What to Do While I am Working Up the Courage to Cut the Towels Apart

When I was at the WARP meeting, Irene and I exchanged ideas for ways to improve the Color Horoscope Weaving Kits. I had this idea for the Baby Blanket and decided the only way to see if was an improvement was to weave it.


Instead of having a wide solid white border and having 1" wide solid colored planet stripes, I thought it would be more interesting to use some variegated yarn.

I really love the effect of the variegated yarn.


The planets still stand out. Compare this with the picture of the weaving with the Teddy Bear (to the right)

I just cut the blanket off the loom. I seem to be on a roll. The blanket measured 33"x74" before laundering. It is in the dryer with 3 tennis balls as I write, so now I have no excuse for not cutting the towels apart and hemming them. (unless I decide wind another warp instead) Grin!

Weaving About WARP

Although I don't have adequate words to describe my impressions of attending a WARP meeting, I came home and immediately began an ikat project. Of course it helped that I got a commission to weave 5 towels. (the day after I got home!) I went through my very limited cotton stash and discovered I had just enough 8/2 unmercerized cotton yarn left over from my Turned Weft Ikat article in WeaveZine and the last Ikat workshop I taught.


The commission came on a Monday. On Tuesday I had a woman coming to the studio to watch me dress the loom, so I wound my warp (6 yds long 17" wide, sett 24 epi). So by the end of Tuesday, I was ready to weave!


I never know what these weavings will look like until I am actually weaving. I know I have said this before, but it is always a surprise.

I used a different weft color for each towel and kinda sorta measured---but not really.


And then my very favorite part---releasing the weaving---dragging the woven warp across the room....snapping a pic


Now I have to launder, cut apart and hem.

Still Digesting WARP

There is so much to say. I don't know where to begin. As the plane was landing in Phoenix, I said to myself WARP--Weave A Real Peace, WEFT-- Weaving Earth's Family Together. That phrase set the stage for a truly life-changing weekend.


Here I am with Irene and Dorinda. Here is the story on Irene's blog. It's really good.


The setting was magical. The temperature was in the upper 60s (very unusual I'm told). The desert was mostly in bloom (or just about to)

Delightful objects for sale from Peru, Africa, Bolivia. About the Peruvian knitted finger puppets pictured below: Each one has a distinctive personality. I had to get one for every finger! I had given then all away by the time I had been home for 24 hours. Here is a link on how you can get some of your very own.


This hardly gives you an idea, but it is better than woven bacon. More to follow.

Eighty Inches

I didn't mean to ham it up, but I got so distracted getting ready to head out to WARP early tomorrow morning that I forgot to post the length of the Georgia O'Keeffe Bambu 12 Horoscope Shawl (or take any pictures). I am taking my camera along, so perhaps I will get a good shot of it against the Arizona sky.

The bacon weaving picture (and the bacon weaving itself) was provided by the son of one of the Seattle Guild members. She said that if her son could weave bacon, then we could all weave a garment for our upcoming fashion show. And she is right! Thanks Cyndi.

And me a vegetarian!

Success, I Think

The reason I like Bambu 12 a little better than Bambu 7, has to do with scale. I'll be able to demonstrate in pictures that after I finish the B12 piece

I couldn't resist gamping all of the warp colors in the last 24 inches of the weaving.


And then, this time I wove until I couldn't get a shed. I can hardly wait to see how much more length I got out of this warp.


The suspense is killing me (grin)

One Strand or Two

I double the strands of Bambu 12 in the warp, but do I want to double the strands of Bambu 12 for the weft?

The bottom half of the picture is the single strand, and the top is doubled. Well, I picked the double strands for a couple of reasons. 1. The redder caste to the overall weaving is more pleasing to me. 2. It will weave up twice as fast (grin)

Now I am on a roll.

It's All a Learning Process

Georgia is off the loom! In the past, I have talked about the "Fudge Factor"--- knowing where you can fudge and where you can't. After so many years of weaving, you would think I would know better, but noooo.

Back story: What I am trying to "learn" in this weaving is "Can I weave a shawl long enough with just a 3 yard warp?" (trying to bring the price down on the Color Horoscope Weaving Yarn Kits) So there I am just about 4 inches from the end, and a thread breaks. Rather than take the time to fix the broken thread, I cut the piece off the loom. Duh! The length of the shawl just off the loom is 80". Generally I expect to loose 10" in the laundering process---not the end of the world, but a tad short.

I decided to wind another warp, the same Georgia O'Keeffe horoscope, the same 3 yard warp, but to make it interesting use Bambu 12 (doubled) for the warp. And this time weave every inch.
Here is the Bambu 12 warp chains draped over the Bambu 7 weaving. The color choices in Bambu 12 are far more limited than the B7. It will be interesting to see the difference. I have to say that I actually like weaving with the B12 doubled and sett at 24 epi better than the B7, but that's just my preference. I just wish the colors weren't so wonky. In way, though, it does point out that the exact individual colors don't make as much difference as I think it will. Once the piece is woven and the colors all blend together in the most unexpected way, it just looks right.


I know I can get this done in time to take with me to the Weave A Real Peace meeting next weekend.

ONWARD!