Dreaming of Possibilities

June 7, 2013June 7, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

Last night I finished my overshot throw and took it off of the loom. I’m amazed at how quickly the weaving went. I will post a photograph of it once it’s finished. I still have to sew, wash and do the fringe (twisted I think). It’s quite beautiful and I’m pleased with the way it looks. This was a lot of fun along with the frustration.

Taking this project off of the loom in class marked the end of weaving lessons until the fall. After we took it off the loom Pam spread it out and said “Well, it’s beautiful, now you’ll just have to come to weave for fun because there is nothing else I can teach you.” Yeah, right. I have to say I have never taken a class where I learned so much in such a short period of time. I’m excited at the prospect of the many, many new weaving projects ahead. Every time I take something off of a loom the next project is rolling around in my head. I haven’t really got the Maltese Cross out of my system yet so I will probably make another one on the loom at home in another color. I’m also looking at other overshot drafts. I figure since I’ve done one design it shouldn’t be a problem doing another, just read the draft.

I have a 40 minute drive to and from weaving class. It always seems like it takes forever to get there in anticipation of what new thing I’m going to learn. The drive home seems like it takes much less time. I go over and over what I’ve done in the last 3 to 4 hours. I think about the structure, the colors, the process. I think that’s the sign of a good fit in craft – you dream of the possibilities.

The Reason I Started to Weave

June 4, 2013June 4, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 5 Comments

Most of my family on both my mother’s and father’s sides immigrated to the United States in the late 1800’s, the majority of them went to work in woolen mills in various parts of New England. This is fairly typical for immigrants of that era. Their skills were learned on the job and they worked their way into different jobs in a particular type of manufacturing.

My father’s father, Elmer, worked in woolen mills his entire life. I can’t say for sure what all of his jobs entailed but he is listed in the 1930 Census as a Loom Fixer. He was a brilliant man and could fix anything, including machining any parts that he needed.

He left behind a number of books where he kept track of all sorts of things including loom set ups. I had never woven a thing so when I looked at this particular book it didn’t make any sense other than to know that they were drafts and swatches of fabric that he had woven. That’s pretty cool in itself.

He had his own woolen mill in the late 50’s and early 60’s and I’m assuming these were some of the drafts for what he was weaving at the time.

Not ever having woven a thing I had no idea what he was talking about but felt like if I learned then I could be privy to his secret language, sort of get inside of his head.

A friend was moving last summer and posted on her Facebook page that she needed to get rid of her Harrisville loom and was anyone interested – I jumped on it. When I did I was thinking about this book and my family heritage with weaving. I googled weaving instructors for that particular loom and found Pam in Brimfield. I brought the book into class the second week to find out if I would be able to read it at some point. The mechanical looms are very different from the hand looms but what I’ve found is they are all the same really. She assured me that I would be able to read his drafts but would also be able to weave them

I look at this book in a totally different way now. I understand what he was saying and doing and it’s truly amazing. He would write the drafts, set up the looms and then attach a swatch of what he had created in his mind. Wow.

In the past year of weaving class I have learned the mechanics of dressing a loom and weaving structure (the basics). I have learned that my brain works in a way where I can see from a draft what a weaving structure will look like. I’ve learned that I inherited the ability to do this and understand it. Now I can spend some time actually weaving some of the drafts that my Pampi wrote. How cool it that?

Weaving Wednesday 8 – Maltese Cross

May 22, 2013September 11, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

I finished warping last night and began weaving a dry run to see if there were any mistakes with some different yarn than I have to weave the throw. Pretty cool isn’t it? Well, not as cool as you might think because there WAS a threading error and we narrowed it down to the 15 or 20 threads. Now it has to be fixed. This is always amazing to me – you thread four harnesses in a certain way, weave with your treadling a certain way and this is what happens. All I can say is WOW. I am sooo hooked.

Weaving Wednesday 7

May 15, 2013September 11, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

Pam, our instructor, lashing a warp for a Navajo rug.

