Two Towels Finished

Here are two of the three towels, washed and hemmed:

All towels have an 8/2 cotton warp. The blue towel has an 8/2 cotton weft and the green towel has a 10/2 perle cotton weft. I used 16/2 cotton for the hem but you can see I’m still getting a flared hem, especially in the green, satin, towel. I guess I'll have to try 20/2 or even 30/2 in the next batch of towels. I think 20/2 might be enough for twills like the blue towel but on something with longer floats like the satin I may need 30/2. I hope I don’t have to resort to sewing thread!

And, finally, I can’t resist posting the picture of this cute guy who I met at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival a few weeks ago:

My Weaving Setup

OK, the pictures of the towels are still in the camera! But, in the meantime, here is my setup on the AVL loom:

I have a wonderful sliding bench made by Walt Turpening. I don’t need the sliding bench for this loom but I use it because it is so comfortable. We designed the top part so that it can be used as a threading bench and it is great for that task – just the right height. Nothing can make threading comfortable, but this is the best setup I’ve had.

Then, there’s the Ott-lite over the piece I’m weaving. I have decent overhead light but find the task light helps. I think Ott-lites are overpriced and there are other options available now, but this is what I have and it works well. The other lamp over the castle is used when I’m warping from the back.

Finally, the computer sits on the castle where I can keep an eye on what the dobby is doing. This is an old laptop and its only job is to drive the loom, so it lives here permanently. Mostly, once I get started, I don’t look at the computer much unless I have to reverse to unweave something or when I get near the end of the piece to know when I finish a repeat so I can stop.

Not shown is a little table to the left of the loom where I keep paper and pencil, bobbins and pirns, and other stuff that I want handy. Also to the left is my 8-shaft 46” Schacht floor loom which is also a pleasure to weave on and gets projects that either don’t need the complexity of the AVL or the very few things I weave that need the extra width. I’ve said this before but I do think these two will be my “forever” looms – they’re a perfect pair for the kinds of weaving I do.

Washing and Hemming

Here are the three towels as they came off the loom. The two satin ones have different sides but the blue block twill one looks the same from either side.

I should have left them together until after I washed them but I cut them apart while zig-zagging the hems to make it easier to sew. By cutting them apart before washing, though, my ends look like fuzzy caterpillars:

I have to trim these before turning under to make the hem. This is what it looks like trimmed – still not as nice as it would have been if I waited and cut them after washing:

My pictures of the finished towels are still in the camera – I’ll show them next post.

I managed once again to conquer the dreaded sewing machine. You’ve heard of dogs that are “one-person dogs.” Well, our sewing machine is a one-person dog – it clearly favors my wife. I’ve learned to outsmart it, though, and after I set it up I use a scrap piece of fabric to sew a little before I let it touch one of my woven articles.

Three Towels Done and Off the Loom

Monday is jury day at the gallery and I wanted to put a few towels in this month, so after I wove the third towel on this warp I cut them off the loom. A few threads were getting a little wonky anyway, so this will let me fix the tension on them. Here’s the third towel on the loom:

(Should have trimmed the loose thread before taking the picture). This is similar to the last towel I showed and I actually designed this one first and then thought it was a little too busy so I took out some of the spots. I like the sparser, green one better, but this is ok. Again, this one used 10/2 perle cotton for the weft. Here is the other side as I was cutting it off:

I called this a satin block weave, but it’s I’m not sure that’s a good description. Satin has warp floats and sateen has weft floats. The reverse side of any satin cloth is sateen and when both appear on the same side of the cloth it is called damask. On these last two towels, the side that was up on the loom (the side with the colored spots) has a mostly satin background and the spots are a single, somewhat altered, block of sateen.

Now, my least favorite part of weaving – I need to use the dreaded sewing machine to zig-zag the hem ends, then wash the towels and cut them apart and hand hem them. The sewing machine used to hate me although, over time, we have come to a sort of grudging peace. I don’t mind hemming so much although it is time consuming. The gallery would accept machine-hemmed items but I like them better when they’re done by hand, so I just do it.

Now on the Loom

OK, this is do or die for the blog. I’m either going to post at least once a week or finally decide that blogging is not for me.

I got a 40 shaft loom last year and I’m still learning how to design with that much flexibility. I long ago decided that I’m not an artist but a fine craftsperson. If you give me a blank piece of paper and a box of crayons and tell me to draw something, and then come back in two hours I’ll be sitting there with a blank piece of paper and a box of crayons. But I have no problem taking one or more weave structures and making something interesting happen with them. I have no desire for a Jacquard loom because I consider that “art” and wouldn’t know what to do with it, but with 40 shafts I’m just constrained enough that I feel more comfortable designing something.

