Complexity

This treadling is more complex than the original and makes an interesting large pattern. The X and O are still there, but elongated. I like creating curves in my fabric and while the raindrops were nice curves, they were a bit static. This pattern is more interesting to my eye. Such ornateness isn't to everyone's taste, though, so I'm only doing 4 of these.

Once again the hem is woven in a point progression.

I like to do hems like this for a couple of reasons. As mentioned yesterday, the draw in is more similar than when using plain weave as a hem for one thing.

For another, when working with rather large patterns that may - or may not - fit into the dimensions I'm aiming for, I can make the hem area longer or shorter to compensate.

For this towel, I increased the repeats in the hem. The next towel, which will have a much simpler treadling, I may decrease the repeats in the hem area.

It is one of the beauties of using weaving software - I can make changes, sometimes quite drastic ones, with very little time invested. I have a library of different treadlings that I can mix and match, or with about 10 to 15 minutes of input, come up with something completely different than what I've used before.

Twills quite fascinate me. I've been weaving various twills almost exclusively for several years, and I don't seem to ever run out of something new to try. :)

More Tea Towels

This is the second treadling on the current warp. I simplified the sequence somewhat and now have 'strings of pearls'? The red line is a cutting line so that I don't have to guess where to separate the towels when they come off the loom. You should be able to just see that I've woven the hems in a point twill progression. I prefer to do this rather than plain weave as there is less tendency for the hems to be a different width than the towel proper.

Also checked the area I wondered about in terms of a sleying error, but it is, indeed, a section where several of the very fine 40/3 darker threads are grouped. No mistake - this time! :}

Got four towels woven yesterday, and even managed some transcribing. But I'm also very behind on doing WeaveCast - new episode posted today - so I'm hoping to start on the last one before I leave on my next trip. I'm anxious to hear the interview with Tom Beaudet, who has been very kind to me. :)

Duck to Water?

Anna Marie sent this photo of what Christa Mae has been working on since the Bobbin Lace Show and Share last Sunday. :D

The bracelet at the top was made at the SnS. She then went on to make 3 more, then found this website: http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/lace/index.htm and is proceeding to learn new stitches and make some bookmarks.

Way to go Christa Mae! :D

The bobbins have been made from spindles they found at a local hardware store. We hope to see more of Sue, Anna Marie and Christa Mae.

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Well, hopefully not the Toil and Trouble when you use a doubling stand!



I'm trying to use up this extremely fine singles linen Lynn gave me last fall, and the only way it will work on the fine cotton warp is to double it. Yes, it's that fine! :O

However, as I mentioned in a previous post, trying to wind two strands of yarn together can produce less than desirable results. When I need to double a yarn for weft, I use this handy bucket arrangement as a doubling stand. One cone is inside the bucket, threaded through a hole in the lid, then through the centre of the cone on top of the lid. This yarn is so fine, you may not be able to actually see it in the photo.

You can use any number of things - there are purpose built gizmos, but the one I have is too small to handle these large cones (nearly 4 pounds each!) - and another simple solution is a plastic milk crate or wire file bin. Set the cone on the floor, then tip the crate over it and run the thread up through one of the holes in the crate. Then thread the yarn through the bottom of the second cone (I use a long threading hook to fish the yarn up through the cone) and set the second cone centered over the first cone. If the crate or bin has smooth sides, you can also set it on the side so that you don't have to lift it up to get at the bottom cone.

I've found that the longer a length the two yarns run together the better they wind onto the bobbin, so my bucket is approximately 6 feet away from the bobbin winder. The yarn goes straight up to a hook in the ceiling so the length the yarn travels before winding onto the bobbin is probably close to 15 feet.

When winding, the hand that guides the yarn onto the bobbin is held about 1 inch away from the bobbin. The closer you hold, the less likely the yarns will split apart as they wind on, and the more evenly they will load.

I've got 3 of these almost four pound cones. I don't know how much I can use up on this 40 yard warp, but I'm hoping that most of the two cones I'm using will go. There is still a little of the very fine cottons left, so those pale blues will get combined with bleached white for one more warp - which will hopefully use up the very fine cottons, and most of the very fine linens. :)

Holy Snowball, Batman!

