Marking Progress

 

missing from the photo is the small pair of embroidery scissors I use to cut the waste yarn

The past few weeks have been...challenging...

However, I have made some progress.  The photo shows my fringe twisting set up.  The shawls are in a bin so that I disturb them as little as possible.  The web is fragile, and I have the fringe set up so that I can easily do that job.

You can see the waste yarn at the beginning of the cloth.  There is similar waste yarn at the 'cut mark' in order to easily separate the shawls from the next.  That waste yarn also acts to corral the fringe so that the warp ends stay secure until I pull them out of the weaving in order to twist them together.

I use a heavy book to anchor the web so that I can pull (slightly) against the web to keep the two bouts co-operative until they are removed from the fringe twister (on the book for ease of use) and knotted together.

So far I have 3 shawls removed from the loom, one of which is ready for the washing machine.  This red one has one end twisted; the other end I will do tonight while I 'watch' tv.  On the loom I have one shawl woven, one half way woven, and one after that, left to weave.

The first three shawls will get wet finished together.  I don't like to cram my wash/wet finishing loads too full or creases can be set.  Recently reading through a very old industrial book on wet finishing, they make that point, too.  Don't cram the web too tightly in the 'basin'.  Let there be enough room for the web to be able to move around easily.  Because once creases are 'set' into the cloth, it is very difficult to remove them.

Happens I have been asked to write an article about creases (not saying which publication - yet - still waiting for a contract/confirmation - but the topic interests me and if that publication doesn't want it, I'm sure I can find another outlet) and after digging around on line decided the only way to tackle the subject was to make some creases, then try the various hints I found online that suggest they work to remove 'permanent' creases.   

Once I have enough woven to run some experiments (and send the results to the publication to illustrate the article), the rest of the warp will be woven off using that 'mystery' yarn I posted about a couple of weeks ago.  

The yarn from Brassard for the white linen should be arriving on the 11th, so I'm eager to get this warp and the next woven so I can start on that yarn.  :) 

Nothing like some deadlines to get me out of bed in the morning.

Fringes

 I'm not a particular fan of fringes, but I know many people are so I had to work out an approach that I would feel comfortable about having on my textiles.

For some things I will hem stitch, then cut the fringe 'short' (about 1") after wet finishing.  

For other things, I will set up a way that makes it easy to do the fringe twisting, which is done before wet finishing.

In this photo, I have just finished one scarf and am about to begin the next.  When I reach the end of my tape (in this case 80"), I weave four picks with waste yarn of a contrasting colour to the woven cloth.

Then I use my handy dandy little wooden ruler which is 6" long, leave a gap of unwoven warp, and weave in about 1/2" of waste yarn.  This waste yarn does two things - I know where to cut to separate the two scarves, and I have something holding the loose warp threads in position so that I can more easily do the fringe twisting.

Then I roll the warp forward again leaving another 6" gap and weave 8 picks of waste yarn to begin the next scarf.

As the unwoven warp winds onto the cloth beam, the outside ends sometimes fall off the cloth roll, so I carefully put them back onto the cloth roll so that they will stay the same length and maintain the same tension as the rest of the warp.

Once the warp is done, I unroll the woven cloth and carefully separate the scarves along the cut line, then fold them up in order to carry them upstairs where I tend to do my fringe twisting - at the dining room table.

This photo shows another scarf that is partially done.  I cut the waste yarn in several places along the width of the weaving, then pull out one section of waste yarn at a time and fringe twist each bout until the free fringe is done.  Then I pull out the next section.  Repeat until done.

The weft tails tend to get included into the last bout (I work from right to left with the weft tail hanging out of the left side of the cloth) and everything is secure.  You should be able to just make out the cut line with waste yarn at the very bottom of the photo.  I don't pull the loose fringe out of that waste yarn until I'm about to do the twisting.

I use a small tool which works well for me.  Some people like to use the battery operated 'braiders', some prefer to just use their hands.  Do what works for you.

