Unseen Forces

 

Thinking about 'unseen forces' in weaving, it's time to remind people that if you live in an arid climate, or more especially, one where the relative humidity swings seasonally, you may run afoul of the issue of low humidity in the air.

When that happens, things go 'wrong' and it may be difficult to tell why that is so.

When the relative humidity in the environment drops, weaving can become a challenge.

If you have an electric bobbin winder, you might start getting static discharge shocks while winding bobbins.  For some yarns, just winding a warp on a warping board or mill can see the generation of static discharges.

When the relative humidity drops, wooden equipment can develop issues as the wood shrinks.  The loom or whatever might develop squeaks, and screws become loose so the loom can go out of alignment or wobble.

Some yarns will behave poorly.  Linen and other cellulose yarns can suddenly stop co-operating.  Linen in particular will become stiff and unruly, and not want to feed off a rotating bobbin nicely.  

In the case of linen as weft, I wind bobbins ahead of time and store them in a 'humidor'.  And I don't fill the bobbins higher than the flanges on the bobbin because linen is dense and a very full bobbin can create excess drag that might be too much stress for selvedges.

If it gets very dry, other yarns will become less co-operative as well.  

If the relative humidity drops below 40% in the house I run a humidifier.  Everything just behaves 'better' and I have fewer issues with dry rough hands.

I still have a little linen yarn left that I need to use up, but I'm trying to work on a few other things right now.  Even though I'm not weaving with linen at the minute, the humidifier has been running for over a month, and will continue to run until spring when the relative humidity returns to higher than 40%.

Sometimes it's not you, it is an unseen force at work.  But now?  You know to take that into consideration if you experience wild swings in relative humidity where you live.

Not All The Same

 

I've been answering questions for a long time, even when I only knew a 'little' bit, and I've seen many of the same questions - and assumptions - presented for a very long time.  The additions to the weaving community tend to come in 'waves', and every few years I find myself addressing the same issues over and over again.  In this day of the internet, where most people assume that everything they want to know can be found on the internet, it is very easy for someone to ask, and be given an answer that doesn't really address their concerns.

I begin to feel like a 'broken record' (and if you don't know what that means, you're young.)

At times I withdraw, but then I see answers that don't actually help the person, or may lead them astray.  I see answers that are definitive, when the only true short answer is 'it depends'.

So I try to find the true question the person is asking and answer that, as best I am capable of doing, in a way that (I hope) doesn't discourage the person.

Because the enormity of the body of knowledge can be extremely intimidating!  OTOH, that very vastness of things to be learned was what drew me to the craft in the first place.

I appreciate that new practitioners of the craft wants to have instant good results.  But just the other day I was reminded that learning a new skill takes time.  It's extremely difficult to be 'perfect' the first time you tackle a new skill, and we have to allow ourselves the time and repetition to lay down the new neuropathways in our brains.

Given my recent brain injury, I am re-learning how to speak and to write.  And it doesn't go smoothly because some days are 'better' than others.  My spouse is patient, but I get frustrated with myself.  Which is the time for me to take a deep breath and try again.

I'm sure that the people asking the questions get impatient with people like me who answer their question with more questions.  But to truly inform, to effectively help them, I need to know more.

Because not all yarns are the same.  They, just like children in the school room, have different 'needs' and you need to handle them appropriately.  

Like everything else in life, how you weave becomes a spectrum, not an either or situation.

Every cloth needs to be treated appropriately.  Rug weavers may have difficulty changing their beat in order to weave lace.  A weaver used to 4/8 cotton may find that what they do needs to be adjusted in order to deal with that 2/20 silk, or 2/60 silk.

What do I recommend?  Read a book.  Or more.  Watch some videos.  Filter them through the view of what you know, and what you *want* to know.  Because different teachers will have different approaches.  Above all, give yourself the time of *mindful* practice.  Pay attention to what you are doing and assess your progress.  Consider what you might want to change, and how that change might look.

No one told me to build a humidor.  I didn't even have the name for it - but I knew what it needed and how to make it happen.  It was only when I did a blog post (I think) that someone told me such a device was called a 'humidor'.  

Be open to change things when something is not working well.  Use your judgement, but don't be criticizing what you are doing.  You are on a journey of learning.  In the case of weaving, it may turn into of lifetime of learning.

I know that it has for me.

Oops.

 

Yesterday I cut the first 7 towels off the loom.

