Finished Silk Scarf

I thought you might like to see the final result of my 30/2 silk scarf.

I am very pleased with it, very soft after washing and draping nicely. This should encourage me to do more work in silk.

The other thing I have been doing is to try and develop my designing skills. I would like improve my understanding of colour and how things work together. I have started to take photographs of things in nature that I like and then producing colour palettes. Thought you might like to see a couple of examples of those I have done so far. Excuse mis spelling of Azaela! Need to go back and change that !!

Very basic but a start and I have actually enjoyed the process so far !

That's all I have for you in this post. As always, thanks for visiting.

Silk Scarves and another Swallowtail

Hi there - I will start this post with my knitting. Yet another Swallowtail shawl  ! I had some warm gold lace weight silk left over from Helen's woven scarf, just less than 50gms so enough for a Swallowtail. The first picture is a close up of the beading. I prefer the beads to the nupps described in the pattern.

Second picture shows the finished article, washed and blocked and ready to wear !

My weaving has also been silk ! I have had some natural 30/2 silk in my stash for a while and as I am having a 'silk phase' I thought it was time to use it up. 

I chose a draft from the Strickler book of 8 shaft patterns. It was draft number 154. It said it would be slightly lacy but on the loom I don't seem to have lacy !

Here it is on the loom and it looks ok. I used the same yarn for weft so this scarf is self coloured. Sett was 28 epi and with floating selvedges I had no problems weaving.

I didn't have enough natural silk to do two scarves so I used a soft purple silk weft for the second scarf and the result was really very nice.

The weaving is slow as it is quite fine so it is taking a while to finish. It will be interesting to see if I get anything lacy once I have the scarves washed.

So no finished article to show you this time !

Thanks for visiting, I do appreciate your company on my posts !

Tea Towels and Spring !

Hi there - I have been a bit quiet over the last couple of weeks ! That's because I have had a tea towel warp on the loom and they always take a while to work through. We have also had some very very good weather and so have taken full advantage and been outside working in the garden and away walking in our lovely countryside. In fact I will start with a couple of lovely spring pictures...............

How about these for company on our walks ! It is just that time of year and the fields ar full of them loving the sunshine and warmth. They are in for a shock though, we have snow forecast for tomorrow !!

Then there is our lovely countryside here in south west Scotland. Gentle rolling hills, Tony says, 

just made for walking ! This view is across the small town of Moffat..............

Now to tea towels ! Warp is 2/8 cotton in a natural shade, sett at 24 epi and the draft is a Dråll pattern. The weft in four of the six towels is a darker natural shade and linen. I wrap the pirns of linen in a damp cloth, place in a zip lock back in the fridge overnight. The damp linen is much more friendly to weave with.

I used 10 shafts and 10 treadles. The hems were woven using 2/16 cotton.

The last towel had a 2/16 weft in a terracotta shade, not the pink it looks like here ! I find the 2/8 cotton just a bit thick when used for both warp and weft but this one with 2/16 weft was just right. No problems with the weaving, all very straight forward.

I separated the towels after I had machine stitched them to stop fraying. The hems are pressed into place and now the pile awaits hand hemming later this week. Then they will be machine washed. The shrinkage on the sample was about 10%. 

Been busy on the needles again ! Just finished this version of Spring is in the Air. I used Manos Lace  Baby Alpaca, silk and cashmere in a mossy green shade. 800 yards to 100gms. Needle size was 3.25mm. It is currently blocking but looking quite nice. I bought a length of fine stainless steel rod which is flexible and as you can see it is holding the curved shape in place nicely.

The shawl is quite heavily beaded, in fact, more than 600 beads in total. I use the crochet hook method to place the beads and find that works really well.

I will leave it overnight but by tomorrow it should be ready to wear in our next cold spell.

Well, I think that brings you up to date with what I've been up to over the last couple of weeks, hope you enjoy the story !

Many thanks to all who visit my blog and leave comments, hope to see you again on this post !