Summer & Winter Placemats

The Neverending Warp is finally off the loom! If you'll recall, I started this placemat project nearly a year and a half ago but injured my hand very soon after beginning to weave. And when my hand was finally well again I was busy doing other things. It sat there taunting me but it was really hard to get up the interest level to get back on the bench. Instead I did everything else but weave: knit, clean, garden, paint doors, sew, sew and sew. 

However my guild decided to organize a tea towel exchange and I had the brilliant notion to join in to push myself to finish up the project languishing on the loom. Or to cut it off! Of course I can't waste that warp so I finally jumped in and just got 'er done! It was surprisingly hard to get a rhythm going again, to find the treadles with my feet and to make even beats and neat selvedges. It didn't help that I had planned to use different treadlings and wefts for each mat! I played along with that decision through the second one (which I had already started) and continued limping through he next couple of variations. By the fourth one I realized that I was losing interest again so just did borders with plain weave in the middle. The fifth one was the charm though. I liked the results and it wasn't hard to weave. I was finally getting some of my skills back. So I wove the last four (out of eight) the same. So now I have four totally different mats plus a set of four matching ones. Done.

The big cut-off:

I wove a minimal sample of each structure at the end of the warp for my notebook.

So nice to finally take the shears to this beast!

Unrolled off the cloth beam.

Washed, pressed and hemmed.

The deets:

Weave structure:  2-block 4-shaft Summer & Winter

Warp:  3/10 mercerized cotton, natural, sett at 20 epi (2 per dent in a 10 dent reed)

Wefts and treadlings (top to bottom in above photo): 

1. 3/10 mercerized cotton, peach. No tabby. Lace treadling.

2. 2/8 rayon, dyed orange. 10/2 mercerized cotton tabby. S&W variation.

3. Slub cotton/rayon novelty, yellow. 10/2 mercerized cotton tabby. S&W variation.

4. 2/8 rayon, dyed orange and teal. 10/2 mercerized cotton tabby, 3/10 mercerized cotton plain weave. S&W polychrome.

5-8. Cotton bouclé, natural. 10/2 mercerized cotton tabby. S&W variation.

Final finished size:  each approx 13" wide by 17.5" long.

There are wonky selvedges and at least one treadling error that I tried to fix. But they are done! Now I can move on. Next project: inventorying my yarn stash! I needed to shake up the stash anyway. It's getting dusty and dirty and I actually found m*th evidence in one basket! Yikes! I found an easy to use app for my iPad so more about this soon. However I'll leave you with this image of a small selection. Perhaps there's enough there to weave a blanket?

 

 

Weaving Tales

Well, I'm obviously making up in numbers what my posts lack in elegance currently. Blame it on the app that I'm stuck with. And the lack of a proper keyboard. Though I am definitely getting better at typing with two fingers.

Anyway, I've been continuing to stick with the weaving. At least some progress every day. I'm up to Placemat Number Five and I still can't see the end of the warp. How much did I put on the darn loom anyway? No recollection and I haven't yet discovered a note that will tell me. I guess I just keep going until I run out, huh?

The weaving is getting somewhat easier as my body remembers what it's supposed to do. I haven't done much weaving at all in the past 10 years or so. Not like I used to anyhow. I still have plenty of household textiles that originally came off my loom:

Just a quick survey of the most obvious pieces around me. Three of those are curtains, one is a placemat and one is the upholstery on the kitchen chairs which is in dire need of replacement. There's also tea towels, napkins, pot holders and two blankets that I can see from where I'm currently sitting. So hey, I used to be pretty good, didn't I? I'm just badly out of practice. My brain knows what to do but so much of weaving is muscle memory involving both the hands and feet at the same time. I know I need to do a lot more of it to get really comfortable at the loom again. Just. Do. It.

Here's what the placemat I'm weaving right now looks like:

The pattern weft is a cotton bouclé and the same off-white as the warp and the tabby weft so the effect is textural rather than colour. The weave is yet another treadling variation on the Summer & Winter threading blocks. There are a least two more and perhaps as many as three placemats left to weave on this warp. Hope I don't get bored and chop it off early! However I do need to get onto my tea towels for the guild exchange. I'll have the rest of the yarns for that project by Friday so I can start winding the warp after that.
 
In knitting news I finally started a new project - socks! The pattern is Spring Forward by Linda Welch. Perfect for the first day of Daylight Savings, isn't it? I thought so!

The yarn is Sweet Georgia BFL Sock in Ginger, left over from my Candelaria Cardi from last year. After the socks I hope to have enough left again for a shawl and then I'll have a whole ginger collection! Sweet Georgia is going to be at Fibres West this Friday and Saturday and then their big sale is coming up the Saturday after that. How hard is it going to be to avoid buying more? We shall see, won't we?

Scattered Thoughts

Silly me. I discovered that I never did show the finished Lichen Twist sweater! Took photos ages ago on Debbie Double and put the whole thing right out of my little brain. So here you go:

You can wear it a couple of ways but I like this one best. It does tend to slip up beyond the bust a little as I move around. As a draped front it just seems to want to fall off my shoulders:

I know - everything always wants to fall off my shoulders. Probably due to the lack thereof. Looks kind of dramatic like this however, doesn't it? This little darling is a lot warmer than it looks too. A shawl with sleeves!

Speaking of Lobaria, the new batch of lichen is still drying in the dye studio. I can tell the parts that are still damp because they're still green. I'm looking forward to eventually dyeing something with it to see if the colour comes at all close to my old batch. Did you know that Lobaria is a symbiosis of a fungus, a green algae and a cyanobacteria? Three completely different kingdoms of life! And it takes until they're 25 years old to reproduce sexually? They can also reproduce vegetatively as well. Wow. Complicated little darlings, aren't they?
 
On the loom things are progressing slowly:

I managed to finish placemat number 3, this funky bright yellow singles rayon with cotton fluff rather loosely attached. Just another oddment lurking in the stash. I've started number 4 but I'm not sure whether I have enough of one colour to finish it. I may have to get even more creative! Yikes. I forget how much warp I put on in the first place so who knows how many of these Ugly Ducklings I'll end up with? The weaving is getting a little easier though. My body is finally remembering how to do it. Still very slow.

