Weaving away.........

Weaving away on some towels for hostess gifts.......and will also be keeping a couple of them.  Two block twill in unmercerized cotton. I like the way these first two turned out using a white weft.  The warp is a medium gray and black. 

I took a 2 day workshop with Denise Kovnat last weekend - One Warp, Many Structures: Exploration in Extended Parallel Threading.  I learned a lot about how to do my own designing in echo and will start playing with it after I finish up some other projects.  I still have some warp on my table loom so will be playing with it more in the near future.  Denise was a great instructor.  I'll take photos of my samples and post them soon. 

On the loom............

On the loom today is an 8 harness twill from the Strickler book. The warp is 10/2 perle cotton from the Lunatic Fringe color spectrum set minus one purple that I had used up so instead of 20 colors there are 19.........plus black 10/2.  I'm using the same 10/2 for the weft. 

 

Was current warp...........

This was the current warp on the loom but cut it off 30 minutes ago and am already washing it. This is another warp for my secret project.   It's a two block twill, sett at 30 epi, 10/2 perle cotton.  I love the bright jewel tones in the warp set off by the black weft. 

If you read my post of January 19th you know I had a problem with some 20/2 black perle cotton breaking left and right. Well, look at what was happening with this 10/2 perle cotton as I wind a bobbin. All this fiber dust comes off on my hand, on the bobbin winder and around the cone on the floor - you can see where I moved the cone to show what was happening.  This cone is from a different company and I had used at least 2/3 of it on another project with no issue. Each time I wound a bobbin I'd have a handful of black fluff.  It also breaks easily but since it is weft it wasn't an issue.  If this fabric would be heavily washed, worn, used a lot I wouldn't have used it but this project is just for show and it will be fine.  
 

Yet another warp......

It's good to have a weaving goal for the year with my secret project - it has gotten me back to doing what I love.  Once I stopped selling my handwovens my motivation went down........plus I was doing other crafts.  This warp went on the AVL yesterday. I just wove a few inches to make sure all was ok.  This is an original 32H draft based on Iranian tilework from centuries ago.  I designed it for a guild challenge where we picked a country's name out of a bag and had to weave something inspired by that country - I pulled Iran.  That was around 7 years ago, give or take.  I may weave today although I have a few other things to work on too so may not make it to the loom.

Thinking of guild challenges, our challenge for this year was pulling a National Park postcard from a pile of envelopes containing them. I pulled Isle Royale which is a Michigan island in Lake Superior very close to Canada. I had never heard of it.  A fellow guild member told me about author Nevada Barr who wrote a series of mystery books that take place in National Parks, the main character is a female park ranger.  The second book in the series took place on Isle Royale.  I have now read 3 books in the series, they're light and quick reads and I'm enjoying learning about more National Parks.....will soon get the next in the series from the library.  I have an idea for my challenge piece but am waiting for one supply I need - will share my plan when I get it on the loom. I decided in addition to a woven piece I'll also knit the hat out of the book Knitting the National Parks - I'm ready to start that any day now.  BTW - that book is a beautiful knitting book, love the hat patterns for each park. 

Onward with the day..........

 

More for the secret project......

More weaving done for the secret gift project.  This is a draft designed by Ivy DeHart - forgive me for forgetting if I got it from the Complex Weavers book, their website or handweaving.net.  I got it a number of years ago and didn't write down the source of the wif file.  The design was originally horizontal but for my previous scarf projects I wanted it vertical so turned the draft.  Once I turned it, it was 20H. This is woven in 10/2 perle cotton.  I originally wanted to use a seafoam for the weft which would have been perfect for a scarf or such but I needed a little more contrast so went with a light blue denim color. This morning it is awaiting washing.  

Yesterday was not without snafu's at the AVL when I started weaving.  Springs at the bottom of the harnesses sprung off a couple times, cable came undone from the top hooks and jumped out of the guide a couple times.  Very frustrating but eventually all was well, not sure what the problem was...........and then when I started to weave again I was getting a shed so small the shuttle wouldn't fit through.  I did what often needs to be done with techie things, turned everything off and on, more than once but eventually the shed was back to normal - phew.  The rest of the time weaving was uneventful. 

Next warp planned for the AVL.  It's an original design of mine. I may wind it today........or may get sidetracked and work on something else...........

