The continuing story of yet more Changes

Its been a strange summer. Long, very hot, and very dry.   We had no rain for 120 days and then this past week or so we have steady downpours, and its been downright cold.   Fall seems to have arrived overnight.

We're happy to have the forest fire risk diminish and more water in the creeks again!

I have been puttering around and not really pushing myself too hard. My knee is very sore and so some days it simply hurts to stand, let alone weave.  That has given me time to look around my studio and decide what direction I'm going to lean.  If you read my previous post, then you know that I have been through lots of changes before.

I have wound two scarf warps in tencel for the Louet Spring loom.   I plan to warp up this one (below) ahead of my coming surgery so its there on the loom to catch my eye and encourage me along with my physiotherapy.

I recently learned to do colour gradations using the Mac version of Fiberworks and I must say they sure do transition nicely. (PC users will get this feature in the next program upgrade)  I've used black, eggplant and red purple here.   It may be some time before I'm able to treadle this loom so the colours are my carrot!

The loom that will be easier to use first, when the time is right, will be the Megado and I have wound a twelve yard warp of simple natural 8/2 cotton and it will be ready to weave towel yardage. It has just the one treadle and I can use my good leg. The computer will do the bulk of the work.  I've got some attractive sixteen shaft drafts cued up and it will be fun to watch the patterns grow.  I'll use coloured cottons and cottolin's as weft.  I'll be beaming that warp later on today.

The fly shuttle arrived from Louet in Holland and as usual it was extremely well boxed and presented.  You basically take it out and bolt it on. Very little to do other than set the length of the pull cord.   I had to take the beater bump blocks off and replace them with new larger ones so the right hand shuttle box doesn't clash with the  computer interface.   That was four screws. 

Here they are installed on the loom. There's no reed in place or front breast beam as I'm preparing to beam a warp.  We turned the loom slightly so the boxes don't face any windows! I don't want any damage done to a twenty five hundred dollar patio door! I also placed red and green ribbons on the ends to catch the eye as you move in the room as my "port and starboard markers".

There's a problem though. The right hand flyshuttle box slides beautifully.... the left side, not so much.  Its stiff and hard to move. I've been emailing to and fro with Louet on this issue.  If a solution isn't forth coming soon, then I will take them off and use it by hand.  I'm sure it will be resolved eventually.  Edit: things seem to have been resolved nicely.....   Susan August 4th 2015.

The Louet  end delivery fly shuttle is huge!  Its fifteen inches long and heavy, with rollers underneath. It came with wooden pirns.  I was additionally motivated to move the loom when I felt that bruiser and realized all the tips I had received about not pointing the fly boxes at glass were good ones! I guess keeping your feet out of the way too would be a another. 

I have some (lighter)  AVL shuttles that I'll also try out in time as well.  I think there will be a learning curve and a routine to practise but hopefully it will speed things up.  It will be as fast as my one good leg can go!    So fun and games to come there....

Another change is that I decided to sell the Louet Jane table loom and stand as it was not being used.  Its been to one workshop and had one other warp on it. That's it since 2008.  I find table looms too slow and so tend to use the floor looms instead.   It sold right away and it was delivered to its new home today.

So with the proceeds of this sale I have placed a yarn order with Brassards to fill out my 8/2 cotton selections, some more 9/2 linen and cotton seine cord and wools.    Why seine cord and wools?  Because with some of the table loom proceeds, I bought this:

A gently used (only two owners) Leclerc 45" Tissart loom (circa 1967). It was picked up today (in pieces of course). Here's one all set up:

I'm taking down my warping board centre which isn't being used any longer since I bought the warping mill. It would be a very long time before I could stand to use one again anyhow. Its been put away and there is a nice sized space next to wall where the loom will go.  The new more open look to the studio will still be there and I can work seated at learning samplers on the loom.  I'll try to get a warp on her soon, but I have to see what state she's in and if she needs new bits and pieces first. Leclerc doesn't make them any longer but they still have parts.   Her name will be Gudrun, after my friend.

She had one too and so has inspired me to get busy following my heart as I always wanted to give tapestry a try.  If its not for me, then she can be sold and moved on.  I won't lose anything, including money, for the effort!  I will start with the basics and follow an online workshop and also review my notes I have from a tapestry class that I took with Gudrun.  I'll be a newbie again!

Gudrun's Tissart

So a lot of changes, some small, some big and some new directions.   The driving force behind much of this is coming to terms with the reality of my joint issues. I *will* be able to  floor loom weave again  but I'm looking for easier options for my health.  They can replace the joints but the Arthritis Lupus will never go away.  So, time to adapt, make changes... and move on. 

