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Two Coats Colder

Two Coats Colder

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Back in April 2002, before I became infected by felt and  was still interested in woven tapestry, I plucked up courage and attended a Tapestry Weaving Course run by professional tapestry weaver Bobbie Cox.  If you live in or near Rochester in Kent you may have seen some of her work as there are four of her tapestries adorning the Lady Chapel in Rochester Cathedral.  My report of the workshop was published in the March 2003 edition of The Journal for Weavers Spinners & Dyers.  I have reproduced it here.  I’m afraid that there weren’t any photographs for me to show you as I didn’t own a camera at that time.  I have tried to produce the sketches that I made and you will see why I say that I can’t draw, except with a felting needle!

inside a cathedral showing stained glass windows with tapestries below and a tapestry on the front of an alter with 2 candles on it
Lady Chapel, Rochester Cathedral – Bobbie Cox Tapestries

“Peter Tavy, Two Coats Colder than Tavistock”

“And I wish I had known before I went!  Still this only related to the weather and was in contrast to the warmth of the welcome from the inhabitants of Peter Tavy when I joined 16 others on an ‘overflow’ course on Design & Tapestry Weaving given by Bobbie Cox at Peter Tavy Village Hall (formerly the school) in the second week in April 2002 (the original course had had such a long waiting list that Bobbie had arranged an additional one).

“Our first task was to explore the village taking in textures, colours and atmosphere, making notes, taking wax rubbings and collecting samples.

“On returning to the hall we discussed what we had found and then Bobbie told us that our theme for the course would be ‘windows’.  She showed us slides of photographs she had taken from the inside looking out, outside looking in, of misted window glass, and raindrops, of reflections and shadows.  She reminded us that windows are the eyes of a building and can be looking at us whilst we are looking at them.  (I’ll never regard a window in the same way again!)  Then she sent us out around the village again to ‘collect’ windows.  The villagers were (with one unpleasant exception) very tolerant of the students gazing at their properties in a very odd way, even the overwintering inhabitants of the sole remaining farm’s cowshed.

“The students were of mixed ability, from complete beginners (three of us – one of whom was our ‘token man’ Peter) to the quite advanced.  Bobbie showed us three ways of warping our frames, how to decide on the set of the warp and how to spread the warps appropriately.  She gave us advice and encouragement and showed us some of her many sample pieces to illustrate her points and her tips.

“After a picnic lunch beside the River Tavy, it was back to work – perfecting our designs with paint and pencil.  (I stayed up till 11.30 getting mine done.)

“Next day Bobbie set up an Indigo vat – in the back of her car!  (Well it was very cold out and much warmer inside the car which was standing in the sun, indigo vats need to be kept warm.)

“We all took turns to dip various yarns and fibres, re-dipping and over dyeing some coloured yarns for various periods during that day and also leaving some in the vat over-night.  In between times we started the actual weaving of our tapestries, all the time receiving tips and advice from Bobbie.

“She advised us to watch out for shrinkage or ‘waisting’ – the tapestry pulling in at the sides as the weaving progresses.  It is unlikely that this will be the result of poor selvedges, but more likely to be because the use of several different yarns in one pic, or ending one or more kelim slits in a single pic.  Bobbie’s suggestion was that we should insert a number of ‘guy ropes’ by sewing one end of a spare piece of warp thread near the edge of the tapestry (but not too close to it) and tying the ends to the sides of the frame.  If this is done on both sides of the tapestry, the tension will help to prevent the waisting. (I wondered what the purists would think of this, but if it’s good enough for Bobbie Cox it’s good enough for me.)

“Day 3; and after removing the yarns which had rested in the dye vat over-night, some of us tried some more in what was thought just to be the exhaust of the indigo.  In fact there was still quite a bit of life there and we dipped several skeins each.

“As the sun was still shining, we decided that we would lay out on the playground the yarns which had been dried over-night so that Bobbie and those students with cameras could photograph them.  It was then that we received some exuberant visitors.  They were some of the inhabitants of the cowshed on their way through the village to alternative accommodation.  They were moving at high speed in all directions, frantically followed by the farmer.  Bobbie saw off the ones which had decided to see what the activity was at the Village Hall.  I understand that they were eventually rounded up and led of to their new abode, having left liberal donations for the rose garden in the streets.

“Before lunch, delivered to the Village Hall by Jill, the Peter Tavy Sandwich Lady, some of the students accompanied Bobbie on a walk up to Dartmoor.  Some of us, not having sufficient warm clothing, decided to stay and work on.

