Painted Warp Bookmarks

I just completed some painted warp bookmarks as samples! As you weave the colours just magically change and you never do get any 2 that are the same. I bore really easily and I learnt a long time ago, if I want to weave a series of something all the same I put on enough warp so that I can switch from series to series. For example, if I need 6 placemats, I will weave one in one colour combination and then the next one in a different colour combination. I repeat this series until all 6 mats of each colour combination are completed. The nice thing about using a painted warp is that this is not necessary, even using the same weave structure will produce different bookmarks.

I wanted the warp to be fairly strong and one that beginners could easily handle so I decided on 8/2 cotton. The selvedges for the bookmarks are either navy or black, depending upon the colour way. I like the look of a border along the edge and if you use a dark weft your edges look better and the colours in the painted warp are enhanced.

Although one of my favourite weaves is a 1/3 twill, so that each side of the bookmark is totally different, I also sampled using plain weave, basket weave, and 2/2 twill. For the basket weave sample I used a double weft.

Conferences and Studio Clean Up

Well I guess spring makes us think about all the summer activities to come and of course clean up. This year DH will be working for both of our vendor events. The first one is the end of May in Olds for our provincial guild - Handweavers, Spinners & Dyers of Alberta. We have acquired new stock and that means packaging and pricing to get ready. Getting to spend time with all those wonderful fiber people always makes it worth it.

In June I will be teaching a beginning weaving course and looking after our vendor table after hours at Fibre Week (again in Olds). There seems to be a renewed interest in weaving both at the local level and the provincial level. Great because we have not seen this in a long time. Our local guild moved to a different location and that maybe part of it. The beginner course is a prerequisite for the new Master Weaver Program. All of this is so exciting!

I have reworked my beginner information so that it is more educationally focused rather than a course for fun. Now I just have to decide what some good projects are for beginning weavers - taking into account that the table looms are only so wide. I will still have the students make samples in the beginning and then do a separate project. The classes run all week so this should not be too ambitious.

I have also stop procrastinating and put some of my Loom Music issues up for sale on our website under Used Equipment. Last year I was able to purchase the entire set bound on Ebay. Prior to buying the entire collection, I had accumulated a few single copies. Even I do not need 2 copies of the same information. Although there are all those beginner weaving books I keep - just for my classes of course - ha. I just hate to give them up.

When I was up in Fort McMurray, I often borrowed books from the Canadian Guild and I thoroughly love to look through historic weaving literature. There is always something new to learn or rethink. Mary Sandin who was one of the weavers involved in the Loom Music project, also started up our local guild. I have browsed through the books and need to take the time to create an index and then read them thoroughly.

Well for now I am off to weave!

More on Fibre Arts in South America

When we arrived in Punta Arenas, the port entry had a building set up selling crafts. You can imagine our delight to find a woman setting up her rigid heddle loom. They weave mostly the shawl type items you see in the picture and scarves. Later that day when we were returning to the ship the woman above had already been weaving and was taking a break. Another woman sitting next to her was taking her turn.

The second to last port was Puerto Montt. However at this point in the cruise I was quarantined to my quarters due to a virus I picked up. All the women I talked to onboard said this was the best place for a handicraft market. When DH went ashore I asked that he take as many pictures as he could. The following picture is a picture of handspun yarn they were selling.

The cruise ended in Valparaiso, Chile. What a beautiful seaside town! We ended up waiting a long time for our transfer that never showed up. Fortunately another guide was there to meet his transfer and they were not there, so went on a tour of the town for a day with him.

At the end of the day we travelled to our hotel in Santiago. Immediately I started looking for some craft markets and so the last day we went to what I thought was a craft store. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was an entire little village in an area within Santiago.

The village itself was absolutely beautiful with lots of greenery. With temperatures of 38 celuis, I certainly appreciated the shade of the trees as we walked around. Each vendor had their own tiny shop and there were a few stands where you could buy food. We bought the camera strap in one of the shops. DH bought a small leather stool to use for spinning - it took awhile to decide on the pattern of the leather tooling. I also bought some jewellry and gifts. Oh what a trip - now if I could only get to Peru and Guatamala.

