2nd Woven Shibori Scarf

I have finally begun working on the  2nd scarf from my woven shibori warp.  I finished weaving it ages ago, but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the dyeing of it.   I really wanted to try another Indigo dye vat, but it was too cold to do that outside and inside isn’t an option.

I finally made a decision to use the Procion dyes for the quickness and ease of use.  For the first part of the this scarf I wanted to under-dye the untied scarf, then pull the ties and do the shibori part in a second colour.  For the first colour I used Rust Procion MX and am thinking of a dark Navy for the second part. The green threads are the ties, and will of course be pulled out.

Here is the partially tied scarf – this really is hard on the hands.  I did about half last night and will continue this evening.  I also have a 1/2 yrd. sample bit from the end of the warp. The photo seems a bit dull, the colour is a bit richer.    I didn’t stir the cloth much in the dye pot either, I wasn’t concerned with a splotchy result.

I’m pleased my description of converting to blocks worked for some people.   There are so many beautiful overshot style patterns out there and because overshot is a two shuttle weave I think they tend to be forgotten.   Converting to other structures allows one to use the drafts in another form.

Arts & Culture Week

Saturday afternoon my mother and I set up an old Doukhabor loom at the  museum/art gallery.

This loom was the rescue mission we undertook a few weeks ago and had been waiting for a place to be set up.  This week being Arts and Culture week, we will demonstrate various textile skills including rag rug weaving .  There are groups of   school kids scheduled to be trooping through and hopefully other stray visitors.

The loom has a rug warp ready to go thanks to the people at the Doukhobor Cultural Interpretive Society in Brilliant.    There are great photos of traditional rugs in the gallery section of the web-site as well as a photo of this loom.

This morning I will re-sley the reed and tie on and begin weaving.

Here is the loom sleyed, forgot to get a shot of the weaving in progress.  I did forget to wrap  the cloth around the knee beam, but that was an easy fix later.   I managed to weave a few inches while fielding questions from groups of inquisitive  children in grades1, 2 and 3.  They were all very eager to help.  The loom is a direct tie-up so requires stepping on two pedals at once.

Draft conversion to Blocks

So here goes, I will try explain how I go about converting an overshot draft to blocks and hope it makes sense and that I haven’t forgotten some vital step in the process.

This overshot draft  has the first three blocks circled.  Overshot blocks overlap, the last and first ends of each block.

Block D – shafts 1 & 4 – twice (red)

Block A – shafts 1 & 2 – once (blue)

Block B is next on shafts 2 & 3

Block C on shafts 3 & 4  and so on

Once I have figured out the block sequence, I can write it like this – a profile draft where each square represents a “block” of multiple ends

Now that I have a profile draft I can substitute each block (represented by one black square) to a threading, in this case a twill where every block will be substituted with 3 ends – that makes the draft 3 times larger.  This profile of 16 blocks will become 48 ends.

Block D x 2  threaded as 10, 11, 12 (I am using a 3-end twill so that on 16 shafts I can thread the edges as a fifth block for a border)

Block A x1, threaded 1,2,3,

Block B x 1, threaded 4,5,6,

Block C x 2, threaded 7,8,9

Block D will be 13,14,15

When I substitute each square of my profile draft with the threading ( here I have  added the fifth block on shafts 13,14,15  at each side for my border ) this is the draft.

Then I add my tie-up and treadling to come up with

Using blocks instead of a full threading allows one to experiment with  arrangements of threading and treadling more easily and see the overall pattern without the distraction of all the individual ends.   Of course a computer program for weave drafting is a huge help and time saver, but it  helps to know the theory behind the moves.   I have used Fiberworks PCW almost as soon as it was out.  For me it was the most logical of the weave software available and the easiest to learn.  I also have ProWeave,  it has features I like for other applications and especially for damask weaving.

Costume and Felt

Last weekend I went to see the opening of a show by  Angelika Werth ,   Madeleines and Ladies in Tents.   Quoting from the Angelika Werth website –  “Madeleines is a series of twelve sculptural, felted dresses made for the use of historical figures and their imaginary engagement in athletic activity.”
They are  beautiful, inspiring and thought-provoking.   They are also wearable (maybe only for short periods of time!)  and I felt (pun not intended) like I would like to try one on.

There were also Tent Dresses (made from deconstructed tents) and quilted wall art (using bras and felt).   I would love to see the rest of the felt dresses – only 6 were in this display.

Waffle weave

This is an ordinary commercial kitchen towel.  I like the blocks of waffle and how the plain weave puckers like seersucker in the  panes around the waffle weave.   I think there was an article by Alice Shlein in  Weaver’s magazine using waffle and network drafting for some beautiful towels.