“During the day Bobbie showed us some more slides of windows and also some of her own work.  However the highlight of the day was a visit to Bobbie’s own studio.  She was not working on anything at the moment, being very much involved in the administration of her touring exhibition ‘Woven Water’.  She did have two of the larger pieces from this Exhibition, ‘Spring’ and ‘Autumn’, which she  hung along with some other pieces for us to see, including a recently completed commission – a large tapestry inspired by the beach at Blakeney Point in Norfolk entitled ‘Tidelines, a Woven Memory of Blakeney’.  Also on display were picture boards showing the inspiration and development of that design and some of the Woven Water tapestries as well as some smaller samples and bundles of wefts tied and dyed.  Bobbie explained the mechanics of her large high warp loom and how she works on it.

“The next day – our last – was Sunday.  Now we were all working hard trying to get as much weaving done as possible before our visitors arrived.  At Bobbie’s suggestion we had all asked our bed and breakfast hosts to morning coffee and to see what we had been doing during our stay.  This is apparently a feature of Bobbie’s courses and many villagers visit regularly.  The noise level rose dramatically as the visitors wandered around and chatted.

“Bobbie did manage to fit in a few more tips for us though:

“1        Don’t be in too much of a hurry to cut the work off the loom, live with it for a while in case you subsequently decide that you want to add to it or make some changes.  It won’t be possible after it’s off the loom.

“2        Ends of yarns are usually left hanging at the back of the work, unless it is to be viewed from both sides.  Don’t cut them too close to the weaving or they will start to work through to the right side.

“3        Darn in yarn ends which are near the selvedge or kelim slits.

“4        When you darn in, slide the needle up or down the warp thread, not across the warps – it might show.

“5        Consider the mechanics you will use to hang the finished tapestry (although this should have been thought out at the design stage).  You may need to weave further pics in the heading, for instance if you will be incorporating a metal (preferably stainless) rod or a wooden slat.

“6        Weighting the bottom of the weaving will help it to hang better.

“7        Steam press the work on the reverse side – using a cloth and pressing lightly.

“At three o’clock we started to pack up and then display our work and our design drawings so that they could all be looked at and photographed.  It was amazing what diverse designs had been achieved.  We had all learned something, particularly we three beginners.  Bobbie  had encouraged us to try our own ideas and allowed us to make our own mistakes, lessons being better learned by trial and error than by example.

“By the time that we finished at about four, we were all very tired by very happy.  One usually finds on a course like this that there is one person who spoils things for the others, but it had been noted that our group was particularly lucky in that we were not “blessed” with the student who wanted to grab all the tutor’s time, or the one who wanted to be the centre of everyone’s attention (boring or noisy or both), or the hypochondriac.  We all had a great time – thank you Bobbie.

“PS If you attend another of Bobbie’s courses in Peter Tavy, better diet before you go – the food in the local pubs is marvellous – so’s the beer!”

partly completed tapestry of the four paned window on a wooden frame loom
Window Tapestry – still on the loom I’m afraid and I don’t think it ever progressed any further.

A couple of weeks later I attended another tapestry workshop run by another professional but I’ll save my report of that one for another day.

 

75th Anniversary Events

75th Anniversary Events

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As some of you know this year has been the 75th Anniversary of the OVWSG.  One of the events has been a monthly destash for guild members.  This is beneficial for members on so many levels.  Those with too much can clear out, while those who want to experiment can have the opportunity to try new products.  I’m in the later group.  One of our most talented weavers was clearing out a huge quantity of singles from a very reputable firm, in colours that I loved.  I pounced on them.

The intention is make a rouana or serape.  I’m starting with a piece that is 45″ wide by 90″ long and will work on finishing edges after it is woven and fulled.  The piece will get thicker and narrower, I hope.

The pattern is a basic twill in one inch stripes, very simple and hopefully showing the great colours.

The loom I’m using is not my own.  We are very fortunate to have access to rental equipment at our Guild and for a very reasonable cost we can use the equipment there.  So I opted to rent one of the Guild’s looms for three months.  This will force me to leave the house to finish this project.  Setting some goals and discipline is a good thing in the winter, right?

Warping the loom is slow going because I lost the cross on one section.  This is very disappointing and will be problematic as the threads are wound onto the back of the loom.  It’s not insurmountable, just annoying.

I am going to have to be very careful here, but I think I fixed the problem on the next few sections with some small innovations.

