5th shawl update

It took a while to actually decide on a pattern and then changed slightly while half way through winding the warp, when I realized that I needed use less green and more of another colour. I think now, I could have added a second stripe of yellow into the pattern, based on how much yarn I have left. However, weave a checky pattern is a pain in the patootie. I'm using 2 boat shuttles and a stick shuttle. They need to be switched every few shots; either after 4, 6 or 12 threads. It is time consuming to do so. While I could have knocked off one of the solid coloured weft shawls in only a few hours at the loom, this one is forcing me to slow down and enjoy the process. This isn't such a bad thing really.

While I do have a few more projects in the wings, nothing is tugging at me insisting it be done right away. Those that are trying to tug aren't actually weaving projects. There is a ton of spinning, a couple of garments to make from commercial fabric and some dyeing. I've got a bunch of lac that I just re-found in my dye storage bin and a pot of madder which has been sitting in my garage most of the winter. I'm almost afraid to check it. I'd covered it and set it in an out of the way spot when we had people coming over and forgot about it. The lac is a dye vat I've wanted to try for a while, but I need to do more research into how to extract all the red colours. It's supposed to be a very strong, stable red dye. What I have are the bits of lac right off the tree, which I have just found out are the dead femael bodies of the lac bugs, piled on one another after they've laid their eggs... uggh.

I even almost considered doing another logwood dye vat - which last time started off lurid purple - stayed lurid purple until it finally faded somewhat to a purply grey and then wouldn't exhuast at all. I had purple yarn, purple roving, purple fleece everywhere - it was quite the interesting experience verging on the horrendous.

4 shawls done...

The final two shawls are done. Well, I thought they would be the last ones of this set. I'd worked out how much yarn I'd need and then bought a tiny bit extra to make sure I didn't run short. Turns out I have enough extra to make a 5th shawl. It will be some sort of checky pattern in order to use up the leftovers. Right now the poser is do I have enough for something like a plaid checky pattern or do I go for random stripes and checks?
Anyway, here is the last shawl from the project. It's the same commercially spun and dyed Romney wool. The weft is grey and the warp is dark red. Sett this time is 12 whereas the last basket weave shawl was done with a dual coloured warp and a set of 9 - being paired with a tabby project. I can't say which I like better for weave structure/sett. The blue one is fulled more and a tad heavier. The red one, with the closer sett, still drapes nicely although I didn't full it as much. I stuck it in the washer on the handwash cycle and meant to check it after a few minutes. However, I forgot and ended up not getting the shawls out until the end of the cycle. They were lovely, soft and drapey, which was nice as I hadn't liked the hand of them at all when they were first off the loom.
I was rather tired of twisting fringes last night. Thankgoodness for that little fringe twister gadget. It does save the fingertips, that's for certain.
Now to figure out what to do with 4 more shawls!

Shawl project update

Today I reminded myself why I always wear my hair either in a braid or clipped into a bun. I was under the loom this morning, tying up the treadles when wham, I realized that my hair was loose and I was in the process of tangling it into both the treadle loops and clips at the same time. I've managed to spin my hair into yarn I was spinning on a drop spindle and both of my wheels. I've also woven it into a project and caught it while sewing, both by machine and hand. At least it doesn't happen very often :)

So shawl 3 of the set of at 4 is on the loom. The first was the basket weave, then this one in tabby. The drape of the basket weave is nice, despite it being fulled. It is also fairly soft and heavier. The tabby weave one is lighter and a tad larger, because the weave structure doesn't pull in as much when it's off the loom. The red one is in a chevron or herringbone pattern. All of these are a simple straight threading. With a sudden increase in people wanting to view our house I decided that a simple patterning would be easiest to do.
Plus it meant I could get this red shawl on the go in time for a friend to visit for a weaving lesson. Today's lesson was the joys of hemstitching, what a floating selvedge is and when you might need it and wet finishing. I'm absolutely thrilled at what pretty scarves she and her husband have been making and how quickly and fearlessly they are progressing. It's great!

