Signs of Spring.............

The first signs of spring on our 5 acres are the daffodils. I planted 100 of them a few years back, there are less than 10 left - so what's up with that??? I always thought daffodils multiply....that's what I had planned on when I planted the bulbs. Wildflowers are starting to emerge too - shooting stars are starting to come up, a few have opened up. I love to watch the parade of wildflowers on the property as spring progresses.

So, no fiber pix to put up - just haven't had time for anything but a little sock knitting in the evenings. We did get our taxes done yesterday, took all day even with me being prepared with all the data for home & business. Had the desktop with Turbo Tax running, laptop on the IRS website for clarifications. Could IRS make this any more complicated?! Too many questions and too little good info off the IRS site - pages and pages of explanations that make something sound so much more complicated than I'm sure it is - a one page explanation with, perhaps, a chart would suffice for many topics.

Am making headway on the woven devore presentation - finished the handout today, will drop at the printer tomorrow. Still have more work to do on the program but am hoping to get that done sometime this week. Will be very glad to have that behind me.

Looking ahead weaving wise I've got to get my table loom warped up for a workshop called the Many Blocks of Summer & Winter taught by Linda Davis. I think it will be very fun. The loom is to have the warp wound on but not threaded - we start out with lecture and then design our own draft to be threaded and woven on during class. Also I've got a special order for 2 chenille throws that needs to be woven - chenille in citrone color arrived last week......along with black chenille, Bambu 7 and Bambu 12 in black - many cones of all three since I use black alot for wefts. And then there are two guild challenges to get done, one due in May, the other in June........have my ideas, the question will be do I have the time. Need to get those 14 towels pinned up and hemmed too..............

More devore samples, chenille scarf............

I finished up the devore samples. I like the way the pink one turned out - it's soysilk and bamboo - the bamboo was burned out in the shape of a gingko leaf. This blend of fibers yielded a bit more definition.

The green sample above was merino and tencel. This is my second sample using tencel as the fiber to burn out and I'm as displeased with this sample as the first - the tencel looks too frayed on the burn out edges. I was playing with sett on this sample too - 36 epi, a bit too stiff. Getting the sett just perfect so it's not too sleazy in the burn out areas but not too stiff in the rest of the piece is key, the previous samples from last month with setts ranging from 24 epi to 30 epi had much nicer drape to them. The scarf off this green warp will have big areas burnt out to create the drape that's missing.

The white sample is T-105, a commercial sewing thread, cotton covered polyester. Since this is all one thread when it burns out it just gets thinner. This fiber will yield the more detailed burn out designs. All the other samples I've done I also wove a scarf on the warp (still need to burn out all those) but since I read that T-105 lacked drape I didn't weave a scarf but another length thinking I could make a window hanging with a snowflake design. Well, it turns out it has wonderful drape, wish I had woven a scarf instead, I do have more of the thread so it may happen in the future. The only downside to this thread is that it's only available in white, it can be dyed using disperse dyes though. There are a few yellowed (burnt) areas on this sample - I ironed the Fiber Etch gel a bit too much, hasn't been a problem on other fibers but was on this so I'll be extra careful on the bigger piece.

Finally, here's the chenille scarf warp that went on the loom and came off yesterday......washed last night, waiting to have fringe twisted. Next warp to go on the loom is for fingertip towels for a multi-guild towel exchange - these are due by April 30th so I have to quit procrastinating and get them done and out of the way. And next week I need to finish up on the devore so I have that presentation ready to go for April 10.

More curling............

As I watch the cute little Swedes losing the curling match (is it called a match?) in End 9 I feel for them but they are young and have gone so much further than expected - and the Canadian team is incredible so I would have been surprised had they not won. But the Swedish team still has a chance for the bronze on Saturday..........yes, I have it written down when the women are playing tomorrow for medals and when the men are playing Saturday. I just read comments from Theresa and Susan on my last post where I talked about curling - had me smiling. And yes, congrats to Canada for how well they're doing in the Olympics!

So, on the weaving front I did get that other warp woven, the white T-105 cotton covered polyester thread. Now I can think about projects I 'want' to weave - first off being a quick chenille scarf a customer mentioned wanting if I ever wove teal and salmon together, then fingertip towels for a multi-guild towel exchange.

The UPS truck was here a bit ago with 2 boxes totalling 89 pounds of Ashland Bay rovings - some new colors and a number of replacement colors for those I've sold out of. It's always fun to open those boxes but it also means lots of time spent weighing out fiber and packaging it in 8 ounce bags.

