First Project From My Eight Shaft Loom

After quite a bit of work to get my eight shaft loom (a copy of a Gilmore loom) completed, I finally took the first project off and finished the hemming today.

I chose the pattern Butterflies in Clover from the Sept./Oct. 2014 issue of Handwoven because is was a single shuttle weave with a fairly simple treadling.  I was able to weave four towels and a couple short dishrags from the five yard warp.  I used 8/2 cotton.  The pattern called for thinner yarn, and I think it would be better than the 8/2 because there are a few floats that are a bit longer than I care to have due to the chance of snagging the yarn.

The warp is tan.  I was looking for an antique look, and I think that color warp was just right.  I had several starts and stops and redo's before getting the treadling order straight in my head.  The first towel completed was woven with dark red.

Teal was used for the second towel. I hemmed it so the reverse side is visible. 

Navy was used for the third towel.

I wanted to use three different colors for one of the towels, so I decided to change the treadling.  This one is woven with 8/2 dark brown cotton and 22/2 cottolin in lime and orange.

The reverse side looks different with this towel also.

 This is my treadling for the brown, green and orange towel.  I separate the first and last four twill treadles with the tabby treadles in the center.  For me, it seemed to help with fewer treadling mistakes.  The tabby is not a true plain weave.  Make note of the tabby used in the hems.  Photos can be clicked to make bigger.

With just a little warp left over, I wove off the rest in medium dark green.  I like to use my samples for dishrags rather than storing them away in a box. 

My finishing process is to serge the ends of all the towels, wash in hot water with Dawn dish detergent to remove oils.  I wash again in the washer with hot water and laundry detergent, stretch both lengthwise and crosswise to remove wrinkles from spinning in the washer, and then dry on a normal temperature in the dryer.

After drying, I dampen the towels and stretch them again right before pressing with my Steam Fast steam press.  The press is a great time saver. 

I then turn the hems and steam press before stitching on the sewing machine.  After sewing, the towels get another final press.

Weaver's Delight Experiment is Done

The experiment with weaving cloth on my Weaver's Delight automated rug weaving loom is done and I am pleased with the results.  The warp of slightly more than five yards yielded five towels and a small sample.

I learned that I can weave with yarn using the big wooden shuttle and pirns.  For simple twill or plain weave, this loom works well.  I do need to work on an even beat though.  The beater is so heavy, I found it was very easy to overbeat.

Since my dad helped me get the old wooden shuttle repaired, he was the recipient of the first Michigan Tartan from this warp (top left).  My mom always said she doesn't care for plaid, so I gave her the striped one (top middle).  She clarified that today by saying she doesn't like to WEAR plaid.  They are both on display in their kitchen.  Thanks Dad for all your help!

The official Michigan Tartan was designed by Kati Reeder Meek from Alpena.  Information about the tartan can be found here:

Michigan Tartan

After finishing this project, I am anxious to find another tartan to try, although I may do a quick run with tartan stripes like my first towel and weave each towel with just one of the tartan colors.  I'm ready for some one-shuttle weaving!

  

Prayer Shawls, Blankets and Lap Quilts

When I had my heart attack back in 2012, I had a dear friend give me a crocheted prayer shawl (the green shawl in the photo).  So, what is a prayer shawl?  I found out it was a shawl that someone makes and while working on it, they pray for the recipient.  It had a big impact on me.  It is hard to describe the feeling while wearing it, but I could FEEL the prayers that went into it.  I had one particular day when I was feeling especially bad.  I took the shawl, put it around me and went to bed.  Almost immediately, I started feeling better.  What an amazing thing to experience. 

When I found out I had cancer, another friend sent me a prayer blanket (the lavendar one with the cross).  Both the blanket and shawl went with me to the hospital when I had my surgery.  I must have said something to Dr. Michelin about the shawl, because when he came to check on me after my surgery, I had it on and he asked if it was my "prayer sweater".  I thought that was kind of funny, but he remembered it and what it was about. 

While undergoing my chemo treatments, my church presented me with a prayer lap quilt, signed by the church members (the quilt is on the back of the chair).  I don't know how I could be so blessed so many times.  The quilt goes with me every time I go for chemo because I get cold sitting so long in a cool room.  It is just the right size for covering my legs.  I was given two other gifts of love, the heart quilt and the lovely red and grey wool shawl by two other good friends.  They are all loved and I will cherish them.  As you can see, our kitty, Schwarz, thinks they are pretty special too.

Since all those blessings have come my way, I wanted others to experience God's love and prayers.  The shawls I have been working on are woven on one of my looms.  It is a restful, relaxing time when I get to talk to God and hopefully impact someone else that needs to feel God's arms around her or him.

This is the first shawl I made.  I love how the stripes turned out with the variegated yarn.

  This is the type of yarn I have been using. It is a giant skein from Joann Fabrics.  I chose it because of it's easy care properties.  It can be washed in the washer and dried in the drier.  The loom was warped at 16 ends per inch in a 12 dent reed with a width of 18" - 20" for a shawl.  I use 8/2 size yarn for the warp.  The warp is about three yards long, and I wove shawls a bit over two yards long.  The fringe is twisted and knotted at the ends. 

I had a friend try using the boucle yarn for the warp and she couldn't get a shed open to weave.  The cotton warp is best, since it isn't sticky.  I beat gently while weaving and it made a nice warm but lightweight shawl. 
This skein is for my third shawl.

This is the start of my second shawl.  It is a variegated yarn with just three colors.  I didn't know who it was going to be for so I prayed generic prayers for the recipient.  As I wove more, I kept thinking of my neighbor.  She had taken such good care of me and Bob while I was getting chemo and now she was having some difficulties.  I started praying more for her and decided this shawl was hers.

