Two yarns in the weft

Having finished the first Brighton Honeycomb scarf and for the second scarf I have been using a weft of two strands of 15/1 merino and so far it looks quite good. I have no idea how it will behave when I washed but I wove a 12" sample that I shall experiment with first.

I tried using a shuttle with two bobbins but got into an awful pickle with the selvedges so I fabricated a doubling stand from a milk crate and wove successfully with the two strands wound onto one bobbin.

Weaving on a Countermarch Loom

Last week I started weaving and it is all good.

My first threading is straight 8 with a Brighton Honeycomb tie up. I have woven this before so I know what to expect and can focus  on the touch sound and feel of the loom. The warp is two colours of Bendigo 2 ply (Pampas and Ginger) set at 18epi and for the weft I am using some nice 2/12nm chocolate (70% alpaca / 30% bluefaced leicester) yarn  that I bought in the UK a couple of years ago.











I did a bit of sampling first to get a colour combination that I liked and also to get used to the overhead beater. It was all over the shop to start of with but settled down after a while. I still have to squint down to check that I am getting the correct treadle but I am not having to adjust as much as I did when I started.

 The amount of effort that I have to expend  is minimal so I find that I am weaving for much longer at a stretch. The size of the loom suits me and I like the fact that I can see exactly what is going on. I get up every now and then, take a stroll round the loom, give it a pat and then it is back to the pilots chair and the loom and I sail  serenely on. A bit fanciful I know but the creak of the beam and the sounds of the treadles and the two capstan wheels on the side all  bring images of large sailing ships to mind.

Countermarch

In January I bought a Glimakra 47" standard. I have been working my way through putting it together, tying it up, untying it up, buying the definitive book (Joanne Hall) and then tying it all up again correctly.  

 The warp that I put on is  two colours of Bendigo 2 ply (Pampas and Ginger) set at 18epi.
The knee beam makes a handy place to rest the reed when sleying

.

To my surprise I was able to get right into the loom (it was a bit of a squeeze) and after a while I was positively hopping in and out.  It is better than yoga!

Dodgy drafting

My intention was to weave a stitched double weave shawl. The draft was based upon the work I did with stitched double weave to produce a wall hanging. I decided to take one motif (a diamond)  and use it to stitch together two loose plain weave layers. My yarn was bendigo 2 ply that normally sets at 14 epi for plain weave so I decided on 12 epi for each layer making an  overall sett 0f 24 epi. I carefully sampled this and was happy with the result.

Where I went wrong was when I amended the draft to 22shafts, with two left over for selvedges (which you don't need for plain weave!). For some reason that I can't now fathom I decided that a point threading was the way to go. I amended the draft and produced a new .wif and it all looked good. At the time I was very pleased with myself as i can see from what I wrote: - Bi colour warp on pointed threading

I put on the warp the loom, battled through the initial stickiness and with help worked out how to a use the sandpaper beam effectivly and started weaving. Disaster, unexpected floats appeared. Investigation showed that my design was flawed - you can't weave two layers of plain weave on a pointed draft. Once I realised the problem it seemed obvious. One layer of double weave is woven on the odd shafts, the other on the even shafts. With a pointed draft you are going to get two adjacent threads in a layer on the same shaft whenever the draft turns.

As I had spent a fair bit of time getting the warp on I was keen to use it for something so I decided to try a turned taquete draft. Again it looked OK on paper (or strictly speaking "on computer") but having woven about six inches, using 28/2 alpaca-silk as the weft, I don't think that is going to work. It looks insipid because the warp colours were selected for the double weave shawl and do not suit the new draft and as everyone says, you should use something shiny.

So, I am going to bite the bullet and re thread to a straight 24.  Several lessons learnt but this double weave shawl is going to be good when it is done!

Overshot Sampler

The overshot sampler was finished before Christmas.

 I tried as many yarns as I could for the pattern weft, some were good and some were shocking but I deem the project to be a success in that I now have definite ideas about the yarns I shall be using for my three planned overshot projects!


Upholstery - 16/2 cotton for warp and tabby, 11/2 wool (bendigo 2 ply) for patern weft.

Wall hanging - 16/2 coton for warp and tabby, DMC perle cotton #5 for pattern weft. I might well do the wall hanging in Monks Belt.

Scarf & Shawl - 28/2 alpacca-silk for warp, 28/2 merino for tabby ( or maybe 28/2 silk as well) and 18/2 Zephyr wool-silk for pattern weft


The actual projects will have to wait as I have just started a turned taquete shawl - more on this later.

Overshot sampling

I have had some overshot projects lurking in the back of my mind for some time now. It is over three years ago that we all first studied overshot in our weaving classes and I have decided to revisit this technique over the Christmas holidays.

