Space Dyed Twill Afghan

By Leigh

My latest Christmas afghan is just off the loom! I haven't finished the ends or washed it yet, but here it is. This is the side I looked at while weaving .......

It has solid colored weft faced twill zig zags. You can see the space dyed warp stripes subtly underneath.

Now here is the other side .......

... where the zig zags are warp faced, showing off the color changes in the space dyed yarn. Much more interesting to my eye. You can still see where I was unable to perfectly match the space dyed sections, but I am happy with it all the same.

After weaving awhile, I did start to have problems with warp looseness at the selvedges, creating an upward turn to the fell. I am guessing this has something to do with the fact that I have tied on so many warps.



My solution was to use an S-hook and a half filled half gallon milk jug to take up the slack. This worked very well and straightened the fell out nicely.

I think this is the end of experimenting with space dyed commercial yarns for awhile. I didn't have much success measuring the warp ends individually, nor was measuring the sections in bouts from separate skeins achieve what I wanted. Using them as weft was okay, but the results weren't exciting enough to want to try this again. So, as Peg said in the comments of my last post, that only leaves dying my own warps.

So, that is on my future "to do" list, when I have more time and a better set-up for dyeing.

To finish this afghan, I'm thinking that instead of fringing it like I did the others, I would like to put a crochet edging around it. I'm thinking that a scalloped or picot-type edge would be nice as this would compliment the zig zags. However, this will have to wait until the weather cools down and I won't mind working with an afghan in my lap. In the meantime, on to the next afghan.

© 29 Aug. 2007 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Post:
More Space Dyed Twill Weaving
Finishing the Unfinished Afghan

More Space Dyed Twill Weaving

By Leigh

Although I've mostly been concentrating on the alpaca projects lately, I haven't given up on my Christmas afghans, and am in fact still contemplating how to incorporate the zig zag twill with the commercial space dyed yarns.

My first afghan, used the space dyed yarn as weft. I was semi-pleased with the results. There are possibilities there, but I was more interested in exploring space dyed yarns as warp. My first experiment with this was the summer & winter place mats.

When I warped my Mighty Wolf loom for those place mats, I cut and measured each warp end individually, trying to start at the same place in the yarn's color sequence. That was not only very time consuming, but I ended up wasting a lot of yarn. Not to mention that I wasn't really satisfied with the results. So I decided to try something different for this next afghan.

I actually had two things to consider. First was space dyed effect, but also I wanted to figure out how to center my twill zig zags within the color stripes. From that first afghan, I realized that this wasn't as easy as I thought I'd be.

One option for centered zig zags was to widen the warp color stripes, which I did here. I had to spread the stripes out however, because the very nature of twill lends itself to the overlapped effect that I was trying to avoid. My second option was to treadle narrower zig zags, which is what I planned to do this time.

First though, I had to figure out what I can do with the space dyed stripes. Since cutting the individual warp ends by color was a drag, this time I decided to get eight skeins and see if I could match them all up to start the color sequence at the same place. Then I could start measuring the warp from there. I used eight skeins, because my threading sequence is a straight twill using shafts one through eight.

I don't have a warping paddle, but I figured I could measure the warp from all eight skeins together without one.

Once I matched up the color sequence for all of them, I started to measure the warp on my warping board. However, I discovered that the dyeing is inconsistent amongst the various skeins, so that the colors get out of sync every several yards. I compensated for this by making my bouts very small. Still, there are some odd color threads here and there.

The next thing I had to figure out was which treadles to use in order to keep the zig zags within each color stripe. After a little experimenting I discovered that in order to keep the zig zags within the color stripes (which are eight warp ends wide) I needed to treadle it 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 8, 7, 6, 5, and repeat. If I were using my jack loom, I would simply change the tie up so that the treadling would start on the first treadle. But since this is a countermarche loom, it is easier to change the treadling sequence(!)

I found, however, that it was easy to keep treadling in the same direction instead of reversing where I needed too. After confusing myself several times and having to unweave a few mistakes, I finally thought to use rubber bands to mark the treadles I am not using.

Since I treadle bare footed, this made it easier to keep track of where I was.

So, here's how it is turning out. The weft is a solid blue.

