Permission to Play

I'm back again... and fairly quick about it  too.  It's Easter weekend and I hope all of you who celebrate, have a nice time with family and friends.  🐣🐰

So do you recall this recent posted project?  It featured a painted warp by Loominaria, who are now sadly closed.  There was 25 ends of this painted warp  left over.    A smidgen.  Too little to do anything with, and too much to throw away.....    That started a nugget of thinking. A challenge even.  How to use that 25 ends to its best advantage.

So one end was reserved for any mishaps and the remaining 24 represented one inch in a warp.   How to maximize that one inch?   It's a series of plums, blues, bronze- brown and gold tones. Even some mossy green tones.   I decided to go with two shades of blue.   Greyed Blue and Azure.   

After mulling and playing around with various drafts, I fell back to my favourite.  I have it in 16 shafts and 8.... so I reworked it  to a 12 shaft (of draft #78116) to maximize the 24 ends.   With some gradient on either side as the blues shift from one side to the other.   Will it work?   I have no idea until we try....   The colours in the draft are NOT a good representation of the actual used.....

Here's the 8 shaft version #75578 (as a bonus 😊 )

Here it is being beamed on using the Helping Hands from Lofty Fiber, and below, I'm taking another try at using the paper holder from Gingerlocks Handwovens. This time with non skid matting underneath so they don't move and create torque in the paper.   It worked!

Closer look at the paper hangers below.

Gingerlocks Handwovens had slipped two of these 3D printed 'balls' in my order and you slip them on the (non removable) posts on the Megado.  They went from a hazard to a nifty hand up. 

Another new toy from Lofty Fibers is the sley assist and it's designed for Louet looms: Spring, David and Megado.  They also have a beater brace for the Spring and David but not yet for the Megado so you'll see I have used soft cords to tie off the beater to upright.   The assist is secured by a 'screw' that sits on the reed slot. The darker support shifts on a slot to accommodate any height reed.  You can have it angled (as shown) or lay it flat.   (I'm sure they are working on similar device for other loom brands)

Then you reach through and sley the ends through the reed.  I think next time I will tie off the beater so it leans backwards a bit and reduce the reach.

All done.... and time to shift it to an upright position and place the top of the beater back on. 

Here the reed is upright and is held in place by slots in the end of the sley assist brackets.  You loosen the light grey screw to shift it along in the reed track and snug it in tight to hold the reed in place.

Reed in the slot on the left..... and below, on the right. 

Once the top is back on and secured, the brackets can be loosened and removed.   I liked the process and will use it again for sure. I was reaching up and over the top of the beater to  sley the reed and this old body complained every time. 

So sometimes you just have to play with new toys, new ideas and  take a leap of faith.....  Next time, we'll see if my idea of how to save and use the painted warp ends plays out.....

🌷 🐣 🌷

Get me to the Church on Time!

It was back in mid February when I was beaming the Lusekofte warp that I got a message from Jeanne, a weaver and fellow "Warped Weaver"  group member from Ravelry.  She wanted to know if I would weave a shawl for her?   She had no less than three weddings to attend, starting in May.

Initially it was about 60/2 silk in a soft lavender colour..... but I thought it was too pale for the strong colours in her dress that she had purchased.  I also have only woven with 60/2 silk once before and it had not gone well. The warp and weft threads 'fused' with each other and unweaving was a nightmare.  I suggested something more neutral that could be worn with any dress she chooses for the weddings and not tied to any one outfit.  So we settled on 10/2 undyed tencel as warp (sett of 28 epi) and I just happened to have 200 grams of this yummy 30/2 silk. Its a lovely creamy white which is rare nowadays as most coming from India is quite yellow.  It had been a very generous gift from a friend some years ago. Where she got it from, I have no idea!

So, while I wound the 702 ends of tencel for the warp, I also wound the silk skeins into cakes. Then the thought crossed my mind: "would it be enough?"

The warp winding was endlessly going on while I was weaving the lusekofte shawls.

I discovered that I only had one cone of 10/2 undyed tencel and so was hoping it would be enough!  Meanwhile I  quickly ordered some more.... 

I could have sworn I had two pounds last time I looked.

Each bundle represents 100 ends, all 7.5 yards long, with one last bout still being wound on the mill.   I'm going to make two shawls, with long fine fringes and, of course some samples.

Yes, that's the tapestry loom and yes, its still empty. Well it does hold my pre-wound warps and such quite nicely.  It was bought just a couple of weeks ahead of my knee operation and then when I was feeling better we decided to sell the house and move. That took a big chunk out of last year!  Then when we finally got unpacked and settled I found my Etsy shop stock situation was low, so priorities has been on floor loom weaving for now.   Its day will come!

There is something so mesmerizing about a warp ready to be beamed. The orderliness of the threads....

