Experimenting With the Weaver's Delight Wooden Yarn Shuttle

Last spring, while visiting Ole' Lou and his wife Betty down in Arkansas, I shamelessly begged an old wooden shuttle off him.  I thought I had seen it during another visit and was pretty sure he didn't use it.  I didn't know of anyone else with a Weaver's Delight loom that had one, and also never talked to anyone who had woven fabric on their rug loom.

I brought it home along with a few pirns for winding on yarn for the shuttle.  This is a big shuttle, about the same size as the cast aluminum ones for the rags.  It measures about 16" long and is 3-4" high.

It has a patent number stamped on the top.  Last fall, my dad took a look at it and did some repairs.  One of the pointed cones came out and needed gluing again.  We got that repaired and Dad turned a couple more pirns, using the old ones for a guide.  I brought it all home and put it away until recently. Other things like cancer treatments got in the way of my doing anything with it. I  got it out last week and decided to clean it up and try using it.

I sanded all the wood and found out most of the dark color was just dirt.  After a coat of stain, I put a couple coats of polyurethane on everything.

The wire fits in two holes inside the shuttle and loops around the pirn in the groove.  Pushing on the flat end of the pirn bows the wire enough to give some tension to the pirn and holds it in place when seated in the shuttle.

I had my dad make the new pirns about 2" longer than the original ones.  I wasn't sure if there was a reason for the original ones to be shorter, so I thought I could start out with them a little longer and cut them off if they didn't work.

There was a reason for them being shorter!  The longer one worked fine until there was just about 1" to1 1/2" of yarn left on the pirn and then it started to get caught on the tip.  It caused some broken warp threads from being tugged off the shuttle race.

Well, isn't that what experimenting is all about?  I know how to fix broken warp threads and will show some photos of the process in another blog post.

Here is the shuttle all loaded with yarn and threaded and ready to go.  The thread is exiting under a spring steel tension clip.  I am thinking bout replacing it with something else that may let me change the tension a bit and have a little more control of the yarn pulling at the selvedges. (Or not pulling!)

Stay tuned for winding a tartan warp to put on the WD sectional beam and repairing broken warp threads.

Another Type of Homemade Weaving Temple

This is part of my experiment with weaving fabric with my Weaver's Delight automated fly-shuttle loom.

My regular temple that came with my Weaver's Delight rug loom is too wide for what I needed.  I needed something to spread the warp to the width in the reed, so I devised a floating temple, unlike the paperclip temples I use on my other looms.

With the flyshuttle, I was unable to run a cord from the front beam to the back beam to drape the weight cords over, like on the other looms.

This is what is working for me.  I saw something similar quite a while ago and looked around for something I could use to try it.

I used a yardstick, two clamps, two paperclips and some linen rug warp.  I had my husband cut the yardstick a little shorter and narrower and drill a hole in each end. 

I attached the rug warp to the end of each clip and another couple pieces to each end of the stick.  I attached the paperclips to the cords with enough tension to bow the stick when the clamps were attached to the fabric.  Alligator clips could also work, but I just used what I had in the studio.

 So far it has worked pretty well.  It does ride on the shuttle race when I beat but is not on the race when the shuttle flies across.

If I need more tension to the temple, I can reattach the clips so the stick bows a bit more.

The fabric on the loom is the start of a towel I am weaving with the Michigan Tartan colors.

Prayer Shawls, Blankets and Lap Quilts

When I had my heart attack back in 2012, I had a dear friend give me a crocheted prayer shawl (the green shawl in the photo).  So, what is a prayer shawl?  I found out it was a shawl that someone makes and while working on it, they pray for the recipient.  It had a big impact on me.  It is hard to describe the feeling while wearing it, but I could FEEL the prayers that went into it.  I had one particular day when I was feeling especially bad.  I took the shawl, put it around me and went to bed.  Almost immediately, I started feeling better.  What an amazing thing to experience. 

When I found out I had cancer, another friend sent me a prayer blanket (the lavendar one with the cross).  Both the blanket and shawl went with me to the hospital when I had my surgery.  I must have said something to Dr. Michelin about the shawl, because when he came to check on me after my surgery, I had it on and he asked if it was my "prayer sweater".  I thought that was kind of funny, but he remembered it and what it was about. 

While undergoing my chemo treatments, my church presented me with a prayer lap quilt, signed by the church members (the quilt is on the back of the chair).  I don't know how I could be so blessed so many times.  The quilt goes with me every time I go for chemo because I get cold sitting so long in a cool room.  It is just the right size for covering my legs.  I was given two other gifts of love, the heart quilt and the lovely red and grey wool shawl by two other good friends.  They are all loved and I will cherish them.  As you can see, our kitty, Schwarz, thinks they are pretty special too.

