Inkle Loom Fun

I am still playing around with my inkle loom. I have a monograph I found in my personal library that has been a lot of fun to explore. "Handwoven Decorative Trim, An introduction to weaving passementerie trims" by Robyn Spady.  This monograph is an excellent place to explore decorative trims. If you don't have an inkle loom, any loom with two shafts will work.

One warp but using two wefts. Both wefts are white to blend into the edge color. 

This monograph introduces weaving with one warp and two, three, and four pattern wefts. She shows a great way to weave looped and cut fringe. There is even some information on adding beads. A great resource if you can find it.

Another example of one warp and two wefts. 

Woven Shibori does a Dance

Ever wonder what it would look like if you wove with color and then dyed with another? Here I have attempted just that. I wanted to see if I wove with a white warp and a colored weft then dyed the pulled shibori cloth I could get something different than the usual look. I was a little surprised I got the green, but should not have been. I think for the 'real' towel I will dye with just the blue. I wove this small sample to play with. But I do have one woven towel in the wings. It is waiting for a dye workshop later this year.

Here I have a white warp and am weaving with red. The purple is the resist threads that I will pull out later and throw away.

I have dyed on one side with yellow. I am going for  red-yellow-blue, or red-white-blue. 

I have pulled my resist threads.

Here I have applied the blue dye.

Well, I did get the red white and blue on the left. But I think I got red-yellow-green on the right because I had not rinsed out all the yellow dye. After all, yellow and blue make GREEN! 

Moral to the story..... just have fun. You never quite know what you will get. That is the beauty of woven shibori. You sort-of know, but not really. If you want a one-of-a-kind cloth than woven shibori is for you.

Over-dye Shibori Fabric

I wasn't to excited about how the woven shibori fabric turned out. My friend, Marty, said "Are you going to over dye it?" Hummmmm. So this is what I did!

I took needle and thread and did some shibori stitching

Went with some turquoise

I think it helped

Shibori Towel

You know when you do this Shibori weaving you have to let your fabric dry before you can pull out the resist threads, don't you? So that is what I had to make myself do.... I was really anxious to see what was there.

So here is the end result for the cotton towel fabric.

weave

dye 

the rest is just magic!

Remember I told you that this was a 'sample'. See if you can see where the base fabric is twill. And notice the heavily patterned strip. That is why your base fabric needs to be either plain weave or a smile twill. IMHO.

Trees

We, just in the past few days, lost our two Dogwood trees. One was a white Dogwood the other a pink Dogwood. They were very old. So when I found this bit of weaving and this frame, I knew I could 'replace' my old trees.

This was my exploration of summer and winter and the different background you can achieve by just changing the order of your tie-down threads.

I will remember the pink and white blooms in the spring and the green leaves in the summer. And I will remember the white snow on the bare limbs on those quite winter mornings.

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. 

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!

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

I Am Playing with Single-Two Tie Polychrome

Trying out colors and color order. This is some polychrome with 1-2-1-2 and 1-2-2-1 orders.

 So much to decide, so little time!

1. Which block to weave
2. Colors to use
3 Which order to use the colors
4. What color for tabby
5. How long to make blocks
6. What order of tie-down to use
7. Use all blocks or just one
8. Follow original pattern or weave twill or point twill or broken twill
9.  Add a fourth color in rotation
10. Change tie-up and answer more questions..............................

One part of this has pink tabby woven 1-2-1-2 order while the other has light green tabby woven 1-2-2-1 order. . 

Sampling Single Two-Tie

Sampling single two-tie (known as summer and winter in some circles).

I have some S&W Polychrome and Taquete going on here. I am limited on my colors as I am just using from my stash! I plan on messing around with this for a while..... It is a long warp.

Playing with Summer and Winter

I am working with single two-tie (summer and winter). This example is using the 1-2-2-1 tie-down order (with tabby).

I love the little circles! 

This is a draft that was originally an overshot on four shafts that I turned into a six shaft summer and winter draft. I know how to do this, but I let my weaving software do it for me. Soooo much faster and less chance of mistakes. I use WeaveIt Pro.

There are a lot of good programs out there, just use the one that works for you. They most always have where you can save a file in 'wif' that will go from your software to other software programs. I find my weaving software program is a great help when designing drafts.

