Wet Finishing Woolens

This fabric was woven and then taken to Sweden, then to a vadmalstamp in Norway to be wet finished.

The round piece in the upper left was finished in the stamp for 90 minutes.  Kerstin then turned some of the cloth into a German berger's hat.  (German merchant)

Going to the stamp was experimental, exploration, educational.  We took some of the cloth that had been put through the stamp and then ran it through her front loading washing machine on the most extreme cycle it had for a further 10 cycles to achieve the background cloth.

It is hard to describe a vadmal stamp, but Kirsi Frimanson has posted a video to You Tube showing her visit to a stamp and how it operates.

Vadmal (or vadmel) is a heavy duty woolen cloth that was kind of like the blue jeans of the middle ages.  It was still being used well into the 20th century, although by then it was mostly commercially produced.

Think wool melton.

I didn't do a traditional quality of cloth, nor did the others.  We each brought a length of fabric, all woven from wool, ranging from very open (think window screening), to fairly dense, either woolen or worsted, and mostly we just wanted to see what happened.

It was a once in a lifetime experience, but if you are thinking of traveling to Sweden, you might contact Kirsi to see if there are any group vadmalstamps that you might participate in.  Or attend Vav conference.  She had a booth there at the last one in 2017, speaks English very well if you don't speak Swedish (like I don't!)

Many Swedes do speak English very well.  The exhibits were interesting and the vendor hall had lots of linen and different quality of wool yarns from those commonly available in North America.

I also met people from Australia, Lichtenstein, Germany and I think England if I remember correctly.  Glad I made it at least once because I never thought I would be able to.

Sampling

Although I've worked with 'collapse' weaves and shrinkage differential quite a bit, ultimately every time you change yarns you have to sample.  If you don't you risk losing the entire project.

So even though I know from previous sampling that the white yarn (Henry's Attic Pony Worsted) fulls very well I've not actually combined it with Tencel before so while I suspect I'm going to get some sort of effect from fulling the wool, there are no guarantees I'll get the effect I'm actually going after.

I started with a combination set of 15 for the wool and 20 for the Tencel and my first sample is plain weave.

While plain weave will have to be fulled much more energetically than a twill structure, I wanted the best visual blending of the colours of the two different yarns.  The reason I'm using white is because I don't have any dyed and I've no time to do any. 

While I suspect I'm going to get the most fulling with the wool weft, sometimes you can be surprised so I wove about 6" with wool weft and about 8" with Tencel.  Tomorrow I'll beat the sample up good and see what happens.  If it works I've got enough warp on the loom to weave a scarf.  If it doesn't I'll be changing the parameters and weaving more samples.  None of it will go to waste as the samples will become teaching examples.  ;)

Currently reading Falling Backwards by Jann Arden

Coat with Angora

This cloth was traded for a piece of bobbin lace made by a friend - she tried very hard to get me making lace.  At the time I resisted but eventually did take up the craft a number of years later.  :)

One layer is 2/8 cotton, the other layer is a wool/angora blend.

The photograph isn't really out of focus - the angora has developed a halo during wet finishing.  You can clearly see that the loom state sample looks very open and loose on the back side.  After fulling it closed up nicely and a slight rumpled texture developed on the surface of the cloth.

The two layers are connected by way of the two layers exchanging places.

Currently reading The Vault by Ruth Rendell (the latest in the Inspector Wexford series - I find her other books to be too dark/bleak, generally)

Another Coat

This coat fabric turned into more of an adventure than I expected. 

Up until this fabric, all of the wool I had worked with fulled.  Some more than others, but they could all be made to full.

And so when I bought this lovely blue/green worsted yarn, it was with the intent of fulling it to make a warm winter coat.

This particular worsted wool did not full.  Period.

I tried everything.  I used hot water, the most vigorous of the washing cycles on my machine and ran the fabric through the complete wash/rinse cycle not once but several times. 

With the result of.....window screening.

Then I remembered that a friend had said that they threw running shoes into the washer if they really wanted to beat a woolen cloth up and get it to full.  I didn't have any running shoes I wanted to sacrifice so I started thinking of something else I could do.

I had a lot of the tubes from yarn purchased from Maurice Brassard that were rough so I tossed the wet fabric into the dryer along with about 18 of these tubes and let her rip.  Poor Doug nearly had a fit at the noise! 

But the tubes managed to beat the cloth up enough that loose fibres came to the surface of the cloth and it became quite fuzzy.  The cloth was then put back into the washing machine with hot water and allowed to agitate again until the surface fuzz fulled together enough to give the cloth stability.