The bamboo skewers are wrapped on either side of the cross and I can pick the threads from alternate sides to stop them from getting tangled.  This was a real time and sanity saver.  Dressing a loom is a series of steps.  Each one needs to be done with an element of care and thought. From the initial calculations and colour selection, to fiber choices and use of end product, then threading the pattern, tie-up, treadling, and finally weaving. It all takes a bit of thought some more than others.  So for now I have left the colour selection and fiber choice to a very talented member of the Guild,  the pattern is mine, the end product will be a rouana or serape in a twill.  It has been measured and threaded through the reed, next it must be threaded through all the heddles, tied onto the back beam, wound on, tied onto the front beam and I’ll be ready to go.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, next step, will be threading through heddles, all 450 or so.  Heddles are those silver wires on the right.  Wish me luck. I have three months to finish this, so I’m good.

finished rag weave material
About that ‘groove’ …

About that ‘groove’ …

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In April I talked about getting my groove back and trying something new.  Groove, rut, six of one, half dozen of the other, right?  Not really.  I had the opportunity to purchase a large quantity of pre-cut jersey rags from the Guild.  Bright yellow was perfect for a summer project and perfect to get me moving again.

The project is all done.

The final weigh-in is 2.5 kilos or 5 pounds.  Right now it needs to rest for a few days.  The plan is to do some minor repairs because there are always small repairs and then decide what to do with the material.

finished rag weave material

Some of the repairs are very small, just need a clip,

Some need a bit more of a reweaving and inspection.

And some really came as a surprise.  I must have been asleep at the switch with this one, but it’s totally fixable and I’ll take care of it.

Once I had used up all the rag I was left with too much warp thread for me to comfortably cut the threads and I was sure there was more to be made from this fibre. Weavers are known for being economical (aka cheap).  The work needed in warping a loom is significant and I hate wasting the time and the fiber.

So I found a bobbin of deep blue cotton and gave it a try. And I liked it, so now the warp is used not just for rags, but for cotton as well.

simple twill weave for cotton cushion cover

The final product is enough to make a great cushion cover or bag, or table drape, or maybe a project bag.  Lots of potential for this fabric. It’s surprisingly thick just as it sits without finishing.  So once it’s been washed it will be even fluffier and more dense.

finished cotton twill for cushion cover    Hem stitched finished edge on woven cushion cover

I did try hem stitching the edge and found it is not my strong suit.  But I’ll keep practising and someday I’ll be happy with the final result.

For now, everything is resting; me included.  The fibres need to come back into their original shape and that takes a bit of time.  I need to do the repairs and inspection of the final product and tie off all loose ends before it goes into the laundry.  Then I’ll see where I go after that.

I may want to leave the huge 7-meter piece for a display our guild is having this fall at a museum, but I’ll talk to our curator about that first. So many decisions, and so much fun for the next project.   Thinking of doing a linen table runner, never tackled one of those.

 

Demo at the Log Farm.

Demo at the Log Farm.

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As some of you know the farmers market I go to is at the Log Farm in Ottawa. https://thelogfarm.com/ Along with the farmers market on Saturdays, there is also a working small farm with the original log house and barns where you can visit and see some animals and enjoy a break from the city without leaving the city.   Last weekend was shearing day for the sheep they have at the farm. They asked my guild to do a demonstration, and of course we said yes.

Here we are setting up under the tents. You can see in the first shot that the styrofoam head and hat had already taken the first of several tumbles with the wind. in the second shot, you can see the container of goodies I brought as a treat. A little bonus for coming out to demo on an iffy weather day.

This is Josee demoing on her table loom.

This is Paula spinning on her electric spinning wheel. She also has her incle loom set up and was demonstrating that too.

This is Maureen Spinning on her wheel, an Ashford Traveler. You can see it in Paula’s picture too. I think Maureen was chatting with someone when I took this.

And to be fair here is a picture of me teaching some girls how to make felted beads using some pencils. I know I am blurry but it was the best shot of the girl’s hands.

 

As I said we were there for shearing day. here are the sheep staying dry while they wait for the shearer.

Here is one getting shorn. They had their own tent so the shearer could also stay dry.  All the wool was donated to the guild and Jan and some others bagged it all to give to fellow members.

Here are some pictures of the surroundings. Some barns were renovated last year. after a few years, they will weather and not look so brand new.

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We had a great time despite the ominous clouds and several downpours. I was surprised at the number of people who attended with the forecast we had but they all seemed happy and I think we gained a couple of guild members.

Weaving
Loom with a view: adopting a new Saori WX60 loom

Loom with a view: adopting a new Saori WX60 loom

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A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to find a used Saori CH60 loom.  That loom lives in a spare room in our house. I wrote this post Weaving a Cowl for a Christmas present about using that loom.

