Wee Swedish Coverlets, Continued

Wee Swedish Coverlets by RepWeaver

After lengthy procrastination, finally I have a few more photos of my Wee Swedish Coverlets. For the longest time they sat in a neat folded stack on my kitchen island. My camera sat atop the stack.

These blankets are crib sized but still large enough to challenge my photographing capabilities. Perhaps if I had a crib it would have been easier to stage them. These are not excuses so much as evidence of my lack of confidence. In any case, here is what I managed to capture today. Perhaps these photos will give you a better sense of my Wee Coverlets. Now I can email photos to my daughter so she will be able to choose one of these for our tiny grandchild.

Wee Swedish Coverlets showing both fronts and backs

Weaving progresses on the second color way of these coverlets. I am working on the fifth one on the bright green warp and chose a bright pink for the pattern weft. We’ll see how that combination works. Until it is finished and washed I will not know for sure.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

Wee Swedish Coverlets

Finishing Touches

Trimming ends with appliqué scissors

When I take cloth from my loom I hem or edge finish the pieces before I wash them. After that  they go right into the washing machine with warm water and regular detergent. Next they go into the dryer until nearly dry. After that I press them until dry. 

It isn't until then that I take a close final look at each piece. Next comes trimming off all the little loose ends left from refilling shuttles or changing colors. I think of it as akin to writing "The End" after the final chapter of a book, not that I have ever written a book. But the final step in a project is satisfying, a certain kind of fun.

Do you have one of these? This little appliqué scissors is made by Gingher. Its sharply pointed and curved blades make trimming ends neat and accurate.

Right now I am about half-way through weaving a second warp of Swedish Wee Coverlets. The color is eye-popping. Some tiny children are going to love these. Let's hope their Papas and their Mamas like them, too.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

Wee Swedish Coverlet

Wee Swedish Coverlets by RepWeaver

With the arrival of our newest grandchild I needed to weave another Wee Coverlet. Since the Swedish Kitchen draft has been a success, I thought it would be nice to try it as a baby blanket. Mom’s favorite colors are blue and yellow and our baby is a fair, blue-eyed bundle of joy.

Here is a photo of the stack of five Wee Coverlets from this warp. Now all that is left is for me to snap more photos. I’ll post those when they are available. After that my daughter will have to choose one Wee Coverlet from the bunch for her sweet baby girl.

Corner Block of Wee Swedish Coverlet

Nearly glow-in-the-dark warp

Since these are finished, I am working on the next color-way of this design. This one is going to be eye-popping bright. I had been pondering how to use this kelly green 20/2 Perle Cotton from UKI. Paired with a variegated yarn plus yellow and purple this ought to be a winning combination. This new warp is so bright it might just keep me awake at night. Let's hope it doesn't have the same effect on babies. It is going to be fun choosing pattern weft colors.

Warp on/Weave off,

RepWeaver

Marled Madness

Already it is April but the whole "March Madness" hype still rings in these ears. So I decided to make my own version and changed it to "Marled Madness".

Swedish Kitchen Towels with Marled yarn warp ends

Do you remember my puzzlement over how to use marled yarn? What is marled yarn? It is yarn of two or more colors plied together. The tube I have consists of one ply of navy blue and one ply of white spun together.

While pondering this question I decided to try using marled yarn in my Swedish Kitchen towels. It is in the places where I previously used variegated ends. This warp was maddening to weave because it was difficult to see where I was when doing the border.

While on the loom these did not impress me at all. In fact, they were hard to weave because they did not excite me.

Fortunately, initial impressions are often mistaken as was the case here. The finished towels are nicer than anticipated. Doing these was a good experience and I like them very much now.

In two of these towels I added marled tabby ends throughout. Weaving with three shuttles was fussy but the result is nice. The red and gold towels were done this way.

Detail of Swedish Kitchen Towel using marled ends in warp and tabby weft

Swedish Kitchen Towel

I put another new idea to use on the hems. You can see a couple of marled weft shots in the photo. They are spaced in such a way to mark the fold lines. This worked very well for me and I like the way it looks. Having that marled end near the sewing line at the top of the hem helped keep my sewing in a nice straight line.

