Thinking or overthinking?

First, an update:

Weaving was occurring until I stopped to make hot chocolate and post this. A. quite likes the colours, and I'm becoming, well, not accustomed to them, but I've had time to analyse what is distressing me. There are bits of it I quite like:

The teal/purple variegated across the orange, the purples and orange are good. And there are bits I  intensely dislike, namely that lavender with anything other than the teal/purple variegated. It doesn't make me feel ill (I have a friend, M, who is mildly nauseated by some colour combinations), but looking at it reminds me of the sound of fingernails on a blackboard. Does anyone else have similar reactions to colour, or is it just me and M?

I've been considering the effects of epi/ppi on patterning. If I don't want the warp stripes to dominate, I have to allow more weft thread to show! OK, it's obvious, but playing with the epi allows me to see this more clearly - and understand why this sort of patterning is a challenge for a baby weaver: changes in strength of beat/tension will show more in the finished object than if it were a single colour or more muted. Counting the epi/ppi and checking the squareness of things that should be square is my measurement of this. I'm fairly sure that I won't want to/have to do this once I know more about what I'm doing but at this point I need objective measurements. My ultimate goal is not just to make cloth, but to make good cloth, to have the skill to make the patterning do what I want it to do, and to do this I have to pay attention to what I'm doing so I know when my hands have done what my brain desired. I can 'just weave' for some stretches of it, but the end result isn't what I want: it's too warp-dominant. So I change a factor, weave some more, check, change, weave and so on.

While I think of it, how often do you advance the warp (is that the right term?) I find the selvedges are more even if I advance more frequently.

We've discussed before the way in which some colours are more appropriate to particular places. While the orange/purples are bright and cheerful somewhere the sunlight is bright and white and clear, here it's just... well, see for yourself.

Maybe they will be Summer Towels. When summer comes, such as it is here. This is so not the land of Actual Sun... Or I can try soil dyeing. Or my favourite dye of all, indigo. Lynn, that would be my first choice for cotton. Shades of indigo. Which leads me on to what might be the next project.

Just like the weather here. The bobbin is hand-paint BFL singles; being on the bobbin you can't see the full range of shades. The not-as-tangled-as-it-looks mess is 20/2 silk dyed in an exhausted indigo vat, and is very similar to a colour buried on the bobbin. All the colours are darker and murkier than they appear in that shot (I think Sara said once that dark warps are preferable and that, to her, a pale warp looks as though it's a carpet warp that shouldn't be showing). I need to weigh a measured length of the singles to work out how much I have, but I'd guess something over 400m, Done: I have 406m and I have 800m of the silk. If I use the silk for warp, the weft will make wide stripes. If I use the wool for warp, it will look more uniform from a distance, vertically flashed up close - unless I play with warp lengths to find out if there's an ikat-style repeat. Interesting decision. I do have another bobbin of singles in a totally different colourway, so whatever I do with this, I can do something different with the other. Except that when I checked carefully, the singles are a lot thinner than the silk. I'll need to find a different pairing.
The company from which I bought the 18/2 wool in purples and plums and rust and so forth will be at a local event at the end of the month, so I can go and see all the colours in person and perhaps supplement my stock. I now have a good idea of what I want to make from it, but I will need more fabric. It's seamed up the centre back, and the fronts widen from shoulder+collar width to about my forearm plus collar at the bottom. M. says it needs sleeves, and I think she may be right; I also have to think about length on me.

On the other hand I may, however, indulge my curiosity and make a tiny short warp of handspun cotton singles to find out just how tricky they are so I can work out how to resolve the problems, because weaving handspun cotton is very, very high on my list of things I want to do. Stephenie advises washing and sizing first; I'll post pictures when the time comes. If I wash and size maybe I'll indigo as well. After all, I do want to weave denim :-)

More Towels

With all the horrible weather going on, it seems appropriate that I settle into the studio and do some weaving. I've a commission for a dozen dishtowels that will coordinate with the requestor's kitchen. She invited me over about a month ago to have a look and get me started. Fortunately, she's patient (I said March-end!) and now that taxes and such are behind me, I'm happy to get back to it.

