2013 - A Year of Weaving Explorations

     

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Lap Robes for Holiday Cheer

 

It's Holiday Cheer time again in Nevada County.  Each year the visiting nurses in this county collect Christmas gifts for their homebound patients.  For the past few years, the Not 2 Square weavers have been putting together lap robes to help warm the heart and the body!   This year there were a total of 10 lap robes, several knit hats and a knit scarf in our donation bag.  What follows are photos of some of the lap robes donated this year.

 

Dee Jones wove the striped material in both of these quilted covers.  She artfully combined a variety of commercial fabrics with her own hand woven to make generous sized lap robes.  There will be a couple of very happy folks when the nurses deliver these.

Diana Abrell wove the overshot top of this lovely blanket.  It is lined with a striped material and bound with satin binding.  Diana then secured the quilt with ties.

Igor Raven wove this lap robe double width on his Baby Wolf loom.  The binding was woven by Beryl Moody to match the throw.

Ingrid Knox donated three lap robes this year.  Pictured  are two of them.  Ingrid used a variety of yarns in beautifully designed stripe combinations.  All of her lap robes are easy care and will keep their recipients warm and cozy this holiday season.

Jackie Hervey wove this two block 3/1 twill throw from a variety of rayon yarns in her stash.  It is a nice weight and lays very comfortably over lap and knees.  Don't you love the color contrast between the two sides?

Members of the Not 2 Square group often donate items to older teenagers in foster care as well as this Holiday Cheer project.  We find it is a great way to work down the stash, try out new ideas and techniques and give back to the community.

Another First Project

I realized that I forgot to include one of our member's first project in the previous posts.  Sue Habegger shared her first sampler.  It is a twill sampler.  She used different twill patterns (and colors) across the piece.  The sampler was woven using the different twill patterns and different colors.

 

Sue's Sampler

Sampler details

 

This kind of sampler is a great way to see how different twills look when they are threaded one way and woven with a different twill.  It can also be used to look at different color interlacements.

 

 

 

 

 

A Very Special Baby Blanket

Jackie needed to weave a special blanket for a member of her family who was having her first baby.  Since the couple wanted the sex of their baby to be a surprise, the mother was requesting pastel colored items that would suit either sex. 

 

In my stash, I had a five pound cone of heavy, white cotton chenille, won as a door prize at CNCH 2007.   I offered it to Jackie to use as much as she needed for a couple of baby blankets.

 

Jackie dyed some of the chenille yellow and used a pale yellow cotton warp. 

Jackie found a blanket she wanted to use in Favorite Scandinavian Projects to Weave by Tina Ignell.  On page 94 is a Heart Blanket with Weft Loop Patterning.  Then she looked online and located a giraffe photo which she converted to a graph to make her loop pick up design, rather than the heart shown in the project. She alternated the white and yellow chenille when weaving the blanket - I believe that the border loops were yellow and the giraffe was white. Sadly for the weaving group, the baby shower had passed and all Jackie had to show was a photo of her blanket and a couple of small samples.

 

Because the book mentioned above is very expensive now, I tried to find another resource for the weft loop patterning technique.  I couldn't find anything, but if readers of this blog know of one I hope they will share it. Here is a tip; Jackie said that the weft loop patterning had to be done in short lengths at a time because wrapping over a long dowel made it next to impossible to pull out the dowel to leave the loops.  I believe she used a series of shorter dowels to make the process manageable.

 

 

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.