More Sampling

 

wet finished and hard pressed on the left; wet finished and left to dry without applying a hard press

Yesterday I was able to press the latest load of towels, which also had a sample to find out what the next yarn in the stash I want to focus on in order to weave it up.  

The current towels are being woven with 2/15 cotton (manufacturer's marking, not mine) and I'm quite pleased with the quality of cloth.  But it's a very old batch of yarn, which I've been ignoring until lately, and once this warp comes off I'll beam another to use up more (the rest?) of the 2/15.  But I don't think there is enough of the 2/15 so I cast my eye around the storeroom, and noted the 3 large cones (kilo? would have to weigh them to be sure) which I bought in part because of the high degree of twist in the yarn.  I suspect it was spun to be plied, then wasn't.  It is (according to the manufacturer's notes) singles 6.  

If it had been plied/twisted, I doubt I would have kept it, but when it arrived (in error) I kept a case to play around with the high energy in it, sold some to other weavers also interested in weaving with 'energized' yarn, and used up some myself.  Now there are these 3 lonely cones.  Time to deal with them.

Before I cut the first section of towels off the warp beam, I wove a sample with the singles 6 in the same weave structure, so I could compare the results.  There is only a mild difference, with the biggest change the dimensional loss.  Instead of 20" in width after wet finishing, the weft finished width using the singles 6 is 18".

I had pondered using a waffle weave to really push the 3D development, but after weaving this sample and fiddling around with a few weaving drafts in Fiberworks, I decided that the dimensional loss would be larger than I would prefer and would create a very thick towel.  

Instead I came up with a rough draft which is a tweak on the current warp.  I'm still having words and things disappear into brain sink holes, so keeping it 'simple' seems like the prudent thing to do.

In the above photo I wet finished the sample while it was attached to the last towel in the section, then cut it off the damp towel and then cut it half width-wise so that I could compare using a hard press vs *not* applying a hard press.

The difference is subtle (surprised?) but there is a difference.  

Perhaps surprisingly (until I thought it through), the dimensional loss was more than what was in the half that was just left to air dry,  But here's the thing.  When you apply compression, you smash the warp and weft down into each other.  While this reduces the thickness of the cloth, it *increases* the stability.  Once the warp and weft are 'locked' into each other, the tendency is to reduce the thickness and increase the resistance to abrasion.  The unpressed sample dried with no tension applied in any direction, so since warps and wefts were not pressed down, the threads are less integrated.

The difference between them is not so much seen, but felt.  The pressed sample feels smoother; the unpressed sample has way more texture.  Although I would have to do studies, I suspect that the unpressed sample will be slightly more absorbent than the pressed, given the difference in density and how much closer and 'locked' into the pressed sample is compared unpressed 'partner' cloth is.

I will do another sample on the next warp, which should be going into the loom later this week.  I had two days of mostly 'light duties' - so far.  I am hoping I feel able to weave again by tomorrow, given I was such a Very Good Girl after my procedure this morning.

Finally learning to be kind to my body - and brain - in hopes of being able to keep weaving and ask myself questions like these.

Keeping on, keeping on.

#4000

 

Sports coat - silk warp and tabby weft, alpaca pattern weft

Blogspot tells me that this is post #4000 since I began blogging in 2008.  

Over the years I've written about a lot of different things.  I've shared my life, my weaving, what I'm doing, and you, dear reader(s), have come along for the journey.

In many ways, I've treated this blog as a diary.  Frequently I'll come here and type in a search term to remind myself of when something happened.  Or look for photos for an article I'm writing.

Over the past month I've been writing a few articles, and so I've been digging around in my photo files.  Sometimes I find what I'm looking for; sometimes I don't.

I used Doug's jacket in one of the articles, offered to get a close up and was asked if I would send one.

This fabric was a bit of a watershed moment for me in understanding the difference between ironing and a hard press (compression).  

Our 20th wedding anniversary was coming up, and I'd invited Doug to attend Convergence in San Jose.  I had hand woven clothing to wear, but he didn't, so I decided to make some cloth appropriate for a sport coat.  Two of the local guild members had used a tailor in Vancouver, so I contacted the tailor and made arrangements for Doug to be fitted.

