Ikat class piece, lessons learned and another cautionary tale

 

I took Mary Zicafoose's slipped ikat class over Zoom through our guild in September.  FABULOUS class. Absolutely brilliant.

I made a "cartoon" in a spreadsheet then tied white 8/2 tencel and dyed it in Procion "Bronze" fiber reactive dye. There's some black tencel in there as well.  Weft is a 16/2 cotton fortuitously commercially dyed a close color, and it's woven in a straight twill reversing at the center. 

My intention was to have triplets of white, descending, on each side of center with small chevrons in the border. the three white stripes just below center came out pretty much as I envisioned, the rest did not. Design wise, I like the center although the two groups of three should be offset slightly more; and I'd prefer that the upper triplet be as concise as the lower. The space on the outside of the triplets could be slightly narrower. For the border pieces, I would either set them further apart or leave them straight; either way, though, they need to be more concise, the mud that is on the top border is just sloppy work.

What went wrong:

1. The tencel had some worn spots on it; I think there was abrasion on a part of the cone; but I decided to proceed anyways, predicting the worst that could happen was broken threads.
2. I'm pleased with the color but I'd aimed at darker; I had a limited window to dye and my scale wouldn't power on; futzing with the scale compressed the amount of time I left my yarn in the dye. Either the quantity of dye or the timing resulting in a lighter color.
3. As I dressed the loom, I slipped groups of yarn then knotted the back beam side of the warp. In a previous piece I'd attached those to the back apron rod with string, so on this piece I tried looping the bout over the apron rod and securing it with the knot. I don't think this was a good idea.
4. As I wound on, I realized that my alignment wasn't what I wanted it to be. I was torn between redoing it or declaring it a class learning piece, and decided to move on, threading the heddles and reed.
5. At this point, I wished I'd fixed it and debated rebeaming. I wasn't sure the delicate parts of the tencel could handle rebeaming, so I left it and started weaving.
6. About three inches into weaving, I realized the tension was really wonky. I examined the loom and found the locking arm that holds the back beam out was not locked on one side. There were bad words, then I fixed it and tied on again. I debated rebeaming but again decided against it. 
7. About 12 inches into weaving the tension went to shit again. I debated tearing out the 12 inches and rebeaming it but threw some weights on the loose parts and kept weaving.
8. The tension got worse and worse. At about 3' into the project I had a glass of wine and cut it off the loom.
9. It's possible that the tension issues caused some of the misalignment, but I didn't analyze that.

What have I learned? All of my issues went back to the first item on this list, using material that I was concerned about.  I should have rebeamed by step 6 and risked the broken threads.  Not listening to my inner voice has been a problem in the past and it's a problem again.

Getting ready to wind up the year a bit early...

Well, I'll be away from the studios for a few weeks so before I go I might as well share what I've been up to.

Inked up rubbing plate and brayer

First, I needed some holiday cards and couldn't come up with a design... but I flashed on the fact that I had ink, cards, and some clever rubbing plates from Dharma Trading.  The cards are crappy cardstock from Michaels, but it wipes out my stash of them (yay destash!) and I like the look. I even printed the envelope backs! Here are some of them.

The non-denominational holiday card

 I also did a test print of the linked figures (or dancing girls) but the plate needs a little more work before printing; and I want to figure out the registration tabs I bought. I suspect this will be next year's fun.

The rugs are also off the loom but I'm not pleased with them. The selvedges are wonky, the beat is uneven and I can't get the edges sewn under in a way that is pleasing to me. There's a lot to learn about rug making that does not come naturally just because you can weave other things and I fear that I am not the kind of person who can learn this from a book. I'm looking for a class and have identified a few locations but I'll have to travel and 2024 is looking pretty busy! Meanwhile I'm going to watch Tom Knisely's video and I'm stalking another online class. I'll post photos of the rugs in another post and I think we can expect more rugs in the future. Regardless of my disappointments, once they're on the floor they look good and they're squishy soft and warm to walk on!

On the other projects, 

• What happened to the ikat? I'll give that little disaster it's own post later. Let's just say I rage-cut it off the loom when it became problematic so I have a piece of fabric, not a scarf.
• I'm stalled on the table to figure out the background; I have a few ideas but haven't settled on any yet.
• I'm part way through threading the Yarn Palace Graceful to do a test weave. 
• I'm still knitting on Shiny, which will probably become vacation knitting.
• The sheep shirt is still stalled.

I don't know if I've mentioned in this blog that I'm declaring 2024 a Stashdown year. That's where I use up as much stuff as I can from stash, adding as little as possible to compliment the things I have. I'll also try to complete some semi finished projects. I need placemats and runners for the Lodge, a few more rugs, maybe some tapestry, some towels, yardage, maybe a handspun blanket... I'd also like to work with some of the quilting fabric and some of the garment sewing fabric, and make a dent in my glass and tile stash. Let's see where this goes!

Calculating Sett from YPP for Graceful

A picture of a yarn ball is better
than no picture at all

I've been wanting to try to weave with The Yarn Place Graceful in my stash for YEARS but have been afraid to 'cause it's super thin. It's a "cobweb" weight yarn that very slowly changes color; looking at the colors on the ball leads me to think weaving it on itself would give me some splendid iridescence. I decided to give it a go as one of my looms is empty so I am trying to guess a sett based on YPP... 

The label says 1804 yards/100g (Why? Why? Why do they mix imperial and metric?) 

My rounded calculations gave me 8190 yards/lb, so I went to the Master yarn chart. It's between these two entries but obviously much closer to the 36/2. It's interesting that the recommended setts are the same.

