It All Started With Leftover Sock Yarn

Some of us have lots of yarn - odds and ends of yarn that we aren't quite sure what to do with. Dee had this sock yarn - I'm presuming she must have had a couple of balls because you will see that she got quite a bit of mileage out of it.


                                                                                                                                                                                       

 Her first attempt was to use it as weft with a white warp of assorted cottons and rayon yarns. 

Well, this wasn't the effect she was looking for.  Out came fiber reactive dye to take care of the white yarns. 

Not bad, but still she wasn't completely satisfied.  Next she dyed the remaining scarf with Alter Ego dyes - they will dye both the wool of the sock yarn and the rayon and cotton warp yarn- in two different colors at the same time! 

Well, this was pretty cool too. But she had one last trick up her sleeve. Do another warp using the sock yarn in both warp and weft. Which do you like best?

Warp and weft of sock yarn

Checking Out Dee's Studio

The group met at Dee's house today. There were lots of woven items shown and some knitting and a pine needle basket. But maybe the best thing was getting to see how Dee arranged her work space and what she was working on.

In addition to being a fabulous weaver, knitter, quilter, seamstress and all around great gal, Dee's studio would make anyone jealous. Lots of books, yarn, fabric and ideas floating around.

She is currently working on a cat quilt - black and white cats on batik backgrounds. There will probably be some colorful fabric in the background as well.

Here's a weaving project in the planning stages. With inspiration from a towel (top right), she is pulling together yarns to weave a scarf. Can't wait to see how it will turn out. Makes me want to head to my studio to weave.

New Year - New Challenge

Happy 2012!! The group decided they like to be challenged with a project for the year. This year we are going to be using Nevada County as an inspiration for a woven piece. This is pretty wide open - it can be colors, structure or pattern that is "representative" of a scene, activity or feeling about the County.

We did something like this in 2007 when we created a perpetual calendar inspired by the County. There were pieces that evoke the local flora but many were inspired by our gold history. My piece from that project was inspired by Malokoff Diggins State Park. http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=494 This is a place where one can see the effects of hydrolic mining from the late 1800's. It was a shadow weave pattern using 10/2 cotton.

I'm not sure what will inspire me this year, but I am sure that the group will produce many creative and unusual pieces.

We are working with the County Fair Board to introduce a new catagory in the Wool Division for the Fair in August. This category would be for a finished item that is inpsired by our County - handwoven or hand knit using handspun yarn. This will be something to look forward to this summer.

Simple Twill - Fantastic Shawl

Sometimes the most elegant textiles are based on a very simple woven structure.  This alpaca shawl woven by Jackie Hervey is sumptuous - everyone at our meeting agreed.  The photo is unfortunately not nearly as impressive as the shawl!  The shawl is woven with two natural colors of alpaca from Henry's Attic and features diamonds with plain weave centers! 

Jackie found her draft in A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns edited by Carol Strickler, draft number 97.  The original draft is credited to Christian Morath and found in A German Weaver's Pattern Book. 1794-1810.  However, when I tried to find it at the Handweaving.net, I could only come up with something similar.    Anyway, if you want to weave your own spectacular shawl, here is the draft that Jackie used.

Gifts for Holiday Cheer

The Not 2 Square Weavers like to do some sort of community spirited project each year.  This year some of us decided to weave lap robes for Holiday Cheer.  This is a local outreach for home bound seniors (and others recouperating from illnesses).  Visiting nurses supply Judi Barbour with the number of people under their care and she puts together gift stockings from donations for those with the most need. 

Since some of the recipients are confined to wheel chairs, several of us decided on rather narrow pieces that would cover the lap, but not be too wide and cumbersome.  It turns out that for wheel chair use, the pieces need to be without fringe so there will be nothing to get caught in wheels, etc.

Gus is pictured above with one of her lap robes woven in cotton and acrylic - the draft follows.

I wove my lap robes using a networked threading and treadling in turned taquete and a couple of weights of cotton.  See the related blog post here that gives more details on the process.  Working with the warp faced weave and divided threading allowed me to separate and weave the hem in two layers, which I turned to the inside to finish.

Marcy had woven a chenille lap robe before we decided to participate in this project, and she generously donated it.

Diana bought acrylic baby yarn to weave her pieces, but had a disaster when the yarn slipped and slid during the finishing process so she had a hand sewn robe in reserve which went along with our donations. 

Ingrid didn't weave her piece, but rather sewed it and finished it like a quilt.  See her blog for the colorful and warm covering she donated.

It was very gratifying to learn when we delivered our items to Judi, that there were so many donations this year that everyone on the nurse's list will be getting something warm and wonderful for Christmas.