On the weekends we usually go to our cabin.  The cabin is only a 30 minute drive from home so we go there, do yard work (amount varies seasonally) and then have a meal and a nice quiet night.  We return home the next morning to 3 cats who are very happy to see us.  The cabin is basic.  There is no TV, though there is internet.  While there I tend to do a craft of some kind.  Last year we added a screened porch to the cabin and I began to dream about sitting on the porch and doing some spinning or weaving.  Sadly our porch project started late (getting planning permission was hard) and was finished just before Christmas.  So we have been waiting for warmer weather to arrive before getting it setup.

So I started shopping around for a folding loom.  I had my eye on a Saori WX60.  Luckily one of my friends had bought one and it didn’t suit her weaving style so I was able to buy hers.  (My friend was planning to return to using her rigid heddle loom.  Whereas I sold my rigid heddle looms after adopting my Saori loom because I no longer had time for them.)  I picked up the loom at the end of March and I’m really happy with it.  Here you can see the loom on the porch.  I threaded it up the first day.

One of the nice features of the Saori WX60 loom is that it folds.  And you can fold it up with a project on the loom.  This makes the loom easier to store, and to relocate to another place.  I am still getting the hang of folding/unfolding the loom, and find it easier to get help doing that.  But I am sure that with practice it will become a solo task.

The loom weighs 13.5kg (29.8lb) and has the following dimensions:

  • When open the loom is 76cm (30″) wide, 76cm (30″) deep and 98.5cm (39″) tall.
  • When folded the loom is 76cm (30″) wide, 25cm (10″) deep and 106cm (42″) tall.

I cleared a space just inside the cabin where the folded loom could be stored.  I also setup a nice rolling cart to contain my tools.  This makes it easy to move the loom outside or inside as necessary.  I use a regular chair with the loom and prefer to add a nice cushion to the chair as well.  (Lifting your feet to treadle puts more pressure on the bony parts of your butt.)

The first weekend I had the loom I got it threaded.  On the next visit to the cabin it was time to start weaving.  This shows my porch and inside the cabin weaving locations.

Over the course of a few visits I proceeded to weave, changing colours and textures as I felt like it.  This is a highlight reel of the resulting weaving progress.

I am now nearing the end of the warp.  Originally the warp was on a square tube on the beam near the floor.  (You can see more details about the Saori warps on square tubes in this blog post.)  When the warp unwinds from the tube you transfer it to a rod so you can maintain warp tension.  In the left photo you can see that the warp is tied onto a rod that is located close to the beam near the floor.  As I continue weaving the rod is getting closer and closer to the shafts on the loom.  I have just a few more inches of weaving to do.  When I finish the rod should be just behind the heddles.  This loom design minimizes warp waste.  When I am done weaving I will be able to hemstitch my cloth and remove it from the loom.  The remaining threads will be trimmed slightly and twisted into a nice fringe for my cloth.

I should have some finished cloth to share soon.

yellow cotton rags to be woven with cotton yarn for table runner
Getting Your Groove Back

Getting Your Groove Back

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How do the rest of you get your creativity flowing when you have no juice left?  I did a lot, and I do mean a lot, of spinning over the winter.  I played with colours, with silks, with blends, mohair, qiviut, camel, linen, all sorts of wools and nothing inspired me, nothing moved me.  I joined a knitting group to relearn knitting.  The group speak French as their primary language, so that was a doubly challenging.  We have a blast and I have to say I’m still a terrible knitter and still not bi-lingual, but I love their company.  Perseverance might be the only way through this arid spot.

We have started cleaning the Guild space and prepping for destashing.  In the 100 inch loom studio was a very large bag containing rags for weaving catalogne blankets.  These are traditional Quebec coverlets to keep sleepers warm during deep winters.  They are thick and heavy.  They are also quintessential recycle projects since they are made from strips of rags.  I was allowed to purchase all the yellow strips.  These are made from cotton jersey and I loved the colour.

yellow cotton rags to be woven with cotton yarn for table runner

One of our guild members made the happy/sad decision to accept a job in her home city and left here to move across the country to Vancouver.  She generously offered her yarn for sale to Guild members.  I love her colours so much that I violated my promise-to-self of no more yarn in the house. If you closely at the picture below you might spot a little loop of thread laying on the yellow spool.  That is all that remains of the mushroom cotton.  That’s yarn chicken at it’s finest, less than one yard remained on a 500gm bobbin.

All the mushroom, yellow and magenta cotton threads are now measured as a 10 yd warp ready to go on the loom and be woven with the yellow rags.

10 yd cotton warp to be woven with rags alternating with magenta cotton.

