FAFO

blue/grey with mystery yarn towel

 This morning I pressed the samples for the second article.  Now they will finish drying and then I'll examine, document and assess them for results.  And then see what conclusions I come to.

Not all of the results were a 'surprise' to me, given I've been weaving for nearly 50 years, with lots and lots of different yarns and weave structures.  But if I'm going to be able to present the information in a way that makes sense, I need to include examples of what I'm talking about.

On the end of the blue/grey warp I wove a 'sample' with the aim of running it through wet finishing loads with other towels numerous times, to see how it behaves with time and processing.  I want to treat the sample 'roughly', so I will use a wet finishing load rather than an 'ordinary' laundry load.

When I sell my towels, my care tag says 'machine wash warm water, machine dry, iron if desired'.

My wet finishing process is to use *hot* water, not warm.  

These towels, woven with my 'mystery' yarn (likely a 6/2 cotton, given the burn test and close examination with a microscope) seemed to have quite a lot of twist in the singles, less in the ply, I was curious to see how it behaved during wet finishing.  It behaved about as I suspected, so now I want to see how it behaves with repeated trips through the washer/dryer.

It doesn't matter how many warps a weaver has run across their beams, *change one thing and everything can change*.

And so I sample.  

Writing these articles were a great exercise for me.  I can roughly guestimate how a yarn will behave, but I don't always guess correctly.  So it was important to do the samples and find out.

It will take some time to write up the details and pick though my conclusions.  And of course I do realize that someone else might have a different experience with the exact same yarns (see change everything caution, above.)

In some ways it's difficult to accept I've been at this for nearly 50 years.  OTOH, I have woven a LOT, and learned TONS.  

But here I am, learning more.  

It's what keeps me getting out of bed in the morning.  What will I learn today?  There is almost always something!

State of the Studio

 

Here's a teaser - one of the samples I wove for one of the articles I'm writing.  And yes, I did sort of expect that to happen - it's all part of what I will be looking at in the article.  :)

Right now my studio is a bit of a shambles.  I'm back to juggling too many balls, trying to keep too many plates spinning on their rods.

Truth is, I'm only juggling 3 balls, spinning 3 plates these days, but some days that's still 'too many'.

I keep trying to 'get better', but the fact is, I'm not going to.  The best I can hope for (and I *know* I'm not alone in this) is to delay further sliding down.

Funny thing about finally accepting the reality of my situation.  It is allowing me to make decisions.

What truly matters to me?  What do I really want to accomplish?  Is doing this, or that, important enough to spend my energy spoons on?  Or do I need to save them for the 'important' stuff?

Accepting my reality is a great mind cleanser.  Do I spin my wheels moaning because I cannot do certain things anymore?  Or do I get on with what I *can* do?

I have one more obligation to the guild, which I have been putting off because a) the very long set of stairs up to the guild room is more than I can manage some days and b) it's been too damned hot and the guild room gets to be an oven.  Dressing a loom in that hot box is not in any way appealing.  And, because the guild goes 'quiet' over the summer, I'm not stressing myself over it, even though the loom does need to be 'tested' before the guild can offer it for sale.  But that little obligation is on hold at the minute.

In the meantime I *think* I have now woven all the samples I need to, for the 2nd article.  The first is essentially 'done', the text sent to the editor to see if I've covered all the essentials of if they want something more.  I'm trying very hard to get these articles done well before their deadline so that I can move on from there.  If the editor approves, I will seal the box of samples, which I tagged/labelled and carefully packed up, ready for the mail, and send that to the person doing the photography.

Am I hoping to write more?  Well, yes, but there is always here if no where else.

Yesterday I cut that green warp (above) off the loom, started working on the prep of the samples for article 2, pressed the towels, got the two pieces of yardage ready to be wet finished.

But today the goal is to beam the next warp.  I'm going back to 2/16 cotton and the linen weft.  I took the natural linen bobbins left over from the last warp and put them into a humidor, then started winding bobbins with white.  In the course of doing the samples, I wound up with bobbins filled with yarn from the sample weaving.  Now to decide if I strip them of the yarn, or see if the 2 dozen bobbins I have available, will be sufficient.  In the meantime, I can empty some of the 'extra' bobbins using that yarn for headers and weaving in the cut lines between towels on the next warp.  

I do like to steep the linen for several days before weaving with it, so I may give in and strip the 'mystery' yarn off the bobbins so that those 6 can be used for the linen.  TBD.

In the meantime, I'm reading that book of essays on knitting Knitting Yarns.  I think the essays are pertinent to anyone who makes things by hand, not just knitters.  So if that is something you think you might enjoy, I do recommend it.  I've promised to write a book review for my local guild newsletter.  If I don't have the spoons to edit the newsletter, I can help by writing entries for the editor? 

