Woven Shibori Program

After 6 months of prep work, I gave my Woven Shibori program yesterday. I was a little worried that the way I learned might not be how the "books" say to do it. But I gave it my best shot. My way works for me and I guess that is all I can hope for. I try to put on more warp than my project requires, then I work some 'woven shibori magic' on it.

A friend sewed together my fabric Shibori 'samples' into a blouse. I call it "My Blouse Of Many Samples". Thank you friend! For you see, I can make the cloth, I just can't sew the cloth into anything!!!

Here are a few of the samples I showed and discussed with the guild.

These two are kitchen towels.Showing your resist threads do not always have to go from selvage to selvage. 

This is a few scarves with some smaller samples. Some times the warp or weft  can be 'a color' and not just white (red sample).

More scarves and small samples. Sometimes you can use a rubber stamp to get the look you want. 

I find that the weaving isn't as challenging as the dying. The weaving was pretty simple- in I would do some plain weave rows with a resist rows between. But the playing around with the color and then when opening the fabric...... now that was exciting! Deciding if I want to use more than one color, which sides get which color, questions like that. And I found that if I didn't like the result, I could over-dye it or stamp on it, or even put some more resist threads using a needle and thread and dye some more....... This is not a subject I will abandon. I see lots more Woven Shibori in my future.

Woven Shibori and Overshot

Remember this?????

An overshot runner I was weaving..... it is finished now.

Now I am weaving some woven Shibori on the rest of this warp.

I ran out of the white 5/2 cotton resist thread and started using some yellow 5/2 cotton. You can see your mistakes better when you use a colored thread. I have not had any trouble using a colored resist thread. (But I do pick light colors.)

I don't know for sure how much yardage I will have when I am finished, but should have at least a yard or two. May not dye this until this summer.

From a Sample to Finished Project

Here is a sample I did while exploring summer and winter polychrome. Just the right size for a photo album. I think this piece of fabric has been sitting around for a couple of years waiting for it's 'moment' in the light!

I have added a small 'sample' of kumihimo as accent to this album. So really, this is just a couple of samples of things I made while learning to weave summer and winter polychrome and kumihimo. Go check your samples and see if you are inspired to turn your samples into something. Or wait and see what the sample wants to be. Or....maybe it just wants to be a sample!

Sample to Spirit Bag

This is an example of what I might do with some of those samples I manage to acquire .

This was some warp I had left on the loom, so I did a simple plain weave since I was tired of what ever I was weaving. I had been doing bookmarks, but there wasn't enough for an eight inch one, so I wove what I could and turned it into a "spirit bag". Or you could call it a woven necklace.....

Samples of Non-Repeating Tied Weave Scarf

Some times I do my sampling before I do a project, some times after. For this project, I have waited until I had my scarf, and now I am doing my samples. Since I tried not to have a repeat, I thought I would show just what the different pattern blocks looked like.

From the top down, I have woven four units of each pattern treadle. Pattern treadle four is 1st, and pattern treadle eight is last.

 

Left Overs and Stockings

Just when you thought I was going to get that scarf done you find that I have been playing around with my samples. "Some times you just got to do what you got to do!" And these pin cushions will make great stocking stuffers come December. I was excited to see that I remembered how to crochet!!

Complex Weavers - Samples Arrived

Got my sample packet from the Complex Weavers Sample Exchange - The Old Fashioned Way.

According to our coordinator, Judy, "although we have not set plans, assignments or instructions in this study group, it is always a surprise to see how trends are expressed in the samples." What a great learning experience to see what other weavers are working on and have them share their explorations with me.

(the pink/black is my Dimity submission)

Moving On

Rolling- rolling- rolling. Keep those doggies rolling. Roll On! Or in weaving terms: cut off and move on.......

 

I think I have explored this warp pretty much as much as I can think too. Of course I will wake up tomorrow morning and think "why didn't I try this or that?"

But for now, I have cut this off and will get back to that Fustian I have been winding warp for. Only 400 more ends to wind!

