All posts by kiwiweave

New Ashford Flyer

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One problem with owning ‘slightly’ older spinning wheels is the bobbin size. Once at the plying stage you can only fit so much onto a bobbin. On both my Ashford Traditional, and Rappard wheels that amounts to about 2 oz. That’s on the smaller size compared to commercial and a lot of home spun skeins for sale which can range up to 5 oz or more.

Asford Traditionals are still being produced today so spare parts can be bought and retrofitted with ease. The solution was to order an Ashford Sliding Hook Flyer, which just drops in neatly in place of my original flyer.

In the picture the flyer is fitted and has an original bobbin with singles on it. I can now fill it completely, and another, and then ply them (for a 2 ply) onto the new bobbin and fill it up completely. That makes for a 5 oz skein plus or minus. That’s it to the lower left. I don’t need to buy more large bobbins as I will continuing with the strategy as outlined of using old bobbins for singles and the one new bobbin for the plying.

Now I make this all sound relatively simple, but the whole process was far from it. Those of you who do not want to partake in the technical details feel free to scroll down to ‘what’s cooking’ below…

I ordered the new flyer from the ‘Twist and Fell’ Amazon on-line store, a dependable company that have been in business for a long time and were actually, I’d find out later, the only Ashford dealer in the US. Anyway, the flyer arrived and when I opened the box I straight away noticed the metal rings/hooks on the flyer were aligned in parallel with the slider. In that configuration it would mean that you could not fill the bobbin 100% as the flyer hook could not get yarn completely to one end of the bobbin. I questioned both the Twist and Fell store and Ashford themselves. Both replied quickly and were extremely helpful. Twist and Fell quickly sent me new hooks which are at right angles to the slider. Ashford solved the mystery. The early models did have hooks as I originally received, but in 2015 they changed them to the later version. It seems the one shipped to me was of the early lot so had probably been in the warehouse for some time – the only indicator is the serial/batch number and that would not have been a concern to the sellers. A very easy and simple fix for me. I’m not sure if a beginner spinner would have worked out why they could not fully fill the bobbin!

This is the new SFH. The old hooks have the ring/hook (the black ring wrapped in wire) in the same line as the slider.

And for some other activities at the Oak & Fern – not quite fiber, but it is that time of year when it needs to be done so none of our garden harvest is lost and we have a longer term storage solution rather than fridge and freezer.

On the left, blueberry jam in two varieties: Rosemary/Lemon/Blueberry and ‘almost’ plain Blueberry (it has a splash of Peach Schnapps in it). To the right is Okra mixed bourbon pickles. Tomorrow we’ll finish with a few jars of blackberry jam some with chili.

Beaded Kumihimo

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I took up Japanese braiding some time back and have primarily focused on making shoe laces (another whole blog on that!). At the last Birchwood Fiber Festival (https://birchwoodfiberfestival.com/) Carla, who shares our booth, brought along some beaded kumihimo bracelets and they sold well, but more importantly a lot of visitors said they would like to learn how to make them. As we are always looking for new courses to run at the festival it started us thinking. Anne said she would help with the course if she could get familiar with the process herself.

So that led to me building a somewhat cut down marudai as a trial. That’s definitely going to be the topic of another blog – but here’s a hint; blank clock face from Hobby Lobby was the starting point. With that built and a trial braid to work out a few technical parameters, I was ready to finally try some beaded kumihimo.

The design for the braid came from Jacqui Carey’s book ‘Beads and Braids’ and the beads were ordered via Amazon – I ordered several varieties.

The process as outlined in her book is relatively simple and excellently described with words and photo’s. The number of strands per tama was dropped from 8 to 6 to thin the braid down and a fixed number of beads was put onto each group/tama.

Before each strand was moved (in the sequence for this braid)a bead is slid up the braid to the point of braiding where it is effectively trapped by the next strand and so on.

