Networking

I think this project is the perfect example of why it's important to actually weave something and not just read about it. It also continues to reinforce that sampling is good.

I'd been muddling over how to play with color and texture in overshot and, in searching for some interesting references, found my way to Bonnie Inouye's article in the now-defunct WeaveZine on Networked Twill. I read it. I read it again. I got out my laptop and fired up Fiberworks and played around. Regardless, I just couldn't wrap my head around it so that left me no choice but to wind a warp and fire up the loom.

Project Notes:

• Warp: 8/2 BFL from Ashland Bay (this is very loosely plied - I'd prefer a higher twist and may well run it through the wheel first next time)
• Weft: 8/2 Mill Ends from WEBS
• Sett: 20epi - 2 ends per dent in a 10 dent reed

Woven off at 20 ppi for as balanced a fabric as possible.

I hemstitched at the beginning and after weaving off 75", left some room for fringe and then wove off a bit more as a sample to keep. I gave the finished scarf a bath and also gave it a vigorous rubbing. I may well run it through the wash next load to see if the whole thing will full even more. I'd like it to be just a hint softer.

The big learning here was how to manipulate the treadling to get curves - both slow, sweeping ones as well as sharp, zig-zaggy ones. It's all about how slowly or quickly I work my way across the treadles. The threading is based on a 4-shaft twill, so a "closed" repeat is four picks. If I stop short, then I work "left" two treadles from the last (e.g. - if I end on 5, then I start again on 2; end on 7 and start again on 4, etc.). Now, I can extend the repeat to five six or seven picks, that just changes where I start for the next segment. It took about 18 inches of weaving before I started to feel confident about where things would go - and then it became fun!

The other thing that happened was a noticeable rippling in the cloth. You can see that a bit in the picture above. The tie-up was a 3/1/1/3 so the cloth was "faced" and that, I think, is what helped give the added dimension. I was a bit worried about tension problems but as long as I kept moving those curves around, all was well. Bonnie's original piece was done in silk and I did wonder how much of my tension stuff got absorbed by the wool. BFL is far from elastic, but it does forgive.

And, of course, I wove a bit of the sample at the end in my (continuing) favorite yarn. Yup, that's the Dead Weaver Blue. I like the contrast so much more than the natural brown and, when I get to the real project, I'll probably go for a darker weft. An inky black with hints of yellow and green (think asphalt) with white nepps. Should be fun.

I'm going to fess up and say that I'm behind on my January list - I've not yet sewn the vest but I have been thinking about the fabric I plan to sample for next month. So, this weekend is for sewing and firming up sampling. I do think I'll be able to get it all done. Just need to get off my (proverbial) duff. Post this weekend to recap on where I am against the list.

Note to Self

Do not weave gray and silver in cold, cold January.



Warp:  Icelandic wool 2-ply, from the late Tongue River Farm.  Weft:  Peruvian alpaca, from A Touch of Twist.  Finnish and Swiss Twills, snuggled up to each other.  This is behaving itself very well, but gah, it's unexciting to weave.  Give me RED!

A Good Washing-Up

I love washing wool yarn, whether knitted or woven or spun.  It transforms and blooms and comes out dancing with its best smile on.

So, I washed the honeycomb samples.  They're dry now, so you get lots of photos - first the right side, then the wrong side of each.





















Interesting, eh?  I could see making the warp blocks just a little narrower (so the weft floats on the back weren't a little too long), weaving up several related narrow strips, and making a blanket or throw.  (Sometimes I wish I weren't so inspired to make big projects.)  The MacAusland wool that is the warp and ground weft in all of these is quite scratchy, even when washed, but I bet something like Harrisville Shetland woven in honeycomb would make a very cozy and warm blanket.  On the other end of the spectrum, I could see using fine silk and narrow blocks to weave off a colorful scarf.  I was surprised at how tidy and stable the selvedges are in these samples; I used a floating selvedge and of course the fulling of the wool helped, but still, they turned out to have a nice, relatively tidy, turned-under edge on either side.  With more than 4 shafts, I think you could add a plainweave or basket weave edge to honeycomb and stabilize the edges even more.  And can I just say I loved what this structure did for the colors in the warp and weft?  I wanna weave more stuff like this!

Next up: a twill shawl in silver Icelandic wool and gray alpaca, like the one I wove for Jesh.  You may not get samples from this warp, I'm afraid, as I don't have that much Icelandic yarn left.  The warp is sleyed, I wound a bunch of bobbins, and I'm starting the thread the heddles.  Progress, in other words!

ETA:  I also started pulling together a sample notebook.  I think it may need to be a sample box.   When I put each sample in its own plastic sleeve, the pile completely filled a 2.5" binder.  Hmm....

So Far So Good

In the "January" department, I had three things to do - two were vest related and the third was to weave a selvedge rug. Because I'm a contrary person, I started with the last one first.

I got a big bag of selvedges from a "Dead Weaver's Stash" on my last trip to Palm Springs and that was my excuse to give this kind of weaving a try. They're the high end version of the selvedges that you can get from Pendleton. In my case, earth tones - browns, coppers and neutrals with the occasional splash of green.

