Leigh's Fiber Journal

Friday, February 27, 2009

Spring Cleaning: Find #3

By Leigh

If you read Thrums, then you've probably seen Susan's blog posts about some of the beautiful and inspiring things she has in her home and studio. The interior decorator in me is always interested in things like this, and in reading them I was reminded of something I had packed away.

We made two long-distance moves in six months, so a lot of stuff stayed in boxes. The idea was that apartment dwelling would be temporary, so why bother to unpack everything. That has turned out to be longer than we expected, so a number of things I love remain out of sight. After moving everything out of storage, it only made sense to go through boxes and repack them as needed. Inside one of those boxes I found these...

Click on either photo to enlarge.

These are framed plates from Godey's Lady's Book, given to me by the same grandmother who gave me the coverlet. Godey's Lady's Book was a popular publication in the 19th century, so obviously these were saved by my great-grandmother. I'm not entirely certain which issue these came from as there is no date on them. The caption reads Le Bon Ton. There is a signature on one, Heloise Leloin. I assume this is the artist.

Eventually they will find their way onto my walls, but in the meantime, they are being repacked, with the hope that they won't remain that way for too terribly much longer.

A few issues of Godey's Lady's Book can be viewed online; just click right here.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

SSC: Bands Done At Last!

By Leigh

At long last I can report progress on my Shetland Sampler Cardigan. The front and neck bands are finally finished!

The neck band was a breeze, but the front bands were a booger-bear to knit. Each side had to be done twice. I started with the button side, and used the same circular needle I used for the bottom ribbing, a size US0. This is two sizes smaller than I used for the body of the sweater.

I was careful to check both my stitch and row gauges, so that I could adjust the number of stitches I needed to pick up along each front edge. This is where I ran into my first problem. According to my calculations, I needed to pick up two stitches for every three rows, which I did. After knitting for awhile, something didn't seem right, so I transferred the stitches onto a string. Sure enough, the band was tight and pulled the entire front edge of the sweater into one big pucker. The second time, I picked up one stitch per row, which seemed to work perfectly with the K2P2 rib I'm using. That was re-knit #1.

Re-knit number #2 was the buttonhole side. When I bought the buttons, I arbitrarily figured on five, so I bought six buttons, in order to have one extra. However, once the buttonholes were in, I realized that the distance between buttons was too great. I should have planned on at least seven. Unfortunately, I bought the buttons out of state! So I pulled the five buttonholes out and put in six the second time.

I used Nancy Wiseman's revised one row buttonhole (pages 114 - 117 in her The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques.) I was going to say that they turned out fair to middlin', but the one in the photo on the left appears to be almost of invisible, so maybe they aren't too bad after all.

Next is attaching the sleeves and knitting the cuffs. I'm delighted to think that I'll be finished and able to wear it before winter is gone.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-Weaving

By Leigh

Now here is an odd thing.

A couple of years ago I purchased a hardbound copy of The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-Weaving by Mary Meigs Atwater at a silent auction fund raiser. I refer to this book frequently, so I am familiar with it's text, drafts, and photographs.

At my guild meeting last weekend, there were some used books for sale, among them a paperback copy of The Shuttle-Craft Book of American Hand-Weaving. Being a wordy title with a different cover, I had to stop and think if this was the same book by Mary Meigs Atwater that I already had, or if it was another. I flipped through the pages, but it didn't look familiar, so I bought it.

When I got home, I went to my bookshelves to see what my other Atwater book was. I was surprised to see that it had the exact same title. A quick look at the title page revealed that both were published by The Macmillian Company and both carried an 1928 copyright date. However, they were reprintings from different years.

Feeling quite silly for purchasing a second copy of the same book, I was nonetheless puzzled as to why I hadn't recognized this. I started to compare them chapter by chapter. The two books were organized differently, but the first couple of chapters were identical. However, after that, they are not the same book!

