Overshot - Cat Tracks and Snail Trails

This set of 3 towels is not yet finished, even though it was started over 2 months ago.  Soon after putting this on the Newcomb, we left town for Montana.  I have been busy on other projects and will post those as soon as I get around to taking the photos.   I hope to get a chance to finish the Cat Tracks towels later this month.  The towels are weaving up nicely, but in the pattern areas, two strands of 8/2 cotton is required.  I have been winding a single shuttle with double strands which doesn't always feed through evenly.  Gary recently made a double shuttle for me, which solves this problem.  I can't wait to finish up these towels with the new double shuttle.

Date Finished - not done yet

Loom  Newcomb

Weave Structure Overshot

Reed 10, 2 ends per dent

Warp Fiber cotton

Count  8/2

Color natural and blue

Mfr  Dragon's Tail

Source  Earth Guild

Warp Width in Reed  18 1/4 "

Ends  362

Length  3 1/2 yds

Weft Fiber  same, doubled for pattern yarn
           

Beat 50/50                    

Size

Notes

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.

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

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

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.

The week at John C Campbell

Spending a week at John C Campbell Folk School was great fun and helpful to me in understanding techniques of weaving and building and correcting on the skills that I have.  There were 9 of us in the class with an instructor,Susan Morgan Leveille and her assistant Christie Rogers, so lots of one-on-one assistance in making sure the process I use, will get the desired results.

Lori and Janet sleying the reed

One of the things that I did not know till I got to class was Susan's family history is deep in weaving in Western North Carolina.  Lucy Morgan, Susan's Aunt was the founder of the Penland School of Crafts  and Susan learned to weave at the age of 9 from her aunt, Lucy Morgan.  In class she brought drafting notes and samples from Penland in the 40's, some of which I used during the week.

The week was designed to focus on Scandinavian kitchen textiles, towels, hot mats, table runners in a variety of weaving patterns.  I used rosepath, but others in the class used Monk's Belt, Krogsbrad, Halvdral, and twill.  Most of us were weaving with 8/2 cotton and the supply of yarn at John C Campbell allowed for lots of variety in the projects contemplated during the week.  The other benefit of the week was the library - a wealth of weaving books to spend time pouring over during the session.

Our photos of the week are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/thomson.pat/JohnCCampbell?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJLg0LjC4MCx-QE&feat=directlink

Susan brought in some of her textiles to help inspire us.  Most of us made kitchen towels, two or three during the week.  I joked that the cost of the two towels I made was about $300 a piece.  Some of the class came from Seattle, upstate New York, Illinois and so their towels might have cost about $1000 each.

My $300 kitchen towel in Carhartt brown

The weaving studio also gave me access to 30 looms, from 5-6 different manufacturers, to see what I liked in different looms and what I might like to modify on my loom or what features I'd like to have on the next loom.  I spent most of the week at a Schacht Baby Wolf, a loom I thought I might like to buy.  After the week was over I decided it was just too small, I was sitting too low at it and felt like my knees were up around my ears.  I still think that I might like a Macomber or a Leclerc and definitely want at least an 8 harness loom.  The other need is one that does not require the skills of a contortionist to warp.

Weaving Class Projects

Gary spent the week in a woodturning class and also thoroughly enjoyed it.

Phil Colson - woodturning instructor

During the week, there were 15 different sessions going on with a Scandinavian theme, including knitting, ceramics, wood carving, enameling, blacksmithing.  My favorite was the needle felting class that made incredible creations by the first day. Friday afternoon, all of the classes got to show off their stuff and it was great fun looking at the production during the week.