Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?

Did the title get your attention?  Did you sing it in your head as you read it?  Ha ha.  If you don't "get" it....it is from the song Bohemian Rhapsody.  As I have been told lovingly my weaving and dyeing is "a bit Bohemian."  I am a child of the 70s so I take that as a compliment.

Here are two scarves that I have woven recently.

Infinity Scarf woven as one piece -no seams. 

Standard Scarf with lots of colorwork, open weave spaces.
Imagine it over a "little black dress."

Nest up are the detail pictures I promised from the scarf yesterday. Once again the wind whipped and tried to interfere with my photos. The first one here is wrinkled due to a wind gust.

However you can still see the amazing design that the dye made.

This one looks like a  landscape all in blue.

See the trees pointing to the sky?

And finally, this one is a tribute to the "psychadelic 60s"

But most amazing is that this is all on one single silk scarf and happened almost by accident.
I put the silk scarves beneath the wool roving I was dyeing- laid out on plastic wrap - and squirted the dye on the roving.  I am not sure, but I think the roving laying on top contributed to the designs that emerged.  Whatever happened - it is gorgeous.

I am linking this post with Richard and Tanya's Link A Finish Friday
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Color Me Happy

It would be no surprise to faithful readers to read that I love bright expressive color.   Rich jewel tone colors make my heart sing.   Today, Thursday July 30, I decided to dye some wool roving  to spin into yarn.   And just for grins since I have the dye mixed up and because I can,  I took two silk scarves and dyed them at the same time.  The dye is Jacquard Acid Dye.   So let's look at the results.
First off, here is the impetus for the dyeing adventure - the wool roving.

Do you see the myriad of colors in this? WOW!  So how many dye colors did I use?  Would you believe only four?   It is true.  I used Fire Red, Lemon Yellow, Turquoise, and Sapphire Blue.But I also got greens, purples, oranges, warm browns and in a couple of places the white of the wool remained. I will truly enjoy spinning this fiber.

And what of the scarves?  The wind was blowing wildly -although it is still in the mid-90s outside- while I attempted to take photos.

Silk Scarf 8" by 54"

Silk Scarf 11" by 60"

I proclaim them a glorious success.  I should mention that Vicki Welsh is my dyeing inspiration.  Perhaps tomorrow I will post some detail photos from the bottom scarf. Meanwhile,  I have three more silk scarves stashed to play with.  But that is a story for another day.
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I'm Still Here/I made this Yesterday

Hi folks,  I know you haven't heard from me in over a week. I have taken some down time and done some needed work around the house.  Yesterday I took three 30 gallon trash bags, one tall kitchen bag and two large shopping bags full of clothing, accessories and bedding to a local thrift store to donate.  Whew, I feel lighter, better, free.  Although I don't have the book and haven't yet read it, I am using the method in the book by Marie Kondo, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  If the item doesn't "bring you joy" you can get rid of it. I am on the wait list for the  library digital loan of this book.

In other "news,"  I was winding a warp to weave and trying a new to me technique.  I messed it up and had to start again. However, I had 60 threads that were eight meters long (8 3/4 yards) wound on the warping board. So I tied it off and prepared it for putting on the loom "someday."
I started over and made the warp I had planned - only shorter this time.  I put the new warp in a ziplock bag for later use.  Then the following day, I put the 60 thread "mess up" warp on my loom.

I used a reed that is spaced wider than the usual one for this loom. This spreads out the threads to make an airier fabric.   I started weaving on it and just playing.

In Saori weaving we call this weaving your heart and weaving with eyes that shine. Last night I measured what I had woven and it was almost 6 feet long.  So I wove a bit more to just past 6 feet (roughly.)  I cut the cloth off the loom and tied the knots to secure the warp ends.  I am thinking that this will be a lovely scarf.

I still need to wet finish it, but first I am thinking I may twist the fringes for a more elegant finish.



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Sewing Some Accessories

In the future, I will be a featured artist in a Gallery run by The Arts Council.  I am working on some items that will be interesting and affordable - you know, impulse buys.   A while back I had purchased some purse clasps for making small coin type purses.

I finally got everything I needed together -let's face it, I put things away and "lose" them for a while. So I made the four purse bodies.  here they are shown with the clasps.

  I have not done the hand sewing to attach them to the clasps so they are not completed yet.  But I have to say that I love my hand woven fabric used for small items like this.  The handwoven fabric is backed with medium weight interfacing to make it sturdy.  The purses are lined with various batik fabrics in light to medium colors.
Next on my agenda is to make some zipper pouches with the handwoven fabrics.
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A Dyeing Attempt

One of my friends, who owns a weaving studio, had a white cotton warp dyed by the "TieDye Guy" who works in the same building.  I wanted to do the same thing, but it is a bit of a distance to travel there twice for it.  So I ordered a simple set of procion type fiber reactive dyes.  I made this white warp with cotton and mercerized cotton threads. According to what I have read, the mercerized cotton will be more brilliant in color.  That will add even more dimension to the cloth I weave on this warp.

