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.