After poking around the web, I chose 8/4 carpet warp for the warp and threaded at 12 epi on the Gilmore. This was driven as much by which reed I had (either 8 or 12) as anything else. And, since the selvedges were so cheap, I didn't have anything invested in this other than time. I wound a warp three yards long and 36" wide. Nothing special on the selvedges - not even doubled. Threaded straight twill on four shafts, warped back to front as per usual. I wove a header using tripled 8/16 cotton left over from the rep weave placemats for a few picks to ensure that my threading was correct, spread the warp and to give me some fabric to hem, if I chose to go that route. I wound the selvedges on a rag shuttle and started weaving.

This was, to say the least, a challenge. The selvedges make for a HUGE shuttle and the Gilmore doesn't have the world's largest shed. My compromise was to wind some of each selvedge length onto the shuttle and then to manually pull the balance of the weft piece through by hand. That cut down on the number of times I had to wind a shuttle and the weaving would have been super slow-going no matter what. The Gilmore can put very heavy tension on the warp, and I can beat heavily, but after about 18" of weaving, I was knocking the pawl off of the back brake! This lead to a long pause while I had a look at the loom itself - and now I've a call to make to Stockton to discuss spare parts/rehab of this loom. Suffice to say the previous owner (at some point) made some mistakes with this loom and they need to be rectified. I don't think anything is damaged, and if I'd never woven a rug I'd have been unlikely to run into trouble, but now I've got work to do.

During the weaving, I felt pretty sure that I had sett this far too closely. The ends weren't sticking up at all, but from what I'd read, this would happen as part of the finishing process so I forged ahead.

With the help of a clamp and a hefty dose of patience I finished the weaving with only three strips of selvedge left over. I wove a wider header on the back end and then tied a Damascus Fringe (ala Collingwood) on both ends. I really, REALLY liked the finish this provides and makes for a clean edge to the rug. Then the whole thing went into the washer with a hope that those little ends would come springing out and I'd have a lovely, shaggy rug. That, however, is not what emerged from the washer.

Rather, the rug is more like a super springy version of a rag rug. The selvedges fulled into squishy tubes and the ends are locked down. It's wonderful to walk on - just not what I'd been aiming for. Also, the headers shrank up more than the rug, so they're drawn in a bit, but I'm not bothered by that either. The rug has been holding down the fort in the kitchen for the time being but it'll end up out in the studio shortly. It'll also need some kind of non-skid mat underneath.

Project "Lessons Learned" and points for the next time around:

• Make sure the loom is fixed before I try this again.
• Sett at 6 epi. Either single or doubled, but wider sett for sure.
• Read Collingwood further and construct a better header row.

Amazingly, I do think I'll make more - but that'll wait until later in the year. Chris really likes the rug and it's wonderful underfoot but there are other things to be done. Like my vest!

Later That Same Weekend

Five pairs of samples - done.  Here are on-the-loom photos of two more of them:






On top, a worsted-weight blue-violet singles as the pattern weft; on the bottom, the same red-violet (what I've been calling purple) Shetland as the pattern weft. I realized I didn't take a photo of one of the samples while it was on the loom, so here it is just off the loom:



Here, the pattern weft is three ends of the Shetland held together, two purple and one red. You can begin to see how the pattern weft is curving up and down, now that the warp-wise tension is off.

I've handwashed, vigorously, these samples and they're drying. Probably Tuesday night I'll be back with a report on what they are like after washing.

Back Away from the Wall

I learned something this week.  I learned that my stubbornness isn't always helpful, for one thing.

So, the back story:  You will remember that one of my goals this quarter was to weave a warp rep table runner for my friend Sue as a wedding present.  Since I've never woven warp rep before, I figured I better try out that weave structure first in a sample or two.  I gathered up some mill end 16/2 cotton and some 8/4 cotton rug warp that was given to me and set out to weave a sample.

First Lesson:  16/2 cotton (the warp) is skinny yarn.  Thus, it would be nice if I could wind two or four ends at a single time.  No problem; I can wind an extra ball from the cone.  Well, yes, indeed I could wind an extra ball, but when I went to wind the warp from the cone and the ball, the ball regurgitated its innards, which tangled with the end coming off the outside and - well, it's a good thing that was cheap yarn.

I turned to my favorite tool: cardboard sectional warping bobbins.  Quickly, one was wound up and ensconced on the kate, and I started to wind the warp again.

No dice.  The tension coming off the kate was much more than that coming off the cone.  So, I decided to embrace the one-end-at-a-time zen of warp-winding (and I envied Diane her Chris-built cone-winder).

All was well till I realized - oh, about the time I was starting to sley the reed - I had only wound one side of the warp from the draft I was using.  A night of pouting ensued.

Second Lesson:  Then I realized this was only a sample - did it really matter how wide the sample was, when all I wanted was to understand the structure and ten inches wide should do that?  Well, no, so I started sleying.