Her kitchen is beautiful. It's done up in a European style; a mixture of what look like Italian, Spanish and French influences. The main color is white - cabinets, walls and shelving are all painted white - with strong accents of cobalt, tomato and a deep yellow. One wall has a set-in shelf that's framed by an arched opening and the back wall of the shelf is done in a yellow/cobalt tile. All the knobs on the cabinets are the rich tomato red and the countertops are a deep olive/blue. There's some unfinished wood for the worktable, but otherwise, that's the deal. Other than saying that her favorite color is green and she'd prefer "no pink", it's all on me.

My plan is to do two sets of six. That means two warps and I'll weave off towels (likely) in pairs. The first warp will be red-focused and the second either deep blue or deep green. I've just finished winding the first warp this morning and I'll have it beamed, threaded, sleyed and tied-on by mid-afternoon. I'll be rewarding myself with a trip down the hill, away from the cold and rain, and I get to do so once the loom is ready.

I played around with colored pencils quite a bit to get the stripes how I wanted them. The colors, of course, are pure Sara - red, gold, purple. I used the yellow to make the purple "pop" and as an edging to the wider bands of red. When designing, I divided the towel into three equal parts and then put the stripes in among them. I needed to do some balancing on the two outside panels so I increased the width on the selvedge, which made the inner band a bit narrower. Since they were butting against a wide stripe of red anyway, I was fine with it.

The threading is dead easy; thread a straight twill until you come to a color change, then reverse it. Reverse again next color change, and so on, and so on, across the warp. I made sure that each band is a multiple of 4 so no figuring of heddles - it all comes out even in the end. I just grab the next in line and off I go. As a hedge, I played with the setup in PixieLoom to make sure that my thought process was a good one. The software said "yep" so now I've leapt off the bridge. Here's a close-up of the direction change at a stripe.

Naturally, I don't have enough of the red yarn to weave off all six. That's actually a blessing in disguise since I can do two (or three) and then weave off the other two in some other color. I think the purple will be spectacular.

And, because I'm so excited about weaving again, I'm going to wind off the rest of the yarn I dyed for my Horoscope shawl that turned out so scratchy. FWIW, I took it along when I went to Palm Springs two weekends ago and we put it in the washing machine. Very little difference in the feel of the fabric so it's time to try something else. I'm going to sett it at 30 this time (the first was at 24) and weave it off with something fine - like that 30/2 (that's actually 60/4 - or, 60/2/2) that I've left over from my other shawl. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

Ugly Towel I

I've been complaining about the ugly towel warp but procrastinating about doing anything with it for a variety of reasons including the fact that it's been cold downstairs (by cold I mean c. 45° in your unscientific F). Today the sun is shining, I'm waiting for client comments on most of my work and an email from Stephenie included a comment that lit a lightbulb above my head (more on that in a moment). So:

Ugly towel. I'm betting someone loves it, but that orange is too crayon-bright for me. I'm weaving a mix of random and not-random stripes in what is my final attempt at an approximation of plain weave with this warp. I'm just going to weave it, no more sampling. Whatever I get, it's cloth. Note that I have not shown you the selvedges, which are frankly appalling; I blame the really badly-wound bobbins. I'll hem the fabric so they won't be seen and it's more important to build a rhythm and I'm actually enjoying that.

Some closer views of the fabric. Looking at what I've woven so far today, it's clear that no matter how tightly I crank the warp (to the point that I wasn't getting a wide shed because the shafts weren't lifting all the way) or deform the weft before beating (pulling it up toward the reed 2–3", changing the shed, then beating), the warp threads are deforming around the weft. The weft is not significantly deforming around the warp.

So on the loom this is not balanced plain weave. But you may be able to see in that last photo that there's white space between the warp threads. Maybe when I wash it, the weft will shorten and that white space will allow it to deform around the warp? Does balanced plain weave look balanced on the loom? I know the answer is 'sample', but I've decided that I don't like this enough to care. I'm concentrating on getting the rhythm and investigating the force of my beat. And counting. There's an awful lot of math in this, even if it is basic; according to my ruler, I've now got an average of 21 epi in the weft, 22epi in the warp. Will try beating harder. Also, will wind bobbins with more care: uneven winding, too loose, makes the weaver sad.

