Back to Weaving

After a bit of time off, I am back to my looms and it feels good!  On October 12, 13, and 14, I took a trip downstate to attend a doubleweave workshop with a weaving friend.  It was taught by Jennifer Moore.  I had more information crammed into my brain that I will ever be able to use!  It was a great class. 

The class was run in a round-robin style, with everyone bringing their loom warped with an assigned pattern.  There were close to 20 in the class, so most of the patterns were on two looms.  

Jennifer gave 2 short lectures per day, and the rest of the time was spent weaving on each others looms.  Since I wasn't a speedy weaver, I didn't get to all of the patterns, but I did weave on several that interested me.  

The pattern assigned to me was a 2 block doubleweave windows. Some of Jennifer's samples of that structure are shown above and below. 

My own weaving on the warp left over is going pretty slowly, since it is being done on my new table loom, an 8 shaft Glimakra Victoria.

I did a little weaving on it tonight after work and dinner.  As can be seen by the length of the sample, it is slow going!

I chose to not weave the squares in the order they were threaded because I didn't want a diagonal line of solid color squares.  They are a little more random, as can be seen if the photo is clicked to enlarge it.  They are the colors I dyed earlier in the month that I wrote about.

Another project that I was working on was a set of 6 placemats.  I finished with the weaving a couple days ago, and finished with the wet finishing and ironing yesterday.  I was going to hem them, but decided to do a simple fringe after they were washed.  I think hems would have been too bulky.

These placemats were part of my effort at stash reduction.  Unfortunately, they hardly put a dent in the stash!

The warp was from a very large cone of 4 ply varigated blue, and the weft was from many cones of yarn used to make chennile bedspreads.  The colors remind me of the old Fiesta dishes from years ago.

I have enough warp left on the loom for another set.  I will think about it a bit, before I start the next set, since I don't want to do the same thing again, and I don't want a lot of yarn color changes, because I hate starting and ending yarn. 

Preparing For a Doubleweave Class

After a long hiatus from weaving and writing, I have started preparing for a class I will be taking next week.  Michigan Weaver's Guild
http://www.michiganweaversguild.org/workshops.html
is offering the three daydoubleweave class with Jennifer Moore, author of a new book on doubleweave. 

A friend from downstate told me about it and invited me to stay with her and go to class together.  I'm really looking forward to the class and getting together with other weavers again. 

After checking out the class, I realized I needed a loom with more shafts, so I started looking online and a couple days later, found this sweet loom.

It is a Glimakra Victoria 8 shaft table loom on a stand.  This class is getting expensive already!  I haven't even tried it out yet.  One thing I would like to do with this loom is to convert it to treadles.  If any readers have one like it with treadles, I would value your input on how they are hooked up.  What little I have found about converting, is that the company only makes a kit for the 4 shaft table loom.  I just need to see how they are hooked up, and I think Bob and I could make our own kit.

The doubleweave class is set up as a round-robin, which means everyone weaves samples on other class member's looms.  I received my pattern draft last week, and since that didn't leave enough time to buy more yarn, I am using my stash. 
The pattern calls for seven colors, which I didn't have, so out came the dyes last night. 

Since the beautiful fall season is upon us, I chose a fall color theme. I took the few colors I had of a 6/2 weight cotton and overdyed them to get the colors I wanted.


I finished rinsing them out today after I got home from work, and they are out on the line drying right now.

As soon as they are dry, I will start winding my warp, maybe today, or possibly tomorrow after work.

I love working with color, and trying ones that aren't my favorites.  It keeps me out of a rut, and have actually gotten some new favorites through the dyeing process.

Tips For Rag Rug Hems

I was curious how my rugs turned out, so last night I cut them off the loom after using Kati Meek's method of securing the warp for the next rugs.

I showed the start of these quite a while ago.  The first one is a little nondescript unless you get up close.  Then it looks kind of interesting, because the fabric I used had quite a bit of color in it.  From a distance, though, it just looks boring tan.

This rug was woven with five fabrics, with strips approximately 13-14" long and 3" wide.  I seamed them together in a set order, although I think I reversed it a couple times.  My loom was warped at 12 epi, in a 12 dent reed.  That allows me to weave a hem on harnesses 1-3 vs 2-4.  I weave the rags with harnesses 1-2 vs 3-4, which gives me doubled warp at 6 epi.  I had a friend teach me this technique, and I think it makes a good sturdy rug, with hems that don't pull in too much. 

Oh, and another technique I use with the hems is to arch the weft, instead of just angling it.  I play around with the amount of arch until I get it where it isn't pulling in.  If I owned a temple, I probably wouldn't have to worry about it so much.  I made the mistake of weaving one hem on this rug the way like I wove the rags with the doubled warp.  The doubled warp hem pulled in a bit.

Young weaver, sewer, knitter

I spent a nice couple days with two of my grandchildren.  Emily and David came over the other night and we worked on some projects, and of course, had to have a tea party or two.

