Learning Ways

You Tube Channel

There are many video clips on You Tube, some of them better than others.

I don't claim mine are the best, but I have added my voice to the internet.  Everyone learns differently and the recent influx of new weavers, either via rigid heddle looms or baby wraps means that the population of weavers has dramatically increased and the average age has dropped.  Which, don't get me wrong, is A Good Thing!  If we don't recruit new younger weavers, the craft really might begin to die out - and that would be a great pity imho.

But rather than paint *all* video clips on You Tube and *all* dvd's as being bad, people should view them, take them with a grain of salt, but most of all, learn as much as they can from them.

In my opinion there is nothing better than learning from a live human being, but if you don't have the budget, or are too geographically removed or tied down with family committments to be able to take a class, then books, video clips and dvds are a valid way to learn.

We all do things differently because we all have different strengths and weaknesses.  We all have different abilities.  We learn in different ways.  Some can learn by reading, some by watching, some by doing, some by all three.

All I hope is that, at the end of the day, what I have done helps someone somewhere.  From the messages I get from people, I think I have helped some people make progress along the road of learning.

New Video

Got a video showing myself beaming a 9 meter long place mat warp on my You Tube Channel.

Unfortunately You Tube has made some upgrades recently and it's not showing on my listings of videos so best to follow the link above.

Have I mentioned recently that I <3 my warping valet?

Smooth Weaving

This morning I opened my email inbox and found the following message:

"I was weaving a scarf last night and realized something awesome. I just had to tell you that since watching your video a few months ago on throwing the shuttle, my edges have improved tremendously. I don't fiddle with them anymore and both edges look good! Thanks for sharing those videos with all of us!"

You Tube video

Rather made my day.  :) 

Weaving is a complex process but there are ways and means of making the whole thing go more smoothly.  It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish - your tools, your physical skills, etc.

In addition to teaching The Efficient Weaver at John C. Campbell Folk School next March, the guild in Sarasota FL is also interested in You Have to be Warped* as a workshop.  I'm looking forward to sharing hints and tips for improved efficiency with more weavers.  I'll be updating my website schedule soon.  Just waiting for contracts from a couple more groups.  I'm also looking at applying to ANWG for their conference in 2013 which will be held in Bellingham, WA but we'll see how that goes.  At any rate, I'm accepting more teaching contracts for 2012 and 2013 now.  (There is a possibility that I'll get to NEWS next year after having to cancel this year - watch my website on the schedule page for updates.)

Now that I'm (more or less) healthy, it is time to look at my workshop offerings and update them.  That is a job that I'll be tackling once I get home from our next road trip.  If you have a topic that you'd like to see me offer, let me know.  Sometimes others see us more clearly than we see ourselves.  :)

*The difference between the two presentations is that at JCC Folk School people have 5 days to practice the process while You Have to be Warped is more of a demonstration with limited hands on for the participants.

Weaving Zen

There is nothing quite like weaving when everything is going smoothly.  :)  Today I found myself in harmony with the loom and decided to tape a video clip.  I'd hoped that my left hand would be more visible so that viewers could see how I catch the shuttle between my index and middle finger, then shift my index finger to propel the shuttle back across the web - but there just wasn't enough room between the loom and the wall to get the camera at just the correct distance.  Sorry it didn't work out.

Getting a good weaving rhythm is a confluence of a number of factors.  First the warp has to beamed firmly and evenly so that you get a good clear shed.

Then the bobbins have to be wound well - again with firm tension so that the built up layers can't cut down into the lower layers of yarn.

Holding the shuttle 'underslung' allows it to be caught and thrown in an ergonomic manner.  The shoulders are relaxed and a little bit of a flick of the wrist combined with the push of the index finger can shoot the shuttle across quite a wide web.  In this instance it's not too wide - just 24" in the reed.  This is a width I find quite comfortable to hand throw.  More than 30" wide and I start to feel the strain from having to hold my hands out further from my body.  More than 30" in width I generally switch to the fly shuttle.

You might notice that at a certain point in the cycle my hands are not holding onto the beater at all.  I don't weave with an overhead beater so I'm not sure that this is possible on one of those but on an underslung beater there is a time when it passes the pivot point that it will naturally fall towards the fell or away from it. 