The final piece of this little “get moving – get weaving” scenario was a bag of warp spacers for a sectional beamed loom.  These spacers really were the topper because they allow me to do a really long warp on my loom. I have no excuses anymore.  This weekend I just need to put my mind to getting on with it and know I’ll enjoy getting creative again.

The plaid of the two different burgundy shows clearly
Finishing the hand spun/hand woven scarf

Finishing the hand spun/hand woven scarf

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In the fall I wove a scarf using my ‘precious’ handspun yarn.  It’s time to stop thinking of this commodity in such terms.  There is bound to be loom wastage when using any yarn and handspun can’t be saved, so best to get over that reality and start enjoying the enormous gratification to be had in weaving my own yarn.

The excitement didn’t wane even as the finishing process started.  Finishing can be an extremely tedious time, but I really enjoyed it this time.

A metal needle slides the knot into position

Once the warp is woven it’s time to cut it off the back beam.  I did this very carefully and knotted each group of four threads as I went along.  Using a large metal tapestry needle lets me slide the knot into position easily.  I didn’t hemstitch the scarf, nor did I use a fringe maker.  These are two perfectly satisfactory methods of finishing but I chose not to use them, maybe on a later project.  I also left a lot of fringe length to help in the finishing process for later evening up.

Starting the fringe finish on the loom - back edge of the scarf

Here the back beam fringe is all done, now I have to unwind the fabric and start on the front of the material, which is still attached to the front of the loom.

These knots are usually easy to undo, but if they get a bit cranky the metal needle comes in handy for prying them apart.  Again, I just knot them in groups of four as I move along the front of the loom.  Once that is all done, the fabric is inspected for unwoven threads that are hanging loose.  My apologies for not taking pictures of these, but I was running out of hands.  These usually are along the selvage edges and I trim them off or weave them in using my trusty metal needle.  It’s a bodkin so works perfectly for that task.

The plaid of the two different burgundy shows clearly

Once everything is where it should be, the fabric is given a wash in very hot water and mild soap, rinsed and hung to dry.  I was very pleased with how the colours played out to give a subtle change in the plaid.  I hope to be able to replicate this somehow in the future, just have to figure out how I did it in the first place.

Align the knots of the fringe and cut both sides of the fringe

The final step is to even out the fringes; they need to be the same length on both sides.  I find it easiest to pin the fabric together and just cut them at the same time.

Once the fringe is trimmed the two sides are pinned together and the fringe length is verified

Sometimes they need just a little more trimming, just noticed there is a stray bit in the picture, just like a bad haircut.

The final product is going to be used for display purposes at the next Sale and Exhibition.  I am very pleased with the final result.  It will not be for sale.  I did show it to a fellow weaver for a hard critique and I meant it.  I wanted to hear the “hard stuff”.  She was kind enough to tell me the truth.  There are a few techniques that I need to work on before selling my scarves.  I need to open up my work so it drapes better.  I need to get better at math!!!  This ended up very short.  It was a wonderful width, but it did shrink in length and would only work as a dress scarf.  And finally, I need to practice hemstitching.  That said, the colours are great, my use of yarn is superlative, the fringe is perfect and the simplicity of the design is perfect to set off the fibre.  Ta-da, I’ll take that.

 

Weaving a Cowl for a Christmas present

Weaving a Cowl for a Christmas present

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Hello!  I am Carlene and a new poster here on the Felting and Fiber Studio blog.  I live in Carp which is part of Ottawa Canada. I am a member of the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild; the same guild that Jan Scott, Ann McElroy and Bernadette Quade belong to.

I am interested in a number of fiber arts including: crochet, knitting, spinning, felting and weaving.  I will admit that spinning is my biggest passion and where I spend most of my time.  I have been dabbling in weaving for a bit, using rigid heddle looms and taking some classes at the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild.

In June 2022 I managed to purchase a used Saori CH50 loom and since then my weaving has really taken off.  I love the Saori philosophy and how well designed the loom is.  Saori weaving is a free form style of weaving developed in Japan.  You can learn more about the history of Saori online from Saori Global.

Here is my Saori loom.  It is a cute little 2 harness loom with a small footprint similar to a card table.  The official specs are as follows: Width: 69cm (26″), Depth: 61cm (24″), Height: 98cm (38″), Weight: 15.7kg (34.5lb), Weaving Width: 60cm (23″).

One of the neat innovations of the Saori looms is using a square back beam that allows you to slide a pre-wound warp onto the loom and speed up the warping process.  You can buy pre-wound warps in a number of different thread counts (50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 threads), lengths (3m, 6m, 12m and 30m) and fibre types (cotton, wool, or mixed fibers such as wool, cashmere, silk).  The most affordable warps are plain black warps in either wool or cotton.  This is a 100 end cotton warp that I recently put on my loom.  The warp threads are taped to the square tube, then wound on under light tension with spacers inserted occasionally.  At the end of the warp the ends are again taped down.

