Pink pebbles!

Monday August 15, 2011

Finished the pink pebble piece some time last week.  Not happy with it at all.  I still find 'pebble weave' fiddly and difficult to setup, and I haven't put alot of effort into a design motif because I dislike having to reach through to the bottom shed to do the lifts.  This technique does give a double sided/reversible fabric, but I don't have much need of double fabric in the first place, and if I do I prefer double weave because of the solid background.

I decided to finish it out with just plain stripes, it is off center and off balance at both ends.  It seems that when I don't enjoy something it doesn't turn out as well as I would like.  Surprise, surprise...lol.

Pink pebbles.

Notice how where I doubled the weft in the stripes, it changed the weave considerably, but not the width of the fabric.

I even got hour glassing on the pebble design...different weaves, different results in the same piece.

Here you can really see the hr. glassing.  The piece is actually a consistent width all the way from end to end.

Pipe loom project!

August 10, 2011

Through no fault of switching this warp from a backstrap loom to a pipe loom, I had a lot of problems with this it.  Threading sequence issues mostly.

It seems the warp was a little wonky tension wise also.  I find this to be problematic, especially on a frame/pipe loom.  In other words, one side of the loom is slightly longer than the other.  This means that to get even tension all the across the warp, you must crank one side of the loom up higher/tighter than the other.  This creates an angle in the top bar, which makes the warp try to slide to the side that is lowest, simply by gravity.  If you tighten it up enough to prevent most of this, it is too tight to warp face weave comfortably.  If it loosened to the point of comfort, on side of the warp is baggy and troublesome.  It is alot easier to have floats and missed threads in a very loose warp.  Lots of room for errors in general.  Plus it will look different from one side to the other side.

So here are pictures of what I could salvage from the project, be assured that I am back on my backstrap.  Working diligently on getting a workable system going again.  Pictures will be coming soon.

As you can see they are small and I sacrificed alot of the warp by starting over three times and trying to work out the 'kinks'.  This is the front side.

If you look closely you will see the back side of the one to the far left.  The green is double stranded with two shades of green, the white is single.  Notice how it made the white threads pull to an angle, kind of like little v's to make the design on the back.  Interesting.  I kind of like it.

These pieces have no particular destination at the moment, they are just in my box of things that will probably be gifted out, maybe even at Christmas.

One more Envelope pouch!

 July 10, 2011

Today I finished up my favorite of all time long band.  I made it into a wonderful envelope pouch.  Selfish as it is I am keeping this one for myself.  It is actually the largest so far and can be carried as a small purse.

It is made with cotton and silk.  The strap is removable if I need to also.  

It just has a string tie.  I couldn't find a button I thought would do it justice.  So I decided to let the bag speak for itself.

This is the last one for a while.  I am all out of bands that are suitable for making any more.  I am very happy to have found a purpose for all of the bands that started out intended for the failed poncho project.

Dana came by to show me the progress on my 'purse' that we are doing together.  It is going to be so awesome.  It makes me very sad to move away from her.  I have so loved having a 'like-minded' friend who understands my passion for the weaving/fiber arts.  Instead of always having to explain what I am doing, or watching someone's eyes glaze over as they pretend to be interested.

Dana you are the best.

Completed pink and gray!

April 12, 2011 Tuesday.

From a 7 ft. warp and 148 warp threads, I had 78 in. total with waste.  I got 59 in. (4 ft. 11 in.) woven web.  It is 3 3/4 in wide.  With fringe it is 70 in. total.  I am very happy with the way it turned out.  The only thing wrong is that it is slightly curved...I seem to have this in my work at times.  Always to the same side....hmmmmm.  Maybe something to do with being right handed, or the tension...maybe even both.  Since it is to be an addition to the poncho I don't think it will be a problem.  It might even relax out of it after a period of time.

Pink perle and silver silk warp.

April 11, 2011 Monday

Dana stopped in yesterday with the #3 100% mercerized cotton crochet thread that I will be using for a guitar strap she has commissioned.  