The final step after wet finishing (including a good hard press, usually) is to trim the little fluffy bits off the ends of the fringe.  They come out of the washer/dryer looking fluffy and - to me - a bit messy.  So I trim them off.

Personal preference will determine what you you.

Comfort Zone

One of the benefits of working only from my stash is that I have to be bolder in my colour choices.

Rayon chenille has been a wonderful yarn to force myself out of my comfort zone of colours that I prefer to work with.  When I'm doing a scarf series using it, I tend to weave plain weave (for reasons) and make the coloured stripes in the warp the design element.

I will routinely begin with the proportions of the Fibonacci sequence, tweak them, make a stripe that can be interpreted in a variety of different colours in those stripes.

For this one, the value for '1' was 2 ends.  The proportions were then 5:3:1:3, repeat.  This created a fairly static stripe sequence but a lot of people like to have a symmetrical stripe.  (I have done asymmetrical stripes, too.)  One of the ways I added more interest to this cloth was to change which colour went where in the sequence.

Beginning with 5:3:1:3 where 5 was colour A, 3 was colour B and 1 was colour C, this scarf alternated so that the first stripe was as above, then the second was A:C:B:C.  The other selvedge ended with colour A so that both selvedges are the same.  The weft is nearly the same as colour A but not quite - I'd pretty much used up colour A in the warp so something that was very close in hue and value was used.

This combination was not my first but closer to my last - as I was beginning to run low on sufficient quantities of solids to make a two scarf warp.  While the scarves have not yet been wet finished, I'm pleased enough with them that I think they will look even better once they go through the magic in the water.  For now it's the dry finishing that needs to be done.

Details

The colour of these shawls is more green than grey but apparently my ipad didn't 'read' it that way.

When I fringe twist, I don't hemstitch on the loom.  I just weave in 'waste' yarn to keep things in place until I can get the twisting done.

After wet finishing, I then trim the frayed bit off to make the fringe look neater.  The untrimmed fringe is above, the trimmed below.

Doug got a lot of pressing done yesterday so today I'm trying to 'finish' as many things as I can because he needs to start packing the inventory up into shipping boxes for transport to our first show - Artisans of the North at UNBC Oct. 27/28.  The following weekend will be Studio Fair Nov. 2, 3, 4.  Both of those shows are here at home.  We then have a week to prepare for the show in Calgary - Art Market, Nov. 15-18.  The 'final' show of the year will be the guild room sale.  This is where I will deeply discount end-of-line designs, 'seconds', as well as offer some current work at 'regular' price.

In between Calgary and the guild room sale I will head off to visit with my editor to do the final line edits, make sure everything is as 'perfect' as we can make it and then - deep breath - push publish.

Once I'm home from that trip I have promised to weave some more samples for Tien Chiu's on line class 

In the meantime work on the conference continues.  We are still looking at opening registration sometime in January.  

Finished Fringe

And here is how the fringe looks after wet finishing and trimming.
One box of yarn and half a dozen silk gimp shawls boxed up, ready to go to the post office.  Crossing things off my to-be-done list, one at a time.

Whittling Away the Pile

Energy levels are still low so I've been concentrating on low energy activities - spinning, getting inventory ready to ship, fringe twisting.  Napping.  I still have a mountain of twisting to do and a small hill of knotting on the silk gimp shawls to do, too.  But I've got enough of the silk gimp shawls ready for immediate sales so it's back to the twisting.

I weave some waste yarn to use as a cutting line, then roll the warp forward about 6" and weave in a few more picks of waste yarn.  The waste yarn nearest the weaving gets cut away in small amounts - about 3 to 4 inches worth at a time - then gets pulled out.  And then I twist all of the loose fringe before I pull out the next bit of waste yarn.

