2 Sunset Satin Mobius

First experiment with weaving 5-shaft satin (and using tencel) nearly done.  I love the results! Oh, so soft!

What did I learn?

1. The curling selvedges do come out with a hard press.
2. When your feet are trained to treadle four shafts in a row, switching to five shafts takes some re-training (and un-weaving).
3. Much harder to see treadling errors in satin than in twill.
4. Using a mirror to watch the warp side helps catch errors.
5. Got a nicer drape and fabric feel with 8/2 tencel warp, combined with 10/2 tencel than with 8/2 tencel as both the warp and weft -- but both are really nice.
6. The take-up and shrinkage of tencel -- not much.

Both have the same 8/2 tencel warp. The mobius on the left has an 10/2 tencel weft with tencel in pinks and reds from Just Our Yarn.  The one on the left has an 8/2 tencel weft in reds, pinks and black.  The undertones in the left mobius warp are more muted and pinky while the other one leans more toward reds and orange.  Both seem to be inspired by the sunset photo below, however, the blacks and grays stand out more in the one with the red/black weft.  I had hoped the pink weft would have a stronger pink cast on the warp.

I still have to twist the ends together to create each mobius.  The red/black weft one is 39" so I may sew it together with a flat fell seam.  The pink weft one is 36" -- exactly the length I like, so I will twist it together with the fringe. Both are 6 5/8" wide -- I little wider than I usually like.

Right now my next satin experiment will be with a 7-shaft satin.  I'm going to use JOY 10/2 tencel in blues and greens as the warp and maybe some Red Fish 20/2 silk in the weft.  And the width will be less.  But right now I'm going to hang out in the yard with Daisey the Dog so she can bark at the sunshine -- something we haven't seen much of lately in the Pacific Northwest.

My Pics 2 Picks Project

The Pics 2 Picks Project is the brainchild of Meg in Nelson, NZ.  Here were the basic rules:

1) Collect 3-6 photographs/clipping/drawing to inspire a weaver.

2) Put all three in an envelope, and a personal message and send it to your weaver recipient.

3) Plan a project based on one of the images.

4) Photograph it, sketch it, write about it, or blog about it. And weave it.
5) Share your progress the first week of June.  Completed project not required.

I recieved a little packet from Desiree with a photo, a clipping and some postcards illustrating the wrok of a famous Swedish weaver.  I picked the photo -- it is of a lovely leather jacket by a Swedish clothing designer.  To me it has many of the wonderful colors we see in the American Southwest.

In my stash I had strips of Pendleton Wool fabric and turoquise worms from Pendleton Blankets.  The fabric picks up the colors of the leather and the worms pick up the color in the center (maybe part of the lining).  I also had some hand painted cotton yarn from Lisa Souza that has all the colors.

So I started weaving.  I wasn't sure what the end product would be, but in the back of my mind of was thinking it would be a bag.  You can see in the photo on the left what it looked like on the loom.  I alternated randomly between the worms and the fabric, using a pick of Lisa's cotton in between each.  I have seen garments made using the worms and the worms had been beat hard and made to curl.  I didn't want that -- I wanted flat worms so I beat very lightly -- just kinda sliding them into place.

When I was done I had a piece of fabric that didn't have a lot of stability since the worms were flat.  So my next step was to get a friend (Hi JoAn) to machine quilt it for me.

If you look closely you have see the machine quilting.  That made a huge difference in the stability of the fabric.  Next I washed and dryed it.  There was very little fulling since the worms are the edges of felted blankets.  Then I gave it a hard press and applied fusible interfacing to one side.  From there it is was just sewing -- have I mentioned my sewing skills haven't progressed much since the 7th grade? And my poor sewing machine was not always happy with me or the thickness of the fabric. I had the perfect lining fabic in my stash (photo below on right) and thankfully I had a lot of the fabric since I had to do the lining twice -- the first was a 1/2" too small and I had already trimmed the seam when I discovered that fact. 

I experimented and fussed a lot over the handles.  I tried knitting the worms into an I-Cord handle -- nope.  I tried various plastic and bamboo handles in my stash -- nope.  Finally I went to JoAnns Fabric and found two drapery trims that worked and I sewed them together....

And here's the bag!

Satin/Sateen Reading List

Here is the reading list I put together for my study of Satin and Sateen:

Books:
More Than Four, by Mary Elizabeth Laughlin, Chapter 13, “Satin…or Sateen”
Mastering Weave Structures, by Sharon Alderman, Chapter 3, “Satin”
The Weaver’s Book of Fabric Design, by Janet Phillips, Chapter 9, “Satin and Sateen Weaves”
A Handbook of Weaves by G.H. Oelsner, Chapter “The Satin Weave”

Magazines:
Handwoven Mar/April 2004, “Satin and Tencel for a shimmering scarf,” Patricia Townsend, pg 52
Weaver’s #15 “Step up to Satins” by Donna Sullivan, pg 15 and “Satin and Silk on four or five shafts” by Donna Sullivan, pg 21
Weaver’s #28, “Vibrato” pg 38
Weaver’s #30, “For 8-Shaft Weavers,” by Alice Schlein, pg 47, describes drafting a satin weave.
Weavers #40, “Get Sett for Satin Simulation,” by Doramay Keasbey, pg 6

Online references:
Satin Weave and Damask, Swatch Page http://www.handweaving.net/DAItemDetail.aspx?ItemID=7709
Handweavers Net http://www.handweaving.net/Home.aspx search on “satin” lots of articles come up plus many, many drafts

Future Reads:
The Structure of Weaving, by Ann Sutter, pgs 120-128
The Complete Book of Drafting for Handweavers, by Marilyn van der Hoogt
Contemporary Satins - Shuttle Craft Monograph Seven by Harriet Tidball

Satin/Sateen Experiments

I've started my own one-weaver study group of satin/sateen weave structure.  I like the fact that the fabric is reversible and very different on both side; the satin side is warp-faced and the sateen side is weft faced.  I've been digging through all the books and magazine in my library and found about a 1/2 dozen chapters and articles on satin.

I put on a warp of 8/2 Tencel in multiple colors -- think sunset on a rainy day colors on the warp side and a sunset at Monument Valley, NM on the weft side. The warp side is a little brighter with more colors but color is good!

Here's the warp:

And here's how it looks so far -- first photo is from the right side and the second photo is from the left.  You can see that I am having problems with the edges curling.  I read ahead of time that this could happen with a satin weave and the suggestion was to packed the dents at the edge (before the floating selvedge) with extra threads.  So I did that, but apparently not enough. Hopefully the edges with flatten out when I wet finish and hard press it. I also read that the sett should a little closer to get good coverage on the warp side so I used a sett of 30 EPI, but next time I think will try a set of 32 or 34 with 8/2 tencel.  I started this as a scarf but now I'm considering making a mobius so that both sides will show.  And I put on a long warp and will have enough two do a second mobius with a different weft thread and to do some sampling.

And now, it back to the loom!