I didn't want a fuzzy coat so once it was dry I got a large sweater shaver and shaved the surface, leaving the nap on the 'inside' to help provide some insulation.

The coat was sewn by Darlene who recommended a lining fabric called kasha.  Kasha has a rayon surface with a fuzzy back.  This fabric would also help provide insulation against the cold.

Another Garment

This is another of the garments done for the monograph for GCW.  I was exploring how to make fabric for warm clothing - jackets and coats.  Darlene sewed most of them.

The above jacket was used as my primary winter jacket for about 7 years.  The base fabric was, again, Harris Tweed, with a very softly twisted singles wool as the lighter accent thread.  The web was fulled heavily. 

Originally I'd intended to brush the cloth but decided after fulling that the accent thread had bloomed sufficiently that brushing wasn't necessary.  In the end I think that was a good call because the accent thread did tend to pill and if it had been brushed, would likely have pilled even worse.  In the end the reason I got rid of the jacket was because the accent thread had pilled and 'shed' enough that it was looking worn even though the Harris Tweed was still in great shape.  :) 

Since I rarely wear a commercially made winter coat more than 7 years, I figured I'd gotten good value out of it and it was time to retire it.

CD Weaver

After publishing Magic in the Water; wet finishing handwovens, people started asking when I would be producing a video.

I was highly reluctant to do this for several reasons. First, I had done just enough video camera work to know exactly how difficult it is to get good video.

Secondly, I knew that in order to get good video, it cost a whole lot of money - money I simply didn't have after researching, writing and self-publishing Magic, filled as it was with before and after wet finishing samples of fabric (originally 20 projects, now 22 - for a total of 44 actual fabric samples).

Third, unlike a book where you can open it to any page to review whatever part of it you like, you have to fast forward and back and forth in a video to see the bit you want.

As time went by, digital technology developed to the point where I realized that I could combine the best of both books and videos by doing a book on cd with copious full colour photos and video clips - or an ebook as I see they are now called. :)

I began with dressing the loom showing how I wind a warp, rough sley a reed and beam from back to front. The second section included hints and tips - how to hold and throw a shuttle, hemstitching, dealing with more than one shuttle, winding bobbins and pirns and so on.

This past winter it became clear to me that I was having health issues without being able to define what those issues were. All I knew was that it was imperative that I do the third section on wet finishing and at the same time, I had my web master archive the majority of the writing that I've done over my career onto the cd along with the original sections and the new one on wet finishing. Frankly, I didn't think I'd be around very much longer, and that my website - well, if I wasn't here, my website wouldn't be either..........

So CD Weaver III contains the information I consider essential for a new weaver. I am very fast after years of earning my income, always looking for the most efficient, most ergonomic way to do the various tasks. When I find a new way to do something that will require less effort, I take the time to learn. Most recently I changed the way I hold my hook to sley. It took about 6 warps to cotton on to the new method, but I use it all the time now. The change was small, but I do the same job with tiny hand movements instead of using my whole arm.

This change allows me to work with less effort over all and was well worth taking the time to learn.

I am puzzled when I show weavers how I do things and get the response that it's too much trouble to learn something new. But I also have to remember that people are weaving these days, not to earn an income, but for rest and relaxation. And the learning curve can be steep and slippery and not very comfortable, especially if you are trying to unlearn something and do it a new way.

So for those people who are interested in becoming more efficient, CD Weaver is available. My methods won't work for everyone - there are differences in physical size and ability that make no one method the perfect one for everyone.

Until American Thanksgiving, anyone who orders Magic in the Water; wet finishing handwovens will receive CDWeaver III for free. I've had my webmaster post a new video on the CDWeaver page on my website. This one shows how to significantly full a mohair loop scarf, which I later show being brushed to raise a nap in the It Isn't Finished (until it's wet finished) section. The clips are available for free download, and for both PC and Mac users.

The photo above was done for It Isn't Finished (until it's wet finished) and shows the mohair scarf that I fulled in the video clip. It also shows two teasels. The one on the right is a proper Fuller's Teasel. The other is the one that is most commonly found growing in ditches and that people think is a Fuller's Teasel.

To go with the new CD Weaver, I also produced sample sets of the fabric I wet finished, including the above scarf. These are available for sale while they last. They also serve to upgrade Magic in the Water with 5 additional samples. Info on my website. Click on Store, then CD Weaver or Magic in the Water. Email me to order.