Shibori on my own

After attending the Shibori Workshop in February, I decided to give it a go on my own. I purchased all my dyeing equipment from www.dharmatrading.com and I bought some muslin from Jo-Ann’s.

   

I started with folded Shibori:

The first one is fold like a fan. I pressed each fold to keep it neat. Next, I folded it into triangles, pressing as I go. I then secured the folded fabric with a triangle shaped piece of plastic and a clamp I purchased from home depot.

I did a direct dye application and used 3 different colors.

Here is how this turned out.

That was so fun and I think it turned out really cool.

The next one I did was  folded into a fan again but this time I folded it into squares and then secured it with popsicle sticks and a clamp. Here what that looked like.

I love it!

Shibori Workshop with Kathleen Waln

In February my guild, Palomar Handweavers Guild, had a     Shibori workshop I attended. The Teacher for this workshop was  Kathleen Waln. We had a great time and Kathleen was a wonderful teacher and very talented. Here is a picture of Kathleen:

             

Here are a few of the examples she brought to show us what to expect to learn at the workshop:     

              

                 

               

             

We learned how to do a little traditional  Shibori as well as Woven Shibori,  then Kathleen taught us about fiber reactive dyes and we got to dye our samples.

          

              

             

 

Here are my samples:

              

          

Sweet guest hand towels

Do you ever have some friends over and they go to the restroom and use your "Special Towels". Maybe you don't have towels that no one is suppose use but for some crazy reason I do! I decided to make some little guest hand towels so they would leave my special towels alone. I used 8/2 ring spun cotton I got from http://www.randmyarns.com/ they have really nice cotton at a good price. set at 20epi in a 10 dent reed. The weft was very interesting. I got it from http://www.iloveyarn.com/ . It is a cotton terry eyelash. Shelby, the owner told me where it came from. It was designed by Perry Ellis for the robes that they have at the Waldorph Historia. I bought a BUNCH of this stuff! It looks sort of skimpy at first glance but after you wet finish, it is lusious. I did a plain weave for the body of the towel and an easy overshot for the accent. I made a set of 4 using different colors for the design. I really need to get better at taking picture of the finished product. No sooner did I finish these, someone bought them. So if you want to use my special towels... go ahead, I need to make some more. Here is a picture of some bath sheets I made as Christmas gifts out of this great stuff. The bath sheets where 32 x 60.

Crazy how things happen!

Ok so I just moved back to California after being away for the past 15 years. I moved to Colorado with my two kids and our dog BooBoo. Lots of things, people, experiences, happened in the 11 years I lived there. For one, I got to finally have the horse I always wanted. I was driving down this back road and saw a sign that said "HORSES FOR SALE". I stopped by the pasture where I met a man named Paul. He was a Denver sheriff and owned about 23 horses that he had on this land. One of the horses was this pretty little paint horse. I knew nothing about caring for a horse so Paul agreed to teach me. I went every morning to help feed and groom the horses. He taught me about hay, irrigation, horse keeping , horse health and a bunch of other wonderful things. Before I picked the horse I wanted to buy I decided to live with them for awhile and let one pick me. The first day I was there I saw the most beautiful horse I ever saw. She followed me everywhere. I asked Paul if he thought that she would be a good horse for me and he said No way, she is lazy and she doesn't like anyone. I said I think she likes me. Paul watched me and the horse he called Patches and decided that maybe we would be a good match. After several months of taking care of 23 horses and the paint horse it was time for me to buy her. First thing I did was changed her name to Sophie. She loved it and me.It was time for me and Sophie to hit the road and go out on our own. I rented a stall at the Humane Society and all was good. I was doing such a great job with my little horse, she was quickly gaining weight on her very underweight frame and suddenly I saw her belly move. UH OH, I called the vet and he said she wasn't lazy she was ready to give birth. She gave birth to my beautiful boy Simon. Nine years later here he is running around having fun. That's it for now, I will continue this story a little later.

Double weave

I received my Handwoven magazine and Low and behold it was all about double weave.

I felt like they knew I was going to try double weave hehehehe!

I had finished my sample and was ready for "The real thing". I picked a cute little scarf in the book. The scarf has two arms if you will and then comes down to a point in the back. I used some stash yarn.

3/2 Perle cotton. I used a 10 dent reed at 20epi. So here goes, I wove (is that a word wove, weaved... you know what I mean) the first 28 inches then it was time to do the point in the back. In order to do this you have to snip a thread from the top and one from the bottom layer. The warp becomes the weft.

Next, you take the bottom thread and lift the harness for the top and weave the bottom yarn through the top, Then you repeat lifting the bottom harness then using the top thread and weave it into the bottom.

Here's what it looked like when I was down to the last of the pairs. This was so easy to weave and it took about 1 hour 45 mins. Of course the fringe twisting took a million years but I finally finished it. The picture I took of the finished scarf was to dark so I need to take another and post it later. SO, I am now no longer afraid of double weave!

Here is what it looks like finished.

Getting started

Today is the first day of my blog. I hope to share some of the adventures I have with weaving. I will be posting the work I do as I do it. My adventure today is to teach myself how to double weave. I read all that I can get my hands on and viewed videos. I think I am ready! I dressed my LeClerc loom with a 5 yard warp of 8/2 cotton 30 epi in a 15 dent reed.