More Inkle Weaving

 I've done a little bit of pickup pattern weaving on the Inkle Loom, but using Monk's Belt threading.  I found it pretty straightforward and fairly easy.  It was a tad tedious though, because it was much slower than regular inkle weaving.  It made a lovely pattern though.  I'd never tried Baltic  (also called Norwegian and I've seen it as Lithuanian) weaving.  It's also a block weave, although a bit different set up.   I'd found written instructions somewhat confusing and unclear.  I ended up watching a few videos, some of which were of limited help, one which seems like it was just wrong, and then a couple were clear in both instructions and in photography.   It was  a light bulb moment.  

 I dressed up the loom in a simple pick up pattern.  After a few mistakes and some fiddling, I ended up just weaving a simple part of the pattern to get my hands understanding what they had to do.  Then poof, it was good.  That being said, I have learned to unweave quite a lot, because if you miss a pickup row, everything goes to pot.  It is slower than just plain weave, but some of the results are well worth the efforts.

This is the simple part of the pattern.  It practically weaves itself for the centre part of the pattern.  You can see my fiddling about to see how the threads come up and down at the very bottom of the photo.  

 The main thing is that in this "pick up" weaving, you both pick up and drop the pattern threads.   The background threads remain the same, to be the actually weaving and stabilising aspect of the bands.  As the pattern colours get picked up, they show on top of the background.   When you drop them, it does leave a gap, that is filled in by the weft thread.   It makes a sort of basket weave or half basket weave and when using the same weft colour as the background, you can't see it at all. 

  You can't beat too hard or parts of the pattern will be squished and uneven.   

The pattern threads should be thicker than the background threads.  In this example, I used 4/8 cotton.  I used a single strand of blue for the background and weft and a double strands of natural for the pattern threads.   

This is the complete pattern.  The nice thing about Baltic pickup is that the back of the tape is just as pretty as the front.

Just a quick ramble

 There have been combines and harvesters about the area in the past few days.   On one day, all the surrounding bean fields had been harvested.   With the size of the combines, the beans were off the fields really quickly.  the neighbour across the road has been harvesting some of his cord for silage.   It's interesting watching him because every once in a while he starts harvesting a new area and his tractor and harvester just suddenly and unexpectedly pop up in a new area of the field.  

We've not had rain for ages.  Everything is dry.   Hubby ran the lawn tractor yesterday, just to get a few weedy patches and a dense grassy area over a leach bed.  It didn't really have to be done, but better that then giving any mice and other rodents an easy way to get into the house in the fall.  

I've been prepping for giving a presentation on Inkle Looms for the guild.   Somehow I thought that it was next week, but it's the week after so I have a ton more prep time.  I've samples of different patterns but some of the bits that were left from other projects are missing.  I think that maybe I tossed them out, thinking that I'd not have a use for partial lengths.   It's either that or I put them in a safe place thinking I'd know where that would be a couple of years later!   It's probably the safe place and I will find them after the presentation !  I'll bring my ukulele to show the wider strap I wove but I'd been hoping to have the sample of the banjo strap too.  I'm not hauling it to the meeting, nor removing the strap for a short program.

I do have samples of several techniques though, including monk's belt, some plain inkle patterns and even a bit of a narrow band of tablet weaving, all of which can be done on an inkle loom.  I was hoping to get a sample of Baltic or Latvian pickup as well, but this weekend turned out to be crazy busy.   We tried to go to the local garlic festival, but the line up to get in was really, really long and it was really, really hot outside by 11 am.  Neither of us wanted to wait out in the sun for that long, to get in.  We went to the market instead and I picked up really nice cauliflower for a very good price.   Hindsight being what it is, I should have bought more and frozen it.  However, it would have had to wait until next week for me to have time to put it up, so I left it there.  But really, I could have gotten it done on Tuesday, since I don't have to do the demo then.   I picked up cat food, and it was a pet event.  I got tons of cat food samples to use as treats, some treats, toys, supplements and even a nice new silicon cat food tin lid, in a kitty swag bag!   There were two adorable orange kittens at the pet rescue display.  I refused to go and pet them because I was I figured I'd bring at least one of them home.   I'd like another cat, but maybe not so much a kitten, but a little bit of an older kitty needing a home.  Not too old, but a couple of years old.

