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.
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 squaresClose 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!!
With the wedding coming up in mid-April it was a case of rush rush rush to finish the previous tartan so that this one could be put on the loom and woven with time to spare. As it turned out we were well ahead of the game as it was slightly smaller than the last one and that made it far easier and faster to weave.
The colors were chosen and the warp wound.
The warp was tied on to the previous warp and pulled through the reed then heddles. Not the fastest process, but it went smoothly. After tying on to the front apron weaving was underway in just a little over two days (of part time work).
Weaving the Weddint Throw on ‘Big Mac’
It took three days (once again part time) to finish the weaving – it would have been quicker but an unexpected snag turned up. The knots, from tying on to previous warp, had little ‘tails’ and when a group of them came forward in the last pattern run of the throw they would tangle (behind the reed) and stop a clean shed opening! The solution was to spend half a day snipping the ends off. All that to finish the last 5 inches! Lesson learned. I cut the throw off, tied up the end edge fringes, trimmed them then gave it a delicate wash and tumble dry. Finally I combed out the fringes with a hair brush and it is now all ready to wrap up and post off to New York.
Finished Custom Tartan Wedding Throw
The next project is a run of 20+ cotton towels ready for the May Birchwood Fiber Festival. Always good to have a deadline!
The weaving of the Brown tartan finished a little while back, but I kept the finished throw on the loom as we were visited by my sister-in-law and her husband (the new owners of the throw) and I thought it might be nice for them to actually see it on the loom. They were very pleased with how it came out. We’ll now take it off the loom and finish tying up the fringes on either end then wet finish it. Delivery will be next time we visit their Lookout Mountain home some time soon.
Brown tartan on the loom with yarn for the next tartan.
To save just a little time I will cut of the current tartan and leave the remaining warp threaded through the heddles and reed. I am currently winding the warp for the next tartan – a custom design for Anne’s niece and her fiance as a wedding present in April. By tying on to the threaded warp I can slight speed up the process of threading through both the heddles and reed. I have done this before and while it seems like it would be a real time saver – by the time you tie on every warp thread (or almost all – this throw is slightly smaller) it is quicker but not hugely. I think it might be one or two less steps that could introduce threading errors, which is a good thing.
A fairly simple tartan design but it does look good (on the software)
In between tartans I was working on the 2023 Scenic Valley Handweavers guild challenge which is to take analogous colors from a color wheel and also using black; highlight those colors. I was able to find three colors amongst my stash and decided not only to weave them somehow but also to, on the same warp, repeat the pattern three times using three different weaving techniques. A challenge on top of a challenge as it were!
The colors are from a very simple primary and secondary color wheel and are red, orange and yellow. The first technique was completely new to me and is called ‘skip plain weave’. Often seen in rugs (Central Asian), but also European and Southern American woven pieces. It is one sided as the ‘alternate’ colors float across the back behind the weft faced ‘front’. I have begun the second technique which is Turkish knot pile weaving. When I finish, the blocks will have the pile trimmed quite short. The final technique will be tapestry weaving. The warp is 8/2 cotton, the skip plain weave is 3/2 pearl cotton (left over from tartans) and the pile and tapestry are an acrylic knitting yarn left over from the ‘Four Horsemen’ blanket project. I will then mount and frame the whole thing, tentatively called ‘Blocks of Sunrise & Sunset’, before the deadline in June.
Dressing ‘Gypsey’Skip plain weaveStarting the pile weaving
This project will take a pause while I push through the ‘Wedding Tartan’, but should be ready by the reveal date.
After a week of winding warp (an hour or so a day – then on to studio build work) I had all the warp wound and all ready to go on the loom and there it sat, draped over the breast beam of ‘Big Mac’ waiting for action but I became fairly focused on getting the wiring in the studio ready for final inspection.
Nearly a month later I had everything done and arranged for the inspection which went perfectly smoothly, despite all my worries of tiny things that I thought might derail it! So now we have a fresh blue sticker on our meter box signing off the final inspection. Needless to say it has been a frustrating (at times) process and incurred some more expense (not on the wiring side) than planned, but regardless it is nice to see all the light fittings (bought at bargain prices from Lowes where Anne works) in place and working and being able to plug ‘things’ in wherever I like! We raised a glass of bubbly in celebration then I did an immediate pivot to get back to the tartan.
The dressing has been relatively quick and was threaded front to back. I now just have to tie on to the warp beam, wind it through and tie to the cloth beam – I hope to be weaving over the weekend.
After setting up for the Guild Christmas party and having projects on 5 of my looms I had no choice but to get stuck in and get some results. Two projects could definitely be classed as ‘faster’. The cotton towels and the Abalone colored scarf were both straight weaving with easy treadling and minimum weft color changes.
So while I concentrated on finishing them, Anne took up the weaving on ‘Bernie’ – the tufted rug and I took occasional breaks to make progress on the Tartan throw. First finished were the cotton towels on ‘Big Mac’. I had allowed for 6 towels as a test run for a larger run this year. Unfortunately and despite my careful counting I had wound on the warp in sections and miscounted one section by one turn so it being short limited me to just 5 towels. I thought of trying to tie on enough for one more towel with the knots at the join between two towels, but the amount of work for one more towel changed my mind quickly.
Cotton Towels
The idea behind these towels was to use the same design as the 2021 Christmas Towels but re-sleyed to open up the weave a little and using just one weft color per towel. They worked out well with some of the bold colors I had sitting around in the stash. The huck lace gives them a nice texture overall.
Abalone Scarf
The second project finished was the Scarf in Abalone colors. The warp was variegated black, grey, white and the weft variegated blues and greens. Both in 8/2 tencel. With long twisted fringes and a long scarf it looked great and after wet finishing it softened up even more. Anne claimed this one! I’ll now go ahead with a run of 3 or 4 in a slightly modified design.
Work has continued on the tufted rug with both of us working on it when we have time and we are now at just over 13 inches (of 50 inches total. Once the fingers develop some muscle memory you can speed up to a reasonable 11 knots per minute, with up to 2 inches a day achieved (weaving about 4-5 hours on this project). As this speed falls within Peter Collingwood’s ‘reasonable’ rate I’m happy enough. I shan’t be going into intricate designs a la Middle Eastern hand knotted silk rugs, I think some geometric shapes and colors should be achievable and a complete 4 x 8 foot rug in 2-3 months a reasonable goal. The tartan throw is now half complete and now that I’ve worked out the ‘throw’ to take the shuttle across the full width of the loom, it’s going easier.
We also acquired a commercial rug for the floor of the studio. It was straight concrete and needless to say rather cold if you are working in socks (necessary when treadles are close together (Big Mac mostly). Anne found a large rug down from $350 to $70 plus her work discount on top of that!
Left to right: the new rug and weaving progress in December. Tufted rug, and Tartan throw as of today. I put the heater on when I went to take the photo’s above so it should be warming up enough to head out and get some more weaving done.
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 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)
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 wallUtility 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.
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.