As for the tea towel exchange, my group of five has chosen a photo as inspiration for our set of towels. Unfortunately I don't have enough of the right colours in my stash of cottons. I can use some of what I have to add interest to the warp but I want to use just one colour for the weft and it's going to take 3 cones of 8/2 cotton to weave them all. Luckily Fibres West is coming up soon so Jane Stafford will happily supply me with what I need from her booth, thus saving me postage. These are sure going to be precious textiles! Hopefully useful too. The deal is we make 5, keep one and distribute the rest to our group along with complete info on the yarns and weave structure we used. I'm planning for 6 in case the first one is wonky. As it well may be!

I'm going to be somewhat quiet on this exchange until it's over in June. Sorry about that but I don't want to spoil any surprises for anyone.

Tah-Dah!

Presenting: 
“Turnabout Is Fair Play” – a cigar box guitar collaboration.

I think it turned out very cool! And the best thing? It sounds really nice when played. Sorry my strap is really tiny in the photo so you can’t really distinguish the pattern that well. Plus the kumihimo braid I made for the neck tie. Those leather ends gave me conniptions though so maybe I’m glad you can’t see it too closely! The guitar is to be submitted on Wednesday so we just made it under the wire. The display is entitled “West Coast Synergies: fibre + wood + metal + clay” and will be at the Roundhouse Community Centre, Vancouver, from May 1 – June 30th, 2015. And no, the guitar is Not For Sale! If you’re local we’ll be at the opening reception Sunday, May 3.

You may be wondering about the title. It came about while I was supposed to be sleeping one night. Here’s our Artists’ Statement:

About the guitar. Turn the wood, cut, drill, sand and polish. Turn the weaving tablets and turn them some more. Turn the bobbins on the braiding stand. Turn the guitar (it’s a lefty!). And hear the fair music as you play.

Does that help at all? Artist’s statements are kind of silly anyhow.

Now that that’s done (yay!) it’s on to new pastures. Firstly, another FO:

Little Black Cardi

Begun:  January 14, 2015
Completed:  March 28, 2015

Yarn:  elann.com A-Series F05, superwash wool/nylon, white and hand-dyed semisolid black by me. 229 yds = 50g. Used 6 balls with only a small bit left over.

Needles:  Addi Lace Clicks, 3.5mm. Clover Takumi Velvet dpns, 3.5mm.

Pattern:  Trellis by Lili Comme Tout.

Mods:  Made the body 1” shorter and the sleeves 3/4-length.

Comments:  This sweater must have actually been knitted twice for all the pulling out and re-knitting I did on it! Some of it was my fault (knitting black in winter, doh) and some was not. There was an error in the pattern for where to begin the chart for size L. I tried to message the designer but never did hear back. Oh well. I figured it out anyhow. I also managed to miss the one row of garter stitch after the bottom ribbing so I left it off the sleeves as well. The i-cord finish on the neckline and fronts was tedious but I quite liked the look when it was done. It was easy to leave the right size buttonhole for my Maiwa bone triangle buttons.

I had been worried that there wasn’t enough of the dyed yarn to finish but I still had a wee ball left at the end. It helped that the body and the sleeves were shorter than the pattern. Now that it’s done I love the fit (close but not too tight) and hope to get a lot of wear out of this cardi.

So of course I immediately got started on a new cardi! Several of my friends and I went to the Sweet Georgia yarn sale on Saturday and I immediately found a BFL sock yarn in the semisolid colourway “ginger”. It apparently was a mis-dye so half price but you couldn’t tell it by me. I think there was too much red on it which only makes it better in my opinion:

Even though it’s acid dye of course, the colours resemble cutch with a splash of madder. Sorry, I had it already wound up in balls before I remembered to photograph it!

The sale was quite crazy and Felicia, Sweet Georgia herself, was shocked at the line-up outside the studio. Her face was so funny! Mr. Sweet Georgia was manning the door and letting only a few in at a time. (Also feeding us brownies to quiet the masses.) I think half the yarn was gone by the time we got there and squeezed inside the tiny space. But I found the yarn of my dreams right away so I was happy! It’s already on its way to become a Candelia by Cecily Glowik MacDonald:

I didn’t actually copy her original colour on purpose but it sure looks like it, doesn’t it? What I love about this sweater are the cute pockets and the peplum on the back:

Adorable huh? I think I’ll make it a smidgen longer though. And I have the perfect clasps and buttons in the stash. I think this must be some kind of speed record for me buying yarn and using it. Here’s how I spent Earth Hour on Sunday night:

Winding skeins and knitting a swatch by candle light. Earth Hour makes me appreciate electricity soooo much! I did cheat a little though. I didn’t turn off the lights on my wee seedlings:

I’ve already cast on for the sweater and am cruising down the yoke. Hopefully this goes faster than the black cardi did. So how many sweaters does a damselfly need? Not nearly as many as she wants! I’m obviously on a roll. More on the spinning project soon too - which will be yet another sweater. Ha!

Now I’m off to buy some fruits and veggies.

Thises and Thatses

I’ve been happily ensconced in the studio playing with my toys weaving and sewing, alternately. On the loom we have this:

That’s the end of one placemat and the beginning of the second one. I was going to make 2 sets of 4 matching ones but…um…got distracted by all the possibilities on a 4-shaft Summer & Winter threading. Now I think they’re all going to turn out differently! But hopefully relatively coordinating and more-or-less the same size. The first mat, woven with a peach 10/3 mercerised cotton weft, is treadled in a lacy variation. The second one uses a 10/2 mercerised cotton tabby (natural) and an 8/2 rayon pattern weft (orange) and is treadled in pairs. I have more ideas in mind too and it’s a great way to use up dribs and drabs of this and that from the seemingly endless stash. I’m winging it – which is actually quite hard for me! It’s a good exercise.

I’ve also been sewing on the three garments left that I had cut out ages ago. This fabric is a dark cherry-brown heavyweight rayon/lycra ponte knit. I’m making a long-sleeved T-shirt dress with a flared skirt, straight-legged pull-on pants and, just to use up the last scraps, a short-sleeved yoked T-shirt. I’m happy to sew all the garments from the same fabric at once so I don’t have to change threads! The patterns are all my own drafts so I can’t give you pattern number references. They’re pretty basic pieces – nothing fancy at all. I hope to have them finished fairly speedily.