Well, what’s on the loom now is a long warp of 8/2 unmercerized natural cotton threaded as a 36-shaft straight draw with another two shafts allocated to a half-basket selvage. I put this on so I can play with different designs and get something useful out of them. For the second towel on this warp I decided I’d like to do a block satin design. Well, that sounded easier than it was.

First problem was that satin blocks don’t fit together nicely without producing horrendous floats. Without going into a lot of detail, true satin requires at least 5 shafts and the most basic satin has 4-thread floats. When you put these together you get a lot of 8-thread floats, which are not acceptable in a towel (or most other functional items). So, the first thing I need to do was spend a lot of time enumerating the different blocks of 5-thread satin and inverting them or rotating them to find ways to combine them without getting the big floats. I haven’t done and exhaustive study (but probably will – I’m a mathematician by training) but I did enough to get the floats down to 5 threads.

The next problem was that I had a 36 shaft threading which is not a multiple of the 5-thread satin blocks. I used 35 shafts with the satin and had to figure out what to do with the 36th thread. The easy solutions either brought back longer floats than I wanted or produced an ugly line between pattern repeats. As you’ll see in the photo, my solution was ok but you can still see where the 36th shaft is. So a lesson I’ve already learned but managed to make myself re-learn is to design things where the design repeats are even multiples of the threading.

Anyway, I did two satin block designs and here is the first one I’ve woven:

The weft here is 10/2 perle cotton. This is what it looks like on the computer as I’m weaving:

Warp Planning

I dyed four 2 ounce skeins of 8/2 Tencel a while back and two of them went together pretty well but I didn’t have enough of them to make a long warp without combining them with some commercially-dyed Tencel. This was my box of possibilities – the funny looking cones are the hand-dyed yarn.

I ended up not using the yellow yarn, the silver yarn or the blue/red yarn that is under the silver yarn. I did use all the others. The warp has been wound (8 yards for three scarves) and threaded on the loom. I did a straight draw 32-shaft threading. I’ll show pictures of the warp on the loom in a day or two.

I’ve only designed one of the three drafts that I will use and I haven’t yet decided on the weft colors. It took about two weeks for me to settle on the warp. I’ll try a few weft colors with the one draft I designed and then see what I like. I didn’t put enough warp on the loom to allow for sampling, so I’ll weave a little in the header to test colors but then I’ll have to pull it out before twisting the fringe.

Putting 2200 Heddles on the Loom

Here are my new 40 shafts waiting patiently to get their quota of heddles.

I’ll put 100 each on shafts 1-4 and 50 each on the other shafts, so that I can do tied weaves without messing with the heddles. Here’s the loom patiently waiting to get its shafts back:

And here (I don’t think this is going to be fun) are the 2200 heddles:

But it will be fun when they’re all on and I can start using the loom.

Crossed Thread – Broken Thread

I had something very weird happen today. I had a warp on the loom for two scarves. I wove one scarf, cut it off and finished it. Then I tied on again and wove about 35 inches when I made a mistake and had to unweave about an inch. While I was unweaving I kept catching a thread about half way through the warp. I finally figured out that two threads were crossed between the heddles and the reed. However, I saw no evidence of this in the first scarf or the first 35 inches of the second scarf! In fact, I looked back on the scarf on the loom and only one “cell” had a float in it that would indicate a problem – everything before that wove correctly. So, …, did the weaving gods visit during the night and cross two threads just to make the project more interesting? Or, did the cross somehow stay back where it wasn’t obvious and just managed to work its way forward after 120 inches of weaving? Who knows.

Anyhow, I had to cut the two threads and resley them. I then had to treat them as broken threads. I don’t use the '”book” method for broken threads because it just leaves you with two sets of ends to needle weave in. I just get a new thread (or in this case two threads) long enough to finish the scarf and T-pin them in with weights on the back of the loom. Then, I just forget about the original thread unless, e.g., I had a third scarf on the loom, in which case I would reattach if for the third scarf. This way I only have one place where broken warp ends overlap instead of two.

Here’s the new set of threads (the ends of the old threads are already woven in:

Just-in-time Gift

Finished weaving Thursday night about 10:30 pm. Friday morning into washer and dryer. Came off the ironing board at 1:15 and we were out the door on the way to the wedding at 2:15. Whew! They loved it, though.

Busy Week – Table Runner

Too many deadlines this week. Friends are getting married on Friday and last week Dolly said why don’t we weave them something. So, I took her up on the offer and she wound the warp, I beamed it, she threaded and sleyed, and now I’m weaving. Goal is 20” per day for the next three days and then off the loom and into the washer and dryer Friday morning.

