I wove the skirt fabric above several years ago. It's actually a lot more orange than the photo shows. They need 5 more skirts and 5 sashes. They also want 12 head dresses, but to match the sashes.
So I have to do some number crunching tomorrow and put a yarn order in. I already ordered the yarn for the skirts because they need this by the end of May and since I'll be away the last two weeks of May, it all has to be done before I leave for the Alberta conference in Olds.
This is the other skirt fabric I've done for them. Thankfully they didn't need any more of this right now as it's very fiddly with four shuttles and I would have been hard pressed to get this woven!
I've just beamed a 40 yard black warp for throws. Guess my goal of only working 3 hours a day is going to get set aside for the next 6 weeks............. :)
Currently reading Whisper to the Blood by Dana Stabenow
5 comments:
Congradulations on your special commission! The green band in the top picture is beautiful.
so Laura, just interested in how many shafts are needed. I know that in the olden days the Ukrainian weavers didn't have 16 shafts but must have done it by pickup.
Stephanie
The orange skirt is done with just four shafts. The sashes are plain weave and quite possibly were woven on a small tape or inkle type loom.
The multi-coloured fabric was woven using 16 shafts. Originally they might well have been woven using pick up methods such as shown in Jane Evans' book on Latvian weaving, A Joy Forever. (Jane still has copies for sale http://janeevans.ca)
The headbands may also have been woven using pick up sticks. I have yet to analyze the fabric but am hoping I can weave it - or something very similar - on four shafts.
Ukrainian textiles are often times heavily embroidered. In this time and society there is little time for the dancers to do a lot of the decoration themselves, so I'm doing as much patterning in the fabric for them as I can and still make the costumes look as authentic as possible. :)
I'll deliver some of the yarns I'll be using in the sashes/headbands to the dancers as soon as it arrives so that they can make the pon-pons. They need their costumes for the end of May, so I really need to get working on this. :)
Cheers,
Laura
Laura, how are the ends of the sashes finished? It looks like such a smooth transition into the fringe.
The sash doesn't have any finishing treatment for the ends.
With an extremely tightly woven wool yarn, the end of the weaving is pretty stable after wet finishing.
If I get the commission for the sashes (still waiting for confirmtion) I will use cotton and therefore will run a straight machine stitch across the ends so that they don't fray.
Cheers,
Laura
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