The zig zags themselves are a tad narrower than the ones on the previous afghans, but that's okay. However, I am still not satisfied with the space dyed effect, because of those maverick threads that didn't follow the color change sequence evenly. So I just won't point this out to the recipient, who will be none the wiser for it. I'm very curious to see how the underside is turning out, but I will have to weave a little more before I can find out.

© 26 Aug. 2007 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Post:
Space Dyed Twill Afghan
Finishing the Unfinished Afghan

2 Past Tri-loom Projects

Working with my tri-loom again got me to thinking about projects I used it for in the past. I made quite a few shawls, but most of them were given away. I do have two projects left though. Well, one my daughter has, and the other is mine.

This one is a Kennedy tartan shawl, modeled by my daughter......

It is one of our family tartans and I made it as a gift for her. It was woven with Brown Sheep's Nature Spun wool yarn in worsted weight. We added a velvet edging as she didn't care for the feel of wool against her neck. In looking back through my notes, I am amazed to realize that I wove this in 2003!

The other project that I still have is a ruana that I wove for myself (which is a rare thing as I seem to give most of my weaving away.) It was also woven in 2003. For it, I used my handspun; a wool, mohair, and silk blend, purchased as a commercially dyed roving. I did not spin the yarn specifically for this project, but just had a lot left over from a sweater project.

It is actually two triangles, both woven on the tri-loom, one on top of the other. In words the first one was woven and left on the tri-loom, then the second was woven on the tri-loom as well. These triangles became the two halves of the ruana. They were chain stitched together along the top of the loom to form the back (see photo below). The neck and front edges are chain stitched from the opposite side of the loom, around the neck, and down the other front.


I don't know how well you can see all that from the above photo. Actual instructions for making one of these can be found on Carol Leigh's Triangle Frame Loom Weaving Magic.

The fabric was very open, as you can also see from the above photo. After it was taken off the tri-loom, I fulled it until it was thick, warm, and snug. The resulting neckline in back is V shaped as in the photo on the right. If you look carefully, you can also see the seam line down the back from chaining the two halves together. It's barely noticable after fulling.

I prefer to wear it with the neckline from shoulder to shoulder, boatneck style, with one side thrown over my left shoulder.

And before I forget, there is one more free resource I'd like to share with you. It is a yardage chart for various types and sizes of frame looms. You can see it by clicking here.

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

Related post - Alpaca Tri-loom Teddy Bear Shawl

Alpaca Tri-loom Teddy Bear Shawl

By Leigh

I am pleased to report that my third alpaca project is complete. Cally was curious as to what I had in mind when I said "teddy bear shawl." She had several very good ideas, but her first guess was correct. I wanted a small shawl for a teddy bear!

To actually do this however, I had a couple of challenges facing me. The first was to find my tri-loom, which had been packed away a couple of moves ago. That was fairly easy. The second was to figure out how to adapt it to make a smaller triangle, because, as you see below, it is a rather large size loom, with a six and a half foot weaving width.


For those of you not familiar with these, a tri-loom is a type of continuous yarn loom. The beauty of it is that the weaver warps and weaves at the same time. In fact, they make an excellent first loom for anyone who is interested in trying their hand at weaving. Mine was handcrafted as a gift from my son when he was in high school. He was never particularly interested in woodworking, so the fact that he wanted to make it for me makes it quite special.

Since my tri-loom is not an adjustable one, but I was hoping that somehow it could be modified without having to make another, smaller tri-loom. Fortunately I have a husband who is quite clever when it comes to this sort of thing. This is what we came up with .....

In this photo, I have already marked the nails along the top with bits of yarn. These are for the color changes in the shawl. Not being mathematically minded, I've had trouble in the past getting my colors changes where I wanted them. I always work it out on paper first, but I have learned to count it out and mark the nails before I begin as well.

Weaving starts with a center pull ball of yarn, in this case my bulky handspun alpaca, and a slip knot. There are excellent instructions with photos for this type of weaving here, so I won't go into detail, but will give you the gist of it.

The loom has the same number of nails along each side of the triangle. On the top (hypotenuse), they are spaced at every half inch, along the legs of the triangle, they are three-eighths of an inch apart. Weaving starts on one side and works back and forth. What is woven on one side of the loom, is automatically woven on the other side as well, so that the weaving works from the sides inward. Above, I am weaving the yarn over one and under one in a plain weave. Twill and leno lace weaves are also possible.

