Great Inspiration!

As promised, here are the samples from the Jane Stafford "Twill Explosion" workshop. Twill is one of my favourite weaves as there is so much potential for incredible patterning! Missing this workshop was quite depressing, but the ladies of the guild have worked hard to make sure that I got 7 of the 8 samples very quickly. (Thanks so much) I washed and pressed them up and have them all in plastic sleeves. Just need to get a new binder to hold the course material. They plan to hold a session soon where we'll review what they did and learned during the course and share it all with me. Neat huh? Will almost seem like I was there....

So here's the first: Twill gamp for 8 shafts, using simple threadings.

There is a second 8 shaft twill gamp, with more complex threadings:

Then there was a sample with two threadings (straight twill and point twill) and treadled seven different ways. It's amazing how these two simple threadings change so much!

( I have NO idea of how these pictures managed to group themselves considering I asked for 'centre' positioning. Blogger has been quite difficult to deal with lately!)

There is a shadow weave, which I love! This one is woven using wool.

Next there are a couple of samples using bamboo. Here's the fine version as a turned two block twill:

Now using the heavier grist, and in plaited twill:

The drape and sheen of the bamboo is wonderful. I will add more of this to my stash in time!

Then, the (last) sample is a double weave twill:

It's neat how there is not a trace of one coloured side showing on the other except for the row near the hemstitching. Would make a great reversible rug or lap throw.

So there is one more sample to come and that's a 4 shaft twill gamp that's all set on my loom. I'm short the 8 dent reed right now (2 ends per dent for 16 epi) I do have a 15 dent reed and I'm thinking " close enough' for me! I started to sley this reed today until my back told me no more!

This was my table loom all set to go to the workshop. I'll record how this twill gamp goes as I weave it off and wet finish it. It's 4/8 cotton which is nice and soft, although a bit large for my tastes. But double weave using 4/8 would great placemats. I have a small stash of 4/8 and now I know how to use this up.

Back report: I seem to be stuck. I'm not any worse, but I don't seem to be improving either! I think physiotherapy is the key but there's no getting in any sooner than the 23rd. It started to rain this afternoon, so at least I have a reason for staying inside now.

I did get around the flower beds yesterday and got some nice shots of flowers opening. Will share some next post.

Finally: sorry about the weird grouping of pictures and text. I have no idea why it went this way as its not what I asked Blogger to do! Perhaps I can re-edit it to to a better layout next time.

Emmatrude

This is my main floor loom and I call her Emmatrude. It's for my mother and maternal grand mother combined. My second name is Trudy, so perhaps for me as well?
It's a Woolhouse Tools countermarche and is called a Gertrude by the builder, John Low. {http://www.woolhousetools.com/} So, sort of close name wise. Yup, that pink blur is me and yes, I'm camera shy. A friend tonight says she loves seeing my hands in pictures, but to give me some credit, it's hard to photograph yourself weaving!

Anyhow, my loom has 12 shafts, 16 treadles, a second warp beam and a tie-up assist. The action on this loom is so easy and smooth! Since she has the floating lamm system (upper jack cords come down the outside of the loom) you can get a full allotment of treadles underneath. She's nice and gentle on my creaky joints and I don't think I could really handle a jack loom with this many shafts anymore. Easy treadling action is a big consideration when shopping for a floor loom..... not that many of us planned to get old(er) and creaky! The picture was taken at our last house in Powell River and the windows faced east. It was nice and bright in the mornings.

Today I woke up with more back pain and then the sudden realization that I had an early guild meeting. {http://www.northwestweavers.org/MemberGuilds/MGTzouhalem.html} I dashed through the shower and was reasonably ready when my ride came. Thank the gods for drugs! I really enjoy being with the other weavers and sharing ideas and planning workshops. In fact, I'll be taking part in a workshop with Jane Stafford later this month called 'Twill Explosion" featuring 8 shaft twills. I picked up my warp today and my 12 shaft table loom will be featuring (ta, da....drum roll...) a 4 shaft twill. Okay... not quite what I imagined but I'm game and really looking forward to the class.....

In April, I'll be attending 2 half day seminars with Laura Fry featuring her "Magic in the Water" and " A Good Yarn". I'll have my camera handy for both events and will report after they are done. It's been a while for me participating in a workshop as moving homes seemed to coincide with the last few I had a chance to take. In June, my best friend will come to visit us and we'll attend Victoria's Fibre Festival at Saxe Point Park. That should be a fun time too.

Weaving can be quite a solitary hobby, so a day out with like minded friends is a great diversion. It's uplifting! Hey....I just realized that I'm not entirely alone...

