Cream Wedding Shawls Part 2

I have finished weaving the natural Tencel/Cotton shawls.  They came out really well, but they are identical because I even though I tried changing wefts I wasn't able to find another weft that looked radically different.  So, the new plan is for one shawl to stay the natural creamy colour.  And the other one is going to be dyed, I think.  Right now it is sitting in a pile waiting for me.  I have an idea for it but we will see!

To finish the cream shawl I beaded the fringe.  It is something that I do for all the shawls.  I like to see what the finished beadwork is going to look like before I bead so I place the beads on quilting pins and place them within the fringe.

I also use the quilting pins to make up both sides of the fringe so that I am sure that there are enough beads and that they have big enough holes to fit on the beading needle, oh yeah....I've been caught out!

The shawl is done and I think that it's a real beauty.  Simple, elegant and versatile, what more could you ask?

Every time that I pick up the shawl I am surprised at how light and airy it is.  The Tencel/Cotton is so fine and delicate.  It is also incredibly soft and is For Sale in my Etsy Shop.

The garden picture to end the post is a cryptomeria japonica ‘Rasen’ with its little pine cone that looks like a dragon breathing fire.  The needles wrap around the branches to form spirals.

8 Shaft Advancing Networked Twill Scarf

This was such a great silk scarf to weave!  I used some of my own hand spun silk that I dyed medium blue with purple and red patches. 

The silk is about the same thickness as 2/6 cotton, so the sett was 20 epi; so needless to say with a sett like that it wove up very quickly.

As usual for me, I had to try several wefts before I was sure that navy 2/8 tencel was the right one.  This makes the scarf essentially warp faced, but with hand painted silk, that’s a good thing.  I just noticed that my shoe in the picture matches the warp!

The pattern is on that I’ve woven before and loved….8 shaft 10 treadle, advancing networked twill.   This pattern is treadled very similarly to summer and winter or overshot because you treadle a tabby pick between each of the pattern picks.  This gives the fabric really lovely structure.

This is ‘freeform weaving’ in that as long as you make sure to put in the tabby and to run the sequences in order ~ advancing or declining~ you can treadle it however you like.  I love to have the ability to make each scarf completely unique.  I have enough shafts that I could turn the draft to make treadling easier, but then I wouldn't have the ability to free weave as easily ~ a conundrum to say the least.

My Tour de France socks are progressing nicely and I will probably finish them tonight on Stage 13….the first thing in my Christmas Present stash!

I bought a 100 gram skein of sock yarn and split it into 2x50 gram balls and before I started to knit I lined up the sequence so my socks would match. I'm trying something new for me ~ I knit the instep of the socks in ribbing to help keep them in place and not bunch up in shoes....here's hoping it works!

Just a pretty garden shot to finish up ~ this is Masterwort (Astrantia major ), don't you love the little native bee!

Cream Wedding Shawls

So that New Year’s Resolution to do micro blogging hasn’t really worked out for me! But here’s a post . . .

I put on a warp for two white shawls in 2/20 natural creamy Tencel/Cotton blend (50/50) and rayon knop.  The warp is really fine and delicate, although I had to use a large dent reed because the knops are too large to fit in a smaller reed.

I am using the same 2/20 Tencel/Cotton as the weft.  The pattern is a modified basket weave that weaves up beautifully!  For the second shawl I was going to use another weft, a silk bamboo, but it didn’t look any different from the Tencel/Cotton and it would have made the price go up. 

I love how the little knops pop up giving the shawl a lovely texture.

The fabric was drawing in a little so I used a simple homemade temple to help.  The temple is made from a film canister with pennies inside to weight it down and a long piece of cord and a paperclip.  The paperclip hooks into the web and the weight of the canister gently holds the web open; you need one for each side.  Just like a regular temple you move it every inch that you weave.  It works really well for delicate webs and is really easy to use.

I had pulled the warp with two threads missing so I had to add them in later and to keep the two threads separate hanging from the back of the loom.  I used a piece of cardboard with two holes cut into it and a slit to the edge and added the threads.  I worked really well to keep to fine threads separate.

A pretty garden shot to end the post – can’t be bad!

Oh before I forget here are Mom's Tour de France socks!  She works on them in the evening as we watch the Boys in Spandex ride.  These are up to Stage 4...

10 Shaft Undulating Twill in Silk

I’m working steadily through the silk warps that I painted last summer!  Such a fun afternoon!
This warp was dyed with ProcionMX in gold and yellow and although it the colours looked really different when it was painted, they mellowed out quite a bit after washing so now it is a bit more subtle.

I chose to embrace the sunshiny yellow colour and I gravitated toward orange for the weft ~ I know, it’s a bold move, but someone’s gotta make it!

The pattern I’m weaving is 10 shaft undulating twill.  I modified the pattern by making the threading really weird so that I could weave it with a straight 1-10 treadling.  That is such a bonus because you really can’t get lost in the pattern.

The scarf wove up in no time, but once it was off the loom I could see some real texture forming.

I even got the fringe twisted in record time!  I decided the twist 3 bouts of ends together for a cord fringe. (I can really recommend these books to any foodies out there!)

The scarf has two distinct sides; this is the hand painted silk warp dominant side.

And this is the weft dominant side.

Nothing is prettier than a good close up, right?

Amazing what a good pressing does!  Surprisingly I was looking at a few of the blogs I follow this morning and Cindy at Eweniquely Ewe has woven a very similar scarf this week….great minds think alike… that’s my opinion!

I’ve already got the next silk scarf on the loom….it is handspun silk about 2/6 in grist in dark blue and purple from the same dye day ~ can’t wait to see what it looks like woven!