Hello, handsome!

Color is often the answer to life's problems.  And, it can make something otherwise dull and boring into a rich and compelling gem.  Enter the M's and O's fabric with my boring mill ends.

I went ahead and used the end of the warp to make one final set of samples.  Sett at 36epi, beaten square and a full range of color combinations.  The two pieces on the left are for overdyeing, the one on the right will be the control sample.

I decided to make two colors - one a deep but rich red that I developed over the summer and the other a magenta/wine color.  In either case, I wanted something that would be rich and appealing in the colder months.  I've been thinking of this as a "Spring" vest, but since the last day of winter was only yesterday, I've reverted to winter colors.  And now, the result:

Yeah.  Wow.  Really, really wow.  There's now a lovely texture to the fabric that didn't exist before and the size of the medallion is, in my opinion, no longer an issue.  Both colors are absolutely amazing, but that red keeps calling to me.

And here you can see the different yarns/weaves interacting.  The color looks quite true on my monitor (even the magenta in the corner) and I really love the texture.  I'm happy enough with this that I'll go ahead and measure/wind off a warp and weave off enough fabric to make the vest.  That really puts the hammer down on making the sample as I'm not sure that I'm happy with how high it rides in the back.  It stops at my actual waist, but I think I'm going to nudge it down just a bit so that it extends slightly below my waist.  Easy enough to do and that won't hold up the weaving.

And yes, I've written down the dye formula.  I just hope that I can get as good coverage when I'm dyeing yardage rather than a small swatch.  It'll mean getting out the big pot but I certainly think it'll be worth it.

So Sara - how do you like that red?  :-)

Responses

 So, Lynn, you were good enough to put up a post last week with some updates and also some questions.  The whole post got me to thinking - which is what you wanted, I hope - and now I feel like I can give some thoughtful responses.  I'm still noodling over much of this, but I wanted to at least make a dent.

Firstly, some points from your Thing 1:

But.  Butbutbut.  Everything went wrong with weaving this off, except none of the selvedge threads broke.  Lots and lots of warp ends broke (and I didn't mend a single one).  They broke for a couple of reasons, I think: There are three warp yarns - the shiny, bright red, thick cotton yarn, which gave me no trouble at all; a 12/2 70% cotton/30% flax mill end; and a NM 14/1 (skinny!) 70% silk/30% polyester mill end.  I held the latter two ends together throughout, but both of those yarns broke, I think because they twisted around each other and/or one of a pair changed places with one of a neighboring pair, so I had trouble winding on when threads twisted and caught on the heddles.  Also: tension.  In the last yard, first one side and then the other developed a smile; I don't really know why.  I finally resorted to a temple by the end.  Also: an angle in the beater, of about half an inch from one side of the warp to the other.  Again, I don't know why; I'll get out my measuring tapes and tools and see what I can do.  Finally, when I washed and dried the fabric, it developed a good bit of seersuckering, which mostly went away when I pressed it, but I fear it will come back when I go to construct a garment.  I didn't get seersuckering with the sample, but this warp had more of the bright shiny yarn in it.  I think I'll have to fuse some lightweight interfacing to the fabric, under a lining.

I'm nearly certain that your tension/smile/beater angle problems are all related.  If you recall, Sarah and I both gave our looms an Almighty Tightening and that addressed tension issues all 'round.  Looms are like living things - they shift and the fasteners move.  I've added "check all fasteners and make sure they are tight" to my warping process since it affects the finished piece so very much.  Key offenders are the bolts under the castle and at the base of the feet.  As for the broken warp threads - did you hold them together when winding and then separate in the warp or simply wind/weave them as a pair?  And yes - I suspect that you 'will get some amount of searsuckering in the finished garment, but that could well be what really makes the jacket.  Regardless, I'm sorry that it was such a bear - but I hope that your jacket will at least offset the suffering.

Ok.  On to Thing 2:

• The first line of thought is easy:  I weave because I want to and I can, and I'm mostly adult enough to grit my teeth through the difficult or boring parts.

• The second question, what do I want to weave:  Now, that's harder, because really, I don't need much. 

• The third question, how are we doing with this blog? 

• Why am I not more creative?

You also make mention of your Puritanical upbringing (sometimes I think the Puritans were German ...) and how you feel that this hampers your creativity - both in terms of production as well as in permission to just "do things".  Also, given that you're trying to shed possessions, there's another barrier to getting to FOs.

