Remembrance of Not 2 Square Members and Mentors

 I searched long and hard to find the photo of these three weavers who were part of Not 2 Square at its beginning.  It was taken at a gathering of Foothill Fibers Guild at the home of Sue F.  Actual date, unknown.

Left - Barbara Woodward (obituary)

Middle - Dee Jones (obituary) (our memorial post)

Right - Carol Phillips  (our memorial post)

All are now gone, but certainly not forgotten. May this post help to keep them in our memories.

 

Celebrating the Life of Carol Phillips

Carol demonstrating weaving at the Nevada County Fair 2011.

I first met Carol 13 years ago when I moved to Nevada City. The Carol of those days was always on the run. She had a full career as an obstetrics nurse, but found time to attend weaving classes on Widbey Island with Madelyn van der Hoogt, traveled to and fro helping  her elderly parents and their problems and all the while, spinning, weaving, quilting and knitting up a storm of textiles. Over the years, Carol was always in the forefront and often the leader in making quilts for children’s causes and those left homeless by disaster and fire. When most of us turned up our noses at the prospect of spinning up bags of dog hair combings, Carol was the soft touch for people who wanted something made to remember a beloved pet. She would have it blended with a small amount of wool, spin and weave a lap blanket for them. She and her family always had a Samoyed dog and I’m sure she knew the comfort her efforts gave a pet owner.

The legacy that Carol leaves to us are her lessons in giving. She gave to her family, her friends, to those she never met and always, without expectation of anything in return. She leaves a hole in our weaving group and in our hearts, but her spirit will forever be with us.
Beryl Moody

Carol will long remain in my memory as one of the very best people I've known. Her generousity was boundless, she was a tireless organizer and it was all done with zest and "let's get 'er done" attitude. She knew life wasn't fair and accepted that fact. Nonetheless, DAMN IT! -- Dee Jones

 

Carol was the kindest, most giving woman I have known. She was always ready and willing to help anyone or any project. Our loss is Heaven's gain. - Gus Young

Carol was one of the most generous weavers, and women, I know. She was the first to offer the loan of a loom or her help. The Not 2 Squares were welcomed at her church several times for yarn swap/sales and a weaving class - all through her initiative and help.

She was funny and creative as well. Her Kool-Aid dye challenge turned out to be a crowd pleaser at the Nevada County Fair this summer. She was frequently finding new ways to use sock yarn or those one or two leftover skeins of yarn.

Most of all Carol was a positive, upbeat and a fun person to be with. We will all miss her very much.

Ingrid Knox

This quote from an unidentified source was posted by her daughter-in-law, Monika, on  Carol's Face Book page.

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal"

I don't have any pictures of Carol's quilts, but know that they were numerous and treasured items for many friends and relatives.  What follows is a slide show of some of Carol's weaving, spinning and knitting work.  For more stories behind the pictures, click on Carol's name in the sidebar.  Here is Carol's obituary from The Union

Weaving at Joanne Tallarovic's Studio

detail of  Carol's rep weave using print yardage as weft

Way back in January, we had our monthly meeting at Carol Phillip's home.  She had taken a  rep weave class with Joanne Tallarovic in Arizona.  It turned out she was the only student and so it was a chance to get some in depth knowledge about rep weave and its possibilities.  Carol says Joanne has a whole house devoted to studio space, so it was a real luxury to work with the master in her surroundings.

Carol wasn't sure what to take with her to the class, so she brought some colorful printed cottons.  Igor is holding up one of the pieces she wove during her stay in Arizona.  It looks like three different fabrics were used in this piece.  Joanne has a procedure for cutting her fabrics and getting them to line up in sequence during the weaving process so that the original fabric design shows through in a blurred representation of the original cloth. 

This is a towel woven with sewing thread and 8/2 cotton.  It is wonderfully flexible cloth and not at all what might be expected with rep weave.  Joanne specializes in rep weave clothing and the fabrics Carol wove in her stay with Joanne are very suitable for use as yardage.

If you aren't familiar with Joanne's work, her book Rep Weave and Beyond is a fabulous introduction.  However, when I looked for copies I saw that it is no longer in print and used copies are very expensive. This is a good book to see if your guild library owns, or maybe borrow a copy through interlibrary loan. 

