Next Up

Today I wet finished the last two prototype textiles.  As it happens, all four are 'seconds' in one way or another.  The red Bambu weft one suffers from two different dye lots.  Unfortunately the colour difference was not noticable when it was on the cones, it only showed up when I wove with the pirns.  But as prototypes I now have enough information to go ahead with a 'real' warp. 

There is one more piece of the puzzle which I hope to discover on this warp - do I need to weave with a temple, or not?  I'm thinking I'm going to be much happier with the results if I do.  Unfortunately I don't have one the correct size so I'm going to have to try weaving on this warp and find out if I need to order one in.  Hopefully I can start weaving before chemo on Wednesday and place an order.  I don't know if I'll feel up to weaving until after the chemo ick wears off and Leclerc are very good about shipping things so I'll probably dress the Leclerc Fanny and weave on that loom if I need to wait for a temple to arrive from Quebec.

I've still got oodles of yarn I need to reduce from my stash, writing/editing/photography to do, fringe twisting, preparation of inventory to be shipped soon, spinning, and so on and so forth.  There is no lack of things to be done other than weaving on the AVL! 

The next warp is over half threaded and I'm hoping to finish that off tomorrow afternoon and be able to weave on Tuesday.

Done!

For the last prototype I tried the Bambu 12 (about 2/16 grist).  The colours together were lovely and vibrant, just what I needed as this week continued grey, wet and dreary.

This afternoon I cut the warp off the loom - had the happy circumstance of running out of weft just about the same time I ran out of warp at just the length I think I need for my full sized sample.  :)  Tomorrow I'll wet finish the two lengths of fabric on the beam and press on Sunday.

I've been working with another creative person to work up these samples/prototypes and we're thinking of sending them off to a 3rd person to test drive them.  Perhaps we are too close to them to be objective.  I think I've come pretty close to matching the cloth to the function but only a field test will work to see if I have.

None of the ffs's are 'perfect' but that's what prototyping is all about, right?  And yes, I do watch Prototype This from time to time!  :^)

I'm currently reading a biography of Leonard Cohen.  I'd read one written in the 1990's and wanted to find out how his life has gone since that book was written.  I have to confess I'm not all that happy with the book.  It seems to suffer from too little human editing with too much reliance on spellcheck and I'm finding lots of typos and poor grammar.  But I will continue to read because I am interested in the subject.

Fox Fibers

before and after

Well, I was going to run the sample through the washer 6 times before comparing the colour of the before and after samples, but this shows the change in colour after only 3 times through the washing machine.

I will continue to process the 'after' sample to see if the colour continues to change or not, but this is a pretty dramatic difference already!

It will be very interesting to see if the lighter value colours will change as much since it looks to me as though they are made by blending white fibres in with the naturally coloured ones.

Made some headway on sewing up the prototypes of the new product.  One is complete, a second ready to be sewn, which I will do today.

Since cycle #5 has been delayed until next week, I am going to try to finish weaving the rest of the prototype warp and get the last two prototypes at least wet finished this weekend.  But the samples are looking promising and I will probably go ahead with a production run and then see about presenting the items to the potential market to find out what the reaction from potential customers will be.  Still lots of groundwork to accomplish.

Currently reading Hitman by David Foster

Lace Bookmark

It's been months since I've done much bobbin lace.  A couple of weeks ago I got a simple Torchon bookmark started and today I finished it off. 

We'll meet again the end of August - perhaps I'll get another bookmark started before then, although I have rather a lot of items on my to-do list. 

For today I decided to take a day 'off' from weaving. The two prototype samples are ready to go into the washing machine and I'll press them tomorrow.  Looks like I probably won't get any weaving done on Monday or Tuesday as both days are loaded up with commitments. 

Today instead of weaving I've been spinning more of the roving from my stash I'd forgotten I had.  Plus I found a bunch of singles I had spun up a few years ago.  I think I'll wind those skeins onto spools and ply them.  Once those are plied I'll have a pretty good selection of skeins to offer for sale in September.  And hopefully some of it will go to new homes and be gone from my stash?

