17 Years and 10 Days

The last warp on Emmatrude

....and with 6 yards still to go.... I cut this part off.

This multi coloured warp has been on the Woolhouse loom for quite a long time. My information on the digital pictures say they were taken February 14th, 2014.  So long on the loom, that I told weaver friend Wayne that he'd have to come back from Michigan for several consecutive annual visits to complete his towel!   Well, the cloth section is off the loom now but not enough to be a full fledged useful towel.  Its now a nice stack of samples.

The draft is one of my favourites "Breaks and Recesses" or number 47 from A Weaver's Book of 8 Shaft Patterns by Carol Strickler. Nice tidy little boxes and fully reversible.   I used up all sorts of small 8/2 cones of various colours with black bands to bind it all together and make the colours pop.   Great warp to sample a loom for sale..... or weave away on to get acquainted with the loom's personality. 

I loved to treadle away and listen to a book on my iPod or a podcast..... or my favourite playlists. Its a simple treadling.

So new friend and weaver Jill came one day last week to view the loom and after trying her out and spending time with me in the studio for the afternoon, she decided to buy her.  There would be a delay of two days before she could take her home though...

The night before the loom was due to leave I spent time unpegging all 384 clips on the 20+ tie up assist cords and labeling all major beams and parts. I also put the cross back into the warp and secured the lease sticks to the  sectional beam. There's enough warp to weave at least 5 towels so Jill will be off to a flying start. 

I couldn't take the 20+ cords off as they are attached to the upper and lower lamms and I needed help with that. I thought to bundle the heddles together but pulling them together in the centre of the shaft sticks makes the shafts sticks unstable and collapse. So the balance of work had to wait until the morning.

10 am the next morning: once the heddles were bundled and secured top and bottom and off the loom, things progressed quickly!  Off came the shafts sticks and next thing, the lower, then  upper lamms were off in neat piles.  A decision was made to leave the treadles attached to the lower rail and so Jill secured the treadles so they wouldn't be an entirely swinging mess. There were four of us working and so things moved along smartly. With the sliding patio door right there, every newly released part started to be stacked out side on the deck prior to loading in their truck.

Everyone was busy!

Suddenly all the outer 'peripherals' were off the loom and it was down to the basic frame structure. This frame is what needs to be in place to rebuild her up again in her new home.  There is also a very detailed manual to help Jill from when the loom was brand new and also my many pictures, and my little green labels!

The main action shifted to the deck and loading up their vehicle and I was left with an empty spot and a herd of free roaming dust bunnies. (Actually more like buffaloes!)  So out came the vacuum and I gave the carpet a good going over! I didn't want any of them to get away, and besides I was of no use for the loading phase. 

Soon a quick scout around produced no more 'body parts' to go to the deck for loading and it was all over and done. Just the foot prints were left behind. 

  Then a group effort had the Megado shifted down to the spot where the Woolhouse had sat for seven years in this home. I was so grateful to have the loom moved into the spot so quickly.  No staring at an empty carpet!   There is a light fixture and fan assembly above the loom and two sets of windows so lots of light.

The Spring was sitting mid room and it was also shifted left to be under the other light and fan fixture at the opposite end of the space. There is all kinds of room now and it feels very open and airy.  The dog, Calli, went and got some of her toys and left them around the room!

Here's another looks at the Spring in her new spot where the Megado used to sit.  The studio ended up with a very thorough vacuuming in the next few days. I pulled things out and dug deep into corners. 

Today I just sat and enjoyed the space and puttered at odd jobs and continued with clearing things away.  I even just sat and wove on the Spring for a time!

Here's myself with Jill the new owner. 

Jill already has her new loom together and is now working on the slower process of setting the 20+ up and the fine tuning it requires.  The loom stayed local on Vancouver Island which I really like, and the sale and move was done quickly and painlessly.  Its hard to be sad when you see how loved the loom is.  I'm looking forward to seeing all the great weaving to come off her in the near future!