After putting the warp onto the back beam, I lifted the reed and beater out of the loom and set it aside.  Then I untaped the warp threads from the roll and lifted them up over the back beam, over the middle castle of the loom and taped the threads to the loom shelf using green painters tape.

 

Next I did some quick counting and inserted some chip clips as markers.  I wanted to thread from the middle outwards so that I could easily position the warp threads in the middle of the reed and the heddles on the shaft.  After counting out the threads I carefully snipped a single thread from the tape, then threaded it through the inserted eye heddle on the rear shaft.  I repeated this process with the the next thread and then threaded it through the inserted eye heddle on the front shaft.  I then skipped a heddle in each shaft and then repeated this process to thread the next thread, all the way across the loom.

In this next picture you can see all the black warp threads have been inserted through the heddles.  I have used chip clips to keep the threads neat and tidy.  There is a spare empty heddle between each of the threads.

I decided to add some supplementary warp threads to experiment with adding a bit of colour to my warp.  I bought these Kumihimo bobbins to try.  I wound cotton thread in various colours onto the bobbins.

Then I positioned the bobbins at the back of the loom and slowly threaded them into some of the empty heddles between warp threads.  The placement of these threads was somewhat random.  After adding in the supplementary warp threads I was ready to thread the reed.  So I put the beater bar and reed back into the loom.

I used my threading hook to thread the reed and I did groups of 4 threads, then one empty space in the reed, then the next set of 4 threads.  Chip clips were again used to keep the threads tidy.

After completing the threading it was time to tie onto the front beam and then start weaving.  The warp threads are knotted onto the front beam.  The blue yarn you see is a bit of scrap yarn at the beginning of the project to help space out the warp threads.  The weft threads (the back and forth weaving threads) is some self striping wool/acrylic sock yarn (Kroy Socks Stripes in the colour Burnished Sierra).  When you look at the back of the loom the Kumihimo bobbins with the supplementary warp threads are hanging off the back.

I wove a piece that was about 64″ on the loom.  After taking it off the loom the piece measured 60.5″ x 20.5″.  After washing the dimensions will shift again and there will be a bit more shrinkage.

After removing the blue waste yarn I trimmed the warp ends, knotted them together, then twisted the fringe.  The result is a cowl for my Christmas gift pile.  I still have one last step to do though.  The fabric still needs to be washed to set the cloth and after washing it’ll need a quick press with the iron to make it look beautiful again.  I have a stack of Christmas weaving waiting for washing and ironing.  Luckily there is still a bit of time before Christmas to get it all done.

I got the stack weaving washed and realized that I had forgotten the step of sewing on labels.  So today I sat down with the pile and sewed on tags.  I have these nice vegan leather tags that I purchased off ETSY from FractalFocusStudios and I carefully sewed one on each item.

 

After putting the tag on I did a quick try on.  Love it!  My stack of scarves and cowls are now sitting in the pile of Christmas gifts.  Soon they will all be adopted by new owners.

 

Weaving with hand spun, again!

Weaving with hand spun, again!

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Jan Scott documented the Sale and Exhibition put on by our Guild in early November, kudos Jan.  It was a great success and inspired me to try to answer a recurring question asked by so many of my clients.  I was embarrassed that I didn’t have the information for them.  Will this skein make a hat, scarf, mittens, socks, etc?  The response was always – ‘that depends’ and it does.  It depends on technique, the width of the weaving, stitch size, needle size, size of hands for mittens, and all sorts of variables.  It’s so frustrating to not have an empirical answer, so I decided to use my handspun and make a scarf, standard 14 inches wide by 40 inches long.

I calculated I had 234 yards/215m of brown and 495yds/457m of burgundy and silk.  I would need 106yds/98m brown for the warp and 214yds/196m burgundy and silk for the other part of the warp.  Based on that I had lots for the weft.  We’ll see. Math and I are not on speaking terms.

Just to keep the learning curve vertical, I also decided to use a warping mill along with my sectional beam.  If you have ever watched videos of industrial weaving facilities you will see huge walls of bobbins feeding into the back of looms.  A sectional beam is one step down from that.  All the threads you want are wound onto a single inch of the back beam of the loom.  So if you want to weave something with 20 threads per inch you need 20 bobbins full of thread to wind onto that little 1 inch spot.  You wind on for as many yards/meters as you want, then move to the next slot in the beam, wind on another twenty threads/inch and continue on.