This is Connor, our Lakeland Terrier. He hides his toys in the end sections of my loom bench and stuffs his rubber balls under my treadles, usually when I'm using them! He doesn't know or seem to understand that he's 11 years old. We could learn a lot from our pets....

Tools of the Trade

Both my looms are fully engaged and the weaving process is coming along nicely. I have one full log cabin scarf done and another started. On my bigger loom, I have towel number 3 done and the fourth will start after this blog entry is complete. So not much to show you there. I thought we could look at a 'weaver's tools of the trade' and I dragged out all my shuttles, bobbins and other do-dads. I have discovered that despite selling off 4-5 shuttles and other items recently, I still have a sizeable collection. Funny how that happens....

My preference is for Schacht end feed shuttles as they can be precisely tensioned and are actually nice to throw and catch. No noisy bobbins rattling and rolling on after the throw is done either. A friend who bought an EFS a while ago just started using it and is a new convert. Suddenly, she has two of them.. (see how that happens? ) They use pirns and they must be wound differently from regular bobbins. I can try to photograph this for a later post but best if you could refer to any good weaving book for a description. Here's a picture of the EFS's I have:

The wooden one is made by the late Jim Arhens (the 'A' in AVL) and has a wooden pirn which I can't seem to locate right now. Then there are the two sizes, and differing weights of my Schacht shuttles. The red pirns fit either, but the black only fit the larger shuttle. The decidely distressed shuttle is an old EFS (from a textile factory) that I found at a local antique store. It's seen better days for sure. It has the tips encased in metal as was normal for industrial shuttles. Now computers' blow' the weft across with high powered shots of air. No more shuttles.

Next is my selection of Leclerc shuttles. They are made in Quebec and this company has been making looms and equipment for so many years that they are a weaving insititution, literally everywhere. I would call these the workshorses of weavers. One is a double bobbin shuttle for when you'd like to blend and weave with two wefts at the same time. Personally I think a doubling stand is better. Of course.... more on that at another time. These take the regular styrene plastic bobbins.

I also have some Glimakra shuttles. The darker ones are made with oak and all are unique as they have rollers to help get them from one end of the warp to the other. I don't find them helpful with my current looms as I have no shuttle race for them to ride on. That also includes my old Leclerc counterbalance. (Most Leclerc looms have a shuttle race but 60 years ago, this old lady didn't get one.) The little brown 'rolls' are premade pirns for the shuttles. These are from Louet and last a long time. They can also be cut to fit. You can also use good stout, stiff paper and roll a quill and load it up with yarn. Not very exciting, but works when you have nothing else to hand. There was a time when all the nifty toys we use now weren't available and you made do. Next are some damask or 'mustache' shuttles: These have a lower profile and will slip through a narrow, tight shed. I use them often on my table loom and seem to load them with finer weft yarns. They take the Louet cardboard pirns due to the low height ( or paper rolled quills) These are made by Glimakra, another possibly Toika and one is by Woolhouse Tools.

Next we have ski shuttles for large weft projects such as rag rugs and bulky wools. The first picture is of Leclerc ski shuttles and one that will even take large bobbins. The second picture is of Scandinavian versions. The one with the symbol is made by Mr. Howell and are called Little Man Shuttles. Mr Howell passed away a few years ago but his work is still out there.

A friend gave this shuttle as a gift when she was selling off all her belongings prior to a move to Hong Kong. I haven't used it as yet and only have two of the large bobbins to fit it. It has the 'Little Man' logo:

I have some very tiny shuttles that I have used when weaving card inserts or doing inlay. But I think I have them cause they're cute. Good enough for me :) The top one is 3" in length and is made from dogwood. The black one is plastic and I inherited that with a loom some time ago.

Now comes some of my special shuttles. These are made from exotic woods by Mr. Michael Harris of Heirloom Shuttles, in Garland, Texas. They use the cardboard Louet pirns and the entire metal bar comes out and is held in place securely with magnets. They are hand polished with paste wax and are a real treat to use. My favourite is the Snake wood shuttle. The close up shows the wood's inner details. The others are a blend of Mexican rosewood, tulip wood, zebra wood and padauk:

A special commenorative ski shuttle was available for weavers to purchase when they signed up for HGA's Convergence in 2000 in Cincinatti. It featured 'curly maple' as you can see here:

His special shuttles all came with their own little cloth bag to protect them. A real nice touch! I don't believe that he's still making shuttles at this time. ( His day job was at NASA... and so while weaving isn't rocket science, it comes close with these beauties)

Next we have flat stick shuttles. These are great for table looms, big looms and any kind of weft. They are hand wound and can be slow to work with, but you get used to the process. I have them in all lengths from 4" to 34". Ideally you need them to be at least 3-4 inches longer than the warp on the loom so you can hand them off on the other side. As said before, these are great for narrow sheds and squeaking out the last few inches of a warp. The dark one is a special stick shuttle that is carved and can pack in the weft as well as carry the yarns. Inkle band weaving needs a shuttle with an edge. I don't know where this was made as there are no identifying marks, but it's sure interesting to see and hold!