I hope to get another post done  before my surgery on September 28th.  Any posts after that won't be weaving related but I'm sure you'll understand.    I will admit to being very nervous and I hear its more painful than a hip .... and that was bad enough!  So getting things in order in the studio will be my distraction during the coming days.  Night time though,  insomnia has my Mind in full play!  I reason with myself that it will result in a better, more mobile me in time, but the Mind is having none of that argument! 

Switch to Plan B

So if it hurts to sit on my loom benches and weave on my floor looms right now, then how about a comfy supportive chair and my Louet Jane table loom on its stand?

So I dug through my stash and found some silk/ wool blend that I hand dyed back in 2000 for a calendar project. I have been pushing the left over yarns around ever since and thinking to myself "got to do something with that' ever since. Its time has come!  I found a pin wheel draft I liked but knew it wasn't the one I had used in 2000... but close enough right?  The yarn is 60/4 in grist, 60% silk and 40% wool and is 6400 yard per pound and so quite fine. My old weaving notes say my sett was 32 epi. I used a 12 dent reed sleyed 2,3,3. Okay... and I was off to wind my warp. I decided that I would do only one scarf this time as I would be bored to sobs by the end of it and two would be a bit much! That's a lot of lever flipping. So  seven inches wide equals 232 ends all 3 yards long, and a bit later it looked like this:

The Jane is neat to wind a warp onto! If you are a neat freak, then this picture is all kinds of perfection. All that's missing in this shot is the lacings between the metal rod and the wood rod which happened right after I took the picture. ( In fact the Louet looms are all designed with ease in warping).
The front of the loom looks like this:

The levers are all down  (which raise the shafts) and this keeps them out of the way of the warp through the raddle, then there is a simple wrap around the breast beam to provide some tension. So far, so good!
Winding on started and went smoothly. I did a round of slim warping sticks around the lumps and bumps, then switched to heavy brown paper.

See? It went on so smoothly! Next, I flipped the beater up and over to the back, then lowered the lease stick ties so they held the lease sticks down lower for threading. In my comfy chair and did the straight draw threading of 1 through 8. Then the sleying of 2,3,3 in my 12 dent reed.  Tie onto the front and start weaving according to my substitute draft.  It looks a bit too open for my liking but my notes clearly states 32 epi and I recall the fabric was lovely.  Actually I'm not feeling the love for this pinwheel ...

I felt I needed to double check a few things before going any further. I rummaged around for half an hour in my studio and finally found the old calendar! I wanted to see and feel the cloth and know if the 32 epi is better after wet finishing. Even better was that the old draft and tie up was printed too!!  I had forgotten about that. So I plan to 'un-weave' this section and use the old tie up. You'll see why in a minute.....

The Ponderosa Spinners, Weavers and Fibre Artists (Kelowna, BC) were casting about for a fund raiser and  guild member Christine Kirtz came up with the idea of doing a calendar. At first it didn't get a whole lot of support, but that didn't deter Chris one bit. She put the bit between her Irish teeth and went full steam ahead. She did all the pricing and planning and while she couldn't find twelve weavers, she did find six. So one sample for every two months.
More people were coming on board and provided yarns, inspiration or  help dyeing yarns. Soon there was a buzz going and I started to wonder if the planned 100 calendars would be enough? I believe they settled on 200 copies.  I agreed to do a sample and my yarns were the one purchase they did make that I can recall and the silk wool blend was discounted by Treenway. I dyed the yarns with acid dyes to produce the violet and what I call charcoal gray. It was supposed to be black but didn't go as planned. { I had such difficulty dyeing blacks that I still buy professionally dyed black silks...  and yes, I followed the instructions!}

To see these or any photos better, click to embiggin!

January/ February was shadow weave in orlec by Lyndsay and June.

March April was a medley of alpaca woven Log Cabin style by Ellie. I believe the alpaca was hand spun so extra kudos to Ellie on this one!

May June was Christine's and featured a hound's tooth check in wools. I have done this draft myself in different colours to great success.

July and August was woven by Julia in the neat coloured cottons from Fox Fiber. They change colour and usually deepen in shade as they are washed.

And here's mine! September October in the pinwheel pattern I really prefer! The wheels are crisper and clearer... see...

There's nothing wrong with this sett and I love the swirly stars. Yup, I'm unweaving and switching to this one.

The last sample for November December was rose path/ point twill that resembles  log cabin, but not really.
If the name is familiar, Linda wrote the Magic of Linen and the recent rewrite " Linen: From Flax Seed to Woven Cloth". Yes the sample was woven in linens. (what else could it be?  :)

The calendars were a huge hit and they quickly disappeared. Christine's project raised $800.00, after expenses,  for the guild's bank account and I still recall her happy face when Chris gave her final report.  Chris and I stayed in touch for many years via email after I moved. We would usually discuss some new draft or yarn she wanted to try and once armed with some information, off she went to weave. She was not afraid to try anything and I admired that in her. She passed away a couple of years ago but two weeks before she died, she was asking me a weaving related question! Amazing lady....