Huck, More Towels and an Ecology Shawl

Sue Habegger is using up special yarns that she has collected over the years.  She had a cone of natural brown Guatamalan cotton and Sue decided that weaving a solid color and a stucture were both out of her comfort zone.  This is the gorgeous yardage that was the result of her efforts.  The picture shows the yardage sideways. Sue wove bands of plain weave separated with bands of huck lace.  The huck takes up a bit more than the plain weave, so there is a gentle ripple which turns out to be very attractive.  Sue is still thinking of what kind of a garment to make with it.

At the meeting, Betsy had just come back from a fancy three day wedding in the Bay Area.  She had given the bride and groom their choice of colors and she presented them with handwoven towels as a gift.  She used warp colors in the weft and the towel above was woven with a white weft.  The draft is from Marguerite Davison's book, pg. 75 - John Murphy's No. 10.  I'm not sure which treadling she used with this towel - maybe X?  I thought it was a lovely thing to give a color choice to the gift recipients. What a good way to make the gift personal for the couple.

We all were so captivated by Carol's Ecology shawls that she brought in one that she wove using all handspun yarns.  She says the only problem is that the shawls aren't perfect triangles.  As you near the end of the warp, it gets tight and is very hard to weave - therefore one side is longer than the other.  We all agreed that it didn't make a lot of difference with this shawl, which is a real treasure.

More Winners

Sue Habegger got a red ribbon on this beautiful top with the Theo Moorman motif.  Sue often utilizes selvedges as trim on her garments and is very successful at on loom planning.

Sue's yardage got a blue ribbon (well no surprise there because it is wonderful stuff).  I like the little jacket drawing she included with her piece.  On the side bar, you will see Sue Habegger's name.  Click on that to see previous posts about this yardage and the processes involved.

Several winners this year were white on white pieces.  Carol Phillips did an interesting scarf with a technique learned from Mary Berent.  She used a variety of weights of white cotton yarn, one after another in both warp and weft.  See how the piece undulates because of the varying yarn sizes.

  In another white on white piece, Gus Young wove a scarf from her handspun silk and Merino yarns.

 In the same vein (handspun yarn creations) Sharon Campbell got a blue ribbon for her handspun knit sweater.

And we have miles more to go with show and tell this month.  Stay tuned for more winners and a special Theo Moorman piece.

 

Ecology Shawl

One of the best things about weave blogging is that you don't have to wait until your favorite weaving magazine gets around to publishing an article -- you can beat them to the punch. Carol Phillips won a first prize ribbon with this amazing triangular shaped shawl. I'm going to let Carol's words describe the process and then add my own two cents at the end of this post.

The warp is wool/silk from Henry's Attic. I dyed it in Michele Wipplinger's studio about 10 years ago, 9 warp chains, painted, some resisted, some kept loose, then all was dipped in Indigo - some more than one dip. I have lost the very careful notes on specific eyes used - but it included cochineal, madder, fustic, woad, others I can't remember at present. It is woven "ecology style" where the warp becomes the weft, put on the loom double weave so that it is large enough for comfort. I think it was 34 inches in the reed, then not put on the back beam, but weighted at the back with heavy boxes. One thread at a time is pulled forward and used as weft, double weave for the first half, making a diagonal selvege, leaving a fringe on one side where the weft thread exits, then woven plain weave once it is halfway, continuing the diagonal selvege on the long side, fringe on two sides. I did take some photos as I went, but they're a bit hard to interpret! I have done this in the past, but it's been a while, and I had to really probe my memory! The idea is from an old PWC, and there is no date on it, but from the '80's. [Issue 10] The cover has a photo of the one from the article inside - bright colored plaid. The original is done with 2 looms warped back-to-back, not double weave, with a person in the middle to cut one thread at a time to use as weft on each loom, and the looms have to be moved closer together as it progresses. The end result is two matching triangle scarves or shawls. I think it would make a great demo at some event. My plan is to write up the process, so one day I must do that! I did send a photo to Madelyn suggesting she re-visit the project in an upcoming Handwoven. She would like me to do it again with an "available" yarn... perhaps in the winter I'll tackle it!

Perhaps this is my challenge for the year - something out of my comfort zone! It is not really ikat, just the way the warp crosses itself. One problem is that as it gets near the end the weft tends to pack in tighter, so it is not truly an equal triangle... Something to work on! - Carol Phillips

This month's Handwoven has an article by Joanne Parrish George in which the supplementary warp becomes supplementary weft. It seems like a similar process to this ecology shawl, but I think I would have to try it out before I would know for sure.

