Reversible Twill Scarf ~ How Can This Be Wrong!

I have woven an absolutely stunning scarf and its allllllll wrong ~ three big errors!

I miscounted when I pulled the warp for this pair of Swedish Twill scarves and I was three threads short. Thinking I was a being a very efficient smarty pants, I pulled the three warp threads and wrapped them around a sewing bobbin together and hung them from the loom in a weighted canister.

Well let me tell you that was the wrong thing to do!

Can you see the selvedges? The three warp threads in peach are coming forward when they should be tucked onto the other side. This isn’t a huge mistake, but it really shows.

The second problem with this scarf is that because the hand dyed silk I chose to use as weft has long thick and thin areas, the motifs are different sizes, again not a huge problem, but since I weave to sell, not acceptable. Sometimes I really wish I thought things through just a little more!

The third problem is that the 2/18 mercerized cotton that I used as warp, shrunk an impossible amount! I wove 70 inches of pattern and finished up with a 53 inch scarf….no kidding 17 inches of shrinkage! I’m really glad that I love this scarf, because it’s mine, mine, mine and will look very jaunty with my peach jacket.

Before I started the second scarf I fixed the selvedge problem and hung each one of the missing warp threads from the back of the loom in its own weighted canister. Now they can take up independently.

I changed the weft to 2/8 magenta tencel, so the thick and thin problem is fixed too, above is the magenta side.

This is the peach side and I can’t believe the amazing iridescence the magenta tencel creates with the peach warp….this scarf is a real beauty. But, because I wasn’t aware of the impending doom caused by shrinkage, this too is a rather short scarf, coming in at 57 inches, plus fringe.

Not to be daunted by weaving failure here is my next set of scarves. This pattern is one I tweaked with and it is woven on twelve shafts in a modified crackle weave. The teal and ivory are amazing together.

I’m a sucker for shine and lustre and this scarf is going to deliver that in bags!

Choosing Weft and Taking a 180 Degree Turn

I've been having huge problems with loading photos on Blogger....can it get any slower?

Talk about changing my mind….I wanted to make a couple of summer weight cotton shibori scarves fine enough to wear with just a shirt so I started stash hunting. My stash is dwindling quickly but I did find two partial cones of 2/18 mercerized cotton, one in pale, pale pink and the other in coral. The coral really called to me and I knew it would be perfect dyed with navy; or at least that was the idea.

The plan was to make the scarves about 5 inches wide and 70 inches long. The shibori crinkles would make the finished width about 4 inches wide. I decided to sett the 2/18 cotton at 30 epi so that the scarves wouldn’t be stiff.

I started pulling the warp with every pass on the warping board I fell more and more in love with this almost iridescent coral colour. I had my 156 thread warp pulled and on the loom when I knew I couldn’t bear to dye it. So doing a 180 degree turn I’ve decided to weave these scarves in twill!

Now my problem was going to be to find a weft that would work with the 2/18 cotton. Again dipping into the stash I found this singles thick and thin silk that I dyed a few years ago in purple and aqua….perfect!

This is the pattern I’ve decided to use, it is an 8 shaft twill that used exactly the number of threads I had!

Here it is on the loom showing that side A will really show off the coral colour.

Side B features the variegations in the purple silk. Please forgive the lousy photography but I had to push the lens through the unwoven web to get it. Needless to say, it will look soooooo much better when it's been washed!

One of the best things about weaving is that you can change your mind, and the pink cotton is perfect for shibori, next time!

From Flower Power to Stars and Bars with a Finishing Tutorial

I’m more than thrilled with these tea towels; they surpassed my expectations! I can’t decide on whether they are nautical or Americana, there is a definate feel of stars and bars with the blue selvedge…but either way they are stunners.

