Making the most of a demonstration warp

Most of us are not excited about table looms, particularly after we have woven on a floor loom for a while.  Sue Robertson seems as though she may be the exception to the rule.  Recently Sue warped up a table loom to take to the Nevada County fair so that people could try their hand at weaving.  As always with something like this, you never really know how long a warp to put on the loom.  Sometimes you get someone really excited about the process and they weave and weave.  Then again, sometimes no one really wants to dip their fingers into that world.  This fair it seems that people were interested, but didn't use up much of the warp, so Sue took the loom home after the fair and played and played.

The sample to the left looks a lot like rep weave and Sue did use a thick and a thin yarn.

Then, what to do with variegated yarns?  This sample proves that there can be interest.  This sample also shows the striping in the warp more clearly when Sue went back to white yarn.  Wouldn't this make a nice place mat?

 

In the photo below, notice the nice edge that the thick yarn makes along the selvedge.  Wow - give Sue a warp and let her imagination take off!

 



Wonderful Towels for a Great Charity Sale

Marcy has been weaving for a good cause  - a sale to benefit the Women of Worth organization located in Grass Valley.  She put on a warp for towels, wove some and when the warp ran out,  did something she had never done before, tied on a new warp to the existing one!  Bravo, Marcy.

 Here are a few of the towels from Marcy's four shaft loom.  Don't they look more complex than four shafts? 

Marcy said she has been using a  selvedge tip from the Anne Dixon book - The Handweaver's Pattern Directory.  On page 16, if you have a copy, she lays out a selvedge plan for balanced weaves.  She uses 12 selvedge threads on a four shaft straight draw.  Thread the four outside threads in single order.  Then, thread the next 8 threads as doubles.  Then sley these threads at double the sett of the rest of the cloth.

The photo above shows Marcy's optical illusion towel.  As the twill lines are reversed, the line ripples.  Pretty neat!

The towels in the photo below, were Marcy's entry at the fair this year.  I believe they received a well deserved ribbon!

 

 

 

Color and Pizazz in Handwoven Shawls

Betsy brought shawls to our latest meeting.  What a flair for color she has.  Look at the iridescence with the bright yellow green and the coral warp underneath.  This shawl is a bit weft faced in a diamond twill pattern.  I believe this shawl is woven in 5/2 cottons and sett at 10epi.

 

This shawl was probably woven on the same warp as the one above and this time Betsy used a bamboo weft. The softness of the lavender along with the burnt orange and coral make for a very striking piece.

 

 

Betsy had enough warp for this little square table runner.  She wove the hems with some great rainbow colored sewing thread and her efforts were supported with an almost immediate sale to one of her customers.

 

Bridal Shower Towels

Jackie Hervey brought towels to the meeting on Tuesday.  They are gifts for a bridal shower and Jackie set out to match the couple's new blue dinnerware. She designed this draft herself and combined two features, the huck blocks and float squares. When you see the towels from a distance, those bright solid float colors are prominent.  These towels are woven with a darker blue weft than is in the warp so that the huck looks embossed.

 

This towel was woven without the colored floats - same threading, different treadling sequence.

 

And this towel has the same light blue weft as is in the warp.

 

The towels are woven from 8/2 cotton, are sett at 20 epi. and measured almost 20" in the reed.  Would you like to weave your own?  Jackie reduced her design to a four shaft draft which you can see here.  The original towels are on 10 shafts to get that special float square between the huck blocks.  If you have 10 shafts, the drafts are on the same page.  Also, it was pointed out at the Not 2 Square meeting, that you could use pick up to do the float squares if you don't have 10 shafts on your loom.

Quilter's Throw Away - Weaver's Delight

Sue Robertson and her mother are both quilters.  I understand that quilters cut off the selvedges before they use their cloth and I suspect that most quilters throw them away;  not Sue and her mother.  She had a big bag of these treasures and put them into this handwoven runner.  Some were thicker than others and you can still see the writing on some of them, which makes this piece all the more interesting.  Hooray for finding a creative use for the quilter's throw away!

