Touching the Hem of Perfection

Every once in a while things turn out pretty much the way you hope they will.   So it was with this warp.

As for whether or not they are 'perfect', that will be in the pudding, so to speak.  The cloth is intended for baby wraps and each momma-to-be will decide on how long she prefers hers to be.  There is plenty of yardage, perhaps even enough for a small 'blankie' for little one - or some other application of momma's choice.

It was a lot of fun designing and weaving this warp.  Now it is back to our regularly scheduled programming...tea towels, place mats, scarves/shawls...

Process Path

A while back I offered to make cloth for 'sister' wraps for a couple of young women I know.  Katie sent me a photo when I asked what colours they liked and Carol pretty much said - what Katie said.

This photo was taken by Katie near Telkwa, BC and I was given free rein to design something inspired by it.

First things first.  Baby wrap cloth.  Right now I know most hand woven wraps are being woven of 2/8 cotton so I looked at the Brassard colour card.  Their cotton comes in about 80 different hues/shades so I just looked through what they had and ordered a bunch of yarns in the various greens plus some blues, a dark brown and a russet and a few purples for the fireweed in the grass.

I also ordered some greys/blues based on the colours in the sky.

When the yarn arrived I had already number crunched, working out width, length, epi.  At first I intended to weave in plain weave as many of the wraps are done, but after some mulling decided that a very simple twill would help the cloth drape.  I had also decided to use 2/16 cotton for weft instead of 2/8 in order to make a lighter, thinner cloth, because both wanted the 4.6 meter length and I felt that using 2/8 for both warp and weft was going to make a too heavy/thick cloth to wrap well.

Fortunately I had some options for weft in the studio already.

The bag was unpacked and the yarn intended for the wraps laid out on my work table where I would see it every time I went into the studio.  I find that a colour combination - especially not one of my own choosing (so to speak) - gels better if I can let it seep into my brain subliminally, catching the grouping in the corner of my eye while thinking about something else.  If there is something visually jarring it helps me to let it simmer on the back burner for a few days.

Over the course of the week I worked on other stuff and I kept going back to the table, grouping the threads in different ways, in different combinations, adding some more colours from my stash.  And I just could not make those light value blue/greys work.  Finally I grabbed the whole lot and removed them from the table.

Although there wasn't a lot of blue in the photo, I chose to use a dark blue/emerald green (mostly) stripe combination on one side, then gradually move through the colours winding up with the muted greens and purples on the other.

My loom has a one inch sectional, so it's fairly easy to gradually change out one or two ends for different colours making a gradual change.

Here the mostly dark blue/emerald green has been threaded.  Each repeat was 42 ends so I thread groups of 4, 6, or 8 depending on the threading progression, then when the entire repeat is finished slip knot those together so I can keep track of how many repeats I've done.

At the beginning I tested three colours, then let Carol choose which she preferred and started weaving hers.  This morning Katie came and we agreed on her weft colour.  I was going to change the treadling but both seem to like the design so the difference between them will be a very subtle change between the deep forest green for Carol and the dark navy for Katie.

The loom fix I did yesterday is so far holding up so I'm hoping I can finish weaving without further bodging.  Then the loom will be taken apart and inspected with parts needing replacing, replaced.

The loom is 'old' - not just in terms of years but in yards across the beam.  Nothing lasts forever and the part that gave way is metal against metal.  It was just a matter of time/use until it wore out.

Fortunately I have another loom and a dozen pre-wound warps ready to go into it, not to mention writing, lesson planning, guild room organizing and a bunch of other things that need to be done, too!

One Step At A Time

100% cotton baby wrap with 2/20 merc. cotton and 2/16 natural white weft

Pale green Fox Fibre 'colorganic' weft

Pale brown 'colorganic' organic cotton weft

I finally got the first 3 baby wraps completely finished.  All that's left is to add my hang tag with care instructions.  But they are now listed on my Art Fire store.  Now to see if anyone notices.  :}

http://laurafry.artfire.com/

I'm not sure how effective Art Fire truly is for selling stuff.  It seems like most of the sales I've made via Art Fire have been through my own marketing via sales lists and promoting my products myself.  But at least it gives customers a venue for seeing my work and paying via a secure site through Paypal.  And it doesn't cost a huge amount - the monthly fees are reasonable.

