In contrast to the usual long, wet, mostly cloudy Spring weather we have here on Whidbey Island, this year there’s been substantial sunshine and a number of days with more-than-Summer temperatures. And significantly less rain than the norm. My garden is astonishingly lush and gorgeous (maybe a post on that soon!), so looking out the windows or wandering through one sees a study in greens and burgundies, and experiences the pleasure of seclusion and calm.
Inside as well there’s a lot happening, as I steadily move forward with work on both looms, as well as catch up on the hand hemming of a stack of recently-finished designer towels. Today, it’s all about the big loom.
It began with two hand-dyed skeins from Blazing Shuttles, a colorway named Green and Gold. One was tencel, the other bamboo; they were not identical in color, texture, or thickness. In March, I received a postcard from the desert Southwest sent by a friend; the similarity of colors to my yarns was striking.
Once all my calculations and design processes were completed, I was able to eke out a 12-yard long warp, enough for five scarves. The next photo gives a better idea of how the colors looked when all the threads were measured and ready to go onto the loom.
I set up the two yarns across the warp in an A-B-A-B-A arrangement, and used a somewhat complex twill threading which would give me lots of options for patterning.
I’m calling this series “Summer Meadow”; it’s not hard to see why. The weaving is going smoothly and pleasurably — I completely love this warp, these colors, the luster and gleam of the yarns, and (contrary to how I often get tired of the whole thing on a long warp like this) I’m continuing to enjoy it all. Only one more to weave now, so it’ll all be finished in a couple of days. Here are the first four ~
#1, woven with hunter green tencel ~
#2, woven with soft yellow tencel (called “straw”) ~
#3, woven with yellow-green tencel (called “lemongrass”) ~
#4, woven with sky blue tencel (called “azure”) ~
The final one will be woven with a soft terra-cotta tencel (called “adobe”), in an as-yet-undetermined pattern. I already know it’ll be my favorite.
The next batch of work on this loom will be another series of designer kitchen towels, in an interesting combination of bright red, turquoise, burgundy and grey. The small loom right now has a series of three scarves in process, about which more next time. They’re luscious!
