Handwoven: Rep Weave runner

I love my New Orleans Weavers/Spinners Guild. Creative women encouraging one another in the fiber arts - I'm so very glad to have found them! A smaller group of us meets once every two months to weave a different structure together - many are new weavers who need more experience warping their looms and have never tried some of the warp structures we're experimenting with, so this is great for them. I have fun too, and get to do some mentoring (and I learn a lot too - there are lots of things I haven't yet tried!) We call ourselves "Weavin' Chicks" and have a great time together.

Our focus this weekend was Rep Weave, and we used a draft from Weaver's Craft magazine (highly recommended - really good info) for rep weave placemats. I chose to weave a runner instead, and had some interesting moments when trying to make sure it was mirrored on each end. I like this structure - had fun weaving it, and will definitely do it again. I used 5/2 cotton in red and blue for the warp and the binder weft, and 8/8 white cotton for the heavy weft.

Here's my runner - I'll cut the ends off and turn under the hems and then wash it, and I'd better do it tomorrow, because I used red/white/blue so I could have it for the 4th of July, and that's Wednesday!

Handwoven SAORI Market Bag

Our guild Retreat is coming up fast. Such a lovely time to relax with friends and fiber, with no responsibilities and no schedule. Wait... there IS one responsibility - every year we're given a different challenge, to create something incorporating some handspun. This year it's a market bag. I was planning to knit something... and then suddenly I realized the time had gotten away from me, and knitting was going to take too long. Enter weaving - so fast, so fun!

I dug around in my handspun stash, and found a skein of fingering weight silk singles I'd spun a long time ago from a pastel-rainbow tussah silk top (in the picture, I've already wound it onto bobbins). Perfect for my main weft. Thinking SAORI-style, I grabbed some multi-colored silk hankies and a small handful of mulberry silk top, along with some leftover bits of cotton yarn from another project.

Then I warped my Cricket loom with black 5/2 and 8/2 cotton, held together, in the 12 dent rigid heddle. This gave me a good background for some color play.

You can see that I used the handspun silk as the ground weft, and randomly tossed in torn-off bits of the hankies and top, creating hills and valleys and delightful textures. In true SAORI fashion, I didn't worry (much, I'm still a structure girl!) about the edges, and knew they would be sewn in anyway.

In practically no time, the piece was done.  The warp was 3 yards, and 7.5" in the reed/heddle. My finished piece was 90" x 6.5". I used this guide on Doni's Deli's blog to create the bag - essentially, the strip of cloth is folded like origami and sewn up the sides.

Et voila!

(That's the bag simply pinned together, before sewing.) I sewed it by hand, partially because I was intimidated by the thought of trying to get the thick fabric under my machine's foot, and also because I wanted to use the same black 8/2 cotton as I had in the warp. I was glad I'd made that decision - the fabric felt good in my hands and the sewing was relaxing.

Here's the finished bag. I folded the strap's edges in and sewed it as a tube (using an invisible ladder stitch) to narrow the strap and to give it strength. There was no cutting involved in the construction.

I am absurdly pleased with this bag. Once I add a lining, it will become my new everyday bag. I'm secretly hoping people will stop me and ask where I got it, so I can proudly say, "I wove this myself!"

Roc Day 2012

I joined the New Orleans Weavers Guild in November 2007. I found the local guild via internet listings, and begged them to teach me to spin. :) Two months later, they introduced me to the Roc Day tradition. We celebrate it on the first Saturday of January every year. The hosting of the event is rotated among the Gulf Coast guilds in our area. We have a great big Spin-In, and there are vendors (yay!) and we share lunch, door prizes, and tall tales. :) This year it was held by the Lake Charles area guild, the Spinners and Weavers of Imperial Calcasieu. A number of us went on a girl's road trip and had a great time. :) On our way to the area, we visited Running Moon Farm, where our friend Margrett keeps a flock of Gulf Coast Native sheep.

It was a lovely weekend. The sharing, the camaraderie, the laughter - I'm so glad I found this great group of fiber friends!