Since all those blessings have come my way, I wanted others to experience God's love and prayers.  The shawls I have been working on are woven on one of my looms.  It is a restful, relaxing time when I get to talk to God and hopefully impact someone else that needs to feel God's arms around her or him.

This is the first shawl I made.  I love how the stripes turned out with the variegated yarn.

  This is the type of yarn I have been using. It is a giant skein from Joann Fabrics.  I chose it because of it's easy care properties.  It can be washed in the washer and dried in the drier.  The loom was warped at 16 ends per inch in a 12 dent reed with a width of 18" - 20" for a shawl.  I use 8/2 size yarn for the warp.  The warp is about three yards long, and I wove shawls a bit over two yards long.  The fringe is twisted and knotted at the ends. 

I had a friend try using the boucle yarn for the warp and she couldn't get a shed open to weave.  The cotton warp is best, since it isn't sticky.  I beat gently while weaving and it made a nice warm but lightweight shawl. 
This skein is for my third shawl.

This is the start of my second shawl.  It is a variegated yarn with just three colors.  I didn't know who it was going to be for so I prayed generic prayers for the recipient.  As I wove more, I kept thinking of my neighbor.  She had taken such good care of me and Bob while I was getting chemo and now she was having some difficulties.  I started praying more for her and decided this shawl was hers.

I wanted this shawl to reverse colors so the ends would mirror each other.  I kept track of the colors and length on the paper tape to the left.  When I got to about the center of the shawl, I had to wind the yarn on my swift first so I could get the right colors on my shuttle in the reverse order.  The tape helped me do that.

The tape is on top of a wonderful sheepskin my son Edwin and his wife Rebecca gave me for Christmas this year.  How nice it is to sit upon, with it draped over the rocking top weaving bench Bob made me a while ago.  Since getting both gifts, I have had no problems with pressure to the backs of my legs while weaving.

I was able to give the second shawl to my neighbor at our Bible study a couple weeks ago.  She had the same experience I did when she put it on.  It is such a good reminder that God is there when we need him.

I would like to encourage anyone with needlework skills to take on a shawl, blanket, or quilt project.  Knitting, crochet, weaving or quilting can be a meditative occupation.  Think of the blessings that can come from your hands. 

May God bless you in your endeavors.

Loom Held Hostage

A loom is too expensive of a tool to be held hostage.  Almost three years ago, in March of 2011, I put this wool warp on my Artisat loom.  It was a slow moving project right from the start because it required four shuttles to weave.  I would work on it a little bit and grow tired of all the shuttle switching and move on to another project on another loom.  It didn't help that the colors don't really appeal to me either, so I didn't have much motivation to get it done, other than to free the loom for something more interesting.

Late last year, I decided I was going to either finish it or cut it off the loom.  I did end up cutting the New Canaan Check fabric off after using up my filled bobbins.  I did some easier weaving with the tan, wine, rust and plum rayon textured yarns I was using.

 I figured I still had 2-3 yards of warp on the loom so I chose a dark blue green color wool to weave plain weave.

 I finally finished weaving it after Christmas.  I wove a little bit more with the rayon and called it good.  Wet finishing was done and I ended up with less fabric than I thought I would have.  I was going to give it to my daughter Becky to make a tunic, but there might not be enough.  Maybe I will make another bear or a hat with it.

Wet finishing created a pattern in two of the stripes that is called tracking.  The white yarn didn't track because it was slightly thicker than the other two stripes.  The tracking has something to do with the twist of the yarn and having a little bit of wiggle room in the weave.  I kind of like the look of it.

It's good to have my loom back and working again.  I will post later about the project on it now.

Annual Christmas Towels

Every year my girls and daughters-in-law get kitchen towels from me for Christmas.

This year, I got an early start when I came home from vacation in April with a big cone of 8/2 cotton yarn in a teal color.  I decided on a monk's belt pattern from Handwoven Design Collection #18.  I wound the warp for six towels and started the threading in June.  It was a good thing I got an early start, because I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer early in July and had major surgery a week later.  While recovering from surgery, I sat for many days looking at the loom that was partially threaded.  As I started feeling a bit better and became bored doing nothing, I decided to see if I could finish the threading.