Except that sleying 4-5-4-5, doubled ends, in an 8-dent reed, while negotiating color changes that did not match up with the dents, was more than my brain can handle.  (By the way, 10 inches wide x 90 epi = 900 ends.  Lots, in other words.)

Third Lesson:  Buy the 15-dent reed when the very knowledgeable manager at Vavstuga strongly suggests it.  Also...

Fourth Lesson:  Rather than winding each color in a separate bout, make the color changes while winding the warp for warp rep.

Well, as you can imagine, several nights of pouting were involved.  I want to make that wedding present, damn it, because it's been six months already.  I want this warp rep stuff to work.  I want to be smart enough to figure this all out and force it to work.

Fifth Lesson:  Pouting gets you (me) nowhere.  (OK, I admit I knit one sleeve for Mork and spun an Enchanted Knoll batt while pouting, but no weaving happened.)

Sixth Lesson:  Try a different direction.  That is, back away from the wall I'm banging my head against and start moving, somewhere, somehow (and come back to the warp rep later, with the right reed and an easier color design).

Which brings us to this:




Not warp rep.  Not at all.  This is Play.  This is eight inches wide, old Macausland Shetland wool sett at 12 epi, starting to be woven off in a single honeycomb structure.  The ground weft is the purple Macausland; the pattern weft is some old nameless peachy, worsted-weight 3-ply wool.

Wanna see more?  I do.



As you can see, the different warp stripes are different widths; those correspond (mostly) to the widths of the honeycomb blocks.  I tried out different heights of the blocks, as well.

Here's a shot of the back; you can see the long weft floats.



This is a three-yard-long warp - I figure I'll make several pairs of samples with different wefts and such.  One of each pair will be for me, and one will get sent to one of you (hey, Sarahw, are you still out there?). 

Here's the beginning of the second pattern weft, a black/pumpkin/ochre knobbly cotton from somewhere in my distant past.  That stretch of plainweave before the black pattern weft is the end of the previous sample and the beginning of this one.



And a bigger photo of that sample:



I'm enjoying weaving this a great deal, because I'm very involved, pick by pick, as I weave it and because the sample has lots of complexity to it.  I'm looking forward to seeing what these samples do when I wash them.  I suspect they 'll draw up a lot, because of the warp floats on the front and the weft floats on the back, and become very textural.  I don't know exactly what these fabrics could be used for, in a practical sense, but I can see using thinner yarn, perhaps that 16/2 cotton, and smaller blocks, in both directions, to come up with scarf or shawl fabrics, maybe even a simple top. In wool, if the cloth were fulled enough, it might make a cozy blanket or throw.  Some weavers use honeycomb to weave fabric for bags; I'm not a bag person, so that doesn't interest me that much.

I have several more ground and pattern wefts to try out; I'll be back later this coming week with more photos.

Over(shot) the Moon

I should have seen this coming. After all the moaning and grumbling about sampling, it should have been perfectly obvious that I'd be charmed by this little whimsy. I present my new BFF (Best Fabric Forever) - overshot.

Look at those adorable little diamonds. Go ahead, I'll wait. Actually, let's look a little bit closer.

Aren't those little tweedy bits amazing? And they give just a hint of depth and interest to the color. Yeah, that's my "Dead Weaver Stash" coming through again. No idea what it is other than some kind of wool single with tweedy bits. Best of all, I'd not planned on using this yarn for anything other than a sample on this warp. But once I wove off that first motif, I was hooked.

Don't worry though, I had done a whole bunch of sampling with the 8/2 Mill End Wool that I'd originally planned on for this sample. It's a totally different animal.

In real life, the pattern is much less distinct. The wool bloomed much more than I expected and I don't think there's nearly enough contrast between the warp and pattern weft for the overall effect to come through. There's a sample for both of you - I was at least smart enough to ensure I had plenty. And I'll include a snippet of the yarns as well.

See? Super fuzzy. Super, DUPER fuzzy. Again, I should have (and kinda did) expected more bloom from this yarn than the tweed single - the single is quite round and "hard". I'd almost think it'd been fulled as part of processing. I don't think it's sized, but I can have another look at the unwashed samples.

The other yarn I sampled was a 5/2 Mercerized cotton. The finished fabric has an amazing sheen (mercerized) and the hand is quite nice but, again, the color is all wrong. I'm not at all fussed about it though - again, it was meant to be a sample. Getting a picture was difficult because of the reflection off of the cotton, but here goes.

Now, here's the really, REALLY cool part. This fabric is stretchy. I mean, REALLY stretchy. It's positively elastic! And that was completely out of the blue. Who knew? Is that predictable? It's gotta be the wool doing it's thing, but still. Crazy. This is like handwoven spandex.

And now I want to do more. Maybe a wool/silk combination. And something with a less (ahem) exciting motif that would lend itself to a jacket. That might just mean super fine threads, and I can get behind that, but there's absolutely more work to be done here. Not sure if this is vest-worthy, but there's absolutely more overshot in my future. You two should try this.