Sunday 30 March 2014

Evening Purse For the Shadow Weave Shawl

Started the material for the evening purse. It's the same anthracite 8/2 Tencel (warp) & Burgundy weft as the shawl. 8 shaft extended twill set at 24epi. The weft is doubled 8/2 Tencel with a ground tabby using a very fine metallic thread in gold; combined 36ppi.


The tabby is beaten firmly so it appears only intermittently on the face








Drawdown shows underside of material

Thursday 27 March 2014

Tassles for the shawl

The fringe has now been finished off as twisted doubled tassles. The time taken to untangle the original fringe would have meant it would never get washed!!

There is something very comforting about a full set of shelves


Well, I have sorted through half the cones of yarn Dawn gave me and this is the stash: bottom up - Silk, Tencel, cotolin and fancy yarns. 

The 8/2 Tencel cones I bought from Dawn yesterday.









The rest will fill another two of these shelves. Loads of cotton of every gauge, beautiful swedish linens (I love linen) rayon boucles and a dozen large cones of cashmere from Elgin, which I shall save until i am ALOT better :-)


Monday 24 March 2014

Shadow Weave Shawl in Tencel

Finished the shawl. It's the first thing off the new Megado so very pleased indeed with the quality and especially the edges, considering I only wove about 2" test strip before I hemstitched the tassles. 



It has a beautiful drape and it feels simply GORGEOUS!












i
I love Tencel. This is 8/2 (40wpi). Vivid colours; lovely sheen; silky touch and eco friendly. It's brilliant for colour and weave. I have some lovely linen (C4 Texere Yarns) which yields the same effects but Tencel is soooomuch easier to work with.








A blind man would be happy to see the shaft selection error
Dawn, from whom I bought the loom and who kindly gave me the yarns, has another 13  250g cones from Camilla Valley Farms range - lovely colours so I am buying them from her.

Camilla Velley Farm's Tencel Colours






Sunday 23 March 2014

Transformed Selvages

Two things on this amazing piece of kit have have transformed my selvages - using the temple and the flying shuttle. The entire piece on the loom was woven from the start using the temple. Once I got used to it ( would have happened a lot quicker had  I watched a you tube demo) it really is the perfect tool for ensuring totally consistent width at all times. Why haven't I used one before, I ask myself?
Half way through this piece I changed to using the flying shuttle. It's shadow weave  (so two weft shuttles) so I have to throw one and fly the other, but once the fly shuttles running tension was set, the consistency of edge tension is amazing.

Sunday 9 March 2014

Chance of a lifetime Realised! A Megado 130, 32s electronic

Yesterday I collected my new loom. A Louet Megado 130; it's the 32 shaft Electronic version and today it is proudly assembled and ready to go in the workroom area of our big kitchen.
I can't really believe that an opportunity like this actually came out of the blue. Pinch me!


It is in beautiful condition as if it had just come out of the box and with every accessory going, some of which were, literally, still sealed inside their box.

It included Louets fly shuttle kit, second beam, sectional beam kit and 6 reeds from 5epi to 18epi. Also included and still unpacked, 2 temples, Louets 32 spool sectional warp rack and tension box!!! ....oh yes, and 50kg of yarn thrown in: silk, linen, Tensel and cotton mostly....just what I tend to use most :-). I am a lucky boy :-)


Ironically, I was most pleased that it came with Louets magnificent  bench; I have always coveted one of these since I first bought an Octado and have had 'the mick' taken out of me many times for being pictured weaving standing up....well NO MORE! :-)






SECTIONAL WARP WITH TENSION BOX AND SPOOL RACK









FLY SHUTTLE....not that I shall use it much so it's back in the box for that, but nice to have especially as Gail wants to make some fabric in quantity.

PS. Thanks to Dawn for trusting me to make good use of it...I will do my best!