Twill Block Scarves

I have to admit that I am a lurker on the Warped Weavers Group at ravelry.com.  I love looking at the projects posted by members and getting inspiration on projects.  I have wanted to weave a turned twill and thought that pillows using 8/2 or 10/2 cotton would be my first project in this weave structure.  But I saw a set of scarves woven by marydargie woven using 8/2 tencel and loved the draft.  I changed it up a bit and only used one color warp, aquamarine.  I wove two scarves on this warp, one using a hunter green weft and one using a burgundy weft.  The scarves have a wonderful drape to them.

Date Finished  October 2013

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Turned Twill

Reed  20epi - 12

Warp     Fiber  tencel

              Count  8/2

              Color  Turquoise

              Mfr

              Source  WEBS

Warp     Width in Reed  10"

              Ends  202

              Length  6 yds

Weft      Fiber  tencel

              Count  8/2

              Color  one with hunter green and one with burgundy

              Mfr

              Source  WEBS

Beat                       50/50                     

Size  8 x 80"

Luggage Rack

Gary is a wonderful wood worker and he has added many fine handmade tools to my weaving studio.  He took up woodturning a couple of years ago and now is the proud owner of 3 lathes.  Earlier this year, he made this luggage rack and all it needed were straps to hold up the suitcases. The luggage rack is made from poplar wood.  The turned center piece came from a poplar tree from our yard.   I had planned to weave a rosepath strap with inlaid plants and vegetables using a draft from Handwoven, but the veggies just didn't look realistic.  With an rosepath threading of 8/2 cotton, I wove a fancy twill using a deep red 5/2 cotton as weft.  The pattern is from A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, Draft 323-2.

Date Finished  August, 2013

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Fancy Twill on Rosepath threading

Reed  10, 20 epi

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  Natural, with single accent darker green

              Warp     Width in Reed  less tha 3"

              Ends  56

              Length  3 yds

Weft      Fiber  Mercerized cotton

              Count  5/2

              Color  Burgundy

              Mfr

              Source  WEBS

Beat      Weft dominant                     

Huck Lace Placemats

I completed these placemats several months ago, then got lazy on photographing and writing up the results of my weaving.  The placemats are made using 3/2 mercerized cotton for both the warp and the weft, so they weave up very quickly.  The recipe for these, Elegant Placemats, came from another of the free publications from Handwoven, Free Handweaving Projects for Beginners.  Four placemats could be made with a one pound cone of yarn, but since I wanted to weave up at least 6, I needed to buy 2 cones of yarn.  The only problem with these are the edges tend to pucker in the plain weave sections.

Date Finished  June 2013

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Huck

Reed  12, 12 epi

Warp     Fiber  Mercerized cotton

              Count  3/2

              Color  Amber Gold

              Mfr

              Source  WEBS

Warp     Width in Reed  15"

              Ends  177

              Length  5 yds - made 7 placemats

Weft      Fiber - same as warp

              

Beat 50 - 50          

Size  13 X 18, hemmed

Bags from Bags

I recently had about a yard of rug warp left on my 4 harness loom, without a project in mind.  I had seen several posts about using plastic bags as weft.  Plastic bags cut up into strips and used as the yarn in weaving, knitting or crocheting is called "plarn".  I liked the idea of re-using grocery bags, since they seem to multiply in my house.  Cutting the bags into 1 1/2" strips is a pretty quick and easy process and can be seen on this you tube video here.  I used Ingles Grocery bags which are tan in color with red and black printing, the red and black showing up occasionally as red or black streaks in the cloth. I alternated the plarn with a weft of the same cotton rug yarn used in the warp.  The bag size is approximately 7 1/2" X 7" with a 72 inch strap.  The straps were made from an 8 element Kumihimo braid.  Each element has 2 strands of 8/4 carpet warp in 2 or 3 colors matching the color of the warp.

Many Projects - One Warp

Warping the loom is the part of weaving that I like the least. One of the things I love best about weaving is planning projects and identifying as many projects as possible from a single warp using different weft or different treadlings. Because of this, my recent projects involve putting a 6-7 yard warp on the loom and working on a number of projects.  I recently put on a 7 yard warp of two colors of 8/4 cotton rug yarn, planning to make fabric for a couple of rag rug bags and maybe some placemats.

I ended up making fabric for two bags and not making any placemats.  The bags are lined with fabric and one has cotton webbing straps and the other uses leather belts for handles. The finished size of the bags are 15" X 17" tall.







Fabric to cover the pillow on my weaving bench.

A small rag rug

3 small bags.  More on these bags in a separate post.

Date Finished  October 2013

Loom  Newcomb

Weave Structure  Plain Weave, log cabin thick and thin

Reed  12 epi

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/4

              Color Dusty Rose and Eggplant

              Mfr  Maysville

              Source  Earthguild

Warp     Width in Reed  20"

              Ends  240

              Length  7 yds

Weft      Fiber  blue flowered cotton rags cut in 1 1/2 inch strips and carpet warp alternating

              Count 6 ppi - 3 rags, 3 carpet warp

              Color

              Mfr

              Source  Old Curtains

Beat                       50/50                     

Size

Notes

Huck Lace Bamboo Shawl

Handwoven recently published a pattern for making a shawl with Aunt Lydia's Bamboo.  The big benefit of this yarn is that it is readily available at Michael's and Joann's and many other local craft stores and it is cheap, under $3 per 300 yd ball of yarn.  I purchased 9 balls of white bamboo, hoping to weave two shawls on a single warp.  The bamboo has a wonderful silky feel, however that results in several issues.  The first is that it is hard to beat consistently, because the weft has a tendency to pack down too easily.  The second issue also relates to it's slipperiness.  Even after wet finishing, the warp and weft have a tendency to move around.  This is exacerbated by the Huck Lace weave, which has some longer floats.  And lastly, since the yarn did pack down more than I wanted, I ended up using more in the weft than I had planned.  So when it was time to weave the second shawl, I did not have sufficient white bamboo to complete the shawl.  At that time, I was 70 miles from the closest yarn store, so I used a black 8/2 rayon that I had in my stash for the weft in the second shawl.

The bamboo makes for a wonderfully drape-y fabric, which works as either a shawl or a scarf.  The black and white shawl looks a little like the head gear of Yasser Arafat, a shemagh.

Date Finished  August, 2013

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Huck Lace

Reed   15 epi, 10 dent reed

Warp     Fiber  bamboo

              Count  Crochet 10

              Color  White

              Mfr  Aunt Lydia's

              Source  Joann's

Warp     Width in Reed  17 1/2"

              Ends  262

              Length  5 yds

Weft  #1 - Same as warp
Weft #2   Fiber  Rayon

              Count 8/2

              Color  Black

              Mfr

              Source  Earth Guild

Beat                       50/50                     

Size  15" X 70" not counting 3" fringe

Notes

Plaited Twill Scarf

Another scarf and another new structure, plaited twill.  I love the look of this, but not sure that I like the way it wove up.  There are really two ways to weave the plaited twill.  The first requires that on some of the picks you lift up 7 shafts at a time.  That makes for a heavy lift.  The way that I wove it is physically much easier, only one shaft lifted on some of the picks.  But the downside is that the best side, is woven facing the floor.  You need to either be a contortionist to watch the cloth develop or keep a mirror handy (and still be a contortionist)  The patterning is not apparent on the top side and so of course, I found a couple of treadling errors after I completed the scarf and got it off the loom.  I guess that means another scarf for me.  Drat.

The pattern comes from Handwoven, 8 Shaft Scarves and called for a sett of 20 epi.  I increased this to 25 but I think next time with the tencel warp I will go back to 20 epi.  Plenty of red and gold tencel for another scarf, also have 8/2 in black.

Date Finished

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure Plaited Twill

Reed 10, 25 epi

Warp     Fiber  tencel

              Count 8/2

              Color  gold

              Mfr

              Source  WEBS

Warp     Width in Reed  6 1/2

              Ends  168

              Length  3 yds

Weft      Fiber tencel
              Count  8/2

              Color red and variegated red

              Mfr

              Source  WEBS

Beat                       50/50                     

Size

Notes