Category: Weave Page 24 of 34

It was about the time that I was giving up cram and space as anything I would ever do in real life when Janice showed me a piece that she has been sampling. It is based on the skip dent technique from Sharon Alderman‘s Mastering Weave Structures. Janice worked up a sampler with Henry’s Attic Alpaca Lace at 20 epi. (For non-weavers, skip dent and cram and space are synonymous.)

Now, this is much more to my liking. I found some 50/50 wool/silk (Crystal Palace Como mill end) and promptly warped it up at 24 epi.

I used my 12 dent reed and threaded 6 dents (at 2/dent) and skipped 4. I wove it in plain weave with random shots of fat silk singles whenever I felt like it.

Yum! I love accents of the silk.  This fabric is something I can work with. A light summer wrap or yardage for an over shirt or unstructured jacket/shrug.

The photo above shows the piece washed and pressed. Judith spent a bit of time talking to us about the transformation the occurs between off the loom and washed in the past, but it wasn’t until we pressed it before I had my a-ha moment.

I mean, I loved the fabric after washing. And I am the queen of no ironing. But seriously, the piece is absolutely gorgeous after a nice pressing.

Skip Dent Samples. Top: off the loom. Center: fulled. Bottom: pressed.

In the above photo, you can see the transition from straight off the loom to the finished product. The top sample is what it looks like straight off of the loom. For the non-weavers, I wish you can feel this fabric. It feels a bit like burlap. Yes, it’s wool and silk, but the fabric sample has no drape.

In the washed and fulled sample in the middle, you can see that the piece looks more like fabric now. It has a soft hand. This was fulled in the wash basin with a toilet plunger and thwacked against the edge of the wash basin to finish the fulling process.

The bottom piece (scarf) was pressed, not steamed, but hard pressed, to realign the warp. The sheen from the silk reappeared. The fabric has more drape than it had before the pressing.

Hmm. I just noticed that I presented the “ugly” end of the scarf.  This was when I was playing with how do deal with the ends of the fat silk single in the weft. This particular attempt was created by tucking the ends on the alternate shed. In the samples, you’ll note that I’ve tucked the ends into the same shed as the silk singles and it nearly disappears into the fabric. (Yes, Amy, I wove my samples after I wove off the scarf. Yes, I know it’s backwards. Yes, I know I should have tested that out in the sample before I wove the real thing. Yes, I learned from this experience.)

This is my second sampler/scarf in the Cram and Space workshop. (click for larger)

The warp and weft are a mixture Judith’s hand paint (base yarn is Henry’s Attic Pony) and Mountain Colors Wool Crepe (Rosehip color way). I followed the warp threading order with my weft to maintain symmetry, because I’m all about symmetry. The airy centers were created in part by the 4 skipped dents, as well as some spaced dents before the skipped dents.

Yes. The yarns moved that much during fulling.

The result? A nice airy scarf that has both heft and movement. This would be fabulous for a spring/fall shawl or throw.

Okay. We are getting closer, but it’s still not to my liking. Not hating it has a lot to do with the colors and the fiber. But from a technique perspective, I still didn’t see any practical use in my personal life. All that loose yarn begs to be caught by Ms. Ellie’s claws (and my clumsiness when moving against snaggly things).

And seriously, how many scarves can a girl have?

Lunch time walk to the lighthouse. Looking back at the Golden Gate Bridge with San Francisco in the background. Look at the currents!

Last week was the March Weaving Intensive with Judith MacKenzie McCuin at Point Bonita (Marin Headlands). And what a glorious week it was. Yes, any week with Judith is glorious, but it was doubly so since spring had sprung with a vengeance in the SF Bay Area. The weather was in the upper 60s/low 70s the entire week. Simply glorious.

This is my 3rd year of weaving intensive with Judith; 4th in the series. (I missed the first year.) This year’s intensive is titled “Designing with the Reed.” I had no idea what it meant heading in, but willing to go along with whatever Judith presented.

In turns out, this year’s topic is cram and space. Our first project was with Judith’s own kettle dyed yarns.

I’ve seen scarves produced this way. They’ve never done anything for me. I have to admit that my heart sank a bit when we started weaving. 5 days of producing fabric that I didn’t want?

Oh well. Perhaps I can full this piece and sew it into a small accent pillow cover. I used this piece to experiment with color. How do I bring out the gorgeous colors in dyed yarn? As you can see from the picture, each color brought out different elements of the dyed warp.

I should have known better than to doubt Judith. This first piece was just the launch point for a whole category of fabric to be explored. Here’s a quick peek at what I produced last week, all based on the same technique.

a bevy of scarves

I’ll share the details of these projects over the next few days. In the meantime, let me leave you with another picture of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Sunrise over the Golden Gate Bridge.