I decided on 3 colors, played with my brand new Mac version of Fiberworks (YAY!), figured out a draft, and ordered the cotton.

A generous member of my fiber arts guild loaned me her warping mill so I could try it out for this long and wide warp.

No doubt the warping mill is much quicker than my warping board, but I’m not in love with it. I’m guessing that some of that is because I’ve only used one once so would need to develop familiarity, and some is due to the specifics of this handmade mill. In any case, I’m not ready to run out and get one.

I would a warp of 547 ends for 10 towels, set up my 8 harness Macomber loom (it took 4 hours!!! since the unmercerized isn’t the easiest fiber — but not as difficult as rayon chenille in the width and length would have been) and went on my merry way.

I used a 3/1-1/3 twill, getting the maximum amount of color interplay between the 3 shades of blue.

Here’s the first towel on the loom.

I do like the way the colors are interacting; I don’t like working with three shuttles. It’s SO much slower than working with one, or even two colors. For the first towel I started two colors on one side, one on the other in an effort to minimize any mess of carrying threads up one side.

This was so tedious, for the next one I decided I’d start them all on the same side and minimize the time spent wrapping the threads around at the selvedge. I didn’t much care for that, either.

For the third and fourth towels I used the same pattern, but cut the threads after each color. This seemed more pleasurable, but it still wasn’t my favorite thing to do.

So for towel #5 I picked out another unmercerized cotton I had and used it for the entire weft.

This is a variegated cotton slub with a tiny bit of nylon in it for a bit of shine. I enjoyed working with only one weft, but the pattern didn’t really show up well. So I figured what the heck, for towel #6 I’d try this weft in a plain weave.

Now the color really doesn’t show, but it sure is quick & easy to weave!

So for the rest of the towels, I went back to using all three colors. But a bit differently. For towels #7 & 8 I went through the treadling pattern three times instead of once, so I change colors only 1/3 as often. I like this, too.

For towel #9 I modified the treadling pattern for wider blocks of each twill. I’m not as fond of it.

So for the very last towel I went back to plain weave. I thought it might look interesting in someone’s kitchen if I wove half of it with the darkest weft and half with the lightest.

All went well (in relative terms; I’m having Macomber issues, but that’s a topic for another post) until I cut them off the loom and took them up to the sewing machine to run a line of machine stitching along the to-be-cut edges prior to hand hemming.

Uh oh! Clearly I skipped two critical steps: (1) checking for floats with the computer program and (2) sampling. As I’ve said previously, I hate sampling. I usually avoid drafting problems by remembering to check for floats on the computer. How could I have forgotten it now?!

As a result, I have some long floats on the back. Some up to 9 threads. Yikes! Well, what’s done is done. Throw these babies into the washer on hot water, then the dryer, and see what happens. Luckily I wasn’t planning to sell any of the towels — 6 for the towel exchange and 4 for gifts — but still, who wants her less-than-great work out there in public? No one.

After the towels come out of the dryer the shrinkage is enough that although I’m not happy with the floats, I’m no longer as embarrassed by them that I’m not willing to use them as planned. I’m in the hemming phase now; three are done, seven to go.

Here’s my draft. WARNING — DO NOT USE IT AS IS!!! The simple removal of harness 4 on treadle 4 and harness 5 on treadle 5 will solve the problem, although it will change the looks a bit.

Your turn: what have you been up to lately?

When I made the switch to weaving, there was no way that wallpaper books would make my packaging anymore. What would I use? I tried a variety of options that weren’t successful, eventually settling on making bags from old pillowcases I rescued from thrift shops. Although I’ve also used curtains, napkins, and sheets, pillowcases require the least amount of sewing, and therefore time. I get three bags out of each pillowcase, so it’s cost effective, too.

Time saving it’s not.

I was down to one lonely bag, and needed more just to mail the orders that I have. I had to get up from my loom and sew. I decided I’d make all the pillowcases I have into bags – once I’m in the mode, I might as well continue. It was also a good opportunity to record my time and thus know how long it takes to make the bags.