I don't mind paying a flat fee.  At least I don't feel like I'm being nibbled to death by fees here there and everywhere like on other sales sites.  If I don't list and promote my stuff and I have no sales it's my own fault.  Sometimes life just gets a little overwhelming - like it's been the past 6 months and I just haven't had the time or energy to deal with listing stuff and keeping on top of it all.

The big detraction for selling stuff on line is that colours don't always show 'true'.  Such is the case here.  I have done my best to capture the true colours of the cloth, but it all depends on how each person's monitor displays the colours, too.

I have two more wraps to finish.  I'd hoped to get them pressed today but another crap night means I have very little energy today.  I'm over the worst of the current cycle and things should start to improve again.  And tomorrow I should finalize funding for the injections to stimulate my white cell count, which means that there should be no further delays and I'll be through this particular life challenge by the end of October - or as soon as my immune system recovers.  I had a CT scan on Friday and am hoping for the very best possible news when I go in to the clinic again in two weeks time.

Oh, yes, nearly forgot.  Digital Magic is now ready.  Web Master is just getting the page on my website ready to take orders.  I will be contacting the list of names shortly - just as soon as the Paypal page is set up on my website to take payments.

Step by step - that's all we can do.  :)

Another Mini-Milestone (or two)

This morning I went up to the annex and did some more pressing.  The colours of the Fox Fibre yarns are actually a little more intense than shown here - guess the flash wiped some of the intensity out.

From the left - 50% green, 25% green, 50% brown, 25% brown, then regular 2/16 unmerc. cotton in cream and on the far right, natural white wefts.  I was going to put some of the 'raw' yarn on the cloth to show the change in colour - and I forgot.  Brain is truly not firing on all cylinders these days.  :(

Three of the wraps are almost ready to go.  I still have to sew the Fox Fibre label onto the two FF wraps that are ready, measure them and attach the care/hang tag.  The other three will get sewn some time this week, depending on how I feel after Wednesday.

In the meantime I have a long list of things that need to be done yet, including threading the guild loom on Monday, drive mom to her doctor's appointment and so on.  I'm still hoping to get the silk scarf warp sleyed and tied on today but it doesn't look like I'll get any weaving done.  We'll see how things go on Monday - hopefully I can at least get the first scarf started.

My web master made a truly Herculean effort last week and it looks like he's getting very close to finalizing the transfer of Magic to digital format.

Since word of mouth is the most effective marketing tool I'd appreciate it if you, dear readers, would pass the word that Magic will be available sometime in September in digital format.  I'm taking names and making up a contact list to let people know when I have cd's in hand and available to ship.  For those who prefer a 'real' book with actual fabric samples - there are still 14 abridged copies of Magic left.  They are listed on my Art Fire store http://laurafry.artfire.com/

People on my contact list will receive their copies of digital Magic first, then I will be listing it on my Art Fire store as well. 

All Wrapped Up!

stack of 'finished' wraps

sewing the 'hand woven by Laura Fry' label into the seam

The thing about weaving is that what you are mostly making is squares or rectangles.  Towels, place mats, shawls, scarves, table cloths.  Rectangles.  Or squares.

Generally if you are making something out of your fabric, you can make any sort of shape you want, like garments.  Or bags.  Or - well, your imagination is the limit.

I'm not a seamstress.  Yes, I can sew - if I have to.  But to make a garment that fits well and doesn't look home made instead of hand made - well, I would rather be weaving.

So when I was approached last December about making baby wraps, I thought that would be a great new product for me.  I wove a prototype and then could not contact the person who asked me about it - their email elicited no reply, a message left on their voice mail garnered no return call.  So I boxed the prototype up and pretty much forgot about it.

Until I met my latest student.  :)  She's a big fan of baby wraps and essentially wanted to learn how to weave so that she could make herself baby wraps.  I remembered my prototype and found it in the store room (a bit of a miracle, really!) and gave it to her to test drive.

Her feedback was great and I revisited the idea with her input.  And now I have 3 completed wraps with 3 more yet to come, possibly 4, because I made a couple of them shorter than originally planned.

Whether or not the baby wearing community will be interested in my baby wraps is yet to be determined.  But I feel confident I've got a product that will perform well and, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.  And besides, they are rectangles.  If they don't sell as baby wraps I can always cut them down into table cloths or something, right?