Handwork

Now that I have finished weaving on the single two-tie warp, it's time to do some hemming. These small finger tip towels will make great gifts. I have a couple to work on while eating leftovers!

 

Woven  double Huck fashion.

Wove as Bronson Lace fashion.

A very good reference of different ways to work with 4-shaft S2T is...."Summer and Winter Study of Des Moines Weavers Guild." Marian Powell. (The publication isn't dated. )

Day After Thanksgiving

Summer and winter (S2T) towel is hemmed, and hanging tab attached. Now it will get the full action of a washer and dryer.

 

Oh, and the pie?????? Since my friends know I don't cook, they are correct, it's store bought. But it must have been good since only three small pieces are left. And they might be gone right after today's nap !! Thanksgiving Blessing to All.

This is the back side with the hanging tab attached.

Party Of Two

I was getting everything ready for my trip up north about 70 miles for a yearly weaving guild Christmas party. I had my list and was checking it twice....... then

 

...the weather decided I would not be driving on the narrow, curvy, two lane Missouri roads because of what is on my deck and the street out front. So I will have my own party with just me and DH.

Oh, and here is the sign we were going to hold up. Our Katie is out of pocket. We hope she is able to come back soon. But only if all is well where she is right now.

And those party favors I told about yesterday? Well, I will just have to hand them out at the January meeting.

Secret Projects Unmasked

I am now able to share a couple of the secret projects I have been working on. Party Favors!!

One of my weaving guilds choose as it's theme for it's Holiday Party "OVERSHOT". We were asked that if we wanted to be part of a gift exchange, that the gift should be something made from an overshot draft.  Several of us had worked on a two year overshot project, but some have little experience with overshot. So I came up with these overshot pin-cushions as party favors. So thanks to Sue Beevers and the Best Of Handwoven: A Baker's Dozen Top Projects in Overshot. (Interweave Press). This way, everyone will go home with something 'over-shot-y'.

 

Not overshot but still something for the party. These are about six inches long. They will be given to hostesses as thank-you gifts! Real simple. Use those leftover samples and cut hearts, sew, give!

I believe the sides that are showing are: turned taquete (red), plain weave (strips), summer and winter (green)!

 

Secret Projects

Working on secret projects! 

S2T and More Colors

I was at a friends house the other day and I saw a summer and winter towel that she had woven at one of the workshops I had given. I have not idea where mine is. I may have given it as a gift. Anyway, it really did look good. So I decided to make another. And this one I think I will keep!

 

I am doing my favorite 1-2-2-1 tie-down order and a-b-a-b tabby order. I have three colors and tabby, so that means I have four shuttles going. Because I am using the Baby Wolf, I have a wolf trap to help keep the shuttles manageable. My colors are Tan, Black, and yellow with white tabby. All threads are 8/2 cotton. With 14 inches in the reed, I will weave for 25 inches. This should give me a nice finger-tip towel.

Messing Around With Tabby

While messing around with tabby, I wanted to see what it would look like with a color tabby instead of the usual white you might use if your warp was white. Here I have used red as the tabby with black as the pattern weft, then red as pattern and green as the tabby. Next I might use the green as pattern and tabby ?

Summer and Winter (S2T) and 4Colors

I am using three colors in the pattern area plus white for tabby. That means I have four shuttles going. It's slow, but makes this single two tie look more complicated than it is. I am rotating the colors from block to block. I am also weaving in my favorite order 1-2-2-1. It's the little circles that I like.  There are only two blocks 1-3-2-3 and 1-4-2-4, but the color play should fool your eyes. (I am carrying the colors up the left side.)

Brain Drain on S2T

Sometimes when you are trying to learn something new, you might need to step back and let things marinate. But not to completely get away from S2T, how abut some red towels? Four shafts and two shuttles will make for lots of fun!

I believe this is woven in 1-1-2-2 order with a-b-a-b as the tabby order.

S2T Upclose and Personal

Polychrome...... meaning more than one color.

 

What I am doing is weaving on opposites and then throwing a tabby. I still don't have an eye catching design, but I wanted to weave some and get into the rhythm. Use tie-down 1 and tie-down 2 in pairs.

 1+ pattern,   1+ opposite pattern, = two different colors

tabby a,

 2+ (same) pattern,   2+ opposite (same) pattern, =two different colors

tabby b.

Repeat until there are 12 picks completed, then move onto the next block.

More S2T polychrome

Still trying to find an interesting draft to weave. I have been playing with summer and winter polychrome. According to Lillian Whipple from her "Summer & Winter To Taquete, A Lesson In How To Design and Weave In Two Basic Structures"  she says that Summer and Winter Polychrome "means one or more pattern wefts followed by a tabby".  Here I am working on two pattern shots divided by alternating tabbies.

This is a wonderful CD, be sure and check with her to see if she has any more for sale.

Here I am working on my computer with two colors. I am not showing tabby in my treadling. And I have already seen errors. I will have 12 picks of each block before I go to the next. So I will need to work on this draft.

S2T Lady

This needs a little work, but I think it might work. I either need more treadles so I can do three colors and get blue eyes, or use buttons. My loom does have 14 treadles, but I am using 13 now.....

...And I shouldn't have put the top knots on as it makes this look like an alien. (Which may very well be what is it.) I was thinking they might pass as pony tails.

If you look real close, you can see where the pattern weft colors do blend with the background. I am rotating three shuttles. The first color I pass is the pattern I want to see (beige, pink, and black) , the next color is the background color(green) and the white is tabby. Maybe I should try this with color, white, white and loose the top block. Or would that give her a cone head?

Looks like it's back to the designing board for me!

S2T Surprise Present

I think I might have figured out weaving in 1-2-2-1 order with summer and winter polychrome and two colors with white tabby. Here is another small greeting card insert. To be embellished when off the loom.

OK, this is interesting..... If you take the bulb and turn it into a head, then the present is the body and use part of the cookie for the boots, what do you get? Why, I think it's me!!!

S2T Polychrome

What a day! I have spent all day thinking and then trying to weave this one Christmas bulb as summer and winter polychrome. First I had to re-do the tie-up. (that was fun) Then I had to figure out if I wanted green bulbs or pink bulbs with a pink background or a green background or a white background. I am thinking that this post will fall in the "thinking" tag line.

 

Then I tried to weave it right side up. That didn't work for some reason, so I wove it upside down (not backwards).

Anyway, this is a three color summer and winter on opposites with tabby so I think that makes is summer and winter polychrome. Whew!!!!!

S2T bulbs and topiaries

Now I am doing some designing at the loom. I did manage to write down the treadling for the Christmas bulb, so that is a good thing. Will make another good greeting card insert.

I am still working with the same threading of single two tie and the same tie-up as with the purple butterflies.

Remember this is two sided. Where you see the 'white' areas on this side, it will be 'pink' or 'purple' on the other.

S2T Purple Butterfly

I have changed the tie-up once - - - again. How about this? A sweet purple butterfly. This is an excellent example of a treadling error. Because I needed 16 treadles to do this, I choose to do a modified direct tie-up. I guess that is what it's called.

I have my seven pattern treadles and then 1 & 2 by themselves. So I will have to step on two different treadles to execute each pattern pick. But see what happens when you don't step on the correct tie down in the correct order!!

The error shows up really well in the background.

Butterflies - coming and going! (Or that could be a phoenix diving.)

S2T Sampling Trees

These trees are woven as single two tie or you might still think of it as summer and winter. Either way works for me....

The main point here is the background area. Other than I got off on my block weaving on the middle trees, they look the same > but different.

The green trees were woven in 1-2-2-1 order.
The middle pink trees were woven in 1-2-1-2- order.
The top pink trees were woven in 1-1-1-1 order.

They look a little 'strag-ly', but they will even out in the wash. So when weaving S2T you have lots of decisions to make about how you want your motif to look and also how your background looks.




       

S2T

S= single, 2= two, T=tie     

S2T



I am telling you, this threading has zillions of ways to work with it. Well, maybe not that many, but lots. Polychrome, taquete, single two tie..... "O" , "X" , lots of color, white on white ........

Here I ran across this small tree. And yes, I am in that frame of mind! I think it is from weavezine.com. I have been going back and forth and am a blur on who said what. I just hope some of it has or will seep into the old gray matter. Wouldn't these make nice inserts for some greeting cards? Hummmmmm.

(as always, click a photo to get a larger view)

Single Two Tie Threading

Back to the big loom and the single two tie warp. I am trying to figure out Taquete. I have a couple of places I keep going to: the Nancy A Hoskins book I have been telling you about, and I also have a lesson book I purchased from Lillian Whipple. "Summer and Winter To Taquete."

Well, this is what I did with three colors and this threading. It's not taquete, it's summer and winter polychrome. How exciting. I really don't know what I did yet, but it's still cool! I did a direct tie-up, and let me tell you, that was a treat. I stepped on four or more treadles at the same time and held up some with my hand.

It is looking like there are lots and lots of looks to get on this single two tie threading.

Playing with Overshot and Drafts

Playing around with trying to figure out some drafts that Weaver Rose had. They can be found in the book "The Weaving Roses of Rhode Island". Vicki has done most of the work here by getting the threading.

This is his draft 103.

The treadling needed some work, so I circle the blocks to know how many pattern picks to throw. Half the fun of overshot is figuring out the details out before weaving begins.

I Throw the Shuttle

I throw the shuttle

Watch the fabric grow.

I throw the shuttle

Watch the colors flow.

I throw the shuttle

And dance a weaving song.

 

 



Taquete - Gold, Pink and Blue

Still trying to find my colorway. I am using gold, pink, and blue here. This makes it very plain that there are two blocks. The colors are trying fool your eyes, but if you squint, you can see the two blocks.

I have this color out my kitchen window. Now isn't this a nice color palette?

A Whole Lot Of Dying Going On!

The Diva's held a dye party a few weeks ago and I have the scoop here just for you. So just sit back and enjoy some color-eye-candy along with some really great show and tell items.

It's always a big jolt of inspiration when I get together with this group of weavers. Tomi gave a book report, complete with samples from the book. Now, how clever was that. VERY!!

Stash Colors and Taquete

 

 

"There are more colors in the rainbow than colors in my stash" That sounds like a famous quote, but maybe not! Or, I could have just made it famous.  

 

These are the colors I have in bamboo. My new warp is white rayon. So I am now juggling the colors back and forth to see just what I like. I am using three colors in each color stripe.

 

For example:   first combo- gold-pink-blue

        next color combo-  blue-green-purple



        next color combo- purple-pompeii- blue
and so on.......