AVL and Elbows

I remembered to mount the cheese grater beam for this sample of Diversified Plain weave using rayon chenille and bamboo.  After weaving enough that the apron cleared the beam I wrapped the cheese grater on either side of the web with cloth to prevent the weft from catching on the metal and creating loops at the selvedge.

Many people complain about the cheese grater beam but it is necessary when weaving rayon chenille because the sandpaper just doesn't grip the nap of the cloth.  You need the deeper projections of the metal to reach past the nap and grip the woven structure.

Weaving at the AVL it is really important to sit high enough.  If your elbows are lower than the sandpaper/cheese grater beam you run the risk of abrading your elbows if you don't hunch your shoulders sufficiently to allow them to clear the beam.  With the metal you can literally wind up bleeding for your craft.  :^)

But perhaps more important is that if you are sitting too low the amount of foot pounds needed to open a shed, especially with multiple shafts rising, is such that you can very quickly start to have lower back problems.

We need to preserve our bodies from harm.  We only get one on our lifetime.  :)

A Realistic No

The above 'rat's nest' is actually more organized than it looks.  The weave structure is Diversified Plain Weave (click on the label for more on that) and the pressure is on to clear this warp off the loom.

My prospective client emailed this morning expressing interest in a 'sample' order.  She had originally contacted me because she was looking for a very specific cloth for a huge national corporation with a very recognizable logo.  When she sent the spec sheet this morning, I immediately saw that the requirement was going to be creating a cloth with precisely the colours in their logo.  And I knew that I could not guarantee being able to source the yarns needed in those very specific colours.

I also knew the time frame for my client to supply their product to the corporation and, given my jam packed schedule for the next 9 months, that I could not guarantee being able to provide 200 meters of such cloth for my client to manufacture their goods in time for delivery to the corporation.

Immediately I sent an email saying that I could not provide them with the fabric.

During the 9 or so years I wove for the fashion designer in Vancouver (BC) I learned that a realistic "No, I can't do that" was much better received than an unrealistic "yes" and a subsequent failure to deliver.

I confess that being able to weave the fabric for the giant corporation's product would have been an gi-normous feather in my cap.  Brand recognition alone would have been - well, huge.  That I had woven the fabric for that product, on sale across the nation?  Priceless.

Failing to supply the cloth in a timely fashion?  Worse than devastating.  Much better to honestly admit that I would not be able to do it.

In the end, the designer was disappointed but went ahead with a request to work with me to develop other designs for their 'ordinary' lines.  In the end, I think we'll both be a lot happier.

This afternoon I placed an order for yarn based on the samples I sent, yarn that I can use for tea towels if nothing comes of this.   The yarn will have arrived by the time I get home from my trip, but the loom has to be cleared off and the only sane way to do that is to get the samples for AGY: Rayon woven!  So I started threading and got about half way before stopping for dinner.

Doug and I talked this morning before he left for work and he says he is willing to take on the pressing.  He used to press the placemats/table runners we sold all over western Canada so I don't think he'll have any difficulty working with Puff.  :)

Sooooo - in the end I am happy I didn't get rid of Puff as it looks like the steam press is going to - potentially - if the designer likes my cloth, if I can weave the quality she needs for her product - be a very welcome tool in terms of wet finishing many yards of raw materials for someone else to sew up.

So many 'if's'.  But, nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Revisiting

on the loom

ready to go

There are certain weave structures I like to weave - as you may have noticed.  Wall of Troy is one.  This woven illusion is another.

They are both in the twill family.  Wall of Troy can be done on four shafts.  The woven illusion needs 16.

I've done the illusion in many different textiles, from scarves to tea towels.  On one level I like the visual pun - the illusion of a plain weave structure woven on 16 shafts in a twill.  It takes a weaver to really appreciate it, though.  Non-weavers don't 'get' it - they just see a sort of interesting visual texture, I think.

Quite often I weave the woven illusion in tea towels to use as hostess gifts for when I'm travelling to teach.  Since I'm nearly out of them and I have a longish teaching tour scheduled for next March, I figured I'd better make some more, hence the blue ones.

The blue and white towels are 100% cotton.  The warp is 2/20 merc. cotton at 30 epi with a 2/15 unmerc cotton as weft.

I used to order my natural 2/8 cotton directly from a spinning mill in Ontario.  Occasionally they would make a mistake and I'd get 'odd' yarns like this 2/15 cotton.  And the singles 6 that I've been offering for sale here for collapse effects. 

The red is also 2/20 merc. cotton at 40 epi with a fine linen for weft. The cloth is much stiffer, partly due to the higher density, partly due to the linen. I'm donating two of the red ones to Weavolution for a fund raiser later in the year.

diversified plain weave

I'm also donating the above scarf to Weavolution as a fund raiser.  I know the photo looks a little blurry - that's partly because it's woven from rayon chenille and 2/16 bamboo rayon.  Really hard to get good focus on rayon chenille!

Anyway, if you're a member of Weavolution, watch for the announcement of the fund raiser.

The Neverending Warp

with broken end repair threads hanging from the back of the loom.....

This is beginning to feel like the Neverending Warp! Of course it is the third 40 yard warp in DPW all black, so perhaps I'm justified in feeling this way. But it seems like very time I start a new scarf I think to myself "This one and one more and this warp will be done."

Well, I've thought that 3 times, now, and there is still warp left!

I have my references and materials to begin work on The Project but since Deadlines Are My Friend, I've sternly told myself that before I can begin on The Project I must
(must!) finish this warp! The reason I need to finish is two-fold - I want some of these scarves for One of a Kind Vancouver in 10 days and some of these scarves are gifts for a few of my everyday heroes.

Stacey Harvey-Brown http://3.ly/Wg9z blogged about hidden talent and heroes today which set me thinking about the heroes in my life and how grateful I am they are with me. I don't always let these people know how much they mean to me so it was a wonderful opportunity to use this warp to make some of them personalized scarves.

Waiting for a few days before beginning The Project was also a good idea because I've let some of the organizational aspects of doing The Project simmer in the back of my mind and have come up with some solutions - which ought to make The Project move along a little more smoothly. It's also helped to flesh it out and given me a clearer view of my objective. Always A Good Thing!

With One of a Kind coming up so quickly I'll likely leave both looms naked until I return. By then I will know whether or not I should put another 40 yard DPW warp on the AVL as the well from which I draw my inspiration appears to be a little low at the moment and it would also be nice to see if any of these scarves sell to make it worth my while to do another run of them. :}

So let me finish up this rather rambling post by encouraging everyone to let their everyday heroes know how much you value them. This time of year, it seems like a natural thing to take a few minutes to show your appreciation of their example and presence in your life.

Magic: 37

Queen of Procrastination

a brand new warp - the peak of possibilities....

So, I've been procrastinating all week about getting the next Diversified Plain Weave warp done by messing about with computer software, weaving on the painted warps, visiting, reading - doing just about anything but the DPW warp. And the days have been slipping by. :(

Now, of course, I'm supposed to be working on the handouts for the Magic in the Water workshop for Albuquerque next month, and guess what? I procrastinated about doing that while I finally threaded, sleyed and tied up the DPW warp!

But there was a reason for the diversion. There are only 6 people in the round robin workshop which means that there will only be 6 warps in the workshop itself. Not enough to give a good range of examples for the participants. So I had to think about how to make the workshop valuable for 6 and the obvious answer is that I need to weave some samples for them to wet finish so that they can experience those combinations, too. And I needed to think about which fibres/yarns/weave structures that I would - and could, given my schedule - weave for them.

While I didn't think about the problem consciously - the threading was a little too complex for me to not think about that - the challenge stewed in the back of my mind and I've decided on my approach. And that, all by itself, is a good first step.

So now I'm ready to go through the workshop handouts, pull the ones that the participants will weave, and decide which ones that I will weave. With any luck I can get the warp yarns into the mail tomorrow, Saturday at the latest, and then they will have time to dress their looms while I go back to finish out the Fair, pack out, spend a couple of days visiting with friends and come back to hit the loom hard getting the samples I will provide woven before it's time to head south again.

Currently reading You Slay Me by Kate MacAlister - a little bit on the 'light' side but we'll see how the characters develop....

Choices

This particular weave structure and yarn combination loses quite a lot of length/width during wet finishing. Partly, I think, because of the rayon chenille which is fairly stretchy, partly because of the weave structure - two fine threads and one thick one in warp and weft. I think that means that the weave structure can tend to collapse a bit, especially when working with threads that are very flexible and stretchy. Well, that's my theory, and I'm sticking with it. :D

At any rate, I liked this design well enough that I made several, changing the colour for each scarf.

I know that a lot of people say they get 'bored' making more than one of anything but I don't. I get into the zone and just enjoy weaving. What I'm weaving doesn't really matter. :D

Over the years of offering woven textiles for sale, I have learned that many people like to have a choice. They may love the design but desire it in a different colour. So when I come up with a design that I personally like, it will often get made in several colours to offer people a range to choose from.

Once breaking down the mental barrier about weaving with two warps/shuttles and how much slower that was going to be than weaving with one shuttle, I'm finding this textile fun to create. I love the handle of the cloth after wet finishing and I'm enjoying the ability to weave motifs in a wide range of options. There are 14 pattern shafts so that means 14 different units to play with.

Frankly I doubt that I'm near to exhausting the potential of this draft and yarn combination. Goodness knows I've got pounds and pounds and pounds of rayon chenille left to weave! I did have to order in more of the fine bamboo, but that is on it's way and will be here by the time I return from Seattle/Bellingham next week. The naked loom awaits....

The next warp will be threaded in a different progression to better accomodate my new approach to designing this textile. Still not quite ready to share, but stay tuned.

Oh - and I'm getting used to the new camera software. Almost to the point of being willing to tackle the video software upgrade. :}

End of the Line - nearly

Still learning the new picture editing software. One of the things I'm trying to figure out is where it now saves things. None of the places seems intuitive to me - but then I'm a dinosaur. :}

At any rate, here is the last of the scarf warp. There is enough left on the warp beams for one more scarf and then it's done. That's about 20 yards of woven web on the cloth storage beam.

You can see a yarn hanging down. Actually it is an 'extra' warp end and it comes off the warp beam, goes under the tension box rail, then up and over the rod in the ceiling. The yarn gets a cardboard tube to weight it, and on which to wind the surplus yarn as it comes off. The distance from rod to floor is just about exactly the length of a scarf so it works well.

The reason there is an 'extra' thread is because I only need 79 chenille ends but I'm winding 8 ends per inch. Rather than remove 'extra' ends from the last section I 'waste' the 40 yards by winding it on the loom. It sometimes comes in handy if I have a broken end on that side of the warp. :)

After thinking it over I expect that Handwoven won't be particularly interested in my new scarves because they are done on 16 shafts and I'm not willing to write a project for doing it using pick up. What I'm doing is absolutely possible on a four shaft loom with pick up stick, but while I'm willing to weave more slowly than usual to get the results I desire, I'm not willing to weave that slowly!

Put in an order for more of the fine bamboo for another warp. Or 3. I'm having so much fun doing the new designs that time just flies and I have to be very strict with myself not to push beyond the 45 or so minute weaving period.

Had lunch with some guild members today and they all loved the new scarves. Here's hoping the buying public will, too.

Currently reading The Killer of Pilgrims by Susanna Gregory

Like a Jigsaw

dancing butterflies.....

I envy people who receive revelations complete and in full colour. I rarely do.

Rather it seems like revelations for me are like jigsaw puzzles. You know - the really hard ones? The ones that may take weeks or months or even years to finally finish?

This morning I appear to have set the last piece of the current puzzle into place. The puzzle of what to weave. What do do with the rest of my life - for however long that may be.

One thing about having health issues is that one gains a heightened awareness of just how fragile this life is, and how short one's alloted time may be. Dealing with such issues the past few years has brought me to the realization that I have had a very good life in many ways, but that I am not a young immortal. Some people would even consider me.........old. :D

My new direction is still settling into place. I'm working on the technical details of the cloth I want to construct. I may even submit some of it to Handwoven, in which case I should not publish photos or details here until I decide if I am and whether or not they will accept it for publication.

So I won't say more about that now. I'll just say that my little heart is going pit-a-pat with anticipation.

Currently reading Death's Excellent Vacation by Harris et al

And So It Begins - Again

Sleyed the warp this morning and started weaving again. The first scarf is going to be this simple diamond pattern in order to check to make sure I had no threading or sleying oopsies.

I had one sleying error - in the very last dent! Easy to fix. And some tension issues, which were handily dealt with in the weaving of the header.

One of the advantages of having more shafts is that you can use a simple threading and treadling sequence - in this case a point progression - and save the complexity for the tie up. :)

Another advantage of having more shafts is that you can get 'fancy' in the threading and keep it simple in the treadling.

Or you can go for broke and do something complicated in both the threading and treadling and do things that you could only do with a pick up stick otherwise.

The advantage of doing this on a dobby loom is that you don't have to keep track of the treadling sequence, the loom does that pretty much for you (when it's behaving properly, of course! - not always a guarantee).

And the advantage of doing complex things on a computer assisted dobby loom is that you can spend your designing time comfortably in front of your computer and then quickly change files and change your pattern. Which is pretty much what I am doing on these Diversified Plain Weave warps.

On this warp I will be exploring some of the motifs I did on the first warp a bit further, making changes as I go along. But this morning I just wanted to get started weaving and prove that the warp was good to go.

Currently reading Nemesis by Lindsey Davis - if you like historical detective fiction, she has a great series

Deja Vu

With both looms needing warps and feeling somewhat better after a couple of trips to the chiropractor I got the sample warp for my student onto the loom yesterday and today. With just one student I've found that it's not a bad thing to dress the loom for them first, let them get the feel of the loom and weave a little before we start the process of how to actually dress the loom.

They weave a sample following the directions in Davison's green book and then if they want to go ahead and make a scarf or something, they can choose one of the patterns they have already woven. It makes the weaving of the sample relevant to the process. :) The yarn I chose is fairly thick so I made the warp 5 yards long and 16" wide. If she doesn't want to finish it it's no huge loss as the wool yarn was a mill end and quite cheap. OTOH, if she really enjoys it, there's lots for her to play with. And lots of different treadlings for a straight twill threading.



Once the Fanny loom was ready I turned my attention to the AVL. Running out of warp before I ran out of ideas, not to mention hardly making a dent in my rayon chenille stash, I decided to go ahead and dress the loom with another 40 yards of the same Diversified Plain Weave.

The second beam on the loom is quite low and I've always sat upon a stool to wind a warp on it. It's particularly important now because bending is not comfortable, particularly, even though I'm a lot more mobile. :)

I sit facing the loom and wind 20 turns with one hand, then switch and wind 20 with the other. Once again I'm putting an 'extra' 5 turns on because it looked like that was just about exactly correct to keep the two warps the right length. It's hard to judge build up because the two yarns are radically different in their thickness so I just guessed for the first warp. :)

We've been inundated with smoke from several of the many wildfires burning to the west of us. Last night was terrible and we're all praying for a good hard heavy rain, not just to help put the fires out, but to soak the bush. About 80% of the province is on either high or extreme fire hazard alert, many smaller communities are on evacuation order or alert and the smoke - gets everywhere. More info here: http://3.ly/86uX

Currently reading The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison

A Sense of Satisfaction

stack of scarves cut and serged, ready to be wet finished...

There is always a certain sense of satisfaction when it is time to cut the proto-cloth from the loom and get it ready for wet finishing. Especially something like rayon chenille which changes so very dramatically after it has been wet finished.

There is not only the change in the handle, but the changes in the weave structure. The very grid-like structure of Diversified Plain Weave has been softened although it is still there. And the rather awkward looking stars are now twinkly instead of alien looking. :)

The dimensional loss is higher for this cloth than I'd anticipated, but the scarves are still long enough for many people so I'm not too concerned about the somewhat shorter length. They'll be called 'Blazer Scarves' as a friend told me to call them.

Since there is half as much rayon chenille in the cloth compared to the same yarn used warp and weft all by itself, the cloth is much lighter weight and it has great drape.

I think I'm overall rather pleased with these and quite happy to dress the loom for another 40 yards worth. The warp isn't quite done, done, but I'm hoping to get it off tomorrow. Then I'll be away for a few days and will dress the loom again once I'm home next week. I have just enough yarn on hand to do another 40 yards now. If I decide to do another warp I'll have to buy more of the 2/16 bamboo. :)

Did I mention I have depth of inventory in rayon chenille????

Weave Fail

There are so many ways for things to go 'wrong' during the weaving process.

The project can begin to go off the rails in the design stage when the weaver makes a poor choice of yarn, a poor choice of density, an inappropriate weave structure or a motif that isn't 'elegant'. Why? Probably because the weaver was tired or distracted or maybe learning a new technique and didn't quite get it right the first time.

In this case I'm pleading fatigue with extenuating circumstances.

The error wasn't exactly fatal. Since it was consistent in my liftplan when I noticed what I'd done - 5 pattern picks separating the motifs in one row, 3 in the next - I sighed and labelled it a design feature.

Then of course there are the 'errors' that the loom creates - a shaft lifts when it isn't supposed to, or doesn't when it is. An alert weaver may - or may not - notice when this happens and fix it.

Lastly there are the 'flaws' gifted by the yarns themselves. And in this case - yes there are two points of failure in this scarf - the flaw was fatal.

Rayon chenille does not repair well when it breaks, especially when it breaks at the fell line, no hint of warning that disaster was pending.

And so I have about 30 inches of 10 inch wide fabric that is going to hit the scrap heap unless someone wants it for 'samples'?

The only solution was to once again sigh - much louder this time - roll the warp forward, thread the errant warp end back into it's proper heddle and start over. I confess that a few explicatives were likely used after the sigh. :O

By the way, there's a new group on Weavolution called Weave Fail. I joined it yesterday. Just in time, from the looks of it.

Currently reading A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter

Twinkle, Twinkle

Some motifs are easier to weave than others. A star, a simple little 5 pointed star, would I thought be easy-peasy.


Not so. These ones look better on the 'back' of the cloth, which in reality will be the face of the cloth. But I wasn't really very happy with them. They sort of look like a male alien. :} More obvious when looking at them straight on. From the side, these look pretty twinkly. :)

So, back to the drawing board - or rather, Fiberworks - where I tweaked the motif slightly.



This time I think the motif looks more like a star and less like an alien, but regardless I'm weaving it up anyway.

Sometimes you have to really watch the obverse - the little butterflies I did previouis to the stars look fine on one side of the cloth and a whole lot like a pansy on the other side. Still, better than the butterflies that morphed into a crying frog that I did not so long ago!

Currently reading Time Weaver by Shana Abe - not bad - a bit jerky but only to be expected in a tale of time travel.

Ideas

I intended to weave one of this design in turquoise, then had a brain cramp and started a second one. Which then 'suffered' a flaw which will no doubt make it a 'second'. Oh well.



Have been thinking about where ideas come from and how they come into material form. I have ideas. Lots of ideas. Very few of them make it as far as the loom.



Each idea gets filtered through a series of considerations. First one is - is the idea sufficiently original? In other words, has it come out of my own source or have I been unduly influenced by something someone else has done?



If I am sparking off someone else's idea, is my idea far enough from the source to be considered my own, or is it too derivative?



If it is sufficiently 'original' the next question is - in my experience do I think anyone would be interested in buying it? For enough money to make it worth my while to invest the time to make it?



Don't get me wrong - when I'm making something for myself the investment of time is always worth it. :) But my primary goal - beyond working at something I love to do - is to sell my handwoven textiles.



Which then leads me to the question of how efficiently I can make it. If the idea is labour intensive, can I re-tool it to make it more efficiently? If I can't streamline the process, will the results be attractive enough that I can charge more for it? Will it be worthwhile to use more than one shuttle; use a temple; dress the loom with two warps, etc.?



Then I need to consider the materials themselves. Which fibres/yarns would be most appropriate to render this design into material form? All fibres have inherent characteristics. How they have been prepared for and spun will have an impact on those characteristics.



For example, a fibre that has inherently good draping qualities can be given more backbone by combing the fibres so that they are parallel (worsted) and then given a higher degree of twist to make the yarn spun stiffer than it would be otherwise.



So once I come up with the concept, I may go through several different fibres/yarns before I feel comfortable with my choices.



At this point I generally make a sample. Now sometimes my sample warp will be 3 yards long and 10 inches wide - in other words, sufficient to make a scarf (if the concept is appropriate for a scarf). Regardless, a 10 inch width in the reed allows for an easy way to calculate loss of width.



I may weave 6 inches and wet finish the results to make sure I'm going to be happy with the cloth. If I'm not, I may re-sley (looser or denser) or I may change my weft. If my first sample isn't satisfactory, I may try several different wefts. Sometimes the whole 3 yards will get woven off with different sets, different wefts, different weave structures.



Other times I will go ahead and set the loom up based on previous weaving experience. After weaving for 35 years I've woven with a lot of different fibres in a lot of different weave structures. Having that foundation of knowledge to draw on means that I don't start out at square one every time I go to the loom anymore. But when I do use a completely new yarn, I generally weave at least one warp that I consider to be primarily for sampling or getting to know the potential of the yarn.

From the onset of an idea to actually putting it into production can take time. Sometimes, quite a long time, as with this scarf warp. I thought about it for months before I went ahead and dressed the loom with my initial 'sampling' and then a further 12 months passed by before I actually got a production warp onto the loom.

Part of the reason for not getting onto the loom sooner is that the warp required beaming two warps and weaving with two shuttles. It was only when I was in a position of needing to weave slowly that I finally went ahead with it.

Now that I have, I'm very happy with the results and find that I'm running out of warp before I'm running out of ideas for designs to weave on it. Sounds like I'm going to have to put another warp on the loom.

Currently reading Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Movable Feast

V-shaped scarf in double weave....

Yesterday a present arrived from Sweden - a birthday/thinking-of-you present. :)

The really nice thing about having weavers for friends is that sometimes hand woven gifts appear.

No, the scarf is not sewn into a V shape - it has been woven this way. (For more information see Kerstin's book Weave A V at http://laurafry.artfire.com/)

The scarf was a bit of a challenge to photograph. It's actually a darker blue than shown in the picture but over exposing it allows you to see the weave structure a little bit.

The cloth is woven in 'pockets' of double weave that have had small coins (smaller than a dime) inserted into the pocket during weaving.

I've been thinking a little bit about the nature of creativity and why I can't seem to stop thinking about more and new textiles I want to create. I think I'm an addict in the true sense of the word. I get an endorphine rush just thinking about playing with the thread. But it isn't just the thinking about making cloth materialize (I know, I know - baaaad pun!) it's the actual doing of it, too.

There is an enormous sense of satisfaction in getting the warp onto the beam even when the warp is tangled, like the painted warp I beamed last night. (Ha-ha! Take that you snarled mess! I win!)

I actually kind of enjoy threading - when it's going well - and the anticipation of sleying and tieing on just means I'm that much closer to being able to sit down and throw the shuttle. :)

There are some aspects I don't much like about weaving and generally I ignore them in favour of those I do enjoy. For example, I don't much like hand throwing two shuttles, but there are times, like with the Diversified Plain Weave, where you just have to settle down and do it.

But that's the wonderful thing about weaving. The craft is large enough that it is possible to focus on the aspects that do bring satisfaction and leave those that don't alone.

Currently reading Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

Flowers or?

So here is scarf #4. I'm kind of liking this motif a lot and can see it in a bunch of different colours. I'm calling it a flower although it could be a four leaf clover, too. :)

The rhythm of the shuttle throwing is much slower than just using one shuttle, or even two pick and pick. In this case it's two picks of the fine black, one pick of the rayon chenille. While I've reduced the weaving time from 120 minutes to 90 minutes per scarf (give or take) I still find myself zoning out and picking up the wrong shuttle from time to time. Fortunately I'm catching myself more quickly than before, but it's still annoying when it happens.

I suppose that, by the end of the 40 yards, the hop, hop, skip rhythm will become my new default and weaving with one shuttle will feel weird.

Or maybe not. I have a painted warp on the Fanny loom and expect to finish threading and sleying today so that I can weave on that warp tomorrow.

And then I'll be really confused! :^)

Currently reading Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

Have A Heart (or two)

cheese grater beam installed


scarf #2 and 3 off the loom, back and front sides...once the cloth has been wet finished I expect the motif side will 'read' better since the chenille will be all fluffed up and give better coverage...it already has a quite nice hand, though, not like how 100% rayon chenille woven in plain weave feels right off the loom!

Decided that the beams couldn't possibly weigh more than 6 or 7 pounds so when I finished scarf #3 I cut the web off and installed the cheese grater beam.

When I used to weave for a fashion designer, it would quite often be 10 yards of this, 12 yards of that, 3 yards of something else. When she was using rayon chenille and/or the long eyelash yarns it was just a whole lot more efficient to have two beams, one clad with the cg stuff so that it was a matter of moments to change over from one beam to the other.

The cg metal is actually a long strip about 2.5 or 3 inches wide and you install it by winding it in a spiral around the sandpaper beam. I worried about cutting my hands taking it on and off as often I would need to (at the time), not to mention the time it would take. In the long run it was much more efficient to just weave a few more yards to earn the money to buy a second beam. :)

With such a narrow warp my arms will be in danger of getting grated because the web simply won't provide much protection from the sharp teeth so as soon as the apron clears the beam I'll wrap a couple of ex-placemat rejects around the beam right up against the selvedges. I kept a bunch of these flawed mats for rags and other purposes, like wrapping the beams.

This morning I tweaked the tie up slightly to give more definition to the small hearts and wove a second scarf in that design but using a slightly varigated pinkish colour. I don't normally use a variegated in the weft much because so often the colours will stripe in various ways, some of them pleasant, some of them not so much. But this yarn only has the one hue and it changes from a medium light to a medium dark shade.

I like it well enough that I'll do another design with this colour - a traditional motif often used in things like charted embroidery - essentially it is four 'hearts' all with their points aimed at each other. It sort of looks like a flower. Well, you'll see tomorrow. :)

Diversified Plain Weave

a little oopsie...see the line???

This afternoon I tied on and started weaving on the Diversified Plain Weave warp I had prepared a while ago.

DPW is an interesting weave structure consisting of two different yarns, generally a thick yarn and a much finer one in both warp and weft. The thick yarn is what creates the pattern, the fine yarns hold it all together. The weave structure is perfect for using rayon chenille as the pattern thread as the plain weave tie downs hold everything together and help prevent the rayon chenille from 'worming' (backing out of the weave structure creating little pig-tails of yarn).

Given the complexity of the threading, even though I used a simple point progression for the units, it was a good idea to start with something simple to prove that everything was correct.

In fact, everything wasn't correct - I'd made a simple error in the treadling and while fixing it I left a slight imperfection in the spacing of the wefts. It may come out in the wet finishing, it may not. If not, I guess I have a new scarf. ;) Or it can go as a gift to someone who doesn't mind my 'seconds'.

It also became apparent that I did not have the tension set properly on the two warps - the fine warp was too loose - the thick warp was too tight.

I also realized after I'd tied on that I ought to have used the cheese grater breast beam but hopefully I'll be able to weave at least a couple of scarves before the sandpaper beam stops gripping. When that happens I'll have to cut off and insert the other beam, tie on and set off once more. Since this is such a narrow warp it may even go to more length before I need to change it but when it fails it generally fails catastrophically so I'll probably be a bit conservative and cut off before that happens. Hopefully.

The pattern in Diversified Plain Weave is balanced but opposite colour will show on the two sides. In other words, what is red on the face will be black on the back. You might be able to see that on the face there are thick red stripes and thin black ones while on the reverse there are thick black stripes with thinner red ones.

When this situation exists, I will tie up my loom so that I lift the fewest possible shafts. Which means that for some of my patterns I may well be weaving them back to front.

I also need to bear in mind that what I am weaving are scarves which generally get draped over someone's shoulders. What will be upright at one end of the scarf will be upside down on the other. So motifs that are directional will quite often get alternated in their orientation.

While I have a number of ideas for motifs/patterns I've not actually hammered them out so my next task will be to start generating the liftplans (treadlings) for more.

Weaving on this warp is, as expected, very, very slow. But right now that's not a bad thing. :)

Just finished reading Hook, Line and Sinister (short mystery stories revolving around fishing). Currently reading The Complaints by Ian Rankin

Catching Up

If you've been reading my blog for a while you might recognize this fabric. It is one of a series of afghans (throws) that I wove late last year, just as my health appeared to be heading into a downward spiral.

There were a few oopsies that needed to be fixed and quite frankly I just didn't feel well enough to do the repairs. :(

Sometimes it's easier for me to just keep on weaving rather than do the repairs on the loom, so if that's the case I will mark the error with a contrasting thread and then needleweave on my inspection table.

With Mizz B soon moving back home I wanted to show her how to do such repairs and with the arrival of the paperwork from St. Paul's Hospital today I'm feeling much more energetic so I dragged out the beam with the afghans wound on it and showed her how to fix such errors.

I managed to get 3 of them inspected and repaired before getting too tired (and with the fading light it was getting too hard to see) so I'll finish the rest tomorrow.

The paperwork took the better part of an hour, plus I have to go in for blood work a week before the procedure, but St. Paul's Hospital has a great reputation for being a first rate cardiac research hospital so I know I'm in good hands. It would be nice to know why this all blew up so soon and so quickly, though. :( (I have my suspicions, but....)

In the covering letter they mentioned that the nurse will let me know if I 'qualify' for one of their research programs - if I'm approached I've already decided to agree. My CAD is genetic and as a female I didn't have typical symptoms the first go round. This time - partly because I'd already been through it once - I started agitating for a stress test before things became critical. :)

Unfortunately at that time I wasn't having much in the way of typical symptoms - those started after I broke my ankle.

But with the arrival of the paperwork today the procedure is feeling much more 'real' - it's exactly 3 weeks until I get 'fixed' and knowing that has made all the difference in the world in terms of how I'm feeling.

In addition to doing the paperwork and the repairs, I threaded the AVL with the Diversified Plain Weave warp and wove a scarf on the small loom.

It's much easier for me to weave on the small loom right now, so I've decided to leave the warp on the AVL until after I get back from St. Paul's. With the air assist on the AVL I don't have to treadle so it should only be a couple of days until I can weave on that loom. It will be a week before I can weave on the small loom with the treadles. :) And if I don't feel up to weaving right away - well, there's all those afghans that will need fringe twisting. After all I won't have a fringe twisting elf after the end of this month. :(

At least there's the internet and she has family here so will be coming to visit fairly regularly. :)

Next Warp

Started beaming the warps for the Diversified Plain Weave scarf run this morning.

DPW is a weave structure that has a fat pattern thread and a fine tie down thread in the warp and the weft. Winding a warp with two such disparate grists can be a problem when one is putting on a long warp.

Now if one is just doing, say, 5 yards and has a relatively large beam like the one yard beam on the AVL, they can probably be successfully wound onto the same beam all at once.

However, I'm putting on a 40 yard warp and I know from past experience that a warp that long is not going to behave well with both grists on the same beam.


While I don't very often use both beams, when the second beam is needed, it's because it is essential to use it. (For convenience or for separating yarns of different grists.)

I've found that it is much easier/efficient to beam the warp on the lower 1/2 yard second beam and then beam the warp on the upper 1 yard beam.

The other thing I've learned from experience is that the yarns will be going on at differing lengths. Rather than use a yardage counter, I simply count revolutions and use the greater circumference as a fudge factor. Generally there's plenty of yarn so I don't need to crunch numbers so closely as to need a yardage counter (although I have one for other purposes).

Just to be on the safe side I've wound 85 turns of the fine yarn instead of 80 giving me a fudge factor of 2.5 or so yards to accommodate the difference in circumference and build up of the yarn.

Now some people might find this wasteful but let's do the math.

There are 16 ends per one inch section, times 2.5 yards times 10 sections for a total of approximately 400 yards. The yarn is a 2/16 grist which has approximately 6400 yyp (a little more but let's make this as simple as possible). That means there are about 400 yards per ounce.

The retail cost of the 2/16 bamboo is about $13.50 for 8 ounces which means that my 'insurance policy' of an additional 2.5 yards per section has cost me about $1.70. (Not counting taxes and shipping.)

This insurance policy will ensure that I don't run out of the fine yarn before I run out of the chenille in case of unequal build up on the beams, and hopefully if I've miscounted and am short a turn on the fine yarn, I still won't run out before I run out of chenille.

Seems like a small price to pay to me. :)

And while I'm sectional beaming, I thought I would pass on this tip for working with masking tape. I've done this for so many years I assume everyone knows to do this but apparently not.





Pull off the length of tape you want. Pinch the tape between your thumb and index finger and rip the tape off against your thumb. This will leave a tab so that when you go to use the tape next time you don't have to find the ripped end stuck to the roll of tape. If leaving the tape for any length of time, fold the tape back on itself to preserve the tab.

(Tip courtesy of Doug, many moons ago.)

Currently reading The Body in the Gallery by Katherine Hall Page