Upfront acknowledgement: long post with lots of pics.
We’ve been quite fortunate on the snow front. Didn’t get dumped on anything like some other people. About 8″ in one day was our max, but on that day it came down fast and Jack’s short little legs had difficulty on our walks.
I had a great time in my dyeing workshop. I learned A LOT and got TONS accomplished. More than was reasonable, I think. I was working so hard I forgot to take pictures, but did manage to get one not-so-great image. In fact I barely stopped to each lunch. Here’s one of my four rayon warps, laid out on the table and painted with the dye. As soon as I snapped the photo I had to roll it up really tightly in the plastic wrap it’s laying on, keeping each the length separated from the ones next to it.
After rolling it tightly the long way it got coiled up like a cinnamon bun, then put in a steamer for at least 30 minutes. The Weaving and Fiber Arts Center keeps pots, steamers, utensils, and other tools separate just for dyeing, because you can’t also use them for food. I managed to get four of my five warps steamed during the workshop. We didn’t have time for me to do the last one, so I took it home and set it on my heating pad, turned on low and left overnight, to really set that color.
Here are the four rayon warps in their cinnamon bun state. One thing I learned was that the warps that had been steamed were MUCH more difficult to get out of that plastic wrap than the one that sat on my heating pad. You can see in the photo that it looks sort of like it was shrink-wrapped on. Removing the plastic without damaging the warp was a real pain. And since I didn’t have gloves at home (didn’t know I’d need them), I also got lots of dye on my hands that I’m still trying to get off three days later. I’m betting it’ll take at least another 2 days.
And my one silk warp.
I had intended to use all four of the rayon warps in one width for shawls. I’m now pretty sure I won’t do that. To make it work the way I would have wanted it to, I would have had to do much more careful planning with my colors. But I’m fine with that. I’ll make 4 different warps, adding solid color rayon as needed for scarves (or maybe even shawls with the wider bouts). With each warp long enough to weave three pieces, instead of 3 shawls I’ll have 12 scarves!
After I uncoiled each warp and rinsed it, it sat overnight in my bathtub to get more of the excess dye out. Meanwhile the last warp sat on my heating pad.
Then I hung them over the drying rack in my tub, while the fifth wrap did its overnight soak.
After all five warps were dry, I ‘snapped’ them in sections to straighten out the yarn and get rid of most of that crinkly look. Here they are, all dry, showing their beauty in my studio.
Then I chained each of the warps to keep it organized until I can get it on my loom. Here are the four rayon warps.
And the one silk warp.
I am really looking forward to using these warps! 🙂 None of them will be up next on the loom though. 🙁 I have a red warp I prepared when I did the green one that’s on the loom now, and it should go much more quickly than that green one since it’s a one-shuttle weave. By the time I get that red warp off the loom I may have yarn here for more baby wraps.
When my kids were little we read a lot of picture story books. One of their favorite books (but not mine) was Go, Dog, Go. Like all easy readers, there are several recurring sentences. One I liked was, “Do you like my hat?” A favorite of my son was, “Go around again!” (I’m not going to try to explain the plot.) That latter sentiment has been the focus of many hours of my life in the last two days.
On Friday I’m registered for a 6-hour dyeing workshop. Led by Joyce Robards, one of two “Teacher’s of the Year” chosen by Handwoven Magazine and a long-time member of the Rochester Weaver’s Guild, this Dyer’s Choice workshop at the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center allows each of the 6 registrants to dye what we wish, as we wish. I’ve spoken with Joyce about what I want to do, and she assured me it was well within the realm of the day.
I’ve worked with lots of both machine variegated and hand painted yarns over the years, and I’m sure I’ll work with them again. As I’ve used these yarns I’ve tried various methods to get the colors to “pool” in the warp – that is to arrange the yarns so that I get whole sections of a single color in the yarn instead of the more common stripey effect. Planning, preparation, and then hand painting are required to achieve my desired result. Here’s an absolutely stunning handpainted shawl woven by artist Freya Willemoese-Wissing. I’m sure I can’t achieve anything like this without lots of attempts and lots more planning than I’m doing now!
So anyway I planned for a scarf made from 30/2 silk with more than 7,400 yards per pound of yarn. That means something on the order of 36 threads per inch in the warp and a similar number in weft. To prepare the yarn for dyeing I had to first ‘scour’ the skeins – wash it in the hottest water possible with a little bit of Dawn dish detergent. Then I had to let those skeins dry so I could measure & wind the warp. That meant 360 threads on the warping mill, with each thread requiring 3.5 complete rotations of my warping mill.
Then I wanted a shawl made from 8/2 rayon, with a mere 3,360 yards per pound. Because the rayon was on cones, not in skeins, I had to wind the warps first and scour second. There’s another 696 threads, again with 3.5 rotations of the mill for each length. Fortunately I could cut this number in half by winding 2 threads at once. That meant hours of standing, spinning, counting, and tying, all in preparation for dyeing. I didn’t even think to take pictures of the activity, but they wouldn’t have been exciting anyway — all solid natural (undyed) yarn. Hopefully I’ll remember to take pictures on Friday, as well as whenever I’m able to get the warps on my looms.
When I wasn’t spinning the warping mill I was working on one of the warps I wound last weekend. (Yes, you read that right…I’d already wound two more warps over the weekend to weave a total of 6 scarves.) Since I’m between baby wraps at the moment, I’m able to do some weaving (and dyeing) that I’ve been wanting to get to. This is a pattern from Deb Strickland’s Book of 8 Shaft Weaving Patterns. It reminds me of Morse Code. Or maybe Braille. But a language, for sure.
I’m using a dark green rayon warp and a light green rayon weft. It’s a two-shuttle weave, so it’s slow going. Here you can see both sides of it on the loom.
