Differential Shrinkage Scarf - Progress

We are having a very nice summer and what with camping, gardening and messing about in boats I have spent a lot of time Not Weaving. Momentum has picked up now, mainly because the scarf is intended as a Christmas present.

Sleying the reed

In a my last post I wrote about how I cleaned the reed. It ended up a nice dark grey colour which unfortunately was an almost exact match with the dark grey of one of my weft yarns. Needless to say I had a couple of sleying errors and they were close to the centre of the reed.

In the past I have balanced the reed on boxes when sleying; silly, it is much easier to hang it from the superstructure.

Open sett means see through cloth

When I started the weaving I had a problem because I found it difficult  to see the fell clearly and judge my beat. The set is very open (12 ppi for the Mora and 16 ppi for the Merino) so the cloth is see through with lots of visual distraction coming through from below.

Three lights at the front of the loom

I put extra lighting onto the loom. The little clip on lights that I have put onto the beater uprights are invaluable - I use them all the time and move them around as needed

Light behind the beater

The sample

In addition to the three lights shown above there is a neon light (turned off in the photo) attached to the back of the top beater bar. This shines down and through the red giving a good view of the fell.










This is the sample. I have made it larger than I normally do because it will be needed for determining the amount of finishing that I will need to do to get the right degree of shrinkage and pucker.

Measuring 14 ppi 

 In theory I should be beating the red Mora wool to 12 ppi and the grey Merino to 16 ppi. Swapping every 2"proved too much for me so I have settled for 14 ppi throughout. I could probably have set the whole warp at 14 ppi.

Washers (nuts) in the boat shuttle

I normally use end feed shuttles but because this CB loom beater does not have a shuttle race on the bottom batten I decided to use lighter boat shuttles. I had a problem with the spools catching and snagging but a couple of nuts serving as washers has fixed the problem.


I am now well into the actual scarf having woven about 2' today in a couple of gentle sessions. I should make it for Christmas!

Rusty Reed

The best laid plans and all that but I finally found some time to wind the warp for the differential  shrinkage scarf, beam it and thread it. Apart from domestic distractions it took a bit of time because I managed to twist one of the warp chains and it took a lot of realignment. My only concern is that I don't know how I did it so I shall probably do it again.



Memo to self; check reeds before starting a project. I was ready to sley but found that my 12 dent reed wasn't wide enough. I found another 12 dent reed stashed away but it was in a bit of a state. So I assembled some wire brushes, emery paper and rust cleaner and set to with a will. The reed needed two applications of rust cleaner and a lot of rubbing and brushing; the results are remarkably good as the before and after pictures below show!

The rust removal product I used is called Dr Fixit. It comes from India and is formulated for the treatment of corroded steel (rebars is the technical term as I learnt from the tin) in reinforced concrete. I should write to the manufacturer to let them know that it is pretty good on reeds as well.

Differential Shrinkage Scarf - Planning

I wove a differential shrinkage scarf 4 years ago and I can still remember the excitement when the yarns in my sample stated to shrink and pull everything into interesting shapes.

In planning this next project I have used  my notes from last time, the good stuff in Handwoven ( articles by Stefanie  Meisel are particularly relevant to this project) and the articles in the "puckers and poufs" section of
The Best of Weavers Fabrics That Go Bump with particular attention to the one by Liz Williamson.

The shrinking yarn of choice in most of the Handwoven articles is Jaggerspun 18/2 Merino. Because of the prohibitive costs of getting yarns posted from the US I was delighted to find that Yarn Barn in Melbourne stocks 2/20NM Merino.  My non shrinking yarn will be Borgs 20/2 Mora which I get from Glenora Weaving & Wool.

I took about a yard of each of these yarns, rolled them into a ball and the massaged them vigorously in hot water and plenty of soap. The Mora resolutely refused to cling to itself but the Merino formed a very satisfactory felted clump. That will do for sampling for the time being.

Based on my last scarf and the articles I shall allow for 25% shrinkage in length and 30% in width.
As for sett, I am going for 2/3rds of the plain weave sett. The warp length works out at 154" and the width will be 18".

The loom is ready, the yarn and warping wheel are waiting so lets get at it! 

Counterbalance Loom Modifications

The Brighton Honeycomb scarves are off the loom and waiting to have their fringes twisted and be tidied up and  washed. As I have six scarves at this stage I have bought myself a fringe twister. When the weather sorts itself out (it seems to be either very hot with the air filled with smoke from the bush fires or cold and stormy) I shall set myself up outside for a bit of twisting.

