Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast - mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

Category: Weave Page 11 of 34

Having fun

I’m still having fun with the Index-Card-a-Day Challenge. That is, one week in, I haven’t fallen off the wagon yet.

I find index cards to be an interesting medium for watercolor. You have to work in very quick light washes. You can’t over work it or it will become too saturated. Buckling is definitely an issue, even with a watercolor ground applied to it. But on an unprepped card, I like how the water pools and saturates the edges and create a little border, don’t you? This card has about 3 light washes of color applied.

You might think that I’ve abandoned my fiber crafts for this little project but I have wound a 10 yard warp. I haven’t dressed the loom yet because I made 2 mistakes in 2 of my bouts. One of them, I forgot to tie my counting cross so I’ve lost the measurements for my raddle.

No problem! Warp front to back. I’ve still got my individual cross. But in the last bout, somehow I missed the last 2 pegs, and thus the cross) on one go around (2 threads). Still, not disaster, I can just either tie in an extension, or easier yet, just drop that set completely and measure off another pair to use. I think I have just enough yarn for that. My warp used up all except about 50 yards of an entire cone and I don’t have anymore of that color.

Neither of the problems are huge, but mere snags. However, I get stalled out at little snags like this and have to talk myself into moving on.

What about you? What causes you to stall out on a project?

Giddy

CNCH Ribbons! (click to enlarge)

Look what came home with me from CNCH? A pair of blue ribbons!

Here are the judging criteria. Both of these received perfect scores. Yes, the sketch book, the one I didn’t like and wanted to re-work, received a blue ribbon. The note from the judge on my skein was that she would have given me sixes if she could (on a scale of 1-5). I am beyond tickled!

The beggar’s bag, however, did not win a ribbon. The judges disagreed on the scoring (14.5 and 25, respectively, out of 26 points). According to the notes, what aspect liked by one was the very thing that the other judge didn’t like. Ah, well. I was told to expect that. In any case, I still like the bag. And 2 ribbons out of 3 submissions isn’t bad, especially since this is my first juried show.

Now, I just need to figure out what to weave with my skein.

CNCH Gallery Submissions

Beggar's Bag (click to enlarge)

CNCH starts tomorrow. I’ll provide a report next week. In the meantime, here are some eye candy on a few of my submissions. Drop by the gallery and take a look if you are in the Bay Area this weekend!

The bag on the left is the Beggar’s Bag for the Traditions and Innovations Gallery.

Draft: Floral Dance Star Variation (Anne Dixon)
Warp: Borgs 22/2 Cottolin (natural)
Tabby Weft: 8/2 cotton (natural)
Pattern Weft:  assorted handspun handpainted BFL singles (purchased at 2011 Whidbey Island Spin In from Island Fibers, I think)
Construction: all hand pieced, even down to the zipper and  lining.

I definitely learned quite a bit on this project. Even after re-sleying, I think the sett is still too close. I found out later in my research that I should have sleyed it for a loose plain weave. This is why I had to go to a 8/2 cotton instead of cottolin for weft. It’s a good thing too since I ran out of natural cottolin.

Return to Sender Yarn

Return to Sender Batt

On the left is my Return to Sender skein, blocking on the skeinwinder. On the right is what the batt looked like before I started. The fiber is 85/15 BFL/tussah, dyed with natural dyes by Mary Finley and Roger Salter of Dreamy Goat Design Studio.

I split the batt into pure colors, and stripped out the mixed bits as my “in-between”. Spun the colors in progression as a fine single and plied it with an 80/20 “black” BFL/tussah (SOAR 2009 ? special — Bend, OR). You can see that the black BFL toned down the colors quite a bit, but still quite nice.

Weight: 4 oz. (2 oz. RTS, 2 oz. black BFL)
Yardage: 1,012 yards
Plies: 2
WPI: 44

I have one more gallery submission for the Return of the Return to Sender (yarn spun for the 2010 CNCH), but I forgot to photograph it before sending it on. I used an alternate treadling to Floral Dance with my 2 ply yarn and turned it into a sketchbook cover. Probably subliminal. I’m not that happy with the cover. I will likely re-do it after the conference.

Page 11 of 34

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