Monday, August 31, 2015

Did You Say More Shibori?

Yes, I said more Shibori! Here is a piece that I put a little crochet on the ends. The feel of the fabric makes me think of those doilies that my grandma and mom had. The thread (tencel) I used for the crochet is also hand dyed. This would also make a nice piece to put on your piano (if you had one), or for a bridal shower. You just need to find a bride with "green" as one of the colors! My two children had purple and green, but that was years ago!



Saturday, August 29, 2015

Woven Shibori experiment

I have finished one of the woven Shibori pieces. It didn't come out as I had hoped, but is still kinda nice. The drape of this 12/2 rayon (warp and weft) is very nice and will make some great scarves. But right now, I am trying to work on the dyeing process. The weaving of the shibori I get...... the dying.....not so much.
I have pulled out all the resist threads and will now need to wash it.

Washed and dried. I love the colors! I was hoping for more of the yellow to show, but since this is magic at work, I will take what I get. 

Outside in the early morning light on my gray deck. The base fabric for this experiment is plain weave. 

Check out the tiny holes. A sign it was a Shibori technique. 


Friday, August 28, 2015

Must be an M's and O's party!

The rest of the show and tell from our August 2015 guild meeting in Cabool. So interesting to see how the weave structure of M's and O's was interpreted by these awesome weavers. And check out the cottolin Shirley and Larry used.  And who wouldn't want to plant their toes on Gayle's rugs?

Jane has been weaving towels. These are M's and O's. 

Great colors!
Becky continues to play around with painted warps. Here is her M's and O's using tencel for a great scarf. 

Becky found these kits on the "Weaversloft.com" websight. Looks interesting.
Larry shared his cotton and cottolin Tree towels. Same draft, just different fibers. 

Vicki has more of her M's and O's tencel scarves. We think they are breading like rabbits at her house. 

More of Vicki's scarves. These are shadow weave and M's and O's.




Shirley is working on hemming on of the towels she did. She has used cottolin and a snowflake twill. She had a bunch more towels but I missed getting a photo of them. 

Here we have our 'snow bird' Gayle with some rugs she has finished. This first one is made from loopers.

This rug Gayle used selvedges.

Using poly-cotton, Gayle wove this green rug. 

Thursday, August 27, 2015

More August in Cabool Weaing

Now I will share some of the show and tell items. What great projects. So sit back and soak it in!
Katie has been weaving mug rugs. She wove them four across then cut them apart. 

Katie wove some place mats in the Wall of Troy overshot pattern. and paired them with some twill napkins.

Katie's brown/blue slub placemats.

Here Katie has woven red place mats with some great napkins for her son. It might be a secret, so don't tell him!
Here we have Barbara with her Nuno felting scarf. Yikes, that is a lot of pretty!

Barbara has also been crocheting. Here is a purse she just finished. She thinks that doing free form crochet is very exciting. I agree and hope to see more of this kind of thing from her in the future.  
Stay tuned tomorrow for more of the show and tell from the August 2015 Cabool weaving guild.............

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

August 2015 in Cabool

What a great day we had for a weaving meeting. What great projects and tips and tricks we saw and learned. So here goes.... Katie had the program on how to wind a two color warp. Excellent demo, excellent questions, great job!!!!!!


Katie is demonstrating how she winds a two color warp. She is tall, so having her warpping board on the table works for her. Besides, she said she learned this way because she didn't have a place to hang it when learning!

We learned how she attaches her threads when switching colors. No cutting, no tying on..... just hitch slip and go!! 




In this photo you can see how fast Katie is. 

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Shibori and Color

Now my Shibori warp is off the loom and is ready for some magic! I am going to try putting some dye on the fabric before I pull my resist threads in hope that some of these colors will stay put!




Hopefully we will see a hint of theses colors at the awakening.



Now I have gathered up the resist threads and put my dye on one side.



Flipped it over and applied dye to this side. 

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Shibori and the Loom

Really having fun playing around with this Woven Shibori warp. I am just doodling and hope the dye will look as good as I am envisioning. This started out as a 4 shaft overshot, turned into a 6 shaft summer and winter, turned into a woven Shibori experiment!!





Sometimes I will design at the loom and then go to the computer and record. This should also turn out to be pretty cool if I do the dye colors the way my 'inside brain' sees it!