I have a few other video clips on my You Tube channel here where I talk through what I am doing and weave more slowly.

And here is a better view of the cloth:

Here you can see the cut line I weave in on the lower level to aid in separating the towels once they are off the loom.  It's the white line.  One of the advantages of the Compu-Dobby is that I can generate the entire treadling draft and include a blank pick to let me know that the next two picks are to be woven in a constrasting colour for the cut line.

And here is a close up of the cloth.  I threaded the large motif once along each edge of the cloth.  Once the cloth has been wet finished and the brown Fox Fibre yarn has developed the darker colour, the design woven into the cloth should show up much more clearly. 

That, at least, is the plan!

Change of Plans

As I was weaving the first scarf with the tussah silk it occured to me that this yarn would go very well with the 2/20 mercerized cotton for baby wraps.  And since one large cone of yarn takes up less room than a couple of dozen partially filled spools of silk, I'd switch to the 2/30 silk.  And then when I was weaving the white on white scarf, I remembered the rest of my silk stash and discovered not one or two already dyed 2/30 silk yarns, but 6 differently coloured yarns.  Which means that I won't have to do any dyeing after the weaving is done.  Win-win, no?

And stash reduction is stash reduction after all. 

For people interested in how to hem stitich, I have a video clip showing how I do it on my You Tube channel here .

As I was weaving today I got thinking about the admonishment to 'practice, practice, practice'.  While this is good advice, it leaves out something crucial, in my opinion.  It is that element of analytical thought while practicing.  After all if you keep doing what you've always been doing, you will keep getting what you've always been getting.  So it isn't enough to just keep practicing by rote what you have always done, but to be thoughtful about what you are doing and the results you are achieving.  I call it purposeful effort.

Perhaps this comes from my background in dance where the instructor was constantly monitoring and making tiny adjustments to body position, or the field events I was involved in during high school, or the classes in hap ki do and tai chi - all of which reinforced the notion that there was a constant feedback from brain to body and back.  But I am very aware of my physical effort and tuned into how tiny adjustments can make big differences in my results.

When I started weaving in 1975 there were no end feed shuttles available for hand weaving so I learned how to weave well with a boat shuttle.  Even when hand end feed shuttles became available I found that I actually have more control over how I lay the weft in with the boat shuttle.  End feed shuttles are not great for highly textured yarns, especially if they have a bunch of hooks for tensioning.  And there are times when I want to moderate how the weft lays in the shed depending on density and so on.

But learning how to do these things did not happen automatically.  I had many hours of learning when and how to make these adjustments depending on the yarn being used, density, weave structure, and so on.

It is up to each individual to take into consideration their particular set of circumstances and physical abilities, learn how to control their own bodies and therefore their results.  And yes, that comes with practice, practice, practice - utilizing purposeful effort.

Currently reading The Stolen Voice by Pat McIntosh

Video Clip - Repair Thread

Well, I got the video editing software installed yesterday, with many thanks for the help from my webmaster. You know, the one who lives 500 miles away? The man is magic! ;)

So this morning I did a quick test video clip and was very pleased that the upgrade is almost identical to the way the old program worked. It has extra features that I simply didn't have the time or patience to work my way through this morning. Hopefully when I'm back from our trip at the end of the month I'll feel inclined to tackle adding titles and such. :)

There is nothing like seeing yourself as others see you to provide a reality check. I've known for several years that I'm packing way too much weight, but have been unable until recently to do anything about it. After watching myself in action this morning, I'm more than ever determined to peel some more weight off (I've managed about 5 pounds so far). While I have a private ideal goal weight, ultimately I'm going to be satisfied if I just manage to take some more off. Losing weight is a factor of my returning health and all I want is to be healthy, knowing that packing around less weight will make being healthy easier and that life will be a lot more pleasant. And who knows, I might even fit into some of my handwoven clothing again! :D

You can watch the video here: http://3.ly/6szB

YouTube

I've just spent a frustrating 30 minutes but finally managed to get a YouTube account that YouTube would actually recognize and uploaded a couple of videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LauraAnnFry1

A friend suggested that it would be good to post some videos there as well as to my blog and website. Unfortunately I didn't find that the search engine showed my 'channel' or even showed my videos when I searched under 'hand weaving' or 'weaving' which were two of the tags I used. Perhaps I should try 'shuttles', too, just to see how many space shuttle launches are listed before my shuttle thowing! :}

Gotta love the technology - some days. Others - not so much!

