All posts by kiwiweave

Introduction to Card Weaving

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At the Scenic Valley Handweavers Guild meeting this month I was down for an introduction to Card Weaving program. Originally planned for this time last year – the pandemic put paid to that. Given a whole extra year to get ready I was well prepared for this month.

I wanted to be able to give everyone present a go at weaving so built 2 simple frames and then put a warp on my folding table loom. The two frames were sized to produce a 4 foot band. In this case with 8/2 cotton and 16 cards just a narrow band which should work as a bootlace. On the table loom (with reed removed and not using heddles) I used some old wool yarn. Each used exactly the same threading and colors so there was something in common on each example, with the exception of one frame that I tied on using fishing swivels so that I could demonstrate how you handled ‘untwisting’ when turning the cards only in one direction.

The threading, color, and turning on the loom and one frame produced a repeating diamond pattern and on the other frame (with swivels) where the turning was forward only produced a zigzag.

I had one set of plastic cards, one set of homemade heavy card, and one set made from playing cards. I showed the different type of card stock available at stationary stores and better /heavier card that needs to be ordered. I also showed how playing cards can be cut up and utilized, as well as some tools to punch the holes. I made some shuttles and beaters (and one combined beater/shuttle)

Marking and cutting out cards

As it turned out we had 20+ members turn up so it was fairly crowded in our normal meeting room, but we managed to get through the program without too much confusion and everyone who wanted to, managed to have a go at card weaving. It seems a lot of people have tried it but barring one couple, mostly just filed it away ‘for later’. We did discuss a full day workshop to take participants through the whole process and then they take away their band to complete at their leisure. Given that I have been appointed ‘Workshop Chair” for the 2022 year I can see this being a real likelihood.

Oak & Fern Bathroom rugs

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With left over yarn from the rug commission and the eventual need for a bathroom rug for the studio bathroom I decided to set up and weave a custom rug. The method involved plying three cotton yarns together (two single color and one variegated) to give a ‘random’ patterned thick yarn for the weft. The warp is linen.

To depict the Oak & Fern theme I did stripes of the original brown/tan mix with new yarn in shades of green.

The rug was woven on ‘Pete’, the loom from Townsend that I renovated. It has a nice strong frame so I was able to keep the warp pretty tight and beat the weft heavily to be mostly weft faced. The hem on one rug (I had enough yarn for the planned bathroom rug and a smaller one) was woven with the linen warp yarn, the other I just used a single of the weft cotton. Both look fine.

To keep the joins relatively straight I unwound about 6 inches of each yarn and took each individual yarn out of the weave at about 2 inch intervals then brought the new yarn/color in in reverse order. I then used a darning needle and took each end through the weft following a warp yarn. After darning in all the ends I wet finished in the washing machine and dried them flat.

In the photos above (L-R); the rugs off the loom, hemmed and darning in joins, finished rugs.

Heavy duty cotton and linen should mean we get years of use and easy washing. Time will tell and now all I have to do is finish the bathroom build!

3D Project

Project, Weaving

The Scenic Valley Handweavers 2019 Guild Challenge was to produce something woven but in 3D rather than just flat cloth. Needless to say the pandemic played havoc with the timing and the final ‘reveal’ was not until September 2021.

I had planned something to use the variegated tencel I had used to make scarves for a New Zealand couple – in colors that reminded me of the local Paua shell (known as Abalone here). Combining it with a copper wire in the warp and weft I hoped I might be able to form it into the shape of a Paua shell and then finish the outside with some needle felted wool to imitate the real outer shell.

I was able to order the wire (armature winding wire) in a similar thickness to the tencel – maybe a little more, but fairly flexible. The downside was, of course, the copper wire does not stretch in any way – so conventional weaving where the warp ‘stretches’ enough to form the shed was not going to be simple. The solution was to warp the table loom with alternating copper and tencel and every other copper wire connected to a completely independent warp bar directly behind and at the same level as the back beam. These two bars were then connected with a bungy cord that wrapped around another fixed bar. The tie-up allowed me to weave a tabby cloth that lifted one or the other sets of copper warp wires and when one lifted, the bungy stretched one way allowing half to lift. The opposite shed lifted the other wires.

I had one shuttle with copper wire and one with tencel. Needless to say the tencel behaved as normal – the copper could be pulled out by hand and carefully wrapped around the selvedge which didn’t end up as particularly neat but given that it would eventually be trimmed and then covered as the felt ‘wrapped around’ it wasn’t going to be to much of a problem.

Starting to weave copper/tencel

It was fairly evident early on that the copper wire was the ‘controlling’ warp and weft and while behaving as woven cloth it would not allow beating up to the picks I expected – but this was pretty well flying by the seat of my pants. Should I ever use this technique again I’d add more tencel shots between each wire.

