A lost day......

Today turned into a lost day. Right after taking this photo of my 20/2 perle cotton black warp sett at 30 epi it was off the loom and in the trash can.  While winding the warp this morning it broke twice but I didn't think of it as a problem since it caught on a peg on the warping board that pulled it taut and broke it.  I wound it on the back beam with no problem. Threaded heddles.  But once I started sleying the reed it was shredding right and left. If my sley hook didn't break it the reed did. Of course I was almost done sleying and ready to tie on at this point. The cotton was so weak I knew it would be a problem tying on and would never hold up to weaving. I'm now rethinking the project - maybe using a navy blue 20/2 that is very strong.  I have lots of 10/2 but very little 20/2 to choose from.  This has happened several times over the years with black cottons, all thicker cottons but hasn't been an issue in probably 10 years.  Oh well...........another day, another warp...........  

 

Finally heading back to the loom

 Yesterday I spent part of the day winding a 12 yard towel warp. It really pushes my lower back to wind this much on the warping board so I took frequent breaks. It feels good to finally be getting back to the loom. I may also warp the AVL in the next week.

 It's now wound on the back beam awaiting threading of heddles and sleying of the reed - but I'm so busy the rest of the week I'm not sure when that will get done. This warp was originally going to be white, black and blue but then I decided it needed to have a lot of color for foggy winter weaving. It will be a basketweave and twill design.

I went through my stash and found colors, blended other colors, to spin to ply with the Inglenook 12 Days of Christmas fiber. Should be interesting to see how it ends up looking when plied - hopefully it will be a success.

It's about time......

It's about time I get a warp on a loom. It's been months.........house hunting, getting a house ready to sell, packing, moving, unpacking, working on new house and still caring for the old house sure takes its toll on my creative time. This week is pretty busy but I am squeezing in time to get a towel warp wound and get started threading it. I'm excited. There is still much to do here but I'm choosing to ignore it........this morning I did work out in the yard for a couple hours so that's something.

Crisis the other night - Bailey got sprayed by a skunk out back - so much for living in the city as opposed to the country. We were out front in the dark by the light of the neighbor's Halloween decorations, bathing him with peroxide, baking soda and dish soap. It worked pretty good although still a little pepe la pue aroma on the top of his head. He was still feeling sorry for himself the next morning.

Preparing for dyeing.......

Yesterday I spent hours at the warping board winding warps for painting/dyeing. Today I'll probably spend a few hours winding more of them. So far they've been tencel or rayon/cotton blends. Then they'll all be sitting in the queue for the morning I wake up and decide to start dyeing.

Generally the only ties I put on a warp are at the beginning and end of the warp and the cross no matter how long that warp may be. (I don't advise skipping choke ties for the beginning weaver)  But, when I'm winding warps for dyeing I tie the bejeezees out of the warps to keep any tangling from happening. This warp will be soaking in a soda ash solution for a bit, wrung out, laid out to paint the dyes on, sit overnight to batch and then it needs to be rinsed, and rinsed, and rinsed to get the excess dye out. That's a lot of handling and moving around - if I didn't put any ties on it I'd end up with a tangled mess.......ask me how I know this........and it only has to happen once...........

When dyeing for scarves I generally only wind enough for 2 or 3 scarves. Even though weft color choices can change up how each scarf looks I still don't want too many to be from the same dyed color schemes, I want this to be more of one of a kind scarves. This is tough for someone who generally puts on long warps but I'm much happier in the end if I don't have more than 3 scarves from the same color schemes.

I moved my warping board into the room with the tv so I could watch Reign (about Mary Queen of Scots) on Netflix only to find that I couldn't get a good connection to the internet - ack. I'm up to episode 38 of 44. This room is the furthest from the router/modem, sometimes it's fine, sometimes not. So, I ended up listening to a book on CD instead.

Toward the end of the day I wound a few 5/2 perle cotton 'warps' to be used on the inkle loom - they will be very fun painted/dyed and then mixed with solid colors for bookmarks. One of them I even took the time to tie up for ikat dyeing.  Hmm, maybe some dyed warps for table runners would be fun - they could also be mixed with solid colors.

