Assumptions

 

after wetting the threads out the threads have increased in diameter as they bloomed

In our search for definitive answers, we tend to grab hold of one end of the string (quite literally, at times) and think that we have understood all of the aspects there are to know about something.

As I try to puzzle out what is happening with the thread I am using, I was given some explanations about tubes and how to understand how they work.  

And I understand that - sort of.  I mean it all makes sense in a theoretical way.  

But what I've experienced with working with threads is that they are not tubes.  They are not 'static' when it comes to their diameter.  

Michelle Boyd helped shed some more light on the issue the other day (thanks, Michelle!) and added another brick in my foundation of knowledge, as I realized that of course threads are not static - they change depending on what you do with them - and *to* them.

I was well aware how that worked in terms of cloth density, but trying to manipulate the threads in the way I'm doing adds another layer of complexity to the results.

And this is why I have repeatedly tried to inform weavers as to the nature of their materials.  Because if you don't understand their nature, it's difficult to make sure that you are approaching them in the way you want them to behave once they are woven *and wet finished*.

Now, not everyone needs to know these things, but I personally feel that if weavers are going to wind up with successful results (did you get what you wanted?) a deeper understanding of the threads and the fibres that make up those threads will help bring them closer to success.

I'm not saying 'perfect' - but we can settle for 'good' - or even 'good enough'.  But there are things that need to be understood in order to make that journey easier, fewer potholes in the road, so to speak.

So, Michelle Boyd's book, A User's Guide to Yarn.

A deep dive into threads and how they are affected by the manner of fibre prep and spinning, and what can happen when you use them, etc.

Yesterday I was asked if I would consider 'reviewing' Michelle's book with my weaver's 'eye'.  Because how a thread behaves in crochet, knitting and weaving, will depend.  

I felt good old 'imposter' syndrome, but I said 'yes' anyway.  In part because doing a review of her work for this book folds right into the deeper dive(s) I've been taking for 50 years - and hope to continue for several more.  I would not normally mention my participation in a project at this preparatory level, except they have announced who their 'expert reviewers' are.  And given how much light Michelle has shed on several conundrums I have had, I anticipate that there is a great deal more for me to learn from her.

And if you want to know what the heck I've been up to myself?  Watch for an upcoming issue of WEFT.  You may be interested.  It's certainly caught *my* attention.  :D

Staging Area

8 boxes of hand wovens all packed up ready to be loaded into the van

Once again my living room floor is acting as a staging area as we prepare for the first of four consecutive craft fairs. Doug has gone off to unload the rear seats of the van, store them at the annex and pick up a few things stored there that we will need for the shows.

threading proceeds on the beige tea towel warp

Recovery is not a straight line, as a friend observed recently, and the past few weeks have seen plenty of zigging and zagging as my energy waxes and wanes.  Getting a flu shot probably had something to do with the decline of energy this week, but at least I'm somewhat protected for nasty bugs as I head into a month's worth of high exposure to crowds of people.

And craftspeople are famous for showing up for shows, sick, mainly because there is no one to phone in sick to so they can stay home in bed.  :}  I know that's happened to me often enough over the years.

With a muzzy head I didn't do much threading this week but am feeling alert enough today to tackle that job and this morning got almost to the half way mark.

A lot of people colour their heddles as a way to keep track of where they are in their threading.  Personally I don't find that method particularly helpful.  My drafts are printed out with numbers showing which shafts the threads are to be on, which means that I would have to translate the numbers into colours.

Rather than attempt that mental gymnastic, I number the shafts - the top of the bottom shaft.  You might just be able to see the numbers if you click on the photo to enlarge it. 

Since I also quite often need to shuffle heddles from one shaft to another, colouring them really isn't all that helpful to me.

My hope is that I can finish setting up the loom over the weekend - the Artisans of the North at the U of Northern BC doesn't have killer hours - and maybe even weave a bit before we leave for Vancouver and Circle Craft.  But I'm not too bothered about that - mainly I just want to leave the loom ready to weave on for when we get back from Calgary (Art Market).

Currently reading Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs

In Pursuit of Perfection

two different waffle towels

As I was nearing the end of this blue warp I started having misgivings.  I'd changed the epi from 36 to 30 because the weft I was wanting to use was somewhat thicker than what I'd used on the last 2/20 merc. warps and thought that a more open warp might work better. 