Cutting was really efficient – just over 1/2 hour to cut out all the bags. I didn’t count how many at that point, I just cut. Here’s a short stack waiting for the sewing.

I brought my mother’s old Riccar down to the kitchen to do the sewing. Some bags need a side & bottom seam sewn, some need a casing and a side seam.

The sewing goes smoothly, but before I know it three hours have passed. Here they are all sewn, waiting for their threads to be cut and turned right side out.

Next I needed to go to the computer and print the tags, cut them, and punch two holes in each one. Since I didn’t know how many bags I had, I made about 100 tags, figuring I’d use them all up eventually. That step took another hour.

Finally, I sit on my couch to string & tag each bag. I decided this was a good time to watch a movie. While I can listen to lots of movies while I weave, I can’t watch much: I need to watch what I’m doing at the loom. Cutting & threading a ribbon, stringing a tag, and tying a knot didn’t require lots of careful attention. This was one of my first chances to watch Avatar, a movie that has to be watched, not listened to.

I was really surprised that it took me another three hours to string all of the bags. Trust me, I couldn’t have been much more efficient if there was no television on; I’m pretty disciplined when it comes to this kind of thing. After they were done, I finally counted them when I was stacking them all up.

76 bags total, 7.5 hours. When I consider that means that each bag took me only about 6 minutes, I think it’s really amazingly quick. When I think about the fact that I have to devote two more days to this activity in the next few months to have enough to get me through the year, it seems pretty time intensive. Like so much in life, perspective is everything.

More than the time involved, I’m concerned about my pillowcase supply. Lots of thrift shops don’t sell pillowcases separately. Those that do don’t have an endless supply – I can usually only pick up a few at a time. I don’t want to buy sheet sets, not only because they require more time in cutting & sewing, but also because there’s likely to be more waste. There will be stains or rips I can’t see till I’m working on them.

So, if you have old pillowcases that are in good condition that you don’t like anymore, send them to me. I’ll mail you back something I’ve woven – maybe a bookmark, maybe a mug rug, maybe something else. I’m open to pillowcases in all colors, both prints and solids, lights and darks. The higher cotton content the better, but beggars can’t be choosers.

The spruce in my driveway were laden with beautiful, white snow.

The temperatures were mild, and Red was happy to be far ahead of me. (He’s that little dot on the right shoulder of the road.) We’re both glad we live on a dirt road that sees little traffic.

The creek was running nicely, making its lovely, meandering path downhill.

When we got back home, we had to make our way through the unplowed snow, past my little car that was awaiting our plow guy to get up to the garage.

We loved it all.

Meanwhile, back in the house I was completing two handwoven shawls. I had an order for a rainbow rayon chenille shawl, and wanted to make an extra to have one for sale at shows. Rainbow shawls are a bit more of a challenge than some others, because the colors are not all the same; some are a bit thicker, some thinner, some stretchier, some more rigid. Keeping an even tension on the warp is both critical and sometimes difficult. But the end results are SO worth it! I like this second one better than the first. I used only 6 threads of black between colors instead of 8 threads on the first one. Also, I had only 14 color bands instead of 16 on the first. All together, that means more colorful. The rainbow shawl makes me happy, bringing brightness to every space it’s in, and every person who sees it.

I’d like to have my rainbow shawl be one of the slides for this year’s show jurying, so I really need a great photo. I tried draping it on Dolly, but didn’t like that result. (This is one of at least 7 draping attempts I tried on her.)

Then I tried laying it flat so I could show how nicely it moved. (This is how I shoot most of my pieces.) Maybe an acceptable picture for my website, but not at all workable for a show jury.

Think, think. Where can you put it with decent light so you won’t get a bunch of flash bounce? Where you can have or create a nice, clean white background? I’m at a loss.

Suddenly I think of my shower. I hang a white sheet for the backdrop, and try draping the shawl over one of my lovely rod people. Much better.

One more brainstorm – bring in one of my display rods, and drape the shawl over that in the shower.

I think this one may be it. I’d love your input…if you were on a show jury, which of these photos would you want to see? Or do you have suggestions for more improvement?

