Old and New

I got one towel and a bit woven with the #10 linen singles before I threw up my hands in frustration. Well a little bit frustrated anyway. The original textile sample with this weave structure was found in wool. The way the pattern was weaving meant as I wove more length, the tension of the threads with the floats kept getting looser and looser. Because there was little take up (the amount of thread used up by bending over and under each shot of weft), it was getting harder and harder to weave. I figure out that this was the problem when I ended the first towel and did a bit of tabby weave in the hem area, so it would be smoother and easier to hem! After a few inches into the 2nd towel, when it was becoming apparent that I wasn't actually spending any time weaving as it was getting less enjoyable with each shot of the shuttle I decided to make a change.

I was going to cut off the first towels and rethread the whole kit and kaboodle with a new pattern. Before I could change my mind, I grabbed the scissors and off it came. The linen is now - finally 'cause it took a while - threaded in a similar huck pattern with tabby bordering each set of huck patterns. This seems to allow the tension to get back to normal before I start the next pattern picks. Of course I won't know for certain until it is off the loom and wet finished but since the whole thing is now an experiment, I'll get what I get. At least I'm back enjoying the process. Next project will be wool though. I think for now my appetite to play with linen is sated.

I finished up the small naturally dyed skeins that I'm bartering for a riveted steel pot. I'm planning on using the pot to dye wool in on open fires. I thought it would be a good demo tool as well as another aspect of dyeing to play around with.

Then I got a call that the fleeces I'd sent to Wellington Fibres were done. They do an amazing job of processing fleeces although because of that it does take a while to get them back. These were dropped off at the end of June '08. The fibre is nice but full of chaff or vm (vegetable matter). They were lambs fleeces from Earendel Farm's Grainney and Foote - well half of Foote and all of Grainney or was it the other way around? They came back really nice though still pretty heavy with vm. At least it is fairly easy to pick out once I actually put my glasses on and can see it. This one partial bobbin has taken me more hours to spin that I'd expected. It's pretty thin though and right now the aim is a new weaving project sometime in the future, whenever I get it all spun up.

So cool - geeky, but cool

Yesterday, after my few moments of self-indulgence, I had a couple hours before we needed to leave the house and I couldn't make a mess. So, I went to the loom room and finished warping up the #10 linen thread which I'd been puttering away at. I'd worked out the pattern for the float patterned tabby diagram in Lise Bender Jorgensen's book - Northern European Textiles Until 1000 AD., and I was using it for this linen project. I chose the pattern because I wondered what it would really look like in fabric. It has a fairly complicated threading pattern, but an equally easy treadling pattern. The warp is a short one, only 4 yards long to make 3 towels. The #10 linen is singles and a tad hairy, but the price is very good for linen. The handspun linen I'd done earlier this fall is spun about the same as the #10 linen, so I was able to use up a half bobbin leftover for sampling.

According to my calculations, a sett of 24-25 would be suitable for a tabby and since several other projects documented on the web and at least one on-line sett chart said twill would be 30, I figured at 24 epi, I'd be fine. I started weaving and after remembering to spritz both the warp and the bobbins of weft with water, the structure started looking much better than I thought it would. I was worried that the floats within the tabby stripes would either show as overly textured or as distinct stripes. I'm actually quite fond of the sample.

I wove off the sample piece - meaning wove it so I could cut it off the loom in order to wet finish it to see if my sett was suitable. This is done by weaving in two lease sticks with an inch of tight tabby weave before and after. You can then cut the sample off at the beginning of the first tabby band. You fold the lease sticks together and tie them on to the front apron rod. If you do this securely enough, you can finish up your weaving, with no change to your tension. It is a totally cool trick.

In the second photo, you can see the sample has been cut and the sticks, tabby woven to the remaining warp are just hanging there.

I washed up the sample, tossed it in the dryer and then ironed it damp. This is what it looks like. I was worried I'd need to re-slay the reed for a tighter sett, but this is pretty nice. Not quite as tight as it could be, but it works. It is an interesting pattern and the floats are floaty and a bit twisty. There aren't any crossed threads but if I let the threads dry out while weaving, this is what seems to happen - so I'm weaving with my spritzer bottle by my side!

Yep - cool, awesome and totally intriguing project. I fear I will miss it when it's off the loom.

