last time I used this warp. But that was a warp of narrow scarves, and this warp was a shawl, about 28" in the reed. Probably the width made it more noticable on this warp.

Second, the yarn is fragile. On both projects, I used louet looms with texsolve heddles and the louet raddles. I also used the paper clip temples on both projects. I would hate to try this as a warp on my baby wolf, which has flat steel heddles. When I wove the scarves, the selvedges broke often, so when I planned the shawl, I used a double strand for the floating selvedge. That seemed to do the trick. The only reed I had that was wide enough to weave this shawl was a 6 dpi, and I sleyed five per dent. I had several broken ends throughout the shawl, and I found it interesting that every broken end was one of the outside ends in a dent. I don't remember this happening with the scarves, which were woven with a 12 dpi reed. Next time I use this yarn again, I will use a finer reed and see what happens. I also had broken ends more frequently when I got to the end of the warp, where I didn't have the warp spread perfectly when I beamed it. Next time I will pay more attention to spreading the warp. I'm glad I used the louet raddle because the warp was spread much better than it would have if I had not used it. If you're not familiar with the louet raddles, Cally gives a fabulous explanation here.

Anyway, below are a couple of pictures of the shawl. I wish you could feel it. It is very drapey, very soft, very light weight, and very warm. I just ordered a skein of the alpaca in another colorway and see another shawl in my future.

Baby Blanket

Finally, I finished the baby blanket I began in September. It's been off the loom for a while, but I wasn't too excited about finishing it. Well, my friend's baby is due in less than a week, so I had some motivation to get it done. It's a block twill in bambu 7 warp and weft. I'm not too thrilled with the finished product. It's nice, but it doesn't really excite me. It does feel nice and have a nice drape. Maybe blankets just aren't my thing. I am mostly glad that it's done, so I can move on to the next project.

So what's on the looms now? The Spring is half-way dressed with a lace-weight alpaca warp for a shawl for me. It's only half dressed because I realized last week, rather suddenly, how close Christmas is. So I hurried and wove off the warp that was on the Baby Wolf, a scarf that will be a Christmas present, and dressed it with the warp to make the last three rayon scarves for my grandma. I really am getting bored of the variegated rayon warps. I think it will be a while before I do any more. But, it was a good way to quickly make nine scarves. I don't think my grandma realizes quite how much time is involved in doing these, but her excitement definitely makes up for it. She is so excited to give these scarves to her sisters!

Home Sweet Home

It's been a long time since I posted for two reasons: First, I was preparing to move and settling into my new home. Second, it took a month for my ISP to reconnect me after I moved! Prior to my move, both looms sat naked for a good month, so, naturally, I've been weaving like a madman since then. Here is my new weaving space. It's a lot of space for two small looms, but I plan on upgrading within the next couple of years. It's a really pleasant room, with old hardwood floors, windows to the east and west, and plenty of storage space.

I wove my first set of three rayon scarves for my grandma and took them to show her at Easter. She was thrilled. I am happy with how they turned out. They feel great, and they were so quick to make. I used a straight threading on eight shafts and used a different tieup and/or treadling on each scarf.

Next I wove a set of placemats in overshot. I just cut them off the loom this week. I'll post a picture after I finish them. Now I've started the next set of Grandma's rayon scarves. Here's a preview:

Silk + Bambu Scarf

The silk warp bambu weft scarf is complete. It feels awesome. Enough said.

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to my new blog. Here I'll primarily be talking about what I'm weaving and spinning, but I'll probably also include other things I want to share.

Right now, I'm weaving a scarf in twill, draft 202 in the Strickler book. The warp is handpainted 20/2 silk in Fresia from Claudia Handpainted Yarns, and the weft is Bambu 12 in fig. So far, it's going well - the silk is soooo nice! I just need to be conscious about keeping an even beat.