Weaving, and More Weaving!

Oh, argh!  I haven't posted since August?  (And I honestly had to be sure it wasn't August of LAST year!)  I admit to neglecting the blog for my Facebook and Pinterest pages.  Which probably isn't a good idea.

So!  What's going on?

Mostly weaving, which I'm sure is a huge surprise to everyone.  From most recent to oldest:

The MacAskill Tartan

MacAskill Tartan On Loom

Demonstration season is upon us again!  This year's offering for the Austin Celtic Festival is the MacAskill tartan.  It's being done at the request of the Festival organizer.  Although it's not the oldest tartan - and remember, almost all tartans are less than 200 years old - it's one of the prettiest.  We're using a new thread this time, JaggerSpun's Maine Line 2/20 wool, which is much finer than we've used before.  I'm very pleased with how it's weaving up and am looking forward to getting it off the loom and finishing it.  I think the hand and drape will be very nice.

Rugs and Upholstery

The Rep Rug On Loom

I swore I'd never weave a rug.  I had no interest in rug weaving at all.  When we bought the Glimakra, we bought it from a woman who used it to weave rugs.  Included with the loom were several shuttles specifically for rugs as well as several spools of rug warp.  I almost sold the shuttles, thinking I'd never use them. Fortunately, I didn't.  I recently bought Tom Knisely's master weaving e-book from Interweave.  At first, I couldn't even think of a good reason to buy the e-book.  He specializes in rugs and I had no interest, right?  One of the rugs appealed to me, mostly because of the colors.  I've also been interested since I wove the rep towels from Custom Woven Interiors.  I liked how her rugs (and towels) had an overshot feel to them.  Since I've had so much fun with blocks, I decided to use Tom Knisely's colors and adapt an overshot pattern to rep weave.

I took the Snowballs section of the Wahoo Blossom and Snowballs draft from Marguerite Porter Davison's A Handweaver's Source Book, entered it as a profile draft and then converted it to rep. I admit to making a few mistakes in it, but it's working and I love it!  I warped on enough to get a nice-sized rug and enough upholstery fabric for bench pads for all my looms.

George took this photograph.  He loves the look of the project from below the loom.

You're seeing the underside of the rug wrapped around the beam, the rug border just above the beam and the right side of the upholstery fabric angling down toward the knee beam.

Breaking All The Rules

Breaking All The Rules Christmas Scarf

Schacht Spindle Company just came out with a little goodie for their rigid heddle looms.  The new Variable Dent Heddle (they call it a reed, which it isn't) allows the use of multiple thicknesses of yarn in the same warp. I grabbed one of those at the beginning of the recent Hill Country Yarn Crawl.  I also grabbed a skein of La Boheme in Christmas colors.  La Boheme is an interesting yarn.  It's two strands used as one and one of the strands is mohair.  Now, mohair presents lots of challenges in weaving, when used as a warp thread.  Mohair is very fuzzy and wants to cling to the threads next to it.  There are ways to get around the fuzziness, but if you decide to use the mohair in blocks, as I did, prying the warp apart is something that has to be done in almost every shed.  Slow, but workable.  Then I chose a red sock yarn with an almost velvet look to it.  The red is so rich.  I don't even like reds, normally, but this is a gorgeous sock yarn.  However, sock yarn has lots of stretch and the La Boheme has none.  And I mean NONE.  So tensioning the warp is a challenge.  And I figured that if I'd come this far, I might as well go for broke.  I chose a white, fine laceweight silk/mohair blend in white.  And yes, it has all the mohair fun.  The green and black accent yarns are sock yarns, but they didn't add to the challenges.

