Wordless Finished 6" x 72" Plaid Wool/Camel Scarf

More Ambitious Weaving

I ordered a 12.5 dent heddle for my loom, which handles 12.5 threads per inch, which will weave a much finer cloth (and in case you're wondering, the heddles for this loom will all work for a trade-up loom, whenever I get one, even though the trade-up loom will be wider). The holes in this heddle are really small, meaning that I can only warp the loom with fingering weight yarn. Luckily, I have a lot (a LOT) of fingering weight yarn on hand.

 Using a 12.5 dent heddle also means that I have to thread many many thin strands through many many little holes with a teeny tiny little crochet hook. That takes awhile. It would have taken a lot longer if I had not already learned the lesson about chaining the warp so it doesn't tangle. Still, it took me a couple of hours to get the loom warped. I now see why weavers use many many yards of warp, enough for multiple projects. I would do that myself, except this beginner loom won't hold more than about 3 yards' worth. My next loom will have a warp beam.

 I'm using some coned camel/wool yarn that I bought on eBay many years ago (at least a decade). This weaving stuff really is a stash-buster (not that this scarf will use very much yarn, but still).

Weaving plaid is tricky because not only do your selvedges have to be even, your stripes have to be even too. This job is complicated by the fact that I only have one shuttle (The Hub will make some for me this weekend, and I have a couple of plastic ones on the way, but right now? Just one), so I have to wind it with different yarn for every section. It's not hard, it just slows me down.

I'm making progress even so.

The Aha! Moment

Finally, a use for all those novelty yarns that I bought back when I thought I was going to like knitting with novelty yarns!

 Warped with commercial cotton. The weft is a merino/sparkle novelty yarn that I've had forever.

 Shiny!

 6 1/2" wide, 72" long (excluding fringe). It took about 80 yds of weft.

 You can't see the sparkle in this shot, but it's there.

Start to finish (including warping the loom): 3 1/2 hours!

Finished Scarf

 All done with the weaving (I wanted plenty of warp left over for the fringe).

 Pulled off the loom.

 Washed and dried (though not yet ironed). It's 70" long (excluding fringe) and 6 1/4" wide. I am very pleased with how even my selvedges are- I'm getting better at that. I love the gentle color variations.

I learned one important thing: if you're going to combine different weights in your warp thread or yarn, distribute it throughout the warp. When the outside edges are heavier, the weft doesn't pack as tightly, and therefore the lighter/finer inside section gets a little crooked. The crookedy parts aren't horrible, but I did struggle with it a bit throughout.

Even though the blue/green yarn was soft and squooshy, the finished fabric isn't as soft as I thought it was going to be, so this scarf won't be next-to-skin. It'll have to be worn over a collar or turtleneck. Or it'll be a table runner. Tables rarely have sensitive necks.

Almost Done

I finished hand quilting the center panel of the Firebird baby quilt.

 What's really amazing is that I've worked on it every single evening for several hours (except on American Idol nights, and the couple of evenings that I had previous engagements) for well over a month, and I'm not sick of it. That is not to say that I'm sorry to be finished with the main quilting, but I have not grown to hate every single inch of this cloth, which is how I usually feel at the finishing line of a Major Project.

 I am going to work one random/squiggly quilting line along the center of the pieced fabric borders, sewing sort of on and around the paisley outlines. I wouldn't have to quilt that section at all, the batting is a solid piece of bonded cotton so it's not going anywhere, but I thought it might look odd to have that great swath unquilted fabric when the rest of the piece is stitched heavily. I'm not going to use the hoop for those areas, I'm just going to work running stitches, so it should go pretty quickly. After that, I just have to sew the binding (machine sewing it to the quilt, and then hand tacking it down).

 I love this design, and the quilting has been fun. If you've a mind to give this one a shot, you can order it from Spoonflower here. It's an original Cean Irminger design.

I don't know if I'm ready to start another quilted project right away (I have some class samples to knit up), but just in case, I ordered a yard of this for another baby quilt center panel. And a yard of this coordinating fabric for the border strips. Fun, no?

In the meantime, I only have a couple more feet to weave on the scarf/runner project. I'm slowly getting the hang of this! And the correct size heddle arrived, so next up will be a scarf or runner with heavier yarn. Woohoo!.

More Wordless because tonight is American Idol, and I'll use plenty of words then

Wordless Weaving

Weaving Retreat #3- The Rest

It's amazing how much time I have for picture taking when I don't teach...

Anyway, here's the rest of Saturday...(and again, sorry that some of the pics are less than wonderful- it's the photographer, not the camera).

 Here's where we were- a wonderful big old building at a Youth Camp. The morning started out beautiful and clear, but by evening, it was sprinkling and dreary. Outside that is, inside it was wonderful.

 I went up into the loft to get a shot of the spinning circle below. Look at all those spinning wheels!

 The longer shot shows the tables, more looms, and the kitchen.

 Sara gave a presentation on the history of women in Fiber Arts.

