Helping Hands Act 3 🎭 Megado Finale

I had hoped to have this post up sooner but a combination of out of town company and all the related activity, plus a death in the family sort of sidelined things.  I found having a stack of towels to hand sew the hems quite a comfort actually. Something about a simple task that takes your mind away from things.   I was sorry when the sewing came to en end.

So we'll start with a similar picture of a stack of towels, in the same order, except this time they are washed, hemmed and well pressed..... and photographed. We actually had some much needed rain and cloudy skies in a long season of drought and I had to wait for the sun to return. It's back again, and we're very hot once more.

So working from the top down, here's the front and back of each towel.   Drafts can be found at this post

To repeat: the warp is 8/2 ring spun cotton in natural, sett 24 epi. All coloured wefts are 8/2 cotton by Brassards, and I was stash busting. 

The premise was to have the same 16 shaft point twill threading, and use different tie-up's and treadlings on the Megado's compu-dobby and get a variety of patterns. It's a nice way to try out new drafts with a view to future projects. It's also a fun way to just change up weaving as doing the same thing for 9 to 10 yards can get boring quickly. All drafts can be located at Handweaving.net (with one exception)

I have four more towel projects either just started, or under way, or hanging waiting their turn and all of these warps are shorter for 6 towels. Its good to know your limits or attention span 😉

#79845   Leaves

#34281 Pandora's Boxes

#34777 Stars & Flowers

#34861 Chevroned Diamonds

# ??     Modified from a straight draw draft

#78102 Interlocking Diamonds (or Trellis?)

#56518 modified 

#56518 modified

 

Thanks for hanging in with these 3 part stories for the two versions of the Helping Hands.  My final thought on the gadgets?  They are certainly helpful and I have no regrets buying them. They will be a regular part of my warping process going forward. It's good to try new things and new ways of doing things as it keeps things fresh!

 

A Second Helping : 2 ~ The Performers

 This is part 2 of a "Second Helping" where I'm discussing a towel project using the Helping Hands from Lofty Fibers for the Louet Megado loom.  If you haven't already, maybe read part one first. 

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

So this is a picture of a nice stack of towels. Eight of them and every one is different. That's the beauty and fun part of a computer-dobby loom.   No getting down to change a tie up.    You can play with different drafts. The constant is your threading. (although you could change that too if you wanted to!)  The tie up will be topped at 16 shafts, but the treadling can be any number.

Let's go one by one from the top down and view the actors.  That is all the look you'll get for now as they have to be washed and hemmed and will be shown fully finished in part 3.

The warp is ring spun cotton, 8/2 and sett 24 epi. The wefts are 8/2 cottons as well. The loom is threaded for a 16 shaft point twill. The top towel was in a pattern I think of as 'leaves'. Could be dragon scales.....what ever comes to your mind.  As you can see it uses something like 54 treadles!   You can find this draft ( and most of the rest) at https://www.handweaving.net/ and their corresponding numbers are shown for you.  Handweaving.net is a wonderful resource of over 75,000 + drafts for weavers and any number of shafts. They ask a subscription fee but it's worth every penny!   They are constantly adding new draft collections.... and you can even add your own too.

#79845

Towels two is an old friend I call Pandora's Boxes as the first time I wove it was during the early part of the Covid Pandemic.  It's a satin weave.    

#34281

The third is one I have also woven before, but that time as a scarf.  I call it Stars and Flowers.

#34777

Number four is one I call 'interlocking diamonds' and the light lime green was perhaps not the best colour to show the pattern. Its lovely anyhow.

#78102

Towel five was another favourite from the last time I did a variety of towels like this. I think of it as 'chevroned diamonds'.

#34861

Now we come to towel six and I have no identifying number to give you!   It came from Handweaving.net and was originally threaded as a straight draw as shown below on the right . I played with it to see what it would look like as a point twill.... and 'zig zag trees' came to be.  Its visually striking  and you can invent your own name for this turned twill. 

No # (yet! 😊)

Towels seven and eight:  well, I had woven some old drafts I have woven before and I wanted to try something new.  I found this draft below.  See the point twill right at the start?  Now run your eye down the treadling row and see the pattern created by that one 16 end point twill.

#56518

This modified draft below will help to visualize it better. I've added a total of three point twills and created a separation from the main draft.    So I'm using the tie up as shown, and also treadling as shown. The threading is the existing 16 shaft point twill.  This created the bottom towel number eight.

#56518 -modified 1

There is a lovely little zig zag that looks like flowers and ivy where there is a treadling run of 1 to 16.   This repeated sequence became towel number 7.   (Yes I have reversed the towel  order, but doing it this way makes it easier to show you.)   You can play with any draft like this and that's the beauty of weaving programs. I'm using Fiberworks Silver + . I have sometimes put a warp on and then found I didn't like it, so the program comes to the rescue.

