Towels

I completed another set of towels over the Christmas holiday.  I wove 4 towels from this warp on a rigid heddle loom, one of them was gifted at Christmas.  All of the yarn comes from yarn that was frogged from a couple of sweaters.  The red yarn is from a cotton sweater of Gary's that had lost it's shape.  He gladly gave it up to the cause.  The yarn in the stripes came from a single sweater that had large blocks of color.  I picked it up at a thrift store in Durham when I was shopping with Judy and Nona.   We were wasting time while waiting for Cathy to get off work so we could drive up to DC to meet Martha for a ladies weekend.  I normally wouldn't have bought it cause it was expensive, $3 for a sweater.  My usual price is 50 cents, so $3 was exorbitant, but still cheaper than the typical price for cotton yarn at $20 per pound, plus shipping.  But we were facing a 4 hour drive and I knew we could get the entire sweater done, especially if I had help from Judy and Nona in the frogging process.  The other benefit of this sweater was that it provided seven different colors, making it a good choice for accent stripes.  The only drawback is that it is a cotton/ramie blend and the ramie is not as absorbent as the cotton for dishtowels.  Using the cotton/ramie blend in small stripes shouldn't effect the feel of the towel.  I put a 20" warp on the loom, because with this yarn set at 12 epi, there is substantial shrinkage.  The finished towels ended up 17" by 24".

My mother also joined into unraveling over the Thanksgiving day holiday.



Beginning the weaving



Date Finished   December 2012

Loom  Schacht rigid heddle

Weave Structure  plain

Reed  12 epi

Warp Fiber   cotton

Source   frogging


Warp Width in Reed  20 inches

Ends  240

Length  4 yds

Weft Fiber  same

Beat 50/50 

Finished size  17" X 24"

Blue Ridge Fiber Show

The Blue Ridge Fiber Show is a biennial exhibition sponsored by the Western North Carolina Fibers/Handweavers Guild.  As a new member of the Guild, I had never been to the show before.  It was hung in September and this is the last week it will be displayed, so I just barely made it before it is dismantled.  Some beautiful examples of weaving, felting, and spinning are displayed with entries submitted from around the country, not just Guild members.  This was a juried show and all of the winners of the BRFS can be seen here. 

The Guild also took an old two harness barn loom and Guild members demonstrated weaving during the run of the show. 

The show is held at the NC Arboretum, located just south of Asheville.  December is not a great time to visit the Arboretum, since most of the plants are dormant.  But you can see the structure of the gardens and I can't wait to go back in the Spring.

WOLF TRAP IMPROVEMENT

I love my Baby Wolf loom, I got it used about a year ago.  It is perfect for taking between Montana and North Carolina.  It might even work to take to workshops, as long as I have someone to help get it in and out of the truck.  The loom came with rollers, which allow me to move it around in the house and even out to the front porch.  It also came with a wolf trap, a sling for holding tools that fits on the front beam.  However, the dowels were continually coming out of the wooden supports and the whole thing would collapse.  Gary saw my frustration with it and made a small piece that fits onto the front support, after the wolf trap is on the loom.  This provides enough support so that it won't fall off, unless I pull the support piece off.  Brilliant, thanks.

Young Weavers

Lane and Mattie weaving, Emma working out

Lane

Luke and Hank

I warped two rigid heddles up with an acrylic yarn so they could make scarves and brought a bunch of fluffy and fun yarns.  I also brought an inkle that had a candy cane holder project on it and of course a potholder loom. 

Melissa knitting

Great Grandma Alice frogging a sweater

Making Christmas trees

Ms and Ws

It is pretty apparent why this weave structure, a point twill, is called Ms and Ws from this scarf, but not so apparent from the scarf below.  I wanted to warp the loom once and weave two scarves that were very different in appearance, the purple scarf is much more formal than the red scarf.  The draft is from A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, from the Editors of Handwoven.

Date Finished

Date Finished  November 2012
Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Ms and Ws

Reed  10 20 epi 

Warp     Fiber   rayon

              Count  8/2

              Color  black

              Mfr  Dragon Tail

              Source  Earth Guild

Warp     Width in Reed 6 inches

              Ends  129

              Length  5 yds - 2 scarves

Scarf One Weft      Fiber  Rayon

              Count  8/2
              Color  variegated red

              Mfr  Dragon Tail

              Source  Earth Guild

              Beat                       50/50                     

Scarf Two Weft      Fiber  Tencel

              Count  8/2

              Color  Eggplant

              Mfr

              Source  Cotton Clouds

              Beat                       50/50                     

Chenille Scarf - Shadow Weave

 This scarf has been finished for several months, I just haven't gotten around to taking a picture.  I know, cause I started it in Montana before we headed back to NC in early October.  And it's getting to be scarf weather in both Montana and NC.  Actually the drive to the airport last week was a little white knuckle since we were the first car on the road to Billings that morning.

