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! 

Long Time Coming

Back last November I placed a silk warp  on the Louet Spring, wove in a header and then a few inches to see the pattern develop.... then I stood up and walked away.  I thought about it for a time wondering about what was ahead for me before I could sit down here again and pick up where I had left off.   Through it all, I kept one thing as my end goal.  To be weaving again! (That bit became a sample as I went with different colours)

Besides a "pat on the wood" a couple of times, my first time sitting to weave was six weeks post surgery where I wove for about 10 minutes and I had about an  inch to show for it!   Go me!

It was a busy time with physiotherapy and doctor visits and all the other things that had been put on hold for the past six weeks.   I would weave a bit but gradually increasing the time as muscles and even the bones adjusted to the new activity. It didn't help that the silk is quite fine and so there's a lot of treadling to get some mileage to show!

Then one afternoon I enthusiastically put in a long session and the following day, I had some serious pain difficulties and so had to take a week off to rest and heal. Then I started slowly all over again. Live and learn huh?   :)

So with a new understanding that this was simply going to be a slow process, I just wove a bit every day or every other day.   There was a huge victory cry when the scarves and samples were finally finished!!

Fringe twisting got under way the following day as well as adding some fresh water pearls to the plum paid version.  Nothing added to the black scarf as it could be either masculine or feminine. How do I know this? My husband did some serious 'jonesing' for it until I pointed out he has several scarves in a drawer!

They got a gentle hand washing in the laundry tub and a night to drip dry.  Next day they pressed up nicely with some steam and I nipped off the excess fringe from the twisted tassels with a rotary cutter.

Then came the beauty shots...   some project details for you.  I used 30/2 bombyx silk, tussah silk, and silk yak blend, all approximately 30/2 in weight as my warp. The sett was 36 epi. I used a twelve dent reed and three ends per dent. The black weft is 30/2 silk commercially dyed for a deep even black. It showed off the "boxes" nicely!  The second scarf took on a different look with a cotton silk blend I bought from Treenway many years ago and hand dyed it myself. It was an uneven dye job so the colours vary from soft plum to a touch of eggplant. This effect created an almost plaid like effect in a soft way.

You can see both sides of the scarf in these shots. One side favours the cream and the other the silver beige of the silk yak.  So you can choose depending on your outfit and mood.  :)

The black scarf is 7 by 68 inches  and the plum plaid is 7 by  72 inches and both are very light in physical weight as the silks used are fine.   (Both were woven to 74 inches so you can see the shrinkage in the length.  They lost half an inch in width.)  I even managed some samples for my files as well.

The next warp or two have been planned and one is well under way.  I discovered that standing still at the warping board really hard on both my new hip, but in particular, my left knee which has been complaining loudly of late.   I would stand and wind like a fiend for a few minutes, then sit down to rest and repeated the process. This seriously hurts my bones and so I turned to the internet and started looking for a warping reel.

Schacht has a horizontal model for $399.00 USD .    *gulp*    Too rich for my budget.  I looked for Canadian alternatives and drew a blank. Then I realized I was staring at the Woolhouse Tools Loom and then turned to their web page to see what they have!   They are winding down their business and so if there is an empty blank line after the product name, it means its sold out and not being replaced.  Well imagine my surprise when I saw they have a two yard vertical warping reel and it was on sale!
My lucky day...  

From ordering to arrival took three days and its now assembled. It can hold up to twenty yards +/-  which is six yards better than my existing warping board.   I completed my ongoing warp on the warping board, but I will give the reel a whirl for the next!

A chuckle for you:  I got the next new warp set onto the lease sticks at the back of the Louet earlier today and was getting ready to spread the warp in the raddle...... and then noticed I had forgotten to take the apron rod up and over the back beam. Oops!   Four months since I beamed a loom and I'm back to square one!   :)

I would also like to announce that Handweaving.net has just relaunched their web site and it's a tremendous improvement over the old. Fast, colourful and just plain fun to go and play with the drafts.   I left a small donation via paypal to help with the web fees to show my appreciation. Its a wonderful resource for weavers of any level!

A Reversal of Plans....
We had our realtor in place, downsizing underway and even a possible interested buyer but we soon realized that we simply don't have enough time.  I had a call from my surgeon's office last Monday and it seems that they want me to start my pre-op tests as early as  first week of April and I see the surgeon the third week of April.  My knee replacement can come as early as June...or... as late as October.  We had a discussion on the news and we decided with a time spread like that, a move is not a good idea right now.  (Too much stress as well.)  Another year here will give us time to get things better prepared, and hopefully sell the big loom and a bunch of other stuff!

It does mean I will be coming home to a flight of stairs which doesn't thrill me too much but we'll figure a work around.  Might just move the looms to one side and sleep in the studio?