wool

A Weaving Weekend

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131020 Green Crosss

Although it wasn’t totally planned I spent most of the weekend doing something related to weaving (in between cooking, cleaning and loads of laundry).  I make the mundane more pleasurable by rewarding myself with loom time.  I finished the blue and white and moved onto a green variegated version of the Maltese Cross and discovered something in the process.  Being a newby to this craft I didn’t realize what a HUGE difference yarn would make in how the pattern looked.  (Apparently I’m paying too much attention to other things while I’m throwing a shuttle).  The last two throws I have woven in this pattern I used Bartlettyarn Maine Wool for the weft with a warp of Jaggerspun Maine Line 2/8 wool.  I love the feel of the wool when it’s been fulled and finished, it’s a warm, heavy blanket but . . . the crosses in the pattern were more elongated than I had thought they would be.  When I started weaving the green version of this I was using Noro Boku, a wool/silk blend.  Both of these yarns are worsted weight but one is thicker than the other and the less hefty of the two brought the pattern into what I had expected.  Yes, I continue to weave with the variegated yarn even though the judge didn’t like it at the Big E.

Sunday I spent a good part of my afternoon at the weaving studio helping Pam put together a new Harrisville 36″ 8 Shaft, 10 Treadle Loom. The latest addition arrived in two boxes and reminded me of something I might have picked up at IKEA.

131020 (1)Parts, parts, parts, tools, instructions.

131020 (2)More parts.

131020 (3)Okay, I’ve built IKEA before – Harrisville should get some advice from them on their instructions.

131020 (4)Pam’s attaching the treadles.

131020 (5)You have to be fairly flexible to get this job done ( at least be able to get up off of the floor).

131020 (6)About 3 hours later here she is ready to go – well, with four shafts ready to go.  After 3 hours we were fried, so opted to add the other four later.

131020 (7)Set in the new spot with the other looms.

This was a great experience.  I now feel as if anything that happens to my loom I will be totally prepared to repair.  The maple that the loom is made out of is quite beautiful.  I also learned why Pam asked me for help – it is virtually impossible to put this together without an extra set of hands. I also think it was an extension of my weaving education.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Hue of You

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130720 Halcyon BoxThe muted colors of autumn with an unexpected spark.

 

Calling My Name

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131005 Maltese Cross

 

Weaving has become an obsession with me.  I warped my loom in Rowe last week.  I was proud to say after 430 ends only one was threaded wrong and I was able to fix it with a string heddle.  I love having an instructor who knows the craft so well she can teach you the tricks that get you out of a jam.

I wound an extra long warp so I could weave three of these throws in succession with different colors.  This is the traditional blue and white.  The next will be with a variegated green/brown combination and the last will be anyone’s guess.  Christmas is coming.  I figure I can have these off of the loom by Halloween and move on to other gifts.

Although I weave during the week at the studio in Brimfield we are weaving cotton.  Cotton is what I started with when I began learning to weave, it gives a beautiful definition to the structure.  For that reason I like weaving with it, especially when I am doing something new.  My last project for the class this past spring was the red and white wool throw and it was revelation.

I love the feel of wool.  I love the way it feels going through my hands. Winding the warp seemed effortless, it had a calming effect. That’s really the reason I love having something in wool always going somewhere.  It’s not just the counting and meditative repetition of the act of weaving, it is also the feel.  This throw is warped in Jaggerspun Maineline 2/8 yarn, it is soft and wonderful to work with.  The weft on this section is Bartlettyarn Maine Wool  which is a beautiful worsted weight yarn.

The other aspect of weaving with wool is the smell – I’m thinking it’s only fiber people that will understand that statement.  It smells like it came from an animal, it’s wonderful.  Don’t get me wrong – it doesn’t smell while you’re weaving but you can take a hank of wool and breathe it in, ahhhh.  It’s in the finishing that some of these remaining oils are washed out and that’s what makes the fiber “bloom”.  There are so many times when I look at the weaving on the loom and think it doesn’t look as good as it should.  Once it is washed and dried a miracle happens and it often looks better than anticipated.

