Set Up

is done - unfortunately my back went into spasm 5 minutes after we got there. Getting old is not for sissies!

The good news is that the weather is co-operating. It wasn't raining during set up and it's not too hot. Or at least, not yet. I haven't checked the forecast for the weekend. But better warm than wet and raining. :D

Road Trip

We took the trip south in two stages - the highway has 6 major construction zones which could potentially add an hour or more to the trip. In reality it went fairly smoothly, but rained on and off for much of the drive.

But we're here. Now to gather up all my stuff, take it to the Fair and get set up. Doug will help with carrying the boxes in, and then pricing everything. :) That will make things go much faster and I might even have time left over to read my book, or fringe twist, or.....nap?

Square One (and Two)

Here is the end of square one and the beginning of square two.

Yes, that's a temple in the upper right corner. This yarn is stretchy, more akin to a knitting yarn than a weaving yarn, and as such the draw in begins to affect the selvedges creating issues. Less of a problem when I'm using a hand shuttle and can adjust the tension of each pick, but I'm using the fly shuttle so the tension is constant. Any less tension on the shuttle and I'd probably have loops at the edge. :(

So even though I really don't like to use the temple, in this case slower by the inch means a better quality product.

If Doug could just figure out how to attach the roller temples to the AVL I'd use them all the time. But so far any plans for installation have meant major surgery on the loom and a level of down time I'm not willing to deal with. I wish we'd found ring temples instead of roller temples. Ring temples are much smaller and wouldn't take up so much room.

In the meantime, I'm left with two options. Not use them and weave more quickly - and have too much draw in with this yarn - or use them and weave more slowly and not have to deal with broken selvedge threads. A third option would be to use the hand shuttle, but at 37" in the reed, that level of stretching and reaching would mean neck issues that I really don't want to deal with!

Choices - and consequenses. That's what Life - and Weaving - is all about.

Goin' With the Flow

Sometimes things morph.

The Plan for this warp was to weave some squares for shawls, fairly small ones at around 30" square. Something lower price points.

But then I remembered that Doug's niece - a fiery red-head - loves pink and orange as a colour combination. And since we'll be visiting her on the return trip from Seattle, I needed a hostess gift. :D

I started out to make a big cozy shawl, but then I had 'extra' weft yarn leftover and just continued on weaving. Shannon can decide for herself if she will use the fabric for a shawl, vest, or? She's very creative and talented so I'm sure she will think of something.

So now that I've veered off on a tangent, I'll go back to Plan A tomorrow. But now I've got a deadline - get this warp off on Monday, wet finish the fabric for Shannon on Tuesday so we can pack it with us on Wednesday.

Re: my website - today I purchased the next size website package so that the videos won't use up my bandwidth in a day or two. :)

Now that I've gotten friendly with the video camera, I see more videos coming. I actually shot one this afternoon, but hadn't noticed that the battery was nearly dead, so it didn't turn out. However, I'll try again on the next warp and get it to Allan to include on my website. Putting them on my blog is okay, but I think I actually get more traffic to my website, so..........might as well keep all the 'educational' stuff in one place?

Currently reading Regenesis by C. J. Cherryh (I had a read-fest this morning and finished the Nevada Barr when I *ought* to have been sleying and starting to weave!)

Next Shawl Warp

Next shawl warp


I had originally purchased this yarn - a blend of merino wool, bamboo and silk - to re-sell, but there were some problems with the shipment and I don't feel comfortable offering it to others. :(

So now I have to figure out how to use it up myself. Once again I'm working on stash reduction.

I finished the first shawl warp last night, and even though it hasn't been wet finished it's looking good on the beam. Good enough that I decided to go ahead do another shawl warp. Again this will be a fairly simple twill, the weft will likely be either one of the pinks or corals. I may be bold and go with a light purple for one of them, just to see how it looks. ;)

This time I wound the warp a bit shorter (15 yards instead of 20) so that I could have a wider width, this time for squares instead of rectangles. One benefit of this wider warp is that I can use the fly shuttle instead of a hand shuttle. The down side is that the yarn is a bit too thick to use in the industrial shuttles, so I have to use the AVL shuttles instead. But since the warp isn't the full 60" width, the lighter weight AVL shuttles should not be too bad.