36/2 wool; 8,950 yd/lb (18,025 m/kg); 24, 36, 45

28/2 wool; 6,880 yd/lb (13,885 m/kg); 24, 36, 45

Then I thought of the Ashenhurst formula? It's a way of finding diameters per inch (WPI) including a fudge factor for yarn squishiness...  Here's a couple of lightweight articles on it:

https://notsorigidweaver.com/posts/ashenhurst-calculator/

https://www.schoolofsweetgeorgia.com/avoid-the-wrap-how-to-use-math-to-estimate-yarn-diameter/

Then you calculate a sett number based on interlacements (i.e., closer sett for twill than plain weave as there are less interlacements). Or just follow the suggestions on either of those web pages.

I think I'm going to sample with a turned twill at 36 TPI, I suspect that'll show off the changes in the yarn color nicely.

Left is 30 EPI, plain weave over twill
Right is twill at 35 EPI

Updating with sampling results... I have a turned twill sample at 35 EPI, and turned twill and plain weave at 30 EPI. Both are soft, supple and very very light. DH's comment was "this would make a good summer or fall scarf". I wet finished both by aggressive rubbing it against itself in cold water with soap. The 35 is very appealing to me and the 30 feels just this side of sleazy (yes, that's a weaving term). I'm going to show the samples to friends and to my weaving group and make a decision from there.

I chose the twill to hide the color changes but I'm surprised I don't mind them in the plain weave.

Round poppy table, playing with options..

Poppy's progress

 I've been working on the round poppies table, to sit next to the grill... I finally got the side and edge pieces on and started adding poppies. They are not perfect but I'm pretty pleased with them; I just need one more.

My initial thought was to create an army of leaf shapes and to fill the complete background with that. I still haven't decided if that's how it's going to go or not... but I do want some type of gradient for the background as opposed to 2-4 shades of green put in willy-nilly. I've been thinking a lot about this, and finally decided I needed to mock it up, but how?

After looking at several drawing type programs which were much more complicated than I needed, I landed on just using the markup function from the photos app on my iPad. It won't give me a lot of detail, but right now I'm looking for an overall feel for the piece and I think I can get that with markups. Here's the current three candidates.

I wondered if dark or light was better around the poppies? I don't think I like the dark, it looks like orange flowers on a bush. All of the color fields would be mixed and the edges blended...

The concept here was more mixed, but fading from a light center to a darker perimeter.

The third was  pretty much opposite of the first.

Of the three, I don't care for the first; the second is my favorite; but I haven't ruled out the 3rd, although it'll be hard for me to get the dark center round enough to look right... 

I've got some decisions to make on color and and andemento and hopefully will start on the background later this week! I'm hoping to have the table done as the grilling season fades into the rainy season... Bad timing, I know, but at least I'll be ready for next year!

In other news, I'm 15 inches or so away from finishing the rugs, 1/3 of the way through weaving the ikat scarf from the Mary Z class, working my way through the Shiny sweater, and have carved the lino block but not test printed the "linked figures" ("dancing women"). The sheep shirt is stalled, I was confused about setting in the sleeve but I think I'm good to proceed now.

G&M visited as well and brought a Barbera that G had crafted; it won a Gold medal at a local prestigious competition. The Internet told me the best pairing would be wild boar ragu; I "hunted" some down (finally found some in Dittmer's freezer, labeled both wild boar and feral swine) and used a NYT recipe... served with a simple green salad and polenta. It was excellent. The wine was incredible. The pairing was solid. And such a joy to see G&M.

Where oh where has October gone?

 Somehow the month of October has evaporated... 

We spent a week in New Mexico seeing the Balloon Fiesta (AMAZING!), an annular eclipse, and a whole mess of family... then spent a few days in Santa Fe...  Atrisco at the DeVargas Mall had by far the best red chili we had all trip... 

We did see Meow Wolf and my first reaction is that they must have had a 6 figure epoxy budget! I think it could be interesting to revisit with some time to try to solve the mystery, find all the rats, all without the kid traffic that was there on a weekend afternoon. 

But back to work... 

• I've been knitting away at Shiny, it's slow going (super thin yarn, and it doesn't get a lot of time, so I'm good with that!)
• I skeined up the rest of the goat yarn I'd plied and am looking forward to finishing the plying.
• I got back into the mosaic studio (it needs a good cleaning) and promptly bled all over the place while I finished the border on the table, set in the two already cut poppies, and cut 3 more.  I think the number of poppies will be 7? or 9? I had a plan for the non-poppy part of the table but I'm rethinking it...  Next step is to finish the poppies and to design the next project. Stepping stones or table top? Hmmm.... I can design while I finish the table. I do want to set some of the crash glass into a piece with regular stained glass and grout to see what it looks like. That might inform some of the design decisions.
• I started making the sheep shirt. The double gauze is fussy and unpleasant to work with. I tried once more to do Ronda's method of not using a back collar facing and after doing it a few times, I just don't like it; mine always looks messy. So IF I make another camp shirt, I'll do a back facing. 
• I started threading the ikat but have not progressed on it.
• I'm still weaving the rugs but having a hard time with too little vs too much weft... So the first rug is unpleasantly either too sparse or bumpy. The second rug (I'm 1/3 through) is better and I think I'm finally getting it. I suspect after steaming and some use they'll be fine as next to the bed rugs but I'm currently not pleased.
• I had done a drawing for a lino block; I need new cards; I think I mentioned the "linked figures" on the 6000 year old Persian vase that I'd seen in a museum in Boston; today I carved two of the figures (I call them dancing women) on lino and should be doing some test prints and cards later this week. I invested in a new setup for registration so that should be fun to play with.