My name and the date she came to me was on the top of the jack frame for seventeen years and ten days before I wrote the final end date in.  I see Jill has carried on the tradition and added her name too.  As one friend said "we are simply their stewards for a time".  It was simply wonderful making beautiful cloth on her.

Then Winter Found Us

I have been watching the rest of North America and Europe suffering through a terrible winter. Endless snow, ice storms, floods, wind storms and power outages.  Polar Vortexes (formerly known as a blast of Canadian Arctic air) and Snowmageddon and other colourful descriptions of what some call " formerly, a normal winter".

I have very much appreciated the more moderating influence of the Pacific Ocean and the occassional warm air flow up from southern regions, usually California or the "Pineapple Express" from Hawaii.
We have buds forming on trees, the hellebore was sprouting and the snowdrops are up.

Or, they were.... they had better live up to their name as they are well and truly buried now! In fact we have had snow falling for over three days and nights. Its not the light airy stuff but heavy and wet. Its collapsing hedges, trees and plants. Bruce has been out three times using a rake to get the poor things unnburdened and no doubt will have to go out again tomorrow.  We haven't been out anywhere and so no tire tracks in the drive way. We had a young friend call today to see if we are okay! That's comforting that someone thought of us senior  "shut-in's". 

There were wind storms last week and we dutifully prepared with candles, extra water and provisions. Nothing happened.  But with silent and never ending snow, the power outages sneak up on you and we sat in the dark and chilly house at 8 pm on a Saturday night and decided we might as well go to bed. The power came back on at 4 am and all the lights you had on, came back on. Bruce stayed up to watch the Canadians win the gold medal for men's hockey.  I reckoned the hilights on the news would be enough for me and went back to bed.

The only family member really excited about the snow is Calli...

 

 

These were taken the first day and the snow is now up to the top of her long legs and she's pushing through it with her chest.   She throws the ball into the air and then shoves her face into the snow drift and tunnels to find it again.  There is much running to and fro and general goofiness that Airedales are know for.



 

When she's done, she packs her ball to the back door and waits.  Then the snow ball removal begins!

 

 

Snow days means prime weaving weather so I have been working on getting the big loom all set up with a 8/2 cotton short towel warp.  Its a multi striped coloured warp that changes every eight ends, with a black every third stripe for continuity and contrast. The colours are chosen from many cones that are down to their last third or less and I was able to recycle several tube centres into the recycle bag. 

 

 

It was a spontaneous selection of colours. Pick a pair that go together nicely and the third stripe was black.  The only organisation was I placed the pair of colours on the far right and when the top of the table was full, then I went back to the original pair and then split them up or,  at least, reversed the colour order.  (the cones waiting south of the bobbin winder are wall flowers waiting to dance .... they may or may not).

 

 

I would wind on each one inch bout as I went. Twenty four in all; seven yards long. I hung the lease sticks from the upper castle and threading started.

 

 

 

It made for a bright collection!  It was a straight draw of one through to eight and the sett is 24 epi.

 

So this warp will take time to weave off as its for a half dozen towels, plus the last towel will be left for the possible new owner of the loom to try their hand at throwing a shuttle.  I did promise you a peak at the pattern as it will be a long time before you see the finished towels!

 

 





 

The pattern is Breaks and Recesses from Carol Strickler's 8 Shaft Pattern Book. I have done this pattern before   here   and here and here. I love the way it produces tidy little boxes of twill that will make a nice thirsty and colourful towel. No long floats and an easy threading and treadling. I'll post update pictures of the progress from time to time. First towel is an all black weft for now.

 

Now to see if we can get out of our driveway and get to town for groceries and a post office visit. We are getting cabin fever after four or five days of togetherness!

 

Parting shot:   our back deck late last night.... and yes, it was still snowing.

 

 

In Which We Actually Weave Something!