The book is an atlas and provides enough weight that I can pull against the cloth to keep the threads all nice and neatly in alignment while twisting.  I use a small hand held twister (manual, not battery) that Doug built for me, and count how many twists per bout.  If you can't be perfect, be consistent!  After wet finishing I trim the wisps of the yarn away so that the fringe looks like it's beaded, not fuzzy.

It's a lovely day today with the sun shining brilliantly.  Not too hot but finally, a taste of summer.  And the lovely brilliant reds/oranges/yellows of this shawl are happy colours, too.

P. S. - did you know it takes fewer muscles to smile than frown?  :)

A Pressing Matter

This afternoon I went up to the annex for a binge of pressing. The wet finishing mountain avalanched on Mizz B last time she came over so it was past time to start dealing with it. Besides which I haven't been feeling well so hemming seems about the right speed these days. :(

I'm still weaving as much as I can, but it's going very slowly. The specialist did say it was important to exercise plus I still need to weave as physiotherapy for my ankle so I've been weaving at half speed and only winding one bobbin at a time so that I have to take a little rest while I wind the next bobbin. I'm hoping to get the date for my medical test when I see him again on June 9 and find out where we go from there.

One of the things that many weavers don't understand is the function of a hard press or compression in terms of adding stability to their fabric. When I'm pressing I press side A then side B then side A again as my minimum press. This helps the threads to lock into each other and hold the structure just a little more firmly.

Not that I compress everything. Blankets or other textiles where one wants trapped air in the cloth for insulation for example may not get compressed. But certainly any cloth that will be used for garments does.

In the photo you can see my industrial steam press and just visible in the background is the boiler that runs it. There's a box behind the drying rack full of place mats that have had their finishing press after hemming. Tomorrow Mizz B can label and price them.

The scarves will have their fringes trimmed. I don't like the look of the frayed tips so those get cut off. The fringe then looks like it has been finished with beads - without the weight. :)

Yes I press the fringe too which leads to interesting discussions at times. At a show a couple of years ago a man was looking extremely closely at my fringes while his wife waited patiently for him. Obviously not customers!

When I went to talk to him he asked me how I made my fringes so I explained about fringe twisting. He professed amazement - he was an engineer - and commented that he had been trying to figure out the construction of the fringe - it looked twisted but it was flat!!!!

I laughed and fessed up that I pressed the you know what out of them. Then we both laughed and he and his wife walked away, mystery solved.

Currently reading Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Afghan Progress

Sunday I started weaving on the afghans. With this warp it is essential to use a temple. I really wish I had rotary or ring temples when I'm weaving full width, and perhaps after Convergence I will. At least I'm hoping Fireside will be there so I can look at their temples. I hear a number of AVL owners have set their looms up with the Fireside temples, so we'll see.


The first afghan was woven using a fairly dark muted blue.




The second was woven with black as weft. You can mainly see the difference in the red stripe. In the blue weft afghan the red is shifted slightly to the purple end of the scale and the varigated stripes look bluer.

I had a picture of how I mark flaws, but see that I neglected to load it. Since loading a bunch of pictures is a bit of a pain, I'll just describe it.

The warp had some knots in it and I chose to deal with them in the loom by using Kerstin's hint of adding the repair thread before cutting out the original (knotted) end. After weaving so that old and new ends are overlapped for about 1.5 inches I cut out the knot and draped the original end over the back of the warp. When I finish the afghan I tie the original end in again. This way there is no need to repair afterwards. The repair ends hang over the warping valet. I didn't think to take a picture of that but can if anyone is interested.

Unfortunately a couple of the knots didn't subscribe to this plan and naughtily got woven into the cloth. (Bad pun - sorry!)

Anyway, I keep a tapestry needle handy with a contrasting thread in it and when I spot these miscreants sew the thread through the web in an "X". When I'm rolling the cloth off onto the inspection table I can easily spot these flaws and mend them.




After weaving two afghans it was time to cut in the next colour. Sorry about the photo - it was dark and gloomy under the warp and I see now it isn't in very good focus.

After unwinding the new bout and laying it flat on the woven cloth I cut the old warp and laid it onto the web. Carefully selecting the ends in their sequence (hopefully), I tied the new warp to the old. I tried working toward me and away and haven't decided which is more efficient yet. I'll get more practice when the next two afghans are woven.




This looks a bit of a rat's nest but really the threads are all nicely tied together. I used an overhand knot because I really don't want these knots to come undone. Certainly not while I'm easing them through the heddles and reed!




The tension on the second beam was let off so that the warp could roll forward freely and I stuck a stick in the loops because I didn't want any errant ends wrapping around the sectional dividers. In this photo the knots have been eased through the heddles and I'm about to ease them through the reed.




And here we are - all ready to go again. Unfortunately today was a write off for a number of reasons but I did get the afghan warp ready for Wednesday. Tuesday I've got appointments all day and doubt I'll get to the AVL. But it looks good that I can finish weaving on Thursday or Friday and begin fringe twisting, which will take as long as the shuttle throwing.

Currently reading The Stone Butterfly by James D. Doss

Fringe Binge

Three buckets full of fringe twisting to be done

This is a view of my pile of fringe twisting that needs to be done. Yes, that's more on the table in the background.

As you can see, my living and dining room are not really living and dining rooms, but more work space. :( The only way I can deal with fringe twisting is to do it while watching tv. And there's rather a lot of it because I picked up everything my fringe twisting elf had because her life got too stressful to deal with my pile of ft.

Since I've got such a backlog of of it to do, plus the afghans that will be going onto the AVL next week, decided I needed to do something that didn't need to be ft'd!

So the next warp going onto the Fanny will be placemats. I'm low on appropriate yarns for mats, but decided some of the high twist bamboo would work just fine for warp with some cotton novelties as weft. And instead of fringes, I'll weave hems. At least it will be something different than ft! And more portable as I can bring hemming to coffee with friends or to guild meetings.

Got all the kits made except for the orders received today. Decided I needed a break from kits so I'll wind the placemat warp tonight. May even get it beamed as Doug is working until 8:30 pm.

The 'buy one, get one free' option on Art Fire works really well - except of course I didn't do it the proper way and allowed people to choose a different colour from the initial kit ordered! :D However, it was an interesting experiment and one I may repeat in the future. For now, however, the offer is over.

The good news is that my energy seems to have come back, even though my bp continues to spike for no known reason. :( If this continues I really will ask the dr to change my bp meds - perhaps my body has gotten used to the ones I'm on and they aren't working properly? Who knows.........sure would be nice to get a users manual with clear instructions on how to help one's body work healthy and well! :}

A Topsy-Turvey Day

A bucket of fringe twisting - shawls

Well, truth be told, it's been a topsy-turvey week - and the week isn't over yet. :}

It started out reasonably well - yesterday I picked up the new rims for the van, and this morning we dropped them off along with the van at the shop that was going to mount the tires onto the rims and balance them and put them onto the van. Everything was looking good.

Until they phoned at 2 pm to say the rims didn't fit onto the van! Of course they had mounted the tires before they tried to install the rims!

So poor Doug had to go back to the shop that sold him the rims. Seems there was some sort of mix up, and they've ordered rims in from Vancouver which should be here Saturday - so hopefully I will have snow tread on the van for the trip after all. And hopefully we won't have to pay extra for the replacement rims coming, or for taking the tires off the rims that don't fit and installing them on the proper ones. But since it wasn't the shop's fault, I suppose I'd better brace myself to pay twice to have the tires installed. :(((((

Normally I wouldn't worry about snow tires yet, but on my last trip two weeks ago there were already compact snow conditions at higher elevations plus we had a light dusting of snow the other night. :( Not to mention that there will be little to no time to deal with tires when I get home as shows follow each other almost every weekend until mid-November.

I got into the lab early due to dropping the van off as early as we could get there and lo and behold, there was no wait to speak of. So my blood work is being done and I'll get the results when I get back from Seattle.