The yarn was frogged from a thrift store chenille sweater, which had these two shades of blue, as well as purple.  The sweater came apart in yarn that was a two ply, which I separated into single ply for this scarf.  Fifty cents for the yarn, but the time that went into frogging the yarn and weaving means it would be a very expensive scarf if I priced it based on hourly labor costs.

This scarf was also one that I used the weaving software to design - Weave Design.  This is a free software program from the Pikes Peak Weavers Guild.  They encourage donations to the guild in return for use of the software.  Can't beat the price and donations go to a Colorado weaving community


Date Finished   November 2012

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Shadow Weave

Reed  10 epi

Warp     Fiber  chenille

              Count   15 epi

              Color two blues

              Source  thrift shop

Warp     Width in Reed  6 inches

              Ends  90

              Length  5 yds - made 2 scrves

Weft      Fiber  same as warp

              Count

              

Beat                       50/50                     

Space Dying and the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair

I took two half day workshops at the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair, a beginning spinning class and a dyeing class taught by Kathrin Weber, aka Blazing Shuttles.  We space dyed yarns with Procion dyes, in skeins and in pre-wound warps.  I am not not sure what I'll make with the skeins, but I love the colors.  One of the skeins moves from blue to purple and the other has some great fall colors, including greens, gold, browns and a little purple thrown in.  Space dying the warp, instead of skeins, means that the colors will stay in the same relative place and line up together in the warp.  That won't happen on the skeins, they will look much more variegated, unless  I measure out a warp in mutiples of the length of the skein.  If I do that, then the warp needs to wound in a  circle, not the typical beam to the cross and back again.  Maybe I will get around to that, and maybe not.

Procion Dyes are good for plant based materials, cotton, rayon, silk and tencel.  It was a pretty easy process, but I need to think and plan for color changes and color complements before I attempt this again.  The other thing I need to do is make the color changes come sooner and not have 10-12 inches of one color before the change.  I will definitely try this again and would love to take a longer class with Kathrin Weber, including weaving with these funky yarns.  The required ingredients other than the dyes, are pretty simple -soda ash and Dawn detergent. 

I took one other class at SAFF, a beginning spinning class.  I am glad I took it, but decided I was not that crazy about spinning.  However a spinning wheel would be a helpful tool in overtwisting yarns and for plying different yarns together.

The SAFF vendor display was almost too much, too many vendors, too much yarn, too many people.  I didn't buy a thing, because it was just so overwhelming.  I will definitely go back next year, maybe with a list of what I plan to work on next.

Baby Blankets

Brittnee's twins, Hunter and Walker, were born in late July and I just finished a baby blanket for them.  My excuse is that they were born 2 months pre-mature, so instead of being 3 months late with the blanket, I should only be one month late.  No excuse of course.  My other rationale is that the big loom is in NC and I was in Montana the first couple of months, where my looms have a maximum weaving width of 26", definitely not wide enough for a blanket.  The boys spent their first month in the hospital but are doing splendidly now, gaining lots of weight, and doing what babies should do.

The blanket is based on a design from Handwoven January/February 2012.  Fortunately I found the correction to treadling on Handwoven's website.
http://www.weavingtoday.com/media/g/corrections/default.aspx

I absolutely love this fabric, which is 50% slubby cotton and 50% rayon chenille, and so it has some structure from the cotton, but the chenille adds a nice softness.  I selected colors a little darker than recommended in the magazine and the blanket is much more vibrant.  I hope the twins and Brittnee like it as much as I do.

The darker shades in the blanket, blues, purple and turquoise, would look great as a scarf, 3 blocks wide or about 6 inches wide.  Warping the loom was not fun, given the alternating colors and natural cotton and the frequent color changes.  But once the loom was warped, it was a breeze to weave.  The only issue was the different stretchiness of the rayon vs. the cotton.

Date Finished  October 2012

Loom  Newcomb

Weave Structure Log Cabin
Reed  12

Warp     Fiber  Cotton Flake Noho

              Count  1100 yd/LB

              Color  Natural

              Mfr

              Source  Webs

Warp     Fiber  Rayon Chenille

              Count  1450 yd/lb

              Color  turquoise, blue, purple, pink and salmon

              Mfr

              Source Webs
Warp     Width in Reed 36 inches

              Ends  423

              Length  4 yds

Weft      Same as warp

Beat                       50/50                     

Size       36 X 50, after washing 

Notes

Nostepinne

Lately I have not had much time for weaving, primarily because I have been traveling.  Since I can't weave, I have to do something fiber related, so I have been frogging sweaters, mostly cotton sweaters.  The cotton yarn works great for dishtowels.  However, this fine yarn means that you wind very small balls.  Gary  helps on occasion and he knew there had to be a better way.  Of course there is a mechanical ball winder, but that does not travel well in a car or on a plane.  Gary did the research and found the nostepinne, the original Scandinavian ball winder, and he turned two for me, one in poplar  and one in walnut.  They make great compact center pull cylinders.  Check out the video to see how they work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKsO6niZbkI

