Waste Warp

A trick for minimizing waste with handspun warps is to use a "waste warp". A strong yarn is tied to the back beam and threaded through the heddles. The handspun warp is threaded through the reed and tied to the waste warp, one thread at a time. The waste warp can be reused. The handspun warp can be woven, theoretically, up to the knots that join the two warps.






When the threading is done, the warp is beamed, as usual, and the weaving begins! My waste
warp is the waste from my curtains. It was already threaded in a twill variant. I played around with the treadling to get a different pattern for this project. I think this fabric will be felted, due to some long floats, and then turned into a bag. The yarn is a friend's handspun.










Here is the draft I am using. The long floats occur at the sides of the three dots. Hmm. I'd point to them, but that doesn't work! As you move to the left from the tie-up square, the threading is: 12343214. Follow that second 4 down into the drawdown of the draft and there are three black squares. To the left and right of those squares are the long warp floats.

Random Artistic Moments

I got to color a t-shirt! This started out as a black print on a white t-shirt. My 4-year-old got to choose which color went with each dinosaur, but I got to color! Coloring with crayons (even the fabric version) is somehow therapeutic!

Wool Socks & Summer

These socks lasted on my feet for about two seconds after I put the camera down! It's hot here and these are 100% wool.

This is the "Tipsy Knitter Socks" pattern from "Socks, Socks, Socks". My gauge is a little off--these are hard to get over my ankle--but perhaps in winter that will be less of an issue. The yarn is hand-dyed, hand-spun Cotswold wool from my parents flock.

Notice how the two socks don't really match colorwise? I should have split the roving lengthwise and spun each half into yarn for one sock. That would have kept the color more consistent between the two.

New Tools

I got some new tools recently. This one (being explored by my youngest) is a spool rack. It is different from other rack I've seen, but will work well for storing yarn and also for putting cones of yarn together to see if I like the color.

















This is an amazing tool--it's a bobbing winder! It winds almost as fast as the little hand mixer winder I made! It's nice because it allows for greater control in winding speed and doesn't use any electricity! Plus, it's easy to wind!


Good tools are amazing!

Tonna's Blanket

My just turned 7 year old made the 18 squares for this blanket. The yarn is Lion Brand Woolease (leftovers from other projects). Each square is roughly 4". The first few squares were hard for her, but by the end she could weave them with her eyes closed. I'm so proud of her!

Plain Weave Challenge

I have read that plainweave is not something for beginning weavers. It's harder than it looks!

The good news is that my selvages look ok. I'm really pleased with them!

Can you see the tracking? The reed is threaded 1-2-2-2 and the tracking matches with the single thread in the reed. Theoretically the fabric will relax and that will disappear when I wet finish it.










The frustration is that my throwing of the shuttle often (once every 3" or so) catches some of the wrong threads. If I catch it early enough I back up and fix the error. If I don't catch it, I've given myself permission to shrug my shoulders and call this a learning/imperfect piece. A friend thinks no one will notice (Ha!). I believe her enough to keep going and not kill myself over these imperfections...but I know they are there!

Dye Day

When the temperature drops enough that I can run the oven I dye! These two rovings were inspired by the dyes left in my dye-bottles. The first one is mostly red and green...with a hint of magenta. I call it "Not-quite Christmas".








The second set has greens, blues, and pink. It's really pretty. It was so nice that I had to take a bit and see how it looked spun. I like it!

Oven dyeing like this is still an art form that I'm working on mastering. I soak the rovings in warm water and white vinegar. Then I drain the rovings, place them in my oven dyepots, and squirt acid dyes on them. I've learned that I like a lot of dye (intense colors, fewer white sections), but there is still a puddling effect with the dyes on the bottom layer in the dyepot. I place the pots in a cool oven, set the temp for 350 F and the timer for 30 minutes. When the timer dings, out come amazing surprises!

In the works

This is a swatch for a handspun/handknit sweater. The yarn is almost all spun. The birthday date looms near! Time to get the swatch done so I can make the calculations to determine (aside from just how crazy I am!) if I have enough yarn to do this!

The pattern (which does not want to photograph well) is Peerie Brocade by Charlie Hada from the Fall '99 issue of Knitter's Magazine.

The Power of Knowledge (and Experience)

The men and women of Wabash Weavers are amazing! Last time I put an 11 yard warp on this loom it took me at least a week to comb out all the tangles and get it beamed.