Perfect Score Tapestry

 

Sue Habegger designed and wove this wonderful wall hanging.  At the Nevada County Fair, she won first prize in the wall hanging category - but even more impressive, Sue received a perfect score of 50 points out of a possible 50 points from the judge.

 

Sue has woven a similar piece and got the idea  of putting the flowers sideways from a table runner she saw in a magazine.  But, the flowers and colors are all her own.  A stunning piece - and a big congratulations to Sue.

Stunning chenille scarves and another simple draft

 Jackie showed our group a couple of chenille scarves she wove for a charitible auction.  These are sett at 20 epi.  Notice how she outlines the basketweave and twill with black lines giving the structures more emphasis. The top scarf was woven with an off white chenille weft and the bottom scarf was woven with black or charcoal chenille.

The draft used on both of these scarves is on our draft page at the bottom.  This is a very versatile draft - you can use it as Jackie has done with outlines around the various structures, or use different colored stripes.

 

 

 Jackie amazed all of us with the scarf on the right.  She thinks that the structure is M's and W's.  Click on this photo to bring up the original size so that you can see the detail.  This is woven with ring spun rayon - black and off white and the drape is amazing.  If you have Carol Strickler's A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, this is pattern 328-4

Simple Draft - Exciting Scarves

Take a close look at the details in the scarf with the supplementary warps.  One of the bumpy threads is a ribbon and the other right next to it looks like beads.  Dee Jones has been doing a series of scarves using supplementary warps with fancy yarns.  The draft can be found in Handwoven's Design Collection #15 "Sensational Scaves"  and is called "The Color Purple" . Dee moves the various elements of the draft around to vary the scarves. 

 In this scarf, you can see the slubby warp threads giving a nice little ikat effect.  Lots of supplemental warps in a variety of yarns.

 To the right is a rather narrow scarf.  Very delicate in color.  See the detail of the 2-2 twill stripe next to the supplemental warp stripes?  Since Dee warps one scarf at a time, the supplemental warps don't need separate weighting. If you were to weave several on one warp, you might have to add weights to them to keep the tension correct.

Another close up of one of Dee's scarves.  Where will it all end - we wonder? 

 Click here for the draft to weave your own.  (It is the last draft on the page).

Nevada County Fair

Not all of the Not 2 Square weavers put their handwovens in the fair - but many do. Thought everyone would love to see a glimpse of what was there and some of the nice awards people won.

Nevada County Inspiration Challenge

The Fair has come and is almost gone.  Eleven items were entered in the Nevada County Inspiration Division - most from members of the Not 2 Square group.  It was interesting to see how the entrants got their inspiration. 

Most people found a picture that captured some aspect of the County - usually a specific scene.  Others were inspired to use local plants to add color to their finished pieces. It was very impressive.  I hope that there will be more entries next year.

Here are the entries from our group.



Beryl's Shawl

The photos don't do justice to these pieces, but you can get an idea of how great they look.

Marcy's Towel

Gus' Towel

Dee's Scarves



Igor's Towel

Sharon's Towel

Ingrid's Towel





His and Her Weaving

Beryl and Igor hosted the August meeting of the Not 2 Squares a their home.  We met in the well-lit center of their house surrounded by their weaving equipment and projects.  They each have their own loom/work area on the main level.  There is a lot of light in this area - and a great view.

Igor's Loom

Beryl's loom warped with a shawl

Work/planning table

    

The couple are both accomplished inkle loom weavers. 

 On another level, Beryl has her AVL loom.  This is a dobby/computer controlled loom with 24 shafts.  This is where Beryl create many of her lovely and unique shawls and yardage. 

 This is also the stash room.  It looks like it would be a good place to shop for yarn...  Hmmmm

A Day at the Craft Fair

This past weekend, Beryl and Ingrid shared a both at the Nevada City Craft Fair. It was held in an old Foundry - hence the stone walls. There was a fair amount of natural light and the booth had it's own mirror.


