Tencel---Learning and Teaching

What promises to be another phenomenal Weaving Conference begins tomorrow! Interestingly enough, this Conference is taking place on the University of Montana campus (in walking distance from my soon to be former residence (but that is a post for another day).

I will be teaching 2 one-day workshops: Intentional Design and Almost Ikat. I decided to challenge myself a bit with the Almost Ikat workshop and try a new fiber (for me)--TENCEL.
My interest in tencel stems from the fact it is produced in Canada and dyed in the USA. WEBS carries an interesting array of colors, including many space-dyed options. With not a moment to spare (after returning from the Alberta Conference), I ordered up a box of assorted colors which arrived last Thursday (waiting on my doorstep after I returned home from hanging my solo show which opened on Friday evening. This, too, is a topic for another post!).


As you can see, these are not my usual colors (except for the red and turquoise, which I ordered because two of the colors in the main palette were currently not in stock). The colors were actually selected by a client who has commissioned a Woven Words scarf (so I am really "killing" 3 birds with one stone/cone of yarn).

The students in the Almost Ikat class will be winding a warp using these very yarns, so I thought I should give it a test run. I wound this warp on Sunday, a 6" scarf, sett at 24 epi.

I tested all the colors in the weft---including some tencel yarn I had from "Just Our Yarn" to see if I could combine it with the yarn from Webs.


I cut off a portion of the warp and laundered it, so I could see how a finished scarf would look. Below is how it came out of the dryer with no pressing.


With a 1-day workshop, the students will just be able to wind their scarf warp to take home and weave, so I will only be able to send images of the various warps. Since the scarf above was purely a test of fibers, the design is not as powerful as will be all of the student warps.

So if you are signed up for this class, be prepared for a rockin' good time with Tencel! Plus I have some surprises in store (grin)