Scarves Be Drying

As you can see, the woven shibori scarf is still drying, but the silk scarves are dried and ironed. Since it is trying to rain on my parade (the back porch- which is really just a small deck), it may take all day for the woven shibori scarf to dry.

Left Over Dye Bath

 Since I only had the one woven shibori scarf to dye, I pulled out some 100% silk scarves to play with. The thing about dying is you always mix us too much dye, so why not find something else to  use up the dye bath with. That is why I almost always have these blank white silk scarves in my stash. Or sometimes I do remember to wind an extra warp chain or two.

I tried some different resist techniques. I have pennies and string and knots to help give me some kind of pattern.

Dying On the Porch

Now that I have the resist threads pulled and secured on this Crackle Woven Shibori Experiment, it's time to do some dying. Here I have fuchsia and gunmetal gray and my trusty foam brush.

 

I will paint the colors on with the foam brush. I paint on one side, then turn over and do the other side. Hopefully I have pulled my resist threads tight enough to have some areas of "resist"!!

 

I will have to let it 'batch' for several hours. Some say overnight. But usually I do try to wait  half a day! Then I will need to rinse, and allow to dry COMPLETLY. If it's not dry, you will have trouble pulling out the resist threads. 

Pulling Resist Threads

This may take a while. I have to pull the resist threads on one side half way, then go back and pull the other side.

 

You can see where I had to use two different colors of resist threads. But since I will pull these out after I have dyed this, it doesn't matter. You can use your fingers to pull the threads really-really tight, or you can use a pencil, pen, bobbin.... just remember to pull tight. 

Great Truths That Adults Have Learned.

I found More Truths:

1. Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2. Wrinkles don't hurt.
3. Families are like fudge..mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
4. Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy.
5. Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.

Fringe and Beads

Here I am putting beads in the fringe of the Woven Crackle Shibori Scarf. I do this before I pull the resist threads.

I will use four threads in my twisted fringe.

I pick up the beads on my "dental looper" (It's what kids use to help clean their braces. Your dentist may have some) 

This is the looper with the beads on it.

I will slip the  thread the looper.

I am now sliding the beads from the looper onto the thread.

I place the beads where I want them to be. Now I am ready to twist the fringe.

Great Truths About Growing Old

The last of the great truths...... I am sure you know more???

1. Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
2. Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3. When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.
4. It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
5. Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes it come alone.

Hope this helps you feel a little cooler.

Another Exciting Guild Meeting

Jane shared some roving she had dyed. The green is purple hart wood. The red is madder. The gray is Alkanet. The pink is the exhaust bath from the madder.  She used alum as her mordant. She will have some wonderful wool to spin this fall.

 

Larry shared a doublewidth blanket he just finished. It's excellent!! And he also brought some hooks he made with his blacksmithing skills.  

 
Vicki did the program on FABRIC ANALYSIS.  We tried to determine the warp direction, picks per inch and ends per inch. Then mark the tie-up for each weft pick and even keep track of color changes.

Great Truths That Little Children Have Learned

I do not know where these words of wisdom came from. But I do agree.

1. No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats.
2. When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3. If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4. You can't trust a dog to watch your food.
5. You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
6. Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.

Scarf Is Off Loom

OK, now I am finished with the 'fun-est' part. (another word I made up)  Next I will need to pull the resist threads, and twist fringe. Or maybe I will twist fringe then pull the resist threads. Anyway, I can do that while watching TV. And it will take a while. So I best get busy!! Hope there is something on.

Resist Threads

What happens when your resist thread runs out? You go find another the same size and tie a knot and keep going.

I am convinced that you can take just about any draft with it's treadling you can turn it into a woven shibori textile. And if your floats are not long enough to give you a very noticeable pattern, well then............ just tweek the tie-up.

(We will see how this experiment works!)

Work Continues on Woven Shibori Experiment

Maybe I should, one day, weave a scarf when I will have these little loops along the side be a design element. Hum?

I could call it a Resist-Scarf. You could use some funky-sparkley-fuzzy yarn on a smooth base. Hum? The mind wanders!

Hand Painted Crackle Scarf

Finished twisting the fringe on the crackle scarf. It is fine. But I think it would have been a lot better if I had dented the 6/2 bamboo at 18 or 20 epi. It's OK, but could have had more drape. I think I like the extra bit of twill work at the one edge. Makes you wonder just what the weave structure is!

Woven Shibori and Crackle

This seems to be going pretty fast. Six picks of plain weave, one pick of the resist pattern. I just hope my floats are long enough to produce the pattern I see in my brain.

The green loops at the edge is what I will pull tight to create my design with the dye. They will be pulled out after the dye has done it's magic.

Crackle Shibori Pattern Work

I have tied onto my Griswold Crackle threading. I did do the center block a bit different, but basically this is the same as he created it.

I then took the tie-up and dropped one shaft each on five of the treadles. This is to give myself some longer floats without going "to far a-field" from the original treadling. Another thing I have done is instead of only doing four pick of plain weave between the pattern picks, I am weaving six plain weave picks between. 

