The Dragon's Lair

...Though it may seem otherwise to my blog readers and friends awaiting e-mails. I have rather neglected my little corner of cyberspace here.

I could give the list of excuses - had the in-laws visiting. Got a nasty little cold, which is being shared among the entire family, including aforementioned in-laws (No, not on purpose. I like my in-laws. Honest!) - and I'm sure I could come up with various and sundry other reasons. Really though, I just haven't felt like being at the computer as much lately.

My weaving has not been as neglected as my computer though! Since last posting, I have:

• Completed* the 6 jewel tone towels.
• Woven fabric for a bag.
• Made warps for two more bags.
• Made almost half the warp for the next set of towels.

*I should say "almost completed", as I don't think the sewing pin fastened hem on the pink towel would be viewed as a viable finishing technique. The thrill of avoiding impalement every time you dry your hands just doesn't seem to appeal to most people for some odd reason. I finally got ahold of some bright pink sewing thread Saturday though, so this will soon be remedied.

I have also learned a few things:

• 4/2 cotton has a lot more take-up than 8/2 cotton. A LOT more (hopefully the next warps for the bags will end up being the correct length).
• While weaving on a little toy-like loom will reduce the footprint left, it won't reduce the under-the-loom fuzz-per-square-inch ratio. This fuzzy loom footprint will be left stuck to your bedspread in a funny little square that absolutely does NOT want to brush off if you choose to use this toy-like loom while sitting on your bed and don't think to put anything under it.
• To maintain the neat random stripeyness (very technical terms being used here) of a variegated warp, instead of muddying it up, simply cross it with a solid colored weft. Completely obvious, I know, but I haven't played with variegated yarns that much yet and it was sort of a lightbulb moment, or perhaps more of a "duh" moment for me

I shall leave you now with a few photos. Three of the four remaining towels that I have yet to show off Apparently I don't have pictures of #6 on my computer yet, so that will come later!

Here are the ones I do have though:

Towel #3
M's & W's treadling. Photographed at the very beginning of the towel, and in two halves, so that you can see the comparison to the original patterns

Towel #4
PINK! Trying pink as weft, with some black accents on either end

Towel #5
Back to diamonds again, but little teeny ones this time!

You remember this drool-worthy warp?

And all my rapturous praise of it?

Well, my formerly-rapturous-feelings are somewhat less, well... rapturous. In fact, they're rather the opposite. There have been moments of grumbling threats involving large pairs of scissors to said warp, though it doesn't seem particularly intimidated by my scary threats and continues to misbehave.

It had that lovely, silky smooth sheen that the rayon gave it - but I failed to bear in mind that 50% was still wool. That particular fact is rearing it's head now. See here -

It's not just the fact that it's wool... It's the fact that it's wool singles, and in addition to that it was spun in that thick-and-thin manner. Doesn't look too silky smooth anymore, does it? That (and worse) is now how my warp looks in front of the reed, as soon as the beater has made a few passes. Fuzziness of that sort is not exactly conducive to clean sheds. And forbid the very idea of ever making a mistake and trying to unweave a shot or two. Good thing I'm not weaving anything more complicated than a straight twill!

Another frustration these obstacles create is making the weaving crawl along at a pace that makes a race between snails look fast and exciting in comparison *sigh*

I should have known this yarn was too good to be true. And to be honest, I think I had this whispering, niggling little feeling lurking in the background trying to tell me so. I believe this particular feeling is the one named "Experience" and, unfortunately, is not yet grown enough to make it's voice heard over Enthusiasm, Creativity and a few such other of the louder occupants in there. You would think that Common Sense would have shown up to help out Experience make some pleas in this case, but for some reason she was absent at the time.

I now know not to ever ever use this yarn as warp again. Amazingly though, I've only had one broken warp string so far. I expect some more before I get to the end though.

Despite all the frustrations, I haven't yet made good on my scissor wielding threats and am still gradually weaving on it each week after my guild meeting. I'm nearing the 30" mark now, so it's come a little ways.

I just fervently hope that the perseverance pays off and I have a nice shawl in the end, not a shawl with a warp so shredded that it's been pre-pilled before it even left the loom. Nothing for it but to wait and see, I guess.

I decided against playing with the leno, and "K" agreed that was probably a wise choice with this yarn. The accent chosen instead was to make some stripes on one end by reversing the 3/1 twill. Here's a look at how that came out (this also gives a hint at what the opposite side of the shawl looks like) -

When taking this picture, the stripes were already over the breastbeam and making their way down in preparation to wind on to the cloth beam before I finally remembered to take the camera with me one week. I imagine I got some raised eyebrows or funny looks from the last few guild members that happened to still be hanging around when I took the photos, since I had to lay on the floor to do so.
Oh well... I never have denied being a bit odd.

I shall update on how the shawl turns out eventually, but don't hold your breath - I don't want to be responsible for any blue faces out there. I hear there's a nice little snail race track not too far off, and on the weekends they even spice things up by bringing in some of those lighting fast turtles for a spin around the track! Maybe you could pass the time there while you wait ;-)

Here's a peek at the first two of the "Hidden Jewels" towels on the loom.

The first was done with a black weft for the entire towel (the lighter colored band is the sewing thread section that will be folded into the hem). Here it is getting started ~

Look close - they aren't all the same twills! (I'll put a larger version of this picture over in the Gallery) I had fun playing with the threading for this design. First time using a drafting program on the computer! Woohoo!! Maybe I got a little carried away...