It is halfway through July, and with the current hot spell, the bush is drying out after the too little, too late precipitation we had a couple of weeks ago.  Fingers crossed things don't 'blow up' any more than they currently are.  

Where ever you are, what ever you are doing, I hope you find some peace in your making (if you make) or joy in the nature around you.  

In the meantime, my studio will continue to be a shambles, because that's just the way I roll...

Magic of Colour

 

end of the yellow, beginning of the blue/green

Yesterday I finished the yellow weft and started on the blue/green weft.  

I chose to weave plain weave for a number of reasons.

The yellow would blend more evenly with the warp colours and *appear* to be a bright green.

The epi on this warp was set for the thicker white weft I was trying to use up, which meant it was a little too 'sparse' for the 2/22 cottolin for anything else.  OTOH, 20 epi was perfectly fine for the cottolin woven in plain weave.

Plain weave is a bit 'thinner' and since I wasn't sure how much fabric I would get out of the tube, I didn't want to weave the yarn to 'measure' with hems.  Besides, my friend might like to make something other than towels with the cloth.  Plain weave would be more versatile, I felt.

Since I have a couple of different tubes of cottolin, weaving them off in plain weave seemed like a prudent thing to do.

But, as I was weaving, I was thinking ahead to the next article and wondered if I could weave some samples with that singles 6 with high twist energy in it, and if it would do some 'interesting' things?

I've used it before and it has loads of twist energy in it - it was spun to be plyed, so all that twist is still in the yarn.  It's just old enough it's gone 'quiet' but will re-awaken when it hits the water.

Hmm.

So I looked in my storage area, and sure enough I've got loads of the stuff.  So instead of switching to the blue cottolin (only about 1/4 of a tube left), once I've done with the teal cottolin, I'll wind some of the singles 6 and weave some samples.

I don't know how much warp I will have left when I've done that, but I might be close to the end.  Once I'm done weaving the samples, I'll take a gander at the warp beam and decide if I keep weaving or cut off and re-tie.  There is still that hemp to be used up and it would work nicely on this warp.

Simple is not always Easy

 

I've been weaving a lot of plain weave lately, in part because I need plain weave samples for a couple of the articles I've been writing.

It has been good to get back to 'basics' and hone my skills.

Because 'simple' does not equate to 'easy'.

I frequently see beginner weavers confidently stating that they are going to begin with  something easy, like plain weave.

Well, it may be 'simple', but it is not easy to do *well*.

Plain weave will show off every inconsistency in beat, especially when woven with contrasting colours in warp and weft.  OTOH, if the beginner can 'master' weaving plain weave well, every other weave structure will be a lot easier when they try those.

So I stifle any comment I might make and let them figure it out.

By the time I got to this, I'd already woven several yards on 2 different warps, all in 2/8 cotton.  With this warp I finished off the 'mystery' yarn in that 'fancy' twill I've been weaving, then grabbed a rather obnoxious yellow cottolin to use as weft on the blue/greens with accent colours of yellow, pink and peach.

The yellow had been sitting in my stash for quite literally decades because it was SO 'loud' I couldn't think what to do with it.  However, I have a friend who adores bright green, the brighter the better, and I thought the yellow would shift the mid-range blue/greens further into the green and be fairly bright.  Since she also likes turquoise, I figured this would be welcome in her kitchen - or wherever.  The tube was full because I hadn't used any of it, not quite knowing what to do with it, so I'm weaving it in yardage.  If she wants to make a table runner or something else with it, she can do that.  Or cut it up into towel lengths.  I'll leave it up to her what she wants to do with it.

Back in the early days of internet chat groups, there was the attitude that if you had a fly shuttle, or lord forbid, a dobby (then a computer assisted dobby), you were somehow 'cheating'.

I pointed out that I had two looms.  When I wove something the selvedges were straight and my beat was consistent.  Unless I did a fancy twill using all 16 shafts, no one would know which loom I had woven the cloth on.  And yes, I do weave plain weave over 16 shafts, like this bright green.

I no longer have a fly shuttle or auto-advance cloth system, but I can, and do, weave plain weave on all 16 shafts at times.

When I'm done with the yellow, there is a half tube of a blue/green, slightly darker than the darker hue in the warp.  That should also look good.  Again, I'll weave yardage, then decide what to do with it.  I might give it to my friend along with the brighter green.  TBD.  OTOH, I like the darker blue/greens so who knows, I might keep them for myself.  