This time it took less than 1/2 hour! Some of the tricks I used: (1) a warping paddle to keep multiple threads from tangling as I wrapped them around the pegs on the warping board. (2) two rolls of brown paper set up so they rolled onto the backbeam without human interference (3) the "pullbackhard/snap" technique to straighten the threads from the warp chains.


Thank you all for your suggestions on improving the warping process! The last time was drudgery. This was bliss!

















Here is the first few inches of weaving. As I went back to take this photo I discovered a threading error right in the middle of the piece. Hmm. What method am I going to use to fix this? (Tune in next time! :)

Not Again!

Yup. I'm at it again. This is the second 11-yard warp for front room curtains. No, I haven't sewn the first set yet. This is the fabric for the windows on the north side of the room. I'm not sure yet if it will be the same diamond twill pattern as the first set or if I'll just weave it plain.

Right now I have the entire warp measured and threaded through the reed. I'm close to the halfway point of threading the heddles (I am threading the diamond pattern, I just don't know if I'll use it yet!).

From past experience, I know that this is still the easy part of dressing my loom with a warp this long. Last time when I wound the warp on the back beam I had so many tangles that I had to painstakingly comb out the warp. This time I hope to have to do that less. I used a paddle to help separate the threads as I wrapped them on the warping board and I have been trying very hard to keep things tangle free (I know it doesn't look that way from the mess of warp chains, but I'm trying!!!).

Cast-On (a podcast for knitters--www.cast-on.com) episode #51 reminded me why I do some of this crazy stuff. I used to be a Camp Fire Blue Bird (similar to the Brownies/Girl Scouts) and part of the "Camp Fire Wish" --which I looked up after listening to the episode--contains the phrase "remember to finish what I begin". It's the only phrase I remember from the Wish. But I was so terrible at finishing things back then that it's the one I repeated the most! And so now, years later, I do crazy deeds like repeating the longest weaving I've ever done...because I want to finish the project I have already begun. :)

A Frayed Knot

The handspun warp that I mentioned in my last post didn't take well to the motion of the beater. See how it is fraying? This yarn was not spun tight enough to hold together as a good warp should.
















Here is the interaction of a frayed bit of yarn with its neighbors. It made getting a good shed challenging--not impossible, and not horribly hard--I could usually encourage the fibers to let go of each other by placing my hand or the shuttle in the shed and moving it back and forth.








Here is the shot off the back of the loom when I had two weighted replacement threads. By the end I had at least three weights and four or five threads that I was able to just knot back together. I eventually gave up on the weaving....the whole warp was slowly pulling apart!














But I like the finished piece! It is reasonably soft and has a nice drape--and I have no idea how I want to use it! I was hoping to get enough yardage to make a vest. I guess I'll just have to try again! :)

Handspun in Weaving

This is a first for me! I am using a handspun single for my warp and weft! I am impressed that the single is strong enough to work as a warp. I have had two threads pull apart, but it wasn't hard to repair them.

This yarn is from the first (and possibly only) raw fleece I purchased. It was a pain to remove the vegetable matter--yuck! But, it was a good test yarn. I have enough to do a good sized sample project (20"x60" on loom). The end goal is to explore the creation of woolen fabric to make my husband a vest to wear with his Lord of the Rings cloak. A secondary goal is to gain confidence with handspun so I can weave a scarf out of the fiber (now yarn) that my mom gave me when I first started to spin. It's been waiting patiently for a couple of years now! So far, I think there is hope!

A dyeing we will go...

It was another day for solar dyeing. Local temperatures were a little lower than the last day I did this, but I tried it anyway! Today I put a board covered with aluminum foil under my dye pots to increase solar reflection and put all my pots in big, clear plastic bags to help insulate them. Did I take any pictures? No! I was busy watching the kids play in the kiddie pool in the front yard! But the dyes just amaze me!


Green, purple and a touch of orange. This set was in my big roaster. I had to add some extra heat via the microwave at the end of the day because there was quite a bit of excess dye in the pot when I started rinsing.









Pink, purple, blue. This one was fun dye--I just poured the dye onto the fiber and let it soak in! The presoaked fiber was in a glass casserole (dyes only) dish with a lid.
















Check on the rainbow colors! Each of these were dyed in my old canning jars (now dye pots). Color is so amazing!









And with all this dyeing going on, guess what is waiting patiently for its turn to become curtains!

