Night Magic

All done.

Fringe beaded and trimmed. Project washed and pressed --- and named. Naming the scarves is a requirement for the guild show. I dub this one "Night Magic" because of the way the colours shimmer against the black threads.

And now off to warp the loom again! A new idea is demanding to be brought to life.

And a Woven One

Yesterday I mentioned that I would be submitting a knitted, handspun, lace scarf in the guild's show at City Hall, and that there might be a woven one as well. I've made quite a bit of progress on the knitted one, but have found that the weaving is going much faster.

Late on Sunday I took this handspun, a hodge podge of assorted fibres and colours which had been plyed with a fine black weavers' wool,

--- and used it mixed 2/1 with a fine black boucle for the warp,

I wove away, as compulsively as I usually do with such things,

--- and by late Tuesday evening I had it completely woven, cut off the loom, a few skips repaired, and some experimental fringe alternatives pondered. The scarf is in a finishing bath now and will be pressed, have its fringes sprinkled lightly with beads and trimmed evenly, to be ready for its debut here tomorrow.

When a Project Goes Well

I'm thrilled with the way this turned out! Despite winging it without a pattern, improvising all the way, everything still went together perfectly. Many decisions were based solely on supplies at hand.

• I had all the cotton denim yarn, purchased at a clearance sale months ago.


• The bright orange acrylic was leftover yarn given to me by my daughter.


• Who doesn't have a pair of holey old jeans kicking around?


• I even had leftover thread in the right colours.


• I had the perfect buttons purchased long ago for a project that I changed my mind about.


• The inkle band, cut in two, turned out to be exactly the right length to make shoulder straps that place the bag at a comfortable carrying height.


• The inner pockets were made from a scrap leftover from the main lining.


• The plastic canvas was in my stash, previously rescued from a thrift store for next to nothing.


• The bag turned out a nice size and shape simply by cutting the woven yardage exactly in half.

The only things I had to buy specifically for the project were the fusible interfacing (to stablize the weave so it could be cut and sewn), and the bright orange broadcloth for the lining. Both of those I got at a local department store. I didn't even have to set foot into our big (annoying, high priced, slow service) fabric store.

All the details would have taken less time if I had had a commercial pattern to refer to. As it was I had to stop and carefully think about how best to accomplish the features I wanted. The bottom and the narrower sides were given some stability with plastic canvas basted invisibly between the layers. The inside was lined, complete with six customized pockets, four flat ones of various sizes, and two pleated ones for bulkier objects.

With the exception of the inkle bands, I have enough of everything left over to make another whole bag.
I haven't decided yet whether I will do that and sell the extra one, or if I will buy a pattern for some kind of lined purse. Either way it won't be anytime soon. Sewing isn't my favourite hobby. Although I did a fair bit of it years ago, now I only sew when it is a necessary step for finishing some other fibre related project.

Denim Creation

I've been considering this weaving project for quite some time now. First I had to collect a few pairs of old jeans. Then, as I have to do my warping outside, I had to wait for a nice day. It was still a bit chilly on Sunday but the beautiful sunshine drew me outdoors even if I did have to wear fingerless gloves while warping.

Here's the loom set up on the old door and peg warping station I have improvised.

And back inside where it was warmer I got to work threading every other end into the holes in the rigid heddle, tensioning and tying on to the cloth beam. I'm using an indigo dyed cotton denim yarn.

After cutting old jeans into 1/2" strips I was off and weaving. 2 shots of the denim yarn, one of a bright orange acrylic, 2 more of the denim yarn and then a strip of the recycled denim jeans. Nice, simple tabby weave.

Of course once the loom is warped I become obsessed and weave like a mad woman. I had the whole thing woven and off the loom by the next day --- all 1.7 metres of it.

Similar But Not the Same

You may recall that I made my mother-in-law a set of place mats for Christmas. I loved those place mats, and they went so well with my decor that I just had to rewarp the rigid heddle loom and make something similar for myself.

I don't actually use place mats on our dinner table, so I decided to make mats for the shelves in this pretty hutch instead. These runner style mats are 11" x 21.5" so narrower and longer than the place mats but very similar in style, also using the same Sirdar Denim Tweed DK woven in tabby at 10 epi.



So far I haven't found a way to easily vary the length of my warp (using a peg method and the one and only place I can set up the loom and the peg), so I warped the loom twice for the set, getting three runners per warp. I'm very pleased with the result. They fit the shelves perfectly.



