Weaverly

829 on the Loom

The draft I finally chose for crepe sampling on the 8-shaft loom bears the exciting name of "829."

Here it is with three repeats, warpwise & weftwise.

I was looking for something with longish floats, as the sett of the Zephyr yarn after weaving a small header appeared a trifle too close at 28 epi. The yarn is quite sticky and requires constant vigilance while weaving. Good for character building.

On the face of the cloth, here seen on the loom, weft picks # 1 and 8 have skips of 6. This isn't obvious in the draft, but in the cloth it creates a rhythmic crosswise line. 

Click to enlarge.

I am enjoying the variety of the dotted lines produced in the warp. The warp color distribution is random, and the floats are long or short depending on where the color falls in the threading order. On the reverse side, here seen on the loom as the cloth wraps around the breast beam, the long 6-pick warp floats are even more dramatic. (Are you with me? The floats of 6 appear in the weft on the face, and in the warp on the reverse.)

As the Zephyr yarn is 50% wool, I expect to see considerable difference in this cloth after tension is off and the cloth is wet finished.

One final note: I am using a floating selvedge for this draft, a royal PITA. This project definitely qualifies as Slow Cloth.

Order From Chaos

I Googled "Order From Chaos" just to see what would turn up, and was I ever amazed! It's the name of an extreme metal band from the 80's, a self-help book, a personal organization business, several blogs, a scientific theory, and at least a zillion youtube videos.

But Order From Chaos also describes what I do every time I put on a new warp. So here it is, folks. Isn't this the prettiest sight? This is the after picture. Be sure to look at yesterday's post for before.

 

Bird's Nest

Or is it a mare's nest? Regardless, it is a muddled mess. The Zephyr warp is tied on to the dummy warp. Crepy? Definitely. But it will all straighten out eventually. Trust me.

Ready to Tie On

Here are the warp chains, ready to tie on. I love that Zephyr yarn. It makes winding the chains such a satisfying experience. 

I've been noticing that my last few warps have all been canteloupe-colored, even though they've been of different yarns. I'm wondering if there's a hidden message in all this. Probably not.

Rosy-Fingered Dawn

As the sun peeps over the horizon and illuminates the very tops of the trees behind my house, the view from the kitchen window looks like this for about five minutes every morning in October. It is glorious. Maybe not so much rosy-fingered dawn as flaming sunrise. 

 

A Dummy Warp

Fortune favored me with the loan of a wonderful 8-shaft loom. This morning I threaded it with a dummy warp, straight draw. I want to weave a few 8-shaft crepe scarves from my stash of Jaggerspun Zephyr (wool/silk), and don't want to waste a bit of the precious stuff. So I will be tying onto the dummy. 

What I Do While Watching the World Series

This is half a bobbin of plied merino. Mindless. Relaxing. The best thing to do while watching baseball on TV (except for knitting).

Peacock Feathers - Not What They Seem

Many years ago I purchased some wool roving for spinning. It was an impulse purchase; the label said it contained peacock feathers. How could I resist? If I looked closely, I could see bits and pieces of the iridescent blue feathers embedded in the otherwise dark red wool. How romantic! Only Rumpelstiltskin could spin straw into gold, but I would spin peacock feathers into yarn!

The yarn, when it was spun up, looked like…red yarn, I'm sorry to say. Not a feather or an iridescence to be seen. If you looked very closely, you could see tiny feathery projections coming from the yarn, but that was it. Nice yarn, but no romance.

Fast forward to recent lampas warp on my TC-1, and the following fabric:

If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see the feathery projections in the red yarn. It doesn't say peacock, but it is a very nice fabric. I made it up into a wrist pouch, and it's included in the new offerings I have just posted in my Etsy shop. Please stop by and take a look. 

A Workshop at SAFF

Yesterday I attended a workshop with Chad Alice Hagen at SAFF; Chad's topic was Make a Handbound Book with your own Handmade Felt. Now I've never made any handmade felt, but I wanted to meet Chad and maybe learn a few new bookmaking techniques. Chad made her own felt available for purchase for those who didn't have any of their own to bring. Lucky me!

Chad's a wonderful teacher. I think I learned more about teaching than about bookmaking, or at least it was a close call. She's funny, empowering, persistent, and very well organized.

Here she is demonstrating folding signatures:

…and sewing the longstitch spine:

The examples she brought of her own books were inspiring:

Isn't this the most beautiful spine?

She did a hilarious demo of how to whittle a stick closure (amazingly, there was no blood shed in this class!).

I made a small book using Chad's resist-dyed felt as my cover. She showed us how to use matte medium to strengthen the felt before cutting it to shape. My book at first had a button, but when I got home I removed the button and just left the leather wrapping cord. The felt really needs no further embellishment.

While I was at the workshop, Bruce spent the day strolling through the fair, camera in hand.  All of the following pictures are his. Thanks, Bruce!

I'll bet some of you know who this guy is. Here's a hint: he makes beautiful chairs and weavers' benches. 

 

Baseball (Home Style) and Repper

Thursday was Little League night. Heavens, was it cold! And this fellow played without a jacket. Says he can't pitch in long sleeves.

His sister, in another part of the park, played right field. I think everyone was glad to get home and warm up.

Next day, in my nice toasty studio, I wove a few more Repper samples. Here's my favorite, seen from afar and close up. These are jacquard double weave.

The dobby box is on its way west for an upgrade. Hope that will solve the recurring solenoid problems.