For my next warp I am looking at colors and drafts for another of my "Wee Coverlets". There is a precious new addition to our family. I want to swaddle her in my love even though she lives very far away.

Warp On/Weave Off,
RepWeaver

Swedish Kitchen

Swedish Kitchen Towels, Warp #109 by RepWeaver

Here, at last, are additional photos of Warp #109 towels mentioned in the previous post. Choosing colors and watching them interact gives me great joy while weaving. Having a few variegated ends in the mix mulitplies the fun.

Once these come off the loom there are always "Aha" moments. Colors and combinations that appealed most to me while weaving aren't always my favorites when finished.

Nine Swedish Kitchen Towels, Warp #109 by RepWeaver

Red pattern weft washed out the effect of
red in the variegated warp ends.

Since the variegated ends in this warp were a combination of red, brown, gold and forest green I thought the brighter red pattern weft would be my favorite. But it turned out to compete too much and washed out the effect of red of the variegation. The darker maroon pattern weft was far better, causing the brighter red in the warp to zing.

Swedish Kitchen towel by RepWeaver
Two shades of green that did not seem happy together
Here you see both front and back sides of the towel 

The green towel below was my least favorite while weaving. Its blue green pattern weft seemed to fight the yellow green in the warp and tabby. Do clashing colors set your teeth on edge? That is what these greens did to me as I wove. But in the finished towel the colors worked. One of my weaving friends even said the green one was his favorite of the lot. Green pattern weft does a fantastic job of highlighting the red variegation in the warp.

The reverse side of Swedish Kitchen Towel with Maroon pattern weft
This color combination proved a favorite both on and off the loom

Warp #110 with marled (navy and white plied together) warp ends used where before there were variegated ends

This is the current warp on my loom, the one I wrote about in the last post. I tied it to my two previous warps. The marled warp ends don't seem to be working the way I'd have liked. Maybe this will be another case in which the finished product outshines the work in progress. Let's hope.

Knitted Shaker Dish Cloths

Here is a good way to spend time when away from the loom. These are knitted Shaker Dish Cloths. Leave it to me to find another way to incorporate variegated yarn! These work well and are fun to use. Knit some for yourself or to give as gifts. The pattern is available for free at Very Pink. Look for other great patterns there as well including "World's Best Kitchen Scrubbie", one of my favorites.

That's what I'm up to today. I wonder what will happen tomorrow? One can never be too sure.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

Back in the Saddle (Or Back on the Loom Bench)

Hello, again!

Swedish Kitchen, Detail

It has been a long, long time. For several weeks I have been away. I spent three weeks over Christmas in Washington, D.C. Then most of February I was with our daughter and son-in-law who just gave us our third grandchild. Their new little sweetheart joins an older sister and brother so they are a very busy family. Mine was a working visit but loads of love and fun.  Now I am home again and missing them, yet, home is the very best place. And I am back at my loom.

Here are a few quick shots of my latest towels. I will take more but first I need to iron that stack of towels. Here also is a shot of the third iteration of this design. I am going out on a limb here and using a plied yarn in place of the usual variegated ends. Time will tell if it works. I will be sure to let you know.

Swedish Kitchen Towels by RepWeaver

There are no travel plans in my immediate future but there will be visitors. Oh, and we will be having our siding replaced and the house painted. Neither of these will take me away from home but may limit weaving time. The excitement continues!

Warp on/Weave off,

RepWeaver

Warp #110

Nordic Kitchen Redux

Nordic Kitchen Christmas Towels
Nine towels from this warp all in a stack
I'm paging through them in order, photographing each as I flip to the next one.

Once our house was finally repaired it was high time for a new weaving project. Many boxes of our packed-up belongings still haunt me. But it is December and they will simply have to wait. What is the point of unpacking things with a move impending? Instead of the rugs I had been planning prior to the flood, I wandered back to an all-time favorite draft. Yes, Nordic Kitchen was calling to me.

