And such a long process it is… Remember that cone of yarn (well, really thread) I was working on?
It’s all about the process
Catching up…
Gosh, it’s been well over a year since my last post. It’s not that I’ve stopped weaving – I just haven’t been writing posts. Clearly, I’m not doing a good job of keeping up the way I originally conceived this blog. So time for a bit of a re-focus. Rather than making each post such a big thing (completed project, pretty pictures, etc.), I’ll try to post more regularly about work in progress and stuff.
Continue reading “Catching up…”Seeing Double
Throws and blankets have been among the more useful items I’ve woven. But a reasonable size throw is a meter or more in width. Double weave allows you to weave fabric that is wider than your loom, by weaving two layers at once.
For this throw, I bought a kit from Jane Stafford Textiles for a double weave shawl made from Harrisville Shetland yarn in shades of green and blue with the draft from Season 3 Episode 7.
Continue reading “Seeing Double”Adding the Dye Dimension
At a Weavers Interest meeting late last year I received a 1998 issue of Weavers magazine with an article by Kay Faulkner about woven shibori. I regret that I was not able to take Kay’s class on woven shibori as I learned so much in the two classes I was able to take with her.
So, what is woven shibori? Shibori is a Japanese resist dyeing technique where cloth is stitched or tied in intricate patterns, the stitching drawn tight, and the fabric dyed resulting in resist patterns where the tight gathering threads kept the dye away. Tie-dyed T-shirts are an example of shibori. With woven shibori, the gathering threads are woven into the fabric, gathered once the fabric is off the loom, then the fabric is dyed.
Continue reading “Adding the Dye Dimension”Simple Collapse Weave
I’m sure many have had the experience of washing a delicate item and finding that it had shrunken substantially. This is no fun when it’s an accident. But, what if you could do it on purpose? That’s exactly the theory behind this project. By using two fibres that shrink differently, the finished fabric has depth and texture.
Continue reading “Simple Collapse Weave”Playing with Balance
Plain weave isn’t necessarily balanced. For this floor loom project and the next, I’m taking balance to the extremes. What do I mean by balance? The Log Cabin project created a balanced weave structure – both the warp and weft were equally visible in the finished fabric. In contrast, this project shows only the weft threads – it is a weft-faced fabric.
Continue reading “Playing with Balance”Log Cabin Plus!
More plain weave – this time with colour effects. Log cabin is a great plain weave pattern where you alternate dark and light threads. In Season 3 Episode 3, Jane Stafford shows how to design a log cabin with extra border threads that make it pop out and look almost 3-D.
Continue reading “Log Cabin Plus!”The Power of Negative Space
Now that I have the new loom, I’m off and running. The first project was from Season 3, Episode 1 – Denting of Jane Stafford’s Online Weaving School in brown and rust 16/2 cotton. I showed a bit of the warping process in my previous post about the loom. The idea is to add some interest to plain weave by considering the spaces as well as the fabric. The warp was arranged in 1/2″ segments – 1/2″ of warp at 24 ends per inch (12 warp threads), then a 1/2″ gap. The colours started at rust on the edge, moving through browns to a light ivory then reversing. There are 14 of the 1/2″ segments of warp and 13 empty gaps between.
Continue reading “The Power of Negative Space”Parallel Scarves
The last project on my old floor loom was a set of three scarves in parallel or echo weave. In my stash there was some Tencel yarn in four colours for the warp. I picked these up more than a decade ago with the idea that I would weave scarves. I’m so glad I finally got around to them.
Continue reading “Parallel Scarves”The Odyssey Continues…
Hi there. Many of the readers of this blog will already know me. My name is Karen and I’ve lived in Brisbane Australia for 20+ years. I recently retired from a long academic career, most recently with the University of Queensland Business School. While some of you may be familiar with my advocacy work in the area of extraterritorial US taxation, this site is all about my crafts (and maybe some travel).
Continue reading “The Odyssey Continues…”