That’s the thing I’ve found with weaving – every aspect of it is equally important to the finished project.  People tell me they love to weave but hate to warp.  To me that is the most important part, otherwise nothing else works.  It is time consuming, yes, but I take it as a challenge.  I try to beam my warp so the tension is even, thread my heddles so there are no mistakes, slay the reed without skipping a space all the first time.  It becomes tedious when I don’t pay attention and have to take it all out and start over.  Throwing the shuttle is the easy part most of the time.  Finishing can be tedious as well but when you do it it’s magic.  What looked just okay on the loom becomes a masterpiece once it is washed.  All aspects of the process come together.

Family Stories

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300623 Wedding Elmer and LenaLena and Elmer Alix – June 29, 1930 – both were working in mills at the time.

Every Wednesday I eat lunch with my Dad at the assisted living facility he lives in now.  It’s always interesting for one reason or another.  This week we talked weaving, which is one of my favorite subjects.  My father is one of the few people left that can tell me the stories of the woolen mills where almost his entire family worked for his childhood, adolescence and young adulthood.

He’s been telling me these stories for my entire life, they are part of my being.  It wasn’t until this past year that I had a much greater understanding of what he was talking about.  He always tells me about the mechanics of the mill, how the looms worked, how the fiber was carded and spun, the kinds of fiber they were using.

When I began my weaving class my goals were twofold – I wanted to learn the process but I also wanted to better understand the stories – my family history.  I knew if I didn’t do this a good part of these stories would be lost.

Wednesday Dad talked about winding warps for the looms.  The looms they were using were 72 inches in width (that’s pretty big). Each warp thread came off of its own spool.  He didn’t know how long the warps were but he often has told me about my grandfather knotting the warp threads as they ran out while beaming the warp. He could tie the knots with one hand.  This must have been pretty amazing because Dad never looks more delighted than when he tells me that.

We talked about my grandfather’s weave books. Dad told me this was the book he was using at Charlton Woolen in the early 1930’s.  Today I took it out and realized that the length of the warp was decided by whatever the job was.  This book never ceases to amaze me.  He saw this in his head, he designed on paper and knew what it was going to do – wow.  I understand it but at this point I’m not able to visualized what the warp and weft are going to do without doing a draw down (and I struggle with that at times – it makes my head hurt from thinking too hard).

 

Weave Instructions (2)

 

The heddles were all threaded by hand – look at this page – 6 harnesses with 1800 ends. It would take me a month. Yikes!  Often there over a dozen harnesses, talk about making your head hurt.

Today I will finish weaving my scarf for the Eastern States Exposition (Big E).  I will take it off of the loom, fringe it, weave in any loose threads, then wash and block.  I think one of the reasons I enjoy weaving so much is it has helped me to understand the kind of thinking my ancestors did while doing what they did for a living.  This has been a great journey.

Weaving Wednesday 13

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130812 Weaving (2)

I managed to warp the loom this past Saturday and wove some on Sunday and a little on Monday.  After splitting wood I was less than enthusiastic, I really just wanted a nap.

This has a tencel warp with a verigated wool sock yarn for the weft.  It is really quite lovely – the tabby warp in tencel looks like little glass beads when the light hits it just right.  Speaking of warping and weaving I made another mistake threading – can you see it?  I didn’t until I’d woven about 6″ – and that was my point of no return.  It is what it is.  I don’t find it glaring and it wouldn’t stop me from wearing it.  Another exercise.

I have 10 days to finish this.  Barring any unforeseen crisis I shouldn’t have a problem doing it.  It’s nice to be weaving a more complicated draft.  I really love doing overshot.  It reminds me of knitting an Aran pattern in a way.  You have to knit many rows before the pattern appears, then it keeps you interested.  Once you’ve repeated the pattern 5 or 6 times the piece you’re knitting is done.  This does much the same thing, by the time you are in a rhythm with the treddling the piece is nearing completion.

