Museum Month & Spinning and Weaving Week

Its October and that means free admission for kids at over 30 museums in the San Diego area. http://sandiegomuseumcouncil.org/kidsfree  Make sure to visit the website for details, and download/save the coupons. Some good bets; Birch Aquarium at Scripps, the USS Midway,  and Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.

And right after I posted the above paragraph, I was getting caught up on reading blogs and found reference to National Spinning and Weaving Week. Really? I'd never heard of it before, so I thought I'd mention it here, just in case you'd never heard of it either. Here is a link; http://www.weavespindye.org/spinning-weaving-week . October 6-12. I've seen mention of teams and competitions, I'll skip those and just make sure to give some attention to my spinning and weaving projects.

Weaving Wednesday

Uhhmmm. So far, no weaving today. But there are a few hours left before I head to bed. I'm sooooo close to finishing napkin 4. I bet the actual weaving part only takes 20 minutes. (Update: Yeah, it only took 10 minutes.) The hem stitching, that will take longer. I'll save that for tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day...

I'm so happy to have a finished object to report! The socks are finally done. I made the heel too wide, but they are still very wearable. It was fun to work the cables.

 

So much fun that I decided to make more cables. This time on a pair of fingerless mitts.

This is some hand spun Shetland, so soft and warm.

Weaving Wednesday

It seems I suffer from 'other thing-itis'. You know what I mean, don't you? For me, it's that feeling that happens when I'm knitting, and thinking I'd rather be doing that other thing. Spinning or weaving. Or even just working on a different knitting project. Note: I'm just going to ignore how this feeling is nearly always present during, say, household chores.

So lately, while I'm spinning, which isn't all that often, I find myself wishing I were weaving with my handspun yarn. Not the napkin project that's been sitting on the loom for the last year and one half. I want to do Some Other Thing. With knitting, it's fairly straight forward to start another project; just grab some yarn and another set of needles. At worst, go out and purchase the same. Really not a bad thing at all. "Oh darn it, I have to go out and buy some more yarn and needles." Actually, that sounds like a good thing.

Even with spinning, if I feel I simply must start working with some other fiber project, it's easy enough to grab a fresh bobbin and get going. At worst, I might need to wind some yarn off a bobbin first. No need to purchase more fiber. There is plenty here.

But, with weaving things are different. A project on the loom isn't easily set aside for some other project. It must be finished. It can be cut from the loom, but not easily restarted. And looms, well I just don't think I have the space or resources to run out and pick up another loom so I can work on a different project.

This is all a long way of saying I want to finish the napkin project so I can start something else. So at least on Wednesdays, I'll make sure and take some time for weaving. The 4th napkin is nearly finished, just over 100 picks to go. Maybe they'll be done by the end of March!

3rd Napkin Finished

I thought for sure that this was number 4. Thank goodness for the blog. Now to decide on the next pattern.

Notes

I actually managed some weaving the other night. I'm so happy that I was just weaving a simple twill, it made it easy to figure out where I was in the pattern after a 2 week break. Now if I could only remember which napkin out of the six I'm working on. I'm pretty sure I wrote some notes somewhere...

Betty Mac gets some new duds

A-way back in July (how can last month seem so far away already?) when I bought Betty Mac the loom, the lovely people from Macomber Loom told me that included in the price of the loom would be the reed of my choice, and a double back beam, aka warp separator beam. I ordered a 12 dpi reed, and I guess I get to keep the 7 dpi reed that came with. I didn't need the double back beam, so I said, "just ship it with the reed, once the reed is ready."

While I was waiting for everything, I decided I also needed a raddle, and a set of casters. Everything arrived last Thursday. The reed, raddle and double back beam don't need any installing, once I need them I can just put them in place.

raddle and double back beam

double back beam. the loom has another warp beam down below, and the warp from that beam would come up and over this. I think.

ohhh, shiny. the reed.