I must say that I love the Louet method of beaming warps.  I know that every type of  loom has its particular steps and there's a routine for each. These  Louet looms make it an simple job to do. The only 'rub' can be when the threads themselves misbehave such as sticky yarns but for most smooth yarns, its straightforward.

I have it all set up to beam once I get Bruce's assistance.  He adds the paper and turns the back beam while I tension the warp and keep order at the front.   As you can see I simply coil the warps into rounds side by side on a plastic  lid from a bin (to keep it from tangling with treadles).  Mind you I don't have cats, kids or other people wandering through my space.   If you were my student, I would tell you to chain the warp!  😊

I timed the beaming and it took fifteen minutes for the two of us to wind on 7.5 yards.  The tencel just glides through and all went smoothly.

Threading is a few straight runs on either edge for a border and in between its all a twelve shaft point twill. All the pattern is in the tie up!   I have used this draft twice before but this time I took out the network twill section. My client Jeanne preferred the small over all pattern and I must say she was quite right.... but I'm getting ahead of myself now.

One pattern repeat  at a time and eventually you get to the end, no matter how many ends!

There is a line over to the left but its not an error. I checked threading and sleying and its fine. Its where three ends through the reed coincide with a portion of the pattern and it concentrates the ends together.  Its distracting as heck!

The spring loom tucked into the alcove. The weaving went fine and soon I was cutting the shawl off and then re-tying on to get the second shawl ready to weave off. 

The fringe twisting took a fair amount of time as I wanted a fine fringe (four ends plied to four ends.... over 702 plus two floating selvedges, times 2 !)   I used my usual method of the fringing board

It was late when I finally finished and called it a day.   I use a double fringe twister with four clips but it still takes time.  I count the turns in either direction.

The shawl looked lovely but it needed a little something 'extra', so I dug through my bead collection and came up with two types of creamy white seed beads and tiny grain of rice sized fresh water pearls.  I have one uber fine beading needle and I use a good quality cotton thread (used by quilters).   I must confess that I got out my large size pick lens and used it to thread the eye.  I need new lens in my progressives apparently!   I added grouping between the fringe bouts and so they are visible no matter which way the shawl is facing.  They add a little bit of sparkle and some people may not even notice they are there when its being worn..... but the wearer knows and it adds to the pleasure.

There is a colour difference in the containers, but it disappears on the shawl!  I gently hand washed the shawl and then draped over a towel on a clothes rack to dry over night.  I carefully pressed both sides firmly to set the threads and pattern and trimmed up the tassels with a rotary cutter.   Time for the glamour shots!  The sun popped out briefly one day for roughly twenty minutes but I was ready!

Taken in our early spring back gardens....and its almost like it was too bright.   I'm a firm user of 'auto' settings on the camera and so lack the ability to compensate for the conditions.  I do okay with my pictures but I'm not technically minded with it at all.

Jeanne is quite tall at 5' 9"  so the shawl was woven to 86" (I normally weave to 80") and the fringe measure seven inches.

As you can see the bead colour all works out in the end and blends in. Just poking their little heads out to catch the light.   Its hard to capture the pattern with tone on tone weaving, especially with white. Its one reason you very seldom see all white projects in the Handwoven magazine.  They like colour!

Here's a peek.....and it actually doesn't resemble the true pattern very much at all!

I took the shawl back inside the studio and snapped a few more and they actually turned out better in many regards.   Go figure!

Here you can see some of the pattern better!

The shawl was carefully wrapped and boxed up and sent on its journey to Colorado. I think I held my breath the whole time it traveled until I got the message it had arrived safely.  Jeanne absolutely loves it and says it will see a lot of use!   I'm happy...... but of course if she didn't like it, it would have to come home and be mine.  There's one refund I'd happily make  😀  

Oh, and there was just under half a bobbin left of silk.... in case you were wondering!

Finally, here's a picture of our spring 2017 back garden...... taken late April. We've been having a cold wet spring and a bit behind. 

....it wasn't too long ago it looked like this:

December 10th, 2016

and mid October 2016 just after we moved in.

... and finally from last July when we viewed the house on the internet and in person! Looking forward to see it soon!

Running into the Learning Curve

There's the loom line up.  A beautiful day with patio doors and windows open for the warm breeze, good tunes on the player and the room freshly tidied.    There is a possible offer on the Woolhouse down at the far end and I won't know for sure until July.  (The loom is available again ) The Louet Spring in the middle has a silk warp under way.   Yes, that is a live weaving program on the screen there next to the Megado and weaving is once more under way!

It was quite a process to get it to this point. First of all you avoid dealing with it for months, then you make a feeble attempt just before you have surgery and Christmas and it was obviously doomed to fail. 

