Thursday, June 27, 2013

Rhubarb Crackle Scarf

My loom is alive with colour right now. When the 12 Shaft Crackle weave scarves came off I immediately put on the new ‘Rhubarb Ombre’ three yard warp, just enough for a single beautiful scarf!
I purchased all of the tencel from Webs and the colours in order are Pompeii ~ Adobe ~ Spice ~ Olive ~ Lemongrass ~ Lemon drop, and then the reverse order to finish. When I had it completely pulled it looked exactly like cut rhubarb! If I was to pull it again I’d reverse the order of the Adobe and Spice, ahhh hindsight!  The Pompeii seemed to flow perfectly into the Adobe, but now that I see it on the loom, the Adobe has less colour depth than the Spice and they would work better if reversed.  Rather than making clear cut stripes, I’ve feathered the colours randomly to soften the edges and I did this on the loom as I was threading the pattern.
My plan was to be brave and to use Amethyst for the weft, but after a few picks I knew that purple was the wrong way to go, so I tried Dark Green, Gold and even Burnt Orange before I settled on Burgundy. The lovely deep red is the perfect colour to enliven the two brick tones without completely masking the yellow centre of the pattern.
I’m completely chuffed that one of our scarves, the Lemon Grass Drall has been featured in an Etsy Blog called ‘Adventures in Fibre Art’….we were thrilled to be included!

Our garden beds seem to be increasing daily. Michael managed to include a long ago purchase metal plaque when he made the trellis. We needed a very shady bed to hold the Hostas that were getting too much sun. The Akeba vine can tolerate shade and will hopefully fill out the trellis in time (although I've got my eye on a few more vines!) Since this photo we've also added some hot pink Sea Thrift to the front.....so sweet!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Twelve Shaft Crackle

I like to think that the only thing that keeps me away from my loom is the weather. Give me a sunny day and I want to be outside in the garden or walking on the beach or, well just about anywhere but inside.

So that’s my excuse for being such a lazy blogger….the sun made me do it!

I finished both of the 12 shaft turned Crackle Weave scarves and cut them off the loom yesterday. I could wait until I have ‘beauty shots’, but it’s been so long since I’ve blogged that I thought I’d better just go for it ~ even if they are unfinished.
The first scarf was woven using a lovely teal 2/8 tencel weft and I treadled the scarf with two different sized motifs. The first motif is quite round and the second is more elliptical.
The second scarf was woven with 2/8 black tencel and I modified the treadling to only use the round motif because I love a circle!
Here they are….un-pressed in a pile …… but oh, so pretty! 
I really love this pattern, so I have pulled another warp, and here it is on the warping board.  I have made an Ombre style warp with colours ranging from dark brick to yellow and I think I'll use purple for the weft.....Oh my, I think I'm getting brave!

This is our second spring in our house in Comox and last year we concentrated on putting in the front landscaping. Well, on May 20th we decided to make a perennial border completely around the back garden ~ lots of digging!
This is the garden on May 29th and the garden is just under 10 days old!
Amazing, how quickly it all grows!
This is my thrift store bird bath....a $1.75 for the glass ashtray, $3.25 for the glass vase, $3.00 for the glass serving dish and the rocks were free on the beach!