I wove this many years ago. I know that the yarn was a 22/2 Cottolin (cotton/linen blend). But other than that, I have no idea what the weave structure is. I really like this and would like to make another. If I took any notes, well, they are long lost.
Mystery fabric.
It’s good sized. It measures 24-1/2 by 78. I’ve always thought it would make a good towel. I just have to hem it and it’s done.
Full length
I think I am going to rename this: My misfortunes with fiber!
I was winding the warp for my next weaving project and the yarn just kept on tangling. I was winding on two strands at a time, both because the warp is going to alternate between 1 black thread and 1 silver colored thread and because it’s supposed to be a faster way to wind the warp. Unfortunately I was NOT working with the actual cone of yarn but a ball that had been wound off of that cone.
Tangles
It’s hard to tell from the photo, but additional yarn was coming off the ball as I was unwinding it and the two strands were getting caught up in each other. So I resorted to unwinding a bunch and then re-stacking it so that the thread I was winding onto the warping board fed from the top of the pile not the bottom. That helped, but added considerably to the time it took to wind the warp. Then I got this:
another tangle
And, this happened more than once. Note that in the picture a strand of the black yarn is a bit tangled with the silver yarn (I know it looks blue in this picture, but trust me, it is silver). Now, I don’t mind untangling yarn but it does slow down stuff. This is bamboo yarn (yes, I do seem to be on a bamboo kick right now) and as you know from my previous posts, it’s slippery. It seems to tangle easily too.
I had other problems with this yarn: a couple of knots (in the black, in case you thought just the silver was the problem) and a section (again in the black yarn) that was a bit frayed and I had to cut it out.
Then, of course, something that seems to be somewhat of a pattern for me, I did something incorrectly; in this case it was the cross. I’m not too worried since I know I have to pull a black yarn and then a silver yarn to thread the loom. I hope to get that done by end of day Saturday so that I can spend Sunday weaving!
Here is the warp waiting to be threaded onto the loom:
The warp
The finished project should look like this (just different colors):
The finished project
You’ll never believe this, but it’s going to be a shawl. Not only am I in a bamboo rut, but I’m in a shawl rut as well.
Well I finished all the square knots and wound the warp onto the back beam. I had a little problem getting all those knots through the reed, but a healthy tug was all it needed. One or two knots gave way in the process – darned slippery yarn!
I wove a slightly different pattern than the first one,
A different pattern
but where as the first one went relatively smoothly (relatively); this one was wrought with problems. One third of the way through the weaving the second harness started to ‘stick’ and if I wasn’t careful I would catch some of the second harness warp in my throw when I only wanted the first harness up. It was a real mess undoing that pic.
I went along, pushing down the second harness as I went along. All I can come up with for a reason is that I did a lousy job warping the loom and the tension was uneven and thus it was somehow causing the harness to be at a slight angle. No way to take pictures to show this one.
Next, as the knots became visible as the warp advanced more knots started to come undone. I had to fix them by tying on a piece of yarn and weighing it. I have 2 S hooks and two carabiners to help weigh the yarn and one the 6th knot came loose some of them were doing double duty.
An ugly mess!
It was getting to be an ugly pattern – weave a few picks, advance the warp, sproing! a loose knot. Then get up, tie on the scrap yarn, weigh the warp, go back to weaving.
So I cut it short and thus my woven piece ended up being about 56 inches long instead of 70 or so inches long. But it’s done.
Before Christmas I got the following:
Ready to do some more dyeing!
I’m going to do some more dyeing down the road. This time with some synthetic dyes. Specifically, Jacquard Acid dyes. As you can see in the photo, I got 4 skeins of undyed yarn: two fingering weight (NOT superwash), and two lace weight.
I can’t wait to get started!
I read the directions that were in the magazine about 4 or 5 times. All it said was: “Place lease sticks in the cross and secure them to the loom …”. But how? I looked at the tiny photo they provided and still couldn’t quite make out how. So I invented something, a sort of Rube Goldberg type fix.
Sigh..
Once I had the thing all tied up (and believe me it involved some interesting contortions on my part!) I looked at the picture supplied with the instructions one more time.
Light dawns over marble head! What they did was so simple and so elegant, why didn’t it make sense to me before? I’ll know better next time.
Now I was all set to start tying. Just in case you are wondering, I did this so that I could tie together all the new warp ends to the old warp ends from the shawl I finished a few weeks or so ago. All 262 of them. No I’m not nuts, weavers do this all the time (or so I’m told).
The instructions told me to use an overhand knot. No way! With slippery yarn the whole thing would just come apart as soon as I put the slightest pressure on the tied together yarn. No, I had to tie a square knot to join each of the threads. Did I mention that there are 262 ends – that means 262 knots. Oh boy!
The fruits of one hour of labor!
(In case you’re wondering – that’s 15 threads per inch. The yarn is Aunt Lydia’s bamboo crochet thread.)
Here I have some group pictures of some dyeing I did this summer, with natural dyes:
I warped my old rigid heddle for a Toastmaster’s speech I gave back in October. I intended it to be a scarf and measured the warp to make a scarf – I didn’t want to have just a pretend warp on the loom. I started to weave it with some old knitting yarn I had lying around but figured I didn’t have enough so I pulled that all out and wove it with some jewel toned, spaced dyed, loop mohair yarn that I bought at Webs last Tuesday.
It was a quick weave since I seem to have been skimpy on the amount of warp. So I have a short and fat scarf! Maybe I’ll use the woven scarf for something else – a little bag or maybe even a pillow; knowing me, it will stay a short, fat scarf! I do love the colors and I have plenty of the weft yarn left, so I can use it for another project.
The short, fat mohair scarf
Went to Webs on Tuesday to pick up some bamboo yarn (10/2) that was on sale. I had purchased it online for store pickup.
Aubergine
With the aubergine cone of yarn I intend to make a shawl/scarf similar to the one I made (and am making). Since the yarn is finer it should drape even better.
I think I want to use the aubergine and one of the blues to make a shadow weave scarf. The new issue of Handwoven is all about shadow weave. I’m not sure I like it, but it’s worth a try.
All four cones of Bamboo 10/2
Finally, I want to use the bamboo for the warp and tabby weft of a summer and winter patterned fabric that I will use to make a vest. I will use rayon chenille for the pattern weft. I do hope the two go together well. Once I’ve settled on colors I will post pictures.
About 10 years ago (was it really that long ago?), I made this quilt top during an especially busy tax season at the office. I had always wanted to make a Trip Around the World quilt, so here it was.
the quilt...
I hated the way the center square looked, so I substituted a mini-Trip Around the World using the same fabrics as the large quilt. I think it came out pretty well.
The mini-trip
It took me about 6 years to get around to pining the 3 layers together, ha!
Back in October (or was it September) I joined a quilting group so that I could start quilting this sucker. Ugh! What a task. I believe that this will be my first and last quilt that I actually quilt. You can see the quilting I have done already in the mini-trip picture.
I have been working on this Christmas wall hanging for ever. Now that Christmas is over I have all year to finish it! I will finish this one day, I just know it. Stay tuned!
Victorian Santa wall hanging
Dress Me In Silk 