Weave and Sew Workshop Part 1

This past weekend was the first of four or five ongoing workshops that are focused on weaving for garments. The workshop is being led by Jeane DeCoster of Elemental Affects, a small dyeing business that deals exclusively with Shetland and Romney wool from  sheep on a ranch in Montana. Jeane worked with Judith to establish the relationship with the ranch and also uses Judith’s dyes in order to create an amazing array of colors. She exploits the lovely natural colors of the wool – one of the things that I love so much about her yarns. Along with her experience as a weaver and dyer, she has a degree in Fashion Design and has been doing both sewn and knitted garment design for quite some time. Her current interest is cloth for garments and how we, as weavers, can spend time thinking about patterns, colors and textures to create unique and expressive textiles.

She’s hosting the workshop at her studio, which is outside Palm Springs. It’s about a 7-8h drive from where I live, but to put things in perspective, here’s where we sat to take meals on Saturday and Sunday:

This give you an idea of the view from our dining spot; a folding table under that huge tree on the left. The mountains in the distance skirt the south end of Joshua Tree National Park – one of the many side-adventures I hope to be able to make as part of the commute back and forth to Jeane’s place. The line of trees along the property screened us from, of all things, a tilapia farm! Egrets perched on the tree tops all day long and the numerous small corrals contained horses that Jeane’s sister either owns or boards. The weather was wonderful and warm; a precursor of the searing heat that’s in store for us. That’s a point of concern for me but there’s air conditioning in the studio so I’m sure all will be well.

Our first day was spent looking at and trying on garments that we liked, didn’t like or were intriguing. I brought my kimono as well as another jacket that I loved, Barbara (“dijeannene” on Ravelry) brought a skirt that she likes, and the other two students in the class brought jackets and shirts. We talked about “fit points”, construction, drape, and basic shapes and how they interact with our different bodies. Each of us is built differently and it was good fun to try on each other’s garments to see how they changed from one to the other. Once that was done, we spent some time talking about what our garment would be and what kind of fabric we wanted to weave. We all decided to make some version of a sleeveless blouse/top – and from there, each of us came up with a fabric that we would sample. Barbara wanted to try and replicate a checked fabric but using different yarns, so we set-to and each did a few wraps to help give her ideas. Look at the variety!

There was a lot of interest in mixed warps – and that’s where I’ve ended up. And, just to be contrary, I’m doing a side-by-side sample that has a homogeneous warp on one side and a seriously mixed warp on the other. My mix includes three neutral colors of 11/2 organic cotton, two off-white colors of 20/2 mercerized cotton and one end of 10/1 silk noil. I held all six yarns together when winding and threaded randomly; whichever was picked up by my threading hook came through the heddle. The sett for the sample is 30epi and I’ve threaded for the Spot-Bronson that I posted last week. That has the benefit of being able to be woven off in either the lace or plain weave, so I’ve lots of flexibility in the sample. I put on a 2 1/2 yard warp, so I can do quite a bit of testing. I’m going to weave off 10″ in plain weave and 10″ in the Bronson using the 11/2 cotton as weft. Then I’ll do another 10″ in the silk noil, plain weave, to see if I like it. I’ll cut that off and finish it, then see about re-sleying either tighter or looser to weave off the balance. We’re also under orders to weave off some portion of the fabric with “something unexpected”. I’m not sure what that’ll be as of yet. I’ll jump off that bridge when I get there. Once the loom is set up again, I’ll take a picture of the warp so you can see what’s going on.

Our next meeting is in a month; so I have that long to finish the weaving. But, I really need the loom cleared off so I’ve put it to myself to get it done this week. Chris is getting on a plane in a few hours and won’t be back until the 14th so I’m free to do whatever I want. :-)

Oh, and did I mention the geriatric goat?