 
But the casters required installation. They didn't really come with instructions, just a drilling template. (Actually, nothing came with instructions.) This was a bit of a challenge. Here's a pic of the drilling template;

The side of the template you can't see says "Back Left", and in this picture we are looking at what would be the left side of the loom, if we were sitting at it. So the side that says "Back Left" is against the back left of the loom. The little blocks of wood nailed to the template are spacers to help line everything up, I think. The other writing says " Drill all holes 17/64" tap at 5/16". Looking at everything, and this blog, I thought maybe I knew what I was doing, or that I could at least figure it out. I used a C-clamp to hold the template secure, and I drilled the three holes. (I had no idea why 3 holes, I just went with it.) Then I moved the template to the other side of the loom and did the same.

I made a trip to the hardware store to buy the correct tap (5/16"x18), and took along one of the bolts to make sure I bought the correct size. Its a big tap that needs a big tap handle, or a pair of Vise-grip pliers. After tapping the holes, I sat down and puzzled out how to attach the casters. This is what I came up with.

These are the casters in the stored position. To engage them, you grab the handle and pull up, until they look like this,

On the left side, its pretty straight forward. On the right side, the warp beam brake release pedal is sort of in the way. Since my loom is only 32", I can push it around on 3 casters. If I had a heavier loom, I'd move the brake pedal out of the way. The bolts that go through the casters come loaded with a bunch of washers. The washer stack acts as a spacer to provide clearance for the caster wheel, so it doesn't bind up on the loom. I think.

So now that the casters are installed, I can go back to weaving.

Second Napkin Lessons

Halfway through weaving the second napkin, using a rose-path pattern, and this is what it looks like;

It only looks like this from the side. From where I sit at the loom, I can only see the pattern in the darker stripes. This creates challenges in seeing any mess-ups I might have made in the treadling sequence. Using this pattern, along with the color changes, well, I'm finding it harder to keep track of where I am. As in, "Let's see, that last pick was done on treadle 2, but was the pick before on treadle 3 or treadle one?" I've been right maybe 50% of the time? Now I'm experimenting with leaving sticky notes on the fell to remind me where I left off. Clearly, when I get to more complicated patterns, I'm going to need a system.

Now, its off to spin group!

Scipio Supervises

He seems to like the noise and motion of the shuttle as I throw it across the warp. The weaving of the first napkin is finished. This is the sad part of weaving. The finished napkin stays on the cloth beam, waiting for the other napkins to be made. So its hard to play show and tell.

Better Pictures

Or, how the weaving is coming along so far. The earlier post's pictures were from my cell phone camera, and it didn't want to get a nice sharp picture of the warp and fell (that's what the warp and weft become after woven together, but still on the loom. Fell.) Maybe it wasn't able to focus on the threads, or maybe there was condensation on the lens. It's been rather tropical feeling around here lately.

One of the knots in the repaired warp thread is barely visible in the upper left third of the photo. But you'll only see it if you click on the picture to make it bigger.

Warped at (roughly) 24 epi (ends per inch) through a 7 dpi (dents per inch) reed, threaded alternating 3 ends (threads) and 4 ends per slot. I'll weave these napkins in twill patterns. Normally, twill made with this thread should be sett (not typo, but yet another weaving term) at 28 epi, not 24. There is a good reason for this, but right now I don't remember what is it. The kit instructions said these napkins could be woven at 24 epi, for more drape. Is drapier a word? This first napkin is a straight twill. My plan is to try a different weave pattern for each napkin.

This morning I talked to Eddie at Macomber Loom. He said my package is shipping today! I am so tickled that I bought this loom right from the Macomber booth. Its so fun to call, and have them know who I am, in a real how-are-you sort of way. I called to follow up on a voice mail message I'd left on Friday, asking if I could add a raddle (its a warping tool, to help keep things organized and hopefully make it easier to warp back to front) to my order. And since they knew who I was when I left the message, they got the raddle ordered in time to ship out with everything else!

