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!

Fair and Square - continued

Wendy-Marie offered a rep weave table runner, using Rosalie Neilson’s pattern in the the May/June 2017 issue of Handwoven. The warp is 3/2 cotton sett at 30 epi. The weft alternates 3/2 cotton for the thin pick with 8/16 mop yarn tripled for the thick pick. The runner is finished with four rows of Cavandoli knots. Having studied Rosalie’s DVD course on rep weave, she believes the draft in Handwoven has some errors –that shaft 4 should be paired with shaft 8, and shaft 3 should always pair with shaft 7. 

 She also made matching placemats.

 

The same issue of Handwoven had a design by Deanna Deeds called “Gumdrop Scarf.”  Wendy-Marie used this pattern to produce her Nevada County Inspired entry, a “Farmer’s Market Scarf.” The warp is tencel, sett at 24 epi at the two ends, and changed to 16 epi for the body of the scarf using Beryl and Igor’s variable reed. The reed is 12 epi, but the top comes off so that the weaver can rearrange the warp. This reed allowed for a more even distribution of the warp once the edging was completed. The scarf is finished with Danish Medallions. Diverging a bit from the pattern, Wendy-Marie used bambu for the weft, which helped make the scarf softer and drapier.

 Her dishcloths are based on the “Herringbone Twill Towels” by Linda Gettmann, from the Sept/Oct 2014 issue of Handwoven. Where would we be without that magazine? Yarn is mostly 8/2 cotton, with a smattering of tencel and 5/2 cotton used for color. The sett is 20 epi.

Weaving at Joanne Tallarovic's Studio

detail of  Carol's rep weave using print yardage as weft

Way back in January, we had our monthly meeting at Carol Phillip's home.  She had taken a  rep weave class with Joanne Tallarovic in Arizona.  It turned out she was the only student and so it was a chance to get some in depth knowledge about rep weave and its possibilities.  Carol says Joanne has a whole house devoted to studio space, so it was a real luxury to work with the master in her surroundings.

Carol wasn't sure what to take with her to the class, so she brought some colorful printed cottons.  Igor is holding up one of the pieces she wove during her stay in Arizona.  It looks like three different fabrics were used in this piece.  Joanne has a procedure for cutting her fabrics and getting them to line up in sequence during the weaving process so that the original fabric design shows through in a blurred representation of the original cloth. 

This is a towel woven with sewing thread and 8/2 cotton.  It is wonderfully flexible cloth and not at all what might be expected with rep weave.  Joanne specializes in rep weave clothing and the fabrics Carol wove in her stay with Joanne are very suitable for use as yardage.

If you aren't familiar with Joanne's work, her book Rep Weave and Beyond is a fabulous introduction.  However, when I looked for copies I saw that it is no longer in print and used copies are very expensive. This is a good book to see if your guild library owns, or maybe borrow a copy through interlibrary loan. 

More from the June Meeting

Carol brought in an interesting garment that was given to her son  while he was working in Indonesia.  The garment takes a month of weaving and all of the detail design is woven, not embroidered as it may appear.  Carol said that the guy that gave it to her son had received it as a wedding piece and that they were made for special occasions.  Carol's son protested that he couldn't take a wedding piece, but the guy said "no problem".  The garment is called an Ulu and they aren't worn because the climate it too hot, but they are used for decoration in the home.

Carol also brought in some great hot pads she wove in rep weave. Don't these color just pop off the page?  The pieces themselves are even better than in the photo.

Our group recently ordered yarns from Henry's Attic and Carol ordered a cone of pigtail.  It comes in two sizes and the one pictured is the smaller grist.  This yarn makes wonderful baby blankets and Carol brought in a blanket she wove 10 years ago for a grandson.  It is still in use (probably not the same grandson) and in excellent condition after many, many launderings.  The warp for the blanket is Henry's Attic Alpine Petite sett at 10epi and the pigtail is the weft yarn. The surface of the blanket is  like a really high quality terry cloth towel.

There's more show and tell, so stay tuned for the next post.

It's Really Spring

What a show and tell we had for our April meeting. Jackie has been busy weaving for her new travel trailer. She brought two bound weave rugs that she wove last fall and have already been put into service in the trailer. The warp yarns are cottons from her stash, and what lovely colors they are. The thick weft is wool and similar to a felted roving. Jackie says she has washed one of the rugs and there was no problem with the cotton and the wool behaving differently. These rugs lay perfectly flat on the floor and are beautifully finished. We were all very impressed.



Dee brought a towel to the exchange last fall woven from this draft. Jackie's interpretation was woven with boucle yarns in the warp and weft. The texture is much like a terry bath towel. The two colors of green come from the structure showing one face and then another with the different shade of green weft. This is a great draft and can be found in Handwoven Issue 141 pg. 56

Sue H. was commissioned to weave towels for someone with a new kitchen decor. The recipient wanted something to match her new granite counters and specifically asked for white, black and gray. Sue's idea was to pop the color with a bit of turquoise, but deferred to her friend's color choices and wove this stunning waffle weave towel. The design can be found in the Design Collection No. 5: Dish Towels (Handwovens Design Collection Series) which is now, unfortunately, out of print.

Ingrid has been very busy experimenting with her new 24 shaft AVL. Her first warp was threaded on a 16 shaft point. This towel and the one that follows are from the same warp. She also wove some in all white, which are lovely but don't photograph easily.

Diana also has a "new to her" 8 shaft Mighty Wolf loom. For this series of napkins, she got down under the loom after each napkin and changed the tie up. What a variety of patterns can be woven on a straight draw threading.

Here is a sample from my most recent Baby Wolf warp. I used fabric shown in the picture for a Complex Weavers sample exchange. The remaining warp was used for napkins for our weaver's exchange in June. Different colored wefts were used for the napkins and I'll photograph those when we do our exchange in June.

Dee showed a special vest, which couldn't be photographed until it has appeared in a magazine article later on this year. It's a real beauty -- but you'll have to be patient. We will tell all later. Also, Marcy had napkins in progress on her loom but I forgot to get a picture. We will see them in June.

See everyone in May!