My goal before the summer is over is to dye enough warps for weaving this fall and winter. It's so much easier to do my dyeing outside, I'm just not set up for inside dyeing other than a small dye job here and there.

Cutting it close

This afternoon I decided to wind a white rayon chenille warp for some shawls and boy did I cut it close. I had two 1 pound cones for warp for two shawls. I knew it would be close but I actually ran out and couldn't wind the last half inch of the warp. Not a big deal as a half inch doesn't make much of a difference.  I stuck the cones up on the raddle here on the back of the loom - very little left on them.  Not sure what the weft will be - I might have enough white chenille (different brand) to use for one but will need to triple check that.........I can always use some white rayon, it will make a lovely drapey shawl.

This and that.......

We spent the past 4 days on the coast. While those to the east are stuck in frigid temps we had mild weather although the second 2 days were drippy and foggy.......but nothing that kept us from walking the beach.  Friend Teresa and I met for coffee and then went to a meet & greet with knit/crochet author Susan Bates at The Wool Company. I bought one of her books and a couple single patterns, also bought some yarn to knit a gingko shawl which I already have the pattern for.........more to come on that once I get it started......after I do a bit more gift knitting.

While Sam was removing some tile and getting a final coat of paint on closet doors I wound a warp for more cottolin towels. Beach colors that will be woven in a broken twill design. I also finished knitting another shawlette - now there are 4 in the queue to be blocked.  Next time over I'll tie on the front beam and start weaving.

And what did Bailey do?  What he does best when not walking the beach or people/dog watching off the front porch...........

........yep, can't pass up that comfy couch.......

Halos

Yesterday morning I started winding a 12 yard towel warp - didn't last long because of the danged heat - this record setting hot summer is wearing on me. This morning I finished the warp and started to wind it on the back beam.....it was hot and stuffy......this cotton warp haloed.....ack.  It happens once in a while that warp threads will halo and catch other warp threads but this was a record - I couldn't get one revolution around the back beam before I was pulling apart the warp thread halos here and there. Does anyone out there know of a solution other than using this cotton for weft?  It's good cotton from Henry's Attic and I have huge cones of it and would rather use it for warp. This morning was an exercise in patience. I wish I could have gotten the heddles and reed threaded and started weaving but I had to go to town so it will have to wait.

Supposedly our temps are coming down for Saturday & Sunday (back up starting Monday) so I may get some roving dyed......if the forecast is correct.

Insult to injury - on top of a summer and probably an autumn full of wildfire concerns - now many wells in the region are drying up due to the two years of drought. Sheesh........

And back at the warping board...........

Late morning I finally made it to the loom to audition some weft colors for the warp I put on yesterday. All I've decided is that I love the red/purple weft - 2nd from the bottom so that will definitely be one scarf, possibly two. Not sure yet on the other two scarves.

 This afternoon I wound a 12 yard warp for overshot towels in white, light gray and dark gray

 

 Bailey is not impressed with the warping process

 

 Here it is wound on the back beam of the Macomber

 

 Threaded through the heddles

 

Reed is sleyed and ready to be tied on the front beam but other things had to be done so had to leave it in that state. Not sure when I'll get back to either loom - the next two days I'm in a cardweaving workshop sponsored by my guild, instructor is John Mullarky. Then I've got other things happening Monday and Tuesday, then family coming to visit right after. At least this is a start at getting more weaving time.........

Warped.......yep, sometimes I am.........

This afternoon I decided a warp needed to go on the AVL. Yesterday I played in the software designing a draft based on an Iranian tilework design. Our guild challenge this year is to pull a country's name out of a hat can and create something inspired by it - I pulled Iran. Originally I was going to go in a totally different direction creating something with a political statement regarding women but then changed my mind as I didn't need to end up with something I have no use for.  This happened with our 'cutting into your handwoven/create a bra' challenge to use in a display for Breast Cancer Awareness........I spent hours/days on that bra - only one other person created one - 2 bras an exhibit does not make (it's somewhere back on my blog in 2011, I think).  So in a different direction I went to make something I could eventually sell and maybe keep one for myself - a scarf warp, 11 yards for 4 scarves.