Since I had another 2/20 merc cotton warp I wanted to do (got lots of that yarn to use up for weft!) I decided to check the finished results before committing to another 30 epi warp.

Am I ever glad I did.  I'm not at all happy with my results in the waffle weave.  The woven illusion actually turned out okay - better than anticipated anyway.

I used two different weft yarns on the waffle weave towels in the photo above, and two somewhat different tie-up/treadlings.  But the different treadlings are not enough to account for the humongous difference in dimensional loss - it has to be the weft yarn.

The towel on the bottom is woven with 2/16 unmerc. cotton.  The towel on the top is woven with the singles 6 cotton that I've used elsewhere for collapse effects.  As you can see, the singles 6 has most definitely collapsed (or torqued, would be a more accurate statement).  There is a 4 inch difference in the width of the two towels and the singles 6 towel is thicker.  The twill stripes in the singles 6 towel has ruffled much more than in the 2/16 towel.

So I'm going to try this again on the beige warp, set at 36 epi and see if that reduces the dimensional loss in the singles 6 weft towels. 

Like I keep telling my student, change one thing and everything changes.  :}

Weaving Zen

There is nothing quite like weaving when everything is going smoothly.  :)  Today I found myself in harmony with the loom and decided to tape a video clip.  I'd hoped that my left hand would be more visible so that viewers could see how I catch the shuttle between my index and middle finger, then shift my index finger to propel the shuttle back across the web - but there just wasn't enough room between the loom and the wall to get the camera at just the correct distance.  Sorry it didn't work out.

Getting a good weaving rhythm is a confluence of a number of factors.  First the warp has to beamed firmly and evenly so that you get a good clear shed.

Then the bobbins have to be wound well - again with firm tension so that the built up layers can't cut down into the lower layers of yarn.

Holding the shuttle 'underslung' allows it to be caught and thrown in an ergonomic manner.  The shoulders are relaxed and a little bit of a flick of the wrist combined with the push of the index finger can shoot the shuttle across quite a wide web.  In this instance it's not too wide - just 24" in the reed.  This is a width I find quite comfortable to hand throw.  More than 30" wide and I start to feel the strain from having to hold my hands out further from my body.  More than 30" in width I generally switch to the fly shuttle.

You might notice that at a certain point in the cycle my hands are not holding onto the beater at all.  I don't weave with an overhead beater so I'm not sure that this is possible on one of those but on an underslung beater there is a time when it passes the pivot point that it will naturally fall towards the fell or away from it. 

I have a few other video clips on my You Tube channel here where I talk through what I am doing and weave more slowly.

And here is a better view of the cloth:

Here you can see the cut line I weave in on the lower level to aid in separating the towels once they are off the loom.  It's the white line.  One of the advantages of the Compu-Dobby is that I can generate the entire treadling draft and include a blank pick to let me know that the next two picks are to be woven in a constrasting colour for the cut line.

And here is a close up of the cloth.  I threaded the large motif once along each edge of the cloth.  Once the cloth has been wet finished and the brown Fox Fibre yarn has developed the darker colour, the design woven into the cloth should show up much more clearly. 

That, at least, is the plan!

Rising to the Challenge

here is the 2/20 merc. cotton warp all beamed and ready to be threaded

brown and green Fox Fibre yarn on cone and small sample soaked in heavy concentration of washing soda and detergent - wow! look at the green!

One of my weaving mentors always said that if we weren't making mistakes we weren't learning.  Her words struck a chord with me and I've never fussed too much about the mistakes I've made. 

Oh sure I get disappointed and exasperated at myself when I make stupid mistakes - those dumb mistakes that we all make when we just don't think through something or forget a lesson from the past.  You know what they say - if you don't learn from history you are doomed to repeat it.

I've done plenty of repeating and I get annoyed with myself when I do.

But I don't ever let the fear of failing keep me from trying something new.  The mistakes we make along the path simply let us know when we are straying from success and allow us to make changes that will bring us closer to the desired results.

And sometimes trying is the only way to find out if that direction is truly the way you want to go.

It was fun working on the baby wraps but what I discovered is that they take a lot more 'engineering' in terms of the sewing than I'm really happy about doing.  And so I think I will return from that interesting detour and go back to the more 'ordinary' things that I've done in the past - tea towels, scarves, shawls and so on.

