Bird's Eye View

I think you could imagine a huge sigh of relief when I put the scissors across this! Twelve never ending yards of 4/8 cotton for place mats. I got these cut off the day before my brother arrived and so they sat while we visited. All neatly piled up waiting...

The serger made short work of cutting apart and securing edges. The stripy part in both pictures is my 'sample section' for friends.

Here's a closer look at the sampler showing the three treadlings I used. Using the classic bird's eye twill threading of point twill, over 8 shafts: top row is treadled 1 to 8 continuously to produce zig zags. Section 2 is treadled 1 to 8 and back to 1 and produces small diamonds. Section three is treadled 1 to 8 and back to 1, then, 8 to 1 and back to 8 again as a full repeat and this gives you the larger diamonds.

It was a close sett of 18 epi for the 8/4 cotton and here you can see the 10/2 mercerised black weft. There was some sticking of opening the sheds and all weft picks needed a double tap. No doubt the reason why it took so long!

There were some impressive optical illusions created while still on the cloth beam. These appear to be 'ridged' But it's completely flat!

The place mat warp was 12 yards and took far too long to get off the loom.... In my defence, I have been having difficulties with my right ankle so I just plodded along. ( X-rays seem okay and physiotherapy lined up) I don't know why this warp, which seemed like a good idea at the time, just didn't inspire me once on? The bad start of rethreading/ resleying three times was probably a good start down the road to official 'dog on the loom' status. It wasn't going to get the best of me though and I carried on. There were lots of interruptions as life 'happened' plus we've been out and about more.

One more picture of the warp winding onto the cloth beam. This is the large diamonds and the view gives you a look at both sides of the pattern. One being darker, the other lighter. I'm hand hemming them right now in pairs. Final pictures to come when washed and pressed. Two darker, two lighter to make a set of four in each pattern. I already have chosen the larger diamonds for our table and it goes well with our new cream china setting!

Meanwhile, the loom was *covered* in black lint and also black smudges from the dyes in the cottons. {note to self: wash mats separately and use a dye catcher!} I used a dampened Magic Eraser to lift the marks off the wood. Very gently!! I don't want to raise the wood fibres.


Then another bonus feature of having a 20+ tie up assist is this neat trick!

I pulled all cords as tight as they would go and raised all 16 treadles....

Then I'm able to vacuum under the loom to get the lint and dust. I do this after every project comes off the loom and in some cases, if the lint is excessive, I vacuum during as well. You don't want to breathe this stuff, along with dye particles!

Now the loom is clean and ready for the next project "Elena's shawl". Elena is a client who has commissioned me to weave her a shawl and she will be watching the steps here along with the rest of you! Lilibet/ Spring loom still has the runner exchange ongoing and I'll be to that soon.

It's been extremely hot here. History making hot and dry! We're baking, while back east they are drowning in rain. We'd gladly share if it were possible. Lynnette has been keeping me up todate on the fire situation there in the Okanagan as the one last big fire {Terrace Mountain} would have had hubby and me evacuated if we still lived there at Estamont Beach. We watched the fires in 2003 and were on notice to leave our home three times that summer. We are also just as dry here where we live now and so being careful here. We watched them fight the fire of the steep slopes of Mount Maxwell on Salt Spring Island not too long ago, just off the coast from us.

I had a neat visit from my brother last week and we got out and toured a bit. Here's a shot taken at the Crow and Gate Pub near Nanaimo. It's a real slice of England out in the countryside!

Then just as I said good bye to Kent, I developed a toothache and spent the past weekend on pain killers. Monday I was at a dentist bright and early and had an infected wisdom tooth removed. I feel like a mule has kicked me but it can get better now without further intervention.

Hope you are all enjoying your time despite the weather where ever you are!

Back soon....

Maybe Third Time's a Charm?

There's something about a new warp on the loom.......such promise in the orderly theads!

I have been working recently with finer threads, so my new project on Emmatrude means an interesting adjustment on my part. It's an eleven yard warp of 4/8 cotton, sett 18 epi for placemats. We have some new everyday china in a soft cream and I thought new placemats would be nice. This grist of cotton is not something I have used very much of, other than the occasional warp at a workshop. While there are a great array of colours available, it's not what I reach for when planning projects. I lean towards finer threads but placemats need to be buffers between a warm plate and your dining room table (or lap!). The warp used about three and a half 1/2 pound cones so there's a fair amount of 'heft' to the warp when the yarn size is this chubby.

What I had in mind was a twill pattern that produced a star burst. On paper it looked grand! I threaded, sleyed and tied up.... and sat down eagerly to weave.

Oops, some threading errors.

Fixed those.

All set to go again.

Now I found the sleying error, which of course was at the centre of the warp.

Okay, fixed that and finally threw the shuttle.

I wove about 6 to 8 inches and stopped.

I *hated* the pattern.

So.... I replaced the lease sticks and pulled everything back through to hang just behind the heddles and went on a search for a replacement draft.

I was looking for something that would produce a reversible pattern, be pleasing to the eye and be a bit bolder. I searched my samples, went through Handweaving.net, searched the Complex Weaver cd's I have here, many of my books and also played with my design program: Fiberworks-PCW. I settled on a draft called Rosenkransen. An 8 shaft bold twill. I double checked numbers and confirmed now many repeats given the ends I had on the loom, then *slowly* threaded and sleyed, this time using the autodenter. The warp is black and these eyes are dim! No errors and I'm weaving again. I had company at the house and they saw the work in progress. Now this pattern has some little runs to and fro as part of the overall pattern. This non-weaver said as she pointed to a little run " is this a mistake here? " Then suddenly I realized that the pattern looked disjointed with these 'hiccups'.

Okay, rehang the lease sticks ( which had to be a single stick as there was no plain weave in this draft) I just lifted a lease stick under and made sure that all threads stayed in order and then used the second stick to push all threads straight down out of the heddles. To say I was discouraged was an understatement! I had done everything right the first time: planned the project, printed the draft up and checked it visually. The threading errors were all mine despite the fact I'm not a fast threader. I'd rather work sequentially through a draft and create logical groups of threads, double check and move on. Clearly this hadn't worked for me either!

So it was about this time that my two shawls were modeled at the fashion show and that cheered me up. But clearly this warp was a 'keep me humble' project. I even tried asking Lynnette for help! Maybe she had used this yarn before and had some success she would share? Nope, we both like finer threads...

So the reason this wasn't working as well for me was due (I think) to the possibility that patterns that look great worked up in finer yarns don't always look as good in heavier weight yarns. A good thing to note and file away for the future. If I ever use 4/8 cotton again that is.... ah, but I have to as I have a stash of it.

sigh.....

I pulled out Strickler's "A Weavers' Book of Eight Shaft Patterns" and got seriously browsing. Then I saw it. Bird's Eye Twill. It's a classic, it's bold, it's reversible. Why mess with anything else? So I didn't.... and perhaps third time is the charm? I'm on mat number 2 out of 14 planned as I write this, so wish me luck!

Now... for that other naked loom.....

Blogger turned my picture sideways again. The weft is cream orlec and it seems to be weaving up balanced!

See you again soon......