I've finished the rough draft of the first article, and processed the samples for it.  My alpha reader says she has time to maybe read through it today.  If she does, I'll send the file to the editor and ask if she's satisfied with what I've done or if she wants something more.  I'm not sure how many words I've written, but I've got 7 pages (using a large font - because old eyes!)  (Just checked, and I've got just over 2200 words.)

In the meantime I am enjoying weaving this plain weave on the 'fatter' yarns.  But I am also getting antsy wanting to begin using up the white linen.  Hopefully I can finish this warp off over the weekend and start beaming the next.

Summer has arrived, the sun is currently shining, we don't have any particular wildfires bothering us (most are to the north, with one a little bit too close to the south and east, but no smoke from it - yet).  We are hoping that the recent rain has dampened the bush so that we don't have too many wildfires, but the province has issued a campfire ban for the entire province.  I really hope people pay attention and don't risk starting a fire while they are out enjoying the great outdoors.

Gearing Up

 

I have finished weaving the samples I need for the two articles.  I think.  I will know better once I've done the wet finishing if I need to do more.  Perhaps these samples will raise more questions and I want to see if I can find an answer.  Or I will see an angle I hadn't considered before that I want to pursue as part of this exploration.

As it happens, I don't need to weave ALL of the samples now - I have lots of samples from my teaching days that I can drag out to use as examples.  But I had some very specific subtle effects I wanted to really take a very close look at and see if those slight differences make much difference to the cloth.

But there were certain aspects that they wanted to examine that I really hadn't done, in an organized fashion.  I mean, I have opinions!  Of course I do.  But they want to provide answers that are based on some experimentation, not just my best guess.

And of course, now I hit the 'wall' of indecision, of doubt.  

I spent some time drawing up forms so that I can record the details of what I do.  I just need to clear the decks so that I have room to work.  Plus it will take some time over several days because of course the samples will have to dry.  They also need to be clearly labelled/identified, and I've come up with a way to do that so I can keep track of them.  Because they don't *look* very different and once wet finished I suspect they are going to be difficult to tell apart.

(I'm not saying who or when until I finish the work and have it approved...)

In the meantime, I'm examining an aspect of textiles I've noticed but not pursued in an organized fashion.  And that feels good, to finally have the time to set aside, weave the samples, then wet finish them, and then sit down to really examine them to see - if I can - what has happened.

Wet finishing is such a magical process.  There are all sorts of ways to carry the process out, and all sorts of variations, given how many different fibres there are to weave with.  I won't try to examine them all, but I will look at the 'major' ones.

And then people will have to do their own 'research', their own 'experiments' and see what happens when...

The side benefit to doing this series of samples is that I finally thought of a way to explain in a clearer way how compression works in textiles.  As usual, the effect is generally quite subtle, and in many cases not really seen - unless you look really closely.  

Once I've got this writing behind me, stay tuned for a tutorial on compression, hopefully in a way that clearly shows what happens when you interlace three dimensional 'rods', then compress them and how that affects the textile as a whole.

Round and Round

 

A cone, tube and cotton boll against a background of woven cotton sample

Cotton.  One of my favourite yarns to weave.  

Not everyone knows where fibres come from, and sometimes it's good to dig a little and find out more about the materials we work with and tend to use frequently.

Cotton is versatile, comes in a variety of thicknesses and formats.  The fibre itself comes from the seed pod (or 'boll') and the fibre staple is fairly short, ranging from 3/4" to 1 5/8" for textile purposes.  Anything shorter goes into other products - paper making for one.

Cotton is cellulose and has many characteristics in common with other cellulose fibres, although there are differences.  The most obvious one is, perhaps, linen and the other bast fibres.  While still cellulose, the fibre comes from the bast fibres in the stalk of the plants, not the seed pod.

And then, of course, there is the regenerated cellulose yarns - rayon (collectively), but sometimes identified by their trade name, like Tencel.  Or Bamboo.  (I understand that it is possible to get the un-regenerated bamboo fibres, but that is rare - what is most commonly available now is the 'rayon' bamboo.)

Rayon comes in a variety of different formulations, so just getting 'rayon' might mean something quite different if you buy a different brand.

And of course, it all depends on how the fibre has been prepared for and spun!

I've been weaving cotton samples for an article I'm writing, and it's been interesting to explore cotton in a more organized fashion to look at one specific thing.  Since different yarns do behave differently, I've rummaged in my yarn stash and come up with a variety of different cotton yarns, and woven samples which I can use for the article.

Today I hope to cut the current warp off the loom and begin weaving the samples for article number 2, which will look at a completely different subtle effect that happens at times in weaving.  Once again I'm looking at a variety of different yarns and how they behave.

