More Teddy Bear fabric

I got back to weaving bear fabric again after returning from Muskegon and Grand Rapids.  The second fabric was woven with a turquoise mohair in the same weaving pattern as the first one, John Murphy"s Bird's Eye, version VIII, pg. 14 of Marguerite Davison's pattern book.  Since the mohair is so fuzzy, the pattern will not be as distinct once it is wet finished.  This yarn came from an estate sale, and the photo is pretty close to the actual colors.  I tried it first with plain weave, but my warp was sett a little too close, and I didn't like it.  A basket weave may have worked better.

After finishing the turquoise mohair, I started the third fabric.  This one is from pg 13 of Davison's book, version XI of Traditional Bird's Eye.  I chose a plyed white wool and angora yarn for this version, also purchased at an estate sale a while ago.  I'm hoping it makes a nice soft bear once it is wet finished.

The blue fabric at the bottom is the turquoise mohair shown above and is quite a bit darker in the photo than the actual color.

Teddy Bear Wool Fabric

This project is destined to become Teddy bears.  All eight grandchildren have gone home, so I had a little weaving time tonight. The overdyed brown wool is on the loom, all threaded with the help of granddaughter Hailee, and the samples are woven.  The brown wool is sett at 16 epi.

The twill variations are from Davison's book, pg. 13 and 14.  It is threaded 1-2-3-4-3-2 and repeated.  The burgundy and brown sample is version V on pg. 13.  The selvedges weren't to my liking, but I realized we hadn't doubled the last 4 warp threads in the reed, so I fixed that, and the edges looked a little better.  I don't really have to worry about having good edges, since this is just fabric that will be cut, but I usually try to improve my skills while weaving, so I am trying to make them look decent.  The burgundy yarn is size 9/2 wool with 10% nylon. 

The second sample is woven with 100% wool, which has slubs of dark throughout.  It is another yarn I picked up at an estate sale.  This sample is from pg. 14, version VIII.  It is easy to treadle and memorize the sequence.  This one seems to be a bit firmer fabric, and the edges looked better.

After weaving about 6", I ended the sample with some plain weave, and coated the inch with glue.  I'm letting it dry overnight, and then I will slip a rod in the shed, cut off my samples before the glued area, and then reattach the glued area and the rod to my apron rod with texsolv cord.  I like this method for cutting samples, or completed projects off the loom without much loom waste.

I am going to cut my samples in half, keep one half unwashed as a reference, and wash the other half until the fabric feels stable.  It should be felted enough to keep me from poking a fingernail through the weave.  Once I check for shrinkage, I will be able to figure out how much to weave for each bear.

Secret Message Bag

I finally finished a bag I started quite a while ago.  I didn't have straps for it, so that was what kept me from finishing it.

The bag has a light green rug yarn warp, and the weft is old video tapes (where the secret message comes from).

The straps for the handles were woven on my homemade CPVC inkle loom.  I finished the second strap last weekend while tending my friend's greenhouse and plant sale.  The day started out a bit slow, so I was glad I took the loom and a chair.

Another UFO finished!

Dyeing Day

Yesterday started out with a sad day at church, since one of our well loved members passed away suddenly the day before. 

When we got home, Bob and I did a little garden prep and put in a few tomato plants, and some giant zinnias.  Bob worked on getting a fence up around the area to try and keep the munchy critters out. 

After we finished all of that, I got to start on a dyeing project. 
I bought some ugly yellow wool yarn at an estate sale and thought I would try to turn it into a brown.  I wound off almost a pound into four skeins, and soaked it, to prepare for the dye bath.  I figured I could start with purple, since it is opposite on the color wheel from yellow, and would get some sort of brown. 

My first attempt ended up being a little toward the purple-plum side, so I asked a friend if I should try adding a bit more yellow to the mix and dye it again.  Back to the dyepot with the yellow added.