Working a few minutes at a time, I got it ready for the first towel.  Now, all I needed were yarn color choices from the girls.  Three of them were here a week later to check up on me and to come for the Charlevoix Venetian Festival.  They picked their colors and I was able to start.

Carolyn's towel was first.  The colors she chose were light orange, red, green and yellow. The yarns used were 8/2 cotton.

After weaving this one with a single strand of yarn for the pattern, I decided the rest of the towels needed the pattern yarn to be doubled.  Also, the green she chose didn't show very well because it was too close in color value to the teal warp.

Rachel said she wanted her towel to be mostly white pattern, but I made her pick two other colors to add a little interest and to give me something to work with in developing the pattern.  She chose light orange and yellow.  It was my plan for each towel to be completely different from each other, even though they were woven on the same warp and all threaded the same.  I think this one came out very nice.  The colored yarns are all 8/2 cotton.  The white is 50/50 cottolin in a similar size to the cotton, something like 22/2.  It is too cold to go outside to the studio to look.

My DIL Jenn's towel is the orange and lime green towel on the left.  I tried to tone down the teal by weaving the tabby with brown and olive green 8/2 cotton.  The orange and lime green are both cottolin.

These towels were all pretty slow going, since it took me a long time to recover from my surgery.  As I started my chemotherapy treatments, they gave me something to focus on besides being sick.  They were quite good therapy.

This towel is for my DIL Rebecca.  She wasn't here to pick her colors, but she loves anything blue, so my daughters and I picked for her.  I used

navy, wine, ocean green and light blue.

As I was working on this towel I managed to break my hand doing something I shouldn't have been doing.  My doctor splinted it, but I could tell a few days later that it wasn't going to heal that way because every morning when I woke up, the splint was out of position and the bone was bent at the break.

I had our hand specialist at work look at it after the weekend and he set it and put in into a cast.  It was much more comfortable after getting the cast but I still wasn't supposed to use it, so weaving was put on hold for a few weeks.

 I was then put in a removable splint since it was starting to heal.  I was happy because my doctor was worried that the chemo would slow the healing.  It didn't, and I was able to start weaving again.

I was able to finish Rebecca's towel and get started on the last one needed for Christmas.  This towel was for my daughter Becky.  She chose off white, navy, red, light orange and light green. The eleven treatments I was getting for the cancer was taking a toll on me though, so I couldn't weave for very long at any one time.  I was getting a bit worried that I wouldn't finish it in time.  I had a good week when I had a week off from chemo and was able to finish it.

It is always nice to have a little warp left over to make something for myself.  My favorite color is red, so I dug through my box of yarns that I had dyed and found quite a range of pinks to reds to purples and came up with this towel.  It is my favorite.

Group photo.  I was very happy to finish all of them before Christmas.

An incidental note about this warp.  When September rolled around, I heard from a friend who also has ovarian cancer that September was ovarian cancer awareness month and their color was teal.

I am not much of one for following all the color fads for all the different "awareness" months or weeks, but I guess it does give me an opportunity to inform women that there is no screening test for ovarian cancer, and because symptoms can be kind of vague and attributed to other things, most ovarian cancers are not caught until later stages.

Here is a list of symptoms, with the first four being the most common:
1. Abdominal or pelvic pain.
2. Increased abdominal size or persistent abdominal bloating.
3. Needing to urinate often or urgently.
4. Feeling full after eating a small amount.
5. Changes in bowel habits.
6. Bleeding after menopause or in between periods.
7. Unexplained weight gain or loss.
8. Lower back pain.
9. Indigestion or nausea.
10. Excessive fatigue.
11. Pain during sex or bleeding after sex.

Out of the eleven symptoms, I had eight of them.  If any of these symptoms are new to you and you experience them frequently over a 2-4 week period, talk to your doctor and besides checking for other causes, ask him or her about the possibility of ovarian cancer.  My stage 3c cancer was found with a CT scan.  I was referred immediately to a gynecologic oncologist and was in surgery the next week.

I wish I had known this information months before I was diagnosed.  Hopefully this list will help someone else to seek treatment in an early stage.  Having the symptoms doesn't necessarily mean you have cancer, but checking the symptoms with your doctor could possibly save your life if it is and is caught early.

Now, I am looking forward to a better new year in 2014.

Five More Rugs Finished on Leclerc Fanny

I love finishing a warp.

This warp was a little long for me.  I start to get bored with the same colors, so I was happy to have this one finished, but I love every one of the rugs.  They are all resting on the floor for a couple days before hemming since rugs change shape after being taken off the loom.  After being stretched so tight on the loom, it takes a couple days for them to shrink down to their final size.

