County Fair 2024

The County Fair has come and gone with lots of activity from the local fiber artists including Not  Square members. We will give you a glimpse of what our members entered this year.

Mary wove these California Quail towels for the fair.

She says, "The desire to weave cute quail led me down the path of understanding and drafting single two-tie unit weave. It also led me to a 32-shaft compudobby loom! This quail towel was woven with a 10/2 unwaxed cotton warp, 8/2 unmercerized pattern weft and 20/2 cotton ground weft. The sett was 20 end per inch which provides a nice hand in the “summer and winter” structure."

Ingrid & Mary entered a collaborative project - a scarf woven by Ingrid with Mary's handspun merino yarn.  The sett was 15 epi.  For the warp, Ingrid used a 20/2 tussah silk yarn.

Mary & Ingrid's Collaborative Scarf

Ingrid entered several other woven items into the fair this year.  She entered two twill towels woven with 10/2 cotton set at 30 epi on 8 shafts.

Ingrid's Twill Towel

Ingrid's Twill Towel

There was a lap robe woven with cotton for the warp and an acrylic/wool blend for the weft in plain weave.  And a plain weave baby blanket with cotton for warp and acrylic for the weft as well.

Ingrid's Lap Robe

Ingrid's Baby Blanket

She entered three scarves other than the collaboration project.  One was woven in plain weave with merino/silk yarn in the warp and a silk weft.  

Ingrid's Silk/Wool Scarf

The second scarf was 8/2 Tencel for the warp and weft that she dyed.  It was sett at 30 epi and the structure was an extended twill.  The inspiration for the color scheme and scarf structure was the Yuba River.

The third scarf was woven using 10/2 Tencel sett at 36 epi.  The structure was an extended point twill woven on 8 shafts.  The weft was also 10/2 Tencel.

Ingrid's Tencel River Inspired Scarf

Ingrid's Tencel Scarf

We'll continue this on a later post.

County Fair Part 2

The next two members' entries we would like to highlight are from Mardi and Marcy.

Mardi entered a baby blanket, napkins, table runner, a shawl, two towels and a caplet knit using hand-spun yarn.

Mardi Baby blanket

Mardi Caplet knitted with hand-spun

Mardi Napkins

Mardi Table runner

Mardi Shawl

Mardi Towel

Mardi Towel

Marcy also entered two items: a scarf and a towel.

Marcy Scarf

Marcy's towel

There will be more members entries later. 

It's Fair Time Again

If it's August, it must be Nevada County Fair time.  Many of the Not 2 Square members entered their spun, woven or knitted items into the Wool, Fibers and Textiles Section.  We are lucky enough to display in a nice cool, clean building rather than one of the other open buildings.  (They were not quite barns, but they sometimes felt like it.)

In this post, we are featuring Ingrid and Sue's entries.  

Ingrid entered nine items this year.  

She entered two baby blankets.  These are from different warps, but are made in a similar way.  The warp is a mixed warp of different cotton yarns, in varying thicknesses.  The purple warp has more similar sized yarns that the green/yellow one.  The weft is a synthetic blend.  These are both woven in plain weave.  The variegated colors really bring interest to the otherwise plain weave structure.

Baby Blanket

Baby Blanket

Ingrid's next items are two scarves.  They are both woven using Malibrego yarn but are from different warps.  Both scarves are threaded to an advancing twill on eight shafts.  One is woven with a 2-2-3-1 tie up and the other a 2-1-1-1-2-1 tie up.

Scarf

Scarf

She also entered two shawls.  These are woven from Mountain Colors yarns.  The purple is wool and merino and the orange/gold shawl is wool and alpaca.  The structures are both an extended point twill with a 1-1-2-1-1-2 tie up.  

Shawl

Shawl

Ingrid also submitted two towels for judging.  One (on the right) is a twill in 10/2 cotton.   It has an irregular point twill design. The second is a turned twill design woven using cottolin.   Full information about this towel can be found at Ingrid's blog:  https://foothillweaving.blogspot.com/2017/03/poker-challenge-turns-to-twills.html

Weaver's Poker Towel

Twill Towel

Finally, Ingrid entered a scarf in the Nevada County Inspiration Division.  This category challenges the entrant to create a piece that is inspired by something in the County.  Ingrid chose Fire as her inspiration.    

This scarf is woven with sock yarn, sett at 15 epi.  he structure is an extended point twill with a tie up that is almost a 2/2 twill.

Nevada County Inspiration Scarf

Sue entered two items in this year's Fair.

The first is a towel. 

The second is a inkle band.

Stay tuned for more Fair entries from the Not 2 Square members.

Last But Not Least

The last two Not 2 Square members who entered items in the Fair are Mardi and Ingrid. They needed their own post because they were both pretty prolific this year.  

Mardi entered a wide variety of items: handspun skeins; woven basket; felted vessel; and some woven pieces.  

Mardi's Felted Vessel

Mardi's Nevada County Inspired Table Runner

Mardi's Scarf with Dyed Warp

Mardi's Scarf

Mardi's Potato Basket

Mardi's Handspun Skein

Mardi's Handspun Skein 2

Ingrid had woven entries and a felted vessel.

Ingrid's Baby Blanket

Ingrid's Felted Vessel

Ingrid's Scarf

Ingrid's Merino/Alpaca Shawl

Ingrid's Towel

Ingrid's Towel 2

Ingrid's Table Runner

Ingrid's Mountain Colors Shawl

Ingrid's Nevada County Inspired Yuba River Scarf

That's it for this year's entries.    

Additional Fair Results

Here are more Nevada County fair entries.  The previous post had information about Wendy-Marie's Ferris Wheel scarf.  In addition she entered a bag and Mobius shawl and contributed to two collaboration bags made from bands.  She also submitted a rug. 
 
The bag was made from a tapestry piece by Wendy-Marie.  She used yardage from Beryl - both handwoven and commercially made (the lining is recycled from a kimono) and a kumihimo band. 
 

Bag with materials from various sources

 

Collaboration Bag I

 

Collaboration Bag II

 
Wendy-Marie was the guiding force behind three bags made mostly from back-strap or other woven bands.  She sewed the blue/green one on the right.
 
 

Ferris Wheel Scarf

 

Mobius Shawl

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Mobius shawl was woven using rayon chenille for warp and weft and ribbon in a plain weave pattern.  Once woven, it a seam was sewn to attach the ends. 

Wendy-Marie's last piece is a rug.  She wove this as part of a class with Jason Collingwood.  It's a first place winner.

Wendy-Marie's Rug

 
Marcy added several piece in the Fair as well. She had a baby blanket, two towels and a scarf.
 
The blanket was a mix warp.  There was a little boucle sparkle that gives it a little shine.  She also entered a scarf that is woven in a twill design in wool.
 


Marcy's Baby Blanket


 

Marcy's Scarf

 

Marcy's Towel I

 

 

Marcy's Towel II



Marcy's Towel II - detail  

 

 

The two towels were woven on the same warp, just using different weft colors. 

 

There are more entries that we will be posting, so stay tuned.