Saturday, May 29, 2010

Tops and Towels


Sometimes it's really amazing just how much mileage you can get out of a single threading and tie up.  At this month's meeting, Marcy brought towels she wove from Anne Dixon's book The Handweaver's Pattern Directory. The draft is Ms and Os on page 129.  This book is just full of fun stuff to weave on four shafts and I recommend it highly.  Marcy's towels were a delight and I'll bet she will use this draft again for future projects.


Sue finished up her fabric and top that was inspired by the Thiebaud painting, "Big Pond".  Check out the slide show in a previous post for an array of handwovens using this painting as a color and pattern inspiration.


In the detail, you can see that Sue sett some of her yarns more closely so that the stripes are more prominent.  She used a lovely soft spaced dyed chenille yarn for weft, alternating it with a finer cotton yarn so that the fabric is less dense than an all chenille weft would have made it.  The top features fringe detail at the neckline and is so luxurious and wearable.

See everyone again after next month's meeting!  Hopefully our rain and snow storms have ended and weather will no longer be a factor in where we meet!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Blankets and shawls

In part two of our May meeting items were some lovely blankets woven by Ingrid.  Ingrid has a stash of cotton yarns and is turning them into wonderful, soft baby blankets.  The colors are yellows, blues and soft greens in wonderful plaids and stripes.  For more views see Ingrid's blog post.

Gus brought a wonderful shawl that she wove using some handspun mohair, fine silk thread and a rayon chenille weft.  The structure is an 8 shaft twill; one side looks a bit different from the other side and both are lovely.  The shawl is very luxurious and long (I believe Gus said the warp was 3.25 yards long).
The shawl is destined for Shawlsunlimited - but maybe not before it gets shown around a bit!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

May Meeting


JoAnn wove this top which features a neckline that was loom shaped.  Getting the neckline just right as you are weaving the shoulders, can be tricky.  One suggestion was to trace around a commercial pattern's neckline and then use the curved shape above the neck as a guide while you weave the shoulders.  Since the center part of the warp wasn't being woven as JoAnn shaped the curve, she was able to use those unwoven threads as a decorative fringe.  Note the finish in the  detail photo.
I looked for a written source on shaping necklines on the loom, but couldn't come up with anything in the magazine indexes.  I did find instructions in an out of print book Weaving in Style which is available from several booksellers.

Dee had a couple of interesting things for show and tell.  The first piece is an off white shawl with a bit of gray/brown boucle threads for an accent in the warp. This is a two block twill giving the shawl an interesting texture.

Dee belongs to a wearable art group and their latest challenge was to make something from a Lois Ericson design for a meeting in which Lois herself will be present.  This vest is handwoven wool with decorative ribbon applique and a bright green lining that Dee decorated with a gold scribble pen. Note the interesting seam finish on the right side of the photo below.