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.

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 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. 

 

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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.

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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. 

 

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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

The Last Weaver's Poker Hand?

As you may know, the group decided to take on a challenge last year called Weaver's Poker.  In our version of the game, we came up with options for five different attributes of a handwoven project:  Structure, Yarn Fiber Type, Color, Color Relationship and Design Element.  All of the Not 2 Squares who participated drew cards from grab bags containing the five different aspects.  Each person had the flexibility of discarding one of the attribute cards.

Last spring most of those who chose to participate finished their projects.  Ingrid finally finished hers.

Here's her hand:  Color – Orange; Color Relationship – Split Complement; Yarn – Linen; Structure – M's and O's; Design Element Large Checks.

Being rather competitive, Ingrid decided she needed to use all of the cards even though the rules allowed participants to throw out one card.  She selected 22/2 cottolin in Autumn red, Light Green and Aqua.  Three cards down.  Two to go.

After thinking about M's and O's, she developed a three block design with the help of Fiberworks-PCW.  The software allows you to draw a profile draft and then convert it to a threading.  This design used the three colors in the warp to differentiate the different blocks.  Those colors (and blocks) would then be used in the weft to create the large checks. That took care of all five cards.  (The area between the black "threads" was repeated a total of three times.)

The resulting fabric was a towel.

The color and texture of the final piece was nice but there was some puckering and draw in because of the M's and O's.

Towel Detail

Based on that, Ingrid decided to just do the one towel and is rethreading the warp to something different.

We thought this was the last challenge piece to be finished but it sounds like there is at least one more to be done.  We'll give details if it is finished.  

A Week at Vavstuga

At our latest meeting Mardi shared her experience at Vavstuga Weaving School http://www.vavstuga.com/ .  The week sounded like it was fabulous and she shared the four pieces she wove during the four and a half day class.  

The first piece is a block damask with an 8 shaft broken twill.  The warp and weft are both 16/2 line linen (Bockens) and the sett is 11 ends per centimeter  (everything was measured in metric units.)  

Block Damask

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The next piece is a twill towel.  The warp is 22/2 Cottolin (Bockens) and the weft is 8/1 tow linen.  The sett is 10 ends per centimeter.  The tab was woven by another student.

Twill Towel

Towel tab

Mardi's third piece is a tablecloth.  The warp and pattern were chosen for the students.  They threaded the heddles and reed.  The warp is Bockens 8/2 cotton and the weft is Bockens 22/2 Cottolin. The sett is 9 ends per centimeter.  

Tablecloth

The last piece is a blanket.  This was woven out of "Tuna" which is a size ("worsted weight") Swedish yarn.  It is a simple twill woven with two yarns together in the weft.  The warp colors and pattern were chosen for the students and they got to choose the weft color(s). Mardi used a burgundy red and a red orange. The sett is 6 ends per centimeter.

Blanket

These textiles were really lovely.  It was amazing to see how much Mardi was able to accomplish in such a short time frame.  Sounds like a fun place to check out.