This project has been a long time coming. I have woven it before and chose it again knowing it was what I call 'mindless' zen weaving, great for listening to music or podcasts  while you treadle one to eight, and one to eight again and again, occasionally  measuring for length or mix matching colours for the borders.  No, this warp has sat patiently due my bad back and then again while I worked on a new seat to weave from.  Rear mounted treadles make for lighter work but the whole leg must depress down almost to the floor which in turn pulls on lower back muscles.  So it waited and rather patiently too. I even thought about selling this loom (which I really do not want to do) but now with my new chair, and well rested back, I'm weaving there again. Mind you I'm not breaking any speed records but I don't want another three month time out again for a cranky back if I can help it.

I'm not certain when the warp was wound but this warp was already on the loom when Lynnette came for a visit last September. Yup, that long. in my defense, I did keep my Louet Spring, 'Lilibet' busy as best I could!

So let's start at the beginning: The draft is # 47 'Breaks and Recesses' from The Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns by Carol Strickler (Interweave Press). Sorry but I don't have a draft to post but this book is so common in guild libraries, if not your own collection. Here's a great post on this same pattern. At weaving Carol and wood working hubby Craig's Studio Tupla you can see that even more complex versions are possible. It is a simple straight draw threading and all the pattern is in the tie up. Then you treadle a simple run of one to eight.  It produces nice tidy little boxes with a clear plain weave line all around the squares. Little thirsty squares and so perfect for kitchen towels. There are no long floats and its completely reversible. My last effort was in 16/2 finer cottons and they sold quickly. The idea was to use 8/2 cottons this time and do it as a stash reducer ( and I use that term loosely). My sett is 24 epi so there are three squares to one inch. It sure makes planning stripes easy. If you do a single rows of colour, then you get diamonds as shown in the Studio Tupla link

Here are my colours:

 It would seem my planning last fall worked out nicely for spring! They are very Easter like, although I'm even late for that now! White, plum, celery green, salmon pink and a yellow. All are from Brassards in Quebec.  I wound them in one inch bouts and beamed them onto the sectional beam in my hybrid method. It looks  neat all wound on the back beam! The warp is twenty five inches wide. I like big towels.

Then I suspended the lease sticks from the upper castle and started threading, followed by sleying my 12 dent reed, two per dent:

Time to start winding pirns! I'll be using  my Schacht 15 inch end delivery shuttle and it uses the longer black pirns:

My loom has a tie up assist and it makes it possible to sit on a stool at the back of the loom and pull the cords I need. Since it's at the back I must reverse the tie up on a new grid, and then since treadle one is now on the right instead of the left I must reverse the treadle order as well! Its easier than it sounds and I save the new 'flipped and reversed' tie ups and reuse them. Here's my grid in use:

I isolate the row being worked on and you can see everything is clearly marked so I know where I am at all times. Here's the reason why!

The long cords hanging at the bottom are for shafts 9 through 12 as they are not being used in this 8 shaft draft. The other cords are pulled and clipped depending on either upper or lower shaft (or x's or o's) on the tie up grid. It takes me roughly ten minutes to pull the tie up above. Now that's a vast improvement over lying on the floor with the foot beam in the way and craning my neck up to do fiddly tie up's for lord knows how long.

As you can see in the picture above, I tied on and have my temple ready to go. I tried out some different colours for wefts as I wove in my header.

I'm weaving six inches for hem allowance, plus a short section of the towel that is plain solid colour, and then do a coloured border which is approximately two and half inches, then weave seventeen inches for the main body of the towel and then reverse my start. This adds up to  thirty four inches per towel. I weave a separation  between towels using scrap yarn of one repeat and then it starts all over again.

This shows the cloth making it's way down to the cloth beam. You can see the tail end of a green towel and the start and first border of a salmon pink towel......

In my next post, we'll be working on finishing and final show and tell.... in between showing our house, housework,  looking for another home and even having company for a few days! I should wear my Super Woman cape but I'm too tired to look for it!