A Design Process Story

Mardi showed some beautiful scarves at the last meeting.  She shares her process in the narrative below.

 

 

The Process:

First I wanted to make a scarf using some knitting yarn left from an abandoned knitting project and used Cascade Sock yarn as the weft. The draft was something that I put together by taking some of the twill threading I liked from another project.  Unfortunately, the weft yarn ran out before planned and the scarf is a little shorter than planned, but still acceptable.  I decided to experiment with the remaining warp.

#1 - I used some homespun singles from some gray CVM that I had spun.  It compressed the twill but it was a little scratchy. (Igor liked that one.)

 

#2 - I used some alpaca knitting yarn that I had around, similar color but it had a larger grist.  It was very satisfactory in terms of softness.

 

#3 - I wanted to see what would happen if I used a color in the weft.  I didn't have anything that matched the magenta in the warp, but I had some wine colored yarn sitting on a bobbin and decided to use it.  The result was softer than the other 2 samples and I liked the color the best.  I might add that I never liked the warp yarn very much, so almost anything improved it.

 

 

It's County Fair Time Again

It is August and that means it's time for the County Fair.  Several of the Not 2 Square members have entered items into the Fair this year.  In the next several posts, we'll give you a look at the entries.  Your roving reporter doesn't have all of the details but we can show the pictures and perhaps offer some information about the pieces.

Diana entered several kitchen textiles and two scarves.  There are two cotton towels and a bread cloth.  The snow flake pattern, I believe is an 8-shaft Swedish snowflake pattern.

Diana's Towel

Diana's Towel

The draft for this cotton bread cloth is from Marguerite Davison's book- Molly Pitcher - on
page 91. 

Diana's Bread Cloth

Diana entered two scarves.   The one on the left looks like log cabin.  The one on the right is inspired by the Iris and Echo book on 8 shafts.

Diana's Scarf

Diana's Scarf

Marcy entered two turned twill towels.  These were woven using design #228 from Carol Strickler's book.  Marcy tied on new warps and made a whole series of wonderful color combinations with this one turned twill pattern.  Here are two examples.

Sue entered a skein of spun wool.  This skein has a lovely thick and thin texture.

Sue's Yarn

Sue's Yarn

  
















That's it for this post.  If we find out more details for these pieces, we'll post them here. 

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.
 

Dee Jones and Her Bounty of Fair Entries

There is nothing quite as nice as a collaboration between two textile artisans.  The lovely prize winning scarf with yarn spun by Sue Flynn and woven by Dee Jones is draped around a special jacket woven and sewn by Dee Jones.

Dee wove this shawl with April and Forsythia in mind for the Nevada County Inspired category.  She knitted a special loopy trim to finish off her asymmetrical garment.

Dee spun textured purple yarn for these two inspired scarves.  The left photo is a knitted lace and the second photo shows the yarn used as weft in a twill design.

Dee always makes the best bags and this year she really got inspired with her long handled tote shown on the left and upper right (with a blue ribbon).  The story is that she wove what is now the handle of the bag as a scarf.  Finding the fabric too stiff to use as she originally intended, she turned it into the long, over the shoulder strap for her tote and finished up with a row of beads!  The bottom purse has lovely details of beads and a special button closure.

Then, there are all the rest of Dee's entries - most of which received blue ribbons.  Clockwise from the upper left is a supplementary warp design that Dee loves to make in all varieties.  Her twill towel is woven with 50% linen and won the blue in the bast fiber category.  The shawl is elegant and warm - another blue ribbon winner.  And finally on the right corner is some bright red yardage that Dee wove with a top in mind.  Now she is thinking maybe another shawl -- we shall see what kind of magic touches she will add!

Nevada County Inspired ... and more!

 For the past few years, Not 2 Square Weavers have been giving a cash prize for the best "Nevada County Inspired" textile.  This year's winner is Ingrid Knox with this gorgeous shawl woven from Nevada County alpaca yarns.  Some of the yarn came from a ranch Ingrid and her husband found while  out "garage sale-ing" and the light colored yarn came from Lola's Loom (BJ Forester's alpaca herd)  The design is threaded M&W's and the tie up is a twill. 