I love this vessel

I realize I'll be heading out on vacation in about 6 weeks so will need to figure out what I can take with me, what I can finish before I go, what I can leave for when I get back. More on that later.

What I'm not doing is spending anytime with the images I capture when I'm traveling, and no time on analysis of the things that I see that intrigue me. That drove me to decide I need to do 3 pieces of art from the photos I capture this year; and I need to create a space for inspirations (photos and discussion). Kind of like an artists diary.

I spent some time with a lovely book of samples from the Complex Weavers "Cross Country Weavers group" and was awed at what they produced... I dutifully sent the binder off to it's next destination but realized as it left that I learned almost nothing from it. I would think that I could come up with a one pager detailing what I saw and learned... That would also be something to add to the inspirations space.

So there will be a few posts named or tagged inspirations where I mention some of the things that I see that intrigue or delight me! I'll start on the first one now.

Inspiration Post #1

 Here are some of the things that have delighted me recently...

This table runner at a AirB&B in Santa Fe. Yarn was relative thin, maybe 16/2, warp dominant to warp faced, thicker (red) weft, with bands of supplemental warp. It has a hand similar to rep but the yarns were much finer than I'm used to. The color progression is so happy.

I was/am inspired by the Cross Country Weavers notebook; the instructions that came with the notebook mentioned it was okay to take a couple of photos but I feel it would be wrong to post those to a public blog. Sometime in the future I'll talk about what I did photo and what it's meant to me as inspiration.

Kelly Mondola Koza talked to our Guild this month on textiles from Sardinia; it was a fascinating discussion. I captured a couple of images. from samples she passed around.  I like way these bursts of color are inserted, and the color combos are fantastic.

This was also from Sardinia... I didn't identify the weave but thought it would be an interesting block structure.

I saw this at Farm and Table in Albuquerque, and then saw a shy bird that looked just like it. I'd like to try to lino block this. I feel bad about copying someone else's image... but I'm not doing it commercially, just doing it for practice. I'd put this on the list of copying someone else's work to learn the technique. I'm betting it's a screen print, not a block print... I like the way the lines from the plant seem to flow effortlessly into the lines of the bird feathers.

Q3'23 finished things (7/17)

Done:

• 

  Two yards of 1/2" band

  Camp shirt from Kuala Lumpur batik
• Camp shirt from paper yarn
• Afternoon Tea Shawl 
• Sample from Inge Dam class at CNCH
• Card Woven Band
• Knitted Cowl
• Diversified Plain Weave sample for the study group.

I was listening to KQED a few weeks ago and heard an interview with  Jennifer Breheny Wallace, on her book "Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic -- and What We Can Do About It"

The talk focused the effects on our children of expecting constant achievement from them. What occured to me is that the people I'm in weaving classes with are likely the same parents she talks about. These are the people that expect to produce an expert piece the very first time they try a technique and who do not give themselves room for experimentation and the possibility of failure. This is just my opinion, not having read the book, but the same parents that are expecting this of their children are expecting it of themselves. 

Two key phrases resonated with me. One, that our "failures and setbacks become indictments of our worth to ourselves and those around us". The second was the affirmation that "I am not my achievements and I am not my failures."

I bring this up in the this blog because I am often paralyzed by the need to produce the perfect piece and I don't give myself enough room for experimentation. I'm not currently okay with mediocre or failed results, and I think that blocks my growth as an artist.

Given all of that, is counting finished projects on a quarterly basis toxic for me? I don't think so. Failed projects count the same and successful projects, and I need a representation of what I've been up to.  So I'll happily continue with this, but will also try to stop the dithering and get stuff done!

In the Queue for Q4 and beyond:

Weaving:

• 2 rugs on the big loom.
• The piece from the Mary Z class
• A double faced cardwoven band.
  

Knitting:

• Sand and Sunsets
• Shiny sweater

Quilting:

• There are a couple of quilts I'd like to finish. And I want to continue to explore continuous line designs with my embroidery machine.

Sewing: 

• Stash reduction (this would go better if I stopped buying fabric).
• Sheep shirt
• Shirt for Scott

Other:

• There are mosaic and linocuts I'd like to work on. I've started on the dancing girls. And I worked a tiny bit on the table.
• It occurs to me that I have a minimum of 2 nieces, their spouses, and 2 grand-niblings that live in cold climates. Maybe scarves this year? I suspect I'll also have to start thinking about a baby blanket...

Diversified Plain Weave

 I finished my DPW sample... And I'm super glad I just sampled. 

My idea of using a relatively smooth yarn and a boucle yarn of the same color was interesting but I don't think there's enough texture variation to make it cloth I'd like to weave, which is super disappointing as I was in love with the idea.  Plus it was super hard to weave.  If I want to do this, I need to start with a light colored 8/2 cotton that similar to the boucle so there's a color contrast as well as a texture contrast. I haven't included a photo of the fabric with the boucle as it just doesn't show the pattern at all. 

Warp runs side to side (sorry!)

From the right to left, then weft thread is solid in gold and dark green, then a very pale grey, followed by a very unevenly dyed light pastel green; I really like the painterly effect.  Yes I see the threading error. Had this not been a sample I would have fixed it but didn't find it necessary in the sample.

Warp running top to bottom

This is more of the green plus two different pinks with the same blotchy dye job. 

I also sampled with tencel; it looked very similar to the solid samples, with slightly more luster; it felt like it had a better hand for garments. The tencel gives it drape but the cotton gives it structure. The 8/2 cotton may be too thick for the type of garments I'm currently sewing.

It would be interesting to play more with thicker threads (maybe some wools?) to see what that does. Also the idea of using different colored thin threads is something to consider.

I'm proud of the fact that I started with an idea, created a profile draft, then created a full draft from that.  Now that I know a little more about the structure, I can go back to the other draft and see if I want to continue developing that idea.

I did flash on the idea of making bibliographies for the structures we're studying in my study group... and to put those in the Guild library. Here's the first one, for DPW

Too much basil

I harvested the basil while I could and found that I had way too much of it... I made a double batch of pesto but ran out of pine nuts and olive oil, so augmented with pistachios and regular oil. I added in yeast instead of cheese to make it vegan. I don't think the subs helped but I won't use that recipe again, it's not quite pesto... but is a wonderful sandwich spread. I was left with a lot of basil, so next up was basil salt. I found another recipe with a 1-1 ratio of basil to salt; I made it without the dried garlic; I made two batches and have been giving it away! It's been great on veggies and especially on tomatoes.

As for the rugs, I was happily weaving away with more weft and finished a section only to look at it and realize it's too much weft. I'm debating whether to take it out or not.  

Meanwhile, I need to get one of the two looms cleared off to weave for my ikat class, so I've been working on my Diversified Plain Weave sample piece with half drop dots on it... I switched to using leftover bobbins of random 8/2 cotton as weft to see what different colors look like. My favorite so far is some hand-dyed pastels; it has a pleasing painterly look to it. Looks like I need 6-8 inches of weaving in a new structure to be comfortable with it; when I'm comfortable the beat is more even, the selvedges are better, it's more fun. I'll try to complete this and wet finish it before my study group meeting next week.

I have a tencel warp ready and tied to go in the dyepot for the shifted ikat class, I just need to do the dyeing.

Band in progress

Last weekend, I taught a mini-"class" in how to do a continuous warp for card weaving on an inkle loom; a few folks ended up sick, and few had other commitments, and there was one no-show... and A., my co-instructor had car trouble and ended up showing up just as we were starting to weave, but we did it.  I am not a natural teacher and I am not sure I enjoy the process; because of the class size this was a lot more like showing a couple of friends than teaching a class, and a couple of folks went home warped and ready to weave. I wove off the rest of my demo warp today.

Just a note on the colors for the band. The dark color is equal amounts of a dark loden green and a dark brown together... the white is a white and natural. I cannot see the difference in the band; maybe the whites, if you look very closely? I came up with this a few bands ago because I was lazy. By using two seperate cones, I didn't need to wind off a cone of another color. I think it enhances the look of the band, making it look more dimensional. The key is to use colors that are the same value,  and I think similar in color, although I've never tried it with dissimilar colors with the same value.

I also finished the cowl I was knitting; I never wet finished the yarn so am expecting it to draw in a bit with finishing, but that would be fine... I've got plenty of room to drape it attractively!

There's been some plying on the wheel, too... 

Notes on the Rugs

The rugs have been giving me fits... I've never done an rug on the big loom that's weft faced (I've done a couple of small items using Navajo techniquest) so I'm a bit at a loss for the right technique here.

There have been 2 main issues; the weft doesn't always cover the other color and the sometimes the warp, and the center is occasionally dipping giving me an uneven fell line.

I did some research and found another weft faced rug in Summer and Winter, and in the sections where there are multiple colors, both colors are visible. So I assumed I was doing it correctly. I had no idea what happened to my fell line. Yes I could ask for help but without asking a rug doctor to make a house call, or taking a class, I was a bit at a loss.

I had to pull out 1 1/2 inches today to fix an error; it would have always bothered me. After I'd backed out the error, I had the issue of coverage again and started wondering if I was bubbling the weft enough so that there was plenty of yarn to cover...  Also, I was creating a bubble (about 3" bubble) and pulling it down at the center of the weaving. As I started reweaving, with a larger bubble (about 5" bubble) and pulling the bubble down at the 1/3 and 2/3 points, I noticed that the coverage was MUCH better, the uneven fell was cured and the rug was a bit thicker.

I'm going to continue with the last 1/3 of the rug using the new technique and see if I keep getting good results; the rug will be uneven, and I'll put it on the least visible side of the bed and I will celebrate that I've learned a lot about weaving rugs. The 2nd rug will be better and hopefully more consistent.

On the subject of rugs, the other pattern I found has very different tie up and treadling. I haven't investigated enough to determine if it's really just the same old thing presently differently, or if there is a difference between the two... I'm thinking of trying the latter method for the 2nd rug. I'm also thinking of adding a card woven edge to make it smooth and pretty.

I've been struggling a bit with motivation and was afraid with S. travelling that I would lay on the couch, feel sorry for myself, and not do anything. I let myself be lazy-ish Friday, and yesterday I was in a class most of the day but today I did a bunch of stuff. 

• Worked out (yay!), swam and covered the pool. It was cold and now the pool cover will do its magic. I also made a detailed todo list for tomorrow as tomorrow will be complicated.
• Picked out the errors on the rug, wove it forward, and am now ready for the 3rd color. I also made sure that I'm okay with the likely outcome (imperfect).
• Retensioned the diversified plain weave (more on that later) and wove a bit. I'm trying to differentiate the pattern with texture but I suspect this will be difficult and frustrating to weave. I'll do part of the sample with color.
• Cut out camp shirt #4 out of Japanese double gauze.
• Realized I'm dyeing next week so I dug out the two shirts that need overdyeing and am doing a stitched shibori on them. I started the stitching but will likely finish it at knit night tomorrow.
• Searched for and found my lino cutting tools; now I can cut some lino!!!
• Realized that the pattern I came up with for my ikat scarf isn't great for a Shifted Ikat class (it didn't want shifting) so I came up with Plan B based on the Ikat photos from a book I got in Tokyo. I think I'm ready to wind a warp.
• I added all this info to my blog.

Other things going on:

• I'm knitting on a colorful cowl from handspun that will coordinate with my hiking clothes.
  
• I might take a Jane Dunnewald class with T. in color.
• I do want to take the online quilting class in how to use the Bernina pinpoint placement.

I am holding off starting anything else, as this is a lot; I do tend to overcommit; we'll see what happens in the next few weeks, what with S. out of town and me holding down the fort.

Speed Blocking

Afternoon Tea Shawl

I finished my second Afternoon Tea Shawl and forgot it was soaking in the sink... DH noted it was there and I had 30 minutes before I had to leave for an appointment; how long does it take to block a shawl anyways?

The answer is, longer than you expect. I worked through that shawl VERY QUICKLY, called it speed blocking and got fine results. I barely made it to my appointment on time.

I also finished the piece from the Inge Dam CNCH class; I showed photos of it on the loom and it looks about the same off the loom, so no additional photos of that at this time.

Wheely handy

With the Mac cleared off, I folded it up to take glamour shots of the loom "skateboard". It's basically 4 castors on an old shelf, with some stops to keep the loom from moving while wheeling it about. I used a strap on it when I move it at CNCH.  

Finally, I believe I've made it clear that there will be some cat photos on this blog... Owl has found a new place to nap, when I took out a bag of blocking tiles and left the cabinet open. 

A new source of fiber?

CNCH recap

There's the cards, right in
the middle of a piece of twill

I took Inge Dam's class on weaving a card woven band inside a twill at CNCH last weekend... it was fabulous! Her weaving is amazing, her card weaving is amazing, her dyeing is amazing... And the class, of course, was amazing.

Inge doesn't usually do threaded in patterns for her card woven bands, and they're a pain in the ass to set up... getting the card warp on the loom was a little frustrating but the magic was in what happened once both warps were ready...

Her handouts suggest how to space the card warp in the reed; it's wider than card weaving on it's own, so the usually invisible weft showed through in spots; Inge's told us that wet finishing will solve that. The sparser set makes the hand of the card weaving closer to the hand of the background fabric.

And on the fabric side of the reed

Some notes from when I got home; this may not mean a lot to you but it's good reminders for me.

• Adjusted water in the weight bottles so that the fell line was better; ended up being about a liter for 7 cards. I weighed the filled bottles so they were all the same. AM had recommended I put less water in to fix my fell line and it did. My weaving is more even, too. 
• Keep the card warps in line off the back so they don't tangle with adjacent heddles.
• Use a extra card on the table next to you and turn it front (roll forward) or back (roll backward) to remember which way I'm going
• JN said to trim the ends every time you adjust the warps as she finds it reduces tangling. 
• I'm sure I'll think of something else to note...

I did have some issues getting Baby Mac up and running again; some of the lamms had skipped their track and gone into other tracks, and they were hard to relocate. Also, all of the jacks had fallen out of the frames. I mentioned this to a new-to-me group of weavers and one sent me her detailed how-to-pack-up-a-baby-mac instructions and one thing I think could help would be to relocate the wires at the top of the castle to their bottom position. I have no more trips in the near future, but it's good to know :)

The new weaving sequence (turn cards, treadle, throw shuttle) has started sinking in and it's going faster. Also, I'm finding it easier to detect and fix mistakes I've made with the card warp, so feeling pretty good about this!

My paper shirt made its debut at the conference as well. The bulky underarms were a little uncomfortable at first but either I got used to them or they softened a bit with wear. I feel that the shirt was well received.

Foggy Evening in Morro Bay

All the Paper Shirt deets, all in one place.

In the Fall of 2021, I attended SOAR at the Boulder Colorado Chautauqua; one of my classes was on how to spin paper, taught by Judith Mackenzie. It took a bit of work to get the hang of it but I left the class with a firm resolution to spin some yarn and make something out of it.

Mulberry paper has been spun into thread and woven into cloth in Japan (shifu) for centuries; there are a number of descriptions on the internet of how it’s done.  We used a similar but not identical method to cut continuous strips of tissue paper and of old tissue paper sewing patterns and spin them into yarn! 

For my project, I used some of the old sewing patterns in my closet, and received some from friends. When I discovered I needed more, I went to Fabmo, a local “Non-profit that finds & sells reclaimed fabric” and found a bunch of intact patterns; I choose 1980’s patterns with large shoulder as they were unlikely to be reused.  Here are steps I took to spin the paper:

• Crumple the paper to make it more pliable.
• Check paper grain by tearing a strip or test spinning a strip; make sure you’re cutting with the grain or it will not be spinnable!
• Cut into 1/4” strips with a rotary cutter, then separate into continuous strands similar to shifu cut, then spin.
• I chose to ply with a very thin silk single for strength. 

Close up of finished fabric! 

I spun a 10 yard sample and wet finished it; the yarn was stiff and unappealing until I wet finished it by gently agitating it in a sink full of cold water.  It held together, and softened up enough to be used in a garment, so I kept spinning, 

My yarn was not suitable for warp but looked like it would work well for weft. My yarn turned out to be approximately the same grist  as my 8/2 cotton. I also tried knitting a bit but decided I’d rather weave with it.

I decided to weave the fabric in plain weave for the maximum number of interlacements so that the paper would be well supported. I sampled with a 8/2 cotton warp set at 16 EPI (because that’s what I had on my loom). I tried all paper weft, pick and pick with 8/2 cotton, pick on pick with a thin cotton boucle, and every third pick in paper. The fabric was stiff and unpleasant. I then machine washed the sample in cold water, to make sure it would hold together; it did; I line dried and ironed the sample and decided the pick on pick suited my purposes best. 

 

I had not yet picked out a sewing pattern so I guessed at the width I’d need for a camp shirt and warped up 5 yards of 8/2 cotton (natural color), 14.5 inches in the reed, and started weaving.  Meanwhile I started working on a pattern.

I ended up choosing the Natalie pattern by Seamworks, which unfortunately has a dart; I decided I didn’t want a dart in this bulky fabric… I redrafted the pattern without the dart and made a muslin, then a test garment from linen, and a second test garment from a Malay Batik my husband brought back from a business trip.  By this time the 5 yards of fabric was off the loom so I was almost ready to sew!

Sewing the shirt

There were a few sewing design decisions to make. My fabric had drawn-in/shrunk 13% down to 12.5 inches, so was not wide enough for my pattern pieces.  Also, I didn’t want to put button holes in this fabric, so I solved the problems with the front by making the button bands of unbleached muslin. To complement the look and so that I didn't use the bulkier paper in the collar, I made the collar from muslin as well. The two pieces that would make up the back were also not wide enough, so I put a stripe of double thick muslin down the back (to approximate the same weight as the paper fabric). I followed Daryl Lancaster’s suggestion of using a Hong Kong finish on all the pieces to stabilize the seams before  sewing them together; this worked very well except I had to fuss with the underarm seams to eliminate some bulk.

My biggest surprise was that the plain wood buttons I’d bought for the garment simply did not work. I dug through my mother’s button jar and found 5 silver toned buttons which were perfect!

I wore the shirt open with a tank top underneath to the CNCH 2023 Barbecue and Fashion Show and to my delight it was comfortable and perfect for a summer evening.

Many thanks to Judith and to the folks in that spinning class for the inspiration and to my Sewing with Handwovens Study Group for their suggestions and encouragement!

So happy it's done!

Big swath of muslin in the back

Another shirt...

Crappy photo of me, 
good photo of shirt

I finished a camp shirt from batik S brought me from Kuala Lumpur several years ago; he called me from a marketplace stall and tried to get me to pick some out over the phone (with some texted photos). I made a vest from one of them, and still have 2 or 3 pieces more... It's a little stiff but I think all in all a good use of the fabric. I didn't put a back facing on this one; I like that better; but the finish isn't as nice inside.  And because of the stiffness it doesn't lay quite right on the collar. I wonder if I should have skipped the interfacing? Anyways, I'm now confident in the pattern and am getting ready to start the paper shirt.

For the paper shirt, I think I'm going to go with the back facing and tack it down. And I think the muslin band in the front should be about 1.5". Just a couple more problems to solve and I can start!

Q2'23 Finished Objects (7)

Comboweave yardage

Looking over my Q2 list, I realize that I've become awful at photo'ing my finished objects... Maybe I should make that a prerequisite to calling them "finished"? There was some spinning, too, but it's hard to thing of a finished skein as a finished object...

It does feel good to be finishing things... Here's what I've done:

Weaving:

• 2 pillow tops in beiderwand
• Comboweave fabric, finished on the last day of Q2; this is 8/2 tencel, sett at 27 EPI; colorful warp was dyed in a Kathrin Weber workshop, the rest is commercially dyed. It's twill and basketweave.
  

Knitting:

• Dan Doh's Permutations poncho (alas no photos)
• Sommerloch (also no photos yet)

Quilting:

• Machine quilted runner

Sewing:

• Shirt in linen (no photos... sensing a trend?)
  

Other projects

• Limoncello
• We sleeved and hung 3 of the Ikats on the walls!

And here's what is in progress:

Weaving:

• 2 rugs on the big loom; loom is threaded and I'm ready to start weaving.
• I'm pulling a warp for a class with Inge Dam at CNCH (local weaving conference); the class combines weaving and card weaving in one fabric. I've admired her work and book for quite awhile so I'm excited to learn this. I'll need to have the loom ready to go for the first week in August.

Knitting:

• 
  Still working on Sand and Sunsets... I got a manicure prior to my nieces wedding only to realize my nail polish matches my knitting! Scary, no?
  
• I started two things at the knitting retreat: I'm half way through a shawl (perfect travel airplane knitting) and I started a sweater. The sweater will probably have to wait until Sand and Sunsets is done, but I think the shawl will be my drag around knitting.

Quilting:

• There are a couple of quilts I'd like to finish. And I want to continue to explore continuous line designs with my embroidery machine.

Sewing:

• I have one camp shirt cut out and partly sewn, and would like to finish the paper one before the end of July.

Other:

• I'm taking an online ikat class from Mary Zicafoose in September.
• There are mosaic and linocuts I'd like to work on.
• It occurs to me that I have a minimum of 2 nieces, their spouses, and 2 grand-niblings that live in cold climates. Maybe scarves this year? I suspect I'll also have to start thinking about a baby blanket...

Knitting retreat, errors, fun on the loom!

I finally put that tencel on the loom which includes the warp I hand dyed a few years ago... It's a combination weave (in this case, twill and basket weave).  It went on pretty easily, although I was worried about registration of the colored parts and I ended up slipping the threads and getting it pretty poorly aligned. I spent some time debating if I wanted to worry about that; but my color sections are 8 inches or so long and I decided after some thinking and some advice from A.K. to leave it. I'm super glad I did. 

I'd designed a special twill for the color changing sections... and HATED it after I've woven about 6 inches. It had strong horizontal lines which obliterated the color changes and were in general very distracting. So I rejiggered the tie up to make those sections zig-zag; it's a little boring but a lot easier than rethreading. 

When I wound on, the paper got pretty crinkled... I remember thinking that this is bad, it'll cause me tons of tension issues as I weave. About 6 inches in the tension went wonky. I cut out what I'd woven, then rebeamed it with smooth flat happy paper and now the tension is awesome. I also fixed a threading error... I'm about 10" into the weaving and having fun.

I have to have this off the loom by the time I leave for S's wedding as I'll have to rethread for CNCH as soon as I get home! So I'm holding off on the rugs until then.

I've been trying to make a camp shirt that fits so I can use the pattern for my paper yardage. It "finished" and in the washer at the moment, and I'll see how it looks when it comes out... I learned a lot but will sew one more before I cut into the paper.  I made some mistakes... The biggest was picking up the rotary cutter instead of the little rolly marking thingy and cutting a bunch of holes where I'd wanted to make buttons and stuff. I covered the hole at the sleeve cap with embroidery, but managed to get my machine to seize up doing so... It was the trip to get it fixed that caused me to take the runner I made in the last post. I covered the button band with a bias strip of matching fabric, and the buttonholes sit on top of the slits so that's okay. There are two minor holes just under the collar as it turns, and I haven't decided which visible mending to wear there. I may or may not add a pocket with the same embroidery as the sleeves. But I like the fit and it's not hard to sew. Next up, I'll do the same shirt again in a batik from Malaysia.

I'm bringing up the subject of errors because I'm making a lot of them. Nearly all of them are because I didn't listen to my instincts (like having to rebeam the warp) or because I didn't clean up my workspace (picking up the cutter instead of the marker). 

I'm still knitting on Sunset and Sand Dunes or whatever it's called... K's version is lovely and she's about 6 inches ahead of me! I decided not to bring it to our knitting retreat this year. I cast on another Afternoon Tea Shawl (I left the first one in Taos), in bluegreen; this will keep me occupied on the plane and at the wedding. I should finger out if I want beads on it... I also cast on Shiny in a red brown silk that I bought in Amsterdam. The retreat was lovely but I think one day too long, which is fine after complaining for so many years about it being too short! Highlights included a trip to Monarch Knitting, where I bought the yarn for a cowl I'd like to make for our Japanese trip, and inner at the Pocket, where Christophers used to be. 

I have been spinning some but there's nothing to note.

We had a bottle of Skouras Salto (Moscofilero); it's made with wild yeast on the Peloponnesian peninsula (specifically Nemea). Wow. Light, good summer wine, a little salinity; it would be wonderful with fish on the grill. I'm ordering more, while researching the Nemean Lion. 

I have to add that I did some research on the Nemean Lion to see if I could figure out its parentage. There are some legends that it's descended from the Chimera, but also conflicting stories that it's mother was Echidna. I did a double take then went down the internet rathole of researching what the relationship was between an Australian monotreme and a half reptile, half human Greek demi-god. Apparently the Echidna (animal) was initial thought to be a blend of reptile and mammal before the egg-laying mammal thing was figured out, thus the name... But did you know that they have elecrosensors in their snouts that they used to find prey? As far as Wikipedia knows, it's echidna, platypus, and one type of dolphin that do that. I'm fascinated.

Machine quilted runner on the embroidery machine

 

I took a class in machine quilting using my embroidery head; this is the runner we made. There are 10 repeats of the motif, all more or less well aligned... 

We started by centering a design 4" from one long border, and half way on the long axis, and stitching it out; then worked towards the edges. When one side was done, we did the other in the same manner. What I learned:

• Mark the line that everything will align to with chalk pencil.
• Use template paper made for stitching out a design, or stitch it out on organza to help align the design as you go along. Make sure to mark both axis.
• Put the template on first, then hoop the project; put it on the machine and use the centering function to put the center in the right place. Then check starting/ending points (on the Bernina, proceed to the stitch out sheet then hit the button that looks like a broken thread; the search button will let you enter the stitch number.
• Make sure to remove the template before you start stitching! Go to the first stitch, then bring the bobbin thread up to the top and hold on for a few stitches. Stop the embroidery at this point and cut the threads.
• If you don't have enough border to stitch everything out, hoop with the water soluble paper with the one sticky side and stick your project to it after slashing with a pin and peeling off the paper; trim it later and wash to remove. 
• Looks like if there is a problem, you should NOT remove the hoop! You can pick out the problem with a seam ripper and then use the same function as used to navigate to first and last points to get close to where you need to restitch.
• Embroidery tension is low, approximately 3 (of 10); the lower the tension, the further towards the back of the work the thread "knot" will be. If I'm using a quilt sandwich, I don't need stabilizer, and I should experiment with regular sewing tension (like 5).

The instructor, Allegra, was fabulous. She mentioned two things I need to look into. Dime makes a magnetic hoop that's supposed to be easier than managing thumb screws... And she uses Bernina's free design software to print out her design templates.

You can see where I joined motifs, on the left side of this flower... You really have to look for the joins!

New! Things!

Progress!!! Fiber-wise,

• I finished the Permutations poncho and it looks great; it's already been out to dinner twice. (Photo coming)
• The two Beiderwand pillows are on the couch.

  

  Beiderwand

  
  
• Two of the 3 Ikats that I've intended to hang are hanging; the third will go up on Sunday after DH visits the hardware store. I had to fringe one of them and figure out hanging tech for all of them.  Basically, I sewed 3/4" velcro to a cotton sleeve, and basted the cotton sleeve to the back of the ikat. The other half of the velcro was stapled to a baseboard sized piece of wood and nailed to the wall; then the ikat was applied to the to the hanging board. 
• Sommerloch is blocked and ready to wear (photo pending). 
• I figured out where I am on the Sunsets and Sand sweater (from last year) and knitting away on that. 
• I started a shirt in linen from the camp shirt pattern, minus darts. It's slow going as it's making me nervous. 
• My looms are naked, and it's been awhile. That's not good.

I also finished making the limoncello, and am working at spring cleaning my clothing closet. The piano lessons continue and progress is slow, but I'm still enjoying the process.

April '23:What I have been doing and what is on the short list

What I have been doing and what is on the short list:

Volunteer in the garden:
Spunky Monkey

• Permutations: A Dan Doh poncho pattern, travelled to Australia with me. I got quite a bit done on the flights and I'm currently working on the last 40 or so rows, and I want to wear this at our knitting retreat in June.
• Sommerloch sweater: It is done except the bottom edge curls up a bit and the shoulders need to be tightened up a bit. I'm lazily pouting about it, but really... it would take a couple of hours at most to make it wearable, and it does fit. 
• Sunsets and Sand sweater: I stopped working on it before I left on vacation last May. I think I'm half way. I need to figure out where I am and get working on it!
• The Beiderwand pillow tops: They are off the loom but need wet finishing and pillow-top-making.
• Shirt made out of paper fabric: I finally sewed up a muslin without darts from the Natalie pattern and it looks fine, so I can proceed with figuring out the rest of the project. I did by some cotton/linen to make the shirt first so I have more practice. For other fabrics, I think I'd like to put the dart back in and make it work, or move the dart to the shoulder and release it in a cute little pleat. And I found a cute collar trick in Threads magazine I need to try.
• I also need to get hanging hardware on the ikats so that they may be hung...
• There is currently nothing on the looms, either. The study group is working on combo weaves which I'm not excited about at the moment, so I'm tempted to use a kit I got from KS's stash for advancing twill scarves. 

I'm also playing a lot of piano, and I need to get the vegetable garden going in the next two weeks. I've got some guild stuff to do and it seems like an awful lot of doctors stuff going on for someone who is healthy.

Q1'23 finished things (3)

I'm late in posting my Q1 progress... I finished:

• First yarn spun on the Nano
• The cardwoven hiking belt
• Handspun paper fabric
• The Tasmanian Overland Track

I'm particularly fond on the 4th accomplishment on the list...

You'd think now I'm back I'd be getting a lot done. Well, between medical appointments from my unhappy knee, general malaise that results from returning from travel, and a true unwillingness to make any decisions about what's next, I'm a little stuck.

Don't forget these beans, and a belt.

Note to self: This is the BBQ bean recipe that I particularly like. I've posted it before but will do so again.  I don't have a smoker so I finished it in the oven.  We had them for lunch today and the only thing missing was ribs and some cole slaw. 

Other than that, not much new... a little spinning; some knitting is happening; I'm half way through threading my loom; and I have a belt ready for the hiking trip.

I'm going to talk about the belt a bit... The driver for this is that I'm long waisted (pretty much everything on me is long, being tall and all), and many pants are cut for folks that are shorter and wider, resulting in pants that didn't hit my waist and would either fall down or leave a chilly unattractive gap between my shirt and pants. I finally found hiking pants that are long enough in the waist, but they don't have belt loops, instead being slightly elastic. I tried wearing them multiple days in a row but the waist stretches a bit and I found myself fussing with pulling them up a lot.  

Also, I'm fairly serious about losing some weight. I'm down about 8 pounds and likely to lose more on vacation. Then I plan on losing a bit more. And I'd hate to just get rid of these pants because all they need is a belt.

Think of it as a visual resume

My solution was to put belt loops on the pants and weave a belt. I've been procrastinating for weeks because I have no idea how to make belt loops... Last night I finally spent time in the studio analyzing a pair of jeans and came up with a pretty good solution, but it's out of cotton and I'm not sure how durable it will be.

To make the belt loops, I cut strips of cotton 1.5" wide and sewed them into a tube with a 1/4" seam. Then I trimmed the seam (makes turning easier), and turned the tube so the seam in on the inside. I used what's essentially a large tie wrap to iron the tube flat (there are plastic pieces made for this) with the seam down the middle of one side. I then top stitched close to the both edges.

The pants have patch pockets on the front so I aligned the two front belt loops with the edge of the pocket closer to the front; one belt loop in center back, and one on each side halfway between the front belt and center back.

Then I wondered how the heck they make a tube and turn it using denim for blue jeans... a quick examination revealed that the fabric is folded in thirds and the top stitching also produces some sort of magic web like stitch on the back side. If you want an example, grab yourself a pair of jeans and take a look.

The belt, as I mentioned in the last post is cotton with nylon weft and nylon edges. I wore it for today's hike and the belt and belt buckle are not uncomfortable with the pack belt. Success!