Designing Textiles

 

Samples from Magic in the Water, before and after wet finishing

Yesterday I saw someone asking in a group how one goes about designing the 'perfect' textile (I paraphrase.)

I wasn't in a particularly good mood and since sarcasm coated my tongue, I elected to say nothing.  The question, after all, had been asked in good faith and deserved a better answer than I was able to marshall at that time.

I just so happen to be in the process of trying to design a 'good' (I don't set my hopes on 'perfect') textile.

Yesterday I cut the 4 'full sized samples' off the loom, cut them apart and serged them, and tossed them into the washing machine along with the towels from the previous warp and let the machine do the work for me.  Into the dryer until just damp and then they were folded into a bin to let the moisture work through all of the pieces of cloth in the bin equally to make the pressing go more smoothly.

Shortly (as soon as I'm done my morning coffee and gotten dressed) I will go press them.  Once they are completely dry I will pull the samples, measure them, and inspect them, to see how close to my goal they are.

I am being more picky than usual because these 'samples' are for publication (IF the editors decide they fit into their theme.)

Normally when I design a textile, I do it to the best of my ability, and since no one but me knows what, exactly, I was aiming for, they will judge it on it's own merits.  And normally no one will know if I am pleased, or merely satisfied.  If I am *not* satisfied, they may be given away or tossed into the rag bag.

The longer I weave, the more open I leave myself to make changes along the way.  The more I understand about the function of a textile of a particular quality, the more I learn how to tweak the different 'qualities' to change the nature of the cloth I am making, the more I understand how little I truly understand about making textiles generally, and in particular.

A weaver can take exactly the same yarns, and by the choices they make along the design process, they can create cloth of a variety of functions.  Add in the colour and the possibilities are nearly limitless.

Since the beginning of 2020 I have been on a stash reduction goal.  Since, as a production weaver, I had depth of inventory in several 'standard' yarns, I have been making textiles that fit what I know about the yarn's capabilities.

And yet, I have barely scratched the surface of what is possible.  What I know for certain is, that I will never know all of the possibilities that are available to me.

Bottom line?  The endless learning is what keeps me returning to the loom.  Because I want to know.  If that means I 'waste' time and money (yarn) weaving 'samples', I'm actually good with that.  It is not a path for everyone to walk.  But I have been given a fresh lease on life, and if all I do for the 'rest of my life' is explore, experiment, and learn more?  I'm actually good with that.

Learning something new, or even just more, about textiles is not a waste of my time.  If anyone wants to follow along with me, I will let all y'all know when one of my articles becomes available.  And if the magazines aren't interested, there is always my ko-fi shop where I can post them for sale when they are ready.  (Given the lapse of time between submission and final acceptance, this will take a while...)

It all hinges on my being physically able to weave.  And given my current age (and physical tatters) I have no idea how long that will be.  So I will enjoy the rest of the journey, for so long as it lasts.  

It Isn't Finished Until...

after compression (plasticine)

Yesterday I wove the first samples and today I will weave the next two.  The first two look good on the loom, which may mean the second two will not.  But either way I'll weave them and judge them both after wet finishing.

Saw somewhere on line a knitter asking if you really *have* to block your knitting and one response saying no, not really.  

Unfortunately wet finishing (blocking) a knitted structure will provide some changes as it reaches its finished state.  With knitting it is less noticeable in some items.  And some knitted items really need to be blocked as part of it's finishing - primarily lace knits, but also other items.  For instance a knit that is primarily stockinette stitch will tend to curl on the edges.  Wet finishing it should fix that.  Other knit stitches may cause textures that are not desirable, as well.

Anyway, I'm weaving full sized 'samples' to check to make sure the cloth will turn out the way I want.  If they are successful, I don't need to weave more as these 'samples' will be elevated to 'finished' and I can move on.

I'm trying to get through my inbox because several things had stacked up due to my not having the spoons to deal with them.  As usual, they were less of a bugabear than I had expected, which will be teach me nothing - once more.

On the other hand, I was able to weave the two 'full-sized' samples yesterday - the longest I've woven since the brain bleed.  Partly I just really wanted to get them both done, and partly I knew it was going to be slow weaving (technical reasons) and partly it just felt so good.  So today I want to weave the second pair of full-sized samples, cut off, and wet finish and then see if they are going to be acceptable.