:)

Finished fabric

This is the semi-artistic shot of my finished fabric for curtains. I wet finished it in my bathtub and then put it in the washer on a rinse/spin cycle (front loading washer) to get some of the water out. I used the dryer to get the fabric 3/4's dry, then put it outside on the line.



















With the fabric weaving finished, I spun some hand-dyed cotswold wool and cast on for a scarf. This is a simple lace pattern and I liked knitting it, but the resulting fabric didn't work. It had columns of 'slip one,knit two together, pass slipped stitch over' separating the yarn-over holes that were too stiff for me.

So, this scarf is now working on becoming my socks (at least I think they'll be mine!).

Works in progress

My last dye-day produced some gorgeous rovings. Most of them were on a light grey wool and done in families of color. This purple one has some blue in it. I started spinning it last night... I like it!













Lest I forget...This is my new bobbin winder. One of my weaving guild members suggested this to me. It's a $7 hand mixer from WalMart. I used the tin snips and removed the cross bars from the beater, then wrapped tape around it so the bobbins would be snug on the post. It works pretty well--the speed control could be improved (it goes really fast on the slowest setting), but I'm not ready to take it apart to play with the gear ratios yet!




The weaving is progressing! That's almost an inch of yardage wrapped on that beam. I hate to tell you how hard it has been to work on this big project. I can only work on it a little each day. I have a paper where I'm keeping track of my progress. It's about half full of measurement numbers now. I think the end is in sight!

Spinning wheel!

My incredible husband helped me cut, create, and position the flyer assembly on the treddle base I refinished earlier this spring. Right now it has a cotton drive band and slips a little at high speeds, but it works! I was able to treddle and spin roving into yarn! Yee-haw!

There are a few things that are probably going to happen before we call this done, but it's amazing to see it actually work!

Progress

My eleven yard warp took a while to wind onto the loom. My eleven yard warp (36" wide) is taking a while to weave into cloth...but I am making progress! One of my blue stripes is prettier than the other due to the way the variegated yarn was distributed across the stripe...but I may be the only one who ever notices the difference! I am almost to the halfway point. When I get a bit beyond halfway I'll take a break and get some sewing done (only so many "kids are sleeping" hours in a day).







It's nice to see progress!

Pretties

Perhaps this post should be titled something about fiber overload...but there is so much to dye and so little opportunity to do it!




These rovings are a natural grey that I overdyed to see how they would turn out. They are pretty!






The multi-colored dye jobs were done by pre-soaking the rovings in warm water & vinegar, then drip drying the rovings and squirting them with acid dyes and baking them in the oven.






The solid pink was a stove-top vat dye job. I did a pound in my dye pot (my largest single dye job in that pot to date!).











Purples and blues are cool!















This last roving is white cotswold dyed with the soak and bake method described above. I think this will be socks for me!

Lessons in Warping

This is the longest warp I've ever put on my loom. It is also the widest. And I'm learning lots! The mess of warp chains hanging off the front of the loom has been cleaned up some since I took this picture. Part of the mess is that I started warping from the center of the piece and the number of threads needed did not match the number of threads in a single chain, so the threads from a single chain are split over different stripes. (That seems awkward to describe--one warp chain split into two different groups in the reed.)

Another learning point comes from the winding of the warp. I only recently learned to use more than one cone of yarn while winding the warp. It cuts down on the number of times around the warping board if you use more than one cone. However, there must be a trick to using more than TWO cones. My blue yarn was warped using two cones and has worked fine. My natural yarn was warped using three cones. Every now and then, while I was winding the warp, I would feel a twist or a snag as the three yarns twisted. As I'm winding the warp on the back beam these twists are causing problems.

See the twists in the yarn? When these get twisted tight they act as a knot and stop the beaming process.

So, I'm making progress--slowly! I can beam a foot or two before untangling the warp threads. I've broken one thread because I tried to force one of these knots through the heddles. Ick.

The next time I wind a warp like this (which should be soon. This is part one of two!) I will plan my warp chains to fit my warp stripes, and will use no more than two cones of yarn at a time while I warp!

Color my world...

Red, blue, purple, yellow, green...pick a color, any color! I had fun tonight mixing and preparing dyes! These are acid dyes that I purchased from The Woolery last year. My blue and yellow are close to the outermost ring of color on the colorwheel (from Deb Menz's "Color in Spinning"). My red is more of a magenta.

