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.