Coaching Weaving

Having Syne come to the studio meant I spent some time analyzing what I do in order to try and come up with the language needed to convey the skills being shown.



You can read about Syne's perspective here: http://3.ly/B3x



One of the things that new weavers don't understand right away is that the relationship between the weaver, the loom and the materials being woven is a three way conversation.



For example, the warp I wove today was a bit of a challenge.



(I apologize if the picture isn't in focus - I'm still getting used to my new glasses!)

This weaving is not my best work. The yarn is a wool/silk blend, very softly spun and therefore a lot more elastic than what I'm used to. Given that elasticity, it should have been set at 12 epi not the 10 I chose, especially given the weft that was used.

But this is a sample warp, and these are things I needed to learn about the qualities of the yarn in order to plan a 'real' project.

(What I actually wanted to use was for weft was wool but the only yarn I had on hand that was the right colour was a silk. The silk was a bit too fine and very slippery, so my beating is not as consistent as I wouild like. )

One of the reasons I wanted Syne to weave on the four shaft loom was to evaluate the physical skills she came to me with already. After giving her time to get used to the strange (to her) loom, I video taped her while she wove. We were then able to look at what she was doing and tweak her physical movements.

I then video taped her again after she had time to incorporate the changes and reviewed her movements so that she could again see what she was doing. After that we worked on how to figure out the choreography of the various treadlings with suggetions for how I remember the sequences.

Unlearning muscle memory in order to learn new muscle memory (changing treadling sequences) is also a skill. We have to put our minds to the task of over riding what we have learned in order to learn the new information.

Some people are more open to being able to do this than others. Dancers, for example, are constantly learning new dances - new choreography - new step sequences. Not so different from weavers, really.

After finishing the tea towel warp and feeling comfortable with the loom and that particular warp, I radically changed gears on Syne and we set the loom up with a very open weave. The yarn was a silk boucle warp and weft, and the set was 10 epi. The challenge was to control the beat and create a gauze fabric.

When we weave we must do that in co-operation with the equipment and the yarn we are using. We must be open to feedback from both so that we can choose the manner of how we use them in order to create the quality of cloth we desire. Learning the limits of the equipment and the yarn is an important step in becoming a proficient weaver.

After weaving with the Silken Twist (available from Yarns Plus http://yarnsplus.com) I now have a much better understanding of how it behaves e.g. it stretches under tension so I have to weave longer in the loom in order to get the woven length required, the set to use and which yarns I would like to combine with it. The fact that this particular cloth isn't my best work doesn't mean that it isn't perfectly acceptable as it is. But I now have the information I need to continue on to create a fabric that is good, instead of just acceptable.

And therein lies the on-going challenge, and what keeps me fascinated with weaving.

Scarf #3

This morning I started weaving the third and last scarf on this warp, and wish I'd gone with the teal sooner!

Oh well.

The warp is off the loom, and now I'm wanting to work on something else - something other than the AVL - and not sure what to tackle. Maybe knitting on the sample shawl would be good?

I've got massage and doctor tomorrow afternoon - I could leave winding the next warp for the Fanny for Karena to do......... :)

Time for dinner anyway - think I'll make soup with the bits and leftovers in the fridge and clean that out.

Too Much Quiet

The house seemed awfully empty and terribly quiet once our 'playmates' had left and I just didn't feel up to fighting with the fly shuttle box on the AVL.

So, consulting the handy job list, I was reminded that I needed to weave some samples of the yarn I will be offering for sale (some of it is already listed in my Art Fire store http://LauraFry.artfire.com)

The skeins of painted rayon slub have about 800 yards per skein - too much for a warp for one scarf, not enough for two. However I also have some painted Tencel from Yarns Plus in the right colour, so I coned off a skein of each and wound a 7 meter long warp using the two yarns together. A 7 meter long warp should easily give me 3 scarves.

Since this was for sample scarves I wasn't too fussed about exactly how wide the warp would be and simply kept winding until I ran out of yarn - 9 inches plus 4 ends wide.

The warp is set at 24 epi and for the first scarf I'm using Bambu 7 for weft.