I have a hunch that someone's going to say something like "Come now, it's not that bad!" I grant you it isn't THAT bad, but it's not what it should be and that both frustrates and annoys me.

The lightbulb moment was a comment about dyeing. I know cotton can by dyed (of course it can), but i've never done it; I only have acid dyes. I've been considering an indigo vat (I love indigo), but Stephenie mentioned native American methods, including just using a muddy puddle if the soil has good colour. And I instantly thought of the chalybeate springs rising out of the iron-rich sandstones of the Greensand Ridge, so full of iron that the streamside vegetation and sediments are rust-red. I'm going to weave the rest of this warp, then take some of it and wash it in one of the springs. Maybe half in rusty water, the other half in indigo. If I really don't like the colours, I can regard the fabric as experimental material. I'm good with that.

ps. If one of you really, truly does love those colours, maybe I could bear to let you have an undyed Ugly Towel. Let me know ;-)

Moving Right Along

Having finished That Which Must Not Be Shown (quite successfully, too!), I was so hopped up on weaving, I wanted to started another weaving project right away. So I did!

Once upon a time, long, long ago - yes, get your tea now, it'll be cold by the time I'm done - I went to my first SOAR. This was in the Poconos in 2007? 2008? My workshop that year was Abby's Spinning for a Purpose. After taking us through various exercises in the beginning, Abby set out the last task: Decide on A Purpose and sample for it. I decided I would sample for something woven, and I spun maybe half an ounce of Spunky BFL in the Thunderstorm colorway into a light fingering-weight 2-ply. Then I scrounged up a loom facsimile (if I remember correctly, I wound the warp around a book or something, and wove it off with a threaded needle) and made this sample:

I loved this. It is so smooth and silky, so flexible, yet has substance. I decided I would spin up the rest of the 8 ounces of BFL and weave myself a weft-faced shawl.

Time passes...

I finish the 8 ounces, do some math, and figure out I need more yarn. I get 8 more ounces from Spunky - a slightly different dyelot, not surprisingly, and spun more 2-ply.

Time passes...

Finally, the full pound is done - yay! Here's the proof:

The cones at the top of that photo are Harrisville Shetland; I figured I'd use that for the warp.

So, I wound the warp and dressed the loom. Then I undressed the loom. When I tried using the handspun as weft, I realized it wasn't going to work. I don't even remember why now - this was sometime late last summer, I think - but I think it was because hard-packed weft-faced fabric does not make for a good shawl.

Finally, something Sara Lamb said somewhere (SOAR? Rav? her writings?) FINALLY sunk in: Warp-faced fabric makes good garments.

So, last Saturday I wound a warp of the Thunderstorm BFL. The yarn is about 27-28 wpi, so I sett it at 30 epi, 3 ends per dent in a 10-dent reed, for a warp-faced plainweave shawl. After I got the warp sleyed (I warp front to back), I decided it needed some definition along the border, so I added borders of dark purple Woolen Rabbit Merino/angora/silk, moving the BFL outward to accommodate the Woolen Rabbit handspun. Like so:

I'm weaving this off with the Harrisville Shetland, and I LOVE how it's turning out - look!

That's only about a third of the width (which totals about 22 inches in the reed), but I wanted you to see how beautiful simple plainweave can be with a yarn spun from handpainted fiber. This won't be an incredibly drapy shawl; I think it will be more like one of the Peruvian mantas Abby has shown us - sturdy and warm. The sett seems perfect - the ends are very close, but I'm not having much trouble at all getting a clean shed.

I've woven only about 10 inches of this so far, but I'll post more photos when it's finished.

Samples Part II - Sett and Finishing

(click through here for the full-size pix on Picasa)

All the samples have been woven, zig-zagged, cut (where necessary) and finished. Time to take a look at the results. Here's what I've got:



The two on the left are my unfinished samples, sett at 24 and 30. Both are woven off with the 11/2 (natural) cotton and have both plain weave and bronson sections. Other than a basic reference, I'm pretty done with them.





