Charleen's Fiberblog

Ready to Move On

Not such a great photo but it's always fun to stretch out your latest weaving and admire!

Here's the finished products. Since this warp took forever to weave off I'll refresh your memory! WEBS Eight-two, one of my favorites, it's a warp spun cotton that's great for towels and baby blankets. The warp is a creamy off-white (Alabaster) and dark green (Evergreen).

(above) The weft in the top towel is the same as the warp, the lower towel is Dark Teal and Terra Cotta.

(above) The top towel is using Silver Gray and Ink Blue, the bottom towel uses Silver Gray and Gray Blue.

I got six towels out of the warp and with what the leftover warp left I wove a placemat. Think it's time?

I'm not sure that the Eight-Two will be heavy enough for placemats but who knows? I've also had my eye on Janet Dawson's Anything but Plain, article in the Nov/Dec 2007 Handwoven. I love the idea of a somewhat regular random!

Log Cabin: One Color at a Time

Spring Break started with a gorgeous double rainbow! (The second is to the right, it's not showing up very well in the compressed image) I didn't overplan this break, but I knew I wanted to weave a couple of the log cabin towels using two colors of weft that were different from the warp. I first started thinking about adding more colors to the basic log cabin when I was planning some baby blankets a few years ago.

I'm working on the same warp that I wound two months ago. Since WEBS had their Eight-Two on sale it seemed like a good time to try some new colors.

Rather than wrap yarns around a card I like to twist them together. I think it gives a much better representation.

I like this combo. Uh oh! Since the loom is already warped with Evergreen and Alabaster picking 4 yarns that don't include those two doesn't exactly work :-)

So I tried lots of different combinations, changing out two weft threads each time, and came up with two that appealed to me.

The two weft colors are a dark turquoise and terra cotta.

Although the dark turquoise is almost indistinguishable from the evergreen it makes a subtle and very pleasing combination.

These two wefts are silver gray and gray blue. I wanted to keep away from anything that was as dark as the evergreen. I liked this enough to make two

I should have enough warp to try out at least two more combinations.

There was some quilting progress and work on Twist is coming along nicely, but most of my free time was spent with this guy!

A couple of weeks ago I received a copy of Family Circle in the mail. I never subscribed to it but Jackson saw the cupcakes on the cover and kept asking for them. What's a grandma to do? I made them the night before Easter and Jackson was quite impressed.

(That's Laura's hand reaching towards Jackson. Her friend was married the day before Easter in a traditional Hindu wedding. On Friday they had the mehendi ritual. Jackson was very impressed with the fact that Aunt Laura had peacocks all over the palm of her hand.)

One Log at a Time

I've been recovering from surgery so the weaving was on hold for a bit. The last week or two I've been weaving for short periods, 20-30 minutes at at time. But that's okay because it gave me time to figure out why the two shuttle weaving wasn't going as well as it did in the past. With a little help from a well-worn monograph, Plain Weave is Anything But Plain by Leslie Voiers, I realized what I had been doing intuitively.

My threading sequence was 1-2-3-4 and ended with 1. It should have meant that when shaft one was up when the I threw the shuttle that shuttle would go down towards me. The threads automatically are locked and all is well.

But it wasn't, because in my waste-not attitude I just thread the last thread on shaft 2 and never realized it. That's why I was having such a hard time getting all the warp ends in the selvedge to be enclosed.
Once my addled brain got wrapped around that I was rocking!

I went to the doctor yesterday and got the okay to weave for longer periods and my weight restriction was upped from 8 to 30 pounds. First thing I did was go pick up Jackson.

Now we can resume our afterschool exploring. He loves looking through my knitting bags and pulling out all sorts of finished and partially finished things. If it can fit on his head - then he wears it for the rest of his visit. Then I gave him the word - no eating for 10 weeks. He weighed 29 lbs at his last visit :-)

Back in the Saddle!

January just flew by but I finally got a warp on the loom and a few inches started on my log cabin towels. I wound two bouts, one of each color and warped F2B - something I hadn't done in a while. My rustiness showed and it took a little longer to wind on the warp, but all is well! Now all I need is a little time to get down there and weave.

Adjusting the Loom

Just about the time that my eye began to feel better it was time to head back to the classroom for three weeks. I've added another course this summer - a wellness class. The first day and a half are more traditional with lectures/reading/etc on nutrition, acid/alkaline levels, and such. After that I led them through a series of stress reducing exercises. First just a general unwinding script that I read with Dolphin Dreams softly playing as background, the next day I taught the basics of meditation and we did a guided relaxation exercise. It was even relaxing for me!

Throughout the week we added components of social wellness and time management along with a few poses from Svaroopa Yoga - the Magic Four. We spent time on exercises for strength and endurance for specific muscle groups. The last day one of the students brought in Wii Fit and we all had a chance to try that out. I'm sold! Josh has the system so now I'm on a mission to find one for me. Not an easy task, apparently. I've been told I can just camp out at Game Stop but I don't think that's where I want to spend my two weeks before school starts. The clerk at BestBuy said they will have them on Sunday but she doesn't know how many. Sarah said she'd go early with me. I need someone more aggressive in case the competition gets fierce :-)

I was working on this post when the stick met the eye. That was July 2nd and I've seemed to have lost my train of thought (along with a few other things) since then, so please ignore the choppiness...

While I was working on the twill baby blankets I was reminded of a problem I have noticed off and on. The bottom threads of my shed are sometimes so loose that despite a close sett the shuttle can find it's was through to the floor. I was using Peggy Osterkamp's Warping Your Loom & Tying On New Warps to help me visualize setting up the counterbalance loom. Oh, and that reminds me, I don't think that I mentioned that I'm almost positive that my loom is not handmade but is a Gallinger loom. It turns out that Woolflower's Leigh has one too and I found pictures on her blog. More about that later.

Back to the loose bottom shed - Peggy recommends raising the back beam to correct that problem. Of course, once I started googling for links for this post I found Leigh had investigated this when she bought her Glimakra. Ha, another example of that great mind of mine! I then remembered that Joanne Hall had mentioned raising the back beam for better sheds. Just to add insult to injury, I found I had printed out that article more than five years ago!

So here's what I did.

I strung a red thread from breast beam to back beam, going through the reed, and attaching a weight to each end. According to Osterkamp the warp should curve below the diagnostic string at the heddles. I'm not sure if you can see in this rather blurry picture but the warp is even with the string at the beater, dips about 1/4" below the string through the heddles and then rises to meet string going towards the back beam.

When opening harnesses 1-3 there isn't too much of a problem.

But you can see how there is almost a smaller, second shed when 2-4 are raised.

The suggestion is to raise the back beam and there are several approaches to this solution. However I remembered that my Macomber came with a second back beam attached. I left it there because the former owner did. I removed it recently when trying different approaches to threading back to front because I couldn't attach the raddle or angel wings with it on. So I slackened the warp slightly and put it back on. Voilá!

The thunking sound is me realizing that's why I didn't have this problem even when I put on a fifteen yard warp for my second weaving project! I will need to remove it for some tasks but it's going back on before I start weaving.

While browsing through Peggy Osterkamp's archives I found an tip for weaving twills and plain weaves together. Who knows if I'll actually remember that tip the next time?

Twill Baby Blankets Off the Loom

I finished up the blankets yesterday and after a few rows of stitching to stabilize each end I threw them in the washer and let it soak. 38" in the reed is now only about 33". The drape is really wonderful. The smooth warp spun yarn makes the blanket very soft right from the start, unlike some of my mill-end 8/2 blankets that needed a few trips through the wash/dry cycle.

Here's a close up of each of the four blankets.

Blue weft gives a zig-zag effect using this treadling.

One pick green, three picks blue with what I believe is called a straight draw.

This third blanket uses the alabaster (same as warp) for one pick and three blue picks. You probably don't need the draft but what the heck - I already uploaded it!

Finally, this uses one shuttle all the way through. While I'm not sure this is technically a "broken twill" it sure looks like it to me.

Tomorrow I'll cut them apart, hem them, wash them and give them a hard press. Wonder if they'll shrink any more?

One Job Down ......

so many more to go!

I made this to go in back of a sofa, a primitive console table. I've rearranged the living room furniture and decided to recycle it into much needed shelving for the studio.

Here's the plan.

I'm not going to bother and stain the added shelving.

This just makes me smile! This is mostly 8/2 and some other mill ends.

I wish I could say the rest of the basement studio is looking as organized as this but ....... well, my weaving was calling me.

Hot damn! 912 ends and I didn't make one mistake. That's going down in the record books! I tried lashing on again. I'm not a big fan but I want to use my handspun for warp and I want to cut down on loom waste. I took a little more time (that's probably the reason I don't like it) and it worked out well. I probably won't use it for cotton warps but it doesn't hurt to have a few tricks up my sleeve.

I started and finished the first blanket today and I'm paying the price. How long has it been since I wove and here I was throwing the shuttle over 38". It wasn't a pretty picture. I don't know what I was doing with my right arm but I must have been pulling it back to far because I kept getting the thread caught on the edge of the breast beam and my right shoulder and wrist are a bit tender. I guess that's what I get for trying to cram so much into this week.

Here's a closer look at the twill. This is the second draft on the previous entry. I wove 1.5" in plain weave, 42" of twill, and another 1.5" plain weave.

Tomorrow I'm going with either the third draft or the hopsack, which is fabric woven with 2 ends up and 2 ends down.

I wonder if weaving wide warps will help tone up the triceps?

Twill Thoughts

I think that it's time to put the loom puzzle on the back burner and use this week to focus on some real weaving. The time spent weaving will should give me some insight on the workings of my handmade loom.

Here's the plan. 8/2 warp spun cotton from WEBS, Alabaster, sett at 24epi.

Each blanket will be a little different, changing weft colors and/or size.

I have some 3/2 that is the same color as the warp. I was thinking of using that for the one pick of cream and keep the three picks of green the same size as the warp OR have one pick of a thicker green and keep the three picks the same color and thickness as the warp.

I saw this in Dixon's book and I think it gives a sort of cobblestone effect.

I'll probably keep to the 8/2 for this weft but I put enough warp on to experiment at the end and I want to see how 5/2 or 3/2 would look with this draft. It might be a nice placemat weave.

I don't know about you, but I think it's time for a Jackson update!

Somebody turned one last week. He was thrilled with the Elmo cake Mommy baked and Daddy decorated but not so thrilled with the surrounding hordes of singing relatives. To keep from freaking him out completely I sang very quietly!

Since he never had cake or icing before it took him a minute or two to figure out what he was supposed to do. But it wasn't long before he looked like Elmo's twin. Luckily (?) the temperature as in the 90s so it was right into the kiddie pool for a quick clean up before opening presents.

The next day was spent relaxing and getting over the pressure of turning one.

Loom Progress

Thanks to Marie, Jane, and Trapunto I received some great ideas and resources for putting this loom back together and in working order.

I saw Jane's comment in the wee hours of the morning, before going to school. She suggested that I take the cloth beam off and slip the tool over the pawl end of the beam. Despite scrambling to get to school I took the time to run downstairs and check it out. I didn't look like there would be enough room. Then I just pushed the beam slightly to the left and voilá!

I was able to slide the tool in and see how it would be able to engage the pawls.

Now to figure out that chain break.

See that eye screwed on to the base? I'm wondering if I could attach a long spring, like I have on my Macomber, and that would allow for some tension on the chain. And then there's the question of this mystery bolt....

It's not fastening anything, just a bolt, two washers and a nut.

Along with puzzling over this loom I've finally finished winding the warp for the 2/2 twill baby blankets. 912 ends wound in 8 bouts, sett at 24 epi.

Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Crazier

I was dealing with the aftermath of the pool table removal pretty well. I had an all day instructors meeting on Saturday and when I got home everything in our garage was out in the driveway. All the shelving units (ready to collapse at any moment) and one of the two work benches were knocked down and put in the dumpster. The huge dumpster was more than halfway loaded and they hadn't even touched the attic over the garage, family room, and laundry room. I took on that chore and was pretty brutal. There are a few piles to sort through now and then we'll be ready for to plan out the new work space and storage areas.

While this is, ultimately, a good thing, added to the basement organization, end of the year exams/projects/grades, Jackson's First Birthday (Saturday), and taking on two new grad courses to teach this summer - well, let's just say things are interesting!

I have the new loom put together, but I need to pick up some more washers and nuts for the carriage bolts. I also need a reed. Marie tells me I'll need a tensioning device and some spools for the sectional beam, especially if it's strong enough for rugs, but for now I just want to figure out some things.

Like how to wind on the warp and what some things are for. Why don't you take a look? There's a link to a second page with pictures taken after I attached the warp beam. I think that the tool hanging from the front should somehow hook into the pawl of the cloth beam to advance it, but I can't seem to do that.

Two naked looms were a little much for me but I kept getting hung up on all sorts of new things I wanted to try. Last night I just started winding a warp of an old standby, WEBS Eight-Two in Alabaster, for 2/2 twill blankets. I'm winding enough for three blankets and another 1.5 yards for sampling. I want to experiment with using one pick out of the repeat of a contrasting color and with two different size wefts. I'm using ideas I've picked up from Dixon's book and Leslie Voiers' monograph Plain Weave is Anything but Plain.

Be Careful What You Wish For

How many times have I complained, whined, and wept over the room our unused pool table was taking up in my basement studio?

Well it's gone now and here's the problem ......

