It was a rainy, gloomy day,
but that didn't dampen anyones spirits for kool aide dyeing.
Did you know that the different drink mix brands create different hues? For example, a green mix in four different brands will give you four different kinds of green.
Two looms were set up for working on baby blankets for Project Linus.
The spinning circle offered a time to visit and chat.
That's my Kromski Minstrel in the lower left corner. I actually made some progress on my pol-paca! I can't believe I first blogged about it almost two years ago. Most of the yarn I've already spun is still packed away from our move.
Teena joined the circle while working on heddle making.
Walt brought his work with him, one of his custom benches with woven seat. You can see another one here.
Several looms were threaded in an overshot name draft with our Guild's name, Western North Carolina Fibers/Handweavers Guild.
We learned how to draft our own names for the treadling.
I was familiar with the concept, but had never actually woven a name draft before. Each letter of the alphabet is assigned a shaft number. We learned how to add shaft numbers in between duplicates. For example, with my first name (above top), the L, I, G, and H are all assigned to shaft 2. By adding shaft number 3 between adjacent 2s, I had a weavable draft.
Neighboring shaft numbers were circled in pairs, and the pairs counted to determine the treadling sequence. Since it is overshot, tabbies were thrown in between each pattern weft. My treadling, without the tabbies, was:
1 - 2, x 2 (shafts 1 and 2 lifted twice)
2 - 3, x 4
1 - 2, x 1
1 - 4, x 1
3 - 4, x 1
2 - 3, x 4
3 - 4, x 5
1 - 4, x 3
reverse (I did add one shot of 1 - 2 here, to avoid the 1 - 4 being treadled 6 times).
Here's my name treadled forward and reverse on the Guild name threading. As you can see, I chose a space dyed yarn.
Here's a close-up. It's been almost a year and a half since I've woven anything. When I sat down at the loom I wondered if I'd even remember how! But it was as though I'd never taken a break.
