Twill Dancing

and then there is this.... I was having fun just 'dancing' away and emptying some bobbins. Looks like I have enough that I might be able to get some Christmas card inserts out of this last little bit of the twill.

M's and W's treadling

Wasn't able to get to the loom much yesterday, but I did have time to play at the computer. Here is another possiblility with this heart throb threading:

Twill Be More

With the dark teal I was able to get 72 inches before I ran out of weft. So using up some of the old stash was a good feeling. I am sure if I squint my eyes I will be able to see an empty space where that cone was.

How about some lavendar? This is some really yummy Bambu. But this time, I think I might run out of warp before I run out of weft. Don't have anything planned for this. It might be a runner, or pillow, or journal cover, or.........

Twill and/or Texture

What do you see first? Twill or Texture?

Twill Tie-Up Change

After weaving this heart throb scarf for 85 inches, it's time to move on. I have changed the tie up to get rid of the five thread floats. This new tie up is 1-1-1-1-2-2 as generated by my weaving software, WeaveIt Pro. I have treadled in point twill. Simple but sweet.

Twill Progress

Making progress with the twill runner. The table I am making it for was purchased in 1998 from a local antique dealer. The dealer said it came from the Alton County Court House (unknown state). It looks to have been a reading table. Of the 86 inches I will weave, I have 31 inches completed here.  The final width should be about 15 inches wide. I wanted a runner down the middle of the table, not a table cloth.

Ending and Starting Weft

There are several ways to end and start a new weft yarn. Depending on the size of your threads and your weave structure. For this twill structure, I bring the ending thread into the open shed an inch or two....

then I bring the new thread into the same shed opening and pull it in until the end is flush with the selvage. With this twill structure, the overlapping of the threads doesn't show.

The most important thing when changing to a new weft is NO KNOTS.....

Sampling

I always try to have extra warp on the loom so I can sample. I want to know how the repeats will come together and if the floats are going to be acceptable and how long each element will be. What it might look like with extra repeats of different elements. I will also try different weft colors and fibers.

I think this will be acceptable for the runners I have planned, but as you can see in this close-up the float length is 1/2 inch. (Now we know why the original was done in sewing thread.)  I will have to see how long the floats will end up after I have washed and pressed the runners.

Floating Selvedge

Some projects require you have a floating selvedge. Here I am using a floating selvedge the same color as the weft that I will be using. When I was just starting to weave my  good friend Kay K. told me: "You enter the shed over the floating selvedge and exit under on the other side."

I have put on enough warp for several projects, so I have hung the floating selvedge off the back instead of winding it around the back with the rest of the warp. That way, when I change weft colors I can change the color of the floating selvedge too. Sometimes it just gives a better looking edge.

Threading

When I thread the heddles, I do not use a threading hook. I just fold over a loop and stick it through. I do this no matter if I thread from the front or the back.

When threading the Baby Wolf, I will put a stick under the shafts to raise them. This lifts the shafts up so I can be more comfortable while threading the heddles.


I have used an old wooden ski shuttle to raise the shafts.



Eye Candy - Overshot

While I am setting up the Baby Wolf with the twill project (and the Macomber with monks belt),  here is some eye candy from the Overshot family. Like many weavers today, I was drawn to weaving because of this weave structure.



cotton warp, wool weft pillows




cotton, 3 shuttles, table topper, this won a 2nd place ribbon at Midwest Weavers Conference 2009.





cotton, 8 shafts from  Issue 33 Fall 1996 Weaver's



cotton, kit from Cotton Clouds




Cotton with Bambu weft

 

Baby Boomer Milestone

Who knew when we were sixteen that we would live to such a ripe old age?

Eat out today and help me celebrate my birthday.



Socks 2012



One pair done, another pair started.



dpi, epi , What???

dpi= don't play indoors, epi= eat purple ice cream, sley= kill bugs ......What do these letters really mean???

dpi = dents per inch in the reed you are using            

sley = how many ends to put into each dent 

epi = ends per inch

 dpi=15   sley= 2/15  epi=30

A New Project

One of the projects I am going to do comes from two different places. I have enjoyed looking back through my weaving books at all the wonderful drafts, weave structures I had forgotten about, and drafts with more shafts than I will ever have. One of the books was COMPLEX WEAVERS GREATEST HITS. I knew it was full of lots of drafts with lots of shafts. But sometimes it's fun to dream. It does have some drafts for four and eight shafts. It's a wonderful place to get inspiration. I saw the "Heart Throb Twill' by Kim Bunke of Wisconsin. It's eight shafts, and I love the heart. So I proceeded to plug the draft into my computer weaving software and came up with a runner I could do.

I kept thinking I had seen this before. When I looked in my library, I saw THE BEST OF WEAVERS - TWILL THRILLS and it on the front cover. That book I had purchased four or more years ago. I bought it because of that photo on the front cover. But in that book, it was woven in sewing thread. Well, I put that aside because I didn't think I could weave with sewing thread.

