Category Archives: Weaving

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.

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.

Quiet times

Project, Weaving

With all the chaos currently in the country/around the world it has been a relatively quiet time here in the valley. I have finished threading the heddles/sleying the reed for the baby blanket and now only need to finish tying on. I have mainly been working out in the studio building more roof trusses so I can get on with the guest room roof. The weather has not really been helpful as it is now nearly three weeks since we had a span on 3 fine days – needed to take the tarps off and put up the trusses and then roof. We have a relatively fast method for two of us to manage it, but really need a couple of clear days. I have 4 trusses built that need to be put us, but forecast is for more rain so under-cover work means more work on building trusses (6 to go).

We also had a quiet family dinner to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, not that we would have been tempted out, even if there were festivities, I suspect.

  • Spaced out through the raddle
  • Ready to tie on

Today is thunderstorms/rain which equals perfect for weaving. Yesterday it rained most of the day, but was a “brew day” – I now have an IPA fermenting and Honey Brown Ale about to go into the keg. We’ll be good for months.

I did have one exciting find when out early (to beat the rain) – we have been slowly re-introducing trilliums into our forest as we had never discovered any in the wild here, and suspected they may have been cleaned out while the property was unoccupied. I was in one part of our forest harvesting some bamboo for garden stakes and nearly stepped on a bed of 20+ trilliums. A quick search found at least two more areas with similar numbers.

Baby Blanket

Project, Weaving

I made a start on the baby blanket for Anne’s nephew – they are expecting in around 3 months. The yarn arrived and had to be wound into balls as it comes in hanks which don’t lend themselves to either winding bobbins or warping. I have a small tabletop umbrella swift which works fine unless the yarn catches at speed – the result is a flying swift. A project for later will be to find a better way of clamping it down as gravity alone isn’t enough!

Ball winding set-up

The project is 242 ends so didn’t take too long to warp. The design is technically a plaid with two repeats of the pattern across the width and three repeats for the length.

  • The 5 colors
  • Project warped

The forecast is for 2 or 3 rainy days so dressing the loom will be this week and hopefully finish weaving before the next weaving guild meeting so I can take it along for show and share.

Next Weaving Projects

Project, Uncategorized, Weaving

Planning for the next project is well advanced and in fact the yarn (Vintage DK from Yarn Barn of Kansas. http://www.yarnbarn-ks.com) is on its way as I type this. Another of Anne’s nephews is about to become a father. As we gave his brother a blanket when they had their baby recently we were pretty well obligated to follow suit. In fact, between these two we also wove a baby blanket for Anne’s younger brother. Yet another tradition is born!

The parents chose pink and grey as the main colors and we have added colors drawn from the Grand Teton Mountains – a place they spent some time in their earlier lives although they now live in North Carolina. The extra colors are white (snow), grey (mountains), and green (forests). The design is done and it will end up yet another tartan/plaid! I have a few months to get it done, but once on the loom it shouldn’t take too long. The fringe twisting is likely to take just as long as the weaving.

I have two other projects to contemplate. The first is a combination of two needs. I need to dress the HD 4 shaft traveling loom ready for the Fiber Festival in April as I will be on the porch demonstrating again. I also need to get something going for the guild challenge which is to create some form of 3 dimensional object using woven materials. I was considering weaving something similar to the wedding scarves as my demo project because of the distinctive colors (reminiscent of abalone shell). The guild challenge might become a wavy ‘ocean’ setting with some shell pieces perhaps? Needs more thought.

Finally; I have always wanted to weave some of the designs my Dad used in his place mats, so I have been looking carefully at some of the structures. One is an overshot trellis style which he used a lot. I should be able to find similar yarn, and it would be great to be able to duplicate some of his work.

Today though is out to the studio build as we have a fine day after a full day of rain yesterday. The weekend was good and we finally finished the garage end wall and have it all wrapped in tyvek. The old tarps have been retired from that area and hopefully we can move on to getting eaves and roof on down this end of the building.

Tartan Throw Finished

Project, Tartan, Weaving

We were away this weekend visiting long time friends of my wife Anne, in North Carolina. Along with a good amount of catching up, food, wine, etc we did get out to the Concord Alpaca Celebration (http://carolinaalpacacelebration.com/) and have a look around the various animal and vendor displays. The vendors had a fairly large amount of commercially produced product (largely from Peru), but there were some US home produced products to see/buy. I ended up spending quite a bit of time talking to the local guild who were there demonstrating spinning and weaving – a most interesting 30 minutes or so comparing our various guild, weaving, spinning backgrounds.

I had finished weaving the throw and we were in the process of untangling the fringe after the throw was wet finished, before our NC trip. As it turns out the light blue color perle cotton tended to ‘let go’ a whole lot more than the other colors and where that happened the ‘fuzz’ tied up other fringe yarn. It’s pretty straight forward to comb that out. The yarn drew in nicely and is now wonderfully soft. The last step is to wrap and post then time to move on to the next project

Finished tartan throw
The finished throw

Placemat Finishing

Project, Tartan, Weaving

Our custom tartan placemat and runner set is now finally nearing finished. It hasn’t been on the top of the priority list as the recipient of this housewarming gift has not been in great health so we have been delaying a trip down there. Not a great excuse really so now suitably guilty I’ve sewn, cut up, and added bias binding edges to two placemats and have the other two plus the runner to go.

The reason for the bias binding is to do with selvedges on this tartan. As noted previously the number of warp ends or weft picks of each color in the pattern is always even – which means the overall tartan pattern is ‘square’. This also means that the weft yarn changes are always on one side. This is typically taken care of by running the non-woven colors up the selvedge, collecting them when wrapping around the floating selvedge.

  • Left hand selvedge
  • Right hand selvedge

Needless to say the left hand selvedge would be fine to leave as is, the right hand less so. If this were weaving yardage for a kilt the left hand selvedge would go to the bottom where there is generally no seam. The right hand selvedge would be covered with the top band.

The solution this time is to add bias binding around all edges.

Finished placemat