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!

A Happy Customer

A friend and co-worker requested that I make a rayon chenille scarf in specific colors.  I don't usually do custom work, but I thought I would take some yarn I already had in my stash and try over-dyeing it.  The yarn I used is 1300 ypp light blue rayon chenille.

I wanted random color, so I didn't wind the warp before dyeing.  I made it into a 6 oz. skein, tied it off in four spots, and then washed it.

After washing, I soaked it in water and soda ash for about half an hour, while I mixed my dye.  I used Dylon fabric dye for all the colors- a couple purples, pink, turquoise, a couple greens and a blue.

I used a mix of the blue and purples to dye another skein (about 3 oz.) for the weft.  The color ended up sort of variegated, but in a subtle way.

The soaked and squeezed out skeins were arranged in a circle in a couple plastic dish pans. Dye was drawn up into a hypodermic syringe, and squirted into the yarn in short sections.  I wrapped the skeins in plastic, and put it in the oven with the light on (heat off) overnight.  By the time I got home from work the next night, the yarn was ready to rinse in cold water.  After rinsing most of the stray dye out, I washed the yarn with Dawn dish soap to remove more stray dye.

The skeins were put in the washing machine to spin out as much moisture as possible, and were then air dried over a heat register before measuring into warp and wound onto bobbins.

If I was going to dye more skeins, I would dye about 7-8 oz., so the scarf could be longer, and would make the weft skein about 4 oz.

Heather was very happy modeling her new scarf!

Various Projects in Progress and Finished

UFOs.  Those unfinished objects that get set aside and never get finished.  I think it is a rare crafts person that never has any.  I came across one the other day, and decided it was too nice to not be finished.  This was a project that I think I saw in the Weaver's Craft magazine.  The yarns are fairly heavy, but a good weight for a bag.  The warp is a turquoise 3/2 pearl cotton, and the tabby weft is a heavier yarn, similar in weight to Sugar and Cream in a bluish green color. 
The weave structure is called Monk's Belt.  The weft used to weave the pattern is actually a thin, loosely woven plaid fabric, cut into bias strips about 3/8" wide.

I had the outer part of the bag done, and this photo shows how I formed the bottom of the bag.  The seams are on the sides.  With the bag inside out, I stitched across a triangle at each side.  When the bag is turned right side out, the triangle seams are at each end on the bottom. 

After a couple years on the shelf, I got it out and decided what still needed to be done to make it usable.

First of all, I needed handles, so I dug around in my yarns to find what I used for the tabby.  I threaded up a narrow warp on my floor loom and wove a strip long enough for two handles.  Then, I had to search my fabric stash to find the fabric I used, so I could cut the lining.  After sewing the lining on the regular sewing machine, I did all the finishing on my heavy industrial machine.  It was too thick to get under the presser foot on the regular machine.  I sure am glad I have that heavy old machine.
Click on the photos for more detail.

This rayon chenille scarf was completed in a few days, between other things I was working on.  The warp is a variegated reddish orange, and the weft is a dark red.  The weight is 1300-1400 yards per pound.  I used a 10 dent reed, and originally sleyed it at 20 epi, but that was too dense.  I resleyed at 17 epi (1-2-2) and that was just right. 

 The scarf is plain weave, but I did a short sample using 2-2 twill that also looks nice.

I am still working on my Autumn Leaves warp, and have four towels completed, and the fifth one is almost done.  I think I would like weaving it a bit better if it was on one of the larger looms.  I warped it the full width of my table loom, and ended up taking out one stripe on each edge. 

I am using eight colors in the warp, so I wound a warp long enough to make eight towels.  It was a bit too long for the loom, and I had trouble weaving the first couple.

The current towel is woven with light orange.

This rug is the first one on my second warp on the Weaver's Delight.  I set it up to weave log cabin using the plain weave cams.  My first attempt was weaving denim, but I couldn't get them tight enough with the plain weave, so I unwove it and tried the remainder of the polyester double-knit that I had cut.

That took some trial and error also, but I finally got something that I liked.  After I wove about a foot, I realized the error I saw earlier, but couldn't figure out what I did wrong, was very noticeable on the dark section.  I finally had to work the mechanism till all the warp threads were at one level, and then could see that I had sleyed two threads in a couple dents.  It's a good thing this rug is for me, or I would have unwoven everything again.  I can live with it.  Once this rug is done, I will cut it off and resley the reed to correct the errors.

