From 10’s to the Moon and Beyond

Over the past year, I was able to transform three weaving challenges into one project.  Although I like a challenge, having too many at one time can be too much.  It started over a year ago when a group I meet with once a year came up with a challenge of designing something using ten as the inspiration.  I’m not really good at this type of challenge and I noodled around with several ideas that didn’t go anywhere.  

The last idea seemed doable, what was the phase of the moon on October 10, 2010?  Lots of tens in that.  I found a couple places that showed me at least two phases that it would have been.  No matter, a crescent could be my design.  I used Proweave software to design a crescent shape that I oriented in two directions.  I selected broken twill for my weave structure and had something that would work.

Around that time, I realized that I needed samples for an annual exchange with the Complex Weavers 24 +/- Study Group.  If I wove this design in 10/2 cotton that would work very well for the exchange – reasonable sized swatches with an interested design. 

 A third weaving group had thrown out another challenge.  Start with a work of art and use that as inspiration for a weaving project.  Well, I had a project, now to work backwards to find some inspiration.  After looking around at paintings with moons, I, of course, landed on Van Gough’s “Starry Night”.  It had a big moon and might have inspired my samples.  From the painting, I did select the colors for the piece – a yellow warp with dark blue weft.  I used two different colors of 10/2 yellow cotton, sett at 30 epi to give a less uniform look.  I also used 10/2 for the weft.

 

With the lift plan worked out, I decided to use an extended point twill threading.  This would repeat the motifs and rotate them across the width of the cloth.  I used this fabric for all three challenges.BBBBBBBBBBBBBbbbbBBBBbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

Samples ready to be cut

24+/- Draft - Broken Twill on 24 Shafts

 

BBBBBBBBBBBBBbbbbBBBBbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb In addition to this design, I made two more design changes to elongate and eventually join the crescent shapes. I wove off the end of the warp from the 24 +/- samples with the more elongated design.   

Elongated Crescent Design

Elongated Crescent Fabric

The final piece was woven with 8/2 Tencel in natural and navy. All of the designs were a broken twill on 24 shafts. The sett for both the cotton and Tencel was 30 epi. 

Scarf Draft - Broken Twill on 24 Shafts

Both Sides of the Scarf

Final Scarf

I'm still considering weaving this again in a wool yarn to see how that works.

T-Shirts into Rag Rug Weft

I recently wove a rag rug as a guild challenge.  I used 8/4 cotton carpet warp for the warp and yarn weft and cut up t-shirts for the rags.  I was asked how I turned a shirt into a ball of rag weft.  I thought I would show how I prepared the fabric strips.  I got the idea of how to do this from The Rag Rug Handbook by Janet Meany.

I started with a t-shirt and cut off the body from just underneath the sleeves.  The tube body was turned 90 degrees so that the open edges were on the sides and the top and bottom facing me were the tube sides.  I folded the bottom onto almost the other side on the top but not matching the edges.  I left 1-2 inches between the two edges.  

Starting T-Shirt

Cut the t-shirt under the sleeves

Turn the shirt 90 degrees and fold the bottom edge almost up to the top edge

With a rotary cutter, I cut 1 inch portions of the two layers of the shirt body up to about ½ - 1 inch from the top edge.  (Don’t cut all of the way through or you will just have loops.)  The width of these strips are up to you and the project you are making.  I cut 1 inch strips all of the way across the folded fabric.  

Cut 1" strips almost but not quite to the top edge

Continue cutting to the right edge of the shirt body

The next step is also a bit tricky.  I opened the folded fabric and inserted my plastic ruler, just to separate the layers.  From the left edge, I cut up to the right side of the first strip.  I continued to cut the fabric in the same manner until all of the shirt is cut.  When this is finished, if all goes well, the shirt body is one long strip and I wind it into a ball, ready to be used for weft rags. 

I put a rule between the layers to protect the bottom layer from being cut

Cut from the left edge at the middle to the right edge of the first strip

Roll the strip of shirt into a ball for storage  

I like t-shirt material for rag rugs because they are squishy and pack in and there are lots of colors of shirts.  For the rug I made, I used t-shirts that had been my mother’s.  A nice remembrance of her.

Another Year of Pandemic Towels

 20211 has been another year of spending time at the loom.  I've been doing some different things with the towels I've woven as well as visiting tried and true approaches.  I was motivated more by weaving challenges and classes this year.  

A lot of people have been weaving Susan Poague's Turned Taquete' circles.  I finally succumbed to this structure, which can be a lot of fun, because of a group challenge to weave something using the 2021 Pantone Colors of the Year.  This design was adapted from her article in Handwoven Magazine, May/June 2019, pg 46.  It was woven on 8 shafts with 10/2 cotton for the warp and weft.

Turned Taquete' Drawdown

Turned Taquete' Towel

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Another challenge this group suggested was to weave something in linen.  When I think about linen, I normally think about towels.  I also think about lace structures.  These were woven using 16/2 linen for both warp and weft for all but one of the towels.  For the first one, I decided to use 10/2 cotton just to make sure things were working well.  