Holy crap! Where did that stuff come from? I need more shelves or cabinets.

I found one bag of Shetland fleece and two bags of Finn, so it has a silver lining!

So what does any self-respecting fibernut do?

She picks up a new loom, naturally. This is an handmade (1930-40) oak, counterbalance loom. I was hoping that I could use it for rugs, but it appears that the back beam can be folded in. I'm going to see if I can replace the support with something heavier and permanent. That might make it work. I still have to figure out how to attach the warp advancing mechanism and the break. I can see where it goes because I matched up the holes but I will have to fool around with it a bit. I also need to figure out how to tie up the harnesses.

It's All About Me!!!!
Disclaimer: I am the person who broke your recipe chain letter, along with the dishtowel one. However Marie tagged me and I always listen to Marie, so here goes!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Hmm, well I had all four children at home. The youngest was fifteen which meant lots of driving, to baseball games, friends' homes, etc. I also had my whole summer off so my gardens looked beautiful and I had lots of time to knit and spin. Dyeing and weaving hadn't entered my life yet.

2. What were five things on my to-do list today (not in any particular order)?
(1) Pick up Jackson after school. Play, crawl on the floor, act like a fool!
(2) Convert console table to shelves for cones of weaving yarn.
(3) Plan dyeing experiments for Sunday.
(4) Do arms routine before flab hanging from my upper arms knocks someone over.
(5) Weed.

3. What snacks do I enjoy?
Mango salsa with tortilla chips. Roasted pepper hummus. Anything salty.

4. Where are some places I've lived?
I was born in Rome, NY. I moved to Japan as a baby and lived there for two years. Then on to the Mojave Desert (Camp Irwin). My father retired from the army and after a quick stay in Oswego, NY we settled in Phoenixville, PA. As an adult I've lived in Phoenixville, Middlesex NJ, Troy MI, Boulder CO, finally settling in Audubon for the past 20 years.

5. What things would I do if I were a billionaire?
Pay off all of my children's student loans and pay for any future educational advancement for my kids and grandchildren. Quit my jobs and spend my time with family and fiber. I would be happy to stay where I am with a few upgrades - like a crew to do the heavy digging and garden prep and a nice sunny studio addition.

Consider yourself tagged! (so I don't listen all that well)

Ms and Os Finished

I finally cut off the Ms and Os and started the finishing process. This is the alabaster weft, before washing.

And here, after washing. Would have been nice if I had the same orientation.

And again, after pressing.

The baked clay weft, which will be a dresser scarf for the guest room:

and my sampling with thicker wefts. The variegated is 4/4 cotton, the brown and gold is 5/2 perle.

I like Dixon's suggestion of using a thicker weft. The 4/4 gives great coverage without making a stiff fabric.

These towels will be used but they would be even better with a thicker weft. I'd use the 5/2 for towels, go with 10/2 for the warp. A few years ago I used a structure similar to this and was not happy with the way the weft filled in. I never did finish that baby blanket. The 4/4 weft would make a nice baby blanket or pillow fabric. I'm sewing the hems by hand because there's no tabby header and machine stitching would be too visible.

Final thoughts? I can definitely see more Ms and Os in my future for table linens, blankets, and upholstery fabrics.

More M's and O's

The last two towels were with some 8/2 mill ends in Pecan. I have several cones of this and I use it often. It's a nice neutral taupe which works well with a wide range of colors.

Like many other weavers I've experimented with many types of hems and this is what works for me when I'm making towels. I use 100% cotton sewing thread for just under 1/2", then I begin using the pattern weft and weave for just over 1/2". I throw two picks in the same shed when starting my pattern just because I like the way it looks at the fold.

I'm always thrilled when I see the cloth beam filling up with new fabric but alas - it's coming to an end!

I used Davison's M's and O's Three by Three Plaid (p. 64), inspired by Leigh's work. I love reading about the history of each structure. Just as I reached the end of the warp I started looking through Anne Dixon's the Handweaver's Pattern Directory. Dixon recommends a weft thread which is thicker than the warp. Dixon also warns that floating selvedges must used and she recommends setting the selvedges as follows:

left selvedge: float,4,2,3,1,44,33,22,11
right selvedge: 44,33,22,11,4,2,3,1,float

I think I'll try that the next time so I can make some comparisons. Unfortunately there wasn't much warp left to experiment with a thicker weft but I did throw a few inches of 5/2 (brown and gold) and 4/4 (the variegated).

I'm teaching this weekend but hopefully I'll have enough energy tomorrow night to stitch between the towels and throw them in the wash. I like the look of the 5/2 on the loom. I'll be interested in seeing how they all wash up.

Spring Break Weaving

The skies are gray, there's a nip in the air - but it's Spring Break and I'm off! Too cold to do any of the outside work I usually do over spring break. I already painted the guest room so no big painting project. Guess I'll just have to play!

So, back to my Ms & Os. I had planned on trying the suggestions of a floating selvedge or temple. Peg mentioned trying a plain weave selvedge. Being a lazy weaver (and also forgetful) weaver I went for the quick fix first.

I attached one pound weights with an S hook to the four end threads and that did the trick!

The selvedges are MUCH better.

I completed two dish towels with the Alabaster weft and started on a runner for the guest room using more Eight/Two, this time in Baked Clay.

Listening to the end of Haven Kimmel's Something Rising (Light and Swift) I wove 40" inches before I left to pick up Jackson.

Really, even after tossing his cookies and getting a quick wash up the kid is gorgeous! His eyes get me every time!

M's and O's

Yesterday's snow day gave me the time I needed to get the warp threaded and sleyed.

This is the first time I used the threading chart that comes with Fiberworks. It was very easy to follow. Although I was a bit blown away when I got to the end and had 18 threads instead of 8!

I checked and there were no threading errors so I guess it was a counting error.

This is one repeat of the treadling. I'm using WEBS' Eight-Two Alabaster for the weft.

It looks like the sides are sort of wavy. (If you click you can see the curve on the edges of the warp dominant blocks.) It seems like the 3-4 end warp threads get sort of twisted during the weaving of one block but not the other. I slid my finger in and opened the shed right to the fell but I don't know if that's a good thing or not. If I don't the weft won't pack all the way down on the first shot of the block. I might cut off after the first towel to see if washing tightens it up.

I love the fabric and am already thinking of other design possibilities. Leigh played with bright colors for her towels. Kristin wove several scarves using a turned Ms and Os. I'm thinking of a wrap using a handpainted warp with some sheen, maybe rayon or silk, with a cotton weft.

Out With the Old

Rip, rip, rip! It's out with the old and in with the new!

You might remember Jackson in his sausage sweater. I was just going to give this to a younger baby but I realized it wasn't proportional. The arms are too short and the body too tight and long. I started this at a very stressful time last fall and I now realize that along with my gauge being off I was following several different sizes in the instructions. Doh! While looking for something else I found another ball of the Fixation so knowing I'll have enough for a size 2 I started ripping. I started over, going up a needle size and have progressed through the neck ribbing and short row shaping and am now doing the raglan increasing through the shoulders. In case you need a dose of cute, here's Jackson getting ready to watch the Super Bowl!

Inspired by Leigh's lovely M's and O's I starting winding a warp for some more towels using one of my favorites - WEB's Eight-Two in willow green.

It's a 128 end repeat and I have three repeats wound. Now I have to figure out my sett and decide if I need to play with the pattern a bit. That's wrapped pretty tightly and it's 36 wpi. I could have sworn I used 20 epi before with this yarn. You'd think I'd have records somewhere but apparently only pictures!

I'll mull it over while I rip up carpet. Yes, I'm doing another room makeover!

For those of you who are lucky enough to have a three day weekend, enjoy! And take some time to read Syne's new endeavor WeaveZine. Bonnie has a great Turned Weft Ikat article. Tonight it's back to the table of contents for more information and ideas.

Well, Look at Me....

I finally finished something! I'm sure the view from my loom helped motivate me.

The old patio door was scratched and drafty, now I have a clear view and the e-glass will help with fading when those projects stay on the loom too long.

I ended up with seven towels.

I have fooled around with every setting on my camera. I either get too washed out or too saturated.

They really fall somewhere between these pictures.

I'm keeping these two as samples. The top (also seen in the center of the right stack in the second picture) was woven 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and produced a wonderful, almost waffle-like texture. It has a lovely hand and would be great for a spring/summer jacket. The bottom one was woven 1,2,3,4 and resulted in a stripe with a nice drape. I would use this structure with a painted warp and a coordinated solid weft. It would make a beautiful lightweight summer shawl.

Variegated Variations

Finally, I'm on the last of the False Damask variegated warp towels. These rather washed out photos don't do justice to the variety of looks I'm getting by changing up weft and treadling.

With black weft I treadled 1-8 with no repeats.

The terra cotta weft was my favorite. I used only 3 repeats each of 1-4 then 5-8, rather than the original 4 repeats.

The last two towels are striped, treadling only 1-4.
Kim's obsession with The Secret Life of Bees has led her to create a beautiful colorway which she named Tupelo Honey. While ensconced in my room (I was teaching a few hours from home) this past weekend I started Mona Schmidt's Embossed Leaves Socks from the Winter 2005 IK. Love the yarn, love the pattern!

The slightly out of focus picture captured with my iphone. While I had it out I had to snap a pic of why I'm finding teaching out of town to be a pretty relaxing weekend. I could get used to this! I just ran down the steps and there was pineapple and strawberries, oatmeal and dried cranberries. Oh my!

And just because I find it funny .... Someone sent this link to one of my psych lists. After watching that I noticed a link to the Colorectal Surgeon's Song. Come on, wouldn't you click too?

Weaving Progress

The loom was finally warped and threaded and ready to go. I thought the variegated yarn would allow me to use several different weft colors. After sampling these five bobbins I found that although the colors matched they didn't do anything for the fabric.

I settled on a deep wine that I hadn't considered earlier, it's much richer than it shows on screen, and wove two towels.

I had nixed the idea of using black originally, but I'm happy with the way the black lets the warp show through. It also allows the structure (false damask) to move to the foreground.

I'm also kicking myself for changing the threading to even blocks. The first time I used false damask the block B was twice as wide as block A and I think it the contrasting sizes adding much to the total design. Oh well, live and learn. These, after all, towels! Like many others I can try out ideas on towel warps and still have something useful. I'll know better when I use this on a baby blanket.

Trying Something New

I'm always looking for the right way to warp until I realized I need to find my way to warp. One idea I had was to use these big S hooks to hold bunches of warp after presleying the reed. There wasn't enough slack to slip my hand through and, really, that basically tied me to the loom until I finished! This way I could slip the rod through once I was finished and lash it to the beam.

The handmade raddle that came with my loom was not working for me. I like warping from back to front and have tried presleying the reed and hanging it from the castle but that was a little clumsy for me. I came up with a couple of things that I could make but before grabbing the tools I tried a little mock-up with things I already had.

I clamped on the Angel Wings and then drilled a hole through my reed holder (made from a piece of 2x4 and a couple of dowel pieces, you can see an example on the Angel Wings page) so that I could bolt it to the back beam through the holes already there for the raddle.

The warp went under the harnesses and front beam and up and around my pvc trapeze. Each of the two bouts were weighted with a 1/2 gallon plastic milk carton filled with water. Warping was very smooth with absolutely no snags. I had just given my dowels a quick rub with steel wool and another coat of Wood Beams and they were as smooth as silk.

One final thought came to me, I've been putting the cross right at the beginning of my warp because that's the way the warping board was set up when it was given to me! Then when I bought a warping reel and I could put it anywhere - there it was right at the beginning, even though I never have enough slack and I'm constantly aware that it could go flying back through the heddles or reed! On the next warp I'm going to try putting the cross about 18" from the end.

I'm off to the Funny Farm for some dye sampling and lots of laughter!

Revisting a Favorite

I decided to go back to one of the first projects I made after buying my loom - false damask towels. The first time around I used off white for the warp and a bright white for the weft. This time I'm using a variegated 8/2 cotton warp.

For the weft I'm deciding between purple, turquoise or burgundy.

I've changed the threading to even blocks,

which will still allow me some variations.

I didn't forget about the baby blankets - I just forgot to order the yarn!

A Record?

I don't know if there is a Guinness World Record for the longest time a short, narrow sample warp has stayed on a loom, but I know this is definitely a record for me! I decided to finish the second boundweave sample before cutting off the warp. My original plan was to make little bags for my nieces so the designs were upside down, then after a plain area for the bottom they are right side up. Here are the after-washing shots. The project details can be found here.

This tie up gave the fabric a wonderful hand. It was heavy but still had some drape. The motifs came out clearer with this tie up also. This would be perfect for placemats.

While I liked this colorway better, I didn't like the ridges that this tie up created. The fabric is heavy, heavy, heavy. It would take an incredible amount of foot traffic without showing signs of wear. If I ever (and, by the way, feel free to shot me if I do) decide to weave a boundweave rug this is the tie up I'd use.

When I switched to this tie up I had more draw in. It takes four shots for one row and you can see that the weft was not packing in well. Notice the horizontal line through the flowers where you can see the underlying red thread. I changed the way I placed the weft after that.

Here I made sure to position the weft at a 45° angle before beating and you can see the difference. Not only does the weft pack in completely but the fabric is not drawing in.

I probably won't be weaving any boundweave in the near future but I'm glad a tried it out. Maybe when life is not so hectic I'll try a small wool rug.