Most of the weaving can be done with one's fingers, but I do find that a crochet or locker hook very helpful when I get toward the center and the open space for working the yarn through gets narrower. I like the locker hook because it has a hook like a crochet hook at one end, and a large eye, like the eye of a needle at the other end. This is sometimes convenient for working threads through or correcting mistakes.

Color changes are a simple matter of tying the two colors together on one side and weaving them together on one side. A better explanation with photos can be found here. My light colored yarn is from the same fleece as I used for the knitted alpaca cap.

The nature of tri-loom weaving is that the two halves are identical. Whatever color changes are created on one side, are mirrored on the other. This means that one only has to design half a triangle! Lovely plaids including tartans can be easily designed for this type of loom.

Once all the nails have been used up and the weaving is done, the shawl is fringed. Where ever the color of yarn was changed, these two yarns are knotted securely at the nail with an overhand knot. You can see one of these on the right. Other fringes are added at each nail with a length of yarn and a lark's head knot. Only the two short sides of the loom are fringed.

Once all the fringes have been added, the shawl is ready to remove from the loom. This is done the same way pot holders are taken off of their little square looms, with a chain stitch across the top.

After that, the shawl can be gently lifted off of the remaining nails.

Now it is ready to wash and then I can trim the fringe. You might be able to tell from the above photo, that the fresh fabric is still quite open, even though I used bulky yarn. Before washing it measured 33 inches across the top, exclusive of fringe. The two shorter sides were each 25 inches. I did full it a bit, so that after washing it was 30 inches across with 21.5 inch sides. I trimmed the fringe to about two and three-quarters inches.

The finished fabric is still somewhat open, but I think the teddy bear is happy with it.

© 20 Aug. 2007 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Posts:
2nd Summer Project - Alpaca
Alpaca Project #2
Last of the Alpaca Projects
2 Past Tri-Loom Projects

Alpaca Progress

By Leigh

Well, I've still got Shetland on my mind, but I am trying to be diligent to finish up the projects I promised in trade for all those Alpaca fleeces. Of the four chosen specifically for sample projects, I have finished two, the felted Alpaca doll, and the knitted child's cap. I've decided that the next project needs to be a handwoven one, so the preparations have begun.

This fleece is more consistent in color, staple length, and overall texture than the other two I've worked with so far. It is also more Huacaya-like to my mind, though I don't really have enough experience working with raw Alpaca to assume I actually know what I'm talking about here(!)

The fiber is soft, with a vague crimp at about 5 per inch, with no grease or luster. It contains very little VM (vegetable matter), no bugs, mud, or other biological nasties. It is very open and very easy to work with. Being mostly about three inches in length, it would have been a good choice for handcarding. However, I need to press on with this project, so I ran it through my drum carder twice, and then it was ready to spin.

Since I was planning to weave a teddy bear shawl of this on my triloom, I wanted a bulky yarn. The cap is knitted in a medium weight handspun, so I figured this one will be bulky weight, and then the last one will be finer.

It spins like a dream, but after awhile, I was a little dismayed to realize that I had been spinning with a dirty thumb and forefinger ......

Had I accidentally gotten oil on them when I oiled my wheel? Hmm. I need to be more careful. I washed my hands and resumed spinning. Much to my surprise, a little while later they were dirty again. That's when I realized that just because the fleece wasn't greasy, didn't mean that it wasn't dirty! Most of my spinning experience has been with sheep's wool (always with at least some grease and the dirt which sticks to it) and Angora rabbit (never greasy and rarely dirty with actual dirt.) The only other raw alpaca I've handled was from Florida so it was sandy. These are from North Carolina however, and while the first two were a little dusty, this one is downright filthy! So I've learned something important here.

Had I realized this before I started spinning, I would have definitely washed the fleece first. However, since I was already in route, I chalked it up to "I'll know better next time" and finished the yarn.

After I finished spinning and had skeined the yarn, I gave it two thorough, very hot soapy soaks and three hot water rinses. I was delighted at how lovely the fiber was under all that dirt: very soft, silky, and with some luster after all.

The singles for the yarn on the left were spun at 14 wraps per inch. The 2 ply measures 7 WPI.

Next will be the weaving of it. More on that and how it turned out here.

© 18 Aug. 2007 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Posts:
Alpaca Tri-loom Teddy Bear Shawl
2nd Summer Project - Alpaca
Alpaca Project #2
Last of the Alpaca Projects