Kromski RH Loom
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Weaving

Diana here -

This is my 1^st striped scarf project. I have never really paid attention to striped scarves, so I have a lot to learn. The blue and grey that I used for the stripes are colors from the main color I spun for the scarf. The next time I use same colors, I will save a black to highlight the other colors - it looks very faded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diana

woven scarf
Mood:  on fire
Topic: Weaving

Diana here - I am almost finished spinning and plying up yarn for my next woven scarf project. I am only spinning for the weft, the warp is store-bought.

The grey is a natural color. The blue was a light grey, but I overdyed it. The black is llama. I dyed it to darken it up a bit more. I also spin the grey and black thinner than the blue

 

 

 

 

 

The pic gives it a more metallic grey look. In person, the blue in more predominate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The problem with spinning is, by the time you are getting towards the end, you have visions of your next colors. At the MFC yard sale this weekend, I saw Ruth carry away a lovely roving - Amethyst and a mint green.....

Diana 

 

 

 

Weaving Inspiration Kris Abshire
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Weaving

I'm back exhausted, stimulated etc. from Association of Northwest Weavers Guild (ANWG) 2009 in Spokane at Gonzaga University.  My first (but not only by a long ways) inspiration came from my instructor Kris Abshire. http://www.krisabshire.com/ Kris is an excellent dyer, weaver, surface design person and showed us lots of her beautifully colored work.  I had seen a big piece with caribou in Tacoma in 2005. I still remembered it vividly and when I could take a 2 day dyeing class from her I signed up. I just wished I could have taken the Surface Design class she taught in the post conference workshop. An Alaskan Kris finds most of her inspiration in the natural world around her. Kris’s weavings combine warp painting with pictorial surface design elements. Fortunately for me Kris uses the same Sabrasett dyes I do.  I have 60+ colors currently mixed and look forward adding Kris’s formulas to my mix. She uses a lot more Navy in her mixes than I do, so it will extend my color palette. Like Nancy Roberts of Machine Knitting to Dye For fame, she uses a 2 % solution rather than the 1% solution which is my norm.  I’m still contemplating that.  I occasionally use 2 or 4 % solutions, but 1 % is my norm. Much of Kris’s work is with a 100 percent silk whereas I normally use a wool or wool/silk blend or other protein fiber blend.  Since silk is harder to permeate than wool, this is a factor also. My classmates and I dyed 2 warps and 2 wefts. The first was the more painterly approach using unthickened dyes.  The second used thickener to get more precise results on part of the piece. Our class and yarns are shown here as well some closer samples of our yarns. 

Each warp chain is surrounded by its corresponding weft.  I asked Kris is she has a “default weft”.  She said usually navy or black. She suggested being careful using one of the colors from the warp painting in your weft because those sections where the exact same color is both warp and weft will jump out.  For example if you want to use red in both some of your warp painting and weft, then make sure your weft is a different color red. She also says that picking weft is more about value and that using a darker weft will make the warp dominate and pop off more.  Also a 3/1 twill will be less blendy than plain weave.  She often uses a straight draw twill for her warp and then decides from there. More about Kris’s ideas later.  She says she will be updating her website with lots of hands-on info.  So keep checking back to Kris's website.  

 

 

 

 

Fiber friendly week
Mood:  not sure
Topic: Weaving

Fiber activities in the last 8 days include Montana Fibercrafters meeting where we started working on a punch needle rug (or in my case a 11" mat).  I have a sunflower design, enlarged it and have it ready to transfer to the back of the monks cloth.  I've already washed and zigzagged the monk's cloth to prevent fraying.

I dyed some sumac , cutch, and cherry tree bark on various yarns and a scarf.  I also dyed a graduated yarn fin blue greens from chemical dyes to  use in my next version of Almost Lace.  It is a very pretty alpaca lace weight blend from Big Sky Quality Wool in Broadus.  I have batteries in my camera now so I can take pictures of things to post.

Then I spent 2 full days cleaning up my office and studio from the combination of studio remodel and a huge accumulation of stuff put here and there.  I can see the top of that table where I dropped off all the little things for the last 2 years.  I still have some more to put away so I bought some more see through boxes today, but this is a lot better than I've seen in that area in about 1 year at least.  It took me an amazing amount of time to deal with all those little dibs and dabs so I know why I hate that part.

I have read quite a few articles about studios and really want to try keeping my new wonderful area a little more organized.  Just "having" to clean up the one corner for the dye area had made it so much more fun to work down there.

Today Sarah Pilgrim came from Wilsall, MT, to teach the Billings Weavers Guild about designing stripes in weaving, but it also applies to knitting, dyeing self striping yarn etc.  Sarah and I are going to try a collaboration of sorts, she wants me to custom dye some yarn for an afghan she is weaving.  I'm am very excited about that because she makes beautiful things. 

And I even knit a little this week.  So a busy week (because I had to do a lot of non-fiber stuff too), but lots accomplished.  Linda

Okay I admit I'm a class junky
Topic: Weaving
I love to learn more about the fiber arts and some related arts.  This Saturday I'm taking an all levels drawing class at the Yellowstone Art Museum http://yellowstone.artmuseum.org/ from Julie Atkins-Pederson.  I just tried drawing for the first time a couple of  years ago when I took a design class from a famous quilter Katie Pasquini Masopust.  I wanted to learn to draw for my punch needle designs.  It is not as impossible as I perceived and my family now recognizes my drawings for what they are.  It is nice to make a cat look like a cat.  Of course like any art form if I did it every day, I'd get a lot better.  But I still work away at drawing fitting it in here and there.  It takes a lot of concentration, but it is fun.  I JUST HAVE WAY TOO MANY INTERESTS.  I'm only planning to take 2 classes in November but I'll tell you about that later.    Linda

Heidi's garden Throw
Mood:  happy
Topic: Weaving
 

Here it is, finally finished! Actually, it was finished a while back. I was just being lazy about reinstalling my camera software after my computer crash and all.

I invited Heidi to lunch yesterday to give her the throw. She knits and spins, but hadn't seen Swedish Weave on Monks Cloth before. It was fun showing her how to do this. That is the fun part about giving one of your homemade fiber goodies to a fiber friend.

I know some of you will suck the air out of the room, the yarns used were ACRYLIC as in Caron's Simply Soft and Red Heart.

There are times and certain projects I do in acrylic because I need a break from wool, and the chemicals that are used in wool processing.

Diana

 

Swedish Weave
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Weaving

Here is the edge of the blanket. I now have to do the other edge, but I have developed SSS. Second Sock Syndrom is a term used by knitters. The first sock goes along just great. All your energy is put in to getting it completed. When it comes time to knit up the second one, you feel hard-pressed to repeat all those steps again!

Diana

 

 

More Swedish Weave
Mood:  hungry
Topic: Weaving

Since the baby isn’t due until Oct., I, who invented procrastination, ;-) will wait while I squeeze in another Swedish Weave project:

 

Here is the beginning of a blanket that will be a housewarming gift for a friend. I have used part of an idea from a Swedish Weave book, but added my own touches. Not sure if the purple designs looks like wisteria, grapes, or??

Here is my chart for the purple design:

 

Anyway, like I said, Oct is months away and I have become re-addicted to Swedish Weave!

Diana

Swedish Weave
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Weaving

Here is the baby blanket almost finished.  As you can see, I worked the same kind of stitches back the other way.  I still have to add binding around the edges:

Diana

 

 

Swedish Weave
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Weaving

Here is the row ½ finished:

 

Each row must line up with the previous row. If you look at the center stitch on the bottom of the heart on the previous row, you will see it lines up:

 

Most SW projects are worked from the center of the monks cloth material, to the end. Do this by flipping the monks cloth over and work the other way. This ensures that you are always working from right to left:

Starting the second half of the row:

Diana