In which Odette tries to battle the pet hair and fails miserably

We have one dog and one cat. Today, in preparation for another bunch of people tramping through our house to view it, I once again vacuumed. Now I have found that as soon as I vacuum, pet hair appears mysteriously in certain places almost before I get the hose put away. Over the past couple of months, I have developed a plan which so far has been fool proof. I trick the pet hair by vacuuming certain places, like the living room carpet before I do the rest of the house and then when the hair has finished spontaneously rising once again, I vacuum it a second time on route to putting away the hose. It has worked a charm... Until today that is when of course I was congratulating myself on the fact that pet hair, being inanimate, wasn't very smart.

More people are coming through the house tonight. Which means not only do I not get the garlicky roast my husband promised to make for dinner 'cause he's on holiday and wants to cook tonight, but that I had to do all the extra cleaning today. I dragged out the vacuum and did the living room carpet before getting the rest of the house vacuumed. On my way through to the hall way, I did indeed redo the carpet getting what I thought was the last of the hair which hides insidiously amidst the carpet fibres. When I went back to unplug the hose - yay for central vacs - What did I see? Tufts of pet hair growing from the fertile fibres of my area rug. I mean I almost never swear and this was one of those moments when I almost did!

After three passes of the stupid vacuum, I got to wash the floors. What did I see in the bathroom, but a tuft of dog hair floating about merrily as if to taunt me. Taunting dog hair - that is close to my limit! However, I never, ever will underestimate the intelligence of inatimate objects, nor will I cast judgment upon them. Neither will I ever presume that a method to foil such objects will work all the time. I keep my fingers and toes crossed that someone will soon buy my house and I can be relieved of this misery. That or that the loom faery will stick a 45 inch wide, 8 shaft loom under my pillow so at least I can lock myself in my studio where I can pretend that I'm not creating a mess and self-medicating in new fibres and weave structures in a way that nobody gets hurt - only my fibre budget and those who end up with my woven experiments. ( At least those items are soft and dont' hurt at all)

Finally off the loom

After a lovely few days of family and friends, I was finally able to get the towels off the loom. I'd hoped to get them done before Christmas, but best laid plans and all that... it just didn't work.

They are hand towel sized, with a really nice soft hand and while I really enjoyed working with the natural coloured cotton, off the loom it looks totally impractical - white towels, what was I thinking? This is the pattern sample while still on the loom. I was checking for threading errors and finding out how hard to beat the weft for the results that I wanted.

When switching to the actual project thread, white on white with a coloured border stripe, suddenly the pattern just becomes a nice bit of texture. When the towels were done, I took them off the loom and stitched between each one on the sewing machine, tossed it into the washer and dryer to wet finish them and cut them apart. They are now waiting to be hemmed . Normally I put off finishing them but at least one of these is to be sent else where - okay, 3 or 5 of them, so I'll actually get the hemming part done promptly.

Next project? Hmmmm.. well I want to do a 3 colour basket weave project, just to play with a bit of colour. I've 2 shawls to weave and some natural coloured linen singles waiting their turn as well. The problem is that I want to work on all of them next and can't decide. There is also a scarf project in the planning for one of my boys who requested it. I'd totally do it next but alas, the yarn stash doesn't have enough of the desired colours.

Happy Me!

Yesterday I started this. It's simple tea towels, just as a get going project. It's natural 2/8 cotton. The pattern will be a simple diamond twill, easy to weave during busy times. The borders will be in various colours, to show off the weave and coordinate with various kitchens. I love the color of the natural cotton! Only a 5 yard long warp, so it won't take forever to weave off. With kids coming home for the holidays, my sewingroom will become a guestroom as well. No use having a project on the loom that I'm desperate to finish while the room is being occupied.

Today, a quiet knock came at my front door. A delivery person dropped off a huge box. After pulling out giant staples, crumpled newspaper and styrofoam sheets, I cut off the large plastic bag. I had to untape a gazillion - okay maybe a dozen, 4 inch squares of foam and drum roll please..... LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!!!!!!!!!

This is all moments after a call came to tell me we have a house viewing at 9 am tomorrow! I have a new project to get on the loom and a new drum carder to play with and now I get to clean the muddy footy prints off my kitchen floor all day because it has rained all night and the snow has melted, yard defrosted, leaving lots of mud for my puppy to play in!

