A Challenge for 2023 Part 2

You don't need a challenge for a weaver to want to "shake things up".  What follows are interpretations of the same threading draft and the weaver's comments about their take on the challenge. As expected, no two experiments are the same.

I've taken some of the text posted on the display board from the fair and added a few thoughts of my own.

The Basics of Weaving
The patterns for weaving come from three components: the threading, tie-up and treadling.  Any combination of those three items will affect the outcome of the woven item.  In each example, the threading was kept the same or enlarged for the project, but the tie up and sometimes the treadling was changed.  In the five works, see if you can pick out what is the same and what is different. 

Mardi Naythons
Since this was the first time that I worked with advancing and point twill together, I decided to use the original threading as noted.  It is a smaller sample because of that.  It has only 396 threads.  The treadling is tromp-as-writ.  The one thing that I did do to make it somewhat mine was to make an ice dyed warp in sections.  I tried to make the outer areas the same and I jogged the middle section in the dye bath so that it would be different.

Ingrid Knox
I took the original threading and extended it to the width I needed for a towel.  I created two different random stripe patterns for the two areas with different threading designs.  The tie-up is a 1-1-1-1-2-2 pattern.  This towel used a tromp-as-writ treadling – that means I used treadles that mirrored the threading.  The towel was woven using 10/2 cotton for the warp and weft.  The sett is 30 epi.

Jeanne Doty
There were so many weaving possibilities in this weaving draft.  Beryl Moody provided us with 37 different tie ups.  Since it was difficult to choose just one, I chose 5 and made a scarf instead of 5 towels.  It was fun to see these different drafts right next to each other.  The warp was maroon 8/2 tencel with a lemon green 8/2 tencel weft.  Each draft made changes to the color play, some bringing the warp color forward while another draft would bring the weft color forward.

Wendy-Marie Teichert
What was fun about this project was seeing how much variety could be achieved simply by changing the tie-up. I experimented with different weft colors – light purple, light yellow, blue and rose – to contrast with the dark purple warp. In retrospect, I think the weavings would have been more successful if I’d kept the weft color constant and varied the warp colors instead.

Beryl Moody
Weavers are always looking for a way to express their own ideas in the items they choose to weave.  This weaving draft was ripe for an adventure.  Having woven it nineteen years ago in a rather straightforward manner, I was thinking about what changes I could make this time around.  

I decided that if I were to alternate colors in certain sections of the warp and then weave that warp with alternating colors this could change the appearance of the final textile, yet have it retain some of the original design.  This method (in weaver's vernacular) is called color-and-weave. Where there are alternating color changes they tend to obscure the original design and give you something with an entirely new look.  The towel I wove is a combination of the original draft showing through, along with sections of color interplay that distort that original pattern. 

Here is a photo of one of the original towels woven 19 years ago.  It is tromp-as-writ and resembles a ripe banana - thus the addition of the fruit!

 

More County Fair Entries

There are more beautiful entries to see.

SueH wove the fabric for this coat and knitted the bias trim.  Jill, the daughter of our late member, Dee Jones, did the tailoring.   The fabric for the coat won a first prize for yardage at the Nevada County Fair in 2011.

Beryl has been busy using her 40-shaft loom.  (I am so jealous!)  She wove a towel and table runner on this loom.  She used the techniques in the Echo and Iris book by Marian Stubenitsky.

She also entered a shibori shawl. The weave structure is plain weave, 6/2 bamboo. After the pulling threads were gathered, the piece was painted three different times to get varying layers of color.

Beryl's Shabori Shawl

Another of Beryl's shibori pieces was a scarf.  This scarf incorporated a polyester weft.  She steam finished it so that the pleats would be permanent.  

Beryl's Shibori Scarf

Beryl's last piece is a scarf woven using her handspun cotton yarn.  Beryl incorporated some Brooks Bouquet embellishments at the ends.  

Beryl's Handspun Cotton Scarf

Igor entered the Nevada County Inspired category with a coffee shop inspired scarf.  We have many coffee shops in the area and this bead leno piece, woven on 4 shafts is a nice representation.  The straws for the bead leno technique were acquired from local cafes and coffee was inspiration for the mocha colored yarn.

Igor's Nevada County Inspired Scarf

Igor also entered a 3-shaft scarf.  With only 3 shafts, the colors of the yarns bring the interest to the piece.

Last but certainly not least is Igor's first place shawl and Best of Weaving Division shawl.  This lovely Japanese inspired piece is truly a winner.  For more details, check out Banner Mountain Textile's blog: http://bannermountaintextiles.blogspot.com/2016/02/igors-japanese-inspired-shawl.html

Igor's Shawl

There are more entries to show off, so stay tuned.  

