Sage Weavers - What's it all about?

 Our  bimonthly meeting was, as usual, filled with lots of conversation, opinions and catching up time.  This month we had a bounty of free yarn.  Some just so-so and some very nice indeed.  There were also stacks of Handwoven, Väv Magasinet, Shuttle Spindle and Dyepot and maybe a few others.  Most everything was gone by the end of the meeting, so it's in new hands and new future projects.

We started our round robin "show and tell" with Nancy P.  She has a history of education in weaving tapestry and brought three of her pieces for show and tell.   

  

Nancy P. with her larger than life Calla Lily Tapestry

 

Nancy told us that these were all woven sideways and that they were woven with the back facing the weaver.  Such amazing work and we were all happy that Nancy shared her work with us.

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Our next bit of show and tell was from Diana F.   Diana is a newer weaver and has subscribed to the School of Weaving with Jane Stafford.  The following photos are of her two towel warps.  The towels were so wonderfully soft and you could immediately tell they will be very absorbent. Can't  you envision this hanging in your kitchen?

 

 

                     This one is calmer, color-wise, but very elegant in its design

 

  

 

 This end piece was really the exciting end to Diana's project.  She tried weaving a tube for the very first time - and achieved one, much to her amazement.  She was so elated,  she wore it as a little scarf around her neck  for a while!

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We ended the meeting by looking at the new book by Stacy Harvey-Brown, 

Creative Dimensions in Weaving:  A Handweaver's Guide to Texture.

 

The photos in the book lure you into the world of textiles with texture, differential shrinkage, distortion and woven sculpture.  To illustrate, Beryl brought in a couple of samples from a Zoom workshop with Denise Kovnat in 2022 about deflected double weave.  The new book covers this subject, but also many more topics and is a sure bet to shake up your weaving  experience.

 

 

 

 

Huck Lace Workshop with Rosalie Neilson Part II

Because there are many projects yet to be posted, Part II seemed to be a good idea.  Don't forget to scroll down to  Part I to see all of the huck lace weavings from the workshop.

Virginia's Towels - woven on a four shaft loom

 

 

 

None of these have been washed or hemmed.  I had fun playing with other colors, and for the last one I alternated sections of plain weave with the huck - just to see how it looked - and because plain weave is faster to weave.
Virginia G.

Suzanne's towels - woven on an 8 shaft loom

 

I really enjoyed learning Rosalie’s system - use of her grids and transparent overlay for designing blocks of huck lace.  It was also interesting, and sometimes disappointing to see that not all designs wove up as nicely as they looked on the graph paper!  I’ll definitely get back to weaving more block huck lace designs after I experiment with Turned Twill designs using Rosalie’s Exaltation of Blocks grids and overlays Suzanne W.

Diane's Towels - woven on 24 shafts in Natural Colored Cottons

Loved the weaving and designing.  Thanks again, Rosalie, for a fun workshop.                  Diane S.

The Great Handwoven Towel Challenge Part 2

This is the second part of our towel challenge photo gallery. 

The following towels were woven by Rae S. as Christmas gifts for her family who live in Ecuador. The colors were chosen to go with the family's kitchen. These are a two block twill on 8 shafts.  8/2 cotton sett at 20 epi.  

And what do you do with the ends of towel warps?  Rae has a great idea for you.  Make potholders. 

Lorene S. wove a series of huck lace towels and used a different colored weft and treadling sequence for each one.  One of the nice elements in these towels is that the huck lace is used as borders and the main body of the towel is plain weave.  Very elegant.

 

 

 

  Beryl M. wove a series of 16 towels on one warp with neutrals in mind.  This one is on 40 shafts using a shaded twill tie up which was  manipulated  to distort the pointed twill threading and treadling.  Warp is 10/2 cotton.

40 shaft tie up

The Great Handwoven Towel Challenge - Part 1

Late last summer, RFG weavers formed a study group to find out what makes a good handwoven towel and how to design and weave one (or many). In our research to find possible design and structure possibilities, we put together this document with many links to many different approaches.  You may download a copy here for your own towel weaving research.

We are now celebrating the towels that resulted from that challenge.  I am always amazed and gratified how these challenges result in a grand variety of ideas and resulting textiles. To make this post more readable and allow for ample photos, there will be another post about more weaver's towels in a few days.

 

Anni B. wove this towel  and the next in photo directly below.  Simple structures, but so much pizazz.  And, they will make very useable towels in soft unmercerized cottons. Love that texture in the soft green and lilac towel.

 Kathy R. designed a 4 shaft overshot pattern and wove a series of towels in astounding color combinations.  The warp was 10/2 cotton and she graded it in colors  of soft yellow to darker orange and back again.  Then she kept this same gradation in her tie down weft which was a 16/2 cotton.  The pattern wefts were a variety of colors in 8/2 cottons making each towel an individual. 

 

Laurel has a real flair in designing with stripes.  In the photo directly below, she used a 4 shaft 2/2 twill tie up and an interesting treadling sequence.  The resulting structure causes the little scallops in the black stripes. See the draft here.

Another of Laurel's towels.  This one woven in twill blocks and 8 shafts.