Plaza Jacket, Ikat Top and Rag Rugs at our September meeting.

At Not 2 Square meetings, Dee is often the one who has a new garment to display.  Here we have her version of the  "Plaza Jacket" and Sue Robertson is the perfect model to show off its lines. We decided that this particular jacket shape is called a huipil, but the Sewing Workshop pattern has more width to it than the traditional blouse tops by that name.

Sue Habegger has made a top from  ikat yardage she had woven some time ago.  She experimented with the ikat dyeing technique while in collage using Lydia Van Gelder's book as a reference.  Notice how expertly she has placed the ikat stripes on both the front and the yolk of the top.






Jackie Hervey's ingenuity amazes us all.  She used alternating reds and greens in her rug warp.  Then she alternated picks of fabric with a pick of fine cotton.  This made all the green warps prominent on one side of the rug and the red warps on the other side. The pictures show the green side on the left and the red side on the right, in case your monitor didn't detect the difference!

 

There is more to come from September's meeting.  Stay tuned for another post soon.

Entries from the Fair

Several of our members entered woven items and handspun in the County Fair this year.  I realized I forgot to photograph the hand spun but here are the woven entries.  

Several items woven by Betsy, including two table runners, a rug, shawl and scarf.

 Dee submitted various items including yardage, a scarf, a jacket sewn by her daughter using Dee's woven yardage and a shawl.  One of her scarves won the "People's Choice" Award.

Diana's entries included a scarf and two towels.

Ingrid submitted a scarf and two towels.

Marcy entered a huck placemat and dresser scarf.

 

 Sue H exhibited her tablecloth and fiesta placemats.

Sue R entered an inkle band, small towel, small basket and a vest. 

Inspired by Our County

In the "Wool" Division at the County Fair, there is a section for handwoven or knitted / crocheted, etc. with handspun yarn items that were inspired by the County.  The exhibitor may look at native plants, scenic features, like the local river or other geological features.  In the past, native plant dyes were used to color yarn used in a woven piece. 

Diana's Table Runner

Three members of Not 2 Square submitted woven pieces inspired by plants and nature features of our beautiful County.

Diana's Table Runner was inspired by the Madrone tree.



Dee's scarf got it's look from local colors.




Ingrid's scarf attempted to bring to mind the Manzanita.

Dee's Scarf

Ingrid's Scarf

This has been a fun challenge to inspire us to create interesting items that showcase our County's beauty.



 

Pictoral Tutorial - Weaving placemats and napkins on the same warp

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that Sue Habegger used to sell placemats and matching napkins using a technique in which the placemats are on a dense warp of 30epi and the napkins are woven on the same warp at 15epi by using half the warp threads for the upper layer and half for the lower layer. 

 

Here is the process in pictures and the weaving draft is here. (4th draft from top)

Cones of cotton yarn for warp

Warp being wound on warping reel

Warp set up on loom - sleying the reed

Keeping the warp under control

Heddle threading half way done



Warp beam down for access to heddles

 

 

 

Warp wound on the warp beam

 

Tying warp to front beam

Placemat weaving begins.  Sue uses mop cotton for the weft and a plain weave tie up.

Layers separated for napkins (note one shuttle for each layer)

 

Close up of the two layers for napkins

Finished napkins and matching placemats.







Betsy's Rag Rugs

Betsy is off to Music Camp in Mendocino this week.  She has been very busy weaving rag rugs to take with her, hoping for a few side sales from people attending the music camp.  Betsy uses a rosepath threading and treadling in her rugs and I believe they are all woven on four shafts.  These rugs just eat up the cloth strips that Betsy cuts.  A great recycling idea for old clothing or sheets, but I think that Betsy may have used yardage for these rugs.

 

The rosepath pattern shows up clearly on this brilliant rug. A nice choice to dress up the music camp cabin or a bright spot to welcome guests to your tent.

 

 

 

 

Handwoven Table Cloth and More

 Sue Habegger has been working on this table cloth for several months.  She did a lot of careful calculations before she started the project and decided to weave it in three panels.  The colored stripes were warped using a warping paddle and there are several different yarns in the white stripes, giving it a wonderful texture.

The photo above is shown with the end piece of the table cloth folded back on itself.  The stripe (running from the bottom to top of photo) was cut from some of the yardage and sewed to the end.  The idea is that the table cloth can be used at its full length, or for a shorter table, the ends can be folded back as shown in the photo.


The pottery plate shown with the table cloth was responsible for the color scheme.  Sue says that the plates aren't exactly the same, but all have similar colors in their glazes.

 Sue did an almost invisible join when she assembled the three panels.  You can see the white stitching in the bottom photo which blends in so perfectly with the rest of the piece that you don't realize that the table cloth is in panels.  Talk about a stash busting project.

Sue also brought placemats that she had woven for her daughter and son-in-law.  Her daughter has a set of Fiesta ware and picked the color scheme she wanted for the place mats.  Sue sett them at 32 epi and used mop yarn for the weft.  She had two different sets; some woven with white cotton mop yarn and some woven with a rayon gold mop yarn.   I believe Sue said she put a cross at each end of a long warp, and then cut the warp in half and set the stripes side by side. 

 
 When Sue was selling her work, she used a technique in which she wove placemats on a dense warp (in this case 32epi) and then wove napkins in two layers on the same warp.  Want to try it?  Here is link to a PDF file about weaving double weave on four shafts.  Go to page 4 in the file for the written instructions and diagrams showing what is happening.  The draft for the separate layers is below.    Note that you are depressing two treadles on every other pick and using two shuttles. Also  double weave drafts never look like the cloth that they are weaving. The placemats are just woven in plain weave.