County Fair 2024

The County Fair has come and gone with lots of activity from the local fiber artists including Not  Square members. We will give you a glimpse of what our members entered this year.

Mary wove these California Quail towels for the fair.

She says, "The desire to weave cute quail led me down the path of understanding and drafting single two-tie unit weave. It also led me to a 32-shaft compudobby loom! This quail towel was woven with a 10/2 unwaxed cotton warp, 8/2 unmercerized pattern weft and 20/2 cotton ground weft. The sett was 20 end per inch which provides a nice hand in the “summer and winter” structure."

Ingrid & Mary entered a collaborative project - a scarf woven by Ingrid with Mary's handspun merino yarn.  The sett was 15 epi.  For the warp, Ingrid used a 20/2 tussah silk yarn.

Mary & Ingrid's Collaborative Scarf

Ingrid entered several other woven items into the fair this year.  She entered two twill towels woven with 10/2 cotton set at 30 epi on 8 shafts.

Ingrid's Twill Towel

Ingrid's Twill Towel

There was a lap robe woven with cotton for the warp and an acrylic/wool blend for the weft in plain weave.  And a plain weave baby blanket with cotton for warp and acrylic for the weft as well.

Ingrid's Lap Robe

Ingrid's Baby Blanket

She entered three scarves other than the collaboration project.  One was woven in plain weave with merino/silk yarn in the warp and a silk weft.  

Ingrid's Silk/Wool Scarf

The second scarf was 8/2 Tencel for the warp and weft that she dyed.  It was sett at 30 epi and the structure was an extended twill.  The inspiration for the color scheme and scarf structure was the Yuba River.

The third scarf was woven using 10/2 Tencel sett at 36 epi.  The structure was an extended point twill woven on 8 shafts.  The weft was also 10/2 Tencel.

Ingrid's Tencel River Inspired Scarf

Ingrid's Tencel Scarf

We'll continue this on a later post.

More from the County Fair Part 2

 Ingrid wove these two scarves that are intertwined around one another using a technique called gradients.  A couple (or several) colors are gradually changed from one being dominant to being the subdominant color.  These were techniques she learned in an online class and expanded into her own designs.

 The color changes in the scarf below (also woven by Ingrid) move from dark to lighter and the effect when tied around the neck is stunning in its complexity.   It is 10/2 Tencel, sett at 36 epi and woven with an extended point twill on 8 shafts.

This is a shawl that Ingrid entered in the fair this year.  She wove it with Malabrigo Silkpaca lace yarn for both the warp and the weft.  The structure is twill.

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.

 

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!

 

Nevada County Fair 2023 - Nevada County Inspired

ICE and FIRE

Each year, the Not 2 Square Weavers bring out their very best handwoven items to display in the Wool Show at the Nevada County Fair.  After several years of COVID disruptions, it seems as though the fair and the community are making progress in returning to a more normal life and one that embraces Nevada County and its citizens.  

Quite a few years ago, the Not 2 Square Weavers established a special category in the Wool show called Nevada County Inspired. The group sponsors a monetary award each year for the best entry.    This year's big winner was Ingrid Knox's handwoven scarf. Here is what she wrote about her inspiration.

Snowmageddon II or Snow and Ice Scarf
The inspiration for this shawl is the storms Nevada County endured this past winter.  We had feet of snow and extremely cold temperatures in February and March 2023. 

Jeanne Doty also entered a handwoven piece in this category and what follows is her inspiration message and her woven shawl.

Living in Nevada City, fire is always on our minds. This shawl was woven to remember the danger of fire but also to remind us of the benefits of fire. After a fire, there is always new growth, seeds that have been dormant for years have a chance to grow.

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

______________________________________________________________________________

Ingrid entered two towels as well.

Ingrid's Towel

Ingrid's Towel

 

________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

She also entered three scarves and two shawls.

Ingrid's Scarf

Ingrid's Scarf

Ingrid's Scarf

______________________________________________________________________________

Ingrid's Shawl

Ingrid's Shawl

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

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.

From Not 2 Square Looms

  Weaver's are always on the lookout for new ideas, new structures, new ways to use color and texture in their projects.  Here are a few relatively recent projects by our members.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 From Wendy-Marie's Loom

These scarves are part of on-going play with the patterns offered in Denise Kovnat's "Echo and Jin" workshop. The teal scarf is an 8-shaft pattern called "Chakras." The warp is tencel and 10/2 perle cotton, the weft is 20/2 perle cotton, sapphire. The sett is 40 epi. Denise strongly recommended that we avoid white, as it tends to cancel out the other colors. I think the silver tencel in this scarf had the same tendency, so the scarf is interesting but not iridescent as I had hoped.

 

The second pair of scarves are made using a 4-shaft Kovnat pattern called "Blooming Leaf." Again, the sett was 40 epi. The left hand one had a purple 10/2 cotton for weft, the right was made with fuchsia 20/2 perle cotton. Of the two, the fuchsia weft produced a lot more iridescence. 

 

_________________________________________________________________________________

Ingrid's Projects

Several Not 2 Square members are working on our local fiber guild's challenge.  We were given three colors and were challenged to create a fiber project using those colors. I got forest green, navy and turquoise and wove towels using those colors with some others.  They were made using 10/2 cotton for the warp and weft.  The structure was a regular/irregular point twill on 8 shafts. I  was also participating in another guild's challenge: weave something with colors inspired by a national park poster and this project satisfied both challenges.

 

 I also finished the linen towels I wove as part of another guild’s challenge.  16/2 linen for warp and weft for most of the towels, although 2 were even with 10/2 cotton.  The design is an 8-shaft huck.

_________________________________________________________________

Betsy's Current Project

Betsy is weaving a lap blanket for someone who needs a bit of warmth while she is in church.   She is using the intended recipient's favorite colors - teal and magenta in warm wools. The structure is an M & W twill. After this blanket is completed, she intends to use an orange weft on the next one. 

 

__________________________________________________________________________________

Eileen's Adventure in Wet Finishing

 I don't remember where I found this draft, possibly online.

 

The yarn is from Webs - Colrain Lace - 2/10 Merino?Tencel.  The floats were too long, particularly on the back side.

 

On the Loom 

 

I normally wash my woven products in the washing machine on the gentle cycle and cold water.  Well, in this case, the yarn felted a great deal and was perfect as the floats felted together and are not now problematic.

Subsequently, I always wash all products with this yarn by hand.

 

Off the loom and after wet finishing