I’ve been working on my tapestry diary for 7 weeks now. One day a few weeks ago, I was having a really lousy day, and when I realized I still had my diary entry to look forward to, it was such a relief.
Sometimes I find myself wondering if I’ll get bored weaving the same shape every single day, but I always find some new variation.
Of course, there are the special days when I get to weave a symbol or text, like this Valentines Day heart. 
Then I decided to try Peter Collingwood’s horizontal lines, made by using 2 colors of weft in the same shed. It’s on page 98 of his classic book The Techniques of Rug Weaving. The chapter is “One-Shuttle Techniques,” and the section is “Twisted Wefts.”
When weaving with 2 colors of weft in the same shed, they can either form specks, or they can form very straight horizontal lines, unlike the wavy lines you get by weaving 1 pass each of two different colors (as you can see just below). 
I’m planning to do some more of this. It’s a technique I learned 30 years ago, but have not really used, other than to make a perfectly straight line. It would be fun to use it, as Collingwood describes, to form a design by twisting the weft to produce spots in one area and stripes in another.
Some days, I really enjoy the serenity of just weaving a solid color.
I am weaving this diary using only scraps from previous tapestries.
My mother was a rug hooker, and I have one of her scrap rugs in the studio. It’s not her original design, but it is her color scheme.
She reversed it from dark background with light squiggles, to a light background with colored squiggles.
Mom was well known for her excellent color sense, and her very fine, very even hooking. This rug is one of my favorites.
7 comments:
Diary is growing nicely, Jan. And I love your Mother's rug.
Thanks for mentioning Peter's two weft/one shed techniques. I'm in the process of making rugs/tapestries out of many pounds of yarns acquired over the years. My sister and I sorted it into colorways we liked, and I'm weaving whatever appeals to me. It's fun but I'm having to work at keeping it interesting to weave.
I've been reading your blog for a couple of months, and really enjoy it.
Glad you're enjoying the blog. You can certainly amuse yourself for a while with Peter's awesome book. I recently made a lovely small piece trying out some of his Twining variations. Good luck using up your stash!
The diary is such a great idea - and I like that you are trying out seldom used techniques on it. I enjoy hearing your thought process - and the rug is gorgeous! What a great heirloom!
Thanks for sharing your weaving diary with us. It is beautiful.
That is a great rug! Cab you imagine weaving such a design? Might be an interesting challenge1 Your tapestry calendar is looking wonderful.
Whoo, I'd really hate trying to weave those squiggles! It would be lots of weaving on one warp. It always amused me to watch Mom hooking, because she could work on whichever part she felt like, whereas I have to weave up from the bottom.
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