The booth with the built-in mirror

There were about 40 different vendors, many with retro clothing.  There were crystals, jewelry, pottery and other interesting things too.


Beryl spinning on a drop spindle

The vendor next door sold children's clothing.  Ingrid's baby blankets made a nice back-drop.

A look at Beryl's shawls and scarves.  

A Bunch of Warped Weavers

Beryl, Diana and Dee examining the montly show and tell

A gaggle of geese - an exaltation of larks - a covey of quail.  I wonder what a flock of weavers might be called?  A warp of weavers? 

Our group loves to weave and we love looking at what others in our group are weaving.   This is why the non-study group idea seems to work for us.  There are no assignments to weave a certain structure, although we usually pick a topic or challenge for the year.   Our challenges come within ourselves as we talk about weaving and discuss what works and doesn't work for us.  We bring our failures and our successes and talk about both.

At our last meeting we discussed the problems of weaving with chenille.  Is there a way to get it on the bobbin or pirn without twisting?  Selvedge problems.  Do you sley your selvedge threads more closely or loosely than your warp?  Does the end-feed shuttle help get good selvedges?  Are these yarns cottolin?  Look at what happened when I used the bright yellow on this warp!  And the question
always on our lips - what sett did you use?

All the time during the examining of show and tell textiles, each weaver is thinking about how they might interpret this draft or where they might take the color scheme.  Maybe I can use up that shrieking yellow in my stash if I tone it down with subdued warp colors.  I'm going to try  chenille again and this time I'm going to sett it a whole lot closer.  Using calendar pictures as a color scheme is a great idea - I think I'll try it for a future warp.  This simple structure makes a fantastic looking shawl - maybe I've give the simple approach a try.

The Not 2 Square weavers invite all of our readers to start or join a weaving group.  See where it takes you personally in your weaving.  And most of all, see  if it doesn't expand your weaving in new and exciting ways.

Betsy's Weaving Area

The June meeting was hosted at Betsy's home in the woods. A very nice and cosy place. So too is her weaving space. There is lots of light.

 Betsy makes colorful shawls and other items.  I ran into her at the Farmer's Market on Saturday and got a preview of a newly woven shawl.  Very nice.  I hope she'll be at the July meeting to show it off.

Nevada County Inspiration

Fair time has arrived, or nearly so, in Nevada County.  This year the Not 2 Square Weavers decided that our weaving challenge for the year would be to weave something inspired by Nevada County (where most of us live).  We thought it such a good idea that we contacted the fair to see if we could sponsor a contest for fiber artisans.  They agreed and we collected money for a cash award ($50 from Not 2 Square Weavers & Banner Mountain Textiles) for the piece  the fair judge deems the best.

Here are the rules from the booklet. Division 1108  Use some aspect of Nevada County as an inspiration for a finished piece. This should be either woven from handspun or commercial yarn or hand knit using handspun yarn.  You could use a photo, calendar page, color of leaves or flowers in your back yard or neighborhood, some historical reference, etc.  Please accompany your entry with a photo or written description of the inspiration for your piece.

The contest is open to everyone, even if you aren't a resident of Nevada County, CA.   I have taken lots of photos in Nevada County over the past few years.  Here is my flickr site and anyone wanting to use one of my photos for inspiration may do so as long as they give me credit for the photo.

We are hoping that lots weavers and spinning knitters will participate and there will certainly be a blog post with photos of the entries after they have been judged and the fair opens on August 8th.

Marcy's Weaving Space

Last month we met at Marcy's. Great sharing and delicious cookies. 

    

 

Marcy is lucky enough to have a room dedicated to her weaving.  She's got a nice floor loom and accessories.   Although I think she needs more yarn in her stash.

   Marcy shared two pieces she wove as dresser scarves for her husband.  The patterns she used for the herringbone runner (second one shown below) are on pages 34 & 35 of Anne Dixon's book, The Handweaver's Pattern Directory . Horizontal herringbone, Broken 2/2 twill and Hopsack.