I have also had to do a lot of thinking about the coming months.  The last two cycles are going to get yet more challenging from everything that I've been told and so it is going to be important to keep stress - good and bad - to a minimum.  Mom's surgery is going to be stressful for her and us as we do our best to help her through her recovery.  And of course there is the upcoming craft fair season to be dealt with.

Since I earn my income from weaving (doing it and teaching it) these shows are a critical part of my income for the year.  While Doug is willing to work the shows, there is still the weaving, wet finishing, tagging and pricing to be done.  I've tried to stay on top of that but a quick riffle through the storage area showed me that not everything is priced.  I will have to start packing things up early in October so that everything is ready for the show season. 

Weavolution, the weaver's social network, is doing something interesting this year.  Called Halloweave, a number of group leaders have issued challenges to people to stretch their wings and dare to try something different.  I'm not participating in any of the challenges (see above about stress) but I'm trying to be supportive of those people who are willing to participate.  You can find out more information on their website here

It doesn't cost anything to join.

Currently reading Home Improvement; undead edition edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner

Finished! (Almost)

This morning I went up to the annex and fired up Puff so that I could press the cloth that went through the washer and dryer last night.

I'm quite pleased with the results.  The green and brown are the Fox Fibre weft yarn, the white uses 'ordinary' 2/16 cotton in natural for weft.  The pattern in the two Fox Fibre cloths is quite subtle now but shows up when viewed from different angles.  I like the way it plays peek-a-boo.  ;)

The warp is over the half way mark now although I'm not exactly sure how far.  I'll measure the 3 pieces tomorrow when they are dry and get them sewn up.  I've got massage tomorrow afternoon so probably won't weave after that - sewing these items will likely be a better activity (and let my neck muscles rest from weaving).

I'd hoped to have this warp off the loom before Wednesday but it doesn't look like that is going to happen.  I'm thinking the next warp might be a silk scarf warp.  I've got a bunch of 2/20 natural white silk already on spools so beaming that warp will be easy.  For weft I have some finer tussah silk.  Since I can only sell a few 'white' scarves I'll probably weave them up and then dye them after weaving.  Which means a hem stitched end, not fringe twisting.  :)  I've got way more fringe twisting to do, I really don't need to add to that mountain of finishing work. 

The really nice thing about hem stitching is that no further 'finishing' is required once off the loom.  And hem stitching a scarf really doesn't take all that long.

That Old Magic in the Water

light green on left, light brown on right before wet finishing

It truly felt like magic in the water!  The wefts before finishing were quite subtle.  After wet finishing they turned darker and took on a lot more definition.  And these are spun with just 25% of the naturally coloured cotton.

The colours may deepen further yet although I'm not sure because I haven't sampled them to test how far they will go.

Sometimes it's nice to have an element of surprise.  Plus my target market is aware of these yarns and that they will change colour.  Or at least some of them are, from what I understand.  Lots to learn about the customer base yet.

For more information on naturally grown coloured cotton you might find this website interesting:
naturally coloured cotton

More of the Same

This treadling pleased me enough that I decided to weave a second item in the same treadling but with one of the darker green Fox Fibre wefts.  I think the pattern shows up a little more clearly - possibly because the colour value is just that much slightly darker than the last one.

One of the things that you have to do when you are trying to earn an income from making things is to show up for work.  Every day. 

You have to make working a priority.  And sometimes there are tasks involved that you don't much like or care to do but they need to be done and someone has to do them.  Most times that someone is you.

For me, the weaving is the fun part, the zen part, the part that, once I get into the 'groove' - well, the time just flies by.  Usually I put on a cd or cassette tape and when it ends I'm reminded to take a break.

Doesn't matter much what it is I'm weaving.  I just love to be weaving.  Some things I love more than others, naturally, but when I'm doing something that isn't on the top of my list of favourite things, it's usually because it is necessary to achieve the quality of cloth that I desire.

So it is with this cloth.  I decided that I really truly needed to use a temple.  Now I don't like using a temple because moving it forward every inch slows me down.  But in the long run I'm much happier with the results and once I get into the rhythm of 32 picks, move temple, it actually goes fairly quickly.  Faster than hand throwing, even.

