Martha's Masterpiece

When I signed up for Bonnie's horoscope shawl workshop, I was both excited and intimidated. I had taken some classes from my very good friend to learn to weave and had woven a couple of scarves before becoming enamored with weaving rag rugs. I did not feel confident that I knew enough of what I was doing to participate in this workshop. Warping my loom with so many different colors and more than 1 warp string per reed was all new to me. And I LOVED it. Taking the workshop, and soaking up all the knowledge that I was exposed from Bonnie and the others in the workshop was exhilarating! and I had been hungering for a better understanding of color and I got to learn some about that and I learned many new tips. Now I have this beautiful shawl that has given me tons of ideas about how colors play together and I have already made another piece based on my favorite part of my horoscope shawl. I found Bonnie to be a great new weaving mentor in my life and not the least bit intimidating. And I feel more confident now to weave more fine pieces than I had before.

Martha

A Gift to Myself

The horoscope shawl was a present to myself for my 50^th Birthday. I somehow thought that it would help me understand myself at a deeper level and provide closure to a period of ill health. At the same time I am not in the habit of giving to myself. It proved to be quite an experience. I am a novice weaver and had never worked with such a draft as my experience of weaving had been limited to some scarves in tabby and twill. However, I like a challenge and undaunted got to work on the draft which Bonnie had sent me . Warping was interesting and a beautiful experience. I decided on 3 warps of 120 each and labelled them as such as I had only ever worked with 1 warp on my Ashford Table loom. Then there were simply not enough heddles on the loom so had to order some more and master that process. Putting on the warps proved tricky as I had inverted one of them so it had to come off and be repositioned. Next I wound on the warp with the help of my husband and it simply looked too slippery and slack on the loom so rewound it and rewound it again. I had put it under the beam at the back instead above and the same in the front so had to untie and restart. 3 attempts followed to put it through the heddles as I had not centred it well enough and 2 attempts at sleying the warp. I am not one to give up easily but when I wound the warp up again back and forth the threads started to break at the sides and I was close to tears. My weaving teacher offered to come and have a look and told me I had made a classic beginners mistake of not having my piece of paper wide enough so that the threads on the outside were under more tension than those on the paper and thus the threads would break. After some reassurance and winding the warp through the reed and tying the ends on each end, it looked about ready to weave. I had spun red tussah silk for the weft and was finally ready to weave. Weaving can be a reflection of life and weaving my horoscope shawl had many similarities to how my life had played out up until that point. The shawl is a bit shorter than I had planned and has a few frayed ends but that is a fair reflection of me. I love wearing my shawl and what it has brought me so far. Something I learned over the years: happiness is within, so take care of yourself and find peace within. The rest will take care of itself. If you address the outside before the inside, the outside will only reflect the imbalance within. People comment so much on the beauty of the shawl that the whole experience and its challenges has definitely been worth it.

Anne Howe

A Gift from Shelley to Winston

Hi Bonnie....Well, here is a picture of my husband, Winston Quan's scarf. I am wearing it as he takes better pictures than I do. I will eventually send you a picture of him wearing it , as he is an interesting character being partly Chinese and partly Cree Indian. I would not let him model the scarf as he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt which clashed with the scarf. He is of the opinion that men do not wear enough color and has made it his mission to wear as much color as possible. I , for one, am sick of his Hawaiian shirts and like to confiscate them whenever they get too worn and then weave them into placemats.

Well, here it is....

All the best to you!,

Shelley

NOTE FROM BONNIE: above is the complementary draft that Shelley received after completing her own horoscope weaving.

May Inspiration

The one thing I had trouble with in warping was bending down to the floor to change colors. I just read in Handwoven a suggestion that you put Velcro tape in a place to conveniently hold the thread while you are using another cone. I think I'll try that for my sister's scarf. Another thing I had trouble with was when I went to wind on the warp, the planets were looser than the rest of the warp. Not sure why, but I'll be more aware as I wind on next time. Finally I wanted to wind more than 1 thread at a time and had never done it in a way that I needed to keep the sequence. That was a challenge! I only had one miss at the cross. But luckily your thread by thread color pattern helped.

On the edges I put 2 black floating warp threads per side. I think 1 would have been plenty. That helped a lot to keep my edges straight. The weaving went smoothly. I could advance the warp every 3 to 5 inches (I hate advancing the warp!). It didn't take me long. I used a weft color that I love the name of as much as I love the color - UKI's Quarry. I liked it better than the Black. I tried several warp colors, Quarry worked best. You can see on the loom picture I wanted to use up black at the end. There are 2 colors of weft in that picture - black and Quarry.