Currently reading Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

On Soapboxes

about 30 yards of scarves....

I have two soapboxes - one for each foot, obviously. :^)

One is wet finishing. The other is issues of ergonomics/efficiency.

Handweavers can in no way compete with industry and looms that weave hundreds of picks per minute.

A handweaver is therefore by definition making 'slow' cloth.

People tell me they aren't interested in working more efficiently because they don't want to 'hurry'.

Working efficiently isn't hurrying. It's working with the least amount of wasted effort as one can.

Working ergonomically is working with the least amount of damage to the body. Quite often the two turn out to be - if not the same - closely related.

One of the big issues I see when I teach workshops is that people sit on chairs/benches etc., that are too low. This is very bad for backs. Another issue is how people hold and throw their shuttles. If a weaver only ever weaves narrow fabrics it's not terribly important. It becomes much more important when warps become wider - and longer. Throwing with poor technique can cause lots of problems with necks and shoulders, wrists and thumbs.

Weaving takes time. Lots and lots of time. I don't want to do it any more slowly than I absolutely have to. I've spent years studying, analysing and tweaking my technique. I am more than happy to show others what I do and how I do it. And why I do it so that they can decide if my techniques (I say 'mine' but many other production weavers do as I do) are appropriate for them.

To this end I produced CD Weaver which shows how I wind the warp, beam it, sley it, and how I weave it off, including video clips so that the processes can be seen in motion.

I also present seminars and workshops.

Next year I've been asked to be at the John C. Campbell Folk School Jan. 9-15 for a workshop called The Efficient Weaver. You don't have to be very experienced to take it - just interested in working more efficiently/ergonomically.

You can contact the school here http://3.ly/9EKb

NEWS has also contracted me to do seminars on both my soapboxes. I don't think their webite is ready yet, but I'm sure it will be soon.

And last, but not least, I have video clips posted both here (click on the video clip label) and on my website http://laurafry.com/

Currently reading A Darker God by Barbara Cleverly

Productivity

orange all used up - changed to cream - the beauty of a neutral warp!


After a weaving demo at a workshop, a new weaver came up to thank me for the demonstration. Essentially she said that she'd resigned herself to the fact weaving was going to be slow forever, and after watching me weave now realized that with practice she could eventually get faster.

Time is a precious commodity. Very few people have the luxury of taking a long time to make something. Granted some techniques are a lot slower than others, but no matter what someone is weaving, there are efficencies that can be introduced in order to make things flow more smoothly.

The past 3 days I have woven 3 eleven meter long warps. Including winding the warps and dressing the loom.

(Warps were 2/8 cotton, 20 epi, 300 ends. Eleven meters is approximately 12 yards.)

No, I have not been chained to the loom. In fact I would have been disappointed in myself if I hadn't woven off a warp a day. After all, the placemats are only 12 picks per inch. It takes nearly as long to weave the hems as it does the mat itself.

I am happy to pass on my techniques to others, either in person or through CD Weaver (a book on cd with video clips). When I'm teaching workshops I make a point of offering to show people how I hold and throw a shuttle. I think this is the area where I most often see inefficient technique and where - with a little help - most weavers can benefit. Not just in speeding up their weaving, but improving the quality of their selvedges.

There are video clips posted to this blog showing how I hold and throw the shuttle. Click on the label Video Clip to view the videos.

I have about 20 CD Weavers left. They are available at http://LauraFry.artfire.com

Selvedges

Selvedges.

Such a fuss about selvedges at times.

What I've found over the years is that there is no one thing that will guarantee good selvedges.

First of all, the warp must be evenly wound onto the beam with good tension. If it isn't, selvedges are likely to be terrible. The warp must be well packed too. A cigar shaped warp will mean poor selvedges. I use bamboo blinds between layers of the warp on the small loom. On the big loom with the sectional beam, each section is wound under tight tension so that threads cannot cut down into lower layers.

A good rule of thumb is that the warp should have equal to or slightly greater tension as it is being beamed as will be applied during weaving. It can be a little less, but any slack left in the warp as it is beamed may show up in the woven cloth in the form of uneven fell line, uneven beating, excessive draw in or poor selvedges.

