Never a dull moment

The rosepath is done! Not cut off the loom yet but the weaving is finished. I decided to use a temple after the first yard or so just to speed things up a bit.


I'm not sure why I hesitate to get the temple out so often - I guess I feel like it's going to slow me down so I'd rather avoid it if possible. I must admit, there's also a sense of guilt, like I ought to be able to weave without one and I'm faulty some how for needing one. Where does that come from, I wonder? At any rate, I got out the temple and that sped things up quite a lot, as I didn't have to fuss so much about draw in, just about beating too hard.

Incidentally, in spite of my hang ups about temples, I have a lot of them and really like them all. The one in the pic is a wooden one from Glimakra that I got along with three or four others from Madelyn Van der Hoogt when I took her Weaving II course (including one for the Centre where I teach). It's the kind I use for delicate fabrics or narrow warps. I've also got two heavy metal Toika temples that I got from The Weaving Works to use on blankets and rugs.

Anyhoo, the rosepath. I realized today that I've been referring to it as "the rosepath" even though it's really bits of point twill on a basket weave ground. The treadling, though - that's rosepath. I like this angle because it shows off the stripes down on the cloth beam. Pretty, huh?


Not sure yet what this fabric will become - depends on what happens in the fulling, really. I'm still thinking some kind of cocoon but it might also be hats or pillows or something else entirely. I'm sure it'll let me know what it wants to be eventually.

I also wove a scarf on Joey this morning, so now there's only one or two left on that warp, too. Haven't posted a pic of that warp yet, so here you are:


I wove some scarves in this palette for the show I did last November and it was quite popular with the gents, so I put it on again. I hardly ever repeat warps like that but hey, rules are meant to be broken, eh wot?


I've also neglected to post pics of the socks-in-progress, so here they are as well:


This is my second time using this sock pattern and the first using my new needles with the more flexible cord - definitely an improvement! I've realized lately that I don't like my socks to come very far up my leg, so I made the tops of this pair shorter than the last. I'm afraid they might be just a bit too short, but this is a learning process. Eventually I'll figure out The Perfect Sock and then I can make loads of them!

I'm anxious to get these done so that I can try a new pattern that my mother's friend Peggy sent me. I used her instructions for Kitchener stitch to graft the toes of the blue and brown pair and they worked a treat, so I'm really eager to try out the entire pattern. I think Peggy's considering selling this pattern but she's given me permission to share it with my local fibrous friends as long as each person who gets it donates a pair of handknit socks to a local charity. Isn't that lovely? :D


In other knitting news, now that I've given away the gift, I can show you pics of the silly doggy shrug I made for my friend Marg and her dog Millie for Christmas:


The only explanation I have for this is that it seemed like a really good idea at 3:00 aye em. I hunted around online for a dog coat pattern that I could make pretty quickly and found this really cute one on knitty.com. Of course, with all those cables and bobbles, it wasn't a quickie so I just figured out the basic outline of her 10 lb dog pattern, did a ridiculously small tension swatch and then cast on what seemed like a reasonable number of stitches and knit a rectangle. I got a bit sneaky and used the casting off to sew up the legs and even used a version of the beaded cast off from splityarn for what I thought was going to be the neck. The legs turned out long enough that I didn't pick up any stitches to knit down cuffs and, in fact, turned up the cuffs a bit to shorten them. Even though the shrug is supposedly exactly the same top and bottom, I think the beads will work better at the bottom edge rather than the neck - maybe the cast off stretched the width?

I didn't have a dog handy to try this out on and our cats all objected strenuously, so I have no idea if it's anything even approximately Millie-shaped. I'm really anxious to learn whether or not it fits her and to see pictures if it does! Are you listening, Marg?

So now I have a date with a roast and the enormous new slow cooker that Ron got me for Christmas but then it's back to the looms - want to get Joey naked ASAP so I can dress him up in crackle (ooo, crackle for rocker upholstery - woot!) and I need to make some design decisions about the blanket for Letitia so that I can get that yarn ordered toot sweet. As I say, never a dull moment!

Shark infested waters

Was reading through a few pattern books yesterday when it dawned on me: I thought I'd planned enough warp on this latest experiment to do two projects, one short cocoon thing and one longer coat-like thing, but they need two panels each and i'd forgotten to double the lengths. Ho hum. I guess I get one project! And then as I was tying on last night (at 1:00 aye em, I might add) I realized that the samples I'd woven last year to decide how to set this wool were done in plain weave and my current experiment is twill, so it should have been set closer. Did I set it closer for this project? No, I did not.

However! I am neither dismayed (much) nor deterred! This is simply an opportunity to practice what I preach to my students and tell myself: no one else can see the image you had in mind when you started this project, so they'll never notice the ways in which it isn't like the original plan! They will simply see a lovely piece of weaving and no one will ever know it wasn't what you intended.

Unless, you know, you blab about it to everyone online. Ahem.

Two lessons here: I always think more clearly at 1:00 aye em than at 1:00 pee em, and whenever experiments go absolutely swimmingly, watch for sharks.



