Celebrating four years of weaving!

Yes, as of yesterday I have been weaving for exactly four years…wow!  What an adventure it’s been.  From first baby steps to wedding dress…and beyond that, doubleweave, taquete, and woven shibori!  May the years following be as exciting, and as fun.

I celebrated yesterday by drafting and weaving a bunch more experiments in woven shibori.  I used the same basic weave that I liked last time (draft #27803 from the Handweaving.net archives).  This time, however, I am experimenting with two things: (1) weaving the ties in plain weave in the areas I want to stay undyed (I noticed in my first samples that plain weave = white where ties are concerned), and (2) spacing of the ties.  In the first sample, I’m using the same spacing as before (ties after every 4 threads, or about 1/8″); in the second spacing, I’m halving the number of ties (ties after every 8 threads, or about 1/5″); in the third spacing, I’ve cut the number of ties down to two per motif, which results in about 1/2″ spacing.

Here are drafts and photos:

I haven’t yet had a chance to pull and tie the threads, planning to do that at lunchtime, and dye either tomorrow night (though I have a painting lesson that evening, so maybe not) or on Saturday.  On Karren’s suggestion, I will use Cibacron F to get better penetration – but that dyebath takes a good 2 to 2.5 hours so better to do it on the weekend, I think.  I am still debating whether to dye each side different colors using a syringe to apply the colors, or whether to use a mixed-color immersion dyebath.  In the latter case I am curious about Karren’s comment that mixed colors result in more complex color because the two colors will travel different distances.  That sounds interesting to me!

Off to design class!