Towels – Measured Threads

February 25, 2017February 25, 2017

All Wrapped Up

I’m getting ready to wind my warp for a workshop I am taking at the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati. Nationally renown weaver Rosalie Neilson (of rep weave fame) is conducting a workshop on block design and color with huck lace at the Guild house and it starts next week. First I had to get my vintage but new-to-me 4 shaft, 4 treadle, 22″ Harrisville Designs loom ready for the workshop. I wanted to use it rather than my Dorothy loom table loom since it has treadles. The HD loom was a freebie from a neighbor of a friend who was cleaning out her basement. I was so excited to get it because I really like my bigger HD loom. The “new” loom needed shaft cables and tie up cords replaced along with a good cleaning. I also rearranged the direct tie up from 1, 2, 3, 4 on the treadles to 1, 3, 4, 2 so that I can “walk” the treadles while weaving.

I finished up the restoration yesterday and started to prepare my warp today. I had to choose 4 colors, one is for a border to separate the blocks and the other three are the colors for the blocks. We were instructed to make a wrap of our warp colors to see how they all went together. Making a wrap is a common part of design in weaving. I dithered a lot and finally settled on the colors I had originally been drawn to and wrapped them up. They are a bit bold aren’t they? Now to wind the warp!

February 15, 2017February 15, 2017

Tea (Towels) For Two

I got a new 20 inch Schacht Flip Rigid Heddle Loom! I have been wanting to design some color and weave tea towels for the rigid heddle loom. The 16 inch looms I own (an Ashford RH and a LeClerc Bergere) wouldn’t cut it for the size towel I wanted. As much as I love my little 10 inch Cricket looms (another well made Schacht product), I think the Flip is the best rh loom on the market when you want something a little bigger. Yesterday I put the loom together in about five minutes, and then finished designing and calculating the yarn needs for my project.I’m using two colors of 8/2 cotton in the warp and weft I decided to direct warp the project. I put enough warp length on for two towels plus a little extra for sampling. Keeping the spools of yarn separated at the back of the loom on the floor keeps them from twisting around each other as I warp. Using 8/2 cotton will keep the towels from being too bulky and the great thing about the 8/2 Cotton is that two threads and each slot in hole of a 10 dent heddle works perfect at 20 e.p.i. for plain weave. I just direct warp, filling both the slots and the holes with one loop of thread following my color sequence for the pattern. (Using the IWeaveit app’s threading tracker made that a breeze).

To make direct warping easier for such a wide project, I did two things. I put my loom on a stand that was high enough so that I didn’t need to bend over as I was threading the heddle. Ergonomics in weaving are very important. And rather than direct warping to one central peg, I used a small warping board clamped flat to a small table and used three pegs with a third of the warp to each peg. (See the first picture above). That will keep each warp end closer to the same length. If I had using only one centrally placed peg, the warp ends would be longer at the outside edges of the warp than in the center of the warp since they would have a longer distance to travel. The warp only took about an hour and a half to measure and thread 360 ends (180 slots and holes). Since the holes are already threaded, when I wind on and tie onto the apron rod, I am ready to weave.

I did make one miscalculation while warping. I assumed my heddle was 20 inches wide since I bought a 20 inch wide weaving width loom. Since my warp was going to be 18 inches wide, I started threading one inch in from the edge of the heddle to center my warp (there should have been only one inch left un-threaded on the other side). As you can see, it’s not centered. The heddle is actually 20 and 5/8 inches. If I had checked before warping, I could’ve added another repeat of the color sequence and still not be weaving the full width of my loom. I think weaving from edge to edge the full width invites problems, so I like to leave at least two slots empty on either side of the warp. I will have to remember that tidbit for the next wide project I make. Now off to wind shuttles!

November 10, 2015November 10, 2015

Fiber Arts Sale

I am selling some of my handmade items at the upcoming Fiber Arts Sale at the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati. The sale begins Friday, November 13 at 4 p.m. and continues on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday noon to 4 p.m. The work of many skilled artisans of the guild will be available to purchase for yourself or for Christmas gifts that show you care enough to give hand-made. My cowls that are pictured here are hand-knit with luxurious merino wool hand dyed in Uruguay by a family business (Malabrigo Yarn) that hires local women, uses environmentally friendly dyeing practices, and sources the wool from non-mulsed sheep that are shepherded in the hills of Uruguay. They are a warm and cushy fashion statement. If you can’t make it to the sale, contact me about knitting one just for you!