I put a 3 yard wrap of 16/2 cotton set at 24epi onto my table loom and I have been weaving a series of little 6" to 8" samples varying the wefts and the beat.  So far for tabby I have used 16/2 cotton, 20/2 perle cotton, 28/2 silk/alpaca, 28/2 merino and 18/2 merino. For pattern weft I have tried perle cotton, 11/2 wool, 18/2 wool/silk, appletons crewel wool and 22/2 merino. I have a few more yarns to try and I want to see what some treadling variations look like.

This should be finished in a few days then I will cut them off, hem and wash them to see how they all turn out. I might tie on a short warp of 28/2 silk/alpaca to see how it goes. The objective of this exercise is to come up suitable yarn, treadling and beat combinations for a scarf, a wall hanging and some yardage for a skirt.

It is so nice to be doing straight forward weaving again!

Tapestry

At long last I have finished this tapestry. The most difficult part was deciding how I as going to treat the dangling ends. I tried several treatments but ended up with this one which is made of painted fishing weights. I shall call this work " Composition in cotton, wool, lead, acrylic and bamboo"! The bamboo bit is the hanging stick.

The tapestry workshop that I referred to in an earlier post has been and gone. The topic for our work was "The Owl and the Pussycat". This photos below shows how far I have got.

 I am finding the diagonal lines very tricky! I hope to find some time over the Christmas holidays to get it finished but in the meantime I have a threaded loom which is calling out to me to weave some stitched double eave and turned taquete.

Tapestry on a horizontal loom

I have nearly completed the "Sun" tapestry but I have put it to one side whilst I worked on how I could improve the mechanics of what I was doing. I had found that after a while working at an upright frame became uncomfortable. Working on my lap solved this but in this position I found that I had difficulty in keeping the frame still whilst I opened a shed with my fingertips and controlling it whilst laying in the weft. Because I felt that the whole setup was unstable I was unable to focus on getting a consistency of texture across the piece. I had also being having problems with getting an even warp tension on the loom and keeping it nice and tight.

Pondering on all of this I remembered and re-read an article by called "Weaving a tapestry on a horizontal loom" by Jay Wilson in the May/June 1995 edition of Handwoven. What he had to say made eminent sense to me so I dug out a 2 shaft loom that I had sitting on a shelf  and put on a 2 yard warp of 12/9 seine twine.

I have started weaving on this warp and my main problems seem to be resolved;

• No more tension problems. I laced on the warp at both ends and gradually increased the tension whilst "twanging" the warp to spread the tension. Using this table loom I can get the warp much tighter than I could on a frame and this helps with packing in the weft.
• I find the working position very comfortable and I can see exactly what I am doing. 
• Making the shed is easy and I no longer have to struggle

I have started using netting needles as well as bobbins and I find the needles easier to use in certain circumstances.

I have been working on a piece using slits and wrapping technique and trying (not always successfully) to get even selvedges and uniform coverage. Three strands of Appleton's crewel wool seems to be doing the trick for the weft. Early days but I am much more comfortable about it all.

Tapestry Diversion

A tapestry workshop is coming up and I have booked for it. The workshop is being run by Marie & Yvonne. I have been to a couple of their workshops and they were both very good. (They do other things, see http://ymmyarns.blogspot.com/)

 To quote from the notice for the workshop "More experienced make tapestries using supplementary weft or work on your own design while learning more advanced techniques."

The problem is that apart from a two day tapestry workshop where I wove a little sampler that is languishing in a drawer somewhere and a play with a very 70s style wall hanging about six months ago my tapestry experience is non existent. So, I have until the 21st October to become "more experienced"!

I took the warped frame from the wall hanging, shifted it around until I had "empty" warp and off I went.

It became a sort of extended doodle that I have been working on all last week. I tried various yarns that I had and found that Paternayan Persian seemed to suit me best. There is a tapestry shop about ten minutes walk from my work (Morris & Sons) so I have been able to pop in during my lunch break to get fresh supplies.

I didn't have a cartoon (apart from one for my attempt at a circle) but I did sketch what I had done with loads of notes. There is a load of work to do on my technique (tension and coverage) and until I started colouring my warps (red shed/blue shed) I had all sorts of problems.

 I still tend to get lost when building up shapes and then filling in their complement; I feel much more comfortable doing a row at a time but even then shapes tend to wander off an do their own thing. Great fun but I think that this piece of work has run its course so I shall do another couple of inches (columns or pillars I think to get this weft interlock thing nutted out) and the I shall start a fresh piece of work.

