Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Bengala Mud Dye Project


 

 Diana A. shared her Bengala Mud Dye Project with the Not 2 Square weavers at our monthly Zoom meeting.

 
She wound off 9 skeins of 8/2 cotton and 9 skeins of 8/2 bamboo in the 9 colors included in the Bengala Dye Kit, for a total of 18 skeins which are each about 300 yards.  She used the pre-fixer included with the dyes on the skeins before they were dyed.

 Diana says that the yarns that appear blue in the photo, are actually shades of gray.  This shows up better in the next photo of the yarns wound into balls and onto cones.





Diana learned several things from her dye project.


1. Make sure the pre-fixer saturates all parts of the yarn.

2. Use enough dye to get the color you want.

3. Cotton absorbs the dye better than bamboo.  Silk hardly absorbs any dye.  See the photo of the silk scarf she dyed using resist methods described on the Loop of the Loom site.

Diana has plans for some possible weaving projects using her newly dyed yarns.

A set of 6 random-striped napkins from the cotton yarns, using a neutral weft.  From the bamboo yarns, she has in mind a striped warp and a commercially dyed weft.

We hope Diana shares her projects with us at future meetings so that we can add them to this post.

Monday, June 22, 2020

Pandemic Weaving

Not 2 Square Weavers have been meeting monthly for many years.  All of a sudden, the pandemic put all of that to an end, at least for the foreseeable future.  So, like many other groups, we have reverted to Zoom meetings.  

The first few meetings were a bit strange because we are used to passing around our month's work, asking questions and feeling the textiles with our hands. But, after several meetings now, we are getting used to the new format and still want to share what we are doing with other weavers.

This month, Diana shared a stunning scarf with us.  She delved into the world of supplementary warp and used a pattern from an older issue of Handwoven. 

Here is her description and a photo of that scarf.

Structure
Ground Warp- plain weave and Atwater-Bronson lace
Supplementary Warp - Overshot

Fiber
Ground warp:  8/2 rayon in pale yellow and natural
Supplementary warp:  20/2 rayon doubled, in teal
Weft:  8/2 rayon in pale yellow

Sett
24epi (48epi in supplementary warp areas)

Finished size
8 1/4" W x 73"L + fringe

Notes
When winding the warp, add at least 20% more in length to the supplementary warp than you have wound for the ground warp.


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Ingrid has been weaving scarves, and like Diana, is trying out new weaving ideas.

Here’s a picture of the new scarf.  It was woven with 10/2 tencel from Just Our Yarns (different color-ways for the warp and weft), sett at 36 epi.  The structure is an 8-point M’s twill, the tie-up is 2-2-1-1-1-1- twill.  It wove up beautifully, didn’t shrink much and felt nice and soft after a gentle machine wash and laying flat to dry.

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Wendy-Marie has moved out of the area, but the fun thing about Zoom is that she can again participate in Not 2 Square.  This month she had a couple of adventures to share.

"This month I worked on a scarf based on Sarah Jackson's "Brasberry Scarf," (Handwoven, May/June 2019).  Since she used analogous colors and I did not, I was not sure how it would turn out.  But the blocks came out fine.  In the Jackson pattern, the weft changes color 4 times, and the blocks expand as the scarf progresses.  I think I will re-do using only one weft color and only one block size.

My second project was a boundweave rug based on Wendy Bestor's design, but not her colors.  This uses Collingwood rug wool (900 ypp).  I found it came out better for the weft if I wound three threads of wool together on the bobbin than to throw the yarn three times in one shed as suggested by the pattern.  I did not achieve anything like 14 ppi, so ran out of warp.  My weaving buddies tell me this is because I was using my Baby Wolf and suggest that I weight the beater next time round.  Despite a number of weaving errors (including accidental asymmetry), I like this rug a lot.  It is very attractive and sturdy."





Saturday, May 30, 2020

Circles and Rectangles

My offering this month is based on Susan Poague’s “Circles and Checks Towels in Turned Taqueté” in the May/June 2019 issue of Handwoven. I used the yarns I had in my stash rather than those she suggested, but I did alternate blues and green as she does, with a neutral Birch color substituted for her Natural. The yarn is 8/2 unmercerized cotton, sett is  24 ppi. - Wendy-Marie T.

 




Thursday, May 28, 2020

Bobbin Storage Solution



These photos show the bobbin rack that Diana's husband made for her as a Christmas present. It actually took the coronavirus lockdown for him to get around to making it in April, but no problem, she has it now!

Diana designed the rack to fit on a shelf (shelf space is very scarce due to an overabundant stash of yarn). It is made of 1” thick pine 11” x 12” and holds 90 ¼” dowels 1 ¼” apart. Photo A shows the board drilled with 90 holes. Photo B is Joe inserting, gluing, and tapping the dowels in with a rubber mallet. Photo C shows the completed rack, and D is the rack loaded with bobbins.

 

Diana no longer has a basket of bobbins all tangled up, and she can easily see if she has a bobbin already loaded with a yarn she needs.


Saturday, May 23, 2020

Sue Habbeger

This week, Not 2 Square lost one of our former members, Sue Habbeger.  Sue graduated from Chico State, having studied weaving while she was there.  Later she moved to Española, New Mexico and studied the Chimayo style of weaving.  She built her own loom and did a lot of tapestry type weaving.  She was a talented potter and weaver and won many awards for her beautiful work.  She was actively engaged in progressive causes and was particularly passionate about protecting the environment.

She will be missed by her family, friends and the weaving community in Nevada County. 

A retrospective of her work can be viewed at this link:  https://youtu.be/u-v0vYAaZCE .

Ruana
Jacket