I have come across an Australian source of 20/2 NM  feltable wool and have bought a cone (elephant grey). I already have some non-shrinkable (Mora 20/2) so I am going to weave some differential shrinkage scarves. I can't use my Glimakra as I have a bit of warp left on it after completing the Brighton Honeycomb scarves. I have re-sleyed this for plain weave and plan to do some Monks Belt on it. So I will be using my Counterbalance loom for the shrinking scarves.

Based on how I found it the last time I used this loom I have made a couple of modifications. The loom had two pulleys mounted on a top beam. These pulleys support the two rollers that support the four shafts.

I have replaced the pulleys with a single top roller. I found that the pulleys were to prone to act independently of each other and not return to their original starting point after changing a shed.  In a previous post I quoted Peter Collingwood  "To ensure the shafts rise and fall without tilting, don’t just wrap their support cords around the rollers, but actually fix them to the rollers".  With the single top roller I can attach the cords which I couldn't do with the the metal pulleys.

The other thing that I have done is attach the top roller to the cross beam with turnbuckles so that I can precisely control the height of the harnesses. Texsolv is brilliant but can only be adjusted in half inch increments.  To do this I had to raise the height of the cross bar with a couple of blocks.

It all seems to be working but the final proof of the pudding will be when I get a warp on. I had a good look at the LeClerc CB looms when working all of this out. In my mind this was all going to be done is nicely finished wood but economy and practicality means that I have used a plastic pipe for the new top roller and a couple of yoga bricks to raise the height of the top beam. I will put a few cable ties on to hold it all together. If it works that will be fine but I really should have a look at getting a slightly more elegant solution.

Cape Breton Coverlet Patterns

Weaving the Brighton Honeycomb scarves is proceeding nicely; I am now on the third scarf where I am using  a yellow weft. For the second scarf I used the rib treadling and a deep copper coloured weft.

In my previous post I was writing about why I think that my CB loom will be good for overshot. I have also been thinking about what overshot I would like to weave. I was browsing through various drafts and documents when I came across a monograph Cape Breton Coverlet Patterns which I had downloaded ages ago and completely forgotten about. It was written by Lou Tate and is based on the research of Florence Mackley who collected coverlet drafts from the Cape Breton region. These drafts came across with the migrants from the Western Isles in the first half of the 19th Century. 

One of the seductive things about the internet is that one can wander down interesting lines of enquiry to fascinating places so I went via Lou Tate to the Kentucky Weaver and the Little Loomhouse but I managed to put these to one side for future exploration and drag myself back to the Cape Breton coverlets. 

It is a lovely paper with drafts, photograph, background information, ideas and practical information on using the patterns, drafts and drawdowns. The clip below of one of the pages gives the flavour of it.

My initial reaction on first reading was "They are drafts Jim but not as we know them "  but with a bit of application and following the explanations in the monograph and Mary Meigs Atwater's  pages explaining different systems of notation (The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-Weaving, Chapter 12) I was able to work them out.

My rendition of the Snowdrop draft from above looks like this.

                       

One thing that I would love to find out is why, as far as I can discern, there is no remnant of coverlet weaving tradition in the western part of Scotland? Twills and tweeds, yes; but no coverlets. 

Loom for weaving overshot

Whilst weaving the Brighton Honeycomb scarves my thoughts have been turning to what I should be doing next with my counterbalance loom.  I had decided some time ago that I would try some overshot on it and that in fact overshot would be better woven on the counterbalance than on a dobby loom.

My reasoning is that on a computerised dobby loom it is not that easy to vary what you are weaving from the draft that is being used by the software. This is fine when you know exactly what it is that you want to weave. When weaving overshot there are circumstances where the number of picks woven of a particular lift will depend on how well the pattern is squaring up which in itself is dependent of the grist and compressibility of the weft yarns.

The inestimable Mary Meigs Atwater explains it much better;

"In weaving - if it is intended to produce the pattern "as drawn in"- each block must be woven with the number of weft shots required to make it square. The number of weft shots required varies with the weight of weft-material used, so that it is impossible to write down treadling directions that will be correct for all materials. The weaver must use judgement in the matter." (The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-Weaving- Mary Meigs Atwater, Page 116)

When sampling there is also a need for flexibility - if a particular treadling sequence is not to your liking then you want to switch to something else immediately. This flexibility is easy on a treadle loom, not so easy on a dobby loom.

I like reading what Mary Meigs Atwater wrote and I am fascinated by overshot patterns. I know that it sounds a bit silly but I feel that if I use my elderly counterbalance I shall somehow be a little closer to the weavers of the past. It's the "vibes" man. 