Lastly, there are plastic netting shuttles which are handy for small amounts of weft such as cards or inlay work.

Next we have a variety of bobbins used in all these shuttles and the devices used to wind them:

I have shown my old electric bobbin winder. Made by Leclerc and it is circa 1950's. I had a new foot controller added (at a sewing machine repair shop) and just keeps on going! Then there is a Swedish pirn winder. It has a smaller post for the narrow pirns or quills as they are also called. It uses a worm gear and it's amazingly fast to use. Lastly, my emergency hand winder for regular bobbins and also made by Leclerc. It's for when the power goes out or the electric winder finally gives up the ghost one day.

So I have other tools to share but I think this is enough for this time. Just one more picture of my bench cushion, which is timely for weavers who have had enough of winter.

It's a little hard to see, but those are dancing ladybugs......See you again soon (if the computer gods allow) Blogger's spell checker isn't cooperating today, so all errors are mine. :)

And off We go....

Today we're starting on the false damask towels. It's exciting for me as this will be my first weaving since last June. It's been a long time with our selling, packing, moving, then painting, new carpet and then finally unpacking and setting up my loom *twice* Phew.... To make this even better, they are forecasting snow today. Can you imagine? A snow day! Perfect weaving weather if you ask me ( and we have a full fridge, so let the white stuff come! :)

So, the tie up is done and the locking pin is pulled....everything balances. I use some scrap yarn similar in size to the warp to pull the groups together. I throw three shots reasonably close, then beat all three together. Throw three more and repeat. In as little as 6-12 shots of scrap weft, you are ready to weave. The picture also shows just how much loom waste there is at the beginning:

I will weave further until I have enough done to hold the temple (or stretcher as some weavers call it) Mine is a Glimakra and is okay for your usual range of home weaving. If you weave rugs, you will need a stronger temple and they come made of metal to take the heavy load. I have an old metal one made by Toika and it's what I would call 'industrial strength'. So here's the temple slipped into place:

So why use one of these? Its for when you are weaving and the draw in is more than an inch, such as in twills. With excessive draw in you can have abrasion of the edge threads and need to do repair threads or your floating selvedges drop away from fraying.With a temple the draw in is greatly reduced. You will however still have shrinkage after the item is wet finished as the threads pull closer together but the edges are uniform. Some weavers say "it slows me down' . Yup, it does but it all depends on what you want to achieve and what you get used to doing. For me the end result is worth the extra step. I'm not what I would call a fast weaver anyhow. I'm more results orientated. So how often do you move the temple? I move it every inch of weaving to be consistent. Or in this pattern, every two full repeats:

I'd like to talk about the shed for a minute. Some weavers are hesitant to make adjustments to their looms. I have a countermarche loom and they are known for their large weaving shed. One place to make an adjustment is at the top of the beater 'swords'. I shifted the peg to a lower hole:

To here:And this is the size of shed I'm working with: ( I have floating selvedges on if you see a fuzzy black line midway):Now that we have checked for threading errors ( none this time.. yeah! ) We can pull out the lease sticks from the back as they can cause some small interference with weaving and advancement of the warp:

Let's talk about hems and hem stitching now. This is a twill pattern, and the tie up can produce a plain weave, but I won't weave plain weave hems on a twill towel. Why not? With plain weave, the threads alternate over and under every thread which results in a wider, spread section. While with twill, they go over 2-3, and then under 1 and then maybe over 5.... and it all weaves up closer (drawn in) and even closer still (shrinkage) when washed. The difference between the plain weave and twill areas will be greatly magnified and accentuated even more with hemstitching! I use hem stitching on runners and other items that aren't washed as often and even then, I will weave the hem allowance in the primary weave structure. So twill hem allowance, a spacer thread, hemstitch and then weave twill in the main part of the piece. Just find some regular number of ends to use across the cloth and I try to use even numbers such as '4' or '6'. You might like to try trellis hemstitching where the groupings are split in two. Produces a nice effect! We'll discuss finishing techniques in some detail in future entries...