Even though the dress was cut from my standard knit sloper I’m having a little trouble with the fit of the back sleeve cap. Since it’s been awhile from when I cut it out, I can’t think why there’s a problem unless it’s because this fabric is quite beefy and just doesn’t want to smooth out nicely. My rounded back and shoulders don’t fill it out very well and I may try to take the area in just a hair to see if that helps eliminate some of the poof. Just one of the curses of aging, huh? The body tends to rearrange itself in weird and wonderful ways. Not fun but I definitely prefer it to the alternative.

On Thursday, our Spectrum Study Group met to begin a new project, stitched shibori. We’ve tried several types of shibori before but didn’t get into it too heavily. This time we’re determined to stick with it for several months as a group and then set up a quick indigo vat to dye the pieces. I’m working on hemming a long narrow scarf cut from the width of the super lightweight silk/wool twill that I bought at Dharma. Then I’ll fold it and try stitching on it and see how it turns out before I use any more of the two-yard piece I have. Then there’s the handkerchiefs that I got at Dharma to stitch on and I may have some napkins also if I can find them. At least I’m trying to come up with useful samples instead of the bits and snippets I usually end up with. I hope I don’t run out of steam before I get enough stitched. That’s what usually happens because I don’t enjoy hand-stitching as much. I get bored too quickly. Oddly enough I can knit swathes of boring stockinette with no problem.

Which brings me to the fact that I finished the Antelope Canyon Socks:

I’m feeling too lazy to repeat all the details which are on my Ravelry page here. Everyone has a Ravelry membership now, don’t they? You should! My only complaint is that these socks are not as stretchy as they might be not only because of the stitch pattern but because of the cotton content (along with the usual wool and nylon) so they are a bit tricksy to get on and off. Fit fine once they’re on though but they’re also a little harsh under the foot so not good for long walks. Oh well. They do remind me strongly of their inspiration place which was the whole point of the exercise anyway.

What else? I’m feeling the need to start a spinning project soon. I’ve only got one knitting project on the go at the moment (the Silken Haruni Shawlette) which is about 1/3 done now. Then I have a gift to make that involves spinning and knitting but I also want to begin a Major Project – another sweater for Thom. He loves his last one, the Brownstone, so much but that was made way back in 2011 now. I’ve made myself at least 10 sweaters since then! Not all handspun of course but still that’s a lot. I have an oatmeal-coloured fleece (Romney-X, I think) that might work. I know there’s got to be something appropriate in that humungous spinning stash! This will not be a quick make. But it’s the process that I enjoy. Sampling will ensue.

Meanwhile, the weather has still been really changeable. Rain and wind one minute and sunny the next. The temperature is still well above freezing though it’s supposed to head downward soon. I managed to get the dye garden cleaned up and a cover crop of rye and vetch planted in the annuals’ places but I don’t know how well that’s going to grow this late in the season. Also the birds are helping themselves to the seeds! (A fine thank-you for all the feeders we have around here, huh?) I didn’t ever get around to digging up the madder so I guess it’s going to stay until next fall. It’ll just grow bigger and better roots, right? Right. There’s lots more to do in the garden but it’s not calling to me as loudly as the studio is.

Speaking of bird feeders, we’ve had regular visits from several Anna’s hummingbirds to our nectar feeder. They overwinter here and have their babies in early spring before the rufous hummingbirds arrive back from their winter holiday in Mexico. This is our first year with this type of feeder so it’s a new thing for us. I love watching these little jewels dart about and argue over who gets the sugar-water first! Another bigger jewel is the midnight-blue Stellar’s jay who has been nearly emptying our seed feeder along with the usual chickadees, juncos, sparrows and finches. The suet feeder is attracting the daily round of bush tits and I even saw a downy woodpecker try to figure out how to get through the protective squirrel mesh to get at the suet. He has to get his head and beak in the just right way to reach it because his body is too big to fit. Almost as much fun as watching the flickers try to eat at the seed feeder with their tail propping on the pole and their head twisted at an angle to get their long bill in. It’s rather awkward. And amusing – at least to me.

I know. I’m famous for my weird sense of humour. More soon! Off to play work on the dress.

Changeable Weather

I think it’s definitely autumn here. Day before yesterday we woke up to wind and rain and this interesting pattern of leaves on the back porch:

There’s bits of all the neighbourhood’s trees all over our yard, including varieties that aren’t really all that nearby. It was a wild and stormy night. And then it happened again at least for awhile the next night too. I’m getting kind of tired of sweeping the deck now. Every time you think it’s stopped raining and the sun comes out so you decide to go outside, it immediately starts sprinkling on you. Yep. Autumn in Vancouver.

Oh, speaking of trees, I found out that our shelter tree in Death Valley was a Tamarix aphylla, aka athel tamarisk, listed as an invasive species although this one isn’t considered as naughty in North America as its smaller relatives are but is more badly behaved in Australia. I certainly was happy for its continued existence. Your weed tree is my saving grace. A rose by any other name…etc.

Meanwhile back at the loom, I actually finished that darned warp! The one I started to weave so long ago before we went away to the aforementioned desert. I was so concerned that it wasn’t going to work out! I was wrong. It turned out very cool indeed:

The yarns are Jaggerspun superfine merino and 2/15 natural tweed silk. I actually followed a recipe, Big Bumps Scarf from Madelyn van der Hoogt, former editor of Handwoven magazine. I should have trusted her! It was hard to beat to the equivalent of window screening but eventually I got the feel of it better with practise. My more experienced buddy Kirsten also gave me a confidence boost when she said that it didn’t matter if it was uneven because the fulling process hid a lot of problems. And she was right! You can’t even see my treadling errors. I did try to even out some of the wefts that had slid badly when it wrapped around the cloth beam but even that wasn’t really a problem in the end.

I did have a moment of panic when I was unwinding it carefully off the loom. The sticks that I’d used instead of the recommended paper (because they were there and the paper wasn’t) fell off at an angle and I had to get Thom to come rescue me before the whole thing hit the floor in a tangle. I was actually surprised that the fabric wasn’t quite as delicate as it looked! It survived without any obvious damage. I knotted the warp stripes and tied the beginning to the end before fulling it by hand in a wash pan. I alternated hot soapy water with cold to help it full faster and then spun it in the machine to get out the excess water so it would dry faster. It went from 13.5” wide down to  7.5” and 120” long to 84”. Amazing really! It didn’t shrink quite as much as Madelyn’s version but that could be because I used silk instead of wool as the non-fulling yarn.