Black and Red

Here is prototype (aka full sized sample) number 3.  On this one I used black for the weft.  Not sure what I'll use for weft on #4 - will have to go digging in the stash to see what I have.  Even though I'm thinking the bamboo will be too slippery, I do have enough of the Bambu 12 in a red to weave a fss, which I may do just to satisfy my curiousity.  That's what sampling is for, right?

The poll I put on the blog is almost over and with 123 votes 89% are for yes, 10% maybe.  That's quite strong favourable results.

After discussing technology challenges with my web maestro today we have come up with a plan.  It will need a bit more work on  my part but will mean a whole lot less work on his part. 

I still have to deal with photographing the samples but think I've got a workable plan for that, too.  I just need to set the studio up with a photography area.  Since that means dedicating my work table for that until I'm done, and I need to sew the prototypes first, I'm waiting until those are ready before I jump into that part of the job.

After a lot of thought and reading through the comments received I have also decided to 'publish' Magic on a cd.  That way if people have computer crashes they will not lose the content but can simply re-load from their cd.  Given that the files will be on a cd I see no reason to involve a 3rd party so rather than sell digital Magic via some other website, I will do that myself.  Since I would have to do all the marketing myself anyway, I could not see the wisdom in paying a 3rd party to host the files.

And my web maestro dangled an intiguing idea before me today - more on that once he investigates a bit further to see if it's feasible.  But as usual, he's right on the cutting edge of the technology.  And that's all the hint I will give about that right now!

Currently reading Lamb to the Slaugher by Aline Templeton

New Yarn!

There's only one thing better than reducing stash and that's adding to it!

My order of Fox Fibers arrived today and there were a couple of extras in the box - a cotton boll of the natural brown fibre and some labels that I can use to attach to my weaving.  Nice touch, Sally!

One of the features of this yarn is that the colours do not fade.  They are not dyed but are naturally coloured.  In fact the colours may deepen over time and exposure to alkalinity. 

As soon as I've finished weaving full sized sample #2 I'll weave a sample using the darkest of the browns (I think she gets her shades by adding white fibres as the lighter colours look a bit tweedy), and then I'll run half of the sample through the washing machine a half dozen or so times and see if there is any discernible difference in the colours.

Two more yards and a bit to finish weaving with the dark blue.  I'll see how tired I am after the next yard.  It may have to wait until tomorrow.

Book Review

Today the mail brought a copy of The Fleece and Fiber Source Book.

I am a big proponant of weavers (and other fibre craftspeople) having at least a basic understanding of the nature of their materials.  While each fibre shares inherent characteristics, natural fibres come from living things - whether plant or animal sources - and as such are at the mercy of their environments and individual health systems.  Most fibre characteristics fall within a spectrum and we ignore those and the nature of the individual yarns in our hands at our peril.  Or the peril of attaining a successful textile at the very least.

It was with a great deal of anticipation that I learned that Deb Robson and Carol Ekarius were putting together a book about fleece and fibres and I am delighted to add this book to my personal library.

The book is beautifully presented and organized.  Each category of sheep has an overview and then individual breeds within each category are presented in more detail - i.e. a description of each breed of sheep/fleece is then followed by a Fact 'sheet' with fleece weight (approx), staple length (range is given), fibre diameter (measured in microns, again a range), lock characteristics, and natural colours available.  Additional info is given for dyeing, preparation/spinning tips, knitting, crocheting and weaving, and then 'best known for'.

Additional material in the form of a glossary, maps showing the location of the breeds, some history, systems for measuring fibre diameter, a word about allergies, information on rare breeds - there is much to digest in this hefty book. 

In addition to sheep, information about the following is also included:  goats, camelids, and Other Critters (dogs/cats, bison, fur and pelt animals, horse, musk ox, rabbits and yak).

Deb Robson spun the samples and even knitted or wove small swatches.

It would be marvelous if every guild on the continent bought a copy of this book for their libraries.  And if an individual really wants to know more about their raw materials, they might well consider their very own copy.

The more we know, the better able we will be to create textiles that are not just beautiful in appearance but appropriate for their intended purpose.

Fantastic reference book not to mention pretty coffee table book if you like photos of sheep.  :)  Well done Deb and Carol!

Currently reading Songs of Love and Death edited by George R. R. Martin