I expected this design to be more of an X and O, but the O's definitely seem to dominate!

I'm not sure if the pattern should be called snowballs, or raindrops keep falling, or.....?

The lines in the cloth are due to cramming the threads in the reed, although in the picture I see one area that looks particularly wonky so I'm going to have to look at it more closely in the morning and see if there is a sleying error there or just that a few of the darker threads got grouped together. The stripes should even out during wet finishing so that it doesn't look quite so streaky.

I had delusions of finishing this warp before I left on Feb. 9, forgetting that 32 ppi is that much slower than 24 ppi. :} Not to mention the somewhat unco-operative linen weft. So instead of trying to rush through this warp, I decided to leave some of it on the loom for when I get back on the 23rd of Feb., and concentrate on some other things that are beginning to reach critical mass in terms of deadlines.

There is a load of wet finishing to do, a beginning workshop to organize (March 7/8 if anyone wants to come to Prince George during spring breakup - not the best time to visit!) transcribing, the workshop in Grand Forks to finish getting ready, Fibres West to get yarns labelled and packed, etc., etc., etc.

Spent part of this afternoon teaching an 8 year old to knit. Hopefully she can continue on with help from her mom.

The weather forecast says warm (above freezing) for the next week or so with colder weather returning on Feb. 9, the day I leave for warmer climes. :D

Currently reading Halo - The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund

A Pressing Matter

Or perhaps I should say, a matter of pressing?

I've mentioned my industrial steam press in previous posts, and since I had my Blackberry with me (I'm finding a camera phone amazingly handy!) thought I'd take some pictures. :D

So here is Puff.............




Doug installed Puff in my 'annex' which has two areas. The front, which has no windows, is where Puff resides. The other area has one tiny window and is crammed to the rafters with stuff!

Here is a shot of the drying rack with some of the tea towels I pressed this afternoon.





I don't mind doing more than one of an item. I find that customers buying placemats or even tea towels, quite often want more than one of the same design.

My goal is to use up as much of the yarn in the background of this photo as possible in the near future. The yarn to the right is a high quality acrylic and I've been doing throws, using it for weft. But I've got an awful lot of it...........

Here are some photos of the tea towels that I gave a finishing press to today. They are now ready to be tagged, priced and sent out for - hopefully - sale. The natural linen looks a bit green in this photo - it's actually much more beige. I think it's partly that the blue is coming through from the other side of the fabric. I wove these towels in August/September and finally got the last of them hemmed.





The following towels were woven in Nov/Dec/Jan. I've been lagging behind on my hemming, so it felt really good to get these dealt with today. The blue and beige are cotton and linen, the blue and white is all cotton.




Yesterday I cut and serged the last warp and those are the towels on the drying rack above. Well, some of them. There's still another load to go into the washer/dryer, but probably not until later in the week, now.

Today I got a phone call from a gal I met in December at a craft fair. She does surface design using embroidery techniques. She called to invite me to a drop in for craftspeople every second Wednesday. The next drop in just happens to be tomorrow, so I'm going to go and bring my tub of hemming. ;)

One of my goals was to be less of a stick-in-the-mud and try to develop more of a social life. The call felt like an invitation that I really wanted to accept, even though I'll miss the next one as I'll be out of town.

I Love My Fanny!

Leclerc Fanny, that is! :)

Finished the warp on the loom this morning. Here's a picture from the front.

While I don't recommend weaving this close to the reed generally, on this loom and with these yarns I can push beyond the 'sweet spot' in order to get the woven length I need. At this point if I start having a problem with stressing the selvedge threads I'm nearly done, so it's worth the risk in order to get the length I need for my project. :}




And here's the reason why I really love my Fanny - you can see how close to the apron I can weave if I have to. Tension isn't great, but again, worth pushing the equipment and the yarn in order to get the length required to finish my project. :D



It's also good to know just how little loom waste you can get away with if you are working with very expensive - or scarce - yarn...........