With this type of weave I learned that you have to let go of the results. They will be what they will and you really don’t have a lot of control over it. I fulled the scarf until the wool areas weren’t sliding around and they seemed cohesive. The silk areas bumped up (or down) in their own topography. A surprising amount of colour came out of the wool, green at first and then shifting to blue as the yellow was cleared out. I was hoping that it hadn’t stained the silk because I was using Orvus as the detergent and not Synthrapol which is helpful in keeping excess dye from redepositing. Synthrapol is usually used with Procion MX dyes on cellulose fibres so I hadn’t thought that I might need it with silk and wool. However I can’t see a difference now that the fabric is dry.

The scarf is dense and warm but still fairly light and flexible. Now I want to put on another warp! This time maybe for placemats? The ones I made in the 1980’s are wearing out. Quelle surprise.

What else? Oh yeah. Alternating with the Antelope Canyon Socks I’ve been knitting the Silken Haruni Shawl, probably more like a scarf since it’s going to be pretty small. Anyway, I decided that I didn’t like the look of the lace – too thready and the yarn-overs and the central spine stitch were loose and wobbly. Can you see what I mean?

Anyway, I started again with the second ball of this yarn and 2.75mm needles and not only do I like the results better, it’s actually easier to knit on the thinner needles. It’s pretty small still:

I also knit the central stitch on the right side through the back loop. The twists every other row keep it much more contained and neat. Now I have to sadly frog the first version. Oh well. It’s only knitting!

I spent a goodly part of yesterday trying to catch up on my paper notes of all my recent makes. I was surprisingly far behind! I guess once I’ve blogged it I think I’m done but I do prefer to also have all the notes together in a binder. I have quite a few of these now! It helps me to see at a glance all that I’ve accomplished and gives me a quick reference if I need it to make something again. Ravelry is fabulous to keep track of your knitting (and crochet) but is only recently expanding functionality with weaving, spinning and dyeing. And of course it’s not at all useful for sewing. For some reason although I’ve been a member of Pattern Review forever, I’ve never posted anything to it. I’m a lurker in the sewing forums. I know I should contribute but perhaps I’m just feeling to spread out as it is?

Anyhow, more soon!

YOIKS!

Well that was a terrifying experience!!! I got stung by a wasp yesterday and didn’t use my epi-pen!!! The reaction, while uncomfortable, was normal and I didn’t go into anaphylactic shock the way I did the last time I got stung. That was quite a few years ago now. Why didn’t I have the same reaction this time? No idea. But I was reluctant to use the pen immediately because then I would have to go to the ER right away – a total waste of at least 3 hours of my life if it wasn’t necessary. Unless I really needed to use it of course. Saving my life is definitely a priority!

Instead I took a couple of antihistamines, iced the area (right in my soft belly near my belly button) and waited, monitoring my skin and breathing. The last time the reaction was pretty immediate with a blotchy red face and neck and difficulty getting a breath. Nope. This time all was fine apart from some pain and itching and swelling around the puncture site. I can still feel it today and the area is a bit red and very itchy but otherwise I’m fine. Had to find something soft and non-binding to wear so I’m swanning around in my handwoven Celadon Dress.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I probably shouldn’t have hesitated but we live only a short distance from the hospital. If necessary Thom could have gotten me there almost faster than we could dial 911. It ended up being the right call anyway. Possible crisis averted. So what did I do to deserve getting stung? Nothing! Unlike a lot of people I’m not afraid of wasps or bees. Usually we have a truce: I don’t hurt them and they don’t hurt me. This time I was innocently sitting at my kitchen table reading a book when I felt little insect feet scrabbling under my shirt. Before I could unbutton it, the beast stung me so I flung off the shirt and my pants too because I couldn’t find where it had gone and didn’t want to get stung twice. Thom found it later by the window looking a little the worse for wear. Serves it right, I say!

Back to more crafty things where I’m currently warping up the loom for another project. This weave will hopefully go easier than the last one! (Gee, how can it not?) I’m making a one-off scarf using a pattern from the free e-book How to Weave a Scarf from Weaving Today: 7 Handwoven Scarves. This is #3, the Big Bumps Scarf by Madelyn van der Hoogt.

I’m calling my version the Mountains & Valleys Scarf because the natural silk tweed reminds me of snow-capped mountains and the black Jagger superfine merino represents the valleys. So far I’m at this point:

About 1/4 of the way through the threading. It’s going very quickly compared to the last project! This weave structure is (I think) a 2-block deflected double-weave where the two different warps are woven only with their own respective wefts and just float over each other rather than interlocking. Here’s part of the draft so you can see what I mean:

The actual texture doesn’t happen until the cloth is wet-finished and in this case is even more dramatic than regular deflected double-weave with the added action of the shrinking (fulling) vs non-shrinking areas. As soon a I finish warping and get some woven up I’ll take another photo. In this particular weave the wool is sett 10 ends per inch (1 per dent in a 10-dent reed) but the silk is sett at 20 (doubled in each dent, except for the last thread in a group which is sleyed singly). When I go to weave this I’ll have to be sure to only press the wool into place carefully or it will be beaten too hard. The spaces are needed so it will have room to full up properly leaving the silk which doesn’t shrink to bubble. It’s 14.25” wide in the reed but is supposed to end up at less than half that width and correspondingly you have to weave enough for the length to shrink bigtime as well. So much fun on 4 shafts!

What else do I have going? Oh yes, the second pair of toe-up short socks are nearly up to the gussets. They are slow because they’re alternating with the Ophicleide Cardi which is partway down from the underarms now. The yoke is quite pretty in the navy noil silk:

This is lighter than the true navy colour but otherwise you wouldn’t be able to see it! The white at the neckline is the provisional cast on. I’ll have to finish it with an i-cord edging at the end. So far it fits fine though I did do some increasing just before I split off for the sleeves to give more bust room. The body shape is swing so there should be plenty of room for the rest of me.

Anyhow I’m laying a bit low today to give myself a chance to recover from yesterday’s excitement. It’s been very hot and sunny here but I can’t complain that we’re actually having summer this year. Thom has been busy pressure-washing the deck in preparation for giving it a fresh coat of water-repellent stain. Gotta make hay while the sun shines, right? In my case I should be making bean pickles. I have a whole fridge full of them and more in the garden!

