Inge Dam, Master Weaver

Inge is like a "best kept secret"....  well, its time to spread the news about her wonderful blending of ancient  card or tablet weaving with more modern looms and breathtaking fabrics.  I had seen her work and even tried my own take on her unique cloth but as nice as it was, it paled in comparison to hers!

Fashion Show coat by Inge Dam

Detail of Fashion Show coat

 Inge actually inserts card weaving with a conventional warp on the same floor loom. So you must be familiar with card or tablet weaving AND floor loom weaving. Judging by the fabric above, she is also at home with a dye pot too.

Now what would motivate her to do something like this? Well, that's where we share a love of historical textiles.  I love reading about ancient discoveries and the scraps of textile found in the various archaeological digs around the world but Inge took it much, much further!   From her bio at her web page :

I have been weaving for 31 years and in 1992 I completed an in-depth study for Ontario Handweavers and Spinners to become a Master Weaver. The subject of the study was Iron Age Textiles from Northern Europe (the Iron Age was from 500 BC until 800 AD). In the course of my study, I became interested in tablet (card) weaving. In excavation of Iron Age sites in Northern Europe (particularly in peat bogs and graves), ancient textiles have been found with tablet woven borders. Through inspiration of these textiles, I now incorporate tablet weaving into my fabrics by weaving the tablet borders and bands simultaneously with the fabric on the loom. I also make unique jackets and bags from my leftover handwoven fabrics.

And wow does she ever make unique fabrics!

At the Theatre Shawl by Inge Dam  (32 shaft twill)

Close up detail of shawl

This method intrigues me! So when I heard that Inge had written a book on her method, I was eager to get a copy. It combines many techniques and clearly Inge has mastered them beautifully.

I have been reading her book slowly and carefully as I really want to try this for myself. Its become clear my first place to start is with tablet weaving basics. To simply dig them out and start fresh.  Once I have my projects complete for the coming Christmas sale, I plan to get out the cards and thread them up.

Inge's book is well written, very clear instructions and many photographs and diagrams to refer to.  That will be a big help once I take the step to progress to something like this:

At the Theatre on the loom

If you are looking for a unique Christmas gift for a weaver, or for yourself, you find all details on this book at  Inge's web site: www.IngeDam.net   A visit to her gallery is a wonderful browse!

Life has other Plans...

So here's my Bruce in his private hospital room and his private 'spa' bathroom in behind. He was the first occupant of a brand new $15,000.00 special gel bed that shifts to balance the pressure points every time you move. They placed him in this room as his older medical file kept coming up showing him as MRSA positive, but they finally cleared that off the file with a negative test. He got to keep the room as no one more deserving needed it. 

He's smiling as he's been told he can go home and we are waiting for the paperwork to be done and the IV to be disconnected.  He's not been 100% since we got back from our trip and finally normal treatments for his diverticular disease just weren't working. They admitted him and gave him the "special" IV antibiotics that they save for times like this.  He will be going back in sometime in January under better circumstances and having an operation to resolve this.

So my days of driving to and fro have come to an end and we will now slowly get back to normal around here! (emphasis on slowly)  I guess I don't need to tell  you that there has been no weaving going on  around here but I plan to make a fresh start again tomorrow.

This is as far as I got:

I'm weaving two shawls using the same draft and colour schemes as the previous scarf project I wove back  in July and August. They were stunning and sold right away...and I'm down to only one shawl in my inventory!

Deep Breath....

I have also made a decision to sell my big 12 shaft/ 16 treadle 45" Woolhouse Tools Gertrude Loom and so will be building up a list of its components and formulating a price. I'm not in a position for doing shipping / freight so it would have to be picked up here on Vancouver Island. I do recommend the new owner actually comes and dismantles it here with me so they have a better understanding of how it will go together at the end of its journey.   More on this to come.

In the mean time if you have a serious interest, email me at weever at shaw dot ca (remove the spaces and put the right symbols in.  

Why am I doing this? Well, I can get joint replacement surgery for my knee and last hip and even my foot in time and still carry on weaving in time, but my lower back is the way it is and there's no surgery to fix that. 

Weaving with this loom aggravates it.  Trust me, if this wasn't the case, I'd be keeping it!

