Weekly Weaving

Since cutting back on my internet time, I've been doing a lot more weaving. With Daisy in the living room, I find that sitting down to weave a motif on the overshot (green) is more like taking a break than being a job in and of itself, even if I've been weaving on the rigid heddle. As for the rigid heddle, the natural-coloured extra-long thrums coupled with pastels turned into an adorable fingertip towel and matching washcloth woven as a 2/1 twill, and I so enjoyed the process that I warped another longer 2/1 twill in autumn shades. I also finished up the most trouble-free band I've ever woven on my Leksand loom, thanks to making some revisions to the way I warped and threaded it. I had no issues with slack in the pattern threads, having run them through the slots in the heddle (rather than through the holes, which was the way I had been instructed to do it). It's been a productive and educational week!

Halvdräll 2.0

Day 106: I like to keep a supply of handwoven towels on hand for gifts, so when my first experiment with halvdräll was complete and I had a better understanding about how colour functioned in the different areas of the weave structure, I decided to make another batch. Here is Halvdräll 2.0, using the darkest and lightest colours for the warp and alternating tabby sequences, with the mid-tone as the pattern thread. Notice that the mid-tone shows up well in all variations. In the previous version, I had used the darkest shade as the pattern thread, and it tended to get "lost" where it crossed a lighter shade of the same colour. The structure of a weave can make a significant difference in how colours behave with one another, and while this is not quite as apparent in halvdräll as it is in shadow-weave, for example, it does seem to play a major role in the final effect. I'll be making four towels on this warp.

Halvdräll Towels

Day 101: My first halvdräll adventure is off the loom in the form of four towels of varying lengths, and have not been wet-finished yet. I enjoyed the weave structure so much that I measured a second warp in green and yellow, and this time, I will weave them as two pairs identical in their dimensions. The length of the aqua warp was designed to yield only three towels with extra for loom waste, but because I was weaving on the table loom, I had more left over than anticipated. I decided to weave two shorter towels to polish off the remainder rather than a single full-length one. When measuring the new warp, I added an additional half yard to give myself plenty of space. I can't say I'm happy with the red pattern thread here, but it was the only colour which even came close to working with the aqua. The next warp replaces aqua with yellow and natural with forest green. The pattern thread will be a medium dusty green which should show up better on both warp colours. This combination will give me the option of using either the yellow or dark green as the tabby. I will probably make pairs of each.

Diverging From Plan

Day 327: It is impossible to place too much emphasis on the most important thing in the weaver's toolbox: adaptability. Very often, our grand ideas don't take shape precisely as we had envisioned them, and since a lot of work is involved before we can do a trial run, we may be called upon to adapt rather than revise, to work within the established parameters rather than backtracking to set up new ones. I sometimes refer to this process as "having to do some fancy dancin'," and that was certainly the case with "A German Bird's-eye" and my mental picture of the interplay of colours. For my first two towels on this draft, I used a yellow weft and then a light blue one. I was not particularly pleased with either result because the whole scheme seemed muted and drab. For the third towel, I decided to go bold and emphasize the red warp stripe, and although it's still not ideal, it falls within my standard for "acceptable." And it's bright, definitely bright.

Thrum Ball

Day 130: The subject of thrums and what to do with them came up in discussion this morning, reminding me that my jar of them was getting pretty full. The Thrum Jar is similar to the Rug Strip Box in that when it gets full, the issue needs addressing. Both rug strips and thrums tend to accumulate with astonishing alacrity, and unless they're taken care of promptly, can become burdensome. Yes, you could just throw your thrums (and old t-shirts) out, but my innate Scottish thriftiness will not allow that. Therefore, I need to find creative ways to use them up. In the past, I've crocheted them into potholders, doubling the threads and changing colours when I came to the end of any given thread. The potholder pattern I use folds in on itself to double the layers as well, resulting in thick, highly insulative pads. At this stage of the game, however, I have more potholders in my kitchen than I really need. So what do I do with the thrums?

Some time ago, I came across another idea: tie them together as I do for potholders, but instead of tucking the tails to the inside, leave the tails projecting for a textural effect in towels. I thought the finished product was cute, but never got around to tying thrums together and rolling them into a ball, thence to be wound on a shuttle. It was easier to "tie as you go" while making potholders. This morning, I said to myself, "Today is a good day to tie," (the weaver's equivalent of a popular Klingon saying), and I'm halfway through the greens. I had very little in the way of blues, so I'm adding them in occasionally for accent, and will be weaving them on a rigid heddle as a "living room project" while taking a break from the large loom.

