From 24 shafts to Plain Weave!

Ingrid is branching out and starting to design  drafts to use on her 24 shaft AVL loom.  She is a member of Complex Weavers and has joined the study group called "24 More or Less".  This group exchanges woven samples and drafts once a year.  The criteria is that draft and cloth must use at least 17 shafts; no limit to the maximum number of shafts.  Here is the sample that Ingrid wove for the exchange.  The warp and weft are 10/2 cotton and the warp has two colors - champagne and natural which gives the cloth an extra  visual depth.  The draft is an Ingrid original. 

In order to weave the exchange samples, Ingrid needed to weave off the warp that had been on the loom for an extended period of time (months, a year?)  There was enough warp for a table runner in snow white.  Won't this look great on someone's dining table!  I believe that this is a 16 shaft design.

Jackie is fond of using Alpaca in shawls and scarves.  In her stash she had an array of odd balls from previous projects so she  set out to combine them into scarves.  Using a 2/2 twill, she designed these two lovely pieces.  They were almost feather weight - but will be so very warm because of the Alpaca fiber.

Sue Habegger spent several years in Espanola, New Mexico, studying Chimayó-Style weaving.  She built  her own walking loom that was sturdy enough for the weft faced rugs and wall hangings she was learning to weave.  This type of weaving is somewhat more strenuous than Sue likes to do these days, but she managed to finish up this wonderful wall hanging with a design inspired by a textile seen on the internet. Black is not a color Sue usually uses, but it is quite effective in this piece. 

 

There are still several  more things to share in my next post about March's meeting.  As I write this, it snows.  Nevada county has certainly had its share of winter this year and we can hardly wait for spring!

Handwoven towels make the best gifts!

March found us tucked inside and warm with the rain pouring down outside.  We had lots of people from our group that braved the rain and it was nice to see everyone after having skipped our February meeting.

Several weavers had been busy weaving towels.  (There is simply nothing better than a handwoven towel.) Marcy had a commission to weave towels for a friend who likes having them on hand to give as gifts.  She has a favorite draft of point twill and basketweave, and this time she wove her towels in a neutral color 10/2 cotton and colorful stripes for the twill.  The sett is 24 epi. The draft is in Weaver's Craft issue #17.

Diana also brought a selection of towels that she will be giving away as gifts as she travels this summer.  Waffle weave, plaids, stripes.  I love the textures and colors.

Diana also brought a place mat that she wove from natural colored tow linen.  The design is somewhat hard to see in the photo.  She said that before washing, the mats were really stiff.  After washing they have softened up a bit.  Now, she is looking for more linen.  I have promised to check my stash to see what I have that is similar to the yarn she used.

Gus found a block twill draft for the towels she recently wove.  She had a stack with different weft colors. Don't you love how the colors reverse on each side.

Much more to come in the next posts.

This Year's Weaving Challenges

It's always fun to have some weaving challenges for the coming year.  Our group decided on two for this year.  Number one - weave something outside your comfort zone.  Number two - weave lap robes for seniors in need.  We have decided that 36" or 40" x 60" will work and we should have them done by late November for delivery during the holidays.

We don't have far to look in weaving something outside of our comfort zone.  In our group, everyone seems to have their individual talents and strong points - so we could just look to the weaving at show and tell to choose a new technique.  Here are photos of pillows woven by Jackie Hervey using the Theo Moorman technique.   It's a wonderful skill to have in your weaving bag of tricks and Jackie is very good at it.

Sue Habegger wants to use up some favorite yarns from her stash.  This is a sample using Navajo Churro wool yarns.  Unfortunately, her stash didn't contain enough yarn for yardage for a jacket, but through the marvel of the internet, she has found a supplier and will be able to buy more of a similar grist. 

The Luxury of Handwoven Wearable - Scarves and Shawls

The January meeting brought many of us out to share a bountiful supply of Handwoven magazines, donated by Barbara to the members of our group.  I think everyone went home with a few treasures.  But our members also had treasures for Show and Tell.  Above is Diana's braided twill scarf.  The draft for this scarf is #356 from A Weaver's Book of 8- Shaft Patterns.  If you are lucky enough to own a copy of this book, you will see the draft shows lifting 7 shafts on treadles one and two.  Diana wisely reversed her tie up and wove the weft faced fabric on the upper side.  The yarns used in the scarf were two rayons from Diana's stash and the sett is 20epi.

Betsy had a couple of shawls that she wove on a cotton warp.  The shawl shown above used Alpaca weft yarns for a lovely Southwestern look.  The shawl below used a variety of yarns from Betsy's stash, including a variegated yarn that makes an intriguing little pattern of its own.  Enlarge the photo to get a good look.