 Then I took the plunge and am attempting to dye it as a multi colored warp.  I set up three plastic containers (they originally held yogurt.)  I mixed up dyes in each of the three colors (the 4th in the kit was black- no thanks!)  and put them in a row.
I put the warp chain in sections into each container. Part of it is in each color like this.

I also moved each one back and forth a bit to get the colors to blend. I know that all of it needs to stay wet for it to work, so I keep going back occasionally to help with that. 

I am curious to see if my process works well. If it does I am sure I will do some more warp dyeing. 

I guess you could say that I am a "warped dyer."  (it is okay if you groaned - that was pretty bad, I admit.)

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Weaving and Knitting- FiberArt Fun

Saturday I decided to put an unevenly spaced warp on my Ashford SampleIt loom.  This is the smallest rigid heddle loom I have.  It is one of the smallest ones made. I used some black cotton and some tan crochet cotton thread as the wrap.  Today I played on that warp a bit and wove off this small wall hanging.

I used a lot of different materials in this piece including some batik fabric and some printed quilt fabtic. There is also some handspun yarn and some commercial yarn and threads in it.  There is one poof of unspun roving in there. I am not sure if it is wool or bamboo.  I was "in the moment" creating and I just grabbed it.

I also promised to show the knitted/felted vessels I made.  I finally took the picture today. The smaller one is made with my handspun that I knitted.  The larger one is a commercial wool yarn.

I shaped them over a jar bottom and a glass.  On the larger one I allowed an edge to fold down.  I have no idea what I will use them for but they were certainly and adventure to knit and felt.   I have some fabric dyes arriving in the mail soon. So now I want to wind a cotton warp to dye. I also have some silk scarves coming that I will be playing with.  The acid dyes that will work on the silk will also dye wool.  I feel some fun coming on.
I forgot to mention that I posted a video on how I tie and secure the warp ends on my weavings.
So here it is if you want to watch it.


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Second July Finish

Yesterday I showed the knitting bag that I made for a friend. That was my first sewing finish of the month.
Today I completed the pinwheel table runner for a second finish in July.  I layered and quilted it, put on the binding and it is complete.

I will tell you that there are some mistakes in this one. In fact there are lots of them. I will say that it is relatively straight - although the picture makes it look skewed.   The mistakes are more sewing errors.  For some reason when I put on the binding, I forgot to fold it in half first.  What????  It was all sewn on before I realized it and went "Oh crap!"  So I improvised and ironed down a fat quarter inch around the raw edge that was free.  I pulled it around and ironed it to the back and sewed it down. (No, I am NOT showing the back of it. ha ha.)  The quilting is straight line quilting for most of that I used the stripes on the back as my guide and quilted it from the back  side.  For the rest, I marked with masking tape to get the lines fairly straight.

I hope you are creating and having some lovely finishes this month.
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A few projects

There are always a few projects going on in my place.  I sometimes forget to share them with you.

I am happy to tell you that another section of the Arrowhead Quilt is quilted.

 Perhaps I need to join and sash a few more blocks!
Here is a close up of the purple section I did a random paisley/feather shape just to fill in the space.  I am not thrilled with it, but in a full quilt it will not be the star of the show anyway.

My friend, Barbara at Pineland Treasures has been knitting some little bowls and then fulling or felting them.  I tried one little bitty one.  At least there was success in knitting in the round.  I think I need to redo the felting part and see if I can get it to be a more solid fabric.  I used some of my handspun yarn --and the truth is, I can't be sure it was 100% wool.

It is a bit wonky and the fabric isn't stable yet.  I have knitted a larger one from commercial yarn that I know it 100% wool.   I will felt it this weekend.

The nice lady who works the nursery at my church mentioned to me that she would like to learn to knit.  While I am pretty new at it myself, I told her I would try to teach her how.  I decided that if she had a bag for her knitting, it might help to inspire her to keep at it. So I took some home dec fabric that I have (actually samples from a high end shop) and made this little bag.  I made up the pattern I made it.

 The pocket on the front was a fun bit to add in.  For the handles, I tried making a tube and turning it. Ha!  This fabric did NOT cooperate with turning.  So I took strips, folded both ends to the middle and seamed it shut. I think I like it better than my original handle idea.



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Table Runner- Top Done

The table runner I started is now a completed top.  I am still searching for the fabric I want to use as backing.

You can see that I added the triangles at the ends. I also added borders to make it a bit larger.  You may also notice that the "incorrect" square was ripped out and reoriented.  The darks in the center now make a pinwheel.
Here is the before correction picture

I really like it better now that it is corrected.  I don't enjoy ripping out but a friend of mine doesn't mind doing it at all.  So I got him to do it for me.

I also published a new weaving video on YouTube. The subject is "How to keep your selvedges straight."



Enjoy your day.

My blog is http://blog.geneblack.com
Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible unless otherwise stated. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger" - I can not reply.