{"id":4134,"date":"2012-10-26T16:08:05","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T21:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/?p=4134"},"modified":"2012-10-26T16:13:13","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T21:13:13","slug":"calm-before-the-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/2012\/10\/calm-before-the-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"Calm before the storm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The last two days here in Western New York have been so amazingly beautiful, so warm and lovely, that it&#8217;s hard to think about the Frankenstorm that&#8217;s coming.  Too hard to stay inside the house, even when there&#8217;s tons to be done to be ready for my next show.  <\/p>\n<p>How to solve this dilemma?<\/p>\n<p>Bring the little rigid heddle (RH) loom out onto the porch to finish off the warp I started at the show last weekend!  Certainly one of the beauties of RH looms is their portability.  No need to weave inside on days like this!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving.jpg\" alt=\"porch weaving\" title=\"porch-weaving\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4135\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving.jpg 450w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Before the show I had warped my little LeClerc RH with 160 threads of a lovely, undyed baby alpaca.  I clamped two heddles together so I could sett at 20 ends per inch.  I was THRILLED that this time when I went to thread two rigid heddles the entire process made complete sense to me.  Last time I was baffled, frustrated, and confounded.  I had two different written sources &#038; some online help and it still took several hours &#8212; thread it, take it out, repeat.  This time &#8211; no problem.  Zip, zip, zip and done.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving-2.jpg\" alt=\"porch weaving 2\" title=\"porch-weaving-2\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4145\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving-2.jpg 450w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving-2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving-2-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/porch-weaving-2-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n(Full disclosure &#8211; there was a little problem.  I don&#8217;t have a heddle stand to hold two heddles in position, so keeping them where I wanted them to be to make threading reasonable required propping up on water glasses and other paraphernalia.  Which slipped with some regularity.)<\/p>\n<p>Had it been too hard for my brain to handle on the evening before a show I had a fall back position of using just one heddle with two threads in every slot and every hole.  Glad I didn&#8217;t have to use it.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I got the third and final scarf woven off on my porch, then wet finished and pressed them.  I am less than enthralled with some of my design choices but love the baby alpaca and will definitely use it again.<\/p>\n<p>For the first scarf I wove in some bands of varying width using doubled cashmere-silk as the weft.  It&#8217;s okay.  Strikes me too much as prayer-shawl-lite.  Not exactly the effect I was hoping for.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-cranberry.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-cranberry.jpg\" alt=\"handwoven baby alpaca scarf with cranberry\" title=\"handwoven-scarf-baby-alpaca-cranberry\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-cranberry.jpg 450w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-cranberry-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-cranberry-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-cranberry-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The second scarf is far more colorful.  I used a hand painted wool-silk blend <a href=\"http:\/\/yarntopiatreasures.com\" target=\"_blank\">Tammy<\/a> calls Snow White for the weft.  I wove several rows of the alpaca, did a 3-bead leno, and several more rows of alpaca at each end.  This is definitely my favorite of the three.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-Snow-White.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-Snow-White.jpg\" alt=\"handwoven baby alpaca scarf with Snow White weft\" title=\"handwoven-scarf-baby-alpaca-Snow-White\" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4139\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-Snow-White.jpg 450w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-Snow-White-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-Snow-White-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-Snow-White-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For the third I made a dreadful error in judgement.  I decided to replace several of the baby alpaca warp threads with a lovely spring green hand dyed superwash merino.  Sounded good in theory. In reality &#8211; NOT!  Each of those threads (14, as I chose) had to be separately weighted to provide the same tension as the baby alpaca.  That wouldn&#8217;t have been an overwhelming problem if I was home, but I was at a show.  I did not have enough stuff of the correct weight to hang on 14 threads.  Or even enough ways to hang the weights I did have.  So basically I made a mess late in the day and devised a way to improve it by bringing paper clips and metal washers in with me the next morning.  Still looked like a mess, but at least it was functional.<\/p>\n<p>To top this mess off, some of the merino was sort of shredding.  Had the dye bath been too strong?  Had I hung onto it too long?  I didn&#8217;t know, but it made another layer of problem.  <\/p>\n<p>Third problem &#8211; when I cut those 14 replacement warp threads I obviously wasn&#8217;t thinking clearly &#8216;cuz I didn&#8217;t make them long enough to weave the planned 76&#8243;.<\/p>\n<p>By the time I got to the 60&#8243; I could weave with the merino I&#8217;d put in for the warp, I was done.  No way was I going to piece in more warp threads for this scarf.  So it&#8217;s both shorter and less attractive than I&#8217;d like.  I&#8217;ll put a lower-than-usual price tag on it and see if it sells.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-merino.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-merino.jpg\" alt=\"handwoven scarf with baby alpaca &amp; merino\" title=\"handwoven-scarf-baby-alpaca-merino\" width=\"450\" height=\"346\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4141\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-merino.jpg 450w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-merino-300x230.jpg 300w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-merino-150x115.jpg 150w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/baby-alpaca-merino-400x307.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gotta head back to the loom.  I have 4 special orders to weave plus more things I&#8217;d like to have on hand for the next show.  Plus more bags to make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last two days here in Western New York have been so amazingly beautiful, so warm and lovely, that it&#8217;s hard to think about the Frankenstorm that&#8217;s coming. Too hard to stay inside the house, even when there&#8217;s tons to be done to be ready for my next show. <\/p>\n<p>How to solve this dilemma?<\/p>\n<p> [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[226,227,407],"class_list":["post-4134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weaving","tag-alpaca","tag-handwoven-scarves","tag-rigid-heddle","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4134"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4146,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4134\/revisions\/4146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}