It is always a challenge to see what I can come up with from my fabric stash.  I make such a mess in the studio as I try and mix and match fabrics, making sure I will have enough strips to make a whole rug.  There is nothing worse than getting almost done and running out of a unique fabric before the rug is long enough.
I thought that happened with the turquoise rug, but finally found the basket with the remaining strips.

The warp made six rugs. This was the first one, finished a while ago. It used up a collection of polyester double knit from my stash.  The light color was from a bolt of very ugly gray, tan and white striped fabric. The navy and red was from my mom's stash collected years ago when women actually wore clothing from this horrible material.

When the warp wears out, the fabric strips will still be as good as new.

More polyester double knit from the same collection of my mom's.  These are all quarter-inch checked fabric.  Click on the photo to make it bigger.

 This one was fun.  I liked how the x's turned out on the white stripes.

This one also gets the x's.  The fabric came from the bargain table at Wal-mart.  It has my granddaughter Trisha's name on it since she loves anything blue.

Blues were starting to get monotonous so I changed this one and added pink and tan.  I think it is one of the prettiest ones from this group.

I am not a big fan of looper rugs but they are fast to weave.  I had a bag of fat loopers (like potholders are woven from) given to me by my friend Lou down in Arkansas.  I still haven't perfected getting nice edges and hems.  I may end up binding the ends instead of turning a hem since they are pulled in so much.  I will decide in a couple days when I start hemming all of them.

This is the draft I used, obviously repeating to add more stripes and reversing the threading for the opposite edge.  A floating selvedge would be helpful for this weave.

I will get this posted and then need to get to bed.  I have chemo again tomorrow morning and have to leave the house before 7 am.  I am so looking forward to being done.  Two more to go--tomorrow and one more next week.  Night all.

Repairing a Broken Warp Thread on the Loom

I was weaving along on my third towel on my current warp when I noticed a loose thread.  Sure enough, my nice strong warp had a broken warp thread.

Here is the culprit.  A lovable little fuzzball?  NOT!  A bit of fuzz made two of the threads stick together and one broke.  If you need to make the photo bigger, just click on it.

Here is the break by the back beam.

The first step is to isolate the broken warp and heddle.  This one happened to still be threaded.  I used my homemade warp separator, which is simple enough to make, but are available for purchase.  Google search warp separator.

Tie the broken end to the repair piece.

I am generous in cutting the repair piece, so I cut mine with enough to finish the towel I was working on plus some extra.  How much is needed depends on whether the break is in front of or behind the heddles, and how far into the piece the weaving has progressed.

You don't need enough to finish the entire remaining warp.  The object is to get back to using the original warp thread and do away with a dangling weight behind the loom.

Since I am weaving a hand towel that is only about 30" long, I will finish this towel before getting rid of the repair warp and fastening the original warp thread back onto the cloth.

Once the two ends are tied together, I pull the knot through the heddle.

Gently pull the knot through the reed.

I like the flat daisy head pins to attach the broken warp thread to the cloth.  Start the pin about 1/4" away from where the warp thread should be and bring the tip up 1/4" from that.

Wrap the repair warp around the pin 2-3 times in a figure eight and then anchor the tip of the pin in the fabric so it is not exposed to draw blood.

Sometimes photos are a good way to find errors.  As I was viewing my photos, I noticed the last orange weft thread wasn't doubled.   I was able to go back and fix that error and reset my pin.

Finally, go to the back of the loom and tie the other end of the broken warp to the repair warp.  Suspend a weight that gives the same amount of tension as the other warp threads.  An "s" hook works for me.

On a little more personal note, I have had one chemo treatment and my hair is gone.  It started falling out about nine days ago so I had a friend shave it off.  I have been working on crocheting a couple chemo hats (the white and turquoise ones) and my mom knit the pink one for me.

The weather has been pretty warm in Charlevoix, so I have become more comfortable going without a hat.  The cool weather will be coming soon though, and I am thankful for all the nice hats and caps  friends have given me.  They will all get put to good use!

I am feeling fine, my energy is almost back to normal, as is my appetite because my last chemo was over three weeks ago and it has been over six weeks since surgery.  I was supposed to get my next treatment yesterday but it was cancelled because my blood count was too low.  Hopefully it will be up enough to have the chemo next Thursday.  Right now, I am in a self-imposed semi-isolation.  I can't afford to get anyone's germs.  The up side to that is I am getting a fair amount of weaving done.  

Now, back to the loom!

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!