I have been weaving almost exclusively on my Louet Spring and I guess its time to get friendly with the Megado and "make nice".  I'm coming to terms with my limitations, and I plan to keep weaving!

Seeing Red

So, with the parcel  with the gray runners on their way to California, the loom is now available for a new project.  I had  something in mind for the 9/2 red linen in my last yarn order from Brassards. Last spring when we were in Vancouver I stopped by my Dad's place and had a nice visit with him. During the time chatting with him, I spotted a small lace cloth on his table that I woven some years ago. It was a fine 20/2 cotton with a huck lace diamond pattern. I had been given the pattern by Linda Heinrich and she in turn got it from Virginia West. It has to be one of the loveliest lace patterns and it went onto my mental list of projects that are up soon.

I wanted to weave something Christmasy.... my second ever project with a holiday theme. I had woven some Christmas tree card inserts one year on a table loom that took too long, but did make it out in the mail that year (as opposed to the next!) . I'm not a fan of weaving for Christmas especially for gifts as it can be a recipe for disaster. There is far too much pressure on folks that time of year so why add more?   {Weaving for birthdays and other special occasions is far better as you aren't coping with the "Christmas Crunch".}

So the yarn arrived and I had found my old draft.... project was duly planned and the warp wound.  The 9/2 linen came in at 3700 yds/ lb which is finer than an 8/2 cotton. The cotton is 3360 yds/ lb and recommended setts are 18 epi for lace, 20 epi for plain weave and 24 epi for twills. It gave me a place to start at least. I wrapped a ruler, and I emailed Gudrun for her input as she uses this linen too.   So we finally settled on 22 epi and I thought I could up or down from there if need be.  When it came time to sley the reed I had to do a pattern of ends that meant I had to use a more open reed to get the desired sett. Now my past experience with linen is that its better to use either single ends through a reed or double ends. If you do groups of three or more, then  reed marks can be an issue. I did not want any problems like this so I changed my reed to something finer and got smaller groups. With a 15 dent reed, I sleyed 1, 2, 1, 2 etc. It averages out to 22.5 epi which was darn close!

The runner warp was  5.25 yards long, 14.9" in the reed and a total of 328 ends.  Winding the warp went well. When I wound my pirns I ran the linen through a damp cloth and it seemed to tame the linen and take off a fair amount of lint.

Weaving was pretty darn nice and the sett looked perfect! The weft lay into the pic beautifully, there was very little draw in so I didn't need a temple. Then with plain weave borders, there was no need for floating selvedges either. Very liberating! The treadling was a nice little five treadle dance (plain weave, pattern, plain weave, pattern, plain weave). You very quickly settle into a good rhythm and it wove up at a nice rate. You could also see the pattern clearly already which was very nice.

I planned on two runners, both sixty inches long and with six inch hem allowances (which would reduce down to two inches after folding), and some samples.  I wove one runner to sixty inches plus hems and I had my samples all done. There seemed to be a lot of warp left so I decided to simply weave a longer runner as the warp held out.   The second ended at seventy four inches!

Once off the loom I pressed my hems much like in my last post and pinned them.  The hand sewing didn't take very long and then they were into the laundry tub for the hand wash and rolled in a towel to absorb water.  The ironing was a real workout!  I was pressing as hard as I could and the wrinkles were still there. I found myself lusting after a mangle or steam press like Lynnette's. I just kept going back and over them again until they passed muster.

Time to take some pictures, which can be tough this time of year. We had cloudy skies and trees all around. the brightest place was my big loom and  so I laid a cloth over the loom and tried for some beauty shots.

The lace is really defined now after washing and looks stunning....

Photographing all red is almost as bad as all white !   First of all the real colour of the runners is a blue based red and the pictures I see are a bit more orangey. Then its hard to see detail with tone on tone colours.

So I tried to show the white cloth in behind...

I was arranging and rearranging and trying different placements and shifting the lights around..... and that's when I saw it.....

At first it looks like a soft line in the cloth....

...and when you look closer, particularly at the corner of the four diamonds. Its a treadling error!  (this one is for you Linda....) . Its the shorter sixty inch runner and the longer one is just fine. That one will be going up in my Etsy shop. The other? I'm not sure what to do with it now.  Keep it for myself or sell as a second? If anyone is interested in buying it, let me know.    Sold!

