Table Runner

I completed the rest of the sample warp was a table runner for my mom's birthday.  I think she'll love it!! I wish there was more warp to make one for myself!!  I'll just have to put another one on.

In my world, color brings happiness!

It's beautiful!

I haven't had a chance to wash it yet, but I love it!

I'm definitely going to finish the sample as a table runner.  And the table that gets to display this will be one lucky table...

It's working!

It's working!!  I had to stop for now because I ran out of white tabby thread and need to wind some more.  But I'm just so happy it's working!  I have been obsessed with this pattern done in these colors since I saw it!  I shall continue on later... right now the baby is calling and so is dinner!

An inspiration

Recently there was a post shared in the Warped weavers group on the thread called “What weaving thing have you been doing” post #24827. Website pic is here.

It is a very colorful and beautiful overshot sampler done with red, yellow, and blue in the warp and the tabby wefts are the same colors, but the pattern weft is white.  I am so intrigued by this pattern, that I want to try doing a similar project.  I found the pattern in Carol Strickler's book "A Weaver's Book of 8-shaft Patterns"pg 130, pattern #481.

 So far, this is the closest I could get to the colors, but I think it will still do the same thing.

New colors

I ran out of the bright 8/4 pink, but I wanted to try 2 strands of 12/2, which is the size of the warp.

 You can see that I chose 2 different shades of pinks for the pattern weft.

These are also more square with 4 repeats, and that confirms my prediction that it would be.

I haven't talked much about my book lately, but it's coming along really well.  As soon as I can weave this project off my 4-shaft loom, I can start with some of the samples.  I have 24 drafts that I created in the Bertha-style.  They are all unique and cool looking, so it's really hard for me not to share them right this very second!  I'm looking forward to weaving them up and seeing how they turn out.  I am also enjoying being able to express myself in a book.  It feels good to get this stuff out of my head and down onto paper.  Hopefully the book will be ready soon!!

Squared

 I took out one repeat from the repeat section and reduced it down to 3 instead of 4.

 

It is definitely weaving up more square, like it should be!

I'm not sure if I have enough pink to do anything more than a perfect square piece, but I know that there will be enough warp left for possibly one or two more longer runners (it IS only a 4 yard warp...) so I think I have enough time to experiment a little bit more.  If I feel like I want more, I can always tie on another warp.

PS.  The bending and U-shape in the above photo is not the weaving, it's the wide-angle camera this time!

Pink!!

 Same design and warp, but now a pink weft!

 

And the results from the one that has been through the washer and dryer:

First, it doesn't look as U shaped!  This is a good thing!  However, it is very stretched out compared to the sample piece I did.  Therefore, I am going to wrap up this top pink one and begin a new one that has only 3 repeats in each section instead of 4.  And hopefully there will be enough warp leftover to try one more experiment: 2 strands of 12/2 cotton together with 4 repeats.  I still think this blue one is cute and I like its new home by the chair!  It's like it was made for this table!  (And yes, this table was made by my dad!  And the quilt on the chair was made by my mom.  And the quilt in the background on the wall was made by me!)

Preliminary

This is pretty fresh off the loom, with exception to taking care of the edges.  It's kind of an experiment.  Usually I wash a piece first before finishing the edges but I have decided to finish the edges and then wash the piece.  We shall see how it does!

Now for some notes about the piece... First thing I noticed was the left hand edge and how U shaped it turned out.  I'm sorry to admit any faults, but most of my weaving has this U shape and usually I can hide it with the sewing in the end!  It's definitely more apparent without washing first.  Hopefully it will go away, but I have a ton of warp left so there really isn't a need to worry too much about this first piece.

Second, the shapes are very elongated, but I am hoping they will end up more square after a good trip through the washer and dryer.  The sample was sett at 20 epi, but it was a lot smaller, so perhaps I was able to pack it in more and therefore it was able to come out more square in design.  I hope this one shrinks closer to square!

Otherwise, I think it's a very awesome piece and I'm very happy with it!  I'm also very excited that I designed it myself!  I always wondered what Bertha Gray Hayes might have been thinking when she wove through her own pieces and now I almost feel as though I have gotten a small glimpse into her life.

Now I'm off to the washer and dryer!

Fest your eyes upon this!

Look at this beauty!!!

   

Look closer!

  And closer!!

 I love overshot!

Getting started!

 I have two rows done!

It's so cool to weave my own design!!!

I love it!

Samples

After washing and drying, I like the first sample (on the left) the best.  The other samples look too stretched out.  The sample on the left was done with a sett of 20 epi.