Samples - Doll

Continuing my exploration of samples let me tell you that some times the samples can be turned into delightful things, and then sometimes, ?

As many of my closest friends know "I can make the cloth, I cannot sew the cloth". LOL. Here was my attempt to sew together some samples and create a doll.

Samples - Pillows

More things to do with samples. Pillows!

A couple of years ago one of my weaving guilds was working on a friendship coverlet. Since we were trying to weave 'traditional' overshot, we had to 'try' to square our weaving. Well.... that wasn't easy.... so I ended up with several 'not too square' squares of my pattern "Johannas Speck". Because I had several samples I just stuck two together and now I have a pillow to remind me of all the fun and aggravations that that project brought. (I still haven't put together all my 'squares'.) I ended up with all my coverlet square to be woven in the red color.

 

Samples- A Flower

Here is another quick idea to use up some of your samples. A handwoven flower! And aren't the buttons a cute idea too? Cup was hand glazed at Shirley's house.

Samples - Bit and Pieces

Looking for more things to make with samples or 'not so good' bookmarks? How about a 'spirit bag'?

Hand Woven Pin Cushion

I have found that sampling is the best way to learn a weave structure, or find a color combination. But sampling often leads to lots and lots of small woven pieces. Well, here is one idea you can use to help with those samples.

And believe it or not, your friends and relatives would be thrilled to have a small hand woven pin cushion. Even if they don't really sew!

Summer and Winter ...Oops

The error doesn't show up very well on this side. This was the side I was looking at as I was weaving.



  

This is a great example of what happens if you do not follow the rules. " Whichever order you choose to use, you must use it throughout the entire project" . If not, it will look like you made an error!! I don't know if I threw the wrong tabby or picked the wrong tie-down..... but UK! It doesn't show up to much on one side, but does on the other. I think I remember having trouble, but thought I un-wove past the error. Guess not.



On this side the error shows up very well. This was the side I had down when weaving.



But the good news is that I get to keep all the towels that have errors. And besides this was a sample of what single-two tie could do!  I will study it and try to figure out what my error was. This will go into my weaving notebook along with the notes and other info from the workshop.   

 



Another S&W Finger Tip Towel

I think this towel turned out very well. It really demonstrates the two different sides you get with summer and winter (single two-tie).  I had a bit of fun with this one by crocheting a hanging loop in red and green. This was woven in the dukagang-fashion of weaving and alternated pattern and tabby colors. When weaving the red pattern weft, the tabby was green. When weaving the green pattern weft, tabby was red. I also have one hem red the other green.

                                                                                                                                                       

Sample Sample Sample !!

I am using the same threading for this next adventure that I used for the Twill Huck Scarves. I am not sure how this draft will work, but I am going to try some woven Shibori with it. The warp and weft is white rayon and the resist threads (pull threads) are 5/2 cotton. The pull threads need to be strong and slick.

What I am doing is creating a plain weave scarf in the end. The resist threads are just a tool to get a pattern using dyes. The purple resist threads (or pull threads) are being woven between four rows of plain weave. I am weaving the twill-huck draft at the same time I am weaving the plain weave. I think you could use most any draft that had long floats as your resist pattern. Monks Belt makes a really interesting pattern if you only have four shafts to work with. Or if you have eight shafts, try a twill.

I have left loops on the edge so I will have an easy time of pulling.

Now I have added some areas of different weft threads to see how they will react with the dyes. These wefts are linen, soy silk, and purple 5/2 cotton. They should take the dye differently than the rayon.

Sampling Boulevard

Sample! Sample! Sample!

I had picked out the threads to use for my table runner, and guess what? Didn't work. (These are the reasons we sample!!)

I found that the pattern weft I had picked out was to thin. It was a 10/2 cotton. I have replaced it with 5/2 cotton 'near' the same color. I think this will give me the weight of cloth I am after. After all, you don't want a table runner to slide off your table during a light breeze.

You can see from this close-up view the cream 5/2 cotton pattern weft. Click to enlarge.