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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Wednesday Snapshot

The purple warp came off yesterday; the mohair-mix-weft piece was done last week, but I had about a meter left, so I wove some merino fabric yesterday. I say I never weave anything for myself, but I stand corrected: these warp-end fabrics, though I've never used them to make anything yet, are just for me. And I wonder if I could make up a patchwork Happi for myself; maybe hand-stitched.  Maybe next autumn.

Unfortunately there was yet another dye lot change on the merino/mohair weft cone, so not a very nice look; the overall colors change from blue-ish purple to very-violet about one-third the way. But really, I'm finished with this yarn source, even if they sell the best merino I've come across in New Zealand.  Enough said.

Two warps are waiting to be wound: one is Ben's Happi Blues; I've been wondering if I should go ahead and weave this in a 2/1 and 1/2 twill, or in Summer & Winter, so it will be wound, but not threaded until I make up my mind. If I'm particularly patient, I might even sample both.


The other is my pleasure weaving, the mainly-purple Summer & Winter in random threading, lifting and weft colors.

Speaking of Summer & Winter, at the end of the session on Monday, Ali said to read about Summer & Winter some more.  She asked if I had a book on the structure, and I said no, but I have books on structures, like Black and Alderman.

Before I went to bed, though, I wanted to check; knowing now what Summer & Winter looks like, I wondered if a book I had forever fits the description.  And it was.  Sullivan's book, I fell in love with the heart on the cover when I saw the advert in Handwoven, and I had it for almost as long as I can remember.  I was a tad disappointed at the other pictures inside, but just looking at the cover used to make me happy.

I haven't started reading this yet, but flipping through it, I came across something I had been wondering about this last week.  I wondered if instead of using four warps to make one unit of pattern, (1-P-2-P), I could use just two, (1-P1-2-P2), and yes, she says I can, and there is even a name for it.  And there are few other ways to tie in non-conventional ways, too.  She even mentions Barrett and Smith book, which, yes, I also happen to have; this was from Halcyon Yarns website.  Don't ask.

I'm all set to delve deeper, and maybe pick up the correct jargon.  Or mix them up even more.
  

On the sample loom, I'm weaving the same Robot Pebble 1 draft with yellow wefts from the bottom of the draft, so the finished piece looks exactly like the drawdown and the grid picture.  I thought it might be nice to add a few pieces of fabric in my neglected Sketchbook Project.

4 comments:

  1. I don't understand much of your weaving but I do think I'd be fed up if the colour changed in the middle of the cone. That's too annoying for words.

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  2. It so is, Carol. And over and over again. Obviously I'm not a valued customer, because I've not heard anyone else complain about this of yarns from this company.

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  3. Meg, is it supposed to be variegated? Or is it just random stupid dye mistake?

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  4. It's variegated. Some portions have bluer purples and some very pale lavender parts, then comes the big bad knot and there are about three shades of purples, no bluey purple, and very short length of pale lavender bits.

    The value of the green changes after the knot, too.

    Yikes, Sunny.

    ReplyDelete

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