So I finished the light brown weft cloth, partly because I have a potential client and she wanted the cloth shorter than what I'd planned, wound the pirns for the medium green and got nearly 20" of that woven before quitting for the night.

I even managed to do a tiny bit of paperwork and fringe twist.

All in all, a pretty good day.

Currently reading Downpour by Kat Richardson

Sneak Preview

Although the photo looks blurry, this is pretty much how the cloth looks.  The white weft makes the cloth look very soft. 

This is another variation on Wall of Troy.

Since I'm still debugging the cloth I've used plain old ordinary 2/16 cotton rather than the Fox Fibre yarn.   And while I can't really tell if the temple is necessary yet I'm going to go ahead and order one in - just in case.  Can't have enough toys - er, tools!

After running the sample of the Fox Fibre weft through the washer/dryer 3 times, I cut that sample in half again and ran one piece through a few more times.  It has darkened slightly from the 3 times through and I'm not sure if I will test it any further or not.  I'll save the darkest brown yarn for a warp that is a mid-range tonal value rather than use it on this lighter tone stripe.  Instead I'll use some of the lighter values because even if they do darken they won't be as dark as the darker brown.  I don't like high value contrast as a rule.

So, cycle 5 is a 'go' and I'll be spending the afternoon reading tomorrow.  :)  Fortunately I just picked up a stack of books from the library so I've got lots to choose from.  The good news is that they will decrease the Vincristine (the most caustic of the chemicals) so my white cells should not be wiped out so drastically nor should there be numbness.  I asked the doctor if needing to decrease the Vincristine was a good thing and he said that it was.  So I'm really hoping hard that I will only need 6 cycles in total, not the maximum of 8.  They will do a scan after #6 to check for any evidence of disease and then I'll find out if more cycles will be needed.  With any luck I'll be done chemo by the time mom has her surgical date and I'll be able to accompany her to Vancouver.  But that will depend on when her surgery gets booked.  It looks like the 'interesting' times are going to continue for the rest of this year but with any luck at all both mom and I will begin the new year healthy!

Making Plans

Here are the last two prototypes after wet finishing.  The bamboo is noticably softer with better drape - only to be expected given the limp nature of 'rayon'. 

With chemo scheduled again on Wednesday (given my white cell count is up high enough) and energy reserves getting noticably lower plus the pages of the calendar ripping off at what seems to be the speed of light, I realized that instead of just drifting along I needed to pay attention to deadlines.

Today I finished threading the next 2/20 merc. cotton warp and hope to get it sleyed either tonight or tomorrow afternoon after my clinic appointments with the goal of weaving enough to see if I need to order a smaller temple.  (Although I might email a friend to see if she has one I can borrow - I didn't think to ask her when we had lunch today.)

I'm also hoping to get the two prototypes sewn tomorrow so I can pass them along to my friend to field test, but that may not happen.  Will just have to wait and see how the time goes.

Once the prototypes are sewn, I'll be clearing off the work table and setting up the camera.  I really need to get going on the pictures of the Magic samples. 

The handspun skeins need to be labelled and made ready to mail south for the upcoming shows in September and October, not to mention shawls.  I've got a good selection of two styles of shawls ready now.  It feels particularly good getting that mountain of finishing, dry and wet, diminished and product ready for the fall shows.  Not to mention the reduction in stash!  :^)

There are also the text files for Magic to edit.  I'm hoping to start on those once the photography is complete.  My web master will be ready to start dealing with the files in September sometime but I've got a lot of work to do before I can send them to him. 

Those are the jobs that are most 'critical' for the next couple of months.  Now to quite procrastinating and get them done!

Currently reading Where Shadows Dance by C. S. Harris

Next Up

Today I wet finished the last two prototype textiles.  As it happens, all four are 'seconds' in one way or another.  The red Bambu weft one suffers from two different dye lots.  Unfortunately the colour difference was not noticable when it was on the cones, it only showed up when I wove with the pirns.  But as prototypes I now have enough information to go ahead with a 'real' warp. 

There is one more piece of the puzzle which I hope to discover on this warp - do I need to weave with a temple, or not?  I'm thinking I'm going to be much happier with the results if I do.  Unfortunately I don't have one the correct size so I'm going to have to try weaving on this warp and find out if I need to order one in.  Hopefully I can start weaving before chemo on Wednesday and place an order.  I don't know if I'll feel up to weaving until after the chemo ick wears off and Leclerc are very good about shipping things so I'll probably dress the Leclerc Fanny and weave on that loom if I need to wait for a temple to arrive from Quebec.