Then you have two friends who gently, very gently embarrass you into looking at it again.   :)

I worked on getting the sixteenth shaft aligned properly.  Then next up was making my mind up as to which version of Fiberworks I was going to use.    PC or Mac.   Having seen both versions of the program, I decided Mac all the way, in both design and weaving operation.   

I think part of my previous 'rut' was that I designed in the Mac program and wove (or tried to) in the PC on a tiny notebook and I was trying to learn and run two programs and two operating systems.    Double the Fun!  (Um, not really.)

This Megado is one of the earlier models from 2002 and so it uses a serial port to USB cable between the interface and the computer.  That requires loading a driver onto your computer to run it.  Simple enough to do right?    Not really...   My Mac Air has no disc drive internally and so I must add one externally. But after buying an Apple external hard drive,  it would not accept the small mini cd, only the normal sized cd's.    So then  you plan to take it to the local technology store and get them to load it onto the computer.   Simple right?   not really...

The chain of stores ALL closed their doors as they under go a reorganization and will remerge as another chain of technology stores.      "We thank our customers for their patience".

Finally they got the stores re-open, and my computer and mini disc all together at the computer 'geek'  desk and it took one really nice tech guy five (5)  minutes and  no charge.   Geesh....

Next up in this little drama is the various diagnostic testing to see if everyone is happy and shaking hands with each other!    Found the right comm port right away!   Since I only have two USB ports I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right.     Yeah me!

Then I ran the solenoid test. The solenoids are like little 'wack-a-moles' that fire when the computer tells them to, from the pattern it has in the draft, pic by pic. They jump out and hit the back of what looks like piano pegs and then a knife like blade moves up and down as you treadle and collects the screw heads on the other side of the pegs that are sticking out proud and then releases the screws  when the blade moves past another sensor.

Well its supposed to....  the treadling sensor diagnostic test failed.  

So it wasn't the computer at fault,  and all parts of the loom were functioning properly except for the blade and the magnet.   The magnet is what tells sensors to release the 'pegs' at the right time.   Its small, very strong and apparently in the wrong place. 

So my next test is to double check the sensors to see if the fault lies with them. So off comes the interface and I run the magnet by them and ....presto.... they work!  Huge sigh of relief!   They would be very expensive to repair or replace and involve a road trip to be fixed to eastern Canada.    If I can't get a holiday there, they sure aren't if I can avoid it!  :)

So? place the magnet on top of the blade or underneath?   A simple question right?  no....      I had to read through the older manual that came with my loom. A second newer manual for later models, surf You Tube in vain for Megado how- to videos, join a multi shaft  comps / dobby group on Facebook and spend time browsing on the internet looking for pictures.   

Finally I found a how to guide in Dutch for the older model interface  on the Louet European web site and found that the magnet goes on the inside of the blade.   They show a white magnet in this picture, but mine is black on a black bar.

You can see the piano pegs that the solenoids hit and below you can see the interface (like mine) placed back on the side of the loom. The magnet is tucked behind the cutaway.

photo credit: Louet NE

Except on my loom the blade and magnet won't freely slide by  the sensors and it jams up.  The fact it would not slide freely is what caused my confusion as to which side it belonged.

So we undo two small dark screws at the bottom of the interface out by one small turn and put it back on and the bottom edge is now out a smidgen  and the blade / magnet combo clears!    

But it still didn't work.

We had a break and a discussion about the various possibilities.  Bruce had mentioned something about positive and negative polarities and so I just reached in and flipped the magnet over.   

....* and it worked!* 

We cautiously smiled to our success as we were worried about what was next to go wrong. Earlier that day I had dropped my iPad onto a tile floor corner point down and it was not turning back on.  It was a "black screen of death" for hours until I gave up on it.  Of course later the same day when I took it in to be looked at by a techie, it worked perfectly like nothing was ever wrong. In fact if it wasn't for the slight ding at the corner, you would never know. 

So was it worth going to all the this trouble and steep learning curve?   Yes.... the Mac program and its commands are much simpler than the PC version, well at least to me me that is.  I was able to set the ranges for what portion of the draft I want to weave right away and  now I have to learn the finer points of un-weave  vs. reverse and few other points.   

I have a narrow 2 inch warp on the loom for 12 shaft twill book marks and the neat thing is I can start and stop where I need to as I learn and makes mistakes.  If I do get a full one all woven up, then its a bonus!    I'm already thinking of what to weave next on the Megado and I think it might well be more towels as they are a great fresh start experience until you get all the nuances of the loom and the way it feels as you operate it.  

On a personal note:

My Dad is still with us and is enjoying a new, more modern, brighter hospice, but the fact remains that its a hospice...

The grand kids are growing:

Ethan's first haircut

Thomas the Tank bicycle for  Ethan's 3rd birthday.

...and little Madison is now 2 1/2 months old and very much all girl. 

I hope your 'April showers' brought you 'May's flowers'.