October Weave-Along Towels

Day 355: Well, here they are: three shadow-weave towels and a "file sample," off the loom but not yet wet-finished, and I have to laugh at myself. I got so carried away with the rhythm of dark-light, dark-light that I completely forgot to put the yellow weft stripe in the last two. Shadow weave is fun! These were woven at 24 epi, more closely spaced than I usually weave with 8/2 cotton. There isn't much room for fulling here. I think 18-20 epi would be a better sett. The height of the vertical pattern rectangles is greater than the width of the horizontal ones, i.e., I did not achieve a balanced weave of 24 throws per inch, the preferred result for shadow weave when perfectly square motifs are the goal. Even so, the weave gives such a compelling optical effect that in this case, a balanced weave was not really mandatory. Widening the sett for this pattern would elongate the horizontal rectangles to the correct proportions. Switching to 10/2 cotton would also achieve the same end because it would beat more firmly. But they're towels, right? And this was my first time playing with shadow weave, thanks to Chris Acton's "October Weave-Along." Next up: a holiday tablecloth in overshot, and it's already partway hung on the loom.

Traditional Red

Day 292: Well, I am rapidly coming to the end of this weaving project. I'm already into the fifth of six towels, having woven two of its eight motifs yesterday. The day before, I completed four motifs, the limiting factor being how long my bum shoulders can hold out. That said, this is my favourite summer-and-winter draft. I love working on it, so now I am having to ration myself with respect to how much I do each day in order to spread it out while waiting for an order of heavier thread to arrive. I want to use a 3/2 cotton for the pattern floats in my next project (a coverlet). The traditional colours for summer-and-winter are blue or red on a white/cream/natural ground. That's not to say you can't use other colours. In fact, the first two of these towels are green. I tend to lean toward the cooler shades in my weaving, and although I do find this red very striking, it wouldn't be my first choice for my own kitchen. The upcoming coverlet, destined to be an entry in next year's Washington State Fair, will be blue.

Summer Or Winter

Day 278: Which side is up? Front? Back? Which is which? Summer-and-winter weave is wonderfully reversible even though the patterns created by the coloured floats are not exact reversals of each other. One side of the cloth is dark, the other light: summer or winter, your choice. The first of the towels is done in a mere four days of weaving two blocks per day, and I should get six from this warp, although in a moment of mental lapse I forgot to note the length I wound off. Assuming I used the same amount I usually allow for towels, that would have been 18', accommodating space between towels for fringe and the standard loom waste of roughly 4' plus "wiggle room." Better to have too much than too little! Thrums can always be crocheted into potholders, and of course I like to weave a small sample to include my weaving file. The shuttle is still loaded with green, so the next towel will be identical to this one. After that? Well, who knows? I have two shelves full of options.

Variations On A Boring Theme

Day 272: The floor loom is finally empty, and I can't recall when it took me longer to get through six towels. Although the weave is summer-and-winter and should have been something I'd enjoy, the fact that there was virtually no way to change it up other than making the pattern areas larger or smaller made it one of the most boring weaving exercises in my long history at the loom. Much (most) summer-and-winter is done on a single-coloured warp with the tabby ground (plain weave) being the same. The pattern threads (floats) are where the fun comes in, creating an almost-but-not-quite-reverse colour scheme on the back side. That's where the name comes from: summer (light) on one side, winter (dark) on the other. While the patterns of these towels do reverse, the yellow never predominates. It's "autumn" on both sides. Switching to a yellow weft made the weave unattractive, so I was stuck using two shuttles of burgundy throughout the whole project. Technically, the weave was summer-and-winter, but it lacked the character which is the main appeal of the pattern. My next project will be "true" summer-and-winter: cream warp and tabby alternating with whatever colour strikes my fancy as I move from one towel to the next. I've had the warp measured for months, waiting in the wings as I struggled, inch by inch, to get this off the loom.

Bird's-eye Towels

Day 263: The floor loom is naked once again. This morning, I finished up a square "leftover" and a small sample piece for my files, using up the last of a warp hung on a traditional bird's-eye draft. Quite a bit of pattern variation is possible using bird's-eye and coupling it with colour changes provides an even greater range of possibilities. I think my favourite among these are the two rainbows, and they were also the easiest to weave. The one on the left shows the pattern as it appears on the reverse. The most problematic was the blue second from the right in the top row. The treadling between blue and light blue did not proceed in an exact opposite, making it easy to throw the pattern off. The towels have not yet been fulled by washing, so the weave appears somewhat loose and irregular at this point. Once they've been through the wash, the fibers will plump up and become more compact. Some shrinkage will occur during washing because they are 100% cotton.