Baby Blankets

Whoa, is June over? The last few weeks have been a blur of activity. The most important of which was Jackson, of course, but lots of other things too. The end of school and beginning of my new job (second job, not replacement!) Thinking ahead I realized that when I leave my high school students I still need something to bring in the dollars. None of those 30-and-out deals for me unless I'm willing to wait until I'm 71. Um, no!

So, I'll be teaching for the same masters program I went through a couple of years ago. I'll teach one or two classes this summer and then probably two each semester. These are intensive, week long classes during the summer and span two weekends during the school year. I was scheduled to teach in August but they aren't sure if that will fill so when an opening came up for the week of July 16th I took it. To add to the chaos, I'm also heading up to Clark University again for the APA/Clark workshop on Sunday. Maybe this time I'll get my picture taken with Freud!

Now, what's on my loom? The same freakin' boundweave that's been there since January! I was going to try a couple of other motifs but let's face it - it's a sample and I've sampled several motifs so it's time to move on.

Baby blankets seem appropriate. Besides Jackson there are several new babies arriving this summer and fall that are going to need covering. I have several ideas in mind.

Choice 1:
Choice one is a log cabin in 5/2 perle. I got this draft from Handweaving.net. It's a little different than my usual log cabin because it uses both colors in adjacent heddles.

I want to make at least two with each warp. I was thinking that my only choice was to make two identical blankets - I didn't want to use a solid weft and have stripes, but then I decided to play around with two different colors for the weft. I like it! Instead of the more pastel blue and yellow I could use a brighter primary yellow and blue for the first blanket and use red or purple and green for the weft with the second blanket. It reminds me of a circus.

I could always go with my basic log cabin draft

or step it up to a three color ABC sequence:

Choice 2:

This is also a good choice because I can use one color for the warp and then change up the weft for several different blankets.

Choice 3:

Ditto for this one - one warp, different wefts:

Guess it's time to get off the pot and get something new on the loom!

Summer and Winter on the (pool) Table Loom

If you've been reading Leigh's blog (I love her polychrome rug) you know that the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners, & Dyers have just completed the March workshop. We studied Summer and Winter weaves.

Summer and Winter is a three element weave, like overshot. Traditionally, the warp and structual weft (the tabby or tie-down) is of a smaller diameter, often tightly twisted yarn. The pattern weft is larger, more loosely spun. Tradition, however, is just the starting point and and you can use te same yarn for all three elements, leaving the structure to give texture to the fabric.

This is the basic draft which shows both the pattern weft and the tabby weft as the same thickness.

I warped the Dorothy with 6/2 unmercerized cotton and used the same for both the pattern and tabby wefts.

Here you can see the pattern because I used a blue 6/2 unmercerized for the pattern weft, keeping the white for the tabby.

Besides coverlets, blankets, and table linens, summer and winter lends itself well to fashion textiles. Next up for sampling: using 5/2 perle cotton for pattern and 10/2 perle for the tabby and 4/4 cotton as the pattern weft with 10/2 as the tabby.

Putting this in the can't beat 'em, join 'em file:

The pool table remains a LARGE part of my fiber studio. It does, however, make a nifty stand for my table loom. (Tacky vinyl tablecloth was left after my recent dyeing!)

Even More Boundweave!

I started doing the second set and wasn't as pleased, despite the new colors.

As you can see in the picture above coverage wasn't as good as I'd like. I thought it had to do with changing the tie up. This is a 2/2 twill, as opposed to the 3/1 in the earlier posts.

I reread parts of the book and realized that I wasn't angling the weft as much as I did when I started. So I tried to keep a consistent 45°. I actually began to do this at the bottom of the flower's stem (which is at the top!) but forgot to take a picture until later.

Much better! Good, consistent weft coverage. You can see that the fabric is wider at that point as the weft wasn't drawing the fabric in. Since these photos were taken I've finished the 3" of green and have reversed the designs to go up the other side. Instead of making a third little purse I'm going to design a few motifs of my own and make a little wall hanging to put in my studio. Next I need to put a casing on my color gamp and it will begin to look like a real fiber studio.

Off to slice peppers and onions. All the kids, plus SOs, are coming for fajitas!

Boundweave Progress

Not quite sure what happened to March! Oh, that's right, I was knitting. Here's my pitiful progress on the boundweave project I started in January. Boundweave does weave more slowly but I think I was more enthralled with the speedy progress of my Faroe Vine cardigan** and, of course, progress only comes when one actually sits at the loom and weaves!

I finally finished the first piece, enough for a small purse.

But the bright primary colors were just not doing anything for me. I didn't have any other 5/2 around but I made do by doubling some 10/2 for a few new colors. My daughter is a cross stitch junkie so I tagged along on a trip and found these.

But if I wanted a more unified piece I was going to have to order more yarn. I love The Mannings! When I finally got around to ordering it was after 5 on Wednesday, they shipped Thursday, and it was at my door on Friday.

I've colored in a few more designs and should find time at the loom this week. This is why I need a second floor loom. I've got ideas galore for baby blankets and June 6th will be here before I know it. Unfortunately that pesky pool table stands in my way!

**The Faroe Vine cardigan has been stalled for the last two weeks as I waited for spring break and a big chunk of time to cut the steek and add the front edgings. I was planning on tomorrow but 76° weather and a messy, neglected garden could tempt me to go outside.

Catching Up

Oops, I did it again! I've uploaded pictures and started two posts, only to discover later that I never finished nor published them. Oh, well! So.....

After listening to the interview with Bonnie Tarses on WeaveCast last fall I was intrigued with the idea of Horoscope Weaving. I put it on the backburner until Marie brought up the idea again when she was planning a baby blanket. Now that I'm going to be a grandmother in June (like the way I slipped that in?), baby blankets are a top priority! ETA: Thanks, Sara, I forgot to include a link to Bonnie's blog!

I finally found some nice fabric for the Amy Butler messenger bag that Carolyn talked about a few months ago.

I've been getting in the habit of putting things in a big tote as I think about them then bringing them into my mother's. We're getting settled into this every fourth day routine and it's working out very well. When I have weekday duty it's from 4:30 until she's ready for bed, but weekends are all day and evening. While there's no sewing machine, loom, etc. I can get tons of prep work done.

One of the perks of the Online Guild is that you have access to archived notes from all of the past workshops. I've only done one toe-up sock before so I was eager to try some other variations. This is the crocheted provisional cast on with a short-row toe. You cast on half of the number of stitches you need and short row until you have 10-12 left in the center, then reverse the short rows until you are working all the stitches. Rip off the crocheted chain and pick up the other half of the stitches and you're on your way. I love this technique. I'm almost up to the heel which is also short-row. The other sock in the workshop uses a Turkish cast on and a Reverse Dutch Heel.

What about that boundweave sampler, you asked? Well, it is coming along, slowly. No sense posting pictures as I'm working my way up the back of the little purse I'm making and it's the same as the front only rightside up! I'll post more pictures after I change my tie up with the next sample. I also bought some more perle cotton in different colors at JoAnns (thanks, Sara, for the tip) which is good. I was getting tired with the blue/red/yellow/white scheme.

Computer Design Workshop

My local guild has very few weekend workshops. I've signed up for several only to have them cancelled for lack of participants. They have had several week night programs that sounded interesting but due to school responsibilities I couldn't go. So when Leigh and Karen started talking about this Online Guild I was psyched. There's a different workshop each month - I'm pumped and ready to sign up for them all!

If you've read other members' blogs you probably already know that Leigh is running this month's Computer Design Workshop. She provided us with three sample pictures which we were to modify using the capabilities of photo editors. She provided several online editors and freeware links, but since I have Photoshop I wanted to explore its abilities. You can get really caught up in this. My hand, wrist, and elbow haven't hurt this bad since I finished my thesis! But once I started I couldn't stop. I added, subtracted, and modified each filter so many times my head was spinning. I tried to keep track of what I was doing but many times I forgot to note what was done. There are so many tricks in Photoshop that I wouldn't be surprised that there is some way you can see what was done - like the way you can tell what camera and settings were used to take a photo. So here's what I did, with as many notes I can can dig out of this muddled brain.

Sample 1

I rotated the image, then used a series of filters under the Blur (motion and radial) and Distort (glass, spherize, twirl) menus.

This was after only a few filters were applied and I wasn't very impressed.

This reminded me of some of the low water immersion dyeing I did a few years ago. I liked the results and it inspired me to think about dyeing more fabric, but I was looking for something more.

Sample 2

I thought this image was very uninspiring - that is until I started playing with the filters.

I left the orientation the same and started applying blurs, swirls, etc. Finally I focused on an area in which the colors spoke to me. I selected a spot that was probably about 1/6 of the original image. I then used the patchwork filter. I could have played with the filter exclusively and not run out of new ideas. In Photoshop it is under the Filters/Texture menu. You can choose the size of the square (1-10) and the relief (1-20). While the literal inspiration would naturally be for patchwork I wasn't thinking so much as using these exact patches but more for layout purposes. I also could use it as a jumping off point for warp painting.

Sample 3

There were some amazing things done with this sample by some of the other members using the Brush Strokes filters.

I rotated it 90° clockwise and used more of the Texture filters, Craquelure and Grain - maybe others. Anyone thinking Shibori?

I cut vertical and horizontal pieces and pasted into a new image. I was trying to make it look woven by moving sections forward and back, but I think that would have necessitated too many layers and too many brain cells!

My Design

Maybe it was because several weaving lists were discussing crackle or maybe it was because I couldn't get the name of one of the texture filters - CRAQUELURE - out of my mind but I decided to that sample 2 would be a good inspiration for my first attempt at crackle.

I pulled out A Handweaver's Pattern Book, A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, and Mastering Weave Structures. I settled on a draft from Mastering Weave Structures.

Then I went into Photoshop and picked up colors using the eyedropper tool and found the RGB settings. I then went into Fiberworks and used those colors for the light and dark pattern weft, which remains constant, and the light and dark warp, which changes.

This isn't predictive of the outcome because I couldn't figure out how to make the tabby a thinner thread. Fiberworks lets you choose thickness for weft but as far as I could tell only for two pattern wefts. My plan is to use 10/2 for the warp and pattern weft and black 20/2 for the tabby weft. I have some silk but I don't think I want to use this as it's still pretty much a learning experience. I'm also thinking that rather than use solid colors for the warp I might paint two or three combinations of light and dark using these colors for inspiration.

Surprise! Surprise!

Last August, before the s**t hit the fan, I ran to my local weaving shop to pick up some cotton rug warp and 5/2 perle to use for my boundweave sampler. Finally the loom is warped and ready to go. I watched the tape again and I'm ready to color in my worksheet. I ran downstairs to see what colors I bought. Lo and behold there's else wrapped up inside the bag -- a Schacht double bobbin boat shuttle. The good thing about being so forgetful is that it's like getting a present for no reason!

As I've said before, I'm using Nancy Hoskin's video but then I remembered I'd picked up a book at Creative Strands a few years back. For my second surprise I picked up the book and found that it was always by Nancy Hoskins! Using the two I hope to learn the basics and then some.

There are two pieces of posterboard placed in two sheds. She instructs you to tape the cardboard to the warp to keep it from pulling in at the beginning.

After weaving an inch in a solid color you pull out the cardboard and hemstitch using the knot stitch.

Here are the first two bands. There is one more upside down and then three more right side up for the first sampler. She designs it that way so that you can fold it in half for a little purse or bag.

The warp is 8/4 white rug warp, the weft is 5/2 perle cotton. I might also try using two ends 10/2 so that I have more color options. I have lots of small amounts left after the gamp. Green leaves and stems would be nice.

Out with the OId - In with the New

I rang out the old year finishing up some projects. The three ply grey corrie is finally done. This is for an all natural wool Faroe style cardigan. Next up will be the chocolate brown - unless I take a short break for some more colorful spinning!

I also finished the twill placemats using 4/4 cotton. Leigh asked if this was the same as Sugar and Creme. This was called Peaches and Creme but it's the same thing, the heavy cotton that people use to knit dishcloths. I got 8 placemats from one cone of ecru for the warp and about .75# of the variegated for the weft. I was very pleased with the way the washed up. They make a nice heavy mat. I've heard people say they've used this for baby blankets, but it seems a little heavy to me.

I tried several different means of reserving space for the fringe - strips of plastic grocery bags, and strips of posterboard. I was going to try some rags or doubling up the weft but ended up sticking with the bags.

I used a three-step zig zag and sewed along each side with the bags still in. Then I pulled out the strips. If I hit it with a stitch or two the plastic ripped very conveniently and pulled right out.

Placing my hands on each mat and pulling gently for tension I ran a second row of zig zag down each one. This is when I realized I should have done a few rows of tabby as a header.

I was able to use the same piece of string for each mat keeping the finished mats within 1/4" of each other. After washing they look identical.

These were sett 10 epi, 140 ends and woven to 19.5". They came off the loom at 11.5" x 17.5" and shrunk very little (less than 1/2"), which really surprised me. I will use this heavy cotton again, but the next time I am going to use a tabby header and a hem. When I weave towels I weave the turned under portion of the hem with sewing thread. For these placemats I'd use 8/2 or 8/4 to reduce some of the bulk.

New beading: I'm trying my hand at designing my next necklace. It's pewter and copper metallic seed beads.

New weaving: Boundweave! I put on a 10" wide warp of white rug warp and I'll be following along with Nancy Hoskin's video.

Placemats

I started weaving placemats using Sue's twill draft.

