Weaving for a Wedding: A Labor of Love

​My son, Ryan married his darling bride Alex in Boulder, Colorado this past October.  I have posted pictures in my Gallery of the weaving I did for the wedding, but I have not yet shared much of the story of how the weaving got done.  Nor had I shared pictures of the finished pieces in use.  

​So now that story begins.  

The Bride's Shawl

The bride's shawl was the first project I undertook.  I wove samples for her shawl last winter and took them to her in March for her approval.  Originally I had intended to surprise her with the shawl but quickly realized that that was a really bad idea: a) she might not want a shawl, b) she might buy her own shawl, and c) the shawl might not look good with her dress.  I was very relieved that she loved the idea and that the samples of the Bronson Weave lace in 20/2 natural tencel matched her dress perfectly!

Bronson Lace samples

So the shawl warp was planned:  Hoping for shawls of 20" x 95", I put on a warp of 839 ends of 20/2 tencel sett at 36 epi (3/dent in a 12 dent reed), measuring 23.3" wide in the reed,  No floating selvedge was needed because the draft had a plain weave edge on each side.  I put on enough length to allow for weaving 2 shawls to 104" and allowing for 12" of fringe on each end and loom waste.

The draft was a simple 4 harness Bronson Lace weave with plain weave borders.  Click on the draft to zoom in

So the warp for two shawls went on the loom: one for the bride and one for a gift our outgoing guild president, Janice.  A dozen of our guild board members took turns in April weaving off the first shawl so that we could present it to her at the May board meeting.  I wove the bride's shawl off in  May.

• Weaving with the 20/2 tencel was surprisingly trouble free
• The fact that 12 people could weave on 1 shawl for our guild president and have virtually no problems and a very even beat was the biggest surprise of all!
• My sister-in-law embroidered the bride and groom's initials and their wedding date on one end of the bride's shawl as a lovely finishing touch.

Shawls on the loom

Another guild member taking a turn on Janice's shawl

Guild member weaving on Janice's shawl

Guild member fringing Janic'e shawl

Janice opening her shawl

The bride's shawl

The bride's shawl, detail

The bride's shawl, detail

The bride

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Next... Shawls for the Wedding Party

I offered to weave shawls for each of the four bridesmaids and my daughter, the "best sister".    I put on a warp for 6 shawls: 5 for the wedding party and an extra:

• 8/2 warp tencel in silver and light gray stripes sett at 20 epi
• 22" in the reed, woven to about 95" in length.
• Hemstitched on loom and  finished with 8" long twisted fringe 
• Bronson weave threading that allowed for several treadlings: triangles, curves and extended curves
• Charcoal gray wefts for all 4 bridesmaids' shawls and the extra shawl which is for sale in the SHOP
• Burgundy weft for the "best sister" shawl

Bronson Weave Triangles with charcoal weft

Bronson Weave Curves with charcoal weft

Bronson Weave Curves with burgundy weft

The bride with her bridesmaids & my daughter/ "best sister" 

The extra shawl, extended curves
For sale in the SHOP

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Next... A Shawl for the Mother of the Bride

This shawl was a little more of a challenge.  Or at least it caused me a little more angst.  Mostly because I only had a photograph of Jamie's dress.  So after exchanging photos and yarn samples, I finally decided on a huck lace shawl in 2 shades of teal, charcoal gray and mauve in the warp.

​The huck lace pattern I used was adapted from a Handwoven scarf pattern (March/April 2008, p. 30–32).  I widened the draft to 22" and I used 4 colors in the warp.  I "ombred" the colors at each color change so there were no harsh stripes in the warp.

Sticks padding the loose warp areas at the back of the loom

Tip!

This draft has huck lace stripes alternating with plain weave stripes.  Because the takeup was much less in the lace areas than the plain weave areas, it did not take long for the warp to get loose in the lace areas, and tension was becoming a problem.  I solved that by doing 2 things:

1. After 20-25" I "wove" a stick under the loose area at the back of the loom and tied it to the back beam.  Every 20-25" I added another stick.
2. I cut off after the first shawl and retied for the second shawl.

​Again, I wove 2 shawls: the first I wove with the greyed teal for the mother of the bride., and the second with the dark teal to sell.

Mother of the Bride's shawl, woven with a greyed teal weft

The bride and her parents, Jamie and David

Extra Shawl, woven with a dark teal weft

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Finally... Pocket Squares for the Groom and the Dads

I really wanted to weave a pocket square for my son, but I wasn't sure if I would have time and I wasn't sure exactly what would work.  After sampling quite a bit with 60/2 silk, I settled on a very simple plain weave square with some burgundy stripes on 2 sides and hemmed on 4 sides.  I made 4 squares: 1 for Ryan, 1 for each of the Dads and 1 extra.

• 60/2 silk in natural and burgundy
• 632 ends, sett at 40 epi , 15.8" wide on loom
• woven in plain weave at 40 ppi
• After hemming on all 4 sides the squares measured about 13.5" square
• Weaving with the silk was a breeze
• Hemming and mitering the corners was definitely the hardest part for me

Pocket squares

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And What Did I Wear?

My scarf

​I don't often wear my own handwovens - other than a couple of beloved, very beat up scarves and shawls.  I was dressed in a simple sweater, silk pant and silk top and so I didn't think a shawl would work for me.  But I knew I would get cold.  So I did wear one of my silk scarves, woven with 60/2 silk in a pretty twill in my favorite color: teal.

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