It's cookie day at Westfield tomorrow.   I'm making Hard Gingerbread from The Cooks Not Mad.  I used the 1841 version, but it's the same as the 1831 version.   It's a highly spiced, very delicious gingerbread which everyone who has tried it has liked it.

• 1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup butter, softened 
• 1 cup fancy molasses
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp each baking soda, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions:
Grease baking sheets or line with parchement paper. Preheat oven to 350° F.
Combine butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in molasses until well blended.
Combine dry ingredients and stir into molasses/butter mixture being careful to not over work the
dough.
At this point you can refrigerate the dough divided into to discs for about 30 minutes to help make it
easier to work. You can roll it up into logs, wrap in plastic wrap and then foil to freeze for future use
or just roll it out and cut lovely little cookies.
Roll about 1/4 inch on floured surface, or cut logs into 1/4 inch slices.
Bake 8-12 minutes until done. Let cool for 2 or 3 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to wire
cooling racks.
( I sometimes don't bother with the cloves or the salt – it works nicely that way too.) Spice can be
adjusted to taste, but the joy of these is that they are highly spiced and very flavourful

Endings and Beginnings

 

The towels with the painted warp off the loom.  They were hemmed and hung to take a photo.  I like them a lot.  The black one shows off the colours really well, however it looks out of place with the rest of the towels.  The other ones are a bit less dramatic but they look really nice.  Even the green one which I wasn't sure about.  

Folded up they look nice too.  I think the purple is my favourite, but the teal is close.  They are all boxed up and ready to be put on sale this weekend.

I thought that I didn't have very much to put in the sale.  Because of the hip replacement, I haven't spent any real time on the floor loom.  What I hadn't realized was how much I've actually woven on the rigid heddle loom.  In this case, my big bin that I thought was too large, was actually full to the top!  That doesn't mean anything will sell though because buyers are fickle, money is tight for most people and lots of folks just come out for an interesting day out.  If things do sell though, it does help with buying yarn for next year.

Len's Mill Store sent out digital coupons and the yellow tag items were 80% off.  This is a pile of yarn which would have been $80 before tax.  With tax, I paid $17 and change.    Most of these are for the rigid heddle loom.  One is a ball of Hygge, a very thin fluffy yarn which has come to the notice of sock machine knitters as you can use it to line socks to make slippers.   The horrible yellow is sock yarn.  It's ugly and bright and was $1.88 after discount.  There is enough other yarn there for 3 shawls or maybe 4 or 5 scarves.   When I'm able to get yarn on deep discount, or at least on sale, it means I can sell my non- wool or silk scarves at attractive prices.  I like that because it means that handwoven items are available to those people who may not be able to afford them otherwise.  It's nice to let people have a choice.

I warped up the Inkle loom.  I used 4/8 cotton that I'd purchased years ago when I had this idea to make guitar straps for my family.  I'd already made 2 for myself - a banjo strap and a ukelele strap.  However there were still 3 kids plus 1 spouse who played, so I thought it was a good idea.   It took so long to make mine, that I ran out of time.  Plus, I'd thought that I'd be able to dye all the white to customize them and that really didn't happen either.

   I need to make a new Birka bag and my old strap is wearing where it attaches to the handles, so I put this project on for that purpose.   But, the tele was on and I was dressing the loom while I was watching some very compelling crime drama on Britbox.   I should never do things like this.  The stripes are different sizes and I missed a peg on 2 different threads so had to cut the strap off early because I could no longer pull the strap forward to weave.   It's about 12 inches too short! 

So sometime this week I need to find table space to paint my Xmas cards.  I still need to make a couple of pairs of csm socks.  I also want to put a new scarf on the rigid heddle loom to have something alternate to play with.  This all sounds doable except for the fact that hubby has a week off and who knows what will happen then.

The end of many things

A stupid spammer hit my blog comments so I had to change some of the settings.  My apologies if it's a bit inconvenient, but spammers... ugh!

