Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2018 i Handwoven

In 2016, the California legislature passed a law banning singleuse plastic bags from grocery stores. There was a problem with these bags clogging the shorelines, littering the highways, and ending up in landfills. It took only a small amount of effort to remember to take bags when I went grocery shopping, and now I take them to other stores as well. In Colorado, individual towns determine whether or not to ban single-use bags. After moving to Colorado, I immediately noticed that salespeople almost always asked me if I needed a bag, even where there wasn’t a ban. It just makes sense, and it turns out that often I don’t need one. I have learned to turn bags down, and as in California, I bring my own bags when I think…

SILK WEAVERS OF HILL TRIBE LAOS Joshua Hirschstein and Maren Beck The textiles of rural Southeast Asia are steeped in tradition and intrigue. How do people so far removed from the latest technology and abundant material goods somehow produce works of such unimaginable beauty? The husband-andwife team of Joshua Hirschstein and Maren Beck lovingly and carefully focus on this question in their new book, Silk Weavers of Hill Tribe Laos. Hirschstein and Beck use personal essays to describe the region, its textile heritage, and the many makers they encountered and came to know through their extensive travels to Houaphan Province in northeastern Laos. Combine those essays with the artistic photography talent of Joe Coca, and you have a book that is not just about textiles but also about a region,…

As you read this, my friends, the cleanup from the aft ermath of Hurricane Harvey will have long been under way. While I write this tonight, the rains are still coming down in a deluge in Texas and Louisiana, and people are fleeing their homes with little more than their lives and the clothes on their backs. The news coverage is disturbing, and it makes me appreciate how lucky and blessed I am to have dry conditions here at home. Pennsylvania is my home, and it has had its share of disasters over the years. I have been thinking over the last several days about what I would take with me if I was asked to evacuate my home. My list includes family and pets, extra clothes, important papers, and…

I love weaving baby wraps! They come alive with movement, endure tough wear, and calm a fussy baby almost magically. Aft er many baby-wearing adventures, they have earned a tender spot in my heart and the hearts of my little ones. My youngest recently turned three and rarely wants to be wrapped, but she still sleeps with her favorite wrap and brings it to me for morning snuggles. I am finding fewer and fewer excuses to tie on a long baby wrap warp. Recently and fortunately, I was blessed with a little nephew and a new excuse! I have long wanted to play with American Maid Naturally Colored cotton yarn, and wrapping a newborn in sustainably grown, undyed cotton just feels good. For this wrap, I chose stripes of three…

This blanket, woven doublewide on a 36-inch loom, has two eco-friendly properties. First, it is woven with Cascade Yarns Ecological Wool, a natural, undyed Peruvian wool raised and processed in an eco-sensitive way. Second, it is a big, cozy blanket that will allow you (and several others!) to snuggle under it and keep your thermostat set low. It is sett at 8 ends per inch per layer, so despite the fact that it is doubleweave, double width, it is a pretty fast and easy project. Th is project could also be woven on four shaft s, but because the yarn is thick and fluffy and there are two layers, I chose to weave it on eight to spread the threads(and the weight on each shaft) a bit. RESOURCES ♦Baizerman, Suzanne,…

Three-end huck is as simple to thread as point twill, can be treadled in an easy-to-follow sequence, and has a nice surface texture with a little depth. Sleying three ends of each huck unit in the same dent further enhances the texture. Th ose groups of three were the basis for my color placement in these towels. For both warp and weft, I used an unmercerized organic 10/2 cotton that is available in a wide color palette, dyed with environmentally friendly dyes. To signify winter’s end, I chose white to capture winter snow, bright blue to signify clearing skies, and fine lines of spring green to bring new growth to mind. Although the setts of 30 ends and 30 picks per inch are tight for 10/2 cotton, once off the…

REVERSE DAVID’S TOWELS FOR EASIER WEAVING I have been weaving the lovely pattern submitted by Tracy Kaestner for “David’s Towels” (September/October 2017). When I began weaving this pattern, I did so exactly as it was shown in the magazine. I weave on an eight-shaft Schacht Baby Wolf and quickly experienced weaver’s fatigue lifting six shafts repeatedly in this draft. I am submitting a picture that reverses this lift plan. In doing so, I am observing the reverse side of this lovely draft without stress or fatigue! I plan to make this draft a traditional gift as Tracy did! Thank you! Sue Brown, Queensbury, New York UPDATE FROM THE FELL As a follow-up to the last issue’s “Notes from the Fell,” I am happy to report that a rigid-heddle loom fits…

Lynn Krawczyk As long as there have been cloth, needle, and thread, there’s been some form of embroidery. From fantastically complex medieval tapestries to Grandma’s flour sack towels stitched with “Sunbonnet Sue,” embroidery has taken many forms over the decades. In her new book, The Hand-Stitched Surface, author Lynn Krawczyk aims to teach this ancient technique to a new audience. Focusing on the more artistic aspects of handstitching, both freeform and from patterns, Krawczyk’s book is a perfect introduction to what she refers to as slow stitching. Krawczyk makes no assumptions about the skill of the reader—she begins with an introduction of necessary tools (including an explanation of embroidery floss and why the six threads are so important) and then goes on to basic techniques and stitches. The chapter on…