The first critical test was once I had woven ‘enough’ for the shell and removed it from the loom – I had to form a bowl and see whether it stayed in place and retained the relative spacing between wire and tencel in warp and weft. Luckily – it did

The next step was to trim the edge (to be more shell-like) and start applying washed wool locks and needle felt them together (and onto the woven surface). I used some ‘slightly’ washed locks to add a little bit of ‘roughness’. I also added some dark wool lines to add some character. The more needle felting the tighter the ‘shell’ got and I carried the outside around the shell edges into the inside – as I recall paua shells tend to do.

A one off effort that turned out pretty well as I expected, although the whole process was definitely learning as I went along. Needless to say a very enjoyable ‘challenge’ and gives me plenty of ideas for improvements for ‘Mk II’

2020 Studio Progress

Studio

Staying largely home this last year gave me a pretty good chance to continue work on the studio and the major milestone of getting the roof on was accomplished, allowing the actual start of use as real studio (albeit very ‘unfinished’)

A few additions came from my sister-in-law in Atlanta. She and her husband bought the house next door to their house with various potential plans for the future. As it turns out a lot of ‘stuff’ was left behind when it was cleaned out by family members. Along with furniture, kitchenware, wine/liquor, there was a lot of stained glass as the deceased husband was a very accomplished stained glass artist. His wife has gone into assisted living and decided she did not need everything and neither, apparently did her children. So we ended up with a very nice piece of stained glass for the upstairs sunny sliding door (currently just covered over as a temporary window).

The other ‘finds’ were a filing cabinet – useful for my myriad of weaving/spinning handouts, lesson plans, and miscellaneous papers (along with Anne’s recipes and garden magazine clippings), and a wonderful 1940’s Remington typewriter.

The filing cabinet cleaned up easily. The typewriter was ‘mostly’ working, but had been stored for many decades without use. Luckily this particular model was built like a tank and despite a couple of stuck keys, some (non-essential) missing pieces and a load of dust, it only took a few days with appropriate tools and lots of careful cleaning and it was ‘working’ again. I resisted the urge to disassemble, clean and re-assemble once I took a look inside and saw how really really complicated the mechanism was. It is a Remington Noiseless Model 10 which has quite a unique but highly innovative way of moving individual keys. I’ll continue with cleaning but the fun part is it now works and will become a feature of our ‘Steampunk” office/guest room in the studio.

The other work progress is insulation and wiring which are both going well. The insulation is 3/4 finished but in places only temporary as the wiring inspection is carried out without insulation. In the meantime it has made quite a difference to the temperature in the studio and means I can warm it up to a comfortable 60 degrees despite it being freezing outside.

We have a friend who is a qualified electrician and has visited and started off the process. We were able to buy all the wire and fittings at a great discount from Anne’s work. It is a steep learning curve for me as I keep having to refer to the current wiring guidance as typically our electrician glossed over a lot of the fine detail. Next visit he’ll check my work and we will finish everything off ready for the first inspection. Everything then gets connected followed by the final inspection and sign-off. I’ll then put back the temporarily removed insulation and begin putting up the dry-wall.

Lots to go, but at least now on the down-hill slope.

End of 2020

Project, Weaving

2020 finally ended – quite a year, but global health issues and political extremes aside, I’ve made good progress on the studio and we are both still here and healthy and enjoying our quiet valley life.

Items finished in December were: the 2020 Christmas Towels, the wool scarf test, and the two Oak and Fern bathroom towels. As previously mentioned I was able to move all my looms into the studio once I had a roof on along with most doors and windows. This served the dual purpose of a) getting them out of the house and b) being able to use them simultaneously. I’ve mentioned the towels in another blog so will leave that there. The other two were projects that had started previously but had stalled as the looms languished inside.

The Oak and Fern bathmats started after I finished the bathmat commission for a Townsend, TN customer. I wound on extra warp with the intention of producing at least another two similar mats. In the time between finishing the commission and re-starting I decided to change the design and create rugs for our new studio bathroom so added stripes in colors to suit our property (the Oak & Fern). I used the same technique of plying three threads (one variegated two complementary colors) to give a ‘sliding’ mix of color on each stripe.

The other finish was the wool scarf I started on the table loom as a test for a future large shawl on one of the other looms. The test was to see if the very thin two ply wool could hold up in the warp. It did although the floating selvedges that take a lot more rubbing often bloke so I resorted to a thin cotton – which can’t been seen in the finished product. The design is a simple twill diamond and despite just using one color in both warp and weft the pattern really shows well when at oblique angles. I found the studio upstairs window (where a sliding door to the balcony will eventually go) was a superb sunny/warm spot to weave and I finished the project in a week.