I weighted my last four threads on each selvedge with 2 pound weights, because I think it helps me get an even edge, and the last rugs were nice and flat on the floor.  I do fiddle with the edges, because I don't like big fabric loops at each edge.  I get them snugged in tight to the selvedge by pulling on them. 

I have one more section of the dark to sew together and weave, and the last light section and the hem and this rug will be done.  Maybe I will complete it after work tomorrow.  Now it's time for bed.

Working With Teens is Such a Pleasure

Way back in March, our thirteen year old granddaughter Emily came over for a weekend and decided she wanted to make a chenille scarf.  This is how it looked as she was getting started.

 After multiple weekends of weaving, she finally came to the end of her warp tonight!  She was very excited about finishing it, and wanted to get a photo of it built up on the cloth beam.

 
This certainly looks like a happy weaver!

It is a long scarf, but just what she wanted.  I think we started with three yards of 1300 yards per pound rayon chenille warp.  It was sett at 16 epi, and was woven with plain weave.

Of course, she knows she still needs to braid the ends into fringe, and she got a little start tonight before heading to bed.  I wish I didn't have to work tomorrow, so I could help her with the knot tying, and then the wet finishing. 

I'm so proud of how diligently she worked on it without anyone leaning over her shoulder every step of the way.  She learned to use the electric bobbin winder, and after helping her with the first one, she did all the others on her own.

Today, when she was almost done, she came to get me to show me how the weft was starting to curve up at one end.  Most people wouldn't even notice, but she has such a good eye for that type of thing.  I reminded her to pull the beater from the middle, and we jiggled the loom around a bit to get it squared up, since we had moved it.  I tightened a couple edge threads, and it seemed to fix the problem. 

Hopefully she will get it done by the weekend.  Fortunately, there is no rush.  With the heat we have been having, I don't think she will want to wear it this week!

Emily Starts Weaving a Scarf

A couple weekends ago, the weekend of the big snowstorm, our granddaughter Emily was over, and asked if she would be able to weave a scarf.

She picked out some pretty chenille yarn, and I helped her design her warp.  She picked white, a varigated purple, and mint green, and got most of it on the warping board before she had to go home.

Emily was back over this weekend, so I showed her how to tie her warp, so it could be removed from the pegs without becoming a tangled mess.

Here she is starting to wind the warp on the back of the loom.  She's  learning lots of new terminology along the way.

Here she is with the warp almost all wound onto the back.  Three pound weights helped keep everything under control.  No glitches so far!

I helped her with the threading, with one of us on each side of the loom.  We did half the warp on Saturday night, and then today, we reversed positions, and finished the threading.  It gave her some experience with choosing the next yarn from the cross on the lease sticks, and then choosing the correct heddle and threading it with the hook.

I showed her how to tie the warp onto the front of the loom, but did it myself, since she hasn't mastered the tight knot-tying skill yet.

Here Emily is starting the weaving.  This is an odd little loom (a Leicester Dryad, 4 shaft countermarche), with no brake release. While she got started with the weaving, I set up the live-weight tensioning on the back (note the bar-bell weight dangling down on the rope).  With the live-weights, this has been an ideal loom for the kids, since they can easily wind their work forward without help.

This is an easy weave, with just plain weave, so she can concentrate on learning the proper way to hold and throw the shuttle, and where to put her hand on the beater.

 I'm having her use paperclip temples to help keep her edges straight.  She was able to get about 5" woven before we had to stop for dinner, and go home.  Hopefully she will have it done soon, or at least by next winter!

Sample for chenille scarf

The loom stand is finished enough for testing.  I wound a warp for a rayon chenille scarf and wove about 8-10 inches with white, blue and black weft.

The sample on the right of the serger stitching is not washed and is quite stiff.

The sample on the left of the serger stitching has been washed and dried in the dryer.  It is nice and soft.  I'm having a hard time deciding whether to use the black weft or the medium blue(above the little tail of white yarn).



I'm leaning toward the medium blue because I like how the blue varigated stripe looks.