Spring and Fall Scarves

These two scarves have been on the Newcomb since last winter and I finally finished the second one this month. They took quite a long time because of the goose-eye inlay.  The other thing that took quite a while was selecting colors and patterns.  You would think that using random colors and treadling would go faster, but I had to consider each pick and how it fit with the rest of the cloth.  Much of the weft came from cotton sweaters that I had frogged over the past couple of years.  Most of the yarn is cotton, but I had a little raw silk that came on a second hand AVL end feed shuttle that I purchased last year.

The weft for one of the scarves uses blues, greens and yellows - all very spring like colors.  The second scarf is more muted with varying shades of browns and tans.  The sett is 16 epi, which is very loose for 8/2 cotton, so it required a soft touch with the beater.  The resulting cloth is light enough to wear through the summer.  The inspiration for these scarves comes from seeing photographs of the work of Ilse Acke, a handweaver in Bruges, and Susan Johnson of Avalanche Looms in Wisconsin.

Date Finished   April, 2014

Loom   Newcomb Studio

Weave Structure  Plain, twill

Reed   8, 16 epi

Warp     Fiber  cotton

              Count  8/2 and 8/4

              Color  natural and eggplant
Warp     Width in Reed  9"

              Ends  152

              Length 6 yds

Weft      Fiber  various cotton, silk

              

Beat                       50/50                     

Christmas Rosepath

Last year I wove an overshot table runner in red and white, that I had hoped to get finished by Christmas.  Well, I didn't get it completed till January, so I called it a Valentine's Day table runner.  I had similar plans this year to weave small figures using an 8 shaft rosepath threading, including Christmas trees, stars, hearts and gingerbread people.  I was not sure exactly what I would do with the cloth, but thought that it could be cut up and made into flat Christmas tree ornaments each about 2 or 3 inches square.  My other plan was to make Christmas cards with a cutout in the front cover peeking through to a woven tree or heart as shown on Amanda Cutler's blogpost here.  I ended up with Christmas trees, stars, and hearts.  I couldn't find a draft for a gingerbread man that would use only 10 treadles and 8 shafts.  I had to change the tie-up for each of these designs.  Tim's Treadle reducer program was helpful to reduce some of the drafts from 12 or 13 treadles to the 10 treadles on my loom.

Date Finished  December 2013

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure Rosepath

Reed  8, 24 epi

Warp     Fiber cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  natural

              Mfr  Valley Yanr

              Source  Webs

Warp     Width in Reed  6.6"

              Ends  160 plus 2 floating selvedges

              Length  3 yds

Weft      Fiber  cotton

              Count  8/2 cotton

Pattern Weft      Fiber  cotton

              Frogged cotton in red, green
              5/2 perle cotton in blue
Beat       50/50                     

Size

Notes  The 5/2 was not thick enough to make a good pattern.  3/2 would be a better choice.

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