10 Shaft Crackle Silk Scarf for Autumn

  My autumn crackle scarf is off the loom today, and I’m totally chuffed!

This scarf has been a joy to weave right from the beginning.  The colours of the silk were so inspiring and I loved seeing the foreshadowing of the pattern from the back of the loom.

Notice the floating selvedges?  On my last few projects I have doubled the floating selvedges on each side to give added presence to the edges and to help negate fraying.  It seems to have worked and I will continue to use a doubled floating selvedges when using silk and tencel.

The gold weft really is working well with all of the different colours in the warp, it contrasts beautifully with the burgundy and the olive and when it hits the brown portion, it just gleams like silk should.

The crackle trellis pattern was a really lovely weave, it is treadled as an advancing twill with fairly short runs that are woven from 1 – 10 and then reversed from 10 – 1.

I wove right up to the end of the warp and frankly couldn’t get any shed at all by the end of it.  I just managed to get 70 inches with the tension off.  I expect that I will end up with a scarf between 67 and 69 inches.

Here is the scarf right off the loom in our very weak November sunshine.

Same scarf and hour later in much stronger sun.  

The last two silk scarves have had their final photos taken and now are up on the store, WovenBeauty, on Etsy.  The first is the yellow and blue scarf, For Sale.

The second is the blue polka dots with the centre panel of pink and orange silk, For Sale.

Twelve Shaft Painted Silk Scarf

I have also put on one of the newly dyed silk warps onto the loom.  This warp is full of colour, moss green, plum purple, turquoise, royal blue and purple.  I’m not sure what I was thinking with this colourway but it is exciting! 

Picking out a weft colour proved to be quite difficult, I want a colour that highlights everything going on in the warp but doesn’t overpower.  I tried iris, amethyst, olive, navy and a denim blue all in Tencel.  The dark blues and purples seem to work the best. 

But I still wasn’t sure so for the second weft auditions I tried eggplant, navy, dark teal and amethyst.  I worried that the purples would fight against the plum in the warp so I went with the navy blue for the weft of the scarf.

For the pattern I went with a tried and true pattern, a 6 shaft crackle that has been used successfully with several painted warps before.  But this time the pattern and the weft seemed to hide the lovely painted warp.

So I unwove that woven four inches, unpicked the hem stitching, pulled the warp out of the reed then I remember that I should put the lease sticks back in.  So I found a sort of cross in the threading put the lease sticks in and pulled out the threading.  

I picked another pattern, this time a 12 shaft twill with lovely spiky diamonds.  I am weaving with the weft dominate side up but you can still see the streaks of colour moving through the warp.  It is a relief to find a pattern that is going to show off the warp.  It is a complicated treadling so it is weaving up slowly.

Final photos are from a botany walk at Miracle Beach Provincial Park.  The leaves of the big leaf maple are starting to turn colour but some are starting to drop leaves early due to drought stress.

There are several large fires burning in the mountains above us so there was a smoky haze combined with the sunlight piercing the tree canopy made for some spectacular photos.

Autumn Hand Painted Silk Scarf on Ten

It’s been quite awhile since I sat at the loom.  Spring and summer are always so very busy in the garden and with just enjoying the lovely weather; that weaving takes a back seat.

A few weeks ago we pulled out all the natural coloured silk we had and spent four days painting and washing silk warps ready for the cool weather when weaving beside the fire is the perfect way to spend a day.

This is one of the first warps I painted and I gravitated toward it because it looks just like the Raywood Ash tree in our garden.  The colours are moss, plum, fuchsia and old gold, so autumnal.  

Once I got it on the loom I realized that this is a very busy warp . So naturally I had trouble with choosing a weft that didn’t mute any of the colours or just fade against them. The first wefts I auditioned were moss, gold and red/violet.  The red/violet was the clear winner in this batch.

This batch is purple, navy and the red/violet again and the red/violet is the winner, it's a brave choice, but a stunning one I think.

Since it has been months since I last wove I wanted an easy weave to treadle. The pattern I decided upon is a 10 shaft undulating twill that has a lovely feathery pattern and as a bonus it has a straight twill treadling 1-10, a perfect way to limber up my weaving legs.  This is the draft I used.

All the pattern set up is in the tie up and the threading.

The sheen on this silk is coming through beautifully and frankly although this is waaay out of my comfort zone,  and I’m loving it.

Today I got the scarf off the loom and here she is in all her glory before wet finishing.  It will look scads better after a good wash and press, but I’m still really stoked with it.

Even though it's not yet wet finished it still looked good on the mannikin.

