Towel Exchange

We had a tea towel exchange at the December meeting.  Members that wanted to participate brought a selection of their handwoven towels and  came home with the same number from friend's looms.  It's a wonderful way to remember good weaving friends when you use their towels, year after year.

This year it seemed that lots of people had twill blocks in mind but you can see that there was a great variety in the twill block interpretation.    Hard to choose when it came time for picking!



Dee's twill blocks in shades of green purple and coral



Ingrid's color and texture towels on the left  - and Beryl's twill blocks on the right



Jackie's twill block towels

Betsy sold most of her towels at craft sales, but brought  this violet/blue and coral towel

Mardi had a variety - waffle weave, color gamps
and a sweet baby blue towel

Margie did borders on most of her towels.  The wefts were a variety of cottons and cotton/linen.

Marcy's plaids and stripes

Wendy-Marie's elaborate twill block towels

Handwoven towels.  What a wonderful way to start the holidays. 

September Meeting Part III

Mardi has been experimenting with waffle weave and towels.  She bought a towel kit from Halcyon Yarns that included 8/2 yarn for 4-shaft waffle weave towels. 

Two waffle weave towels

 

 

Three towels and small sample of weft

She wasn't wild about the colors but has enjoyed experimenting.


 

                                                                                                      

Dee brought in several scarves she wove in the month preceding the meeting.  Not all of the pictures turned out, so here is a sampling:

 

The warp for several of the scarves were dyed on Dye day that the guild sponsors.


Dee also brought in some towels she wove with 8/2 cotton and carpet warp.

 

Dee brought a finished bag.  It is made with cottolin and cotton yarns.  The border is sari silk.

These photos weren't the best and the background of carpet didn't really help to do justice to these nice pieces.  Hopefully our regular reporter will be back at October's meeting.

September Meeting Part II - Towels

Here's more from our meeting last month.  Jackie decided to weave some towels since she hasn't woven any in a while.  She used 10/2 cotton sett at 24 epi to create a ton of towels using a classic two block twill from Carol Strickler's 8-shaft book.

She was able to get a broad variation in these towels by using different weft colors and varying the vertical size of the blocks. 
 

 

Jackie also shared a scarf she wove with cotton, silk and rayon yarns with random colors across the warp.  It was woven in plain weave. 

Wendy-Marie shared her 4-shaft herringbone towels.  These were woven mostly with 8/2 cotton and cottolin. 

These are in beautiful colors and each towel looks really different.  Here's some detailed pictures:

All of these towels would be a great addition to anyone's home.  Nice work!

September Meeting - Part I

We had an interesting meeting in September.  Unfortunately our usual photographer/reporter wasn't there, so it falls to me (Ingrid).  Because life always gets in the way, this is a bit late and will be drawn out over several blog posts. 

Diana shared nine different squares of fabric she wove in preparation for doing a collaborative project with a quilting friend for the Holiday Cheer lap robe project for December.  She was inspired by an article in the January/February 2004 issue of Handwoven magazine.  These squares are all woven in Spot Bronson.  She used 10/2 cotton sett at 24 epi for the warp.  She used 3/2, 5/2 cotton and sewing thread for the weft.  The fabric was woven upside down to ease the treadling.  Below are all of the nine different patterns.  Although the treadling is different for each, Diana only used two tie ups for all nine designs.

Sue H has been working to make curtains for her home.  In an effort to use up existing materials and not have to buy new yarn, she found some fabric she wove several years ago.  She did weave 8 yards of the cotton trim fabric - used to create the loops for the rod - with what she called a pico edge. 

 

More from our talented members soon...

Dee Jones and Her Bounty of Fair Entries

There is nothing quite as nice as a collaboration between two textile artisans.  The lovely prize winning scarf with yarn spun by Sue Flynn and woven by Dee Jones is draped around a special jacket woven and sewn by Dee Jones.

Dee wove this shawl with April and Forsythia in mind for the Nevada County Inspired category.  She knitted a special loopy trim to finish off her asymmetrical garment.

Dee spun textured purple yarn for these two inspired scarves.  The left photo is a knitted lace and the second photo shows the yarn used as weft in a twill design.

Dee always makes the best bags and this year she really got inspired with her long handled tote shown on the left and upper right (with a blue ribbon).  The story is that she wove what is now the handle of the bag as a scarf.  Finding the fabric too stiff to use as she originally intended, she turned it into the long, over the shoulder strap for her tote and finished up with a row of beads!  The bottom purse has lovely details of beads and a special button closure.

Then, there are all the rest of Dee's entries - most of which received blue ribbons.  Clockwise from the upper left is a supplementary warp design that Dee loves to make in all varieties.  Her twill towel is woven with 50% linen and won the blue in the bast fiber category.  The shawl is elegant and warm - another blue ribbon winner.  And finally on the right corner is some bright red yardage that Dee wove with a top in mind.  Now she is thinking maybe another shawl -- we shall see what kind of magic touches she will add!

Nevada County Inspired ... and more!

 For the past few years, Not 2 Square Weavers have been giving a cash prize for the best "Nevada County Inspired" textile.  This year's winner is Ingrid Knox with this gorgeous shawl woven from Nevada County alpaca yarns.  Some of the yarn came from a ranch Ingrid and her husband found while  out "garage sale-ing" and the light colored yarn came from Lola's Loom (BJ Forester's alpaca herd)  The design is threaded M&W's and the tie up is a twill. 

Now for the rest of Ingrid's entries.  (She was pretty busy this year)
Scarves - sock yarn for warp and weft, woven in plain weave



 

Handspun scarf - Mardi Nayton's handspun Merino yarn for warp and alpaca for the weft. 8-shaft point twill with a 2-2-1-1-1-1 tie-up

Left photo:  Baby blanket - mixed cotton warp woven with synthetic baby yarn in the same twill 2-2-1-1-1-1 as is done in the SF towel.
Right photo:  Summer Shawl - Mixed warp and a slubby cotton weft (Cotton Kisses from Plymouth). Structure is plain weave. 


 

Left photo: Rosepath towel - 10/2 natural cotton warp and a 10/2 variegated cotton weft. 8-shaft rosepath design

Right photo: San Francisco Towel - 10/2 perle cotton for warp and weft. 8-shaft point twill  tied-up as a 2-2-1-1-1-1

 

Stay tuned for our last fair post -- coming in a few days!







Transforming One Warp into Several Fair Entries

Sue R entered several items in the "Wool, Fibers and Textiles" Division of the County Fair - a bag, table runner and "recycled textile".  They were made from a long (8 yard) warp she wove using selvedges she got from other quilters. 

 

The Eight Yard Textile

 

The weft for the recycled textile was the instructions found at the edges of fabric for a cloth book.  Other quilters wanted the parts of the fabric with the pictures, leaving the printed words.  Sue used them to weave this cloth. 

 

Sue's Recycled Textile

 

 

The table runner used a bright red cloth with black and white accents as weft.

 

  

Sue's Table Runner

 

 

 

Sue sewed this bag using part of the long warp.  To her, it was reminiscent of the ocean.  This bag was lined and finished with a strap.  A nice second place finisher. 

 

Sue's Bag