Santa Cruz Cap and Waistcoat - Part 2 of 2

Project Dates:  3/2020 - 7/2020

On to weaving!  The project required about three yards of fabric at twenty-four inches wide.  I wanted to do this on the twenty-four-inch rigid heddle loom, as my thirty-six-inch floor loom was not yet fully into commission.  Four ounces of roving spun into three-ply 12WPI yarn made about 140 yards of yarn which was about half of the project requirement.  

I designed the warp layout using the handspun as accent stripes.  The remainder of the warp thread came out of my stash.  It was a green worsted wool tweed that came from a now extinct New England mill in Massachusetts over thirty years ago.  Who says stashes don’t age like good wine!  The tweed was a wonderful counterpoint to the handspun Santa Cruz velvet!

As I was winding the warp onto the rigid heddle I noticed a distinct difference between the two yarns.  The handspun was very springy and stretchy compared to the milled wool tweed.  I ended up having to keep the different yarns in their own little lark’s head tie groups.  This allowed me to tighten up the Santa Cruz warp more evenly and tensioned closer to the worsted wool tension.

After a bit of color testing for the warp thread, using initially an electric blue mohair, I quickly realized this would not show off the handspun.  I had in the same new England stash a beautiful dark charcoal silk and wool which highlighted the handspun.  I tried different weft setts and finally settled on a slightly more warp faced weave which allowed the handspun to stand out.

On an interesting side note, I left the first inch of blue, and after wet finishing the fabric, really liked the combination of that blue and black which gave a bit of three-dimensional quality to the cloth.  Note to self for a future combination!

   

On to transforming the white silk into a compatible lining color using Shibori and the same colors as the warp handspun!  That was a very fun technique.  The silk was pole wrapped and I applied the dye using droppers to spot soaked various areas.  I then stood the pole which was only about twelve inches one end into the yellow dye, and the other end into the red dye.  The fabric around the pole looked overdyed.  After rinsing, heat setting, and drying, there was a very beautiful red and yellow patterning, but way too much white, and not enough green.  So, I added all of residual green and yellow dye together and overdyed the fabric!  The result was a very beautiful mottled Kelly green that blended nicely with the woven fabric.

The last step…sewing!  I had to overcome some internal obstacles to put scissor to fabric!  After making and fitting muslin patterns, I cut both the woven fabric and the dyed lining into their corresponding pattern pieces.  The fabric was enough to create a waistcoat and matching cap.  The construction using hand woven fabric was interesting and another learning curve.  All of the edges were sewn first to lock the woven threads after cutting the patterns.  I used the lining to create contrasting welts on the front pockets of the waistcoat.

The overall result and experience were absolutely thrilling and fun!  Though this project uses the required four ounces of endangered species, I am not sure if it technically falls within the Shave ‘Em 2 Save ‘Em guidelines.  However, the prize is not my end goal.  The inspiration and support of endangered species is.  So regardless, I owe this inspiration to and thanks to The Livestock Conservancy.

I felt like the mad scientist working on an alchemical elixir. It pushed my boundaries in a lot of areas.  Research on the web was a key factor.  I can’t imagine doing this thirty years ago without the fingertip access to knowledge and information.  What took me four months as a hobby would like have taken very much longer without ready access to information.  Thank you, internet, and the wonderful world of fiber artists willing to share!

    

Santa Cruz Cap and Waistcoat - Part 1 of 2

Project Dates:  3/2020 - 7/2020

Even as a child, I was fascinated by the look of a waistcoat otherwise and more blandly known as a vest.  It’s that third piece of a three-piece suit that adds a little flair of the dramatic.  It’s an accessory that can add color, a little warmth, or just an extra pocket or two! I was seeking inspiration for my second project in support of the Livestock Conservancy’s Shave ‘Em 2 Save ‘Em program.  A waistcoat immediately came to mind!  The idea was born during the winter of 2019-20 and I started construction on my birthday in March 2020!

The first step was to select the breed and find a purveyor of that fine fiber.  After searching the Livestock Conservancy online, I found Santa Cruz and Blue Oak Canyon Ranch.  They sent me a lovely note of thanks in support of their breed.  I was in heaven with a bag full of fluffy fiber ready to revel in the “make!”  The “make” is that joy of being in the moment of executing an activity for the pure joy and satisfaction of it!
My first step, being a project manager, was to write up my intended project which I did in detail.  The color scheme came easy and targeted primarily a dark hunter green with strong accents of Bordeaux red, and a little yellow to add a bit of sparkle and brightness.
The project included a mix of techniques and processes.  The art projects I’ve undertaken incorporate a bucket-list of wanna-try techniques.  This project was going to incorporate Shibori dyeing, spinning a warp, making a tweed yarn, weaving on the rigid heddle loom, and sewing with my hand spun and hand-woven cloth.

I was moving along with all the speed of an excited monkey anxious to play with my new project!  The temporary workspace in the back hallway was prepared for the initial step of preparing and dyeing the Santa Cruz fiber.  I was aiming for a mottled look and three-ply thread in the warp fiber, so I split the two hundred feet of roving into fifteen sections lengthwise, enjoying the feel of every last inch. Then, in superman pose with my hands close together, I slowly slid my hands apart, putting the very gentlest of pressure on the fiber, feeling for that sweet spot when the space between my hands was longer than the staple length, and the fibers started to slide apart.

I had a plan for dyeing the fiber, I did, but, the best laid plans…   I started out fine, meaning all was moving according to the master dye plan!  There were to be nine roving bundles each with one or two colors which I would then spin.  I could have dyed and then blended the roving, but that wasn’t what I wanted to try on this project. So, I dyed all the green as planned.  Then my brain, well, left!  I couldn’t figure out how to implement my plan, despite the picture in front of me!  I was going to dye one roving Bordeaux, two half Bordeaux, and the other half of one of the green roving bundles in Bordeaux.  But the household had just experienced, well, let’s just call it an emotional interruption.  So, instead I grabbed way too many roving bundles and dyed them wholly in Bordeaux. This left me short for a one bundle in yellow.  So, I improvised and worked with serendipity and ended up with a lovely red-orange surprise!

 

On to spinning!  I was originally going to use up some thrums on the yellow skein to create a tweedy effect for one of the three-plies for each of the targeted skeins.  However, after the serendipitous change of course with the yellow dyed roving above, we put that plan aside.  That would have been one too many fiber techniques thrust into one project, anyway.  I tend to sidle with complexity rather simplicity, a fault, I know.  So, after ending up with fifteen dyed roving bundles, I started to spin.  The colors and roving bundles were split up.  I spun a worsted spinning z-twist ply at 33 WPI.

I tried first a short forward draw, but had much better output and experience with a backwards long draw.  It was also much more fun to spin that way. The single-ply result was amazing.  The texture was completely different from what I’ve tried before.  Squeezing the yarn on the bobbin felt like a sponge.  The plies had a velvety texture that I found visually appealing.
Because of the limitations with the number of bobbins, I spun three bobbins from the roving bundles, and then s-twist plied them together.  Rinse and repeat two more times to end up with the three skeins of yarn.  I did change the color makeup of the last third of the roving bundles, for each of the single ply’s and then plied the last skein.

The next post is on to weaving will finish up this project!

Alex LeClaire

July 2, 2020