Looming tragedy

Or, Just When I Think I've Got This
There I was, quietly weaving away, feeling very content in finally weaving. Not perfect weaving, still making some mistakes, but nothing major. Just learning mistakes. I remembered the pair of scissors left on top of the loom, on the castle, and briefly wondered if they posed any danger.  I tossed the notion aside. Even if they fell, they were closed. Those scissors wouldn't be a problem.
Bam! Next thing I knew, those scissors fell from the castle onto the warp, severing 3 threads in the process. Akkk!
"No problem," I thought to myself, "one of the videos I watched showed a couple of great ways to repair a broken warp thread. I'll just turn on my computer and watch that part of the video."
I was still feeling pretty philosophical about about the learning opportunities this weaving project was offering. Heck, here was another chance to a useful technique. Just turn on the computer, sit down and watch the video, repair the warp. A pretty good plan, I thought.
Except for the part about turning on the computer. Push the button and... nothing. No whir and hum of fans and hard drives starting up, no beep, nothing. Silence. Silence echoing in my head. My simple, wonderful plan for fixing the warp and learning a new technique, shot down in flames. And then it got embarrassing, because I'd copied the video to DVD, in case I wanted to watch it on the telly. A great backup plan, if I'd used the correct DVD disc type. But I didn't. Another plan in ashes.
By this time, I was feeling challenged, in an "I will find a way to fix this" way. I knew one of my weaving books showed a way to repair a broken (cut) warp thread. Or three. I looked through the books I'd bought and finally found what I wanted in the little instruction book that came with my rigid heddle loom. I found that funny.
So the warp threads are tied back up, and the weaving continues. I replaced the power supply in my computer, and once again it whirs and hums when I hit the power switch. Maybe tomorrow I'll find time to watch that part of the video dealing with broken warp thread repair.

Weavage!

I think I fixed all the problems I could find... I'm finally weaving! And learning the next set of lessons.
Some things I learned about warping; Find a place to hang the dang warping board before using it next time. Propping it up on the sofa is a good way to end up with a sore back.
Things I learned about sleying the reed and threading the heddles; If the reed is marked 7 dpi, well there's probably a reason. Its okay to measure it to be sure. Its not very smart to go ahead and sley as if the reed were 8 dpi. Changing the threading  pattern from 3 ends per dent to alternating 3/4 can be done, but if the reed is already partly threaded, it won't be pretty. This will cause (problems) learning opportunities later.
There aware numerous ways to mess up threading the heddles, without the mess up being obvious.
With 3 or 4 threads per dent, those threads can still find a way to get tangled. Beneath that perfect (finally!) looking warp is a potential mess. Have a refreshing beverage and settle in for a little more work.
No matter what that nice lady in the video says, warping back to front might just work better for me and my loom.

Getting Warped

Spent most of this week working on this. And taking advantage of the so many opportunities to learn from my mistakes. There's still more to fix. I hope the weaving lasts longer than the warping.

Now, If I Could

Just get him to count the ends while I'm winding...

They're Multiplying!

I started out with this loom.

Then I added this one.

I'm not sure what's going on here, but today, this showed up! What the heck?

 Is this how new looms are made?

A family portrait.

Many thanks to my friend Myrriam, who found this little loom at a garage sale this morning. Now I have a loom family.

Sample, sample, sample

Maybe I'm finally learning from my mistakes. Maybe. I two plied (I really want to write plyed, but spell checker keeps insisting that is wrong. Even if it looks right.) pretty much all the singles I've been spinning for the Cover That Armchair project. The Devon long wool and the Leicester long wool have been sitting around waiting. I got the Shetland and the Romney plied. And, because there were odd bits left over, some of the Leicester was plied with Romney or Shetland.

I warped the loom, using some of each yarn so I could see how they behave. And whether or not I'd done a good job with my spinning. Spinning for weaving is different than spinning for knitting, I think. I decided to make the samples on the rigid heddle loom, since I don't really yet know what I'm doing with Betty the Mac loom.