In my last post I showed you some cashmere silk eggshell lace scarves on my counterbalance loom, and promised more info about them. Here it is, finally.

At one of my December shows a customer ordered two custom cashmere silk lace scarves. I’m always happy to comply with these requests, although I had to tell this woman that she couldn’t have exactly what she wanted. She wanted a scarf just like the one I was wearing. Should have been simple, shouldn’t it? But it wasn’t.

I was wearing one of the eggshell lace scarves I’d made on my Macomber when I was trying a new pattern. Those scarves were not stable enough, and can’t be sold. I often wear one at a show because they go with everything, and when I’m wearing the scarf the problems are not obvious. So I explained why I would have to modify the pattern in her scarf. She understood, but was clear that she wanted me to get as close as possible. I assured her I’d try.

I knew that I couldn’t really know what would work by using another fiber; I had to do my testing with cashmere silk yarn. I also knew I had a limited quantity of the eggshell, a popular color, and I didn’t really want to use any of it up in samples/tests that may or may not be successful. So I decided to use my least-requested color, a bright Christmas red.

I also decided that I would only use a lace pattern I could weave on my counterbalance loom. The cashmere silk scarves I’ve woven on the counterbalance loom have been almost completely successful; the ones I’ve woven on my Mac not so much. I think it’s a combination of the loom and the weave structures I’ve chosen, but I almost always make the tension too tight and distort the scarves.

So I spent some time with my Fiberworks software, and using block design strategies, created a Swedish lace draft. I measured out enough warp for two red scarves, and threaded up the loom. I set off weaving, and was pleased with the results. Although it’s clear that while a piece is still on the loom you can’t tell for certain what it will look like after wet finishing, with practice you can get a good idea.

As I was weaving the first scarf, I decided that I could get even closer to my customer’s wishes. So I cut off that scarf, wet finished it to be sure I was right, and re-threaded the loom. I was also happy with the second scarf. Here are both of them.

After wet finishing the second scarf, I decided I could make even more changes to get even closer to my customer’s wishes. I also figured that I ought to warp for four scarves instead of my usual three, since I have had lots of customer interest in eggshell scarves. So I was off and running.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as smoothly with the eggshell scarves. It had nothing to do with the modifications to the draft. For reasons that I never could quite identify, I had all sorts of problems with the threads near the selvedges. They broke often, they fuzzed up, the refused to produce straight selvedges. I tried all the tricks I knew — weighting the selvedge threads, doubling those threads, using a temple — nothing made any difference. Ultimately, I did get four saleable scarves woven, but I’m embarrassed by the selvedges on all of them to one degree or another. I’m not showing you a closeup of them with good reason. But here are two of the scarves. (You can tell at a glance I haven’t pressed them yet.)

Actually, I did have one idea about the selvedge problem with the eggshell scarves. The reed I use on my counterbalance loom is the one that came with it when I bought the loom, after it had sat in a damp garage for more than a year. The reed was very rusty, and I was poor, so I cleaned it with naval jelly, a stiff brush, and lots of elbow grease. Although it didn’t hassle the red yarn, I guessed that the eggshell yarn was just a bit more delicate, and that there were possibly tiny burs on the red that frayed the yarn. So I bit the bullet and ordered a brand new stainless steel reed. I figured that my little loom got enough use that it (and I) deserved a new tool. The reed was out of stock, so I’ll have to wait a few weeks for it to arrive.

Of course, I’m weaving in the interim (tempus fugit, ya know), but I had to work on another order before I went back to the cashmere & silk. The eggshell was pretty frustrating, and the other special order is for black. The only other black cashmere silk scarves I made had a similar selvedge problem, and I didn’t think my brain could handle it. I’m hoping (probably without much chance of success) that the reed will come in quickly and I can use it for the black scarves.

I promise, I’ll try to post more frequently. I want to show you what I have on that little rigid heddle loom (and I want to get back to that!), the order that’s on my counterbalance now, and my plans for the towel exchange I joined this year.

Your turn: what have you been doing since the year changed its number?