These next two samples are the plain weave pieces that were sett at 30 and woven off with the 11/2, post-finishing. Of the two, I like the look of the mixed warp. I also like the hand of it. It has better drape and doesn't feel as stiff. However, neither of them have the feel that I want for my light-weight shirt so I'm glad that I spent more time at 24epi.




First off, the plain weave. Definitely closer to a balanced weave than the 30epi samples, but still a bit on the stiff side. I'm sure some of that is the cotton, some is the size of the yarn. It's also boring.




Here are the two mixed-warp samples, both woven off with the 11/2 cotton. The drape of this is better and I like the complexity of the fabric. Amazingly, I really, REALLY like the bronson on here. If you go back to the top-most picture, you can see the effect of the Bronson on the fabric. It distorts the vertical stripes just a tiny bit - almost yielding a honeycomb effect. And, I like the horizontal floats much more than the vertical for the same reason. They're small enough that you can't really see them but definitely enhance the fabric. Really wonderful.




These next two were woven off with the 10/1 silk noil. Can you see the texture on the plain weave? The hand of these two is TOTALLY DIFFERENT. It's soft and drapey and the irregularity of the noil is really wonderful. Take the awesomeness of the mixed-warp above and go one notch further. I just love it. Unless someone talks me into something different, the mixed-warp with noil is the fabric I expect to take to production. We just have to argue about Bronson or not.



The last bit of homework was to weave off whatever was left with something "unexpected". I was casting around for something and glommed on to the remnants of the cone of 14/2 Alpaca/Silk from WEBS. This is really, really good fabric, too. The alpaca/silk has enough texture to give some life to the fabric but doesn't overwhelm. The drape is still really good, but now it's a bit heavier. I think it might work well for a light jacket rather than a shirt - and with the variety of cotton colors I have, I think I may well toss something together as a complement to the shirt. I didn't bother taking a close-in picture of the plain warp, but suffice to say that the alpaca really enhanced the look of the Bronson. You can see it second from the top in the overall piece, right-hand sample.

Boy did I learn a lot from this. The biggest thing I learned is that I don't know squat about fabric and that I need to weave a lot more before I do. It's like discovering a new author that's written 50+ novels. I think I'm set for a while.

Whaddya think?

Samples

As promised yesterday, here are some pictures of the first set of samples. None of these have been washed so bear that in mind.

First up is an overall shot of the fabric. As you can see, the warp is split in half vertically with one side being all 11/2 natural cotton and the other half the mixed-warp of 11/2 cotton in natural, light brown and green, 20/2 cotton in bone and ecru and 10/1 silk noil. Sett is 30epi with each thread being treated the same; no consideration for the difference in diameter between the 11/2 and the 20/2.

There's not much to show in the plain weave all cotton warp that isn't evident in a later picture, but I'm quite intrigued by how the mixed-warp is weaving up. As I said earlier, I threaded this one without regard to order; whatever was closest got put through a heddle and that has resulted in an irregular set of stripes. I wondered about what would happen if two 20/2 threads were next to each other and whether or not I wanted to avoid that - but I was talked out of trying to do anything special to either avoid it or encourage it.

It's really quite pleasing, no? The other thing to keep in mind is that the darker brown won't stay that color. Rather, it'll become a medium to deep green over time with washing. I can encourage that by finishing the fabric in a baking soda boil. I think I'll see how it looks post normal machine washing before I decide whether or not to do that.

Next up is the alternative treadling for Spot Bronson. It's easily visible on the plain cotton side of the fabric. There's no striping in the warp to get in the way. I like the dimensionality it lends but I think the tweaking may come in how closely the spots are placed. More plain weave both in the threading and in the treadling might make for a more refined fabric - but for now, it's just about seeing how things behave.

Again, close-in of the Bronson. From here, you can see the reed marks. They've relaxed just a bit, but there's a lot of pebbling in the fabric and that leads me to re-sleying at 24epi. I'm half way through that task and plan to finish that today so I can complete weaving the sample. Since it's for a top, it needn't be as sturdy and a more balanced weave will be interesting.

