Thanks to Jeen on Ravelry, I found a "recipe" for 8-shaft weaving on a rigid heddle loom.
This is Pinwheel Weave. Yes, it is very cool.
It is also somewhat time consuming (with 6 pick-up rows out of every 8 weft throws), so if you like rigid heddle to be a quick weave, this is not the draft for you!
It is possible to get a nice rhythm going with it though, and the pick-up pattern is not hard to memorize, so if you do not have access to an 8-shaft loom, give this a try!
I used a merino sock yarn and a 12 dent reed (wanted more wheels across the width) but I think I should have followed Jeen's advice and started out with chunky on a 5 dent, or maybe worsted on an 8 dent. This would give fewer pinwheels in a row, but also fewer threads to pick up, which would make a significant difference in the time and difficulty of the pattern.
So here's how it goes (though I do recommend going to Ravelry for Jeen's step-by-step instructions and many examples of this pattern in different color combinations plus other variations and other weaving patterns). (OK, I like Jeen - she's bold and experimental and likes to try out lots of crazy ideas.)
Directions:
A. Warp your loom with 8 threads of each color, alternating 8 thread colors blocks all the way across.
B. With your darker color, weave a plain border of some kind, at least 2 rows (more, if you like).
C. Starting with your darker color, begin the pattern. You'll do all 8 rows of the pattern with this color.
Pattern:
row 1 - Heddle in neutral. In each 8 thread color section all the way across the row, from right to left, go over 4 threads and pick up 4 threads. Turn the pick up stick on its side to create a shed and weave your color through.
row 2 - Heddle in neutral. In each 8 thread color section all the way across the row, go over 3 threads, pick up 1, over 1, pick up 3 threads.
Turn the pick up stick on its side to create a shed and weave your color through.
row 3
- Heddle in neutral. In each 8 thread color section all the way across the row, from right
to left, go over 2 threads, pick up 1, over 1, pick up 1, over 1, and pick up 2 threads. Turn the pick up
stick on its side to create a shed and weave your color through.
row 4 - no pick-up (take a breath) Heddle down, plain weave shot.
row 5 - no pick-up (take a breath) Heddle up, plain weave shot.
row 6
- Heddle in neutral. In each 8 thread color section all the way across the row, from right
to left, pick up 2 threads, over 1, pick up 1, over 1, pick up 1, and go over 2 threads. (for those who think analytically, this is the opposite of row 3)
Turn the pick up
stick on its side to create a shed and weave your color through.
(this shows the pick up stick making the shed)
row 7
- Heddle in neutral. In each 8 thread color section all the way across the row, from right
to left, pick up 3 threads, over 1, pick up 1, and go over 3 threads. (opposite of row 2) (sorry, apparently I neglected to take a picture of this one)
Turn the pick up
stick on its side to create a shed and weave your color through.
row 8
- Heddle in neutral. In each 8 thread color section all the way across the row, from right
to left, pick up 4 threads and go over 4 threads. Turn the pick up
stick on its side to create a shed and weave your color through.
Repeat this pattern (rows 1 through 8) with your second color.
And that's it, alternating colors to the end of your project.
D. End with the 8 row pattern in your darker color.
E. Put in your plain weave border.
F. Finish fringes as desired (I twisted mine in solid color 8 thread units)
And voila, a pinwheel scarf (or dishtowel, or whatever project you choose)
So even though it's pretty slow going, it's actually fun! Really!
And it's pretty flash, oh yes it is!
(edited post on March 19 - so sorry, I was in a hurry when I first did this, and put all the process photos in upside down! All better now.)
Ever since I started working with fiber arts, I've been studying color. What colors do I like, what colors play nicely with each other, what surprising color combinations are fun, and most of all, how do I use color in my work. It is a study that will take the rest of my life, I'm sure.
Along the way, I've had some great teachers - in classes, in books, in videos.
My first teacher was Deb Menz who was teaching a color carding class (for yarn spinners) at the Spin Off Autumn Retreat. Here I got re-acquainted with the color wheel.
(here are a few of the color wheels I use now)
And all those fun color variations (pure hues, tints, shades, tones) and relationships (analogous, complementary, triadic, tetradic, and more) that you can play with.
Then I "discovered" Kaffe Fassett, and realized that I didn't know anything about color, not really. So I took up quilting, and took a few classes.
Still a bit clueless, but wandering off into some interesting territory.
Then I found Joen Wolfrom, and all her wonderful books, and the new color wheel in which the primaries are yellow, cyan, and magenta - not the version I learned back in school all those years ago! And her flip pad (3-in-1 Color Tool) of color hues. Plus handy filters for helping see value (because value is valuable! Hah!). Wow, did that open my eyes!
This fabric is mostly a Triad.
And this one is a wide analogous spread (7 colors in a row) centered on green-yellow (far left in photo) with splashes of a complementary color (magenta), and just a hint of the other two legs of the triad (blue violet in the background and orange red in the flower centers).
And not only can you play with color wheel relationships, but there are all these effects of light and depth and distance that you can get using color and value!
Christine Barnes (The Quilter's Color Club) has a great special effects with color class that explores these color and light effects over at the Quilt Show. It has lessons (and excellent homework assignments) on value, temperature, color wheel, transparency, luminosity, luster, and more and more.