As you can see, I went right ahead and started weaving the twill at 10 epi and even though Oh My Goodness I have to beat lightly, I think it'll work. The little zig zags are beginning to appear just as they ought (shark alert?) and I'm hopeful once it's wet finished and all pulls together, it'll be a very light and lovely fabric. There'll be plenty for one cocoon and maybe some leftovers for some of the other things I started cooking up as I laid in bed last night, so who cares about the missing coat that only I know about? Not me!

WebCam 01.08.09

Here's what's on the big loom right now:



They're baby blankets done using 8/8 cotton for both warp and weft (tho I might use 4/8 for the weft on the last one just to compare fabric weights). This is a bit heavier than the baby blanket in my last post; I used a 4/8 cotton boucle in the weft for that one. I'm planning to finish off the ends of these with cotton flannel. There's a sale on flannel prints at my local fabric store right now, too - yay for fortuitous timing! I'm also looking forward to using my spanky (but rather scary looking) new bias tape maker that makes tape 1" wide, which is what I used on all four edges of the other blanket.

I'm just about done with blanket #3 of 4. I used a light green for the weft in this one, which I quite like:



I used a slightly darker green with a bluer cast for the one before this and didn't like it as much. Still nice, but I prefer the lighter colours. I used a light blue for the first one and it was oh, SO nice. Too bad I didn't snap a pic of that one, eh wot? Not sure yet what to use for #4. Considering yellow, considering natural, considering another of the pretty, pretty light blues... I've still got another 14" or so to decide, but I want to get these done tonight or in the morning so that I can pick up the fabric while I'm out tomorrow afternoon.

My latest warp! Patricia saw my work in our shop back in May and ordered a blanket. She has a somewhat eclectic combination of styles and patterns in her bedroom, so chose a number of colours to tie them all together. It was the teal colour (oddly named "grey heather") that she fell in love with in the shop, so I emphasized that for her. This angle shows the wide white and multicoloured stripe off to nice effect:




The second photo shows a close up of the white and multi-coloured stripe. It's the first time in a long while that I've done narrow stripes of regularly arranged colours, and I like it! As you can see, the multi stripe is half meadow green, one quarter yellow and one quarter copper. Since there's less of the yellow and copper in the warp than anything else, those are the colours I've emphasized in the weft stripes, which I've done in alternating plain and basket weave.



The last angle shows the ratio of white/multi to teal a bit better. Really, about 2/3rds of the warp is teal and the rest is the off-centre stripe. I based stripe width and placement on the Fibonacci series.

WebCam 20.04.07

First, I should introduce my looms. I have two: Mabel, a 60" Glimakra-clone 4 shaft counter balance with brand spankin' new DIY sectional beam, and Maybe Joey, a LeClerc Minerva 22" 8 shaft double back beam jack. Mabel was so named because I thought at the time that she was made of maple. Good job I didn't know then that she's actually made of birch! Maybe Joey was so named because I wasn't really sure what to call him. Seven years later I'm still not.



At the moment, Mabel is wearing a lovely 100% cotton warp threaded in the unplain weave I use for quite a bit of my production. I've got two blankets done so far - the first in vieux bleu and the second (at left, and in the pillow pic in previous post) in orange pale. There's enough left on for some pillow fabric or maybe a baby blanket. This is an experimental warp in many ways: it's my first full sized (i.e. 50" wide) heavy cotton production blanket warp, it's a new colour palette and, apart from a short 16"x 3 yd tester warp, it's the first time I've used my DIY sectional beam. (More on this later.) I am happy to report that the experiment is a success! I love the colour palette (which Mom has dubbed "Seaside"), nothing that might've gone wrong with the sectional system has, and the fabric weight promises to be quite lovely for blankets once it's wet finished - which will happen just as soon as the delivery guys bring my new washing machine tomorrow!




Joey, on the other hand, is sporting a more au naturel look - I wove off his last warp a few days ago (the fabric in my Very First Pillow, in fact!) and haven't put anything new on him yet. He's not completely bereft of company, however, which is very au naturel for both looms in a house with four cats, I assure you.

That's natural fibres, you understand...

... like wool, silk or cotton. Those of you looking for whole grains had best surf right on by as you shan't find any here. Not that I have anything against whole grains, mind you - I simply don't consume them in the same quantities as wool or cotton, which I go through by the kilo. Can you imagine eating that much bran in one sitting? The mind reels.

Now that the dieters have moved on to grainier pastures, I shall explain myself: I'm a handweaver and this is meant to be an account of all things textile in which I'm involved. I was going to call it my WebLog (woven fabric is called a web, you see - as in "oh what a tangled web we weave...") but I figured I'd tire of the pun pretty quickly. WebCam is almost certain to make a regular appearance, however! (See the first installment above.)

Mostly this will consist of warps on my looms and textile projects underway so that people who're interested in what I'm up to can keep tabs on me (Hi, Mom!) and those who've promised to pester me into productivity can see how well they're succeeding (or not). There will also be a smattering of other weavers' projects, stuff related to my local weavers' guild or the classes I teach, weaving drafts I want to share, etc. etc.

So... welcome! I hope you enjoy this blog more than a bowl full of bran. I know I will!

- Janet