Yesterday I didn't get to Mount Everest at all, so today I hunkered down to work on that only to come to the realization that the mountain is twice as tall as I had been thinking. So no, I'm not going to be able to conquer that before I leave. However I have managed to work my way through about one quarter of that job, so will carry on as best I can in order to get as much as possible accomplished before Monday evening.

Took a break to watch several hours of tv and fringe twisted (and had dinner in front of the boob tube).

I also have to put in an order for yarn for a commission - which on top of the tires and rims, the business insurance (which surely doubled since last year????) plus the van insurance - sigh - meaning that we are going to have to work hard to sell as much as possible at the 3 craft fairs we're doing in November. I'm not sure what I will do for income next year as I only have a couple of teaching contracts (which may, or may not, go ahead - there's always that cancellation clause.)

The intention was to go pressing tonight while Doug went to visit with a buddy, but in all the chaos and kaffuffle of the tires/rims, I forgot to load the washing machine. So now I'll wait until tomorrow night when Doug goes to watch the football game with another buddy. The good news there is that I now have two more shawls fringe twisted, so I'll wet finish them, too. :}

My wet finishing pile is mountainous - again. I'm hoping to deal with fringe twisting scarves (I'll ask my fringe twisting elf to return what she has as she doesn't seem to be able to get to it) and get a few more things finished for the up coming sales. They won't sell in my basement, unfinished.....

For now, though, I think I've had it with sitting crunched at the computer. Time to go weave and/or wind a few more colour gamp warps...........

One of the bright spots in the day was that Doug decided he needed a new cordless drill, but the one he wanted was more expensive than he was willing to spend on his own. So when he phoned to tell me how wonderful it was, I said "Merry Christmas."

So there's one less thing I have to worry about in December. :^)

Fringes

Thought I would share how I go about setting up my fringes. Above picture shows the end of the first scarf (bottom of the ruler) and the cutting line for between the two scarves.

The picture below shows the cutting line, the first four fugitive picks and then the beginning of the weaving for the second scarf. The measuring 'tape' is just pinned to the web. I have a variety of these 'tapes' for different textiles. This one is 66" long as that is a common length I make for scarves.



I don't weave anything into the fringes, just let the unwoven warp ends roll onto the cloth beam ensuring that they don't fall off the cloth on the cloth beam.

The first and last pick of the scarf are wound into the appropriate bout of fringes - I fringe twist regenerated cellulose fibres to make sure they don't disintegrate and that they will wear well.

When the scarves (two per warp) are removed from the loom I cut them apart through the cutting line, fold them into quarters and set them aside until they are ready to be twisted.

I always begin twisting on the side away from the weft tail and work toward the loose weft pick twisting the weft tail into the last bout.

Doug has just started to load the van up (he had to gas up and fill the tires) and as it's just 4:30 pm there is plenty of time to finish the second scarf and cut this warp off the loom.

And then I need to pack........

Currently reading The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King

Finishing Piling Up

Dawned on me today that I'd better slow down on the weaving because the finishing is really starting to pile up - literally.

While I have 4 cloth rollers, two of them now have yardage stored on them with the 3rd on the loom and being added to already. That means I'd better push the fringe twisting a little harder.

What you can't see is the bucket of shawls woven in September and October that still need to be fringe twisted as well. :}

The beam on the inspection table is the 25 yard warp I just cut off. The red cloth is about 20 yards, maybe a bit less. I cut the cloth off the loom part way through because I needed to get cracking on the place mats. They got taken into the local consignment shop yesterday.

It started to snow today - seriously - although Doug says he heard that it's supposed to warm up. I'm of two minds - I'd rather winter came and stayed, than freeze and melt. On the other hand we have a craft fair to do on Saturday, and I really don't enjoy setting up when the weather is bad. And people don't come out if the roads are nasty.

Only time will tell!