Thanks!
Dornan

Kathie's Story

Hi Bonnie,

Here are the promised photos of my shawl.

When I saw the Horoscope Shawl in Handwoven, I was immediately drawn to the project and decided that I could do this (it was plain weave, and being a beginning weaver, this was within my realm). I ordered my horoscope from you and the kit from Cotton Clouds in Bambu. Prior to this, my experience in weaving was limited to some scarves on a RH loom and some classes on a multishaft loom. 2 scarves and some Huck placemats were followed by the purchase of an 8 shaft loom.

Once everything arrived, I read through it all and then the questions started coming. Foremost was "OMG, what was I thinking?". I had what I'd call "a crisis of confidence", and everything sat for about a month or so. I started sending you my questions and with your kind assistance, I realized that I actually could do this. I knew how to wind a warp and get that warp onto the loom. I was allowing myself be intimidated by things I hadn't done before, i.e. changing warp colors at each end of the warp, working with a very wide warp. It all seems silly now that I've woven the shawl, but it was a fantastic learning experience for me. Thank you for your patience and understanding at having to answer all those questions. You're a wonderful mentor!

I did exactly as you suggested and took my time with each step and actually enjoyed all aspects of the project. I learned a great deal from your suggestions and tips which helped my refine my techniques as I progressed.

I purchased 2 clamps to use for the floating selvedges which worked beautifully - I've never has such uniform edges! I also took your advice about the skipped dent in the reed.

I was somewhat concerned about the colors, but again you were correct. The color combinations are amazing and I'll never look at color in weaving in the same way again. You've opened my eyes to so many beautiful possibilities! I'm planning to do at least 3 more shawls for my daughters and granddaughter.

This has been the most challenging, rewarding and inspiring experience for me and I feel that I can now call myself a weaver!

Thank you for being such an inspiration!

I hope to take a class from you someday in person. You enabled me to make beautiful cloth!

Kathie

Colorful Maggie

Hi Bonnie,

After receiving the horoscope instructions, I looked at the warping order and groaned. Winding off warp is my least favorite task. but the little sample you included was motivation. I ordered my bamboo from jane stafford in BC.I also enlarged the width by adding about 8 ends in each of the color groupings to make a shawl.

After getting it all beamed, I wasn't sure I liked it. As much as I love color, it was overwhelming. I had put on extra yardage to experiment with weft colors. tried out black, both a dull and shiny. sampled with a grey thinking it would tone the whole thing down. looked dead. even tried a cream. that was way wrong! In your paper work you had commented that I had a lot of orange and red. I had a cone of red cotton the right size. bingo! I love it.

Only have about a yard woven at this point but it will be finished hopefully by Christmas so I can wear it to the family dinner. Will send you a finished photo after the holiday.

It's done. I love it. but. . . . I'll never wear it. Way too bright. I should have used pastels of my colors. Am thinking I'll use it for a table cover.

I had taken a front view photo but the picture had the dog's butt and tail in it but it also didn't show the stripes as well. My weaving space is also my quilting space so the floor does get really trashy.

I think I had promised you a finished photo by Christmas. didn't happen. It was off the loom but not cleaned up. twisting the fringe took almost as long as the actual weaving.

Thanks so much, Bonnie.
Maggie

More Memphis

Hi Bonnie!

Nature has been kind to some of us, though most don't see the weather we've had this weekend as a blessing. Schools were closed on Friday and are again today because of the ice. (Lucky we didn't have your workshop this weekend!) Those of us who teach got bonus weaving days.

In my usual manner of having to do everything two or three times to get it right, I used most of that time making my fringe.

Anyway, here it is, my finished piece. It is hard taking your own picture.

The workshop was terrific. And I am so inspired. I need more snow days!
Mary Anne

Dear Bonnie,

It has been said “that good things come to those wait” and I know this is true. Taking your Horoscope Weaving Workshop was a long anticipated dream of mine. In December of 1999, I saw your “Horoscope Scarf for New Millennium” on the cover of Handwoven magazine, loved the idea, and put it on my Future Projects List. It took ten years to bring this to fruition, but it was well worth the wait.

Your workshop went beyond all expectations. Bonnie you are a great teacher. You gave us so many wonderful ideas using color and showed us countless gorgeous samples. I am so thoroughly inspired, that 48 hour days are needed, just to weave a small portion of them. Oh, the joy!

My piece was woven using Pearl Cotton from my stash, 10/2 for warp and 20/2 for weft. Due to my workshop loom size limitations, it does not have a border. The finished width of 11 ½” and the beautiful hand of the cloth make this perfect to wear as a scarf or use as a table runner.

Thank you Bonnie. Memphis loves you!

Mary Jorgensen