 The Weaver and Spinner guild challenge for the winter and spring was to choose a holiday card, take some colours from it and make something.   The card I received from my daughter this year was white with black and red.   As I didn't have any black thread on hand, I chose to spin instead of weave.   Here is what I came up with.  Black, Red and white Merino, carded into rolags and spun with a long draw.  It's a fluffy, airy yarn.  It was a fun project.

 I cut the pickup inkle project off the loom at 84 inches.   I could have done another 10inches maybe.  It would have taken a bit more effort for iffy results.  There is a lot of take up on the grey, skinnier threads and not quite as much on the thicker red threads.   Every once in a while, there was a hiccup in the pattern and the non-picked up threads would show in the wrong place, or pop up where it shouldn't and that was despite re-weaving it.  By the last couple of repeats, it was obvious that the tension differences were just becoming a bit of a regular issue when weaving.   So, instead of letting myself get frustrated, I chopped it off the inkle loom.   This is not a project to get frustrated over.

The ramie is spun and plied.  I have a bin for my spun cellulose fibres.  This includes cotton, linen, ramie and bamboo.  One day, I'll have enough of any one of those fibres to weave something.  Until then, I just keep tossing in spun skeins.

I'm whipping the edges of the hooked rug and I'm looking for a new project.  Hmmmmm, what to do next?

I've some Ramie top on the wheel right now, in a lovely colour called earth.  It's a really nice brown and because it is ramie, it has a bit of a sheen.   This top has been really nice to spin, although when I stopped last night, my non-drafting fingers (the ones holding the fibre) were black with either dirt or excess dye.  Still, the yarn should be quite nice when done and any dye or dirt will get washed out when I wet finish it.


I'm still plodding away on the inkle loom with the pick-up pattern.   I did the math and I still have 2 weeks to go before I finish, if and only if, I manage to do my 3 inches a day.   I'm guessing that there will be a few days it won't happen, so it will likely be closer to 3 weeks.  

I had a single skein of a white tweed yarn which was exceptionally ugly.  It was bright white with some dots of colour and it looked totally wrong.  I dyed it a grey which in reality is a bit darker than this photo.  I started making mittens with it.  The first mitten was almost done but every time I looked at it, I saw fingerless mitts instead.   I ended up ripping back the first mitt and changing it up.  There are a bit shorter than I normally make fingerless mitts.  I usually like them to come up past my knuckles, to keep my fingers warm.  However I've found that when they are that long, they don't lend themselves to activities like spinning or playing the banjo.  So these shorter ones allow for those sorts of activities easily. 

I need to set up a Pysanky work station, so I can start on Easter Eggs this year.   My daughter was in the city, so she stopped by the shop and picked up a few dyes that I needed.  There was a new brand out, the same price as the basic dyes so I got her to get a few so I can sample them for differences.   I'm wondering though if they are just the traditional dyes, repackaged.   Different colour names, all with a Canadian cultural theme, but with the similar price point and a similar colour selection, it could be the same dyes, in a different envelope.

Inkle straps and finishing up the grey wool

 I received a banjolele or banjo-uke for a fun Christmas pressie.    I know a lot of people don't use a strap for a regular uke, but I was finding the bracket hooks kept pushing uncomfortably on my arm.   So I had a strip of inkle woven strap that I'd made for a mandolin strap, but never finished.  I turned it into a very effective banjolele strap.  However, Kevin, naughty cat that he is, decided to muck it up a bit and I had to wash it.  It came out fine, besides needing a good pressing.  However, it shrunk up a bit and the strap is just a tad too small width wise now.

While I was deciding whether to re-weave it or not, I remembered that I still had to make the strap for the Hedeby bag that I'd made last fall.  I had used a makeshift strap from a piece of tablet weaving, which was white and green, totally the wrong colours and way to thin.  It looked ugly and was uncomfortable to wear.   I realized that if I didn't just make the darned strap now, time would get away from me and it might never get finished.