The finised (test) braid that could be a necklace with the beaded section in the middle or a bracelet. Appropriate fittings are still needed. Overall it could be taught in a 2-3 hour class if most of the set up was done, so it would not be a complete kumihimo class. There has been a beginners class taught in previous years on a foam disk – a popular method used that doesn’t mean buying the full marudai, tama, etc package. But it might be possible to have an option to buy those things at our booth or at the end of a course. It will depend how I can speed up the manufacturing process and keep the price reasonable. Time will tell.

Sampling

Project, Weaving,

A little while back we received some new (Production Excess) yarns at R&M Yarns (rmyarns.com), where I work two days a week. They were 8/2 and 4/2 cottons in a number of colors. Whilst sorting them (for shelving and to put on the web) I noticed that of all the colors (and there were 20 plus) there was only one color that was in both sizes. That got me thinking if it would be possible to weave towels (face cloths, hand towels and larger) using both size yarns but alternating thick and thin.

I bought a cone of 8/2 and 4/2 in ‘sepia’, to try it out. I did a wraps per inch test winding thick then thin alternately and that indicated a 12 dent reed would be fairly close to OK for tabby weave. Rather than try and wind the warp with alternate thick then thin I went for wind half the required number of 8/2 and then the other half of 4/2. This required me having them either side of me when I dressed the loom (front to back). I’d take one , sley the reed then thread the appropriate heddle. Next would be the other side into the next dent and heddle. Then repeat.

The weft was easier – two shuttles one with 8/2 and the other with 4/2 and it was one shot with one shuttle, change the shed, then the other. This meant the shuttles followed each other from one side to the next, so I always put them down in the same order and picked them up in the same order to keep the selvedges consistent. I did use floating selvedges to keep everything neater.

I tried two different approaches. A portion was woven as originally planned with alternate thick and thin in both warp and weft and a portion with alternate warp and just thin in the weft.

At the top is the weft only using 8/2 and at the bottom is the alternating 8/2 then 4/2 warp and weft.

It did produce some ‘texture’ in the warp and weft alternating sample and it has in ‘interesting’ look to it. The selvedges came out very well as they compressed a little to produce a nice border. The only negative I felt was it seems a little more ‘open’ than I’d think ideal. So I’ll re-sley the remaining warp in to a 14 dent reed and try that. This sample was both sizes of yarn being the same color, but even more interesting effects could be achieved with different colors in the two sizes. That will be a sample after I’m happy with the ends per inch.

And the ‘coaster’ sampler for the Guild challenge is finished with the second half in just two colors making the pattern pop! The sample, above photo’s of front and back, has been fringed, trimmed, and wet finished. Just a light steam iron then it’s all ready for the meeting on the 19th.

Huge Milestone

Project, Spinning

I finally finished a spinning project that has been 2 years in the making. In my defense, I have mainly only been spinning this fiber when at Tennessee Valley Handspinners Guild (https://tnvalleyhandspinners.org/) meetings or when at festivals or fairs. I’ll have to increase the amount of spinning I do at home…

2 years ago my sister-in-law brought back a skein of wool from her and her hubby’s cruise around the north of the UK. They went ashore on North Ronaldsy Island and knowing my interest in all things fiber and crafting they bought a skein of wool for me. I had heard of this wool previously when browsing my books on fiber types. It’s certainly up there in uniqueness as the sheep graze mostly on seaweed around the perimeter of the small island. They have evolved over centuries to enable them to process the nutrients they need from the seaweed to the extent that if they graze on too much grass they can be poisoned by the traces of copper it contains. Check out the numerous videos on You Tube about North Ronaldsy for more info.

