Planning Ahead

There is an old adage that "you have to be warped to weave". In order to be warped, you need to have an idea of what you will make, how long to make the warp, how close to sett the warp threads, etc.

These Weave-It squares are the first step in turning these yarns into warp and weft. The yarn at the top of the photo is a tan 40%/60% rayon/wool four-ply fingering weight yarn from my Grandma's stash. The yarn to the left is a reclaimed yarn from a knit skirt & sweater set that a friend sent my way. It's a five strand yarn (not plied). Two strands are a natural cream color acrylic/mohair blend. The other three strands are a gold metallic material.



The square on the right was woven with one strand of each yarn held together.

The square on the left was woven with the rayon/wool yarn as a warp and the 4strand gold yarn as weft. (Near the top I wove the weft closer together than the rest of the square.) For each of the yarns I used two strands together.



Results:

The colors of these two yarns blend well together. The tan of the wool yarn tones down the yellow of the gold.

I think these will make a nice shawl, scarf, hat, bag....or something! :)

Dye Challenge

My cousin inadvertently gave me a challenge. She sent me a link to a professional dyer's page and asked if I could reproduce two colorways.

The short answer is: probably not.
The medium answer is: I've never tried.
The longer answer is: Let me Dye!

The orange/yellow/pink roving was dyed in a crockpot. The blue/green/purple was oven dyed.




Neither of them turned out like the photos I was sent....but they both look interesting to me! They both need to dry, and then they will find their way to my etsy shop (fibertwist.etsy.com).

Halfway There

I'm working on the vest for my great aunt. This was woven in a huck lace pattern on 8-shafts in one piece from backwaist, over the shoulders, to the the front waists.



















The v-neck has a large number of warp ends that need to be woven into the fabric.



















I was worried that the bamboo ends would work their way out, so after weaving in the ends I added two rows of stitching to help keep them there (I hope!).


One side of the neck is now finished. Soon I'll tackle the other!

:)

Diamonds in the Rough

I am making a vest for my great aunt. Can you see the diamonds in the fabric? The yarn is a 10/2 bamboo (natural color). It is so soft!

The vest is woven in one piece from the back waist to the shoulders, then a second shuttle is introduced and the fronts are woven at the same time from the shoulders to the waist.

This is a new technique for me...in fact, weaving for clothing is a new thing too! ..The technique is based on some ideas from Paula Simmons in "Spinning for Softness & Speed".

The weave structure is a 8-harness huck lace pattern called "Eight-Shaft Huck Lace Diamonds" by Susan Harvey.

Christmas (again!)

This post might also have been titled "ME! I finally made something for ME!"...

This is the pair of fingerless mitts I made from the roving "Santa" left in my Christmas stocking. I spun the wool into a 3-ply yarn ( I was very pleased with myself....I read Abby's post about plied yarns and their uses and I intentionally made a 3-ply yarn to show off some cables--'cause I love cables!)

The pattern is by Carissa Browning and is available on Ravlery. I modified it slightly to work with the gauge of my yarn.

(For the record, I chose to make fingerless mitts so I can wear them and drive. I know that regular mittens are too slipery for me to use while driving. The mitts do leave my fingers a bit cold--I wore them on a road trip yesterday--but I think they might work for driving! :)

Mermaids in Winter

A number of years ago I received some of Amy King's Falkland wool (mermaid colorway) to spin. It spun beautifully! I separated the roving into chunks of color and ended up with three small skeins of green, blue, and purple/green. They have sat in my stash for a long time.

Over the holidays I found a project for these little skeins (~100 yards each)--"Striped Fringe", a scarf, by Amanda Blair Brown in "The Best of Interweave Knits". I modified it, of course!, but the over all look is just fun! I ran out of my green yarn, but added in a pink 2-ply that had green in it. The scarf is for my 8 year old daughter and she was really excited about the idea of adding pink to the scarf!

Each stripe is 12 stitches wide. The knitting was done in seed stitch on US 5 needles.


The ends were woven (good old "over under, over under) to make the decorative front for this photo. :)

Cheese-y Smiles!

I'm thrilled with this project! I wove two rayon scarves on a small Structo loom and I love how they turned out!

The yarns are a mix of stash yarns--a burgandy 6-ply rayon from WEBS, a tan 2-ply rayon, and a multi-colored rayon single. The structure is a M's & O's variant from "A Handweaver's Pattern Book" by Davison called "Forest Crook's Blanket Weave.

The little Structo loom (on loan from a friend in my weaving guild) had a miniature/toy-like feel. Maximum weaving width is 8 inches! But, the loom works great. I will be using it later on this year for a double weave demo for the Wabash Weavers Guild.