Some of my indigo dyed, shibori style cotton napkins are also in the sale. They are priced for sale in pairs so that you can make a set of 2, 4, 6 or more, and each napkin is unique. Indigo is a classic color and shibori-inspired fashion and home decor items are really trending right now. They sure make a for snazzy table at a dinner party or just for you family meals.

I have a dye day coming up and can make more napkins, along with generously sized silk scarves that flatter everyone.

I also have submitted handwoven cotton and linen towels to the sale. The warp is ring spun natural cotton and the weft is a blue cotton/linen blend. Each has a unique weaving pattern. They are individually priced, so you can buy one, two, or all four if you get there in time! Want to commission a set of towels for a gift? Contact me and I can make something similar to meet your needs.

The Weavers Guild is located at 480 Gray Road, near Spring Grove Cemetery. I’ll be there from 4-8 p.m. on Friday evening. Get there Friday if you want the best selection, there is always a line waiting to get in.

July 20, 2015October 26, 2015

House Call

I have been going to Suzanne’s house on Wednesdays to teach her to weave on a floor loom. She had been weaving on a rigid heddle loom on her own, and decided to buy a floor loom. She found a used 4-shaft Macomber loom in okay shape, but it needed some TLC. I went over one day and gave her a written evaluation of what she had bought, what she still needed to do to get the loom in working order, and what she still needed to buy or make in the way of tools and accessories.

I showed her how to put the rachet brake back on the loom and sent her instructions to make lease sticks and a special raddle to work with her sectional beam. She cleaned up the wood with Old English; de-rusted and painted the shaft; de-rusted and polished the heddle bars; sorted heddles on a jig so that the tops and bottoms were aligned, alternated in an A and B pattern and then replaced them on the heddle bars; replaced the dirty old old apron and dry rotted apron cords with some Texsolv then was ready to weave a couple of weeks later.

The second time I went to her home, I taught her how to wind a warp on a warping board and warp back to front onto the sectional beam without any special sectional warping equipment. The warp went on easily and before she knew it, she had the heddles threaded and the reed sleyed in the pattern from my Dishcloth Cotton Point Twill Towels project that I use when teaching people on their own equipment. I call it a “get to know your loom” project.

The third time I was there, we troubleshooted for crossed threads and added the floating selvedges. She learned about the tie-up and treadling portions of the draft and how to change the tie-up to “walk” the treadles. We began with a plain weave hem and then she started weaving the first treadling pattern. She is now weaving away on the towels and will treadle some different patterns. The next time I go back, we will cut them off and she will learn about wet finishing and hemming the towels.

July 6, 2015October 26, 2015

Color Play

I am pretty sure I have decided on Bumberet for the structure of my next set of towels. Bumberet is a textured fabric with a ribbed appearance and plays well with color.

Color is always where I struggle. I know what I like, but I have trouble knowing if they “go” together with an artist’s eye. I was never good in art class; I guess I never found my medium. Crayons and paint never spoke to me the way fiber does. I have learned to trust more that what I like usually turns out fine. The color workshop I took at the weavers guild in the fall helped a lot to convince me to trust my choices. I have a few tools I lean on such as a color wheel and the computer.

I uploaded a picture of a beach volleyball game that I took in May and used an online tool to help pick out colors. I chose to select the medium blue color as the color I would choose to coordinate with. I also thought I would put the suggested triad colors in. I didn’t have a limey green so picked a turquoise (one of the other colors in the generated palette) to be part of the triad with the blue and fuchsia which I had in my stash. I also picked a gold to make the split complement. I think 4 colors is plenty for the warp, but may play with adding a neutral tone in there too.

Then I looked to my other colors of 8/2 cotton for weft colors knowing that I wanted to weave towels with only one shuttle for weft. I like to keep the weft in darker values to liven and help the warp colors pop. If I chose white or light pastels they would wash out the warp colors. You can see how the gray in the last image washes it out a bit. I changed the weft colors around to see what each looked like. I chose black, navy, purple, then a lighter blue and gray. My favorites so far are the navy and the purple. What do you think?