Linen Towels

Linen Towels Drawdown

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Another group I belong to decided to use US National Park posters as color inspiration for woven pieces.  I picked the US Virgin Islands as my inspiration.  These towels were woven with 10/2 cotton for the warp and weft in six different colors.  The structure is a fancy point twill, treadled in a couple different ways, for each towel.

US Virgin Islands Poster

   

Virgin Islands Towels

Virgin Islands Towels Drawdown

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I next took a break from challenges and did a bit of free-hand colors.  I have most of my 10/2 cotton yarns sitting on top of a bureau and while I was weaving over the course of a week or so, was looking at one corner of the colors.  They were all kind of neon and pastel.  The colors reminded me of the textiles from the 60's.  So I used those colors for the next group of towels.  The towels were threaded to an extended point twill and woven with various treadlings on 8 shafts using 10/2 cotton.

60's Towels Colors

60's Towels

60 Towels Drawdown

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Recently, I became interested in a weave-along with Tien Chiu and Michele Belson dealing with gradient colors in weaving.  The weave-along was intended for napkins, but I couldn't resist weaving towels instead.  These had a red and yellow 10/2 cotton warp in a series of curved gradients.  I used a number of different colored 10/2 cotton for weft, including yellow, very light pink, magenta and fuchsia.  The structure is straight twill on 8 shafts woven with a 2-2-1-1-1-1 tie-up.  

Gradient Towels

Gradient Towels Drawdown

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A couple of towels from the "vault".

Lupine Towel

Russian Cloth Towel

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I have found over the years that there was warp left over from a towel run - not enough for a towel but too much to just throw away.  I hemmed a bunch of these and they are bread cloth size.

Towels are a great way to play with color.  I'm sure there will be more next year.

More Pandemic Scarves

I guess we all thought that we would be long finished with COVID by now, maybe soon. But I have continued to wade through my yarn stash and have been making scarves while mostly at home. I've just about used all of my available tencel yarn and need to make more inroads into the silk. 

I started off 2021 finishing off the last of my Just Our Yarn 10/2 tencel yarn.  For the first scarf, I need to use yarn from two different skeins fr the warp.  The blue with a little maroon went nicely with the basic blue yarn that I had picked for the warp.  This scarf was treaded to an extended point twill and woven with an advancing point.

JOY Blue Scarf

The last JOY scarf I was able to weave used more blue-green colors.  For this scarf, I used a "M's" threading combined with the advancing point treadling.

JOY Blue-Green Scarf

Having run out of JOY yarn, I looked around at what I did have.  I had been working to reduce my stash by either selling or giving away yarns that I didn't think I would use in the near future - or had that "What was I thinking" feeling.  I saw a couple of skeins of yarn - a Noro blend and somewhat heavy silk yarn.  They looked good sitting next to each other, so I decided to give them a try as a scarf.  The Noro was a rainbow of colors and the silk a bright pink.  I used the Noro for the warp and the silk for the weft.

The Noro was threaded to an extended point twill and woven with an advancing point treadling.

Pink Kudo Scarf

Pink Kudo Scarf Detail

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Digging back into the stash, I found several skeins of 5/2 tencel I bought from Teresa Ruch in Oregon.  These were oranges and reds.  The first scarf I wove was mostly orange.  With this as warp, I used an 8/2 red tencel.  The structure is an extended point twill on 8 shafts, woven with an advancing point treadling.

Orange Ruch Scarf

Orange ruch Scarf - detail

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The next scarf using Teresa Ruch tencel used two different color ways - one more red and the other more orange.  The weft was the same 8/2 tencel as in the previous scarf.  The structure was a sort of fancy twill on 8 shafts and an advancing point for the treadling.  

Orange-Red Ruch Scarf

Orange-Red Ruch Scarf - detail

The last skein of Ruch tencel I had was very red.  

Red Ruch Scarf

Red Ruch Scarf - detail

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With no more tencel to play with, I started back to my stash.  The county fair was approaching.  The scarf categories in the Weaving Division had recently been split into three - protein fiber, plant fiber and man-made fiber groups.  I didn't have an entry for the plant fiber section, so I decided to find some cotton yarn. I had several skeins of Cascade Yarns Ultrapima fine cotton yarn in peach and light peach.  I haven't been a big fan of using cotton for scarves, but I thought I would give it a try.  

The structure was fancy on 8 shafts with a point treadling.  The hand is a bit heavier than the scarves I usually weave, but not overly so.  

Peach Cotton Scarf

This Fall, the opportunity came up to take a virtual class in Deflected Doubleweave with Natalie Drummond.  The students were from all over the East Coast of the US and Canada and I knew only one person, so it was fun to take a class at home and meet a great group of weavers.  The class was fun and much different from other types of weaving I've done.  After samples, I wove a scarf from the class warp.  The warp was 5/2 tencel in two different color ways - one solid and the other variegated from Teresa Ruch and 20/2 tussah silk from Jane Stafford.  The weft was an 8/2 cotton and 20/2 tussah silk.  

Deflected Doubleweave Scarf

It's fun to look back at different styles of scarves I've woven during the pandemic.  

JOY Green Scarf

Pink Silk Scarf

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JOY Green Fuchsia Scarf

JOY Green Scarf

Coral Green Silk-Merino Scarf

I'm sure there will be much more scarf exploration in the future.