Weaving at the County Fair

 With things looking a bit more like normal, the Not 2 Square weavers have been showing off their woven projects at the local county fair.  Here are the entries for some of our members.

SueV entered three scarves and a hand towel.  The brighter, striped scarf used hand spun yarn that Sue had spun several years ago.  

Sue V's Scarf

Sue V's Scarf

Sue V's Scarf with Handspun Yarn

Sue V's Towel

SueR entered two pieces.  One was a table runner woven from warp left over from a demonstration at the 2019 fair.  The other is a loom bench pad.  It is rep weave that include some pick up.  Sue R used fabric scraps for the weft.

Sue R's Table Runner

Sue R's Loom Bench Pad

Mary entered two project woven using the split shed technique and a plaited twill towel.

Mary's Morse Code Wall Hanging

Mary's Quail Wall Hanging 

Mary's Plaited Twill Towel

There are more entries that will be in later posts.  Stay Tuned!

Highlights from the County Fair

The Local County Fair has come and gone.  The weaving and spinning entries were amazing as usual.  Many of the Not 2 Square members entered beautiful pieces again this year.  Here are the highlights.

Betsy captured the People's Choice award with a beautiful shawl made from hand-dyed tencel.

Betsy's Shawl

Diana garnered an Honorable Mention with her bright and fun turned taquete towels made with 10/2 and 8/2 cotton.  

Diana's Towel

Ingrid submitted a shawl woven from Madeline Tosh merino yarns.  This was woven in an 8-shaft extended twill pattern.

Ingrid's Shawl

Jeanne won a second place ribbon with this elegant hand towel.  She wove it with 40/2 Normandy linen with Lanis Valley Linen as the pattern.

Jeanne's Towel

Karen won a first place ribbon with a fabulous wool rug.  

Karen's Rug

Marcy's classic dresser scarf, woven in cotton with M's and W's pattern won a second place ribbon.

Marcy's Table Runner

Mardi's show stopping shawl was woven in plain weave with rayon chenille.  It feels as fabulous as it looks.

Mardi's Shawl

Sue R. woven a colorful table runner from the warp left over from last year's demonstration project.  She used bleach to remove color from black yarn for the weft.  This inventive piece was a first place finisher.

Sue R's Table Runner

Sue V.'s yardage entry brought her a second place ribbon.  This cotton piece woven in a twill design used a variety of yarns from Sue's stash.

Sue V's Yardage

We are starting to look ahead to what we will be weaving for next year's fair entries.

If it's August, it Must be Time for the County Fair

The second week in August is a busy time here in Nevada County.  The local fiber guild is responsible for setting up and managing the woven, spun, felted and handspun made entries.  Members of Not 2 Square did their part and entered their fiber exhibits.  Wendy-Marie entered two scarves and a shawl.  

The top scarf was woven and then enhanced with fabric paint and a stencil to create the leaf pattern.

Wendy-Marie's shawl was designed using a musical score and assigning colors and widths of stripes based on the music.

Sue V entered a number of items.  There were two sets of napkins (top pictures) and two towels (bottom pictures).

Her Nevada County Inspiration piece was designed with local river salmon in mind.

Sue also wove a scarf using the "snake skin" pattern featured in Handwoven magazine.  

This is just the beginning of the entries.  More to come in later posts.

Towel Bonanza



Around Christmas, Not 2 Square Weavers seem to be finishing up on towel warps.  Why - because they make such good gifts.  One size fits all and the amazing variety of choices is just so much fun to weave. 

At our December meeting, we held true to our usual offerings.  The green and purple towel below was woven by Eileen.  It is a two block broken twill design.  The warp and weft are 10/2 mercerized cotton and the towel is very light weight - although the sett was 32 epi.  Eileen thought it too "whimpy" but most of us thought it was great for drying glassware or other delicate items.  Gorgeous colors.  We will have to break out the McMorran Yarn Balance to test the yd/lb of her yarns from Lunatic Fringe and compare them to other 10/2 mercerized cottons we have.

Marcy had finished another warp on this two block twill threading.  She has found the joys of tying on to an old warp and weaving another colorway.  This time the towel warp was a burnt orange and gray.  Look at what happened when she used a white weft and then a navy weft.  The glory of neutrals and the geometric design just sings in both of these towels.  This pattern has been featured here before and is from Strickler's book on 8 shaft weaving.  The draft is #228 if you happen to own the book.  

 Marcy had also been busy on the loom weaving overshot runners. There was some warp left over and she did this striped beauty, and changed around the overshot motifs.  Great idea and a good use for the end of that warp.

 

 Mardi told a story as she showed us her towels woven on her old Leclerc loom.  She said she had always had problems with getting even tension across the whole warp.  When she went to the Vavstuga school a few months ago, she asked the instructors there to give her advice. Their answer was to use a temple.  Mardi warped up the loom, and woven this stunning stripe and plaid set.  The temple helped tremendously and her selvedges are perfect.  What a great feeling to have conquered this common weaving problem.

Marjorie brought in some woven items from several years ago, including this gorgeous hemstitched towel.  Love the color and the detail on this one.  The towel also has some huck patterning.

 

 Sue V. went to the Weaver's School on Whidbey Island this past spring.  Sue hasn't been weaving recently, and wanted to get her weaving mojo back so she took the beginning class.  The first photo is of the sample she wove in class with the huck lace design and a frame of stripes and plaid.

So Sue took inspiration from her woven sample and designed a towel warp specifically for a husband who doesn't always make sure his hands are perfectly clean when he uses the towel.  The towels are a beautiful red clay color - just like the soil here in Nevada County.  Sue used the same framing stripes, a huck design and made the towels just a bit longer than usual so that they hang around the handle of her refrigerator.  Stunning towels - and one would never know if a bit of red clay smudge got on them or not!

There's more to show from this meeting, so stay tuned for part two of our December meeting show and tell