Twisp of Fate

I finally got back to the loom last week after what seemed like ages – many things seemed to interfere: trips to the coast, catching up at work now that my boss is back from Argentina, gallery activities, just life in general.

I put a second warp on my little loom for more “summer & winter polychrome” scarves.  This time I used shades of purple in the warp, then got out Deb Menz’s Colorworks book to come up with ideas for weft colors.

The first scarf was based on a “double split complement” color scheme.  Of course, I am somewhat limited by the colors I have on hand in the Zephyr silk/wool.  When sampling before actually starting the scarf, I wasn’t at all sure I was going to like the green, which is called “Basil”.  But amazingly, it works!  For the plain weave portion, I used a dark purple.

For the second scarf I used Lilac for the plain weave sections, and an “analogous” color scheme for the polychrome work at each end.  In some of the patterns, there are as many as three or even four shots of different colors in different sheds, before the tabby tie-down that holds the whole thing together.  This builds up a lot of color on the surface, both solid areas and color mixes, that gives it so much richness.

Doing the finishing work on these scarves seems to take almost as much time as weaving them!  It seemed like I was twisting fringes all day long yesterday….  But they did soften up nicely after washing and pressing.

Here are pictures I took this morning of the 4 scarves finished so far.  Today I will wind a new warp for 2 more, then after that I think I will work on something else for a while.

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I have had an almost finished small rug sitting on my Baby Mac loom since September, when I took the rug weaving workshop out in Forks, WA.  Last week I finished that rug, in which I was playing with clasped wefts and some pick-and-pick patterns.

I still had warp left on the loom, so I got out Peter Collingwood’s book, The Techniques of Rug Weaving, and found some ideas based on a broken twill tie-up and 4-shot sequence of pattern wefts.  I had some miscellaneous knitting yarn (discontinued Rowanspun Tweed) in decent colors, so although not rug wool, I thought it would work for something meant to become a cushion top.

I like it OK and learned something new, which is always a good thing!  Neither of these is very big, about 16″ x 20″, and I hope to use them as throw pillow tops.

So now the small loom is free and ready for something new.  I have been meaning to start an exploration of surface color based on a summer-and-winter threading, ever since taking a workshop from Margaret Roach Wheeler in Seattle over a year ago.  Our guild challenge project this year is “Summer and Winter” and I need to have something done by mid-April, so that dovetailed nicely with some ideas I have been meaning to pursue anyway.

So I put a warp on for about a 10″ wide scarf, 6 yds long so I have room for some sampling and hopefully 2 scarves.  I am using a 50/50 wool silk blend (18/2 Zephyr from Jaggerspun) and used 5 colors of bluegreen graduated across the width of the warp.  Also using Zephyr for the pattern wefts and tabby tie-downs.

Here is some color sampling I did before starting the first scarf.  I was just exploring what looked good against the blue-green warp.

Here’s the start of the patterns for the first scarf:

then I wanted it to go into more muted colors, blending into the background, before starting the plain weave section in the middle:

I’m working on the plain weave section now, and then will work the above patterns in reverse at the other end.  This is so much fun and I am quite excited about the possibilities!

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I’m nearing the end of the rug warp on my 48″ Macomber loom.  I have enough left to weave a custom order hallway runner for some friends (at least, I hope I have enough left…)

I usually weave 4-5 rugs at a time before taking them off and finishing them (which means sewing the hems, washing them on a delicate or washable-wool setting in cold water, hanging to dry, then sewing on my labels).

Here are the ones I finished mid to late January:

Multi-colored worms intermixed with solid red at each end

Multi-colored worms intermixed with solid blue at each end

This one is similar to the rug I did for a friend back at the beginning of this warp.  I used 6 different colors of “worms” (wool strips) plus some of the fringed wool blanket selvages.  It looks a lot better in person – I really like the variety of colors and textures and may wind up keeping it.

6 colors of worms plus some fringed material

Multi-colored worms with solid purple stripes outlined in dark violet

The above were taken off the loom, finished, and photographed on Jan 21st.  Since then I have produced the following:

Classic Pendleton blanket selvage alternated with blue worms

Blue multicolor flannel (un-napped) worms

These two I wove specifically for our upstairs bathroom:

Brown & green tones flannel worms; stripes outlined in solid black

When we were in Seattle a week or so ago, we went by D.A. Burns, a carpet & upholstery cleaning and repair business that we have used many times over the years.  I wanted to get some Durahold rug pad to put under the rugs I am keeping at home – this stuff is the best for hardwood floors!  It has a felt upper surface and natural rubber bottom surface, so it both cushions and grips the rug, and also won’t slide on the floor.  It came on 6-ft and 12-ft rolls, so we had them cut a piece 28″ wide and 12-ft long, then Rick just cut the piece with a utility knife to fit the rugs after washing (my current rugs are warped at 30″ and come out 29-30″ wide finished – they recommend cutting the pad about 1-1/2″ narrower than the finished size in both directions).

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I’ve been weaving away on rugs and thought I would put up a few pictures.  All of these are woven with materials I got at the Pendleton mill outlet stores.  For the most part they are by-products from weaving wool blankets (the fringed selvages, and also the smooth wool selvages they call “worms”).   I also have some lighter weight fringed selvages that I think were by-products of weaving wool shirting fabrics.

Pendleton smooth wool selvages ("worms")

wool shirting selvages alternated with smooth wool strips

I’ve been experimenting with alternating shots of the fringed selvages with the smooth wool selvages, for a number of reasons – to make the fringed material go farther, to make the rug less heavy, and for color effects.  I am pretty pleased with this approach and will probably use it more.

very heavy fringed selvages alternated with black "worms"

And this:

turned into this:

I was a little surprised when I got into this next bag and realized the material was COTTON – almost everything I get from the mill stores is wool!

Pendleton cotton fringed material

Another one using alternating shots of fringed and smooth material:

And this last one was done all with “worms”:

One of these was a special order; the others are out in the Confluence Gallery in Twisp and the Winthrop Gallery in Winthrop, on consignment.  And there are more underway!

I’m happy to report that is is finally SNOWING here today, with more forecast for the week.  It has been really cold and dry, icy and treacherous walking… this seems more like “normal”!

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