Her little nephew has taken up guitar, and his birthday, along with a talent show will be in May.  He is only, or will be 7 yrs. old.  So the length of the strap that came on the guitar's maximum is 48 in.  The width is 2 in.  This means that it has to be a little longer, actually quite a bit longer, than the strap I made for KraftyMax's camera.  The width and thread count will be the same though.   I will do a 40 thread wide and 6 to 7 ft. long warp for the strap.

He is into flames, so I will do his name and try for some flames in double weave.  Because he likes flames, I will be using orange, yellow, red and black for trim.  His favorite color is orange, so that is what one side will be.  The other side will have vertical stripes of color that will show inside the design factors on the front/orange side.  I really loved how Max's strap turned out and I learned a few things  during the process of weaving it.  I think this one will turn out equally as well.

In the meantime...for about the last week, I have been trying to do something with my pink/gray project.  Next time I won't do quite as many color changes in the striping...that, along with the sheen of the silk, is giving me design factor issues.  Nothing seems to 'pop' the way I thought it would.  As a result I have been doing an awful lot of 'pondering' the piece and even more un-weaving.  LOL  Haven't gotten very far, but here are some pictures.  

The warp is really pretty, I just wish that the camera picked it up better.

There is a set of hearts, 3 in fact, small, large and small again, below this geometric design.  I have tried so many designs that didn't work.

It is a 7ft. long warp, 74 heddles/threads per shed = 148 thread count total.  It is 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 in wide and has a 50 thread pattern area.

Notice that each horizontal stripe has 3 color changes...this gives 6 colors to the design area...VERY busy to the eye.  I won't do it this way again.  I also only have 50 threads wide for the design area, which is making it even more difficult.  I am used to a much larger pallet. This band will be added to the poncho project.  

After the guitar strap I have to do a pebble weave (my 1st attempt) hat band for Mr. cphilip, then I need to do a purple piece for the poncho.  It seems that since I do so much purple for so many other people, I don't think to do purple for myself.  I get kind of tired of it at times.  ;o]

Warp for Ravelry Weave A Long

Written March 3rd for posting on April 11, 2011 

Dedicated to my sister Jackie, Happy Birthday Jack.  Rest in peace.  She always told me how creative I was.  I used to laugh at her and say, "not creative, just poor, I have to make the best use of what I have".  In hind site, she was a pretty smart cookie.  I miss her something awful.

I warped up my Mini Wave today with a 8 1/2 ft. warp. I double stranded the entire thing. It is 75 warps wide…which means 74 heddles that have 2 strands in each. So at 150 per shed it is 300 threads. It is 4 in. wide and I have woven about an inch so far. Gives me about 75 threads to the inch.

I used #10 mercerized cotton crochet thread, doubled, 15 heddles wide in forrest green.
Then #3 mercerized cotton crochet thread in warm teal, stranded together with #5 perle cotton in baby blue, 46 heddles. Then another 15 in doubled forrest green.

I ran out of the forrest green before I got done, so one side only has 13 instead of 15. Thus 74 heddles/warps that are double stranded wide. By doubling all of the threads I get a streaky effect of the two blues together. I also get the choice when I do my pick ups of using either the perle or the #3 for my picks ups. So considering this…I can get lifts in green when I want to, then I can also do lifts in #3 warm teal and also in #5 perle, or use both blues at the same time. So I get 4 choices of pick up colors instead of the usual two when using the horizontal stripe background. I will say that it is a bear to wind the warp with two crosses using 4 cones at once. grrrr

I will be doing what Laverne calls ‘Simple Warp Floats’ (click here if you want to see the tutorial), on her blog.

I will be doing my own designs and making them up as I go along. For those of you who don’t know me this is how I usually do my weaving. I like to make my designs up as I go. I do sometimes look at pics of other folks designs for inspiration, but I rarely follow someone else’s pattern, and I hardly ever chart mine. I find the proportions off when charting…so I just use my eyes as I go along. Sometimes I have to do quite a bit of un-weaving, but I have had great successes so far and I like to experiment to see what I can accomplish.

Here is the start of the warp.

Here is the first design.  Go figure?  I did indeed follow someone else's pattern.  This one comes from Mary Atwater's, "Byways in Handweaving".