This got me to wondering - how many of your clothes are handmade/handwoven?  If the answer is "many/lots", then that's harder to solve.  If the answer is "few/none", well, how about you work on trading out the non-handmade/handwoven items, piece for piece, with clothing you make?  Arguably, same for household items - blankets, towels, rugs, pillows, etc.  I've heard many say (not me, at least not out loud) how they admire Rita Buchanan and her House of Textiles.  I'm willing to bet she didn't start that way, but ended up there over a lifetime.  As for not piling up stuff - when the blanket is done, the store-bought goes to Goodwill or gifted elsewhere.  Same for dishtowels, clothes, etc.  One off the loom/sewing machine, one out of the house.  It's how I'm working, FWIW, and that gives me a pretty healthy to-do list in both quantity and variety.

I started nudging you on your "not creative" comment yesterday, and my basic observation is that for your handwovens, I've not seen a bunch beyond yardage.  I recall the bag you did (lunch tote?) and I know you crank out a bunch of scarves for the sale each year, but how about moving beyond loom-shaped stuff?  Put "Make the Jacket" on your list for next quarter - and add "embelish" to it.  Maybe add "handbag to coordinate with the jacket, embellished" so that you end the next round with an ensemble.  But - don't let yourself stop until the yardage becomes something.  Making the kimono, subsequent jacket and shirt taught me so much - and really helped me to be more deliberate in my weaving.  Perhaps that'd work for you, as well.  Do something with that interesting honeycomb you were working with last month - it looked cool, so why not explore it a bit further and really see how the fabric will perform?  For me, *that* is the truly creative part.  And, at risk of putting words in Sara's mouth, it's the difference between inspiration and perspiration.  Take the inspiration of what hits you on the loom, but don't stop until it is something.  Maybe that's why I'm so stuck on these M's and O's.  It really *is* interesting, but I don't want to let it go until I've tried the thing that I want to try.

And as for the question of how we're doing with the blog, well, it *is* a bit challenging.  I know that I wanted/still want a lot more back-and-forth on things, and that the blog would help us to be more productive.  I think this is a challenge faced by weavers everywhere - looms (mostly) aren't portable and that makes real-time feedback and discussion harder.  And, without a sample in your hand, it's hard for you to give pointed criticism.  We're also both somewhat off doing our own thing - as is Sarah - and while that's totally good, it doesn't necessarily make it easy to work together on things.  Mentally, I think I'm in a better position to be more true to the original guidelines (post more frequently, with pictures, work against the list) so I don't want to give up at all!  I'm also happy to have more contributors.  But, I'm also not ready to throw in the towel and go back to Rav.  I've been there less, and reduced my time online in general, and it's helped me to be more focused and productive out in the Real World.

So, that's my first bit of rambling on all this.  And my Q2 projects are still in limbo.  But I think it's time to dig out the linen.  :-)

Tightening Things Up

I owe Lynn a reply on her post (please don't think I'm ignoring you!  Quite the opposite, frankly) but since this week is much less busy, I've also been able to make some more progress on sampling for the vest fabric.  This structure continues to intrigue me and, in finishing this last piece, I tried to think of ways that I could still use the full medallion that we all seem to like so much.  However, step one remains getting a fabric that is both pleasing visually and also, in my mind, will stand up to being both sewn and worn.

After cutting off the last round of samples, I made the easiest of changes - resleying from 32 epi (4 ends per dent in an 8 dent reed) to 36 epi (3 ends per dent in a 12 dent reed) because the first round was far too open.  That went quite quickly, but I didn't have a chance to sit down and weave it off until these past two mornings.  I also stuck with all wool this time rather than adding in the silk as I learned enough last time that this was purely about structure.  Hemstitched at both ends and washed:

This version of the fabric, while not wholly opaque, is much crisper.  A small amount of light remains when switching from the plain weave to float sections, but otherwise, it's nearly solid.  I was easily able to beat to square so that made me hopeful that if I was happy with this fabric, I could make yardage without too much difficulty.

First pass of colors was back to the dark blue and light brown.  Here it is against the light brown weft:

While that looks good, I liked the higher-contrast blue/light pink combination from the previous fabric, so I wove off a section like that as well.  Here it is against the darker brown warp.

And this is where I stopped.  I've more warp on the loom, so there's one more round of sampling to come, but I also noticed that I made a sleying error near the left edge.  I put six ends in one dent, rather than the planned three.  Since this was a sample, I didn't worry about it at all (there was enough trouble-free fabric elsewhere) but decided that I would cut off and finish this piece so that I could not only fix the error, but also make any more decisions about how I wanted to handle the end of the warp.