I decided to tie onto my previous warp and it turned out to be a HUGE mistake. I was able to weave three of the four towels just fine, but as I reached the end of towel number four, I had a problem with the ends of the knots bridging and completely destroying my shed. I do agree that tying on saved me time while warping the loom, but in the end it cost me more time. I’m sure that a silky slippery yarn like rayon would tie on fine, but unmercerized cotton was a nightmare! Of course, I didn’t take a photo of the snarled mess!

Here's a quick recap of how I finish my tea towels.

I leave fairly long ends when I change yarn colours while I’m weaving on the loom and I don’t clip them off until after I’ve washed the tea towel. So clipping is my first order of business.

As I iron the tea towel for the first time I use a big quilter’s ruler to make sure that I’m pressing the tea towel square. As I iron up the tea towel I keep lining the ruler as I go along and I push or pull the tea towel to keep it straight, and then press it to set the shape.

There is always a frayed fringe that needs trimming. I’ve found the closer you trim to your stay stitch the flatter your hems will lay. Another lesson learned is to never, never, never stay stitch with navy thread on a white tea towel because you can see it through the hem! Although I try and use up all my partly finished sewing thread bobbins, I also try to keep the colours the same.

Make sure that the planned selvedge ends for the hem are the same length. It’s definitely easier to trim off any difference in length at this stage and it ensures the hems are the same size when you turn them under.

This is the best way I've found to get a nice even turn under hem.  I use a stainless steel ruler and line it up on the tea towel, then using a hot iron I just press the hem over the ruler. The ruler will be HOT so watch your fingers when you pull it out.

Now that you have a nice pressed line, you can just turn under the hem to touch on the line and put in your pins…..easy peasy and pretty too!

Springing into Success

My Spring Palette colour theme tea towels are off the loom and I can say that they far exceeded my expectations! My only regret is that I only risked the warp for four kitchen towels, but it was a new weave structure and I wanted to play it safe.

I was all geared up to have these ‘No Tabby Overshot Checks’ go completely wonky after washing because of the two completely different weave structures and the lack of a tabby pick in the overshot part of the pattern; but, the tabby seems to have a very strong stabilizing effect and the extra two inches of plain weave border all around helped. Thankfully no seersucker effect, but there is a bit of tracking in the plain weave areas.

These tea towels have been washed and given a quick press, but as you can see from the pins; I haven’t hemmed yet.

The celery green tea towel looked really blah on the loom and I was starting to have trepidations about the pattern….

The next one I wove was pastel blue and this one really showed off the pattern and I was starting to feel really hopeful…

The soft peachy pink towel was next in line and by now I loved the pattern and the sun was shining and I was feeling good…

I really fell in love with the lilac and it has the strongest graphic effect and it is hands-down my favourite tea towel of the group.

Here they are together and you can clearly see how well behaved the selvedge's are with the extra plain weave added.

I really love this pattern and by tea towel number four I was sure it was going to work out, so here is the warp that I will be tying onto the warp ends I left through the reed. I will be doing navy, red and beige stripes and then using navy and beige as the weft….or maybe navy and red….or beige and red….ahhh the choices!

Spring Palette

It’s true….as soon as the fine weather starts I get a real bounce in my step and a change in my colour palette! In the fall and winter months I tend to choose deep, full, jewel tones in my weaving projects. Now that spring is all around me, the pastel palette is beckoning!

The colours I’ve chosen to use for my ‘Check’ tea towels….just scream spring! Just looking at them sitting on the mantle makes me happy!

I’ve already woven the first of the tea towels in celery green and now I’m on to towel number two in pastel blue.  Since this is a new pattern for me, I've only put on enough warp for four tea towels.

The checks are woven in 'No Tabby Overshot Check' blocks and the pattern on eight shafts is just the offset check blocks with plain weave blocks separating them. Shafts 1-4 weave the first block and shafts 5-8 weave the second block.

The check squares are in the ‘Bethlehem Star’ motif and although they appear to be rectangular right now, when the tension is removed they get quite square.