Two intersting points--I wove two scarves with two slightly different treadlings (is it ok to call it that even though it's a table loom? Should it be "lever-ings"?) The first one was ho-hum. It was just a scarf. The second one, more of a 2/2 twill, was stunning to me. Once off the loom and wet finished, the differences between them seem more subtile, but I'm still partial to the 2/2 twill weave structure.

Point number two: check out my drying rack. This is a wonderful, inexpensive, three arm rotating drying rack from a local store. It works great! However, it leaves a lovely crease in my scarves when I hang them to dry. The solution? Increase the diameter of the arm with an old, plastic cone. No more creases!

Happy 2009! May your year be full of moments of joy and peace!

In Memory

I always called her Grandma. I still remember her old phone number and the way to her house in Anaheim. I remember her stories. Sometimes she would tell me one I had already heard, stop and say, "But I've told you that one before." But she often added a tiny bit that wasn't in the original telling.

I am wearing the "last of the sweaters" that she knit for me. It's an acrylic/wool/camel yarn. The sleeves and back were knit on her knitting machine. The cabled fronts were done by hand. The sleeves can unbutton to turn the sweater into a vest. This sweater is...well, not new. I've tried to retire it many times now. It's slightly felted. It has a stain on the front. It still finds its way to the top of my sweater drawer.

Of all the things my Grandmother taught me, I think I'll always remember that she loved me.

Searching

Searching for the right weft!

This warp is based on Dianah Rose's "Sturdy Rag Totes" (a variation of warp rep) from Handwoven, Sept./Oct. 2007.

The plan was to use fabric strips as weft, but the patterns on the fabric made it hard to see the differences between the green and yellow sections of warp. So, I began the process of finding the right weft.

Three attempts are visible in the photo--at the top, pin drafted roving. This turned out to be a successful weft. The red is a strip of sweatshirt fleece. The white at the bottom is a boucle type yarn.

I like the feel of the boucle type weft--the piece is soft and flexible--but I can't see the yellow/green transitions unless I squint really hard, and that just won't work for this!

Ahh, the lessons we learn by doing something new! :)

Three Scarves

Thanksgiving brought four of my nieces and their parents to our home. I thought it would be fun to let each of the girls design their own scarf.

The preparation: wind a 10 yd. warp of white acrylic. Sett= 12 epi. Threading: straight twill on four harnesses.

Scarf #1. The four year old (almost five) chose three colors for her scarf. Pink, purple, and brown. I said ok. After all, she is five (almost!) and has her own ideas of fashion and color...and you never know what you might learn from a five year old's color choices! Most of the scarf was woven in blocks of single colors, but there were two or three places where I combined the brown with the other colors for an interesting effect. --I had the treadles tied up for a 2/2 twill and tabby.

Scarf #2. The thirteen year old chose a cream colored novelty yarn (thick and bumpy) and a fine tan. I used one of the twill treadles for the cream, followed by a tabby shot of the tan. It worked very well and the overall effect showed more cream than the picture does.

Scarf #3. The eight year old wanted blue, but I was short on blue and asked if we could supplement it with white. Approval was granted, and I ended up weaving a straight 2/2 twill with 3 shots of white and 1 shot of blue.

Scarf #4. Scarf #4 didn't get woven over the holiday. I didn't start soon enough and didn't have enough time. However, I had previously woven a child's scarf out of handspun and it had a matching tam. (Hat & Scarf) It's just been sitting in my finished pile. So, out came the scarf and tam, and the two year old was as happy as a clam!

And so was I!

Swimsuits in Winter

I was excited at the end of summer that my oldest daughter made it through swimsuit season with her old suit. Thrilled, in fact! I didn't have to make her a new one (yet), and I could wait until next year (allowing her to grow) before we had to get her a new suit.

Boy was I wrong.

We have visitors coming tomorrow and grandma and grandpa will be staying at a hotel with a pool. That means we need a swimsuit. Are there swimsuits in the stores? No! Do I have a swimsuit pattern in the right size? Not anymore! Argh!

I spent an hour or two online last night looking for help on making or modifying a swimsuit pattern. There is a great Pattern School with lots of helpful instruction...but only for a grown woman, not a growing girl.

Our local thrift store has a decent stock of sewing patterns...and I found this shirt pattern that could work as a swimsuit top.
A few minutes of staring at the pattern, comparing sizes, estimating, guessing...and I was cutting the fabric (that I did purchase during the summer, whew!).


