For the longest time, this bright yellow 20/2 cotton has been on my shelf. I always liked the color but was intimidated by its intensity. This is not a timid yellow. The thought that it is better to use it than move it gave me the jump start I needed. Besides, it had been such a long time since I wove, this could be a viewed as a test case. That way if it didn't work out all would still be well. I use a sett of 30 e.p.i. and sleyed two ends per dent in a 15 dent per inch reed. The pattern weft is 10/2 perle cotton.

Nordic Kitchen - Detail showing warp and tabby color changes

I combined the bright yellow with a pale yellow in the center of two red bands in the borders and added my ever favorite variegated ends. The color changes really pumped up the impact of an already striking border, a happy result.

I have to stop here and make an observation about my loom. It is a 135 cm Glimakra Standard. The water removal team and I took it apart in the dead of night. The poor thing was unceremoniously dumped in piles. There was a good chance parts might be missing. But it all went back together beautifully. Believe it or not, I put it back together by myself which brings me to my point. For years (years, I mean, YEARS) my poor loom had been in need of a tune-up. I just didn't ever want to break it down and take a break from weaving. And my loom deserved better of me; it is a very reliable, hardworking machine. Now that it is back together again, it works better than ever. Myriads of tiny adjustments over many years and many warps added up to major headaches. Now everything is back nice and tight and in alignment again. My loom has to be as happy as I am about that.

Nordic Kitchen Christmas Towels
Front side and reverse side are equally pleasing.

This post-flood warp is slightly different from my previous Nordic Kitchen warps. I went back to find the original source cited in Marguerite Porter Davison and found the earlier draft by Caroline Halverson contained five repeats while the Davison draft had only two. So I took my earlier draft and added one more repeat in that section of the border. Maybe eventually I will switch to five repeats because I really like the difference. I'm thinking of renaming my version of this draft Swedish Kitchen. Wink, wink!

Swedish Kitchen towels by RepWeaver.
Pattern weft colors clockwise from left: Black, Orange,
Elm Green, Burgundy, Nautical Blue, Ink Blue and Eggplant

So here they are - my 2015 Christmas towels. I wish the recipients as much joy using them as I had weaving them. And I wish you, my readers, joy as well.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Warp On/Weave Off,
RepWeaver

Under Water

My blog has been too quiet lately. I am sorry.

We had a lovely summer. My husband was home for with a nice long visit by our daughter and two grandchildren. Low tides and fair weather made for exciting days at the beach where we found abundant sea life to explore. It's hard to say who had the most fun, children or adults.

As mentioned in an earlier post, my husband and I are in the process of a long-distance move. We have been struggling to decide what to do with our home where we have been happy to live for 20 years. For the time being I remain behind overseeing repairs and updates. However, not all of the repairs have been voluntary.

When I went to bed on August 10th my washing machine was off and all was well. At 2:00 a.m. our cat Jenny woke me. Sometimes this happens but this time she was unusually persistent so I got up to take her downstairs to the laundry room. At the bottom stair I stepped off into water. Water!

Sometime after I went to bed my three-year-old Amana washing machine turned itself on and overflowed and overflowed and overflowed. Water was everywhere including in my studio and under my loom.

36 x 48" Toothbrush rug on newly refinished wood floor

An emergency water removal crew arrived right away and I worked along with them through that night, through the day and into the next evening to remove the water and evacuate the first floor of our home. The crew ripped out carpeting, padding, linoleum and underlayment. Everything in my studio was moved and dumped in piles here and there. What a night that was!

It took 13 giant floor fans, two huge de-humidifiers and several mats taped down to the wood floors with a great big suction machine to dry things out. For four days temperatures inside the house hung around 100 degrees and the noise of all those machine was deafening.

Repairs took nine weeks to complete. Since my loom was in pieces during those weeks weaving was out of the question. Instead I worked on this toothbrush rug. Work on the rug and knitting helped me deal with the disruption of my life and home. While the wood floors were being sanded and Swedish finish was applied, the cats and I had to vacate. For those four days I was able to take this rug with me and work on it at my hotel. I do not know how I would have managed to weather the upset without my handwork. The flood was a lot for me to face alone. But it could have been far worse without the wakeup call from our sweet JennyCat.