My hardcover 1928 version (printed in 1944), contains such chapters as:

"The Practice of Hand-Weaving - Spinning"
"Dyeing"
"Dressing the Loom"
"Rug Weaving"
"The Weaving of a Coverlet"
"Finishing Hand-Woven Fabrics"
"The Linen Weaves"
"Counterpanes"

The 1951 paperback version (printed in 1978) has none of those, but does have chapters such as:

"Beginner's Problems"
"Design of the Fabric"
"Choice of Pattern and Color"
"Setting up the Loom"
"Adjustments, Knots, the Tie-Up"

As well as a more chapters on individual weaves:

"The Plain Weave"
"The Twill Weave"
"The Four Harness Overshot Weave"
"Leno"
"Pick-Up Weaving"

Even chapters with the same title such as, "The Summer and Winter Weave" do not have identical content! Most of the photos are the same, but the newer version has a few more drafts. It looks like I have copies of both the original edition and the revised edition.

The moral of the story? Don't judge a book by it's cover, or rather by it's title. I realize that newer editions of books are often updated, but this re-write seems to be more extensive than just an update.

So, I didn't exactly purchase a duplicate after all. As Ma Ingalls would say, "All's well that ends well." And I have a brand new book!

New Loom = New Books. Right?

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Pol-paca Progress

By Leigh

I haven't written about spinning lately. That's because I'm still on the same project, my Polwarth / alpaca blend for a weaving project (probably somewhere in the distant future.)

Spinning a whole fleece doesn't make for a lot of interesting posts, like it did when I was spinning all those different samples of Shetland. Plus, I'm dividing my sit down time with knitting on the Shetland Sampler Cardi, so progress may seem slow. I do have five (almost six) nice, fat skeins done though. Here are four of them:

Since this will be for weaving, I decided to use two different alpaca fleeces, each for about half of the total skeins. You can't tell from the photo, but the one skein on the left is from a different alpaca than the three on the right. When compared side by side, the two are not identical in color. My idea was to use one for the warp and one for the weft. There doesn't seem to be much visual difference in the yarn color however, so I doubt it will matter in the end.

As I spin, I design in my head. I've also been looking around for sewing patterns. This is the one I'm leaning toward at the moment...

This is a Folkwear pattern. As you can see from the line drawings on the left, the pattern pieces would be perfect for handwoven fabric, especially if I decide to weave and piece it in a variety of twill patterns for example. Of course as I sit and spin, I can't help but make changes as per Random Thing #9. For example, I think I might prefer it a little shorter, like a long jacket.

I haven't signed on the dotted line yet for my pattern choice, so this may change. I'd like to decide soon, however. Then I will know how many yard of fabric I will need, so I can calculate how many yards of yarn to spin. Decisions about a weaving draft will be much later.

Now, back to spinning.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Loom Doodling With The Pine Trees

Before I removed the warp from my Pine Tree Table Runner, I wanted to weave a few mug rug size samples of an idea I've had on my mind.

Do you remember my first warp painted project? I took a break from my summer & winter explorations for that, and the entire time I was weaving I was wondering about combining the two. These little samples did that.

The fun part was making up the treadling as I went along. In fact, I wish I had put on a little longer sample warp. That warp BTW....

....wasn't actually painted. It was dip-dyed last summer when I was first working with Procion MX dyes. They were part of my experiments with PMX exhaust, and they suited these samples. I used a solid turquoise tabby weft for the first three, and then switched to the dip-dyed yarn for a tabby weft for the last one (bottom left).

I learned several things from these.

Firstly I was reminded how different S&W can look with a heavier, softer pattern weft. I have tended to use pattern wefts just a little heavier than the tabby. This one was a soft, 3/2 cotton which covered the warp (8/2 cotton at 16 epi.). This brought definition to the pine trees. Good to remember for weaving picture patterns like this.

Secondly, I learned that as much fun as it was to weave those pine trees, shapes are not what I enjoy about S&W. These can be accomplished in other ways; in fact I've moved double weave closer to the top of my "to-do" list.

What I have loved about S&W is what a weaver can do with color. Remember these (click here) dishtowels? They held hours of fascination for me. Not because they are geometric shapes (modern is not my style of art), but because of the blending of the colors.

So. I set out to explore one thing and learned something else. I love it when things like that happen and now I'm all the more ready to get started on my next project. What will it be? Stay tuned ..........

Back to the Pine Trees
Summer & Winter Pine Tree Table Runner

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