How to make a sticky warp

Sleying went very well and took no time at all. I used a small comb to straighten and sequence the threads before pulling them through the reed. I also used the comb when getting ready to lace on to make sure that all the threads in each bout (20 threads, 1" each each), were in place and tight before tying the final knot. Lacing on also went very well.

I spent a bit of time putting on my automatic tensioning system. I have advanced from house bricks suspended from an old shower curtain rail to proper weight lifter weights. It took a bit of time to get the tension right and I have made a mental note to go for the box of rocks solution next time  (as shown here).

Disaster struck when I started lifting shafts to start checking my threading - the plastic comb had induced so much static electricity in the warp that it was impossible to achieve any working shed separation.

I did some research (Handloom Weaving Technology - Allen A. Fannin and Weave-tech archives) and as a result of this I have applied children's untangle hairspray, put in some round lease sticks and shortened the distance between the back beam and the castle. After a couple of days rest the warp seems to have settled down and I shall have another go at getting the weaving started this weekend.

Threading is finished

Hurrah! Now for the sleying.

Still threading

I am now halfway through threading the warp for the Big Block Blue Blanket. I think that the seond half is going to progress much faster beause of two changes I have made.

My life (ie Weaving)/ work balance was all wrong. I had got into the habit of getting to work just after 7:30AM with the idea of getting away smartish to do some weaving in the early evening. I didn't work as I frequently didn't get away on time and was often too tired to do any weaving when I got home. I now get up at the same time and get in at least of hour of weaving before I leave for work. Now it doesn't matter what time I leave work in the evening or how tired I might be as I have already done some weaving work.


The other things I have done is change the way I hold the threads in place just before threading them. Rather than having them held in place by a snitch knot to a piece of cord attached to the breast beam I now spread them out in a small open topped reed (from my warping wheel) and hold them in place with a strip of velro. Having the threads in order right in front of the heddles means that I am not straining to pick up the correct thread from the cross on the lease sticks which is behind the heddles. I am sure that this is being done by loads of other people but I am quite pleased with myself for stumbling upon it. My shoulders and neck are thanking me for it.

Threading position

I am finding the threading on the AVL much trickier than on the Nilart.

Try as I may I cannot get myself into position where I can see the lease sticks and heddle being threaded all at the same time, unless I m sitting so low that I can't operate the treadles. I need to use these so I can lift the shaft that is to be threaded. This means that there is a bit of craning and squinting, particularly when putting the thread on the hook. I messed around with mirrors and I even tried using a web cam mounted behind the loom but to no avail. However it was  OK as long as I g0t up and stretched every five minutes or so.

I have just read  what Laura Fry has to say on the matter (Threading Motion) and I see that the threads that are next to be threaded are taped to the bottom of the back shafts. The answer for me must be either to follow this method using Velcro to preserve the cross or to substantially lower the lease sticks. I shall experiment tomorrow!

Keeping the cross safe

Over the weekend I took the dust sheet of my AVL Workshop Dobby Loom and did the upgrade to the ratchets and pawls on the cloth and breast beam. The original ones were plastic and just not up to the job of maintaining any decent sort of tension. I must have bought my loom just before they corrected this design flaw, so I had to buy an upgrade kit. The templates that came with the upgrade kit were as not as accurate as they might have been, or I am cack handed, as I had to re-drill one of the holes for the pawl. All done now but one has to ask what sort of testing they did with the original design.

I have put on a 21" wide warp for a stitched double weave shawl. I use an AVL warping wheel with a cross maker attachment (didn't come as standard; should it have done?). In the past I have tied the crosses before winding the warp on to the beam. This time I tried using a stationery ring to secure the cross and it worked a treat. When the warp was safely on the beam it was a simple matter to replace the ring with the lease cords, which were tucked up between to rakes when I was doing the actual winding.

Ring

Ring on the cross

In position on the beam

Warp being wound on

Lease cords threaded

Ring removed

Lease cords secured to a couple of rakes

Bi Colour Warp on a Pointed Threading

I have mentioned earlier that I attend weaving classes at the Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild of NSW. Out tutor is Liz Calnan.

Last term we built on some work we had done previously on Summer & Winter and moved onto Taquete, Double two tie Summer & winter, other DoubleTwo Tied Unit weaves and Stitched Double Weave and then Turned Taquete. I did some samplers of some of this ( see Stitched Double Weave and Back to the Tent Stitch) but I put it all to one side when I started on the Big Block Blue Blanket.

Classes started again last week and after a nice catch up (Liz had been to Convergence) we studied Interleaved Threadings. What was of particular interest was the insight that we were given into the number of different things that one can weave with an interleaved threading.