I promised Emily that I would show her how to make a cloth wallet.  We went through my cotton calicos and she picked her colors she wanted to work with.  She is only 11, and I think just a little young to use the rotary cutter yet, so I did the cutting for her.  I suppose I could have traced the pieces and she could have used scissors.  Oh well, I never think of cutting patterns out that way any more.

Here is Emily, showing the inside of the almost completed wallet.

And the outside. 

She did a fine job with the sewing and pressing.  I did let her use the iron.  My old Pfaff 1229 is a great machine for children to learn on.  I've taught a lot of kids to sew on it.   I can reduce the speed quite a bit, and the one stitch at a time feature is great when sewing corners or anywhere a lot of control is needed.  I think Emily is going to take after her mother, Becky, since it seems to come very easy to her.

Emily did a bit of weaving on an ongoing project I have set up on my countermarche floor loom for the older grandkids.  It's just a striped twill, but they are learning how to walk the treadles and how to tell where they are in the pattern.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of Emily weaving.

A friend of mine that used to teach Montosori years ago, gave me a real nice rigid heddle loom so I could use it to teach.  I try to keep a warp on it for the younger kids that can't quite reach the treadles on the floor loom yet.  David took to it like a duck to water.

 

David is really concentrating on getting his angle and edges just right.

Emily recently made a sock monkey, and wanted to make a scarf for him, so we took a look at my yarn choices and she got started on that project after finishing her wallet.  She decided about how many stitches wide she wanted to make it, sampled a little bit and decided it was too wide.  It didn't bother her at all to rip it out and start over.  I think she understands that sampling can be an important part of the process.

Here's Emily, showing "Joe" how to knit.

It was a good couple days.  I love teaching anyone that loves learning.

Stash Reduction Rag Rugs

I am on a stash reduction mission.  I have so much fabric in my stash, from other people and stuff that I bought that I need to make some space to work.  I tried selling some at a garage sale, but that wasn't too successful, so rag rugs should help get rid of some of it.

I own a nice book about making rag rugs (shown below),

 so I've been using it for some ideas.  I liked the idea of sewing strips a set length together to make a diamond pattern, like the photo from the book (below):

I'm still playing around with the length of strips that will work the best, since my warp on the loom isn't the same width as the one in the book.  My first try wasn't with long enough strips, so the colors didn't advance enough. 

The color change remained at the edges, and I didn't like the look.  My next try was with strips that were about 4" longer than the first try, but I don't like that much better.  I think I have to have a lot shorter pieces, with the total of them being about twice the width in the reed plus 3-5". 

I will probably try that tomorrow after I get home from work. 

I did a couple things differently when preparing my strips.  I found that 3" wide strips worked the best.  I also didn't want to butt the ends together and zig-zag them.  I prefer a seam on the diagonal

 

as I'm demonstrating.  Place the two strips at right angles, and then stitch from corner to corner.  It reduces the bulk of the seam so it isn't all in one spot, and will be more secure than a butt join.

I'm too tired to work on this any more tonight, so I will wait till tomorrow and then unweave what I have tested and recut the lengths. 

Colors of May At the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, Charlevoix, Michigan

I think that April slipped by me without posting photos of the colors for that month, but I've been out several times getting photos of the colors of May in Charlevoix.

To check out other colors of May from around the country, visit Sue's blog: Colors of May

She puts out a request for colors from each month to give everyone inspiration with their fiber arts. 

T

Early in May, the three colors of lilacs were beautiful and the smell was wonderful.

Our granddaugher Emily (age 11) snapped this photo of bleeding hearts and lily of the valley. 

Emily also took these two butterfly pictures.

Forget-me-not flowers are a beautiful blue color.

The columbines are beautiful this year.  I wish they lasted a bit longer.

Yellow Lady's Slipper (a protected wildflower)

This mushroom cap is about 4" across.

The two photos above are of the pitcher plant, and are a protected wildflower.  If you ever see one, please don't pick it.  It also applies to trillium and lady's slippers. I have many more photos, but my computer is moving at a snail's pace tonight, so I'm settling on these.

Weaving With Old Video Tapes

I came across some old video tapes today while decluttering the front porch.  Since I just finished a rug, (at left, made with fabric found in my stash)

and hadn't started another one yet, I decided to try weaving a recycled bag with the tapes. I unscrewed the case and wound the tape onto a rug shuttle.  I'm not sure if I like it yet.  It is quite shiny, and only comes in one color-black.  It is certainly easier to wind strips that are already cut to size onto a shuttle instead of cutting plastic grocery bags into strips.  I'll see how it holds up after I get it sewn together.  Unlike the other bags I have made, I am not weaving the straps in on this bag, since it takes a lot of extra time.  Now that I have my heavy sewing machine semi-fixed, I will just sew straps onto the bag. 

The twill section will be on the side, between the bag straps.