Huck, More Towels and an Ecology Shawl

Sue Habegger is using up special yarns that she has collected over the years.  She had a cone of natural brown Guatamalan cotton and Sue decided that weaving a solid color and a stucture were both out of her comfort zone.  This is the gorgeous yardage that was the result of her efforts.  The picture shows the yardage sideways. Sue wove bands of plain weave separated with bands of huck lace.  The huck takes up a bit more than the plain weave, so there is a gentle ripple which turns out to be very attractive.  Sue is still thinking of what kind of a garment to make with it.

At the meeting, Betsy had just come back from a fancy three day wedding in the Bay Area.  She had given the bride and groom their choice of colors and she presented them with handwoven towels as a gift.  She used warp colors in the weft and the towel above was woven with a white weft.  The draft is from Marguerite Davison's book, pg. 75 - John Murphy's No. 10.  I'm not sure which treadling she used with this towel - maybe X?  I thought it was a lovely thing to give a color choice to the gift recipients. What a good way to make the gift personal for the couple.

We all were so captivated by Carol's Ecology shawls that she brought in one that she wove using all handspun yarns.  She says the only problem is that the shawls aren't perfect triangles.  As you near the end of the warp, it gets tight and is very hard to weave - therefore one side is longer than the other.  We all agreed that it didn't make a lot of difference with this shawl, which is a real treasure.

Tale of an adventurous weaver

Dee Jones is an adventurous weaver who doesn't hesitate to use exotic knitting yarns in her warp or plastic bags as weft, should the occasion present itself.  In Dee's big bag of handwoven projects at September's meeting, there were some interesting surprises.  Dee loves to make handwoven bags and had been saving the orange wrappers in which her daily newspaper is delivered.  In the photo above, you will see the plastic bag weft puffing out at the selvedges in the log cabin design. Dee thinks that the handles are card woven - plucked from a long ago project; just waiting to enhance this bag.

Every year our local yarn store has a big blow out sale.  I have been guilty of buying a ball or two of this and that because it was so beautiful, but not knowing what I was every going to do with it.  Then it turns out you have all these odd balls that aren't enough for a project.  Dee has the solution.  She adds them as accent warps and leaves them floating free when she twists the fringe of the main warp threads.  This technique calls extra attention to their unique character.  Just take a look at  the exciting scarf pictures below.

She says the exotic yarns sometimes get caught in the heddles, but not as much as you might expect.  Dee warps from front to back and winds warps in chains of all the same yarn.  Then she designs her warp as she sleys the reed, dispersing the various yarns across the warp. 

 

Color Inspiration from Calendar Photos

Ingrid Knox has a big towel project in progress.  We were lucky enough to have the meeting at her home the other day so we could see what was on her loom and hear her plans.  She has a calendar with beautiful nature photos and plans to weave 12 different warps, all based on the colors from each of the 12 month's pictures.  She started out with December (see her blog for the color photo that inspired these towels)

Ingrid used an online random stripe generator to come up with the color sequence and a draft from A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns edited by Carol Strickler.  For this series of towels, Ingrid used a dornik twill (pg 50) that was originally submitted by Dee Jones.  Dee is a member of our group - small world, isn't it?  Here is the draft for January towels and a couple of treadling choices.

September's photo was next with lots of golds, browns and greens.  This series of towels was woven with a twill tie up and different treadlings for some of the towels.

Here is September's draft.

Before we left, some of us checked out the towel in progress on her Cranbrook loom.  This one is being woven with a light blue weft and look at how it influences the stripe colors.

All of these towels are woven with 10/2 cotton, sett at 24 epi.

Stay tuned for towels, scarves and more from the September meeting.



Shadow Weave & a Bit of Theo Moorman

Betsy Abrams entered shadow weave pieces in the fair this year.  Her wall hanging has bead embellishments on the undulating twill design (click on the photo to get a better view) and is sporting a red ribbon.  Congratulations, Betsy.

She also entered several tencel shadow weave pieces.  Look at this striking design. I'm going to ask Betsy for the draft source so that I can share it with  readers of this blog.  I love her colors.

And, another red ribbon on this lovely shadow weave scarf/shawl.

In an entirely different weaving direction, Jackie Hervey embellished her cloth with a Theo Moorman fleur de lis.  I believe that this is destined to become a pillow top.  Theo Moorman is one of those things that if you can dream it, you can weave it (assuming you have the skills that Jackie has acquired.)

More Winners

Sue Habegger got a red ribbon on this beautiful top with the Theo Moorman motif.  Sue often utilizes selvedges as trim on her garments and is very successful at on loom planning.

Sue's yardage got a blue ribbon (well no surprise there because it is wonderful stuff).  I like the little jacket drawing she included with her piece.  On the side bar, you will see Sue Habegger's name.  Click on that to see previous posts about this yardage and the processes involved.