It really bums me out as I was watching carefully as I wove but apparently not quite enough...    So what's the best cure for this situation?   Another project.... basically move on to something new and start fresh!

Its under way.....

Calli says "cheer up Mum"

Golden Gate Bound

This is part two of my earlier post  detailing a weaving commission, so if you're running behind, you might want to catch the first part.  (Details and draft are there)

I've been quietly beavering away on a customer order from my Etsy shop "Thrums Textiles" . They requested two runners featuring the Gothic Diamond pattern, except these were to be hemmed and longer at sixty inches.  Also to be in two shades of gray.....

So once the small error in the reed was corrected, I got started again and I must say that the weaving went very well. I think the help from Bruce in tensioning the threads as the warp was wound  was the key to nice even tension. There was no issue with soft edges, and the only issue I had was that the floating selvedge thread broke a couple of times on the right hand side. (It always seems to be the right side. Any theories?)

I wove both runners to approximately sixty two inches and both had a six inch hem allowance, which will reduce to two inches on either end when all complete.  I even got some nice samples at the end for my records.

Now, normally I like to cut my new projects apart using the serger, but the bunching of the serger threads can add a line of bulk in a fine cloth made from cotton this fine.  So I had to take a different tack with this.

I switched to the sewing machine instead. What I need to do is stabilize the edges to prevent unravelling so I used a stitched zig zag. In the second picture you can see my scrap cloth with the silver stitches as practice.
(Click on any image to enlarge). It worked very well! All was secure and no bulky line.

Next up, getting the hems ready:

Steam press and check length is even.

Fold up to an even two inches and steam press again.

Fold up final fold to *just* to the bottom edge of the hem stitching, steam press again and pin in place.

Now they are ready for s little evenings entertainment!

The stitching was rather fine and so it took me time and (surprise) daylight hours only. I just about went blind trying it by night!  {Here is a link to what I do.} I soaked them in hot sudsy water for about twenty minutes and then I squeeze them through vigorously. I want the threads to shift and full and get rid of the reed marks. I did the same again with the rinsing. They were hung to drip dry overnight and stream pressed the next day.  

They had to have their time in front of the camera!  Both are identical in width : 13" One shrunk and came in at 61" and the other came in at 62". The hem lengths are identical and so the 'extra' is in the main body of the runner. Its hard to tweak that. 

The 16/2 mercerized is so fine and has a beautiful hand. I sett it at  36 ends per inch and its perfect

The ladder hemstitching: I used a double spacer and stitched every four threads.

The two grays work together nicely....

So they are being wrapped to go in the post and on their way to San Francisco, California. I visited there many years ago and have wonderful memories of brief time in the city. I can clearly remember our ship coming into the bay under the Golden Gate Bridge and then spending a day ashore exploring. I can remember going through the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, looking at Alcatraz through the viewing binoculars, and eating hot buttered crab down by the waterfront.  Great time! 

A Mighty Good Time

I have a real difficulty announcing ahead of time that I will be leaving home and going on a trip.... as that means my house will be empty. In this day and age of internet and GPS, I shudder to think.   So, sorry to leave you waiting so long but we are now home and getting our life back to normal.  The laundry is almost complete, and I even managed to squeak in some weaving yesterday between loads.  Sort of like doing warm up's for the main event.

Our adventures started two weeks ago with Bruce's model train show in Victoria. I'm the one who handled all the sales receipts and money, so it left things to the guys to simply talk  and make the sales. They did this in fine style and Bruce had better results from the last spring's train show!  They had over 2200 people come through the doors and it was great to see many children with their parents and grandparents.  The little in-house cafe and coffee bar sold out of all food and drinks in record time!

Here's the gang just ahead of the doors opening: (from left to right) Bruce, Colin and Heath. Set up was still under way. Its a lot of work bring everything in and setting up.... standing mostly all day and then packing up and hitting the road for home. They love it though.  They are just as passionate about their modelling as we are our looms and yarn.

We had four days to sort stuff to where it goes between sales and rest up. Then start packing up again for our trip away. We were off to visit our grandson and his parents and later, head onto see Bruce's mother in the Okanagan Valley.  To help reducing the work load and stress factor, we opted to stay in a hotel. Its tough working full time and managing a home and active toddler and then throw in house guests to the mix! It also meant we had some quiet time to ourselves.