Anyway, the single skein could have eventually be woven into a future project, but that didn’t seem enough. Anne and I had just bought some fiber at a guild ‘stash buster’ sale. It is a Merino/Targhee blend roving in natural white and was 2.2lbs in total. The cost on the original docket was $80 and we paid $20. The same roving is still available, but at twice the original price! The logical thing to do was to spin that, and use the Ronaldsy yarn as stripe or two in woven shawls for both Anne and my sister-in-law. That began the long process…

I spun the roving into two ply at about the same size as the Ronaldsy, but with a more consistent twist and ply as I plan on weaving a point twill and I want that to show even when in a single color. The skeins in the picture are mostly about 2 oz, but there are some much larger ones. This is because well into this project I purchased an update for my Ashford Traditional: a larger flyer and bobbin, just for plying. I can ply two full original Traditional bobbins onto it an make a 5+ oz skein. It also has sliding hooks. There is a story about the purchase but that and photo’s will be in a future blog post.

There will also be some small ‘highlight’ features in red – yet to be spun. I have woven a small sample to get the sett right – photo’s of that will follow when all this yarn moves onto a loom and the much quicker part of the overall project begins.

Back to the blog

Project, Weaving,

I certainly has been a long time between posts and it’s NOT because I haven’t been doing fiber related activities! But first; to answer the question from the last post… The annual Guild Christmas party is now firmly fixed at the Oak & Fern – I don’t seem to have been given any choice! So, to restart the blogging I’ll bring in a small project, physically small but not in the work involved.

The annual Guild challenge this year was a type of random draw. Each participant had to draw 4 items, with each being a component of the final product. There was: fiber type, color, weave structure, and finishing. I drew 4 which could only be described as relatively easy in: cotton or cotton blend, red, twill, and fringe. Nothing I wasn’t fairly familiar with and I certainly had plenty of yarn to work with – I went with colors of 3/2 pearl cotton left over from weaving tartan throws.

But… this is always supposed to be a challenge so in looking into how I could make it more of a challenge with something I had not done before I thought of advanced twills. Knowing that advanced twills often relied on multi-shaft looms and I only have one 8 shaft loom and all the rest being just 4 I took a leap and decided to do a 16 shaft pattern. This, of course, relies entirely on hand manipulation. So the simple solution was to use NO heddles and effectively hand weave each weft shot! I set up ‘Dot’ (Leclerc Dorothy table loom) with 32 warp threads which will be two repeats of the 16 pattern.

The plan was to print out the draw down for the design which came from an on-line collection of ‘The Fanciest Twills of All” by Irene K. Wood. As each shot was made I crossed off that line with a highlighter as after a few shots I kept mixing up which shot I was on. By doing a shot at a time and leaving yarn out either side I’m able to build up a knotted fringe up the sides as well as the fringes at either end.

Following are some of the photo’s so far. It’s not finished yet but should be before the meeting in a couple of weeks. Photo 1 is the warp through the beater with spacing weft in place. Photo 2 is several weft shots in various bands of colors and photo 3 more of that. Photo 4 has the first 16 weft shots plus some fillers as it’s not perfectly balanced (warp and weft) and I want it to be a square. The second half will be just one color weft (white) vice the multi-color bands of the first half.

Guild Holiday Party 2024

Studio

Once again I hosted the Scenic Valley Handweaver’s December party at the Oak and Fern Studios. It took a while to tidy up from the various random storing and work going on through the last few months in order to ready the Studio, Fairly Large Room (FLR) and other areas for guests.

This year we put a tree, revealed our new hardwood floors and hung a whole lot more pictures.

Being early December I put the 2 bar gas heater on downstairs and it had the whole area nice and warm well before the guests arrived around midday.

Everyone brought finger food of one sort or another and this year there was a lot more variety after the rather repetitive deviled egg episode of 2023! Food done it was on to the the very brief ‘informal’ meeting which took all of 10 minutes, most of which was me explaining what the 2025 challenge will be – not too many complaints and will post more detail in February when it kicks off. Then the ‘guest challenge’ began – which was modified slightly to be NOT directly associated with weaving, spinning, fiber, equipment, etc – to give partners who may not be fiber people themselves, a better chance at the prize. Guests had to match a question with the number of the piece of art on the wall that contained the answer. It turns out my expectation of ‘this will be easy’ was not quite so!! The winner was Larry with 12 out of the 18.