Pieces Purchased on our South American Cruise

The bracelet on the left was purchased at a craft market in Montivideo, Uruguay. The multi coloured cotton was used as the wrapping around the bracelet and a flat straw like fibre was used to make the patterns.

The camera strap was purchased in a small craft village in Santiago, Chili. Here they also had wonderful large blankets and carpets. The camera strap is warp faced and we just love the colours. There were many other patterns to choose from and it was really hard to decide which ones to purchase.

DH also managed to get some raw Merino fleece (about 10 ounces) from the Falklands. Apparently there is more weaving done outside of Santiago but I did not learn about this until I had returned. Maybe next time :-).

Wow Llama By the Box

DH and I arrived back home from our South American cruise mid Thursday afternoon to cold weather and a snowy driveway. Considering I had not slept since Tuesday night and Alberta time was 4 hours behind Chilean time, I knew it would be a quick dinner and an early night.

We had picked up the mail from the post office and noticed there was a final notice on a parcel. It would be returned if we did not pick it up that afternoon. Thank goodness DH went over to pick it up. Turns out my daughter had managed to find a llama fleece for us. The locals told her they consider this to be better than alpaca and it it certainly soft and oh so clean. I guess we know what DH will be doing for the next little while.

Trip to South America

My daughter and her boyfriend have been travelling through South America since September. They are touring mostly by bike and so have had a chance to see and experience many exciting events. Her poncho makes me drool and I can hardly wait to see and feel it. Fortunately they have sent us lots of photos and I cannot believe how many exciting textiles are lying in the background. The alpacas have so much character, you can almost put a tag to the look on their faces.

DH and I have booked a trip to South America and we will get to see Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. It should be exciting but these areas are not known for their textiles like Peru and Bolivia. In Buenos Aires apparently there are some yarn stores that are interesting and I am hoping to get there. Also some of the parts of Chile that we visit does have wool being produced.

New Project

Once again I have been following along with a workshop online through the UKWSDOnline · UK Online Guild of W, S and D. I just wish I had more time to take part in these workshops - they are always so much fun. Usually I pick one per year to devote time to and this year it was Ikat and Warp Painting.

The projects are going to be bookmarks and a scarf. The workshop leader suggested 20/2 cotton and I had some undyed 20/2 tencel so I decided to subsitute that. I put on enough warp (9 yards) to be able to get 2 scarves and several bookmarks from the warp. Once the warp was decided, the next step was to choose colours. Here the suggestion was to use black and since I just have to be different decided to dye the colours used for the selvedge and to be mixed with the white band a dark blue.

Each warp section was created on the warping board with an individual cross. Then the warp in the ikat section was prepared using a really neat knot. Initially mastering the knot took a few minutes but it certainly worked well. Raffia and strips of plastic bags were used for wrapping the resist areas. The plastic strips were harder to work with as when you pulled them tight sometimes they would break. However, these areas stayed much whiter than the areas where I used raffia.

The ikat warps and the edge threads were then dyed using an immersion technique and the reamaining sections were painted. I used yellow and green for the mid section and a bright pink and purple for the outer sections. The yellow and green areas worked out really well but the pink and purple ended up with some strands not being covered well enough. Once on the loom I will decide if I need to add more dye.

However when I took a course on painted warp I cannot remember if the instructor said to never use dye on the loom or if it was paint. If anyone knows which one is dangerous to your health please let me know. Although I do not think I would be doing enough to make it dangerous.

The design of the warp will follow the suggested layout - dark edges, followed by one end dark and one end light, a painted warp section, one ikat section, the other painted warp section, an ikat section and it will reverse after the ikat section.

The bookmarks are woven warp faced and then the scarf will be resleyed and woven in a twill pattern. I still have not decided what pattern I will use yet and plan on working on that today.