New Granddaughter

Elisabeth Ann, our new granddaughter, was born Sunday.  She is so beautiful.  She is about ten hours old in this photo.

I just finished a non-weaving project--a dozen newborn diapers for Elisabeth, made from my daughter's pattern, using recycled, 100% cotton knit shirts.  Here is a link to her website:

 http://fernandfaerie.com/frugaldiapering.html

I need to send them to her pronto, before she outgrows them.  Hope her mommy likes them.  I think they are cute.

I haven't done much weaving lately, except for the pick-up band on my inkle loom.  It was a nice take along project that I took when we went camping.

I taught my daughter Becky how to do it, and she took to it like a duck to water. (She is also the daughter that has the Fern and Faerie website for diapers.)

The pretty part is now on the bottom of the loom.  It's getting close to being done.

Inkle Weave Pick-up

I recently ran across an article in Handwoven, J/F 1996, pg 50, showing the pick-up technique for weaving patterns on an inkle loom.  I liked the designs, so I got out my homemade inkle loom and warped it up after modifying the pattern a little bit.  I added four more pattern threads to make a slightly wider band.  I used a thick crochet yarn for the base and edge yarns, and a thicker, slubby rayon/cotton blend rainbow varigated yarn for the pattern warp.

This shows my modified design and the first six inches of the weave.  I can see that I need to work on getting the weft pulled tightly when I first start weaving.  The weft shouldn't be showing and the band shouldn't be getting narrower.   

The pick-up is easy, but time consuming.  I numbered the pattern squares.  One shed has the even numbered squares and the other shed has the odd numbered ones.  I used a  pick-up stick to lift or lower the appropriate pattern threads, so that all the red squares in one row are on the top, and all the others are on the lower part of the shed.  Then I use the pickup stick turned on its side to hold the shed open for weaving.

The thicker pattern threads create a raised design.  The weaving is done with the same yarn as the edge warp threads.

This will make a nice portable project.  I think I will take it to the Fiber Festival at the castle in Charlevoix, Michigan this Saturday and Sunday (July 23-24).  Hope to see some of you weavers and spinners there!  I will be there with all five of my granddaughters.  Bring your spinning for the spin-in!

Baby's Breath Photos

I couldn't resist getting some pictures of the baby's breath in the garden.  When I went out to shut the sprinkler off this evening, the light was shining just right on the plants.  The water droplets looked like jewels.

Empty Loom

Fanny is empty again.  This strip of fabric is the first run of Teddy bear fabric straight off the loom.

I serged them apart with great difficulty, since both of my sergers were acting up.  One kept breaking the outer needle thread, and the other wanted to keep sewing even with my foot off the pedal.  I had to get fast with the on/off switch!  Guess a trip to Traverse City will be on the books soon.

All five fabrics, and one sample were fulled together in the washing machine.  It was filled half full with hot water and some Dawn dish soap, and then the the fabric was pushed down into the water. It soaked for a while till the water started to cool a bit, then was agitated on the delicate cycle for a couple minutes.

The water was a bit dirty so I drained it and ran the spin cycle (no water spraying on the cloth).  It wasn't fulled enough, so the above steps were repeated with slightly cooler water and Era laundry soap this time.

I agitated it again on the regular cycle for about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, drained, spun out the water, rinsed with slightly cooler water, spun again, straightened each piece and hung them to dry.

There is always such a difference in the fabric after wet finishing!  For feel, the best ones for Teddys will be the turquoise mohair and the one with white angora mixed wool.  The mohair has such a beautiful halo of fuzz, and the angora is soooo soft!  It is the lighter fabrics in both pictures, showing both sides.  I think I like the tiny spot side best.

The light orange fabric is also showing both sides.  I will probably use the upper one, since it looks less like a stripe than the bottom one.

The orange, burgundy, and the one to the side, woven in black, have a bit harder finish, but aren't bad.

None have been pressed yet, and that will also change how they feel.  I'm not real sure about the pressing of the mohair and angora.  I will probably ask some advice of more experienced weavers before adding the iron-on interfacing to the backs of the fabrics.

Potholder and Teddy Fabric

Well, my opinion is in:  22 loopers are too many to get into a 7" space.  I ended up taking out the ones on the end pegs, leaving 20 and still have a very stiff mat.  It will be great for a table protector for hot dishes.  It finished at 7" square, and a bit bigger than I prefer for a potholder.

The other potholder in the photo is one that my daughter Becky made years ago.  It is still one of just a few that I grab first, and it's pretty, too!  It  has only 13 loopers per side.  If I make another frame, I'll make it so the loops stretch 6 1/2" - 7", and have 16 pegs per side.

The pegs worked great!  No loopers slipped off accidently, as it seemed to do when I was a kid.  I used a  size I/9 crochet hook to pack in the loops, and then to hook the edge loops together to finish it.  I think an afghan hook of that size would work even better, because it could be used for the weaving also.  I used a bent coat-hanger.

Here is the final Teddy fabric for this warp.  It took the photo for me to notice a big mistake.  Since I will be cutting small pieces from this fabric, I will probably  be able to work around it.  I'm hoping I will be able to get enough woven.  Hope I don't have to start weaving with a stick shuttle at the end!  It's going to be close.

The weft yarn is a light orange 9/2 wool (90% wool, 10% nylon).  I need to get out to the studio to wind another bobbin and get it finished.

Homemade Potholder Loom

I was reading somewhere today about sock loopers for potholders, and it reminded me that I had a bunch of old holey socks out in the studio.  I didn't have a potholder loom, so after I cut a few loopers from the socks, I figured out how far they could stretch, so I could decide how big to make the loom.  My loopers stretch about 8". 

In the basement in Bob's shop, I found some scrap wood and cut the four sides for the loom, assembled them, and gave the frame a bright red coat of paint.

I marked out the placement for the pegs, (22 per side), and then headed for Ace Hardware to see if I could find anything that wasn't too expensive to use for them.

I found a box of trim screws, with a nice small rounded head, and the box included the correct size star bit.  There are probably enough left over to make another loom.  I couldn't find anything shorter than 1 5/8", though, so Bob helped me make the loom thicker to accommodate the length.  He was helpful and set up the drill press and drilled all 88 pilot holes for me.  What a sweetie, and that was after being on his feet all day at work!

I'm testing it out with a log cabin layout.  If I make another one, I will probably put fewer pegs on a side (maybe 20).  I'll see if I have trouble weaving 22 rows first.  I can always cut the loopers a little narrower.  I cut this batch 1" wide.

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!