Christmas Rosepath

Last year I wove an overshot table runner in red and white, that I had hoped to get finished by Christmas.  Well, I didn't get it completed till January, so I called it a Valentine's Day table runner.  I had similar plans this year to weave small figures using an 8 shaft rosepath threading, including Christmas trees, stars, hearts and gingerbread people.  I was not sure exactly what I would do with the cloth, but thought that it could be cut up and made into flat Christmas tree ornaments each about 2 or 3 inches square.  My other plan was to make Christmas cards with a cutout in the front cover peeking through to a woven tree or heart as shown on Amanda Cutler's blogpost here.  I ended up with Christmas trees, stars, and hearts.  I couldn't find a draft for a gingerbread man that would use only 10 treadles and 8 shafts.  I had to change the tie-up for each of these designs.  Tim's Treadle reducer program was helpful to reduce some of the drafts from 12 or 13 treadles to the 10 treadles on my loom.

Date Finished  December 2013

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure Rosepath

Reed  8, 24 epi

Warp     Fiber cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  natural

              Mfr  Valley Yanr

              Source  Webs

Warp     Width in Reed  6.6"

              Ends  160 plus 2 floating selvedges

              Length  3 yds

Weft      Fiber  cotton

              Count  8/2 cotton

Pattern Weft      Fiber  cotton

              Frogged cotton in red, green
              5/2 perle cotton in blue
Beat       50/50                     

Size

Notes  The 5/2 was not thick enough to make a good pattern.  3/2 would be a better choice.

Twill Block Scarves

I have to admit that I am a lurker on the Warped Weavers Group at ravelry.com.  I love looking at the projects posted by members and getting inspiration on projects.  I have wanted to weave a turned twill and thought that pillows using 8/2 or 10/2 cotton would be my first project in this weave structure.  But I saw a set of scarves woven by marydargie woven using 8/2 tencel and loved the draft.  I changed it up a bit and only used one color warp, aquamarine.  I wove two scarves on this warp, one using a hunter green weft and one using a burgundy weft.  The scarves have a wonderful drape to them.

Date Finished  October 2013

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Turned Twill

Reed  20epi - 12

Warp     Fiber  tencel

              Count  8/2

              Color  Turquoise

              Mfr

              Source  WEBS

Warp     Width in Reed  10"

              Ends  202

              Length  6 yds

Weft      Fiber  tencel

              Count  8/2

              Color  one with hunter green and one with burgundy

              Mfr

              Source  WEBS

Beat                       50/50                     

Size  8 x 80"

SOUTHEAST FIBER FORUM

The Southeast Fiber Forum was held at Arrowmont School of Crafts in Gatlinburg in early April.  I attended and took a weekend class in Turned Beiderwand taught by Karen Donde of Sutherland Studios.  Karen is a great instructor, very well organized with lots of information ranging from fairly straightforward to deviously complicated on this old weaving structure.  By turning the Beiderwand structure, it can be woven with one shuttle, which makes the weaving progress much faster.

However, in weaving turned beiderwand, two different yarns are required for the warp and they are taken up differently during the weaving. The pattern warp has much   longer floats and therefore ends up looser on the warp beam.  So it is necessary to either use a second warp beam or do what most of the class did - jerry rig a secondary warp with a piece of wood pretending to be a secondary back beam and weighting the warp to  provide the tension.  This is a technique that can be used any time a supplementary warp is required.  I have read about supplementary warps for other weaving structures, but wasn't sure how to go about this without a second warp beam.


Attached are some of the other student's samples of work created during the week.  We sampled a wide variety of turned structures, including Turned Beiderwand at 1:4, 1:3, and 1:2. I was using 8/2 cotton for the ground warp and weft and a 5/2 cotton for the weft.  Most of the rest of the class was using a 10/2 yarn for the ground warp and weft.  This meant that my sample had very long warp floats, especially on the 1:4.





The other weave structures that we turned were:

• Summer and Winter
• Extended Summer and Winter
• Even Tied Overshot
• Uneven Tied Overshot
• Paired Tie Weave
• Half Dukagang

  The photo to the left is of our class assistant Dana's work.  Dana brought a borrowed Baby Wolf 8- shaft loom to class, just like my loom.  The person she borrowed it from, offered it up for sale and I bought it immediately.  I have been looking for a loom to take to Montana, so I don't have to drive one out and back on every trip. Dana used a pink supplementary warp on a green weft and not only did I get the loom, but she also left her remaining warp on the loom, which I have been weaving off with a burgundy tencel as weft using a Turned Extended Summer and Winter draft.

 It is hard to put an additional warp beam on a Baby Wolf because the back beam is not square - it comes out from the loom at an angle.  This makes it difficult to attach another back beam using clamps.  Once I got back to Brevard, Gary made a creative solution for the Baby Wolf by building a frame with a secondary back beam that slips over the original back beam leaving a space of about an inch between the two warps.  The supplementary warp can be run over this beam and weighted using water bottles and S-hooks.

Weaving Tools - Handmade

Weaving takes an incredible amount of stuff to get to the point that you can put a warp on a loom and weave it off.  Warping board, cone holder, heddle hook, reed hook, temple, bobbins, bobbin winder, fringe twister, boat shuttle, ski shuttle, stick shuttle,,,,, The list goes on and on and on.  Then there is the yarn, different colors, different sizes, different fibers.  All of this is to say is that it takes serious coin to be a weaver.  It is very different than knitting a sweater where you need knitting needles, yarn and a pattern and you are ready to go.  I was lucky enough to have started weaving over 40 years ago and accumulated a fair number of weaving tools at that time, when costs were pretty low.  My 45" 4 harness loom cost $350 new in 1972, today that loom would run over $2,000.  But instead of going broke buying tools, I have a DH who is a superb wood worker and he has made me quite a variety of tools, some patterned after the standards and some of his own invention.

For Christmas this year, he made the beautiful boat shuttle to the left.  It has an open bottom and holds the Schacht size bobbins and feeds easily through the shed.  It came from a dead dogwood tree that DH  cut down at a house he was remodeling in Brevard.  Since I weave in two locations that are 2000 miles apart, I can never have enough boat shuttles.  I am currently weaving crackle towels that have 4 color changes and so I am using every one of my 4 boat shuttles in Montana.



Late last year, I was working on a project that required a double yarn for the pattern weft and winding two threads on a bobbin does not always lead to both yarns pulling evenly out of the shuttle.  The double boat shuttle solves this problem by winding two separate bobbins.  This shuttle is also made of dogwood, which has been used for making weaving tools for ages because of it's hardness and close grain.


Wolf Trap Snuggy

 This ingenious little piece of wood snugs up my Wolf Trap on the Schacht Baby Wolf Loom.  Without it the Wolf Trap was always falling off the front beam.

Reed Holder

The reed holder arrived unanounced in my studio, I think because I was always borrowing DH's clamps whenever I wanted to sley the reed.  As a front to back warper, I usually sley the reed on a table, instead of on the loom.  I have used clamps, soup cans or whatever was on hand to hold the reed in an upright position.

Cross Holder

Another tool for warping, just a small block of wood with 4 nails to hold the cross.  I can walk away from warping and not loose the cross.  This little invention came from Barbara Miller of the Western North Carolina Fiber/Handweavers Guild.

Nostepinne

Scandinavian tool for winding balls.  I have used this for unwinding sweaters purchased from thrift stores.

Inkle Loom

Gary made this inkle loom in a day, when I thought I would be taking an inkle weaving class.  Unfortunately the class was full, but fortunately I got a great little loom for making bands.

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.