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

Month: March 2010 Page 2 of 3

Weaving Intensive

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.

RTS and Singles

Well, I finished the Return to Sender spinning and have turned it in. Photos will need to wait until after the unveiling at the conference. I’ll let you know how I did after the judging.  I also finished weaving my “Conference Scarf.” I still need to press it before its photo shoot.

In lieu of photos of the CNCH projects, let me leave you with a close up of the balance single.

It lost a few yards in the fulling process, but still a hair over 300 yards. I’m quite happy with the results and still think it’ll be fabulous for the yoke of an EPS yoked sweater.

Balanced Singles

Fiber: 100% Blue Faced Leicester (mixed black/white, over dyed)
Source: Butternut Woolens
Colorway: Sea Glass (purple, green and blue — think I’m in a color rut? It’s just like the Peacock hankies from yesterday’s post.)
WPI: 22
Plies: Single
Weight: 4 oz.
Amount: 308 yds.

Between Janine‘s class on yoked sweaters and Kathryn‘s class on energized singles at Madrona, I have been dreaming of a colorful yoked sweater with balanced singles. And when I found the last bundle of this BFL at the market, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

I split this once length-wise before spinning. So the color repeats are not as long as they could be, but still of a decent length. After spinning, I left it to sit in a very hot bath (near boiling) and then pulled it out and dunked it several times. That bit of agitation allowed the twist to migrate/even out, set the twist, and full it lightly. I think it will be lovely. I just need to spin the singles for the main color/body of the sweater. I have plenty of light light brown merino-x wool in the house. I think any of them will do.

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