Over the years I've encountered both of these topics and have opinions.  But this is the first time I've actually sat down and studied them in a more organized fashion.  A 'proper' experiment.

I can't begin to tell you how much I'm enjoying this.  :)

Simple

 

Yesterday I shared this draft online, referring to it as 'simple'.  Several people commented that it didn't look 'simple' (I paraphrase).

But here's the thing.  You can make something 'simple' look 'fancy' - if you have enough shafts, and understand how the weave structure(s) work.

If you look closely at the threading, you can see that the progression is a V and an inverted V - with 'bumps'.

The straight line up and down the shafts advances with reverses - point progressions within the larger point of shaft 1-16-1 then flipped over 16-1-16.  No further modification was done to make something truly 'fancy'.

The motif is just 67 ends, flipped to create the opposite version for another 67 ends, and those two repeat across the width of the cloth with some straight draw at the borders to make up the rest of the width of the cloth, providing 'borders' at the selvedge.  The towel will be woven with a hem area of straight progression treadling to mirror the threading.

The tie-up is also 'simple' - a twill consisting of 1:3:1:3:2:2:3:1 and then doing the thing that twill does - move over and up by one step.  The treadling for the towel body is 'woven as drawn in' (or woven in the same progression as the threading).

I did almost no thinking for this draft (unlike the matrix series which required megawatts of thinking!), just following the twill lines and let them resolve in the simplest way possible.

The cloth is not 'balanced' insofar as you will see more warp on one side of the cloth and more weft on the other.  When I do this, I weave it with the weft side up so that I lift the fewest number of shafts.  The other side of the cloth will look like this:

In this particular cloth, there won't be a dramatic difference - the warp is a combination of various shades of very pale blue/grey/slightly darker blue, and the weft will be white.

This is my first 2/8 cotton warp in well over a year - maybe two!  And I'd forgotten how much faster working with a 'fatter' yarn goes.  

Yesterday I beamed the warp (about 24 yards) then started threading and managed to nearly finish threading before I ran out of steam.  Just 5" left to do (about 100 threads)

It has been a nice reprieve before I go back to 2/16 cotton and that very fine linen.  For that I will be playing with more 'fancy' twills again.  The linen is thinner than the 2/16 and I'm going to stick with 36 epi, which means the tie up will have plain weave in it to help stabilize the cloth.  

The beginning of this warp will be woven for samples - in plain weave - so I needed a draft that would produce a plain weave cloth.  Whatever is left over will get woven in this design using that mystery yarn I posted about a while ago.  Given the mystery yarn is slightly thicker than 2/8 cotton, and stiffer, giving the cloth a hard press during wet finishing will be critical.  The towels will be thicker than what I would call 'tea towel' quality, but they will still dry hands - and even pots - not so much smaller items like glasses.

I may need to put another 2/8 cotton warp into the loom to weave the rest of the samples for the second article I'm working on, but I have enough yarn to do that without needing to order more in.  I will make up my mind once I'm done researching article 1 and can then give my full attention to article 2.  But I have an Oct. 1, 2024 deadline, so I need to get going on this part - the part that takes the most time - the research part (or in the modern parlance, the FAFO part).

I'm looking forward to faffing around and finding out what happens when I do this, then that, then think about my results.  Then moving to the next step.  The actual writing will take a lot less time than the thinking about and then doing the FAFO part.

Step by Step

 

Yesterday I finished weaving the 3rd shawl and cut those off the loom.  

They are woven from rayon (bamboo), and as such the threads are fairly slippery, so the cloth is, shall we say, fragile?  I didn't want to mess around with the web very much so carefully pulled the web off the loom by folding it (Z folds) into my lap.  My plastic bins are not long enough to hold the shawls in their full width, so when I had the bundle on my lap I carefully folded it in half, then carried it over to my work table and put the bundle into the bin.

I need to clear off the dining room table before I can begin fringe twisting.  

The warp was 30" in the reed, but the draw in brought that down to around 27".  After wet finishing I expect the shawls to be around 24" finished.  I'm weaving them approx. 88=90" in length, which should come down to around 78-80?  Plus fringes.

The woven design is the same for all of the shawls, but I'm using 6 different colours.  So far I've emptied two small cones and will possibly empty at least one more.  It looks like each shawl is taking around 6-7 ounces of the bamboo rayon weft.  (Silk City bambu 12)  The warp is the Brassard 2/16 bamboo.  I've used this combination previously and was pleased with the results, so I'm looking forward to getting these finished and move on to the next warp.

However, fringe twisting takes about as long as throwing the shuttle.  In this case, about 2 hours of shuttle throwing.  If I remember correctly, it takes about an hour per end to do the fringe twisting. I calculate that it takes me about 10 hours to finish, finish the shawls, maybe 11.  If I were to bill my labour out at $15/hr, that would make the sale price on these at $150-165 just for my labour, plus the yarns.  But I'm fast and most weavers would take a lot longer to weave shawls of this type of cloth, and there is still the yarn to be added in, plus the overhead (the expenses of running the studio regardless of what I'm doing.)  So my *wholesale* price for these shawls would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $200.

Retail traditionally marks up from the wholesale by doubling, so a 'fair' market price for these shawls would be $395.

But I'm no longer in 'business' so I don't have to watch the price points as carefully.  Plus I live in a smallish town, where higher prices don't usually garner much interest.  So I expect that when I offer these for sale, the retail price will be around $275.00.  Although I think I sold my last shawls at that price so I might go up to $295.  Will see.

I sell through the local guild which takes 20% commission, takes the GST and remits it to Revenue Canada and deals with the booth set up and manning it.  

I'm happy to pay the guild their commission for this service, especially given covid and my compromised immune system.  Plus we are in our 70s now and doing a show like the big craft fair locally is getting to be beyond our ability to participate in person.

I'm hoping to get this warp off the loom by this weekend, then put the next one into the loom.  I need to do some thinking about what, exactly, I need for the samples for the two articles I'm working on, then the rest of the warp will get woven in towels.  These will be heavier, woven from 2/8 cotton warp and that thicker mystery yarn I posted about a few days ago.  I might use 2/16 cotton to weave hems in plain weave, with the towel body in a simple twill.

I find it interesting that just as I was feeling restless and wanting to write, but only stuff that I want to write about, I'm being offered chances to do just that.  And since the people who want the articles are asking me to do specific topics that are narrow, but deep, I find I'm quite excited about digging deeper and pursuing thought squirrels I never nailed down before.

So, last night I dug out my linen tester, and I will be using the shawls to see if I can see if the draw in is greater at the selvedges than the interior of the cloth, as the industrial website stated.  It is something I have suspected for a while, but never took the time to actually sit down and count the threads after weaving and wet finishing.

Rabbit warrens.  You never know where they will take you.  

Investing

 

Yesterday the box of yarn I ordered arrived.  About $200 worth.  Yes, that little pile of yarn is close to $200.  

What will I make with it?

A better weaver.  One who has never woven with any of these particular yarns before, and therefore needs to understand how they will behave, both in the preparation and in the loom.

The white skeins are a blend of BFL and silk, the three cones in the middle are a fairly thick cotton and the smaller cone by itself at the bottom is a yarn made of two plys, one linen, one cotton.  

The BFL/silk combo is a bit stiffer than expected, but that will simply make it a good candidate for warp in weaving.  Until I can get a sample woven, I won't really know its true nature because it will likely develop into something quite nice after wet finishing.  The density is high, the twists per inch are fairly high, it doesn't seem to have a whole lot of elasticity, so I'm expecting to enjoy this yarn.  We will see.

The 100% cotton is mercerized and - as I say - thick, at 3/2.  It should weave up into nice table textiles - place mats, table runners.  Maybe small curtains.  Cotton performs well in sunshine, standing up to sun degradation reasonably well (although the dye may fade).

The cotton/linen 2 ply?  Well, that is a very interesting yarn.  It is somewhat finer than the cotton and I expect I might try a 2/8 cotton and use it for weft on that as well as a small sample on the 3/2.

Once my sampling is done, I'll create some small items and test my conclusions.

What do I expect at the end?  Will there be something useable?  Perhaps.  But I'll have expanded my knowledge.  And if someone asks me about how to handle these yarns?  I'll have answers with some knowledge to back my opinions, not just give them my best guess.

Collective Learning

"The life so short, the craft so long to learn"

Recently someone posted this quote in reference to learning the craft of weaving (any craft really) amid a discussion of how one learns all the things there are to know about how to create a textile.

New weavers are anxious for definitive answers when the truth is, there aren't any.

Recently had a discussion with Jane Stafford about how, even after decades of weaving we both still feel like 'beginners', something new to learn all the time.

During this pandemic time, it is difficult for new weavers to learn - classes have been cancelled outright or postponed, or gone on-line.

The challenge with on-line learning is that students don't get the experience of feeling the resulting textiles, when a+b+c is done.

Textiles are, by their very nature, tactile.   The feel of them is a large consideration.

New weavers are told to sample, but when you don't know where to start, how do you begin?

For me I just jumped in and started exploring all the things - yarns, density, weave structures.  What happens when I change this?  What happens when I tweak that?  I have boxes and boxes of samples that I am loathe to get rid of - I spent lots of time, effort and money making them and they always come in handy when I'm teaching because the students can *feel* the results and begin to understand how multi-level and subtle the creation of textiles really is.

I studied all kinds of textiles.  I had been working with textiles in one way or another for years so I found it fascinating how tiny subtle changes could and would make a difference to the resulting fabric.

As I became more experienced I joined sample exchanges.  In return for weaving a bundle of samples, I got a variety of different samples in exchange.  The samples were documented and I could see - and feel! - the cloth, study the fibres used, examine the details, analyze the results.

It was a starting place and jump started my base or foundation of knowledge.

Instead of 'just' samples, sometimes people will do a 'thing' exchange.  The most common is tea towels.  These are great (although a larger investment for participation) because you get a functional textile that you can actually use and evaluate for how well it performs that function.

These exchanges can be done within a local guild or by mail.

The Guild of Canadian Weavers Bulletin still includes a sample with each issue.  Complex Weavers has a number of study groups where people exchange samples.  Conferences sometimes organize things like tea towel exchanges.

Some publications over the years have included textiles as well.  Those are by their very nature more expensive, but worth it.  (eg, the original Magic in the Water, the series A Good Yarn and others)

Some guilds subscribe to newsletters which also have samples in them.

Once the pandemic is 'over' it might be well worth a deep dive into guild libraries to find out what treasures they may have in terms of actual fabric samples to study.

"The life so short, the craft so long to learn."  Indeed.

Preparation

Yesterday, not feeling that weaving would be in my best interests, I started working on the level four master weaver class.  One of the things I have is a whole bunch of samples.  Many of these were woven for my own information, for published articles, for class examples.

Developing a class is time consuming.  Even when working to a curriculum developed by others, it is still necessary to make sure I have appropriate samples to show that students can learn from.  Because not all of us process information in the same way.  I know that recently this concept has become somewhat controversial, but I have seen it myself - I talk about a concept and some people understand.  I draw diagrams and a few more get it.  I demonstrate and light bulbs go off.  Likewise having an actual sample of the fabric brings understanding.

It was one of the most valuable things I learned as a new weaving teacher - don't just keep saying the same thing over and over again.  As one student put it, 'saying the same thing only louder doesn't help me understand any faster'.  I paraphrase.

Whether or not I am personally developing a topic, and I have developed quite a few between workshops and written publications, it still takes hours of preparation to go through the documentation to determine what I need to have available for teaching aids and a lesson plan to convey the course content.

Level four is all about colour and design.  As I began digging through my bins of samples, I realized that I have done a lot of weaving that could be used as examples for this class.  While my inventory of textiles for sale is dwindling, there are quite a few gamps, which is what the students will be partially working on for their homework. 

These samples are not meant to be copied by the students, but act as tools to understanding.

I will also (if there are sufficient students) be teaching level two.  For those samples I need go no further than my samples for the Guild of Canadian Weavers, because I had to weave samples of twill, overshot and double weave for those tests.

But I also need to sit down with the manuals and develop a lesson plan for both classes.  I'm focusing on level four first because I have not taught it before.  I have taught level two and have a pretty good idea of what needs to happen when and an hour or so of review will likely be sufficient.  But level four is going to take a lot longer.

Like most teachers, I only get paid for the hours I am teaching in the classroom, not for the many hours that will be needed prior to ever stepping into the classroom.  I'm not complaining, just saying.

People who have never taught really do not know how much work goes into what happens when they arrive. 

I am feeling 'better' enough today that I am going to weave a towel.  And use that shuttle throwing time to think about the level four class and how I might best shape the experience for the students.  And then start gathering the art supplies and samples, check my yarn supply for the group warps (because there will be two for level four) and then hopefully mail early enough for everything to arrive before I do.

To fly out to Cape Breton I have been taking the red eye from Vancouver to Toronto, then to Sydney where a local meets me at the airport.  We then go shopping for food (because the college is isolated and I will not have transportation) and then I fall into bed and Sunday spend the day getting the classroom and studio ready. 

And then the fire hose of information will begin bright and early on Monday morning - and keep flowing until Friday. 

Last I heard, we should have enough people for level four to run, level two, we won't know until one month prior to that class starting.  But I still have to be prepared and ready to send the materials so that they will also arrive in time for class.  Time that may or may not be required, depending on if the class goes ahead or not.

Just one of the realities of offering instruction for weaving (or any craft) - you do your best to offer valuable information, then wait and see if enough people are interested enough to invest in the time and effort to take it.  

Cha, Cha, Changes,

One of the things that one hopefully learns as they begin to master this craft is how things are likely to change when what you are doing changes.