Now things have pretty much settled down at home. My loom is back in action and I am nearing the end of a warp. I promise to show and tell you about the results soon.

My husband is enjoying his new job in a distant place. We are in constant contact and we travel to see one another when we can. Being apart is no fun but it won't be forever.

A logo I created for Jenny in my Graphic Design class

I am grateful for daily blessings. Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

P.S. I wrote about my adventures with the Amana washer in an earlier post here. The repairman and I agreed that it was not worth fixing the thing. In it's place we now have a brand new Speed Queen commercial washing machine. It rivals our trusty old Maytag and does a great job - highly recommended and built in America!

Rep Rug By Request

Rug for our son and daughter-in-law

Special requests for handwoven rugs always make me cringe. Finding an adequate way to communicate reality vs. vision to a non-weaver is, I fear, an impossible task. Even though I was pleased when our son and his wife asked me to weave them a special rug I was also worried. For better or worse, he inherited my critical sense of color and design and can be quite exacting. The pressure to fulfill this special order was palpable.


The young couple own a condo that they have decorated in a very restrained, neutral palette. Their home is high tech and sophisticated -- certainly not a place for just any old rag rug.


Together we checked my stash of rugs on hand and nothing really interested them until they spotted the red and yellow placemat. The color choices had not been my own. It was one of the samples I wove on another student's loom in a workshop led by master rep weaver, Joanne Tallarovic. The draft is found on page 137 of her book "Rep Weave and Beyond". It's block design is what appealed to them.

The request was to weave this sample design as a rug in brown and tan

My son and daughter-in-law asked me to expand the pattern to rug size and constrain the colors to dark brown and neutral tans. He especially wanted very little if any color blending. And they asked for a very narrow border. Plus they gave me the exact dimensions for their rug.


Here is one way I like to make use of what I have on hand. The big ball is rags I saved from an old rug. Since the colors were not what was requested I simply encased them inside a strip of rag to better match the brown warp. The ball is resting atop several piles of rag strips cut from bed sheets. The sheets started out bright white. I dyed them in my washing machine using as much Procion MX dye as I had on hand. It didn't change them very much, not as much as I would have liked, but did mellow them to more of a tea-dye, ecru shade. It helped.

Encasing recycled rags inside new rag strips

I was happy when they liked the rug so much they took the second one home as well. Even their cat, Crinkle, found them to his liking. Everyone is happy!

Warp On/Weave Off,
RepWeaver

Crinkle enjoying the new rug

Blogging Along

Here is one case in which the third try was certainly not the charm. It isn’t that the results do not please. I was simply pushing the design without a full understanding of the structure. Further study is in order and I aim to revisit Colonial Patterned Double Weave before long.

These are the result of my attempt to add border effects. This time I took inspiration from Bertha Gray Hayes’ draft “Springtime Fancy”. The design worked very well in double weave. But the way I tried to add the borders did not. The first coaster shows the border and the next two or three show errors as I tried and tried to rethread the warp without the experimental part. Eventually I righted the whole mess and came out with some nice little pieces.

I continued playing with the idea of using two shades of the same colors in warp and weft. The green/teal version appeals most to me. The variation adds depth and kind of hints at shadow weave.

These are the best size for coasters of my three warps. I wove the long piece specifically for a narrow shelf. Plenty of hand woven textiles help make a house a home.

Coasters from three Colonial Patterned Double Weave warps

It's always nice to have an assistant in my busy little studio.
Latest rugs in progress on the loom.

By   the way, the other day I made an exciting discovery. A photo in the Spring/Summer issue of Handwoven Magazine attracted my eye. There on page 27 were two beautiful towels woven in the “Norse Kitchen” design from “A Handweaver’s Pattern Book” by Marguerite Porter Davison – the draft that inspired my miniature version of the same draft. What fun!

Last time I wrote about my little weaving studio. Here it is in all its messy glory. I’d be happy to spend every day there and so would my cats. Perhaps you can spot Squeak in one of her favorite spots?

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver