Harrisville loom

Weaving Wednesday 6

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Last night at class I started by winding the warp onto the warp beam for the Maltese Cross throw that I’m making.  The warp is JaggerSpun Maine Line 2/8 wool yarn (it’s yummy).  This is my first foray into wool and it behaves a little differently than cotton – it’s “sticky” so extra care was taken as the threads came through the lease sticks.  The warp is 36″ wide so it’s just fitting on the loom.  This loom is the same loom that I have in Rowe.  I’m seeing many wool projects in my future, mainly because I just love the feel of the yarn.  Somehow loving the feel of it makes every part of the process that much more enjoyable.

IMAG0544These are the chained warp threads from the front of the loom as they are being wound onto the beam.  I warp from the back to the front.

IMAG0550This is the view from my seat as I was threading the heddles.  You can see a little piece of the draft hung on the castle of the loom, that’s my instructions, it shows what thread goes into what heddle in order.  There are a total of 432 threads in this particular warp, I had half of them threaded by the time I left last night.  Next week I will be finishing up the threading and sleying the reed.

It seems like such a production when you try to describe it to someone but I find all of it to be very relaxing.  I need to concentrate to make sure threads are in the right order, and they aren’t crossed.  The perfectionist in me tries to make sure everything is in order so when I throw my shuttle the first few times I’m not looking at it in disgust trying to figure out how many mistakes I have to fix before I can weave.  This is where I think the perfectionist trait pays off, weaving is very unforgiving.  If it’s wrong, it’s wrong.  Of course some of those errors quite possibly are only things that I would see – but I would see them from across the room.

 

Weaving Wednesday 5

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130414 LoomThis past weekend I finished putting the warp on the loom in Rowe and began to weave.  I love having it there so I can just weave any time I want.  I’d like to make short work of these towels (the same ones I had made in class). They are beautiful when they are finished but they are seriously boring to weave.  That’s the craft ADD talking.   I’m currently warping a 36″ loom for class with 2/8 Jaggerspun Maine Line wool yarn.  This is my first venture into wool weaving.  It will be an overshot throw in a Maltese Cross pattern.  I’m looking for some really nice colored wool for the weft, it needs to be a heavy worsted.  I love, love, love the feel of wool so winding this warp has been a pleasure.  Next week it goes onto the loom.  My thought is to finish the towels then warp the Rowe loom the same way and make throws for  Christmas presents.

130414 Summer & Winter FinishedThis is the Summer and Winter runner hemmed and washed.  The wool fulled beautifully and it was so soft once it dried.  Brought it down to sister Sue.  Maybe I can get her into weaving one of these days!

Weaving Wednesday 4

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Today should really be textile Wednesday.  On Saturday THIS was delivered to the house.

130407 Hale WheelI am excited beyond words.  This wheel is amazing, so well balanced.  It probably took me all of 10 minutes to adjust and then I just was spinning away.  This is truly a beauty. The funniest part about getting this wheel was how much Bill complained when I told him I was getting it.  He whined about another large piece of equipment coming into the house and where the heck were we going to put it?  He was with Russell gathering sap when it arrived so he didn’t see it until it was all set up and going.  His reaction when he saw it was “Wow, that’s awesome, it looks like it belongs here!”  So instead of it being relegated to another room it may have a home right where it is (unless we have a fire).

Pam drove to Rowe to go through my loom and make some minor adjustments so I could actually weave on it.  I started dressing it on Sunday but didn’t have enough time to finish, possibly tonight I will be able to throw a shuttle and see how it all goes.  I do love putting on a warp though, I love the counting and focus it requires.  It relaxes me. The bonus is how beautiful it is every step of the way.

130407 Dressing LoomThis is an extra warp I wound in class for the twill towels.  I may play with this a bit rather than making just four more towels (although these towels would probably have fewer mistakes).  Perfectionism is such a curse. I love the twill stripes on these and the cotton has such a nice sheen.