The weaver must then throw and catch the shuttle well, leaving a good angle on the weft and not trapping the weft into the opposite selvedge with too little slack on it to allow it to seat properly into the cloth.

Watch my videos (click on video clip label below) for hints and tips on how to hold, throw and catch the shuttle.

Adding a plain weave selvedge to a weave structure with much fewer interlacements will make a smily fell line - unequal build up of the cloth at the selvedge. This will result in bad selvedges.

A floating selvedge is not necessary when weaving an ordinary fabric. A float length of 2 or 3 picks at a set of 24 epi/ppi is not going to result in a poor selvedge.

Picking at the selvedge will just elongate the yarns, resulting in worse and worse results. Don't touch them (unless the weft gets jammed, as with the pesky linen, and then don't pluck the warp threads but open the shed releasing the trapped weft as I showed in a previous post).

Keep your hands out of the shed. Shoving your hand and arm into the shed at regular intervals will elongate the threads causing uneven tension - and poor selvedges.

Currently reading What Remains of Heaven by C. S. Harris

Blue Towels

blue/grey towels on loom


close up showing Wall of Troy and straight twill threadings

A few posts ago Sharon commented on weaving being a whole body experience. This is something that new weavers don't understand at first, especially if they have only woven on narrow warps.

The wider the warp you have on the loom, the more you need to use your whole body. Perfecting throwing and catching technique will allow a weaver to weave quite wide warps. How wide depends on the individual's body - how long their arms are for one thing. :)

The motion for throwing the shuttle is such that the weaver needs to shift their body weight onto the right hip when throwing the shuttle from right to left then onto the left hip for when throwing the shuttle from left to right.

The torso pivots around the centre of the body leaning slightly to the right to throw with the right hand, leaning forward slightly as the shuttle traverses from right to left and leaning slightly to the left to catch the shuttle and grab the beater. As the beater comes forward, the body rocks slightly backwards as the feet change position on the treadles.

And so the cycle begins again.

It is a very good idea to learn how to sit up on the hip bones and not rotated back on the coccyx so that this range of motions can happen with the least amount of stress on the body.

It is a good idea to tone the abdominal muscles - the core muscles as they are sometimes called - as having good strong core muscles will help protect the lower back muscles from strain.

Review the video clips (click on the Video Clip tag to the right or the label below) showing weaving to help see what I mean.

Walking the Line

The twill line, that is.....

Since I tend to do a lot of different twills I keep my treadles tied up in a straight twill draw. In this video I am weaving a straight twill.

If I were weaving a broken twill, I would simply alternate my feet - treadle 4, treadle 2, treadle 3, treadle 1.

But for a straight twill, it's a straight forward treadle 4, 3, 2, 1.

Notice the position of my feet. The foot that is not being used gets parked on the hinge area of the treadles, about half way between the two treadles - you can just see my left foot about half way between treadle 1 and 2.

The foot that is being used slides forward. The forward movement depresses the treadle. I do not lift my foot, but use that lovely hinge we call the knee.

As I change from treadle 4 to treadle 3, I rest my heel on treadle 4 pivoting my foot so that the ball of my foot moves over onto treadle 3, then my heel follows and the treadle is pressed down.

To depress treadle 2, my left foot slides forward as my right foot slides back to rest on the hinge between treadle 3 and 4.

When that shed is finished, my left foot heels and toes over to treadle 1, then slides back to the hinge while my right foot is sliding forward to depress treadle 4.

To weave a broken twill, my feet alternate sliding back to the hinge and forward to depress the treadle.

Learning a treadling sequence is like learning a dance step. You need to keep the sequence in order to weave the different dance steps - plain weave, straight twill, broken twill, Wall of Troy (twill variation), etc.

Goin' With the Flow

Sometimes things morph.

The Plan for this warp was to weave some squares for shawls, fairly small ones at around 30" square. Something lower price points.

But then I remembered that Doug's niece - a fiery red-head - loves pink and orange as a colour combination. And since we'll be visiting her on the return trip from Seattle, I needed a hostess gift. :D

I started out to make a big cozy shawl, but then I had 'extra' weft yarn leftover and just continued on weaving. Shannon can decide for herself if she will use the fabric for a shawl, vest, or? She's very creative and talented so I'm sure she will think of something.