That said, here's my thinking for what's left:

1. Weave off a chunk with a combination of wool and silk.  Try different color wools to see if there are any that are truly appealing.
2. Weave off a chunk in monotone wool and overdye.  I remembered how much the dark Merino roving loves to be overdyed so I'm going to cut some sections and do them in red, teal and blue.  My hope is that a monochromatic, rich color scheme might make those big medallions bearable.
3. If any warp remains after doing those two, I'm going to pull out the linen/silk blend and weave off some with that.  I've both a light blue and a natural, and if I have enough, I'll try and overdye a patch.

I should have enough to do 8" of each of the first two experiments and then see what's left for the linen/silk.  Regardless, the weaving part can get done tomorrow with no issues - and perhaps I'll even have time to do the dyeing.  Then I can have the full set of samples in place so that I can calculate/thread some fabric.  I'm going to see this structure through to a finished vest for certain; until it's cut up and sewn, I simply won't know the answer.  And if it doesn't work, that's just another answer, right?

Answer for Lynn in a separate post.  Now it's time for lunch and then off to the shop.

Three Things

Thing #1:
I finished the red yardage.  From a 5-yard warp, almost 27 inches wide in the reed, I got about 3 yards 20 inches by 22.5 inches of warp-dominant cloth, after washing/drying/pressing.

It's nice stuff; it has substance but it's not at all stiff or heavy.

The color is most true in the first photo.  It'll make a nice jacket, along with the 2 yards I wove as a sample back last summer.  I may need to weave more fabric, depending on what kind of jacket I make.  I used up all of the predominant warp yarn, however, so it will have to be a coordinating/contrasting fabric, which is fine.

But.  Butbutbut.  Everything went wrong with weaving this off, except none of the selvedge threads broke.  Lots and lots of warp ends broke (and I didn't mend a single one).  They broke for a couple of reasons, I think: There are three warp yarns - the shiny, bright red, thick cotton yarn, which gave me no trouble at all; a 12/2 70% cotton/30% flax mill end; and a NM 14/1 (skinny!) 70% silk/30% polyester mill end.  I held the latter two ends together throughout, but both of those yarns broke, I think because they twisted around each other and/or one of a pair changed places with one of a neighboring pair, so I had trouble winding on when threads twisted and caught on the heddles.  Also: tension.  In the last yard, first one side and then the other developed a smile; I don't really know why.  I finally resorted to a temple by the end.  Also: an angle in the beater, of about half an inch from one side of the warp to the other.  Again, I don't know why; I'll get out my measuring tapes and tools and see what I can do.  Finally, when I washed and dried the fabric, it developed a good bit of seersuckering, which mostly went away when I pressed it, but I fear it will come back when I go to construct a garment.  I didn't get seersuckering with the sample, but this warp had more of the bright shiny yarn in it.  I think I'll have to fuse some lightweight interfacing to the fabric, under a lining.

In other words, I love the finished fabric, but weaving it off was a bear.

Thing #2:
So, while I was beating the red warp into submission, I was thinking.  Thinking about why the hell I think I like to weave.  Thinking about what do I want to weave, and why?  Thinking about this blog and what it is (or possibly, is not) doing for us.  Thinking about my frustration with not being more "creative" with what I make.  Thinking the thoughts one has when it's late winter and another damned warp end just broke.

The first line of thought is easy:  I weave because I want to and I can, and I'm mostly adult enough to grit my teeth through the difficult or boring parts.

The second question, what do I want to weave:  Now, that's harder, because really, I don't need much.  If anything, I'm trying to shed excess stuff around here.  I could use a couple of rag rugs for the bathroom.  The new loom room and the bathroom need curtains.  I could use some washable shopping bags, for groceries and such.  Beyond that, I don't really need more shawls, or clothing, or presents (except that one wedding present, sigh), or anything.  I know that I'm weaving right now to create a weaver, not really to make a body of work or anything like that, and yet I have a hard time giving myself permission to just make things that will live on a shelf and not get used or displayed or given away.  It's that Puritan upbringing combined with my conservationist bent.

The third question, how are we doing with this blog:  Well, here I wonder.  Sarahw has faded away, and even Diane and I don't post as much as we used to.  I'm not exactly sure what I want, except perhaps for there to be more back and forth.  Does the weaving thread on FOAY fulfill that function?  Should we invite more weavers?  Set up "homework" that we both try - Create something that expresses early spring or Weave a twill scarf with 10 or more colors - that sort of thing?  How do you feel about how it's going?

The fourth question, why am I not more creative:  Well, here I think I come back to that Puritan upbringing, and I suppose what I ought to do is set myself some exercises to figure out exactly what I mean by "creative" and practice getting there.

Thing #3:
Despite all that questioning, I do find it motivating to set goals and try to reach them, so here is a slightly more complete list of goals for the next quarter, although I'm not ready to say this is It just yet.

