Ta Da.... Overshot-Woven Shibori

Just off the loom and laying on my floor I have two different overshot runners AND a little Woven Shibori !!! All on the same warp and tie-up! I will have fringe on the smaller runner and a turned hem on the long one. The Woven Shibori is just for fun and to use up the rest of the warp!

First I wove this small-ish runner.

Next I wove a longer runner.

The Woven Shibori will have to tell me what it wants to be a bit later. I will pull resist threads, apply dye and let it dry, then take out the resist threads. Next will be a wash and iron. Future Fun!!

Finishing off this overshot warp, I have Woven Shibori!! You can see where I had to  change to yellow resist thread because I ran out of the white. 

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.

More Creative Overshot

I am now weaving ad lib..... I am still keeping my overshot blocks together: 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 1-4

I am just having a bit of fun. Not sure where it will take me, but having fun. When I get to the middle...when ever that will be...... I hope I have kept good records so I can reverse.

For this runner, I am having a white turned hem.

Warp: 10/2 white tencel
Weft: 8/2 royal tencel
Tabby: 20/2 tencel

Weaving Overshot

Weaving for fun means that I can weave woven shibori, bronson lace, or overshot any day I want. And as I have mentioned before, I really love the look of overshot. Not just the 'traditional' but the 'creative' weaving of overshot. My good friend, Jeff, weaves the most wonderful coverlets, but I like to mix it up.

I have used a name draft to get my pattern. The pattern is NOT woven on the diagonal. Maybe the next one I can try that! (I think I have enough for two runners).

hemstitching

border

testing the pattern

this may work!

Weaving with Novelty Yarns

The Cabool weaving guild got together and worked at winding a warp using novelty knitting yarns and regular weaving threads.  Everyone helped. No one was allowed to just observe. It was like 'weaving camp' !!!

We all helped pick colors, yarns, and then pulled them through the reed in a random order. It was very interesting to see how everyone did each step a little differently. Some used a heddle hook, others did not. Since not all of us 'lash on', Dawn showed us how to do that. Becky showed us how to make 'doups' for the front beam. After is was all on the loom and ready for the weft, we left that part for Becky to do. Can't wait to see the final scarf! It will be awesome!!

Another Diva Christmas

Another great year with my Weaving Divas. This next year will be a "plain weave" year. But nothing "plain" about this group. So keep watching.

Dreaming Under the Tree

Dreaming of a white fleece under the tree? Maybe yarn? A bobbin?

Just Dreaming!

Blessings to you and yours!!

vacation....

Sorry, I have been busy with friends and family. I should be back at the loom soon.

Happy Holidays

Guild Gifts

One of the fun things about the holidays is all the parties that the guilds have. Food, exchanges, gifts, friendship... the list goes on and on.....

Here are a few 'small' things I have received over the years. I have plans for the two buttons, but haven't found the right time to use them yet. The bigger on is felted, the smaller is a bit of hand woven fabric.

If you have time, you might weave a bookmark or just crochet around a card from last year. Sometimes it is the small gifts we receive that stay in our hearts the longest. The tiny bear was knitted with handspun yarn. And how fun is the sheep? The paper weight is a wonderful way to display a bit of hand woven fabric.

Thanks to all my guild friends for such lovely memories!

Shibori Resist Thread

You did know that just because you are 'weaving' a resist thread into your cloth you do not have to go from side to side. Think of your resist thread doing some things that a needle might do.

I think of the places that will not be 'squished up' as blank spaces. These spaces will take on a solid color space. I am thinking I might dye this with just Indigo. But then again, I don't plan on dying this for a few more months. I am just getting things ready for a summer dye session. 

A lot of 'just thinking' going on here!

Woven Shibori Spot Bronson Resist Pattern

Still working on weaving some woven shibori. Going to be a scarf!

The base cloth is plain weave and the resist pattern is Spot Bronson. 

I am using 5/2 as my resist thread on this 10/2 Tencel. 

It will be a while before I can dye it, so I might bring this back in a month or two. 

Book Report

I have a new -to me - book. April 2016 Kelly Marshall is going to come to my neck of the woods for a Rep Weave Workshop. When I saw she had published a book, I had her send it to me. You can find it at: http://kellymarshall.com/ 

I have just started reading her book and let me tell you, if nothing else the photo's are excellent. I hope I have some idea what she will be teaching us. It helps if you know the questions to ask when the experts are in the house.

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.

Shibori Dye

I finished one towel, but it's really more of an example towel. Anyway... here it is drying on the back porch. I have turquoise on one side and lemon yellow on the other. And guess what? I will have green is places.

 Now this...mess... I had a piece of cloth I wasn't real excited with, so I took a needle and thread and did some stitching shibori. So that is this.....  we will see if it is something when dried and ironed.

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.

Shibori towel warp

Weaving white-on-white woven shibori isn't very exciting to watch. But I keep thinking about the final cloth.

These will be kitchen towels. I am using 8/2 cotton warp and weft for the plain weave towel. My resist thread is 5/2 cotton.

More of This

Working on more Woven Shibori.

This has the twill as the base cloth, instead of plain weave. The resist is also twill! Wonder how it will come out in he dye pot?

Weaving Diva November 2015

Another really great guild meeting. I shared a little yesterday of the program on DPW given by Marty. Now I will share the show and tell. We learn how mistakes were made and corrected. We learn how mistakes turn into great things not expected. And we all learn!

Tomi and her great color work in plain weave.

Missy just kept tying on and weaving on this Deflected Double Weave towel warp. 

We loved the different effects on Missy's samples. just by changing the weft color. 

Marty had fun in the dye pot. 

More from Marty. A Indigo pot was used too!

Janice was at the same dye party as Marty. These small cloths are just awesome.

Janice took her cotton yarn to the dye party and has more colors for her tapestries. 

Marilynn shared three twill block towels. Great use of color and pattern. Are we sure we don't want to do a towel exchange?????

Weaving Diva November 2015 Meeting

Giving the program this month, Marty pulled out an interesting subject to discuss. "Diversified Plain Weave. She made this look like a fun weave to try.

Diversified plain weave (DPW) is a weave that has two different sizes of threads in both the warp and the weft. The find threads weave the foundation and the thick threads create the design. Marty was interested in using her hand spun yarns and this weave structure allowed those hand spun yarns to shine while the thinner, less noticeable yarn could be a commercial yarn.

DPW is a balanced block weave. It can be woven on a 4 shaft loom, but with 4 or more shafts the versatility in creating patterns truly shines. The floats in the warp and weft are never more than two ends long! Marty says a great resource for this is A Weaver's Book of 8 Shaft Patterns by Carol Strickler.

Dictionary

Dictionary 

I have come to the end of 'this' dictionary. Perhaps you would want to create your own. Or maybe you might add to mine.

To me, weaving is an on-going learning experience. Having a dictionary at my fingertips helps me understand the words used. If I know what twill means, I am better able to weave and create twill. If I know the meaning of half-Rya, I can do that. What does overshot on opposites mean? What are thrums? What is the difference between set and sett?

Knowing the meaning of words in the context of weaving helps the learning process.So the next time someone says, "this rug has a nice texture", know they are taking about the nubby or rough surface of that rug. You wouldn't say an Oriental rug had texture as its surface is smooth. But it does have texture. So knowing the way the weaver speaks and thinks is assisted by weaving dictionaries.

One of the very first things I learned was weaving had its own language. And the next thing I learned was that weaving words were used as a way to explain the ways of the world.

"Z" is for Z-Twist

"Z" is for Z-Twist

When the single thread was spun in a clock-wise direction a "z" twist thread was made.

In India, cotton is always spun with a "z" twist which causes greater shrinkage in the setting process. According to tradition this makes the resulting thread stronger. (Swatch Page, Spinning Helps & Hints, no date given).

Two z-twist threads plied together in the s-twist will give a very stable yarn.