And So It Begins

Yes, so it begins. ( a bit slowly, but going I am!)

I have 10 yards on this warp and will be playing around with single-two tie (summer and winter), S&W Polychrome and Taquete. Right now I am trying for a delicate pattern using 20/2 for the pattern weft and 30/2 for the tabby. The warp is 12/2. This is traditional summer and winter using the 1-2-2-1 tie-downs. I just love the little "O's"! But if you turn it over you get the "X's".

It is all about what "you" want sometimes and not what the traditionalists say. If you want to use 5/2 for pattern and 8/2 for tabby on a 10/2 warp... go for it! If you want to square your blocks...go for it! If you want an elongated look...go for it! In other words...Have Fun!!! Playing around is how we learn.

12/2 warp, 20/2 pattern, 30/2 tabby.

For the first few rows of sampling I tried a thicker weft using 20/2  doubled, but I want a more delicate look, so I will use 20/2 singled.

Sampling More Twill

A different treadling. 

Advancing Twill sampling

Here I am still playing around with the advancing twill that has been on my Baby Wolf since the JOY workshop. This was a good experience for me. I dented my first 60 epi (ends per inch) warp! Since I warp front to back and didn't want to learn another warpping way, I had to figure out how to dent 60 epi. I knew I could put 4 ends in a 15 dent reed, but gosh.... how would I keep the ends in order..... so yes, I bought a 30 dent reed. Easy-Peasy! Of course some can't afford a new reed, but I had been saving and so I went for it!

And now I am trying to do 60 ppi (picks per inch). And of course still trying out different wefts. Lots to think about when working with a "new to you" technique.

Sampling by Marty

I thought I would share some of the work that my friend Marty is working on. It is always fun to see how others work out ideas. Can't wait to see what she ends up with.

Rep Weave. Plain Weave. Dye. Discharge. Stencil. Paint. Sampling. Strips. Color. 

Shadow Weave finished.....

It was an interesting adventure - shadow weave. Not really my cup of tea. I think I might turn the large piece into a pillow. I will sit it on the shelf until it decides. Maybe it wants to be a purse or "?".

This next photo is some of the different treadlings.

S&W , Polychrome, Taquete

It seems as I work with single two-tie (summer and winter or double two-tie, or taquete, or S&W polychrome)...... that there just seems to be more and more that can be done.

Here are my two scarves plus all the sampling on the back porch trying to dry. The scarf on the left is woven in 1-2-2-1 tie-down order as regular summer and winter. The next scarf is woven in polychrome. That is S&W using two colors of weft plus tabby. The samples are my experiments with taquete, polychrome and regular S&W. I had already tied onto this warp once, so now it is time to stop and get ready for a workshop in June for this loom.

Things I have learned: 1. Weaving with one pattern weft and a tabby same size as the warp gives your scarf a nice drape.  2. Weaving with two same sized weft threads and a smaller tabby thread your fabric is a bit stiffer. 3.  Weaving with three wefts of the same size in Taquete produces a stiff fabric.

I think I could have helped the taquete drape if I had used only in the weft one large sized thread and two small ones. That "might" have helped the drape. Also with the polychrome the choice of weft size is important.

The main thing I learned is that you can put on one long single two-tie warp and have many-many different looks by changing the tie-up and/or treadlings.

Sample-Sample-Sample

I am still playing around with this double two-tie draft. I have tied onto this threading and am now finding the weft yarn.

This is some sampling on the original painted warp. I was tweeking the pattern some also.

I found this pink-ish bamboo and like the size, but it doesn't do much for me. I tried red too.... nope!

Now this I think I can go with. It is my 'go to' silk. I don't know what I will do when I run out of this stuff. I have put 8 yards on the loom, so I should have enough for sampling and a couple of scarves. 

p.s. Yes, I am still putting the white snowflake cotton warp onto the big loom. Slow and steady!

Samples For CWTW

Working on my CWTW study group samples.I think either side could be the public side. That is a nice thing about summer and winter.

 

This is my study of summer and winter on opposites without tabby. 

Finished With Samples

It's amazing the different looks a person can get on one threading. I think that is what intrigues me the most. This is the last of the sampling of summer and winter experiment . Hope you had as much fun as I did!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Let's hope for full bobbins and strong threads in the year ahead. If this new year throws you lemons, make lemon cake.