I wanted this shawl to reverse colors so the ends would mirror each other.  I kept track of the colors and length on the paper tape to the left.  When I got to about the center of the shawl, I had to wind the yarn on my swift first so I could get the right colors on my shuttle in the reverse order.  The tape helped me do that.

The tape is on top of a wonderful sheepskin my son Edwin and his wife Rebecca gave me for Christmas this year.  How nice it is to sit upon, with it draped over the rocking top weaving bench Bob made me a while ago.  Since getting both gifts, I have had no problems with pressure to the backs of my legs while weaving.

I was able to give the second shawl to my neighbor at our Bible study a couple weeks ago.  She had the same experience I did when she put it on.  It is such a good reminder that God is there when we need him.

I would like to encourage anyone with needlework skills to take on a shawl, blanket, or quilt project.  Knitting, crochet, weaving or quilting can be a meditative occupation.  Think of the blessings that can come from your hands. 

May God bless you in your endeavors.

Annual Christmas Towels

Every year my girls and daughters-in-law get kitchen towels from me for Christmas.

This year, I got an early start when I came home from vacation in April with a big cone of 8/2 cotton yarn in a teal color.  I decided on a monk's belt pattern from Handwoven Design Collection #18.  I wound the warp for six towels and started the threading in June.  It was a good thing I got an early start, because I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer early in July and had major surgery a week later.  While recovering from surgery, I sat for many days looking at the loom that was partially threaded.  As I started feeling a bit better and became bored doing nothing, I decided to see if I could finish the threading.

Working a few minutes at a time, I got it ready for the first towel.  Now, all I needed were yarn color choices from the girls.  Three of them were here a week later to check up on me and to come for the Charlevoix Venetian Festival.  They picked their colors and I was able to start.

Carolyn's towel was first.  The colors she chose were light orange, red, green and yellow. The yarns used were 8/2 cotton.

After weaving this one with a single strand of yarn for the pattern, I decided the rest of the towels needed the pattern yarn to be doubled.  Also, the green she chose didn't show very well because it was too close in color value to the teal warp.

Rachel said she wanted her towel to be mostly white pattern, but I made her pick two other colors to add a little interest and to give me something to work with in developing the pattern.  She chose light orange and yellow.  It was my plan for each towel to be completely different from each other, even though they were woven on the same warp and all threaded the same.  I think this one came out very nice.  The colored yarns are all 8/2 cotton.  The white is 50/50 cottolin in a similar size to the cotton, something like 22/2.  It is too cold to go outside to the studio to look.

My DIL Jenn's towel is the orange and lime green towel on the left.  I tried to tone down the teal by weaving the tabby with brown and olive green 8/2 cotton.  The orange and lime green are both cottolin.

These towels were all pretty slow going, since it took me a long time to recover from my surgery.  As I started my chemotherapy treatments, they gave me something to focus on besides being sick.  They were quite good therapy.

This towel is for my DIL Rebecca.  She wasn't here to pick her colors, but she loves anything blue, so my daughters and I picked for her.  I used

navy, wine, ocean green and light blue.

As I was working on this towel I managed to break my hand doing something I shouldn't have been doing.  My doctor splinted it, but I could tell a few days later that it wasn't going to heal that way because every morning when I woke up, the splint was out of position and the bone was bent at the break.

I had our hand specialist at work look at it after the weekend and he set it and put in into a cast.  It was much more comfortable after getting the cast but I still wasn't supposed to use it, so weaving was put on hold for a few weeks.

 I was then put in a removable splint since it was starting to heal.  I was happy because my doctor was worried that the chemo would slow the healing.  It didn't, and I was able to start weaving again.

I was able to finish Rebecca's towel and get started on the last one needed for Christmas.  This towel was for my daughter Becky.  She chose off white, navy, red, light orange and light green. The eleven treatments I was getting for the cancer was taking a toll on me though, so I couldn't weave for very long at any one time.  I was getting a bit worried that I wouldn't finish it in time.  I had a good week when I had a week off from chemo and was able to finish it.

It is always nice to have a little warp left over to make something for myself.  My favorite color is red, so I dug through my box of yarns that I had dyed and found quite a range of pinks to reds to purples and came up with this towel.  It is my favorite.

Group photo.  I was very happy to finish all of them before Christmas.

An incidental note about this warp.  When September rolled around, I heard from a friend who also has ovarian cancer that September was ovarian cancer awareness month and their color was teal.

I am not much of one for following all the color fads for all the different "awareness" months or weeks, but I guess it does give me an opportunity to inform women that there is no screening test for ovarian cancer, and because symptoms can be kind of vague and attributed to other things, most ovarian cancers are not caught until later stages.

Here is a list of symptoms, with the first four being the most common:
1. Abdominal or pelvic pain.
2. Increased abdominal size or persistent abdominal bloating.
3. Needing to urinate often or urgently.
4. Feeling full after eating a small amount.
5. Changes in bowel habits.
6. Bleeding after menopause or in between periods.
7. Unexplained weight gain or loss.
8. Lower back pain.
9. Indigestion or nausea.
10. Excessive fatigue.
11. Pain during sex or bleeding after sex.

Out of the eleven symptoms, I had eight of them.  If any of these symptoms are new to you and you experience them frequently over a 2-4 week period, talk to your doctor and besides checking for other causes, ask him or her about the possibility of ovarian cancer.  My stage 3c cancer was found with a CT scan.  I was referred immediately to a gynecologic oncologist and was in surgery the next week.

I wish I had known this information months before I was diagnosed.  Hopefully this list will help someone else to seek treatment in an early stage.  Having the symptoms doesn't necessarily mean you have cancer, but checking the symptoms with your doctor could possibly save your life if it is and is caught early.

Now, I am looking forward to a better new year in 2014.