The gift exchange kicked into action after that and there was a little bit of ‘stealing’ going on, but as the presents were all top notch again most people were happy with their first pick. A bit of intermingling followed and some long goodbyes and we had the place to ourselves again.

Roll on 2025 and a party at some other studio, although I think that is unlikely with this crowd!!

Current Weaving Projects

Looms, Project, Weaving
Knotted pile rug woven on ‘Bernie’.

On the upright loom I began another Turkish knotted rug after completing ‘Denim’ last year. This one is called ‘Te Aruhe Kowhaiwhai’. Te Aruhe is ‘the fern’ and Kowhaiwhai is a style of decoration common in Maori meeting houses. It’s my own design and represents the winding fern fronds of our forest home which we call The Oak and Fern. Possibly that means I’ll have to create an acorn pattern for the next one.

Handspun 2 ply cotton woven in tabby on ‘Dot’.

I began learning how to spin cotton a few months back and this woven test is from the first skeins I produced. Lots of ‘character’. I have improved enough that I am now producing a relatively even 3 ply that should weave up more neatly.

Variegated yarn table runner, birds eye twill on ‘George’.

The first table runner from the yarn brought back from NZ is complete. I’ll space out enough for fringes then start number 2. It will be different from this one in that it will have just white yarn in the weft to pick out the birds eye twill a little better.

QR code woven in skip plain weave on ‘Gypsy’.

It’s been slow going on this project as it’s a very manual and intricate process to weave each pick and after I leave it for a while I have to go back and try and remember how to do it to maintain a consistent transition from black to white and reverse.

These are the weaving projects. Next I’ll detail the spinning and will also update the Studio build pages with photos of the progress.

Hearthside Loom Restoration

Equipment, Looms

The restoration on the Sears Roebuck Hearthside Loom stalled over winter as I worked through various other projects. But in some unseasonably warm weather today I was able to set up outside and do some sanding.

The heddle frames (6) all need some cleaning, minor repairs, and some replacement parts before the loom can be put back together. I started with one (number 6 as it turns out – some previous owner had marked each with black marker on the unseen ends). I have generally preferred stamping the number into the visible top of the frame and putting matching numbers in the castle to match. Future work once they are cleaned up.

The first problem was the flat stamped heddles were all mixed up direction wise and also in some cases put on the heddle bars intertwined. I took off all the heddles and sorted them into the correct orientation. While they were off I sanded the rust of the heddle bars and put a light coat of CRC on them before putting the heddles back on. This frame had 80 heddles. 3 other frames look about the same amount and 2 don’t have any.

Replacement hook
Original hook

The heddle frames had two different styles of heddle hooks (and numerous missing). I believe the original were the simple threaded hook with a spring and drilled out dowel. I suspect over time some dowels split or broke and the owner at the time purchased the more modern metal hooks. I ‘borrowed’ some hooks to make up the 4 and in the future will buy replacement metal hooks to standardise. There are 3 heddle bars missing which will need replacing idc. To fit the newer hooks on this frame I had to drill out the small holes with something suitable for the screw part and also drill with a larger drill about 1/8 of an inch to allow for the spring stop to go below the surface of the wood – needed to ensure the hooks were at the correct height for the heddle bar.

The first heddle frame came up OK. It will certainly never rival some of my other looms for looks, but for functionality it will be fine. I’ll wait until just before re-assembly to apply some light oil/wax for protection.

I did sand down some other parts of the frame and will continue with that as I order the heddle bars and hooks.

Weaving in New Zealand

Looms, Weaving

We are just back from a very pleasant 3 weeks visiting family and friends in New Zealand. While visiting Havelock in the South Island I found a bag of variegated yarn for $10 and thought it might be ideal for a project.

Some of the polyester yarn

As it turns out that happened faster than I thought as our temporary home while in Wellington belonged to our friend Jinnie who has a table loom that was at the time not being used.

