New Toys....er Tools!

a variety of colours wheels, some of them more 'accurate' than the others....I actually threw out a couple where the colours were really nasty!

Although The Project is on hold I have not forgotten about it. In fact I'm also developing the topic into a workshop, so I figured I may as well get a paint box and start working on the actual exercises for the book and the workshop. A book is great for people who can learn on their own, either because of their own personalities or because of necessity (i.e. they don't have access, for whatever reason, to personal instruction). But many people also feel more comfortable learning by doing under supervision.

It took me a long time to work up the courage to tackle colour use for weavers, mainly because I did not have an instinctive ability to work with colour. What I know about using colour in weaving came to me through studying it and simply getting into the trenches and weaving the colours together to see what happened when.....

And then being analytical about the results. Some of the colour combinations were of the "well, I won't do that again" variety, others were unexpectedly delightful. It was as instructive to analyse the won't do again's as well as the successful surprises. It took a long time to train my eye to see the components of a colour and recognize those which were siblings, distant cousins or not related at all. It took time to understand the value of - well, value - and how important that was to the success of a colour combination - much more important than the actual hue.

I'm working on developing the workshop as a one day non-weaving event. An opportunity to experiment and learn in an environment where there will be no mistakes, only a time to observe and learn.

Sarasota FL has already expressed an interest in the workshop so it's time to start getting my ducks in a row, as it were. Speaking of workshops, my fees will be increasing in May. Workshops booked before the end of May will be at my current rate. The calendar for 2012 is pretty open - March is the only month that is filled.

Keep Going

I found this fridge magnet on a trip to Tucson, AZ when I thought all my health issues were behind me. It was a visual reminder that the only way through is forward. That when you are in a bad place, it's counter productive to fall down in your traces and wallow in self-pity.

It's posted on my fridge where I mostly ignore it but from time to time I focus on it and remember to get up, get going, that all things must end, the bad as well as the good. That the only thing that is constant is change. That staying focused on your goal will at least make the bad things bearable. And when the only thing you can manage is to put one foot in front of the other, that counts as progress.

So I have been picking my way through the current warp on the AVL, which I have been finding extremely tedious for a number of reasons. Mostly, it's two shuttles alternating. I find it extremely difficult to reach my 'zone' and so I'm not much enjoying the weaving. OTOH, after wet finishing the sample, the fabric turns out to be drop dead gorgeous. But the weaving isn't going to happen without me sitting at the loom, and so I have been dutifully making it into the studio, at least a little bit every day, and I'm now within 6" of completion. Of the first scarf.

The warp is 10 yards long, about a yard has been used up in sampling, so there is enough warp for two more scarves. Give or take.

The warp also has a threading error. Three of the units are threaded on the wrong shaft, so as soon as I finish the first scarf I'll correct that and then I'll take another run at doing the rose design that I had originally intended.

Next week I should hear the treatment plan as proposed by the oncologist. As usual I'm not presenting a simple problem and more tests have to be run. The good news is that the bone marrow biopsy was a success and no further surgery will be required for a diagnosis. And that is very good news indeed. :)

Currently reading Still Life by Louise Penny

Not White

The colours of the red yarn are actually more intense than shown here. The red is more of a deep coral red. And I've made a little progress spooling the skeins off ready for warping. As I took this photo I realized that my dye palette of today is very similar to these yarns and I may in fact use some of the silk gimp as weft for one of the shawls intended on this warp. The very dark blue spruce would look great on these colours. :)

Book Review

Mark your calendar - April 26, 2011 Eric Nylund's latest book will be for sale. Especially if you know a young reader (middle school). I hear that the second volume in this series is already in the works. I've been sitting on this for a while - we scored a rare Advance Readers Copy way last September. Eric has been a very busy writer this past year - watch for more titles coming soon. And yes, I know Eric, but I have no compunction about telling people I like his writing, too. For more info about Eric and his books visit his website http://ericnylund.net

Waffle and Twill with Plain Weave

This is an example of what Jolanda wants to do.... Jolanda wants to weave towels with areas of waffle and twill stripes surrounded by a plain weave border at the ends and the selvedges.

To do this she would need 10 shafts. Four shafts for the waffle area, four for the twill, and two more for the plain weave selvedges.