Night Windows Scarf

My second attempt at the Night Windows Scarf was mostly a success.  It is the first project on my new to me, Schacht Baby Wolf 8 harness loom.  The loom currently resides in Montana and my warping board is in North Carolina.  I wound the warp for this is NC before heading to MT and unfortunately was 4 ends short in my count, not too noticeable, but not perfect.  It meant that the 8 harness twill would look off, it was short a few ends in two of the blocks, so instead the first weaving on the 8 harness used only4 harnesses.  Next time, I'll take full advantage of all those harnesses and all the options that they bring.

Date Finished  July 2012

Loom  Schacht Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  plain

Reed  8 dent

Warp     Fiber  Mercerized cotton

              Count   5/2

              Color  black

              Mfr

              Source
              Fiber  Rayon Chenille

              Count   1400 yds/#

              Color  variegated
              Mfr  Dragon's Tail

              Source  Earthguild

Warp     Width in Reed  10 inch

              Ends 2 per dent cotton, 1 per dent chenille

              Length  70 inch

Weft      Fiber  Rayon

              Count  8/2

              Color  Black

              Mfr  Dragon's Tail

              Source  Earthguid

Beat                       50/50                     

Size

Notes

Summer Scarf

More frogging, another scarf.  This one was made from a striped cotton vest.  The vest had random stripes of 1 inch or less in shades of white, blue, chartreuse and yellow.  This became the warp, with no color covering more than 2 or 3 consecutive warps.  I like the looks of the yarn, but the scarf is a little too dense.  I'd like to get the next one more light and airy and to get that I will decrease the sett from 8 per inch and use a finer cotton than the number 3 crochet yarn I used for the weft.

Melissa's Placemats

Melissa was in Red Lodge over winter break and was looking for a project to keep her occupied while the rest of the family went skiing.  We talked over the phone and by email and she decided to spend the time in Red Lodge weaving on the old 4 harness table loom.  Melissa's degree is in textile engineering and she used to work in designing and implementing industrial woven throws at Crown Craft in North Georgia.  This was her first attempt at doing it the old fashioned way.

She picked a project from Interweave Press that would create 12 placemats and required winding a warp of 9 yards.  She did all this without a warping board and I would have loved to see what the house looked like with 27 feet of warp wound around chairs and other stationary objects.  She must have really hustled to get the warp beamed and 6 placemats finished in 3 or 4 days time.  I finished up the remaining placemats during my next visits to Red Lodge.

Date Finished  June 2012

Loom   Table Loom

Weave Structure  Plain

Reed  

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  Tan, Burgundy, Gold, Blue, Brown

              Mfr

              Source  Earth Guild

Warp     Width in Reed  14"

              Ends  280

              Length  9yds

Weft      Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/4 used double

              Color  Rust

              Mfr  Maysville

              Source  Earth Guild

Beat                       50/50                     

Size   12" X 18"

Notes

Frogging yarn

Lately, most of my weaving has been completed using frogged yarn from cotton sweaters.  Here's the project from start to finish.  Emma has a sleeve of a blue cotton sweater that ended up in 4 kitchen towels woven on the Rigid Heddle loom.

Date Finished  June 2010

Loom  Rigid Heddle

Weave Structure Plain

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count

              Color  Blue and lt blue

              Source  Thrift Store

Warp     Width in Reed  17"

              Ends  204

              Length  3 1/2 yds

Weft      same
Beat      50/50                     

Size

Inkle loom

I  recently joined the Western North Carolina Fibers/Handweavers Guild and they sponsored an Inkle Weaving workshop with Ann Dixon.  Ann was in the US on her way to Convergence, the biennial fiber workshop held in California this year.  Ann is the author of a wonderful weaving resource book, The Handweavers Pattern Directory.  I signed up for the workshop, but unfortunately it was full.  However, I was the first person on the waiting list, so I had high hopes of getting in the workshop.  The workshop was designed as an advanced class and since I had never woven on an inkle loom, I knew I had to get to work.  My first issue was that I did not have an Inkle loom.  Gary set to work on it and built a beautiful, functional loom in a day.  It works wonderfully, but unfortunately I didn't get into the class.  I did however, make 2 dog collars, one for Bo and one for Kevin's dog Toby, who has recently been diagnosed with cancer.  

