Ornery camera, travels, and some weavings

The camera is fixed.  Turned out to be a faulty image sensor, replaced for free by the manufacturer.  Yay.  So I took it on a month long train trip cross country to visit bazillion relatives and old friends on the west coast.  Well, not a bazillion: there wasn't time to visit everyone I'd have liked to, but quite a few, some of whom I hadn't seen for years.  Said camera came back with the memory chip crammed with over 500 photos!

I spent the month before my trip madly making arrangements and weaving into the nights to make gifts for some of my relatives.  Here are some of the results.

Two lace-weave scarves, 8/2 bamboo rayon, warp in pale grey, weft in a pale shell pink.   One is Bronson lace, and the other is Swedish lace, each measures 7 inches by 48 inches, and have 6 inch long twisted fringe.  I love the elegant colors and drape, and fortunately, so did the recipients!  (You can see the patterns more clearly by clicking on the photos to enlarge.)

Bronson Lace scarf

Swedish Lace scarf

Here is a closeup of both scarves, showing the light shining through the lacy structure:

Bronson on left, Swedish on right.

Then I warped up enough navy blue Tencel to weave two long scarves for my daughter and granddaughter in Portland.  I only managed to get one done, with a turquoise Tencel for an iridescent effect, in Huck spot, 6 inches by five feet, with 8 inch free-flowing fringe.  This one was for my granddaughter, an 11 year old fashionista.  She draped it around her neck, and put her Girl Scout Sash on over it!  Such elan. She always looks like a miniature fashion model, creating magnificent outfits out of disparate items, like a piece of walking art.  The scarf looked great on her.  Sadly, my camera batteries went out and I didn't get pics of it. Foo.  But here's the scarf before I left: 

On the line

Close-up of Huck spot weave

Now I will weave a similar scarf for her mother, using emerald green Tencel against the navy blue.  I found that one of the challenges in weaving Tencel is that it is slippery, and it tends to shift a bit if the sett is not close enough or the beat isn't quite even.  When I began weaving it, my first few inches pulled out of alignment when I wound on, and even after reweaving it, I had to pay particular attention to the beat and selvedges.  (Once washed, the distortions evened out and were not apparent, though).  To make things easier for the next one, I intend to resett the warp slightly closer.  It should not affect the finished width much, and will make it easier to beat evenly and keep the fibres from shifting while passing over the breast beam.

Upcoming blog entry about why I came back with one more suitcase than I left with.