Weaver's Poker - Beryl's Hand

It seems like a very long time ago that we all got together and pulled our poker hand from a series of 5 bags (structure, yarn, design element, color and color relationship) We were allowed to discard one card which left us with four items to incorporate in a woven piece.

Initially, my hand looked pretty workable. 
Structure - gamp
Yarn - silk
Design Element - To look ancient or faded (discarded)
Color - green
Color Relationship - Triad Complement (in my case purple and orange to go with the given color of green)

As the months went by, however, I struggled with a couple of the items.  Silk and "to look ancient or faded"  I really didn't want to use silk and then deliberately fade it with a chemical of some sort.  And then, there was the question of not wanting to buy any more yarns for this project - so I added the constraint of using what was currently in my stash. 

I toyed back and forth between using cotton and fading it with a discharge or dipping into my silk stash which I'm rather picky about saving for something special.  Finally, when rummaging around in my silk box, I found several cones of some rough silk that I had purchased from Robin and Russ, many years ago.  Frankly, it didn't look or feel much like silk.  I had a cone each of a brownish purple, teal and a burnt orange .  I needed green, so I wound off a good amount of the teal and overdyed it with yellow.  The  resulting green was a good solid bright color.  The purple was kind of ucky, so I overdyed that as well and used all that was on the cone. 

The next step was to create a gamp design.  I wanted to make this a useable piece, so I put together an eight shaft point and advancing twill threading and then mirrored it.  I played around with some tie ups and found one that showed off the design well and went with it. 


This is one half of the warp.  To use this design, mirror the threading for the other half of the warp.

Next step was to get yards per pound of my silk yarns to see what kind of a warp I could put together.  I decided on the green and the purple in the warp and the orange for the weft.  I tried looking at a design with stripes in the warp since I had less purple than green.  Finally, I decided to make a green border and then alternate the purple and green through the center of the piece.  When I wound the warp, I had to use one extra green thread on the border because I ran out of purple yarn.  The green and purple turned out to be very close in value and almost make another color when warped next to one another.

The warping and weaving was fairly straight forward, although keeping track of  first the threading and then the treadling required concentration.  After I had done one repeat of the pattern, I thought  that if I changed the tie up it would make it more gamp-like.  So I used a total of three tie ups in the piece.  And, no, I didn't use a dobby.  I got under the loom and changed the tie ups!  Each of the tie ups shows off the two color warp differently - a great learning experience in itself.

When I wet finished the runner, I used fairly warm water and soap to remove any of the lingering sericin in the silk.  It was rinsed with a squirt of white vinegar to restore the pH to the fiber.  I was being careful when I pressed it, but then found if I ironed with a little pressure, the silk became lustrous and softened nicely.

It was really a fun learning experience and a great one to do in weaving groups. 

The Results Are In

The Nevada County Fair is winding down tonight and many of our Not 2 Squares entered items in the "Wool Division" and came away with ribbons.  Everything looked great - formal winner or not.  Over the next several posts, we'll share these pieces with you. 

Our Friend Dee was a weaver to the end.  She asked that the last scarf she wove be put into the Fair, in the Recycle Fiber Class of the Woven items.  

This fun scarf was woven with strips of cloth from an old dress.  Lovely colors!  And it earned a first place in the class.

The group setting up the room created a loving tribute to Dee.  They displayed some of her jackets, scarves and shawls.  There was also a pictorial remembrance of this wonderful lady.

Beryl  submitted two scarves in the Nevada County Inspiration Division.  These two scarves were the result of the colors found in our beautiful area.  The first scarf won 1st place and best of Division in this category.  It is a beautiful, shimmering piece with a unique design.  The colors were inspired by the Yuba River.

The second scarf had colors drawn from the flowers of the Big Leaf Maple tree.  This lovely scarf was the 2nd place winner in the Nevada County Inspiration Division.  It is made of various silk yarns and a variegated ribbon from Dee.  It is a combination of 2-2 twill and broken twill woven on 4 shafts with the ribbon as supplementary warp.  The draft is at the bottom of this page.

draft for this scarf is here at the bottom of the page

Congratulations to these winners.  More will be posted soon.

Scarves a' la Dee

The group continues to work on their scarves for the group challenge.  When she learned she was too ill to finish her challenge scarf, Dee asked Beryl to take the yarns she had chosen.

Dee Selecting Yarn

Dee's yarns

 

 The yarns in the bag were a green rayon (used in the warp and sett at 20 epi) and a wool/rayon blend used as weft. The supplementary warps were soy/silk space dyed and put in a separate dent and weighted separately off the back of the loom.  (Dee often used ribbon or other accent yarns to make a piece more snazzy.)  Beryl also used a pink nubby rayon and 16/2 cotton weft yarns from her stash.