Last night I presented a program at my local Weaver's guild on An Overview of Anglo-Scandinavian Textiles. Earlier in the day while I was adding more last touches to my materials, I had one of those moments when you've been confident that you know lots about something and you suddenly realize that although what you know, you know well, it's only a few drops in the bucket. Of course I started getting very nervous so I packed everything away and went to the loom to relax.

Of course the program went well and the guild members were very enthusiastic and seemed to enjoy it. It was really fun and awesome to present what inspires me to a group that understands the terms and techniques. The only problem was that my warp weighted loom decided at that particular moment to tell the whole world that the wood had dried a bit and wasn't quite as sturdy as it should have been. I don't really need it to see action again until April, so I've a month and a bit to figure out how to fix it up.

Off the loom and out of the oven

Happy Groundhog's Day! The poor beast has seen his shadow so 6 more weeks of winter is forecast. However today is a lovely sunny day and I certainly can't complain about that.
Both the blue and grey wool shawls are off the loom. One of them is wet finished, the other not yet done as I haven't got the fringes twisted yet. The size off the loom was 24in x 82 inches. After wet finishing the final size is 20 in x 80 in.

My daughter is getting married in August and has decided that I will be making the wedding cake. This has turned into a wonderful learning together project. Last night we made our first cake covered in fondant - Once we get that down pat, we'll figure out how to do tiers and decorate. Then it's to find the right colours for popsicle pink and tropical lime green, which are her wedding colours. Right now, it's white fondant with barney purple stars. Luckily she has offered to take any undesired cake projects into work with her as donations to her staff room. That could be a lot of cake decoration experiments to try to dispose of.

Next projects in no particular order - 2 more wool shawls for the loom, a couple of costuming projects, dependant on finding the correct bin in storage or finding a good fabric sale, planning for 3 non- reenactment crowd classes on natural dyeing and medieval textiles and the spinning of some fleece for a cloak for hubby. There is also about 8 bags of raw fleece hiding in the van waiting to be cleaned, carded and spun. Poor hubby gets to commute an hour each way with it. I've not yet figured out where to surreptitiously hide that much fleece in the house and not leave the place smelling like a sheep barn. Somehow I don't think that would be a good lasting image for prospective house buyers. With regards to the 8 bags of fleece, a friend and sheep farmer, from whom I get most of my fleeces 'cause they are gorgeous and well cared for commented on all the fleece, that I wouldn't be getting any of hers. My husband just chuckled at that and said "right" ... not sure if that was good or bad... but I've got 2 lovely silvery coloured fleeces reserved for the spring.

Linen's off and the Wool's on!

Phew, the linen singles are off the loom. The resulting two pieces of fabric are washed, dried and pressed, waiting to be turned into towels and samples. I will admit that I was happy to finish the project. Linen is seductive in it's possibilities, but I can't afford the quality threads that call to me - and the rougher #10 singles just didn't cut it in the end. Still, they are nice bits of cloth and it was a very good learning experience. It really isn't conduicive to that soft, warm cuddly feel when it's on the loom though - more like burlap.

On Saturday a friend and I went to Headwater Wool in Orangeville. Karen was looking for a unique yarn. Unfortunately terminology got in the way of a successful shopping trip for her as I hadn't realized how chunky a yarn she was looking for. However, I happily spent more money than I'd anticipated and now have a lovely new stash of romney wool yarn to play with. Right now on the loom is a simple tabby weave but I'm playing with colour. This one is definately a tad fussy to weave, with colour changes every 4 rows, but it's pettable and yummy. It was fast to wind the warp, fast to dress the loom and if it's taking longer than I expected to weave, it's probably because I'm petting the wool far much. The colours are natural grey and two shades of blue. The blue, while chemically dyed, are woady looking colours. Hopefully this project will turn into shawls as there should be enough yarn to weave two of them. If I planned it correctly, there will be enough yarn left from this trip to make another couple in a different pattern and colour as well. Shawls are a good way to ward off the winter chill!

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.