After I cut the warp off the loom I remembered I hadn't sewn on the leather handles I ordered from Homestead Heirlooms for the grazing sheep bag I knit and felted. Below is the finished bag. This pattern was out of the book 'I Heart Felt', I made a few changes to the pattern as I went. The handles were hard on the fingers to sew on but they are oh so nice and had great instructions on how to sew them on with the wooden buttons on the backside. Many thanks to my friend Kathy for telling me about the two gals who do this leatherwork. When I ordered the handles I also ordered some leather oak leaf pins complete with little wooden acorn embellishments.

Why can't I devour devore?

I am having the hardest time with this devore guild program - I love devore, commercial devore, but not so thrilled with this woven devore. I'm sure (I hope) once I'm finished and have burnt out designs in the handwoven scarves I'll look at them and think they're beautiful but for now I'm avoiding it all together...........I've even been cleaning out and organizing drawers, cabinets & closets instead of weaving! That's unbelieveable for those that know me well. My new incentive is that nothing else goes on a loom until the weaving is done for this program. I'll still have the burn out work to do and my program handout but that's ok, it will be fit in here and there before April 10.

But yesterday I did get back to that soy silk/bamboo warp on the loom - it's off, sample is waiting to be burnt out. I wound a warp and have it almost threaded through the reed and ready to start weaving on today. This warp is white T-105 commercial cotton covered polyester sewing thread. It's rather thick, similar to a 10/2 size. I took a picture but it was pretty boring looking so you're seeing one little corner on the entertainment center in the studio instead. Back to this T-105 - what is supposed to happen when I apply the Fiber-etch (burn out gel) is that the cotton will burn out leaving only the polyester and will result in see-through areas in the fabric. This is different from what I've been doing so far weaving with 2 different fibers (threads) - this is one thread that contains two different fibers. I understand it won't be drapey, like for a scarf, so I only put on 2 yards to sample. It will remain white since disperse dyes are needed to dye this fiber combo. I have boatloads of acid dyes and fiber reactive dyes.....I don't need to add disperse dyes to the cupboard for one sample of something I may not weave with again.

On another note - I know curling at the olympics is being made fun of, great humorous article in the sports section of our local paper this week not to mention nationwide comments. Up until this last week I've probably seen less than 60 seconds of curling in my life. I'm loving it! For those that know me, they know I'm not exactly a sports fanatic, far from it, but I'm loving this curling. Right now the women's semi-finals are on, this afternoon the men's semi-finals. Yesterday was an exciting play-off game between the young (cute) Swedish men's team and the Brits - the cute young Swedes won, they play the Canadians tonight who are top notch. Sam couldn't believe it when I told him all about the game in the evening. I'm not sure what it is about curling that I love - maybe it's something that I could see trying, maybe it's the accents of the commentators - kind of Canadian/Minnesotan, who knows but I know I'll miss it when it's gone. If we travel to Canada in the future (likely) I'll have to plan our trip around a curling tournament to attend, like our trip to Seattle planned around the Mariners/Orioles game.

Another devore warp.........

It's time to get back to the loom. I've been stagnant - am not overly enthused about the guild program I need to give in April on woven devore and since I won't let myself weave anything else until the program is finished I haven't been weaving. Today I decided I needed to get the second to the last warp for the program on the loom - it's soy silk (pink) and bamboo (mauve). At the end of this scarf warp I'll weave a little sample to try out the devore on before doing it on the actual scarf. The bamboo will burn out where I apply the burnout paste, the soy silk will not.

The final warp for this program will be using commercial sewing thread, T105, which is a cotton covered polyester......it's on it's way here from Textura Trading. The cotton will burn out leaving a much thinner thread of only polyester. I understand it's not very drapey so will probably sample first and not assume it will make a nice scarf. It only comes in white but can be dyed. From what I understand disperse dyes are used but I'm not sure why fiber reactive dyes couldn't be used, the cotton would dye, the polyester not.....might be interesting.

Silk and Tencel Devore Sample

Here's a devore sample on the silk/tencel warp. I am so glad I'm doing samples on each scarf warp before burning out the cellulose fiber on the real scarf. This is the first sample where the edges have been ragged after the burnout - that's the tencel fraying. So no burnout on the actual scarf off this warp. Of course before I did this sample I put another warp on using tencel - this time with wool. I just finished weaving it, maybe will get to the devore sample of that tomorrow - will see if it's a repeat of fraying edges to confirm that tencel is not a good fiber choice or was the above sample just a fluke.

Wool Bamboo Devore

Here's the second devore sample - the purple is 2/24 merino wool, the black is Bambu 12. The design isn't really a design, just a shape I cut out to make the stencil, it's a sample afterall.