Dee broke out of her traditional color mode and wove a two block twill in dark wools.  The spark of color comes from the weft sock yarn in oranges and browns.  The warp is two colors - the first a very dark charcoal and the other dark green.  The difference in warp colors isn't obvious to the eye, but lends a depth to the shawl that probably wouldn't have been achieved with just one color. 

There will be more show and tell items in the next blog post.  Stay tuned with information about our group challenge for 2011 weaving.

December's Meeting Part II

Jackie has been devloping her skills in rug weaving and almost met her match with a design from Swedish Rag Rugs. The English version of the book is out of print - and what a shame, because it has some lovely  rugs and ideas in it.  Back to Jackie's rug.  She tried this tied weave draft which the book calls "tied triple weave".


For each block (there were three in Jackie's rug) you thread every other thread on the shaft assigned for that block and alternate them with the tie down warps on shafts 1-2-3.  Notice that Jackie wove a three color sequence in this part of the draft.  She used a skeleton tie up and a countermarche loom, but I used  the jack loom tie up here.  I really want to try this draft out with lighter yarns to see how it looks and works in a more flexible textile.

 Jackie's rug is wider than she expected - but it is a real beauty. Notice the difference between the solid color front face and the less defined pattern on the back.  I like both equally well.   Jackie said that it was a very slow weave and she only accomplished several inches a day. 

Not being able to waste a bit of warp, Jackie wove off it off with this short piece of rug and made a case for the load levelers on her travel trailer. Isn't that a spiffy idea.

Ingrid has been working on ideas for more towels with rosepath borders.  She worked out this design on her computer - but not with weaving software.  She uses Excel! 

We have a member (Sharon) who doesn't get to come to meetings very often because she lives in Nevada State - not Nevada County!  But Sharon weaves a lot and recently completed a baby blanket with lots of color and great design.  She bought the yarn and pattern as a kit, but the skill in weaving is all hers.  Click here to see pictures and read all about it.  If you keep on reading the blog, you will also come to baby all wrapped up in the splendor of a handwoven blanket. 

At the January meeting, we will have a big Handwoven magazine give away.  Barbara has parted with her collection and some of us are filling in the holes in our personal hoard.  What a wonderful group we have.

Winter meeting at Ingrid's

December found many of us without a project to show for our monthly meeting - maybe because the weather has been pretty awful, but mostly because it seemed like a good time to do other things than weave.   But, there were some nice pieces and lots of conversation to keep the ball rolling anyway.  Gus brought her latest shawl which is featured at Shawlsunlimited.  She recently purchased weaving software  from PCW Fiberworks and was pleased when what she designed on the computer closely resembled the finished woven piece. 

Gus had been given a yarn store gift certificate and found some luxurious Merino/bamboo yarn which she combined with a bamboo ribbon, making an ever so soft and warm shawl. 

Diana also used the same bamboo ribbon as one of the warp threads in her Christmas scarf.  She used a Swedish lace draft for texture, some very fine gold metallic thread and threads of red and green for the Christmas touch.

This scarf has a wonderful sparkle, mostly because of the Henry's Attic Sarafina yarn of rayon and cotton  which was used in the warp and weft.  The gold metallic yarn effect is very subtle.

Lake Wildwood Sale

Five Not 2 Square Weavers purchased a double booth at the Lake Wildwood Craft Faire this past weekend.  The weather on set up night was very stormy, but we all sallied forth and put our booth together.  It was smaller than we purchased, but after a bit of adjustment here and there, the organizers let us move some of our stands out into a larger area.

Dee couldn't be at the event, but here is her rack of handwoven scarves.



These are some of Sue Habegger's chenille scarves and she also had a colorful rug that caught the public's attention.  Somehow, Sue managed to escape the eye of our cameras.  Darn, I was sure I snapped a picture of her during the event.





Here I am (Beryl) in front of my shawl and scarf rack.  To the left of me, you can see some of Gus' scarves and towels.




And this is Gus in front of our sales table.  The colorful socks are her hand dyed "Happy Socks" which proved to be big sellers at the event.    Knit caps - not so much in demand!

 

 



Ingrid poses in front of her baby blanket rack.  On the other side of the rack were her Christmas towels.

Here is Igor in front of my rack, and not his own handwovens.  He did sell a very nice scarf during the event, and then was a bit sorry he had parted with it.  He gets very attached to what he makes.



October's offerings - napkins, shawls and towels

Diana spent a large part of her summer in Maine this year. Her daughter and her family live there and her daughter's inlaws have a summer lake cabin. Diana noticed that everyone was reaching for paper napkins and paper towels while staying at the cabin and decided that what was needed were cloth napkins - each different so that people knew which one was theirs and could use it for several days. When Diana finally arrived home, she set up her loom to weave 12 napkins. Her four shaft draft came from the Handweaver's Pattern Directory by Anne Dixon and is Overshot:  Small Honeysuckle on pages 104-106.