Thank goodness Bob was around to pull those hot, heavy skeins out of the dye bath.  As the steaming picture shows, I did get a brown after adding lemon yellow.  My conclusion to this dye experiment is to use a lot less dye.  The directions I found said to use between 1-5 teaspoons of dye powder (fiber reactive Procion MX).  I used about 1 1/2 teaspoons of the purple, and added 1/2 teaspoon of yellow.  That was directions for dyeing a pound.  My yarn weighed slightly under a pound (14.4 oz.).  Under a teaspoon would have been plenty.

They are out on the golf cart, drying in the nice breeze right now.  I can probably get out in the studio quite soon and start winding warp.   The plan is for this wool to become fabric to make some Teddy bears.  I'm thinking of using some treadling variations of traditional bird's eye and John Murphy's bird's eye, from Marguerite Davison's book, pages 13 and 14.  I will do a five yard warp, sett 16 epi, 24" in the reed.  I only need a little over 1/2 yard per bear, so I will have fun playing with the variations. 
 
The two small skeins on the right are a different color brown, and are a different yarn.  There was still dye in the pot after finishing the first four skeins, so I took some dirty yarn, washed it, and dyed a bit of it with the remainder in the pot.  That will be added to my "someday this will become a wool rug" stash.
 
 

 

I ended my evening with a walk with Bob, marveling at the beauty of new growth on the blue spruce, looking for yellow lady's slippers, and then chasing around a swallow-tail butterfly feasting on our lilacs.
 
It was a wonderful day!

Teaching Our Daughter-in-law to Weave

It's always enjoyable having our daughter-in-law Rebecca come up with Edwin.  She is always interested in learning something new.  The last few times, we have gone out to the studio and I have shown her some simple weaving.  This time, she is working on the Atwater-Bronson lace pick-up.  After about 4 picks of needing to beat harder, she caught right on.

I showed her how to read the pattern for the pick-up, on the clipboard next to her, and then showed her how the pattern works.  It didn't take her long at all to memorize the treadling.

She has finished over half of the four rows of blocks! 

While Rebecca was weaving, I finished all the hems on the three towels and dishrag.  I like how they turned out.  To me, they have a vintage look to them, especially with the colors, and the one that has the small border.

Here is a close-up of the details of my variations.  Click the picture to make it bigger.  The dishrag was just woven with a straight 2/2 twill.  The colors are pretty true in these photos.

It's nice to have an extra day off tomorrow.  Maybe I will finish hemming one of my lace towels, and work on my fabric.

I would like to start planning some more yardage, wool, to make Teddy bears.  I'm debating using up some ugly yellow colored estate sale yarn in my stash.  I'm debating whether to dye it a better bear color before warping the loom.  I think I will do some calculations for warp length and width and wind the warp first, and then decide whether to dye it.  That way, I'll know for sure I have enought yarn dyed.

Great Outdoor and Indoor Day

I started my projects for the day with starting the sanding job on the loom stand parts for my Leclerc Jano table loom.  It's a little hard on my arthritic hands with all the vibration, so I am doing a little bit at a time.  I set everything up in the garage doorway, so it's great with a bit of sun.

Well, here I am with my annoying noisy cat, Susie.  She desperately needed some foot pets and tummy tickles.  It made for a nice break, while I got my hand moving again, out of the claw position from holding the sander!

Well, now that I have the camera out, I might as well record the beautiful tulips in my garden.  The tulips had babies this year!  I don't have much luck with them, because of the overabundance of deer that think I plant them for gourmet meals (for them).  They didn't bother them much this spring, so I had a good show and a big increase in the number of flowers.

There must have been over twenty tulips in this bunch.  They are so cheerful and look so picturesque against the picket fence!

Now that I am thoroughly side-tracked, I might as well go across the road and see if there are any more morel mushrooms.  Oh, gosh, look at the size of this one--it must be about seven inches tall.  There is a smaller one, only about 5" tall trying to poke it's head into the picture behind this one.

Ok, now back to work.  A few more pieces sanded.

