A Few New Things

I started weaving a scarf today. My project on the 8H loom is progressing....slowly due to shoulder considerations, but progressing...but, of course, I have other projects dancing around in my head and there comes a time when I need to finish something.

The yarns: three different weight handspun yarns. I had hoped the three weights would be closer, but I'm ok using them. All three are more or less DK weight.

The Sett: 10 epi.

The warp is threaded in straight twill...four threads of dark blue alternating with four threads of light blue. The weave structure is supposed to make cool, curly edged checks. If you squint at the photo and focus on the light blue sections you can almost see the curls.

So, now, the "new" stuff. The weaving pattern is a new one for me. Using handspun yarn successfully as a warp and weft is still new to me (and probably will be for some time!).

In warping the loom, front to back (my usual), I tried a new method of tying on to the front apron. The idea is to avoid having to adjust the tension of individual warp thread groups by tying them on in pairs of groups, and advancing the warp. So, I tied on the outermost bundles of threads first, in a square knot. Then, I advanced the warp one click. Then I tied on the next set of bundles, and advanced the warp. As I tied on the bundles, I made sure that each pair of bundles was as evenly tensioned as possible. And, it worked!

Lastly, I actually took a sample off the loom, cut it in half and washed one of the halves! I must be growing up or something! Sampling? Me? (I even wound extra warp so I could do this! Go figure!)

So far, I like my blue creation. I have no idea how it will end up, but it's good to have new projects and new techniques to try!

Time for Fiber?

I enjoy reading Abby Franquemont's comments on life and fiber. She was raised both in Peru, where her parents did all sorts of research, and in the US. She recently posted this breakdown of her typical work week:

"For a typical work week, I generally try to stick to a breakdown of “Production: 12-24 hours; Operations: 10-12 hours; Development: 12-20 hours.” Total work hours in a typical week: 32 - 56.

Production is things like dyeing silk, or producing yarn and fiber for sale.

Operations is stuff like packing, shipping, inventory, accounting, routine correspondence.

Development is writing, patterns, product testing, market research, and some correspondence."

I wonder what my typical work week breakdown would look like?

Survival of the Fittest

Remember theses? My just finished (ok, finished last month!) handspun, handknit cabled socks?

Well they went on an adventure this week! With the pain in my shoulder, my husband did the laundry this week. He's pretty good at stuff like that. But guess what fell out of the dryer as I was getting things out to fold...

Gulp! My socks. I almost cried. Not my brand new handknit socks. They looked a little crumpled. I had visions of them being felted beyond repair.

But, guess what! They still fit...in fact, they fit better now than before their adventure in the washer and dryer! Who would have guessed? I'm attributing their successful navigation of my laundry system to the fact that they were spun from Cotswold wool, a longer wool that doesn't felt well. Whew! I'm so glad they still fit!

Here are the amazing socks--a little wrinkled, but still the right size!

A Little Something Extra

The Macomber 8H loom has some pre-drilled holes on the back beam supports. With a long dowel, some metal brackets, and some bolts we created a holder for the roll of brown paper that I put between layers of warp threads. Now the paper is up off the floor--hooray!

My weaving progress ground to a crawl this week due to a shoulder injury. I am getting better, but will be weaving very slowly for a while.

A Little Lace

This is my first "real" lace scarf. I'm really pleased with it! In some ways it was very hard to do (mostly because it wasn't brainless knitting!), but once I caught on to the pattern and learned how it was supposed to look it knit just fine!

The pattern: Oak Leaf & Acorn Scarf by Fiber Trends
The Yarn: handspun by me -- batts from Abby Franquemont ("pond scum" colorway!) stores.ebay.com/Franquemont-Fibers

Hooray for accomplishing new and challenging things!

Happy Classes!

I'm so happy. The Fiber Event was this weekend and I spent two wonderful days taking spinning classes. Stefania Issacson (of Handspun by Stefania...stefania-spins.com) taught "Spinning Exotic Fibers: Alpaca, Llama, Mohair and More!" I had my hands on yak, mohair, guanaco, llama, alpaca (both suri and huacaya), great pyreenes dog, camel, and cashmere. My fingers are still on cloud nine from the cashmere!

Amy Tyler, of Stone Sock Fibers in Interlochen, Michigan taught "Creating the Yarn You Want"--a class on spinning any type of yarn and not letting yourself get stuck in a rut. It was amazing! We worked with at least 6 different types of fiber (mostly wool) and fiber preps while we went through a series of exercises designed to help improve our control over the end yarn. The best part of the class was the final challenge--we each spun a yarn (thick or thin) and passed a sample to our neighbor. Then we had to match our neighbor's yarn--size and twist! The trick was that none of the neighbor's had the same type of wool! I was using a Romney wool (mid-range) to match a Cormo (fine and springy!) wool. It was a challenge of the best sort and I loved it!

Warping Front To Back--The Begining

My warping board was a gift from a weaving friend a couple of years ago (Hi Nancy!). The pegs at the top of the left side are my favorite spot for the cross. See how the warp angles up to the pegs on the right side and zig-zags across? The angle seemed to work really well (I usually go straight across)...I got 233 ends wound in two sessions and my arms didn't fall off! :)

This warp is for shadow weave towels. One black thread and one cream thread were wound together. Here are the threads threaded through the reed:

Plied Sunshine

My sunshine fiber finally saw some spinning action today. It's cool (40's) and damp and grey out. The perfect time for some inside sun!

The yarn on the upper left is Navajo or chain-plied. The lower right yarn is a two-ply. I love seeing the yellow in the upper yarn. It's presence is sorely missed in the two-ply.

Next week is the Fiber Event in Greencastle, IN (www.thefiberevent.com) and I am signed up for some spinning classes. I can hardly wait to see what sorts of samples I bring home and what new techniques I learn. Spinning is soothing; spinning is amazing!

Decisions

The sampler is off the "Mac". The black/cream and black/white combinations at the top look good. I'm not fond of the dark, black/grey stripe. The blue/cream and blue/white combos look ok too. The washed out stripes at the bottom of the photo are the light blue combinations. They don't have enough contrast to show the patterns well.

Hmm. It may take a day or two to reach a decision on this! If you were making towels, what colors would you like?

(The warp stripes run from left to right in the photo. The weft color combinations from far left to right are: purple/pink, burgandy/pink, and then blue with grey, cream, and white...it's hard to tell what order the blue combos are in from the photo!)

Sample Warp Exploration

"Mac" (my new 8H loom) needs a project! :) Hmm, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I need a project for Mac! At any rate, my first 8H project is a series of shadow weave towels from Handwoven magazine Nov/Dec 2007. The six towels use the same warp, but six different weft combinations.

The trick is (according to the designer Vicki Tardy) to use the right warp colors....none of which I happen to have! Well, what I have is close, just not exact. So, what do you do when you are unsure? You test things!

The photo shows my nine combinations of light/dark warp threads. The lights: white, cream, grey. The darks: light blue, a blue/lightblue twist, and a black/grey twist. I have these 9 combinations plus another 9 or 10 to test as wefts!

Hooray for explorations in weaving!

Cable Socks

Hooray! My socks are finished! This pair was supposed to be a simple, mindless knitting project. Ha! Cables aren't mindless--not hard, mind you, just not mindless! And, of course, I modified the pattern to accommodate my handspun yarn. Modifications often aren't mindless!

Well, the good news is that these socks are soft and comfy and pleasantly stretchy. I think they will wear well for years to come!

The pattern: 3x3 cable with moss stitch, pg. 68 of "Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch. The yarn: hand-dyed, handspun cotswold wool. 2-ply. (~lace weight)
The modifications: increase two of the moss stitch sections from 5 to 7 stitches. (In retrospect I'm not sure this was necessary. It seemed important at the time--especially since my last pair of handspun socks are tight on me.)

Look What Followed Me Home!

This 40" 8H Macomber loom followed me home yesterday. Much like the story of my husband and his first cat (his mother watched him lug the cat up the front walk and carry it into the house before he said,"Mom, it followed me home. Can I keep it?") I have been watching various loom sale sites for weeks. I even looked at a new 8H loom a week or two ago to see if I was ready to invest in it! When this loom was offered for sale, I called the very same day!

What do I plan to weave first? Well, eventually I want to weave some huck lace pillowcases from an old issue of Handwoven magazine. In the mean time, my first project will probably be "thank you" towels for all the people who helped me get this loom home. There is a draft for shadow weave towels (6 very different towels on the same warp!) in one of my Handwoven magazines. It will be a fun place to start weaving!

Pleasing Purple

After staring at the loom for twenty minutes and sleeping on the question of what to do to improve my shed, I finally un-threaded the heddles (making a cross as I went) and re-threaded the loom.

Look at that shed!!!

The key point in putting in the work to re-thread the loom was my need to learn how to work with fuzzy threads. Now I know that fuzzy threads need to be in separate dents --especially if they are going through different heddles.

The new threading is straight twill (1,2,3,4) with doubled threads (two threads together in a dent, going together through a heddle). I chose to use a basket weave structure (raise shafts 1,2 followed by 3,4) is ease of treadling. This loom has direct tie-up (4 shafts, 4 treadles)...so by putting each foot on two treadles I can easily treadle "left, right, left, right" without thinking about the treadling--perfect for a demonstration situation!
Here's the finished scarf. The decorative "dots" are hand-dyed, hand-spun wool in shades of purple, blue, and yellow. The dots are like little windows of color that liven up the piece!

Odd Personality Quiz

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)

Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

One of my good friends took this quiz...I liked how it described her, so I took it too! I like the fact that it picked up on the goofy side of my personality. Hooray for being goofy!

Here's the latest bit of weaving. It's an purple sparkly warp with a few threads of a boucle added for visual interest. There are two different weft threads in the test bit I've woven. I like the look of the loose warp.














Unfortunately, this warp is likely to be cut off. I wove all of three inches yesterday due to terrible sticky warp issues. --Look at this picture! The boucle threads separate easily from the purple...but the purple sticks to itself terribly!

There are a couple of fixes I could try, but right now I'm not sure it's worth the time and effort. The boucle isn't as pretty as I had hoped. I could just cut it out, but then I'd have a plain purple warp.... The decision make process is more complex since this warp was going to be used for demonstration weaving.... Deep sigh.








On other fronts, I bought some Bambu7 from Tabby Tree Weaver last week. I dyed half the yarn cherry red and am looking to warp up a scarf. The yarn is soft and silky (even after dyeing!). This stuff feels nice!

It's Only Yarn

No photo of this minor disaster. My scissors were sitting on the loom where I was sleying the reed. I got up to take a break and play with the kids. I returned to the loom, sleyed the last bit of warp...and noticed some breaks in the first set of warp threads. Then I noticed more "breaks". A significant number of clean-cut scissor type breaks. There is a reason why I didn't want to leave my scissors out on the loom.

I took the culprit away from her toys and sat her on my lap (she was howling at this point...I think she knew she was in trouble) and told her there was a problem and asked her to help me fix it. She stopped crying long enough to look up when I asked her to be my helper. We took the cut section of warp off the loom, and I took her back upstairs to her toys.

It's only yarn. It was at the edge (not the center) of the warp. It's only yarn. It's only yarn. It's only yarn.

Double Weave Introductions

My 5 year old son was very excited when he saw that I was going to be weaving a fish, and he promptly gave it a name--Harry. When he realized that Harry had a brother, we had to come up with a second name! My great uncle was named Harry, and he had three brothers. I was glad when my grandfather's name, Fred, was chosen.

So, without further ado, here are the double weave fish brothers--Harry & Fred! (And yes, the white of the fish on the left should be the same color as the background of the fish on the right...I am still learning to work with photoshop to improve my pictures!)

Selvage Lessons

I wove a little scarf to test a new-to-me loom (on loan from my weaving guild).



The scarf turned out to be a lesson in selvages. Sometimes the selvage would be beautifully straight and even. Sometimes the selvage would be terribly loose and uneven!














Here is an example of the uneven section. I discovered that I was making my weft angle too big, and the extra yarn was ending up at the selvage.















Here is a section with a nice, even selvage. The weft was only about an inch above the edge of the fabric.














And this is where the lesson learned with my scarf became useful! This is a very narrow piece of double weave fabric (a learning sample, of course!). It's made by passing the shuttle through the warp in a "c" shape.

The open ends do well with a low weft angle...it keeps the selvages looking nice. But the center needs the extra yarn so it doesn't draw in and create a pucker in the fabric.

Look at the top center of this piece. See how close the dark blue lines are to each other? I was using the same weft angle for all shots.

Look at the middle of the piece. The blue lines are further apart...and no pucker in the fabric. The weft angles were different...small on the open edges, large on the closed edge. When the fabric came off the loom the closed edge was loose in the area where I used different angles, but after wet finishing the looseness tightened perfectly!

Double Weave Happiness!

At the last weaving guild meeting, one of the members showed a beautiful piece of double weave/pickup work. Dark brown geometric patterns on a tan background. I was impressed! I was in awe! I wanted to do that!

A few days later as I thumbed through old weaving I came across a tutorial on ....Double Weave PickUp! I read it. I read it again. I back-pedaled and read Deb Chandler's section on double weave in "Learning to Weave". Then I re-read the article of interest.

And then I warped and started to weave. I love this sort of work! It's terribly slow...but oh, so satisfying to see the patterns emerge!!!

Thanks, Joan for showing your beautiful piece and sparking my interest in learning this technique!

A few finished objects

My son turned 5 this week. Two of his gifts were "remade" clothes...my favorite sweater cut down to a vest, his dad's old pants cut down to size...and while he opened them and just set them aside, the next day he asked to wear his new clothes! Hooray!

Remaking clothes has been one of my favorite types of sewing since my eldest was little. It's probably just as time consuming (if not more) than regular sewing, but it's so fun to see new life come to a old and well loved item. And I'm thrilled that my son liked the clothes too!









My other finished object is the purple hat to go with the zig-zag scarf. Is it perfect? Hmm. Nope. Am I going to redo it? Nope! It fits on my head, but isn't as long as I like a hat to be (too much ear poking out and getting cold!). Maybe it will be a new hat/scarf set for one of my little ones!