Feelin' the Burn

the fruit of my labours....

With this batch (and the previous batch) of colours, I was mainly trying to get some weft for the painted warps I have yet to weave up for shawls. What little of the silk gimp I had on hand already was varigated and not in a way that I was confident would look good on the painted warps.

The first batch of brown was too golden, but I got enough of the darker brown in the second batch for the 3 or 4 warps that brown will look good with.

The darker green in the middle was a happy accident - I was just dumping whatever dye was left into the pot and this lovely blue/green was the result. It will go with a couple of the warps as well. And I got some great dark purple for the painted warps, too.

The varigated pink/purple is some test skeins I'm considering dyeing for re-sale.

One of the disadvantages of being away for 3.5 weeks is that I wasn't getting my usual exercise during that time. Since it only takes a few days for muscles to deteriorate, my muscles are protesting my leap back into the fray.

Weaving on the AVL is much more tiring than usual because I'm out of practise. So, rather than weave again after dyeing all afternoon, I wound up doing some other stuff.

Like fringe twisting. Managed to get two scarves done while watching some tv tonight - only 28 to go.

But I also picked up books from the library this afternoon and I think I'm going to go do some reading now.

Admitting Defeat

I want this fabric to be sturdy, so chose a set of 40 epi. If you click on the photo you should be able to see the first tie up I used (the lower end, rounding the beam) which had a lot of plain weave in it with just a little twill for flexibility.

Unfortunately this weave structure at this set with these yarns did not want to beat in square, even with the use of a temple.

After nearly half a yard of fighting with the loom and the yarns, I decided to change the tie up to have more floats and tried again. It still wasn't beating in square so I decided to admit defeat and do what the loom and yarns wanted to do in this instance. Since I'm weaving under quite high tension, I figure that once the fabric is wet finished it will likely end up pretty close to square anyway. So why fight it?

When I decided to do what the loom/yarn wanted to do I had to figure out what the actual ppi was. So I took a contrasting yarn and laid it into the shed, wove 40 picks and wove in the other end of the contrasting colour. Then I measured how long those 40 picks were actually taking up and figured 36 would be a much better ppi - one that would allow the weft to beat in the way it wanted to beat in and yet still wouldn't be too far off 'ideal'.

Decided that the more elaborate twill was much more visually interesting and decided not to change that but leave it as it is.

I can weave about 24 picks before needing to move the temple so I count to 24, put down the shuttle and move the temple. Yes, it's slow - much slower than I prefer to weave - but that is what it is going to take to get this fabric woven.

Once I'm done with this I can switch to a different weft, weave structure and purpose - shawls don't need to be anywhere near as sturdy as this cloth - and continue without the temple.

With 40 yards on the beam, using up this much yarn to sample isn't a hardship. I know that most people don't have the luxury of 'wasting' that much yarn sampling for a project. But this fabric won't be 'wasted'. I'll give it to my local guild for samples for the newsletter.

The guild has discussed from time to time sending out electronic newsletters but several of our guild members don't even own computers, let alone get on to the internet, so for now we're still sending out paper newsletters and samples when ever someone has one to share.

Satisfying

After a jet-lag induced slow start to the week, I've had a satisfying couple of days.

Yesterday I threaded, sleyed and tied on the 2/20 mercerized cotton warp I beamed on the AVL on Friday and will start weaving today. The first 6 yards will be woven with a temple because of the density of cloth I want to build. The rest should go fairly quickly as shawls (with Tencel as weft) and tea towels (with cotton or linen as weft). I put 40 yards on so I will likely do a couple of shawls before starting the towels.

This morning Doug started work at 8 am so I was up fairly early (for me). I got to the annex by 10:30 and started pressing - 3 shawls, 14 scarves.

I confess I find the pressing the most tedious of the various tasks involved in creating textiles. But since it is absolutely necessary I try to space out my trips to Puff - no more than once a week. :) When I get there - usually on a Sunday so as to avoid the neighbours and lack of parking - I crank the stereo up loud and listen to music while I press. It takes about 20-25 minutes for the boiler to heat up so while that's happening I either read or try to straighten out the stuff stored there. This morning I was re-arranging the spinning fibres because I have a customer on Tuesday, plus I need to see if I have to order more fibres in.

Now I'm home for lunch and as soon as that's done I'll fire up the AVL and finish tweaking the auto-cloth advance in order to start weaving. The first bit will be slow so it will feel good to get that out of the way first. And I can return the small temple I borrowed in order to weave the cloth.

Tuesday evening I'll take the bucket of pressed items to the guild room and trim them there. It's also a job I find a bit tedious, so doing it with company will make it seem to go more quickly.

And later today I have to clear off the d/r table, balance my ledger and then set up my fringe twisting area again. I've a bucket of scarves woven in December that have to be twisted, then wet finished. I am determined to get on top of the wet finishing and utilize Puff as much as possible before I bite the bullet and get rid of him once and for all.

Can you tell I'm dragging my feet on that????

A Little OCD (and a lot of regret....)

Blue Angel - being finished and yet to have it's final pressing....