So my sciatica is starting to settle down, I have some weaving to play with and a new wheel to spin on so what's not to like? I know this is a crazy busy time of year , but take time out to play as well.

Island 2

As a post script to the last post, here's a group photo from our day on Salt Spring Island. This one arrived today from Jane's assistant Charlotte. So from left to right: Dawn, Jane, Lois, me and three Jane's more!

We each got our looms 'done' and then Jane gave each loom a good tune up and tweaked them. We talked about the sweet spot for optimal weaving but I mentioned that the shafts had floated up at the last workshop. We then realized that this was due to the piano wire pick up stick that we pushed forward towards the shafts. We were weaving at the right spot but the technique we were using caused the problem. So we all learned something when that little light went on!

Dorothy asked for some show and tell of what new yarns and such that had followed me home. I saw this Journal (for British Weavers)  which is a special commemorative issue for Peter Collingwood.  While I never took a class with him, I did have some interesting private email exchanges with him on the Weave Tech list. He certainly was willing to freely share what he knew with weavers everywhere.

I had such nice experience with my turned twill towels using 2/10 mercerized cottons that I brought home some basic cones for future projects. Basic cream with lace weaves in mind and a Christmas red.

Here we have white and I fell in love with this purple. No special project in mind, just loved it!

It sure was a great afternoon and I wish I could have had a couple of other friends along to join us. So we'll just have to go again when you come for a visit... darn! Maybe visit Treenway Silks too while we're there ? Okay, twist my arm!

I have about 35 inches done on the first shawl and its coming along nicely so next post I'll show you my progress.

Island Hopping

I had one day to get over my whirlwind 3 day trip to Vancouver and then I was back on a ferry again! This time, a short hop over to Salt Spring Island with two guild members, Lois and Dawn. We're heading to Jane Stafford's weaving studio with our Louet Jane looms in tow. We are there to get our Jane's autographed! Oh, and some retail shopping therapy... Its a bit of a changeable day with rain squalls dashing through and the wind picking up as the day progressed.

Here's our boat in the process of loading cars to return to Crofton on Vancouver Island. We stopped and had a bite of lunch in Vesuvius Bay and then headed to the north part of the island

When we turned down a trail through the woods to the studio, we were greeted by Jane's "official greeters". The girls were pretty much busy looking for good eats and the rooster was all about guard duty and making sure they didn't go too far. Their plumage was beautiful!

Once inside we were in heaven with looms, all Louets of course except for one lone Leclerc Fanny and yarn, books, yarn and people who spoke our language!

Jane is known for her British mohair throws and also for her chenille throws. I found a colourful stack waiting for finishing that caught my eye.

Dawn was happy to be able to review some difficulties she been having with her Hollandia with Jane and get suggestions on how to remedy them. This is a Delta above. There is pretty much every model Louet makes all around the room: a David, a Spring, and a 32 shaft Megado.

I didn't get this lady's name but she is busy tying onto a dummy warp with some luscious mohair for another throw. Her loom is the Leclerc Fanny counterbalance.

Here Lois is perusing the cones for a project she has in mind. She wasn't disappointed! She has some Christmas runners to warp up with a view to being ready for gifts and the guild sale. Now that's smart!

This picture and the one below show the rainbow selection! Each colour has the various sizes ( 3/2, 5/2, 10/2 etc) all in behind one another. So you choose your colour, then your yarn size. She has cottons, linen, fine wools, wool/silk blends....and mohair of course.

The bags on the shelves are for knitters and have wonderful storage compartments. If there had been a suitable colour, one would be great for me as an everyday purse!

So yes, I did some shopping and I bought some 10/2 mercerised cotton in white and natural for lace weaves and another in a Christmas red. Lois apparently got me thinking!

I also bought a book for my library:

This book has come down in price from when I first saw it 18 months ago and so I picked up a copy. I guess its the various exchange rates between Canada and England perhaps? If you click on this link Janet Phillips , it will take you to Janet's web page where she explains her book in far better detail than I could. I'm looking forward to reading it in depth!

I mentioned earlier that we had just got back from Vancouver. We had gone over to see my father and also to help my brother with his move. As soon as I saw my Dad, I knew he was better! You can see it in the eyes ...

He still has a long road ahead to get stronger before he can go home but he's well on his way!