And Joen Wolfrom (Color Play) has a color play for quilters class over at Craftsy (OK, I have to warn you that though she is a lovely person and a brilliant color designer, she is not at all a dynamic teacher - in fact, I have to knit while I'm watching the lessons so I don't go mad) with more great info about color relationships and effects (including some rather fabulous examples of quilts that use these techniques and effects).
And that is my current quilting project - to work through Christine's and Joen's lessons. Here is the stash I pulled together today to complete these lessons - it's set up to work with one main color (green-yellow or spring green) so that, hopefully, when I'm done, all the lesson samples can be put together in a quilt!
I've got monochromatic
and analogous (bottom row), complementary and split-complementary (top
right), and triad (top left) - all in a variety of saturated hues,
tints, shades, and tones.
(OK, some of those colors still need to be sorted a little better, but I'm getting closer!)
Whew, January has been quite a journey (well, it did include a road trip from Vashon, WA to Wimberley, TX!), and though I did not finish everything on my UFO challenge for this month, I did most of it!
(yes, that's the palm desert, and a giant Saguaro, and a giant tumbleweed waiting at a stop sign, and snow in New Mexico, and mixed snow and dust storms in west Texas)
January finishes and flubs:
#1 - UFO finished - The 7 yard color gamp warp on my new loom is done and off the loom! (that's the very end of the warp, just before I cut it off)
This project mostly stalled because I was sick off and on all summer and fall in 2012, and then it was the holidays.
Then I signed up for a February weaving class and needed an empty loom, so had to put on the speed.
I built up my weaving stamina slowly, but when I got up to more than 4 hours a day, the bottoms of my feet started to hurt (treadling barefoot helps me keep track of a pattern since my feet feel where I am on the 10 treadles). So I had to use my sneakers, which helped my feet, but slowed me down (I had to look down to see where I was) and created mistakes when my shoes accidentally caught the edge of a neighboring treadle. Changing to a different treadle tie up using fewer treadles and with space in between pairs of treadles helped enormously and I was able to crank it all out before the big road trip.
And here they all are (wrinkled and folded from being stuffed in a basket for a few weeks while I traveled and then came home and took my class) . The color gamp warp actually made 9 napkins instead of 8! The bottom right frame show #9 waffle weave (after washing) on top of #8 waffle weave (unwashed) to show how much it shrinks when washed! The plain weave and twills will not shrink as much. Later this week I'll write up another post with more weaver tech for those who are interested.
#2 - WIP - FMQ Challenge - finished (blog post with all the details here)! Not only finished in time to link up To SewCalGal, but I won a prize and will be getting my own Kaleidoscope maker program so I can play and play!
#3 - WIP - Granddaughter dress revision - didn't happen. Well, if I hadn't gone on a last-minute-ish 10 day road trip, this would have gotten finished. But the sewing machine doesn't travel like the knitting does! So this goes to the February list.
#4 - WIP - Rigid Heddle scarf - didn't happen. Turns out I actually had 10 inches left to weave, and pinwheel pick-up is slow, slow, slow. On to the February list.
#5 - NW - American Girl Doll mitts - almost done! Thought I would get these done when it was my turn to be passenger on the long drive, but it turns out that I can't knit in the car at night (when dear husband does the driving) unless I bring a headlamp!
Plus, my stepdaughter requested a pair for herself, and I worked a bit on those!
So, 5 finishes may be a bit ambitious for one month, but some success all the same!
February challenges - in order of priority:
1. WIP - finish revising the 2year old granddaughter's dress before she outgrows it!
*Needs to be revised
and have a tie or button and loop put on at the back of neck - she's a
wee little thing, but she has a big active brain and needs a neckline
that is small enough for her little shoulders, but big enough for her
head to go through comfortably.
2. WIP - finish the little American Doll mitts for other granddaughter!
(see #5 above for photo) - a quick evening's knitting and finishing.
3. WIP - finish second fingerless mitt for stepdaughter before she runs out of Texas winter (if it ever was winter at all - seems like it was in the 70's almost the whole time we were there)! Second mitt is cast on and beads are loaded onto the yarn (see #5 above for photo) - good project for car trips (passenger only!), ferry lines, and meetings.
4. UFO - This is the big one - the challenge quilt that's due at quilt guild on March 19! The challenge rules and the fabric were both given to us back in early summer, and I've made some lists, and done some design sketches, but have not really started construction yet! So the plan for this month is first to simplify and finalize the design and make any pattern pieces I need (this week), then to select fabric and cut and piece or fuse the quilt top (next week), and finally to layer the quilt sandwich and do the basic outline and stabilizing quilting (last week of month). The rest will go on next month's UFO plan (I'll have 3 weeks in March to finish).
Sorry, no photos till it's done - just in case a guild member happens to see my blog! So you'll have to trust me on this one!
5. UFO - Pinwheel Scarf on Rigid Heddle loom - abandoned in November - not as finished as I thought it was.
So it need 10 more inches woven, plus hemstitching and fringe twisting. Can probably get this one done at the Rigid Heddle Study Group meeting!
And that's the plan!
