Woven Shibori

I've had Catherine Ellis' book "Woven Shibori" for quite a while now, but I'm just getting around to giving it a bit of a whirl:

My first attempt, on the loom, a simple four shaft monk's belt pattern in 20/2 silk and a tencel pattern thread, just so I can get the hang of the dying process, see how it works. Once it is off the loom, the idea is to pull the purple threads really right to create pleats so the dye won't penetrate to the folded areas.

I did experiment with a blank t-shirt and some nui (stitched) shibori, though! Dyed it chartreuse first, and then did a second dye bath with a deeper loden green after stitching just a simple pattern across the shirt. And it worked! I'm ticked! (And just so easily amused, lol).

With all this playing with dye going on, Bella thought it would be fun to paint a shirt for herself. So, I gave her some textile paints and away she went! It's a field of flowers and a sunset, with a little reflection of the sun in the pond on the right, she says. And the field got a little dug up, hence the brown. She's all about the process when she paints, it's interesting... Half the time she'll make a really intricate picture and then paint right over it.

I think regardless how the woven shibori comes out, I'll definitely be doing more stitched shibori. All sorts of ideas floating around in my head - lots of fun!

We're off to Stowe, Vermont, for a long ski weekend, leaving tomorrow evening! Bella will be skiing on her 5th birthday, how fun!

Artist Profile (Really Late!) - Sunrise Lodge Fiber Studio

I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't even have the word "Wednesday" in my artist profiles, and instead just aim for once a week. Since I seem to be hopeless at actually getting them done on Wednesday...

At any rate, this week, I've chosen a small group of fiber artists - Shannon, Ursula and Christina of Sunrise Lodge Fiber Studio. All three women are spinners and dyers, and Shannon is a handweaver as well (and is teaching Christina how to weave, how fun!).
Oh my god. Isn't that *gorgeous*?? I so want this yarn... At Night in Gethsemane handspun yarn. The colors are just fantastic - it's a 2-ply, 11 wpi (wrap per inch) yarn with 556 yards in the skein. They're not kidding when they say you can make a whole project with one of their skeins of yarn, I love the generous size! (Oh, and if you're like me, you might want to read about the Gardens of Gethsemane, here.)



More yumminess. Sea Foam Worsted Weight handspun, 192 yards of 2ply, 10 wpi yarn.

How about some self-striping sock yarn?
If Only I Were Argyle sock yarn - I love that name! This skein has 420 yards of super wash merino/bamboo/nylon (love that bamboo!) sport weight sock yarn, plenty for a pair of socks.

How about something for the spinners out there?

Misty Morning Hand-carded Batt. This batt is 4 oz. of hand-dyed and hand-carded merino wool with a little bit of nylon and natural-colored grey alpaca. Makes me want to get out my drop spindle (though I'd never do it justice...).

Shannon of Sunrise Lodge Fiber Studio has also set up a sister Etsy store for her handwovens, Sunrise Handwovens. Check out her handwoven shibori scarf:


Yaknow, once again, somebody is proving me wrong - I've mentioned before that I'm not always wild about woven shibori, because it can come out looking really muddy, in my opinion (which I'm sure lots of people disagree with, lol). But this piece is gorgeous. Clean and beautiful, and you can actually see the results of the shibori dye technique. Bravo, Shannon!

Wednesday Artist Profile - KMR Handwoven

After last Wednesday's lapse (sorry!), I thought I'd profile a handweaver as a special treat. The fantabulous Kathie of KMR Handwoven really caught my eye when she joined EtsyFAST (the Fiber Arts Street Team).


Isn't this towel great?? I love a weaver with a sense of humor! And she did a great job photographing it, too - that yellow pepper is a very nice touch - as we all know, decent photography for an Etsy shop is not only crucially important, it can also be pretty darn difficult.

More goodies...




She has several handwoven check book cases and coin purses in her shop. See what I mean about that good photography? More great pictures. And, since I'm terrible about sewing with my handwoven fabric, I have great admiration for those who do!


Tote bags too!

While chatting with Kathie, I found out all sorts of interesting things about her weaving. For instance, she weaves on a drawloom. I've never seen one in person, but she got me all interested in them and I've been doing research (even found a place near here where I could take a little workshop on one, how fun). Here's a picture she sent me of her drawloom:

Hmm. Kind of small, but you get the idea - it's a beast, isn't it?? It has two sets of harnesses - one set for structure and one set for a pattern - and with a drawloom you can weave any sort of pattern that you can draft on graph paper...

Can you see the detail in that photo? These are some baby bibs that she wove on her drawloom - adorable or what?? She needs to get these in her Etsy shop, pronto. :) Boy, though, does the idea of a drawloom appeal to me...

A couple of notes for the weavers that may be reading this - if you are going to Convergence in Tampa this June (I am! I can't wait!), you can see some of Kathie's wall pieces in the Weave and Resist Exhibit at Hillsborough Community College in Ybor City, Tampa. (How cool is that??)

And she is also in Catherine Ellis' book, Woven Shibori. Her piece is on p.86 - and, once again, it was woven on her draw loom before she did a shibori discharge. It is *gorgeous*.

I'm not always a huge fan of woven shibori (sorry, folks, but in my opinion, I think people can make some very muddy-looking pieces using this technique - though I must say I really like Catherine Ellis' work, not muddy at all), but Kathie's piece is beautiful. I'm looking forward to seeing her work in the exhibit at Convergence!

And, just on a personal note, I have had a fabulous time chatting with Kathie over email. She's just one of those lovely people that you would love to live closer to... (I've met quite a few of people like this through EtsyFAST - maybe it's something about working with fiber.)