There is a nip in the air in the mornings now, and even a whiff of smoke as our neighbour lights up his wood stove to take the chill off the house. A bit early as its still August! Then you notice the bracken ferns are turning gold, some trees are already making the shift, and geese are flying over head in "V" formations!
I love the richer golden colours that come with Autumn and so when I was digging around in the stash I pulled out some autumn tones.
I was waiting for a yarn order to come from Brassards in Quebec and thought to weave off a single scarf real quick (well, as quick as I can go right now :) I used the lace weight alpaca / silk blend as warp and it sort of self striped itself as I wound. A regular colour pattern repeat. I wanted to keep the colours in the warp lengthwise. So for a weaving draft, I used an 8 shaft Drall which was quick and easy to thread up and even tie up.
The weft is 20/2 silk in a nutmeg brown and the weaving was much different to my usual fare. I had to gently press the weft into place and be careful of the edge threads and drawn in. The end delivery shuttle was crucial with its adjustable tension. I also used a wider 8 dent reed to minimize rubbing but I did have some some breaks. So my intent to "whip a scarf off" turned into a slow motion press and change sheds.
Excuse the light spots.... it decided to rain today and I had to turn on all lights and use the flash.
The yarn order has arrived and I'm busy winding the fine 16/2 warp for the commission order and doing some weaving on the big loom. I've also been 'paper' planning some projects to come: more lace and more of the recent 12 shaft magenta project (again) as I have sold both scarves and three of my four on hand shawls! I'm not sure what is going on, but it seems the Christmas shopping season has begun.
We have begun our usual fall chores: windows cleaned, doing yard tidy up, and have booked our annual hedge trimming for October. Tonight we had our first really drenching rainfall since last June. We actually turned off the television volume to check out what the noise was and realized it was rain drumming on the roof!
I'm also officially on the wait list for a full knee replacement and my name should come up in 6 to 9 months.
Its the Dog Days of a long, hot summer. There was a light sprinkle of rain yesterday that was more of a tease than anything. The rain specks dried in no time. I don't want to spoil anyone's summer but a little rain sure would be nice right about now. Its nice and cool in the lower level of our place and we have every door and window wide open to catch a slight breeze.
I could see the potential in this one and so got started right away. I wound a warp of 187 ends of 8/2 tencel, six yards long in a bright magenta for two scarves. I just love this colour and I seem to be using it in mixed warps lately. So how about all by itself? The draft above looks complex. It even seems to have areas of subtle shading around the 'cross arms'..... so how would this look woven up on the loom?
The tie up was already in place and so after lacing on, I got busy! I have been using lacing with tencel as it can be slippery.
I think you can see some of the iridescent effect. Its beautiful when it works like this.... Both colours are of similar values and depth of shade. The teal scarf end up being a bit longer and final length was seventy four inches by six inches.
I went through my bead stash and found a couple boxes of teal beads, and even a close navy blue. I know I don't have any magenta on hand. I tried a couple of arrangement variations but in the end I took them all out and left the scarves plain. The pattern seemed to be intense and the colours seemed decoration enough by themselves. So I washed them up and hung them outside to dry. From dripping wet to just slightly damp took two hours with our heat wave.
I had big plans to try the old tie up once more time with another threading pattern but I got a commission at my Etsy store to weave a couple of runners so that's the end of this experiment. As soon as Brassard's opens their door from their annual staff vacation time I'll be placing my yarn order for the customer's requested colours. So I'm back over to the big loom and winding on a project there.
How are you enjoying your summer? Are the fall colours in your stash starting to call you yet?