I  have extended the pattern to ten shafts so that I could have a third block which consists of plain weave for the selvedges. I made the selvedge borders fairly deep to ensure that it stabilized the differing take up between the check blocks and the plain weave blocks.

The original draft for the pattern on eight shafts is from 'The Best of Weaver's Overshot is Hot', but the treadling has changed from the publication to be 'as drawn in'.   Now hopefully my tea towels will come out looking the same!

Novelty Weft Sugar Cane Scarf

I’m not sure when it happened but I seem to have become a slave to my home appliances! I just sit down at the loom and something rings, sings, beeps or tweets at me and up I get to do its bidding!

The washer and dryer sing a lovely little ditty to pull me away, and because it has such a lovely voice, off I happily wander into the laundry room to do as I’m told; empty and fold.

The stove on the other hand is nothing short of annoying….six long beeps tells me I can put dinner into the oven and when the time is done it virtually screams at me to get the offending dinner out, out, out! I swear it hits my frantic button!

I don’t know when the microwave, telephone, stove, dishwasher and iron became the boss of me, but I just can’t seem to put them on ignore! Despite the annoying beeping that interrupts me on a seemingly hourly basis, I have managed to get the two Sugar Cane scarves off the loom and they are so pretty.

The lilac scarf has been completely finished and is already listed on our Etsy shop and I know this will be one of my go to patterns for using novelty yarns in the future.

I loved weaving this scarf and I still had more than half of the Sugar Cane fibre left so I warped the loom using the same pattern but I changed the tencel colour to Blueberry….still lovely!

I have washed the scarf but it hasn’t been ironed or had its fringe twisted yet, but it’s a real beauty too!

I’ve already warped up Lily Louet for a set of tea towels and am weaving …. ahhh...gotta run it's the stove calling.... telling me our Easter turkey needs basting…..

Lemon Tea and Honey Part Two

It seems that I’ve leapt ahead and started weaving scarves without ever showing you the finish of the linen drall runners ~just goes to show that having a cold can really throw you off your game!

I wanted to do something completely different with drall and so I put some stripes in the warp. This seemed like a great time to try out plaid, and I had these lovely bits of linen just sitting there, since they were different from the white linen I hoped to also get an added a textural element. I like to think of the colours as blonde, bronze and brown….who doesn’t love alliteration!

I wove the hem border using Block A and the dark brown linen.

I decided to weave the Block that produced the stripes in the dark brown ( Block B/C) and then alternate the blonde and bronze (Block A) throughout the runner; although it isn’t as graphic as weaving with a solid colour warp and weft, I’m pleased with it.

I did notice while I was weaving that even though the weft linen was from the same manufacturer, the blonde linen seems to have more twist than the other two and I was hopeful that this wouldn’t cause a problem. After wet finishing and hemming I saw that the blonde stripe has taken up just a tad differently, so this is a great time to show how I block my linen runners! I think it’s really important to be precise when you set the shape of a runner as yarn has memory and a good initial pressing will help the runner spring back into shape after future washing.

I use a piece of commercial fabric as a straight edge template, and the first thing I do is use a ruler and pin one of the hem edges in place.

Finding the closest straight line in the fabric I spray the runner with a little water and push it toward the  straight line and pin it in place; I continue working up one selvedge side before starting the other.

As I start the second selvedge I continue to spray the runner with water and I lightly push the runner from the center to the desired width and pin it in place.

As I work up side number two, I periodically check with the ruler to make sure that I’m keeping the plaid lines in the runner straight.

I have pinned both sides to the fabric and you can see that the center of the runner is just a little uneven. Using the ruler I gently push the hem into place and pin it securely.

Here is the runner all pinned in place and misted with water. I’ll let the runner relax overnight and then tomorrow I’ll steam press it while it’s still pinned in place. This should ensure that the piece is an even rectangle with the edges and the center the same length and width.
Only one more runner to hem....thankfully!