Canaan Flowers Breakthrough

Weaving Cloth for Coats

From an admirer:

"I loved your woven jacket.  It seems so magical to have some yarn, weave it and then make a jacket.

Your creations are like a caterpiller that turns into a beautiful butterfly.  

I never could have imagined the yarn in anything but a sweater or scarf or something knitted or crocheted."

Long ago I wove this art piece.
I think I was telling myself I would like to weave cloth for coats ... or jackets. 

Olympic Weaving

The shuttle was my bobsled, the race was to the end of the warp!

During the Olympics, I set up a warp called Canaan Flowers from Marguerite Davison's weaving book. Because I am a novice to weaving, I chose this pattern as a stretch because it called for five treadles, something I had never done before. Following the charts as accurately as possible, it ended up that the raised part of the design emerged on the underside, like sliding blind.  Because my yarns were not high in contrast, keeping track of the pattern sequence was a bit of a challenge, like the skeleton sledders who have to have the curves memorized and in muscle memory, or the giant slalom skiers peering through the fog trying not to miss the giant slalom gates. My eyes blurred, struggling to make out the boundaries. I sometimes had to remove several rows to get back on track. By the time I arrived at the finish line of the warp, I'd figured out how to reorganize the treadlings to get the design on top. The sun shone! However this no longer mattered much, because the last length was mostly tabby.  Color and proportion became my new moguls.

"Flowers of Canaan" pattern just off the loom

close up - some "Rebecca's Tweed" yarn in the weft

BLOCKING: the white is a handspun by me BFL and Shropshire wool blend
the brown and green warp is a wonderful vintage cotton 

the shawl on the left was blocked, the one on the right was steamed

Jean Lilly

This is woven in the Jean Lilly pattern on the warp
and color variation stripes using only two yarns -
 buit it looks like more!

the dress to go with the jacket - or not!

Winter Weaving: Theme and Variations

I had to master the basic traditional Lee's Surrender pattern from
Marguerite Porter Davison's
A Handweaver's Pattern Book

I set up the loom and got started, but I broke my wrist in June
and all weaving was put on hold.

The possibilities spread out before me but I had to wait!

Finally after 6 months I felt I have the stamina to get back to the loom,
but I could only pull the beater with my right hand.
As a discipline to really learn the pattern
I did six pretty much matching mats of the
basic traditional Lee's Surrender design.

White variations done in the Egyptian cotton 20/2
that I used on the warp

A bookmark

a border idea for a lampshade

fringed trim idea done with black wool

My favorite variation done in Cottolin 

 cottolin and vintage cotton yarn

I did the plain weave base

 alternating with the 20/2 egyptian cotton

and the heavier green and red yarns

Design sampler with reds and oranges, many different textures

This piece will be a wall hanging

Back to the drawing board...

Lee's Surrender is a very generative pattern!

Lee's Surrender Weaving

Now that my sprained ankle has healed I can return to the loom!

Rag Rugs in October

Chenille Scarves

I just finished five scarves. I wove them on a four-harness floor loom intended for much wider fabric production. I called it my first date. The loom was built by a master loom maker Shaker named Henry DeWitt. I didn't want to "go all the way" across the full measure of the harnesses. This was a "get acquainted" project. I only used two harnesses, did a tabby weave, and brought in visual dazzle by using the technique much liked by the Shakers of weaving the warp and woof in contrasting colors.

Chenille Scarves
woven on the Henry DeWitt 1834 loom
at Hancock Shaker Village

Weaving M's and O's

The Main Collection

Shaker Chairs

I chose this M's and O's, an overshot warp set up, because it echoed the Shaker woven chair seats. I brought in design elements of checkerboards, rectangles, symmetry, graduated sizes, vibrant color contrasts, and color symbolism.