Auditioning wefts......

I've got the first warp on the AVL since moving.......which means since taking it apart piece by piece, all 40 harnesses off, all 80 cables off, all 80 springs off in addition to all the wooden and steel parts. I had run it through a straight draw without anything on it just to make sure it still worked but hadn't woven on it yet. Although I'm not in the mood to weave scarves it seemed like a good time to do some to make sure all is well with the AVL. In threading heddles harness 18 stuck the first time it was raised, spring went flying off leaving the harness cock-eyed.....then harness 31 stuck.  I ran it through it's paces a few more times and continued to thread, all seemed ok. I had a bit of time this afternoon to tie on and really give it a test - all looks ok as I was auditioning wefts in this sample. I'm thinking I'll go with the lavender, 2nd color from the bottom, then the teal, 4th from the bottom and the rust right above the teal. Three scarves, three different colorways. Of course, I may change my mind before I start weaving.........

For those who may ask - this draft was originally horizontal ribbons by Amy Norris published in the Complex Weavers Compilation book, I think it was 20 shaft but I could be remembering wrong so don't hold me to that - I took the draft and turned it so I have vertical ribbons, it's now 32 shaft.

I'm going to get a towel warp on the Macomber this week too. But alas, I think my last statement is in the mail today so taxes loom on the horizon. Somehow I let myself get talked into buying Turbo Tax Home & Business once again.......all along I was thinking dropping them off at a local accountant's office was sounding much more 'fun' but I guess since we dropped $79 on TT at Costco I need to use it.......

A view from the back..............

A view from the back of the looms - warping in process on two looms

Tencel echo weave warp - many ends alternating purple and teal in the lease sticks.......I did get the heddles threaded on this warp....this was one of those drafts I really had to pay attention to while threading........still need to sley the reed. I haven't woven echo weave before so this is a test to see if I like the feel and drapiness of it for a scarf or if it feels to heavy......I know I like the look of the weave structure.

Tencel warp in the raddle, going through the lease sticks awaiting threading of the heddles and sleying of the reed - these will be scarves using my original Iranian Tilework draft. This color is really fuchsia, for some reason came out looking more burgundy in the photo.

...national grilled cheese day....yum.....

This morning I heard that today is national grilled cheese day - my favorite sandwich! So I quickly went to the fridge to see what I had in the way of cheese......one lonely piece of provolone and a tiny chunk of cheddar left, between the two of them I could make a sandwich for lunch. It always brings back memories of growing up when my friend/neighbor Vicki and I would have grilled cheese sandwiches all summer long while on school vacation and we put pickles in them, sometimes dill, sometimes sweet. In honor of that memory I put sweet & hot pickles and pepperocini in mine - I don't know when I've enjoyed my lunch at home so much.

This is the underside of that first scarf on the warp from yesterday - I like the backside better. I've decided what bothers me about this pattern is that the background is so busy, the crepe weave. As I learn more of the in's & out's of the software I'm going to alter this pattern to be a 1/3 twill. Now off to weave another scarf using a deep red for the weft...now that I've finished my yummy lunch....

Hmm, not quite what I thought

I wound a warp today but it's not turning out how I envisioned. I was graduating 3 colors in the warp but am not totally happy with the color on the right, it's too light....too late now!  Then I started auditioning wefts, see the start of that above. I have never auditioned so many weft colors ever before with only one acceptable - the green, the color in this picture is very misleading, it's actually very attractive. This pattern (gleaned from handweaving.net) is a 32 harness twill and crepe weave. It's called Birch Leaves and has a leaf pattern that changes directions 4 times. Luckily it's a straight twill so I can ditch the birch leaves and find another draft. I'm going to have to give this warp some thought. I think this pattern is better suited to a solid color warp, maybe a black.

On this Birch Leaves pattern, I have found in downloading wif files from online or CD's that I better study them carefully before starting to weave. There are sometimes errors, most often I've found them in the weft picks as in this one. If I had continued to repeat this pattern it would not have matched up. I did some editing and fixed that. This is actually not a bad thing because it's making me spend more time learning WeavePoint.

So today wasn't a total success but I enjoyed myself winding the warp and dressing the loom.....just another learning experience.