Some of the napkins have an alternating tabby and some do not.  The dozen serviettes are destined to be Christmas gifts; what a great way to introduce using resuable over throw away.

Betsy brought a shawl she wove using bamboo in a shadow weave design from Marian Powell's 1000+ Patterns in 4, 6 and 8 Harness Shadow Weave.  Betsy's shawl is an 8 shaft design with a lovely feel and drape . Isn't shadow weave just the best!

Gus wove a shawl as well. The warp is ramie and silk (mostly silk) and the weft was cotton. It is now for sale at the Shawlsunlimited website where it is called Silver Lake Blues.  The 8 shaft draft for this shawl came from A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns edited by Carol Strickler, page 52 #206.

Ingrid was weaving towels in preparation for selling at the Winterfaire craft show.  Since the show is now at the end of October, she decided that maybe pumpkins were better than Christmas trees (although she made both).  Here are two styles of pumpkins and they were a big hit at the sale (but so were the Christmas trees).

There are six of us in the Not 2 Square Weavers group that will be selling at a double booth at the Lake Wildwood Craft Faire in November. Lake Wildwood is a gated community and the sale is primarily for residents.  We have high hopes that even bad weather won't keep folks away! Several of us that sold at Winterfaire experienced what it is like to try to sell handwovens when there is a record rain falling outside  and the parking lot is flooded.  Umbrellas might have been popular!

Our September Show and Tell

September finds many weavers thinking about how and where to sell some of their handwovens.  Our group is no exception and the longer a person has been weaving, the more eager they seem to be to find a market for their textiles.  This year the group has reserved two booths at the Lake Wildwood Craft Faire.  This is the first time for many of us to participate in this fair, so we aren't sure what to expect.

Dee brought scarves that she will be selling - 12 of them that she wove in just one month!  She used the same diamond pattern and wove two scarves per warp.  They were all so different in different colors, that you would never have realized they were the same weaving draft.

Ingrid is using up stash and weaving baby blankets for sale.  Stripes of all sorts - and again, each one is different.

But, not everyone was weaving items for sale.  Marcy brought a baby blanket in which she used a wool warp and a Henry's Attic Queen Annes' Lace cotton as weft.  Notice the nice treatment she gave the fringe with a double knot.

Sue R. brought a scarf with a story.  At a conference Sue attended, there was a weaving demonstration using a variety of knitting yarns in the weft.  By the end of the conference, there was still a lot of unwoven warp on the loom.  Sue unwound it and, heaven knows how she preserved the warp order,  brought it home and painstakingly wound it back on the back beam of her four shaft loom.  Then she wove the rest of the warp as a sampler piece - using bits and pieces from her mother's stash of knitting yarns. The result is a very beautiful scarf - maybe table runner piece.  This reminds me of the saori technique of free style weaving and Sue's piece is beautifully done.  It gave many of us the inspiration to rummage around in our stash to pull out bits and pieces of yarns too short for most purposes and weave them into something useful and beautiful.

That's just about all for this month.  There should be pictures to share from our sales events in the coming months.  Wish us well.

Ah, the luxury of handwovens for the home.

Betsy Abrams entered a couple of table runners in the fair this year.  The one below has a blue ribbon peeking out from under her entry card.  Congratulations, Betsy!  I haven't seen this particular piece, but it looks like Summer and Winter.  We will have to ask her at the next meeting.

This next table runner is also woven by Betsy and looks like overshot to me.  Hopefully if I am wrong, Betsy will fill me in on the details.

Then, there were towels - and some nice ones too.  Carol Phillips received a second prize for some natural colored cotton towels.  The cottons were from Sally Fox and  the colors in the picture are hard to pick out because they are subtle.  There are browns and greens in addition to the white cotton.

Ingrid received a third place ribbon for her towel, also woven with Sally Fox cottons.  Here you can see the different shades of brown. 

Very colorful and interesting entries from Marcy Elliott are pictured below.

And here is a lovely towel from Dee. I love how the structure hides the weave pattern in the dark areas and lets it pop in the white stripes.

 Sue Habegger's towel entry is an interesting plaid.

And, last but not least these great placemats woven by Gus Young that received a second place ribbon.

All in all, it looks like our group did themselves proud at our latest county fair.  I want to congratulate all the winners for their ribbons, but also for entering their items.  Making the public aware that handwoven is something special and beautiful may give us an edge in the marketplace when we are selling our wares this autumn and winter.