You know how you poke along for a while, working on multiple projects, feeling scattered and like nothing will ever get done. And then one day *blam* you finish a whole host of things at once. Today was that day.
It got kicked off last night by a GNO (that’s girl’s night out) my GF’s were beading, and I was twisting fringe. There was Thai food, much dishing of the other sort, and a complete lack of men folk, particularly those under the age of five. We love our kids and husbands, but sometimes you just need to let the hair down and hang with the gals.
So, I twisted fringe, the great conversation and stories totally distracting me from the fact that I HATE twisting fringe. I like the end product all right, love it when adorned with beads, but the process is tedious and a bit nerve wracking. I am the queen of the ever-increasing length fringe. You know, that bit where you work your way across the scarf, carefully measuring each fringe against its companion so they’re the same length? And then, at the end, you have a diagonal line of fringe? (My secret weapon against this is a chopstick with reference lines drawn on it. Why a chopstick? Because unlike all eleven of the straight rulers I own, I can find the wooden disposable chopstick…)
Okay, enough rant, time to look at pretty things.
First, all of the prize painted warps have been mailed off! This took a while as I was trying to get specific colors, which turns out to be much harder than just painting warps and being pleasantly surprised by what happens when one color slams into another. So, after many redos, I got to the point where I was starting to covet the prize warps and realized that if I was going crazy for them. They must be good enough for the winners. Here they are being packed up (mailing addresses carefully obscured for the camera.)
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I am especially taken with the “wood-grain” warps. I have a thing for brown, after years of moaning about having brown hair and brown eyes, I’ve decided to embrace my inner brown, and you know, brown is a heckuva cool color. (An opinion reinforced by a friend who told me I look great in brown.) These warps are intended to be used together, Sara Lamb-style, in stripes. The fiber is 20/2 cotton, recommended sett of 32 for a warp-face-ish plain weave. The winner wanted something that would go with brown and black outfits. I hope she likes these!
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I finished up a scarf for a student in my Weaving Works class who borrowed a loom and didn’t finish the weaving in class. Also going out in the mail. This scarf was made with a random-warp technique that’s a lot of fun. Everyone brings “problem” yarn from their stash, we pile it in the center of the room, and then build wonderful warps out of it. Seeing what others do with your rejects really opens your eyes to possibilities.
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Here’s a close-up of the fabric. The student planned the warp and picked a slubby varigated rayon for the weft. I don’t usually like a varigated weft, but in this piece it works.
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I finished the “therapy scarf” that I worked on when my server was locking up and preventing folks from downloading episode 17 of WeaveCast. (This of course, happened right after I had sent out the “check out the new episode” email…)
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It’s rayon chenille interspersed with stripes of a rayon/cotton blend. At first I feared I’d have a seersucker effect, but with a teensy bit of pressing, it all flattened out and has a wonderful drape. I’m in love with the contrast between the slick threads and the chenille. I couldn’t resist wearing this out in public today, and showing it off. My husband was especially kind and felt the handle of it and made approving noises not once, but twice. (Before and after the pressing.)
And if all that wasn’t enough, a pile of painted warps drying in the sun.
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What a great day!