Monday, November 3, 2008

So long -- UGLY

As previously reported, I wound some wildly bright red and yellow yarn (called warp) on my loom and began to weave. I flipped through a book and followed different weaving patterns pretty much wily-nily, just to see what would happen. This did.



After about 5 feet of this experiment, I realized that I had wound on waaaaaay more warp than was prudent and, even worse, I had exhausted my ability to tolerate the colors.
Since I had seen a thread on Ravelry about weaving with chenille, I thought I might try that. I used up the left over bit from my mother’s birthday gift and got really jazzed about how the bright blue muted the warp colors and how luscious (yes-luscious) the fabric felt.
Then, I started picking around the stash looking for something else to use. I spied my very first lumpy-bumpy over twisted handspun. I was going to save it for posterity but it also happened to be my very first dye experiment (spelled m-i-s-t-a-k-e). Criminally ugly, it was never going to be used for anything because it looked like clown barf.
Something amazing happened when the Ronald McDonald colored warp met clown barf yarn. The ugly completely disappeared.

Watching that happen was exciting. Kind of like watching your kid win a race, score (or prevent) a goal, OR watch a photo develop in the darkroom, but not as stinky (that goes for all 3 examples–kid athletes smell bad).

The possibilities!!!!! Ugly can be obliterated through weaving!?! Who knew?
We gotta get the word out.

Uh-Oh . . . I feel an(other) obsession coming on.

So, of course (of course!) I stayed up half the night warping the loom again with the idea of using more of my hand-dyed handspun. And here I go again . . .
To confess: I may have screwed up a bit on my calculation of the warp measurement. I thought I’d warp enough for two scarves and figured a little more than 7 feet each would be generous, considering waste. In the light of day, I realize that in my enthusiasm I probably warped on too much. It was late and I can’t quite remember what I did but I HOPE I didn’t measure 7 yards for each of the two scarves. Surely NOT--That would be 42 feet. It’s entirely possible –it was a whole LOT of yarn.











6 comments:

Marianne said...

Ann, it ALL looks GOOD! I have to admit those first two colours don't do a thing for me but the weaving looks great and dude, from there on out? FABulous! and by the last two photos I was drooling.
Look at you! Our little Weaver!

Anonymous said...

Ronald McDonald colored warp met clown barf yarn>>

I LOVE that !

I can't wait till the world ends and we barter back and forth...you get my veggies and I get some Ghandi esque fabric to cover myself with. ;)

Knit and fall back in it said...

Ronald McDonald colored warp met clown barf yarn

I guess the rule about two negatives making a positive can be applied to every aspect of our lives, huh? Who knew?

Stitching At Stone Cottage said...

ann, these all look just fantastic..clever you...

Sanders said...

Your weaving looks fabulous!! the best way to learn is to say " I wonder what happens if I try _____"

ask me about weaving saran wrap!

Also chenille is great for weft- and warp too, provided you have a large enough dent reed.... I tried with a small dent reed and ended up with chenude... ( no fuzz)

Anonymous said...

ask me about weaving saran wrap>>

OH NO !!! don't get her started...next thing you know she'll be taking old boy scout patches and weaving them into things....shoe strings....dried spaghetti etc........

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