The Weaving Studio

Posted By Dave Daniels on November 21, 2008

Long ago in a time gone by, Roxie sent me a box of assorted yarns. One of them I’ve been hoarding for just the right project was a cone of a lavender-grey silk noil. The texture is wonderful, and the faint sheen is irresistible. On one of my recent dye adventures, I wound off the cone into four equal skeins of 400 yards, and a little skeinette* left over. 

In my mind, my intention is to use two for the warp, and two for the weft. I successfully recreated the greens I call dirty money. It’s varying shades of olive green, shifting the blues and yellows. They will be the weft yarn.

While still experimenting with shifting the blues, I also wanted to make the warp yarn in varying shades of purple and navy. One skein to be primarily purple to navy, and the other navy to purple. As the warp, I’ll alternate the colors 1/1 or 2/2, something like that.

These are the skeins, waiting to be transformed:

I’m thinking of making something decor-related, to be hung on a wall, or draped across a table. Wait a minute, I have two cats. I think something to hang on the wall is a better idea…

*Skeinette: a tiny hank of yarn, in skein form, not large enough to be made into anything, but cute none the less.

And, regarding my post from a couple of days ago where I say I use the dishwasher to store my dyeing supplies? That’s true. Since it’s just the two of us, we don’t use many dishes to prepare a meal. We really do hand wash. When I cook, he washes.. And when he cooks, I wash. (The cats are exempt from this rule since they don’t have thumbs and can’t hold a sponge. Excuses, excuses.) Plus, it’s noisy, uses a lot of electricity and wastes water. Plus, the apartment is small and storage is limited. I wouldn’t want anyone to use the pots and measurers for food prep, so they get stored away out of sight.

©2008 David Taylar Daniels & The Weaving Studio
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce photographs or text without written permission.

Category: Dyeing, Projects | 12 Comments »
Tags: Dyeing, Hand Dyed

Posted By Dave Daniels on November 20, 2008

Being in charge of the Santa’s Elf Hat Project, it was about time to show my contributions.

It all started innocently enough while looking through my stash of embroidery floss. I spied some shimmering metallics and just knew I had to find a way to use them. Of course, I wanted to do something a little different than a knitted cap. You knew that was coming, right?

In my quest for some Aida cloth or something similar, I remembered I had some woven merino sampler cloth from my first weaving project. And, it proved to be the most PERFECT thing to use.

This is it, my Elf Hat for the ExecuElf. Rather fashionable, I think. I’d have modeled it, but it’s too small for me. There’s also no pattern for it, it was pure creativity from start to finish. Just the way an Elf Hat should be.

Hmmmm…I wonder if I should make myself one of these in a grey tweed wool…?

©2008 David Taylar Daniels & The Weaving Studio
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce photographs or text without written permission.

Category: Projects, Sewing, Textures | 20 Comments »
Tags: Santa's Elf Hat Project

Posted By Dave Daniels on November 19, 2008

With all this posting about the Kaleidoscope yarn, and how I wished I had enough of it, it was time to just make more. That’s the only solution. And, this time, I was planning on making A LOT. And not just an extra skein or two. We’re talking about making a whole pound and a quarter. I took the last of the 2kilo cone of the merino nylon that the Bitchin’ Barbi scarf was made from, and set out on an adventure of the colorful kind…

I have to say, the worst part of this whole adventure was not being able to find my dye recipe notebook. When I tell you I was panicked, that’s putting it mildly. Luckily, I was a homo-alone, and I was on my Quest for the Notebook. I keep all my dyestuffs locked in the dishwasher for safe keeping, and that’s where the notebook "should" be. Or, on the bookcase in my studio. Or, on the desk in said studio. Or, maybe in the yarn cabinet in the living room. Or, maybe it somehow got packed into a box under the bed. (And what an adventure that was, digging through the history in all those boxes. I also found my great grandmother’s crocheted doilies, too.)

Anyway, I found the dye recipe notebook in my fabric cabinet in the studio, tucked in with some silk fabrics I was planning on dyeing one of these days.

And, with my master chemistry set of measures, beakers, and stirrers, the mad scientist in me returned. And I began building my rainbow on that cold and rainy day.

And, several hours later, the completed masterpiece! Tadaaaaaaaaa!

After hours of dye-blending, hand painting, steaming, washing, drying, washing, drying, re-skeining, it’s finally ready for some weaving fun. But, that’s another project for another day. I have over a pound of this just hanging out on the yarn swift, inspiring me every time I walk past…

©2008 David Taylar Daniels & The Weaving Studio
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce photographs or text without written permission.

Category: Dyeing, Projects | 27 Comments »
Tags: Hand Dyed, Hand Painted