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.

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.

Weaving at John C Campbell Folk School

I am an entirely self taught weaver, picking up techniques by reading books (old school) and by watching youtube videos (new school).  I am sure that many of my techniques are not the "proper" or the most efficient way to weave.  Because of these deficiencies, I have decided to go to school, John C Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, to study weaving for a week.  It may be too late to teach me the right way, but at least I can see what the options are for good weaving techniques.

My primary loom has a sectional warp beam and because of that, I have never warped from front to back.  This is a skill I would like to master for a number of reasons.  With the Newcomb, I have to climb into the middle of the loom to sley the heddles.  It's not a pretty picture and as I get older and wider, this is not the easiest thing to accomplish.  In addition, the table loom does not have a sectional warp beam and so it should be warped from the front to the back using lease sticks.  I don't even have lease sticks and I wouldn't know where to put them if I had them.  I can imagine Gary telling where to stick them....

My other motivation for learning from a pro is to get over my hesitation about weaving fine cloth and complex patterns.  I gravitate to 8-12 epi, quicker to get the project on the loom and quicker to begin the weaving.

The course will cover Swedish textiles, so designs typically set at 24 epi.  My other interest is Krokgbrad weaving, which is not set as finely, but can produce some interesting detail on warp faced fabric.

Krokbragd almost looks like a Fair Isle pattern for weavers.

Gary is going to JCC as well to study woodturning.  Once again he has been turning for a while, but it's entirely self taught.  We won't stay on campus, but about 45 minutes away at Lake Burton.  Close enough that we can still participate in the evening activities, and yes that means dancing.  I just haven't told him yet.

Reversible Rug

This is another project from Interweave Publications Design Collection 19- all about rags.  Rugs seems to be the project that I gravitate to most frequently, utilitarian, sturdy, forgiving of mistakes.  This project is woven in a double weave, weaving two layers of fabric at the same time.  The fabric on the top layer can be a completely different color from what is being woven on the bottom layer and if you get tired of the colors on the top, just flip it over.  It should also result in a very thick rug, since it is made up of two layers.

The first step in this project was accumulating wool clothing to cut up for the weft.  I decided one layer would be red wool and all shades of black and white tweed.  The second layer would be plain black and the same black and white tweeds and plaids.  I accumulated probably 20 items of clothing before beginning to cut.  I used a rotary cutter on a quilting mat and the cutting went fairly quickly.  Cutting up the slacks, jackets, skirts seemed to be such a waste, but it came from the thrift store and already had a good life.  I am just repurposing it for it's second life.

The project was sleyed 1-3-2-3 and the 4th harness was not used at all.  I think there is probably an easier way to sley this on all 4 harnesses, but I couldn't figure it out, even after reading Black (New Key to Weaving) and Collingwood's rug book.  Next time I will probably use cotton carpet warp, since this wool was fairly expensive and is fairly small part of what is seen.



I used the standard tie-up and the following treadling:

From the right
Red tones - 1(lifts 1 and 3)
Black tones - 3 (lifts 3)

From the left
Red tones - 5  (lifts 2 and 3)
Black tones - 2 (lifts 2)


Date Finished  March, 2012

Loom  Newcomb

Weave Structure  double weave

Reed  8 epi, 4 epi  per layer

Warp     Fiber  Navajo wool warp, single ply

              Count  190 yds per tube

              Color  natural

              Mfr  Davidson

              Source  Earthguild

Warp     Width in Reed  31"

              Ends  252

              Length  3 yds, used 5 tubes

Weft      Fiber  wool rags, cut in 1" to 2" strips

              Count

              Color  black, black and white tweeds and  plaids on one side and red and black and white tweeds and  plaids on the other side

              Mfr

              Source  Thrift Store

Beat                       Weft Faced
Size

Notes

Night Windows Scarf

Another disappointing project, that I have revised mid stream.  This scarf was featured in Interweave's Design Collection 19 and is designed to use Perle Cotton and chenille accents for the warp and weft in a checkerboard pattern.  I have used chenille in the past and it works OK as a warp on a 4 harness loom with an 8 dent reed.  It did not hold up using it on a rigid heddle loom with a 12 dent reed, the chenille frayed and raveled pulling through the heddle holes.  It might work on an 8 dent rigid heddle, but then the cotton would be fairly loose.  Next time, I'll try it on the 4 harness, it just wastes so much yarn that I hate to put it on the Newcomb.