Oh, and if you’re interested here’s a great read. I totally agree with the sentiments in this post on creating and time – the infinite list.

More soonest!

Done and Dusted

I did it! (I sound just like the Littlest Grandbeastie, Rosebud, there. Heh!) I finally and with Great Perseverance have finished:

The Surprisingly Difficult Waffle Weave Tea Towels

Date Begun: June 22, 2014
Date Completed: July 29, 2014

Project idea: from “All-Purpose Waffle-Weave Towels” by Marilyn Murphy, from Handwoven’s Design Collection 18: A Treasury of Towels.

Warp Yarn: New World Textiles 16/2 hemp/cotton, 55% hemp/45% cotton, natural (off-white).

Stripe Yarn 1: Blue Blazes (hemp/recycled blue jeans cotton) from New World Textiles, light denim blue, handspun on the brass tahkli and plied on Louet Victoria wheel, approximately 2/8.

Stripe Yarn 2: Organic cotton from Sally Fox, New Green (natural green), handspun on the brass tahkli and plied on Louet S-90 (?), a little finer than 2/16 cotton. Simmered in soda ash solution to bring out and stabilise the colour.

Warp length: 4 yds (4 towels @ 30” each plus loom waste)

Warp width: 20”, 601 ends sett at 30 epi (2 per dent in 15 dent reed) plus floating selvedges

Weft: same as warp. 2 towels woven with plain hemp/cotton and 2 with stripes at each end.

Partial Draft: 

Finishing: Towels were cut apart, hems pressed, machine stitched with the same cotton sewing thread as used for the hem weaving. Finally machine washed and dried, both hot.

Comments: The original pattern used New World Textiles 10/2 organic cotton sett at 24 epi. My yarns were finer so I sett them closer. That was a good call, at least for the natural hemp/cotton.

I had GREAT difficulty with this project! I had to separately weight the jeans/hemp yarns, spritz frequently with water and slather everything with flax-seed sizing (aka snot!) to make them behave. Still ends broke constantly! (Mostly the jeans/hemp on shafts 1 and 4 which didn’t interlace as much as the other ends.) Lots of repairs to make. The last towel was 2.5" short but didn't want to chance trying to weave further. The shed was getting very small because of the heavy weights hanging off the warp bar. I even had to make string slings up to the loom frame to support the bar near the end.

After cutting off the loom it took 2 long sessions to finish repairing all the broken ends. However, the final results are quite lovely! They feel soft but crisp at the same time and are very absorbent. The finished towels ended up 14.5” wide by 23” long (except the last one which was only 20.5” long) – a nice hand size. You can’t even tell that the tension was wonky and there are many repairs in there! The hems are not too rippled and are in scale with the rest of the towels. I guess it was worth having nearly INFINITE patience with these things! I think I deserve a medal for sticking with it despite everything that went wrong.

I currently have the littler towel hanging in the bathroom and one of the others hanging on the oven door handle. In use already! Surprisingly, now I want to weave another project! Hopefully a much quicker and easier one. I even have it all picked out and ready to start. Kind of like getting back up on the horse that threw you, right? More on that soon.

Meanwhile, I want to tell you about 2 of the new books that I got. They are kind of related, both of them being about natural dyeing. First up, we have the latest by Jenny Dean:

This is quite a small book but it’s packed with really interesting information on the dye plants that have been used in Europe, in particular Great Britain, for hundreds of years with great success. Jenny is a really good writer and has a way of making the complex subject of natural dyes accessible for nearly anyone. Most importantly she combines the necessary information with encouragement to do your own experimentation. I find it the perfect middle ground between the rote “follow this exact recipe” and the airy-fairy “try anything and see” approaches. I’ve learned a lot from all of her books and this one is no different. The text is pretty dense so reading it carefully is most rewarding.

Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with the repetition of much dyeing information that is already available in her earlier books. Though I suppose it’s really helpful to have it all in one volume especially if this was your only source of information. Jenny explains everything you need to know succinctly but thoroughly. Included this time is info on contact dyeing (sometimes called eco-printing) and on using lichens and fungi. The fibre of choice for the dye samples in this book is wool, including dyeing over natural shades of grey and brown wool. The abbreviations used in the photo captions were somewhat annoying until I finally found the key in the text on p.48.

I haven’t quite finished reading every word yet, but I’ve already discovered a couple of dye plants from my garden that I haven’t tried including buddleia and willow. And I’m quite excited about the 1-2-3 vat (aka the lime/fructose method developed by Michel Garcia) as used with woad (powdered extract). I have yet to experiment with this. Ah, so many plants – so little time!

The second book I got is this one:

The author here is a garden writer as well as a hobby farmer who includes fibre animals with her plants. Chris lives in Placerville, California, so she has a more North American viewpoint including woad as a noxious weed! However she has done her dyeing homework. The result is a gentle and easy to understand introduction and even though Chris insists she’s not scientific, there’s definitely enough clear info to be useful. This book will help even a beginner dyer get good results from plants that you can grow in your own yard and Chris happily gives reasons to play with the more fugitive colours, such as for dyeing eggs or play-dough. There are also instructions for watercolour dye paints, play silks and eco-dyed scarves as well as the usual fibres and yarns.

This little hardback book is a lovely production with lots of enticing photos and an interesting layout. It could benefit from a more comprehensive index rather than just the plant names though. Otherwise I thought it was pretty comprehensive as a way to get started with natural dyes and, as I already do, to grow them in your own dye garden. I enjoyed Chris’s personable friendly style.

Both Jenny Dean and Chris McLaughlin are careful to discuss environmental and safety issues in their books. This is a quite different approach to the “olden days” when natural dyers were flinging around the more toxic mordants and using the less nasty ones in much higher proportions than necessary. My Guild has even gone so far as to put a disclaimer sticker in all the older dye books in our library as a warning that the amounts and types of mordants are not now considered environmentally safe. We live and learn, right? Assuming we survive our original follies!

