Analytical

Since the Big Project is about choosing yarns appropriate for the final purpose of the cloth I decided that fabric samples alone were not going to be enough, that I would also have to include samples of the yarn used as well.

The question then became how to efficiently handle making lots of little bundles of yarn.  The obvious choice is to staple the bundles to the pages.  Yes, I could drill holes and lark's head them through the holes.  Anyone want to volunteer to spend the hundreds of hours that would take?  Anyone want to pay someone to do that?  Didn't think so.  :D  So, I will staple the bundles and those who want to lark's head instead are welcome to make that change.  I know of several people who pulled the staples from the samples in Magic and sewed them to the pages instead.  Makes perfect sense, especially if you live in a humid climate, but if I'd done that the book would have been over $1000, not the price I actually charged!  I ruled out glue because glue eventually dries out and then the samples fall off the pages.

Since the sectional beam was used to dress the loom I left the spools used on the rack.  Using one of my 6" wooden rulers as a guide I am tieing a knot in the end, then a knot every 6" or so.  I'm doing this in groups of 5 knots.  More than that and the length of 'string' becomes cumbersome to handle.  Once I've got all 30 groups done I'll cut them apart.  Then when I staple the samples to the page I'll also have all the little bundles ready to staple as well.

A 6" sample of the yarn might be a bit generous but yarn is cheap (relatively speaking) and I wanted people to get a good sample they could examine and even deconstruct if they wanted in order to better understand the properties of the yarn being used. 

The baby blanket samples are in the washing machine and the first batch are just now ready to go into the dryer.  Tomorrow I'll press those along with the place mats and tea towels I've managed to hem.  It feels good to see some real progress being made.

Merry Christmas To Me

When Doug asked me what I wanted for Christmas I told him there really wasn't anything I needed - or wanted - other than a new winter coat.

We take winter rather seriously around here (in spite of the too mild temps we've been having the past few years) and a good winter coat is a necessity when temps can dip to -20 or even -30.  Even though we haven't been having those kinds of temps, winter just lasts so very long here you wind up wearing a winter coat for months.  And my current coat was deficient in several areas. 

Since a coat is something that I need to try on and make sure it fit I set off for the mall this afternoon and spent a frustrating couple of hours trekking from store to store. 

It was nearly impossible to find any kind of selection of coats in my size and I decided that either the shops have determined that 'large' people don't need coats or all the 'large' women had scooped them up before Christmas and left the dregs for me to fumble through.

I finally found one coat that would do - except that it didn't have storm cuffs (and I'm tired of having cold arms) and it was rather more money than I was willing to spend, even on sale.  However it did actually fit (arms were long enough, shoulders broad enough) so I made a mental note and thought I'd try the other mall and see if there was anything at The Bay.

Back out into the sleety snow and another half hour of trying on whatever coats I could find in my size.  (Seems they had the same problem with sizes.)

After trying on nearly every coat in my size I was ready to give up and head back to the other mall but I made one last sweep through the department and found a coat that I actually liked.  It was a silver grey with a very light silver around the collar fading to a darker steel grey at the bottom.  It was a bit longer than I'd prefer but what the heck, figured I may as well check the size.

Oh my!  My size.  So I doffed my coat one more time, put on the coat and yes, it had storm cuffs, the sleeves were long enough, it had enough slack that I could wear a sweater with it and it was on deep discount.

Hallelujah!

I even got a further discount when I got to the till.  :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Re-Tooling

A few days ago I posted this photo with the comment that I wasn't happy with the spacing of the colcolastic yarn and that I was going to resley the warp.

So last night I started re-sleying.  To remove the header I just cut the weft and pulled it out rather than unweave it.

When nothing much is changing, just squeezing the yarns together in the same reed, I don't pull all the threads out.  Instead I just move each bout of threads over one at a time.  I find this makes it much easier and keeps the threads under tension and controlled until their turn comes.  I loosen the knot of the next group and then just stick the hook into the next empty space grabbing the threads from the next dent to be moved.  It only takes a few minutes and it's done.

I expect I'll weave this sample warp off today - IF I'm happy with the new spacing - and go through the workshop warps to see how many need to be updated.  I've got a supply of 10/2 mercerized cotton now so that will probably be added as it is a yarn commonly used by US weavers.

As regards the colcolastic yarn, it is more fragile than I expected which is a bit disappointing, but now I know that I will take more care handling it as warp.  I will suggest back to front beaming and lashing on rather than tieing knots as I did originally.  These things are good to know so that people understand how to handle the yarn. 

Big Project Reveal

top of the big bag of yarn that arrived yesterday - yum!

stapler stand

cutting up sample #2

I hesitated to do the Big Project Reveal so soon but have made sufficient progress that I feel as though it is well on the way.