But I thought, what the heck, if I'm breaking rules, let's don't stop there!  I left about 18" of warp unwoven in the beginning, then wove the scarf, then used the beginning warp as the weft to weave off the end of the scarf.  All well and good, but how to you put tension on a warp if you've disconnected the beginning of the weaving?  Sew the fabric to the apron rod of the loom about three or four inches from the fell line, tension the warp and go for it!  This gave me a scarf with no beginning or end.  It's not exactly a circle, but it's all connected.  What a fun technique!  I'm very happy with the resulting scarf

The End As The Beginning

Weaving for the Kitchen

I finally did some weaving on the rigid heddle loom to be cut and sewn into items - in this case into two potholders and an oven mitt. My assignment this time was to produce fabric with a mixed warp and not to buy any yarn for it.  All the yarn was hanging around the house, either leftovers from other projects or yarn bought for projects that never happened or something.  There are four yarns in this project, a dark green cotton, a light green cotton, a green/purple variegated chenille and a lavender cotton/wool blend.  The lavender cotton-wool had the most yardage, so I used it for the weft and for a few threads scattered throughout the warp.  All the others were used in the warp.  I'm very pleased with how the items turned out!

Weaving on the Antique Loom

Norse Kitchen Towels on the Sabina Loom

Remember the entry about restoring the old Loomcraft Sabina?  The post is here: The Sabina Weaves Again.  Well, the poor Sabina has been put away since that time as I had no room to unfold her and use her.  At long last, I've started working on the upstairs - converting it into studio space.  We cleared enough room for the Sabina to be brought upstairs and unfolded.  She's in the same room with the Glimakra.  I decided to put a pretty overshot set of towels on her that I've been wanting to weave for some time: Norse Kitchen Towels from Marguerite Porter Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book.  I decided to use a 16/2 cotton-linen blend that I will probably NEVER use for warp again.  It's a little delicate and very sticky.  The Sabina has a somewhat anemic shed and warp threads are breaking.  However, that's not the loom's fault and I have another project ready for her whenever I finish these towels.

And that's it for now!  I will TRY to be better about updating my blog!

A New Year, A New Project

As part of my ongoing towel production, I thought I should make kitchen towels for my son.  I've made them for my daughter, for my boat and for me.  Why should my poor son be left out?  His taste runs to something between Baroque and Steampunk.  Favorite colors are black and gold.  I was going to make him waffle weave towels like the others I've done recently, but hey.  How Steampunk can waffle weave be??

So I remembered a beautiful complex twill in Carol Strickler's A Weaver's Book Of 8-Shaft Patterns.  The draft is a 7-shaft reduction of a 16-shaft twill called Bethlehem Star.  I thought it would be beautiful in black and gold.  After working it out in my weaving software, I realized I didn't have enough of either color to warp the project.  So I made upset muttering noises and proceeded to ask my friend if she had any 8/2 unmercerized cotton in her stash.  She had over 2 pounds of black, but older black from a different maker.  I took it anyway and warped it on.  Let me tell you, black is not the easiest color to warp when your eyes aren't the best and when there's no good natural light in the weaving room!  Anyway, I got it on and proceeded to weave...

And wound up with 16 broken warp threads in the first repeat.  But it IS beautiful!

Joseph's Towels

I don't know if the thread is too weak to use in the warp or if I'm having abrasion problems.  I cut off the first repeat and decided to re-tie and try again.  I used a lighter tension and got through a couple of repeats without a broken thread and then, bam!  I'm up to six broken threads again.  However, I have noticed that the upper and lower shaft bars are hitting the warp, so I may need to re-tie the shafts.  Not my favorite task, but I really don't want to have to re-thread this project.

I Still Knit

Squirrel Slippers

Did everyone think that I've stopped knitting?  I do still knit.  I finished these adorable tree-squirrel-heart slippers from Laura Farson's Knitting Scandinavian Slippers and Socks.  These have had their share of problems as well.  I started them in Queensland Kathmandu Aran.  We had it on clearance at the shop and I do love Donegal-style wools.  1) I didn't have enough natural and we didn't have more, 2) the Donegal characteristics obscure the pattern and 3) the second slipper was MUCH bigger than the first.  I must have been uber-tense with the first one.  I ripped out the second slipper and made more of those upset muttering noises.