The warping reel lets the weaver measure a single thread for the whole length of the project, change the colour as needed and then keep measuring for the whole length of the project.  It’s perfect for smaller projects. The craftsperson will have to decide when it’s time to move onto a different warping technique to suit their purposes.  This time I wanted to try a hybrid method of warping.

When using a warping reel you must keep the warp from tangling.  It can become the weavers’ worst nightmare.  I know in my early days I did lose the cross on one of my warps and nearly lost my mind.  It did get untangled but I swore it was never going to happen again, so I do double crosses on all my reeled warps.  Tie the cross at both ends of the warp.  Better to be safe than very, very sorry.

I also didn’t want to waste any of the handspun if possible since it was in very, very short supply, so I used a salvage technique of tieing onto an old warp.  This can save up to 24 inches or nearly 3/4 meter of handspun wool per thread.  That’s a huge amount of handspun. It’s also a ridiculous amount of work, so I’ll have to rethink this, but once done I was pleased with the result.

I still had to check for threading errors and there were some.  Don’t thread the loom late at night, don’t thread the loom late at night….and don’t thread the loom late and night.

The next morning, a quick check of the basic threading by lifting the threads at an angle shows that everything is in order, literally, and the threads are ready to be tied up and woven with a test thread.

And finally woven with the real stuff. I wish you could see this in real light, daylight, oh my goodness, it shimmers.

What a load of work, and what a great result!!  I had no idea my hand spun could be so lovely, I’m so pleased, but there is the last bit of finishing that I need to do and hopefully that will be successful too.  This will make a great display piece for the next Sale and Exhibition!

Second Quarter Challenge 2022 – I can’t do that

Second Quarter Challenge 2022 – I can’t do that

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As soon as I saw what Lyn was setting as our next Challenge I thought “but I can’t do that”.  I have always stumbled when trying to understand Design because, although I can see pattern in a lot of things, I fail entirely in translating what I see into my work.  I am very literal in my thinking, and when I see abstract pieces (usually “modern” embroidery pieces) based on images of say, a broken brick, or the reflection in a window, or a rusty piece of metal, or a “fractal”, I think to myself “yes, very clever, but why?” and “what would I do with it?” and “I can’t see that on my wall” (and just occasionally “I wouldn’t give that house room!”).   This is why I tend to make my pictures or 3D sculptures as realistic as I can.

I was going to just not bother with this Challenge, and then I remembered that some years ago I had attended a course on Design – I had forgotten all about it and it is relevant to this Challenge.

In August 2015 the Association of Guilds of Weavers Spinners & Dyers included in it’s week long residential Summer School syllabus a course by Alison Daykin – “Design for the Terrified” and I was lucky enough to be allocated a place – most courses were usually over-subscribed.  Here is the introductory list of available courses from the brochure for you to drool over!

The course was described as offering “help to ‘painting and drawing challenged’ weavers, spinners, dyers, or other textile practitioners, in understanding Design and using this in their chosen medium”.  The brochure went on to say: “This course will provide simple, but effective guidelines in design, without the student feeling overwhelmed by theory. The tutor will also leave plenty of room for participants to express themselves in their chosen medium.

“By the course end students will have at least one sketchbook and understand the basics of: colour studies; textural studies; shape; line/stripes.

“Students are encouraged to make samples appropriate to their own textile skills. They may choose to bring their loom or wheel with them, or to develop further sketchbooks if they prefer.”

Frankly this description of the course frightened the life out of me and I nearly didn’t apply, not least because I would be foregoing the chance to take the offered very interesting felt making course. (It’s headline description was “… an ‘adventure with fibres and fabrics’, combining colour, texture and layering to produce felted fabrics for decorative purposes or garments” and that was what I was most interested in at the time.) However after exchanging a few emails with Alison, and reading the three blogs which she sent out about the course I decided to bite the bullet.
The first blog post puts emphasis on your “Inspiration” and resulted in a further flurry of emails with Alison, since I had no idea what it meant or what my “Inspiration” should be in this context. She basically said that I should pick a subject which I found really interesting. I was undecided whether to plump for trees, which seemed a very big subject, or sea shells – almost as big but of which I had recently started a collection. In the end I went with sea shells.