I started measuring and marking fabric, getting ready for my fabric stash reduction sale.  Of course,  looking at my stash, I started thinking of the rug warp on the loom and which fabrics I should keep for rag rugs.  Now I have a big pile set aside.  I may have to give myself a good talking to, or I won't get rid of much.

Rag Rug Weaving Tips

I was reading a weaving friend's blog today, and she was having some trouble with weaving her rag rug.  I thought I could put a few tips on here, that I have learned from other weavers.

I just started weaving a rag rug yesterday, so I will use it as an example.

First of all, my usual rag rugs are warped with rug warp or a similar weight sturdy yarn.  They are spaced  12 epi in a 12 dent reed and threaded 1-2-3-4 or 4-3-2-1.  (click a photo to enlarge)

Each warp yarn gets its own heddle.  As you can see in the above photo, the warp is threaded 4-3-2-1 until the last 4 threads.  Instead of threading them 4-3-2-1, I thread them 4-4-3-3.  You will see why in a minute.

The last 4 warp threads are threaded 2 per dent through the last 2 dents in the reed for a sturdy selvedge.

 Weaving for a hem can cause some problems, because the yarn used for the hem is so much thinner than the rags used for the body of the rug.  There are a couple things that can be done to minimize the draw-in that can happen.  If I'm using rug warp for my hem, I will double it.  I quite often use a thicker yarn, such as Sugar and Cream yarn used to knit dishrags, and I usually use a single strand of that size yarn.  I weave my hems with a standard tabby (harnesses 1 - 3 alternating with harnesses 2 - 4).

As shown in the above photo, I use my paperclip temple, which I have described in an earlier post.  Anchor the hem weft and angle in the shed.  Change sheds but don't beat yet.

(Sorry, this weft is angled in the other direction, but you get the idea)

With the shed changed, pull the weft into an arch, down to the opposite fell line and beat.  Do this for each pick of your hem.  It creates a bit of flex in the hem that doesn't happen with an angled weft.  A bit of practice will help you decide how big of an arch you need.

I use different treadles from the tabby hems to weave the rags.

I raise harness 1-2 together, and 3-4 together.  That gives me doubled warp threads sett at 6 epi.

I think it helps make a sturdier rug.

Here is the start of my latest rag rug that I'm weaving from a knit I found in my stash.  I showed the fabric in my previous post.  This fabric is the thickness of that icky old polyester double knit everyone sewed with years and years ago.  I cut the strips 1 1/4" wide and it was just right.

I sew my strips together with the following method:

Place two strips at right angles, right sides together.  For illustration purposes, I have marked my stitching line.  I don't really mark my strips.  That's what eyeballing is for!

Stitch from the top corner to the corner of the underneath strip.  I like to backstitch a couple stitches at each end of the seam, but a small stitch length without the backstitch would also work.  Add another strip to the end of the second strip and continue sewing ends together without cutting the threads.  To avoid tangling your strips, wait to cut the threads until you are ready to wind them on your shuttle.  When winding onto the shuttle, trim the seam allowance to 1/4", removing a small triangle. If I am folding my strips so only one side shows, I finger press the seam open to reduce bulk in one spot.  If I'm not folding my strips, I don't do anything to the seam except trim it to 1/4".

Thick hems can be hard on sewing machines if proper technique isn't used.  I will show my method of sewing hems on a home sewing machine in a future post, so stay tuned!

Rug Warp on Loom

Bob made a warping trapeze for me out of an old door frame I picked up at a garage sale, and I was able to try it out for the first time a couple days ago.  A friend that I have been teaching to weave came over, so I was able to show her how to wind a warp onto the loom with that method.  I love the way the warp goes on the loom--it is so nice and tight on the beam.

I finished threading the loom last night.  Now the loom is sitting there waiting for me to start weaving.  I still have to get my paperclip temples ready, and I think I will use the live weight tensioning system for the rugs, so I still have to get that ready too. Before I do that, though, I have a major mess in the upstairs of the garage/studio that I need to finish sorting. 

I was going through the fabric stash today and found some fabrics that could be good for rugs, and a whole lot more fabric that I'm hoping someone will buy at my yard sale.  I haven't picked a date yet--I don't like making deadlines for things that aren't super important to get done.  It will just happen when I'm ready.

Mother's Day

I'm finally getting a picture on here from Mother's Day.  Two of the linen towels in the previous post were given to my mom.  I gave her the small finger-tip towel and let her pick another one.  She chose the lattice weave. 
Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

We finally took our computer to be fixed.  Now Bob and I are going through our old, old hard drive and transfering files to our new external hard drive.  It's pretty slow going, especially since I don't like to spend hours on the computer. 

Right now, I need to get going out to the garage and start weeding out junk.  We are definitely due for a garage or yard sale!  First off, I'm going to see how many empty boxes I can get out of the upstairs.  That should give me a bit more room to work.  Wish me luck--I tend to get side-tracked and distracted!  Hope it warms up a bit.  It is a gorgeous sunny day, but only 48 degrees out.  Running up and down stairs should make me warm though.