Bookmarks: The Important Little Something

While not every one is an avid book reader, those who are, *love* their books!  They read them on Kindles and other e-book readers and even the old fashioned paper variety!  They (who ever 'they' are)  thought the paper ones would go out of style with the advent of e-readers but sales are even better than ever!

The coming summer is traditionally the reading season.  Kick back on a summer day and read a book! (these people must have maids, gardeners and a terrifically organized life is all I can say)

I have a love affair with books too and we have them scattered through out the house and in various stages of being read.   I had never given much thought to book marks other than you need one over turning down the corners of the pages which is BAD form!

Then last year I participated in the Guild of Canadian Weavers exchange where book marks were being featured and I wove off just enough to fulfill my requirements and a couple to spare. ( There is a copy of my 12 shaft draft there at the older post) It was quite an eye opening project. It made me consider miniatures in general and what type of pattern makes a good miniature or reducing a draft to bare minimums. Fine threads and close setts. What type of yarns would be best to use? I didn't want a limp book mark that flopped about so I chose fine cottons and linens. It was a great project where you had a lot of things to consider!

It took very little time to wind the warp, beam and thread it. A nice  little project and done in a snap. The resulting book marks were little works of art and the spare ones I had became much treasured gifts.  I decided to make some more  and wound this warp some time ago.  Other projects squeezed it out and it hung patiently waiting its turn in the roster.

After all the baby related items were woven off and gifted, it was time for the book marks. So I went from weaving  a wide warp of thirty six  inch wide warp down to a two inch wide one. From twenty four epi to fifty epi! The warp length this time was about four and a half yards and I planned on roughly nineteen or twenty bookmarks. I had increased the sett from forty seven epi at the last time, to fifty epi as my materials were a bit finer.  I used 20/2 black mercerized cotton and 40/2 Belgium natural linen as warp and the cotton also served as the weft (except for one where I tried sewing thread as an experiment... that one is mine!)

I got a nice fat cloth roll that looked as cute as it was satisfying! I was proud of getting the most from the warp as I had laced on and woven the warp right to the nubs! This is the back view behind the twelve shafts.

When the warp was unwound, it was a surprise as to how many I had as I had lost track. I played around with treadling variations and kept on going!  The result was twenty three book marks and one 'novel' sized for a total of twenty four.   

So what did I get? Glad you asked....

A bunch that are woven as threaded!  Dorothy says a gallery owner in the UK says this pattern looks like a 15th century reproduction textile!   Cool...

Then I started playing around with the treadling...

Here I abbreviated the treadling a bit....

This one is my favourite... I focused on one section of the treadling and repeated it...

Then I tried doing doubles of some portions!  I'm having fun now...

This is network treadled which is a twill progression. A lot of to and fro on the treadles and no interruptions!

This pair look more masculine for the men out there....

My husband admired (and got) one of these!  I hope he remembers which book he's left it in!  :)

I would like to mention that if you like any of these, I have placed them for sale on my handwoven sales page (see tab at the top below the picture).  I have been sorting through my studio and as a result I also have set up another page for gently used books and equipment for sale. I swear the stuff breeds and there is only so much room for it all!  I place the refresh date up there when any changes are made, either additional uploads or removals after a sale. The book marks are limited in number and I will keep a running tally of what is available.

From Babies to Birds, to Bookmarks!

So our new little man, Ethan is 4 days old and now settling in at home. We are hoping to go over and visit him and his parents very soon. I have no doubt that they need a few days to themselves.  I'll be sure to get lots of photos then!  In the mean time, here is a precious picture taken the night he was born with a mobile phone. I have this one printed out and hanging in my studio.

Lots of fresh new starts... it is spring after all!  We seem to have a pair of last years hatchlings back trying to work out how to build a nest. We have an open beam roof above our front door and I guess it looks like a condo to them and they can't decide which one to settle into!   I say 'they' as I haven't actually seen which species of bird is doing this! They don't actually get much of a nest made and then move onto the next spot.

Then three times a day, we sweep this:

There is a huge pile of twigs and grass off to one side from several days worth while they run to the 'store' for more!

Okay, while we are outside: we are having revisit the front garden bed where they dug through to install the water to the house in our new well escapades last fall.  There is a green junction box that we can't bury and it looks stupid sitting there in the middle of a flower bed. So we have a large pot to hand and we bought a new miniature Japanese maple. Just need to get the bag of soil tomorrow. Its a start. I'm going to hang baskets everywhere this year and just waiting on better weather and bigger baskets to show up!

Okay, lets shift to fibre / weaving stuff!

The big loom sits and waits for all the undressing and spa treatment. I thought I had a full bottle of my oil and apparently not.  In the mean time my box load of texsolv cord from Woolhouse Tools has arrived in the mail. All 288 of them!  This will not be a fast job as I'll tackle it in stages. I will be wearing knee pads when the cords go on as you spend several days down on the floor.  *sigh*

Another start is the finishing of the third shawl  and I waded through one side of fringing and just set up today to work on the second side. Beading will also follow... so a bit more time is required before its ready for the big reveal.