I've still got oodles of yarn I need to reduce from my stash, writing/editing/photography to do, fringe twisting, preparation of inventory to be shipped soon, spinning, and so on and so forth.  There is no lack of things to be done other than weaving on the AVL! 

The next warp is over half threaded and I'm hoping to finish that off tomorrow afternoon and be able to weave on Tuesday.

Prototype

This afternoon I wove some samples and then decided to go with my gut and proceed with a prototype of the new product.

I'm not going to do a reveal just yet - this idea is too new and the sampling/prototyping isn't done and somehow I feel like talking too much about it will in some way jinx it.  :}

(What, me?  Superstitious?)

Doug has also been asking me if the fix he did on the fly shuttle worked so it felt good to report back to him.  Turned out it still wasn't quite right so he tweaked the piston and I left it shortly before 9 pm with it working well.  We'll see for how long as it worked perfectly fine for the sampling and well into the prototype before going all wimpy on me again.

The warp is two shades of dark red 2/20 mercerized cotton, one slightly darker value than the other but very close in hue - both are slightly on the brown end of the spectrum.  I tried several different wefts in both cotton and bamboo and will judge them for suitability after wet finishing.  But as I say, my gut is telling me that the unmercerized cotton is going to out perform the bamboo so I went ahead with that for the prototype.

I have enough warp on the loom to make four of the new product and then I'll give one or two to a friend to test drive them and report back on suitability.  The function of this product is very specific so it really needs to go into the field, so to speak, and get used before I decide which way to go in terms of putting this into production and offering it for sale.

Sometimes it's not enough to just weave a sample; sometimes you have to actually make a sample product, too.

Currently reading Damask Days by Evelyn Hood

And Now For Something Completely Different

warp bundles threaded - I tie each group of 6 or 8 ends in a slipknot, then tie each repeat into a bigger slipknot as one way to keep track of my threading....

It seems as though I've been weaving nothing but plain weave for months.

Oh wait!  It seems that way because I've been weaving nothing but plain weave for months!  

Since it's been ages since I've threaded anything but a straight draw I figured I'd better choose something fairly simple for my sample warp and it wouldn't hurt if it was something I was already very familiar with so back I went to Wall of Troy extended over 16 shafts.

This warp has a very rigid stripe that does not fit into the Wall of Troy threading sequence in any way but I figured that would add some zest to the cloth and make the stripe less rigid visually.

Today I got the warp 2/3's threaded and will finish the rest tomorrow.  I may or may not start weaving as it will depend on how long it takes to finish threading, sley the reed and get tied on.  But it would be nice to at least have some samples to show a friend on Saturday to get her feedback.

I'm aiming for a very specific purpose for this fabric, a purpose I'm not intimately familiar with, so getting some knowledgable feedback will be critical before I weave the prototype textiles and offer them to a very discerning market.

Saw an interview with Deepak Chopra tonight in which he commented that he doesn't know everything.  That the search for answers is part of the journey.  I feel the same way.

Currently reading Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

Time Becomes More Precious...

...the less of it you have. (song lyric sung by Bonnie Raitt)




Plan C


In my heart I still think I'm 39 (who is that old woman in the mirror and why is she stalking me?) but two years ago I was forcefully reminded that life is fragile and that we - none of us - knows how much of it we have to utilize.

I've never been one to fight with my loom or materials, so when I finished towel #6 I decided that I'd had enough of coaxing both the warp and the weft and it was time for Plan C.

Last night I changed the tie up and treadling once again, this morning changed out the pick wheel for one that gave fewer picks per inch and am now quite happily weaving the towels this way. Still coaxing the pesky linen, but that I can manage without getting too disgruntled. :}

It is a good thing, I think, to remember that a threaded warp is simply a set of possibilities, and if something isn't working the way I want I can change something about what I'm doing that will work better. Sometimes Plan C or D is actually a much nicer result than my original plan!

And sometimes while Plan A or B is nice, it simply isn't worth the time and effort to get there. I have been known to throw out several pounds of warp yarn because it was just not worth the effort to continue to use it. I have a bin where I collect my thrums, pass them along to a surface designer who takes what she wants, and then sends both of our studio waste to the Salvation Army. The local branch has a textile recycling program.