On top of that, I’m twisting fringe on three scarves that just came off one of the looms and I’m starting to weave two deflected doubleweave scarves that I hope to have all done by Sunday because Monday is jury day at the gallery. I’m thinking the beginning of next week will not see much weaving – I’ll need a break.

My amiga, Catherine Mayo, who has a great writer’s blog, just had a post about blogging, and she advises writers to write about something other than their new book. I’m thinking it might be nice to blog about something other than what’s on the loom – maybe I’ll post more.

Anyway, here’s the design for the table runner. It’s basically a shadow weave design with some variations.  I’m pretty sure these friends don’t read my blog ;-)

Color Gamps Drying on the Line

I’ve had a color gamp warp on one of my table looms for longer than I’d like to admit and this week I decided to weave with two colors per day until I finished it and could cut it off the loom. Today it came off – finally!

The one I just finished was a plain weave gamp, but I had four others that used different weave structures.

Here are all five of them hanging out to dry:

Once they’re dry and ironed, I’ll try to get close-up pictures of some of the more interesting ones and post them.

(Incidentally, I love Windows Live Writer).

New Blogging Software and Doubleweave Windows

I’m trying out the Windows Live Writer as a way to generate my posts instead of the web interface on blogspot, which I’ve never been crazy about.

Here’s a picture of a doubleweave placemat that I wove recently.

Doubleweave is my favorite weave structure. This is a fairly simple two-block doubleweave on 8 shafts using five different colors of red yarn. Most of it was either 8/2 cotton or 8/2 cotlin but I think there was some finer cotlin also, maybe 14/2 or something like that.

Right now on the loom I have a warp for three Tencel scarves but it turns out that it’s not a very interesting design, so it’s a struggle for me to sit at the loom and weave. I’ll be selling the loom it’s on (a 16-shaft, 40-inch Macomber). I just finished the second scarf and may cut it off and leave the rest of the warp on for potential buyers to play with.

If I like this Windows Live Writer, I just might post more!

Dyeing

I have done a little bit of dyeing but not enough to feel comfortable with it. We have two dyeing study groups locally but both are full and not taking new members, so when a third group started I jumped in. We had our first dyeing session last weekend and used Procion MX fiber reactive dyes. I dyed four skeins of Tencel, two of cotton and two of a Tencel/silk blend. The results are shown here:

The four Tencel skeins are on the right, the orange ones are cotton and the pale ones are the Tencel/silk blends. I agitated too much when I washed them so they look like a tangled mess. I did wind one of the Tencel skeins into a ball and it worked fine. I'm sure the cotton skeins will also unravel well, but I'm pretty sure the Tencel/silk blend skeins are toast. They're not only very tangled but for some reason they didn't take the dye very well, so I'm not all that unhappy to lose them. I'll try to unravel them but I don't have much hope.

Now that I've got these under my belt, I may be more inclined to just set aside a day for dyeing in the basement. I'd like to play with more color blending and then, later, try some acid dyes on protein fibers.

Reading for Study Group

I am in a fantastic study group for multishaft weaving and this year our topic is "Design Your Own Cloth." We are doing an intensive study of weave structures. Here are the books I'm reading as we go along. I'm trying (but not always succeeding) to read the appropriate chapters in each book for each month's topic. It's incredibly interesting and I'm learning a lot.

Sharon Alderman's Mastering Weave Structures is an amazing book. All you have to do is read the chapter on plain weave to know that if you read this book carefully you will have a lifetime of weaving ideas.



Ann Sutton's book, The Structure of Weaving, is another great inspirational book. When I read this book or Sharon Alderman's, I just want to run to the loom and try things. Unfortunately, it's a lot easier to get ideas than to actually execute them - the loom refuses to warp itself.



Irene Emery's book, The Primary Structure of Fabrics, is a classic, and rightly so. It puts all of these structures in context.



And, finally, there is Doramay Keasbey's great book, Pattern Techniques for Handweavers, which shows you how to design the textiles.


All in all, it looks to be a fabulous, although fairly intense year for this study group. We've also grown this year and have several new members who will bring their ideas into the group.

Bookbinding

I haven't yet posted anything about my bookbinding. I haven't been as active with that craft but I recently started back up and made a few books. These are two of them. Bookbinding is a nice sideline to weaving because the books get done a lot quicker than a textile, so there is a bit more immediate satisfaction from having completed something. I'm planning to do some experimenting with weaving my own book cloth so that I can bind the books with handwoven material. Right now, I'm using commercial book cloth and decorated paper, some hand make (but not by me) and some printed.

Doubleweave and Color-and-Weave

I haven't been posting for a while - more on that later - but for now, here are two scarves I recently wove on the same warp. The first is a doubleweave scarf that I designed and was the reason I put this warp on the loom. It was quite difficult to weave - 4 blocks on 16 shafts and heavy lifting - so I didn't want to weave a second one even though I put on a warp for two scarves. So, I resleyed the warp to a looser sett and wove the second scarf as color-and-weave. Two interesting but totally different scarves.

As for why I haven't been posting, I just feel that I should post photos with my posts, but I'm willing to spend five minutes writing a post, but the extra little time involved in taking a photo, uploading it to the computer, adjusting it so it looks nice, etc. is just enough to discourage me. So, I think I'll try posting for a while but not showing current photos - I'll wait until I've processed the photos and then talk about that project.

The two scarves that just came off the loom today use a combination of five-thread plain weave blocks alternating with five-thread satin blocks on a painted warp. One has a purple weft and the other a red, slightly bumpy weft. I like them both but you'll have to wait until at least next Monday to see them ;-)

Towels Off Loom

The six towels (and a towelette from extra warp) are off the loom. Here are pictures of them, some from the "front" and some from the "back:"


And, here's a close-up picture of one of them:


I was happy with them as they came off the loom, but when I washed them I got a lot of tracking and the patterns became quite muddled. You can still see them from a distance, but up close, the pattern gets lost. Quite a disappointment. I used a combination of cotlin and 8/2 unmercerized cotton from a mill-end batch. Next time I may try mercerized cotton for the colored yarn, although I'm not sure which of the yarns caused the problem. Maybe next time I won't do six towels before I see how they wash.

Towels

I've been out of town and not weaving for a few days but I just finished towel #6. I warped for six towels but still have warp left for another, possibly shorter, 7th towel. Here's a picture of the first one:



This isn't my favorite pattern of the ones I've done - I'll post more when they're off the loom. I need to get the 7th one woven tomorrow and finish at least a few to put in our gallery on Tuesday, which is jury day.

I joined another guild - three wasn't enough. For years I resisted joining the Weaver's Guild of Greater Baltimore because they meet the night before the Central Pennsylvania Guild of Handweavers and I just can't bring myself to go to two guild meetings in twelve hours - one 45 minutes away and the other 2 hours away. But I also felt bad about not belonging to a close and very active guild. Some day I'll find the secret of 36 hour days.

Well, let's give this blog thing another try. I seem to stop and go in spurts.

The crackle scarves have been off the loom a long time - one is actually sold and gone. Maybe I'll post pictures of them sometime later just for closure.

I now have a warp on the Macomber loom to make six towels. The warp is half cotton and half cotlin, both in a natural color. Here is a picture of how I thread the loom when going back-to-front.



I hold all the shafts up by sticking a strong rod under the metal lifters at the castle. Then I still need to use a really short stool so the heddle eyes are about at my eye level. I tried a regular chair but it hurt my back. Of course, the lower stool hurts my knees, but not as much as the other one hurts my back.

My studio is in the lower level of the house and it's winter, so the room is about 5 degrees colder than the rest of the house, hence the heater blowing warm air on my feet.

The towels will be a set of fancy 16-shaft twills. I'm actually weaving the third one today, but will save the pictures for later in the week.

When the Cardboard Falls

I use corrugated cardboard rolls to pack my warp beam and one of the most satisfying parts of a project is when the cardboard falls off and thunks onto the floor. That means the project is almost finished and ready to come off the loom.

I recently heard about something called rosin paper, though, and bought a big roll at Home Depot and plan to use it instead of the cardboard. It is a thinner paper, but very sturdy. More on this in some later post.

I got my crackle scarves off the loom last week but don't plan to post pictures until I get them finished and washed. They are quite different. On one I treadled 24 picks of each block A to H and back to A and repeated that for the whole scarf. I got a nice diamond an X pattern. On the other one, I had a regular pattern but I varied the picks per block and I did five blocks in sequence, then backed up three, then forward again ... On that one I got a series of wobbly V's. The patterns are both pretty subtle, though, and I'm anxious to see how they look when washed. But not anxious enough to be in a huge hurry to twist fringe ;-)

Next project, in the planning stages, is a bunch of tea towels in an 8/2 Cotton/linen blend using different fancy twill patterns. I haven't decided whether to use 8-shaft or 16-shaft twills. The latter, of course, have more variety, but they probably mean I have to crawl under the Macomber in the middle of the project to change the tie-up. That prospect alone heavily favors the 8-shaft twills.