Brighton Honeycomb

I like Brighton Honeycomb. It is some time since I wove some but I have a few scarves that are favourites, just the thing to wear when having a nap, admiring the view from the top of the Rockefeller Building or just off camping.

Carol Strickler (#21 & #22 - A Weavers Book of 8 Shaft Patterns) gives two treadlings, the second of which produces a rib effect (Black Scarf - Rockefeller). The left hand draft below is a copy from Strickler.

One of the nice things about Brighton Honeycomb is that if you thread your selvedge threads on shafts 3 and 6 you get a plain or basket weave selvedge. The draft on the right shows what I am weaving. It is the 8 shaft draft extended to 24 shafts with selvedges and header rows added.

I am currently working on the trial/sample area, sorting out my beat, the shuttle tension and the warp and selvedge tensions. I had one crossed warp thread which was easily fixed.  The warp is two close shades of orange and I will be using a red weft.

Weaving 8 shaft Brighton Honeycomb in a single or analogous colours is just a starting point for this structure. There is quite a lot of information on the web. I like Priyank Goyal's notes, and Posselt has some interesting things to say, particularly on the use of colour.

I am using a twill sett which seems to work fine for scarves. If I have room on this warp I shall re-sley to a looser set for a small sample - shawls perhaps?

Selvedge Rollers

In an earlier post, Back of the loom, I showed some design possibilities for Selvedge Rollers. I have now come up with my version (Mark 1)  in which I have plagiarized a little bit from each of the ideas.

I bought two spinning wheel spools and mounted them on a long wooden dowel. The dowel is attached by four metal brackets to a narrow beam that sits in the currently unused mountings of the secondary warp beam. The selvedge threads are wound onto the spools and dynamic tension is applied by nylon line wrapped over the rollers and weighted with fishing sinkers.

 The system works but already I can see plenty of scope for improvement. This will all have to wait otherwise I shall never get going with some weaving. 

Threading with the AVL Cross Maker

I set out to thread a warp today on my 24S Glimakra but ran into problems. I had the threading cross on lease sticks suspended as usual  right behind the heddles. Note the cunning use of the snitch knot to get the lease sticks at the right height!

Normally reaching through the gap between the heddles (24 shafts worth of them) to pick up the next thread from the cross is fine but because I have slightly wrenched my shoulder playing tennis I found this tricky today.

My solution to the problem has been to move the threading cross to in front of the heddles. I have used the cross maker from my AVL warping wheel to act as a little set of lease sticks and the photograph shows the rather industrial way that I am holding it in place. The selected threads are easily slid of the ends of the sticks. I thread in blocks of four, selecting and grouping the correct heddles and then taking the threads off the cross. I still have to reach through to bring the threads into the correct position for threading but it this is much easier on the shoulder (and the eyes) than trying to get hold of threads that are 2 feet away.

I have a rubber band (not shown) that I put into place on the cross maker to hold the threads firmly in place. I put this on every time I get up from my sitting position which is the danger time for knocking things out of kilter. I take it off again when I am settled back down again and ready to resume threading.

The next photo shows the total set up. The ubiquitous milk crate ( I have seen a students bedsit completely furnished with these) is just the right height for a seat. The loom controller foot pedal is sitting on the knee beam and always remember to take your watch off before starting to thread.

I have a special threading draft that lifts each shaft in a block of four in turn. This is when I select the heddle. After I have threaded them I use the draft to lift all four shafts together so I can check that all is correct.

Ray's Scarf

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

We  went camping over the weekend at Crowdy Bay National Park . We met up with our friends who are members of a bushwalking group. They all shot off on some long walks  but I stayed close to the campsite and limited my activity to wandered off into the bush a couple of times and making a short foray along the beach. I positioned myself with camera, binoculars and did a bit of fringe twisting whilst letting nature come to me.






This scarf is one of the last three that I wove from a very colourful warp that has kept me happy from months.

Whilst there I caught up with Ray who I first met when we went camping at Knorrits Flat. On his travels around Australia Ray has collected wool in different conditions and quantities and from a variety of sources including derelict weaving sheds.  A friend spun this wool for him and lent Ray a loom on which he wove this scarf; his first bit of weaving for over fifty years. 


The colours are so natural and organic and the blending is lovely. I hope that the picture of the scarf draped over a tree and contrasting with the bark shows what I mean.

It just so happens that I am starting spinning classes next Saturday and I have already researched how to dye with Australian plants. I have even bought the necessary  mordants.