The owner of the dog kennel where we left our senior terrier said that she could not believe that he is 13 years old as he played with the other big dogs like he was 2 years old... and ate like a horse. He came home and headed straight for his bed and slept 6 hours , ate supper and then went back to bed. He wore himself out pulling the wool over those youngsters!


So with all our spring showers, I'm hoping to hit the looms and have something to show you soon.

May I Introduce You to....Jane

She's petite and dainty...


A few days before Christmas, and just ahead of a snow storm and bitter cold weather, my new Louet Jane loom arrived. The new 8 shaft / 16 inch wide table loom was preordered back in a warm and sunny August while on a trip to Salt Spring Island with friends Lynnette and Michael. We came home from shopping and found the Louet box sitting on the front step and we hustled her into the house. I never did take any pictures of the box, the incredible packing job or the loom's assembly. It never crossed my mind as I was totally focused on getting her parts together and juggling Christmas preparations all at the same time ( and also during that time we had no water for 3 to 4 days and so other things did take priority!)

I had ordered a stand to make her more user friendlier at home and at workshops and glad I did. I use an office chair on rollers and the ability to adjust the height of the chair is perfect. Jane only came with 200 heddles which struck me as a bit low for an 8 shaft loom even if it is only 16 inches wide. I ordered more heddles and waited for them to come. Once they were on and Christmas was past, assembly was completed and I started thinking about her inaugural warp. The recent woven Christmas cards had me fired up to do something for next Christmas, so I searched my stash for something suitable. I found a cone of fine bamboo 12 in a glossy ruby red that bought from Laura Fry's booth at Fibre Fest in 2006. I wound a short warp of 2.5 yards, sett 36 epi, to weave up a fine 8 shaft huck lace diamonds. It was planned to be just 5.5 inches wide and 200 ends. This is where the first error happened. I needed to count only 100 ends on the top of the warping board peg, but I kept winding till I got to the full 200. I had just doubled my warp width. Okay, now it's card inserts plus a couple of finger tip towels. No biggy.


In this picture the warp is wound on using the built in raddle on the top of the loom. The cords are tied to the tops of the beater arms, the the levers in the front depressed down to be out of the way. It went well and was a simple procedure. The warping instructions (and video) are well done

Then you flip the beater over the top to the back and the front is now all open and ready for threading. I moved the cords supporting the lease sticks down a bit lower, and threaded with the shafts raised up to lift them better into view.

This is the front view. With the beater and reed over the back, the loom did seem a bit unbalanced due to the weight. I could have removed the reed, but I simply placed a foot on the top of the stand's cross beam and it seemed to be more comfortable for threading anyway. (I've left the ends of the shaft cords a bit long until I'm sure of their height and position. Then I'll cut and seal the ends as you normally do with Texsolv cords.) Here's the back view:

This is where the second and third problem happened. I took a long distance phone call and lost my place in the threading draft. Thought I had marked it but apparently not. So I ended up rethreading back to the original plain weave border at the start. Threaded again and ran out of heddles before warp. Still short! ??? Then I discovered I had doubled the plain weave ends from the planned 12 to 24 at the very start. Pull all through again and on the third attempt, I had success. But would it pass the error test when I threw the shuttle with some scrap yarn?

Now, you flip the beater assembly back over and prepare to sley the reed. In this case Santa brought me a 12 dent reed (the loom came with a 10 dent reed) and I tied it off with soft cord to immobilize the beater and sleyed three ends per dent.

I wove some scrap yarn and then made a small start with the fine bamboo. The lever action is nice and the cords run over rollers and pulleys. There is a small shelf on the top front of the loom for scissors and tape measure, but still pulled up a TV tray table.

No errors to fix! I love the sheen the bamboo has....

As to the other looms: the Louet Spring or 'Lilibet' is patiently waiting for me to resume the double weave sampler. It will need concentration and to be woven all at once for a consistent beat.

On the Woolhouse countermarche or 'Emmatrude', I have just completed the fourth and last scarf of the 2/10 tencel warp and now weaving some samples to share with friends. The last scarf I used silk yak blend from Treenway and it was by far finer then the tencel weft or even the silk cashmere. The colour is a beige grey and lack any fuzzies that the cashmere had. The smoothness and sheen of the silk yak blend is *very nice* and I plan to use it again (and order more!) It's hard to see the colour here but it has a more masculine appearance for the darker weft. The overall pattern is smaller as well... tighter.

Last, but not least you will notice that I like to name or personalize my looms. The table loom is a Louet Jane but in my home she'll be known as 'Cricket'. Check out her *legs*

That's the old counterbalance in behind and she's up for sale. I need the room and she's simply too big for what she does and how many shafts she has. It's like I brought home the new puppy before the old dog was ready to retire. I'm sure we'll all get along!