One thing about the face plant and all that followed is that I seem to be out of 'production' mode.  Weaving to illustrate articles puts much less deadline strain on me (if I do things in a timely fashion!) and it is letting me do the kinds of things I had not been able to do because the production always had to come 'first'.

I have no idea if the guild sold much of my stuff at the first craft fair, or the second one, or if they will sell anything at the guild room sale.  By slowing down my productivity I will have less stuff that needs to be sold.  Given my lack of energy I don't much feel like steaming my way through a 20+ yard warp anymore.  Perhaps that's not a bad thing...

Information on wet finishing available here as well as Long Thread Media and School of Sweet Georgia

PS - with Canada Post on strike, any orders placed via my ko-fi shop will be held and shipped when they settle their contract.

 

Prep Work

 

This is a photo of an old project but this is about the state the new warp is at right now.

I have two task lights at the front of the loom set up to shine into the work space (where the heddles are actually being threaded) and one at the back of the loom so I can see the bouts of yarn taped to the stick I used to pull them from the beam to behind the heddles.  This gives me good light at both the front and the back of the loom.  I remove the breast beam, reed and beater top.

Good lighting is essential, especially when working with finer threads.  They are hard enough to see even when the light is good, never mind if it is a dark dreary winter day.

Yesterday I managed to thread 3/4s of the current warp.  I print out the draft and put it onto a typists stand so that I can see it with just a glance over my shoulder.  As I finish each group of ends, I mark the draft (which is printed out completely so that I just follow it, from start to end), look at the next group, then pull those ends and thread them.  Mark off, check for next group, pull, thread, repeat.

Most of my threadings are over 16 shafts, and it gets difficult to keep them 'straight', so I have numbered the shafts on the top of the piece of wood at the bottom of the shafts.  The draft prints out using the actual number of the shaft, so it's fairly easy to note the numbers of the shafts in the next group, pull the appropriate number of heddles and stack them in the order that they will be used, then enter the ends into the heddles.  A quick 'check' to make sure I've got them into the heddle, slip tie the group together, mark off, etc.

I prefer to slip tie each initial group as it makes sorting out the ends into the reed easier.  And the way I tie the slip knot takes one simple motion.  (Apologies for the ad.  You Tube puts ads on some video clips, not me - I don't make any money from my You Tube 'channel'.)

The current draft has sections of 'satin' and it was very easy to break the sequence down into 3 threads, then thread those heddles, and then tie that group of 3 off and do the next group of three.  I don't do the same number of ends for each group - I may take 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 - or as in the satin areas, 3 ends at a time.  Grouping them by tying a slip knot in the group makes sleying the reed much easier.

This warp is essentially a 'test' warp for the article I'm hoping to write.  It may require a re-sleying, which I really don't like to do because all of my little groups will be undone and the threads all individual and loose.  I find I get a lot more sleying errors when I do a re-sleying, so it is something I try not to do if I don't absolutely need to do.

So I'm hoping that this warp will give me the information I need to determine the set up for the article project.

If you are interested in more information about how I approach my designing, The Intentional Weaver has a lot of information, but Stories From The Matrix takes a deeper dive into some things.  Both are available at blurb in either print or pdf versions.  And if you are in the US, the books are printed in the US so the current postal strike isn't an issue for you.  :)  

If you want to buy something from my ko-fi shop, I will pull your order and mail as soon as the mail is moving again.

Winter Arrives!

 

We woke to snow.  Falling...sidewise?  Yes, sidewise.  It wasn't really a surprise, we've been expecting snow to come any day now, since the end of October.  It hasn't been as warm as autumn last year, and it has been less dry, which is a blessing.  I don't know if there has been enough rain to call an end to drought, but at least it has been something.

Yesterday I finished beaming the warp and got everything set up to start threading.  I'm not sure if I can finish that today, but it should be done tomorrow.

I still have to mess about some with the treadling.  The threading looks good, but I still have to decide on how much cloth to weave for the hems.  A bit of 'mathing' that I will have to check and re-check (several times as I don't 'math' well at the best of times - and my brain isn't at it's 'best' these days.)

It has been working well to switch the colour combinations for each warp.  It helps hold my attention and to not get 'tired' of working on these linen towels.  I think I've got about enough linen for 5 more warps (including the one I just beamed).  Once I finish that yarn, I will have to seriously look at what I have left in my stash.  I may need to make scarves (although I have plenty of scarves on hand.)  Hopefully some sold at the craft fair the first weekend of the month plus the other fair the guild has chosen to do.  

