Surprise Package

Western Pennsylvania welcomes you to...

Surprise Package

Here we share with you interesting items about fibers, each with its own surprise, for weaving, spinning and/or dyeing!

#1 ► This is my "surprise" BABY BLANKET handwoven of 10/2 cottons in spot bronson is being used by my first grandchild, Theresa Marie Piroch, at only 3 days of age! [Gee, she was born 3/28/2000 so she's grown quite a bit already and the blanket has had a lot of wear, too, as 4 other Piroch grandchildern have been born since. The "surprise" is that this is a special technique, a 5 shaft weave done on 4 shafts with some warp threads threaded between the heddles as a phantom shaft, in the tradition of southern counterpanes. Details were published in Handwoven, November/December 1999 as "Baby’s First Blanket", pp 66, 67 and 33.

#2 ► This is my "surprise" SILK VEST which is (believe it or not) made up of squares all woven with tie-ups from old manuscripts, many never published, and mostly from the early 1800's. This project was woven on 2 warps, one pink (dark and light) and one blue (dark and light), each with one of these six wefts: 1 of 2 pinks, 1 of 2 blues, black or white. Warp and weft are 20/2 silk, woven straight draw on 24 shafts, sett 45 epi. So early textiles can be an inspiration for the most modern silk fashion fabrics! This is shown in my new book "The Magic of Handweaving -- The Basics and Beyond". Vest modeled by my lovely DIL Christen Piroch, the Mom of little Theresa, Joey and Maura Anne above.

Click the photo above to see a close-up of the vest.
Click on any photo below to see a close-up of that vest fabric.
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