Now to the studio.  I finished the third and last towel on the Fanny warp, so I finished weaving off the remainder of the warp.  It was enough to make a dish rag to go with the set.  Here they are posing for a photo after serging the ends.  Next up is giving them all a good hot sudsy bath.  Hopefully they will end up being absorbant.  This is my first test of this box of estate sale yarn.

Well, back to work!

Why I Use Sticks When Warping My Looms

 Just recently, on one of the weaving forums I follow online, someone asked about using sticks between layers of warp wound on the backbeam.  I didn't see any replies talking about my main reason for using them.  Cords or straps make lumps that show through paper, light cardboard, window shades, etc. that are used to separate layers of warp.  The tie-on rods on my looms are attached to the front or back beam with some type of cord or strap.  Three different set-ups are shown in the following photos.  

They will all make lumps of varying sizes.  Tying the warp bouts to the front rod also make siginificant lumps.   

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If the lumps aren't covered with something sturdy, like sticks, the lumps will distort the warp or cloth, as shown in this photo.  I was working on a lace pick-up, and forgot to add the sticks.  The photo is a little blurry, but I think you can get the idea.

I had to loosen my tension on the loom when I realized what happened, and started to insert sticks and gently work them around the beam to get back to the start.  It's better if you don't forget, since it isn't a good idea to loosen the tension too much.  You can see one of the sticks as I started to insert it.  Moulding used to attach screening to wooden doors works well if it is given a light sanding.  Big box home improvement stores or lumber yards stock it.

This photo shows the cloth after inserting 5-6 sticks.  It doesn't take many.  They don't have to be tight against each other, but only close enough that the warp or cloth can span between two sticks without lumps showing in between them.  I put two sticks over the rod and knots at the start, and then space the others out.

After the back beam is covered once, I use heavy paper or window shades to keep the rest of the layers separate.  It is ok to use just sticks, if you are putting a short warp on, but don't stack them, since they could slip.  It isn't very economical for a long warp, since sticks are more expensive than heavy paper, and they will fill the beam more quickly than paper. 

The separation of layers is very important to prevent individual threads from sinking into previous layers. If that happens, the warp threads are no longer the same length, and will cause the warp tension to be uneven.

My warps are wound under tension.  A trapeze works well when winding a warp without help.  That is another subject and has been discussed in previous posts.

Once the cloth is smooth on the front beam, there isn't any reason to separate the layers.



Towel From Rachel's Dyed Yarn

I finished the first towel from my daughter Rachel's yarn that she dyed quite a while ago.  Since it is plain weave, with only two borders with color changes, the weaving went fast.

Asymmetric isn't really my style, but sometimes I'm in to trying something different.  I guess it doesn't look too bad.  I wish the wide blue stripe was just a little narrower though.
I should be able to get a couple more towels out of this warp.  I'm not sure what I will do to make the next ones a little different.  I'm out of the blue, so that is one detail they won't have.  Maybe I'll try twill next.

Here is a closer view of the yarns, showing the thick and thin and the narrow border (about 1").  I warped this at 20 epi, 2 per dent in a 10 dent reed.  The thin spots on the yarn are twisted pretty tight, and are thinner than an 8/2 yarn.  I hope it is absorbent once I wash it.

Thanks, fellow weaver Michael from Wisconsin, for the idea to use a drummer's stool.  I borrowed Bob's stool tonight, and it was pretty comfortable.  I know I won't get to keep it, since he needs it for gigs, so I guess I will start checking some out and maybe get my own.  It didn't irritate the backs of my thighs, but the lump between my legs was just a bit too wide, especially for treadling side by side treadles.

Current Loom Projects

I recently finished a looper rug that was on Fanny, but I'm not happy with it.  I had trouble with the stretchiness of the loops and it affected the width of the rug.  Usually weaving tends to get narrower, but this rug grew in width.  Oh, well, live and learn.  I can still wipe dirty feet on it at the back door!  The color isn't the best in the photo.  It should have been taken in daylight instead of at night.  It really isn't this yellow.

