USING LEFTOVER DYE MIX SOLUTIONS

CONSTANCE ROSE

Constance Rose dyes silk fibers for spinning. Then she spins the dyed fiber and weaves beautiful stuff with it.

Every time I see one of her dye jobs my heart aches. Here is one of here latest creations. The colors are absolutely gorgeous. And she uses up her leftover dye mix solutions!

USING LEFTOVER DYE

I usually have lots of leftover dye solutions. And I do have undyed fiber. Some silk, some merino. I think some other fibers as well.

Using these fibers in my stash as experiments with leftover dyes seems like a very good way to start playing.

Ironically, however, for the current warp I have been making close to the amount of dye that I need. When I finished dyeing the organzine silk yarn, i just threw out the miniscule remaining bits of dye.

The second scarf I am weaving will require more dyes. I think I shall try making more than I need. Then I can use the remaining colors for playing with the merino and silk fibers.

Here is another one of Constance's dye jobs. It is just so gorgeous.

INTERESTING POSTS FROM OTHER BLOGS

Here are links to other blog posts I have particularly enjoyed this past week. But first, do check out Leigh's revised blog. Modestly she says she has tweeked her blog. It is a lot more than tweeking. It is hours and hours and hours of work. She has created a wonderful resource for weavers as well as for knitters and spinners.

Guidelines to our Small Scarf Virtual Exhibition -- Unravelling
Networked Broken Twill -- Weaverly
Twill Sampler -- Dot's Fibre to Fabric
Converting 14-Shaft Draft to 8 -- Unravelling
Inspired by Bonnie -- Weaving Spirit
One Morning -- Funny Farm
Colours Today -- Weaving Finlander

TAPESTRY

This next link is not from a weaving blog but from a textile blog. But it is about weaving, this time tapestry. It is well worth looking at, even if you have no intentions of ever weaving tapestry.

The Making of a Tapestry -- Ulrike Leander -- Textile Arts Resource Guide (yes this is a blog............)

COPYING

And this link has nothing, on the surface, to do with textiles, but is about art. The subject, however is very important for weavers as well as for artists in general: copying.

I suggest you read both Genn's essay and the comments. The last comment focuses on digital art. The art world tends not to accept digital art as art. I guess weavers aren't the only artists who have trouble being recognized by the art world.

Original Art -- The Painter's Keys

WINDING CONES

I groaned a bit when I realized that the skeins were going to be too small to fit on my Goko skeiner. That meant I was going to have to use my LeClerc skein winder.

Expecting the worst, I set the skein winder up. I made the arms small enough so that the skein would fit on it. Then I stretched out the arms as far as they would go and tightened the thing.

I did not want to use this skein winder as an unskeiner because it does not move around nearly as easily as the Goko. I was worried.

I wound the first skein off to a cone. Much to my surprise, it did not go badly. The first few minutes were filled with stopping to untangle twists. But once those initial spots were over, winding went not nearly as badly as I feared.

The first cone had only 100 yards. I did a couple more small skeins. Then I did a larger one. That was a bit more troublesome, but it really went quite well.

When I was investigating organzine, one of the things that I learned is that organzine is very strong. Thus it is recommended for warp. That is probably why the LeClerc skein winder worked alright as an unskeiner. It could tolerate the tension that the skein winder created every time it tightened up to unsnag a twisted yarn. Yes, most of the time I did not have to stop to untangle. The tension on the yarn, especially if I was turning the skein winder fairly quickly, was enough to snap it out of the tangle.

To tell the truth, however, I have not yet done that badly snarled skein of yarn.........

Related Post:

Skeins to Cones

Skeining Photos

STASH GUILT

Deep End of the Loom and Dorothy have both helped me in my attempts to rid myself of stash guilt.

Deep End commented that her mother has a large stash of fabric. This way, "...when she wants to create she has what she love[s] on hand...

"So I think you could weave [for] the shear pleasure of the process, [for] your enjoyment and relaxation. If you find one pattern that you love you may already have the yardage you need to make it. It can only be win/win."

I love win/win situations!

One caveat to Deep End's comment however: I do NOT weave for relaxation! Weaving is engaging, exciting, frustrating, demanding, thrilling, boring, horrible, wonderful, tedious, delightful, surprising, exhilarating, dreadful and always, always challenging..........but weaving is NOT relaxing!

More adjectives anyone?

To relax I either knit or spin. Especially spin. Very calming.

Dorothy commented that "...you need to know how a fabric feels and behaves before you can know what sort of pattern it is suited to. I think the worst thing you could do is feel you have to make the fabric up and to use a pattern you aren't entirely happy with - handwoven is far to precious for that."

Dorothy has not been weaving for very long, but she has developed wisdom quickly!