When I looked at the draft on Fiberworks I didn't think the floats on the sides would be a problem, but working with supersized yarn (4/4 cotton) is a whole 'nother story!

I stuck with it for for the first mat which was probably a mistake. We'll see what it looks like after washing, but it can always be a mat under the espresso machine. I have enough warp for at least 8.

I added floating selveges and wove in 2.5" of plastic bag strips to hold the fringe. I think I'll use two strips of cardboard between the other mats but thought I needed to get the floating selvege anchored before starting the next one. It made such a difference. The selveges look great.

The close up colors are truer than the larger shots.

I sett mine more open than Sue's, 140 ends at 10 epi and 10 ppi.

I found some blank Shrinky-Dink plastic while rummaging through some of my stuff. Just right to make a dishwasher button for my mom. She hasn't used her dishwasher much in the past few years but now we are coming and going and we're not sure if the dishwasher is clean or dirty. A little velcro and we're good to go!

New Beads

After several attempts at figuring out how I wanted to attach the clasp I made one vital error!

I fixed it and here's the finished necklace. Just what you wanted to see - a 55 year old neck close up!

When I took the right angle weave class the instructed has us use Nymo B doubled. I see instructions for netted or woven beads using single strands of Nymo D and some with single strands of Nymo B. In this necklace you can see where I had to go through beads more than once and I don't really like that. Any suggestions?

I started a new necklace which is much prettier in real life. I've used Topaz Iris seed beads but you can't see the beautiful shading. I forget what the blue beads are called but they are cylindrical.

Fulling Makes the Blanket

I tried to take a picture that would convey the wonderful drape of this light, but warm blanket. I lost a few ends while weaving but it was easy to fix before twisting the fringe and fulling. The only problem was the selvages, they are a little ratty looking. I'll have to fix that before the next warp with this wool.

Because I was a little discouraged by the energy in the singles and a few broken warp threads I decided to just experiment with the fringe. Using the Conair Quick Braid I did 2 groups of 2 ends each on one end and 3 groups of 2 ends on the other. I really like the fuller, rounder fringe. It took a little more time, but it looked better than doing 2 groups of 3 ends. Just like the roundness of the three-ply that is still in process.

Kathy was spot on when she told me that I would love the texture in this singles blanket.

So now that I've decided not to ply the remainder but to try a twill doubleweave instead, I've got to figure a way to get a little more control over the yarn. I'm going to use one color for the entire warp so I will definitely be using B2F. I don't think I'll use the trapeze, although I really like it for cotton warps. Maybe sizing or spraying with hairspray to strengthen the yarn during the weaving process?

Changing Seasons

Mmmm, nothing like a rich, creamy soup to warm you up on a cold, autumn day.

I stopped at Panera Bread on the way into my mother's a couple of weeks ago and got her some broccoli cheddar soup. She loved it so much I had to try and duplicate it. I've made this several times since, usually in double batches so I can freeze single servings for her.

1 large head broccoli
2 cups onion -- sliced
4 tablespoons butter
48 ounces chicken broth
2 teaspoons oregano
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 cup milk
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese -- grated

Cut off florets and reserve. Chop stalks into small pieces. Add stalks, onions, and 2 tablespoons butter to dutch oven. Saute for 5-10 minutes until onions are translucent. Add half of the chicken broth and the oregano. Simmer for about 20 minutes, add florets and simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Process in food processor or blender.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in pan, add flour and stir until smooth. Add dijon mustard and white pepper. Gradually add the processed mixture and the rest of the chicken broth. Cook, stirring, until mixture begins to boil. Lower heat and add cheese. Stir in milk and heat through.

I love the fall!

That reminds me - the autumn blanket is finished. Here's the before washing photo. I finished twisting the fringe and washed it last night.

Ahhh

This is more like it! I didn't get a chance to get back to the tangles until tonight. After an hour or two I got it straightened out and started weaving. I only had one thread pop on me so I consider myself lucky.

Watching the colors interlace and the design building never fails to delight me. The magic continues when I take a peak from the side.

Autumn Blanket

What a wonderous sight ...

until you look on the other side!

I could have sworn they said this was Donegal when I bought the cones at WEBS last spring, but their website only shows a 2/6 Donegal and this is definitely a single. After winding back to front for the last year or two I decided to wind separate colors and use front to back. Yikes! The singles were wrapping themselves around each other and made quite a mess. But it's only a three yard warp so the tangles will be easy enough to work out. If I decide to use this yarn for a longer warp I will be sure to wind the it in threading order.

Jackie asked if I had done other doubleweave blankets. I have woven 5 or 6. I switched some of my old blog posts over to Movable Type so I could search more easily and I found pictures of a few. My first doubleweave blanket was done following Chandler's suggestions. It was the second thing I ever wove and I used leftover yarn from two sweaters. I thought it was a little tight at the fold so I just pulled two warp threads out.

For my second I tried using fishing line as described in Handwoven's Doubleweave Issue (J/F 2002). That worked well as you can see here and it's what I've used ever since.

Indecent Exposure

Except for the boundweave sampler warp that I casually draped over the castle, the loom has remained dressed in only its birthday suit for about two months. With cool weather blowing in this weekend I decided to wind a warp for a blanket in warm autumn colors.

It will be 2" blocks woven double width (10 epi, sleyed 20 epi). 40 ends green (the yarn in the foreground is more green than it shows in the photo), 40 ends gold, 40 ends brown, 5 times, then 20 ends green at the fold. I wanted to do a plaid but it was taking me too long to figure out how to do it in doubleweave so I went with something easier. I'm still trying to work out the plaid, there's plenty of this yarn left.

So, what do you think this is?

Give up? It's polar fleece lined with flannel and this cool elasticized fold-over binding around the face opening. 1" elastic around the bottom holds it over the car seat. All that and it's reversible too. After I get some feedback from the new mom, this may end up being my default new baby present. I'm Wallaby'd out and this little gem only takes about an hour from start to finish.

Taking It To The End

I finished off the warp on the table loom with some dyed muslin strips.

I cut the strips 1" wide and sewed them on the bias as I did for the earlier mat. On Rugtalk people were discussing different ways to work with rags: sewing, glueing, tapering the beginning and end of a strip. Those that glued used a water soluble glue. It holds the strips together while weaving, but washes away without leaving any hard spots on the mat. The 1" would make a nice place mat. I think I'm going to wash these mats several times to see how the raw edges on the strips hold up. I'm still thinking that bias strips would not fray as much.

I dragged out a fleece that I love, but was giving me problems. It's a beautiful, fine fleece with wonderful color, but it seems to my unskilled eye that it sort of felted together by the clippers. After teasing and carding I still wasn't happy. I know June would have said "send it away" but I was too involved at this point and needed to find some way to make it work. What worked was to spin fine, allowing me to pluck any neps that didn't work out during processing and then 3 ply.

I wish there was some way for me to show you its squeezable softness. I feel like Mr. Whipple is going to come around the corner and yell "stop squeezing the corrie!"

Wandering Around in Circles

I do not even know where to start. I've had so many ideas bouncing around my head, with very little time to do anything about them. The trip back from Worcester took over EIGHT hours, so I had lots of time to think about future projects. Then I had to lock myself in my office and write four papers.

So, I guess I'll just pick up where I left off.

Angi asked about weaving the ends separately. Usually the knots in a carpet are not woven right up to the ends. You can use an argatch edge or even just plain weave to fill in that space and protect the knots. Look at the Specialized Kurdish Selvage about half way down this page. While you're there make sure you see the Asian looms. Actually take a good look around. Marla Mallett's Woven Structures and her website are just treasure troves of information and images.

I put in an order for some Davidson Navajo and Indian warp. No specific plans yet, but I think I want to use handspun and maybe make a small rug that I'll hang.

Then, as I was watching Nancy Hoskins' Boundweave video again and planning some little bags, I noticed that she mentions Tuna Wool as one of the weft choices. I wonder if there's a North American source or a substitute for this wool?

Here's the first loom I made from Sara Swett's Kids Weaving. How cool is that? I have the connectors to make another one. The gold line shows where the warp goes. I just picked up some straps that will tension the loom where the red line is.

I think I have a plan for Jacket 001.

I'm planning on dyeing these three yarns for the warp. There's a 10/2 mercerized and two cotton/rayon textured yarns. Here's a close up. I'll probably use a 20/2 for the weft. No just to come up with a colorway.

Finally, while blog hopping I found a tutorial on the length of color segments in handpainted yarns. Good stuff since I have all that white yarn waiting to be dyed!

**If you tried to comment earlier and couldn't, I realized that I started this post soooo long ago that the script I run to close old entries to comments had already taken effect. Oops! It's fixed now.

The Party's Over

Now that school is done and Laura's party is over it's time to move on to summer projects. I had been thinking about using my table loom, still warped from my class with Tom Knisely at Creative Strands two years ago, and some generic roving to make a pad for my loom bench. The roving wasn't doing anything for me but I remembered that I had several skeins of fat, chunky yarn made from Brown Sheep Beast.

The loom was warped 6 (doubled) epi. I wove an inch or so with the carpet warp, then about an inch of tabby, 1-3, 2-4. The rest will be woven 1-2, 3-4. If I were making a rug I would weave the last 4 threads with carpet warp to protect the sides of the warp.

I still have the roving, which is not anything I want to spin, so I brought up my Louet and spun it putting in as little twist as possible. Basically what I was doing was a long draw but not holding it to allow the twist to even out. This is definitely speed spinning - I was able to spin two gigantic Louet bobbins in about an hour. I'll weave with the singles and wind the shuttle right off the bobbins. I have enough for two more white and two gray which will give me enough to sample for some Navajo style rugs.

Working with Handwovens

It's taken me a long time to get the nerve to cut into my handwoven fabric and make a garment. Finally I took the plunge began to cut.

The fabric didn't fall apart when I cut and it held up well as I serged the raw edges. The flat band didn't lay correctly around the neck and I started to take it off. Unfortunately, I attacked with my usual vengance and found that I pulled the fabric apart.

Oops! It wasn't really a problem because the fabric was wider than it should have been. So I just serged off the old band and applied a new piece.

That looks much better, but the jacket is still too big. There's too much fabric under the sleeves and the raw silk doesn't have much drape. I'll probably only wear it around the house, but I still consider it a success. It was the first thing I made from handwoven fabric and I've overcome my fear of slicing into it.

After looking at Carolyn's pattern suggestions, I started thinking about patterns that would work with handwoven fabric. I think the Cathay vest would be appropriate. View C of another Lois Erickson pattern is a possibility. Linda Kubik's Elements Jacket 001 certainly fits the bill. As do two patterns from Cutting Line Designs: Butterflies and Bees and Less is More. Loes Hinse's new pattern, The Garbo Jacket that might be good too.

Sounds like a good time for a Weave-along to me!

Kimono

I painted this warp at a dye day hosted by Claudia in 2003. After I realized how short and narrow the warp was I knew I wouldn't be able to use it. So I dyed some more raw silk and made this fabric to coordinate.

Now almost three years later I finally cut into the fabric and started making the kimono featured in Sara Lamb and Molly Freeman's Warp Painting video. The rather plain fabric was a good choice for the test drive. No stripes to worry about getting straight. I got the sleeves attached and after three tries got the neckline the way I want. I cut a band from the violet/scarlet/golden yellow painted warp. Tomorrow I'll interface and attach it. I didn't put any pleats over the shoulders but it's apparent that I need to.

I was able to wrangle some spinning time too. My new Lendrum Saxony can really spin up a storm. In just a little time I was on my second (big) bobbin of lovely grey corrie. This is from the stash c. 2004. I decided to spin it before dyeing as I'm waiting for Claudia's new design - a Norwegian sweater done in natural yarns.

I Think I Like It

I'm on the second one of the not quite log cabin towels. My tension is wonderful and the selvedges are looking pretty good, too. Usually my sides get a little loose as I work my way through the warp, but this trapeze method really helps with even tension throughout.

I've got quite a list for this summer's weaving, including placemats, runners and a couple of rugs for the kitchen. I think this technique is going to save me a lot of fiddling with the warp.

Northcott Rib (scroll down the page to cardigans) is coming along well. I love the yarn and the pattern, but my hand and wrist are bothering me. Could it be because the yarn is bulkier and I need a longer needle? I feel like it's all scrunched up and I'm always pushing the stitches away from the ends. I'll have to see if I have a 40" around here.

Doh!

This is what happens when you don't have much time, but you want to get something on the loom.

Apparently when I read that you could thread log cabin DLDLDLDLDLDL I didn't realize that they were talking about a ONE BLOCK log cabin draft. So this is what I'm left with. Here I thought I was saving a little time! Hey, I'm so happy I have a warp on and can throw a shuttle that I don't care. I found some slubbed cotton that I'll use for a couple of the towels and I like the effect with just the moss green weft below. It has an almost rep look.

Sara talked about why we do what we do. I can't explain it as well as Sara did, but all I know is that I haven't woven since I took the painted warp baby blanket off the loom back in January and when I sat down tonight and finally started weaving it felt like I was where I belong!

No Men Flying

but I did get the trapeze up today!

I tested the way the warp would go with a dowel before screwing in the hooks. Here's the yarn showing how the weighted warp will be coming up over the trapeze, under the breast beam, through the angel wings and then either through a rough sleyed reed or the raddle, before being wound on the warp beam.