But I did really want those slippers, so I started over using colors in the Ella Rae Classic Heather we carry at the shop.  They turned out beautifully!  They're not as warm as my felted slippers, so I tend to put them on when I'm working at my desk or have my feet up on the glider or am weaving.  But they're wonderful!  I have a second set on the needles in a icy, heathery blue and natural.  They're done with snowflakes.  At least I won't have so many ends to work back in!!

January White Sale
January is my time to work on the house.  I've driven everyone crazy with reorganization, but I'm liking it.  I changed out the bedding.  I needed a lighter down coverlet on my bed and while finally getting that taken care of, I noticed that Restoration Hardware had real linen sheets on sale.  I splurged and got myself a set.  Now that's luxury!!  I've replaced missing pieces of my stoneware, flatware and my grandmother's silverplate.  I'll replace the single broken piece of my grandmother's china.  I moved the flatware from here to there in the kitchen and bought plain cotton napkins to use instead of paper towels.  I LOVE this time of year!!

In fact, I think I'll go move other things around!

Lots of Hemming

I've finished both sets of towels that I talked about in the last post.  I wound up with a stack of seven towels to hem and enough extra fabric to make two potholders.  By Sunday (yesterday), all the hemming was done and the potholders were made.  I'm happy with the results!

Gypsea's Towels (and Potholders)

First up are the towels for the sailboat.  We've neglected poor Gypsea for the last couple of years.  We haven't been up much at all, and I know she's suffering from lack of care.  We'll start back at New Year's.  We like to spend New Year's Eve on the boat and have plans to do so again this year.  At least I'll have a small pressie for a neglected sailboat!

Ripsmatta Towels

And the ripsmatta towels are finished.  The project plans called for three towels from the warp.  By the time I'd finished the third one, I had quite a bit of warp left.  I wasn't sure if I had enough for a fourth towels, so I made a smallish hem at the beginning.  It was nerve-wracking, but indeed, I had enough warp for the fourth towel!

Squeaking Out a Fourth Towel

As you can see, I was pretty much out of room to work, but I did it and that's what counts!

I like ripsmatta so much that I decided to warp a second set of towels onto the loom.  I've wanted to make these Southwestern Mission-inspired towels for some time.  They're in one of the 2002 editions of Handwoven magazine.  I ordered the thread for them at the same time I ordered the thread to finish up the last of Cassie's towels.  After Gypsea's towels came off the loom, I got the Mission towels on.  Here's the beginning of the first towel on the loom.

Mission Towels on the Loom

These almost look better if you look at them upside down.  Anyway, I'm very pleased with how they're turning out. Now that I understand how they work, I think I'll play with the treadling pattern and see what happens!

This is just a short post.  But I also want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Weaving Something New

Ripsmatta Towels

Sometimes things just don't always go the way you want.  I've had Custom Woven Interiors, a weaving book by Kelly Marshall, for several months.  All the projects in it are in a structure, ripsmatta or rep weave, that I've never tried before.  All the projects except this one are for some kind of interior design fabrics; rugs, upholstery fabric, what have you.  I've never done any of the above.  But the thing that really grabbed me about this book was the use of color.  I fell for these towels because of the colors and subtle patterning created by the color play.  I thought these towels would be a good place to begin this exploration.

I ordered the thread for the towels at the beginning of September.  However, I really wanted to get the Dog off the Loom (see last post) before starting anything else.  And then I really wanted to get my daughter's towels done before starting anything else.  Sadly, I ran out of the teal weft thread I was using for the last of the three towels.  I've ordered more, but it'll be later this week before the thread arrives... and there may be dye lot color problems.  Yikes!  So I decided it was time.  Get these towels on the loom!

My first challenge was simply understanding how the drafts in the book worked.  I made it harder on myself by overthinking it, but I really think that some experience with ripsmatta would be helpful before tackling this book.  I tried several times to make it work in my weaving software.  Finally, it made sense to me and I got it into the software.  However, there was still this niggly feeling that I'd done something wrong.  I figured, though, that I'd never learn until I got the warp on the loom and started weaving.

