Thursday, September 17, 2009

Turned Taqueté Scarf Number Two

Starting with the Beyond part of my post, I've finally taken my second Turned Taqueté scarf off the loom mere minutes ago and these photos are before any finishing has been done. This scarf sat patiently waiting for weeks it seems. I found that my previous Turned Taqueté scarf was a little less drapey than I preferred, so before starting this scarf I resleyed to 36 epi from 40 epi and changed the floating selvedges to mirror the weft, dropping the black selvedges. Well, life, my garden and a lovely, but all too short visit from my best bud Susan came between us for a week or so. It took some serious thought and a session with Procion MX dye in Jade to finally give me a weft I could live with. What I created is a slightly slubby 2 ply silk in shades of clear kelly green. The weft was originally a very pale green and now it has some really interesting variegation and depth.
The downside has been that I sacrificed some contrast elements with this scarf using the green weft. Had I chosen to use a much stronger contrasting weft like black or dark blue, the pattern would have shown better. It was a real trade off and in the end I went with a more muted pattern and a colour I loved! This scarf has wonderful iridescence and luster and a really happy feel to it. I'm pleased with my choices overall.Susan, being the great friend she is, brought me these two treasures that she found second hand at a retiring weavers sale. I just know that Colour Works by Deb Menz will be a real boon in future projects, as I seem to be delving deeper into colour plays although I’m still a bit of a colour fraidy cat, but am pushing the envelope whenever I can. The Sharon Alderman book is lovely eye candy for the pattern weaver in me and is a complilation of her swatch collection from Handwoven magazine.My garden is one of the other things that have kept me busy of late. Among many other things we grew our own kidney beans and yesterday was harvest day. We have had amazingly hot weather and the beans were twisting and popping apart in my hands as I picked them! Lovely and vine dried, we ended up with about 8 pounds from a 4 foot square patch of land! I love knowing what went into them – OK it was horse poop, but really, really nice horse poop! Each perfect clean and shiney dried bean is destined to be used this winter in some of my favourite Tuscan recipes. Yum…

8 comments:

Delighted Hands said...

The scarf is drop dead gorgeous! I love the color you dyed-it is perfect. The garden harvest is wonderful , too!

Susan said...

Hey there... I took a peek at that scarf on the loom while there and knew it was going to be simply beautiful! I have yet to even pat my looms as 2 weeks away equals lots of chores to do before play commences!
Your garden looked amazing and tasted good too! We had a Greek Salad the other night all from your garden, plus hub's onions.
(I have our own peach pies baking right now)
I'm sure those books will make a great read on a coming cold and chilly night. The time flew by didn't it and I really enjoyed our chats on weaving and life in general!

Susan

Sharon said...

The Alderman is out of print. If you don't want it, eBay will, and the Colorworks is a gem. I learned the hard way what she says about yellow.

stitchin' girl said...

That is a really lovely scarf. The color is gorgeous and is looks super soft!

bspinner said...

Colors in your new scarf are beautiful.
You can never have enough books. I find myself reading and rereading all my weaving books and find something new each time I open one up.

Sunrise Lodge Fiber Studio said...

Wow! That scarf looks great;) I can't wait to see it finsihed;)

Life Looms Large said...

That trade-off between unevenly colored yarn and clear crisp pattern is a bear! I wish I could have both!!

In the pictures it looks like there's some yellow in the scarf. Do you see that in real life, or is it something that only appears on my computer screen?

Your gift books look great. I have the color one also - and mostly mean to look at it. (I have this habit of buying books as if just owning them makes all of their knowledge mine!)

Wow - growing your own kidney beans!! Nice! That is an amazing haul from 4 sq feet of land. Oddly, one of my favorite kidney bean recipes is a summer one. But Tuscany is always good inspiration!

Sue

charlotte said...

The scarf looks fabulous! I also have Deb Mentz' book, and I like it very much.