I used 1 1/2" pvc with a screw eye through a bolt, through the pvc, and a lock nut at the bottom. After I made the niddy noddy I thought that pvc would be a better choice than a sanded dowel. We'll see about that. I can always change it.

Off the Loom

This blanket started out 35.5" in the reed; off the loom it is 33" x 50", before washing. As you can see from the picture I didn't plan ahead on this one. The purpose was to see if the Sabracon dye would be good after sitting for a year and it was successful in that aspect. Only time, and washing, will tell if it lost any of its "fastness". If I had been thinking ahead, I would have painted the smaller bout to match the center bout.

The stripes don't hit you in the face as they do in the picture. In fact I like this so much it's going in my hope chest. Well, my hope plastic bin! Never had one when I was younger, but while I was making all of these baby items and giving them away I decided to put a few of my favorites aside for my grandchildren. What grandchildren you say? With four kids you figure my odds are pretty good that I'll have some, but who knows? (No, they don't know that I'm doing this. I know that none of them are ready right now.)

With that in mind -- this is the last Wallaby I'm making for awhile. My daughters both want one, but I'm going to have to give it a break. This was quick to knit, but seemed like such a chore. Cottage Creations has a new hooded cardigan that I think I'll try for the next baby gift. Ann made it earlier this month and it's knitted in such a way that it will be interesting (as long as I don't make too many of them).

It's been awhile since I've posted any recipes. Time's been tight lately and I'm always looking for fast and tasty meals. I made my version of California Pizza Kitchen's Sedona Corn Soup tonight. Goes great with some easy corn bread and a salad.

Single or Double

I don't have much to play with here, so I've got to make my decision after just throwing a few picks of the single and doubled 8/2 purple. I think it's going to be a pain using two strands. I have to wind a ball off the cone and then two threads want to go their own way when I'm winding the bobbin.

However, I do think that the doubled is the way to go. The weft is going to shrink more than the warp as it didn't go through the same dyeing/washing cycle. Speak now or forever hold your peace. If I can knock this sinus headache I want to start weaving tonight.

I was finally able to get a pretty good representation of the colors in the roving.

The close up is even better.

Now, Sara, about my neat sewing area ..... sorry, I had to catch my breath after laughing hysterically. No one has ever this Gemini a neat worker before. Pictures really can be deceiving. Turn a few degrees to the left (did you see your warp painting video on the chair?) or a few degrees to the right and you can see the mess that always surrounds me.

I do clean up after each weaving project, running the shop vac around the treadles and picking up all the little pieces I tend to toss every which way. And truthfully, I do like clean windows. Unfortunately, this basement slider with its broken vaporlock always seems to lose out to another home improvement project.

New Hoodie

I made the pullover hoodie last weekend (this picture is a little too dark).

After my iPod caught on a kitchen drawer pull, unceremoniously ripped out of my ear, and dropped to the floor (not for the first time), I decided I needed to make a slight alteration to the pattern.

I added a buttonhole so I could snake the cord under the shirt and out the neck (this picture is a little too bright). The next time I'll add the buttonhole before the pocket sp it will be completely out of view, but this fabric was super thick and I couldn't get into pocket far enough. Too bad I'm not Goldilocks and I could show you a picture with the color just right!

I haven't got around to getting the zippers, so the others are still not done. I did, however, get a little more organizing done in the studio. Four racks to hold my thread. Two I had but they were taking up room on a shelf in the FSR (fiber storage room). I need to get some more brackets to hang my speakers and free up some more floor space.

The roving is dry and it looks great. A little more reds than I planned but I can live with that. I tried pictures at night and then again this morning but the sun was a little too bright. I won't complain about that and I'll just try pictures again this afternoon.

I got halfway through threading the heddles for the painted warp baby blanket. I'll finish it up and sample both wefts tomorrow, but according to the comments the dark purple will be the way to go.

Which Weft Wins?

Originally I hoped to make this blanket warp dominant, but I ran out of 3/2 with 430 ends wound, so balanced weave it is. Had my original idea been possible I contemplated using the 8/2 deep purple. Now I think I'm going to use two strands of the 8/2 violet.

I have the warp spread in the raddle but it's too short to try out the trapeze. I'll put it up for the next project, tentatively planned to be rep weave placemats.

I've had a few requests for roaster dyeing instructions. I don't think I've used it the same way twice, but I'll try. These are great for low immersion dyeing, fleece or roving, as well as steaming painted warps, roving, and yarn. Now I know it's great for batching Sabracon projects too. Sara Lamb wrote a great article in the Spring 2002 Spin Off about using crockpots for dyeing that is very helpful. Think about it, these are just crockpots grown up.

170 grams of gray roving, processed by Ohio Valley from several different Romney leftovers

17 grams of citric acid dissolved in about a gallon of warm water. I put the dry roving in and gently pressed it down. Then I let it sit for ~30 minutes.

Since this is gray and I want rich color I went with 3% DOS. That translated to 170 ml each Sabraset turquoise, Washfast red, and Sabraset mustard, applied with big syringes to get the dye down to the bottom layers.

Set the dial for 175° for three hours. Turn it off and let it cool. It's probably cool enough now, but it will give me something to look forward to tomorrow.

Making Up

I certainly am trying to make up for fiber time I lost this summer and fall. The plying is all done and the yarn is hanging over the laundry room sink. Swatching will commence tomorrow.

Despite discovering my sleying error in the first yard of the warp I was still able to get five towels. The last one is a few inches shorter but they are for me so no problem. The other three are for Sarah's new kitchen.

I got them washed and dried tonight and I'll hem them tomorrow.

Yet another Wallaby. This one for the granddaughter of my thesis editor. Although it does look much better in person, I can't say I love the yarn. I have, however, been assured that a two-year-old will love it.

One more day of vacation.

What I've Gained From This Experience

I'd like to think I've gained a few new brain cells, but after my little buttonhole fiasco today (see below) I can honestly say I haven't. What I have gained is a bunch of pounds and and an even fouler mouth! Did you hear me today? The table of contents should have been a breeze. All I had to do was use the first three levels of headings and it's good to go. Yeah. Once I learned how to lock the fields the going was easier.

So the buttonhole problem. You might remember me saying that my new Janome wasn't making buttonholes. It would only do one side and not do the turnaround. I bought this last spring, attempted buttonholes in August, and just got around to trying it one more time before taking it in for repair. I read through the directions ten times and still it didn't work. Then I saw buried in the middle of 27 steps, pull the buttonhole lever all the way down. Oh. That. And here I was complaining that the manual was written for idiots. I guess I'm right.

So here's just two of the buttonholes it can do. Once I finished marveling at my stupidity, I finally got the zipper in on my Zipper Jacket, but stopped working on that and hopped over to the loom.

Sarah just finished redoing her kitchen and I'm making two of the towels for her. Josh painted it when he was home for Thanksgiving and he put a couple of dabs of paint on a piece of paper for me. I haven't seen it yet but she's having an open house on Saturday so I'm hoping to have both done and hemmed by then.

I love this variation on the pattern. That's a purple, let's call it eggplant, on the bottom, then gold, and then a forest green. I did three repeats and after 30" of pattern I'll reverse the order for the other end.

Back to Weaving

Threading and sleying went along with no problems until the end when I realized I was off by 4 threads. No problem. Then I thought it wasn't quite centered in the reed. Turns out I divided by 20 when I was winding the warp but I sleyed 24 epi. So it turns out my towels are only 20.5 in the reed. And to think, just a few short weeks ago, I was happy to find the right dye lot so my towels would be wide enough. Can anyone say "too many irons in the fire"? Oh well, it feels good to be back weaving and they'll be used.

Am I Asking for Trouble?

Here it is, almost a month after I got the warp beamed and it's still not threaded. Now I'm wondering if hanging there for so long is going to cause tension problems.

While there has been precious little fiber news, I did finish chapter three and I'm now outlining chapter four. To keep me occupied I've been listening to Catherine's podcasts. She's put together a great mix of songs, my favorite is one of her first - the ED Circle. Check it out, you don't need an iPod, just download the mp3 file and listen on your computer. I've been enjoying so many podcasts and playlists that I upgraded my mini to the 30GB model. Laura was happy to take the mini off my hands.

A Little Fiber Time

I was so productive yesterday that I gave myself a little reward today. I picked up The 4th of July audiobook from the library and was able to listen to the whole book while putting buttonholes in my new blouses, carding up some more corrie tweed, and winding a warp (okay, 2/3rds of a warp). I don't have the time to plan any complicated drafts but I really need a warp on the loom so I can throw the shuttle when I get too stressed out. I decided to put on another set of Huck-a-Back towels. I especially like the white ones, with the striped border. They're easypeasy - just what I need right now and it's always nice to have some presents ready to go.

Rag .....

rug, placemats, runner?

Sorry about the fuzziness, but I was too lazy to attach the camera to the tripod! You can still see how well the colors in the fabric go with the floor. Maybe too well.

I put the camera on the edge of the table, so this is a bit clearer. I like the way it goes with the wallpaper and paint, so rather than have the rug blend in complete with the floor I will make a runner and 6 placemats.

As you can see I have plenty of fabric (I have two of these) to cut into 1.5" strips. I used similar fabric for a rug last year. I like the off white and tan warp with it. The brown warp was for another rug, but there was a sad tale about the rags and I was left with warp to experiment on. The kitchen table is ceramic tile with an oak border and I think there will be more contrast with the placemats.

I ordered samples of rug warp from The Mannings, so this will give me something to think about while my mind rests before one last proofreading.

Ack! The Router Went Down

I was able to check my email with my Budget Dialup but didn't try uploading any pictures to the blog. It's amazing how slow a 55K dialup is after having cable modem for a couple of years. And to think my first modem was 300 baud! After a quick run to Best Buy tonight I'm back in business.

This is actually old news now. I finished the warp last night and it looks great after washing. I'm going to try Sara's kimono directions on some old fabric first to make sure I've got it right. Now to find some time.

Time for a Perk Me Up

and color does it every time! I wanted to make the kimono (the same one that Caroline is doing in overshot) in Sara Lamb's Warp Painting Plus. If you don't have this video, you are missing out. Sara and Mollie Freeman walk you through painting a warp, making the kimono, and color sampling for future projects. I think I bought mine from Victorian Video. I bought a bunch of mercerized cotton for warp painting (10/2 and 5/2), but haven't had time to wind the warp, let alone paint it. Then I remembered the leftovers from the Lunatic Fringe color gamp a couple of months ago. I wound a warp 6 yards long with 16 colors, about 24 ends each, some colors ran out at 22-23 ends. I finished up with *10 black, 4 red-violet* (repeat 4 Xs) and finished with 20 black - this will be for the front band. At 24 epi this will give me about 19" in the reed. The warp is 10/2 in black.

I have my eyes on the end of school. I teased up some lovely, soft corrie. I want to sample it before I decide if/how I'm going to dye it. If I can finish my paper tomorrow night I'll have three free weekends with no classes. Whoppee!

You Gotta Know When To Fold 'Em

Finally, with lots of concentration, I was able to get through another 10" when much to my dismay I saw the center blocks were all distorted. What now? The back rod had come loose and was bowed allowing the center to become much looser than the sides. See for yourself.

That's when I decided to cut this dog loose. I didn't have enough warp left to get a blanket out of it and quite frankly, I don't the patience right now to for a braided twill. (Of course, I could change my mind after I wash this up.)

With no weaving on the loom, I cut out two pairs of pants. Some cool
olive green twill, cotton with just a touch of lycra. The lycra gives it a slight stretch on the lengthwise grain. The other pair are from gray Tencel. I have class all weekend, but I may get a chance to get through a least one pair.

It's Looking Better

Luckily, the misthreading only involved four threads. This was a short warp, with only a 1/2 yard for playing around (or getting it straight, whatever) so I wound forward and cut the loop around the back rod, rethreaded and hung them over the back beam. I did three more pattern repeats (72 picks) and things finally look good. You can see a slight distortion where I rethreaded right now, I need to find something a little lighter for the weight. The little zigzagging about an inch up from the breast beam is where I will serge off and turn under. So much for sampling other treadlings. I'm hoping to get back down there today (after a little gardening) - I was planning on giving this baby blanket on Tuesday! The rubber bands on the treadles will help it go fast.

Josh left at 3:30 yesterday morning. I thought I could go back to sleep but the thought of the paper (the first major paper in over thirty years!) hung over my head. Why not get up and do it, then I'll have the rest of the day to play? Yeah. At 4:00 I was rearranging stacks on my desk. At 4:30 I was looking for my blue highlighter. By 5:00 I was cleaning my keyboard. At 7:30 I called Josh. He was around Richmond. Can you see the pattern? Finally, I finished at 4:00 PM after spending much of the time looking out the window at the absolutely gorgeous day I was missing! I just have to double check my citations today. Once I got started it went pretty well. Good thing, since I finish another course next weekend and have to go through this again. Another mature woman in my class told me the first one was going to be a bitch.

I spun and plyed some mystery roving. Damn, I wish I knew what it was. I'm sure there's some silk in there, maybe some alpaca too. It was from a little thank you bag I got at SOAR last year for lending them some equipment. It was a dream to spin. Hopefully there's enough for a little lacy scarf.

Josh called at 7:30. He was just getting to Port St. Lucie. Sigh.

Some Success

Catherine gave me a tip - use rubber bands on the treadles. So I put rubber bands on treadles 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. Then I realized that I had the third treadle tied up wrong. Then I saw that there were two twisted threads. Finally I was able to weave several repeats and things were looking good - or so I thought.

How could I have missed that mistake? I'm too tired - it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Braided Twill

I got started weaving the braided twill tonight. I haven't got the treadling down pat. The warp is wide and I need to reach over to lift up the floating selvedge which causes my foot to lift off the treadles resulting in me losing my place. Maybe I need to number the treadling sequence and say it out loud as I go. Maybe I just need to get some sleep and try it tomorrow - I've already found two mistakes!

Slowly

I thread. Got the warp pre-sleyed and beamed Friday night. I finally got to start threading tonight. I did 5/25 repeats. 20%. Maybe I can squeeze in a little more time tomorrow. I spent most of the weekend writing my papers and working on my final projects. I did sneak away to do a little spinning and plying. (I didn't want that laptop to overheat!) The two skeins on the left are from Rovings. I wish you could feel how soft and squishy they are. The skein on the laptop is merino, alpaca, and silk from Lambspun. I was hoping that the lighter background would show the nice glow it has, but that didn't happen.

Decision

I'm going with the braided twill. I won't get a chance to start winding until Saturday night, so I'm taking the time to decide whether I go with my original Conshohocken 2.2 Softball or 8/2 cotton. I played around with the Winweave draft and think that it looks better with a lighter warp and darker weft.

Two Thoughts

OR

I don't know if I want to use the two different weights that I showed in the last post. I have a variegated purple 8/2 which I could use for the warp and still use the violet 8/2 as weft.

That's as far as I got. It's the end of the marking period. We are restructuring the whole school into small learning communities and I won't be teaching anything I've ever taught before. I have another weekend of classes and I have a paper due next week. Hmmm. Anyone taking bets on when this warp will be wound?

The Last of the Gamp

I can't swear this will be the last gamp post. It's been so much fun I have to keep talking about it.

On the left is reverse twill, Chandler calls it vertical herringbone. The picture on the right is a 2/2 twill. I like the bolder look of the 2/2 twill. Here's a close up of the two twills. The plain weave in the center is woven with sewing thread and will be the turn under for the hem. I may have enough warp for one more (towel, napkin, whatever) maybe idiot's twill.

Twill

I lied. Here's one more. I resleyed at 30 epi and finished the first 10 bobbins on a 1/3 twill. I pulled out the first and last thread from the heddles and used them as a floating selvedge. It's the first time I've used one and I thought there would be a bit of a learning curve, but it's been very easy to remember and doesn't seem to slow me down.

The Gamp Travels

Okay, this gamp has taken on a life of its own, but since it's dreary and raining here today I thought it should make one more appearance!

Above you see one of the baby gamps wrapping itself around a Portuguese Sweet Bread that was getting ready to be eaten for go to dinner. When I was talking about napkins I was really thinking of more decorative, given with a food gift, kind of napkins. Since Susan (one of my sisters) reads this blog, I didn't want her to know she was getting one. You should have seen the look on the other family members faces when I walked into Susan's kitchen with the bread wrapped in the napkin. "The gamp!" was heard several times through the shouting while everyone else sat there dumbstruck. We like to think that they felt really out of the loop, but I rather think they were thinking that we had just gone off the deep end.

Speaking of food, you can catch a glimpse of one of the desserts I made in the picture above. Claudia likes to berate her kitchen skills, but this was really quite a hit. I knew all about Claudia's (in)famous copulating bunny linzertorte, but finally got a taste in the parking lot of WEBS (I missed it at the potluck picnic on the grounds of the MA Sheep & Wool last May). I thought I had some bunny, or at least Easter egg, cookie cutters but this is all I could come up with.

Speaking of the gamp, this fabric has a beautiful hand sett at 24 epi and woven in plain weave. I think it would be wonderful for a summer top or a unconstructed jacket. I'm heading down now to finish up the sleying for twill. I completely forgot that I wanted to do an inch or two with black and white wefts, but I'll do that when start in on the twills.

Gamp Part I Off the Loom

Before I got back to my painting I ran downstairs and cut off the first three rounds of plain weave.

I don't think they're going to be napkins! It's 22.5" wide

and the 28 picks per color ended up 33.5" long. Can we say dishtowel?

The 22 picks per color is 24.5". Let's see what washing does to them.

The Gamp Continues

So what am I going to do with this colorful cloth? I planned on making napkins, but that could change. I put on 7 yds. I've gone through the color progression three times now. I left fringe for the first one and used sewing thread for a 1/4" turn under for hems on the other two. The first two have 28 picks of each color (the same as the warp) but I wasn't getting 28ppi. For the third napkin I used 22 picks per color hoping for 1" squares. Tomorrow I'll cut those off and rethread for twill.

The last 8 colors.

The Gamp is Woven

At least the first ten color changes.

Did you hear? Claudia's got a new home for her blog. Stop by and visit. She's probably feeling a little lonely. (You know how long Bloglines takes to start showing updates for new feeds. Just ask June!)

Gamps

"What is a gamp?" asks June. I knew that I was weaving a gamp to explore the interaction of color and structure, but I didn't know what it actually meant. Sample, swatch? Fist I go to Dictionary.Com. Okay, now I know a gamp is a baggy umbrella, after Mrs. Gamp's umbrella. For those of you who didn't know, Mrs. Gamp is a character in Dicken's Martin Chuzzlewit. Next I go to Google. It's an acronym for a number of businesses and organizations. You can find lots of references to color and structure gamps. According to this article a gamp is just another name for a sample.

Scrolling through Google I found some interesting baby blanket gamps and a gallery of color gamps done by New Weavers Study Group of the Contemporary Handweavers of Houston.

Then I saw a reference to the Jan/Feb 2004 Handwoven. Thud (sound of my slapping my head). The whole magazine is devoted to gamps and I know I read it. A quick search through this issue gives me none other than Harriet Tidball's definition of a gamp.
"A gamp is a systematic arrangement of warp threadings or warp color sequences in section of equal size, each section being a minimum of two inches and not more than six, and woven as drawn in."
Oops! I guess I'm not weaving a gamp, according to Mrs. Tidball. My color sections are only 28 ends, sett at 24 epi - but it's still a gamp to me.

For no other reason than they are bright and colorful.

I'm just under half way through threading. I'm hoping I can get it threaded and sleyed by tomorrow night, but I'm painting the kitchen ceiling tomorrow too. We'll see.

I'll leave you with this warping tutorial. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this site is priceless!

I Have Pictures

Positively glows, doesn't it?

560 ends of blazing colors.

Progress

I woke up at 4:00 this morning. I could have slept another hour but I was anxious to see if what I had in mind for my color progression would, in fact, work. It does! The bout I wound last night will be the last 6 colors on the right. I started the left most 6 colors this morning. I'll wind the center 7 tonight. This is how it will go: blue, blue green, green, yellow, orange, orange red, red, red purple, purple, and purple blue. Two shades (if that's the right color term) of each color. Since my camera seems to be having problems with the purples (and the sun hasn't risen yet!) - no pictures of my progress.

Finally!

I could blame it on the weather, my sinuses, my workload, but really I think it's just this time of year. I love winter, but around this time every year I get totally burned out. Spring is coming, but not quite yet.

I kept the cold and sinus headache at bay all last week. Nothing was going to keep me from our weekend at Minnewaska.

Nestled between the trees in front and the cliff to its back, the lodge was an absolute delight. We spent hours sitting, talking, and knitting in the commons room and in our suite. Carolyn wants to live there!


Kim and Kate relax while Carolyn diligently quilts.

Woodstock was really cool. After 35 years I finally got there! I was actually very restrained buying just a few quilting notions and beads, but the time spent at the Woodstock Quilt Supply did much to push me back into quilting. Time to put the quilt frame back up!

By Monday I was down for the count. For once I was thinking ahead and left plans and activities for the students. I slept until 11:30 Monday morning, scaring the whole family. So out of character.

Today I forayed into the warp-along. I started winding the warp for the color gamp. 10/2 mercerized cotton, 28 ends each of 20 colors, 6 yards long. I'll sett for plain weave first and do 4 napkins, then resley for twill and do 4 more.

I thought I had the colors arranged the way I wanted, but when the bright blue came up next to the soft violet I knew that wouldn't do. The old ROYGBIV didn't work either. You can't really tell from this picture but it starts with two shades each of red, red purple, purple, then blue purple. But the lighter blue purple looks more like a pale violet and just didn't look good next to the brighter blue. I had been winding for more than an hour, so I took the blue off and I'll reflect on this until tomorrow night.

Color Gamp

It's about time to put on a new warp. I've been saying that I want to have the next project ready to go on the loom as soon as I cut off the last, but I just haven't got there yet. I do have several warps for wool blankets ready to go, but I think I'd like to try a color gamp. I bought 20 cones of 10/2 cotton from Lunatic Fringe at Creative Strands 2003 - it should have aged sufficiently by now! I'm thinking twill.

I plied the shetland this weekend. It doesn't make a memorable picture, but it turned out so much softer than I was expecting. Too bad you can't feel it.

Two Block Twill

Despite having to change bobbins every 12 rows, I was able to get the samples and two baby blankets woven off in one week. However, my speed cost me. Can you see the mistake? Oh, well. I'll give it as an extra, you know, not the main attraction. The second blanket turned out well.

Here's a close up of the weaving just after I took it off the loom. There doesn't seem to be any puckering. We'll see what the washing shows.

More gloves! I couldn't make a decent pair of gloves to save my soul until I got my hands on The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. These are the third pair, made for keeping my hands warm on the way to school. I puposely made these with very little ease, to make it easier to drink my coffee and eat my English muffin on my 10 minute drive to work. I was in such a hurry to finish them that I didn't wash the frogged yarn I used on the second glove. Notice the wonky ribs on the left glove.

Quick Update

I got another yard woven on the baby blanket warp and haven't had any problems. The yarns are all 6/2 unmercerized cottons, but I'm sure they're not all from the same mill (mill ends, no labels). It will be interesting to see how it washes up. Some puckering will add texture, and it should look planned since the colors were sleyed and woven in a planned sequence.

Stay tuned.

Yikes!

I released the tension right before advancing the loom, but the phone rang. No one was home, so I had to pick it up. (Believe me, I usually try not to answer it.) That's when I noticed the discrepancy between the three yarns. It looks disastrous, but actually once the warp is under tension you don't notice it much. The darker green (yes, despite what the picture looks like, it is green) barely relaxed, the white drooped considerably, and the lighter green was between them. It has to be the difference in the yarns, because the colors rotate between the two blocks, so it can't be the harnesses. Or could it?

Marie, now that the samples are done this is going to be two more baby blankets. One baby girl was born tonight, three more to go.

Joy!

I love the sight of a new warp, smooth and full of possibilities.

This is the two block twill I talked about earlier. At the very bottom I was trying out sewing thread for the hem turn under. I was going to do 4 repeats for each color, but accidentally only did three for the lighter green. I like that better, but since the first 15" are going to be cut up for samples anyway, I didn't bother to redo it. (Of course, it won't be as loose after it's washed in hot water and dried.)

I'm not going to do a plain weave header as it will probably turn out wider than the body of the blanket. I'll start with 1/2" in sewing thread and do 5 repeats.

By the way, if you have a blog with weaving content, why don't you join our WeaveRing?

Be Careful What You Wish For

I wanted a snow day, I got a snow day. (Yes, I had all my papers graded, entered into the computer, and posted to the website by 10AM Sunday morning) Did I get my warp on the loom? No, I did not. Since I got the call Sunday evening, I was able to sleep in until 7, have a cup of coffee and knit a little while I watched the news. Then I headed downstairs and found out the pump that takes out the humidifier water (and the AC water in the summer) was whirring but not pumping. Water over about a 9x12' area. So I spent most of the day sucking up water with my Oreck shampooer. Does a better job of getting the water out of the carpet than my wet/dry vacuum. Turns out the hose that takes the water outside froze. Finally, at 4 o'clock I sat down to presley (no, Kathryn, nothing to do with Elvis!) the reed. You know, the presleying I was going to do last week.

Now, tell me why I planned a 16 end 3 color repeat, with an 18 epi sett, using a 6 dent reed. I sat there staring for about 30 minutes. Finally I figured out that I wasn't going to be able to presley and warp BTF. I ended up threading *3 green each in 5 dents, 1 green in the next, skip 10 dents, repeat from *. It was a little slow going, but the next two colors will go faster.

Finishing Up

Not much new to blog about. I spent a lot of time this weekend doing fiberish pursuits, but nothing to show for it.

Friday night I celebrated Roc Day all by myself, spinning the Brushstrokes and watching Mona Lisa Smile. Pleasant little movie, but didn't knock my socks off. The wool/alpaca/silk blend, however, does!

I didn't finish the recycled sweater because I forgot that the reason I had three KnitSmart carriages was due to the breakdown of the electronic counter that's built into it. You are merrily knitting along and then blam! The counter resets to zero. I put a tablet next to the table and I counted out loud in tens, put a slash mark, count ten more. I hope no one was around, because I sounded like a two year old watching Sesame Street. I finished the back and then came up to my computer and ordered a new counter. Works the old fashioned way. Hits a little wire and counts down another number. With any luck it will be here by the weekend.

Sunday found me serging my twill samples and writing up my experiences. Once they're distributed I'll post my results. Once again, I'm left with an empty loom and no warp wound. Tonight I finished drafting my two block twill plaid, with a three color repeat, à la Alderman.

