My Husband asked me this morning, what my day was going to look like. He often does that and just like a lot of days, I had a date with one of the grandkids for about 2 hours this morning, but other than that, I told him that I was going to play. Then I added, though I didn't have to, that I call it "playing' even though technically it could be designated as work, since most of what I am doing these days is geared towards inventory for the fall shows.
That being said, I did get in some play time this week, if not this morning. I have been messing around a little bit with the tapestry loom.
This is the sampler in "Tapestry 101", and I was being very faithful, following all the instructions. Then I got a little bit antsy, I did not like that there was not a dividing line between the class sections and I decided to umm, play a little bit.
I slide the tapestry sections that I had already worked on up the warp and I inserted some "Egyptian knot" above the "shading" section.
Then I slide the "striped" section down on top of the "Egyptian knots" and I added a wee row of rya knots, before I slide the "unjoined" squares back into place. Then I did some "soumack" in dark blue, which you really can't see very well, (and I might replace that) and finally above the "joined" squares I did 2 rows of contrasting plain weave.
I have a ways to go on this sampler, but I am learning quite a bit, and I can see how learning this new art form will improve my floor loom weaving as well.
Now for what I call "work", I did finish the first fleece rug, and if I can get my phone to cooperate and download the picture, I will come back and post it.
The rug is everything I wanted it to be! I have a couple more obligation rugs to make to give to the shepherds, so I am not sure if I will be able to make some for the shows this year, as there is a lot of prep work that is involved, but I know that next year, there will be several ready and waiting for the fall shows.
On to my hand spun BFL shawls I am working on. The first gradient shawl you saw on Tuesday's post. This shawl was woven with a gradient yarn in the warp and also in the weft.
I washed that shawl today and I decided that while it is going to be a wonderful shawl, I think I would be happier with a slightly closer set. So for the second shawl I upped the set from 8 EPI to 10 EPI.
I almost had enough yarn left from the gradient hand spun skeins to complete the second warp, but I was about 2 inches short of the goal. I had some silver Romney (you can see it in the above picture) that I had spun a long time ago that I thought might do for weft, and I had plenty to supplement that last 2 inches of the warp. I staggered the very last of the gradient warp leaving a few spaces to blend in the new yarn, and I can barely tell that I had to add something new!
I also have a cone of silk that might have worked well for the weft, but I didn't want to darken this shawl and in the end I decided to go ahead and use the same hand spun that I had used to supplement the warp.
I love how this gradient looks in the reed.
I started with 2 skeins of gradient handspun, which I thought was going to give me a single shawl, but I am ending up with 2 shawls by adding a third skein from my hand spun stash.
This second shawl is going to have a much different look than the first shawl, as this warp does not have any of the dark shades that were in the first shawl as warp, (skein #1, dark to light) and also in the weft, (1/2 of skein #2, dark to medium tones). That left the medium to really light tones of skein #2 for the second warp and with the Silvery Romney weft, it is going to be a stunner!
That is it for now, until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina
That being said, I did get in some play time this week, if not this morning. I have been messing around a little bit with the tapestry loom.
This is the sampler in "Tapestry 101", and I was being very faithful, following all the instructions. Then I got a little bit antsy, I did not like that there was not a dividing line between the class sections and I decided to umm, play a little bit.
I slide the tapestry sections that I had already worked on up the warp and I inserted some "Egyptian knot" above the "shading" section.
Then I slide the "striped" section down on top of the "Egyptian knots" and I added a wee row of rya knots, before I slide the "unjoined" squares back into place. Then I did some "soumack" in dark blue, which you really can't see very well, (and I might replace that) and finally above the "joined" squares I did 2 rows of contrasting plain weave.
I have a ways to go on this sampler, but I am learning quite a bit, and I can see how learning this new art form will improve my floor loom weaving as well.
Now for what I call "work", I did finish the first fleece rug, and if I can get my phone to cooperate and download the picture, I will come back and post it.
The rug is everything I wanted it to be! I have a couple more obligation rugs to make to give to the shepherds, so I am not sure if I will be able to make some for the shows this year, as there is a lot of prep work that is involved, but I know that next year, there will be several ready and waiting for the fall shows.
On to my hand spun BFL shawls I am working on. The first gradient shawl you saw on Tuesday's post. This shawl was woven with a gradient yarn in the warp and also in the weft.
I washed that shawl today and I decided that while it is going to be a wonderful shawl, I think I would be happier with a slightly closer set. So for the second shawl I upped the set from 8 EPI to 10 EPI.
I almost had enough yarn left from the gradient hand spun skeins to complete the second warp, but I was about 2 inches short of the goal. I had some silver Romney (you can see it in the above picture) that I had spun a long time ago that I thought might do for weft, and I had plenty to supplement that last 2 inches of the warp. I staggered the very last of the gradient warp leaving a few spaces to blend in the new yarn, and I can barely tell that I had to add something new!
I also have a cone of silk that might have worked well for the weft, but I didn't want to darken this shawl and in the end I decided to go ahead and use the same hand spun that I had used to supplement the warp.
I love how this gradient looks in the reed.
This second shawl is going to have a much different look than the first shawl, as this warp does not have any of the dark shades that were in the first shawl as warp, (skein #1, dark to light) and also in the weft, (1/2 of skein #2, dark to medium tones). That left the medium to really light tones of skein #2 for the second warp and with the Silvery Romney weft, it is going to be a stunner!
That is it for now, until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina
