Friday, June 21, 2013

Experimenting with New Techniques and Materials

The June meeting was a little sparse of attendees, but not of things to be shared. 
 
 
Sue Robertson showed us the results of her class work at CNCH 2013 at Squaw Valley.  She took Marilyn Romatka’s Viking Knitting class and created a beautiful necklace.  This technique is also called “Viking Chain Knitting” or “Viking Weaving” but isn’t really knitting.
    
She also took Wendy Patrucco’s Cyanotype Printing class and created two different printed pieces of fabric and a printed canvas bag.
  
The third class was Knotted Button Covers with Mushroom Dyed Silk taught by Gayle Still.  Her button was about half finished. 
 
 
Marcy showed us a table runner she wove as a challenge to use linen.  The warp was 8/2 white cotton and the weft the blue linen shown in the picture.  The design is an M’s & O’s pattern on 4 shafts.
 
 
 
She used a blue floating selvedge that created a very neat edge for the piece. 
 
Betsy is working on a five-piece collection of wall hangings/shawls that represent the four elements and the moon.  She has been working on the water element.  She showed us a shawl woven with tencel in an 8-shaft shadow weave pattern.  There are different color blue warp stripes with silver and blue as weft.








Here is some detail of the shawl.  It is very reminiscent of water. 




Betsy also showed us a sample where she played around with a black weft that was woven in treadle order.  It is really quite striking.

Betsy has started working on ideas for the earth piece.  She brought a sample of what the structure of the piece will look like.  This one was woven with 5/2 cotton.



Finally, Ingrid showed two lap robes woven with local llama yarn.  These were done in 3/1; 1/3 twill stripes. 



She also showed us her latest sock yarn scarf - merino wool and nylon yarn.











 

Friday, June 07, 2013

Eye Candy for Weavers

Marcy Elliott's Huck Lace Towel
May's meeting has come and gone and since I have been busy with CNCH, I didn't get to the blog post to share May's wonderful woven treasures. Better late than never!

The photo above is one of Marcy's explorations into the world of huck lace.  Color and texture, you just can't beat this combination.  The towels are so open in weave structure, that I'm sure they will make excellent drying towels.


Dee Jones' Painted Warp Vest

I spent some time in early May, photographing some of the many garments that Dee Jones wove and sewed over the past 10 to 15 years.  This is one of my favorites (although there are many favorites).  I thought that the color is perfect for summer wearing.  This one is a painted warp, set off with buttons that echo the color of the woven cloth.
 
 
This is Sue Robertson's quilt selvedge cloth.  Sue is a quilter and has lots of quilting friends.  They were more than happy to give her the selvedges they cut from fabric for her weaving project.    She made a vest back with this yardage and wore it in the Fashion Parade at CNCH just a week ago.  Hopefully, we will get a photo of the finished vest for everyone to see.
 
 
And this is Sharon Campbell's handspun art yarn.  She was looking for suggestions on how to use it as part of a weaving project.  Lovely colors!