• Finish the damned wedding present.
• Weave off two of the warps I painted last summer with Sara Lamb.
• Paint and weave off a new warp of my own.
• Think about/read/look/visit museums/whatever it takes to start teasing out what I mean by being "creative" and set up a series of exercises designed to teach me to be more creative in the way I want to be.
• Do one of those exercises (or start it, if it's a long exercise).
• Set up and weave something on the 8-harness Norwood (this can be any of the other projects herein specified).

Thoughts?  Questions?  Comments?  I don't so much need a there, there, you're doing fine, as a discussion that helps me work through this, ah, interesting place, shall we say.

Who you callin' sleazy?

So, the first set of samples is off the loom and I put them through a wash in the sink, albeit a vigorous one, because I really thought it'd be better to see how they'd change before deciding wether to resley or rethread.  I'm glad I did.  First off, a shot of the finished all-wool piece.



As you can see, I did a few combinations.  The bottom is two color and a long treadling repeat to make squares rather than rectangles.  The center section is also two colors, highly contrasting and the top is two color but nearly no contrast.  They're all interesting in their own way, but they all have one thing in common.  Too open.  For sure.



The shaping of the weave structure really starts to show, but there are big gaps between the threads.  I really, really don't like that.  As you get closer, it gets worse.



Moving onto the two treadlings that are more "contrasty", I'm really quite torn as to which I prefer.



I like the scale of the half-repeat for anything clothing-like, simply because the pattern isn't too overwhelming.



And, the contrasting threads give a visual dimensionality to it.  However ...



the squares really are quite charming.  For upholstery, linens, or maybe a blanket, great.  But I just don't think this would lend itself well to clothing.  Just too big.  (for reference, the "circles" are about 3/4" in diameter).

Now - everything goes better with silk, right?



Right.  Absolutely right.  There's a sheen that makes this fabric really gorgeous and the hand is also wonderful.  But again, on inspection, too open.



So - in the finishing, there's a lesson.  I'm not going to change the threading at all.  I am, however, going to resley this at 36epi and see how that goes.  And, I'm going to spend a bit more time with the silk and with the contrasting colors.  I do think that this is a workable fabric, I just need to pack it more densely.  Best of all, this is a fast change so I can still make progress this month.

Now, if only I thought that dealing with taxes would be this easy.

M's and O-Hecks

I'm finally plowing along on getting my vest fabric going (yes, still behind) but I'm going to say that the gamp fabric counted as a sample, so I'm half way there. Maybe it's a bit of cheating, but given how much I liked the twill once it was finished, I'm sure it'll make it's way into a garment at some point. Even Chris approved of it. "This'd be a nice jacket, I think."

On to the second fabric.

Weaving with finer and finer yarns seems to be my current path and this was a chance to start digging into the 2/26 mill ends I picked up from Webs last year. I've got four colors - navy, light pink, and two tans - a dark and a light. There's definitely enough there to make a sizeable piece of fabric so putting on a sample warp isn't a dead end. Also, if you recall, I'd been reading an old Shuttle Craft that had a series of articles on M's and O's done with a new "Drapery Cotton". I'm inferring that this is equivalent to the 8/2 unmercerized that I use for dishtowels, but that wasn't going to be anywhere near fine enough for what I wanted. Enter the 2/26.

After doing research, both from the article and from poring over other projects, I decided to just sett the fabric for a plain weave as a starting point, and then sett a subsequent piece a little closer. Also, the M's and O's are a four-shaft pattern (though Harriet Tidball has an expanded one on six or more shafts to yield a true tabby) so it'd be uncomplicated to start. Famous last words.

Anyway, on to details:

• Draft Pattern - standard 4-shaft M's and O's, 32 end repeat
• Yarn - 2/26 wool, tans as the warp, will use all four for weft
• Sett - 32 epi, 4 ends per dent in an 8 dent reed
• Warp - 10.5" wide in the reed ('cause I can't count) and 3 yards long
• Beat - 32 ppi for balanced plain weave

I also decided to use Tidball's "false tabby" on the selvedges (harnesses 1 and 4, threaded alternately). I wound the warp, beamed on, threaded, sleyed and wove a lovely header row. Oddly enough, it was plain weave all the way across. And, on the first pattern shed, it hit me. I'd only threaded the "M" blocks (1/2 and 3/4). All the way across. And, while interesting, it'll not give me anything even close to what I was after. So, I untied, pulled it out of the reed and re-threaded half the ends to give me "O" blocks. The good news is that each repeat of 16 ends used four heddles on each shaft - regardless of which block I was threading. I certainly could have been worse.

