Leigh's Fiber Journal

Thursday, March 29, 2007

B2F Warping Progress – Still Tweaking

By Leigh

Ever since I switched from front to back, to back to front warping, I've been enjoying weaving a lot more. Even though I learned to weave 7 years ago, it has only been for the past year that I've had the time to really apply myself to it. I feel as though I spent 6 years dabbling and at last have the opportunity to become serious about it.

Each time I put on a new warp I look for ways to improve it. I realize that there are a lot of different ways to accomplish the same things, it's a matter of finding what works best for oneself and one's loom.

The question on my mind lately has been whether or not to leave the raddle in while weaving. I had been taking it out, but found some decided advantages to leaving it in; the first being a way to keep the lease sticks from creeping toward the heddles.

The first time I tried this, I tied the lease sticks together but found there wasn't enough give in the warp and several ends broke. The idea to use the rings isn't actually my own, I borrowed it from Charleen, which she uses during warping, and I thought to use during weaving. This worked better and allowed some give in my warp. No more bound and broken ends!

Everything was going well, or so I thought, until I read an Online discussion concerning where the warp passes through the heddle eye. It should be through the center, right? So I took a look and was alarmed when I discovered that it wasn't......

You can see the dip my warp makes as it travels over the raddle on it's way through the heddles, where it rubs under the top of the heddle eye. You can also see where my floating selvedge lies, which indicates the degree of the dip the warp takes. The raddle adds an additional ¾ inch to the height of the warp. More actually, as the raddle doesn't sit exactly on top of the back beam. So in between dishtowels I took the raddle out. And you know what? My warp still hugs the top of the heddle eyes. Oh well.

Speaking of floating selvedges, after a lot of experimenting, I have finally decided that I like to hang them off the back of the loom in a weighted film canister.

I've tried winding them on with the rest of my warp, but hanging them separately seems to work better for me. Especially as I often need a little give to them when I throw the shuttle and miss one of them somehow.

I use fishing weights inside the canister, and have discovered that these, with the help of a bent paper clip, are also good for the occasional loose warp thread .....

My other tweak involves measuring my progress. This worked better than simply measuring every time I advanced the warp and marking my place with a bit of thread, but this .....

..... works even better. It was Peg's suggestion; bias tape with marks I made on it (which you can't see). I pin it as I advance the warp, and unpin it before it winds onto the cloth beam. I had heard of using a cloth quilters tape measure, but never could find one. It hadn't occurred to me to make my own, so I appreciate this idea.

All in all, I feel like I'm making good progress; my weaving looks better and I'm enjoying it more. Maybe I'll make it past the novice stage one of these days after all.

Related Posts:
f2b Versus b2f - Beginning of a series
Evaluating My b2f Warp
B2F Vs. F2B - Why I Switched

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Summer & Winter: Structure and Theory

By Leigh

It seems that the longer I weave and the more seriously I take my weaving, I become less I am interested in instructions for projects, and more interested in understanding a particular type of weave in terms of structure and theory in order to use it creatively myself.

Even though the Online Guild's Summer and Winter workshop is coming to an end soon, I plan to continue working and learning on my own. I'm not sure I was actually ready to leave the lace weaves behind, but I needed to take advantage of what was being offered and Huck, Bronson, and Swedish Lace will be things to come back to in the future.

As a way of review, and to see how much I remember, here is what I have learned about Summer & Winter so far. This is all off the top of my head, so it will be a good test for myself to see exactly what I understand.

It is a supplementary weft weave with the extra weft threads woven on top of plain weave. The extra wefts are tied down with the warp ends on shafts 1 and 2 alternately. Hence it is called a 2-tie weave. Since the threading units are 4 ends each, this means that the weft floats are never longer (or shorter) than three warp ends.

Shafts 1 and 2 (usually) are reserved for the tie down ends. The remaining shafts are used for pattern ends. With a 4 shaft loom this means that there are 2 shafts available for patterns so that 2 blocks (or pattern units) can be utilized. The blocks can be repeated as many times as desired, so this is where design comes in.

Each block is four ends, and each includes the 1 shaft and the 2 shaft (the tie down shafts), which alternate with one of the pattern shafts. That means with 4 shafts, these are my 2 possibilities.....

Tabby is woven by alternating shafts 1 and 2, with the remaining shafts (in my case 3 and 4.)

Design is possible through placement and repetition of the blocks, tie-up, treadling, and yarn and color choices.

S&W uses 2 wefts, a tabby weft which is usually the same or similar to the warp, and a pattern weft which usually seems to be a little heavier than the tabby, though not necessarily.

S&W is reversible. Compare the 2 samples below.

Summer and Winter is reversible. One side.

They are front and back of the same sample.

S&W is traditionally woven with light and dark yarns, which evidently accounts for it's name. When I was a little girl, I remember my mother changing the draperies and bed spreads; dark in winter, light in summer. So I can imagine S&W rugs for example, being turned over with the change of season!