We All Make Mistakes

Day 197: Now into weaving the fifth traditional bird's-eye towel on the floor loom, I settled down to work a few nights ago but noticed something odd in the first three inches. One of the diamonds looked a little off, although when I counted threads in each colour change, everything seemed to be correct. I wove a few more throws, but the discrepancy was bothering me. I finally resorted to pulling out a hand lens (used in fiberarts almost as often as in botany) to analyze the problem. Sure enough, 28 throws back, there was a treadling error. Rather cross with myself, I laid the shuttles aside and went to bed, thinking no one would notice if I left it there, especially since it had taken a hand lens for me to find the mistake. But this is not the way the Crow works. I kept myself busy with other projects for the next several days, unable to force myself to continue on the towel.

In my history as a fiber artist/needleworker, I have been known to unravel two-thirds of a sweater body in order to correct a mistake which didn't lend itself readily to being picked back. Likewise, I've torn out sections of cross-stitch in order to place a quarter-stitch I missed on the pattern. I could give more examples, but you get the idea. Mistakes, you see, are simply not allowed. Last night, I reached a determination. This morning, even before my first cup of coffee, I un-wove to the offending throw, fixed it, and re-wove to to my last stopping point. Now I can feel comfortable about going on.

The Weavin' O' The Green

Day 155: I was a little worried that the emerald green thread I'd ordered wouldn't arrive in time to help me celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but it showed up on Tuesday, coinciding with the completion of the third towel in a series of four currently in progress on the floor loom. Thus, I will be a-weavin' o' the green today (that's "weavin'" as opposed to "wearin'" for those of you who might have missed the word-play). I chose to use a textured weave in the white stripe rather than a simple tabby to give the towel a little more character. This is one of the reasons I enjoy Bird's-Eye: many different looks can be achieved with combinations of treadling and colour on the same warp. And yes, I am already planning a project to follow this one: a "summer-and-winter" lap throw which will take significantly longer to complete than a set of mixed-colour towels. That said, I'm playing the waiting game again. More warp thread should arrive in about a week.

Pick A Little Bouclé

Day 146: Having almost fully recovered from my dalliance with mRNA, I am ready to resume my weaving projects. For this set of towels, I picked a little bouclé in springtime yellow and paired it with 8/2 lime green in both warp and weft to make a check pattern. The bouclé provides a challenge as it likes to hold hands with itself as warp, so rather than weaving with it on the floor loom, I've assigned it to duty on the rigid heddle. It's my first experiment with this particular thread and so far, I'm pleased with the results. I'm sure it will "full" nicely once it's washed without losing the bouclé texture. In all honesty, I was reluctant to use it as warp on the floor loom due to issues with getting it to pass through the heddles without binding up. The eyes in the rigid-heddle reed are larger and perhaps more importantly, they are made of a plastic which provides a smoother "glide" for a textured fiber.

Beat It!

Day 117: While I'm working on setting up a couple of new projects to replace the tablet-weaving and inkle I've just completed, we can step into my crafts room and have a look at the process of weaving on a floor or table loom. I've mentioned beating the fibers into place and how the reed keeps them spaced as a certain sett of threads per inch (the latter more commonly referred to as "ends per inch" or "dents per inch," "epi" and "dpi" respectively). The weaver determines which reed to use based on suggestions from the fiber manufacturer or from experience. In this case, I am using a 15-dent reed and 8/2 cotton to make a series of dish towels. It's a combination I use frequently. The photo shows my last throw (also known as a "pick") only partways into being beaten against the fell line (the previous row). I passed the shuttle bearing the blue thread from right to left and will bring the wooden frame holding the metal reed (the beater bar) against it firmly to pack it into place. Then I will change the shed by depressing another pair of treadles so that I can make a throw from left to right in pattern.

