Sunday, December 25, 2016

Towel Bonanza


Around Christmas, Not 2 Square Weavers seem to be finishing up on towel warps.  Why - because they make such good gifts.  One size fits all and the amazing variety of choices is just so much fun to weave. 

At our December meeting, we held true to our usual offerings.  The green and purple towel below was woven by Eileen.  It is a two block broken twill design.  The warp and weft are 10/2 mercerized cotton and the towel is very light weight - although the sett was 32 epi.  Eileen thought it too "whimpy" but most of us thought it was great for drying glassware or other delicate items.  Gorgeous colors.  We will have to break out the McMorran Yarn Balance to test the yd/lb of her yarns from Lunatic Fringe and compare them to other 10/2 mercerized cottons we have.

Marcy had finished another warp on this two block twill threading.  She has found the joys of tying on to an old warp and weaving another colorway.  This time the towel warp was a burnt orange and gray.  Look at what happened when she used a white weft and then a navy weft.  The glory of neutrals and the geometric design just sings in both of these towels.  This pattern has been featured here before and is from Strickler's book on 8 shaft weaving.  The draft is #228 if you happen to own the book.  

 Marcy had also been busy on the loom weaving overshot runners. There was some warp left over and she did this striped beauty, and changed around the overshot motifs.  Great idea and a good use for the end of that warp.
 
 Mardi told a story as she showed us her towels woven on her old Leclerc loom.  She said she had always had problems with getting even tension across the whole warp.  When she went to the Vavstuga school a few months ago, she asked the instructors there to give her advice. Their answer was to use a temple.  Mardi warped up the loom, and woven this stunning stripe and plaid set.  The temple helped tremendously and her selvedges are perfect.  What a great feeling to have conquered this common weaving problem.





Marjorie brought in some woven items from several years ago, including this gorgeous hemstitched towel.  Love the color and the detail on this one.  The towel also has some huck patterning.
 
 Sue V. went to the Weaver's School on Whidbey Island this past spring.  Sue hasn't been weaving recently, and wanted to get her weaving mojo back so she took the beginning class.  The first photo is of the sample she wove in class with the huck lace design and a frame of stripes and plaid.

So Sue took inspiration from her woven sample and designed a towel warp specifically for a husband who doesn't always make sure his hands are perfectly clean when he uses the towel.  The towels are a beautiful red clay color - just like the soil here in Nevada County.  Sue used the same framing stripes, a huck design and made the towels just a bit longer than usual so that they hang around the handle of her refrigerator.  Stunning towels - and one would never know if a bit of red clay smudge got on them or not!



There's more to show from this meeting, so stay tuned for part two of our December meeting show and tell


Wednesday, November 23, 2016

What's on Our Looms

Several of our members have been working on their looms,  Jackie wove a very geometric chenille scarf.  The fringe turned out to be very interesting.

Jackie's Scarf

Jackie's Scarf - detail






























Jackie also wove a rag rug.

Jackie's rug


Betsy wove a scarf using 8/2 tencel.  The design is an 8-shaft, M's & W' design, sett at 24 epi.
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Betsy's Scarf
Betsy's Scarf - detail

































Diana wove a set of five towels. The design was polychrome (reds) crackle. The design was from Handwoven, Sept./Oct. 2016, pg. 46.  There were nine different colors in warp and three rotating colors in weft.  Each towel has different colors in weft, although they all came out looking sort of alike.  Diana used both 8/2 and 10/2 cottons, sett at 24 epi.  She felt it was a good project for using up a lot of reddish yarns.  

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Diana's Towels
Marjorie shared two pieces of yardage that were woven several years ago and meant to be pillowcases.  She found that they were too narrow for that purpose once completed. Both pieces used 100 percent cotton, in a lace pattern - huck- Marjorie thinks.

Marjorie's Yardage


Ingrid shared a scarf she wove using Malabrigo yarn.  Arroyo for the warp and Rios for the weft.  The design is an 8-shaft advancing twill woven with a 3-1-2-2 twill tie up.  This is one of two she hopes to weave from the same warp.




All in all, lots of interesting things being woven this month.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

A Week at Vavstuga

At our latest meeting Mardi shared her experience at Vavstuga Weaving School http://www.vavstuga.com/ .  The week sounded like it was fabulous and she shared the four pieces she wove during the four and a half day class.  

The first piece is a block damask with an 8 shaft broken twill.  The warp and weft are both 16/2 line linen (Bockens) and the sett is 11 ends per centimeter  (everything was measured in metric units.)  

Block Damask


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The next piece is a twill towel.  The warp is 22/2 Cottolin (Bockens) and the weft is 8/1 tow linen.  The sett is 10 ends per centimeter.  The tab was woven by another student.


Twill Towel

Towel tab






















Mardi's third piece is a tablecloth.  The warp and pattern were chosen for the students.  They threaded the heddles and reed.  The warp is Bockens 8/2 cotton and the weft is Bockens 22/2 Cottolin. The sett is 9 ends per centimeter.  


Tablecloth

The last piece is a blanket.  This was woven out of "Tuna" which is a size ("worsted weight") Swedish yarn.  It is a simple twill woven with two yarns together in the weft.  The warp colors and pattern were chosen for the students and they got to choose the weft color(s). Mardi used a burgundy red and a red orange. The sett is 6 ends per centimeter.




Blanket


These textiles were really lovely.  It was amazing to see how much Mardi was able to accomplish in such a short time frame.  Sounds like a fun place to check out.