A Happy Mistake

As you can see from my past posts, I'm a huge fan of Kauni Yarn. I had a beautiful Fall colorway I wanted to weave, so I wound the warp. I was so excited to get this project onto my loom that I made a mistake I've never made before. I began chaining my warp and then realized that I didn't tie the cross! 

I was devastated. The gorgeous ombré that I was going for was now a jumble of color. After a minute or two, I realized that it might still work. Instead of trying to figure out where each thread should go, in color order, I just began sleying & threading. 

I had planned on weaving plain weave & then experimenting with 6 shaft M's & W's. I decided to go ahead with that plan however the warp came out. As I had hoped, the colors blended together seamlessly. Here are my happy results...

Plain weave on the loom....

M's & W's on the loom....

Just off the loom....

The finished product 😀

Happy Weaving!

Fine Arts Fair This Saturday

Come out and see my weaving this Saturday, October 8, at the Fine Arts Fair at Deep Run East Mennonite Church in Perkasie, PA from 10-4. Proceeds to benefit Worthwhile Wear, and organization supporting victims of human trafficking.

6 Shaft Shadow Weave in Chenille

The last time I did color & weave or a shadow weave, it was on 4 shafts. My 1st piece was a log cabin runner woven on my rigid heddle loom. It was my favorite, until.... I got my floor loom. I did a table runner in 4 color log cabin. It still is one of my all time favorites. I've been having a hard time deciding what to make for some upcoming craft shows. Ultimately I decided to try to use up my chenille and make some shadow weave scarves. 

When I searched "8 shaft shadow weave", I found several links to Eva Stossel's blog. Using her specs as a guideline, I began to wind the warp. In the end, I went with a 6 shaft pattern and I decided on a sett of 17 1/2. Why this odd sett? I have two reeds; a 5 dent & a 10 dent. Eva recommends a sett of 16-18 for her various projects using chenille. I should add, I'm using 1400 ypp rayon chenille. The closest I could get is 17 or 17 1/2 epi. I decided to go with the closer sett.  This whole experience has sold me on the absolute necessity of an 8 dent reed ;)

Threading; my least favorite part 

Here is my draft.

Fast forward about a day and im having threading issues. I'd fix one error only to weave another inch or two before finding another. I also thought I could get away without floating selvedges. That was another bad plan. After blowing through almost 2 bobbins and about twice as much warp as I had planned for sampling, the pattern was perfect......

....sort of. I noticed that certain warp threads appear as if they are floating. This is due to the sett of 17 1/2. To sley in the 10 dent reed, I sleyed 2,2,2,1. The threads that appear to be floats are where one thread is sleyed in a dent. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will even out when off the loom. 

I did another version using purple....

 

And another with green in a diamond pattern....

Fringe is a must with these scarves and fringing chenille was a lot more tedious than I had anticipated. The fringe looks great, but I'm not looking forward to fringing the rest!

Fast forward to wet finishing. I soaked the 1st scarf in hot water. The water turned pink immediately so I continued rinsing until the water was clear. I rolled the scarf in a towel & then put it in the dryer. Some of the fringe got a little wonky but the finished fabric is like "buttah" 😉

Happy Weaving!

Next up, Fancy Twills on the 8 shaft 😀