The idea of recycling yarn—deconstructing a garment or fabric to reuse the yarn for a new project—doesn’t always sound appealing. Fortunately some yarn companies are doing that tedious work for us. This yarn is made using left over garments and commercially knitted fabrics from the ready-to wear industry that are shredded and respun into new yarn. The garments and fabrics are presorted by color so no new dyeing is needed, which saves on water and cuts down pollution. Yarn spun from shredded garments was historically called “shoddy,” hence the negative meaning of that word. But this recycled yarn is soft and cozy and has a beautiful tweedy appearance. It can be machine washed and is very durable. It is a perfect choice for pillows for a family room couch, where…

In Yarn Lab in the November/December 2017 issue of Handwoven, I shared my recent discovery of a yarn made from 100% milk protein. I had used many of the rayon and rayon-like yarns out there—sea silk (seaweed), soy, ingeo (corn), bamboo, and Tencel—but this one was different. Milk yarn, made from casein fiber, originated in Italy in the 1930s and reached the height of its popularity in the late 1930s and early 1940s, when most woolen textiles were being used for military uniforms. Milk fiber proved to be a good substitute to fill the textile gap at the time, but it was nearly forgotten when wool came back to the civilian market. The yarn glistens in virtually any light, and is a dream to work with. It is manufactured from…

I spent the last year looking at paint chips and material samples (tiles, countertops, light fixtures, etc.) for the new house we were building. To get to choose everything for the house was a dream come true. During the process, I read an article on www.houzz.com about colors for the bedroom, which said that soft er colors would help you sleep better. Really? Well, that may or may not be true, but it got me thinking that I would like a master bedroom and bathroom with a Zen feel. Aft er choosing my paint colors, I had to laugh—the master bedroom paint is called Meditative and the master bath is Still Water, and yes, they are relaxing. Once we moved in and I viewed the results of my many choices,…

Small Loom, Big Possibilities Weave anywhere—on up to eight shafts—with Ashford’s ultracompact Katie table loom. This sweet little loom weighs just under 15 pounds and folds up easily even when warped, making it a great choice for workshops, weaving conferences, RVs, and weavers with limited storage space. The 12-inch weaving width is perfect for weaving bags, scarves, napkins, and so much more. The loom comes with a stainless steel reed (10 dents per inch), 320 Texsolv heddles, threading hooks, and a sturdy bag perfect for toting the loom on weaving adventures. www.foxglovefiber.com Track Your Treadling Absentminded weavers rejoice! The TempoTreadle alerts weavers to treadling errors so they can avoid mistakes (and unweaving) before they happen. Sensors placed near the treadles keep track of progress during weaving, letting weavers know if…

My quest for soft towel yarns resulted in the discovery of American Maid natural cottons. The cotton is grown in the American West and spun in the United States. The farmers use modern sustainable farming practices in the production process, making these truly eco-friendly yarns. The unmercerized yarns are all naturally colored in light brown, dark brown, light green, and dark green, as well as natural white, and will become slightly darker when washed in alkaline water. Noticeably soft to the touch, they are a joy to weave with, from winding the warp to weaving and finishing. The yarns are available from Lunatic Fringe Yarns in multiple sizes. I have an ongoing fascination with twentieth-century weaving greats as well as crackle weave, thanks in part to Susan Wilson (see Resources).…

In all my years of weaving with cotton, this is the first time I have knowingly woven with an organic cotton. I give this one, Ecocot, a big thumbs up. Tracking was minimal, and shrinkage was less than I anticipated. The yarn, which is similar in weight to 16/2 cotton, is unmercerized, so it left more lint under the loom than I usually have. Weaving these pillowcases at my loom’s full width presented some challenges. I measured my reed to determine its maximum width, and I counted the heddles on each shaft to be sure I had enough. I usually beam first and then thread, so the first challenge was finding paper wide enough to accommodate the width of the warp to be beamed. The next challenge was making sure…

I was searching Etsy for some interesting weaving materials when I came across some beautiful cashmere yarns at amazing prices. How could they be so inexpensive? Aha! The yarns were recycled from lightly worn sweaters: carefully raveled, wound into skeins, and then washed and dried. But are they suitable for weaving? Because they are fine and soft, some of these yarns may not be substantial enough for warp unless several are wound together. Similarly, if the recycled yarns are thinner than I would like for my weft, I like to combine several colors to create interesting subtle color variations. For these scarves, I used a merino/Tencel yarn as warp and found a recycled four-ply cashmere yarn for the weft, which gave them an incredibly soft and loft y feel. Even…

My eco-friendly yarn of choice is Th read International’s undyed cotton/polyester. It's spun from plastic trash collected on the streets of Haiti and Honduras by a for-profit recycling program designed to address issues of poverty and trash. I originally wove a four-shaft snowflake twill scarf entirely from this yarn. Because I’d had success with an eight-shaft version while weaving samples for the Handwoven May/June 2017 Yarn Lab, I didn’t bother to sample. Imagine my disappointment when the four-shaft snowflake twill did not generate the same texture as the eight-shaft version; the design was only visible if you looked at it from an angle. Because the point of the project was to weave with an eco-friendly yarn, I felt compelled to come up with an ecofriendly solution, so I went looking…

I enjoy adapting overshot designs for wall pieces with repurposed plastic cut into strips (“plarn”) for the pattern weft. In my designing, I find using a color gradation for the warp and tabby weft helps to make a striking piece of art. For this project, I decided to do a smaller version of a piece I created a few years ago, The Fift h Element, based on the Traditional Roses and Rings draft, also known as Whig Rose, from A Handweaver’s Pattern Book by Marguerite Porter Davison. The classical four elements—earth, water, air, and fire—are represented in a gradation of vibrant colors across the warp and then repeated in the color progression of the pattern and tabby weft s. Green, blue-green, and purple represent earth, water, and air; red and…