Meanderings of a Mermaid

And here is the exciting final installment regarding the crimp cloth scarf. I left you hanging, literally. In the above photo the steamed cloth is cooling and drying outside on the clothesline. The drawing threads are clearly visible. Once dry I snipped and pulled the bright yellow threads out. And I finally got to see that, YES! , the crinkles in the cloth are set in place.  It worked! Why am I washing again? Well  most weaving yarns are sold with a sizing product applied to the yarn to make them slick and behave well. That needs to be washed out. The red silk threads also wanted to bleed out a little pink juice. Back to the clothesline. You can definitely see the texture of hills and valleys. some ridges are longer than others and that is due to the pattern draft. The colours are divine. The final steps involved pressing the ruffle portion at either end and creating a narrow hem. No rocket science here. Fold, press and machine stitch.  Fold, ...

Continuing on with the crimp cloth scarf project.... here it is freshly off the loom. Boy it is pretty just the way it is! Check out the lovely lustre of the fabric. It was a joy to weave. At this point I sat down to darn in a few ends of weft (where I had changed bobbins). This image is showing the beginning of the drawing in process. You can also see the ruffle potion that will not be crimped. The hems are not yet sewn in, but there is a line of zig zagging there. All drawn up and tied into knots. I have not measured this scarf but it is between six and seven feet long. And now the project moved into the kitchen. Boiling water is in the bottom of the pot. A cheesecloth hammock will hold up the tied fabric. The scarf is arrayed on top of the cheesecloth and ready for its sauna treatment. The lid went on and the steam worked its magic. Right now I have the result hanging off the clothesline drying out. Stay tuned to this blog for the exciting conclusion...

The start of a new project is always exciting, This one even more so, because I am learning a technique I have not done before. Diane Totten designed this pattern and project and it is in the current Handwoven magazine.  The warp threads are mostly tencel and the deep red are silk. They are all fine. Aren't the colours really wonderful? While sleying the reed I had to insert two ends per dent (30 epi) and so I strung a cord across the mid point. The first thread of the pair went below and the second above. Granted, in this design I would say this is not a critical distinction (keeping the warp thread sequence) but it was good practice. I did make some mistakes with sleying and threading but nothing major. I suspect not even I will be able to find those mistakes at the end. Just tied on and ready to begin throwing picks. The design is an overshot draft and makes use of two shuttles. I really enjoyed sitting at the loom and working on this, mostly because the ...