Sea Shell collection with Sea Urchin “
skeletons”

The second and third blog posts and a “round robin” email from Alison encouraged us to bring along as many different types of art media as we might be able to lay our hands on, including different types and colours of paper and “mark making” equipment. In addition we were asked to only bring one image of our inspiration, but as many copies of it as possible. (As I hadn’t been able to choose just one shell my image consisted of most of my collection, which also included sea urchin “skeletons”.) We would also need to take a notice board (if we hadn’t already made a mood board – “Er …. what’s one of them?”) so that we could pin up various bits and pieces as we went through the course. We would also need the equipment and materials required to make samples in our chosen technique. As I didn’t know which shell would be my inspiration the “materials” consisted of most of my stashes of fibres, fabric & yarns!
I’m sure you’ve all heard of the saying “everything but the kitchen sink” – very apt, my poor car was groaning when I set off with all this stuff plus clothes etc., and I had yet to fit in the friend I was giving a lift to, plus all her stuff and her walking aid. (She was still a bit frail after an illness.)

The Summer School was based at Moreton Morrell Agricultural College in Warwickshire, where (after we got lost twice on the way) I met Alison and the rest of the class members. There were weavers, spinners, an embroiderer and a felt maker – me.
Alison showed us her own work, and took us through her process for designing woven fabrics for specific purposes, showing us her mood boards and pictures of finished fabrics “in situ”. Here is a much abbreviated view of how she followed one inspiration from an image of ancient ruins to cloth samples.

She then started us off on our own design journey. Alison suggested to me that I should pick my favourite shell from the picture of my collection and make an enlarged drawing of the shell, both in monochrome and in colour and using different media. I had a go at this, although my drawing skills are minimal. This was before she had found that we would be able to have access to the college’s print facilities, where we could get photographs printed, and colour and monochrome photocopies made on a copier, which was capable of enlarging. We all made great use of this facility – zeroing in on just part of our inspiration image and having multiple copies made on different colour papers as well as plain white – which enabled us to speed up our progress through the stages of the design processes that Alison had mapped out for us.

One of the “tricks” which Alison showed us was to take two images, cut (or tear) them into strips (leaving one side of the paper still intact, and then to weave the two images.  This did produce some interesting results.

We also cut strips across an image and used this to reference yarn (in my case fibre) wraps. Using this method enabled us to achieve a colour swatch giving combinations, quantities and placement of harmonious colours.

Showing the progress from picture strip to felted swatch

Once we had all played around with these ideas for a day, we were encouraged to get on and start creating samples in our chosen techniques, keeping in mind how we might use the finished work. As I was interested in making felt for clothing and accessories, I had brought with me copies of designs from specific sewing patterns and tried to pick the patterns that would best suit. I had by this time branched out to using as inspiration two different Sea Urchin skeletons, one Cone shell (and when no-one was looking I did a bit of crochet based on the end of a Conch type shell).

  • Large Sea Urchin
  • Small Sea Urchin
  • Cone

As you can see, I’m still leaning towards the literal/representational side of designing.

Alison also encouraged us to take our cameras and go out around the college grounds and look for more inspirations for design. At this stage we had all got used to looking beyond the obvious and came up with some unusual images. This was the one I chose to do something with – don’t ask me why – it’s just a picture of the wood surround (and my toes) to a raised flower bed outside the portacabin which was our workshop, where we all congregated for coffee, snacks and chat.

Being full of enthusiasm for the project, I cut down the photograph to a corner and then cut out the image of part of the surround.

which I then had enlarged and with several copies started to develop the design

This is the design I finally ended up with.

There are five versions in this picture, the basic design on top with four colour changes of the small “pops” of colour.  And here is the jacket pattern and a tracing of the design.

The last day of the course was mainly taken up with visiting the rooms where the other courses had been taking place for a grand Show & Tell. To this end, we had packed up all our equipment and materials and set up our notice boards and work tables as displays of what we had been doing. Here are mine

And here are some of the displays of other class members’ work.  Not all of them I’m afraid, I had camera shake by then so I’ve only included the less blurred ones.

The whole Summer School experience was great, with evening entertainments, a fashion show, a display of entries for the Certificate of Achievement “exams”, a traders’ market (I spent too much money as usual) and a trip to Stratford Upon Avon for a tour of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Theatre with a chance to see some of their costumes “up close and personal”. 

We inhabited a bubble, with little contact with the outside world.  (There wasn’t even a signal for our mobile phones, short of climbing a hill and standing in the middle of the road.)  A wonderful experience and I’ve enjoyed revisiting it.

I am afraid that by the time I got home again I reverted to type and have not made any fabrics, felted or woven, from any of the designs. I just did what I usually end up doing after returning from a workshop – I put everything away and forgot about it! So I still don’t have a 2nd Quarter Challenge piece to show you; though as a result of writing this post and after seeing some of the pieces which FFS members have posted, I do feel better about the possibility of designing from random observations and images.

I am looking forward to seeing what the next quarter’s Challenge will be.