Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Sneaking this in......

I'm trying to sneak in this post before internet goes down again, it's been a problem now going on 5 days (actually many months off and on). Calling my provider and talking to someone in India doesn't provide anything other than frustration since they are instructed to follow a script that provides no solution on my end. During one of the rare times I had internet I finally found a place to send an email, I must have hit a nerve because I had a phone call from someone here in the states this morning. I got an apology - new equipment is being installed here to correct the problem they've been jury rigging for a long time. No solution for slowest dsl on the planet though. He conferenced me through to the 'loyalty' department and because of my on-going problems I'm getting the next 12 months at half-price......would rather have internet I can count on but at least this is something. No internet is tough, we all depend on it so much these days.
Here are those scarves that recently came off the loom, washed yesterday. The pictures don't do them justice, the gold color looks like real gold, it just shimmers. It turns out my favorite one is the one I didn't like on the loom - the red with the busy crepe weave background. Next step is to twist the fringes.
This warp going on my table loom looks similar in color to the scarves above in this picture but it really isn't. This picture is taken from the back of the loom, the warp still on the lease sticks, it's threaded through the heddles & reed at this point. It's for an upcoming shadow weave workshop with Linda Hartshorn. I decided to use 2 light colors with my dark instead of just one light and one dark. My dark is black - my lights are chartreuse and golden green. This workshop is a couple weeks off but I want my loom warped and set aside ready to go, will tie on tomorrow and weave a little sample to make sure there are no errors. In addition to these colors I'll probably bring a few more to experiment with for the weft. This is a round robin workshop, depending on what fiber and length warp put on we'll either weave off a scarf or table runner after sampling. I didn't want a table runner so this is an 8/2 tencel scarf warp, wider than I'd normally like but that's the width she suggested, it's perfectly fine. This should be a fun workshop, I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping to gain more knowledge to enable me to design shadow weave drafts to weave on my AVL using many harnesses. Also have been thinking about echo weave lately and want to start learning more about it - first glance makes me think it's similar to shadow weave in warp but then only one color in the weft......will find time to read up on it at some point in the near future. 

5 comments:

  1. The scarves are pretty. I was surprised to read that you washed them before you twisted the fringe. How do you keep the fringe from tangling? Does it make for better twists to do it afterwards? Just wondering about these things because I've yet to make twisted fringe but it's something I really want to try. :-)

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  2. Well the scarves aren't washed in the machine which would do those loose warp ends in. I lay them in a sink to soak in soapy water, rinse them out, add fabric softner and let soak a bit more. I squeeze the water out, roll them in a towel to squeeze more water out and hang them to dry over a towel on a shower rod. Because there is no agitation the ends never tangle.

    If I'm working in chenille I weave very loosely waste yarn in the fringe area. I wash the scarves the same way but when almost dry or completely dry I throw them in the dryer to fluff and soften. The waste yarn in the fringe is easy to cut out, I then twist the fringe.

    I find that fringes look nicer if I twist them after washing rather than before.

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  3. Boy, would I love to spend a day with you in your studio. I was thinking today about all the things I learned from my time in Rae's studio - stuff you just can't figure out on your own.

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