I think that seeing Ray's scarf will have given me the inspirational impetus to move a project from theory to practise.

.

Warp Swap

Having got the CB loom polished, assembled, beamed, entered and gated I settled down to weave but after awhile I started to have subversive thoughts. The gist of the thoughts were that it was silly to be weaving a twill scarf on this (CB) loom when I had a perfectly good semi automated loom (Glimakra 24S with Toika loom controller) that would do the job more efficiently. I debated with myself  on this for a while but was reluctant to logically follow an argument that would render this CB loom redundant and eBay fodder.  Then I remembered my lurking project that would probably be better on a completely manual loom - Overshot. I'll go through my reasoning in another post but my first priority was to clear the CB loom.

The objective as to move the warp from the CB loom to the Glimakra.

I cut out the weaving I had done and rewound the warp back on to the warp beam. I took the warp beam off the CB loom and suspended it over the warp beam of the Glimakra.

This picture shows the warp with its lease sticks in place and tied onto the apron rod of the Glimakra.

To get a bit of tension I slung a couple of weight over the CB warp beam.

The picture below shows the situation half way through the process. The warp is being wound from the CB warp beam onto the Glimakra warp beam. The CB warp beam is suspended from the Glimakra frame directly above the Glimakra warp beam. Lease sticks are in place to maintain the cross and tension is supplied by some weights.

It was not plain sailing all the way. At some time during the initial beaming of this warp I managed to cross over some of the bouts which meant that when winding from one beam to another there were threads that crossed over each other and were reluctant to move smoothly through the lease sticks and pilled together. The next time I beam a warp I shall pay particular attention to see if I can work out where my mistake lies.

It is all done now so on to the next stages. I have had a touch of flu over the past few days and have used my lucid moments to study overshot drafts and change my mind a hundred times as to which pattern shall be the first cab of the rank.

Temples - Weaving

When I was asked if I saw any interesting temples on my trip to India I said "yes". I think that virtually every weaver I saw in India was using one. Some were very basic but they all did the job.

When I was getting ready to weave on my CB loom I found that I didn't have a temple for the width of my warp. This is what I came up with and it does very well!

Gating the Loom

Luther Hooper got it right. He didn't mention that when one is doing it for the first time and has no "ideas as to the best way of adjusting the various parts for the work" one has to do the job several times before the ideas begin to materialise. I used instructions from the web (Glimakra and LeClerc have some good stuff and I particularly liked this document;- Hand Weaving ). It was only after three attempts at tieing up this counterbalance loom that I started getting a separation of warp layers that looked like sheds.

My eureka insights were;

- Immobilise the harnesses in their correct position before attaching the lamms and treadles

- Everything must be either exactly horizontal or exactly vertical (maybe treadles excepted) and it must be balanced

- To ensure the shafts rise and fall without tilting, don’t just wrap their support cords around the rollers, but actually fix them to the rollers

The last point is a quote from Peter Collingwood that I found at the archives of the a Rugtalk List (another site that is well worth looking at).

I am now getting shed that I can work with; I need to make a few minor adjustments but weaving should start real soon now!

Offset Twills

The pattern that I have threaded is "Offset or Skip Herringbone" from  page 27 A Handweavers Pattern Book - Marguerite P. Davison. I am using two close shades of orange and the resulting scarf using a black weftshould look a bit like the picture on the left.

The draft in PixeLoom looks like this;














MPD got the pattern from Oelsner - A Handbook of Weaves where there is a section on Offset Twills the drafts of which can be found at Handweaving.net. Such a plethora of resources for the weaver and so much to explore.

ENTERING THE WARP IN HARNESS AND REED

Hand Loom Weaving Plain & Ornamental (1910) - Luther Hooper


Nowadays we refer to this process as threading the heddles and sleying the reed but on a traditional loom"entering" is exactly what happens; you have to get inside it. I love the warning.

 These pictures here from Luther Hooper show and Old English Loom and the same loom prepared for entering.





Now here is the similar thing on my loom. I took off the breast beam, the knee beam and the cloth beam. The stool was too high but I found that a plank stretched between the two sides of the loom frame was at just the right height.

So as to get the lease sticks at the right height I clamped and clipped them to the back beam.

From experience I know that in order to be able to thread the heddles happily you must be able to sit and work with a straight back and see the lease sticks and the heddle eyes without any contortions. On some of my looms I have not been able to achieve this, but the setup here was perfect. Threading was a doddle!

I borrowed some boxes of pasta to hold the reed at the correct height for sleying. I started off with it too low but my back protested so I raised the reed and and everything was fine.