By not stopping to weave special hems, we speed up the time we spend on the towels. All we need to do is simply keep track of things like ornamental borders and the amount woven there so that we can track the inches and reproduce it at the other end of the towel. In this towel, I have woven 10 repeats of the pattern for 4 inches of weaving (this includes the turn back for the hem). I wove a contrasting colour border that measures 1 and 3/4 inches. If my towel's total length is to be 34 inches, I must subtract 5 and 3/4 inches x 2 (for both ends of the towel) from 34 inches. That means the centre of my towel is to be 22 and 3/4 inches or round up to a full 23 inches. When it's all done, I simply throw a few shots of my scrap yarn to show me where one towel ends and another starts.

I have also woven 8 yards continuously of a tartan and then cut apart into towels after it came off the loom. Some tartans don't have convenient places to start and stop! :)

So here's the border and some of the main part of the towel, plus a close-up of the weave structure:

Next time, we'll look at the 'new to me' 60 year old counterbalance loom and what's happening there....thanks for stopping by. Any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a message.

Weaving Connections

Weaving is a rather solitary pursuit. I can't take any distractions when working on a complicated threading or treadling. I can handle the radio or music on in the back ground, but will happily let hubby take the calls or let them go to voice mail over getting lost in my pattern! I'm one of those kind of people who is comfortable with my own company and could work for hours like this (and have). But one of the best parts of weaving is the social aspects that come with belonging to a guild!

I started weaving in 1995 shortly after moving to the Okanagan Valley in south central BC. I joined the local guild in Vernon and while I am primarily self taught, I did take their one day workshops. We moved to Winfield and found myself half way between Kelowna and Vernon. What to do? I joined Kelowna's guild of course and attended both. :) I took the workshops there as well. They were fortunate to have no less than 3 Guild of Canadian Master Weavers as members. (There has only been 30 since 1947!) I took classes from all three, plus people like Karen Selk of Treenway. I was soon roped into becoming VP and handling workshops. Not too bad a job as you get to pick your teachers and you are always in the class! I was even their president for 2 years.

Along the way, I took up spinning, dyeing (my own silk warps), bobbin lace (made my own pillow) and kumihimo. I started collecting beads to use as embellishments and add them to my tencel scarves, shawls and silks. You want to try everything! Through it all, my main focus is weaving.

I decided to start the GCW test program and submitted my first level to the test administrator, Sandy, in a smokey parking lot in downtown Kelowna that fateful day of the firestorm in 2003. That poor woman went home to evacuate her home and as luck would have it, the fire stopped 1 1/2 blocks from their place. Our guild had 5 members who did lose their homes, and even three in one family. I did pass my Basic level and received a nice certificate. I plan to carry onto the next level, intermediate, but life keeps getting in the way! (or is that me in my way??)

I developed severe osteoarthritis and had a hip replacement in 2001. I wasn't able to weave for roughly 18 months while I waited for surgery. But I was weaving again at 3 months post op!!

My only concession to arthritis is the tie-up assist. It's made by Woolhouse Tools and is called a 20+ as it can give you 20 plus more years of weaving. Oh, so true...

{My loom is a Woolhouse Tools Gertrude 45" with 12 shafts and 16 treadles by the way. http://www.woolhousetools.com/ Her name (yes, I named her) is Emmatrude after my Mother and Grandmother.}

Another move and this time to the Shuswap and a lovely place called Blind Bay. I joined the Shuswap Guild ( and still a member) Great bunch of gals there! They have a blog too:

http://shuswapspinnersandweaversguild.blogspot.com/

I joined other groups along the way:

Complex Weavers

Greater Vancouver Weavers and Spinners Guild http://www.gvwsg.com/

The Weavers List on the internet

Can Weave group at Yahoo groups

Can Spin List at Yahoo groups

I have been a member of the Guild of Canadian Weavers since 1997, and was the BC Rep for a year. I became the President in 2003 and just stepped down this past March in 2007.

http://www.thegcw.org/

Great organization for promoting excellence in weaving and features a super library, scholarships, and the test program. I learned by working first hand with weavers across Canada that weavers everywhere are all the same.... they love the process, the yarns and the satisfaction that weaving brings to their lives.

Another move to Powell River, BC and another guild. Powell River Fine Arts called themselves a 'club' and they were composed of potters, artists, quilters and weavers. We were only there 18 months and now reside in Duncan, on south eastern Vancouver Island. Here I joined the local guild and the Tzouhalem Weavers and Spinners are the most active group I have seen in some time. They amaze me!

So many guilds and so many friends across BC and even Canada! I feel very fortunate to have such 'weaving connections'

The road ahead is bright....

Mixed silks: bombyx, muga, silk noil, reeled silk. And after 12 years of weaving, my first scarf for me.