Playing with weft
PLaying around with various weft faced patterns including clasped weft and krokbragd
purple scarf with sock yarn variegated long fringe
This one was a last minute Christmas gift for my daughter. She likes long untwisted fringe, but I still used hemstitching and knots. I like the way the colors pop out through the purple and add excitement to the fringe. This scarf was extra long for wrapping.
For this scarf, I was in such a hurry that I didn't want to flip my harp over to use the built in warping board. Instead, I clamped a two-dowel napkin holder to a table, and used one peg on my loom at the other side of the room to begin warping. I walked back and forth, stretching out a little over 100 inches and making the cross on the two dowels. It worked, and was fast!
More scarves part 2
I did a series of scarves that will become presents to practice various patterns and techniques. On the main photo from left to right is a waffle weave using a patternstick, a spot lace using two pattern sticks, log cabin, brooks bouquet and then chenille using two heddles to acheive 16epi. My selvedges are getting better - mostly. These were fun and fast projects.
Brook's Bouquet scarf
This was an experiment that went well. It is a bamboo acrylic blend yarn that I had in my stash. It is wonderfully, soft and lightweight and drapes very niceley. I think I will be making more of these.
Queen Anne's lace dish towels
This was another one of my classes - learning to warp in stripes, not packing the weft too tight, hemming,etc. We did two towels for the class - I immediately purchased enough yarn to make several more towels -
Double weave wall hanging
I'm using a 3/2 perle cotton in cream and sage green - the green shows brighter in the pictures than it really is.I am going to sample a variety of techniques and end up with a usable sampler wall hanging. At least that's the plan. . . 10-19-2011 - The wall hanging was cut off the loom this evening and will be wet finished tomorrw - then the finishing touches added - still not sure what I am going to do with the bottom fringe but some beads may find their way into that area. 10-27-2011 - the wall hanging is finished. All the loosed ends woven in, fringe detail finished. Finished length with fringe is about 5.5 feet. I think it will find a home on my office door at work. I tried out several different double weave patterns and techniques including plain weave, twill, separate layers, using supplementary weft for honeycombs, etc. , window panes and finger manipulated lace weaves on the top layer with a solid layer underneath. I liked some of the techniques and am looking to explore double weave on the rigd heddle some more with differnt weight and content yarns. And of course I need to do that double width throw sometime too!
Subtle checks shawl
I wanted to experiment with using yarn texture to create subtle patterning. I used two different yarns - a smooth, slightly shiny bamboo cotton and fine, dull, fuzzy merino/wool blend. I alternated the yarns in blocks across the warp and then alternated the yarns every two inches in the weft. There was very slight differential shrinkage - just enough to create a little texture between the blocks. The checkered pattern is very subtle and how much can be seen depends on the lighting. The drape is wonderfully soft and I was very happy at how this turned out. It will be a Christmas present for my sister.
More scarves
I am taking a series of mini classes where we warp our loom and learn a new technique, start weaving then finish at home. The scarves themselves only take a day to complete on the loom. The buffalo check was to help us learn even weave, controlling our picks per inch to make sure we ended up with squares on the finished project. The second class was learning how to warp for houndstooth pattern. This wove really fast, I was nearly done at the end of the 4 hour class - and that was with a break in mid morning! I also used this scarf to work on my twisted fringe and overcast stitch.
10-20-2011 - the yarn I used was 50/50 blend of merino and tencel by Colrain.
11-7-2011 - added some more scarf photos - the red and black hounds tooth and the yellow re and black plaid are possible birthday gifts. my sister wanted something for a friend in red or yellow so this is what I came up with. I also did a scarf with self striping sock yarn in the warp and solid weft - I really like the effect. for finishing I wove the warp ends back to create a clean edge - a technique I use in drawn thread embroidery. The pink scarf was using up some Lopi lite I had in my stash. Its a little scratchy for my taste but my mom is going to put in the church bazaar - maybe someone will like it!