The threading was a straight twill with Wall of Troy every once in a while. I'm not really sure why so many people say you must use only plain weave with variegated yarns. I think fancy twills look quite nice, too. :)

Not sure what else I'll use for weft for the other two scarves. I'm toying with trying a 1450 rayon chenille for one as I've several shades of blue that would probably look nice, too. If I use rayon chenille, I will use plain weave, though. Will see where the Muse leads me.

Tomorrow is lace - I'll let my Lace Ladies know the article in WeaveZine is published as they beta tested the pricking for it. :) http://www.weavezine.com

Currently reading The Devil's Disciples by Susanna Gregory

Cloth Materializing

Got started weaving last night after fixing a threading error, and a tie-up error. It's taking a while to get used to the rhythm - two picks of foundation, one pick of pattern. It feels unbalanced and erratic, which is only normal given the hop, hop, skip nature of throwing the two shuttles. :)

With such a heavy concentration of chenille - threads in both warp and weft - I opted for the cheese grater beam. This warp is 20 yards long, so I want the auto cloth advance to work properly!

This first afghan has some quality issues - i.e. the tie up error and loops at the selvedge - but since this warp was an experiment - and a very 'full size sample' I'll probably give the first one to my mom. The blue is less grey in life than in the photo, and should go with her sofa. Besides which, she's my mom and will forgive a few oopsies. :D

I'll design a more adverturous pattern for the next one now that I've figured out how the tie up works. The threading I used was not the traditional sequence, but threaded on a point progression over 16 shafts. If anyone is interested in the draft, I can post to Weavolution.

The Tricky Bit

It's beginning to come back to me - how much extra work and how fiddly working with two warp layers is. :)




The above photo shows the first warp all beamed, and the second (upper) warp nearly beamed. I put plastic over the bottom warp beam just to make sure that nothing gets caught on the rakes of the lower beam.



Once both warps are beamed, I start by positioning the lower warp ready for threading. All the bouts are taped to a long stick which then gets taped to the loom just behind the shafts at the bottom with sufficient slack for easy threading. This is my 'normal' position for threading a warp.




Then all the bouts for the upper warp are transferred onto another long stick after putting the plastic back over the bottom beam and the bottom warp.





The second (upper) warp is then suspended from long string loops attached to the top of the loom frame.

I've left the upper stick angled so you can see the two warps, one above the other.





Then I started threading. And remembered another 'trick' about working with two layers of warp.

Do NOT wrap the bouts or any part of any bout around either the other layer or other ends in the same bout!

I don't know if you can see it in this photo, but I keep the tape holding the bottom ends taped to the bottom of the shaft while the tape holding ends from the upper ends is taped to the top of the shafts.

This requires a certain amount of 'contortion' on my part, but helps to remind me not to get the ends wrapped around each other.

I'd hoped to be able to thread several ends at a time as is my usual approach to threading, but in the end decided that it was going to be a lot faster in the long run to thread one fat thread, then two skinny ones, tie them in a slip knot, then do the next three ends. Slower by the end, faster by the project.

Sectional Beaming

I'm setting up the AVL for an experimental warp for Diversified Plain Weave.

With DPW, you need two different warp threads - two very fine ends to every thick end. Since I'm beaming a 20 yard long warp, and the fine threads are very fine compared to the thick ones, it's much more sensible to beam them separately.

When I'm doing two warps, I usually beam the bottom warp first, then the top one.

My beams have 1" sections. There are times when I wish I had 2" sections in order to halve the time required to beam, but generally, 1" makes more sense for me.

I like to work with fine threads, and a 2" section would mean twice as many yarn packages, so twice as much spool winding (if I'm using spools) or buying twice as many tubes (which can get to be expensive).

My loom is old. It doesn't have a directional roller for the bottom beam - the warp just comes off the top of the actual beam, straight through the heddles to the front of the loom.

One of the things required before I could beam this warp was have Karena make a bunch more leader strings. :}

I'm about 2/3's done the fine warp, and hope to finish beaming and start threading tomorrow.

On-line Interview

http://squareonebeads.blogspot.com/