Bryony Studio

Not much going on today in regards to weaving, so I wanted to let you see a beautiful Fibonacci scarf in black and orange.

Last week, I focused on creating a color palette from color inspiration to choices of yarn. Today, I'm going to focus on ways to set up the warp. To begin, there are two ways to measure the warp for a loom: indirect and direct. Warp in Heddles For my floor looms, I use the indirect warping method. This means simply that I use a warping board to measure my warp. The warp is then taken off the loom and put onto the loom which is called dressing  the loom. Warping Board For my rigid heddle looms, I use the direct warping method. For this, I place my loom the length of my warp away from my warping pole. When I dress the loom, I also measure my warp. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, and it depends on which loom I happen to be setting up. I tend to design in the dressing process for my direct warping method, however for my indirect method, I have it planned out. The primary reason for the differences is when I design for the floor looms, I usually have worked o...

On Wednesday, I introduced the concept of creating a color palette. Today, I'm going to focus on the next step: choosing yarns. Once you have the palette, you need to choose the yarn or fabric based upon the theme. If your local store doesn't have colors available, the Internet often provides a good choices as well. For me, I like using my local weaving store's yarn supply, so while I have a palette available, it is often a guideline for the colors. In the Rocky Weed colors above, I don't have those exact colors, but I have a close proximity to each color.  One way you can expand your colors is by thinking a little outside the box of colors. For example, in the selection of yarn colors I have, I don't have any grays, but I do have blues and greens that would work for gray. The next step is to mix the yarns together. At this point, you can travel many paths, but two primary ones are whether or not to include textural inspiration from the photograph. In...

If you've been visiting the Bryony Studio site for any length of time, you have noticed the Monday Moods color palettes. Part of the reason I started them was to provide a color scheme for people to have. The other reason was to show how we can find inspiration from anywhere around us. Case in point, the last two or three photos ( Old Painted Walls , Brownstone and Speckle Stone ) are all off my back porch. Other photographs come from trips around the area or abroad. When weaving, some of the hardest parts is choosing colors. Most people have a standard color scheme they prefer for fashion, home interiors, vehicles and whatever else strikes their fancy. In my family, it falls into the blue  family. Accents tend to be brown, especially wood tones, or the occasional pop of color from whatever quilt I made. For me, I tend to work with purples and grays - two of my favorite colors in fact. What I find difficult is blending the warmer colors. Nature provides us a variety of c...

This coming Saturday is the end of the Saturday Artisan Market fair season for 2014. All in all, it's been a good year for me. As the autumn season progress into winter, I'm taking into account what I've done, what I can do better, and how I can learn from my year. Probably has something to do with closing season, my birthday last week, and general changes in the season. Would you believe that yesterday we hit almost 80 degrees Fahrenheit in Western NY? Today, we're to be in the 60's. Kylemore Abbey, Co. Galway, Ireland, 2007 The winter also brings more time for writing and weaving. Writing includes books I need to finish, whereas weaving provides time for experimenting and seeing what it is I can do on my looms. Also means I finally have time to repair the floor looms ... hopefully. Do you have any winter weaving projects? How about weaving related adventures or writing? Leave a comment, I'd love to talk with you.

I've recently posted about how I'm using cotton for my warp and chenille for my weft in a series of scarves, ponchos and wraps ( here ), but I haven't mentioned using chenille for both warp and weft. There is good reason - I rarely do. Rayon Chenille Scarf This is an up-close photograph of a chenille scarf I wove a year or two ago. Notice the lovely sheen to it. Compare it to the cotton/chenille mixture below in a side-by-side shot: Rayon Chenille and Cotton/Chenille Scarves While the cotton/chenille scarf is beautiful, the full chenille scarf is both more luxuriant and softer to the touch. It also drapes better, almost like a silk, howbeit a fairly heavy silk. The other major difference between the two scarves is the weight - the full chenille is heavier. Over Appleumpkin weekend, I had a lady place an order for a scarf: it had to be purple, and she preferred the full chenille scarf opposed to the mixture. I purchased my cones of yarn (a pound was needed...