The point I am trying to make is this. These wonderful weavers share their drafts with us and hope that we will make them our own. I know now that I can change the size, colors, fibers to fit my loom and fit my needs. Sometimes it only works if you follow their 'cookbook' directions. But I think they would be excited to see how we have interpreted their work. So thank you Kim Burke of Wisconsin for sharing your draft with me.

Kite Flying

When I take my counted out threads off the warping board, I use a kite stick to keep them from tangling. I still call it a warp chain but should call it a 'kite wrap'. Check out Peggy Osterkamp's books or her blog:  Peggy Osterkamp.  (click on her name).. She shows in detail how to use the kite stick.

Counting At The Warping Board

I have decided on two projects. I will be putting a warp on the 10 shaft Macomber and a warp on the 8 shaft Baby Wolf. So I will be at the warping board for a while.

When I wind a warp, I will count out five ends at the bottom of the warping board and then slide them aside, I do this five times. I now have five bundles of five, so that is fifty ends.

In this photo I have done this twice and put the 100 ends in a looper. I now have three bundles of five (30 ends) and have counted out 5 more (10 ends). So I have a total of 40 ends.  When I finish this count of fifty, I will put them in the looper too. Giving me 150 ends.

 I learned this way of counting from my good friend and weaving teacher Jeff R. It works for me!



FYI, blue curtains are woven in 4 shaft huck.



Weaving Books

Sometimes when you don't have a project in mind, you need to go to the library. Unless the library is on your kitchen table.

Bookmarks completed.

The bookmarks are finished! Some of them turned out better than others. I enjoyed designing at the loom. But again, that got me in trouble. Look carefully at the pink/white one the middle. There are two treadling errors.

Treadling errors. Can you find them?



Ready for a hot cup of tea and a little time.



Another Bookmark

This is a view from the back side of a bookmark with brown weft and the gold metallic for tabby. Well, really a bookmark needs to have two sides that are interesting. And when I take this off the loom, will I really know which side I 'thought' was the public side? "Me thinks, not!"

Back to Bookmarks

Another weft variation for single two-tie (summer and winter) using: COLOR!


Color A= Dark Green             Color B=Light Green           Color C=gold
or
Color A= Dark Blue                Color B=Light Blue             Color C=gold
or......

1+ pattern color A

a tabby color C

2+ same pattern color B

b tabby color C

2+ same pattern color B

a tabby color C

1+ same pattern color A

b tabby color C

Guild meeting

Inspiration.  Colors. Weave Structures. First Towel. Learning Lessons. Sharing. New Techniques. Support. Fellowship.

Single Two-Tie strikes again!

Keeping in mind that I am using the same threading and tie-up, here are two more versions you can do with single two-tie (summer and winter) just by changing the order you treadle your tie-downs.

Dukagong fashion using the tie-downs in 1-1-1-1 order.



Alternate fashion using 1-2-1-2 tie-down order.

 So far with all my examples, I have used the tabby order in a-b-a-b order. The main thing to remember is that once you decide on the tie-down and tabby order you will use, you should use them throughout the entire project. Unless you don't want to and like what you get!

Spacer Invaders

To divide the bookmarks and give each one an inch fringe, I have used one inch aluminum blinds. When no one is looking, go check your blinds and see if you don't have a few extra slats on that bathroom window.

Bookmarks S&W

The fun part of weaving single two-tie (summer and winter) is the different looks you can get on one warp. When I first started learning this weave structure, I really liked the looks of using my tie-downs in 1-2-2-1 order. That gave me a cute little circle that Harriet Tidball called the "needlepoint method". It is formed by the four pattern shots. I call this the o's method. Look at four pattern shots. They form an 'O'.

So this was the side I usually said was my public side. Well, if you look closely at the back of your web, guess what? It shows what the 'cross stitch method' looks like. And it's in 2-1-1-2 order. And I call this the x's order.

Either one is fun. And of course there is the 1-1-1-1 or 2-2-2-2 order and that is called the "dukagong method". Or how about 1-2-1-2 for alternate order.

And if you thought that you needed more options, you can change the tabby order too!

Push Play

Now, back to the bookmarks. I am going to try to explain how I do my hemstitching.

Leaving a length of your thread at least three times the width of your bookmark, start weaving from the right side and weave four or five picks in plain weave. Now, take the lenght of thread and thread it with a blunt end needle. I take the thread into the web area around three threads and in two rows.

Then then I take the needle into the fringe area, under three.

Then back into the web area, under three. (You are sharing the hole from when your needle was there last.)

I continue in this way. I am hemstitching over two rows and around three ends. When I get to the end, I weave the tail into the web.

Try to think of the unwoven and woven areas you have on the loom as the whole body of a teddy bear. The fringe as the leg area and the woven area as her head.  When starting I will go into the head area two rows deep and go around three ends, then I will go to the legs area and go around three ends, then back to the head and around three ends.

On one side will be a twill line, the other will be littel circles. And sometimes a little hole will even show up to add to the effect. Depends on the fibers I am using on if the holes show.


Hemstitch front showing twill line











Hemstitching on back showing the little circles and if you click to enlarge you can see the small holes.