 

I am using green 5/2 cotton as my resist threads. 

Woven Crackle Shibori

Woven Crackle Shibori - Woven Crackle Shibori - Woven Crackle Shibori
(Say that real fast three times!)

Here is the 'normal' crackle draft with sample and the new draft with its 'tweeked' tie-up on right. (see arrow?)

Now that I have finished the Crackle scarf, I was thinking....... why not use the threading and treadling from the crackle draft and maybe work some slight of hand and do a woven shibori scarf?  Now you are wondering how I could do that if my longest float is only three threads long. Well, I am going to do some messing-around with the tie -up to get me some long floats.




I am tying onto the crackle threading. See how my cross-holder is a big help!! Hands free knotting!

 

Eye Candy

Here is some of the yarns I bought when I was at Emporia Kansas at Midwest Weavers Conference. One of the second best things about going to a conference is the vendor hall. While I consider what I will put on the Baby Wolf next - enjoy the color!

Crackle and Snow Peas

I have a little warp left so I will try out a "green" as Heather over at Weft Side Of The Loom.blogspot.com suggested I try. Yum! Lots of colors are playing around here using this Snow Pea Bamboo.

Now I will have a nice sample to put with this Crackle draft. I wonder what this would look like if I did woven shibori with this draft??????????

Ta Da! Crackle Almost Done!!

I have finished the weaving on this handpainted Crackle scarf and am ready to hemstitch.
I went through the treadling repeat three times and had about four inches left to go. Well, I just started treadling away. So this edge will have a nice surprise. Maybe I should call it my "Cracktwilla Scarf". Nah................ ;-)

More Fiber For Everyone

This event is going on this weekend here in Missouri. Hope some of you will be able to go to it . I have a friend who will be a vendor there. She will have some wonderful hand dyed yarns! I hear through the grape vine she will also be teaching some classes. And another friend just might be there teaching basket making too. Check it out if you can!

July 13-14, 2013Fiber "U"
Cowan Civic Center
500 E. Elm Street
Lebanon, MO 65536
www.mopaca.org
Please join us for our 4th year with 42 Fiber related classes and 30+ Vendors. Registration opens mid-March

Crackle Handpainted Scarf continues......

Black was the color! I am loving it too!!

Since this is a one shuttle weave, it is going pretty quickly. I did tie-up the treadles for tabby because I needed that to do four picks of plain weave to hemstitch over. I am NOT weaving tabby between pattern picks. 

 I may have to add some black threads in the fringe area. Will just have to wait and see how it looks once it's off the loom.

Crackle - Black Bamboo Wouldn't You?

I am going with the black weft. I like how the black is interacting with the fuchsia/gray. Good advice from everyone, including DH. Thanks!

I have hemstitched the edge and will twist the fringe when I get this off the loom. I have used a different tie-up than was with this Griswold draft. I am trying a tie-up that I learned from Susan Wilson when I took her "Crackle" workshop at Midwest Weavers Conf. 2013.  She showed us 'the' three different tie-ups when weaving on eight shafts. That info is in her book too!

Crackle - Black or Gray?

I was thinking that I needed to use black as the weft on this fushia/gray hand dyed warp, but maybe gray is the way to go........ decisions, decisions, decisions.

Warping On A Shoestring

For someone who only wears sandals or clogs, finding shoelaces wasn't that easy. Thank goodness I was able to get some from Nadine Sanders when I was at Midwest Weavers Conference. I also picked up her booklet "Warping On A Shoestring" to help me remember what she showed us in my three day workshop with her. The only way for me to know if this is the way 'for me', is to try it out!

First I have attached the flat nylon shoestrings to the front cloth beam rod.

I am forming a snitch know to attach the shoelaces to.

Now I tension the warp.

 So far, so good. I feel I have excellent tension. Now all I have to do it weave-weave-weave. Or maybe I should tie up the treadles first. Hummm!

Shoelaces and Me

Now that I have the crackle through the reed and the heddles, it's now time to wind on and then tie on. I will have to review and think this through. It looked so easy when Nadine did it!

Here is a shot of Nadine Sanders showing us how to tie on with shoelaces.

How About Some Crackle?

Yeah, I know. I was going to weave this warp in Bateman, but after seeing the way my painted warp turned out, I am dressing the loom with a crackle draft. Once you get your threading draft figured out the actual threading of the heddles goes pretty fast. And even easier when you use someone else's draft. This is an eight shaft draft from Ralph Griswold. I am considering using a black bamboo weft.....

Weav-tasking....

Weav-tasking..... when one who is a weaver runs around working on several different project while not really finishing any. I know you know that you do this too!!!

Well, I did get one finished project. I think! It may need tassels on the corners, but I will think about that for a while. This is part of my Theo Moorman workshop. It's a sample that is now a very small pillow.

  This is the painted warps that I did just last weekend. I am combining two chains.

 

 

 And this is the draft for the painted warps. It's one of Ralph  Griswalds 8 shaft CRACKLE drafts.

 

Fustian continues to the 36:" mark. Only 9 more yards to go!!!!!