I pulled all the chenille out of the heddles and ended up with a crammed and spaced technique and added a few rows of a variegated silk at each end of the scarf

Date Finished  March 2012

Loom  Rigid Heddle

Weave Structure  plain weave

Reed  12 epi

Warp     Fiber  3/2 perle cotton

              Count - 150 yds per ball

              Color  black

              Mfr  Aunt Lydia's 3

              Source  Michaels - 

Warp     Width in Reed

              Ends - 70

              Length  7 feet, used 1 1/2 balls

Weft      Fiber - rayon 8/2

              Count  1600/#

              Color  black

              Mfr  Dragon Tale

              Source  Earthguild

Beat                       50/50                     

Size   8 by 60

Notes

Log Cabin Runner

The log cabin weave structure is intriguing because it is woven with plain weave, and the pattern comes from the alternating warp and weft colors.  I found a project in Interweave's Four Free Table runners Publication, called Two on Two.  This project was disappointing because the vertical stripes did not show up well.  Even though the blue and white were the same count, the white was much thicker and so the stripes didn't show themselves.  In addition, the yarn was too fuzzy to work well on the rigid heddle or at least on the size 12 heddle.  There were 5 blocks, each with about 35 or 36 ends, running 14 picks of weft.  I sampled a section with 18 ends and it still didn't work well.  I think this needs mercerized or a smoother cotton to reveal the vertical and horizontal stripes.

Date Finished  February 2012

Loom  Rigid Heddle

Weave Structure  Plain, log cabin

Reed  12

Warp     Fiber  Cotton, unmercerized 

              Count  2.5 oz/120 yds (768 yds/#)

              Color half white and half antique blue

              Mfr  Peaches N Cream

              Source  Walmart

Warp     Width in Reed  15

              Ends  180

              Length  2.5 yds

Weft      Fiber  Cotton, unmercerized 

              Count  2.5 oz/120 yds (768 yds/#)

              Color  half white and half antique blue

              Mfr Peaches N Cream

              Source  Walmart

Beat                       50/50                     

Notes  

Spencer's Baby Blanket

 This project was about stretching my current limits.  Everything that I had been working on since starting up again was in plain weave, twill threading.  Pretty routine stuff and not complicated.  I decided to up the ante by weaving a baby blanket for Emilee and Adam's new baby girl Spencer and had a deadline - due date of March 3.  I had to use an acrylic that would be washable and dryable so it was over to Walmart to see what they have available in acrylic yarns.  They had a very thick acrylic, Bernat Baby Blanket, 100gms/86 yds that I would use for the weft.  I used a Birds Eye pattern from Marguerite Porter Davison's, A Handweavers Pattern Book, because it specified it worked well with thick wefts.  Unfortunately the pattern didn't show up very well due to how thick the weft was.  But it is very soft and full and should keep Spencer plenty warm.  There was a lot of draw-in on the project and one of my future projects will need to be a temple to spread the warp on larger projects.


Date Finished  February 2012

Loom  Newcomb

Weave Structure  Birds Eye

Reed  8 epi

Warp     Fiber  Acrylic Softee Baby

              Count  5 oz skein/362 yds - used 3 skeins

              Color  Antique white

              Mfr  Bernat

              Source  Walmart

Warp     Width in Reed  40 inches

              Ends  320

              Length  2.5 yds

Weft      Fiber  Acrylic Chenille

              Count  3.5 oz/86 yds - used 4 skeins

              Color Yellow

              Mfr  Bernat

              Source  Walmart

Beat                       Weft Faced        

Size  finished about 36 by 42

Notes  Lots of draw in.