I started with three stock solutions--red, blue, & yellow. All the other colors are combinations of two stock solutions in 1:3, 1:1, or 3:1 ratios. I made a big table in my notebook to help keep things straight. This way I could make up each stock solution, pour it into the bottles, and rinse the container.

It's a bit scary to dye in my new kitchen. I don't want to make a mess! I kept a bucket of bleach water in the sink and worked hard to wipe up drips as they occured.
















Here are my dyes in their bottles posing for a colorwheel shot. I have yet to test the colors (I didn't remember to do it until mid-clean up!), but they look pretty in the bottles!

K'nex wheel

One of the reasons why my loom is only partially warpped is this find at a garage sale. I got a tub of k'nex for a dollar. As soon as they had been washed my son and I started to play. He made spaceships and I made a spinning wheel.

Hmm. Let's rephrase that: He made spaceships and I attempted to make a spinning wheel. I was trying to do an accelerated quill wheel (ala walking wheel with miner's head). I was not successful.

This picture is attempt #2, made with help from my husband. It is also non-functional. I don't know why I'm set on making a functional spinning wheel, but I keep trying. I am learning lots and lots (much of the learning is discovering how much I don't know!). Maybe one of my next iterations will bring success!

Experiment with Natural Dyes

This experiment started early last week as my youngest walked around the front yard with a cute little bucket. She needed something to put in the bucket. Dandelions were plentiful, so we decided to pick dandilions. The older kids got into the fun too and we soon had a bucket of dandelion flowers.

I cooked them in a crock pot, poured the dye into a bucket to cool...and then left it for a few days. I wasn't sure of what to do next and after enough days I tossed the whole mess.

I then borrowed a natural dyeing book from my weaving guild's library (I LOVE libraries!) and when my neighbor showed up with a bag of dandelions that her kids had picked for me, I was ready to dye wool!

~5oz of dandelion flowers and stems cooked for 1/2 hour in ~1 gallon of water. I fished out all the plant matter, added more water and my presoaked wool (4 oz), and simmered the wool for 1 hour.

And this is what I got:












If you look really closely at that picture you will see that the wool at the bottom is browner that then wool at the top. However, if you don't have the undyed wool for reference it looks mostly like undyed wool. This is obviously not the right way to dye with dandelions! My guess is that this would work a lot better with a mordanted wool (I didn't do any sort of mordant!).

I took a ball of the dyed roving out for artsy photos this afternoon anyway!

Fun Lessons on the Knitting Front

These are my baby's new mittens. Yep. I know. It's spring. Winter is months away.

However, I wanted to tackle some color work mittens. My mother-in-law is wonderful about handing me knitting books. Over Easter she gave me a sock book that had lots of patterns she liked, but would never knit. (It's "Socks, Socks, Socks" edited by Elaine Rowley.) A year ago she gave me a mitten pattern book with all sorts of wonderful color work patterns ("The Mitten Book" by Inger & Ingrid Gottfridsson).

When I first got "The Mitten Book" I was spinning a pale blue roving and paused long enough to knit a sample. I was amazed that I could do two color knitting. I'm much more comfortable with one color and cables. I was also impressed that my singles worked for this kind of knitting.

Time passed. Babies were born. Houses were bought and sold. More yarn was spun. I chose this triangle pattern (called "Night and Day") because it has a small repeat--only 6 stitches--and it has no long floats. And it worked! Look at me! I can do two color knitting!! I am excited!

And I now have an entire book of mitten patterns, and many, many sock patterns to use while I improve and perfect my colorwork techniques!

The best part about this knitting story is that a year or two ago I looked at the Socks book and thought, "I'll never be able to knit those. Look at all the different colors they use." Never say never.

Off the Cuff

My great-aunt is here visiting. Last night we needed a project. I asked a few questions, we dug around in my stash of yarn, did a few calculations, and lo and behold: a scarf to take home with her!

The sett is 10 epi. The brown is a fine polyester single--somewhat prone to fraying! The gold is somewhat thicker with regular slubs in it.


I'm working on improving my photos with a "light box". The basic idea is that diffuse light makes for a better picture. This picture is nice (I took it at night with a flash). I did some color correction using Paint Shop Pro, and am pretty pleased with the outcome.

Just for fun, here are my calculations for the scarf. I have a white board in my workroom which gets used for all sorts of lists. It's a good place to write when I want to be able to see it while I weave.