A Good Day for Teaching Weaving

Our son David and his family came for a short visit last night on their way to the UP to go camping.  This morning, while everyone was getting ready to go, I had an opportunity for another teachable moment with granddaughter Morgan.  She got to help me with finishing my last rug on the Weaver's Delight.  When we ran out of fabric for the tubes, I made some more strips and she helped me prepare them into a long strip to load into the tubes.

Here she is on the pink pony, finishing loading a tube.  I think she thought it was a pretty neat tool.

After finishing that project, we heard a commotion outside and walked out to the road to see a car burning a few doors down.  Just a little bit of excitement to start the day!  I have no idea whose car it was or the cause of the fire.  We watched (from a distance) as the fire spread more and more and eventually blew out three of the tires.

 I have had my sister-in-law Mary's Leicester Dryad countermarche loom for several years.  It was the first loom for me to ever use.  She was over recently and I asked her if she was ready to learn to weave.  Since I'm home all the time now, it is easier to fit into our schedules.  After everyone left for camping, we got to business winding a warp for a rayon chenille scarf.

Mary is a great student and grasped the warping concept right away.  I was able to go about my business doing other weaving things while she wound her two bouts of warp.

After we had lunch, we brought the warp to the loom and got it wound on the the back.  Having an assistant certainly makes the warping and winding go faster.  I showed her the back to front method.  We used the lease stick holding device and a 1/2" spacing raddle to spread the warp.

That was about all I was able to do in one day.  I was happy everything went so smoothly.  On Mary's next visit, we will tackle threading and sleying the reed and running a small sample of both plain weave and twill.  I am going to try 20 ends per inch, but think it may be a little too much at least for the plain weave. After doing a little sampling, we may end up resleying the reed to spread it out a little.  I'm looking forward to having someone come weave with me.  My project is on the loom next to hers on the left side of the photo.

If you think this loom looks a little odd, you are right.  It is only good for short warps because the front and back beams are also the cloth beams.  It is not a good loom for long warps because of the thickness that builds up on the beams.  It also doesn't have a brake release, so I will be showing her how live weight tensioning will solve that problem and make the loom very easy to use.

Now I am tired and it is nap time!  All in all, a great day!

Weaver's Delight "Pink Pony" Stuffing Machine and Rigby Cutter

I finally got motivated to get back to my blog today.  I was given a "pink pony" stuffing machine by our friend Lou down in Missouri when Bob and I were on vacation in April.  I haven't been feeling well since then, so have only been doing dibs and dabs with weaving lately.  I finally took enough photos to show how I prepare denim strips and load them in the tubes for weaving.

Preparing denim jeans for rugs is labor intensive.  They are plentiful at the resale shops and from friends, so I don't make any effort to open seams, remove pockets, or take out hems.  I trim around all those areas and then make one fairly straight edge on one side.

I purchased a strip cutter on eBay because my hand can't take the heavy cutting for any length of time with the rotary cutter any more.  This particular cutter is a Rigby Cutter.  It is pretty old, but it has been working pretty well for me.  I would have preferred a Fraser Cutter, since there are more options for parts.  They cost more than I was able to spend though.

The red cutter is adjusted away from the cutter blade for the strip width I want.  I use strips that are about 3/4" - 7/8" wide for a twill weave rug.  I would probably cut them 1/2" for plain weave rug.  Anything wider than that and it is almost impossible to get the strips tightly packed. 

Turn the crank and it cuts the strip.

When I get enough strips cut with various colors, I take a bundle of them and sit with them on my lap and cut a 45 degree angle at each end.  I usually do all one end, then flip them around and do the other end.  The angle must be in the same direction at both ends.

Here is a bundle that is probably enough to stuff 2-3 tubes for the shuttles.

I overlap them about 1/4" and triple-stitch zig-zag the ends together.

The strips feed through the shuttle better this way, and I have fewer hang-ups then if I use a 45 degree seam.

I sew them in a continuous strip until it is hard to sew any more.  They loop around in front of the machine and eventually there isn't any more space to sew.

I clip my threads when I'm done sewing and pull them out from under the presser foot.  They will curl into a spiral and that needs to be straightened out before running the strip through the stuffing machine.

The fabric strip is threaded through the eyelet guide in front of the left concave roller, then brought over the top of the roller and drops into the funnel below.  The convex roller is brought forward against the fabric strip. 

As seen in this photo, I straightened my strip into a container on the floor.  While turning the large wheel with the leather belt, the pole is used to poke the strip down into the tube and pack it tight.

Here is a tube loaded into a shuttle.

This rug is getting close to being complete.  Three more tubes will probably be enough. 

I am using a twill tape to keep track of the rug length and the temple that came with the loom to help keep a consistent width to the rug.

The Pink Pony and the Third Left-over Bear

While on vacation last week, Bob and I visited weaving friends, Lou and Betty, down in Arkansas.  Lou has several Newcomb looms, but doesn't use the flyshuttle mechanisms on them.  When I told him I bought a Weaver's Delight loom to restore but it didn't come with the tube stuffing machine (the pink pony), he offered the one he didn't use to me.  Thanks Lou!!

We went down to Arkansas on Bob's birthday, and while we were at Betty and Lou's house, I gave Bob his present.  I found out he never had a Teddy bear as a child, so I gave him my third left-over bear, T14.  Bob named him Hamish (pronounced Hay'-mish) after a character in the Braveheart movie.

We had a bit of fun with Hamish as we traveled home this past Saturday.  I taught him how to read a map so he could help his daddy with navigation.

We played our usual game of cows and horses, getting points for them on our side of the road, and extra points for white ones.  If we passed a cemetery on our side of the car, we lost our points.

Hamish kept telling me he wanted to ride the pony, and I thought he was talking about one of the ponies in our game.  Then it dawned on me that he overheard us talking about the pink pony, and that was what he meant!  When we stopped in Hannibal, Missouri for lunch, we got the pony out and let him ride.

Hannibal was kind of exciting for Hamish.  He threw his arms up in the air when he saw his first train!  "Here comes the train!  Here comes the train!  Yipee!!" he started to yell.  He was jumping around so much, Bob had to hold on to him for dear life, since that fence rail was right over a cliff!

The train was passing over the Mississippi River from Illinois and entered a tunnel through the hill.  Bob knows all the good train-watching spots and we were fortunate one came along before we got on the road again.

The rest of the trip was uneventful.  We did see the statue of Mark Twain and then a couple more trains in Indiana.  I suppose there will be more train-watching trips in Hamish's future.

Baby Teddy bears do get tired, especially when they try to stay awake for the whole trip.  Hamish was so afraid he was going to miss something!  He made up for it on Sunday we got home, spending most of the day sleeping. 

We are glad to be home, but not glad for the cold and snow.  It's melting quickly though, and spring is promising to be here soon.  Snowdrops are blooming and daffodils will be showing their sunny faces with a bit warmer weather.