I gotta tell ya, weaving with this linen from Lithuania has been lovely.  

When it arrived it was a bit thinner than I had expected (still not great at converting metric to imperial - my bad), but thinner can always - in a pinch - be made thicker, right?

But instead I mulled it over and decided I didn't want a thicker towel - thinner towels are just more absorbent, more flexible, just more...tea-towel-like...than a thicker cloth.

So I bought 36 tubes of 2/16 cotton, beamed the warp, designed a weaving draft based on one from Ars Textrina #14, tweaked it to make it 'fit' what I wanted better, added borders, added hems, etc., and then in the tie up added some plain weave to help stabilize the somewhat thinner linen.

When I was getting close to being able to weave I wound off as many bobbins as I had available and stored them in humidors (see previous blog posts on how I prepare linen for weft - topic 'humidor') to 'steep' for at least 3 days (or longer - longer is better when it comes to linen).

The warp went onto the beam quite smoothly, although I did have some hiccoughs while threading and sleying.  Nothing terminal and soon fixed.  (Just really annoying!)

Since then I've managed to get to the loom pretty much every day for at least one session and the loom is co-operating, too, so this whole experience has been very enjoyable.

So much so, I went back to the etsy site where the yarn is being sold to see if they had half-bleached.

They had what they called 'dyed white' under two different listings.  The description appeared identical, but the price was different.  One listing was being offered at a much lower price.  I mulled it over and thought that perhaps the lower priced yarn was from an older batch and they were just trying to move it out.  As I thought and looked at their other offerings and then went back and forth between the two listings for the white yarn, I noticed that a number of people had the cheaper yarn in their shopping carts.

A really good psychological tool for marketing, because it spurred me to put some in my cart, too.  And thought some more.  And decided that if I was going to buy more yarn it made a lot more economical sense to buy more than a kilo, given shipping and whatnot.

So I ordered.

Five kilos.  

Yes, yes, I know I'm *supposed* to be weaving down my yarn stash.  But I'm not buying this on spec, I have a plan for it.  (Seriously!)

Once the current warp is off the loom I will put a shawl warp on and get some of that excess of rayon yarn woven down and while I'm doing that I will think about which colour(s) to order in from Brassard of the 2/16 cotton.

Because I'm not done with weaving yet, and I'd rather weave with yarn I like than with yarn I don't.

And since it takes a long time to do the fringe twisting, I kinda need to get those shawls done now so that they are ready for the craft fairs in the fall.

My story, sticking to it.

(If you want to buy some tea towels, there are plenty in my ko-fi shop.)

Thinking, Thinking

 

I return to this graphic (our plans vs reality) a lot as a reminder that I need to have the plan but also need to be flexible enough to make my way through whatever obstacles I encounter along the way.

So I continue to pick away at what I'm working on while allowing my back burner to simmer, cooking, hopefully bringing any issues I need to anticipate to the surface so I can make plans for them and not be thrown off my path when they try to knock me off my carefully constructed plan.

A friend and I have discussed 'executive functioning skills' a few times and I really wonder if that is what weaving is all about.  Figuring out what you want - in life, in weaving (knitting, whatever) and then making a plan but preparing for distractions and even (god forfend) the occasional disaster.  I need to read up on 'executive functioning skills' and find out more about them.

The warp currently on the loom is a prime example.

The weaving draft was simple enough and I'd worked with it several times already so it was familiar.  But when I got to the 'end' of my ends, I had two left over.  That had never happened with the previous warps, so I *knew* I'd made a mistake somewhere.  

Instead of going back and checking thread by thread, I continued and started to sley the warp.  And very quickly discovered the problem.  Very near the beginning I had somehow managed to leave two heddles empty.  Oh they were there - just...no end in them.

The fix was easy enough.  I grabbed two spools off the spool rack and simply threaded them in where they were supposed to be, then continued sleying.

But it means I am dealing with a couple of spools hanging off the warping valet (bar mounted to ceiling at the back of the loom).  The bar is high enough that I can easily let down enough length to weave a towel, so my routine now includes, weave a towel, adjust the hanging spools, take a break, weave a towel, let down the spools.

It also means I have two 'extra' threads at the left selvedge.  I could have tossed them off the back beam, but then I would have had to deal with those loose ends and frankly no one will ever notice.  

Today I will finish the last of the tow linen - and it looks like I will have just exactly enough to weave two more towels.   Whatever is left over will get stripped and tossed.  

