Weaving as Therapy

 Bruce and I want to thank you all of you who left comments to my previous post about Connor. Each day is a little bit easier but we are now discovering just how much love and life that little dog added to our home and lives. In the mean time, our frog is back (Pacific Tree Frog) and he brought friends. We're finding them everywhere this fall! I also disturbed a toad hiding under foliage by the front door. I'm hoping our rabbit 'Peter' has found better digs for winter as we haven't seen him in some time.  We also have a blue jay who follows us window by window around the house, finds a branch or railing and tells us loudly his opinion on everything! Construction of the deck is all complete now, with just some handrails to finish things up.... and a general clean up will get under way soon ..

So lets get back to weaving!  I was feeling the need for some bright colours and I wanted to play with iridescent effects again. To get that, you must have some key points at play:  balanced plain weave, colours of similar value, finer yarns work better.  My pattern is for 12 shafts and 12 treadles. Next, I chose 10/2 tencel in Persian Red, sett 24 epi, as my warp and Antique Gold as weft for my  first scarf. The colour for the second scarf was undecided at this point. I thought I'd try some sampling and see what I like.

I beamed the 6.5 yard warp onto Lilibet, my Louet Spring. The tencel was particularly shiny and slippery!  I made a decision to lace on over tying as I knew there would be problems with tie slippage otherwise. Lacing seriously reduces loom waste which can be handy on some warps where you are using expensive yarns. I lace it all on and then used painters' tape to secure the left end of the cord down, then I pull out all the loose tension , working from right to left.

Here I am working quickly and I even added a bit of tension on the warp using the braking system as I moved along.

By the end, I had a lot of extra cord!  I  reapplied the tape and did it all over again. When I'm happy with the overall tension, I simply tape the end down or you can secure with a knot. In this case, the tape was the better option.... let me explain...

This warp is only 6.5 inches wide and just under 200 ends; the threading is fancy M's and W's twill progressions, and some how I made 3  threading errors which I found one at a time. I would fix one and then find another. In fact, I even made yet another as I fixed number 3! (so that makes 4 mistakes then). I had no idea what was going on for me to mess up like that ( I'll spare you the list... but I think preoccupied is a good one.  :) Below is a piece where I thought I was free and clear and then spotted that the last little diamond was suspiciously small. The pink thread has the suspects corralled for the next and final repair. I was sure glad to have used tape on the lacings! Bruce heard me muttering rather rude things.... and all I said to him  was "don't ask!"

I have tried various angles and lighting to show the colours. Its a tough one to show you accurately as it looks orange, but its not. There are two blocks, A and B, to weave as one repeat and at the end, do the one last A to balance. The pattern produces circles and diamonds all within squares!

I found this pattern at the wonderful web site Handweaving.net and you can play there for hours! If you have a weaving program then you are free to download WIF files to your program and then convert to what your program uses. I heartily recommend a visit.  It features patterns for any number of shafts and treadles!

Here as the cloth turns over the breast beam, you get a hint of the iridescence! I played with several colours for the second scarf and none appealed to me, and the black is what I finally went with. It has a sombre Victorian elegance especially next to its brassy cousin!

So here you can see the black version that I'm prepping it for fringe twisting. Have you ever found that your warp allowance for fringe is different at both ends? I measured for 12 inches allowances but sometimes one end is shorter, one longer. I fold the scarf in half and pin the ends as shown above and below. See the difference?

I like to even things up but placing ends under a cutting mat, holding down with a ruler and zipping off the excess with the cutter.

A crisp clear edge and both ends of the scarf have equal length for fringes. That way my fringe twister workout becomes the same number for each warp bout. Just seems like a smart thing to do and thought I'd share this step for those of you trying out my fringing board style.

Below both scarves are now pinned out and ready to be worked on. Hard to believe they are from the same warp huh? 

Below in this picture,  I've twisted a bout and pinned it to the line. I release the bout and the excess energy in the twist springs it free. It will now be just a tad longer than the line. I simply count my turns in one directions, combine the two groups and then count as I turn in the opposite direction. If you repeat the same action each time, they should all be more or less the same length. Just some minor variations.

{ I have seen demonstrations of a free and easy style done with one leg crossed over the other and a simple twisting done by fingers and then knot the two and let them twist on themselves. This is great if it works for you, but I have issues with it. First my arthritis won't let me cross my leg over, especially my hip replacement! Second my arthritic fingers would be toast doing all fringes by hand  and finally I want to control the over length, location of the knots and length of the tassel as I like a more even and polished look. All methods are fine if they work for you so try them all out and make your own hybrid! }

The next two shots are to show the iridescence before they even have been wet finished!

