The Beat Goes On . . .

Heat-seeker Dot lending a paw to my fringe-twisting efforts
She loves the lime light and thinks she is a tiger.

Putting together colors for this fourth and last Rep Swirl warp, I kept picturing tigers. It wasn’t until the runners came off my loom that I wondered which side should be the “right” side. Technically, rep weave is reversible. Both sides seemed appealing so I hemmed some of them one way and some the other.

Tiger Swirl Rep Runners
Warp: 8/4 Cotton Carpet Warp
Thick Weft: ¾" Wide strips of Tee Shirt Knit

Is the tiger black with orange stripes?

Later I began thinking, really thinking, about tigers. Are they orange with black stripes? Or are they black with orange stripes? Hum . . . Better take a closer look next time I see one.

Or is the tiger orange with black stripes?

Following my workshop experience with Kelly Marshall, I knew these would require black for the thick weft. On hand, the only black I had available for rags was a pile of old black tee shirts. Tee shirt knit is messy to cut but makes for soft, well-packed Rep weave.

For extra interest I added three small blocks of brown in the border. This was careless, as they could have been better thought out beforehand. As they are, they are slightly reminiscent of paw prints. Also evocative is the contrasting lime-green floating selvedge. Those seem like tiger eyes peeking out at me, a happy result.

Christmas-Turned-Easter Outfits

Sewing has kept me busy lately, too. Here are a few outfits for my grandchildren. The dresses have yet to be hemmed. My daughter had hoped to sew the dresses as Christmas outfits but ran out of time. Caring for three little ones, it is hard to imagine her actually finding the time. So I volunteered to take on the project. Once the two dresses were as finished as I could make them without trying them on my far-away granddaughters, I decided my grandson should have something to match. So I sewed the little shirt for him as a surprise. He was thrilled. The too-late-for-Christmas outfits worked out just in time to serve as Easter outfits.

Isn't it interesting how the colors of sewing and weaving projects match? Even at a far distance, my daughter and I think a lot alike.

Summer & Winter Sampler
Bottom - Paired X's treadling
Center - Paired O's treadling
Top - "Plain" treading

Next up on my weaving agenda is Summer & Winter, a structure long on my to-do list. There is much to do and much to learn.

Here is a small sample of current explorations. The draft is from Shuttle Craft Guild Monograph #19, "Summer and Winter and Other Two-Tie Weaves" by Harriet Tidball. The warp is 20/2 cotton with pattern weft of 10/2 cotton. A perfectly balanced plain weave is essential for this design. I think the sett of 24 e.p.i worked okay.

Adding color through the center of the tree trunks  created extra interest with a checked effect in the middle, a happy result. Experimentation will continue.

The beat goes on . . .

Warp On/Weave Off,
RepWeaver