I used 4/8 cotton because I had it on hand.  Since this strap would likely touch my neck, I didn't want to use wool.  The wool that I'd spun up, which would be comfortable to wear on tender skin areas, wasn't nearly strong enough for a strap, nor for inkle weaving.   The wool that I have, which was suitable, is to rough for me to want to wear in an area which might rub.     I wanted to use a tan, like the bag I'd woven, but
I didn't have any in the right weight and I really wanted to use what I had on hand.   Instead I used a natural cotton and a dark, denim blue.   I warped up the inkleloom yesterday and finished just after supper today, with a strip of tape just under 3 yards long - 105 inches in total.    I could have gotten a few more inches woven, but a warp thread broke and really, it wasn't worth fixing it for another 2 inches of tape length.  I attached the tape to the wooden bag handles, by threading it through the appropriate holes and tying an overhand knot.

It looks a tad short, but it isn't.  The handles rest nicely on my hip and when it's open, I can reach in and touch the bottom of the bag.  I absolutely hate it when I make my bag strap too long and I can't reach in without lifting it up.   The best is that it is very comfortable to wear too.

The grey superwash, spun and plied.  It's a lovely worsted weight.  The colour is a rich, charcoal colour, which will be very useful.  I've no idea what I'll use it for though, so it's into the storage bin with it.  

Banjo strap details and hoar frost

With the inkle strap off the loom, I've been playing around with ways to turn it into a banjo strap.  The ends need to clip or tie onto the brackets around the outside edge.  With the commercial strap I have for the resonator banjo, I'd noticed the snap clips were starting to scratch and dent the wood and finish where the two met.  I switched them out for boot laces, which are quiet, hold the banjo securely and look okay.

I'd decided on leather ends as we have some veg. tanned leather sitting around from a previous project.   I could get Chicago screws locally but only in silver/chrome and I couldn't find the slider or strap end loops in silver.  I tried them anyway, but they look wrong, one went in crooked and I put them in backward,so the screw end was on the outside.   If I didn't need the hardware for the strap, the colour would be fine but I didn't like the look of them.   I found a packet of snap rivets in the leather tool box, which looked great but were too long.   I ended up ordering some from a eather supply place, in two colours, both a little bit too long, but workable.    I installed one on a scrap and it worked perfectly.   I got the holes slightly uneven on the second try, but the third was a charm.  I have two strap ends which look pretty much the same.  Yay me!
I wish I had some brown leather dye, but these will work just fine. I still need to get or make laces and decide where the lace holes need to be punched.

I finished spinning and plying the pink and blue superwash roving which I'd found in my stash.   The colours ranged from dark blue to a fairly light pink.  I rather like the colour progression in this.   I just split the strip of roving down the centre to spin two singles and hoped they'd sort of match while plying.   I knew that with the random placement of colours, it might not happen, but it happened enough to not muddy up the colours too much.


Our weather has been so variable lately.  We've had record highs and record lows within days of each other.  Then one morning, I looked outside a little too early, and there was hoar frost.  The whole world sparkled as the sun rose.   I grabbed my camera and started taking random shots, first while the early morning was still foggy and then as the fog lifted.   It only lasted a short while before the skies became grey again, but it was lovely while we had the glorious sunshine and blue skies.  Usually our winter skies, even when it's sunny are pale, watery colours in various shades of grey.

Off and on the looms...

The overshot fabric is finally off the loom.   I'm certain that it must have some sort of cat attractant woven into the fabric as there always seems to be at least 1 cat perched on it at any time.  The piece is 5 yards long, with a width of 16 inches, with a pattern width of 14 inches.   It's very pretty fabric and I don't know whether I like the front or the back better.   It's a bit on the heavy side, like an upholstery fabric.

I actually considered putting the inkle project on the big loom, but decided against it for 2 reasons.  First, the amount of loom waste which I'd not accounted for when I was dyeing the yarns and second, I really wanted to try to figure out this inkle loom.  It's so pretty and it looks exactly like it should be fully functional, so I was wondering what I was doing wrong.   I changed up the heddles a bit, but the string, while better than the last attempt,  isn't quite as sturdy and slippery as I'd like.   They are a bit sticky.   I still think the heddles are just a bit too long.  This means they migrate down towards the front peg, making for a very small working shed and small weaving area.  Still, it's weaving a fairly nice band.   My selvedges are awful, because not only was I trying a few different ways of sitting/standing/holding the loom etc, but the cats (mainly Dion) decided that it was a "purrrfect" toy, with all those strings.  So I was also combating little paws and curious noses much of the time. 