 First came winding the warp - don't you just love the look of a cross on the warping board?

 

Then I wound the warp on the back beam. I love it when a warp winds on like butter. Occasionally tencel can create little halos in the ends which grabs the end next to it - none of this with today's warp.

 

There are those orderly threads again in the lease sticks -gotta love it.

 

Here the ends are threaded through the heddles - this is a 32 harness pattern. I'm not fond of texsolv heddles but there's no other option when dealing with this many harnesses.

 

And here's the warp threaded through the reed ready to tie on the front beam but no time - neighbors are coming for dinner and to play cards so I had to turn off the lights in the studio and come upstairs to start on dinner prep. There's always tomorrow to get it tied on and try out some weft colors. And if I don't like the draft once I see it woven I'll do something else - it's threaded to a straight draw, 1-32, so there is no limit to designs. Would love to get a towel warp on the other loom tomorrow but who knows what life will bring.

 

 

It's a start......

Got started on winding a 12 yard warp for towels yesterday but kept getting sidetracked so didn't quite finish. There was a loss in my family yesterday and it hit me hard, tough time staying on task.

Here's the first section of the warp - natural areas will be basket weave, colors twill stripes

Next bout - then these color rotations are repeated

What was I thinking? Tough on the back winding 12 yards - should have used the warping mill or sectional warping....or even the AVL warping wheel although I'm still not proficient enough with that to feel confident getting perfect tension for this many yards....it will come with more use

Sacrifice to the Weaving Goddess

Yes, I did it yesterday, I cut off that painted warp and sacrificed it to the weaving goddess. The first scarf is ok, actually it feels yummy combining the bamboo and tencel, but colors are not great. What was I thinking when I dyed this??? Who can wear these colors? Even the first scarf crossed with a golden bamboo, which makes it appear more autumn like, will be hard for most folks to wear. I know, this probably kills some people that I wasted this warp but the fact is that it's less than $2 worth of warp, why spend my valuable time weaving something I'm not happy with - my time is worth so much more.

Yesterday afternoon  a 12 yard warp of natural 5/2 perle cotton sett at 15 epi for runners went on the loom. It's tied on the front beam, warp spread out and ready to start weaving today. I'll be weaving the same pattern as the guild towel exchange towels (see my March 28th post) celtic knots designed by Robyn Spady (as seen on Weavezine). I'll vary wefts and the celtic knot border in color so I don't get bored. Many will be for gifts or for sale but this was a selfish choice in patterns - I want one!

Warping and bruised knees.........

Yesterday I started on a new towel project. I had thought a 12 yard warp would be good so I started winding on the warping board. I got one thread done and thought - whoa, what am I doing, I'm going to kill my back - this is why I have a warping reel. So, I took that one length off the warping board and moved to the reel where I decided to put on 14 yards. Here's where the bruised knees come in - it took me a few times before I remembered to keep my knees out of the way of those big dowels as the reel spun around. This morning I have bruises on the inside of both knees - lesson forgotten and relearned. Using the reel does make for easier on the back warping - I sit on the loom bench for the small loom right in front of the reel - no bending over at all. This is a Gilmore reel - works great and was reasonably priced when I bought it around 6 years ago. So, in the end I got the warp wound on the back beam and heddles threaded - next step is sleying the reed which probably won't happen until tomorrow as today is my spinning group get together.

A little loom time

I got a bit of loom time yesterday. I wound a 12 yard warp for towels, got it wound on the back beam and threaded through the heddles. All that's left is to sley the reed and tie on.....but that won't happen today. I'm doing something very unusual for me - towels in plain weave, I just wanted these very simple that would end up in a nice plaid or stripes. Generally the only time I use plain weave is when weaving chenille. I love structure and I love color and usually combine the two. The other unusual thing I'm doing is using 6/2 cotton, I always use 8/2 or 10/2 for towels. I picked up a large number of beautiful muted colors in 6/2 earlier this year so I wanted to give it a try for towels. I'm using a fibonnaci striping sequence: 34-8-21 (warp ends) and rotating the four colors throughout.

Temps look like they'll be good for dyeing this week - hopefully I'll get in a day or two of painting roving.