I've been listening to an audio book while weaving some bookmarks.  Remember them from last year? I'm making more as the last batch was for an exchange. They are quite narrow and quite fine with 20/2 cotton and 40/2 natural beige Belgium linen. Here's one with 20/2 black cotton weft, woven as threaded:

I planned for 19-20 of them and have 9 or 10 done. I lost count.  Today I got a bright idea and pulled my pirn off the Schacht EFS and plunked on a spool of quilters mercerized cotton sewing thread on the pirn shaft  and as of late this afternoon, this is what it looked like:

I'm just trying the one with the thread and back to the 20/2 cotton....  {That's the endangered Canadian penny which is being eliminated soon. Its costs almost two cents to make it!}

So lots of starts and much to do, but no rush.... when the sun comes out, I've been slipping the chair and spinning wheel outside on the deck and take a break there. I'm going to smell the flowers more this year.

Between Two Pages

I have been participating in the Guild of Canadian Weavers annual weaving exchange now for some years. They are quite addicting and certainly low pressure. Hostess Lynnette gives the assignment in the early spring and then have until October 1st. to turn them in, with minor postage costs. So far we have done: tea towels, card inserts, guest towels, runners and here, scarves and this year the theme is book marks. Design, weave and send in four and get four back. That's it.

I've never woven anything this small before! I dug out all my books on small drafts and weaving miniatures. Not satisfied there, I moved onto looking through my sample binders at actual woven samples for inspiration. Now I love fancy twills. Their simple threading and intricate treadling runs can produce intricate patterns that look impossibly complex. I found my friend Gudrun's draft and set to finding the right materials. I have a nice selection of 20/2 cottons but I spied a small cone of a fine  gold linen that had been absorbed into my stash from somewhere. No size is recorded and its a bit larger than 20/2. I do plan to use the McMorran balance to determine its yardage and size before I turn my project in. { Edit: I snipped away at the thread on the McMorran balance and came away with 39" which you multiply by 100 for 3900 yards per pound. Not certain which size this corresponds to but....   Anyone have an idea? Please leave a comment. }

So here's the draft again. My warp is 3 yards long, sett is 47 epi and is 2 inches in the reed. Edge threads are black 20/2 cotton and centre warp is my fine mystery linen. The linen will give a nice firm quality to the book marks.

It was wound, beamed and set into the raddle all in under an hour! What a treat!

Everything is quite compact and dense!

This is a 20 dent reed and it's sleyed 2,2,3. So all this was done in quick time.... until we get to the tie up!
I have a cranky lower back and I need a 12 treadle / 12 shaft tie up. The Louet Spring is a light loom and we 'cheat' by lifting her up onto crates:

That pile of ties is only half... the other pile is over to the left. I took a few days to get it done doing 3-4 treadles a day. One reason why I'm planning multiple projects from a tie up!

Calli held the carpet down and kept me company. There is a perfect circle of toys around the loom!

Finally I laced on to reduce loom waste and treadled the network treadling and I really like it! So tiny and compact. The pattern below is only half the bookmark and I wove another repeat, then hemstitched.

Then I wove some using the threading as my treadling (or'as drawn in' or 'tromp as writ') and I really liked this version too. During the second half of this warp, I had a linen warp thread part company. Most likely due to tension. I had a heck of a job trying to find the various ends, the heddle involved and fishing in a repair thread. It was a very tight situation and eventually it called for help from hubby and his head lamp 'cyclops' to brighten up 47 heddles crammed into one inch! We finally found it and got it squared away.

It was all woven and done in no time! I took the warp off and gently soaked in in warm sudsy water, primarily to tighten up the pattern. I left them all linked and plan to cut apart later. Linen doesn't like having its cut warp ends washed and they can get ratty.

Next, I used a rotary cutter and cutting mat for a nice clean edge.

Here's a clean edge.  I went on to cutting it shorter by half again as the fringe looked out of proportion.

So here's the final show and tell and they are ready to go on their way later this fall!  They were fun to weave up and it was a quick project. I also learned about miniature weaving and I would like to explore this in more depth at some point.

Woven network style:

Then woven as threaded, or as drawn in.... and also know as "tromp as writ" from very old drafts.

Now I have a habit of resting my shuttle on the project underway and I forgot how narrow my warp was and somehow I nudged the shuttle and it lurched sideways and it fell point first onto the top of my left foot. It HURT and it developed a large goose egg lump right away and my first  thought was "uh oh, that's gonna bruise"
That was an under statement!

First one shows the swelling and the second the lovely evolving colours!

The whole thing over the last week has turned shades of green and purple and its crept right down into my toes. I can walk okay (for the most part) but there is still a sizeable lump where it impacted and its tender to touch. I have woven with either socks in winter and bare feet in summer and been doing this since 1995 with no mishaps. I know that some weave with shoes on or slipper style shoes but I have portions of my feet that are numb (due to my back injury) so I need to really be able to feel the skinny treadles. I think I will carry on in my usual manner but be extra careful about where I place the shuttle from now on!

I have two completely naked looms! Time to get some threads moving!