Several winners this year were white on white pieces.  Carol Phillips did an interesting scarf with a technique learned from Mary Berent.  She used a variety of weights of white cotton yarn, one after another in both warp and weft.  See how the piece undulates because of the varying yarn sizes.

  In another white on white piece, Gus Young wove a scarf from her handspun silk and Merino yarns.

 In the same vein (handspun yarn creations) Sharon Campbell got a blue ribbon for her handspun knit sweater.

And we have miles more to go with show and tell this month.  Stay tuned for more winners and a special Theo Moorman piece.

 

And the Winner is ..... Ingrid Knox!

Ingrid's gorgeous white on white cotton table runner won the best handwoven at the Nevada County fair this year.  The draft came from An Introduction to Multishaft Weaving 8,12....20 by Kathryn Wertenberger; page 65.  It was originally from the notebooks of Fred Pennington who started weaving in 1937.  He wove linens and collected drafts from all over the world so I'm sure would have agreed with the judge that this was truely a prize winner.

Here is a close up so that you can see the beautiful structure.

Should you want to weave your very own masterpiece table runner and have loom for it, here is the 16 shaft draft.  You might even rethink this tie up and see if you could come up with an 8 shaft that was similar.

Ecology Shawl

One of the best things about weave blogging is that you don't have to wait until your favorite weaving magazine gets around to publishing an article -- you can beat them to the punch. Carol Phillips won a first prize ribbon with this amazing triangular shaped shawl. I'm going to let Carol's words describe the process and then add my own two cents at the end of this post.

The warp is wool/silk from Henry's Attic. I dyed it in Michele Wipplinger's studio about 10 years ago, 9 warp chains, painted, some resisted, some kept loose, then all was dipped in Indigo - some more than one dip. I have lost the very careful notes on specific eyes used - but it included cochineal, madder, fustic, woad, others I can't remember at present. It is woven "ecology style" where the warp becomes the weft, put on the loom double weave so that it is large enough for comfort. I think it was 34 inches in the reed, then not put on the back beam, but weighted at the back with heavy boxes. One thread at a time is pulled forward and used as weft, double weave for the first half, making a diagonal selvege, leaving a fringe on one side where the weft thread exits, then woven plain weave once it is halfway, continuing the diagonal selvege on the long side, fringe on two sides. I did take some photos as I went, but they're a bit hard to interpret! I have done this in the past, but it's been a while, and I had to really probe my memory! The idea is from an old PWC, and there is no date on it, but from the '80's. [Issue 10] The cover has a photo of the one from the article inside - bright colored plaid. The original is done with 2 looms warped back-to-back, not double weave, with a person in the middle to cut one thread at a time to use as weft on each loom, and the looms have to be moved closer together as it progresses. The end result is two matching triangle scarves or shawls. I think it would make a great demo at some event. My plan is to write up the process, so one day I must do that! I did send a photo to Madelyn suggesting she re-visit the project in an upcoming Handwoven. She would like me to do it again with an "available" yarn... perhaps in the winter I'll tackle it!

Perhaps this is my challenge for the year - something out of my comfort zone! It is not really ikat, just the way the warp crosses itself. One problem is that as it gets near the end the weft tends to pack in tighter, so it is not truly an equal triangle... Something to work on! - Carol Phillips

This month's Handwoven has an article by Joanne Parrish George in which the supplementary warp becomes supplementary weft. It seems like a similar process to this ecology shawl, but I think I would have to try it out before I would know for sure.

I agree with Carol;  this would make a fantastic demonstration at CNCH or something such. The problem with doing the shawl with two looms as the original article shows, is that they need to have a 44" weaving width.  The article also suggests two 44" rigid heddle looms could be used but during a brief online search, I didn't come up with any looms that were that wide.

Where have we been?

Summer sometimes gets in the way of blogging.  This blogger is just resurfacing with lots of photos and interesting things to show from our group.  One reason for holding back on blog posts was that the annual Nevada County Fair was pending last month.  Many of our members were going to enter handwovens and it seemed better to just hold off posting until after the awards had been given and there was no reason for secrecy about who wove what!

Before I get to the grand prize winner this year, I'll post around the edges a bit. There were several prizes for scarves from our group.  Carol Phillips has been using up sock yarns for scarves.  This beauty was woven from wool/alpaca sock yarns and got a ribbon.

Diana Abrell had showed  a scarf at an earlier meeting.  Its a braided twill that has two faces, a light and dark and you can read more about it in a previous post.  The judge awarded her the blue ribbon for the handwoven scarf category.

Gus brought a fabulous soft shawl to the July meeting.  It was woven with Angora rabbit, wool and cotton yarns.  She admitted the Angora rabbit yarn had been in her stash for many years until she had matured as a weaver and could do it justice.  Sorry there is no way to reach out and touch this in the blog world.

Lots more to show in the next blog post - so come back again soon!