Soon our island was in the rear view and we checked into our hotel. Navigating the greater Vancouver area's traffic is always interesting as they have many road improvements under way. They have two new bridges, rapid transit trains (and I heard just yesterday another bridge has been announced for 2017). Just the sheer numbers of cars and people always has us flustered!

Once at the hotel on the 18th floor, I took some pictures from our room facing the mountains.

These are the new support cables for the one year old Port Mann bridge. The hazy north shore mountains in behind.

Then there's the Golden Ears Bridge way off in the Mission area. The mountains are in behind and they are called the Golden Ears. They can be stunning with fresh snow and sun light on them!

Then I looked down and then across the vista and noticed that the city has a lot of green space. Though I'm not crazy with what they did way over on the hillside near the mountains. I think that's called the Westwood Plateau.

Ethan is 17 months now and literally running everywhere!  He's so fast it makes your head spin. He loves technical toys and is looking for buttons to press to make them go. (He will be ready for all the high tech stuff in short order) We took him some old fashioned reading books, a sock monkey from Hilary and this toy transformer:  (sorry Hilary... I planned to take his picture with the monkey but he didn't hold it long enough to snap off a picture!) September 25th Edit: Ethan's maternal grandpa took this picture a few days after we left:

Ethan with his Prime Mate Monkey   Thanks Hilary!  He's perfect. 

He had no time for hugs and kisses, but I could hold the toy steady so he could better press the buttons and set off the lights and voice recording. That was my job for two days: hold the toy for him.    Geesh!

His favourite toy of all (right now) are these plastic rings. He has become a pro at spinning them with a flick of the wrist. He spins them on everything and can even do two at a time with both hands. Rather then spin them with a twist to the right (practice in your mind how you would do it) Ethan turns them to the left or inwards!

One last picture as it is my blog and my grandson :)  Then we were on our way.  It rained from Vancouver to Hope. (Hope is where was the first Rambo movie was filmed for the movie buffs out there)

This is somewhere out in the Fraser Valley.... no sign of hills and mountains due to low heavy cloud. But things sure changed when we came down off the Connector route to the Okanagan!

The sun came out and we had sunshine all the way in to Kelowna.  Traveling through Westbank I got a nice shot of Mission Hill winery: (click on any picture to enlarge)

Kelowna had the world's longest floating bridge but they rebuilt it after we left and I'm not sure of the stats of this one. (It was featured as an episode of  Mega Structures on the television)

Then, as part of your Kelowna tour, here's the classic lakeshore view of the city:

The Grand Hotel and Casino along with the yacht club

The downtown city park complete with sand beach.

We spent three very pleasant and relatively quiet days with Bruce's mother  and caught up on family news and simply spent time together.

Lorraine lives in a lovely town home and is doing very well on her own for having just turned 90! The time flew by and we were heading home again.

The clouds appeared to accompany us home. Here's a last look at the new bridge, with Black Mountain on the left,  as we left town.

We came down the hill off the Connector route at Merritt and turned for the Information and Tourist log house for a break and stretch our legs. A car suddenly pulled in beside us and out popped Lynnette and her husband Michael!  They were on their way to the Okanagan and somehow it all timed beautifully for us to have this chance meeting at Merritt!  A chat and a few hugs later and we were back on the road again. We had to push straight through and aim for the 5 pm ferry. Except we weren't sure of the exact time as we didn't have any internet to double check.  Going to 'wing it'.

This one is for Wendy.  This Mount Cheam between Hope and Chilliwak. Wendy recently did the high altitude Mt Cheam hike and from her pictures on Facebook, she went almost to the top, or to a high shoulder at least!

We made it to the ferry with forty five minutes to spare as it left at 5:45 pm. Its a two hour crossing and so after unloading the car we finally had our very tired feet up at 10 pm. We just got home on this past Thursday night and been settling in ever since.   Calli came back from the kennel and had a double bath and is glued to our sides when she isn't sleeping.

The ride home was fantastic!  The water was flat calm and there was a beautiful sunset....with a warm breeze.

going home!

Great end to the week!

So we are getting things caught up and we should have things back to normal soon.  I also found when we got home that we had forgot to lock the back door.  Oops...  its all okay, my looms are still here and the yarn is fine.

Happy Fall Equinox!