I agree with Carol;  this would make a fantastic demonstration at CNCH or something such. The problem with doing the shawl with two looms as the original article shows, is that they need to have a 44" weaving width.  The article also suggests two 44" rigid heddle looms could be used but during a brief online search, I didn't come up with any looms that were that wide.

Where have we been?

Summer sometimes gets in the way of blogging.  This blogger is just resurfacing with lots of photos and interesting things to show from our group.  One reason for holding back on blog posts was that the annual Nevada County Fair was pending last month.  Many of our members were going to enter handwovens and it seemed better to just hold off posting until after the awards had been given and there was no reason for secrecy about who wove what!

Before I get to the grand prize winner this year, I'll post around the edges a bit. There were several prizes for scarves from our group.  Carol Phillips has been using up sock yarns for scarves.  This beauty was woven from wool/alpaca sock yarns and got a ribbon.

Diana Abrell had showed  a scarf at an earlier meeting.  Its a braided twill that has two faces, a light and dark and you can read more about it in a previous post.  The judge awarded her the blue ribbon for the handwoven scarf category.

Gus brought a fabulous soft shawl to the July meeting.  It was woven with Angora rabbit, wool and cotton yarns.  She admitted the Angora rabbit yarn had been in her stash for many years until she had matured as a weaver and could do it justice.  Sorry there is no way to reach out and touch this in the blog world.

Lots more to show in the next blog post - so come back again soon!

PLaying Catch Up

I really should write all of my blog posts right after the meeting so that I don't forget the details.  I like to spread posts out a bit so that they aren't gigantic and because everything at show and tell is wonderful I want to get the most mileage out of it that I can.   This is a catch up post from the April meeting; I'll start getting my thoughts and posts organized for the May meeting sooner this month I hope.

Jackie is most generous in giving her handwovens to family and friends.  She brought a wonderful alpaca/rayon scarf to the meeting and was looking to place it in a good home.  She wasn't fond of the color and some of the other details didn't please her.  When Ingrid joking said that it would look good with her coloring, the scarf found a new home immediately.  You can see from the photo that the scarf and Ingrid are a good match!

While we are on the scarf topic, during the meeting Carol was twisting the fringe on her scarf woven from a sock yarn called  Tofutsie.  It is a strange combination of superwash wool, soy silk, cotton and chitin (from shrimp shells I think).  This is a self striping yarn, used in warp and weft for an interesting all over design.

Gus was inspired by some towels in Handwoven Issue 154 (Mar/Apr 2011 see page 38).  They are a combination of twill and basketweave stripes.  The draft shown in the magazine is for four shafts but  Gus has eight shafts and decided to put together her own version for the project using PCW software.  Here is the draft and a photo of the towels, in which Gus used up some odds and ends of yarn for the stripes along with the lovely lavender main color which is also the weft yarn. 

And now we are all caught up with April - on to the May meeting in the next post.

Ah, the luxury of handwovens for the home.

Betsy Abrams entered a couple of table runners in the fair this year.  The one below has a blue ribbon peeking out from under her entry card.  Congratulations, Betsy!  I haven't seen this particular piece, but it looks like Summer and Winter.  We will have to ask her at the next meeting.

This next table runner is also woven by Betsy and looks like overshot to me.  Hopefully if I am wrong, Betsy will fill me in on the details.

Then, there were towels - and some nice ones too.  Carol Phillips received a second prize for some natural colored cotton towels.  The cottons were from Sally Fox and  the colors in the picture are hard to pick out because they are subtle.  There are browns and greens in addition to the white cotton.

Ingrid received a third place ribbon for her towel, also woven with Sally Fox cottons.  Here you can see the different shades of brown. 

Very colorful and interesting entries from Marcy Elliott are pictured below.

And here is a lovely towel from Dee. I love how the structure hides the weave pattern in the dark areas and lets it pop in the white stripes.

 Sue Habegger's towel entry is an interesting plaid.

And, last but not least these great placemats woven by Gus Young that received a second place ribbon.

All in all, it looks like our group did themselves proud at our latest county fair.  I want to congratulate all the winners for their ribbons, but also for entering their items.  Making the public aware that handwoven is something special and beautiful may give us an edge in the marketplace when we are selling our wares this autumn and winter.