The tailor was an 'old-fashioned' tailor and he made a very traditional sport coat.  Doug did wear it to 'special' occasions.  

I enjoyed making the cloth and working with fine threads - finer than I usually got to work with because I just couldn't get paid enough to do that.  OTOH, a gift?  Well, I was willing to work with such fine yarns for a special jacket for our 20th.

Now that we are retired (and continue to avoid large indoor gatherings) I don't know how much wear he will get out of it.  But he's kept it all these years, just in case.

I, otoh, can no longer get into my handwoven clothing.  I really ought to get rid of it.  But I keep thinking one day I'll lose weight and be able to wear it again.  (ha!  dream on!!!)

And here we are in 1990.  I remember that body, that energy.  Long gone, now.  Ah well, I *can* still weave!

(If you subscribe to Heddlecraft, look for the article in the next issue...)

Under Pressure

This morning I pressed the towels that were cut off the loom on Friday, and run through the washing machine last night.

The top photo shows the compression line fairly clearly - the bottom half of the cloth is smooth, while above it is not.

The middle photo shows the blue ridges of the weave structure standing proud from the rest of the cloth while the lower photo is after pressing.  You can still see faint blue lines, but the cloth is now flat.

When we discussed wet finishing yesterday, I reviewed how the threads will move to areas of least resistance in the cloth.  This aids in helping develop weave structures that require the movement of the yarns as in things like waffle weave, lace weaves, any weave structure that relies on the deflection of the yarns from their grid like warp and weft positions.

In this cloth, the centre of the motif is actually a small lace weave area.  When held up to the light there are tiny 'holes' that allow the light to come through.  The floats that create those holes make the cloth more absorbent - something desirable in a towel.

After compression the cloth will have increased stability.  Cotton and linen will not, can not, full, so the compression of the warp and weft threads into each other will add stability.

In addition to all of that, the yarns we associate with shine, such as linen, will develop more shine.  In the top most photo, you can just sort of see that the bottom that has been pressed is slightly shinier than the top half which has not.

And last but not least, wet finishing is a benefit because if the beat isn't completely even, or you have reed marks in the cloth, those will be reduced and in some cases eliminated altogether.

Lots of benefits involved in wet finishing.

Labour Day Weekend

This is how I spent my Sunday afternoon.  When you are self-employed, every day is a potential work day (labour day?)

Now I'm 'steamed', well and truly.  :^)

There is a thread on one of the chat lists about whether or not you can unweave when using an end feed shuttle.

Well, of course you can.  The question that each person needs to ask themselves is if they really want to.

I learned a long time ago that I can always make more money but I can never make more time.  Once I've spent my time it is gone forever.

To unweave, salvaging the weft while using an end feed shuttle, is just not worth my time.  If I need to go back, especially more than a few picks, I'd much rather cut the weft picks and pull them out.  If I'm weaving with a standard boat shuttle I will unweave up to 12 picks but if it is more than that, it just isn't worth the time and messy bobbin.

But this sort of issue is all about personal preference.  The only person who can properly answer the question is the person themselves.

Did some thinking about the Seattle guild presentation while pressing and when I gather myself together again, I will try to jot down my thoughts and make an outline to follow while putting together part II of the Power Point presentation.

Right now I'm going to try to find a snack and maybe read for a while.  Three hours of hard pressing and I'm flattened.  :^)

More Musings

Some of the towels on the towel rack after pressing

Pressing is the sort of job that is necessary, so I do it. It's not something that I love to do, so I play upbeat music (really loudly!) and try not to do more than 90 minutes to two hours at any given time. I find it kind of mind numbing so quite often I use the time while pressing to think things through.

I don't think quickly when I'm trying to unravel a Giordian knot. I'm more of a "look at every facet of the thing" kind of thinker when I'm trying to figure something out, especially something like "where do I go from here" or "what do I really truly want to do with the rest of my life" type of question.

So some of the themes that ran through my head this morning were - how much inventory is too much? What sorts of textiles do I want to make? How much time can I invest in making textiles, now that I don't actually have to scramble to make more (I've got enough inventory for several years worth of craft fairs, after all.)

