As you know, I came back from my trip to Sweden with a wide selection of books from the exhibition mainly in Swedish ! However, I also returned with a very special book in Danish ! This was given to me by my friend, Ellen and is called Vaev i tiden. Ellen had been to a weaving exhibition by members of a weaving school and the items on display provided the basis for the book. She was inspired by almost everything she saw but particularly the tablecloths she has just been working on. As I couldn't be there in person at the exhibition she knew the book would be an inspiration to me !
There are household linens and scarves aplenty but I had some 16/2 Merino/Tencel looking for a project and so it was the scarves which drew my attention. One in particular had a small sort of 'medallion' motif which I really liked. You can see it in the picture below.........
The yarn I used came from Helen at Ripplescrafts. My stock of Tencel was sadly depleted and I was loathe to import more as it proved very expensive the last time. I asked Helen if she could find some fine merino/tencel for me and this she was able to do, a nice 16/2 weight, ideal for scarves. I asked her if she could dye it for me in shades of purple. I seem to be having a 'purple patch' just now. I thought I could combine the two colours or use each one on its own.
I chose the lighter shade of purple for these scarves and wound a warp for three of them. I sett at 24 epi but I think I should have been about 20epi. Most of the weaving in between the motifs was plain weave and I think it is a bit close. The material felt a bit stiff when I took it off the loom and even after washing it didn't drape as nicely as I would have liked. I tried 15 minutes in the drier and a few whacks on the worktop and it did soften a bit. Funnily enough the twisted fringes are very soft and that makes me think I have woven it a bit too tight ! This is not a criticism of Helen's yarn, it felt delightfully soft in the skein and behaved very well whilst I was weaving. No complaints and I will happily use it again. Just yet another weaving lesson learnt, and one you would think I should have already learnt !
There are three motifs across each scarf and I really like the way they stand out even in the self coloured yarn.
Just to tease you I will give you a picture of my next warp ! This is certainly out of control and I am a bit fed up with it. It is cottolin and very sticky ! Needing a very patient husband to help with the winding in very small bouts at a time !!! More to come...................
Looking slightly better and the end is in sight ! I have to confess to using a comb, not something I have ever done before...................
Many thanks for visiting ! More weaving soon I hope.
Your medallion scarf is lovely! That is a visually stunning motif.
ReplyDeleteI can see that I will have to get some of the tencel merino!
I've used a comb before.... you do what you have to sometimes!
:) Susan
What a beautiful piece is the merino/tencel blend. Making the photo larger really gives a good look at how neatly it has been woven, and how soft it must feel. I've seen the merino/tencel blend offered but have yet to try it. This is certainly inspiring! Beautiful job, as always, Dorothy. Your temples continue to work well for you! The color is lovely...very 'you'.
ReplyDelete..and what intrigue goes with that lovely warp going onto the loom now! That unmercerized cotton can be ornery. I finally found on the last round with 8/2 cotton that to leave lease sticks in (which I didn't usually do warping f to b) made a huge difference in having those threads behave.
Good to see you're keeping that loom busy! It's always a pleasure to see what you're up to!
What a beautiful motif that is!
ReplyDeleteDo you use the raddle on top of your Louet loom? Since warping my cottolin warp last time, which also was out of control completely, I've sworn never to use that again. From the start it didn't work for me. I'll either pre-sley or use my old hanging raddle - they never gave problems and I used cottolin a lot.
I actually like using a comb, even with just a very light touch. I know there are those who say you should never do such a thing, but David Gurney did and that is good enough for me!
ReplyDeleteI love that scarf and the motif. And that colour is so much you. Not being able to feel it through the screen I can't really say much about the sett and drape, but I guess you are rigt. And I wonder because you are always so good at weaving a sample first (unlike me!)why that happened.
ReplyDeleteThat cottolin warp does look like ..ehm a challenge is what this is called nowadays, I think!
Wonderful as always! I love the pattern and the color is just gorgeous! :)
ReplyDeleteI love it. Your next warp looks great. What kind of pattern will you do? I never think to use one color...Maybe it would make my warps simpler to thread...I tend to go crazy with color.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm just starting out with this blogging thing...So far, it has been great being able to see what other people are doing...puts the weaving world a lot closer. Great!