Right off the bat (funny, I want to type batt) I made a mistake, I started warping using the warping peg, so I warped right thru the heddle that was already sitting on the loom. That heddle is 7.5 dpi, pretty much too big for most of the yarns I spun. This didn't occur to me until I'd pretty much gotten the loom warped and all the ends tied on to the cloth beam. Believing that one should maximize the learning potential from non-life or limb threatening mistakes, I left the warp as it was and started weaving. I figured that later I could cut the warp and re-thread through the 10 dpi heddle.

Hmmm. Well,  I didn't like the Devon too much while spinning, and this held true with the weaving. I spun it too heavy, and didn't put in enough twist or ply. Plus, it smells funny, from whatever oils were used during processing. I think its too hairy, and it's not holding up to the tension on the warp. I only bought 4 oz. of top (so called), there's not an entire fleece sitting around waiting to be used up.

The Leicester is weak in some places, but so lustrous and soft. I'll spin the next batch a bit tighter. I love this fiber and want to include it in this project. I think its also looks really nice plied with either the Romney or the Shetland.

The Romney and the Shetland are both a bit over-spun. A bit twisty. And spun finer than the other samples. But, they both hold up very well as warp. Especially the Romney. I think I'll use the Romney as my primary warp yarn. The Shetland will work for warp or weft. I could try lightly cabling the Romney 2-ply I have left to see what it does...

I wove until, well, I got tired of playing around, and cut the warp and re-threaded using the 10dpi heddle. Then I wove some more. Until I was bored. I cut the next sample off the loom, and tied fringe on all the samples and got them ready for washing.

This morning I photographed and measured, and then tossed the samples in the sink with hot water and dish detergent.

Here are the before pictures.

7.5 dpi

10 dpi

And the after pictures.

7.5 dpi

10 dpi

Both samples shrank a bit, as expected. And both got this interesting texture, at least in certain areas. Maybe because of the extra twist in the yarn? I don't really know. But in this case, I like the result.

Shameless Plug

When I went looking for more information about Macomber looms, I couldn't find any direct web site for the company. It turns out they just launched their web site earlier this month. If you want to check it out, here is the link. Macomber Loom.

Practice

Since the Betty Mac the loom is already warped, I decided to practice. Yup Betty Mac. That's her name. I'm not even sure I like it, but that's her name. Betty for short is okay too.

Anyway, Betty showed up at my house with this yellow, orange, red warp already set up. Looks like worsted weight wool. I've ignored this warp for a few days, but it isn't going away. I don't have any yarns in my stash this color, and, frankly, I think its kind of ugly. But I don't want to waste it. Maybe I could use it for practice?

Before I started practicing, I wanted to know what I'd be practicing, so my first task was to figure out how to read a weaving draft. I was using a rigid heddle loom before, and mostly ignored the pattern draft stuff I'd read earlier. This time around, I payed more attention. At first, it made my head hurt. Then the part about the threading draft started making sense. The weaving draft and the shaft combination took a little more time, but things got easier once I stopped over thinking everything. 

I went back and forth, looking at the book (The Handweaver's Pattern Directory) and looking at Betty and decided that her harnesses were warped like for a tabby or twill weave. Perfect. I just needed to change the way the pedals were connected, and then everything made sense. I grabbed some cotton yarn and started practicing.

I think its fun to see the different patterns, and how the weft yarns change to look of the warp yarns.

It Followed Me Home...

And I'm keeping it!

just love that warp yarn that was left on...

 That is a Macomber 32" Ad-A-Harness Mac. Here's the story;

Saturday some friends and I headed up to Long Beach for the HGA Convergence. HGA stand for Handweavers Guild of America, and the Convergence is their annual conference. Like most conferences, there are workshops and classes and forums, exhibits and vendors and manufacturers. Loom manufactures.