We twisted and knotted the fringe and then wet finished it. I have two cones of of the wool all ready for starting a larger project which shouldn’t take long on a floor loom.

2021 will be a slow start for weaving as the main focus is now getting studio work done (next blog entry)

2020 Christmas Towels

Weaving

I managed to hit the dual deadlines of: finishing towels and posting the NZ ones in time for Christmas. The design and weave this year were probably the most simple and easiest but I still received lots of comments about the ‘best yet’. Now that may have been the fact that this year we made them a little larger and will stick with this size from now on.

I decided to avoid my normal ‘balanced’ designs, i.e. equal pattern top to bottom and side to side and have two/one color stripes lengthwise and across, but flipping the colors so technically it is balanced but not in the normal way.

I wound on enough warp for 30 towels and only broke 3 warp threads – typically not paying attention when a bobbin on the rack stops turning (it sticks against the side of the frame – I’ll have to add some sort of washers) and I don’t notice the extra pressure on the winding handle, consequently that thread snaps. Normally I can find both ends and tie a knot and continue. One one occasion the warp thread pulled tightly into the rest of the threads on the beam so I couldn’t find it, but as this was a simple tabby weave without critical warp color stripe order, I just dropped that thread.

It took, on average, 40 minutes to weave a towel. I did 4 most days, but my best was 7 and in all it took just over a week. I quickly took the cloth off the loom, hemmed the ends and gave it a wash and iron, before cutting and individually hemming them.

All gifts were posted and/or delivered in time for Christmas and we have the normal 6 left over and one slightly smaller one (the warp ran out 7 inches short!).

Plans for this year is a more complicated weave or I may even tablet weave something in Christmas colors and make key ring fobs – it would mean nearly doubling the number required, but if I start early enough…

Celebration

Looms, Project, Studio, Weaving

With the change in weather over the last month from the relatively normal regular rain/storms of Summer and early Fall, I finally managed to complete the roof. While the studio portion of the roof had been 90% complete there was the 10% over the spinning loft area and the large portion over the utility room above the garage. It took 2 weeks of fairly long days to take down the tarps and replace with the shingle roof.

Once done I no longer have to get ready for any rain by positioning buckets at strategic spots and was able to complete the move of all the large looms from the house to studio. Five looms are on the studio floor at present and one (‘Senior’) is disassembled on a set of shelves as I gradually clean it up prior to re-assembly. We also moved a lot of the artwork and wall hangings from the original loom room and I’ve hung them on the exposed walls to add a little bit of color.

Studio Floor
Spinning Loft display wall
Utility Room towards the Spinning Loft and Library

Still plenty of (now undercover) work on the Studio to do, but in the meantime work continues on the ‘Oak and Fern’ rugs and I’ve begun dressing the ‘Big Mac’ loom with warp for the Christmas towels.

Rainy Day work

Clean & Service, Equipment, Festivals, Looms, Project, Studio, Weaving

The ‘Oak and Fern’ bathmat is now finished. It’s still on the loom as I have enough warp for another four to five foot long rug. I may weave two smaller door mats for the doors from the studio to the garage and the workshop. I have plenty of weft yarn.

Oak & Fern Bathmat Finished

In other work in the studio I continued cleaning various parts of ‘Senior’. The treadles are like the rest of the loom wood – perhaps maple under a dark stain. One part that seems to be different is the shuttle race on the beater frame. It appears to be a darker wood and is typically a harder wood as it is an area that experiences a fair amount of wear and tear.

I’ve numbered the heddle frames as they are removed and cleaned to ensure I put them back in the right order. The frames and lamms seem to be in reasonable condition and don’t have much wear. One small shortfall is the lower lamm where the original wire connections to the treadle was made is only as wide as the 6 treadles side by side. Most looms have two extra treadles, i.e. for a 4 shaft; 6 treadles. If I add two more treadles I may have to extend the lower lamm on each side. The side by side picture shows the first cleaned treadle and beside it the shuttle race. The slot for the reed at the back of the race is a good example of the workmanship. The top and front of the race are finished and smooth. The slot edge is still as originally cut . I’ll likely sand it of a little more just for the looks as functionally it doesn’t need changing.

Today is the start of a fine period here in the valley so I will be able to get back up on the roof to get as much done before we head up to Townsend for the Fall Guild sale this weekend where I will be volunteering and selling some of my woven and spun items.

