Weaving Inlay: Painting with Yarn

I’m almost finished with a banner inspired by the teals, oranges, and sage greens of the Huntington Library cactus garden. The warp (10/2) and weft (20/2) are hand dyed cotton and the inlay is 8/2 tencel. This creates some funky selvedges, but I’m very pleased with the look of the tencel inlay against the cotton.  There are clearly some issues with the set since the warp has self-divided into groups of two according to how it was dented.  Probably should have set it closer to overcome that.

Hand-dyed cotton woven with a tencel inlay

I also recently finished a huck lace wall hanging inspired by Taliesin West. The yarns are Berroco Modern Cotton that was ice dyed and some wool that I spun myself.  As a very novice spinner, I thought the irregularities in the spun yarn worked well with the commercial yarn to mimic the chaotic rock shapes of the walls at Taliesin.

Taliesin West (Scottsdale, AZ) in the Rain

 

Project completion! Woo-hoo!

On Monday, I finished a scarf (8″ x approx 90″) in deflected double weave.  I haven’t washed it yet, but, since it’s 8/2 tencel, I’m not expecting a lot of deflecting to go on.

Both images are while it’s still on the loom.  On the right side, you can see that I’m working with a double selvedge–there was one selvedge for the shale and another, separate selvedge for the silver.  The second selvedge slowed me down a lot, but it was very satisfying to work on.

Weaving Actually

I’ve been studying weaving since 2005.  I often think that I spend more time talking about weaving, collecting yarn, and buying weaving tools than weaving. (Just love all that beautiful wooden esoteric stuff that goes with weaving!)

For the last 3-4 months, I’ve actually been weaving! It’s a miracle. I have a full-time job so weaving time is limited, but I’ve still managed to get some things off the loom.

Playing with inlays and inserted threads. Crude, but I hope to develop something more fully realized from this bit of inspiration. Doing this was like painting with thread–“in-the-zone” engaging, but very time consuming.

 

Some images from a course I took on doing deflected double weave.  Mouse over each image for a caption. Notice that the pre-washing image has much more rigid lines and that the other 3 post-washing images have softer and more rounded lines.

Deflected double weave towel.

Close up of towel pattern.

Same pattern before washing.

Reverse of deflected double weave towel.

 

Also, recently completed a shawl using some tencel I dyed last year.  Someone said the browns and greens look like a forest floor so I’ve title this piece “Forest Floor”.  I wanted the leaf-shaped twill to evoke that idea.  Unfortunately, I chose “taupe” for the weft– washing out the greens and browns of the dyed tencel.  My original choice had been “avocado”, but when I put that next to the dyed warp, it seemed way too green.

 

 

So, yeah, me!  Finally weaving more than talking about weaving. A very exciting way to start 2017.

Weaving in my dreams – OMG

Last night I dreamed a piece of fabric–clearly and vividly enough that I was able to draw it the next morning.  Am wondering if there is anyway to weave this in real life.  Possibly doubleweave?

Some project updates. . .

I finished the cottolin towels.  Cottolin is really rough and non-absorbent–so not suitable for towels.  Too bad.  They are hanging in the guest bath.  Guests will just have to make do. I’m very proud of these little  towels.

Next project:  tip towels of 16/2 cotton. Should be much more absorbent. I like tip towels–not as much of a commitment at full size dish towels!  I feel like I’m getting more done in the same amount of weaving time!

 

Weaving with Ptolemy Mann

My weaving class was assigned a project to incorporate the dye styles of Ptolemy Mann into  a project. I did this scarf in 8/2 tencel using a commercially-dyed weft (shale) and a dyed warp.  The pattern is a broken twill done on a 4-harness loom.

I’ve also been working on some projects on my home looms.  Some plain weave towels (4-harness, cottolin)–not very exciting, but after weaving for 10 years, I’ve decided to go back to the basics.  I’m intrigued my the simplicity of Scandinavian weaving so am looking at that as my inspiration.

 

 

 

I’ve also found it very pleasurable to make handwoven bookmarks using twill and overshot patterns.  I’m doing these on my 8-harness loom–although this one is a 4-harness pattern.

OMG – The Bateman Weaving Patterns!

Just got a good look at a copy of Weaving Innovations from the Bateman Collection. Wow!  This guy Bateman was a chemist who began weaving in the mid-1900s — on an 8-harness table loom. Because he had such an analytical mind, he did something like 1,500 samples comparing changes in tie up, threading, and treading.  Very detailed work.  I’m hoping to try to weave through some of his samples–someday–in all my free time. (I’m still working so free-time is relatively scarce.)

Successful Completion of Knitting Project! Wooooooo-hooooooo!

Finished a scarf in Jitterbug Colourways mint chocolate.  Got the last few rows done while binge watching Game of Thrones.  And will do the finishing work tonight during the new episode.

A Good Start to a New Project

Saturday morning I went into the weaving studio at Southwest School of Art and got 5-6″ done on my new project, a ruana in hand-dyed and shale 8/2 tercel. I’m doing this in double weave so it will open out the the full width.  All going as planned.  Hopefully.

And I learned a new trick–rather than tying on to the front beam, I used lashings.  Much easier to tension!

I was originally concerned that using shale as the weft would obscure the beauty of the hand-dyed yarn.  I planned to audition lemon grass, gold, and silver grey as possible wefts, but started with the shale.  Wow!  It pops out the color on the hand-dyed yarn.  Didn’t need to try anything else, because shale works so well for this.  I love these little victories.

A Little Bit of Progress

So far this year–on my Baby Wolf at homecoming–I’ve been working on a crammed and spaced scarf and it’s coming along fairly well. I’m in love with the warp colors. I’m using something (huge cone I found or was given) of some thin nubby innocuous brown stuff for the weft. 



And on the loom I’m using at SW School of Art, I’m still threading over 1100 ends for a double-weave ruana project. Will it never end? Sigh. This tencel is from our dye project last semester. We used a confetti/dribble technique to get the mottled look.

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