Monday, August 17, 2015

Working A Little Magic

When working on a new project, the questions seem to flow. I find that the weaving of the shibori ground cloth lets my mind dream. Will I use two dye colors? Will I use a discharge on it? Will this resist pattern I am weaving turn our looking what I imagine? Should I have more than four ground picks between resist rows? What happens if I only use two of my pattern treadles? What happens when I apply dye to the cloth before I pull the resist threads?
I have 6 pick of plain weave between resist threads.

I have 4 picks of plain weave between resist threads.

These are two different patterns that I am weaving into the ground cloth. In this case, the ground cloth is plain weave. My resist pattern is an overshot-turned into summer and winter draft.To get those long floats, I have just dropped the tie-down threads on shafts one and two. There are four pattern blocks I am playing around with.

I am also using up some of that 5/2 cotton I have been saving. Just enough to keep but not really enough to do a whole project with. In this case it was just what I needed to use for my resist threads that I will gather and then pull out later. Strong, slick, and not to big. My ground warp and weft is 12/2 rayon.

I will continue to let my mind wander while continuing to weave on this long warp.

Friday, August 7, 2015

Weaving Diva August Show-And-Tell

You are in for a treat this month. The Weaving Divas have been busy creating some awesome stuff!
Marty brought this Huck Lace wine bottle bag. Love the red!

This is an 8 shaft plaited twill scarf with some mohair that Marty wove on a Struckto Loom. (i am sure I misspelled that!)

Marilynn used some JOY yarns to weave this Twill scarf using a 1991 Handwoven draft. 

For this scarf, Marilynn used 8/2 Tencel in 5 colors in a broken twill + 3/1 twill pattern. 

Marilynn brought a shawl using the Joy yarns. She used all 16 shafts on her loom with a lace draft. The design in the middle was a wonderful surprise.

Showing the warp (red) and the weft yarns used to get her wonderful effect. Marilynn said the lace design doesn't show up very well until you get close to the fabric. We all thought it was beautiful!!

Kathy wove a baby receiving blanket for her sister. The sister picked the colors. Kathy says it is a variation of plain weave. It isn't until you get up close that you see the interesting pattern. 

Melissa has just acquired an 8 shaft loom and dove right into it to produce her first project. Can you just say "WOW!" I am sure that this towel will be a favorite heirloom. 

Janice has had grand kids. And with grand kids she spelled FUN by having them dye some cotton cloth.

While all that dying was going on with the grand kids, Janice wanted to see what the "rust" dying was all about. What an interesting piece of fabric. I think it might be a new avenue that Janice is going to explore in depth. I hear a program coming out of her explorations. With her expertise on embellishments we can only wait to see what she come up with. 

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Weaving Diva August Program

Tomi is a  fantastic seamstress! Her program was on weaving with handwoven fabric. We learned how to take a rectangle of fabric and turn it into an Origami Top. Using three different weights of threads she found the lighter weight fabric worked best for this technique. We were given a strip of paper and folded it as we would our fabric. Excellent visual aide.


We learned we could sew up the seams as usual and press them open for the seam allowances, or make a flat-fell seam, or overlap the selvages to leave one selvage on the outside as a design element. Or hand-stitch the seams..... The neck treatment is something to explore too!

And you can use most any draft that allows for a short float that won't snag, just as you would for any fabric turned into clothing.





And what would be a meeting of weavers without the sharing of ideas and questions? 

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Color - Color Everywhere, And Not A Drop To Drink

It boggles the brain to know there are almost endless possibilities with single-two tie. The color choices alone could send you right to the nearest straight jacket.

So now, I am trying out two colors in the weft and tabby a different color than the warp.

I have tired 1st color green, 2nd color purple with orange tabby. (that is the sample with the orange thread on it) The color order stays the same the whole cloth. If you have thought far enough ahead, you may have chosen another color for the warp instead of white. That also is something to use those brain cells for!



I hope this is close-up enough for you to see the tabby in the background. As you can see in the top photo the color combinations:  1st color is purple, 2nd color is black with green tabby. 



I find that when working with more than one shuttle that after the shuttle leaves the shed, I place it nearest to my belly button. This helps keep the colors in order so you don't have to think "Now what color was next?" I wish my Macomber loom had a 'baby wolf trap' to hold the shuttles when working with more than two.......  someone invent that-please! LOL