This time at home with fewer distractions has actually been good for me! I’ve been working on several different projects, rotating around so I don’t get bored. Although lots of yarn shops are open for mail order, I’ve taken the isolation as a challenge to finish some projects that have been hanging around too long and to use up some of my stash yarns.
Woolen basket
Status: Completed
This was made from a small piece of wool fabric woven from the left over warp for the Plimouth Plantation blanket. I sewed it into the rectangular basket shape, finished the top edge, and fulled it in a sink full of hot water and peppermint soap. I shocked it in cold water a couple times as well. The finished size is 10″ x 7.5″ at the top and 4″ tall.
Then I built a “basket block” exactly the right size out of Lego blocks that live in my attic. With the basket upside down on the Legos, I used my steam iron on the wool setting to further shape and full it. (Yes, I had pre-tested the Legos to make sure they could withstand steaming.)
It was good and thick, but I was worried that it might start to sag over time. So I lined it with some cotton fabric lined with a medium weight Pellon. Not sure what I’m going to use it for yet. Maybe some Legos.
Bouclé shawl
Status: Completed
I wove this shawl last fall. It has an Icelandic wool warp that I hand dyed with my favorite colors and a purple mohair bouclé weft. The pandemic project part of it was the fringe braiding. I threaded 3 beads on one strand of each braid and spaced them randomly on the braids. It was washed afterward, and then I trimmed the braids. This project was part of this year’s challenge for the Nashoba Valley Weavers Guild. It’s still TBD whether we’ll be able to get together in person at the end of June to show off our products.
Triangle shawl
Status: Completed
Tidying my studio one day, I ran across some silk/cotton yarn that was waiting for inspiration. I realized it was similar to some yarn I had used for a project last year, which I had some leftovers from. So I took the skeins of stash yarn and combined them with the smaller amounts of more colorful leftovers to make this shawl on my triangle loom.
The thing about weaving on a triangle loom is that the warp and weft build as you weave. There’s no loom waste, so you can predict exactly how much yarn you’ll need. It takes about 10 hours to weave a fullsize shawl like this one, depending on the complexity of the color pattern and the texture of the yarns. However, I came up with a sample sized loom that has the same sett as the fullsize one, but it takes me only 20 minutes to weave up a sample. (I teach a 2-hour class on this for those who are interested.)
Tablecloth
Status: In progress
Here’s a project that has been sitting around for too long! Years ago I wove some yardage on an 8-shaft Macomber loom that I no longer own. It was about 20′ of material, a striped warp of primary and secondary brights, with black weft. After washing, the yardage was just over 16″ wide. My thought had always been to somehow sew it into a tablecloth, but it had somehow never materialized.
After measuring my tables and playing around with some panel ideas on paper, I wasn’t inspired. Wandering out of the box, I started playing with some diagonal panel ideas. Calling on some high school math, I determined that there was enough material for a 60″ x 60″ tablecloth and worked up a pattern for laying out the pieces.
Coincidentally that night, a package arrived from Chewy.com that was padded with a very long length of 30″ wide brown paper. Perfect for making a fullsize pattern. That was the confidence I needed to cut into my precious handwoven cloth!
The project is still in progress, but I’ve sewn about half of the 237 inches of seams so far. I’m using a fagoting stitch to butt the selvedges against each other and avoid lumpy seams on my table. Once the seams are done, I’ll hand sew a rolled hem all around.
Sprang sample
Status: Complete
Last summer at the New England Weavers’ Seminar, I took a class with Carol James on Sprang. She’s an excellent teacher, and my fascination with historic textiles and textile techniques made this a great match for me!
Sprang is an ancient method of producing cloth. It uses threads stretched parallel to each other on a frame or a backstrap. The threads are twisted methodically to produce various patterns, often resembling lace. Two rows of cloth are produced simultaneously, mirroring each other. Carol’s website can give you lots of visuals if you’re interested.
I circled back to this technique over the past couple weeks and reconnected with Carol by email. She sent me a couple new patterns for a Double Stitch, which I had to try out. Here’s my sample still on the sprang loom. I tied some cords on the sides to pull it out so the pattern can be seen. It’s not perfect, but I did manage to learn the new stitch.
Fiber friends rug hooking
Status: In progress
Yet another years old project recovered from the depths of a closet. I had purchased it from Windfall Farm, a vendor at a NH Sheep &Wool Festival. When it saw the light of day a couple weeks ago, 3 of the animals and some grass were hooked. I’ve been working on it gradually in the evenings when we settle on the couch. It’s showing promise!
Chevron scarf
Status: Fiber spun into 3-ply yarn; scarf >2/3 knit
This project was partially completed when we landed in this pandemic. It’s knit from handspun yarn. The fiber had been dyed with 3 colors by Spunky Eclectic before I came into possession of it through the Boston Area Spinners & Dyers annual challenge. It’s 80/20 merino/silk in a colorway called “Mahogany”. I separated the fiber into 3 piles, roughly corresponding to the 3 dye colors. After some sampling, I decided to chain ply the singles into a 3 ply yarn, which would result in less color blending than a 2-ply.
The pattern is inspired by a shawl pattern by Andrea Rangel in Taproot magazine, issue 35. It was easy to memorize after a couple repeats, so I don’t have to concentrate too much while I’m knitting it. The overall pattern is K2 P2, and one stitch is added in center every 4 rows. The spinning is all done now, so just the remaining knitting is left to finish.
I used the colors in sequence, so the grays at the bottom, browns in the middle and purples at the top add another dimension to the piece.
Unfortunately, BASD probably won’t get to meet again before the summer, so I probably have extra time to finish it. Actually, I have a little time now!
What’s next?
I’ve got plenty of other fiber projects both in progress and formulating in my mind. However, with inspiration from the sprang sample, I decided to use another hand dyed warp to make a scarf. The yarn is 100% baby alpaca from Hampden Hills Alpacas. This is absolutely amazing yarn, but I’m learning that soft, airy yarns like this are not easy to weave with sprang! It took me hours to get the 2 1/2 yard warp on the sprang loom, and the stickiness of the yarn makes each row take extra long, but I think the lace pattern is going to be beautiful when it’s done!
Depending on how long the pandemic restrictions last here in Massachusetts, hopefully these projects will be completed and I’ll be on to more! Stay well, everyone!