So now that I've veered off on a tangent, I'll go back to Plan A tomorrow. But now I've got a deadline - get this warp off on Monday, wet finish the fabric for Shannon on Tuesday so we can pack it with us on Wednesday.

Re: my website - today I purchased the next size website package so that the videos won't use up my bandwidth in a day or two. :)

Now that I've gotten friendly with the video camera, I see more videos coming. I actually shot one this afternoon, but hadn't noticed that the battery was nearly dead, so it didn't turn out. However, I'll try again on the next warp and get it to Allan to include on my website. Putting them on my blog is okay, but I think I actually get more traffic to my website, so..........might as well keep all the 'educational' stuff in one place?

Currently reading Regenesis by C. J. Cherryh (I had a read-fest this morning and finished the Nevada Barr when I *ought* to have been sleying and starting to weave!)

Bamboo Rain

Shawl #2

In between helping Katie get started I did get the AVL dressed with the Bamboo Rain yarn. It's weaving up co-operatively and looking quite nice on the loom.

The bright pink has been somewhat subdued by the paler purple being used for weft on this shawl. The first shawl I used pink weft and it's pretty bright. But with winter coming soon, bright isn't necessarily a bad thing. :}

I'm going way out on a personal creative limb for the next shawl. I have some dark turquoise dyed and will get over my trepidation and go ahead and weave the next shawl using that for weft. The bobbins are already wound, so I'm committed!

This afternoon, though, is lace. Since my pillow is bare I'll probably just go with pillow, bobbins and some yarn and try to find another bookmark pricking to do. My goal is to have some bookmarks to include in with Christmas cards this year. So far I've made a half dozen but I've also given some away so there is a ways to go before I can meet that goal.

Katie dressed the loom this morning, pretty much by herself. A big step for her as she's not done back to front beaming before and was finding it all a bit overwhelming. However, she has just about finished sleying and it isn't even lunch time yet. :)

On Friday I dressed the loom while she video taped - she is a visual learned and wanted a visual record for reference. Part of that video will be loaded onto my website (it was too large to post on blogspot). Watch for it next week sometime. It will be on the Education page if I remember correctly.

I've offered to let her do a guest post here, so we'll see if she has time.

Currently reading A Vein of Deceit by Susanna Gregory

Weaving Coaching

This summer I've had the treat of having several students come for weaving coaching. All of them have been interested in improving their physical skills, with the aim of increasing their productivity.

Sharon has a busy life and a satisfying but demanding job and therefore her time to weave is limited. She was interested in using that time wisely and well and had a feeling that she could not only weave more efficiently but also more ergonmically.

She had not woven on my type of small loom before, so I set the loom up with a tea towel warp and let her get used to the loom. And then, without her being aware of when I was doing it, I video taped her to get a benchmark of where she was with her current weaving skills.

Video #1

After watching her weave for a while, I stopped her and made some suggestions. We discussed holding and throwing the shuttle, and how to treadle - what muscles were being used, how to track your place in a treadling sequence and so on.

And then I let her weave some more. The next day I video taped her again.

Video #2

Sharon had worked hard on changing her method of throwing the shuttle, and worked on her treadling. We also talked some more about rhythm and the over all motions involved in weaving. We discussed ways that she could break out of her 'default' motions, even though that meant slowing down even more in order that she could isolate the motions and concentrate on the new movements.

And then she wove some more.

At the end of Day 3, Sharon had a breakthrough and hit her stride. She had designed, wound, beamed, threaded/sleyed and woven off an entire 5 meter long warp before dinner at 5:30 pm.

Video 3

Video 3 was done about half way through the shawl Sharon beamed the morning of Day 4.

Sometimes what we think we are doing and what we are actually doing are two different things. Having someone take a video tape while you are weaving can be tremendously helpful in order to discover where you might make some small but significant changes. Discussing your technique with an experienced weaver can also help, and having a video clip or letting them watch while you weave might help sort out where you need to adjust in order to improve.

Wide(r) Weaving

So I realized that all of the video clips I've got posted to my blog are of narrow weaving. And since the current warp is a bit wider at 26", thought I'd do another video showing my weaving rhythm on this warp.