I’m working on the second scarf now, and thought I’d do a solid dusty rose, but then I got an idea…maybe I’d use sections of different colors.
To be honest, I’m not sure if I’ll like it when it’s all done. I’m definitely going to weave the third scarf in this warp using one color. At least I’ll know which color(s) I like best after this multi-colored scarf. 🙂
Jack is completely useless when it comes to taking a video of me weaving. I think it’s only because he’s short; I’m sure he’d be happy to help if he could get up high enough to do a good job. I tried simply using my tripod and my camera, but I couldn’t get a decent angle and you really couldn’t see what I was doing. I ended up balancing the tripod on my warping valet and my shelves of stash.
After some adjustments, it worked reasonably well, although you saw a lot of my hair. An actual human videographer would have focused on my hands and the loom.
I’ve done a video or two before, but it’s been a while and I forgot how to do the upload thing to YouTube, which is what you need to do…you can’t upload a video directly to the blog. At least I can’t.
I tried to edit out the last frame where you see me reach up to turn off the camera, but apparently don’t know how.
This scarf is an example of a happy ‘accident.’ I wanted to use the same medium brown silk for the weft as I used for the majority of the warp. I did my calculations and figured I’d have just barely enough IF I wove only 1 scarf. Not an efficient use of time, but I really wanted that color, so figured I’d bite the bullet and do it. I set off winding the warp, and all of a sudden…what the heck?!! I was at the end of the yarn! Fortunately I had enough to finish the warp, but only a few yards that might be used for weft. I wasn’t at all sure how I’d like the scarf with the only other brown I had as weft…much darker. As it turns out, it’s just fine, and might have been too bright with the same weft color. I tried to get a good photo to show you, but the color isn’t even close to actual, so I let it go.
So how did I go so wrong in my calculations on this one? I forgot to take the weight of the cone into account, a mistake I rarely make. It makes a big difference, especially when the cones are small and the yarn is light.
I’ve always been a fan of trompe l’oeil — art that fools the eye into seeing things that aren’t there. Or not seeing things that are. Shadow weave can do some of that.
I’ve had this weaving draft on the Weaving Inspiration board of my Pinterest page for some months, and now I had time to do it. Initially a potential for chair cushions, I’m weaving it out of rayon for scarves. I warped for three, and like all two-shuttle weaves, it’s slow going, but I’m really liking the outcome. A more distance view can give you an appreciation for the way threads seem to rise up or sink down in this flat piece of fabric.
Although you haven’t asked, I’ll give you a mini Jack update. I learned today that the poor fellow has hookworm. This has probably been a historical problem for the little guy based on his history, and the Heartgard was successfully dealing with it. I stopped giving Heartgard at the end of November, carrying its benefits till the end of December. Given that Jack is a poop eater, with bunny poop being a particular delicacy but other poop not out of the question (YUCK! but I’m guessing it was a common behavior in his hoarding home and it will be a lifelong thing with Jack), he will get treated for the hookworm now and will need to get the Heartgard year-round. Probably for life. Not a big deal for either of us. I’ve put it into my smartphone calendar as a recurring event to remind me.
First, the finished wraps for RA & NP. It’s pretty much impossible to see the difference in the black tencel and navy cotton wefts unless the light hits them just right.
Meg over at Unraveling has ‘hosted’ a new year looms feature for several years, but apparently not this year. I took shots of my three looms to share anyway. (I didn’t go up to the attic to photograph the Missouri that’s cold and lonely.)
Spending most of its time on the top shelf of my studio cupboards is my rigid heddle loom.
It’s had that warp on it for many months. I plan to weave it off in the next few weeks. I’m going to try a rayon chenille weft to add another dimension to that shadow weave warp.
Next is the beater bar on my Macomber, showing the cut ends of the baby wrap warp.
Now several shots of my counterbalance loom and the content of the title of this post: what I learned today. I decided that I wanted to try some rep weave. For non-weavers, it’s a particular weaving process that shows just the warp threads, often used for rugs, placemats, and other sturdy fabrics. I’ve never done it before and figured I’d start by making some mug rugs. In addition to being small, I haven’t had any in my stock for a few years now and would like to add them.
So I looked at my books, did some online research, and warped my loom with 238 ends of pearl cotton, sett at 48 ends per inch. My plan was to use some thick, rough-ish cotton I’ve had for eons. Here was my first attempt.
Not at all crisp and neat like it should be. I thought maybe my weft wasn’t thick enough, since the blue cotton squishes quite a bit. So I tried again, doubling it this time.
Still not pretty. In fact maybe worse. The weft sticks up through the warp threads, which isn’t supposed to happen. So I thought some more and decided that the weft threads need to be smooth, not ‘bumpy’ like that cotton. So I wound a shuttle with navy Bambu 7 threads. Seven of them, since the weft is supposed to be at least 7 times as thick as the warp. This was much better!
I wove off the rest of the warp with the bamboo, using a variety of treadling patterns.
Then it was time to cut them from the loom. Uh oh. I realized I hadn’t paid enough attention to the finishing. I did take the time to run a row of machine stitches at each end, but I hadn’t planned on or woven for hems. And I hadn’t woven in the end of the weft threads. So these won’t last well. I’ll just consider them samples and/or use them around the house.
I have a break from baby wraps while I wait for moms to get back on their feet after the holidays and resume the planning process. Will I do more rep weave? Yes. Will it be my next project? No. I’m deciding if I’ll weave some fabric for curtains next, or more silk and sequins, or make more bookmarks which I need for my stock, or do some more doubleweave, or make a cotton chenille blanket for my almost-here grandson, or….well, you get the idea.