 

Beryl wove three scarves with the yarn.

 

 

The first scarf is a turned twill - one of Dee's "Go To" structures.  The weft on this one is the wool/rayon from the challenge bag.

Scarf 1

Scarf 1 Detail

The second scarf was woven using the second treadling above with a pink rayon yarn from Beryl's stash.

Scarf 2

Scarf 2 detail
 

The third scarf is woven in plain weave with the 16/2 cotton.  

Scarf 3

Scarf 3 detail

I wish the photograph colors did better justice to these three lovely scarves.  I think Dee would be pleased with the results.
 

For Dee, with all our love.

 When our group learned that our cherished friend and fellow weaver Dee was seriously ill, we pondered just how we could let her know, within a short time frame, how much we loved and cared about her.  At our Tuesday meeting, we came up with a plan to make a lap robe with squares of handwoven cloth from as many of our members as possible.  The handwoven pieces were all delivered to Marjorie (our quilter) by Friday noon.  On Sunday, this lap robe was complete and today (Monday) was delivered to Dee.  Marjorie tells us that Dee was delighted and was in fine spirits with many an anecdote to tell her visitors.   Later in the day, she plans to knit socks on No. 2 needles!

Weavers names top row starting at the left side.  Marcy, Sue H., Beryl, Betsy.  Middle row Wendy-Marie, Igor, Mardi, Jackie Bottom row Ingrid, Diana, Marjorie, Eileen.

Many of the pieces came from tea towel warps.  Here are a few comments about the squares  and quilting process from the various weavers.

 

Ingrid The sample is the end of the warp of the set of towels that were woven as the last of the original calendar inspired towels. The picture was of yellow lady slippers against a bright green leafy background.     It was woven with 10/2 perle cotton sett at 24 epi.  The threading was an 8 point twill and woven with a 3-2-1-1-1 8-shaft twill pattern.

 

Wendy-Marie  a twill made of cotton (5/2, I think), when I was studying at Ruthie’s in Portland, OR. At the time, I was just experimenting with stripes. For Dee, I picked the zippiest part of the cloth, the part that was most lively and interesting — like Dee.

Beryl  This was the end piece from a towel warp where I do my experimenting.  I have always liked the colors in this piece  but there was not enough to make anything  until now, when it  has found its perfect home.

Igor  I wove this some time ago when I was experimenting with ikat dyeing in the warp and weft.  The cloth is rayon/silk and the ikat dye was local Black Walnut.

Marjorie    inside each square is same design - hearts and squiggly circles (better seen from back). the inside sashing is a combination of leaves, squiggly circles, and hearts; the outer border is leaves. there is a label on the back that simply says: Dee, April 2015, Not 2 Square Weavers.  

now, if you find that you want to do another in the future . . . i cut the squares 10" x 10". the sashing and the outer border were both 3". the finished lap throw is 36.5" x 48.5". washed and dried it is not as pliable as i expected so i am really glad i used flannel on the back to give it the softness we wanted. at the same time, i like "weight" when i grab a quilt or a blanket (often use several to get desired effect) so i think we are good all the way around.



Detail of the quilting on the back of the lap robe

Detail of the quilting on the borders

Scarf Challenge 2015

In February, seven of the Not 2 Squares took on this year's challenge.  The participants brought some yarn that could be used for a scarf in a paper bag.  Then bags were chosen.  The object is to use the "gifted" yarn in a scarf.  It can be as much or as little as the weaver wants. 

Beryl was the first one to complete the assignment. 

Her yarn, from Marcy, was hand painted wool in shades of dark green to almost black.  Since the skeins were different, Beryl used one strand of each skein for her warp.  She paired this with a fine mercerized cotton that she got at a weaver's estate sale.  Beryl says that actual cone looked as though it might have been 20 or 30 years old when she bought it - and she's aged it another 20 years.  She painted some of the yarn in blues and greens quite a while ago, and when looking for a fine yarn to use, this seemed a good fit. 

 

The fine yarns had to be tensioned separately from the wool.   To do this Beryl used an empty paper towel roll to separate them and weighted it with fishing weights.

 

 

Beryl used Fiberworks PCW to create this 4-shaft Basketweave drawdown since she liked the feature of thick and thin threads.  She felt it gives a better idea about what the fabric is going to look like.

 

 

 

The scarf looks great, the thick and thin yarns giving this fairly simple draft some interest.

This and the other scarves to be woven for this challenge are slated to go to the local foster children's holiday gift program. 

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.