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 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 1

 This is both a story about a weaving challenge and a little bit of history.  I'm writing this in first person, because as you will see in this post, much of it had to do with a challenge to myself 19 years ago, the mileage I've gotten from that challenge and how it all played out at the Nevada County Fair in 2023.

In 2004, the Nevada County Fair was somewhat the same as it is today, but also different.  The Wool show was held in Sugar Pine Lodge - open on both ends so that people could walk through and look at the various exhibits.  There was noise, and dust - a lot of it, but it also encouraged a lot of people that hadn't thought about looking at our handwoven and handspun entries.  We had a ton of kids coming in to try their hand at weaving on inkle looms and hands on spinning done with a hook that created little bracelets that they themselves had spun.  

Since demonstrations were a big part of what we were doing, I wanted to have a lot of different weavers, weaving something that was a bit flashy for the public.  The problem was that these weavers needed to have a simple treadling sequence so that they could manage to keep track of what they were doing with all the surrounding chaos.  I wrote about my solution in a blog post several years later.  https://bannermountaintextiles.blogspot.com/2009/05/designing-interesting-warps-for-public.html

Fast forward to 2023.  The Not 2 Square Weavers (of which there are currently thirteen members) wanted a challenge to do something with a draft that I had designed.  Very few of the current membership were involved in the fair of 2004, so I thought it would be fun to weave the draft again and have each person who wanted to participate put their very own spin on it. The idea was that we would put up a display with some of the history and include all of the projects we created in 2023 along with a couple of the original woven towels from 2004.

Jeanne Doty agreed to do the display and asked for written descriptions from all of us who participated to give the public a sense of what we were trying to do.

Here is a photo of the display from 2023.  Wouldn't it have been fun to see a photo of the original weavers from 2004?  

And, for those of you who are weavers - here is the draft with the same threading as was on the demonstration loom.  It has been uploaded to Handweaving.net and is #80180. 

Since this will be a very long post, I'll put the details about the newly woven pieces in the next blog post so stay tuned!

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.

Weaving at the County Fair

 With things looking a bit more like normal, the Not 2 Square weavers have been showing off their woven projects at the local county fair.  Here are the entries for some of our members.

SueV entered three scarves and a hand towel.  The brighter, striped scarf used hand spun yarn that Sue had spun several years ago.  

Sue V's Scarf

Sue V's Scarf

Sue V's Scarf with Handspun Yarn

Sue V's Towel

SueR entered two pieces.  One was a table runner woven from warp left over from a demonstration at the 2019 fair.  The other is a loom bench pad.  It is rep weave that include some pick up.  Sue R used fabric scraps for the weft.

Sue R's Table Runner

Sue R's Loom Bench Pad

Mary entered two project woven using the split shed technique and a plaited twill towel.

Mary's Morse Code Wall Hanging

Mary's Quail Wall Hanging 

Mary's Plaited Twill Towel

There are more entries that will be in later posts.  Stay Tuned!

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

lakd;dpqwdajskd;wdjal.;qpwdjm;waidjc;wajdc






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.

County Fair Entries, Continued

Two more Not 2 Square members had entries in this year's County Fair: Jeanne and Betsy.

Jeanne wove and then sewed this blouse.  

Jeanne's Blouse

For her Nevada County Inspired entry, Jeanne drew inspiration from the local hippies and tie-dyed fabrics that past and current hippies enjoy.  This shawl was woven with hand dyes warps that Eileen created.  For her scarf, Jeanne used Vice Yarn for her warp.  This is a space dyed yarn that comes with long color sections.  
 

Jeanne's Nevada County Inspired Entry

Jeanne's Scarf

Jeanne's final entry was a cowl that she knit from her handspun yarn.

Jeanne's Cowl

Betsy entered a scarf and a bag sewn from fabric that was woven at the end of the warp of some of Betsy's rugs.

 
Betsy entered two wall hangings.  The one woven with wheat was a collaboration with Beryl.  Beryl supplied handspun yarn.  The lavender wall hanging included spring of lavender.

Wheat Wall Hanging

Lavender Wall Hanging

There are a few more people we need to highlight.  That post will be written soon.