A Gallery of Works

 

I'm just playing a little catch-up on my blog today, adding some photos of things I have done over the past two to three years.

Rya rug made for granddaughter Hailee.

One of a set of pinwheel towels. For this one, I changed out some of the green stripes and substituted dark brown.

 Daughters, daughters-in-law, and friends with Christmas towels, 2015.

 Towel choices.  I let them choose.

 Waffle weave in blue and yellow.

Waffle weave.

Close-up of Hanukkah table runner.

Below is the table set for dinner.

Full length.

Spring table runner, 2016, with close-up of Italian hemstitching.

Spring table runner.

Summer runner, 2016.

Close-up of zig-zag hemstitching and pattern.

Johanna D's No. 32 from Marguerite P. Davison's pattern book, pg. 97.

My inspiration for the pillows, on the reverse side.  They were needlepoint stitched by my grandmother, Gladys Truscott Hobbs, back in the 1970's.  The backing was deteriorated, so I wove new fabric to replace the old.

A very fine wool scarf.

Scarf on the loom.

Close-up after wet finishing and pressing.

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Mitering Corners on Handwoven Lace

A weaver recently asked me how I miter corners.  Photos are so much better than words, or really help the words, and anyone that has read my blog knows that is what I do best.  It is a long post, but here is the end result, all ready for tea.

When I first started to weave, I took a nine month long class called Weaver's Boot Camp.  This particular class assignment was to design a two-block lace pattern and weave 4 place-mats. Woven lace is a loom generated fabric that has holes in it. I chose Swedish Lace with lattice hem-stitching and made table napkins, instead of place-mats because my yarn was pretty fine. I have included my finishing technique for mitering corners with these step-by-step instructions and photos.  Feel free to borrow, but please include a link back to this post.  Thank you.

Wet finish the piece and steam press before starting so the weaving yarn is set.  Turn edge in 1/4" and press.

A chalk line is marked diagonally on the corner from hem crease line to crease line.  

If you are trying this without the hem-stitching, you will need to determine how deep your hem will be.  From the finished photo above, you can see that mine is a fairly deep hem, folding up to the first edge of the first hem-stitching row.  You may want to chalk mark that also.

Fold corner, hems and right sides together. Stitch on chalk line, from hem fold (not the edge) to diagonal fold. Use a fairly small stitch. Back stitch both ends.

Note that the stitching only goes to the hem fold, not the edge.  Trim the seam to 1/4". The hem is not turned down while trimming.

At this point, if your fabric ravels easily, you could carefully treat the cut edge with Dritz Fray Check.  It is a permanent treatment, and is a bit stiff, so make sure it doesn't  soak through to any area that will be on the outside.

Turn the pressed 1/4" edge hem on both sides.

Dampen corner and finger press diagonal seam open.  Raveling can be a problem, so use care.

Carefully turn the corner, gently working the point out with a blunt object.  I used a medium sized crochet hook.  

Fold hem and pin in place. Repeat for the other 3 corners.

Hand or machine stitch hem. I like to finish mine on the sewing machine. I set the zigzag so it will catch one thread of the hem...

and then one stitch into the hemstitching space.  Adjust the stitch length to try and avoid hitting the hem-stitching threads.  If your thread matches the fabric, you will be unable to tell that it is machine stitched unless you examine it very closely.

If you are doing mitered hems without the hemstitching, the machine stitching can be a straight stitch.

Done and ready for pressing!

Ladder Hemstitching with Photos

I was looking for instructions for ladder hemstitching a couple days ago, because I can't seem to remember which side I should start the stitching. I did the first end of the towel without instructions, starting from the left, and it felt awkward, especially the second row. I could find directions for the first half of the two rows in some of my books, but not the second row.
I decided to try it again, from the right side (I'm right handed), and snap some photos as I did the steps. Now I can refer to my own directions in the future.
My towel started with a plain weave hem.  I wanted a hem about one inch wide, so I wove about 2 1/2" before starting the hemstitching.  I cut a tail from the weft, about 3-4 widths long. Thread a tapestry needle (which has a blunt tip) with the tail.

Starting at the right side, take the thread under the first bundle and up between the first and second group of threads. (Wrapping the first group is not shown, but is done like this photo.) 

Holding the thread taut, put the needle under the bundle again, and bring it up between the first and second bundle, two threads below the edge.  Tighten thread. 

Holding thread taut, the needle goes under the next bundle, up between bundles, and around bundle.  The needle exits two threads below. Repeat, as in the two photos, across the row.

Some of the first row. The spacing will look neat and even, if the thread is kept taut while stitching.

This shows two spacer rows woven in with a smooth, heavier yarn.  Make sure the heavy yarn is in the correct shed if it matters which direction your plain weave needs to be woven. Leave four widths of yarn at the right side, and weave several picks of plain weave.

Start the second hemstitching like the first, threading a tapestry needle with the tail.  Start with the needle under the first bundle, up and around the bundle, coming up between the bundles, two threads above the row.

Hold the thread taut, needle under the next bundle,

around the bundle, exiting two threads above.  Repeat across the towel.  

Finished ladder hemstitching.  The spacer yarn is pulled out after wet-finishing the piece.  Turn the hem.  Finish by hand, or as I did, by using matching thread and the zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine.  Adjust the stitch length, so each zig goes into a hole, and each zag catches the hem.

Zig-zag hemstitching can also be done using the same directions, with one difference in the second row.  Instead of using the whole first bundle, wrap around half of it.  Each successive group will be half of two groups from row one.

Although I was doing ladder hemstitching for these instructions, a single row can also be used to anchor the warp threads in bundles for fringe, instead of tying them in a knot.  It looks nicer, and doesn't take much more time, and your piece doesn't have hard lumps from knots.

Linen Huck Towels Completed

I think I mentioned before that I purchased a couple linen warps last summer at an estate sale.  At the time, I didn't realize they were cut off a loom without preserving the cross.  A few weeks ago, I took the four yard warp and picked the two ply linen out of the bundle and got my loom threaded with a huck pattern.  I finally finished all four towels today.

  I found the directions for these towels in a Handwoven magazine.  I don't recall the issue right now, but I did mention it in a previous post after finishing the lattice design.

After wet finishing the lattice towel, I decided the floats on the back were a bit long, so I only wove one more from that article, since some of the patterns had even longer floats.










The huck spots towel turned out very nicely.  I'm glad I took the time to do the ladder hemstitching.  It really sets the towels off.  And yes, all the hemming is done by machine.

This one, with the horizontal stripes, was not in the article.  All I did was weave a row of spots followed by four tabby rows.  The weave is not as dense as the other towels.

 With the final bit of warp, I combined the horizontal stripes and the huck spots to make a fingertip towel.  The hemming and stripes actually run  down the sides of the towel.

All of the towels were woven with pieces of one ply linen that I pulled from the twenty yard warp.  I think I accomplished enough with those two warps, so I will put the remainders away for a while.

I'm tired of no color, so my next project will probably have some.  I finished winding my green rug warp today.  I'd like to get Bob to help my make a trapeze before I wind that warp on to the beam.  It goes on so much nicer that way, especially with long warps.

I will close with one of my colors of April pictures.  I don't remember planting it, and I don't know what it is, but it has the prettiest blue flowers.  Maybe someone can let me know what it is.