More Weaving at the County Fair

 More Not 2 Square Weavers displayed their woven pieces at the Fair this month.  

Mardi entered several items starting with a beautiful baby blanket, using a gradient color scheme.

Mardi's Baby Blanket

She entered two sets of napkins - one also with a gradient color scheme.

Mardi's Napkins

Mardi's Napkins

This turned twill scarf on the left was woven with a cotton warp and a silk weft.  The pink scarf was woven with linen.

Mardi's Turned Twill Scarf

Mardi's Linen Scarf

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Mardi also entered two tea towels.

Mardi's Towel

Mardi's Towel

Karen entered a rug that she wove using shaft switching technique.

Karen's Rug

Jeanne entered a poncho that was woven using Robin Lynde's V-Shawl technique.  It's a doubleweave shawl with a V-shaped back.  

Jeanne's Poncho

She entered two sets of placemats.

Jeanne's Placemats

Jeanne's Placemats

Jeanne also entered a towel.

Jeanne's Towel

Jeanne's final entry was a Ganges Linen Scarf

Jeanne's scarf

There are more entries that will be posted soon.  

Pandemic Weaving

Not 2 Square Weavers have been meeting monthly for many years.  All of a sudden, the pandemic put all of that to an end, at least for the foreseeable future.  So, like many other groups, we have reverted to Zoom meetings.  

The first few meetings were a bit strange because we are used to passing around our month's work, asking questions and feeling the textiles with our hands. But, after several meetings now, we are getting used to the new format and still want to share what we are doing with other weavers.

This month, Diana shared a stunning scarf with us.  She delved into the world of supplementary warp and used a pattern from an older issue of Handwoven. 

Here is her description and a photo of that scarf.

Structure
Ground Warp- plain weave and Atwater-Bronson lace
Supplementary Warp - Overshot

Fiber
Ground warp:  8/2 rayon in pale yellow and natural
Supplementary warp:  20/2 rayon doubled, in teal
Weft:  8/2 rayon in pale yellow

Sett
24epi (48epi in supplementary warp areas)

Finished size
8 1/4" W x 73"L + fringe

Notes
When winding the warp, add at least 20% more in length to the supplementary warp than you have wound for the ground warp.


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Ingrid has been weaving scarves, and like Diana, is trying out new weaving ideas.

Here’s a picture of the new scarf.  It was woven with 10/2 tencel from Just Our Yarns (different color-ways for the warp and weft), sett at 36 epi.  The structure is an 8-point M’s twill, the tie-up is 2-2-1-1-1-1- twill.  It wove up beautifully, didn’t shrink much and felt nice and soft after a gentle machine wash and laying flat to dry.

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Wendy-Marie has moved out of the area, but the fun thing about Zoom is that she can again participate in Not 2 Square.  This month she had a couple of adventures to share.

"This month I worked on a scarf based on Sarah Jackson's "Brasberry Scarf," (Handwoven, May/June 2019).  Since she used analogous colors and I did not, I was not sure how it would turn out.  But the blocks came out fine.  In the Jackson pattern, the weft changes color 4 times, and the blocks expand as the scarf progresses.  I think I will re-do using only one weft color and only one block size.

My second project was a boundweave rug based on Wendy Bestor's design, but not her colors.  This uses Collingwood rug wool (900 ypp).  I found it came out better for the weft if I wound three threads of wool together on the bobbin than to throw the yarn three times in one shed as suggested by the pattern.  I did not achieve anything like 14 ppi, so ran out of warp.  My weaving buddies tell me this is because I was using my Baby Wolf and suggest that I weight the beater next time round.  Despite a number of weaving errors (including accidental asymmetry), I like this rug a lot.  It is very attractive and sturdy."

Highlights from the County Fair

The Local County Fair has come and gone.  The weaving and spinning entries were amazing as usual.  Many of the Not 2 Square members entered beautiful pieces again this year.  Here are the highlights.

Betsy captured the People's Choice award with a beautiful shawl made from hand-dyed tencel.

Betsy's Shawl

Diana garnered an Honorable Mention with her bright and fun turned taquete towels made with 10/2 and 8/2 cotton.  

Diana's Towel

Ingrid submitted a shawl woven from Madeline Tosh merino yarns.  This was woven in an 8-shaft extended twill pattern.

Ingrid's Shawl

Jeanne won a second place ribbon with this elegant hand towel.  She wove it with 40/2 Normandy linen with Lanis Valley Linen as the pattern.

Jeanne's Towel

Karen won a first place ribbon with a fabulous wool rug.  

Karen's Rug

Marcy's classic dresser scarf, woven in cotton with M's and W's pattern won a second place ribbon.

Marcy's Table Runner

Mardi's show stopping shawl was woven in plain weave with rayon chenille.  It feels as fabulous as it looks.

Mardi's Shawl

Sue R. woven a colorful table runner from the warp left over from last year's demonstration project.  She used bleach to remove color from black yarn for the weft.  This inventive piece was a first place finisher.

Sue R's Table Runner

Sue V.'s yardage entry brought her a second place ribbon.  This cotton piece woven in a twill design used a variety of yarns from Sue's stash.

Sue V's Yardage

We are starting to look ahead to what we will be weaving for next year's fair entries.

Additional Fair Results

Here are more Nevada County fair entries.  The previous post had information about Wendy-Marie's Ferris Wheel scarf.  In addition she entered a bag and Mobius shawl and contributed to two collaboration bags made from bands.  She also submitted a rug. 
 
The bag was made from a tapestry piece by Wendy-Marie.  She used yardage from Beryl - both handwoven and commercially made (the lining is recycled from a kimono) and a kumihimo band. 
 

Bag with materials from various sources

 

Collaboration Bag I

 

Collaboration Bag II

 
Wendy-Marie was the guiding force behind three bags made mostly from back-strap or other woven bands.  She sewed the blue/green one on the right.
 
 

Ferris Wheel Scarf

 

Mobius Shawl

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Mobius shawl was woven using rayon chenille for warp and weft and ribbon in a plain weave pattern.  Once woven, it a seam was sewn to attach the ends. 

Wendy-Marie's last piece is a rug.  She wove this as part of a class with Jason Collingwood.  It's a first place winner.

Wendy-Marie's Rug

 
Marcy added several piece in the Fair as well. She had a baby blanket, two towels and a scarf.
 
The blanket was a mix warp.  There was a little boucle sparkle that gives it a little shine.  She also entered a scarf that is woven in a twill design in wool.
 


Marcy's Baby Blanket


 

Marcy's Scarf

 

Marcy's Towel I

 

 

Marcy's Towel II



Marcy's Towel II - detail  

 

 

The two towels were woven on the same warp, just using different weft colors. 

 

There are more entries that we will be posting, so stay tuned.



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!