Hearthside Loom Restoration

Hearthside Loom Restoration

Clean & Service, Looms, Project, ,

A few months back I received an email from the Townsend Guild saying they had been offered an old loom if anyone wanted it. The photo’s showed a jack loom with 6 shafts that folded to reduce front to back size. While definitely showing the signs of age it mostly looked ‘all there’. I took a quick trip up to Knoxville to pick it up.

It turned out to be a Sears Roebuck Hearthside Loom from the late 1940’s. They were advertised in the SR catalogue between 1946 and 1950. Designed by Nellie Sargent Johnson for Sears and build by the Pope Machine Company in Kankakee, Illinois. It is a 6 shaft jack loom. The loom has a 38″ weaving width and came with a 12 dent reed.

The loom was described by the donating family member as in working condition, but once home it was fairly evident that the loom had not been woven on for some time and was missing a couple of parts that would have prevented any weaving. At the time I didn’t have room to set it up properly so I just unpacked it, checked everything, then covered it with plastic sheeting and put it in a corner of the garage. Move forward a few months and I needed to move some sheet rock from on top of OSB sheets in the garage and given that I now had room in the studio I was able, with help from Anne, to move it into a more permanent place so I can devote some time to restoring it back to clean working order.

The loom has some quite innovative features but overall the quality is not quite at the standard of other loom manufacturers (although I guess there weren’t too many at the time). The first goal is to clean up all the woodwork and assess any damage. I won’t be aiming for ‘brand new’ but rather clean and functional with some display of age. I will also look at minor modifications to improve the working without changing the overall look and feel. I would like to be able to demonstrate with it at the next Fiber Arts Festival in April 2021 so will look into strengthening the base and adding something to enable rolling it.

The loom will be called ‘Senior’. I’ll update this blog with more as work now continues.

During a rainy day today I started removing parts of the loom and sanding off the old varnish and accumulated dirt and dust. The construction is fairly basic and while the design is innovative the construction had left some joins weaker than ideal and it looks like there have been ongoing repairs and moving/addition of screws. The metal hinge connections for the treadles were well rusted up, but I managed to remove them eventually.

The photos are (L-R). The back beam in received condition – typical of most of the loom. The breast beam and beater top after clean up. The treadles in place and off the loom ready for sanding. I have also cleaned up one heddle frame and numbered it so it will go back into the right slots, and the shuttle race which needed some stuck on marker tape removed.

The only serious damage to the loom is water related where I suspect the loom sat in water for a period resulting in a little of the end grain of lower parts softening. The earlier repairs involved adding more screws higher up. I’ll fix it by sandwiching the old wood with a surround of good wood as part of a box frame base to help with overall stability/strength. Most of the screws and bolts will be replaced as I reassemble the loom. I will have to design and make some replacement parts and try to improved the rudimentary (original) cloth and warp beam winding handles. Plenty of work for winter months.

Oak & Fern Bathroom Mat

Looms, Project, Weaving, , ,

The first project to be started in the studio is a bathroom mat/rug for the yet to be completed studio bathroom (currently used as storage for all the bathroom fittings plus a few light fittings that Anne has managed to find at heavy discount). I wove a rug for a customer in Townsend and wound extra warp as I had always intended to weave another rug using the same style of weft yarn. The warp is heavy linen and the weft was a trial of a method to produce ‘random’ coloring through the whole rug. To achieve this I had to ply three cotton warp yarns together first. Two in solid colors and the third in a variegated yarn that contained the two solid colors as well. When woven the colors come and go and form clumps and stripes as colors match from weft shot to weft shot.

‘Pete’ in place on the studio floor. Warp ready to be threaded.

The threading and tie up was straight forward and I was all ready to throw the first shuttle in the Oak & Fern studio. Worthy of a photo (and glass of wine to celebrate).

I wove a few inches using the warp yarn that will eventually be rolled to make a fully reversible binding on the ends. Then on to the actual weaving.

The ply of the yarn makes sloping/diagonal lines appear and disappear – obvious here with the white highlights. The colors in this stripe are the ‘oak’ part of the rug. The new yarn arrived yesterday so I was able to move on to the ‘fern’ stripe. The oak yarn has an ‘S’ twist so the diagonal runs right to left. With the fern yarn it is ‘Z’ twist which runs left to right. This will give a zigzag look as the stripes change.

Each ski shuttle holds enough for two stripes and is a full bobbin worth of yarn. I need to adjust the tension on my Ashford Traditional wheel as this needs a fairly high tension to wind on. The twist goes in fast so the set up has to be fairly free flowing or too much spin ends up in the yarn. I’ll get some pictures as I get into ‘production mode’

In the meantime with another fine day before rain I’m working up on the roof putting on shingles so won’t get to the weaving until tonight.