Devore Sample

Here's the devore sample from the scarf warp from the previous post. I played with the color in my editing program so the burnout area would show well, there really isn't this much contrast, it's much more subtle but for photography purposes I needed the contrast. The sample turned out perfectly although I still question what happens to the rayon edges of the burn out area with use. One of my questions for Anne Fields from whom I took a seminar from at the ANWG conference last May. Her book was to be out this past fall but now not until April or May - I've got my copy pre-ordered on Amazon for as soon as it comes in.

The process is to burn out any cellulose fibers using Fiber Etch (Dharma Trading Co). There are recipes to make your own burnout solution, it's easier for me to buy it already made. Animal/protein fibers will not burn out. This sample is woven in merino wool and rayon.

Sett is determined by what is needed for a nice hand without being too sleazy after the burnout in the merino area (natural color). I was concerned about drape in the body of the scarf where the merino is joined by the rayon so I sett it just a tiny bit looser and it turned out just fine. So my total is 24 epi, in the burnout areas the wool is 12 epi.

Using plain weave is best, floats from other weave structures such as twill wouldn't work as well in the edge areas of the burnout. I wound the wool & rayon together on the warping board, then when it came to threading the heddles I put wool in harnesses 1 & 2, rayon in harnesses 3 & 4 - it was woven in plain weave, raising 1 & 3 together, then 2 & 4 together. The weft was the wool & rayon wound together on the bobbin (hint later) with ppi at 12.

After weaving I washed and let dry the sample to remove any spinning oils or dirt.

I made a quick stencil from freezer paper which works great because you can iron it onto fabric, shiney side down, and it will temporarily stick to the fabric.

I applied Fiber Etch with a stiff paint/craft brush working from the edges of the stencil in as to not let any seep under the stencil/freezer paper. It must be saturated very well. I turned the fabric over to touch up any areas on the backside that hadn't gotten saturated.

The fabric needs to dry completely, overnight is ok but best not to leave the Fiber Etch on any longer than necessary so I helped it along with a blow dryer.

Once dry, I laid the fabric down on a few pages of newspaper covered with a paper towel. Put a piece of aluminum foil on top of the fabric and iron, moving the iron constantly, using a setting appropriate for the fiber but NO steam. The burnout area will start to turn brown. When it starts to flake off if you rub it with your finger it's done. The Fiber Etch is nasty stuff - I worked in the garage with the door open wearing a mask and gloves, am thinking I need to find a respirator. All those little flakes & fumes are very nasty, you don't want to inhale them.

After all the burnout is done, wash the fabric out and let dry. The burnout areas are transparent.

I'm not sure what design will end up on the scarf, will think about that later. In the meantime I'm putting on another warp of wool with bamboo. I'm a little concerned about this wool, it's very thin and fragile, hopefully I won't have any problems with breakage in the weaving process. I'll try as many fiber combinations as I can for the guild program although I probably won't have nearly the amount of samples/finished pieces as usual just because I want to limit my exposure to the Fiber Etch.

Hint: when winding 2 or more yarns together on a bobbin sometimes one strand will be a bit looser than the other leading to problems on the edges while weaving. You can use a doubling stand, if you have one, or just use whatever you have, what I did. For an example: place one cone on the floor, put a chair with a slotted seat over it, put the other cone on the chair seat, pull the bottom yarn up through the center of the top cone and then wind them together on to the bobbin - the slight amount of twist keeps the two at the same length. I was hoping my kumihimo stand would work for this but the legs are too close together to get a cone on the bottom under the hole so I just used a little wooden box I have.

Phew........long post.................

Trying something new..........

I'm trying a new technique for me - devore, actually woven devore. I need to give a presentation to my weaving guild on it in April so I thought it best to get going. Yesterday I wove a scarf and sample piece using 2/18 merino mixed with a multi-color rayon flake in the warp and weft. I was concerned about drape since the sett is supposed to be for the wool areas where the burnout will occur - this means there are more total ends per inch than I would usually do since there is also the rayon flake. So, instead of a 12-15epi for this it has a 24 epi. I washed the sample piece last night and it's very drapey, good choice of fibers to mix together. Today I'll use a stencil and apply Fiber Etch in the design area which will burn out the rayon leaving only the wool. Definitely a good idea to try this out on the sample piece before the scarf. I'll post a picture of it after finished and dry. After I tackle this first try at it I'll start on other projects mixing other fibers together, I have several cones of yarn waiting to be wound into warps using silks, bamboos, soysilk, tencel and wool. The Fiber Etch burns out cellulose fibers not affecting protein/animal fibers.

And here's Bailey - he was thinking hard down in the studio yesterday helping me pick out other fibers to try with the devore technique. He has his doubts about this process..........