Friday, November 2, 2012

Having A Good Weaving Week!

I’ve got a new project on the loom, and it is such a pleasure to weave that I’m almost finished! I’m doing the happy dance on this one!

I put on a two scarf warp in 2/8 tencel; my colour inspiration came from this silk square that I’ve been wearing a lot lately with a red/violet sweater. Please excuse the awful photo, but night has fallen and you know what that does to photos!
The colours are forest green, turquoise, red/violet, red and purple with a bit of gold. I was trying to remember the last time I wove anything green and I honestly couldn’t, obviously it was about time. This is the warp that I came up with and you can see that I dropped the gold, turquoise and red.
This pattern is a 12 shaft Swedish Drall in forest green, purple, iris and red/violet.
With 12 shafts I’m able to get 3 different blocks. I chose to make the colour stripes different sizes and asymmetrical. To top it all off I’m doing ‘freeform’ weaving. The pattern is completely different on each side and of course I like the underneath side the best!
The weft for the first scarf is the same forest green as in the warp. I am not following a formal pattern; I’ve just made a few rules for myself to ensure that there is some continuity.

Rule #1 is that I don’t ever follow block 1 (1-2-3-4) by block 2 (5-6-7-8).
Rule #2 is that I always preface blocks 1 and 2 with at least 2 repeats of block 3 (9-10-11-12).  This is a really fun way to weave because you don't have to follow the pattern!
This is scarf number 2 and I’ve changed the weft from green to iris, which is a blue/purple which is also a colour stripe in the warp. I’ve switched up the weaving rules for this scarf too. I’m still using Rule #1 because it shows the motifs to their best advantage.
Rule #2 is also still in place but I weave at least 2 sequences of block 2 and block 3 sequentially before I do any of block 1. This sounds much more complicated than it is, believe me.
The selvedges on this scarf are beautiful and the weaving is so much fun that I’m planning another 2 scarves in Ming blue, Azure blue, Aquamarine, Straw and Navy for my next warp~ sounds like an exciting combination doesn’t it?
Our Black Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens') in the front garden; which is actually a member of the lily family, has berries on it! I’m going to cut them off tomorrow and bury them along side the mother plant and hopefully they’ll grow by next spring!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

You did a great job translating the colors of the silk fabric to your scarf!!!

Ate said...

Ich bin begeistert. Das sind genau meine Farben und das Muster ist toll.

Liebe Grüße von Ate

Lynnette said...

The translation for kreativa is:

I am smitten. These are just my colors and the pattern is great.

Greetings from Ate

Susan said...

Weaving can be rather rigid at times and so this is a wonderful way to give yourself room to play!

Love the colour combination and the free form blocks...

I can see why you are happy with this one..

Susan