You might notice that I've left a slight arc in the thread as it crosses the warps. This helps keep the selvedges of the cloth from drawing in and becoming more narrow as the weaving progresses. I have to brag a little: I got top marks for my selvedges in the judging at the Washington State Fair. It's a skill I've worked hard to master. Now as for "beating," the word is slightly misleading, although in this particular instance, the 8/2 cotton demands a pretty strong hand at this sett. Other fibers may ask to be gently pressed into place in order to prevent breakage or undue abrasion. Many fibers will "full" with washing as well, swelling to fill up the gaps between threads which are obvious when the fabric is raw. Whenever using a fiber for the first time, it is always advisable to weave a test swatch or at least treat a bundle of the threads in the manner they can expect in their new life as whole cloth. This will prevent any unpleasant surprises like shrinkage or colour-bleed.

A Visit From Murphy

Day 75: Pleased that warping had for once gone without a hitch...no miscounts of heddles or dents, no annoying tangles in 21 feet of warp, no unnoticed manufacturer's knots...I sat down at the loom to figure out which bird's-eye pattern would kick off the new project. Little did I know that Murphy had not gotten the message about social distancing and was indeed standing mere inches behind me, chortling like Snidely Whiplash as he tied fair Nell to the railroad track. Nor did I feel his sinister presence when I said to myself, "Huh, that looks awfully wide." I did several tests of an inch or so of throws, each time saying, "Nah, that just isn't working" before picking it all back to conserve precious fibers. I tried overshot technique, spacing each pass of colour with a pass of white, but the designs were not showing up well at all. "Weird," says I. "Did I use a different thread the last time I did this?" I finally settled on making two passes in each shed, effectively doubling the weight of my weft. The pattern began to show itself and I wove about three inches before going to bed. This morning when I woke up, a thought occurred: did I use the 12-dent reed rather than the 15? The reed determines the width of the cloth. 288 threads spread out at 12 to the inch gives 24 inches; at 15 to the inch, it's a hair over 19. Even before I brushed my teeth or washed my face, I went to the loom and checked the reed. There, etched in the metal was the number 12. That's why the piece was wider than I'd planned. Murphy had exercised his law in a way it had never affected me in my entire career as a weaver, teasing me by smoothing the warping process all the while knowing I had the wrong reed in the loom. Now, I could have stuck to my guns and appointed the project to bathtowels, but that was not what I had intended. I made six more plain throws in natural, hemstitched the end and cut the "sample" away (that's what we'll call it: a sample...not a mistake, a sample). The right reed has been inserted and re-sleyed, and Murphy has been sharply reprimanded and banished for his unwelcome participation in my craft.

Update: Murphy has been defeated. The weaving is now progressing as planned. I believe I will still have enough warp for six hand towels in spite of having had to cut the "sample" off the loom. I always allow extra when warping.

Wishful Thinking

Day 31: Since I started weaving over forty years ago, many of my favourite suppliers have closed shop for one reason or another, and I find myself longing for the variety of threads they carried. I don't recall if I bought this cotton bouclé weft at Robin & Russ (McMinnville OR) or the Weaving Works (Seattle WA), but that's neither here nor there. It is a delightful thread, but to the best of my knowledge, unavailable today. I've used pounds of it in the past in various colours, and the only shades I have left are this lavender/aqua/white and a brilliant solid yellow, only enough for a few hand towels each. The tendency when the supply runs low (regardless of the item) is to hoard the material and, like that last jar of artichoke hearts in my kitchen cupboard, I have to reproach myself into using it with a favourite phrase, "Stop archiving stuff!" I won't have enough to complete the four towels planned, so the last one will use the same thread as the warp. Nice thing about weaving: sometimes it's easy to change horses in mid-stream, but I sure will miss this soft, kinky thread.

Off The Loom

Day 75: The project I began at Christmastime 2013 is off the loom at last! I am now engaged in tying 756 bundles of fringe and then the fabric will be ready for fulling.

Woven in traditional birdseye and tabby using natural 6/2 and colored 8/2 cotton on 27' of warp and 210 ends, these pieces will finish at approximately 14" x 21" (allowing for shrinkage). They make excellent fingertip/kitchen towels, but are also heavy enough to serve as placemats on the table.

And of course hindsight is always clearer than foresight. I wish now that I had used a heavier warp or a lighter weft so the birdseye patterns would have been more obvious. However, weaving threads are not as easily obtainable as they once were, and my favourite supplier closed his shop for health reasons years ago. I do not like to purchase fiberart supplies without being able to finger the goods, limiting me to one shop in Seattle (a major expedition, by my standards). Alternately, I could have warped at 15 dents per inch instead of 12, but that would have resulted in a harder fabric which would have been unsuitable as towels. That said, I am pleased with these, and subtle woven textures have their own appeal.