We have ventured into the world of Brugmansia this year and I’ve just got to say WOW!  This is Madame de Pompadour and the blossoms are a full 16 inches in length and these blooms smell amazing in the evening. The first shot is just as she's opening.

This shot is in her full glory.

Try and Try and Try Again

I am still working with the 5/2 white cotton, I’m not going to let it win!  I did a lot of math and according to it I should be able to get a warp of 4 yards off the cone, the width will be a little narrower than I would like but I should have enough to weave two runners.  I pulled the warp and was able to get 272 ends, which sett at 16 epi makes for 17 inches.  I just hope it doesn’t shrink too much when I wash the finished table runners.

I starting weaving using the cream 5/2 cotton and I hate it.  The pattern is M’s and W’s and the 5 thread float looks like a mistake.  I also didn’t really like how the 5/2 bent around the edges, it looked bumpy.

On the computer I tried some different tie up’s and treadling trying to get rid of the five thread float, but with the M’s and W’s threading it was close to impossible.  There were a couple of drafts but I didn’t like them.  So I pulled the warp back and went to another draft.

The pattern is an advancing twill with large diamonds, truly lovely and no more than a three thread float.  I also change the weft to a wonderful blue cottolin.  I am utterly charmed as I am weaving this pattern.

Final garden photo is forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica) it is an early spring flower with very pretty blue and pink flowers.

Silk and Tencel Scarf on Ten Shafts

I have had some hand dyed 2/12 silk in Denim Blue in my stash for a while now.  I keep looking at the hanks and wondering how to showcase the lovely randomness of the colour. The silk has been dyed so that the colours are pretty even throughout the skein with small lines of darker blue here and there, but as always with hand dyed there could be some unexpected surprise spots.

I chose a graphic ten shaft, ten treadle twill and I have treadled ‘as drawn in’. Hopefully I have allowed the colour variations to shine through. The warp has 200 threads and it is sett at 24 epi.  

The scarf it a little wider than usual, but that is the only way I could centre the motif.

I love to show the threading from the back of the loom.  It really gives a forecast of the overall shape of the pattern that is to come. This one has definite diamonds.

My weft is 2/8 white Tencel and I aimed for a 50/50 weave to keep the pattern square.  Beat is really important when you have such a strong square over pattern.  White was a quiet choice for this scarf, but I really liked the idea of having a low contrast with high lustre to allow the pattern to gleam through.  

This is the scarf off the loom but prior to washing.  You can see there is some difference between the front and the back, the blue and the white trade places throughout the motif. 

Sorry about the lighting, but we’ve been overcast for weeks it seems; my counter top is bright white and grey, not this weird yellow tinge!  

Another shot showing both sides of the scarf.  There are really two patterns at work here, the big square boxes and the diamond stars in the centre.

And one more beauty shot.

Baked a couple of loaves this morning and Oh My! The house smells wonderful.

Pink and Blue Wool Throw on Twelve Shafts

On the last blog post about the pink and blue wool throw I had just decided/hoped that the 2/24 white Merino wool will work for the weft.  And thankfully it does!  I’m doubling the weft by using two shuttles that are being thrown from either side.  I was a little worried that I may mix up the shuttles but there is a rhythm to the movement of the shuttles that keeps everything organized.

I have to admit that I found weaving this throw a little difficult on a physical level.  Everything was just out of my comfort zone.  I used 12 treadles so a little leaning was needed to reach the outside treadles.  Also the throw was 34 inches wide in the reed, so I needed to lean a little to catch the shuttles, after giving them a good strong push to get them across the web.  

But it was worth it, the throw is really lovely.  The pattern is a 12 shaft advancing twill which creates some lovely diamonds.  I have used this pattern before for a scarf woven from 2/30 cotton.  It is quite a difference seeing this pattern on a much larger scale.

This throw actually wove up quite quickly due in part that it has been cold and rainy for most of the week and the fact that Mom needed the 14 dent reed for her next project; but there was no pressure from her to weave faster!

I did a couple of beauty shots before I have even washed the throw. It is wonderfully light and airy and  I think that it is really charming.  I can’t wait to wrap up in it on a cold winters night.

This last week it has really started to feel like autumn, although there is still only a touch of fall colour on the trees.  We’ve had a couple of days of mizzle, a combination of mist and drizzle, it is very dreary.  The only advantage to mizzle is that it does a lovely job of highlighting the spider webs, they look like jeweled necklaces.  The shrub is Berberis thunbergii 'Rose Glow'.