Many of us quilters are serial crafters - myself included. Counted cross stitch was my "gateway" craft. I started stitching when I was pregnant with my first son who just had his 31st birthday.
After years of cross stitching (which I still do occasionally by the way), I thought I would try weaving. Back about 16 years ago I bought a used Baby Wolf floor loom (Schacht) and took beginning weaving classes at Yarn Barn here in Lawrence.
It's been a while since I've had anything on my loom, but I was intrigued by a class offered recently by Yarn Barn on making crimp cloth. The samples were really cool - a cloth with pleats. The pictures of Dianne's (the teacher) garments were fantastic. So I signed up for the class, chose my yarn, and then worried about all the skills I'd lost over the years.
Dianne Totten is a great weaver, artist, and instructor. Her garments are gorgeous. Every day she wore a new vest. I was so wowed that I didn't get pictures of most of them. I did get this one of a couple of her vests from her slide show.
The crimped fabric has a wonderful drape and the garments were very flattering on all kinds of body shapes. OK, so I hear you . . . what the heck is crimped fabric?
Crimped fabric is woven like most other fabrics, but the yarns in either the warp or the weft need to be a synthetic and then you put in an additional thread that will be used to scrunch the fabric up and pulled out later. I did a weft crimp - you can see my pull threads in this pic - they are the yellow ones. After pulling the yellow threads tight and tying them, the fabric sits in a steam bath for 30 minutes, and Voila! Pleated fabric!
So I tried several different patterns with the pull threads. 4 by 4 offset (in the pic above), 6 by 3, poofy rows, and large poofy circles. I tried using weft threads in various colors - turquoise, green, dark blue, pink and red. I have a binder full of samples and some ideas to make some crimped scarves.
It felt good to be weaving again. I did have to ask basic questions to refresh my memory. But after a while, I was doing OK. I still have a bit of an issue keeping my edges (selvages) from drawing in. I've signed up for a beginning weaving class this summer so I'll be making some placemats and kitchen towels by summer's end! And maybe my loom won't feel neglected any more.
Curious about weaving? Check out Yarn Barn of Kansas!
Home again! Usually when I get home from a trip I want to jump right into my studio - usually to start something new. This time I am being disciplined! We are having a yard sale next weekend to get ready to put the house on the market and move to a smaller place. So I am going through closets and cupboards to identify stuff I no longer need, love or that won't fit into an as yet unknown smaller house. This includes my yarn as well as my fabric stash that lives in a back closet. I'll be lucky to have this much room in the new place.
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| Project and Fabric Stash |
I'm about half way though the yarn and hope to finish that today. My kids are helping me by pushing me a bit. It is exhausting for me to make all these decisions.
Tonight - finish putting the binding on Amy's chocolate quilt so I can photograph it and show you tomorrow.
Til then,
D
OK, so I am also a knitter and have quite an impressive yarn stash. I love collecting yarn especially as souvenirs when I travel. But enough is enough! We will be moving sometime in the next year and I really won't have the space for a yarn stash and a fabric stash of monolithic proportions. We are having a garage sale in a few weeks and I thought it might be a great opportunity to sell some of my yarn.
It was sooooo hard to let go of my yarn. Each one was pretty, unique and was begging to be made into something cool. But if I knitted from now until the day I die, I would never use all the yarn I have. So, I have to set some criteria and get rid of some of it. I decided to start with sock yarn - probably the largest category of yarn and the hardest for me to part with. I recruited youngest son and DH to help and encourage me.
By the time I was done I had identified over half my sock yarn to sell. This was really tough but I also felt lighter and more free after letting go of this stuff (beautiful stuff) that I was hanging on to. Someone will buy it at the garage sale, feel great at bringing such beautiful yarn home, and I will make a little bit of money and my home will have less stuff in it. Its a WIN-WIN!
Til later,
D
So I tried several different patterns with the pull threads. 4 by 4 offset (in the pic above), 6 by 3, poofy rows, and large poofy circles. I tried using weft threads in various colors - turquoise, green, dark blue, pink and red. I have a binder full of samples and some ideas to make some crimped scarves.