I know I've posted about this before, but that was after I did it 'wrong'.  This time, I'm hoping I will have done it 'right', right from the start.

My usual warp on the Fanny is about 11 meters or approximately 12 yards.  The warp that went onto the loom today is not only longer at 16.5 yards, it is also slippery - mercerized cotton.

A couple of years ago I had a large warping reel and I started winding longer warps - about 14 meters or about 16 yards long.

The very first of the longer warps I started weaving I began noticing weird tension issues happening.  There were areas of inconsistent tension.  The brake wasn't slipping - there were actual patches or groups of warp ends that would get slightly looser, even out as weaving commenced, then a group elsewhere would exhibit loose tension.

It occurred to me that these longer warps required higher tension during beaming.  So I increased the amount of water in my water jugs and beamed using higher tension, and...voila!...everything was just fine again.

So, with this warp of slippery cotton at 16.5 yards, I added four cups of water to each of my weights and got Doug to help me beam the warp.  I could have done it myself except my back and neck aren't very happy with me right now, and having someone else add the warp packing and crank on while I groomed the warp chains made the whole job go a lot more quickly and easily.

This isn't my warp, there is none to waste, and I want to do a good job because these samples are for another weaver to use in her teaching, not mine to do over or make a big mistake on!  I'm just hoping that 4 cups of water was enough.

Time will tell...

Currently reading The Paris Spy by Susan Elia Macneal

Labour Intensive

I got home late afternoon on Tuesday (leaving Richmond at 5 am).  Yesterday was filled with appointments - including a change in the date of my dental surgery.  It will take place on Monday, not a week from now.  So things have to be changed around in order to leave me some time for recovery.

To that end I decided I needed to at least dress the small loom.  Of the two looms, this one is a little more 'gentle' on my body and the one that I will likely feel like weaving on soonest.

Having four warps already wound, waiting in the wings, so to speak, I simply chose the one on the top of the heap and started beaming it this morning.  

The next two days are similarly filled with appointments so working on it will be catch as catch can.

I rarely put less than 11 meters of warp onto this loom, although I will if I'm sampling.  11 meters of warp yields 10 towels.  Usually.

Dressing the loom is the biggest investment in time so I want to make as many items as I can on a warp.  Unless, as mentioned, I'm sampling.

Yes, after 40+ years of weaving I do still sample.  I have not worked with every single yarn, so when I get one that is new-to-me, I need to find out the hidden potential locked in the yarn.

Does it have sufficient twist to hold together as warp?  If not, do I want to go to the work of sizing it?  What sort of epi/ppi do I want to use with it?  What happens when the density changes?  The weave structure?  Most of all, what happens during wet finishing?  Because it isn't finished until it's wet finished.

I have some 'test' scarves I wove from hand spun singles that need to be wet finished.  I had hoped to do that while Mary was here, but somehow we ran out of time.  Mary is a master spinner (Olds College master spinner program graduate) and we have been working on this research project for nearly two years.  It has been a learning curve for both of us as we explored the effects of twists per inch on the singles, the twist direction, how the yarn behaved in the loom and during wet finishing.  The three scarves continue the exploration but until they are wet finished....well that is the last step and I'm hoping to do that today or tomorrow in between appointments.

Never too old to learn!

Nothing Ventured

So here is the initial sample I wove yesterday and wet finished.  I gained valuable information from weaving and wet finishing it.  For example, initially I liked the top most bit the best, but after wet finishing it had not softened and felt very plain weave 'stiff' while the lower plain weave bit woven with the hand spun had a much more appealing feel.  So I will be going with that.

I also discovered an issue with the selvedge that required tweaking for the twill scarves.

This is why I sample.  Rather than have the whole project 'fail', I use up a bit of the 'precious' hand spun to make sure I am going in the direction I want to wind up.

The popular cliche is Nothing ventured, Nothing gained.  So I ventured forth, explored some possibilities and now have enough information that I am fairly confident I will wind up with a scarf that I will find appealing to wear next to the skin.

On another note, I received official notification today that there were insufficient registrations for the two Olds classes to run in Prince George.  I hope that anyone interested will look at Fibre Week in Olds in June.  

But again, Nothing Ventured, Nothing gained.  By offering the classes here, more people have discovered the program and will hopefully make plans in the future to participate in the program,

For me, it's back to the studio.  I have other appointments today and, since I want to weave the scarf all in one sitting, I will wind the other two warps and call it a day.  

Currently reading Convergence by C. J. Cherryh

Learning Curve

All this yarn is part II or maybe III.  It is a research project with two other fibre people where we have each brought our skills, our knowledge, our expertise, to make something that is greater than the sum of it's parts, insofar as we are all benefiting from the interaction of our various areas of interest and expertise.