32 Years Ago

And the fun hasn't stopped! No, that's not a black wedding dress. I was a bit of a nonconformist back then. I made a dark green velvet dress and we were married by the mayor of our little town in my parents' living room. All fifteen of us trooped off to a local restaurant for dinner. Our honeymoon consisted of one night at the Holiday Inn. When fire alarms woke us up at 5:00 AM we got up and went back to my parents. By the time everyone got up, I was sewing at the kitchen table and Howie was sleeping in an empty bed! Some things never change

What did we do to celebrate our anniversary? We took a drive to East Berlin (PA that is, home of The Mannings).

Look what followed me home! I cashed in last year's and this year's gift certificates. I also picked up the Relaxobak Cushion I heard about at Creative Strands, but never got around to ordering.

Here's one last picture.

What happened to those legs?

What Am I Doing?

Well, I could be cleaning up the kitchen, or wrapping presents, but instead I choose to start weaving this:

Now it's time to take a break and work on my fingerless mitts. I'm going to need them if the basement gets much colder.

Here's the Problem

I like the blankets, but I'm not thrilled with the plain weave border. It is wider than the rosepath pattern. I can live with it, but next time I'll just do the pattern for the whole length.

close up	close up	close up

Blankets are Done

I finished weaving the third blanket tonight. - behind schedule, as usual. I sewed two rows of zigzag between each blanket and popped them in the washer. Tomorrow when I get home from school I'll hem them. Two will go in on Thursday for baby presents.

Next up: Herringbone Plaid scarves. I'm winding an oatmeal 1/8 wool warp and I'll use the same wool in sand for the weft for one and a black tweedy wool for the second. I wound a long enough warp to give me samples for the twill exchange I'm involved with next month. You can see similar scarf in Handwoven Nov/Dec 1996 (p. 69), but I like the narrower herringbone in Davison's draft (page 26).

Two more school days!

Walk, Don't Run

After sampling, I decided to change the treadling sequence to a walking draft. Things went well after that and I was able to complete 2.5 blankets. Of course, my legs and lower back are feeling it today.

The first one was done in a very pale violet 8/2 cotton. Since I was going so fast I forgot to run upstairs for my camera. Therefore, you'll have to settle for this proof.

The warp is a 6/2 Egyptian cotton in natural. This one is with a deep wine 6/2. Here's a
close up.

Here is the third one, not yet complete. The weft is a medium, dusty blue. I had no idea what the fiber was, since it came with my loom. So I did the burn test to make sure it was cotton (and just to make sure, I burned some known cotton for comparison).

If I hadn't cut off two samples and washed them I never would have believed that this open, meshy looking cloth would wash up so well. Do I have another warp wound yet? NO. But I hope to have the wool wound for two herringbone scarves tonight.

Back to Weaving

After a long break - since Nov. 6 - I finally got another warp on the loom. Let's see if I remember to have a warp wound and ready as soon as these baby blankets are done. Since I have to have some twill samples ready by the middle of January, I think that should be next on my list.

Winding a Warp

The pool table is still here. The guy never showed up. So I only got about half way through winding the warp for the rosepath baby blankets on Sunday. I just can't seem to get the energy to go downstairs and stand there after being on my feet all day. I tried pulling up a bar stool, but it was a little awkward and I couldn't help thinking I needed a drink! (not good for me on a school night)

Here's my problem: I don't mind winding three bouts for this 480 end warp, but it seems like I shouldn't have to. There's plenty of room on the reel, but the warp bunches up at the bottom. This happens whether I use the peg right after the corner or not.

Any suggestions?

#1 Weaving Rule

"Always have a warp wound and ready to go."

I cut the raw silk off the loom and now I'm stuck. Not that there isn't a million things that I want to do, but I'm waiting on more cotton for the baby blankets and I need to order some Zephyr for some twill scarves. I should have taken Anita Mayer's advice. One on the loom, one in the finishing stage, one in the planning stage.

Here's the finished silk. Now I have to decide if the two pieces will look good in the same jacket. I'm beginning to think that the little dab of navy made the violet too dark. Maybe I should just purchase some black material to use with the multicolored fabric.

This close up was taken outside while the fabric was drying on the line.

This was taken in the kitchen and shows the contrast a little more.

Any opinions? I can always use the darker fabric for something else. It's about 15" wide and over 6 yards.

Is this Scary?

Maybe not, but it is one of the strangest costumes I've seen. Of course, when your cell phone rings, you gotta answer - even if you are posing for Mom.

On the fiber front, I'm nearing the finish line for the 7 yard silk warp. The Sanuk Jacket may be finished in 2004 after all. I've been playing around with narrow inkle bands. If we're going to have to wear our IDs every day, then I want to have some variety. This one is 5/16" wide.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! My youngest daughter, Sarah, went to a yard sale yesterday and found these eleven cones of Conshohocken Softball 2.2 for $1 each. What a great gift. I'm thinking the greenish blue on the right would make a good Wallaby. I've knitted with it before, but I also think they'd make a great weft for a blanket. You can't really see from the picture, but the multi cone under the white one has flecks of navy, blue, red, and green. Anyone ever use this for weft?

Another cool present I got was from Dan, my oldest son. He gave me this heating tool, that can be used for woodburning, stencil cutting, even soldering. I have some designs in mind for my Louet that I wanted to burn and I now can make up my own quilting stencils.

I'm still playing around with the Jacob. I think because it has so many burrs (at least that's what I think they are, it looks like tiny little sticks, not hay or straw) that the best course of action will be to rake it with the dog rake, then card it on my drum carder. It's really going to be a messy job. Even after raking out tons of stuff, the carder still got lots out. I'm going to spin up the first batt tonight and see how it looks washed up before I do anything else. I like Claudia's idea of hand carding it and Navaho plying, but I couldn't get it clean enough to do that. If this doesn't work, I'm just sitting it aside and going on. Life is too short.

April 21, 2003

Huzzah - the purchases are rolling in! I got my Alvin Raymer Super Mini Combs and the raw silk from R&M today. I just heard from Whitefish Bay and the fleeces have been shipped. What else did I order last week? Now to find room for everything before I go to MDSW.

 

If you need an instant gratification project try a blanket in a nice heavy wool. Even with doubleweave the inches are adding up in no time.

April 20, 2003

I just love the look of a warp all beamed and taut. I was going to do a random warp, but I'm just not a random sort of gal, so I counted out what I had and made a plan. The extra red on the left of the picture will be the two sides. The fold is on the right. I still have to add the fishing line and weights, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I've got one more day of spring break. I have some little bits of mohair and bright pieces of wool that I want to blend on the carder tomorrow. I'm in a fish exchange - based loosely on the fulled fish from knitter's stash and I want to spin some tropical colors. Check out the fish Carolyn made for a baby shower - they were the inspiration for the exchange.

Thursday is my annual Asian American Club trip to NYC. This trip puts my nerves in an uproar every year, but the kids love it so I keep doing it. We have so many kids in the club that I booked two charter buses, but with world affairs what they are many parents would not allow their children to go to New York this year. I had to cancel one of the buses, but now we have three members on the waiting list. They are predicting chilly, damp weather for Thurday. So what else is new? No matter when we schedule this trip it rains. Sometimes it's a cold, bonechilling rain, sometimes warm, but IT ALWAYS RAINS!

MDS$W - Accuweather is predicting a rainy weekend for Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, but I don't mind that :-) It keeps those daytrippers away and allows the serious fiber folks more space.

posted at 7:30 PM

Not of whole heck of a lot I can post, but hopefully I'll have pictures tomorrow. Been spinning up the corriedale, just plied another 8 oz. I'm ready to beam on another blanket warp. I dyed some of my Bartlett's and then I realized - or should I say was advised - that I needed to wash the rest of my warp, since the dyed yarn was much softer and loftier. Did that Friday night, and got the warp sleyed and threaded last night. I'll probably end up watching some of The Ten Commandments (wouldn't be Easter without it) and knitting some more on my Little Dimun.

The kids are all older now, but they insisted on the bunny cake again this year.

Little Dimun

The Little Dimun is about 5" now, but it is slow going. At least I know it will hold me through my trip to Cleveland. Kate is right, beginning shawl pics don't really look like much!

I finally gave my brother and sister-in-law the blanket I wove for them. They loved it - my brother announced to his kids that it was "all his"! Here's an old picture of the two of us when we lived in Japan. Remember those clip on glasses that came with the doctor's kit?

Forrest's Crook Baby Blankets

Baby blankets are done. The loose weave tightened up considerably after washing and drying. Here's how they look, before and after - click to see full size image.

Forrest Crook's Blanket Weave Davison, pg. 58
I - unwashed	I - washed
VIII - unwashed	VIII - washed

February 17, 2003

Snow day - again! School is called off for tomorrow due to the massive amounts of snow we got in the last two days. Here's the pics of my last two weaving projects.

My brother's blanket is ready to deliver. The Encore was a lot easier to work with than I thought, but it was a lot more expensive since I had to buy 10 skeins. All of the other blankets I've made came from the stash. They probably cost the same, but it was money already spent.

My niece's scarf is complete. Again, this was acrylic - didn't think she'd take care of wool. I'm really happy with the selvedges, except for where the color changes took place. Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong? This was such a quick item to weave, I know why so many people like weaving them. It's a great way to sample different structures.

Back to winding my warp.

February 7, 2003

posted 9:09 PM

Boring. I can't believe I've made three basically identical doubleweave blankets. It seemed like a good idea at the time! I am halfway finished the third - my brother's blanket, but I'm really pushing myself now. With any luck I'll have this off the loom tomorrow.

Next up is the scarf for my niece Kori. I didn't even know what a Burberry scarf was when she first asked me to make her one. Of course, now I see them (and purses, etc) all over the place. I think half the girls at school got something Burberry for Christmas.

Any ideas for baby blankets? My nephew and his wife leave next week for Kazakhstan. They want to adopt two children, but the agency said that the country is going to start limiting adoptions to one child at a time. They hurried the paperwork through, so hopefully they will get there before the limitation starts. They don't know what sex or what age, but I'd like to start soon so I can have them finished by the time they get back (should take 4-6 weeks) I'm certainly tired of plaids; maybe huck or honeycomb? I'll probably use one warp for the two blankets to speed them up too.

Wheel Update: UPS tracking has the wheel less than one hour away. Wonder if I can just go pick it up rather than waiting until Monday?

posted at 8:50 AM

I'm enjoying this day at home. I can sit at the loom and look out at the birds at the feeders and the snow still coming down at a fast clip. Of course, nothing like the amounts Linda has been accumulating!

The Encore blanket is moving along quickly. Here is a picture of my progress, along with my new 15" shuttle. It holds a 6" bobbin and an incredible amount of yarn, but I didn't consider that it would also be heavier. All in all, the advantages of fewer bobbin changes outweighs (pardon the pun) the disadvantages, especially when using an acrylic so I can't spit splice. Here's a closeup.

posted at 5:20 AM

Snow Day! I can't get back to sleep (thinking snoring spouse) so after a BIG cup of coffee I'll be at the loom. I'll take pictures of the new blanket and post them later this morning.

January 30, 2003

Lots of good movies helped me get a couple of things finished up this weekend. I saw Signs, then watched the 1934 The Rise of Catherine the Great on History International, Analyze This, Finding Forrester, and finally, The Mummy. It was a great day, my family all had plans to go out to different parties to route for the Eagles, unfortunately that didn't have the desired results. I finished weaving the brown and white plaid blanket on Saturday, and twisted the ends and washed it yesterday. I finished the second scuff (Nancy Lindberg pattern) for my youngest son, Josh, yesterday and fulled and fitted them before he left to watch the playoff games. The mohair shows up iridescent on the picture, but they are not so glowing in person. He likes them, but I think I'll try the Fibertrends clog for me - it seems to come up on the back a little more. I have the bootie slipper, but I want something I can kick off.

I got the 6" Schacht bobbins for the old shuttle I had, but I guess I didn't measure right, because it has the little flanges on the ends and it just fits. But did I think it through before I forced it in? I think you know the anwer to that! So now I have to either crush the bobbin, or try to get a hacksaw blade down in there to cut the metal. I think I'm going to have to sacrifice the bobbin since there's only about an 1/8" on either side. Duh... The good news, I've ordered a new Schact shuttle that will accomodate these 6" bobbins. I want to be able to cut down on bobbin changes when I'm using thicker weft yarns. Speaking of shuttles, I love my new Bluster Bay shuttle. It just shoots across the loom, but since I won't be using the 15" shuttle that often, I really don't want to put out that much money.

I have about 25 rows left on my Pi Shawl. I haven't decided what border I'm going to do yet. I've been using the alpaca from one my UFOs and it is so soft and drapey. I've been thinking about my next shawl and although I haven't narrowed it down yet, I think it will be from Folk Shawls.

Once I get three scantron keys filled in for 3 different 200 question midterms AND my eyes begin to focus again, I'm going to start spinning some more Beast. I find that if I use a tennis elbow strap on my arm and alternate projects my tendonitis is minimized. Besides, I know I'll want to play with my new Schacht as soon as it gets here, so I won't be up for any thick yarn on the Louet for a while.