Armed with my class notes and handouts, several reference books and magazines and my weaving software (pixeLoom) I have been combining what I have learnt in the classes with things that I have read and thought about in the past and only partially understood. I have ended up with a set of drafts that fit onto a 22s pointed bi-colour threading (I started with 24S as that is what I have but gave up two shafts for plain weave selvedges.) I think that there is sufficient here to keep me going for years!

Threading the heddles on Big Block Blue Blanket

I have been away for a week in new Zealand (part business part pleasure)  so progress is slow. I think that I have to accept that this blanket is going to be for next winter. With that in mind I can take it nice and steady and have a couple of other projects going at the same time. Our weaving lessons start next week so I shall do what ever we will be learning on a table loom and keep on plugging away at his blanket at the same time.

Having finished beaming the warp I then had to insert the lease sticks. I am not sure if I am doing this in the most efficient manner but I picked up all the warp crosses (one for every section on the beam) with a netting shuttle and threaded a cord through them before trying to put in the lease sticks. I did it this way because I found that 5' lease sticks were a bit to unwieldy to insert directly into the crosses. The photo below shows the lease stick in place and the warp divided into 4 bundles (only three visible) ready for threading.

In preparation for this I took off the breast beam and the cloth beam. This presented more opportunities to do a bit of cleaning and polishing!


Threading is proving fairly easy as the blocks are large (120 ends each) so it is practical to tie up shafts 1 to 4 when I am threading shafts 5 to 8. The important thing is to sit at the right height so that I am not struggling to clearly see through from the first shaft to the lease sticks. Bi-focal glasses are proving to be a bit of a problem as when I glance up to the lease sticks I am looking through the long distance part of the lens. I might need to get special threading spectacles!

Autumn Leaves

My needlepoint is finished and back from the framers. I like the tessellation and I shall certainly use the colours again.

Unknown Brackets on Beater Box

At some stage in the past someone has screwed three L shaped brackets to the bottom of the flying shuttle beater box at each end so that one arm of the bracket sticks up vertically in front of the box with gap between the bracket and the front of the box of about half an inch. I presume that they are later aditions as I can see no reference to them in the Leclerc documentation.
They look as if they are designed to hold something that slots into the gap. I don't want to remove them if they could prove useful.

Counting heddles

Earlier I said that I had checked the heddles for this project. The statement was true but useless as the basis of any planning because what I had missed somewhere along the way is that there was a completely uneven distribution of heddles between the shafts.
So what I had to do was get all the rubbish of the castle, then remove the top of the castle, slide out the shafts and then remove and add heddles to get an even distribution.   I used cable ties to slide the heddles on and off the heddle support bars and there were no mishaps. Look at the build up of dust and fluff on the frame.

What took the time was that this exercise provided an opportunity to do several other maintenance tasks;

• Get the vacuum cleaner nozzle in amongst the jacks and lamms
• Clean and polish everything exposed by the removal of the shafts
• Lubricate the metal links between the lamms and the jacks
• Colour code and number the heddle support bars (for ease of threading)
• Clean the shafts
• Find a proper home for all the stuff that was on top of the castle

Beamed at last

The warp for the Big Block Blue Blanket is safely on at last. It took slightly longer than expected but it is done. The next task is to distribute the heddles evenly. As I am using the full width of the loom I can't have the spare heddles bunched up at the sides of the shafts, they must be spread out amongst the active heddles. I have been caught out by this one in the past on a table loom.

Big Blue Block Blanket

All the planning is done, the wool is ordered and delivered, the heddles are counted and I even have a couple of five foot long lease sticks so there is nothing to stop me starting to beam the warp. This is the pattern that I should end up with:-

This is my plan.  The yarn is Bendigo 2 ply. The usual twill set for this is 18epi but I am making it a bit tighter for a blanket. There is just one weft colour, Bendigo Raffia. The tie-up is for broken twill which will be a bit more forgiving if there is any unevenness of beat.

I am putting on a 9 yard warp which will be enough for two blankets. I am still working on the design for the second blanket; I am planning to be a bit more adventurous and use more than one colour in the weft.

I have a busy work week until the weekend, so perhaps on Saturday I can get started.....

Back to the Tent Stitch

The sample did not work as I planned as I put on a ridiculously short warp so I was only able to do about two inches of the double weave that I wanted to sample but I did manage about eight inches of double two. I have rolled it up and put it away for consideration some time in the future.

My next project will be a blanket (twill blocks) using the flying shuttle on my Nilart. Whilst I have been planning this  I have resurrected a piece of needlepoint that I haven't touched for nearly three year, in fact since I took up weaving. It took me a while to remember the basic tent stitch, but I am up and running now, and will get this finished before I start on the blanket.