I broke a shuttle.   I actually liked using this one as the thread didn't slide off quite as automatically as the one I am using now.   But the depression in the centre is just too thin and the wood feels light, like cedar, so while pretty, also not very strong.  It broke when it was about 1/2 loaded with thread and what a mess that was.   I'm not certain if gluing it together would make it useful again, or just lead to another tangle of threads when it broke again.

Well, listening to a little Trampled by Turtles should cheer things up!

Projects and Kevin update

This is a 238  skein of white Egyptian Cotton, 2 ply.   It took forever to spin, mainly because sitting still for hours at this time of year just doesn't happen.   It's a nice skein and will go into my stash of handspun cotton skeins for a future project.   I only spun 1 bobbin full, then I wound about half onto another bobbin for plying.
The cotton is a commercial sliver.  When I first started spinning cotton, I had to card this sliver into punis before I could spin it.  I realized half way through this bobbin, that I had started spinning from the sliver, with no thought about it.  Really, it's all about practice, practice, practice..

I had a bit of an idea pop into my head and decided that I would weave up some inkle bands.  My inkle loom is very pretty, and is beautifully hand crafted.  Unfortunately, it has a little bit of an issue with the placement of the pegs, making for a very small shed.  It made the whole project take much longer than I'd expected and it was frustrating at times.  I used 4/8 cotton, so it should have been pretty nice to weave with, but it seemed like I was wrestling with the warp the whole length, and it wasn't horribly fun.    However, I need to weave off another 6 or so lengths, so I'm going to have to figure something out to make this work better.   I had suggested my sweetie might want to make me a new inkle loom, with some small adjustments to the pattern, but the roof needs reshingling first and apparently that comes before fibery activities.  ;)

I did make this little narrow wares width guide for my next project.  It's just a strip of plastic, folded in half.  I used the plastic from a 10 litre water jug that I found in a recycling bin.   I think a juice or milk jug,  would be easier to work with.  This was pretty tough cutting.   It may still be too long as I put on both 2 inch and 2.5 inch markings.

My sweetie woke me up this morning at 6 am, to tell me that a chair had tipped over and there was a pile of green yarn on the floor.   Sitting nearby was Kevin, just looking around as if nothing was wrong.   While he normally isn't a playful kitty, when he does play, he goes all out.   This was a freshly dyed skein of 4/8 cotton.   While I can see some of the figure 8 ties, the rest of it is so tangled up that I'm not sure I'll be able to use it.    And my husband wonders why I call Kevin the" Bad Kitty".

Weaving, weaving, weaving....

 The rag rugs are off the loom.   I did a little bit of research before I started them, then just wound a warp and started weaving.   I had ordered Tom Knisely's book on Rag Rugs, but it didn't arrive until after I had finished weaving the rugs,  cut them off, and had already tied the fringe on the denim mat.    I don't mind doing things like this in a bit of a reverse order because I end up learning a lot and understanding the process, so it makes more sense when I'm reading about it.  


I tossed the denim rug down in front of the woodstove, just to see how it looked and immediately Kevin ran to it and claimed it.   It made such an impression that when I had finished the hem on the orange/pink rug and popped it on the floor to see what it looked like, my husband asked me which cat I had made it for.  :)  Kevin doesn't seem to care that the denim rug is a bit uneven where I used different weights of denim and although I cut the thinner denim into wider strips, it didn't accommodate the differences enough.

I still need to finish the hem on the striped rug.  I'm going to bind it, so will have done three different types of finishes on my practice rugs.

I am planning on making a bag, so I started with the strap.  My inkle loom has been sitting in the storage room with an abandoned tablet weaving project on it.  I cut it off and after wiping off the spider webs --ick-- I dressed the inkle loom with some wool yarn.  I had no idea where my old heddles were, so I had to retie all of them.  I usually use store string for my heddles, the same stuff I use for the drive band on my Mazurka, but I grabbed some leftover of something else.  I started to weave and the heddles immediately got fuzzy, which of course snagged the wool yarn.   I had the joy of cutting and retying new heddles on the existing project.   That was fun (not so much)!   I cut off almost 3 yards of inkle woven band, in a no-brainer pattern,so I could chat and spend time with the family and not have to worry about counting pick up threads.