January 15, 2003

I'm working on another doubleweave blanket. The benefit of making all of these with thick worsted weight yarn is that I can wind less than 400 ends, even for a 52 inch blanket, and get lots of warping practice. Although I have bagged up enough yarn for 3 or 4 more, I am starting to get a little bored. I'm going to make one more (for my brother) and then start something new. I've been thinking about an overshot coverlet (thanks for the book, Kate) or a doubleweave bathmat. We just finished painting our bathroom and putting up a new cabinet. I thought I'd try a doubleweave where the two layers are interlocked and exchange colors - maybe 6/2 cotton for the warp and 8/2 for the weft. I also promised my niece (and goddaughter) a Burberry-ish scarf. I'm waiting for the yarn to come in, in the meantime I can't decide if I want to do that in twill or plain weave. Gotta keep weaving though, because once my new wheel comes in I know I'll be abandoning my loom for awhile!

Three day weekend coming up........

January 8, 2003

Talk about learning experiences -- well, duh, I guess when you forget to factor in loom waste you're going to get a rather short blanket! Luckily I had planned on a rather LONG blanket, so I ended up with one measuring 52" x 52". I thought I'd just put it in my car, but my son says it's just the right size for when he watches a movie sitting up <g>

I was happy with the way my fold line ended up. When I first took it off the loom and opened it up, you could see that it was rather loose from having fishing lines running along with the last two threads. (that was a change from my last double weaving where the But after washing and pressing it looks great. HOWEVER there's another problem I hadn't thought of. The plaid reverses when it gets to the center. (see finished blanket here)I knew the bottom layer had to reverse for threading, but it never occurred to me that I had to reverse the stripes in the warp so that it would follow the same pattern as the top. Oh well, it's warm - if slightly short. Now on to the next one.

January 1, 2003

The blanket is starting to pull together. At
6-7 ppi it is weaving up quickly (even for doubleweave). I hope the fishing
line going through the last two heddles will do the trick on the fold. I
like that I don't have to worry about going over on the way out, etc.

I found a threading error after about 5". I was going to try and fix it
after it came off the loom, but decided to bite the bullet and unweave. The
wool was really sticking together, but I gave it another spray of starch before
I started again, and it's been smooth sailing.

Doubleweave Blanket

Happy New Years! And Happy Anniversary to us! DH and I just celebrated our 30th anniversary. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday, but then I look at our four kids, 27, 26, 24, 20 and I can easily see where the time went :-)

This is what I'm working on now.I finished threading it and tieing up and gave it a good spray of starch. Someone at spinning recommended spray starch for sticky doubleweave warps. She said that all the starch will wash out, and that it really slicks up the yarn and allows it to gide past each other.

I was a little worried about the fold, but I really didn't want to use a fishing line floating selvedge as I was afraid I would mess up the over/under thing. One of the hints in the Handwoven Doubleweave Issue (J/F 2002) was to thread the last two ends on the fold with 25# fishing line and tie it to a 2# weight. I just happened to have the foam covered weights that you can strap over your hands (haven't used them for working out in ages) so I put them right to work. Then I suppose I just slip the line out when I'm finished. I'm hoping that will keep the fold even.

After some help from the Weaving List, I've got my Idiots Twill doubleweave worked out, so with any luck I'll get to that next week. Pretty high goals considering I'm back to school on Thursday, huh?

False Damask

I finally got a chance to play with my weaving. I'm still having some warp problems, but I don't know if it's my loom or me! This is the first time I've had all 10 treadles tied up, most with 4 harnesses tied to it, and I'm noticing that when I press the treadle on the far left the heddle doesn't raise evenly. The right side doesn't raise as much. Since I usually only had the four treadles tied I didn't notice it. I think I'll also layer up some newspapers and spray WD-40 on all the moving joints. After my misguided attempt to move heddles, rsulting in them all landing on the floor, I steel wooled all the metal strips that hold the heddles on all 8 of the harnesses, so they now just glide across. Maybe that will help.

I have only a little warp left on the false damask tie up, so I thought I'd try out some contrasting colors, rather that the white/off-white that was suggested. Treadling with no repeats, treadling 4 times 1-4, then 4 times 5-8. Then I did all 1-4 which gives the stripe. I like the look of the colors, although the white/off-white is cool too. If you have WinWeave, you can download the file.

Here's another problem that I have been encountering - maybe someone has a suggestion. I've started using vinyl slats from some old blinds to separate the towels. I keep getting the thread from the shuttle stuck on it. In the picture on the right you can see the slats almost reading to wind on. Before that point both the tie on rods and the slats catch my thread and my smooth rhythm is violently stopped. There's got to be a way to keep that from happening.

August 14, 2002

After a harrowing ordeal of untangling a seven yard warp, the heddles are threaded. I'm going into school for a couple of hours this morning, and then back to sleying and weaving!

I think this blog is allowing for some introspection that I never usually give myself time for. I delivered the hooded baby sweater to its recipient and the two grandmothers were ooing and ahhing. They asked me if my mother knit and talked about their family members who worked with fibers. It got me thinking about families and how lucky I am.

There is so much hurt and pain suffered as a result of the families that people are raised in. My family and childhood was so blissful that I don't think I realized the magnitude of problems that can occur until I had children and began observing and talking with other parents. The thought of not wanting to see your parents or siblings was just so foreign to me. As my husband was transfered and we moved around, I missed not being able to jump in the car after breakfast and be at my parents before lunch. And here I was talking with women who lived 10 minutes from their family and made it a point to NOT see them. How does this fit into a fiber blog? Except for one aunt, no one in my family did anything in the way of fiber playing. Yet, when this bug hit me at the age of 8 or 9, my family did everything they could to support me.

My first real fiber present (potholder kits not included) was a Barbie knitting kit. I got a pair of red plastic needles, yarn, and instructions to make a coat and pillbox hat (ala Jackie Kennedy). Can you imagine a first time project making a coat, in pieces, for a skinny (well, not everywhere) doll? I was supposed to make a tapered set-in sleeve for a first project. After many attempts I was discouraged, but my mother came home with the green Coats & Clark How to book, and I was rolling. I never made the coat, but I knitted things, ripped it apart and knitted more, just to knit. After the yarn was shredded beyond hope, I found out you could just go to the local 5 and 10 cent store and BUY MORE!!! That little green book was my only source for a long time. I made hats, mittens, and learned to crochet from it.

Aroung 10 or 11, I decided I wanted to sew. Dad went out a bought a Singer treadle machine. He sold and repaired Hoover vacuums, and his salesman told him to start me on a treadle (can you imagine a 25 year army veteran, turned vacuum repairman, discussing his daughter's fiber interests?). Then he had it converted into an electric, ( I know, but didn't know THEN) then upgraded to a new machine, complete with cams that could do "fancy" stitches.

When my youngest sister married in 1983, my two daughters were flower girls. I made them dresses to match the bridesmaids and my father was so impressed with my talent that when he saw the new computerized Viking on the Today show a week or two after the wedding he called me. Now my father HATED the phone. When I called from college he
would say, "How are you? Here's your mother". So a phone call from PA to Michigan was unusual to say the least. He told me to find that machine and buy it, he would pay for it. Maybe that doesn't sound so extraordinary to you, but he died a week after I picked up that machine. I never finish anything early (you know, hemming in the car and the way to the event), but that year I had a new machine, and all the Halloween costumes (for 4 kids) were done a week before they were needed. That machine is will be 19 years old this fall, and I still feel so close to him when I set it up.

This reminiscing started with a comment on ST about different machines, but really got me on a roll. I was going through old pictures and found a picture of my father, with one of my first crochet projects. I was very impatient, and never bothered with gauge. I thought I was going to have a hat for my little sister and stayed up all night working on it. He got up around 5:30 and we decided it may be a little TOO big for her. Sort of like the sweater I knitted for my husband (to-be) which was too big for my 275 pound cousin! As I look back, I realize that some things stay the same, as others change. I am much more patient with the sampling, gauging, etc. in fact, that is sometimes as far as I get, because it's the most fun!! BUT, I'll still stay up to the wee hours if I'm really into a project. And I'm still the happy recipient of fiber support, only now it's usually in the form of gift certificates and magazine subscriptions.

First Towels

I cut my losses (literally) on the towel project and took it off. The warp was twisting more and more as I went on, leading into tension problems. The right fourth of the warp was loose and spongey, while the left fourth was extremely tight, and the middle was good. I have the Peggy Osterkamp's books and I'm going to try a shorter warp, and use the kite stick like she suggests.

I lost 3.5" in width which puts them a little too narrow for the exchange, which really isn't a problem, since I want to keep these first three. I made two green (8/2)with one treadling and one rust(8/2) with another. The warp was natural(6/2). I folded them over partially so that you could see the two patterns.

There were a couple of problems (but I'm still pretty proud of them). One side of the rust towel is about 1.5" longer than the other. But I figure it's because the warp was so loose on that side by the time I got to the rust. Another problem was the hem. I've read that people use sewing thread for the plain weave part. That seemed so drastically thinner that I just used the same 8/2 cotton for the plain weave - but even before I hemmed it you could see how the plain weave portion was wider (by about .5"). I tried to make sure the was very little pressure on the foot so that it wouldn't increase the width any more. I guess the next time I'll try the sewing thread.

Now for the next warp. This time I'm doing broken twill. I'd love to put a four thread plain weave on each side, but can't figure out how to do that so, looks like I'll be trying floating selvedges.

Rosepath Towels

By Jove, I think I've got it I got the warp sleyed and tied on and began sampling. I didn't notice any mistakes at first. Then after a few rows of patterning it began to look wierd. I realized that I hadn't hooked the heddle bars back up and two harnesses got hooked together. Fixed that, and then saw that I made a threading mistake. I thought I was going to have to tie a string heddle, but Chandler said to snip the side of the top and bottom heddle opening, take it off, and put it where it belongs. I couldn't seem to get in there to snip it but I unthreaded 5 threads, took an extra heddle and snipped that and popped it on the correct harness and rethreaded. Everything is looking good (so far)

click to see a full size image

I am a little worried about the amount that it is drawing in. It went from 21" in the reed, to 19". Oh well, if it shrinks too much for the dishtowel exchange they can be, what was that Claudia said? Oh yeah, "fraternal sextuplet" placemats!

Spent the morning at school again. Rearranging, filing, etc. I think I'm going to paint my filing cabinets tomorrow. I have six, yes a little packrat - but an organized one - and they are pretty beat up and all different colors. As much as I don't want to give up all my fiber time, I'm always excited at the start of a new year. Clean slate, fresh pencils... I even have my assignments and schedules posted for the kids.

Now on to grafting the wallaby hood and back to the loom.

Guatamalan Backstrap Weavers

Here's one of the instruction pages, and
a close up of the diagram. It's very simple,
a smaller scale of the Guatamalan backstrap weavers I
saw at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. (close
up) If we wait for me to actually make something on it, rather than just
TALK about it, you would never see pictures.

Backstrap Loom

Okay, I didn't start any NEW socks, but I have been working on my socks-in-progress. You know, I have some really nice socks I've made, but for some reason I haven't completed a pair in the last couple of years. Maybe dream analysis will bring out my latent sock fears.

I dragged out this loom I bought in the late 70s. I guess it's a backstrap loom. It came in a long cotton drawstring bag that you are supposed to put around your back (see where I got that idea?) and then attach to a door knob. It has a plastic 4 dent reed, about 10" wide. Anyone ever use one before? Back then I had three kids under four years old. The thought of closing a door and strapping on a loom sounded pretty good. Of course, that's probably also why I never got to use it! Can you imagine three kids in diapers and I'm strapped to a door knob trying to weave? Elaine's musings about inkle weaves has got me thinking about trying it again.

I finally found a ladder the right length to finish painting my shed. Our backyard slopes down and there's about a six by four area on one side that I couldn't reach. I felt like Goldilocks - this ladder is too short, this ladder is too long. My friend had one the right size, but I've spent the last two mornings in an Excel class and the afternoon's have been TOO HOT to get up on a ladder. Well, he's going to need the ladder back, so I guess I'll be getting up early while it's still cool (ya know, under 90), and finish painting. If this is my last blog entry, you'll know why.....(and no you can't have my stash, I'm taking it with me - at least I'll have the time)

My Yarn

I finished about 1400 yards of romney for my barn jacket. I was whining about how all of my yarn looks the same - here's an example. It always turns out about 8-9 wpi. There will be no need for me to post any more pictures of my spinning. I'll just let you know what color and you will be able to picture it!

What to weave next? I have six weeks left before school starts, and want to
try as many different techniques as I can. I had thought about dishtowels, but
think maybe I'll play around with some little blankets. There was a baby explosion
in our department this spring. The younger teachers were having them and the
older teachers were becoming grandparents. Any suggestions? I was thinking about
honeycomb for one - we did a little Atwater-Bronson in my intro class and that
was cool. At least I don't have to worry about my loom while I ponder these
questions. Since Catherine posted pictures of Max guarding her stash, I thought
it only fair to show you my vicious loom guard, Skids.
Nothing gets by him. Just remember, you've been WARNED!!

First Doubleweave

Tan and Green Throw, 38x56

My first attempt at doubleweave. Here's what I learned.....When planning vertical stripes, make sure you remember that it will be twice as wide at the fold (duh!). I didn't use floating selvedges, so I had a very dense area. I pulled out 4 ends, and when I washed it, everything looked great. It's still a little wider right down the middle, but you only see it when it's spread out flat. Since my family does NOT believe in folding up throws when they are finished, we aren't going to have any problem there. It was 46 by 72 on the loom. I really lost a lot when I took it off and washed it, but it's still wider than my 40" Macomber would do in one layer. I also measured the length while under tension, so I should have realized that it would relax a bit.