Rainbow Scarf
Weft - Grafton batt, separated in half across the batt, then by color. Spun onto two bobbins which turned out to be visible different in amount. Navajo plied to maintain color integrity, since plying the two bobbins together would have muddied the colors.
Error in tie up which I noticed 6" into piece, yielded not a 2/2 twill but looked good anyway.
Threading was correct - 1234, 1234
tie up was as follows: 12, 23, 24, 14
Treadling was 1234 to horizontal center, then 4321 as planned
the pattern has a cabled look to it a in places.
Design disaster - finished piece: Beautiful.
Donated to Employer's Relay for Life team to raffle as a fund raiser.
Little sock bag
The straps are inkle woven from the same yarns as in the warp of the bag. I started with a pink batt and a length of pink, blue and black roving, made three yarns by plying each with itself and the other and warped the loom dark-medium-light-light-medium-dark. This would have worked better if the light and dark fibres hadn't both been more sort of medium. My mother turned up the buttons, they've been in the button tin for the best part of forty years. I had three buttons and enough fabric for three bags so that worked well.
Sleeveless Panel Coat
Very loosely based on Folkwear Patterns Tibetan Panel Coat, I was experimenting with combining card-woven strips with heavily fulled loom weaving & hand & machine knit pieces. Most of the yarn for this project is handspun Charlie the ram (seen in bottom photo-with his girls & his pet chicken, this was taken right after shearing so they all look a little indignant & scrawny) natural black Corriedale fleece, some of it is Harrisville 2-ply jumper wt.
& some is Kaffe Fasset Kidsilk (Vintage)This was a fun experiment that is now an old friend & it always feels like I’m wearing a hug- very warm, I shibori-dyed a silk lining for it & use it all winter. I think Folkwear Patterns are still available from Interweave Press . (Forgot to mention I did the card weaving in a continous warp on an inkle loom)
To explain silly festive hat in top 2 photos: These photos were taken 25 Dec, 2007. (Yes I know it clashes but we were havin’ big happy festive fun in Williamsburg, Va., my home town) To explain other silly hat in photos 3 & 4: I made this from some scraps left over from the coat, along with a guitar strap- more about these later (maybe...) The tabby fabric for this was heavily fulled in a traditional waulking that I did at an annual SLC Presbyterian Chuch 'Ceilidh' in 1995- fun!
Dog Fur & Mohair handspun throw
I saved the brushings from my beloved Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie) named Akasha for the last few years of her life, each spring during the shedding season. Once she passed on to The Rainbow Bridge, I took out the many bags of saved fur and hit the spinning wheel.
It was time to cry and mourn and spin the fur into yarn. Many tears went into the yarns as I spun it all up, blended with a bit of wool and plied with a binder thread of rust colored loopy mohair. I finally had enough to weave a throw! I threaded up in simple plain weave using only 2 harnesses on my big LeClerc Nilart loom I wove the day away, thinking of my precious pal who was no longer with me. I twisted the fringes and lighty fulled the throw. It's lofty and fluffy and SHEDS just like the dog did! LOL
I entered the throw in a Home and Community Education Cultural Arts contest. It won first place at the county level. Then it was shipped off to State judging at the HCE State Convention. It was sent with a complete description of how the yarn was made and why, including a photo of the dog. Wanna know the judge's comment???
"Could add a bright color for more contrast"
Are they kidding?? How can you add another color to a DOG?
LOL ..but it still took a very respectable 2nd place in Textile Art.
I curl up in the throw when I miss her, and my other dog, our Collie, Duchess, also sniffs the throw and gets a faraway look in her eyes, remembering her buddy.
Green Handspun Scarf
A plain weave scarf woven with my handspun superwash wool yarn. It's a little shorter than I wanted but it is really soft and drapey. I did a couple rows of Leno at each end, just to try it out. This was my first time doing twisted fringe, too.