130409 End of Summer & WinterI went to weaving an hour early last night and was able to finish my summer and winter experiment.  I ended up weaving a little over 30 inches in the green and white.  I’ll post a photo of it finished once it is.  It really is quite beautiful.  The photograph just doesn’t do it justice, it’s such a wonderful moss green.  Next week I will be warping a 36″ loom for an overshot throw in wool – very excited about this one.  Now to shop for just the perfect yarn and color!

 

A Eureka Moment

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130328 Weaving (1)

 

Last night’s weaving was a revelation to me.  I’ve been doing a sampler in Summer and Winter and because I put on a 3 yard warp I decided I would weave a couple of runners with different treadling to help it all sink in. I have to admit I am such a novice weaver that until last night I had a slight grasp of what I was doing but truly didn’t really understand the structure.  Last Sunday Pam held a class on drafting and we also had to do our own draw downs on graph paper.  I am amazed at how hard I have to think to make the design part work.  I’m sure that after I do this a while it will be easier.  The class was excellent and I came away with a much better understanding of structure – how the warp and weft work together to make the desired pattern.

A couple of weeks ago I was weaving the beginning of this pattern, I had done about 2 repeats then left it for my next session.  When I got there last night it took about 15 minutes to just figure out where I’d left off.  I didn’t have a real draft of what to weave so I struggled to get going and REALLY struggled when the pattern had to change.  After weaving and unweaving I finally decided I would look (really look) at what I was weaving and what I wanted it to do and write my own draft – at least the treadle part.  I figured out each change by raising different sheds to see what they’d do and wrote it down with whatever repeats I thought would work.  Eureka!  I wove the next full repeat and it worked exactly the way I wanted it too.  This is EXCELLENT – heh, heh.

As I was weaving along I had to take a couple of photos – because I love the way it looks – I could just photograph it all day long.  I also wanted you to see that the back of the piece is the exact opposite as far as color and pattern.  Weaving is very cool.  I was also thankful that all I had was four treadles – with anymore I may never have figured it out.

130328 Weaving (2)

Weaving Wednesday 3

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130312 Green Summer and Winter

 

Still working on my Summer and Winter sampler/experiment.  I’m beginning to understand the structure and how to do a draw down so I know how to make a design I want.  Even though I have it graphed out it always comes as a bit of a surprise when I actually weave it.  I’ll probably weave a couple of feet of this design and then change to different treadling to see how I can switch it up yet keep the basic design intact.  It’s so beautiful and amazing to see it emerge as you weave.

Weaving Wednesday 2

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130305 Weaving

 

Last night I finished weaving my X’s and O’s after fixing a threading issue that was messing up the X’s.  With my OCD with perfection it HAD to be done!  I moved on to using 3 shuttles to do columns, two with complimentary colors and the cotton tabby.  It was a little confusing at first but once I got into a rhythm of what to do with the shuttles that weren’t being thrown it was fine.  I had some issues with my selvages but I think it was because I was concentrating on the pattern.  Too much was going on at the same time!

Not shown was a mistake I made that turned into the most wonderful tweed like pattern.  I only did it for about an inch when we realized I was reading the draft totally wrong.  Now I think I want to weave something with that mistake alone.

I finished the class with Atwater Bronson lace.  It’s very easy to treadle BUT I beat everything to death so the lace part didn’t actually show very well.  I’ll have to work on loosening up.  Pam said I won’t be weaving gauze any time soon.  Ha!

Weaving Wednesday 1

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Weaving (1)

 

Last night I started weaving on the warp I had set up last week.  The pattern is called Summer and Winter and has probably as many variations as I can dream up.  I began with a blue wool yarn weft with the yarn about the same weight at the cotton warp.  It is woven with two shuttles, one with the wool, the other the same cotton as the warp.  This allows you to use the wool as the design element and the cotton holds it all together.  After weaving with the blue I switched to a worsted weight yarn with more dramatic results.  I think this is because the thicker yarn fills in over the cotton making the patterns much more visible.

