New York Guild of Handweavers

MAFA2025-3952

I was intrigued by this pattern and I call it “Bubbles”. It doesn’t look like the pattern pictured in the magazine – probably because I chose to use a ground weft in between each pattern weft. Using a variegated royal blue, gold and aqua for the ground created an interesting pattern.
The size was 19″ in the reed and 28″ woven was the length on the loom; but after wet finishing, its size is 15 1/2″ X 23 1/2″.
Total number of ends was 457.
I used white sewing machine thread for the hem (turned under 1 1/2″ on each end and machine stitched it in place.)
I think it makes for an absorbent towel.

MAFA2025-3917

Needed floating selvedges; also, replaced the cotton floating selvedges with a 2/20 brown rayon as the cotton kept breaking.

Because the silk tussah is a boucle and is “sticky”, don’t use it for warp again. And the silk is a Giovanna Imperial yarn, which is no longer available – it was a happy accident to find the multicolored, bumpy polyester (from Made in America) was such a good substitute in the weft (the warp has the majority of the silk in it).

Used 3 ends / dent in a 10 dent / inch reed which is 10″ wide in the reed. I found the draft in Handwoven; but, changed the fibers used, order of color, sett, treadling, etc.; the only thing original is the satin draft.

Had some major issues with the shed as the shafts were misbehaving (some were rising when they weren’t needed); almost cut it off and threw it in the trash. But, my hubby/loom engineer helped a great deal and we got the correct shafts to raise or lower when required. This was woven on a 2002 24 shaft AVL Production Dobby Loom with a Compu-Dobby III – old but a workhorse. I use an old laptop – not attached to the internet to drive my loom; so I can’t download a wif file from it.

Inspiration was the fact that I have some left over 20/2 cotton (in white and taupe) from a previous project and thought the silk boucle was perfect match; and wanted to try a satin draft. Plus, my daughter found the draft and suggested that she would like a table runner; and, I am trying to use finer yarns in my weaving.

MAFA2025-3889

Based on Arts & Crafts coloration and patterning.

19.5″ wide x 42.5″ long

802 working ends, so 1604 warp threads.

2 ends per heddle. The beat was 5 double picks/” on the loom, 4.5/” finished. I used relatively loose warp tension and beat hard with a shed stick in the upcoming shed. The thick weft was twisted at the selvedge. Thin wefts were treated as if for an inkle band, by leaving a weft loop, beating and then pulling the far side loopy weft snug against the selvedge. 20/2 used for hem.

Colors used:
UKI Special Turquoise, UKI Light Turquoise, UKI Light Orange, UKI Dark Gold, Lunatic Fringe Butter Yellow, UKI Duck, Lunatic Fringe Kelp

MAFA2025-3876

Based on the fall coloration of raspberry leaves.
Repp playing off inkle band design.

20 1/2 ” x 13″

514 working ends, so 1028 warp threads.

Each 10/2 end, despite working as double threads, was threaded separately to organize the color mixing in each 2 end weaving unit. The beat was 5 double picks/” on the loom, 4.5/” finished. I used relatively loose warp tension and beat hard with a shed stick in the upcoming shed. The thick weft was twisted at the selvedge. Thin wefts were treated as if for an inkle band, by leaving a weft loop, beating and then pulling the far side loopy weft snug against the selvedge.

Colors used: UKI navy & purple, purple passion, pacific blue, deep turquoise, Lunatic Fringe copper, kelp, forest, 5 red-purple

MAFA2025-3874

This reversible rug was designed as a three-end tied unit weave and woven using shaft-switching. The selvedges were card-woven. The gold color was hand-dyed.

MAFA2023-008

This pattern is based on a draft that Robyn Spady sent me for my participation in her MAFA 2023 class ‘Pictures, Piles, Potpourri, and Perplexing Curiosities.’ She titled the structure “Better Than Basket Weave Basket Weave.”

I used two threads for each floating selvage. After taking off the loom, I serged the ends of each towel, folded the hem, and used the ‘stitch in the ditch’ technique with a straight stitch.

Very enjoyable to weave!