SKEINS DYED

Here are two of the sixteen skeins I dyed. Don't they look hysterical?! Compare these with some sample skeins I dyed earlier:


These sample skeins are smooth. The skeins at the top which are for weft are quite flyaway. The yarns just seem to have a life of their own. This was true of the skeins in their undyed state as well. when I took them off the skein winder, they just went beserk. But the skeins are now even worse since they are dyed.

Here is a detail of the top two skeins:


Not only is the flyaway character of this yarn evident, but an awful messy tangle is very clear in the teal skein on the right. I have NO idea whether ot not I will be able to wind this off onto a cone.

BOMBYX SILK VERSUS SILK ORGANZINE

Both sets of skeins are silk. Both sets of skeins are fine silk. But, they are different kinds of silk. The sample skeins which lie so nice and smoothly are bombyx silk. The dreadfully messy skeins are made of tassar silk organzine.

Also, the organzine has twice has much yardage as the bombyx silk. And it feels a bit crisper than the bombyx. Yet they appear to the naked eye to be the same size. Go here to see my discussion of the size issue.

DEFINITION OF ORGANZINE

But what is organzine? I didn't find much that was very helpful online. This definition I found to be most helpful: "raw silk yarns comprised of two or more twisted singles, which are then doubled and given a tight twist in the other direction."

APPARENT OVERTWISTING

Based on the say my organzine is acting, I would guess that it is the tight twist that is causing the misbehavior. I do not know whether the singles are spun or drawn from the silk worm's cocoon. In any case, it would seem that there is quite a bit more twist in the plying then in the spinning of the singles. That is what could account for all of this.

WINDING ORGANZINE ONTO CONES

How will it impact my winding cones and bobbins? We shall see.

WEAVING WITH ORGANZINE

I suspect I will have to keep the humidity in the house up when I weave. This is generally a good practice when working with silk anyway.

WEAVING YARDAGE AND GUILT

DARYL LANCASTER ON WEAVECAST

Last week I listened to an episode of Weavecast on sewing handwovens. The episode is number 26: Sew Your Weaving. It focussed on a wonderful interview with Daryl Lancaster. The interview was so inspiring that I recommend it to any weaver who has even had a glimmer of a notion of weaving yardage for clothing.

I have the yardage I have woven more or less recently.

A JACKET FOR THE YARDAGE

When I started on that project, I did know that I wanted to use it for a jacket., And I still want to use it for a jacket. I have not, however, felt compelled (inspired?) to do anything about it. I have looked at my jacket patterns. I have looked at other jacket patterns at the fabric store and also online. But everything leaves me flat.

CREATING A YARDAGE STASH

When Daryl weaves her yardage, she frequently has no particular plans for it. When she is done she treats her finished yardage simply as yardage she might have purchased in a store because she liked the fabric, not because she had any immediate plans for it. And it goes into her stash. For one, two, three years.

I have never had a fabric stash. Not in all my years of sewing. Creating a fabric stash was simply not economical.

Daryl, however, has clearly accumulated a stash of handwoven yardage. But she does not simply leave it stored away. She watches for patterns. Ultimately one strikes her fancy that will be perfect for one of her pieces in her stash. And she is off and running.

SPINNING A STASH

I do something similar with spinning. I spin yarn because something about the fiber calls to me. I may think I want to weave with it or knit with it. But really, I don't know. I just enjoy the process. And I collect a stash. I occasionally look through the stash to see if I want to do something with any of it. Often I do not, but once in awhile, ah, yes. And I am off and running.

WEAVING (AND SPINNING) FOR PLEASURE

My spun yarn stash creates no guilt. Why should a (small) fabric stash create guilt?

Is it wrong to weave solely for the pure pleasure of it?

I think I will pack my fabric carefully away (but not too far away---Daryl uses banker boxes). And let the guilt go. And wait. Who knows, perhaps I will weave some more yardage in the meantime!

Listening to Daryl Lancaster on WeaveCast relieved me of guilt. At last.

POSTSCRIPT TO THREADING HALF DONE

MARKING THE THREADING DRAFT

If you click on the picture in my previous post, you will see clearly how I mark my threading draft as I thread.

CHECK MARKS -- THREADING FINISHED

In the top threading is visible a slash, which indicates the midpoint of the threading draft. To the immediate right is a check mark. The check mark indicates the end of a threaded group. The threads in that group are tied together in a slip knot.

DOTS -- HEDDLES READY TO BE THREADED

Looking at the bottom group you can see two more of these check marks. But to the left of them you can also see a round dot. The round dot indicates that I have pulled out the heddles to be threaded from the last check mark (the one to the right of the dot) to the dot. When those heddles are correctly threaded and the yarns tied in a slip knot, I will replace the dot with a check mark.