And here's a close-in of the Bronson on the mixed warp. The same pebbling occurs since the majority of the warp is the 11/2 or 10/1 but the vertical striping camouflages the spots when viewed at a distance. Regardless, I really, REALLY like the overall color scheme.

I'm planning to put hands on some additional 11/2 (heck, I should call it 10/2 and be done) cotton that will keep these neutral browns. I think they're just beautiful. I also like the bits of shine that ther 20/2 gives as it's mercerized.

So, there you have it. I'll put more pictures up when I've finished up the other sample and washed everything. Who knew sampling could be so exciting?

Workshop Part 1

This past weekend was the first of four or five ongoing workshops that are focused on weaving for garments. The workshop is being led by Jean DeCoster of Elemental Affects, a small dyeing business that deals exclusively with shetland yarn from a ranch in Montana. She worked with Judith to establish the relationship with the ranch and also uses Judith's dyes in order to create an amazing array of colors. She exploits the lovely heathery greys of the wool - one of the things that I love so much about her yarns. Along with her experience as a weaver and dyer, she has a degree in Fashion Design and has been doing both sewn and knitted garment design for quite some time. Her current interest is cloth for garments and how we, as weavers, can spend time thinking about patterns, colors and textures to create unique and expressive textiles.

She's hosting the workshop at her studio, which is outside Palm Springs. It's about a 7-8h drive from where I live, but to put things in perspective, here's where we sat to take meals on Saturday and Sunday:

We sat at the folding table under that huge tree on the left. Those are the mountains that skirt the south end of Joshua Tree National Park - one of the many side-adventures I hope to be able to make as part of the commute back and forth to Jeane's place. The line of trees along the property screened us from, of all things, the tilapia farm! There were egrets perching on the tops all day long and the small corrals each had a horse that Jeane's sister either owns or is boarding. The weather was wonderful and warm; a precurser of the searing heat that's in store for us. That's a point of concern for me but there's air conditioning in the studio so I'm sure all will be well.

Our first day was spent looking at and trying on garments that we liked, didn't like or were intriguing. I brought my kimono as well as another jacket that I loved, Barbara ("dijeannene" on Ravelry) brought a skirt that she likes, and the other two students in the class brought jackets and shirts. We talked about "fit points", construction, drape, and basic shapes and how they interact with our different bodies. Each of us is built differently and it was good fun to try on each other's garments to see how they changed from one to the other. Once that was done, we spent some time talking about what our garment would be and what kind of fabric we wanted to weave. We all decided to make some version of a sleeveless blouse/top - and from there, each of us came up with a fabric that we would sample. Barbara wanted to try and replicate a checked fabric but using different yarns, so we set-to and each did a few wraps to help give her ideas. Look at the variety!

There was a lot of interest in mixed warps - and that's where I've ended up. And, just to be contrary, I'm doing a side-by-side sample that has a homogeneous warp on one side and a seriously mixed warp on the other. My mix includes three neutral colors of 11/2 organic cotton, two off-white colors of 20/2 mercerized cotton and one end of 10/1 silk noil. I held all six yarns together when winding and threaded randomly; whichever was picked up by my threading hook came through the heddle. The sett for the sample is 30epi and I've threaded for the Spot-Bronson that I posted last week. That has the benefit of being able to be woven off in either the lace or plain weave, so I've lots of flexibility in the sample. I put on a 2 1/2 yard warp, so I can do quite a bit of testing. I'm going to weave off 10" in plain weave and 10" in the Bronson using the 11/2 cotton as weft. Then I'll do another 10" in the silk noil, plain weave, to see if I like it. I'll cut that off and finish it, then see about re-sleying either tighter or looser to weave off the balance. We're also under orders to weave off some portion of the fabric with "something unexpected". I'm not sure what that'll be as of yet. I'll jump off that bridge when I get there. Once the loom is set up again, I'll take a picture of the warp so you can see what's going on.

Our next meeting is in a month; so I have that long to finish the weaving. But, I really need the loom cleared off so I've put it to myself to get it done this week. Chris is getting on a plane in a few hours and won't be back until the 14th so I'm free to do whatever I want. :-)

Oh, and did I mention the geriatric goat?