Part 1 Now let’s have a look at the intense and dark weft, like dark purple, and compare it to a variegated weft, where I used yellow, turquoise, fuchsia, magenta and purple. Dark purple is thick bourette silk and the variegated weft is thin spun Mulberry silk. It looks to me that dark weft allows … More Wedding Bouquet project: selecting a weft, part 2
The lovely hand-painted silk is now on the loom, and the question my customers face: what yarn, which colour and which pattern to choose? I run the samples at the beginning of most projects to ease answering it. So, let’s start with plain weave and hearts weave, in light gold silk weft and pale purple … More Wedding Bouquet project: selecting a weft, part 1
I don’t know if I mentioned it before here, but when I weave, I practically never see a pattern. I can spot an irregularity in woven fabric (aka a weaving error), I can see the coming knots in the warp. But I simply do not see the pattern beyond the mesh of the warp … More A point of view
So, what is wet-finish? It is basically a first wash of the fabric that has been cut off the loom. It is done on maximum temperature and agitation that the yarn can tolerate. It does the following: removing wax, loose fibre, and any other debris letting the threats move to reveal the final look of the … More Wet-finish process review and cat allergy alert
For all of you non-fabric geeks, selvages are the edges of the handwoven fabric that do not require any hemming and will not fray after the fabric is taken off the loom. The straightness of the selvages is often viewed as the ultimate proof of a weaver’s skill. During weaving I fret and worry about … More The selvages: what is it that makes them straight?
Pebble weave is one of the simple but robust weaving structures. It is woven either as one twill – one plain weave and repeat or 2 twills – 2 plain weaves and repeat. As such, it is 50% plain weave and 50% twill, mixed evenly. And, as a result, it gives a thinner fabric than … More Pebble weave and thread shifting
Hearts motif is very (VERY!) popular in the baby-wearing world. I have seen patterns done for 8-shaft loom, which does not help me, but my friend sent me a pattern for hearts for 4 shafts. But they are small. So, when I got a pattern with big hearts for 8 shafts, I was excited. But … More A pattern for big hearts for 8-shaft loom
I have been asked twice recently about tsumugi silk. Well, the short answer is that tsumugi (紬) is a yarn spun from the silk waste, with nubs and some unevenness. Not shiny, but has a good grip – excellent choice for a weft if you’re thinking about a baby wrap, a shawl, or a scarf. … More Tsumugi silk – what is that?
I’ve been bitten by a cottolin bug, I think, as out of the last four projects I wove three of them in cottolin. And that’s what I noticed: the same yarn dyed in different colors has different softness and thickness. These differences disappear almost completely after the wet finish, but on a unwashed yarn they … More Colours and softness
Trying to get noticed 🙂
THE SILKY WEAVE 