 

Weaving (2)

 

Of course it wasn’t until I got to this point that I realized my mistake in warping the loom.  I could have continued to weave the brick pattern (the first done in red) and would never have seen it.  Well, now, looking at the photograph, I can see it but once I got to the trellis type pattern it was blatantly obvious.

 

Weaving (3)

 

You can see how the diamonds aren’t connected on the left hand side.  This was caused by ONE thread being in the wrong harness.  Having a bit of an OCD with perfection all I could think was “damn, I’m going to have to look at that for another 2 1/2 yards!”.  My instructor, Pam Engberg, told me we could fix it and showed me how to tie a string heddle and moved my warp thread.  FIXED!

Weaving is one of those things that I’m sure I could do by using someone’s written instructions or using YouTube but when you get into trouble it’s a whole different story.  Pam has been weaving for many, many years and knows the tricks of the trade.  If I was by myself I would have continued weaving with it wrong (weeping all the way).

I think with any craft it is always good to take a class with someone who knows what they are doing.   A good instructor sees your strengths, understands your weaknesses and gives you the tools you need to work on your own.  Pam is teaching me the tricks of the trade.  She is excited about me learning to weave and I’m more than willing to learn it.  Win, win.

The Weaving Adventure Continues

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Over the holiday break I spent two days warping the loom that sits in the library at the house in Rowe.  I learned a lot.

I first went out to the wood shop and made myself a raddle and a thread cone holder.  It cost about $4 in materials, saved me about $70 more or less.

I wound a warp of various colors for the first time.  Everything went along beautifully until I slayed the reed and realized that the left side of the warp threads were a good 2 inches shorter than the right.  Uh oh.  I figured I would just see what it would do since I hadn’t used this loom before and figured if nothing else I’d find out what kind of issues it has (there are sure to be some right?).  After tying the warp to the front I opened one of the sheds to find that the tension on the left side was too loose and it barely opened.

This was a long warp so I’m thinking it may not have been beamed tight enough or  I wound it unevenly.  Honestly I think the the loom was not square as well as sitting on an extraordinarily crooked floor.  After looking at the problem and stepping back from the loom I could see that the front left corner was lower than the rest so the whole loom was twisted.  Hmmmmm.  I walked away.

I know I have to rewarp the loom.  I also have to replace the harness cables.  The ones on the loom now are leather, dried out and all different lengths, those will be ordered this week.  When they arrive I will replace them and rework the whole loom to make sure it is square.  Then I will move it into another room where the floor is more level and start over again.

I have to say that this is really one of my favorite parts of the whole weaving thing.  So many things can go wrong but it all has to do with the mechanics.  If I can get the machine to do what it’s supposed to do then the only problems I will have will be my own doing – miscount, tension, or a hundred other mistakes that I don’t know about yet.  This is quite the adventure.

It’s the Process

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Twill Towels (2)

I spent the better part of 4 hours weaving last night.  I am half way through towel #2 of 4 that have been warped. They are a twill design which shows up fairly well in the photograph with a colored stripe design that is simple to do yet quite pretty.  This is substantial cloth, I can’t wait to use them.

This type of project is very meditative for me.  The draft is simple so after an initial start up the weaving action becomes automatic.  It allows me to think.

Christmas Eve is our family celebration, it has been this way for many, many years.  It is 6 days away.  I am not even remotely ready.  I’m mostly not ready in my head.

This week has been one of the most depressing weeks I can remember.  I’ve tried to stay away from most media because they just can’t seem to stay away from the shooting in Newtown.  If it’s not that it’s someone screaming the gun control debate in your ear or how we’re falling off the fiscal cliff. It saddens me that there is no one in our government that can see beyond their next election.  Our rights are being taken away from us at an alarming rate.  Civil rights or copyrights, I know in the back of my head this can only get worse.  The internet is such an ugly place.  There are moments of brilliance but I have to say that not being connected is sounding better all the time.

So I weave.  I knit.  I hook rugs.  I get out of my head with the use of my hands.  My projects are becoming increasingly complex, I have to think about the process instead of what is going on around me.  When my little projects are done I usually give them away and people are amazed.  They don’t understand that it’s the process not the product.