When this is done I will probably weave another wool overshot throw, then I have a striped twill throw in mind.  Christmas is coming.

130812 Weaving (1)

 

Oh the Possibilities

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130720 Halcyon BoxMy box of yarn from Halcyon is waiting for me to make some sort of decision.

Off of the Loom

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Sunday I finished weaving the throw in the morning, tied the fringe and washed it to full the wool.  I threw it over the empty loom to dry.  When I arrived in Rowe yesterday I immediately took it out to the garden to take a couple of photographs.  I’m only sorry you can’t feel how lovely this is.  There is nothing like wool.  I love the color play and it truly was a great experiment in color.

IMG_20130731_164624

I learned a lot in this project – there were problems I had to figure out myself.  Those are the solutions you remember, they may not have been the best solutions but the finished project worked and I will do things differently the next time I warp.

It’s getting to the point now where I have so many things I want to weave I don’t know what to do next.  I think I will do another overshot project, maybe with mixed fibers this time.  Who knows, maybe I’ll be learning about a whole new set of problems.

Gamp Progress

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130724 (1)

 

I thought I’d post a couple of photos of the progression of the gamp I’m weaving.  This is in Harrisville wool.  The weather finally broke and we are back to tolerable temperatures.  I did a lot of weaving this past Sunday and a little on Wednesday.

I have to say that this project has taught me a lot more about weaving than color interaction.  I’ve had a couple of issues with the tension on my warp (which I’ve corrected) and I also broke a warp thread the other night.  That was a bit more of a challenge figuring out what would work and what wouldn’t.  It broke between the heddle and the reed.  I thought I could knot a new thread in – not.  So I just put a new thread from the back to the front and weighted it like I’ve done with a broken floating selvage.  It worked I’m happy to say.  The best part was the lack of panic on my part, I just figured out how I could make it work.  Six months ago that might have been a problem, I would have had a more difficult time figuring it out.

I hope to have this off of the loom this weekend.  As beautiful as it is I’d much rather be doing overshot, plain weave is just so boring.

130724 (2)

Weaving Wednesday 11

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130706 Keith's Scarf

 

I was a mad weaver last week.  This piece started out as an experiment in sett really.  I had a draft but wanted to use something other than what it called for, because I didn’t have access to the required materials and I just HAD to weave SOMETHING.

The warp is a Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca Fine which is a  wool/alpaca/nylon blend, the color – Potting Soil Mix.  The weft is Berroco’s alpaca in red.  The pattern is an overshot called Orange Peel.  The name alone made me want to weave it in orange.

I am proud to say that this project went off without a hitch – from warping to finishing.  It also happened in 5 days.

We were going to a nephew’s 30th birthday party on the 6th (yes, I am that old) and I needed a gift.  After asking Bill if he would wear it (no, he can’t put anything around his neck), I decided to give myself that deadline.  The biggest problem I ran into was finishing.  Living in a house with no air conditioning in the middle of a humid heat wave is not conducive to air drying a 72″ wool scarf.  I confess to putting it in the dryer on air for a half an hour without adverse results.  I also didn’t realize how hot I would be twisting fringe.  The results were worth it.

This piece is yummy – so soft and warm.  I’m sure it will get used in San Francisco.  I was a little sad to see it go but had woven it with the recipient in mind, those are always the best projects.

Now I have to admit that I’m just a little on edge because there is nothing on my loom right at the moment.  I have a number of choices right now but I think I will weave a gamp of Harrisville wool that I just purchased.  I figured Harrisville was the way for me to go because I love the way their wool is spun and dyed.  So 18 colors, 72 inches – I can’t wait to get it started!  On the other hand if this heat keeps up maybe I should consider making something in cotton.