In the 1990's I started doing cross stitch designs. Not just any old design, only ones by a particular designer - Marilyn Levitt Inblum if I remember correctly. Being a little OCD I did many of her designs over a 10 year period until I realized that my eyesight just wasn't allowing me to work with the fine threads that she used for her angels. I never did finish the last one I was working on - the 6 shades of flesh on the natural linen worked petit point fashion? - well, let's just say I couldn't see well enough to complete it.

This one, however, I had finished stitching - I'd just never gotten around to getting it framed. It was intended for my brother and sad to say, he never got it. From time to time I'd unearth it and feel a pang of regret for never getting it to him. Would having a guardian angel have helped him? Who knows. It would have helped me to have given it to him.

Since it was all done except for the presentation I didn't have the heart to dispose of it so it has kicked around for 3 years with me unable to finish it or get rid of it.

Finally I decided I needed to give it to someone else. Since I can't afford to have it professionally framed, I bought some dark blue fabric to back it and bind the edges - at the same time making hanging tabs. I'm in the midst of doing the hand stitching to finish it off with the intention of pressing it, packaging it up and bringing it with me on my next trip to give to a friend for her son. With it will go my best wishes for his happiness and I suspect that he will appreciate it for what it is. But it will mean so much more to me to have it grace someone else's walls and life.

I rather suspect Don would approve.

Updating Schedule

While I was away the brochure for NEWS arrived. I'm looking for another group in the New England area (or at least further east than the mid-West) to share travel costs with NEWS. The dates for the NEWS conference are July 14-17. Any groups interested in having a workshop with me either side of those dates?

Their website is not active yet but when it is you can find it at http://3.ly/uF3u

I'll be presenting at the Assoc. of Quebec Weavers the first weekend in June, followed by vending at HWSDA in Calgary AB. There is also a fibre festival in Grand Forks, BC in August which I'm just waiting to hear back from re: seminars. One of the topics they've requested is The Business of Weaving. I'm sure people will want to discuss pricing as that seems to be the most difficult thing of all for people who want to sell their textiles to come to terms with.

Today I dealt with some sample skeins for dyeing from Ashland Bay. They have a lovely light weight mohair boucle. I've designed a knitted scarf using the boucle and their lace weight merino/silk blend that I think ought to look really nice - I'll start knitting that tonight in undyed yarns just so I can see if it's going to work out like I think (hope?) it will.

Once I have some of the yarn dyed I'll work on a woven scarf, too. I have to start thinking ahead to the fall sales and what I'm going to do re: vending yarns. It's so very tempting to just sell off what I've got and down size that aspect of the studio. OTOH, sales of textiles are practically nil from January to August so selling yarns at least keeps some cash flowing during those 'down' times.

The good news is that my other upright wheel has sold - after the Jacey Boggs workshop. I need that wheel for the workshop. Bad enough I'm such a novice spinner - I at least have to show up with a wheel! Although I'm sure my friend would be happy to loan me a wheel, I may as well use one I'm used to using. :}

This morning the silk shawl warp got threaded, sleyed and tied on. Now to go weave a shawl. There are 19 more warps and I need more colours for weft so having a dye day on Monday is imperative!

Guess I'd better go down there and do something about getting that shawl woven.

CD Weaver

In spite of continuing jet lag issues - which should, hopefully, be over tomorrow or the next day, not to mention more appointments and Blackberry issues, now fixed, thankfully - I did finally manage to get some work done today.

One of the things that has been preying on my mind is whether or not to continue to produce CD Weaver. Bear in mind the year these were developed - 2004. Since then computers have changed vastly - Vista, and Windows 7, not to mention the Mac changes. It's been a scramble to stay on top of the changes.

I only have four CD Weavers left so today I decided that I would not continue to produce them and removed them from my Art Fire store and had my web master remove the page from my website. But I'm left with four CD Weavers. What to do with them?

The answer - give them away.

So, the next four orders of Magic in the Water will come with a complementary CD Weaver as a bonus gift.

This afternoon I got back to the skein winding and after dinner threaded the small loom as well. I can start weaving tomorrow. I'll likely do a batch of wet finishing over the weekend, and dye on Monday.

The good news is that both the small loom and one of the spinning wheels are sold and will be delivered on my trip south in two weeks, plus another person is interested in the other upright wheel. I'll keep that until after the Jacey Boggs workshop and then sell it if the person decides to take it.

Most of my spinning lately has been done on the turkish drop spindle, and Doug says he'll fix the more traditional wheel that isn't working due to a wonky tensioning system so I won't be entirely wheel-less.

Puff

With much regret it is time to find a new home for Puff. I have loved the ease with which I can apply a hard press to my textiles using the industrial steam press but the rent on the annex has climbed to a point where I can no longer afford to keep the space. And, since there is no room in my studio to accomodate such equipment, Puff has to find a new home.



Puff is driven by a small (referred to as a 'baby') boiler which is used in many homes that have hot water heat. The vacumm that drives the steam through the system is in the background. The system requires a heavy duty (like a stove) electrical connection.



Puff is made of cast iron and has a large bed - around 30 inches long and 14" wide. (I neglected to get measurements last night when Doug took these photos.) The boiler is supplied with filtered water and a gravity feed. If used for home heating, the boiler gets hooked up to the house water supply.




The lid clamps down and steam can be driven through the texile or not as required.

Puff weighs about 450 pounds and we hired a self-loading truck to deliver to the annex. If anyone is interested in Puff and/or the boiler contact me.