Loom Waste?

One of the benefits of a counterbalanced loom is that you can force the shed. Since I was already using a stick shuttle I just kept on weaving, trying to get as much length woven out of the warp as I possibly could. :)



The loom waste on this warp was miniscule! If I'd known before I started weaving I would have lashed on and been more stingy about how much fringe I left on the first sash, but...I wound up with one sash at the original 112", one with an additional 16" and the last with an additional 12" in length. As it is I'll have to needleweave a couple of threads in because the shuttle skipped a few times in the last inch or so. Not surprising when you see the shed size! :)



And here they are off the loom. Not looking too bad, even if I say so myself. :)

Now for a break before I dress the loom for the last two. I'll be really careful about tying on, just leave exactly what I need for the fringe, weave the first one with an extra 16" in length (to match the longest one on the first warp) and the last one will be as long as it will be.

Today I also need to prepare for the Beginning Weaving workshop on the weekend. Two students for sure, possibly three. In between helping them I'll wind some more warps for the guild project loom. It will be nice to use up the last of that yarn. It's all profit for the guild now as the yarn was paid for several warps ago. :)

Inching Along

So I did as Barbara suggested - stopped for dinner, watched some tv, hemmed and knitted, and then went back down to the loom concentrating on getting that right selvedge a whole lot more consistent. :) This photo shows the first sash about 3/4's of the way done.



And here's a close up showing the selvedges.



Doesn't address the white showing, but I suspect I'm obsessing over something over which they won't really care all that much about. :}

For the most part I've stopped taking special orders unless I can just make something close and let the client decide whether or not to take it. But these sashes - well they need them before the end of May for a performance, and I knew I could weave them. Just didn't expect them to require so much physical effort. My neck is not happy after doing the first one. :( So I pilled up, will take a break and then start on number two.

Massage tomorrow, so hopefully I can book another appointment fairly soon to take care of the rest of the physical effort that is being required. It's been a long time since I've used a stick shuttle to carry the weft and used it as a beater - I'd forgotten just how much my neck disapproves when I do that. :(

Really wish I had asked for more than what I charged for them - although they weren't very happy about my price as it was. :( Oh well, at least I hope they will be happy that I delivered in a timely fashion. :D If my neck doesn't seize up entirely, I ought to be able to deliver by the weekend.

Going Slow to go.....Fast?

I am not a particularly happy camper. I'm not happy with the results I'm getting, and I'm not happy about how I'm having to go about getting even those results. :(




Notice anything odd in the photo above? Like, where's the reed?

Well, I was even less happy with the results while using a 6 dent reed, 8 ends per dent. I was getting definite reed streaks and in this textile, was highly doubtful the streaks would come out.

I'm not happy about using the white weft (see photo below) but since the density isn't quite warp faced, the brick red was showing through and muddying up the rest of the colours.



The white is better, but of course shows on the selvedge.

The only way I can weave this is with a stick shuttle, using the shuttle to beat the wefts into place. This is just the first 3 inches or so of weaving, and I need to work a lot harder on my right hand selvedge (my right hand is my dominant hand, so the left selvedge is much better.)

I'm also thinking I need to quadruple the brick red and try it again with the stick shuttle. The textile is about a 1/4 inch narrower, so the warp is providing better coverage without the reed. But not entirely, so I'm thinking that's a waste of time and effort.

Sigh.........

This project is proving once again that I really am not all that happy about doing special orders that need to be absolutely precise.

Currently reading Shades of Blue by Bill Moody

Four Boxes

Someone emailed me today asking if the four box fly shuttle was really useful or if it was 'overkill' as her friends were advising her. :)

When I ordered the loom originally (1983) I ordered it with the double box fly shuttle. Over the years, I found the double box useful even though I didn't use it all of the time.

When I ordered the air assist for the loom in the late 1990's, I was weaving for a fashion designer and quite often fiddling around with 3 and sometimes 4 shuttles. It made sense for me to upgrade to the four box fly shuttle to accomodate the designs I was weaving for my client so that I could weave them more efficiently.

After having AVL assure me it would be impossible to fit the four boxes to my loom, I ordered it anyway and Doug found a way to fit it on the underslung beater of my loom.