For the first time ever I dressed a loom without doing any real calculations first (apart from checking the WPI of the yarn and the dents per inch of the reed in the loom). I wound the warp around the back of two chairs and tied it on to the warp beam and wound it on under light tension ready to warp back to front. With Anne and I working back and front we had it dressed pretty quickly which was good as we had to pack it up the following day so we could drive it and Jinnie up to where she was currently living in Taupo.

After adding some thick weft to even out the warp I threw a few weft picks to ensure everything was working OK and barring one skipped dent there doesn’t seem to be any problems with the straight twill threading. After we left Taupo to return to Wellington Jinnie has continued weaving and some interesting color striping is starting to appear on the cloth.

Creating a woven QR code

Project, Weaving

I encountered a ‘new’ (to me) weaving technique a couple of months back and incorporated it in my entry for the guild challenge which was primarily about color. I wove my color blocks in three different techniques and one was ‘skip plain weave’ a technique often found in rugs which is ‘one sided’, i.e. the back carries floats over multiple warp threads while the front is woven tabby across the width. More on that later.

While working on that project I thought it might be a way to weave a QR code (for Kiwiweave.com) to hang on the wall behind our stall at the 2024 Birchwood Fiber Festival. After much pontificating I finally kicked the project off a few days back and will document it here.

First step was to generate the QR code. A quick google search will show that there are hundreds of web sites that will generate codes for free. You input the URL you require and the webiste generates it in seconds. You then typically download a jpg or png image of the finished product. Try some out. Go for simple, black and white, and don’t add logos.

KiwiWeave.com QR code

Most modern mobile phone cameras will automatically recognize QR codes and pop up the URL which can be clicked on to bring up the web page. My phone didn’t so I loaded a free app that recognizes QR and bar codes and shows you the appropriate information. Useful for checking, at all stages. Using the jpg generated in the first step I then manually drew up the same information on graph paper which I find easier to ‘count’.

Same QR code copied to graph paper.

The sett of the weaving I did for the guild challenge was 10 epi using 8/2 cotton so I duplicated it for this project but calculated the number of ends needed to give a 15 inch QR code with 1.5 inch borders all around. The size of the logo also dictated that 6 warp ends be used in each ‘box’ of the pattern – either black or white and read one line at a time from the bottom up.

Winding the warp took an hour including setting things up then it was a move out to the studio to dress ‘Gypsey’.

The photo’s above (from top left corner – clockwise): The warp wound on to the warp beam. The heddles threaded and reed sleyed. Warp tied on. Floating selvedge weights. Floating selvedges. Warp packed and ready to weave. All of the above took another 6 hours.

The structure is weft predominant and woven in 3/2 pearl cotton. The border is silver/grey and the actual code is obviously black and white. As I had not tried this level of trickyness before I decided a test piece was needed so wove some borders and just one row of squares alternating between black and white. This little bit of weaving took longer than setting up and that was mostly because of the ‘mistakes discovered that had to be ‘unwoven’. The mistakes were largely counting errors as each weft shot (black and white) through the same shed needs to go over three under three. I wove this with the pattern to the top and the floats to the bottom which slows things down and easily lends itself to miscounting – on the real QR code I will flip this upside down as it should be easier to count and manipulate the top part of the shed. The other mistakes were twisting either the grey or white with the black or any other combinations which then did not sit flat or neatly with the rest of the color transitions. The test piece has at least allowed me to work out a sequence where this doesn’t occur.

The whole 25 squares
Close up

Even with meticulous checking there are two errors in the left photo where a weft shot goes over one more warp thread than it should, but this doesn’t show too much and I suspect would not interfere with the camera imaging and working out the URL. I used small plastic shuttles as they have a long thin ‘nose’, next I’m going to find some stick shuttles and see if they make the manipulating of warp threads easier.

The guild already think I’m crazy after tackling the hand tied Turkish knot rug because of how slow it was. I suspect the meeting program where I present this method will only reinforce my craziness. ‘Nothing like a challenge’ I say!!