The rest of the warp will get woven off with a hemp yarn that I suddenly remembered yesterday while I was weaving, thinking about the yarn I had intended to use - cottolin.  But I wasn't liking that option much and was casting my mind around for something else.  I could have used 2/8 cotton, that would have been fine.  But this warp is a good one to use up some of that hemp, so that's what I'll use.

Yesterday as part of my 'end of the day' I wound off one cone of the hemp onto bobbins and got it into a humidor.  When I finish emptying the bobbins with the tow linen, I'll wind more of the hemp and get it steeping too.  Hemp is so similar to linen that I tend to treat it exactly the same and getting the moisture content  higher in the fibre will make it more co-operative and it will weave off easily.  Since I don't like 'fighting' with my equipment or yarns, it's easy enough to do.

Plastic tub with a small amount of water in it, another smaller tub floating on the water, bobbins are wound and stacked inside the small tub and the lid covers it.  The yarn can ten absorb moisture out of the higher humidity air inside the humidor.  High density yarn such as linen and hemp have the bobbins wound just about level with the bobbin flanges.  Any fuller than that the bobbin begins to weigh enough that the selvedges can become stressed and either pull in too much or even break.  Depends on the yarn, but it's just easier to fill them less full than chance breaking selvedges...

Unexpected

Cloth beam showing green linen and beige cotton weft

Recently someone said that linen did not behave the way they expected.

If you have only woven with wool and cotton, weaving with linen will be...different.

Linen has essentially zero elasticity.  It is denser than cotton and stiffer.  As such it does behave differently.

The above photo is an example of something that might be unexpected.  Since linen is stiffer than cotton, it will draw in less than cotton.  Hence the wider width on the beam.  This is why, if you are going to use linen as weft for a time, then cotton (as I did here) it is a really good idea to use the linen first, then switch to the cotton.  If you use the cotton first, the linen will be wider and the selvedges will then be unsupported - unless you add sticks to provide support. 

During wet finishing it will not have as high a dimensional loss as cotton.  If linen and cotton are used in stripes in the warp, you can get lengthwise 'seersucker' effects.  The cotton will shrink more than the linen and puckers can appear in the linen stripes.  This effect can be mitigated somewhat by how wide/narrow the stripes are so sampling is required if this is an effect you want.

During weaving it will feel different when you set the tension and beat.  A linen warp must be beamed as perfectly as possible so that there are no discrepancies in length in the warp ends and therefore no overly loose or tight threads.

Generally I find a linen warp behaves much better in a loom where the shed is formed by both rising and sinking the threads, iow, counter balanced or countre marche.  A smaller jack loom with short distance from front to back will potentially need some adjustment to the shed geometry.  I did actually manage to weave a fine linen fabric on a Woolhouse Margaret (about the same length front to back as a Baby Wolf) by changing the height of the back beam, raising it about one inch.  Prior to that adjustment the shed floor was so loose it was impossible to get a shed or beat properly.  After the adjustment I was able to weave it very carefully.

The high density of the linen yarn means that bobbins should not be over full.  I tend to fill just to the height of the flanges on standard plastic bobbins or the weight of the shuttle and fully loaded bobbins is too great and can cause issues with the selvedges.

Selvedges may not be great on linen anyway due to the stiff nature of the yarn as it won't want to curl round the selvedge and there may be little loops.

Linen is a huge fan of moisture.  Some people recommend misting the warp and storing bobbins with a wet cloth.

My approach is to run a humidifier to raise the relative humidity in the room (because I don't much like getting static discharge from arid conditions) and then use a jerry rigged humidor to store the bobbins in.  The bobbins sit in a container inside a humid environment and can safely be left there for weeks without harm because they are not wet.

I was so pleased with myself, using up the 'last' of my fine linen.  And then a couple of weeks ago a friend (10 years older than me, attempting to seriously downsize her studio) presented me with a bag of yarn.  Some fine silk.  Some fine linen.  Yay?

Final Throes

We called it Puff.  It served us well, pressing hundreds of yards of textiles in the time we had it.  We are still hoping to find a new home for it, but things have gotten complicated.  As in...the weather.

Suddenly it's winter and it's wintering hard.  First we (the entire province almost) got slammed with one long winter snow storm.  Roads were closed.  Avalanche mitigation was done, closing more roads.  We now have a respectable amount of snow cover which allays some fears of not having enough snow pack in the mountains to get us through the summer.