On the other hand if I can get into the writing more, exploring things in more depth than I've had previously had the time/energy to do, that might be fun, too.  

Anyway, winter has arrived, apparently.  Time to dig out the snow boots and winter jacket.  

And to make sure that we have sufficient masks.  There are reports of an increasing number of covid cases, and yesterday, apparently, there was a report of the young person in this province having Bird Flu, and the strain of the bug they have has adapted to infect humans.  

Might be a really good idea for people stuck indoors with large numbers of people start wearing a mask again, to protect themselves.  Just saying.

Fiddling

 

spool rack set up - this is one half of the rack

I had no intention to do two posts today, yet, here I am...

When I did the class on sectional beaming for Sweet Georgia I recommended that people put the yarn on the spool rack using the bottom row of pegs first and then work upwards.  I still advise this - although the circumstances have changed for me  and I am now leaving the bottom row empty.

This year has done...things...to this body which has meant I needed to change what I was doing to take the stress off my joints/muscles.  

I *used* to be able to squat down and pop right up again, no problem-o.  Last autumn that began to change for me.  I can still squat down.  It's the getting up that is the challenge.

This year I finally realized this situation was not going to change any time soon and I began to set up the spool rack leaving the bottom row of 'spikes' empty so that I could work with the yarns at a more comfortable position.  Since right now I'm doing 32 or 36 (mostly) epi, this puts the yarns in a place that I can just bend slightly to work with the bottom row, and the yarns are still mostly lower on the rack.

Why?  Because if the spools/tubes are kept lower, if there is any kind of issue with the yarns (e.g. one breaks, or a couple entangle) the jerk of the yarns doing a doh-see-doh will not tend to tip the rack over.

This is the Leclerc studio bobbin rack and it will hold 50 tubes or spools.  Doug added another rail and when pulling off the side of the yarn package, there is room for 60 packages.  This rack has served *almost* all of my warps and if I wanted/needed to beam more than 60 ends, I got creative to make that happen.

Bottom line?  If something - a piece of equipment or a process - isn't working for you?  Change.  It will take time for the new approach to become routine, but eventually it will just be part of what you do, when you do that thing.

Last note - I don't thread the colours in an order.  Since I'm beaming sectionally and I don't use a cross but just pull the number of ends off the masking tape that holds the section in some kind of 'order', I just pull however many ends I need and disregard the colour.  When the two colours are very close in value and pretty close in hue, this works well.  I would not necessarily do this for high contrast hue/value - although I might if I felt that would fit the design I'm going to be weaving.

(Sample, sample, sample!)

As mentioned in the post earlier today, I will be 'testing' the draft for the magazine article, seeing if the yarns behave the way I need them to.  If it doesn't, (and I suspect it might not - for one of the yarns, at least) I will go ahead with the project for the magazine.  

One of the advantages of being 'retired' and weaving for my own satisfaction, is that I can take my time when working on an article and do lots of samples so that I know what I'm going to accomplish.  And there are *no* other deadlines or demands on me!  

I could get to enjoy this approach to weaving...

Bored? Or Tired?

 

Swedish Snowflake, threaded as two blocks on a 16 shaft loom

I got 17 towels (16 'good', one with a threading error) off the warp I just cut off the loom yesterday.  There was still some warp left on the beam, but I would have been playing 'yarn chicken' if I'd tried to weave one more towel on this warp.  So I didn't.

I don't like playing yarn chicken.  I hate that I've wasted my time making something that can't be 'finished' because I ran out of yarn for the warp.  When I weigh the cost of my time (nominally $15/hr because that is the minimum pay in my province) against the cost of the yarn, it seems prudent to preserve my time and 'waste' a bit of yarn.

Especially now when my energy levels are so low.  I have to make every minute I spend at the loom 'count'.

I haven't stripped the leftover warp from the loom yet so I'm not sure how much is actually going into the recycle bin.

Some people get quite 'cross' with this attitude.  For them the issue is financial - they have to dig deep for every yarn purchase, plus they aren't selling (or trying to) what they make.  So, they'd rather spend the currency of their time than 'waste' purchased yarn.

Definitely one of those 'you do you' moments.  Because every person has to weigh where they spend their time, and their money.  And each person has to make the decisions fit their own life - their own financial status, and their own interest level.

