Monday, December 31, 2012

Towels


I completed another set of towels over the Christmas holiday.  I wove 4 towels from this warp on a rigid heddle loom, one of them was gifted at Christmas.  All of the yarn comes from yarn that was frogged from a couple of sweaters.  The red yarn is from a cotton sweater of Gary's that had lost it's shape.  He gladly gave it up to the cause.  The yarn in the stripes came from a single sweater that had large blocks of color.  I picked it up at a thrift store in Durham when I was shopping with Judy and Nona.   We were wasting time while waiting for Cathy to get off work so we could drive up to DC to meet Martha for a ladies weekend.  I normally wouldn't have bought it cause it was expensive, $3 for a sweater.  My usual price is 50 cents, so $3 was exorbitant, but still cheaper than the typical price for cotton yarn at $20 per pound, plus shipping.  But we were facing a 4 hour drive and I knew we could get the entire sweater done, especially if I had help from Judy and Nona in the frogging process.  The other benefit of this sweater was that it provided seven different colors, making it a good choice for accent stripes.  The only drawback is that it is a cotton/ramie blend and the ramie is not as absorbent as the cotton for dishtowels.  Using the cotton/ramie blend in small stripes shouldn't effect the feel of the towel.  I put a 20" warp on the loom, because with this yarn set at 12 epi, there is substantial shrinkage.  The finished towels ended up 17" by 24".

My mother also joined into unraveling over the Thanksgiving day holiday.


Beginning the weaving




Date Finished   December 2012
Loom  Schacht rigid heddle
Weave Structure  plain
Reed  12 epi
Warp Fiber   cotton
Source   frogging

Warp Width in Reed  20 inches
Ends  240
Length  4 yds
Weft Fiber  same
Beat 50/50 

Finished size  17" X 24"

Monday, December 24, 2012

Blue Ridge Fiber Show




The Blue Ridge Fiber Show is a biennial exhibition sponsored by the Western North Carolina Fibers/Handweavers Guild.  As a new member of the Guild, I had never been to the show before.  It was hung in September and this is the last week it will be displayed, so I just barely made it before it is dismantled.  Some beautiful examples of weaving, felting, and spinning are displayed with entries submitted from around the country, not just Guild members.  This was a juried show and all of the winners of the BRFS can be seen here. 

The Guild also took an old two harness barn loom and Guild members demonstrated weaving during the run of the show. 



The show is held at the NC Arboretum, located just south of Asheville.  December is not a great time to visit the Arboretum, since most of the plants are dormant.  But you can see the structure of the gardens and I can't wait to go back in the Spring.









Sunday, December 16, 2012

WOLF TRAP IMPROVEMENT

I love my Baby Wolf loom, I got it used about a year ago.  It is perfect for taking between Montana and North Carolina.  It might even work to take to workshops, as long as I have someone to help get it in and out of the truck.  The loom came with rollers, which allow me to move it around in the house and even out to the front porch.  It also came with a wolf trap, a sling for holding tools that fits on the front beam.  However, the dowels were continually coming out of the wooden supports and the whole thing would collapse.  Gary saw my frustration with it and made a small piece that fits onto the front support, after the wolf trap is on the loom.  This provides enough support so that it won't fall off, unless I pull the support piece off.  Brilliant, thanks.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Young Weavers



Lane and Mattie weaving, Emma working out

Lane
Luke and Hank
I warped two rigid heddles up with an acrylic yarn so they could make scarves and brought a bunch of fluffy and fun yarns.  I also brought an inkle that had a candy cane holder project on it and of course a potholder loom. 

Melissa knitting
Great Grandma Alice frogging a sweater
Making Christmas trees

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Ms and Ws


It is pretty apparent why this weave structure, a point twill, is called Ms and Ws from this scarf, but not so apparent from the scarf below.  I wanted to warp the loom once and weave two scarves that were very different in appearance, the purple scarf is much more formal than the red scarf.  The draft is from A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, from the Editors of Handwoven.







Date Finished  November 2012
Loom  Baby Wolf
Weave Structure  Ms and Ws
Reed  10 20 epi 
Warp     Fiber   rayon
              Count  8/2
              Color  black
              Mfr  Dragon Tail
              Source  Earth Guild
Warp     Width in Reed 6 inches
              Ends  129
              Length  5 yds - 2 scarves






Scarf One Weft      Fiber  Rayon
              Count  8/2
              Color  variegated red
              Mfr  Dragon Tail
              Source  Earth Guild
              Beat                       50/50                     


Scarf Two Weft      Fiber  Tencel
              Count  8/2
              Color  Eggplant
              Mfr
              Source  Cotton Clouds
              Beat                       50/50                     

Chenille Scarf - Shadow Weave



 This scarf has been finished for several months, I just haven't gotten around to taking a picture.  I know, cause I started it in Montana before we headed back to NC in early October.  And it's getting to be scarf weather in both Montana and NC.  Actually the drive to the airport last week was a little white knuckle since we were the first car on the road to Billings that morning.

The yarn was frogged from a thrift store chenille sweater, which had these two shades of blue, as well as purple.  The sweater came apart in yarn that was a two ply, which I separated into single ply for this scarf.  Fifty cents for the yarn, but the time that went into frogging the yarn and weaving means it would be a very expensive scarf if I priced it based on hourly labor costs.
This scarf was also one that I used the weaving software to design - Weave Design.  This is a free software program from the Pikes Peak Weavers Guild.  They encourage donations to the guild in return for use of the software.  Can't beat the price and donations go to a Colorado weaving community


Date Finished   November 2012
Loom  Baby Wolf
Weave Structure  Shadow Weave
Reed  10 epi
Warp     Fiber  chenille
              Count   15 epi
              Color two blues
              Source  thrift shop

Warp     Width in Reed  6 inches
              Ends  90
              Length  5 yds - made 2 scrves
Weft      Fiber  same as warp
              Count
              
Beat                       50/50