Tying Up the Treadles for Fustian

I miss-counted yesterday.............. I am short 14 heddles!!!

For this draft, I do not have enough heddles on shaft four, so I will use some heddles on shaft five to take up the slack. I have 166 heddles on shaft four right now, but I need 180 for this project. So there are 14 heddles  I am short on shaft four. I will get them from shaft five. (or any of the other shafts I am not using for this project)

 

To begin, I will thread those highlighted in yellow onto heddles that are on shaft five on the first repeat. The next repeat I will just read the draft as usual. Then when I get to the other side when I have run out of heddles on shaft four, I will go back to shaft five and use the seven heddles from that shaft.

Then when I tie everything to the treadles, I just tie shafts four and five together as if they were the same. Which they are!

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I am threading Front to Back. But this will work the other way too. Just remember what two shafts you might need to combine together.

Slow Progress on Fustian Cloth

The nice thing about weaving for the fun of it, is ...............that you can be fast, or slow.

 

I seem to be taking working on weaving some 10 yards of fustian cloth - slow. I do have about half the warp through the reed.

I have enough heddles on all the shafts except for shaft four. That  one I am 12 threads short. Instead of rearranging and sliding and all that 'jazz', I will use 12 heddles from shaft 5 and tie them up 'as if' they were really on shaft four.

Sock Yarn

Don't you just love the feel, smell and colors of newly dyed sock yarn? You know, now is the time to start knitting those socks for Christmas presents. Better get crack-in!

John Hargrove - Fustian cloth

I did a little research and found some interesting info. about this fustian cloth I am going to weave. The draft I am using is one I got when I took a class at John C. Campbell Folk School. Again, thanks to Barbara Miller and Pam Howard - teachers of the most excellent kind!

Front to Back

The slaying of the reed has begun. I most always dress my loom front-to-back. I have gone the other way a time or two, but to much thinking involved with that.

Color to Dye For

60% Alpaca/15% Merino/15%silk/10%Nylon

 

Just a quick trip to the land of color! Which is the most fun? Dying or Knitting Socks??!?

Wrapped in plastic.

ONLY use this for dyeing!!!!! 4-5 minutes should do it.

 



Cool - they be hot!!

Let dry overnight. I now have 7 skeins of sock yarn ready to wind into balls.

 



Winding Progress

A little bit of this, a little bit of that..... that's what I have been doing. Some knitting, some reading, some winding, some driving in the country. But 'Steady Eddie' gets the job done! And I have been making progress on winding this 720 ends of Fustian cloth.

I plan on wefting it with 10/2 natural linen. I really like that word 'wefting'. I think it describes what you do. (I think that is a Dr. Bateman word.)  I had a discussion the other day with a weaver, and we decided if you wanted to learn to weave you would need to "learn the language" to know what was going on.

Prep Work for FUSTIAN

Fustain: "a term which includes a variety of heavy woven cotton fabrics, chiefly prepared for men's wear." The Encyclopaedia Britannica 1910

fustian:  "a hard-wearing fabric of cotton mixed with flax or wool with a slight nap." www.thefreedictionary.com/fustian

I keep winding the warp for fustian and will prep the loom. I have entered the info into my weaving software and it will tell me how many heddles I need on each shaft. So when I get tired of standing at the warping board, I can go count heddles.

I will also get from my weaving software a drawndown of what my draft will look like. It helps me check for errors.

Winding A Warp and Lemonade

The cross.

Winding a warp is like sipping lemonade at the beach. It's fun. It's relaxing. It's something you think about every once in a while. You know, if you didn't pay attention to your lemonade, you might spill it down the front of your shirt. Let's hope I can keep this off my shirt and pay enough attention to keep the count and the cross!





Counting at the end peg.

Moving On

Rolling- rolling- rolling. Keep those doggies rolling. Roll On! Or in weaving terms: cut off and move on.......

 

I think I have explored this warp pretty much as much as I can think too. Of course I will wake up tomorrow morning and think "why didn't I try this or that?"

But for now, I have cut this off and will get back to that Fustian I have been winding warp for. Only 400 more ends to wind!

Overshot - One potato, Two potato

There really aren't any potatoes.... just one shuttle, and then two shuttles.

There seems to be a lot a person could do with this overshot threading. I find that by 'messing around' with the treadling and weft choices, you can get even more different looks. I love to put on a long warp and get several different looks.