And now it's getting cold.  As in harsh cold.  At this moment it is minus 20C.  The forecast is predicting temps down even further as the week progresses as in the minus 30C range.  (F and C converge at -40)

And today Doug and his helper go pull wire.

When Puff was installed, there was no heavy duty electrical panel and the boiler needed one to run.  So we bought one and hired an electrician to hook it up.  However, it meant running a heavy duty wire from the big box up into our room.  Since we bought and paid for that, and the landlord has assured us he doesn't want it, Doug is removing it and will try to find a local buyer.

But some of the places the wire runs is in unheated areas.  So the guys are dressing warmly and will take breaks to prevent frost bite.  Working in heavy gloves/mitts will be a challenge and so the whole job may take all day as they may need to go warm up.  Repeatedly.

In the meantime I continue to work on weaving.  I pressed a run of place mats on the little press and need to contact the person who wants them that they are now ready.  I finished weaving the burgundy mats and need to wet finish them.

But I also finished dressing the Megado with the silk warp, filled bobbins and stored them in a humidor.  Because with the drop in temperature, the relative humidity also drops and the new humidifier is having a tough time keeping the relative humidity high enough for weaving with something like silk that tends to generate static electricity.  And I want/need to keep the computer assisted dobby happy.

But I'm anxious/excited about getting started on that warp this morning.  The first scarf will be the 'easy' one - intended for publication it will be a four shaft version.  The next one, intended as a gift, I will get to play around a bit.  Fun times!

Moving Right Along

Now that Christmas (and the introductory offer) is over, it is time to gear down for the long haul.

My immediate schedule now switches to conference planning.  We are very near to announcing the registration opening.  If people haven't yet signed up for conference email notices, I urge you to do so asap as things are getting very near to being ready to go public. 

While I plan on having some copies of The Intentional Weaver for sale at the conference, not everyone will be attending it and sales will continue through blurb going forward.  (If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, Magic in the Water is also there.)

What I would ask is that anyone who feels this book is worthwhile?  Could you please go to the page and click on the 'share' buttons?  Marketing a self-published book is challenging because you find yourself constantly tooting your own horn.  Which I am not too shy to do, but it helps people to know if the book is truly worth the purchase price and if they might find it helpful if others say so and not just my ego saying it is.

We are getting some snow today and I have chosen to not go out but to have some quiet days this week in order to plunge back into what needs doing next.

I reached the half way point in the current (30 yard) warp, I've used up three tubes of cottolin and am about to start the fourth and last in my stash.  Yesterday I wound the first of the linen bobbins which are steeping in the humidor.  And I crunched the numbers for the next warp, which will be a twill block version of Canadian Snowflake but in bright cheerful colours - the warp is Peacock and Emerald Green, the weft will be navy or turquoise single linen. 

Of course I am once again weaving linen at the dryest season, so I will be putting the humidifier on in the next couple of days to try and make the linen behave better.

If the relative humidity drops below around 40% I find that all fibres start to get cranky - even cotton will develop static electricity - linen and silk are even more prone to problems.

But I need to get to the loom, so off I go...moving right along...

It's Own Time

I have visited the province of Dalarna, Sweden several times and as such have also visited a number of glassworks and gotten to know a little bit about glass as a material.  One of the phrases heard about glass is that it 'has it's own time'.  In other words, the glass worker must tease it into the final shape by understanding how the molten glass behaves and when it is appropriate to shape it.

So too, I think, does linen have it's own 'time'.  Or at the very least, it's own humidity in order for it to behave nicely.

I bought some singles 16 at Va:v and this morning I started winding bobbins to place in a humidor.  I live in a much dryer climate than linen really appreciates, so it is important to allow the fibre to take up moisture so that it co-operates in the shuttle.

Yesterday I got the 2/16 cotton warp threaded and later today I'll sley and tie up and hopefully begin weaving.  I ought to have started winding bobbins yesterday so that they would have a good 24 hours to take up moisture, but I was distracted with other things and didn't remember the linen really needs a little coddling in terms of humidity.  Hopefully it will behave for me when I get started weaving.

I only filled one humidor this morning but that should be plenty to start weaving.  I'll wind more later today and fill the other two humidors I made with a couple of plastic tubs and a lid.  When everything is going well, I can go through quite a few bobbins in a day so I want to make sure I have them ready - and willing - to go.