I added just some beads to either side of both scarves... just a light touch this time round.  I found the super shine of the red tencel was very pretty on its own with its regular twists and fine fringe. Here are the final  scarf results!  Blogger turned two of my pictures sideways but you can handle that I'm sure.   :)

Click on any to enlarge...

and now the amber scarf...

... and yes, the loom is full again! Weaving is so wonderful for healing broken hearts....

Melinda's Shawl: The Finishing Touches

I had a couple of busy days where I had to give the house some attention; I played house maid, laundress and banker and threw in a grocery run for good measure and now I can get back to (guilt free) work again. I had hung the shawl over the fringe board and now it was time to get busy!

This project is a little larger than the usual narrow scarves I do so out came my large folding table for more a comfortable work space. These light weight tables are a godsend! You can get them in a smaller version too.

With the edge of the work securely held, I can twist and pin, tie the knot and then double check the length, adjust either a smidge up or down and then snug tight. Next! (for a full post on this technique click here)

I slipped my iPod on and listened to music and podcasts and systematically worked my way across. I didn't quite get it all done one afternoon, so the next day I picked up where I left off and before you know it.... It's done... well, this part at any rate!

Out came the bead stash and my beading needles. More podcasts and a nice breeze wafting through from outside... I tried some various arrangements of beads and varying lengths but finally settled on a simple arrangement. I wanted to add a touch of sparkle and glamour, but due to the 24 inch width, I had to be careful not to add too much weight!

Below is a close up of what I'm doing. Click on the picture to make it larger still (or any of them). A detailed post on my beading technique can be found here.

You can see from the size of the normal sewing thread that the needle is *very* fine. I slip it down through the tencel and back up to the edge and then along to the next spot.

In the next picture, you can't see where the thread is at all! After washing and pressing, you simply can't tell

The beading process took me a leisurely day and it ended the time soaking in the laundry tub in warm sudsy water. Good squeeze through to help shift warp and weft threads into their proper places and a couple of rinses. Drop of unscented fabric softener in the final water, then spin out the excess water in the washing machine. Trim off all the tails and then give it a hard press on the ironing board. Hang to dry... not an easy feat when it's 85 inches long plus fringe!

The next morning you will find it has gone from being stiff as when it has just come off the loom, to being soft and buttery to touch. The pattern is still quite raised and prominent due to the water content after it was first pressed. The second pressing smooths the surface and then brings out the shine!

You can see the gleam in the folds above... I had some light concerns about the sett at 28 epi but it turns out to have been perfect! The wet finishing adjusted and shifted things nicely and the pressing set the threads into place.

So, it's ready to take a trip to my sister's mailbox. Now the hard part comes... finding the right packing box and figuring out how to get it there wrinkle free!

I think I'll have to make one for me some day!

Melinda's Shawl: Under Way

I must have a late blooming variety of rhododendrons as most places I have been to in recent weeks, all their shrubs have long finished their flowering cycle. What ever the reason, our shrub is in its full glory next to our front door. A window in the studio also shares a view so I get to enjoy the show. I also keep an eye out for my little Pacific Tree Frog (or his new tadpole).


So where did we leave off last time I wrote about the shawl... ah, yes.. the tie up!

Here all 12 treadles are finally done and Lilibet can come down off her pedestal. Thank you for all the well wishes for my thumb! Its healed up nicely and we're back in top form again. The tie up did take me far longer to do than normal but I was creative with finger positioning!

Here I have woven a fine header of pink 2/16's cotton and then checked for threading errors. None were detected! I even went over it with a pick glass just to be sure. Next is hemstitching to secure the edge. I cut out a four inch section of cotton and then sew. In this case I want a finer fringe so I'm doing small groups of four ends, so later the final fringe will be twisted groups of eight warp threads.

I wove in the border and got started on the snowflakes! I have woven eight shaft snowflakes before but with twelve shaft, you get much more definition! They are also so much larger which is one reason why I considered them for the shawl. There are three large snowflakes over the 24 inches, plus borders.

( click on any images to enlarge)

This picture gives you the overall perspective. The shawl is 24 inches wide at the fell line.

This is a close up of one " X" with a six inch ruler for scale. As you can see with the larger pattern is makes photographing the whole pattern a bit difficult! Its going to look fabulous !

Trying to capture the pattern when its white on white is also a challenge! So please pardon the varying degrees of light with some of these pictures.

