Ice dyeing

 Yesterday morning I washed out the first batch of ice-dyed silk scarves - love how they turned out.......except for the yellow one on the end. It's just a bit too yellow and people are afraid of yellow.  That one will get over-dyed sometime this week.

I set up 8 more scarves with ice and dye yesterday morning, look at the colors in this one. I started with turquoise and terra cotta - look at how the dyes break and create even more colors. I'll be heading outside shortly to wash out yesterday's scarves - will be a fun surprise to see what I got. I've got 8 more scarves to set up to dye today.........two of them I'm using a fun technique...........photo later. Hopefully will get a warp wound today to try this dye technique out on a warp - will either be very interesting or a big mottled mess which is why the warp will only be for one scarf for this experiment.

Back to weaving

It felt good to get back to the loom today. I was going to weave plain weave/tabby on this warp but you know, I just love the drape of twills so I went with a very simple manifold twill - I wanted the drape and hand but didn't want the pattern to fight with the painted warp. First scarf woven with a purple weft - two more scarves to go that will be woven in different wefts. This is a painted rayon flake warp which accounts of the thick/thin areas.

Before I got to spend time threading heddles, the reed and get to weaving I had to do some photography works (argh) - many photos taken of 6 scarves, editing still to be done, then listing in the etsy shop. I've recently sold several scarves and shawls so need to get more listed.........and I've got more in the studio to sell, I just run out of time to do the photography work to get them all in the shop.

The heat is oppressive today due to the humidity which is rare in this area - one of the many reasons I left the east coast - the humidity. There's a chance of thunderstorms all week which is not a good thing since they come with no rain, just dry lightening........have I said it yet today that I hate fire season???

Corkscrews tamed........

The corkscrews were tamed somewhat in the finishing of that scarf. But look - even after washing the fringe is still kinky - it's like the steam during the dyeing process put permanent kinks in that silk - it's crazy. Even after ironing it still looked just as kinky - good thing I was planning on twisting the fringe.

Here it is finished, fringe twisted and ironed. I couldn't come close to capturing the sheen....the feel and drape is incredible with the silk warp & tencel weft. I tried a different technique of hemstitching which is actually knotting - it makes for a less obvious hemstitching. I visited the Webfoot Weavers Guild over on the coast last week to hear a presentation by Nancy Hoskins of Eugene. As an extra little tip she showed this knotting technique which, I think, is in one of her books. I tried it - I like it.

New on the needles......

New on the needles - an autumn shawl. It's the Milk Run Shawl styled after the shawl Kate Middleton wore while pushing a grocery cart. It's very simple garter stitch with increases on the edge and down the center back, there will be a ruffle along the entire bottom edge of the shawl. I want something very simple since there are so many color changes in my hand- dyed handspun yarn. This is one of those handspuns that for some reason I didn't write on my tag what fiber it was, I occasionally find one of those on the shelf....I think this is colonial wool which is like a corriedale. The pattern is available on Ravelry as a free download.