#56518- modified 2

So those are the Performers and now they are waiting for my out of town company to depart on the 31st and them hemming can begin.    Then it will be 'lights and camera' time.....  See you again in August!

Silver Linings ?

 I just got up from the loom where I have made a small, slow start to resuming weaving again. I'm at 30 inches on a scarf on the spring loom.     'Small and slow' as I really do not want to wake up the dreaded lower back and go back to the spasm that had me in its grip and laid up for the past few weeks.  Better to let it get used to weaving and build up some strength.     

In some ways the time off was good and allowed me to deal with other things that have been waiting for time. I sorted my hand spun yarns and ran them through a yardage counter and so have a better idea of what is there.    A time was spent looking over some of my tools and I have parted with some shuttles.  They were lovely, but unused so time to find someone who will appreciate their virtues.

I'm the Guild of Canadian Weavers Test Administrator and this is the time of year when I am the go between for the candidates and examiners.   So its a busy time and it will be ongoing for at least another 3-4 weeks.  Best of luck to all the candidates !

Another benefit of the time off is that you are able to reset your goals and decide what you really want to do with the time at the loom.   It can get to be a bit of a treadmill with continual projects and production and that can get old quickly.   So a lot of thinking happening on this subject.     I've had to readjust physically as I have gotten older and with arthritis and joint issues, but it also makes sense to readjust mentally as well.

This project I'm about to show you is one I had high hopes for and it fell short.   Oh, they still look nice and I have no regrets about weaving them but they are not in perfect order  due to some issues. They are up for sale but as 'seconds'.  

The draft is a 16 shaft point twill that I admired one time and the weaver, Cheryl B. sent me the WIF file some years ago.   I set up the Megado with 10/2 mercerized cotton in a colour called 'shell', a sett  of 28 epi and I planned for three runners. I wanted to do up nice depth hems with ladder hemstitching so they could be displayed either side.

The pattern is quite ornate and busy and so I chose more sedate colours to fit any decor.  It would be great with bright bands of colour and  take on a festive look but that would be for a future project.   This weft was slate 8/2 tencel.

This is the back view as marked by a maker's tag.... more on this in a minute. The finished size on this runner is 16 by 44 inches.

The next runner was also 8/2 tencel weft but this time in taupe.   I quite like this colour and this is the front view....

... and here is the back view.....

Maker tags went on all the back views.

Here you can see both sides together. It would have been nice to be able to pick which side you like better ( and maybe for some person, they still will.)   This one measures 16 by 43 inches finished.

The third runner was much longer at 16 x 71 inches but I wanted a cloth for a larger table or armoire.  This time I used 10/2 mercerized cotton in a colour called 'sponge' ( darn silly name!)   Its a light silvered green and quite pretty.

Front view and as you can see, its long! I laid it out lengthwise on our long table but it looks boring as heck. I did my best with lighting  but.....  here's the back view:

A close up of the hem and ladder stitching  which I enjoy doing. Good thing too as it take a long time !

There appears to be a line warp wise on the right side.... but its an illusion.   No threading error but where three ends were sleyed together right at the point and stayed together !

So what went wrong?  Everything appeared fine when I took them from the loom but when I flipped them over, random rows on the back side had skips.  Sometimes not all the way across, and some times over so many inches. Not sequentially like a treadling error.   That I could blame on the Megado's  compu-dobby but not this time.

The front look just fine but on the reverse there were these random skips.   The sett and my eye sight meant I wasn't the least bit interested in trying to needle weave a fix. That, plus the many rows that needed to be done never even made that an option for me.

So I folded them up and they sat in a 'time out' pile while I thought things through.    Eventually I decided that they are fine if you view them one side only..... and be honest about the flaw.    Not everyone is  obsessed with perfection as some weavers are. (Yes that was hard to say as test administrator!)

So what caused this issue?   I found myself giving the loom side eye and not feeling the love anymore.    Which is silly as its a tool, a great big tool and issues are either mechanical or computer related.    The pattern of skips were too random to be a computer glitch so I started to look at mechanical issues. 

It took some time but I found it.  The shaft cords on the Megado look like a wall of cords as the shafts are all close together but when you look closer you see that the texsolv cord comes down and sits in a little slot at the end of every shaft, on both sides.  A couple of the shafts had cords that sat outside the slot.   Its hard to see unless you are looking for it.... and I know that I will never forget to check ever again!   The cord is needed to fit in the slot to ensure the shaft lifts up and sets back down again smoothly.  Not in the slot means the shaft can float by about 1/4-1/2 inch and so the shuttle skips some threads.    I have always made sure the extra heddles don't bunch up to prevent floating shafts and I arrange them alternating brick style.    During threading you can be  pulling and tugging at the shafts and heddles and I guess they slipped out.  Its a wonder this didn't happen sooner in my 9 years with this loom. 

Always something new to learn and I think I might work up a check list like an aircraft crew works from and tick some  'take off' boxes for future projects.

The runners are hemmed,  pressed and looking fine. They are fully declared as seconds and being sold at a reduced price. Someone will love them just as they are.   

A final note:   I'm hearing that some weavers are more or less tossing their new weaving into the washing machine and dryers,  or sometimes just smoothing damp and wrinkly and letting dry overnight.   This will deep set the wrinkles into your cloth and its just about impossible to remove them.

Even my kitchen towels, that eventually go into the washing machine and dryer, start off by being hand washed and line dried over a rack.  Then, while still slightly damp, they are pressed smooth to set the threads into their final positions.   What a weaver does in the finishing stages is nothing at all like an end user will do going forward.   Its a stage that is as important as the planning and weaving stages and all the other steps in between.    If you are serious about making beautiful cloth, then get comfy with hand washing and your iron.  It makes a world of difference to your presentation !

16/2 cotton & 40/2 linen, washed and pressed!

🍋 Very Nice, but not what I planned ....

At first, managing colour and colour- pairings can be intimidating, then a challenge..... and eventually addicting!  You find yourself thinking "okay, this will look nice together" with some confidence. 

So when I had an idea /concept come to me of shawls with old golds, bronzes, mossy greens and rich purples I ordered a custom painted warp in just these colours.    I'm simply not set up for dyeing my own warps any longer  and a lower back injury means the long standing as you work your way down a long warp just isn't something I can or want to do anymore. 

I placed an order with a wonderful dyer and what arrived came as a surprise.    All the rich tones I asked for.... and .... periwinkle blue.    😳   It looked so out of place and  I thought, well may be it will work.   So I beamed it and since this blue was right at the start, I could try weft colours out right away.    NOPE

There were rather large patches of it, with runs of all the requested colours inbetween.  I did have a conversation with the dyer and there were apologies, financial adjustments made and  now it was up to me to make a mental adjustment  and work out what to do with this 8 yard warp.  (yes, I will and have ordered from them again.... with great results!)

I made table runners.... three of them.  Using this draft: F055 from the Thrilling Twills CD Collection by Ingrid Boesel. (also available on Handweaving.net # 79845)

My first, safe choice weft, was amethyst  8/2 tencel. The blue undertones in the purple and the mossy green sure show at one end.  The pattern is clear and rich looking.

Since I was weaving blind so to speak, I decided to opt for short fringes opposed to full hems as I wanted as much runner as possible and I couldn't know how much 'okay' warp there was on the warp beam.  It meant a lot of hem stitching, and later fringe twisting, which I reckon took longer than the actual weaving!

This runner finally finished at 22" wide by 47" long, with a 2 "fringe.

When I started to get tendrils of periwinkle blue appear at or near the beater, it was time to finish it off, and then advance the warp past the blue section until it was okay to start again.    Yes, this was such a waste of warp but as it stood, it was the best way to move forward and achieve something.

The second runner was a bit shorter:  21" by 36"  I shifted to a 10/2 cotton weft called Lizard Green (Webs Valley Yarn, now discontinued).  Cotton shrinks, tightens up more.   But I love the look of this one....

In this case, the blue transitioned into a softer purple and it looks wonderful as the fringe and start of this runner..... and the opposite end is a rich gold tone.   Its my favourite of the three!

The final runner came in at 21" by 50" and had yet another surprise mid way.   It became a case of embracing yet another dye mistake and calling it just fine.   Otherwise I would only get two runners off this 8 yards.    Adapting on the fly.....again.

Oh, it looks fine.... and very pretty in fact.

In the purple section, there appears to be lighter bits??    Yes they are there.... as undyed warp yarn showing as a very pale purple to white-ish. 

Here's a closer look.... now that its woven. Is it okay?   Yes.... and a few people have told me that it looks lovely and adds a nice variation to the cloth.    

Okay .... it is what it is then.

As weavers we have a deep internal image of what we are hoping to achieve whether its pattern, colours,  or overall presentation.  We know every little thing that went right, and every little  thing that went wrong. Where all the mistakes were made, and what we would do differently next time.   In the mean time, the project, while not as planned or intended, is lovely and a success in it own right.

We can be our own worst critics and every weaver ends up having to manage their expectations.  

Now that's the hard part!   😁  🍋