You can see that I'm a lot slower due to the simple fact that it takes the shuttle longer to traverse the shed than on a narrower warp.

After watching myself weave during the editing of these clips I was reminded of the poem by Robbie Burns - something about having the gift to see ourselves as others see us? I'm sure he never envisioned video cameras that would allow us just that gift.

Funny the things we focus on. I'm a - hmm - substantial - person (wish I were a little less substantial, but so far haven't been able to change that). Anyway, I got mesmerized by the muscles in my forearm. Not a view that I generally get to see, after all!

During a workshop with Norman Kennedy he showed us slides of the Old People living on one of the remote islands off northern Scotland. I remember him commenting on the women and their forearms.

I think I'd fit right in should I ever visit.

currently reading The Dance of Death by Kate Sedley

Another Weaving Clip

The age old question - do you beat on an open shed? closing shed? closed shed?

I thought I beat on a closing shed until I really started thinking about what I was doing and observing what was actually happening. And then I began thinking that at the moment of impact, the shed was in fact closed.

So I set up the video camera so that it was recording what was happening behind the beater on a level with the warp in order to see.

And now you can, too.

The Tally for the Day

Today I:

wove a chenille scarf and finished the warp on the loom
dressed the loom, wove two more scarves
dressed the loom, wove two more scarves
got the next warp attached to the apron beam ready to beam tomorrow
wound skeins to be dyed


next warp - pretty!

I also:
read my book
had coffee with the neighbour where we discussed traditional Swedish upholstery fabric and looked at yarn samples
helped Doug with the bathroom reno
messed about with Facebook

People tell me I'm fast. I guess I am, but then I've made a point of working as efficiently and ergonomically as I can.

Somewhere someone commented that they would love to be a fly on my studio wall. Well, people can actually do that. It was why I produced CD Weaver. The book on cd format allowed me to embed video clips into the pdf document and we literally shot the pictures over my shoulder for most of them. (For examples of two of the video clips, click on the 'video clip' tag to the right, or go to my website, click on Store, then CD Weaver.)

New weavers get so focussed on the cloth they forget that it requires physical skill to weave and that by concentrating on developing good physical skills, good cloth will result. Learning to be consistent will bring a new weaver closer to perfection than obsessing and fiddling with selvedges. It's why I keep telling people that if they can't be perfect, be consistent!

Perfection is just a concept, anyway - a goal to work towards.

Leonard Cohen has an amazing way with words - this verse from one of his songs kind of sums it up for me:

Ring the bell that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything -
that's how the light gets in.

Court perfection, don't try to hunt it down.

Changing bobbins

This video clip shows how I change a bobbin and start a new thread. It is another clip from CD Weaver. Using the Leclerc shuttle, I flip the empty bobbin up with the index finger of my left hand, slip the full bobbin on, thread it through the hole, snap it into place and continue weaving.

About Shuttles

With all the thinking I've been doing about ergonomics and efficiency, I thought I'd discuss a little bit about why I use the shuttles I weave with.





Since I don't want to be fighting with my equipment, I have chosen shuttles that have spindles that stand upright rather than being mounted with a spring that prevents them from moving completely out of the way of the shuttle cavity.

It takes just a flick of my left hand index finger to flip the spindle upright in order to slip the bobbin onto it.



With the bobbin upright, I can easily thread the weft yarn through the opening in the side as there is plenty of clearance and lots of room to see the hole.




A quick snap and the bobbin is seated and ready to go. No fumbling, no working artificially slowly because the equipment gets in the way of doing the job that needs to be done.

Now someone might very well say to me "But Laura, it doesn't take all that long to put a bobbin in a shuttle with a spring loaded spindle." My response is that when you do this task many times in a day, if it takes even 15 or 20 seconds longer those seconds add up to minutes and minutes add up to hours. Lost minutes that mean I don't get paid as much for what I'm doing because my equipment is inefficient.

One reason I can weave quickly and produce as much as I can during the day is because I have targeted equipment and processes that are needlessly inefficient and changed them to things that allow me to work as effectively as I can.

Very early on in my career I realized that while I can make more money, I can never make more time. Buying equipment that allows me to work as efficiently as possible has always seemed to me to be a wise investment.

For more info on how I hold and throw the shuttle, check the video clip label.