The first two samples have turned out the way I wanted them to, #3 is on its way to reaching material form (pun intended!) and #4 is actually further along in the design process so may get bumped up the queue.

So what is the topic?  This project grew out of the Workshop in a Box turned lecture/seminar/workshop called A Good Yarn.  What I am doing is taking a variety of fairly commonly available cotton yarns and designing projects for which I think they are particularly suited.  The text pages will talk about the specific characteristics of cotton fibre/yarn with the aim of helping people who want to know these sorts of things choose appropriate yarns for their cloth.  Fibre geeks I suppose I could call us.  :^)

I brought the stand for the electric stapler home the other day and cleared out a corner for it to live in.  Not entirely clear - the table still needs to be cleaned off and the buckets of bobbin lace - although they may wind up living under the stand!  (Doug has just returned with the stapler and set it up immediately so that is good to go.)  As soon as I cut the finished #1 samples apart I can start stapling.

The format for this publication will be very similar to Magic in the Water.  The samples will be stapled to card stock but this time I'll also include samples of the yarn used.  Drafts are primarily for 4 shafts, although I may include a couple of 8 shaft drafts.

The pages will be printed via a laser printer (I think - I still have to explore actual options).  There will be no binder, partly to keep the cost of publication down, but also to reduce the shipping cost.  Most people can get their hands on a 3 ring binder, after all.  And as someone from Europe pointed out, their standard paper size and ring configuration is different than in N. America.  The sample pages are already drilled for the N. American standard so they will come with that format.

I am making 150 copies (give or take) so if you want to be first in line, let me know.  (email laura at laurafry dot com) I'm taking names of people who are interested and will contact them first.  Price is still ball parked at between $50 and $60, depending on cost of printing.  For this you will receive 10 projects illustrated with before and after samples of the cloth, draft and wet finishing info.  (Well, I could hardly leave that out, right???)

With fewer and fewer guilds including samples in their newsletters and the cost of producing a publication with actual samples in, I'm hoping there will be enough interest to carry on with several more topics (potentially:  silk, linen, the rayons)

Please let your friends know.  150 copies is all there will be - first come, first served!

Currently reading Inheritance by Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm

Selvedges

3 thread 'float' on selvedge 2/8 Tencel warp/weft 24 epi

3 and 5 thread 'floats' on selvedge 2/20 cotton warp with 2/16 cotton weft 32 epi/ppi.  The 3/1-1/3 twill causes small 'scallops' at the edges.

3 and 5 thread floats on selvedge 2/20 cotton warp with mystery weft 36 epi/ppi

None of these textiles were woven with a floating selvedge or temple.  In my experience - depending on yarn size - a 3 or even 5 thread float at the selvedge is not a problem.
Rather than worry about a textile having a plain weave selvedge I would far rather see weavers focusing on being consistent.  Learning how to hold and throw their shuttles well.  Learning how to advance and re-tension their warps.  Learning how to beam their warps so that they go on under consistent tension.  Learning how to wet finish their cloth. Learning fibre characteristics so that they can make appropriate choices for their textiles.  Learning at least enough theory to make changes to the project notes found in publications - or recognize when there is a mistake in the printed format.

But none of that is necessary if the weaver is enjoying what they are doing and are happy with their results.  If they aren't, then perhaps they need to dig a little deeper and learn more....

Speaking of which, there are now 7 students enrolled in the John C. Campbell Folk School class in March.  I'll take up to 12.  It also looks like the workshop in Durham is a go with a few more empty spots.  Not sure about Sarasota or Asheville.

Currently reading The Midsummer Crown by Kate Sedley

12 Days of Christmas

a weaver's Christmas wreath?

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me:


12 sheep a baa-ing

11 shearers shearing

10 carders carding

9 spinners spinning

8 dyers dyeing

7 winders winding

6 weavers weaving

5 golden fleece....

4 empty looms

3 shuttles

2 bobbins full

And a warping board with a new warp!

To all my fibre friends - I wish you the very best for the holiday and the coming year - may your looms never be empty, your stash always full and your mistakes all fixable.

Cheers!
Laura

One Winner, One....Not

herringbone diamonds

needs tweaking

I'm really quite pleased with the baby blanket/big project fabric.  When I want to do a large diamond, I use a herringbone threading/treadling sequence rather than an extended point twill.  What happens when you reverse the twill direction on an 'ordinary' point twill is that the outside warp ends fall out of the woven cloth.  If the distance is only 3 picks it's not a big deal, but when you want to do a large goose eye of an inch or more, it's a problem. 

So, rather than do an extended point twill I use a draft such as:

This is just one repeat - if you keep repeating the threading/treadling, you get large diamonds as in the baby blankets. 

(A little preview of what will be included in the Big Project - a little present for the holiday!)

As for the sample for the workshop, I'm not happy with the spacing of the colcolastic so tomorrow I'll cut the header out and resley.