I put enough warp onto the loom to nominally make around 20 towels.  On this towel I wove a sample before I started weaving and that sample might have eaten into the warp just enough that I might not have gotten another towel off of it.  As it happens, these towels are a bit larger than my 'standard' and I've been getting 18 towels rather than 20.  

But I'm tired these days, too.  All my health care providers have cautioned me that the brain needs every bit of energy it can steal from the rest of the body in order to heal and to be prepared to have afternoon naps.  Plus I'm still dealing with chromic pain from my SI joint/back injuries and peripheral neuropathy which disrupts my sleep.

So I don't have much patience, or energy to spare.  And since everything goes so slowly, I get tired of what I'm doing.  Plus I'm planning for the next article in the queue and I want to test drive what I plan to do on this warp in case I need to make adjustments for the 'actual' warp for the magazine project.  (If they accept it - it's never a done deal until they actually accept what you've done - and sometimes that all falls apart at the actual compilation stage of the issue under construction.  I never get upset about having an article turned down and I never assume that once I've mailed it away it is going to appear in the magazine.) 

Right now the thought of writing is carrying me forward.  If nothing else, I can (hopefully) write.  But it doesn't have to be for a magazine.  I can write for publication here, if nowhere else.  Writing does seem to be getting easier, but speaking is still difficult and I won't know until August 28, 2026 just how much I will recover my speech.  

By then I will be 76 years old and I have to ask myself if I really need to keep doing what I had been doing?  Even if I enjoyed it.  And I am well aware of the deficiencies of my speech - which makes the thought of doing Zoom presentations very stressful.  

(I gave up travelling to teach a couple years ago.  There were too many issues given that I'm immune compromised and the continuing existence of covid in the population - no, covid is not 'over' - please consider wearing a mask at large indoor events, or choose venues with air filtering?)

So, long story short, I was tired of seeing that warp on the loom; I wasn't sure I had enough yarn to complete one more towel; I was feeling growing pressure to do an actual sample with density and the yarns I wanted to use for the project.  So when I finished towel 17, out came the scissors and off came the web.

Today I strip the loom of the old warp, set up the bobbin rack and begin beaming the next warp.  Given I'm running on about five hours sleep, I may well have a nap this afternoon, too.  

Hydrate.  Rest.  Keep going.  

Winter's Coming!

 

Inspiration is all around us, we just have to stop and look.

With winter creeping ever closer, and the current warp soon coming to an end, I have been mulling over what to do 'next'.  I have plans, but I need to polish them, fine tune them, try to work out the kinks before I ever pick up the shuttle.

I still have over 5 kilos of the singles linen and the priority is to use them up, but what I plan to do next will mean a combination of linen on part of the cotton warp with the rest being woven off with cotton.  

In order to do this as efficiently as possible, I need to make accommodations because the linen will not draw in as much as the cotton.  I'm also trying to show off my 'mastery' and weave squares, which means the density, weave structure and thickness of the yarn have to be 'balanced'.  No mean feat when the two different yarns will weave in differently, so must be adjusted individually.

Yesterday I was weaving (up to about 30 minutes, twice a day, now) so I had time to think through the options.  If I do this, that will likely be the result.  How do I move forward?  What do I shift to get closer to my goal of 'perfect' beat?  Since I'm using two different yarns to make two different cloths, can I do both on the same warp?  If so, what accommodation do I need to make when I change from the linen to the cotton weft?

So I came up with A Plan, with an option B if it doesn't work.  Now I have to re-check my draft because my fall back plan is to change the density, and that will change the width of the warp in the reed (or wind up with a finished object 'too large').

For now I will keep picking away at the current warp and let the next warp simmer in the back of my brain.  The part that designs textiles seems to be largely intact, which is a relief.  Or, at least, I think it is.  The thought processes getting this next warp ready seems like my 'usual'.  My writing is getting 'better', although I still find holes where a word I intended to use dropped out of my conscious thought process, then out of the documents I'm trying to write.  :(

Still having trouble speaking, however, so I find myself avoiding in being in situations where I have to talk for more than a few minutes.  Hopefully once I start feeling a bit better physically, I'll feel more like visiting with others.  But I'm not driving yet, either, and probably won't be until spring.

I might just 'hibernate' for the winter and see if I feel up to being more social when spring comes back.