Our plan included some light shopping, and heavy research on different types of looms. I was so not intending on buying a loom, that I drove my MINI up. Plenty of room for a passenger and our fiber-y purchases. Because I wasn't buying a loom. Just researching. So I'd know what to get later. If I'd been planning on buying a loom, I would've driven the truck!

So we sat a different looms, and asked questions, and I practiced throwing shuttles and very nice people answered our questions and told us lovely things about the looms in their booths.

We saw Leclerc, and Glimraka (the Ideal is very nice) and I'd heard of those before. But when we got to Macomber, I'd never heard about them. Fortunately, my friends had, and had heard good things too. The Macomber people had brought along their 32" loom to demonstrate, and they didn't want to ship it all the way back to Maine. I don't blame them. Wow, it was marked with a very good price, and included extras.

I didn't want to walk away, but, I was very stern with myself, and thanked the nice Macomber people and continued on. It took me at least 20 minutes to really settle in with feeling good about sticking to my plan. We checked a few more loom manufacturers and then started shopping.

Every so often, our shopping brought us near the Macomber booth, and I'd see that loom sitting there, and I'd think, "Well, its too bad I'm not ready to buy a loom. That is a great price for that loom." And my friends and I would continue browsing and shopping.

I bought a little silk to spin, 

and saw this cute Owl bag and so bought the fabric to make it.

The booth with the cute fabric (lots of Japanese fabrics), was in line-of-sight with the Macomber booth. And the loom. I felt done with my shopping, so I decided to make another pass around the looms. Back by the Glimraka Ideal and then the Macomber. It was still for sale. All of a sudden, it hit me hard. If I walked away from that loom, I just knew I'd regret it. No amount of stern talking to myself was going to change that realization. I don't like regret, not one bit. I whipped out my phone, and called my husband.

I'd already sent a text to DH earlier that morning, alerting him to the amazing deal before me, and then sent a text to tell him how I'd talked myself down.
I don't think he was that surprised when I called.
And he calmly listened to my reasons for buying the loom, and then said, "okay".
Then I dropped the real reason why I called him,
 "Honey, I need to you to bring the truck."
"Today? To Long Beach?"
"Yes. The show ends today, and it closes at 4 p.m. The loom has to go today." It was around 1:30 p.m. at this point. DH was a very good sport, and he and #1 Son spent around 3 hours in terrible traffic, bringing the truck. Later tonight I'm making chocolate chip cookies, a small way to show my appreciation. I think there's a pair of hand knit socks in the near future for DH, too.


I had one last bit of shopping to do. I needed a new loom project, a "welcome home, let's get acquainted" project. Lunatic Fringe Yarns had some great organic cotton weaving kits for sale, and I bought the napkin kit.

Here are some of the other looms; Leclerc

that's a sectional warp beam

the lovely Glimraka Ideal

an AVL computerized loom

and you can see more pictures here at SDMags blog.

Sunday was spent moving this;

out to the patio, to make room for the loom. Its been an exciting weekend.

Cat Owner Confessions

Really, I'm not obsessed with my cat. He's just always doing goofy stuff, and doesn't seem to mind having his picture taken. Having those cute pictures around helps when he's done some rotten bone headed cat thing. Like try to climb my leg.

 Dear Cat,
I like you very much. However, there are a few things you do that are not so endearing. Climbing up my leg to tell me how much you like me is never, ever, going to be a good thing. Even if you can't see my legs, trust me, they are there, inside those pant legs or long skirts. Also, don't climb those things when they're hanging in the closet. Please don't try to grab the strings that adjust the waistband of my sweat pants. By the way, none of the men in the house like this either. Typically, when I climb into bed, I'm thinking of sleep. Not mock combat. Please stop ambushing me. I know you are young, with much energy and curiosity. I want to see you live to a ripe old age. I think there is a much greater chance of that happening if you heed my requests on these few matters, at least most of the time.

From Scipio's Point of View

Balance Beam

Kitty Toy

Cutest Cat Ever