I finished weaving the Zebra Shibori scarf.

Now, Tomorrow I will twist the fringe and get busy on dyeing it. If this turns out good, I will enter it in the Escondido Arts Partnership  Art show. All entries have to be photographed and put on cd by July 17th.   My weaving Anniversary !  If you take a close look you can see that I left squares of 3” by 5” blank… free from shibori threads. Im going to batik the stripes in these squares. Then I will paint around the square with colors of a Kenya sunset. That is where Nemo (the zebra) is from. Then, I will pull the loom shibori stitches and use a Rose red direct dye on the gathered pleats. This is the 3 attempt. I found it very difficult to dye black. The problem isn’t the application of the dye, it is the rising out of the dye without it running all over the place and making a mess on the rest of the scarf. I think I finally got the technique that works and I will take pictures and share my notes so if you want to try something like this, you at least won’t have to make the mistakes I made.

up close to show you the squares…

Nemo! Isn’t he handsome :)

Putting My AVL together…

As I said before, I was a little overwhelmed with the idea of me putting this loom together by myself  but I took a deeeeeeeep breath and dived in.

Here is where I started.

A big heap of wood. Pretty wood mind you, but a heap none the less.

 

More heap!

One more deep breath…

 

Viola!  What a beauty! Now I have all the parts together,  so now I need to go back and hook up all the cables and weights. After that I will attempt putting the computer dobby on and adjust it. If you have ever done this,  I could sure some  helpful hints. :) 

Now some Loom Flair! You know what Im talking about, the pictures of Kids/ Grandkids, Studio Posse, sheep measuring tape, pictures of sheep, stuff like that. What do you have on your Loom? Share your loom flair, maybe post a picture of your loom Flair, that would be fun to see what we all have.

Here is my Loom Flair:

     

Loom Fairy (of course)

 

Yes, that’s right… a loom monkey!

Pictures of  my horses!

 

Shrinky Dink Goldfish, fresh Lavender from the garden, and plenty of horse figures.

 

And of Course the Studio Posse.

                         Chloe Belle

Emma Marie

Mr. Kitty Leopold, Weaving a placemat I believe. He has pictures of me on his loom!

And my pretty little Julie Bean.

Now Im all set!

On July 17th 2010, I celebrate the one year anniversary of learning to weave. I love it!

I have never seen a computer weaving program let alone learning to weave with one. I hope that I can get the hang of it. I have weave point that Ingrid included with the loom for me.

AVL 60” Compu-dobby Production Loom and it is all mine YIPPIE!

Tomorrow morning I am getting up early and hooking a little trailer to my truck and then I'm off to Coronado Island to pick up My new to me AVL loom. It is currently living with Ingrid. Ingrid does not need a loom of this size and she doesn’t weave enough to warrant having a production loom. Not to mention it takes up a lot of space and she is looking to use her room for something else for a change. Ingrid is a wonderful weaver and really loves her Baby wolf.  I do have to say that I am a little overwhelmed with the prospect of having to put this monster together by myself. Then to actually warp it….I don’t know. I hope I can do it!  I plan on taking picture of the process. I wish I knew someone who could help me through the process. It has been a long time since Ingrid has woven anything on this loom and I don’t believe she used all 16 harnesses. I feel so blessed that Ingrid is letting me take this loom.  I have been wishing for a 16 shaft Loom  for so long and my birthday is right around the corner.                          How lucky I am. Thank you Ingrid, I promise to take good care of her.

Dyeing with Indigo

Today I started a new project using Indigo crystals.

I am going to do a Ikat scarf out of 8/2 Tencel. I made 6 bundles of 40 end sections. Then I used  the Fibonacci system to create the patterns I was going to dye each bundle. I started out with the first bundle all white. The next bundle I wrapped all but 2, 2 inch sections 2 inches apart. Then , I wrapped all but 3, 3 inch sections 3 inches apart. The next 3 sections I did the same thing only I wrapped the sections I want to stay white and left the rest to be dyed indigo blue

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Now all the yarn is all counted out and wrapped so Im off to the dye bath. This stuff is crazy. It looks like some weird foamy sludge.  When you put your yarn in and pull it out it comes out a sorta lime green color for about 15 seconds,  then rather quickly it begins to turn a beautiful indigo blue. I LOVE IT.  Here are some pictures…

Does that look gross or what?

I wrapped the warp with garbage bags cut in 1 1/2 inch strips.

 

Here is what it looked like after I rinsed it out. Sorry about the blurr

Batik Turtle Pillow

Right after I learned how to dye fibers and fabric, I decided to order some dyes of my own. Dharma Trading company has a really cool web site with “how to” video’s and a bus load of instructions on different techniques. While I was in a clicking stupor, I came across the section on Batik. I found it very interesting and of course had to order the starter kit.  Sooo, here is the results of my beginner Batik kit.

Here is the beginning of my turtle. The tool you see here is called a Tjanting. You first melt wax in a melting pot, then dip the Tjanting in the wax and fill the reservoir. With this tool you can apply wax in a fine line (with some practice).

 

Moving right along…

vat dyed

After that was cured, I had to use a iron and paper towels to get all the wax out of the fabric.

Next I sewed all the beads on to give it a little bling, then I made it into a pillow.

VIOLA! A turtle pillow.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I will give this cute little turtle pillow to a very special friend of mine. I hope she likes it.

Woven Shibori Scarf’s Done

Here is the results of my latest woven shibori scarf’s.

 

 

I'm still experimenting with the Zebra design.

Table Runner

Today I started a Table runner for my Niece’s birthday. I'm using a 5/2 cotton perle 12 epi in a 12 dent reed. It is 22” wide and 80” long with 3” of fringe and beads at each end.The other day I was browsing through some of my favorite blogs and came across a draft that I found on Susan Harvey’s blog “Thrums” at http://weeverwoman.blogspot.com/  that was made into some beautiful scarf’s that had a iridescence look. I fell in love with the draft and made some changes to suit what I needed it to look like and size.  Here is a picture of the yarns I am using. The warp is the darker Gold color and the weft is the creamy Gold color. Also, I am practicing taking pictures of my textiles so I can have some experience  before the Escondido Art Partnership show. You have to send in pictures of the items you want them to consider for the show on disk. I want the photo’s to capture the textile color and workmanship. 

  

So here is a picture as I was weaving it.

I have finished the table runner just a few hours ago. I sewed on 960 beads between the two ends. Tomorrow I will wet finish and hard press just in time to give it to my Niece on her birthday Saturday! I hope she likes it!

Okay, so I have wet finished and hard pressed the Table runner and here is a couple of pictures

That weird reflection on the table is from the window blinds.

Thanks Susan for sharing your draft, I hope I did you proud.

Here is a picture I took after I washed the table runner and hung it out to dry…

 

 

You can see how light and airy it is.

Then I got distracted and took some pictures of flowers in the backyard

Lavender mmmmmm smells so pretty!

My Mom calls these Garlic plants. Im sure she is right but they don’t smell like garlic. OK BACK TO WORK :)

Here is the table runners new home. My Niece was sweet and put it on her table right away. It matched perfectly and fit the table whew!!!