 While she spoke, I finished spinning a little batt of wool and silk and sparkle. In this crowd, it is not considered rude to spin and listen at the same time.

 Here's a shot I should have included yesterday- Connie taking warp off the warping board, as Jill watches.

 And another one I overlooked yesterday- Marie and Lyla warping a rigid heddle loom.

 Kelley did some organic dyeing. Look at those wonderful colors!

 Betty showed off a few of her little weave-it squares. Most were made from handspun yarn. She makes the most adorable flowers with these squares.

I won a Nostipinne as a door prize. It was made by  woodcrafter David Lindquist. Don't know what a Nostipinne is? It's a device for winding a center pull yarn ball, like so. I have always wound my center pull balls with a ball-winder or by hand- it will be lovely to have this tool at my disposal.

Next year, I hope to stay the whole weekend, or at least overnight. I missed out on the evening shenanigans (pajamas and wine... woohoo!)

For another take on the Weaving Weekend, check out Connie P's blog. She stayed the whole weekend, and her pictures are much better than mine!

Weaving Retreat #2- Warped Minds

I was able to spend a lot of Saturday watching real weavers do their work. It was amazingly instructive just to see how people who know what they're doing, do what they do. I am all for winging it (it's my Standard MO), but when I can learn, I am happy to do so. I was especially interested in learning about warping a loom (warping is to weaving as steeking is to knitting- scary for many people).

Connie spent much of Saturday using a warping board to wind warp for her 8 harness floor loom. I'm sorry for the quality of some of the pictures- sometimes my phone takes great shots, other times, not so much (which tells me it's the photographer, not the camera). A warping board allows the weaver to wind hundreds of lengths of warp, many yards long, without having to walk around a building to do so.

 Anyway, Connie wrapped and wrapped and wrapped fine green thread around a complicated systems of pegs (It wasn't just wrapping, there was some looping involved). She was doing some counting, so I did not want to disturb her to ask silly questions. And I'm sorry that I didn't get a closeup of the warping board. Here's picture of warping boards, all loaded up.

I also didn't get a picture of Connie taking the warp off the board- she hand chained it to keep the strands from tangling. Then she spent the rest of the day, threading each thread (hundreds and hundreds of them) through metal reeds using little white threads. I wasn't able to stay until Sunday, but I imagine she was able to start weaving by late evening on Saturday.

This is what she's making- wonderful wonderful tea towels and runners with SHEEP WOVEN INTO THE CLOTH!!!!!!! (Connie apologized for not having the towel ironed first- but you can see that there's some really intricate woven texture there...)(apologize... pfft... when you can do work like this).

Sort of makes my beginner band, woven on the warp that came with my Beka loom, look sad. It certainly looks like a first try, though I'm pretty proud of it anyway. I finished weaving that band, and took it off the loom, and then took a deep breath and started to warp my loom (with a lot of advice from the others).

This is handspun organic cotton- I have a lot of it, and I decided it would be serviceable warp and weft for a future bag.

 I only needed 20 warping strands, and my loom will only handle about 12' of warp, so I didn't need to use a warping board. I looked around and improvised- my warping board was an upright table stand. I wound the yarn around the upper and lower legs 20 times.

 Closeup of said warpage.

 And then I cut the strands and hand chained them (they managed to tangle anyway).

 I fed the individual strands through the holes in the heddle (I don't know if they have a specific term) with a teeny little crochet hook. Every other strand went through a hole in the center of the reed (I think that's the term), so that the strands (the shed, I think) can be lifted and lowered for weaving. The warp was then pulled straight (untangling what was tangled) and wrapped around the backboard (not the right term, I'm sure).

Update: Connie P just told me that the long skinny holes in the heddle are *slots* and the ones with a hole in the center are called *dots*. Woohoo for correct terminology! Thanks Connie- and thanks again for the encouragement!

 Voila! All by myself, no less!!!

 And here's some of my first weaving with the cotton yarn. It's a nubbly, thick and thin yarn, which accounts for some of the unevenness along the selvedge edge. But it only accounts for some of it. The rest is all me (and since I spun the yarn, it's all me anyway). I am packing the weft fairly tight for this strap, because I want the fabric to be firm and sturdy. I'll weave the body of the bag a little looser because it will be lined.

And here's what I wove on Saturday afternoon, before my back gave out (there's a lot of Leaning Over in weaving). I am thrilled. Totally thrilled. By the time I get this warp all woven, I'll be ready to tackle a wider project- which will be the body of the bag. I have a lot of this handspun cotton on hand, in several colors (white, dark brown, blue, green), so I think I'll make the body plaid.

The loom came with an 8 dent (8 holes per inch) 4" wide heddle, and a 10 dent (10 holes per inch) 10" wide heddle. I want to weave the body of the bag on the same size heddle as the strap, so I've ordered both a 4"- 10 dent heddle, and  10" 8 dent heddle. By the time I get this part done, the new heddles should be here.

Part 3- everything else, tomorrow.