Now for the rest of Ingrid's entries.  (She was pretty busy this year)
Scarves - sock yarn for warp and weft, woven in plain weave



 

Handspun scarf - Mardi Nayton's handspun Merino yarn for warp and alpaca for the weft. 8-shaft point twill with a 2-2-1-1-1-1 tie-up

Left photo:  Baby blanket - mixed cotton warp woven with synthetic baby yarn in the same twill 2-2-1-1-1-1 as is done in the SF towel.
Right photo:  Summer Shawl - Mixed warp and a slubby cotton weft (Cotton Kisses from Plymouth). Structure is plain weave. 


 

Left photo: Rosepath towel - 10/2 natural cotton warp and a 10/2 variegated cotton weft. 8-shaft rosepath design

Right photo: San Francisco Towel - 10/2 perle cotton for warp and weft. 8-shaft point twill  tied-up as a 2-2-1-1-1-1

 

Stay tuned for our last fair post -- coming in a few days!







More from the County Fair

Here's more of the County Fair entries.  This post features three of our members and their entries.

Mardi wove a marvelous men's scarf with some special Alpaca yarns she recently purchased. The warp is painted and the weft is a neutral. Because the scarf is slightly weft faced, the painted warp creates a very subtle design - best viewed from a little distance.

Mardi's Men's Scarf
 

Mardi's Huck Placemat

Mardi also wove a set of placemats using 3/2 cotton yarn.  They have huck lace in the center and plain weave around the edges.  This piece won Mardi a second place ribbon.

Sue H wove yardage and sewed a top that she entered this year. Top is made from a cotton warp with a textured yarn for weft.  It's basically a huilipile or traditional garment of South America.  It is just two strips of cloth with a center front and back seam and a slit for the neck.  Sue used graduated width stripes that got further and further apart. There are planned selvage stripes that become decorative when the seam allowance is turned to the outside.  A nice first place entry!

Sue's Top

 

Sharon's Scarf

 

 

Sharon entered a scarf and a towel this year.  The warp in the scarf is hand spun yarn.  She dyed several different colors of blue-faced leicester and then blended them together on her Patrick Greene drum carder with silk noil, white Cormo and alpaca, and Tussah silk.  She spun the fiber unevenly and then plied the single with "natural" 16/2 bamboo.  The weft is 8/2 green Tencel.

 

  

The red towel is Turned Taquete with 8/2 cotton, for warp and weft, sett at 20 epi.  There's a discussion about this draft right now on 4 shaft weaving page on Facebook.

 



Sharon's Towel

 

Not 2 Square Weavers at the County Fair

If it's August in Nevada County, it must be time for the County Fair. Several of our members entered woven items in this year's "Wool, Fibers & Textiles". Over the next several posts we'll share the entries.

 

Betsy wove a rug using from remnants of gloves in bright colors from the Solmate Sock Company. It is 80% cotton and 20% nylon. 

 

 

She also wove a table runner in blue and black tencel.  It’s an undulating twill with an unusual treadling pattern.  The pillow cover is woven using an 8-shaft shadow weave pattern with variegated rayon weft and tencel warp twill. 



Table runner




Pillow

 

Diana entered a placemat and coordinating napkins. Both the placemat and napkins were weft faced using cotton yarns.

placemat

napkins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She entered two scarves that were woven from hand dyed yarn.  The first used a painted warp and included a ribbon in the warp for a little extra pizzazz.  



scarf 1

 

scarf 2

The second scarf used a dyed cotton warp that didn't come out quite as Diane expected but the resulting scarf was very nice.  The fancy fringe complements the plain-weave structure.

 

 

Diana also received a First Prize for a hand towel woven in an extended manifold twill from a William Bateman manuscript.
                                             

 

Towel

Entries from the Fair

Several of our members entered woven items and handspun in the County Fair this year.  I realized I forgot to photograph the hand spun but here are the woven entries.  

Several items woven by Betsy, including two table runners, a rug, shawl and scarf.

 Dee submitted various items including yardage, a scarf, a jacket sewn by her daughter using Dee's woven yardage and a shawl.  One of her scarves won the "People's Choice" Award.

Diana's entries included a scarf and two towels.

Ingrid submitted a scarf and two towels.

Marcy entered a huck placemat and dresser scarf.

 

 Sue H exhibited her tablecloth and fiesta placemats.

Sue R entered an inkle band, small towel, small basket and a vest.