Wednesday, February 1, 2012

What a Beauty

The phrase ‘What a Beauty’ applies to both the lovely pattern I have on the loom and the amazing day we had on the Island today.  I honestly have never had a warmer February 1st in Canada!
 I’m absolutely in love with this six shaft pattern.  I found the bones of the pattern on handweaving.net (one of Ralph Griswalds patterns) and then made the changes to make it function as a 6” wide scarf.  Mr. Griswald calls this a 'Crackle Weave' but it really doesn't follow the rules, so I'm not sure how to categorize it.  Unfortunately this photo doesn’t do the subtle sweet cream and rosy taupe colours of my yarn justice. 
The yarn is 2/8 tencel woven at 24 epi.  I think that this photo taken between the layers as the fabric heads toward the cloth beam really shows the pattern off best.  I’m really pleased with the design and am thrilled at how round the circle and cross have turned out.  The pattern repeat is 154 picks and takes just over 4-1/2 inches to complete it.
Today was far too beautiful to stay inside and weave – even though I only have 12 inches to go!  We grabbed our coats and headed out to explore the island  and to play in the amazing sunshine.
A few minutes up the coast as we were checking out all the beach access points I spotted this Japanese cherry bursting out in flower!  So uplifting to see such a bold sign of spring!
 We decided to head toward Campbell River (the worlds best salmon fishing town; according to their sign) scooting into every road that showed promise of beach access.  We found this lovely hidden beach at the end of a narrow road, it's called Perrey's Beach.  There was no wind and I swear it was at least 14C in the sun. 
This is Ngaire on the Salish Sea looking toward Powell River.  This is one of the few spots on the Inside Passage where there are no Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and Mainland of BC.

On the way home we stopped and walked the lovely sandy beach at Oyster Bay and you’ve got to admit this is stunning ~ and Michael is pretty nice too!  These are the Coastal Mountains in the distance.

5 comments:

Susan said...

It was equally gorgeous further south of where you are, with views of Saltspring Island and dogs playing in the surf at Maple Bay!

I *love* that draft! I'll be whining for a copy when I see you on Tuesday!

Hoping that day is just as bright and sunny as today was when we take the drive up to see you!

Susan

Margreet said...

Lovely weaving! And wow, what a beautiful area you have moved to!
Glad you are settled in and weaving and taking out time to enjoy nature.

Elena said...

Your latest pattern is amazing and your blog is beautiful!
I've just been awarded a Liebster Blog Award, and having to pass it on to 5 other blogs, I chose this one!
My post is at http://giftsanddreams.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-beautiful-surprise-brian-sibley.html
Have a great day!

Peg Cherre said...

It IS lovely.

I'm always concerned, perhaps overthinking...when I do patterns like this that I want to be round -- should I shoot for making them a bit oblong on the loom to account for that tension? Sometimes it works in my favor, sometimes not.

Lynnette said...

Hi Peg,
I always try to beat to square and that seems to take care of the distortion problems off the loom.

When I was doing the GCW Master Weaver tests, having equal epi and ppi was a criteria for most weaves. It means that after wet finishing the cloth fills in all the spaces equally and the round figures stay pretty much round.

On the other hand, only another weaver will notice that the oval shape on your pattern should be round ~ so I say relax and just enjoy the process!