Showing posts with label diana abrell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diana abrell. Show all posts

Friday, October 21, 2022

Wrapping up the County Fair 2022

 Two more Not 2 Square members participated in the County Fair this year.  Diana was able to use one warp and create two projects - a shawl and a pillow.  For these projects, she used an inlay technique to create motifs on the cloth surface.

Diana's Shawl
Diana's Pillow

Diana also entered three towels.

Diana's Towel

Diana's Towel





















Diana's Towel

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Ingrid entered two towels as well.

Ingrid's Towel

Ingrid's Towel


 










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She also entered three scarves and two shawls.

Ingrid's Scarf

Ingrid's Scarf


Ingrid's Scarf

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Ingrid's Shawl


Ingrid's Shawl











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Ingrid also submitted a set of pot holders - woven using a doubleweave technique and a rag rug woven using t-shirts.

Ingrid Hot Pads

Ingrid's Rug

Another year of fabulous entries from the group.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Diana's Inlay Shawl Project

Diana has been working for the past 3 months on a project inspired by Nancy Peterson in Handwoven, Sept./Oct., 2021. It is a plain weave shawl in stripes of random widths and colors, 24” in the reed. What makes it more than just a plain weave shawl is, again, the randomly placed inlay patterns upon the stripes. The pattern for the inlays Diana chose is from Davison, p. 131, Johann Schleelein’s #123, which creates interlocked circles. The pattern structure is 26 ends, so all stripes in the shawl are multiples of 26. Some stripes are 26 ends wide, some 52, some 78, and one is 104. It takes 20 pics (alternated by tabby) to complete the pattern, so her pattern inlays vary from 2 to 4 times in length.

The warp is 8/2 tencel in three different pastel colors and 8/2 rayon in two other colors set at 24 epi. The background weft is 16/2 bamboo in coquille, and the pattern weft is Malabrigo Mora silk in two different colors, lettuce and teal feather.


Inlay pattern shawl with shuttle showing the small shuttle to pick up and weave in pattern upon a stripe



Inlay pattern shawl off the loom. The ends are hemstitched and the fringe will be twisted (soon).



  

There is quite a bit of handwork to do which is finger weaving in the loose ends of the pattern weft on the back.

This is the reverse side of the shawl with pattern yarn ends not finger woven in yet.

 





Tuesday, January 26, 2021

January's Virtual Show and Tell

 Not 2 Square Weavers are still in a social distancing mode, but continue weaving and sharing what they do every month in a Zoom gathering.  

This month's meeting had a lot of special pieces being shown and it seemed like a good time to make a blog post and let all our readers enjoy the fruits of our looms.

Huck lace towels woven by Diana A.

These towels were woven by Diana A.  Here is what she said about them.  "The Stripes and Huck Lace towels show the difference in color in warp stripes (bluish) vs. the weft stripes (greenish) which were both the same pale green yarn (see photo at left). No explanation, although Beryl thought maybe being 24 epi in the warp and about 20 ppi in the weft could create the difference. Who knows? All yarns 10/2 cotton, except the pale green was 8/2, I believe."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These scarves were also woven by Diana as Christmas gifts for her two granddaughters.  The one at the left incorporates huck lace hearts.

 

The Huck Lace Heart Scarf is  8/2 tencel and  8/2 rayon.
 

 

 

 

The Cat Scarf is Summer and Winter and plain weave, 8/2 tencel and 8/2 rayon.  This scarf is for the granddaughter that loves animals. 

 

 

 

 

Betsy A. has a brand new Baby Wolf, 8 shaft loom.  These two scarves were woven on the same warp.

8 shaft plaited twill scarf 5/2 bamboo warp and doubled 8/2 tencel weft. 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

8 shaft plaited twill scarf, 5/2 bamboo warp, 5/2 cotton weft.

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 Marcy E. wove 5 dish towels using 8/2 and 10/2 cotton yarn from her stash.  The pattern was from Handwoven's design collection 3, Kitchen Towels, woven with a twill variation.  The weft yarns were also from her stash.

 

 

 

 

 Ingrid K showed us a couple of new scarves. 

 Malabrigo Baby Silkpaca (alpaca/silk) in two different colors for warp and weft; sett 30 epi, 8 shaft point twill threading with an advancing point treadling.  The tie up is 1-1-1-1-2-2- twill



 Madelinetosh Pure Silk Lace yarn for warp and weft; sett: 30 epi, 8-shaft advancing twill threading, with an advancing point treadling. The tie-up is a 1-1-1-1-2-2 twill

 

COVID-19 spots (photo below)  are for a sample exchange.  10/2 white cotton for the warp  with 10/2 red weft, sett at 30 epi.  The structure is an 8-end satin on 24 shafts.  The design was created using ProWeave and Fiberworks PCW software.  Ingrid is still working with this warp to explore other weave structures and possibly weave towels. 

 

 



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."





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.


Monday, August 26, 2019

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.

Monday, August 20, 2018

The Last of the County Fair Entries

Diana and Ingrid are the two remaining Not 2 Square members with Fair entries this year.  

Diana entered six pieces:  Three towels, a table runner, a blanket and a wall hanging using Theo Moorman technique for the Nevada County Inspired category.


Diana's Towel

Diana's Blanket

Diana's Wall Hanging
Diana's Table Runner
Diana's Towel
Diana's Towel










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Ingrid entered eight items:  Two scarves, two shawls, two towels, a scarf made using a friend's handspun yarn as the weft and a scarf for the Nevada County Inspired category.


Ingrid's Towel

Ingrid's Towel

























Ingri'd Scarf

Ingrid's Scarf





















Ingrid's Shawl

Ingrid's Shawl









Ingrid's scarf made with hand-spun weft
Ingrid's Nevada County Inspired Scarf



Congratulations to all of our members who entered - ribbons are not, they are all winners.