If I can afford to invest more time in making textiles, can I look at doing things that are, by their very nature, more time consuming (complex threading structures, two shuttles, two warps)? These are techniques that I have pretty much avoided unless I was making something special for myself - not for production.

The question "do I want to weave" remains a very firm yes, so now all I need to do is figure out what sort of textiles I want to make and then chart a new course.

No conclusions yet, but opening the door to new possibilities is the first step. :)

A Pressing Matter

I had every intention of threading the AVL today with the warp for the throws (afghans, whatever you call them) but realized that one of the piles threatening to topple over in the studio was the tea towels I've woven and that Karena has been diligently cutting apart ready to be wet finished.

Decided that I would really like to see a little floor in my studio, and one way would be to deal with the wet finishing. Unfortunately it isn't going to get done all in one go, so on the theory that doing a little bit every day (every other day?) will eventually see the pile in the studio disappear, I started with one load. It turned out that the aqua warp was exactly one washing machine load's worth so here they are on the drying rack after pressing.




Once those were done, I turned my hand to some of the towels that had been wet finished and hemmed and got a few of those pressed and ready to be tagged and priced, too.



I was a bad girl today and woke up feeling so muzzy headed I had a small cup of real coffee. Unfortunately my bp wasn't real happy about that and spiked, but it wasn't too high and since I knew what had caused it didn't cause much grief. But I did feel like I needed to do some exercise and wove one chenille scarf on the Fanny this evening. I'm hoping that the exercise and my evening dose of meds will bring things back to normal. And I promise to be good and not have any more real coffee. At least for a while. :}

The good news is that I finally got a phone call from the specialist's office today and I'll go in to see him April 14. I have some questions about what the future holds and what sort of treatment I should expect given the two other blockages.........

Back to Tea Towels

I'm back to the AVL and tea towels, weaving with the single 6's cotton.

My initial choice (to the left) seemed to be a bit flimsy to me, so I decided to change the weave structure and ppi. Instead of a fancy twill, I changed to an advancing twill treadling, and increased the ppi from 24 to 28. (the section between the red lines) The intention was to create a thicker fabric that was still supple. The advancing twill structure has fewer interlacements -the weft can pack in tighter without becoming stiff.

After a 3 day hiatus where I wove only on the Fanny, I went back to the AVL and looked at the web again. Even at 28 ppi, I felt the resulting fabric was still going to be a bit on the light side and changed to 30 ppi (to the right) You can see that the white looks more intense to the far right than it does to the far left or between the red lines.

Gearing down to 30 and 32 ppi, it sometimes takes an inch or two to get the ratio right, and you can easily see the section at the beginning where the auto cloth advance was actually advancing two clicks (I have the old gear wheel system) resulting in 15 ppi instead of the intended 30 ppi.

The down side of using more ppi is that it is going to take longer to weave a towel than at 24 ppi. The up side is that I will use up more yarn! :D

The yarn, being a single, shows the inconsistencies involved in spinning more than a 2 ply would, and the fabric has subtle weft wise streaks in it. This should even out to a large degree during wet finishing, which will include a hard press.

Many people do not understand that a hard press is not ironing.

When you iron, you sweep the heated iron back and forth across the cloth. A hard press is when you clamp the iron down tightly in order to compress the threads. This effectively notches the warp and weft together. The surface becomes smooth. Threads that shine become much more reflective and gleam - something that we prize in yarns like silk and linen (or Tencel, mercerized cotton, and so on.)

When I'm wet finishing my goal is to get a cohesive fabric, one where the warp and the weft come together becoming a whole that is greater than the individual parts. When I feel a fabric, I do not want to feel individual threads, I want to feel an integrated cloth.

Right now I am blessed with owning and being able to operate an industrial steam press. This makes the enormous job of hard pressing much more efficient. I used to use an Elna flat bed press - a small home press. Doug and I pressed literally thousands of placemats on it. Pressing yardage could be done, but it was difficult and slow. The industrial press makes short work of pressing yardage as well as smaller items.

I don't know how much longer I will be able to afford to house and operate the press. It's one reason I'm madly weaving up as much of my fine thread stash as I can. I can easily press scarves on the small flat bed press even though it takes me longer, but tea towels and larger items are more fiddly on the small press. :)