More from the 2023 Nevada County Fair - Part 1

 This is Ingrid K. gorgeous scarf.  Woven in double weave, this scarf won the best of show for the Handwoven category.  Truly stupendous color work and design.  Congratulations, Ingrid.

Ingrid collaborated with Jeanne when weaving this scarf.  Jeanne spun the weft yarn and Ingrid used it on a wool warp.  Enlarge photo to see the details.

 The photo to the right is a close up of a scarf woven by Jeanne D.  Her description follows in italics.

Simple Collapse Weave Pucker up Scarf
The puckers in this scarf are created by using Merino wool and Bombyx Silk. This was
a kit that I purchased from Jane Stafford Textiles. It was woven on a 4 shaft loom with
a sett of 15. The warp alternated sections of 18/2 merino wool and 30/2 Bombyx Silk in
two colorways. The weft used the same yarns creating squares. The magic happens
when the scarf is felted. The wool shrinks and the silk does not created the puckers in
the scarf.

Sue R. won a second place on this lovely place mat woven with twill blocks.  Great colors too!

These towels were also woven by Sue. R.  Great designs and a lovely little diamond pattern.  Both woven on a four shaft loom.

 

The Last of the Weaver's Poker Challenge



We are looking back for a couple of years now, when Not 2 Square Weavers decided to do the Weaver's Poker Challenge.  Sue R. drew the following cards for her challenge.  Double Weave, Variegated Space Dyed yarn, Fibonacci Sequence, Random Stripes & Blue. 

 Sue decided to dig into learning all she could about Double Weave before she attempted to work on her challenge. At one of our meetings, someone was giving away their extra copies of Handwoven magazines and Sue picked up the issue from Summer 1983 with a couple of articles about weaving double weave on a rising shed loom. 

Sue studied this issue for a while before she embarked on her double weave sampler which contains all the elements in the cards she chose. The photo below looks like the Fibonacci series to me. and naturally the color blue.

 

Then variegated weft for this sample, which I think is probably double width weaving with the opening in the center of the warp.

 

 

Then random stripes - this time a pouch stuffed with poly fill and then woven closed.

 

And more double weave fun that wasn't in the "cards".  A lace weave on one layer of the double weave.

 

 

A pouch which is open on one end with a bit of fanciful fringe - and hemstitched (how did she do that?)

 

 

 Some color and weave effects.

 

 

And finally, a bit of pick up.

 

 







This project was very much in the spirit of the challenge.  Learn something new and have fun with all the experimenting.

What are We Weaving in September?

Fall is a time to get back to the loom.  Although September isn't really very cool here in the foothills, some of our weavers have been busy.

Mardi wove these colorful towels as part of an exploration in Rosepath.  She used a Lunatic Fringe kit with 10/2 cotton to create these bright colors.

Mardi also created these rainbow colored towels using cotton she bought from another fiber person selling part of their stash.  Here's her description of the project:

"I have a large amount of non-descript pale blue cotton yarn, which I suspect is about a 5/2.  It was the perfect yarn to experiment with warp painting .  I wound the warp into 2 parts, striping it with navy 8/2 cotton which I was planning to use as weft.  I laid both warp bundles out identically, or so I believed, and proceeded to dye them in a rainbow pattern.  When I beamed them on, I found that they weren’t exactly identical.  The finished result can be summed up as being “two in one towels”.  When folded in half lengthwise, you get two different colors, depending on which side is facing out.

Technicalities: The sett is 20 EPI and the PPI is about 26.  There are a total of 478 threads (I think, as I don’t seem to be a very good note taker). The width in the reed was 23.9 (including floating selvages) and the length on the loom was 34”, including allowance for hems. The finished dimensions are 28 3/4 “ by 19”.  The draft I used was Point Threading over 8 which can be found in Dixon on pages 80-81.

The biggest fatal flaw that I encountered was finding that the 100% cotton sewing thread that I used in the hems did not shrink at the same rate as the 8/2 cotton, which gave me some flare to work with when hemming."

Mardi's Dyed Towels with original yarn

Another view of Mardi's Dyed Towels 

Mardi attended a Jane Stafford class on color and design.  She shared her lovely color samples with us.

Samples from Jane Stafford Class

More Samples from Jane Stafford Class

Eileen shared a poncho she made from fabric woven with sock yarn and black 8/2 tencel as the weft.  She was using up left over sock yarns in a random striping pattern.  The design is an undulating twill #219 in Carol Strickler's book, "A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns".  

Eileen's Ponch

Eileen's Tencel Scarf 

She also shared a scarf that was woven with 8/2 tencel in the warp and weft.  The weave structure was also from Strickler's book - #171.

Jeanne's Double Weave Color Study

Jeanne used cottolin in a double weave color sampler.  She is planning to weave placemats and used this color and weave piece to help pick out her favorite designs.

Ingrid shared a scarf woven with sock yarn in a point twill pattern.  

We are looking forward to more products of our looms next month. 

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The Weavers School

Diana and Ingrid were fortunate enough to be able to attend Madelyn van der Hoogt's Weaving School on Whidbey Island, WA last October.  It was an excellent experience for both of them.  It was five days of weaving on the many looms the school has already warped and ready to go and lectures.  They both came away with samples.  All of the samples were woven on eight shafts (except one) in mostly 10/2 cotton.

They wove some of the same samples.  The first is Atwater Swedish Snowflake Twill.  This is an advancing twill.

Swedish Snowflake - Diana



Swedish Snowflake - Ingrid

Diana liked this design so well, she wove several towels and a seat cushion in this design. 



Diana's Seat Cushion

Diana's Towel version

 

 

 












Two different samples included overshot in the design.  Diana wove a sample that was a blended draft of overshot and lace.  Ingrid wove an overshot gamp that was also a color and weave example.

Blended Overshot and Lace



Overshot Gamp

There was a doubleweave color window sample that Diana wove.

Doubleweave Color Windows

Both weavers wove a sample of collapse fabric.  Diana, a Circle and Star design and Ingrid, a Deflected doubleweave, mosaic pattern.

Circles and Stars - Flat and Collapse

Deflected Doubleweave - Mosaic Pattern

Another design using wool and cotton was the Blocks in Rosepath Order.

Blocks in Rosepath Order

Blocks in Rosepath Order

Diana got to weave a sample of Beiderwand.  This is a form of lampas.


Beiderwand



Beiderwand Detail



There were several lace designs.  This one was huck, playing with colors.

 

Sherbet Runners in Huck Lace

Ingrid was able to weave this bright sample in Summer & Winter.



Summer and Winter

The school has several draw looms.  One is set up to weave a sunflower pattern.  Another, a shaft drawloom, to weave a Figured Double Weave sample. This is an abbreviated version of the intended sample.  

Figured Double Weave

One final sample was woven on a Louet Megado computer dobby loom.  It was a Network Draft design.

Network Draft

It was an extremely fun and interesting experience.