Last week saw me setting up two more shafts on the loom and getting them into the new countermarche system.  I wound the warp on Friday evening and finished it off Saturday.  I had some problems coming up with a way to wind the warp.  The colors change with every thread and most times there are four colors alternating.  I really wasn't willing to wind four threads at a time.  I ended up by winding one layer of warp in one bout and then a second bout of the second layer.  It worked quite well on the board, but not so well at the loom.  It tangled more than I've had a warp tangle in a while, but it wasn't bad.

Saturday was a marathon session at the loom.  I got the warp sleyed, threaded and beamed onto the loom.  I have to admit, it looked good.  There are few things that make me smile like a nice warp on the loom!

Nice warp on the loom

 
I got the weft thread wound onto bobbins for two shuttles.  I sat at the loom.  Okay, weaving the hem for the towels wasn't all that big a deal, but when the pattern weaving started I just wasn't sure.  For one thing, warp threads started breaking.  First one, then four more, then two after that.  Seven broken threads inside a foot of weaving??  Scary!  I sometimes missed locking the warp threads at the selvedges and had warp floats.  Sigh.  I wasn't sure how hard to beat and no matter how hard I beat, I could always see some weft threads.

After broken thread number seven, I gave up and went to bed.  Today, I'm more at peace with it.  I think that at this density, the weft threads aren't hidden.  The weaving is what it is.  And, quite frankly, I think it's really pretty!  I'm looking forward to trying more projects from this book.

Although I'll probably choose different colors!

Towels On The Loom

Since I've been traveling so much, I haven't gotten much weaving done in the last six months or so.  I have some wonderful projects in the design phase, but few have made it to the loom.  I've had a "dog on the loom" going for almost a year.  A dog on the loom is a project that the weaver has lost interest in and just can't seem to work on.  The dog takes up space on the loom that could be used for a more interesting project.  Well, I decided that I'd finish the dog - two scarves that really should be pretty and kind of aren't.  The scarves were overshot - my favorite weave structure.  Normally, overshot uses a pattern weft twice the thickness of the warp.  In this case, the warp (the variegated yarn) and the pattern weft (the red) were the same thickness.  The tabby weft that kind of holds it all together was khaki sewing thread.  I wasn't happy with how the red weft formed large blocks.  I was hoping that the colors would fade from one to the other.  Nope!

Red Dog on the Loom

But since I was on a Dog-Off-The-Loom mission, I got the red scarf woven.  I was planning on cutting off the rest of the warp and saving it.  But hey.  It was already on the loom and why not just weave it off.  So I started the purple pattern weft.

Purple Dog on the Loom

I'm glad I did, because I think it's much prettier!  I still need to finish the scarves, but I had the purple woven off within a week or two of starting it.  So, that freed up my good old Schacht 4-harness loom.

My daughter wanted dish towels for her university apartment.  She chose a kit from Halcyon Yarn.  Normally, I don't weave with kits, but I wanted to try out their 8/2 unmercerized cotton.  The jury is still out on how well I like the cotton, but the towels are coming out very pretty.  This is the first time I've woven waffle weave.  The waffles will show up better when the towels are off the loom and washed, but you can see them forming now.  There will be three towels when I'm finished and each will be a different color in the weft.  Here's Towel Number One, woven with a light green weft:

Towel Number Two is woven with a dark green weft - almost a grey-brown-olive color:



Towel Number Three is woven with a teal weft.  I'm scared about this one because I don't think there's enough weft thread.  We'll see!

I've finished some projects that were woven earlier in the year.  I think I like to weave, and hate to hem!  Here is a set of four towels in a Barleycorn weave.  I love barleycorn almost as much as overshot.  It's very similar, but not quite the same.  These were woven at the General Sam Houston Folk Festival this past April.  Such fun!

Well, I'd better get back to the loom and finish Towel Number Three!  I have at least two towel project lined up after this one!