Waiting

I took this picture yesterday afternoon at 4:00.  You can barely see the sun or Petersen Mountain.  The smoke is from the American fire, named for the American River where it's burning.  The last I checked it was up to 84,000 acres and with almost 2,000  personnel on it.  Friends in town and on the other side of the Sierras assure me that they're getting the same treatment.  The area is very remote and containment is only 45%, though the wind has shifted and today isn't as bad for us.

Today is completely free.  Melissa is driving up from SoCal to see her accountant and we'll get a couple of fun days.  I decided to weave while waiting for her arrive.  I put on a Tencel warp and am sampling some Navajo-ply handspun silk that I did years ago.

This is the yarn and when I showed it to other weavers, asking for advice, I didn't get much encouragement.  I's really not lovely.  Rae Stuart helped and while I could tell she didn't love the silk either, she gave me a suggested ends-per-inch count.

Here's the scarf in progress.  I really like point twill and since Rae suggest 24 epi, I found a pattern in Anne Dixon's book that is threaded over 24 ends.  I'm beating, oh-so-gently.

This is the scarf just done.  I'm so in love the way the colors travel.

I have the scarf wet-finished on the ironing board.  Okay, technically it's wet and not finished, but the selvedges straightened up in the process and the already drapey scarf is sinuous.  I did it!  I got the beat.  I now have three beats in my repertoire:  dish towels, rag rugs and scarves.  I wish someone would have told me this a long time ago.

Next project?  I suspect it's going to be this "art yarn" I spun while demonstrating at the Nevada County Fair.  I thought it would make a cool hat.  It's just not cool.  Once I unravel the hat and determine my yardage, I'll know if it's going to be warp or weft.  Apparently I like to torment myself.

It's going to be a while before I start it however as my dance card is filling up.  School just started and I already have two weeks of subbing at a high school library.  I love to weave but subbing pays.  Meanwhile, when Melissa gets here - I get a play date.  I just looked up and she's here at the gate! 
 

New Fibers

 

The first weft I tried was the purple from the small stripe.  Let me say that I've just learned I'm not a fan of little stripes.  The purple didn't work for me so I unwove it.

So then I tried the green, and I tried it in a twill which was way to fiddly for my taste.  I unwove it.  Tencel isn't all that forgiving and the weaving was hard on it.

Then I decided to weave it in simple plain weave.  I figure if Sara Lamb has made a weaving reputation as the Queen of Plain Weave, that's good enough for me.  The selvedges are out of control.  I had floating selvedges since I started  in twill and decided to lose them both.

I fought with the green selvedges and then realized that I need a sample of handwoven fabric for a class I'm taking at the Conference of Northern California Handweavers next month.  Guess what I'm taking for a fabric sample.  Moving on to the next scarf, I went to the pink and I think the predominant color in the warp makes a much nicer weft.

Again, the selvedges weren't playing nice.  The left side is perfect, but the right.  Oy!  It wasn't until I changed my beat that it began to resolve.  I know you're supposed to beat on a closed shed so I was trying to follow the instructions.  Finally I decided to beat on an open shed, which is what I do for towels.  Problem solved.  The last two inches here look pretty good to me.  Ignore the color.  My camera is a liar and is going to go to camera hell very soon.

I finished my skein of art yarn and I'm more interested than ever in learning how to make my own batts.  I realized that the book Rae Stuart loaned me several months ago on spinning art yarns is by Lexi Boeger and last night I discovered that she's an instructor at the weaving conference I'm attending next month.  I was able to make a class switch today and will be attending one of her sessions. 

This is the commercially prepared batt I spun made by Cottage Creations.  I'm sure I can make up something equally messy from all the stuff I've managed to acquire over the years.  I'm taking a bag full over to Mim's tomorrow after lunch and get her take on this whole thing.  She took a class from Lexi last summer. 

I've knitted a hat from the yarn which is tame compared to the stuff in Lexi's book.  Still it leaves me wanting to make my own batts and see what I can come up with.  There's always something else to learn.  I'm trying to get my head around how I would weave with this.  Obviously I can weave with it, but I guess what I'm looking for is how to weave to the highest and best use of the yarn.