Hmmmm....now I have my eye on the shelves in my computer hutch.......they seem to be needing a little something.

Placemats Done

Hemmed yesterday and ready for the guild's show and tell today.

They're looking a little rumpled in the picture because I had them wrapped around a rectangular piece of Styrofoam for storage. Maybe I'll press them again and try wrapping them around a cardboard tube instead.

With Great Pleasure

I set out yesterday to get my rigid heddle loom warped for a set of placemats. With many other things to accomplish first, I got a late start and thought I'd be lucky if I had time to do any of the weaving at all.

I had the loom warped by 3 pm and thought I'd weave for a wee bit before I had to start cooking supper.


A couple of hours later the project was going so well and looking so pretty that I had to tear myself away to cook, feed the family, and clean up after dinner. Then I was back at it, weaving, weaving, weaving until by bedtime I had totally finished the yardage --- and then some even. Wanting to utilize as much of the warp as I could I actually wove past the heddle blocks by holding the heddle up or down with one hand while pushing the shuttle through with the other.


I'm loving the finished result. I popped it in the washer this morning, into the dryer for a few minutes, and have it all pressed and waiting for cutting into placemats, machine stabilization of the ends, and hand hemming.

The weft is all Sirdar Denim Tweed DK in shade # 0636. The warp is mostly the same, but with a small amount of handspun wool (the darker, solid, vertical stripes), and a small amount of Sirdar Denim Tweed DK in natural (the white stripes on either side of the dark, handspun stripes).

Woo, Hooo! Gotta love it when a project goes so well.

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And a Scarf Too!

My second attempt at a scarf was successful!



Like the cardigan, the table runner, and the little purse, this too was made with the "tsunami of wool" I received in September of 2006.

And I still have more.
~

Warp Salvaging

I had trouble with that warp I put on the other day. The selvedges got really tight and the centre portion went soft. I think it was a problem with the way I wound onto the back beam, and I know how to correct that, so I cut off the old warp. I salvaged what I could by making this:



A small purse just the right size for carrying a small wallet and keys. The strap is a narrow inkle woven band. The button is handmade from a cross-section of an antler. The two centre holes were drilled too close together and made a larger, joined hole, making it impossible to sew on "correctly", but I like the extra interest it provides when sewn on like this.



I have now rewarped with the same pattern to make the scarf I had originally intended to make.

Warping in the Dark

Rather late yesterday, as the sun faded from the sky, I decided I needed to put another warp on my rigid heddle loom. My last warping episode was hampered by confined spaces and an improvised "peg" that fell over mid warp. Although it wasn't disastrous, it was annoying. So I set out looking for an alternative.

My seeking led me outside to my husband's make-shift workbench. It has an old door as a work surface --- which just happens to be the right length for a scarf warp. Add a peg to one end, clamp the loom to the other, and warping is accomplished in a wink.



Which is a good thing because it was getting rather dark. (The camera flash lit up the first picture.) My supervisor, Shelby the Wonder Dog, had to turn on her laser vision and my husband set up a trouble light for me.



After the warp was wound onto the back beam I took everything inside and finished threading the heddle indoors --- where the light was better.

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The Beat Goes On

I think my daughter has inherited my fascination with the fiber arts. She thought she would never knit. But now she does. She thought she would never spin. But now she does that too.

She resisted weaving. As argument she listed all the knitting and spinning she already had on the go and insisted that with a new baby she didn't have time to take up yet another hobby. When we were at Fibrefest a while back I whet her appetite for weaving by suggesting that we "rest our feet" and "kill a little time" by watching a demonstration of the knitter's loom.

Psssh. She was a pushover! After the 30 minute demo I merely had to suggest that the knitter's loom is a lot like my rigid heddle loom and she might want to --- you know, take it for a while and see how she liked weaving. Heh. I believe she whimpered a little, called me a "Beeotch" and said that I was some kind of fibery "pusher" 'er somethin'.

When I heard she was bringing Kaylen over for a visit today I slyly suggested she might want to bring along some of her fingeringweight leftover yarns, the stuff she no longer has a use for. Heh. Next thing she knew we were warping the loom together and she was trying her hand at weaving.



And doing a darn good job too!



I sent her home with the loom and the suggestion that she might want to weave runners for her beautiful new bedroom suite. Betcha we'll be warping up the loom for that project within a couple of weeks. ;-)

Michelle, just give in. Resistance is futile.
Gillian, if you need a weaving companion --- try teaching one.