I did most of the seaming with my serger. My great-aunt gave it to me a few years ago (and my other great-aunt graciously drove it home for me!), and I am still getting used to how it works. Overall, it worked great. I broke a few threads, popped the head off a pin (I found the headless pin in the fabric and had an "ah-ha" moment--so that's what that ka-thunk was!), but for the most part seamed well.




And here's the almost finished suit. I need to have my daughter try it on again to check elastic and other odds and ends, but I think it will work!

33 Towels!

Well, I did it! I took 33 handwoven towels and 4 rice-filled heating pads with handwoven covers to sell at the bazar this weekend.

And, better yet, 6 towels and 3 rice-packs sold!

What an experience! I must admit that in the middle of weaving all these towels I felt worn out--it felt like work! (Ugh! :) At the end, when I realized that I had met my goal of 30 towels, I was thrilled.

The reactions to my wares were varied. There were many people who walked past by table and hardly did more than glance at the towels. They are "just towels" after all! Then there was the one fellow who gasped and did a little jump back from the table when he saw the price of the towels. My favorite reactions, however, were from the people who recognized what these were--not just towels, but useful, handcrafted art. One gal came back to my booth two or three times just to look before she chose her towel. My favorite fiber enabler (aside from my husband, who was watching the kids this weekend!) stopped by, and I was thrilled just to show her what I had been weaving...and then she bought two towels!! Another woman mentioned that she had a loom at home and just seeing my work was encouragement to go home and weave!

Thanks to all of you who have encouraged me in this endeavor! What an interesting experiment! I'm a bit worn out! ...But then, I was spinning up a beautiful alpaca/wool blend that would weave up beautifully as a shawl. I wonder what weave structure would look good with that? :)

Shed Improvement

I'm something of a slow learner. I wove two towels on this warp with a tie-up that had sticky threads. Every time the sticky shed came up, I got out my ruler and used it to clear the shed (it was either that or unweave because I would inevitably have some threads in the wrong place).

As I shifted weft from the three colors used for checks to a single color for stripes, I couldn't take the sticky problems any more--they slowed me down too much. That's when I remembered a wonderful tip--when lifting multiple shafts to make a shed, lift the shafts independently. They make a better shed and there is less sticking.

Now my ruler is only used to measure the length of my woven fabric. My sticky shed is no longer a problem! Thanks to so many of you weavers who provide such wonderful tips to us newbies!

Random Craft Projects

Halloween around here is a fun time! We make much of our costumes...

Dad is a hobbit (wearing an elfin cloak of commercial fabric).

A is a panther. She fingerwove her own tail from nylon loopers. Her headband/ears are made from the cut-off hems of a pair of knit pants.

E is a pink bunny. She wanted a pink tail (unfortunately, it's behind her), pink hands (I did get her new mittens made!), pink ears and pink hair. I was trying to get a winter hat knit in 6 hours or less and failed. We went with a knitted I-cord sewn together to create "hair" and ears.

T is Darth Maul. His cloak is from the same pattern as Dad's. His double-edged lightsaber is a dowel with pipe insulation wrapped in colored duct tape.

We went to a birthday party for a friend's little girl (just turned 2) and needed a gift. I chose to make little mice. In the past I have used handwoven fabric for the bodies (Handwoven had an issue devoted to pets a year or two ago and the mouse pattern came from there), but for this I used left over cloak fabric and some sample skeins of handspun yarn to make the cute critters.

The book in the background is my book club's current read--and it's about a mouse and being a hero. :)

Towels

I must be crazy! There was an ad in the paper--a call for artists--to sell items in a handmade/handcrafted bazar near my house in November. I answered the ad, found two friends to join me, and now am preparing to sell handwoven towels!

My goal is to have 30 towels ready by Nov. 14th. Three are finished--woven, wet finished, and hemmed. My two looms are warped, and I'm weaving towels 4-7 on the natural with blue accents warp, and towels 8-13 on the dark pink (red?--nah, it's not a true red)/pink warp. Towels 14-30 haven't even made it to the idea/concept phase yet...but maybe they will come to me while I weave.

This sort of intensive weaving (with a deadline, no less!) is, well, intense. I find that I am tired of weaving by the end of the day. Perhaps that is because I was warping two looms at the same time. I am hoping that by staggering the next set of towels, I will be able to warp for a bit, then weave for a bit--back and forth from loom to loom. Another challenge with two projects hitting the loom at about the same time is incomplete notes. I keep a lab notebook, I do, I do! ....I just keep an incomplete one, sometimes going through pages of notes and calculations only to have the final page be a bit unclear as to what I finally decided to use. Then I have to stare at the notes and read through them a few times until I catch my train of thought and figure out what my bits of chicken scratch really mean!

