Summer Scarf

More frogging, another scarf.  This one was made from a striped cotton vest.  The vest had random stripes of 1 inch or less in shades of white, blue, chartreuse and yellow.  This became the warp, with no color covering more than 2 or 3 consecutive warps.  I like the looks of the yarn, but the scarf is a little too dense.  I'd like to get the next one more light and airy and to get that I will decrease the sett from 8 per inch and use a finer cotton than the number 3 crochet yarn I used for the weft.

Melissa's Placemats

Melissa was in Red Lodge over winter break and was looking for a project to keep her occupied while the rest of the family went skiing.  We talked over the phone and by email and she decided to spend the time in Red Lodge weaving on the old 4 harness table loom.  Melissa's degree is in textile engineering and she used to work in designing and implementing industrial woven throws at Crown Craft in North Georgia.  This was her first attempt at doing it the old fashioned way.

She picked a project from Interweave Press that would create 12 placemats and required winding a warp of 9 yards.  She did all this without a warping board and I would have loved to see what the house looked like with 27 feet of warp wound around chairs and other stationary objects.  She must have really hustled to get the warp beamed and 6 placemats finished in 3 or 4 days time.  I finished up the remaining placemats during my next visits to Red Lodge.

Date Finished  June 2012

Loom   Table Loom

Weave Structure  Plain

Reed  

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  Tan, Burgundy, Gold, Blue, Brown

              Mfr

              Source  Earth Guild

Warp     Width in Reed  14"

              Ends  280

              Length  9yds

Weft      Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/4 used double

              Color  Rust

              Mfr  Maysville

              Source  Earth Guild

Beat                       50/50                     

Size   12" X 18"

Notes

Frogging yarn

Lately, most of my weaving has been completed using frogged yarn from cotton sweaters.  Here's the project from start to finish.  Emma has a sleeve of a blue cotton sweater that ended up in 4 kitchen towels woven on the Rigid Heddle loom.

Date Finished  June 2010

Loom  Rigid Heddle

Weave Structure Plain

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count

              Color  Blue and lt blue

              Source  Thrift Store

Warp     Width in Reed  17"

              Ends  204

              Length  3 1/2 yds

Weft      same
Beat      50/50                     

Size

Inkle loom

I  recently joined the Western North Carolina Fibers/Handweavers Guild and they sponsored an Inkle Weaving workshop with Ann Dixon.  Ann was in the US on her way to Convergence, the biennial fiber workshop held in California this year.  Ann is the author of a wonderful weaving resource book, The Handweavers Pattern Directory.  I signed up for the workshop, but unfortunately it was full.  However, I was the first person on the waiting list, so I had high hopes of getting in the workshop.  The workshop was designed as an advanced class and since I had never woven on an inkle loom, I knew I had to get to work.  My first issue was that I did not have an Inkle loom.  Gary set to work on it and built a beautiful, functional loom in a day.  It works wonderfully, but unfortunately I didn't get into the class.  I did however, make 2 dog collars, one for Bo and one for Kevin's dog Toby, who has recently been diagnosed with cancer.  

Date Finished  June 2012

Loom  Inkle

Weave Structure  Plain

Warp     Fiber  Aunt Lydias Corchet Cotton

              Count   3

              Color  White, Turqoise and Chartreuse

              

Warp     Width  3/4"

              Ends  28

              Length  1 yd

Weft     Same

Beat      Warp Faced


The next projects planned for the Inkle include a hat band for Gary's cowboy hat and straps for a luggage rack.  The luggage rack will be a joint project, Gary will turn the wooden pieces for the luggage rack and I will weave the straps.