And here is a look at the second towel, which will soon be finished also ~

As you can see, this one has alternating bands of all three colors. I'm not quite as happy with it as I thought I would be, but I was already 7 or 8 inches into the towel before I decided that - and even though I wasn't thoroughly thrilled with it, it was alright and didn't merit a massive un-weaving effort. So this is how it shall stay. Hopefully once it's up for sale it will find someone out there that appreciates it more fully and will give it a loving home.

I think I'll go for more of a plaid type effect next time by varying the width of the stripes and maybe mixing the order together differently. Still need to figure out the details though.

So I'm curious - what do you think of the overall look of this second towel?

It's really kind of amazing how different yarns that are supposedly the "same" kind can be. Take 8/2, unmercerized cotton for example - pretty straightforward stuff, right?

Not really. This one is smoother, where that one has some slubs now and again... this one has a tighter twist, that one is softer... One could come up with a variety of variations (say that ten times fast!) - which is just what the cottons in my current towels have done. I didn't notice it while they were sitting together in a friendly little bunch of cones, but once I started working with them the differences soon became apparent.

The black is deliciously soft and smooth, and the finest of the bunch - though I expect that the reverse of these traits is that it is the comparatively weakest of the bunch as well. It had not a slub in sight when winding out yard after yard of it to make the warp. Simply one of the nicest unmercerized cottons I've seen so far.

The magenta is my "middle ground" one of the three. More what I'm accustomed to seeing in an 8/2 cotton - not particularly slubby or so smooth as to be noteworthy. Ever so slightly thicker than it's black companion, but not enough to make really noticeable differences.

The green, on the other hand, is the opposite of the black. It's notably rougher, and about as slubby as it could possibly be without becoming a cotton flake or something that is intentionally that way. It's also thicker than the other two - enough so that, when used as weft, it affects the weave! It would be great for releasing some pent up aggression since it has to be whacked good and sound with the beater a few times to make it somewhat match the black stripes. The diamonds still look ever so slightly larger, even with the extra attention to the beating, but not enough so to cause problems.

It's amazing how different each of these can be, and yet they're still considered the "same thing".
If I'd ever heard of such a thing as 7/2 cotton, I'd have my suspicions about this sneaky green yarn only masquerading as an 8/2. Hmmm...

I hope you'll pardon the picturelessness (I love making up my own words! LOL) of this little post. I'll try to make up for it soon, perhaps even later tonight, by showing you my first two towels!

The weaving bug made it's entrance a couple years ago, but it's recently taken a sudden spike in how strongly it has taken hold of me. I have more ideas rattling about in my head than I could weave in two lifetimes, let alone one, so there's no time to waste between warps with an empty loom!! I'm not by any means fast on the turn around - everyday life has a way of intruding on weaving time quite frequently. However, I've gone from one warp in a year, to one every six months or so, and now nearing one a month - so definitely an improvement, which I hope to perhaps make even a little better in the future.

There are consequences to pouring more time and focus into weaving though -
I believe my house has been declared a Dust Bunny Sanctuary. A place free of brooms poking into dark corners and venturing under the couch! Vacuum hoses snaking under the bed and wreaking havoc? Unheard of! If you are a dust bunny that has been chased from your home, you can find a safe haven here.
And I have dire suspicions that a giant sock monster has taken up residence in the laundry pile - but in a laundry pile that size, it's hard to tell for sure what's lurking in there...

But when you have cones of 8/2 cotton in jewel tone pink and green, with a black one nearby to set off the colors in an excitingly vibrant way, that have been calling your name since February and begging you to empty the loom so they can come play - how can you refuse?

I'd been contemplating various ideas for these lovely colors for quite awhile. But despite having this tantalizing wisp of an idea in my head of how beautiful these could potentially be, it was sufficiently vague as to be hardly more than a taunt... teasing me with the fact that the idea was there, but not willing to actually show it's face and tell me how to weave it.

I tried to nail it down with one structure after another... monk's belt, Fibonacci stripes, overshot - what did these colors want? Nothing seemed right. The one that kept coming back the most often though was twill... point twill diamonds, M & Ws... twill... hmm...

The loom was empty last Wednesday, and I knew I needed to decide. Playing with the twill again sounded interesting, and I knew from my "Hidden Diamond" towels that it worked great to show off contrast. So twill towels it would be. But then came the interplay of the colors. I had three this time. Warp stripes? Weft stripes? Both? Wide stripes? Skinny? Patterned? Varied? So many possibilities!! So that night I sat down with my little weaving journal, armed with three pencils - a pink, green, and black - determined to make this elusive little idea show it's face.
I'm much more of an analytical, symmetrical, repeating-pattern kinda gal, but I had this feeling that symmetry wasn't what these colors were after. They wanted variety... a little touch of chaos just for the fun of it. Let me tell you though - a symmetrical pattern is MUCH easier to plan than a random one! I sat down with those pencils though, and went to work. Drew a miniature "towel" on the page and marked off (to scale) tiny "one inch" increments. Then I just started randomly coloring in stripes. Finally, my pattern began to take shape!

(The colors of the cotton are rather over saturated in this picture. I discovered that making somewhat lightly sketched colored pencil show up in a photo is a lot harder than I realized)

So I had the stripes - Step one accomplished! This idea could no longer hide in the shadows. It was headed to the warping board!

This project had really sunk it's claws in, and I had it warped in what is for me record speed. The 480 end warp began to come into being on Friday, and the loom was fully warped by Tuesday! That's completely unheard of in my little corner of the weaving world.

While what I wanted to do today was just weave away and watch the lovely towels come into being before my eyes, I figured I had better go on a sock monster hunt instead. So if you don't hear from me again soon, send rescue! You never know with those sock monsters...