Summer Placemats

Cheryl turned her placemats with the wavy selvages into summer bags. Here's her next attempt at placemats. Not bad on the the loom. We'll see what happens when washed. She took Jane Campbell's advice and washed and dried the Peaches n Cream before using it in the weft. Let's hope that helps it not to shrink so much in this project. This is 100% cotton. Using rug warp, 3/2 perle cotton, cotton boucle and an 8/2 unmercerized. The colors are sage green and natural. The structure is based on a rep weave pattern but spaced at 12 epi, from The Handweavers Pattern Directory, p. 235, bottom treadling. Let's hear it for Robyn Spady's idea of a pattern abacus! (Those numbered beads across the top of the beater.) It really keeps you sane with 2 shuttles...thick, thin, thick, thin, thick, repeat...and various treadlings.

May 17 at White Bluffs Center

About 15 of us gathered for our last meeting before the summer break. Everyone shared where they are in the workbook. From Just Warped On to Finished My Placemats, we had a little of everything. As usual our mentors were very encouraging.

Please post photos of any projects you weave this summer...from the workbook or others. Simply resize your photo with your photo editor so that your longest side is around 600 pixels and keep it in proportion. For these I simply asked my Microsoft Picture to shrink my large file to 25%. I saved that new size as a new title so I haven't lost old large photo. Then follow the Blogger directions to post to the web. Or ask your neighborhood teen for help.

Some of us are weaving color gamps as part of the color theory study in Volume One, pp. 128-136. Next official meeting is September 13.

April 4 Meeting, Projects 1-3.

With 13 present, we all shared what we have woven so far. With so many different colors and textures, it was quite a show. Many are tweaking the designs a bit to make them better suit a specific need. Most of us seem captivated by the emerging patterns. Dianna has the most examples of various textures of yarns. Dorothy showed us the lovely Berga rug yarn, a smooth single-ply, so different than the coarser rug yarns that are common here. Cheryl changed the weft of the mats to a thinner Shetland wool, dented the 8/4 and 5/2 cottons at 15 dents, and produced a fabric with surprising drape. It would make a lovely spring garment fabric.

Dianna and Lois coached us on warping with the paddle. Dianna showed how to change out some warp threads part-way through the weaving. She replaced some frustrating wool boucle with a sturdier cotton boucle. The photos include a view of the lease stick holders.

Next meeting on May 17, hopefully at the new White Bluffs Center.

Design software

I just signed into the weaving group and it didn't pop up with a way to do my new post, so here is what I did: Click on the little blogger symbol in the far left upper corner of your screen and it takes you to the "dashboard" and then you can create a new post. Remember to sign your name when you post or we won't know who you are.

My SCA weaving group is talking about design software so I thought I would share these two free sites with you.

http://www.weavenotes.net/winweave.htm

http://www.pikespeakweavers.org/html/ppwg_weavedsn.htm

I haven't used these but they both are used by weavers in my other group and they are free! Both of them have instructions on how to use them. Maybe some of you already use them?
Jane Campbell

More Mat Musings

This is the last of Project 3's small mats, Mat #6. It's the thickest of the 6. It's small, thicker, but not at all difficult. I was amazed at how much THICKER it is than the other 5 mats. My overshot tabby yarn was also wool, not the cotton called for in our instructions. I'll get a little braver later this week and wash one of these mats...right now I'm just petting and admiring them.

Dianna

Small Mat Musings

Project 3 is so much FUN!!

Here is the table runner, hot off the loom, so to speak.

A BIGGGG hint in choosing which colors to use was given by Zina Mae....take the 5-7 yarns you think you'd like to use, then twist them together, like you see in this photo. the colors should flow together without 'fighting' with one another.

I would recommend finding your WEFT yarns first...then find your cotton warp. I did NOT use any cotton in my weft. I found wool weft yarn which matched the cotton warp. My whole Project was woven using wool weft.

Other small hints:

Use the hem stitch on each end of your mats and runner. This way, when you take it off the loom, it's FINISHED...just cut them apart!

If you use a 4 inch divider between mats, you'll get a little longer fringe, in case you'd like to tie knots.

Remember: you don't need any great amount of any one yarn.

Don't forget to consider a floating selvage....or just be prepared to fuss a little with those selvages when patterning.

Bookmarks GALLORE!!

Well, I have BOOKMARKS!!! and lots of them. Actually, I have two very long and colorful BANDS. I had enough warp left from finishing Project 2, I just played with the 8/4 cotton. I have learned alot about making the WARP look interesting by using different colors in the WEFT. It's been fun. Dianna