Weaver's Poker Challenge - First Contestant Diana A.

The group decided to undertake a challenge last year.  In our version of Weaver's Poker, 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 N2S's who participated drew a cards from grab bags containing the five different aspects.  Each person had the flexibility of discarding one of the attribute cards.

Diana was the first to finish her project.  She describes the project as follows:

For our weavers’ poker project I drew the following cards:

• Color – Black and White
• Color Relationship – Complementary colors of similar value
• Design – Stripes
• Pattern – Rosepath
• Yarn – Metallic

I decided I could not have black and white and also complementary colors. Since I have wanted to try to weave something in black and white, I decided to discard the complementary colors card.  I decided to weave a scarf as my finished project.

I didn't want to buy any yarn as I have a huge stash that needs to be used, so I found some soft white super wash merino (about 2060 yd/lb), some black 18/2 wool/silk, and some grey 10/2 bamboo.  I did buy a small spool of 3-ply metallic embroidery thread.  I warped these yarns in a random order with random widths, 10” in the reed expecting it to shrink down to about 8”.  The sett was 16 epi for the merino and 24 epi for the wool/silk, bamboo, and metallic. On the warping board I made sure these fibers would fit my sett plan.

I used the white merino yarn for the weft. To incorporate the Rosepath structure, I wove 2 bands of dusty rose (probably wool) about 2 inches from one end of the scarf and 3 bands of the same near the other end.  Treadling was all plain weave except for the Rosepath bands. I finished the scarf with hemstitching and a loose fringe.

 

 

To keep my selvedges even, I used a weighted “faux temple” system.  This uses two weighted clips rather than the traditional “toothed” temple.

 

 

 

I was not entirely happy with the finished product. It is a little stiff, and probably too wide.  It only shrunk ½” in width. (Maybe the temple system worked better than it should have.)  Using Twill the structure would probably have been a better choice than plain weave in order to make the scarf more drapeable.

If I wove this scarf again, I would make it narrower, use a twill treadling, and a finer weft yarn.

 

 

More Scarves

Our weavers were busy in 2015 with the scarf challenge.  (Your busy blogger is behind in posting...)  Marcy selected a bag from Beryl with green Noro, bamboo and ivory rayon yarns.

Marcy's Brown Bag of Yarn

Marcy and Her Yarn

Marcy chose a 4-shaft pattern that combined the thick and thin yarns. 

She added a pink (of unknown fiber content)yarn as an accent in the green hand-dyed bamboo warp.  The weft was 2 shots of ivory rayon and 4 shots of multicolored Noro. 

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Marcy sett the warp at 20 epi but felt that this was too loose. 

Scarf Detail

Eileen picked a real grab bag of yarns for her challenge.  The yarns are from Diana. 

Eileen's yarns

Eileen chose a 2/2 twill structure on four shafts.  She changed the twill direction whenever she felt like it while weaving.  It's quite a nice scarf - wide and long.

Eileen's scarf

Eileen's scarf - detail

 

 

There is at least one scarf left to share, but it needs to be woven first.

Scarves a' la Dee

The group continues to work on their scarves for the group challenge.  When she learned she was too ill to finish her challenge scarf, Dee asked Beryl to take the yarns she had chosen.

Dee Selecting Yarn

Dee's yarns

 

 The yarns in the bag were a green rayon (used in the warp and sett at 20 epi) and a wool/rayon blend used as weft. The supplementary warps were soy/silk space dyed and put in a separate dent and weighted separately off the back of the loom.  (Dee often used ribbon or other accent yarns to make a piece more snazzy.)  Beryl also used a pink nubby rayon and 16/2 cotton weft yarns from her stash.

 

Beryl wove three scarves with the yarn.

 

 

The first scarf is a turned twill - one of Dee's "Go To" structures.  The weft on this one is the wool/rayon from the challenge bag.

Scarf 1

Scarf 1 Detail

The second scarf was woven using the second treadling above with a pink rayon yarn from Beryl's stash.

Scarf 2

Scarf 2 detail
 

The third scarf is woven in plain weave with the 16/2 cotton.  

Scarf 3

Scarf 3 detail

I wish the photograph colors did better justice to these three lovely scarves.  I think Dee would be pleased with the results.
 

Nevada County in Spring Scarf

In spite of the December deadline for the scarf challenge, weavers are already working on their projects. 

 

Diana wove her scarf for the challenge from yarn she got from Dee.  The warp yarns were 8/2 green rayon, 4 ply variegated rayon, 5/2 light green cotton and ribbon also in greens.  The warp was sett as follows:  8/2 rayon – 18 epi; 4 ply rayon – 12 epi; 5/2 cotton & ribbon – 12 epi.  The warp was threaded in a straight draw on 4 shafts.

 

The weft yarns were the 8/2 green rayon alternating with a 10/2 pale green cotton for the majority of the scarf, woven in plain weave.  Diana used orange, white, fuchsia, blue and purple similar weight yarns for the accent areas of the weft. The accent weft patterns were mostly twills found in Anne Dixon’s book:  The Handweaver's Pattern Directory.

 

Diana used a weighted “false temple” for the first time when weaving this scarf.  This involves using clamps at either side of the woven fabric, near the fell line.  String or twine is attached to each clamp and these are weighted.  The idea is to help keep the project from pulling in too much while not having to use a traditional temple, which tends to stab the weaver.

Diana plans to enter this lovely scarf in the Nevada County Inspired category at the Nevada County Fair this summer. 

 

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Scarves for Giving Post #5

Carol got her brown bag yarns from me (Beryl). For this first scarf, she used a painted wool/rayon and rayon/cotton pink ribbon for the warp and some of her own pink rayon as the weft. The structure is plain weave. This is a light, delicate scarf in a fabulous shade of pink.

Carol used the same painted wool/rayon yarn in this scarf, but this time she made use of it in both warp and weft. The striping was a naturally occuring feature. The structure is plain weave.

For her final scarf, Carol chose two different yarns from the bag. One is a cabled variegated silk in shades of wine, green and blue. She combined it with a loopy mohair in almost the same colors. She was inspired to do the window pane design by "Night Windows" scarf in Handwoven's Design Collection 19 Loopy mohair creates the window frames in both warp and weft.

This is an opulent scarf, with lots of length and multiple ways to wrap and wear it.