Okay, so I did take time to try it out... sigh... happy me.... It's lovely. Not only is it pretty to look at but it seems to be very solidly made. It's a Patrick Green Deb's Delicate Deluxe . This drum is for finer fibres but they have an interchangeable drum for long, strong fibres as well, which I didn't get. The service was quick and the lady I spoke with on the phone incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. On top of this all, it is a reasonably priced drum carder. This means that I can actually process some of my fleeces manually instead of sending them out and still have time to get fleece to projects done. I was going to say it's like Christmas in December, but really Christmas is in December, so it's early Christmas..
Now to find a safe place to stash it so visiting little hands and inquisitive kitty cat won't find it :)
(The blue batt is merino dyed with Dyer's Knotweed - Polygonum Tinctorum last fall. The yellow is Shetland - Jessie, dyed with Dyer's Broom just a few weeks ago.)

winter wooliness

The mystery fibre is spun. It spun easily and the separated colours showed nicely rather than the dull grey when spun together. I had a photo of the skeins, in which the colour differences were actually distinguishable, but I saved it someplace safe and can't find it right now. I started nalbinding some mittens as I can't find mine anywhere. I realized that it was going to take a tad longer than I would have liked as I find nalbinding quite slow, so I knitted up a quick pair just to keep my hands warm while I finish the nalbinding.
The mittens are the same size but the colours are slightly different, one being more blue than the other. I don't use a pattern for plain mittens. My mother knit a gazillion mittens and I think I just absorbed how to knit a plain mitten as a kid. I used to jot down the numbers for the first one so I could duplicate it, but I don't even bother with that anymore. The one thing I did do with these mittens is use a needle size about 2 or 3 sizes too small. As well, I adjusted my tension so it was overly tight. For mittens I find this makes a very warm and windproof mitten, without having to felt it, which I find stiffens up the mittens to much.
The scarf on the loom is taking longer than I'd like mainly because I'm trying to be a conscientious mom and not wake up my son who is working nights. My loom gets to be a tad noisy when I get into a rhythm and since I use a drill as a bobbin winder, I worry about that noise as well.
I'm expecting some fleeces back from Wellington Fibres anytime within the next month or so. I was told to expect them in January. It takes a while for them to process fleece, but they do it so very well that it's worth the wait. I've been washing one and dyeing parts of it though I've been warned that I should think about putting it all away. I think it looks quite festive and rather Ealdormerean as well. I'm still running that madder vat and still getting lovely colour!

Winter Dyeing

I decided that I needed to do some dyeing. The previous blue, green, grey and orange fine wools needed to be augmented with yellow, rusty red and a dark colour - dark grey or black. The latter will have to wait until I get an appropriate coloured roving however I thought that perhaps the Dyer's Greenweed might still yield some pigment, despite it being late November and having had well below normal temperatures with lots of snow.

After 2 trips to the storage locker, I finally found the dye pot and scale, that I'd left in a "handy" spot -meaning near the front, in a plastic storage bin without a lid so nothing could be put on top of it. Hubby grabbed a white fleece from the storage locker as well. It turns out that I'd put all the washed fleeces in proper bins and the only one we could see ended up being "raw" - but it's a nice fleece. So my house smells of raw wool, wet wool and freshly dyed wool once again!

The Dyer's Greenweed still had lots of hardy looking leaves, amazing since we've had a number of really cold nights (-12ish). The waxy leaves hold up well obviously, although I'd just trimmed the shrubs back a few weeks ago to do a dye day with a friend, so there was no new growth. I got 100 grams and that included the woody stems - but it would be enough for a decent sample providing the pigment was still viable. I was totally amazed by the brilliant yellow. It is gorgeous.

I even did a quick woad vat, with leaves I'd dug up from under the snow. I've gotten useable blue pigment after snows and light frosts but there wasn't any blue left :( It was good knowing though that you only have so much time to get that last dye vat in with the woad.

Then I took some of the madder that I'd used earlier this year for the red wool that I turned into a dress. I had dried and saved the roots. Half were used at the above dye day and the rest I took home with me the other day in order to try out at home. I got a gorgeous colour and if I had a place to save the roots, I think there is much more pigment in them. That makes madder a really good option for dyeing, with multiple colours available from multiple uses of the roots.

As I'm running out of handy spinning fibres, I took some of Wellington Fibres mystery rovings and started spinning them. It was a blend of colours, mainly blues, with some greys, black, greens and red. The first ball of the whole roving was a grey with a few highlights. I thought it was rather uninspiring, so I separated the rovings into main colourways and spun them individually. They are much nicer now.
I even had time to make shortbread cookies for a meeting and had a great deal of fun making a mess while drizzling chocolate over them with a fork.. very fun and easy to over do it!

I had to miss Wassail due to hubby's company Christmas party. Since I ditched out of the last couple of Christmas parties with his former company and did the same with a family wedding to go to A&S (it's all cool 'cause he arranged it so I didn't have to do the wedding thing before I even had to think about it), I figured I should go. It was lovely and casual with kids running rampant around a small, independant winery, where we met for dinner. A nice meal and the only day with great weather since I got to drive home the 2 hour trip afterwards.