I know I bang on and on about how everything changes when you change one thing.  In order to make meaningful discoveries, it works best (for me) to make incremental changes, observe how the yarn reacts, then tweak what I am doing.

While I may have been weaving for over 40 years, I long ago learned that I wasn't going to learn everything there is to know about the construction of cloth because there are so many variables.  One person would be hard pressed to try every fibre in every format, every loom, every weave structure, every finishing technique, every density in all of the above.

But it was that very un-knowing-ness - the vast scope and range - of cloth construction that excited me.  It continues to excite me. 

Yes, some of the 'experiments' have been 'failures' insofar as they didn't produce the results I was looking for.  In fact, this current round of 'samples' is barely the tip of the iceberg, scratching the surface.  Whether or not the three of us will continue to explore this area of making cloth or not, only time will tell.

But in the meantime, I ride the roller coaster of learning and try to enjoy the ride up and down and around the curves...

A Deft Hand

deft

deft/

adjective

1. neatly skillful and quick in one's movements.

   "a deft piece of footwork"

   • demonstrating skill and cleverness.

     "the script was both deft and literate"

     synonyms:

     skillful, adept, adroit, dexterous, agile, nimble, handy; As I set about weaving the place mat warp this morning the phrase "a deft hand" suddenly popped into my head. I had been background thinking about teaching and communicating about the skills involved in weaving - or any craft, for that matter - and suddenly this phrase appeared in my thoughts. Checking the definition, just to make sure it meant what I thought it meant, I saw an older meaning - gentle. And that rang another little bell.  Because to me, working in traditional crafts means not only know how to do it, but how much finesse is required to get the materials to perform to their best. Recently someone asked me how I dealt with being treated as an 'expert' when you don't actually 'know it all'.   To me, being an 'expert' doesn't mean that you 'know it all'.  When it comes to textiles, it would be near impossible for one person to know everything there is to know about weaving.  But I have studied certain aspects of weaving in depth.  So when people ask me about something I haven't tried, or don't feel I know to the sort of level of expertise that would allow me to give a meaningful answer, I tell them I don't know, cite references if I know of any, and then tell them how I would approach finding out.  In other words, sampling. While I may be 'deft', I am not the end of the discussion by any means.  But I do know enough to point people in the general direction I feel they may discover the answers they are looking for.  So perhaps I'm 'deft' at dodging the term 'expert'?

Curiosity

Because I don't have enough yarn.  Or things to do.  Or knowledge.

Sometimes I see or hear comments about not using hand spun for weaving.  Or, you can use it, but only plyed.  Which is completely contradictory to the historical record.

I have used both commercially and hand spun yarns for warp and weft.  Some yarns are more tender than others and may require sizing to add strength.  But yes, you can weave with hand spun singles.

After extensive consultation with a master spinner and multiple samples, I now have the yarn to make 'something' - in this case three scarves - one for the dyer, one for the spinner, one for me.  

The spinner and I drew on our respective personal database of knowledge, consulted extensively, then she set about making samples of the hand spun singles which I then wove.  Because that is how you find out if your extrapolations are correct - you sample.  Change one thing and everything can change.

People sometimes ask me if I sample any more.   The answer is, as so often, it depends.  I now have an extensive pool of knowledge to draw upon, and frequently I will not make a sample when I am working with known yarns using a known weave structure.

But when I get a new-to-me yarn, yes, I sample.  That is how I find out the limitations of the yarn, and the hidden beauty that may be revealed in the process...including wet finishing.

Working with other fibre workers with complementary skills means that we all benefit.  I don't have the technical skills to make such a consistent yarn (in thickness, in twists per inch), and she doesn't (yet) have my weaving skills.  The dyer contributed by making yarn colours to our taste and that means that all three scarves are different colours, not all natural white.  By working together we learn a lot more, a lot faster, than if we had each tried to do this exploration from beginning to end.

Curiosity.  Love it!

Plan B

After deciding I was happy enough with the cloth I wet finished yesterday, today I started digging through the yarn boxes to choose colours for warps.  And discovered that not all of the rayon yarn was the same grist.  I couldn't combine them without adjusting epi so I started looking at what else I had and made different choices.  First prototype warp is wound.  Second underway.  Need to finish the turquoise warp so I can test the new combo, which, in the end, might actually be 'better'.  

One hopes.  If nothing else I have a better choice of colours...

Currently reading Guy Gavriel Kay's latest.  Children of Earth and Sun, I think it is called.  It's upstairs and I'm not.