This one shows the leading border, the diamond returns and the feet of the first snowflake. This is all I could manage before having to advance the loom. So I have been weaving away steadily and the only trouble I'm having is the right hand floating selvedge keeps fraying off and I must start another. I have looked at everything including sitting closer to that edge, angle through the reed etc and it appears that the twist in the yarn simple unwinds as it hangs off the back and that is transferred to the thread at the weaving and ..poof... it falls off. Needle weaving the ends in later is not a problem but it would be nice if it behaved!

It took me four afternoons of weaving to complete the the first full shawl of 85". I was also trading off with my other loom so not all that time was on this piece. Here it is hanging on the back of my chair while I tie back on again.

Now to start on shawl number two! I'm going to review my stash and see if there is another soft colour that might show nicely, or stick with the white. Maybe change the fibre?

Choice is nice....

I see by my Google 'followers' counter that I'm approaching a landmark number! This is exciting for me as you can imagine. I will be drawing a name for the prize skein of silk pretty darn soon! Who knew you could feel this happy about turning 100? :)

{Oh, as an aside: I seem to have come down with a summer cold.... crap! It comes a a surprize as you can imagine but I'm grateful it was *after* I saw my Dad.}

Melinda's Shawl: Loom Set Up

I got the bright idea of weaving my sister Melinda shawl as a gift.  So my creative engine got revving and I'm going with a pattern that is an extension of one I have done before (so I know what I'm getting... but trying something new), using undyed tencel in white or off white ( she is a bride after all!) A twelve shaft snowflake twill in 2/10 tencel, sett 28 epi, and 26 inches in the reed. That's 708 ends and since I'm making two shawls, the warp is 8 yards. Its treadled 'as drawn in'.

click to enlarge (on this draft or any picture)

So I got busy winding my warp! I divided the 708 ends into 4 groups .....

Then I loaded those onto the Louet for winding on. Their warping system a la Jane Stafford is amazing and quite logical. Eight feet or eight yards, it all goes on the same way and is easy peasy!

I love the symmetry of the threads all aligned. A thread under tension is a thread under control!

Keep those puppies taut and they can't run amok.... (Control issues or what?!)

Here the ends are corralled into the built in metric raddle. It has 5 slots per inch which means you have to do some figuring. In this case six threads per slot to spread it the required 26 inches.

Here's the view from the other side of the loom as I wind on, alternating tugging at the warp and pulling on the brown paper that separates the warp as it winds on. It took me 15 to 20 minutes to wind on the eight yards! Not too shabby.

The threading took me a bit longer as I slowly worked my way across the threading draft, marking my spot with mini post it notes to isolate the portion being worked on.

Once that was done, I have to sly the reed ( 12 dent: sleyed 2,2,3) A bit tricky with white heddles and white thread. Above you can just see that I have pulled each group and flipped over the top in order for drawing through the reed.

Here they are all laying nice and orderly through the reed and working my way across took about an hour and a half.

Then my trusty assistant, Hubby, and I lift the loom up onto my 'loom elevators' and now I can sit and work on the tie up. Sure beats crawling underneath the loom. The Louet Spring is light enough for two people to lift. What you see currently on the treadles is my old tie up for the last silk scarves, plus I attached a tie cord to the loose treadles to keep them from flopping around when the loom is lift up.

I'll be tying up 12 of the 14 and so that means a grand total of 144 tie up cords between the upper and lower lamms. I thought I'd make a fresh start in the morning and went upstairs to start our dinner. While chopping onions to lay over a salmon fillet, I didn't get my thumb out of the way fast enough and gave myself a good cut. See?

I'm the walking wounded now and its amazing what you use your thumb for. It did get me out of dishes that night and I seem to garner extra help when I needed it. It was a bit on the painful side...

Next picture is not for the faint of heart, small children and wimps ....

See? I 'm not kidding... I stuck the piece back on and bandaged it up! It worked one other time some years ago so maybe twice? So next up is my tie up and I'm going in to try it one handed!

This is my tie up sheet. Using my PCW Fiberworks I'm able to print just the tie up on a single sheet and then I use it at the loom. (You can do this with the threading or the treadling too) As I have a countermarche loom I must do a tie up for each and every square on the chart. I'm treating the numbers like X's and tie to the upper lamms (they sink) and the O's are tied to the lower lamms (they rise).

So I isolate the column I'm working on with the long post it note papers and get to work. I took two hours to do five treadles out of my twelve to do but that's due only to my thumb! Normally I'm a lot faster and would have all of them done in an hour. Separating the texsolv hole to put the other end of the cord through was a bit tough! I have a new appreciation for primates who manage without opposable thumbs :)

Next post I'll continue on the other side of the tie up. Hopefully I'll get faster with the practise!