Red and White

I work a little, now and then, on the red and white weaving I dressed the loom with on New Years Eve. Progress is slow since I'm not really drawn to this one, or to weaving at all at the moment.

I dutifully go in and put in some time when I can though. This warp ticks so many boxes off of a "to do" list that I just can't completely neglect it.

This warp serves several purposes:

 +For the Chilliwack Spinners and Weavers Guild year end challenge to create a project in the colours of the flag of the country of our origin. In my case that would be red and white, for Canada, since I was born here as were my parents and 2 of my grandparents.

+To have the loom “dressed” with a new warp to greet the new year.

+To meet a guild challenge to create something to donate to guild sales to go toward the guild budget.

+To make Christmas stockings to sell next Christmas.

+To use up some of my extensive stash of “odds ‘n’ sods” of this and that and not much of any one thing.

+To use the red handspun I spun at a Canada Day celebration/demonstration two years ago.

All Dressed and Ready for New Years

Fully dressed and ready for the New Years celebration.

 

The loom that is, not me!

Some weavers like to start a new year with the loom dressed with something new, full of potential. I'm wanting to do more weaving in 2020 than I did in 2019 so I felt a fresh new warp was a good place to start. Ironically, as I pack up the Christmas decorations, this warp will likely be for Christmas stockings to be sold at the Christmas Craft Market next November. 

Back at the Loom

After a long hiatus my Creative Muse has finally led me back to the loom.

My weaving room was a mess so I had been avoiding going in there even though a deadline for a guild year end challenge to "use a photo as inspiration for a project" was getting closer. I could have spent hours looking for just the right traditionally "pretty" photo for the challenge, but in an effort to tidy my weaving space I came across this calendar picture given to me by my youngest granddaughter for my last birthday. Spontaneously I thought, "Sure, why not?", and selected it as my inspiration photo for the guild challenge.

That was yesterday. That evening I chose yarns from my stash using colours from the photo to guide my selection and then wound a warp. Today I got the warp sleyed and threaded and then beamed and tensioned on the loom.

This afternoon I wove the entire length for a mobius scarf. Even I was surprised at how fast that went!

I'm not yet finished the weaving. There is still the "catch and turn" to do. That's an interesting little maneuver where the  beginning of the warp is freed, the warp is caught under the apron rod and  retensioned, and then all those beginning warp ends are woven into the end as weft. Tricky, but turns out great. I'll be doing that tomorrow.

Once the project is cut from the loom it still must be "wet set" (washed and pressed), and all the little end tails trimmed, inclusions tacked down, and fringe twisted. I'll be back in a few days to show you the finished scarf. Although the soft greys, beiges, cream and soft gold look lovely together they are not "my" colours at all so it will eventually be for sale. 

Warp's Wound

The warp is now wound. I might have time later today to get the reed sleyed. I'm looking forward to having grandchildren coming in the evening for dinner and a sleepover so I won't likely have time to get the warp onto the loom.

 

Since these are not colours that look good on me I'm going to weave a cowl and hat set that I can sell later. They are fun to do and seem to sell well.

Wound and Weaving

Kona had to wait a little longer for her morning walk but the Dogwood Blossom warp is on the loom.

 

I'm liking it way more than I had anticipated.

In fact, it's hard to stop weaving and walk away to get other things done!

I'd say the colour is most accurate in this final photo.

The Tail End

One warp comes to a happy end (as evidenced by all the tail wagging)

and the next one has begun.

That's an all white warp, 146 ends in a variety of textures, thicknesses and sheen. The warp is 6 metres long and destined to become an article of clothing.

You'd think all that white would be boring to weave, but it's anything but!

I'm finding the draw of this warp to be almost a compulsion. I'm in there weaving in every spare moment.

The Path for Palindrone

A palindrone, hand dyed skein can make for an interesting warp with a faux Ikat effect. I think most often they are done on rigid heddle looms. The reason being that with direct warping it is a relatively simple matter of adjusting the distance to the peg to get the warp colours to line up and "pool". I do have a rigid heddle loom -- two in fact -- but I so much prefer using my Saori loom that I wanted to wind a warp for that instead.

It's a little trickier to find a warping board path that will be a perfect multiple of the original skein length, thereby getting the pooling just so. Here is my first attempt. I decided the "Carnival" colourway would be a sacrifice to the initial attempt.



It's pooling, and rather effectively I think, but not quite in the way is usually intended, which is with the colours more or less in softly blending stripes across the warp rather than sharply contrasting ones along the warp's length as this one is doing. I'm not certain but I think it's because my warp path is ever so slightly longer than the actual skein's length, doubled.

Here's a photo of the exact path the warp takes on my Saori warping board. It's ever so slightly longer than 4m. The skein was 2m.



For this type of pooling to work on a warping board you have to have a circular path, rather than one that goes down and then back up as a warp is normally wound. Syne Mitchell of weavezine.com has an article that explains how to wind a palindrome skein on a warping board, for effective faux ikat.

If you are interested in trying this, Nancy, Ravelry user name "MeasuredThreads", has a great explanation of how to evaluate a palindrome skein to create a faux Ikat scarf in her post on a rigid heddle loom forum on Ravelry.

I experimented with a few different colours and weights of weft threads and have decided to weave this one with sewing thread as weft so that the warp colours are all that is really noticed once the scarf is wet finished.

Pull of the Loom

I wound this warp a few weeks ago and it has been waiting its turn at the loom.

I was pleased with the warp itself, but I'm thrilled with the actual weaving of it!

It's turning out so much better than I expected. 

In fact, watching the colours play out against the mixed warp is so enthralling that the pull of the loom is irresistible, and I find myself back at it even when I should be doing other things. 

Off to a Good Start

After scrapping that failed, fuzzy blue-violet and chartreuse warp, I've wound another warp and this one is much proving to be much more successful!

The warp is all cotton and the colours chosen were inspired by the ball of dishcloth cotton you see in the centre. The white, green, and light blue are not in the warp but may end up included as weft. 

Kona was a patient supervisor of the beaming process, though she chose to lay right where I would have to step over her every time I went from the front of the loom to the back. Using the "yank and crank" method of keeping a uniform tension I was stepping over her a LOT. 

I put this warp on my loom so that it wouldn't be empty when a visitor interested in Saori weaving comes by. But I find it a very pleasant warp to weave and cannot seem to stay away. I may end up using up all 6 metres of it before the guest arrives! 

The colours are most accurate in this final photo. I have no idea what the final use will be of the yardage, but I certainly am enjoying weaving it. 

Revolving Birdies

Peter and Paul, the little guardians that prevent my warp from spreading, warned me this morning of a problem.

As I was beaming the warp I noticed that the little parrots were revolving around and around on their "perch". Wondering what was causing their unusual antics I investigated a little further and found that my back beam was so loose it was rotating. The beaming was put on hold while I rounded up a screw driver and gave the whole loom a tightening before proceeding. 

Summer Tunic

I finally finished sewing the Lemon Yardage into a summer tunic.

I plan to wear it tomorrow for a demonstration of Saori style techniques that I'm doing for our local guild.

The holes in the right front are slits created during the weaving process. They were then embellished using a technique called "Picot Beading".

I also beaded the edge of both lapels.

The pretty dragonfly button was a gift from a friend and fellow guild member.

The pocket was formed by folding up the bottom edge.

I'll try to get a few modeled shots when I'm wearing it tomorrow.

A Shrug and a Shrug

When my warp tension went awry on that natural coloured weaving posted about earlier I cut off the first few feet and re-beamed the whole thing. It turned out to be well worth the effort.

On the advice of some of the forum members of a Saori weaving group on Ravelry I went out and purchased poster board and cut it into strips that were exactly the width of my warp beam. Then I rolled the warp forward all the way and re-beamed, this time placing the strips of poster board as I went. I did the "yank 'n' crank method of reintroducing an even tension and everything moved forward smoothly.

While I was in the 'redo' mode I also chose to pull the warp ends out of the Comb Reed but not the heddles. This way the warp ends stayed in order and I was able to then resley them through a regular reed with slightly wider spacing. It worked well and I continued to weave off another 3 table runners.

What happened to the wonky part from the beginning when the tension when awry? Well it certainly could not be used as a table runner. The edges were much tighter than the middle because of the warp spreading issues. It wouldn't lie flat, but as I looked at the piece I realized it was long enough to be a shrug, and for that use the tighter selvedges were actually an advantage!

Soooo, ~*shrug*~ I'll go with the flow and "allow" this portion of the warp to be a lovely shrug instead. I'm knitting cuffs and most likely an edging along the top and bottom.

Yay for 'mistakes' that force us to think outside the box.