Bookmark Be Done

Haven't posted for a while, but I have been weaving bookmarks. I think I am finished with them, for a while, that is. I do love weaving bookmarks.

One of my main areas I had to keep an eye on was the fell line. Because I was using my 45" wide Macomber with this 2 1/2 inch warp, I had to really concentrate on pulling the beater bar back correctly. "Pull from the center!!!" my weaving grue Jeff Reynolds would say. If I didn't the fell of the cloth would slowly slant. To keep the beater true, always grasp it at the center.

I tied on with white tencel onto the silk warp, and played some more! This was the crackle draft I put on first. With some of the white tencel warp I used cotton as the weft. They were OK as bookmarks go, but the silk on silk or the silk on tencel was much better.

Then I took that off and put on some M's and W's by Mimi Smith. As a one shuttle draft, you can really fly! I used a tencel warp with mostly tencel and bamboo weft for these.

A great place to find great drafts is the COMPLEX WEAVERS GREATEST HITS edited by Judie Eatough and Wanda Shelp (ISBN: 0-9705436-0-3). I found this great draft by Mimi Smith on page 35 and used it to create these bookmarks. I was dancing on the treadles!!

Tabby Switch

Why not, while weaving the tabby picks you switch the shuttles. Then when you weave a pattern shot, you have two different colors!

Click the photo to see better when and when I changed the shuttle order.

Don't know how this one will end up looking. I am just dancing on the treadles and dreaming of ice cream! I call that multi-tasking!!

Two in One Shed

Here is the new warp with a bookmark making its appearance. You can see the 'crackle' treadling will be my focus point on this one.

Because I needed to use tabby (green) I am continuing to use both colors even though I am weaving plain weave on the rest of the bookmark. I am putting both threads in the same shed. You can do anything you want if you are weaving for fun!!

Raddle Loop de Looper

While visiting with another weaver the other day, we were discussing using raddles. I said I was working with a very narrow warp and she suggested I use rubber bands on the back beam to help guide the warp over the back beam. Well, I couldn't find any rubber bands, but used instead some nylon loopers.

This is my hand painted silk bookmark warp. It is only 3 inches wide, and using these loopers helped me get this warp on. (I went front to back) !

Tying One On

Didn't feel like I was done with this warp, so I am tying on with some 20/2 silk I painted a couple of years ago. I 'think' I used bubble gum pink and gun metal gray. It was just a small amount so it was perfect for this 95 thread draft. I have wound 6 yards so should get plenty of bookmarks! I know one of my wefts will be gray, but will decide what or if I use other colors.

My handy-dandy cross holder makes tying onto a old warp very easy. I have both hands free to tie the knots I found this in very old handwoven in their 'Tricks of the Trade" section. Sorry, can't remember what issue..

Bookmark Group Shot

Finished that warp of bookmarks. After I did get it on the loom, the weaving went quickly. And that was what I was needing. A fast project.

I took this photo outside. I wasn't out there but 5 minutes or less and I got 'tree droppings' right smack in the middle of the photo. 

They haven't been washed yet. When they do, they will be a lot softer. Right now, some of them are rather stiff. Which could be OK for a bookmark, but since I used tencel and bamboo I think I want the soft feel. 

Clasp Weft Bookmark

I have this really great hand-dyed JOY 20/2 yarn that I just love. I have enough for a full scarf project, but it has been talking to me. So........ I have combined it with some 20/2 tencel for a clasp weft on this bookmark.

I am about at the end of this warp. Do I tie on and weave more or "?".

Dancing Brown Bookmark

I am treadling the crackle pattern shafts and NOT keeping track!! I am just going with the flow and dancing on the treadles. I am using tabby sometimes, sometimes not. My weft threads are metallic sewing thread and 10/2 bamboo. Sometimes I am putting both threads in the same shed, sometime not! At 30 epi I can do this and it not look tooooooo funny!!!

Bookmarks

Two more bookmarks. I think I may have to hunt for more blue or this will be one very small bookmark!

Book Em, Dan-O!

Thinking to put on a fast and quick project..I wanted some bookmarks....NOT!!!

I had a threading error one half inch in, then after fixing that, I discovered I had a denting error.....so pulled it all out and started over.... then I "tried" to thread the heddles back to front. Yikes, I don't know how you all do that!! But I am weaving bookmarks now!

I had looked at some of my bobbins that had left over bamboo and tencel on them and decided there was enough for bookmarks and not much else. Don't you just hate throwing away pretty bamboo and tencel? I even have some of the JOY yarns on some bobbins.

I have threaded my loom to a crackle draft with some crammed dents. Makes a nice change from my woven shibori explorations. I am weaving them 2 1/2 inches wide and 8 inches long with hemstitching and one inch fringe. I should have a rainbow of bookmarks when I am done.

Seems like I am hemstitching more than weaving. LOL. 

I am using plastic blinds as spacers. They are one inch wide, so each fringe will be one inch. 

Playing On The Table Loom

Yes, I am still threading the heddles on the four blocks on four shafts of summer and winter in the loom room. But, I did walk by the table loom and thought...hum... let's see what this looks like.

I am using a painted warp. This is the single two tie threading woven on opposites without tabby using red and green alternately. I think this might be one of those things where I won't really know how it really looks until I get it off the loom. After I finish this one bookmark, maybe I better go back to regular single two-tie (summer and winter).

Sample to Spirit Bag

This is an example of what I might do with some of those samples I manage to acquire .

This was some warp I had left on the loom, so I did a simple plain weave since I was tired of what ever I was weaving. I had been doing bookmarks, but there wasn't enough for an eight inch one, so I wove what I could and turned it into a "spirit bag". Or you could call it a woven necklace.....

Tied Weave Inspiration Secret

Did you wonder where I got my inspiration for this single two-tie scarf? Some of my friends think I wake up at 3 a.m. every morning to ponder the secrets and mysteries of weaving.

Single two-tied (front and back) bookmarks .

Single two-tied scarf.

 

Nope..... I sometimes take a year to perfect an idea. Sometimes longer, and sometimes not so long.

 

Here is one of my secrets: I know a lot of you out there - you know who you are - don't like to make samples. Well, I have found that if I put on a warp for bookmarks, I not only get "bookmarks" but I also have a place to go for ideas for larger projects. I worked up this draft last year and wove a bunch of bookmarks, and so when looking for a scarf design, I just tweeked my bookmark draft and "VOLIA" a scarf draft appeared.

 

 

 



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

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.