I then challenged him to come up with a way to change the boxes using the air assist system. Again he was assured by 'experts' that it would be impossible, and again he found a way. :D

Quite frankly I haven't been using the fly shuttle much for the last 3 years as I've been mostly weaving scarves and hand throwing. But that's the thing about tools. They wait very patiently for when they are needed again.

This project is using 7 shuttles. I'm winding the metallic by hand on the pirn because it won't work on the industrial pirn winder, so I have one AVL shuttle and 6 of the industrial shuttles. Four of the shuttles are in the boxes, the others are parked on the stool next to me and I change them out as required.

I expect that the yarns trailing toward the stool are visible in the enlarged picture. I stopped weaving tonight after the 8th headdress because I need to wind more of the metallic. Plus I'd made such good progress that it felt like time to quit and work on the transcription of WeaveCast episode 35. I've been wanting to listen to the interview with Tom Beaudet for a long time, but just haven't had the time to do that until now.

But to answer the question of whether or not the four boxes are useful? It depends. If you need them, you really need them. If you don't - well, they won't complain if you don't use them. :)

Headdress

Here is the headdress fabric. Amazingly enough, I was quite happy with the very first one and didn't make any changes from the proto-type. How rare is that? :D

What I am weaving is no where near as fancy as the example given me, but I'm working under a very tight deadline here and keeping track of 7 shuttles and a complex colour sequence is taking long enough that I opted for simple in terms of weave structure. These are for dance costumes, so it's important that they look striking from a distance. I wound up using more metallic than originally planned on paper so that the headdresses will really sparkle on stage.

I also wove quite a bit more of the brick at the beginning and end than I anticipate will wind up being used in the actual headdress because the finished article will be lined and interlined and rather than leave too little for seam allowances, I wove a bit extra. Since I have lots of extra warp, more was easy, and it's not possible to make something longer if it is too short. :)

Just finished dinner so I'm going to head back down to the loom and see how far I can get tonight. It would be fantastic to get this warp all woven so that I can wet finish tomorrow and deliver with the skirts on Monday. :)

Currently reading Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

Headdresses

The warp for the headdresses is beamed. Generally I wouldn't set up the AVL for such a short warp (5 yards including an 'extra' yard for sampling) but the warp is 32" wide so I can use the fly shuttle on it. Notice I've offset the warp 4" to the right to compensate for the longer travel distance the weft makes when it goes to the right side of the loom.

Since the weaving requires 7 colours (shuttles), the four box fly shuttle will help me keep the weft yarns in order. When I need to use that many different shuttles, I drag a tv tray over to park the ones not currently being used.

The headdresses are to co-ordinate with the sashes, so I took the colours and sequence from the sash and will need to do some proto-types before I can firmly decide on how many picks of each colour. The sash is about half the width of the headdress, so I may have to do some fiddling in order to get things set - hence the extra yard.

The dancers want some gold metallic in the headdress, so where the yellow appears in the sash will be replaced with metallic, plus I'll bracket some of the other colours to sparkle it up.

I'm listening to Leonard Cohen - Live in London, and cheerfullness keeps breaking out. ;)

Currently reading The Boy's Tale by Margaret Frazer

'New' Loom

So above is the new loom. It looks a bit weird because the Leclerc Meko is folded up and shoved in front of it. I am seriously running out of room........

The new loom is a J-Made and needs a few minor repairs, but nothing that Doug can't handle. Once he's finished installing the insulation in the attic, gutted and re-done the bathroom, plus many other small jobs that have been sadly neglected around here the past few years. Now that we both have a little more energy, I'm hoping that he can get some maintenance on the house dealt with while I try to de-clutter.

I'm still trying to unload the van, and am seriously tempted to just leave all the yarn in the van for the next trip in May. Like I said, I am seriously running out of room. :(

But I did get the skirt fabric wet finished and will cut and serge it tomorrow. I promised to use orange thread but have to check first if I have any. May need to run to the store tomorrow to get some.

Also got some financial stuff dealt with and out of the way, so I do feel like I've made a little progress today.