Left blanket: Marie's tartan (my 3rd shawl). Right shawl: (my 2nd shawl) Silk Stone (see below for more info about them)
First weavings
The instruction book for using the Ashford Riggid Heddle loom was easy enough to follow but I still managed to warp the loom in the wrong direction for my first 2 shawls! This meant that I had to wind the warp onto the front beam from the back beam before I could start weaving. I found that doing this made the warp tighter so in the end it was probably worth it.
The second shawl I made has turned out beautiful but I don't know who it is for as yet. I know it isn't mine but unfortunately I am sooo tempted to cut the fabric up to make a flowing top with fringing at the bottom for summer. Sometimes I make things knowing who they are for and at other times I get drawn to make something then find out who it is for just before or after it is completed... still waiting for the owner of this shawl to be known... oh maybe I will just keep it ;) BTW the shawl decide it would like to be called Silk Stone, just perfect for the silky touch and colours.
Details of above photo: Warp yarn was Debbie Bliss 100% silk and Rowan Tapestry. The weft is such a soft yarn with 50% wool by Rowan, name escapes me right now and I can't get to the rest of the yarn to see what it is (more about my craft room later on). I did a rope fringe and it took ages to do but I'm very happy with the end result.
SET & INFO:7.5 dent heddle: 4 tapestry,10 gold DB silk, 4 tapestry, 10 silver silk from centre then mirror this. As I was running out of the silver silk I substitued the stripe one in from the edge with this set: 4 silver kid mohair, 2 silver silk, 4 silver kid mohair. AMOUNT USED: (tot of 3 (2 gold/1 silver) skeins of silk, 1 ball tapestry and 2 balls of the Rowan soft yarn) Finished measurments after washing: 57" by 22"
TARTAN PRAYER SHAWL
For my 3rd shawl I decided I was going to try to weave some tartan. Some brushed chunky Spectrum yarn caught my eye so that is what I used. With hindsite maybe the yarn was a little bit too thick for the 'set' that I used. The RH loom came with a 7.5 dent heddle so I threaded it up easy enough but there wasn't a very large shed for me to put the shuttle through, infact I kept having to pull at the warp probably because the yarn was too thick and fluffy.
SET & INFO: Wrap patt: 4 green, 4 pink, 4 green, 10 blue (rpt). Weft patt: 2 green, 2 pink, 2 green, 5 blue (rpt) (unwashed length 53 1/2 ") Weave closed right up when taken of loom, creates fabric with body but not stiff)
Just after I started weaving the tartan I knew who this one was for. A neighbour from where I used to live had been in remission but now her cancer is back and is terminal. At the moment Marie is getting intense chemo so I felt she could use a prayer shawl so as soon as I knew it was for Marie I thought of her feeling well again so that energy would be instilled in the shawl and I prayed to Raphael, angel of healing to help her.
A strange thing has been happening recently, I am a little bit empathic but I am finding now that when I am making a prayer shawl for someone who is ill I can feel what their symptoms are. I kept finding that I had to conciously take an in-breath and this only happened after I started weaving for Marie and yes sure enough when I went to visit her she was taking inwards deep breaths due to her medication. Once the shawl was delivered on Mothers day I no longer felt like this. To get confirmation of the symptoms was a big wow moment for me as I was beginning to think I was having appnea while I was awake!
I used the following website to design this tartan, I hope you have as much fun as I did experimenting with different tartans.
1 comment:
Wow, Gloria you are truly talented - love your woven blankets, really lovely.
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