If it's August, it Must be Time for the County Fair

The second week in August is a busy time here in Nevada County.  The local fiber guild is responsible for setting up and managing the woven, spun, felted and handspun made entries.  Members of Not 2 Square did their part and entered their fiber exhibits.  Wendy-Marie entered two scarves and a shawl.  

The top scarf was woven and then enhanced with fabric paint and a stencil to create the leaf pattern.

Wendy-Marie's shawl was designed using a musical score and assigning colors and widths of stripes based on the music.

Sue V entered a number of items.  There were two sets of napkins (top pictures) and two towels (bottom pictures).

Her Nevada County Inspiration piece was designed with local river salmon in mind.

Sue also wove a scarf using the "snake skin" pattern featured in Handwoven magazine.  

This is just the beginning of the entries.  More to come in later posts.

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.    

More County Fair Entries

Here are the entries from three more of the Not 2 Square Weavers:  Betsy, Eileen and Wendy-Marie.

Betsy entered some unusual items into the Fair this year - a wall hanging and a sea creature (possibly a jelly fish or an octopus).  She also entered a scarf and a shawl.

Betsy's Sea Creature

Betsy's Scarf

Betsy's Shawl

Betsy's Wall Hanging

Betsy's Table Runner

Eileen entered a shawl, a woven bag, and two scarves, one in the Nevada County Inspired Division.

Eileen's Woven Bag

Eileen's Nevada County Inspired Scarf

Eileen's Scarf

Eileen's Shawl

Wendy-Marie entered two collaborative projects: one with Beryl and Igor to create aBest in Division Shawl and another with SueR to make a book cover.  She also submitted two scarves - one into the Nevada County Inspired Division.

Wendy-Marie's Nevada County Inspired Scarf

Wendy-Marie's Blooming Leaf Chenille Scarf

Wendy-Marie & SueR's Book Cover

Wendy-Marie's Collaborative Spinner/Maker Shawl

There are a couple more Not 2 Squares entries to share in the next post.