I have several more books and videos to review. More soon! Right now I’ve got dinner to get. Hungry…

Hot Water On Tap

It’s a luxury! Really. Our hot water heater has been off again/on again for the last several days. We’ve had a repair guy over 3 times and he’s replaced parts and vacuumed underneath in case dust is affecting the controller. It works ok for awhile and then conks out again. Thom even got a minor burn on his arm trying to make the darn thing cooperate. (The aloe plants came in handy.) And I bravely did 3 loads of laundry yesterday in the midst of it all. I figured cold water works fine with modern detergents and I usually rinse in cold anyhow. I refuse to shower in cold water though. I have my limits.

So what is it about mechanical things going wonky? Lately there’s been a few too many of these. Is it the heat? (It was a few degrees cooler yesterday and today it’s downright chilly in comparison.) Or just a fluke? Who knows? Hope that’s it for now though. It’s a weekend and if the hot water tank goes out again Thom promised not to call the poor guy back again until Monday. I’d better get my shower while I can, huh?

Meanwhile, the third (and last!) kumihimo class on Thursday went very well. The weather was perfect, the six participants brought their best brains and much braiding was accomplished. Sadly I only sold one kit, leaving 7 more left to clutter up the attic. Oh, well. I’m not exactly your best high-pressure salesperson anyhow. Maybe come autumn I’ll advertise in my guild newsletter.

So I was back at the loom yesterday and finished weaving the first towel. There are a gazillion repairs to make on it but that’s going to happen after I cut it off. I pulled a few of the broken ends up to the dividing line between the first and second towel so as to start the second as fresh and clean as possible. And promptly broke a green cotton thread! First one too. I hadn’t painted those threads with the flax dressing (aka snot!) because they were behaving quite well. Anyhow I think I’m going to have to cut the whole thing off when I’ve finished weaving the second towel. I have enough warp to retie back on again to weave off the last 2 towels and it would do a great deal to even out the blue jeans/hemp warps. Otherwise the tensioning water jugs threaten to end up on the floor! Simple weaving project this was Most Definitely NOT! But I’m not going to give up. I’m stubborn like that.

Here’s a shot of the cute wee Jenkins shuttle I’m using for the hems:

In the end I decided to go with weaving the hems in plain weave using sewing thread to see if that would keep them from ruffling quite so much. The spool is shorter than a regular weaving bobbin and was wobbling around a little too much so I used plastic beads as spacers to hold it in place. No idea when or where I bought this shuttle but it might have been at the ANWG conference in Spokane a number of years ago. I always think I’m going to remember these details but I don’t!

Ed Jenkins and his wife Wanda are a very interesting couple who live in a very small community in northern Oregon. See an article on them here. Mostly known for his lovely exotic wood Turkish spindles, Ed also makes walking wheels and other fibre tools. It seems as if he isn’t currently making shuttles any more though sadly. This might be the first time I’ve ever used this one and I quite like how it handles though I think it will really be ideal on a narrower warp. The size is somewhere between my regular Leclerc shuttles and my little Glimakra mini-shuttle, which is so small it takes paper quills instead of bobbins.

In knitting news, Thom finally finished turning me a button for my Rainbow Dark Cardi. Still have to photograph it but I’m very happy with how it turned out. Considering how much work went into it, I’d better be! All the measuring, hackling, spinning, plying, setting, recalculating, knitting, finishing and blocking – talk about your Slow Clothes! It had better last me for quite a few years now. Big thanks to Heidi Kirrmaier for her excellent Harvest Moon pattern. It was detailed, clearly written, helpful photos and relatively easy to refit to my size. It has all the elements that I love: flattering collar/yoke, single button closure, back-warming length and, best of all, pockets. The only thing I would change is to include inches as well as centimetre measurements for those of us who don’t quite think in totally metric. To be fair I also prefer patterns to include metric needle/hook sizes too. For instance, I have no idea what a size G hook looks like. But I digress…

I wonder if it’s going to rain today? If not, I need to water my dye garden. Again. And we need to go get some groceries. Hope there’s hot water for a shower first though. More soonest!

Weaving According To Damselfly

I’ve known how to weave for a very long time. I borrowed my first loom (a Cherryville counterbalance) when my son was in preschool. He’s now 40 and even his kids are years past preschool. The reason I remember when I got it is because I borrowed the loom from his teacher, a lovely Dutch lady. Unfortunately she eventually wanted the loom back after less than a year.

So then I borrowed my second loom. This was a Leclerc Minerva jack loom, only 24” wide but a little powerhouse. It’s owner was temporarily moving in order to rebuild her house. I wove a lot on that little beast for the 2 years I had it. I finally bought a second-hand sort-of jack loom, a no-name hand-built job that had flimsy beams and travelled across the floor when I beat very hard at all. It was a piece of junk but I didn’t pay much for it and it taught me quite a lot. Mostly about not buying junk but that was a good lesson anyway.

I borrowed yet another Leclerc counterbalance loom for awhile but then in 1987 finally bought the floor loom of my dreams, my Woolhouse Gertrude countermarche #27. She is large and solid and still my favourite loom to weave on. Her little sister Carolyn, a Woolhouse 12-shaft table loom on a floor stand followed in 1990. I wasn’t giving up on Gertrude but Carolyn, although much smaller, could do some things her big sister couldn’t. Travel to workshops, for instance! I currently also have a 4-shaft Rasmussen table loom but have only used it for teaching purposes. It was given to me by a retiring weaver and it’s pretty good for a table loom. Needs more heddles though. They’re the flat metal type.

I like that my Woolhouse looms were built in BC out of locally milled birch by people I know personally. John & Teruko Low are trying hard to retire but the business is still dragging on for them because they were sadly unable to find another person to take it over. They are promising for several more years still to stock Texolv and reeds and to service existing equipment that they’ve made over the last 30 years. Looms are a large item to house and an expensive investment. No wonder the market is limited! And then there are the skills and know-how to use the darn thing. It’s really only my stubborn will that’s keeping me from cutting off the current project and consigning it to the trash.

