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"

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.

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.

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

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

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