Fair Scarves

Diana Abrell wove a gorgeous scarf from a rather complicated turned taquete draft.  It was a blue ribbon winner and the judge was convinced that it was woven on a multishaft loom.  Actually, Diana wove it on her 8 shaft Mighty Wolf - and isn't it lovely!

Carol Phillips knit one scarf and wove another for a couple of interesting entries.  The knitted scarf is all handspun yarn - Golden Retriever/wool.  The other scarf is rayon chenille, however this is no ordinary chenille scarf.  It is double weave and Carol wove the fringe using two fishing line selvedges a few inches from the body of the scarf.  Very original and  interesting scarf.

Then there was the shawl/throw that Carol wove from the Golden Retriever/wool handspun yarns.  It is a lovely piece destined to be given to the owner of the Golden Retriever; a keepsake to remember a beloved pet.

And then there was Dee's scaf designed with "Big Pond" painting in mind seen here sporting a nice red ribbon!

Next post - towels and table runners!

More from the June Meeting

Carol brought in an interesting garment that was given to her son  while he was working in Indonesia.  The garment takes a month of weaving and all of the detail design is woven, not embroidered as it may appear.  Carol said that the guy that gave it to her son had received it as a wedding piece and that they were made for special occasions.  Carol's son protested that he couldn't take a wedding piece, but the guy said "no problem".  The garment is called an Ulu and they aren't worn because the climate it too hot, but they are used for decoration in the home.

Carol also brought in some great hot pads she wove in rep weave. Don't these color just pop off the page?  The pieces themselves are even better than in the photo.

Our group recently ordered yarns from Henry's Attic and Carol ordered a cone of pigtail.  It comes in two sizes and the one pictured is the smaller grist.  This yarn makes wonderful baby blankets and Carol brought in a blanket she wove 10 years ago for a grandson.  It is still in use (probably not the same grandson) and in excellent condition after many, many launderings.  The warp for the blanket is Henry's Attic Alpine Petite sett at 10epi and the pigtail is the weft yarn. The surface of the blanket is  like a really high quality terry cloth towel.

There's more show and tell, so stay tuned for the next post.

Scarves for Giving Post #5

Carol got her brown bag yarns from me (Beryl). For this first scarf, she used a painted wool/rayon and rayon/cotton pink ribbon for the warp and some of her own pink rayon as the weft. The structure is plain weave. This is a light, delicate scarf in a fabulous shade of pink.

Carol used the same painted wool/rayon yarn in this scarf, but this time she made use of it in both warp and weft. The striping was a naturally occuring feature. The structure is plain weave.

For her final scarf, Carol chose two different yarns from the bag. One is a cabled variegated silk in shades of wine, green and blue. She combined it with a loopy mohair in almost the same colors. She was inspired to do the window pane design by "Night Windows" scarf in Handwoven's Design Collection 19 Loopy mohair creates the window frames in both warp and weft.

This is an opulent scarf, with lots of length and multiple ways to wrap and wear it.

August Meeting Part 2

Carol's towels are both woven with a variegated slub yarn. Notice the amazing plaid created when the yarn crosses itself. The towel on the left has a lot of texture and is a waffle weave structure and the towel on the right is plain weave. However, because of the thick and thin nature of the yarn it also has a lot of texture.

Carol's beautiful huck scarf won a first prize. This was woven with Carol's two ply handspun yarn in angora and Merino. She used two different sources for the yarn, so there is a slight color variation and she alternated colors in both warp and weft to give a uniform appearance to the scarf.

It was hard to capture the colorful beauty of Carol's multi-color shawl. But I was so surprised when I held it up to the light in the picture below and found this glorious pattern that isn't so easily seen without the light going through it. The structure is again, huck lace, but it so different from the scarf in appearance. The warp is a rayon blend and the weft also rayon.

Carol used space dyed yarns for this wool plaid blanket. The weave structure is plain weave and the variation in the color of the yarn again gives great depth to the finished blanket.

Gus wove this rug after a workshop with Jason Collingwood a year ago. It now resides in her kitchen -- and what a beauty it is. The warp is linen and the weft is wool. Look for details of this rug in a future blog about finishing touches.

Gus wove this colorful red, black and white lap robe for an antique car that she and her husband restored. Gus used an 8 shaft advancing twill from a draft by Bonnie Inouye. I'm going to try to get pictures of the lap robe and the car together for a future blog post.