June is Busting Out All Over

Summer - or at least something that appears much like it, has arrived.  We had our June meeting at Sue R's home this month and greeted new member, Betsy, to our group. 

 

Sue started the ball rolling by sharing a twined rug she had purchased from a man whose art is usually quilts.  However, he had fabrics he didn't think much of and put them into a twined rug.  It was a very sturdy, thick rug and must have weighed 6 or 7 pounds.  We were all interested in the twining process and found that there is a book by Bobby Irwin called Twined Rag Rugs which details the process and shows you how to make your own simple loom.  Many people use the technique to make rugs from old clothing that is too worn to give to a thrift store, or even fabric you have never found a use for.

Sue also had some knitted wool blanks that she had purchased and dyed.  She has a good technique to get two blanks that are dyed in an identical manner.  She lays one on top of the other and then stamps the dye in with stencil brushes, turning over the two blanks together to paint the other side once the top is saturated.  She hasn't decided if she will knit or weave with the yarn once it has been unravelled.

On another dyeing note, Betsy brought two scarves woven from the  same warp.  She painted a Merino wool warp chain at a friend's dyeing party and then  used a gold colored tencel to weave a variety of twill structures for three different scarves. One scarf has already found a new home (lucky recipient), but the remaining two are shown in this photo.

Ingrid has been weaving  towels with an interesting  12/2 cotton/linen blend thread.  She used an M & O's draft sett at 24 epi.  There are more pictures and information at her blog post.

  All those nooks and crannies in the cloth should make for an excellent tea towel.

Ingrid is also a big double weave fan and has taken several workshops over the years with well known weaving teachers.  She brought a sampler from a workshop (on the left) and also a sampler of her own (on the right) to show the number of different color variations and patterns you can weave on a two block double weave draft.  You can find instructions for something similar in A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns - chapter 22. These are neat pieces for an in depth color study in double weave.

There's more meeting show and tell in the next post.  Stay tuned!