Date Finished  June 2012

Loom  Inkle

Weave Structure  Plain

Warp     Fiber  Aunt Lydias Corchet Cotton

              Count   3

              Color  White, Turqoise and Chartreuse

              

Warp     Width  3/4"

              Ends  28

              Length  1 yd

Weft     Same

Beat      Warp Faced


The next projects planned for the Inkle include a hat band for Gary's cowboy hat and straps for a luggage rack.  The luggage rack will be a joint project, Gary will turn the wooden pieces for the luggage rack and I will weave the straps.

Wif 'n Proof Software

The shadow weave scarf that I just finished made me realize I needed a good way for following complex treadling sequences.  The treadling followed 76 picks before repeating and with such a subtle pattern, it was not easily apparent when I had made a mistake.  I have been looking at weaving software for a few months, trying to decide if I needed it and if I do, which one to buy.  Since software runs $150-300 and I am only an occasional weaver, I want to make the right choice.  Wif 'n Proof, caught my eye, because it was only $20.  However, it is not a full featured drafting program, but instead a program that can be used on a tablet, IPad, or smartphone for treadling sequence.  You can download drafts into the program or enter the information directly and then just weave along and hit the button to show what the next treadling sequence is.  It's available from Sandoz Software on versions from phones to tablets and I use it on my Color Nook.

Shadow Weave Scarf

I just finished two scarves woven in a Shadow Weave.  I have never woven this pattern before and the warping and the weaving was very complex to complete.  The draft calls for weaving 76 rows before the pattern repeats, so it took some concentration.  That is probably the main reason that it took over a month to get it off the loom.  The other reason is that is is woven with two very fine yarns with a sett of 20 epi.  The yarns are a vaiegated bamboo and tencel, which gives it a very drapey quality.The pattern comes from Handwoven, January/February 2012.  Handwoven's instructions provide an 8 shaft draft and a 4 shaft draft.  Using my 4 harness loom, the pattern was not nearly as evident as in the photos in the magazine.  Higher contrast between the yarns should help.  The scarf is finished with a twisted fringe using the LeClerc fringe twister.

Date Finished  May 2012

Loom   Newcomb

Weave Structure  Shadow Weave

Reed  12 sleyed to 20 epi

Warp Fiber  Bambu 7, Rhubarb Patch
                     8/2 Tencel, Eggplant

Count  8/2

Source   Cotton Clouds

Warp Width in Reed  8"

Ends  157

Length  73"

Weft Fiber  same as warp

Count  19 ppi

Beat 50/50                    

Size

Notes  Cotton Cloud kit did not have enough of either yarns,  and I had to order more.

Cheaper Kitchen Towels

My Mother and Gary's Mother would be proud.  I am keeping up both families' thrifty Scottish traditions, as well as following the environmental mantra of Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.   I just finished three kitchen towels on the rigid heddle loom in yellow, green and blue.  The yarn for these towels came from thrift store cotton sweaters that I have unraveled.  Each sweater costs a mere 50 cents and probably generates 8 oz of cotton yarn.  If I were to purchase the cotton, it would run $15 for 8 oz.   The yarn from these three sweaters could probably make 10 towels.  The only other kitchen towels that I have made were during my weaving week at John C Campbell Folk School.  If I add up the tuition, the travel and meals for the week, those towels probably cost about $300 each.   Next up will be towels in Duke blue with a little Carolina blue accent.

I had some help in "frogging" (highly technical term for unraveling) the sweaters from Gary, Peggy and even Emma.  The biggest issue with frogging is the mess that it leaves behind on me, the rugs, the couch.  The other benefit, other than cheap yarn, is that it also makes weaving a little more portable.  I can always carry around a sweater to unravel even though I can't carry a loom.

Date Finished      June 1, 2012

Loom                  Rigid Heddle

Weave Structure  Plain

Reed     12 dent

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count

              Color   Yellow and Green

              Source    Thrift Store Sweaters

Warp     Width in Reed   18"

              Ends  216

              Length   2 1/2 yds

Weft      Fiber   Cotton
              Count

              Color  Yellow, Green and Blue
              Mfr

              Source   Thrift Store Sweaters

Beat                       50/50                     

Size  on loom 18 x 25, finished 15 1/2 x 22

Notes

Potholder Looms

I have tried to entice some friends into weaving and haven't had much success to date.  So who better to turn into a little weaver, but Emma.  I have been waiting for the right time to buy a potholder loom, remember those from girl scouts, summer camp or Sunday School.  Yep, they still make the looms and the loops that you weave with.  At 5, she is still a little young, but she likes to pick out the colors and she can put the loops on the loom in one direction.  She can't quite get the coordination to interlace the second set of loops.  But she likes making designs and she loves to give away the finished product - both good starts.