And hey - it looks great!

I'm alternating the dark tan with the navy for this first section, then I'll start rotating in the light tan and the pink so see which I like the most. So far, the tabby sections are beating to square and I'm already seeing the distortion of the float blocks.

In the above picture, you can see the transition from the dark tan (on the right) to the light tan (on the left). The reed marks look a lot stronger in this picture than they do on the loom and I'm hopeful that they'll wash out when I finish the fabric. Then, once I finish the block and resley for a finer sett, I'll rethread for a twill - just to get a little experience with that threading and this yarn. Plus, that can count as another sample for a future piece. Another reason why I went with the three yard warp. Feels like I should get plenty out of this exercise.

Finally, Lynn, you were asking about Complex Weavers. I had been thinking about joining that guild - again, as a way to continue to have accountability and also to try and build a sample book. I've signed up for the "Beyond Plain Weave Garments" study group, which includes a once or twice per year sample exchange. The goal is fabric for garments (perfect!) and "Beyond Plain Weave" is a very loose definition. It can be fabric structure, yarns, whatever. And, as part of the exchange, I'll get a piece of everyone's fabric along with details on yarns, structure, and any notes they have on how the fabric behaved as part of being sewn. I only get samples when I contribute, and I don't get kicked out if I don't contribute. We'll be doing an exchange in September - plenty of time for me to get a vest (or three!) done. And the samples are small - only 3" x 3", and can even come from waste material that otherwise falls on the cutting room floor. My kind of bunch.

That's my update so far. I'll trot all the goals for the quarter out in a week or so - and start thinking about Spring!

Flap, Flap, Flap Goes the Time

My, time is just zooming by, isn't it?  There are just over three weeks till the end of this quarter, so it's time to start panicking over everything I haven't done yet and daydreaming over everything I want to do in spring.

You no doubt saw the photos in FOAY of my newly furnished weaving room, but let's take another look at them, shall we, since I'm so very pleased with the whole endeavor.

Here's the view from the door into the room.  There are two closets (one whitened out by sunlight) on either side of the single set of shelves on the back wall; both closets are full of fiber stuff, mostly knitting yarn on the left and general miscellany on the right (thank Bob for closets!).

Here's a shot from in front of that left-hand closet, showing just how crammed this room is.  There are two or three feet of space around the loom and the little red cabinet next to the loom, but that isn't a lot.  The weaving hanging on the wall on the left is Guatemalan, I believe; I bought it in town here from a quirky antique/used furniture/fair trade shop.

Now we're looking back toward the door into the room - yes, that's ugly wallpaper in the hallway and yes, that's a THIRD closet to the right of the door.  This closet is above the cellar stairs, however, so it's only from the waist up to the ceiling.  I have more knitting yarn in there, plus needlepoint yarn and maybe even some old tax papers.

Finally, here is the wall opposite the wall with the two windows.  Three new sets of cheapo shelving units here hold wools, silk, and linen in the bins, with the 8/2 cotton left naked to fend off the bugs. I will hang my warping board off those two blue clamps on either side of Sarahw's Masham sheep fair towel.  I used this system in the old loom room and it worked well.  My warping reel is hiding behind the fern in front of the left-hand window, which I didn't take a photo off, come to think of it; I'll put the reel on the work table when I want to use it.

So, this was Goal #4 for the first quarter of the year and I am so happy to be done!  I'm sure that as I use this room, I'll move things around, but for now, it's one of the nicest rooms in the house and I am very motivated to weave and weave and weave!

Speaking of weaving, you can see the red cotton/silk/flax/polyester warp on the loom; weaving it off is Goal #2B.  The weft for the red fabric is the two cones of maroon rayon slub sitting on the red cabinet next to the loom, although I doubt I'll use more than a third of one cone of the maroon. 

That leaves me with the following to finish this quarter: 

• The wedding present runner - I gave in and bought the right reed (15 dents/inch) last Saturday for the warp rep I want to weave.  If I still can't figure it out, I'll weave a runner in monk's belt instead - just Get. It. Done.
• The exploratory warps - I was supposed to do four; I've done two, the honeycomb samples and the Thing That Shall Not Be Named.  I don't know if I'll get even one more warp woven off after the red fabric and the wedding runner, but I'll try.

I have to say that I'm enjoying how productive I've been this winter; this setting of goals and pushing to reach them seems to work for me. 

For next quarter, I'm thinking of concentrating on painted warps. I could finally get around to weaving the warps Sara Lamb taught me to paint last July, and I could gear up for painting some more of my own.  It's entirely possible I may have a little yarn I could use for such a thing!