Here are some notes for the bigger LEGO overshot project:

Project Stats

Warp: 12/2 cotton in plum

Tabby weft: 12/2 cotton in plum

Pattern weft: 8/4 cotton in aqua

4 yards at warp board

Sett is 20 epi on #10 reed

52 threads per repeat, planning for 6.5 repeats plus 24 threads each side for borders = 385 threads total

19.25" at reed, or about 15.5" across after a possible 20% shrinkage.

22.5

 Here is one last sample, woven at a sett of 22.5 epi.

We'll see what these do when we wash them up, but I think I am leaning towards the 20 epi, which is the far left.  

PS.  Don't get confused with this picture.  Two of the samples are flipped the other way!  Oops!

Sampling Lego mini overshot design

I noticed with my first sample that the squares didn't look completely square, so I decided to tighten up the sett as an experiment.  I'm glad that I did this, because I think I like the look of the original sett of 20 epi the best.  But this did give me a chance to fix the left edge and make it look better.  I ended up going with a 1-2-3-4 threading on both sides to get this look.  In fact, I like the zigzag so much, I wonder if there is a place for it in the design??

By the way, here is the other side of the weaving, which I think is even better than the other side!  I think this matches the original plan very well.

Technically if you measure the squares on this side, they are exactly 1.25"x1.25", but I am expecting some shrinkage.  I might wash it first.  If it shrinks too much, I might add an extra thread to the repeat, so have 5 threads in each repeat.  I guess we'll have to see what these samples do in the washer and dryer!

My book is coming right along.  I have a long list of other samples I need to weave also, so once I get the sett on this, I can get started on all those other little samples.  I have about 20 I need to weave up.  The book is looking really good, but I'm not sure when it will "officially" be done!  I have quite a few things I still want to add to it, but trust me, it will be worth the wait!

Love my overshot!

This is the very first sample, and there are just a few mistakes I see!  However, so far I really love it!  I can't believe that I made this draft and I get to weave it up!  It's a pretty awesome feeling! 

My whole book idea is going to be on how you can do this yourself.  It's probably half way done, and I can't wait for you to see it and try it!!  Inside the book is also some of my other profile drafts from this year, about 20 of them in fact.  And I teach you how to design your own profile drafts and how to convert them to overshot with lots and lots and lots of pictures and examples!!!  It's written for those who get confused easily. 

Anyway, back to the Lego pattern!

This sample has one mistake in it, but otherwise looks so good!!

I also love these two colors together!   This is just a sample, but for the final project I have a slightly darker shade of aqua to use.  I wish I had enough of this shade because I like it! 

But knowing me, I will like the other one, too!

A game of dominoes anyone?

These are the borders I want to include in my next set of dominoes, and I think it will cut down the weird floats at the edges.  I just did a 1-2-3-4 or 4-3-2-1 run all the way around.  Now I just need to remember to center the design better, or just include a few repeats at the left hand edge so it looks better centered, and then I think it will be a really great looking scarf!  I can't wait to get started on the next one.  I also really want to do jitterbug!  It's a really cute design, too!
 

I pulled the dominoes off the loom.  They are really good, and I like them a lot, but I will like them even more with the few changes that I mentioned before.  I think they would make a stunning scarf, and be very warm in wool.

Here are some more shots:

 This is the pattern on the other side, which you actually see in Bertha's book:

And I tried a little bit in green:

And the other side, which is almost more stunning than the first side:

The rainbow portion:

I like the portions of the nature spun wool to the 20/2 wool.  Also, I think the red is even more stunning than the green, but I realize it's a matter of opinion:

The little stars between the designs really pop out!  They are cute!

I purposely made a smaller piece of the dominoes fabric 

so I could try felting it.  It happened to be the green:

 It's kind of neat looking and feeling when it's felted, 

but I think I truly like the original better:

I like this scarf idea a lot, but I think I am leaning towards Bertha Gray Hayes' jitterbug pattern.  It might be a neater overall pattern because it's less predictable.  The dominoes are very organized, and I think I want something that looks just a hair more chaotic!  

A mistake in the pattern

There was a mistake in the Dominoes pattern that I forgot about, until now!

It's down here at the bottom.  I had made a note about it on my page before, but missed the note.  Oops!  I made an even bigger (and harder to miss) note for next time!

All better!  It's amazing how those few shots make all the difference.

It's so colorful!

So... I think I'm going to skip the scarf and make it into a table runner instead!  I know my mom would love this project!  She loves table runners, and this one is so cheerful and colorful, too!

I can't believe this yarn was dyed with kool-aide!

I plan to explore more kool-aid dyes later!