None of the problems I’ve had are the loom’s fault. Only my own questionable choice in using my handspun yarns along with the commercially spun hemp/cotton. I’m actually hoping that most of my warp troubles are behind me now. I cooked up some goopy sizing using 1 tsp flax seeds in 1/2c water and painted it onto the handspun jeans/hemp warp threads – and anything else that looked like it might give me trouble. It dried really quickly in the heat and seemed to help quite a lot. I have my resized temple that Thom fixed for me:

Doncha love the cute turned handle on the joining peg? This second-hand temple didn’t have the piece of wire that usually goes through the parts when I got it so he improvised with a nail and a little bit of wood he turned on his lathe. It really helps to keep a consistent width and to avoid abrading the edge threads so much. Waffle weave naturally draws in just by its structure and plumps into deep little squares after it’s removed from the loom and wet finished. I’m nearly finished towel #1 with all its flaws and mending to be done. (The photo shows probably the only area without dangling threads.) I’ll use it anyway. And hopefully (crossed fingers!) the next three go a little more uneventfully. I might even be relaxed enough to add a few weft-wise stripes. So exciting!

In other news, here’s the socks I’ve been promising for awhile. They’re probably kind of anticlimactic now though.

Grey Tabby Socks

For:  Thom

Begun:  May 25, 2014
Completed:  July 3, 2014

Yarn:  Ancient Arts Fibre Crafts, 75% superwash wool/25% nylon, colour Meow Yarn Collection Grey Tabby, 437 yds = 100g.

Needles:  Clover Takumi bamboo, 2mm.

Pattern:  Damselfly’s Basic Socks, on 68 sts, eye of partridge heel, toe dec to 24 sts.

This was my first experience with this indie-dyed yarn. The base is very nice, good twist and there was no colour in the washout. It was fun to knit and watch where the colours were going. The results are quite eye-dazzling! Did you notice grandson Stargazer’s Minecraft toys sneaking up on the socks in the photo?

I’m thinking I must have knitted nearly 200 pairs of socks by now, most of them my Plain Socks. I was recently reminded that I should put the pattern on the block and include a link in the sidebar. So I’ll do that very soon. But not today.

Meanwhile, I’m off. More weaving to conquer. Kumihimo class to teach. More soonest.

Speaking of Which

True confessions – I’m not a deep or complex thinker. I’m actually pretty WYSIWYG as a person. I don’t spend a lot of time contemplating and analysing and debating every little issue. My parents used to think I was pretty black and white in my opinions and I was when I was younger, though time and experience has greyed a lot of that oversimplified view. I’m really very positive but with a cynical side that can trip me up occasionally. I know there are always exceptions, reasons, forgiveness, overlooking of flaws and just plain humanness. (But I’d still like to smack a few people upside the head!) Mostly I try to only get worked up about things that are actually within my control. No point in stressing out over something you can’t do anything about. I try to just live my life as best I can and hope that I don’t annoy or hurt or rip off anybody else. Can’t say I always succeed! But I do try.

Well. Don’t know where the above statement issued from. I wrote it a few days ago with some kind of bee in my bonnet! But I didn’t want to waste the words as they spilled out of my head. You just never know what could be important to say. Or not.

Moving right along.

In crafty news, I’m cruising down the last sleeve of the Rainbow Dark Cardi. I’m really happy with how it’s looking. I did have a bit of trouble with the i-cord bind-off on the cuff. I know I made a mistake but I kind of like how it turned out in the end. I didn’t start the i-cord correctly so it ended in a way that made it impossible to join into a neat circle. Instead the result is that instead of picking it all out and starting again, I ended it by tucking it under and stitching it down. It looks like the i-cord grows out of the sleeve stitches, winds around the cuff and disappears under the beginning. The second cuff will have the same mistake. It won’t be bilaterally symmetrical though but that’s ok. One of these days I’ll figure out how to do it right. Maybe. Photos to come.

And I’m planning some weaving! Yes, I’ve been hanging out in my studio attempting to get an idea together for something to go on my poor lonely barenaked loom. I need towels. To that end, I took a booklet out of my Guild library at the meeting last Thursday:

Handwoven’s Design Collection 18 – A Treasury of Towels. (If you hurry you can download a copy for $4.98.) These are all 4-shaft drafts and I realise I actually have 8 but I thought I’d start myself off easy. I’m not likely to copy anything exactly but I decided that the waffle weave towels on the back cover by Marilyn Murphy would be fun. I have a cone of natural 16/2 hemp/cotton and some fine handspun hemp/recycled blue jeans and even finer handspun organic green cotton. I’m pretty pleased with the idea of using up some ridiculously fine yarn that I spun on my little brass tahkli supported spindle years ago. No point in just admiring it in skeins, right? The Blue Blazes hemp/cotton was only a singles but I spent some time plying it up on my Louet Victoria wheel with the lace flyer. I thought that even though it’s not as fine as the other yarns it would benefit from plying for warp since it tends to pull apart somewhat easily. It actually broke a few times so it was probably a good idea even though I was originally planning to weave it single. Might have worked ok for weft but not warp. The recycled jeans waste makes it a bit lumpy and slubby. Now I’m just waiting for the handspun to dry from setting it and then I’ll get to winding a warp.

I had to recalculate the draft since it called for slightly thicker yarn. It was kind of fun trying to remember all the details like adding take-up and shrinkage and loom waste. I want 4 smallish towels that can either go on my oven door handle or in the bathroom as a hand towel. I already have a waffle weave towel that I use regularly but it was woven by a dear friend so long ago that she doesn’t even weave anymore! She paints watercolours instead.

Those ones won’t be for drying dishes. For that, I have a second plan from the same booklet. This one is a 4-shaft crackle weave and will use up some vintage cottolin and probably some 8/2 cotton when, as I suspect, I will run out of the cottolin. They’re very colourful so it doesn’t really matter if I throw in some odd lots! The original design is for “sauna towels” so I’m reducing them down to a dish towel size. Can you tell I’m having fun with the planning? I just have to get to the actual weaving part of the projects before I run out of steam.

Oh drat! I just read about a job offer that was absolutely tailor-made for me! If only I were in the market for a job. And at least a decade younger. Sweet Georgia Yarns has an opening for a studio assistant/precision dyer. I can do that. And it’s only a fairly short rapid transit ride away from me too. However, I’m rather thoroughly retired. Oh well. Someone else really smart and energetic will get the position and thrive at it. Felicia is obviously doing really well with SGY! Hurray!