It is possible to weave plain weave hems on the above 8 shaft draft by tieing up two more treadles to achieve the plain weave. It is also possible to weave twill stripes in the weft by tieing up four more treadles to weave twill all across the cloth. With only 8 shafts you need to thead a point progression to get waffle on four shafts.

The effect of having a plain weave 'frame' would be, I think, to have the ends and selvedges 'ruffle'. Of course it would depend on your choice of yarn and density how much this would happen.

The higher the density, the less it would ruffle, I think, but until I wove a sample I would not know for sure.

I rather suspect that this textile has been woven on at least 10 shafts if there is a plain weave selvedge, possibly more. I wonder if the hems are basketweave rather than plain weave, but I can't tell for sure from the photo.

Waffle and Twill in the warp

One option for waffle and twill in the warp. Begin and end with the point twill progression on shafts 5-8 and enlarge each section for the size of stripe you want.

Waffle Weave

JoLanda asked about waffle weave, how to do twill and waffle at the same time.


There are a number of options. If you want waffle and twill in the warp you need more shafts - here are some waffle options on four shafts. To make warp wise twill stripes, you would simply thread for twill on the other four shafts and then tie up and treadle accordingly. The draft above shows a lift plan because to do all the waffle options in one cloth on four shafts you run out of treadles and a direct tie up would be required unless you had a computer assisted loom.



Here is a 6 shaft version. This would make a very small 'waffle' and would not take up as much as a draft with longer floats. Therefore the difference between the waffle and twill would not be as great. Only sampling would show how much difference there would be. On a loom with 10 treadles you could tie up and treadle without having to use a direct tie up. Just add the twill tie up on the rest of the treadles and use them accordingly for weft wise stripes.




And lastly, here is an 8 shaft draft showing the tie up and treadling to make weft wise stripes of waffle and twill and would require 12 treadles.

I hope this has answered your question?

Next Challenge

So, the tea towels are cut and serged, I've figured out what needs to be done on the 'test' warp, the first load of skeins are soaking, alternate yarn for plying has been coned off onto smaller cones for ease of use.....the next challenge is to turn these yarns into a warp for shawls and possibly baby 'blankets'.

The colours are a little brighter in the photo than they are in real life but I think they will go together nicely - mostly green/turqouise with an accent thread of the dark peach, I'm thinking.

Before I can prepare the warp, however, the skeins have to be wound onto spools for sectional beaming, so it's a good thing to get started on that now before I'm done weaving the test warp.

In between times I'll continue to wind skeins for dyeing. I'm really determined to get as much dyeing done as I possibly can. There aren't too many tubes of the silk gimp left, and then there are a few odds and ends of white skeins that can be turned into 'not white' and either used or sold. After I'm done the dyeing I can concentrate on the spinning.

Once I've got the above warp done there are several boxes of the same yarn to also be turned into shawls and/or baby 'blankets'. It will feel really really good to get those boxes emptied and free up about 48" square of floor space! :D And use up more of my yarn stash, both this yarn and the weft. I've got quite a few cones of a fairly fine singles in alpaca and other blends that will be perfect for weft for this yarn, a wool, silk, bamboo blend.

Potholes

In addition to the nasty potholes in the streets I've run into a couple in the studio. :P~

Now that these three skeins are dried I realize that the mylar has broken in at least one place in each skein, sometimes two places.

Now if these skeins were for my own use I wouldn't worry about that too much. They are core spun and the broken mylar ply won't compromise the integrity of the yarn and I would just deal with it.

But these skeins are not for my own use - I'm trying to develop an inventory of handspun yarns I can work on when I can't weave, for sale to others. And I can't, in all conscience, offer them for sale when I know they have broken ply threads.

And so I have to look at alternatives. Not that I don't have some already in my stash!

I could also ply the mylar with something else to strengthen it, but that's just way more labour than I want to invest into something that I don't know people will be willing to pay for - at least pay enough to make it worth my while to make it. (Anyone interested in some 'seconds'?)

So I'll be digging through my stash to look for alternatives, two of which I'm pretty sure will work - just have to dig them out of storage.

The other pothole is the test warp I put onto the AVL the other day. I'm having problems getting it to beat in square and the auto cloth advance isn't working properly either. I think that's a function of the cloth not beating in to match the take up so I've just cut the second sample off the loom, removed the 8 dent reed and inserted a 10 and will change the set from 32 epi (4 in a dent) to 30 epi (3 in a dent).

Keeping fingers crossed that will fix that problem.

In the meantime I'm winding skeins and pushing for the scheduled dye day on Monday.

Currently reading Firestorm by Rachel Caine

Next Step

Once the weaving is done on the AVL, the beam is removed from the loom and inserted into the work table. Since I have very little room in the studio, the worktable does multiple duty - in this case it keeps the yardage all nice and tidy while I cut and serge the ends of the tea towels.

Unfortunately the table also becomes a bit of a catch all - the ends tend to get piled high with clutter. Essential clutter, but clutter, nonetheless.

The serger will go on the table to the right of the cloth, the end of the warp will be serged then the towel cut from the rest of the bolt and the other end serged. As the towels are done this step they get folded and piled ready for wet finishing.

At this point the cloth is pretty straight but after wet finishing the waffle stripes will 'collapse' creating a seersucker effect in the twill stripes.

This is a different waffle tie up than I've used before and I'm not sure if it will collapse in stripes, or if it will collapse much at all. Since they are tea towels, however they turn out will be fine. :)

I have no idea how many towels are on the beam. I just kept weaving until the singles linen ran out, then wove off the rest with the singles 6 cotton in waffle/twill. If they don't sell they'll become hostess gifts or premium gifts for the last copies of Magic.

Speaking of which, there are now just 24 copies left.

Bone marrow biopsy

Ow
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Success

During Fibres West I managed to spin a couple of bobbins - the purple (River's Edge Blueberry/Grape Juice) was spun off the fold. The green (Ashland Bay's Mackenzie merino/silk) was core spun.

Both were plied with mylar. The Mackenzie was plied with a mylar gimp; Juice was plied with a smooth supported mylar.

Wet finished them this afternoon and will bring them to guild drop-in tonight.

Both yarns gave off a slight blush of colour - one more argument for wet finishing skeins before knitting or weaving with them. And of course they both bloomed during the wet finishing, changing their feel and character.

I was a bit leery using the gimp because it's a little scratchy, but by using it on the core spun yarn the gimp is essentially buried in the yarn and you can't feel it at all.

Both yarns are intended for knitting or weft in weaving. I would not use either of these for warp due to the abrasion of the reed. They might just possibly be okay on a rigid heddle loom but I'd have to try that before I could confidently recommend that usage.

Tomorrow morning I have the bone marrow biopsy done. Both looms are naked although I'm half way through threading a test warp on the AVL. I don't know if I'll feel up to weaving afterwards but I'm hoping I can sit and spin. Results should be available in about 48 hours so I'm hoping for a phone call Friday afternoon. It's getting hard to wait for answers. :}

Today was a sunny day and I soaked up the sunshine as I plied the two bobbins this morning. I think in my next life I'll come back as a cat. ;^)

currently reading House Rules by Jodie Picoult

Fibre Fusion

There is a new fibre festival happening, this one in Grand Forks, BC. Grand Forks is a few minutes away from the WA border, several hours from Spokane, WA. The festival is being run in conjunction with a larger arts event happening in the area, so there are lots of events for everyone. :)

Fibre Fusion is offering 30 workshops for fibre enthusiasts. Check out their website at
http://www.fibrefusionattheforks.com

They also have a vendor hall and I understand that Joybilee Farm will be offering their linen day on the Saturday. Unfortunately I will miss it again if my one day class The Efficient Weaver goes ahead. :)

Currently reading The Serpent's Tale by Ariane Franklin

Vancouver

We arrived safely after a mostly pleasant drive. Got checked in and had a late dinner. Now I'm fasting until after the scan which is scheduled Thursday for 12:50, ending at 1:20. Then we will have lunch and head for Abbottsford to set up for Fibres West. :)
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Waffle Towels

I had intended to use 2/16 cotton for weft on the waffle towels, but in my digging in the store room uncovered some of the singles 6 cotton I have.

The yarn was sent as an error as part of a large order of 2/8 cotton directly from one of the few spinning mills left in Canada a number of years ago. I don't even know if they are still in business.

Anyway, I rather suspect the 3 fifty pound cases of singles 6 they sent me were intended to be plied as the yarn has rather a lot of twist energy in it. As a result, in the right circumstances, the yarn will torque during wet finishing and 'collapse'. This twist energy actually works quite well in waffle weave which, as a weave structure, 'collapses'.

We returned two of the cases but since I was already exploring collapse effects, I kept one of them. I forget about it because I don't use it very often and it gets buried to be unearthed from time to time as I attempt to reduce my stash. :}

To make things easier for myself I weave a cut line into the cloth so that when it is cut from the loom it's as easy matter to cut them apart for serging. I program an empty pick into my liftplan to alert me when to insert the cut line picks.

The areas of waffle are separated by areas of twill. The hems are the same twill. Once the cloth is wet finished the twill stripes mirror the shrinkage rate of the hems and it all becomes a design element.

And no, these towels won't get a hard press although the ones with the linen for weft will.

Merchants, Princes and Painters

This book by Lisa Monnas was recently mentioned on one of the chat groups, probably WeaveTech. I requested it on inter-library loan and of course it arrived right before we are heading off on a road trip. I've got it until the 22nd so I'm going to hang onto it and see how much I can read before it needs to be returned.

Well, when I say 'read', I probably mean - drool over the incredible textiles!

The book does not look at the ordinary everyday textiles of the 1300's to 1550's but the textiles of the upper classes. The princes, both secular and religious.

The thing to remember as weavers is that all of the textiles shown in this book are hand spun and hand woven.

I have seen some similar textiles in the flesh during my visit to Gawthorpe Hall in the Lakes District of England so I have some understanding of the reality of these textiles. They are, in a word, amazing. If you can't visit a museum such as the Victoria and Albert, I think this book is a good next best thing.

Day Brightener #2

Day Brighteners

River's Edge Blueberry Grape Juice....and a tiny peek at my handwoven blue tablecloth underneath - click on photo to biggify


Today is an overcast day again, so plying this yarn was a real day brightener. :)

Again, limited success, mostly because I'm pretty out of practice with my spinning. This time I didn't core spin the yarn, but spun off the fold.

And just as I was taking the photos the phone rang. Someone has sent me a floral arrangement. I didn't ask who - I'm letting the suspense build. :D

Currently reading Chill Factor by Rachel Caine

Catch Up Day

One of the ways I deal with stress and turn off the thought squirrels is to just go and 'do'.

For many years I have used weaving as a working meditation. It's one way to turn off the what-if's and stay in the now instead of trying to forecast the future. Not that I'm a control freak or anything. (ha!) So for the last two weeks, instead of doing what needed to be done, I would go to the loom and just weave in order to remain in the present and grounded in the now.

Alas, that meant that deadlines began to loom and threaten to topple! After I posted my health update the other day, I found myself able to work through the reality - largely due to the loving support of you, dear reader. DH is stressed to the max and my mother is in full blown panic mode so I don't want to vent to them. Being able to vent here is going to keep me sane.

What all that comes to is that I needed a catch-up day. After weaving a little bit too much on Friday I was feeling tired, physically, and decided that I needed to deal with some admin stuff and the final preparations for Fibres West.

Procrastination had turned one task into a mountain, quickly revealed to be the molehill it truly was once I finally sat down and dealt with it. And then I went to the spinning wheel to tackle the samples needed for the upcoming show. Again, conditional success. I decided that the unsupported mylar I was planning to use to ply the core spinning with was too weak so next time I'll try one of the gimps. Unfortunately the mylar gimps are a bit scratchy, but I think used as the ply thread on the core spun yarn they will work as the wool will puff up. Another sample will be required, obviously!

In between spinning, I packed up the rest of the stuff for the show and wound more skeins. I have a lovely lace weight (2/18) merino/silk (80/20) that I'd planned on dyeing for the show. Well that didn't happen, but I can bring it undyed and dye what's left later. A friend assures me that lace knitters like natural, too. :)

When Doug got off work we loaded the van. There will be a couple more boxes and our luggage to put in, but otherwise the van is ready. Although we don't usually load the van so early the weather forecast is for rain on Monday and Tuesday so it took a huge weight off my mind to get that done now while the weather was good.

And to put everything into perspective, the news out of Japan is truly overwhelming. My thoughts and best wishes go out to the people affected by the calamity there.

Currently reading Pale Demon by Kim Harrison

Of Clouds with Silver Linings

Some of you know or have surmised that I have been having some health issues. Actually the past 3 years have been rife with challenges, this is just the latest. :}

Last year turned into a bit of a nightmare with one thing after another. Nothing horrible, just ongoing.

Eventually there were just two things concerning me - on-going fatigue (which was supposed to have been cured with the angioplasty, but wasn't) and unstable blood pressure.

In the fall my doctor threw up his hands in frustration and strongly advised me to simply increase my bp meds.

I pointed out that, in the previous 2.5 years, every time my bp had gone wonky there had been an underlying problem. Could we find out what it was this time?

As a last ditch effort he wrote a requisition for a CT scan of my kidneys.

Turns out the kidneys were fine - the lymph nodes - not so much.

The next few months various and sundry tests were run and as usual all came back negative or 'within normal tolerances'. (Don't you just love that phrase?)

In February my doctor referred me to the cancer clinic. This time the answer was not negative.

The day before I left for Madrona I was told that the most likely culprit was NHL. No, my dear fellow Canucks, that does not refer to the National Hockey League but to Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Returning from Madrona I had another CT scan, with a follow up PET scan scheduled for March 17.

While ignorance may be bliss, knowledge is empowering. Although I don't have all the answers yet, there is enough to share.

First of all, the oncologist believes that what I have is a non-aggressive form of lymphoma, which means slow disease progression. So far the only symptom I have is fatigue. The second bit of good news is the very early diagnosis, thanks to my family doctor believing me when I said something was wrong and going the extra mile to run tests that eventually led to the diagnosis.

I am also blessed in having an oncologist who is not letting any grass grow under his feet in getting answers. There are 30 different cancers under the NHL umbrella. Once the biopsy is done identifying which one I have they will be able to formulate a plan for treatment. Since the diagnosis is so early, one option may be to simply monitor the situation. Other options are chemotherapy or radiation, or a combination of the two.

Ultimately, because of the early diagnosis there is no rush to treat, and any treatment can be fitted in and around my life so I do not expect this situation to have a great impact on my life as a whole (although chemo may not be much fun, strides have been made in terms of the cocktails they concoct and treating the adverse affects).

I have run the usual gamut of emotions - shock, disbelief, outright denial (no, this isn't, can't, be happening to me), rage and acceptance.

While I don't know what the future holds - none of us do, really - I do know that - with the help and support of my friends - I will get through this, too.

I have adopted Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" as my anthem. If you haven't ever listened to the lyrics, especially the chorus, today might be a good day to do so. http://3.ly/8b42

With apologies to Bon Jovi - this is my life. I'm going to live it while I'm alive.

Thank you for letting me vent. There will be challenging days ahead. As mentioned the PET scan is booked for March 17 - the day before Fibres West. I could have had it done sooner, but combining the scan with Fibres West saved a trip to Vancouver (9+ hours each way). March 23rd I'll have a bone marrow biopsy done. If that is inconclusive they will do an excision of one of the affected nodes.

One day at a time, one test at a time, the answers will come. Thank you for your expressions of concern. They have meant a great deal to me.

Bottom line is this - I am looking forward to many more years of playing with string. I will be faxing the contract to John C. Campbell for next March in a few moments. I will look forward to travelling and visiting with some of you, sharing our love for fibres and textiles. Living with lymphoma will be a lot like living with any other chronic condition - eating and resting properly, exercising, avoiding bad stress and looking forward to what each day will bring.

Pile O Shawls

The problem with staying focused and on track with the weaving is the mountain of finishing that needs to be done. OTOH, with surgeries in my immediate future that will prevent weaving during recovery, having handwork that I can do during the down time is not a bad thing. :)

I am not fringe twisting the shawls - for a couple of reasons. Reason a) is two fold - with 10 epi the fringes would not twist nicely and would be spaced quite far apart. Besides, the yarn is relatively stiff and the twisted fringe would be stiff on a fabric that is very open and has lots of drape (as you can probably tell from the picture I posted yesterday).

Reason b) is that these shawls are quite long so instead of a longish twisted fringe I'll be trimming the fringe down to about an inch to an inch and a quarter. This is silk so it won't degrade like regenerated cellulose yarns. Any longer than 1 1/4 inches and fringes tend to tangle in my experience, so I like to keep them on the shorter side.

There are four more shawls/warps to weave. Guess I'd better go thread #4 and get it woven. If I can manage two today and two tomorrow ---- I'll be DONE!

And then I can start the next bucket of yarns for more shawls and baby blankets. But before I can do that I have to a) finish the red mercerized warp on the AVL and b) wind spools from the skeins so that I can beam the warp sectionally.

Currently reading Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin

Progress

the colours of these shawls are somewhat darker than shown here - there is a lot of glare off the snow today......the snow is piled about level with the lr window - and our house sits high above ground because we have what's called a 'daylight' basement.........

Got several of the silk gimp shawls pressed today. The bottom of the box is in sight with just 5 more warps left to do.

I know I ought to be working on other stuff right now, but finishing these warps has become an obsession. I just want - need - to finish something. :} I need to feel like I'm in control of something in my life right now.

Fibres West!

The postcards for Fibres West 2011 arrived yesterday.

http://www.fibreswest.com

In addition to a number of workshops there are two lectures (free with admission) which are not to be missed.

Ivan Sayers, fashion historian and raconteur of the first order will present a lecture at 2 pm on Saturday called Surface Embellishments.

I've attended a couple of his historical fashion presentations and he never fails to entertain and inform.

The other presentation will be by Barbara Heller, extraordinary tapestry weaver.

The vendor hall will have a cornucopia of fibre-y treats. Unfortunately this year there will not be a bank machine available on site, but most vendors will happily take cash, cheque or credit card. :) I have not evolved into taking Paypal over my cell phone as I hear some vendors in the US are now doing.

Now if the weather would only co-operate so that the 9 hour trip will not turn into a 12 hour white knuckle adventure.....(we have to go into Vancouver first, then back to Abbottsford to set up the next day). Road trips during this time of the year are always - uncertain.

Currently reading Changing My Mind by Margaret Trudeau

Conditional Success

I got my spinning 'corner' set up last night but was too tired to try to figure out the new wheel and the new technique I learned at Madrona.

Then, this morning Doug invited me 'out' for brunch, so my day is very late getting started. :}

When I got back I grabbed some fibre and a core and started trying to figure out what needed to be done.

I can report conditional success. I need to read up on settings for the wheel and get comfortable with the core spinning technique, but ultimately I can see that with a little perseverance success is not that far away. (She says, hopefully.)

Obviously I don't have complete control over how much fibre I'm feeding onto the core - yet. OTOH, the results do look sort of fun - and the sample isn't wet finished yet, either, so I'm sure it will change somewhat once that is done, too.

I'm also not very happy with the fibre I'm using. It's old and feels dry and brittle but since I'm still at the slippery end of the learning curve I don't want to use anything 'better' on my practising. Once I've got the hang of it and feel like I've got the wheel tuned properly, then I'll try some of the nicer fibre I've got here.

The goal is to produce a nice novelty yarn for primarily knitters to add to my stock of weaving yarns that I sell at shows like Fibres West and the Handweavers, Spinners and Dyers of Alberta conference. And perhaps at the local craft shows. We'll see how it goes. I doubt I'll have anything saleable for this years Fibres West - there just isn't enough time to get up to speed and produce anything I'd feel comfortable selling - in less than two weeks!

As for the weaving, that's been going more slowly than I'd like but I'm still battling fatigue so rather than fret about what I'm not getting done I continue to try for two shawls a day and celebrate if I get one done like I did yesterday. Rather than weave a second shawl I took some time to have coffee with my neighbour who has been housebound. It was refreshing for us both, I think. :)

Today I have a client coming at 1 pm to look at table runners and then I'll head for town and maybe visit another friend for a little while. I'm just glad it's stopped snowing. The road crews have managed to clear most of the roads but it feels much like a lab rat must feel as the snow banks are piled higher than I am tall in many places.

Spring is coming soon, right?

Joy!

Four Seasons

view from my front window at 1 pm March 1, 2011



view from my studio window....yes in the basement...


I live in a climate with four seasons.

Almost winter.
Winter.
Still winter.
Road construction.

Guess which season this is and why I have little difficulty going to my loom to weave. :)

Currently reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot