sweetgeorgia

Weave me.

For some time now, I’ve been planning on weaving this mixed warp silk scarf for a friend of mine. The warp that I wound ages ago has been sitting in the living room whispering “weave me… weave me… I’m yummy.” The warp is all bubbly turquoise silk bouclé and aqua silk singles with a few skinny strands of 30/2 silk and tsumugi silk thrown in. Finally, this morning, I took advantage of the gorgeous warm sunlight to dress the loom and start weaving.

I warp from back to front, in this case, because I find there is less wear-and-tear on the somewhat delicate and fussy nature of the mixed warp.

I find myself tying loops at every stage so that I don’t accidentally lose my work. So, after threading the heddles, I tie a group of warp threads together. I undo the slip knots as I need to when I sley the reed… and then again, tie a group of warp threads after sleying the reed. It keeps things organized and… safe.

This is the 20/2 smooth silk I’m using for weft, all wound up on bobbins that fit in an end-feed shuttle. I’m hoping I’ll have enough to finish the whole scarf… fingers crossed.

There’s a header of about five shots of big, fat mop cotton woven at the beginning of the piece… and then a bit of proper weaving. I pause at the beginning so that I can hemstitch a bit…

Now we have fabric… and yes, it is yummy.

If you live in Vancouver and are free on Monday evening, you might want to check out the Memorial lecture hosted by the Greater Vancouver Weavers & Spinners Guild. The speaker is tapestry artist, James Koehler, who will discuss how colour, structure and form focus his approach to design and how the landscape and cultures of New Mexico have influenced his work. The lecture will be held on Monday, May 5 at 7:30 PM in the Floral Hall at Van Dusen Botanical Garden, 5251 Oak Street (at 37th Ave.) in Vancouver. Admission is free to anyone who is interested! Unfortunately, I’ll be at work late on Monday and will miss the lecture… but if you DO go, let me know what you thought!

Mixed up.

Destash. I’ve set myself a bit of a laughable goal in wanting to use up pretty much every last drop of my yarn stash. The aim is to not acquire any new yarn until I’m done with the current stash. Jen, this does not include the lovely yarns I picked from your stash… you are going to London and it’s just not practical for you to take all your yarns.*

I’m attempting to destash by breaking up bags of yarns that were originally destined for full-on sweaters, because, really… when will I have time to sit and knit two sleeves, two front pieces and a back? Instead, I wanted this big, chunky scarf … I didn’t realize, however, that it was going to weigh about 200 lbs.

Ingredients for the knit scarf:

• 2 x 50g of dark eggplant alpaca from La Droguerie, purchased in Tokyo
• 2 x 50g of Rowanspun 4-ply in Rumtoft
• 2 x 25g of Rowan Lurex Shimmer in Bronze
• 1 x 25g of Rowan Kid Silk Haze in Splendour
• 3 skeins of Habu Tsumugi Silk, purchased in Kichijoji
• 1 x 100g of 5/2 bombyx silk, handdyed in cochineal

I’m looking to make this scarf about 10 feet long if I can manage it…

And this is destashing by handweaving with mixed warps… I used up the Saje and Golden Siam silk yarns that I purchased in San Francisco about two years ago. Plus, I added two strands of 5/2 bombyx silk… one pale lavendar (from cochineal with no mordant) and one pale cool green (from osage overdyed lightly with natural indigo). The dark green warp thread is cashmere and nylon. The weft is 100% silk… slubby and raw… and completely purple. I feel like this scarf might have been fulled a bit too much (my washer and I are still getting acquainted) but it is now wonderfully soft and warm.

Today, the 6-yard silk/wool warp is going on the loom.

*Aww yes, my friend Jen (of South African yarn tourism fame) is moving to London TOMORROW and has started writing about her adventures already … here …

Flying. Fleeting. Finally.

Finally. I had the chance to pull that tsumugi silk off the shelf and weave something from it. The DH’s birthday was on Friday and I wove a silk scarf for him… not prissy, not fussy. This silk is raw and slubby… a little rough and weathered. I guess, like him.

The scarf is woven from four different colours (charcoal, dark navy, oatmeal, espresso) in a stripe pattern. I just randomly designed this on the warping board, sometimes running two colours together at the same time to create a more blended effect. A simple two-yard warp x approximately 200 ends, set at 20 epi and woven in a 2×2 twill pattern.

Now that the silk scarf is off the loom, I’ve put on my most favourite warp… the cotton warp dyed in procion. This, I’m looking forward to seeing.