On a personal level, I convinced my doctor to let me stop taking the diuretics last week, and my bp has responded by leaping upwards. He wants me to start taking them again, but now it's too close to my departure for Seattle, so I begged off until I get back. (I can't change any medications for 7 days before leaving the country or my travel medical insurance is voided.)

In my heart, I'm hoping that by the time I get back on the 15th my body will have gotten used to not taking them and that it will settle down again. My bp had actually been excellent - even a bit on the low side - which is why the doctor allowed me to stop taking the diuretic. :}

I've just not been feeling great for the last couple of months, and was hoping to reduce the amount of chemical intervention in my system. The good news is that since stopping the diuretic I've been able to sleep through the night, which I'm hoping will help alleviate some of the fatigue that's been plaguing me.

Barbara commented on my reading. Well, I do a whole lot of things rather than clean house. :) Reading is one of them.

FTB vs BTF Debate

Coral weft

The annual (bi-annual?) debate on front to back or back to front beaming is raging on at least one of the chat groups I belong to.

It generally begins by a frustrated newbie posting a) they've dropped their cross, can they salvage it; b) their warp is a snarled knotted mess with broken ends, what can they do; c) they hate dressing the loom because it takes forever; d) they are having terrible tension problems and sometimes wind up hanging several pounds of bling off the back beam trying to 'fix' it.

In regards to the dropped cross, I never have understood why so many ftb'ers hold the cross in their hand. Even when I dressed the loom ftb I always used the lease sticks. No danger of losing the cross when it is held in the lease sticks.

And the truth is that I did dress the loom ftb for quite a few years. I even taught that method, thinking that it was easier for a beginner to understand what was going on.

What I didn't realize was that some people become so emotionally invested in the first method they use that they don't ever want to learn another method with all the ham-fisted, fumble-fingered clumsiness that comes with being a 'beginner' again.

It gradually came to me that ftb works for some of the people, some of the time. Btf works for most of the people, most of the time. I now teach that.

The process, whichever way it is done, requires a lengthy series of steps that have to be done in a particular order. For me, though, ftb became limiting, and I began to encounter more and more difficulties with finer threads, longer and wider warps.

My main focus has always been to work as efficiently as possible. With finer threads, longer and wider warps, btf became the method of choice. And now I use that exclusively, no matter how fat the threads, how short or narrow the warp. For me btf is hand's down faster and easier. A narrow warp gets pulled on with one hand holding the warp, the other cranking the beam. Wider warps get weighted with water jugs.

Some people find the thought of attaching the jugs (or bricks, or whatever) down right silly. But for me they make beaming a warp very fast and easy - well worth the time it takes to attach the weights. A thread under tension is a thread under control, after all!

Bottom line is - if a weaver is happy with the results they are getting dressing the loom ftb, there is no reason for them to change. But if they aren't, then they need to know that there is more than ftb - that btf has been around for centuries, used for fine silk to fat wool and everything in between. Knowing both methods allows the weaver to choose which they will use, when.

Currently reading The Mystery of Imperial Purple Dye by John Edmonds and Borderline by Nevada Barr

Dye Day

Yesterday I went up to the guild room and dyed some more of the silk skeins. I didn't get all 48 skeins done as I ran out of steam plus I had to finish getting ready for the first study group meeting that evening. I'll try to get them posted to Art Fire when they are dry.

Four people showed up and we discussed point twill. Since I put a 5 yard warp on, that means they each have about a yard to play with for samples.

We looked at various ways to weave a point progression, including a single end huck and waffle weave.

The next meeting will be Oct. 7 and we'll look at huck lace.

My website is 'down' because bandwidth has been exceeded. My webmaster is away for a week, and then I leave for a week, so it may be down for a couple of weeks until I find out what needs to happen to get it back up and running again. I may have to pay for more space - it may be a simple matter of re-booting the site. I really have no clue. So - stay tuned!

Currently reading The Moneylender of Toulouse by Alan Gordon