At the moment I am exploring different treadlings. And reading. I have managed to pull together quite a few resources on S&W. This simple weave seems to have a lot of possibilities, and I am anxious to discover them.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Weaving Summer and Winter

I've got a busy weekend ahead and I won't be home much, but I've been so excited about this month's Online Guild workshop that I had to make a quick post to share what I've been doing on the loom. We have been weaving summer and winter. It's one I've not tried before and I am learning a lot.

I started with a sampler.

I learned the basics first ......

..... then experimented with various treadlings....

...... tried the tabby yarn for the pattern too ....

....... switched the pattern and tabby wefts ......

..... and then got fancy with a fun knitting yarn.

Those and a few more besides. Problem is, when I'm sampling like that I walk away and can't remember the concept of what I'm doing. So I warped the loom for more dishtowels and am working my way through the summer and winter basics and beyond, a dish towel each.

I'm using an 8/2 lime green cotton warp, which is also the tabby weft, and a 6/2 navy cotton for the pattern. I threaded in a simple Fibonacci sequence of 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and repeat. Here's a shot of the first one on the loom.

At this point I am almost finished with the third dishtowel. I hope to have photos to compare soon.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Modular Knitting

On the knitting front, I am still diligently working on my Rare Breed Sweater. I am about 2/3 along with the second sleeve. However, since it (hopefully) won't look any different than the first sleeve, there isn't much to show for it.

In random bits of time, I am still slowly working through Iris Schreier's Modular Knits, which I started working on back here. I decided to work through all the exercises in the book along with a few projects, my ultimate goal being the Diamond Panel Vest on page 109.

My first project has been the Patchwork Eyeglass Case on page 22. I was a bit puzzled and stumped at first, until it occurred to me to check for errata for this book. I found a very handy list of corrections at Artyarns.

In experimenting, it seems to me that this technique is a perfect use of space dyed yarns. So I'm thinking about handpainted yarns for that vest.

My first patchwork square of variegated yarn:

And a completed eyeglass case:

Patchwork eyeglass case of modular knitted squares.

Not quite as elegant as the one in the book, but then I didn't knit mine out of silk. I used Bernat acrylic and polyester yarns. I wasn't too sure about the crochet edge of eyelash yarn, but was pleased that it hid any irregularities of my knitted edges.

Next up, knitting triangles.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Angora Rabbit 5 - A Few Handspun Yarns

By Leigh

I reckon all that's left is to show you a few of my favorite handspun Angora yarns. Cathy asked in the comments about the halo and potential shedding of abused Angora, in garments. Sadly, the only knitted project I actually have from my Angora is a blend which I made before I knew about abusing the yarn.

That would be these yarns:

I had an unusually soft Jacob fleece which I separated by color and hand carded 50/50 with my Angora. The Angora was dyed with one of the Cushings blues for the gray parts and KoolAid Black Cherry for the dark parts. The white Jacob was blended with undyed white Angora. All these singles were then plied with Merino singles from commercially dyed tops.

When I ran out of Jacob, the rest of the blue was eventually blended with white Angora; hand teasing them together. The yarn below was spun out of hand with that.

After I took a class in spinning curly mohair at SAFF one year, I experimented with trying to spin a textured Angora yarn with the same technique.

I think it was visually successful, but since this was only a small sample, I'm not sure how it would knit up and wear.

But here's my favorite:

50/50 blend of grey Angora & white kid mohair.

This is a handcarded 50/50 blend of grey Angora and white kid mohair. Gorgeous! Between the color of the Angora and the luster of the kid mohair, it makes me think of polished sterling silver. On the 'someday' list in my mind, I will spin enough of this blend for a fancy cardigan.

Even though I have pounds of Angora fiber, I haven't done a lot with it. I admit that even though I am a project person by nature, rather than a sampler, I still tend to dabble and then move on to something new. Oh, I'm good at making plans, but too often life simply gets in the way and the plans and projects get postponed.

Of course, before my children left for university and were at home all the time, family was my priority. In those days, my fiber and textile pursuits were a way to treat myself after a day's work well done. I would spin or knit in the evening while as a family we read out loud. Our repeated favorites included the Little House on the Praire series, Ralph Moody's books, Sterling North's Rascal, and Watership Down. I admit that there wasn't a lot of time for weaving, which is probably why I still see myself as a novice weaver after 7 years. Even so, all those odd moments of relaxation yielded a lot of yarn, a lot of knitting, and a slow but steady amount of weaving.

Oddly, now that I have so much more time to myself I don't feel any more productive. Part of the problem I'm realizing is that I'm having a difficult time making the mental transition between fibers and textiles as relxation, and fibers and textiles as work. I enjoy weaving / spinning / knitting / dyeing so much that I have a hard time thinking of them as being productive. I often feel a little guilty throughout the day because I feel like I'm treating myself when I ought to be working instead! So my challenge for myself is to overcome this idea. I'm not exactly sure how to do it, but it's something I want to work on.

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