White No More

Here's the silk ribbon I dyed this week: I mixed magenta with a variety of orange-reds and got this bright shade. I think I'll have to send it to D soon, since it's a perfect Christmas colour. I'm learning the differences between how this silk behaves in the dye pot compared to my wool. The colour is much more even than I expected, given the technique I used. I didn't mix the dyes at all, just put bits of colour directly into the pot. The differences in quantity take a bit of getting used to--the weight of all this silk is minimal compared to a skein of my wool. So the amount of dye I used was way too much and the rinsing took a long time and many changes of water. OK, as an experiment it has to be called a success since I've learned from it. As a final product it wants some adjusting.

Double Weave Bag Progress

I've finished weaving the second sample for the Double Weave bag project. This is really a small version of the real thing. The assignment is not just to make the bag, but to demonstrate the steps in the process, so I've also made a mock up in calico of the bag's structure. Here it is, along with the silk I dyed up on the weekend: You can see it needs a good press, but I've labelled all the parts, so once I drag out the iron it will be ready to include in my folio.

Ironically, the calico version was harder to put together than the real thing will be. The beauty of the double weave structure for this design is that it eliminates all but two seams. I had to fiddle with the calico and my overlocker to make those non-existent seam sit as unobtrusively as possible.

My plan for today is to do as much as I can before it gets overwhelmingly hot again. I'd like to dye the mercerised cotton I'm going to be using as the warp for the real thing. There's enough warp left on the sample loom to try a couple of different approaches to closing off the bottom of the bag as well.