We’ve been pestered by the Really Evil Raccoon again. Twice more. Thom is getting seriously tired of reassembling the water garden every morning. Tonight we have a net over the entry to the upper deck. We’ll see if it deters the beast. Yes, I know they can climb very nimbly. I’m hoping that they’re put off enough to go elsewhere rather than tackle something different that’s in their way. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Shopping Is A Bad Word

No, this isn’t the beginning of one of my Seasonal Rants. I promised to behave myself this year on that topic. I think the problem is deeper than just one season. It’s “shopping” in general that I have a problem with. (Unless of course we’re talking food/books/fabric/yarn/fibre/tools/diy stuff. For some reason Things To Make Things With is another category in my head entirely!) I absolutely do not understand shopping as entertainment. It’s more like a bad dream.

What’s got the bee in my bonnet this time? Shopping for kids. A necessity since I only give holiday gifts to the grandbeasties, plus there’s a birthday or two in the month of December. I (mostly) refuse to consider buying toys. Why contribute to the Plastic Sargasso Sea, the insidious one that is taking over their rooms? Which only leaves books and clothes. Have you looked at kids’ clothes recently? Yikes! For girls it’s the floofy princess party dresses, mini-slutwear, pink-pink-pink, sparkly-glittery everything. For boys it’s… not much. Dull blues and grays. Lots of logos of football/hockey/racing cars/dinosaurs. Gah.

Am I just old? I don’t remember everything being quite so definitely differentiated between boys and girls even when my kids were little. These days you can’t even hand down a toy from a girl to her little brother. He won’t play with a pink anything! And I don’t blame him either. The girly things are overly concerned with beauty and personal adornment and the boy things are a whole lot more active and exciting. Whatever happened to gender-neutral? What message are we sending our kids, especially girls? Don’t worry your pretty little head about it? Grrr… Oh, I know the real reason. It’s all marketing. Just so we will buy more More MORE! Sorry. Not playing that game.

Yeah, I know I could make stuff for them. Not this year. I found stuff that perhaps offends me less than some other things and got the heck out. Christmas shopping done. Now I’m not going near a mall again until sometime in January. Off the soapbox. Before I fall off.

Moving right along. Hey, I finished the curtains!

Lattice Bedroom Curtains

Completed:  November 28, 2012

Yarn:  Warp - 2/8 cotton, bleached white, 3696 yds per lb. Used 2+ 250g tubes. Weft – 22/2 cottolin, white, no name (possibly Klippans), on cone. Used about 3200 yds.

Draft:  Huck net with plain weave ovals, p.71, from Handwoven Laces by Donna Muller. 8 shafts/9 treadles.

Warp:  4.6 yards long, 785 ends, 40” wide, 2 ends per dent in 10-dent reed.

Sett:  20 epi, 18 ppi (couldn’t quite beat square on such a wide warp)

Finishing:  Triple zigzagged the ends, machine washed, hung to dry, pressed, cut in half and machine stitched 1-1/2” hems on each end.

Comments:  It was a wide warp – nearly as wide as my 45” loom. I had quite a lot of trouble with this weaving but I guess it could be chalked up to me being really out of practise. There were tension problems, loom problems, submarine shuttle diving, and lots of skips to fix at the end. Plus I should have wound a 5 yard warp because the finished curtains are a little short. Still below the windowsill though so not a big deal. The width shrank to 34” after washing and the finished and hemmed length is 59”. My notes from the old curtains (1991!) say I used a 4 yard warp but it must have been 5 because the originals are longer and there was a little (maybe 6”) cut off the end as well for a sample. I did have a little more waste this time though (22”) because I couldn’t get a good enough shed towards the very end.

The curtains aren’t perfect but they do the trick. Hopefully they’ll last another 20 years or so. I don’t want to replace them again any time soon.

Now on to something else. Perhaps I’ll finally re-hem that rusty red skirt? You know, so I can actually wear it myself instead of Debbie Double flouncing around in it? There’s also several more refashion/repair projects hanging about waiting for me to get to them. Not to mention all the new things in the queue. Is it just me or do the days seem much too short this time of year? It seems like it’s dark most of the time and we’re still weeks away from solstice. I’m not complaining really. I like seasonal changes. It’s just that these old(er) eyes need more light on the subject than they are currently getting. Maybe I should remember not to knit black socks in November?

Yet Another FO

I finally have the details on my finished shawl for you:

Black Spruce Shawl

Begun: October 9, 2012

Completed: November 11, 2012

Yarn: Main – DGB Confetti Superwash, 75% superwash wool/25% nylon, Colour 9030 (heathered dark gray), 210m=50g. 2 balls. Contrast – Sandnes Garn Sisu, 80% superwash wool/20% nylon, 175m=50g, dark gray/white marl, overdyed dark red. 1 ball.

Needles: Main – Addi Lace circular, 4mm. Cast-on – 5mm.

Pattern: Lace edging from The Haapsalu Scarf, p.173 (top). Top curve shape adapted from the Mezquita Shawl by Roxanne Yeun.

Comments: This is my own frankenpattern: combining a wide Estonian spruce tree edging with a garter stitch crescent shawl. The swatch photo is closer to the true colour. The others are lighter so you can see details.

The Confetti yarn is not suitable for long-wearing socks or gloves because the white nylon content pills out of the black wool and looks awful. Hopefully it will be better in a shawl that doesn’t get hard wear. I didn’t have quite enough for the whole project so added a ball of marled (2 plies black and 1 ply white) Sisu that I had overdyed dark red for the crescent section. The nupps took a remarkable amount of yarn! I ran out of the first ball just after the middle row of the chart. The second half didn’t take nearly as much and I had plenty left of the main colour to finish the top eyelet border.

I’m really pleased with the results - a long narrow shawl that’s actually more like a scarf. The garter stitch makes it really warm! Using the chart and the legend plus notes (click on the pics for larger) you can make one too. Let me know if you do!

    

In other crafty news, I’ve been cruising along on the curtain weaving project. My (relatively) new Bluster Bay end-feed shuttle is working quite wonderfully:

Isn’t she a beauty? Mine is a mid-sized one with a closed bottom. Not too big and uses the same pirns as my AVL end-feed shuttle. I have 7 of those pirns and they hold a surprising amount. Because you don’t fuss with the selvedges at all with an end-feed shuttle, they take care of themselves. If you have the tension correct, the selvedges are very nice:

I threaded the yarn through 3 of the 6 hooks and it was perfect. In the detail photo above you can see the huck lattice pattern. And my rather uneven beat! The lace will show up more when the fabric is washed. And hopefully the uneven beat will show up less! I’m currently just over half finished the weaving. Moving right along.