I left early yesterday thinking that with an extra hour I would be able to finish threading it and possibly sley the reed. Ahhhh, the best laid plans. Last week when I started threading my warp I was on fire. Everything went in order, no mistakes, perfection. I only had time to thread the first half so with the extra time I figured this should be easy. I threaded, rethreaded and threaded again the last half of that warp. Three hours into it I had 25 to 30 threads left over at the end. Count, count, count, rethread, count, count count, thread again, still wrong, ugh. Sometimes your head is in the game, sometimes it’s not, last night it definitely was not. I got there at 5:00 and by 8:30 I had the reed on ready to start that but really didn’t have enough time so it will be waiting for me next week. Bummer.

When I first arrived at the studio I went around and took a few photographs of the other weaving projects going on. It’s all fascinating to me and there is just so much you can do (although the just gives me weaving ADD). Since my loom looks almost exactly the way it did last week I’ll share some of the other weaving – without description since I’m not sure of the proper terminology.

I have my class on Tuesday evenings so there are only a couple of other women that I actually weave with.

We do have weaving “theory” classes once a month where all of Pam’s students get together to learn about drafting, structure and color. Now I can put the names and projects with the faces.

It has been an amazing experience playing with these women who are all at different places in their weaving education.

All of the weavers that I have met are very generous people. They are open, honest and giving. It’s like going to therapy every week. We are all around the same age with wildly diverse backgrounds but we come together to create beautiful things. You see everyone’s tastes are so different in their color choices or even their projects. Pam steers people in the direction of their capabilities and gives direction when needed. She encourages each of us to work on our own so when we leave we can go home, warp our own looms and weave without her assistance. It’s nice to know that she’s only a phone call away though, I’m not all grown up yet.

The photo above is of a double weave rug (I know this much). It is one of the most stunning things I have ever seen. Makes me think a rug is in my future.

Weaving Wednesday 6

May 8, 2013September 11, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 1 Comment

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.

These 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.

This 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

April 17, 2013September 11, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

This 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.

This 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

April 10, 2013September 11, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

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

I 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.

This 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.

I 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

March 29, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

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.

Weaving Wednesday 1

February 20, 2013September 11, 2013 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

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.

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.

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.

Summer and Winter

February 15, 2013 / handmadebyjo / Leave a comment

I like to post a photograph each time I have a weaving class. I do it for me so I have a record. I did receive a lot of comments on this the other day and thought I’d give just a little more information. This is going to me a sampler for a draft called Summer and Winter. I’m doing a sampler so I can better understand the structure of this weave. My teacher tells me we are going to beat this pattern to death so with three yards on the warp I should have a pretty good understanding of what’s going on by the time I take it off of the loom. While I’m weaving it I will be thinking of what kind of project I want to make with this pattern when the sampler is finished.

I was going to post some photographs of this woven from other sources but I think I will just post week to week with its progress and what is happening with it. I’m such a novice weaver that I have a lot of “aha” moments in all aspects of these projects. I’ve also found that I dream about aspects that I don’t understand and solve problems in my sleep. I find weaving to be mentally challenging. The warp and the weft all come together to make a pattern but I sometimes have difficulty visualizing it. There’s a lot of math involved initially so if your math is off so is everything else.

I think my instructor sometimes gives me more credit for knowing what’s going on than I deserve. Last week she was explaining how this was all going to work and I could NOT wrap my head around what was going on. She drew it out on graph paper with me and talked about how many “units” went into it so we could figure out what kind of warp to wind. I just agreed and did what she told me to do. It wasn’t until I woke up the next morning that I knew what she was talking about. It’s nice to know that my brain can actually figure this stuff out. I see it as exercise. People that take up musical instruments or learn a foreign language as they get older are supposedly more likely to fend off dementia. I’d put this in that category as well, I have to really work my brain while I’m awake and sleeping to get this to work.

Most of the women in my class come to weave things, they follow the pattern until what they want to make is finished. I’m not dismissing that capability because you have to know a lot to make that all come together. I am one of those people that has to know why things work the way they do. I believe once you know the why you can do anything within the medium. Yup, I’ll keep telling myself that and continue to dream about the mechanics of weaving.

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