Ah, well! It's good to experiment, right? Wish me luck!

A Tribute to Fiber Enablers

Thank you, to those of you who taught me to spin. Thank you, to those of you who have taken my designs and made them into functional creations!

This latest creation is a warping mill. It's awaiting its maiden warp, but I think it will work. The stand is from a quilting frame. The triangle/cylinder part was made from materials on hand.

The labor was provided by my fiber enabler, Martin. He took my design, upgraded it, and made it a reality. Thank you!

Purple People

The "Very Berry" sweater for my daughter is done. Whew.

This sweater has been challenging, but not necessarily in the knitting aspects! I did modify the pattern, knitting the sleeves flat and not in the round. It's just been hard to force myself to sit and knit instead of spinning and/or weaving. That and it's been hard to get my daughter and the sweater in the same room long enough to check the size!



I (miraculously!) got her to try on the sweater a second time today before grafting the underarms. After knitting the neck and watching it flop over (ARGH!) I was about ready to rip the whole thing! But the curly neck lay flat on the body! Go figure!...and, Hooray! Now the sweater is done, and it's time for more weaving!





I have been dyeing cotton with Dylon's "Permanent Dyes"--which I think are a direct dye. Earlier in the week I did a blue batch. Yesterday I dyed purple. Three of the skeins are 20/2 cotton (originally a very pale, mint green), the fourth skein is 10/2 cotton, originally a tweedy grey. The bottom pile is cotton fibers to card and spin.

Stadium Blanket

Here are some photos of the blanket in progress. The Huck Lace is showing nicely!






















All four samples from this projects were sitting together tonight. I couldn't pass by the photo opportunity. Sampling is good. Sampling is my friend. ...I will probably sample again. :)

Samplers

I have been busy sampling. The goal is a stadium blanket for my sister-in-law. So far, I have woven three samples on my 4H loom, and I think there is a fourth one yet to be made!

It turns out that my nephew's school colors are blue and grey (he is playing football, which leads to my sister-in-law being in the stadium watching him and needing a blanket!). I happen to have multiple skeins of blue and some skeins of grey worsted weight knitting yarn in my stash. I'd like to use this yarn for the blanket...but I have never woven with knitting yarns like this before! So, I have been sampling.

Sampler #1
Warp:fingering weight knitting yarn.
Weft:worsted weight and fingering weight knitting yarns. Weave structures: 2/2 twill, plain weave, basket weave (two weft picks per shed).
Thoughts: (from the bottom of the photo to the top--more or less!) The 2/2 twill packed very loosely has a nice drape, but is loose enough that it will snag on jewlery, belt buckles, etc. Not good! The tightly packed 2/2 twills are really spongy and thick. It would make a really thick blanket. The plain weave with worsted weight weft has a nice hand to it, but doesn't look very special. The basket weave with worsted weight weft has both a nice hand and some visual interest.

Sampler #2
warp: worsted weight knitting yarns (two colors, wound together, threaded randomly)
weft: worsted weight & fingering weight knitting yarns
weave structures: plain weave, twill, point twill, broken twill, basket weave (two picks of fingering weft per shed).
thoughts: too many to list! The bottom line from this sampler was that I liked the hand of the plain weave fabric but I wanted something with more visual interest.












Sampler #3
warp: worsted weight knitting yarns.
weft: worsted weight knitting yarns
weave structures: huck lace (5-end and 3-end), plain weave.
thoughts: I like how the warp colors show in the Huck lace floats. The 3-end huck patter has smaller floats (less likely to get caught on something!). --Note: the blue and the grey are the yarns I plan to use.






Sampler #4 (yet to be made)
warp: blue and grey worsted weight knitting yarn
weft: same as warp
weave structure: 3-end Huck lace
The goal of this last sampler will be to determine the size of the Huck lace squares.
(The Huck lace idea comes from Handwoven Magazine, "Weaving as Chicken Soup" by Barbara Elkins, May/April 2008.)

Weaving is amazing! I've had fun making these samples and seeing how the yarns interact! Can I weave some more soon?

Dornik Twill Blanket-Done!

My blanket is done! It wove very quickly. I had sore back muscles after the first evening of weaving...that extra stretch to the sides to reach the shuttle!...but I was able to weave the next day, and the next, and soon it was done!

Twisting the fringe took some time, but eventually it too was done!

I wet finished the blanket with a warm water/detergent soak, followed by a warm water rinse.


Here's a close-up of the edge I added to the pattern. The green & black stripes were my idea. I love the little stars that showed up in the corners!











And, here is the finished blanket in it's living space. It has already been used to cuddle under.

:)