I am no longer a 'young immortal'. I have a limited amount of time in this place. I don't want to spend it struggling when I can achieve nice results by having a conversation with my loom and/or materials and agreeing that a different path will make both of us much, much happier.

Currently reading Dead Soul by James D. Doss (catching up on earlier novels in the series that the local library doesn't have by requesting them on ILL)

All Things Being Equal...

I'm really kind of liking this but......

2/20 merc. cotton is generally pretty solid as a warp. Sure I double the outside four ends in the heddles (but not the reed) just to give the selvedges a little more spine, but usually I have very little trouble with broken threads.

The first four towels wove up nicely but I wasn't really loving the results. Soooo - I changed the tie up. Now I only changed the tie up in the first 12 shafts. The last four shafts remained the same as the first four towels.

So why, then, did I start having broken threads? Not a lot of them, not frequently, and not on the outside edge, but the 3rd or 4th dent in???? And in the area that had not been changed? So what had changed? What was causing the breaks?

Now I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm not a patient person and I don't like fighting with my equipment - or my materials!

But one or other of the threads would break just often enough that it was making weaving these towels, which I really quite like, not fun.

After towel #4 I thought what the heck, and instead of throwing 2 picks for a cutting line I threw 3 picks which changed which direction the shuttle was entering the cloth.

And started weaving again. Passed the 12" mark, then the 18" with no breaks. By the time I got to 24 I was holding my breath! Would I make it through one whole towel with no breaks?


YES!

Can the fix possibly be so simple as merely changing which shed the shuttle begins entering the cloth?

Who knows. All I know is I finally got a towel without flaws. And I'm liking this design enough that I'm willing to risk another one to see if I can get two 'perfect' towels. And if I can, I'll go for 3 and then....4...

Still don't know why the breaks, though!

Making Changes

Decided I wasn't loving the twill blocks as much as I thought I would, so changed the tie up to a more 'traditional' look. In the process I reversed the twill line so it now begins with the snowflake motif on the outside and the snowballs in the centre. oops. Oh well.

The tie up is a 1/3/2/2/3/1 twill for the motif and 1/3 twill for the background. Of course the other side has a blue background, not the linen.

Sharon S mentioned in a comment that she had a problem warp on the loom. Threads were breaking and she suspected the yarn was too tender, making weaving not fun.

There are a number of remedies that you can try in this instance. A warp dressing or sizing will add strength to a tender yarn. I've even used a really cheap hairspray that I had on hand and that helped, too.

There are recipies for warp dressings or sizings in Magic in the Water - flax for cellulose fibres, gelatin for protein. I suspect one could use either for both fibres.

Another option is a warp dressing sold by Leclerc called Clerco. But generally gelatin or flax seed can be readily purchased at the grocery store and fairly quickly made up. Some people also make warp dressings from rice or potato starch. I've not tried either of those.

Once the warp is on the loom you can paint it on, although the sizing might drip onto the loom. If you are really liking your warp and it needs something to strengthen it, you might go ahead and use it and wash the loom off later.

I found the hairspray worked fairly well and since it was in a pump spray bottle I could direct it where it needed to go fairly easily. It also dried more quickly than a water based solution so I could get back to weaving faster. :)

Blue Mood

Got the blue warp weaving this evening. One sleying error, spotted after completing towel #1. It was one of those threads that simply did not weave into the cloth and rode along behind, invisible until I looked at the back of the cloth.

Oh well - it will go to a good home as I have several friends who will adopt my 'orphans'.

On the last 2/20 merc. cotton warp I used 40 epi and could not beat the weft in to square so this time the set got changed to 36. I'm having to coax it a bit, but the twill lines are about 45 degrees and the pattern isn't at all elongated so I think it will be okay. Depends how much the cotton contracts compared to the linen during wet finishing.

The design seems particularly appropriate - a scattering of snowflakes and snowballs - even though we are having unseasonably warm weather. The snow is melting away as though it's March not January and Sunday I slipped and fell on the ice.

Since I'm blessed with 'big' bones I just have a few scrapes and bruises - nothing broken. Don't know what I'd do if I broke an arm! Guess I'd have to put a wide warp on and use the fly shuttle.