Using the two colors - blue and sparkle - I put a strip between the one shuttle blue parts. So I used one shuttle to start and used only blue, then I switched to blue and sparkle with two shuttles, then back to one shuttle with the blue. Clear as mud?

  

 You may want to click to enlarge this second photo to be able to see the sparkle.... I got it at Huntingdon Yarn Mill. It's pretty cool stuff. It was #14516 (I think).

Back To Overshot or Twill

OK, let me get back to my overshot warp for a while. Here is a shot of the heddles that pretty much shows I am using two sets of four shafts......

Now I could have gone on-and-on a few more yards with this side by side overshot, but "noooo". I keep making pick error's that keep showing up after I have advanced the warp a foot or so. (whining inserted here)

So I am weaving in twill fashion with one shuttle. If you remember, shafts 5 & 6 are tabby for one set of shafts and 11 & 12 are tabby for the other shafts, you will see how I am doing that..... by stepping on these treadles:

1+11

5+7

2+12

6+8

3+11

5+9

4+12

6+10

 

I think this is twill now, instead of overshot. It goes pretty quick and the edges are pretty good too because each pick also has plain weave in it.

Samples - Doll

Continuing my exploration of samples let me tell you that some times the samples can be turned into delightful things, and then sometimes, ?

As many of my closest friends know "I can make the cloth, I cannot sew the cloth". LOL. Here was my attempt to sew together some samples and create a doll.

Samples - Pillows

More things to do with samples. Pillows!

A couple of years ago one of my weaving guilds was working on a friendship coverlet. Since we were trying to weave 'traditional' overshot, we had to 'try' to square our weaving. Well.... that wasn't easy.... so I ended up with several 'not too square' squares of my pattern "Johannas Speck". Because I had several samples I just stuck two together and now I have a pillow to remind me of all the fun and aggravations that that project brought. (I still haven't put together all my 'squares'.) I ended up with all my coverlet square to be woven in the red color.

 

Samples- A Flower

Here is another quick idea to use up some of your samples. A handwoven flower! And aren't the buttons a cute idea too? Cup was hand glazed at Shirley's house.

Samples - Bit and Pieces

Looking for more things to make with samples or 'not so good' bookmarks? How about a 'spirit bag'?

Hand Woven Pin Cushion

I have found that sampling is the best way to learn a weave structure, or find a color combination. But sampling often leads to lots and lots of small woven pieces. Well, here is one idea you can use to help with those samples.

And believe it or not, your friends and relatives would be thrilled to have a small hand woven pin cushion. Even if they don't really sew!

It's A Dog

 

I am not sure where the comment "it's a dog" comes from, but when you have a warp on your loom and it's terrible and causing you lots and lots of problems, we tell you "it's a dog, cut it off".  If only it were that easy when you have ordered something and you goof up. I ordered 400 pencils and got it wrong. There is no "@' in weavingforfun.blogspot.com .   Oh well, I bet they will still write.

We Find

 

We find pleasure in working with our hands

We find warmth in a lovers embrace

We find joy in a simple smile

We find a hug can heal a hurt

We find

And then we grow

New Fiber Shop

My friend opened her Blackwater Fiber Arts Gallery in Blackwater, Missouri, May 11th.

I can tell it might be a place you would want to go to often. She has sock yarn and weaving supplies, looms for sale, spinning supplies and wheels, and will even have classes: knitting, weaving, crochet, hooking.......I might even teach a weaving class or two in the future. Maybe overshot or tied weaves? The fun has just started!

 

Picture Perfect ?

Not very picture perfect, but some interesting pictures. Not much new on the weaving front that you haven't already seen. Still 'wefting' from time to time. I like that word. I found it among some Bateman or Weaver Rose info. Don't remember who, but like the word: wefting.

 

Just Thinking, Again

If you work with your hands,
you're a laborer.
If you work with your hands and your mind,
you're a craftsman.
If you work with your hands and your mind and your heart,
you're an artist.
          --Saint Francis of Assisi

(Thanks to Kathy for the words to ponder.)

Weaving Program on Caning

At Tuesdays guild meeting Kathy showed us how to do 'chair caning'. It was a hands on program. And here are a few photo's of those 'hands'!

 

Weaving Guild in May

Susan- Baskets

Missy- Overshot

Marty- Dyeing

Kathy- pillows

Jan- runner

Carol- ruana

Kayla- towels

Tomi- towels

Marilynn- Bateman scarf