Yesterday, I wound a warp of thick and thin yarn that my daughter Rachel dyed a while back when she came to visit.   It is a short warp, only 3 1/2 yards of thick and thin cotton.  I put it on Fanny, and is destined for towels.  A towel from the Handwoven publication, Winning Towels from the 21st century towel contest was the inspiration for the warp stripes.  I tend to like things symetrical, so I'm not sure how I will like these.  I wish I hadn't made the widest blue stripe quite that wide, and put part of it on the left half instead.  I still need to thread the heddles and reed.  I will be weaving it with white in plain weave.  I'm not sure if my weft will be the thick and thin yarn, or a smooth one.  I will decide after I sample.

The fabric with wool warp and rayon weft is on Arti, and is coming along nicely.  I can't sit very long at a time to weave, so it is a bit slow, especially with the color changes.  I've got about 30" done.  I really need to get a bench or chair that doesn't bother the backs of my legs so much, and is padded.

Since this project is just fabric, I'm not worrying about yarn ends hanging out at the selvedges, or being carried up the edges.  I'm not sure what this fabric will become, but it is helping to use up some of my stash. 

Victoria still has a narrow warp from a doubleweave class I took a while ago.  I'm not too motivated to finish this project, since it was just for sampling in the class.  It is only about 10" wide, so not very useful, and I don't care for weaving on table looms.  When I decide I need the 8 harnesses for a project, I will probably finish it, or just pull it off.  I'd really like to add some treadles to the loom stand, but need to get Bob willing to help.

Dorothy has a pretty towel started on her, with Atwater-Bronson lace pickup.  My daughter-in-law Rebecca has been up a couple times, and is interested in learning about weaving.  She did the first row of hemstitching on this towel, and did a beautiful job for her first time.  The patterns that will be woven are on the clipboard in the background.  The bottom three are done.

This is a combination of two projects.  Quite a while ago, I decided to weave a bag with green rug warp and old video tapes.  It was  designed as I wove, so I have some twill in different directions, plus some plain weave, or basket weave.  It didn't have straps, so I never finished the bag. 

While my daughter-in-law was up at Easter, I showed her how to wind a warp and put it on the loom, thinking that it could be the straps, but I didn't like how it looked.  The warp was too narrow  for the heavy Fanny, so I scraped that project.  It did serve a good purpose, though, because Rebecca got a nice bit of experience on the loom with beaming the warp, threading, and weaving twill in two directions, and doing some basketweave.  Wish she could be around more.  I enjoy teaching her weaving.

I had a band of red and black that was done on my inkle loom quite a while ago when I was testing it after making the loom.  It has been hanging around, decorating my wall, but I've decided to use it for one of the bag straps, and I threaded another one.  Whenever I get that one completed, I will have a nifty conversation piece grocery bag.  I'm calling this  bag my Secret Message Bag, since the message is on the video tapes.

Enough projects and enough yacking for now, since I have to be to work early tomorrow.

Looper Rug Started

I actually felt well enough tonight to go warm up the studio and start weaving again.  I found some old wool sock loopers from one of my very first weaving projects out in the studio and it looked like there were enough for one rug.

I have enough warp left on the Fanny to make one more rug, it is green, so the loopers and the warp were a perfect match.  The loopers were a natural color, and I dyed them with orange and green Kool-aide to make a couple rugs about 6 years ago. 

I spent one evening a couple days ago watching Funniest Home Videos and looping short strips together.  It made three pretty good sized piles (stacked on the loom in the background.

This is the start of my designing on the loom.  I don't know if I am going to be very happy with it because the loopers are quite stretchy and is making the rug kind of wavey and a bit wider than the hem.  Usually when I weave, I put a fair amount of angle to the weft before beating, but this seems like I shouldn't put any angle to it.

Some stripes started.  I just have to make sure I save an equal amount of loopers for the other half of the rug so it is balanced.

Well, I've had enough fun for my birthday.  I think I will head for bed and read or watch a movie.