Currently reading Mean Streets - a collection of four novellas including Jim Butcher (one of my favs). The other three are new to me.

Oops!

Got started weaving this morning with a couple of oopsies. Approximately 900 ends in a fairly complex threading pattern and I had one sleying error and one threading error. The threading should have been 7,8,7 and it was actually 8,9,8. So I cut the errant threads out, tied repair heddles where needed (two on shaft 7 - I could use one of the 8's that were emptied) re-threaded and pinned to the fabric.

And started over. :)



I'm weaving the fabric 'upside down' or 'back-side up' in order to lift the fewest shafts. I got into the habit of doing this when I was treadling manually (pedally?) and after getting the air assist for the treadle just kept on using this approach. I figured what was better for my knee would be better for the piston. :) Maybe it doesn't care, but........

You can just see the start of the pattern on the front as it rolls down toward the cloth beam. The difference in colour is the shadow from the top of the cloth. Hopefully the close up (click on the image) will show it nicely.

For weft I'm using two of the 24 nm strands doubled. Now why, you may ask, would I use two ends doubled instead of some of the perfectly good singles 12 nm? Well, the fact is that I have about twice as much of the 24 nm as I do the 12, and since one strand of 12 plus one strand of 24 seems to be the perfect weft on the 2/16 cotton warp, I decided to use up the 24's on the 2/20 merc. cotton warp.

It's got to be used up one way or another, right?

Currently reading Sisters of Heaven by Patti Gully - the role of three Chinese aviatrix's during WWII

Collapse Scarves

First two collapse scarves


Well, I'm not satisfied with the white one, but the black one turned out exactly as I hoped.

The white one was woven with a 12/2 mercerized cotton and has a much stiffer hand than the black one which was woven with Bambu 12.

So, I'll try a 20/2 mercerized cotton for the other white warp, and continue with the bamboo for the black. If the 20/2 mercerized cotton doesn't give the drape I want, I'll switch to bamboo. It's a last resort kind of thing though because the only white bamboo I have in stock is bleached and the warp is natural. Hmm - otoh, that might look okay anyway. Guess I'll try a bit of each before deciding for sure.

The good news is that the collapse isn't 50% so I don't need to weave quite so long a length.

Today, however, I need to be packing up inventory for the craft fair tomorrow. Set up begins at 7 am so it will be a mad scramble to get in and set up before the fair opens at 10 am. At least the weather is supposed to be fair, so we won't be dealing with wet. The bad news is that sleet is predicted for tear down. Oh the joys of being a hand weaver who relies on selling her stuff for income..... :}

The craft fair the following weekend we have the whole afternoon to set up so that will be a much more relaxed set up.

Currently reading Unseen Academical by Terry Pratchett

Let Me Call You Sweetheart

Some of you may remember last January that just as I was weaving up most of my fine yarns I wound up buying a bunch more 20/2 cotton. Well, what could I do? It was on sale after all!




Well, I finally got some of that red 20/2 cotton beamed yesterday. I've got a couple of wefts to use on it. This one is a cotton flake - a lighter version of the two reds in the warp - verging on a deep rose colour. Anyway, the first word that popped into my head when I saw the pattern developing was 'sweet'. :) The other weft is a cottolin in a darker red, closer to the shades in the warp.

And thanks to Tien, who spotted the 'stripe' on the back side of the cloth which I see you can spot in the photo. It was a thread out of it's order in the reed which meant it was floating on the back, but invisible on the front. That is now fixed and I can forge ahead with my Sweetheart Towels.

At the other end of the studio, Tien has been doing some experimenting. She wanted to try some 'interesting' cloth created through wet finishing.



Recently I'd received some yarn that has lycra as part of its construction, but had not had any opportunity to get some samples done. Last night we discussed the yarn and worked up a warp to try some shrinkage differential effects - if they work. :) One never knows until the web hits the water.

I started by weaving a bit using an effect yarn with nops in it - an acrylic or some sort of synthetic, then a little bit of a very fine highly twisted singles wool.

Tien had some ideas she wanted to try, so I showed her where the yarn was in the store room, and she's weaving up some samples now. She has one more full day here, so we're hoping she can do another warp to make an actual scarf based on the sampling in this warp.

We'll also set the lace pillow up for one more bookmark so she can learn another stitch.

Lots of sweat equity in the past few days. :D