Bryony Studio

It's been a crazy little while focusing on writing books, but I've been able to have some time to weave. Currently, focusing on producing lengths of material, primarily for scarves. Over the past year, I purchased a bunch of cones of yarn, and while I used most of them, I have some half-filled cones of yarn. To that end, I've been working through the yarn to see what I can create. It's proved interesting seeing how I can use the yarn. Unfortunately, it seems when I finish the warp, I need more yarn for the weft. Such is the problem with weaving. Also, I'm working on creating cotton warp with chenille weft projects. It'll be interesting to see if I can use the cotton/chenille material for clothes. On a side note, the book I'm currently working on has a main character who is a weaver. Some of the items I'll be focusing on over the next few months is creating items connected to the book.

One of the things most weavers have after awhile is a collection of leftover yarn. It's easier to purchase cones of yarn, but I rarely use all the yarn for a project. Now I have bits and bobs of various colors. Not all the colors go together, but sometimes they do. In this case, since it's getting close to March, and I had a lot of green, I opted to play with the greens. Ended up emptying two more cones just in the warp. I chose a rich forest green as the primary color (both for the warp and weft). With the forest color, I alternated another four colors: serenity, olive, teal and sea green. Out of the five colors, serenity was the only one not technically green, but was actually a pale blue. You can see it in the photograph above (second color on the left). While weaving, however, the blue blends in with the other colors quite well. I put on about five yards of warp, which should turn into a couple of scarves, one of which could be extra long. I won't know for cert...

Two weeks ago, I warped up my loom with a new length of material. Weaving the lace at 10 dpi left an open and airy fabric, very lightweight and beautiful. As you can see, it is rather open, though not as much as I thought it would be. I have about six yards of material. Four of the pieces I wove off at shorter lengths, intending them to be made into a skirt later. What I hadn't expected was the shrinkage after washing the material. What was originally about twenty-four inches shrank to a little over eighteen inches. Yet, despite the surprises, I think this will wind up making beautiful garments. I think it would make a good summer top, or with a contrasting layer underneath, it would make a wonderful gown or skirt. I look forward to see what I can use this material for, and how it could be made with different materials.

One of the things I love about weaving is the ability to experiment. It's fun trying different fibers, weave structures and color combinations. Currently, I'm working on an open weave structure based upon weaves from previous designs. The original version was like the ones above: lace weave done in cotton at 12.5 dpi. I had woven something similar at a wider spacing (7.5 dpi) with cotton and wool. The photograph below shows what happens with wool and cotton.     What I wanted to discover is if the same process would work at a 10 dpi. In other words, would I be able to make an attractive fabric with a wider lace design? Ideally, the project will turn into a dress, but I'll have to see how it washes up first.   Hopefully, it will turn out somewhat like I thought it would be. 

So I ended last year with a warp, a beautiful burgundy warp of chenille and cotton. My intention was to turn it into a tunic of some sort, but it ended up being a Christmas present. Ah well, sometimes things happen, I've learned. One of my biggest surprises for Christmas was receiving a dressmaker's dummy. Very excited about this because now I can start to design clothes with the material I weave up. I currently have material on the dummy as I write, but I'm still mulling over the design. I have great respect for fashion designers who can make beautiful garments for the masses. I'll post photographs later on. I hope everyone has a happy new year.

Well, I finished the project. Turned out to be a shirt, and not a dress, however. Oh well. Lessons learned, right? Front of shirt Here's a shot of the front of the shirt. This was woven with 8/2 cotton at 12.5 epi (ends per inch) on my 12" loom. Actual weaving width on loom is around 11.5". Once washed, the material shrank to 10" wide. Overall, I had around one yard of the lighter colored material (that on top) and two yards of the darker material (that on the bottom). I use a mixture of peach, teaberry and rust colors to create the warp, but I only used peach and teaberry to weave. Coral was the lighter color and teaberry the medium pink in the shirt. Back of shirt What I discovered while creating the shirt surprised me. First of all, I it's surprising what you can make out of three yards of 10" material. As you can tell, I ran out of fabric for my sleeves. Second, it proved interesting putting the items together. It's definitely one o...

As part of the December challenge I made for myself, I finally finished weaving the fabric. Yeah! Now, it's waiting to go into the laundry. The next phase, of course, is designing the dress. Once the fabric is washed, I'll be able to see how much material I have. Currently, it's almost three yards, maybe a little more, but it will shrink once it is washed. No, the cones above are not the finished colors for the dress, but they are the next project. Each year I make the majority of my Christmas presents. My sister wants a throw blanket for her apartment, and the cones are the colors she chose. Honestly, the warp is beautiful, even if I did have to add an olive color to the mixture since I ran out of the 8/2 cotton yarn (the one on the right). Still, since the yarn I bought for her is a shade greener than the computer shows, it's turned out well. Do you make anything for Christmas, or do you purchase handcrafted items for friends and family?