Shuttle Maintenance

My good friend, Katie, reminded me how to correctly wrap the yarn on these stick shuttles. I am sure this is a tip she has told me many times, I just didn't listen since I didn't figure I would do much with stick shuttles. Well, just goes to show you. Just like you should have listened in grammar school when they told you that you would need math skills later in life.Well, I am later in life now and I need all kinds of math skills to weave!

 Yes, these go through the shed much better and holds more yarn. Yeah!

Complex Weavers Journal, February 2014

I will "toot" my own horn in this post....

I had submitted an article about my adventures with woven Shibori and it appears in the February 2014, Number 104 issue of the Complex Weavers Journal. They always do an excellent job of taking my thoughts and photo's and turning it into a great article. This issue has several articles that focus on Woven Resist.

If you do a search on this blog, you can go find where I was using my single two-tie (summer and winter) draft to create two different scarves. It was a fun experiment.

 

Also in this issue, my friend and Study Group Leader, Judy Dumke had an article about our Sample Exchange The Old-Fashioned Way. She did a "presentation of the work of members in not a horizontal review of techniques and structures, but rather an alphabetical, vertical slice of the submissions from each member." (2011-2013). A great article about our group. Thanks, Judy!!

You have to be a member to Complex Weavers to view these great articles. The international organization hosts a regional conference every other year along with several different study groups.  You don't have to have lots of shafts to belong. Some of the study groups use no-shafts up to the AVL's. Check us out!  Complex Weavers

Working On The Edge

Working on getting my edges to look nice.

One of the things I am trying to take my time with is making the edges look good. And since I haven't used stick shuttles much, I am making an effort to place them down correctly while weaving. That way the yarns will cross at the edges and lock in.

 Here I am showing how I make sure the yarns cross.

I guess they could be better, but this is always a learning experience for me. And sometimes things look differently once you get it off the loom.

Shuttles and Rug

I haven't worked with stick shuttles very much over the years. As a matter of fact, I had to buy four just to do this rug project. I wasn't sure what size to get, so I got  medium ones. At least 18" looked like a medium one to me.

So far, I have found out that I needed to load two different shuttles with the same yarn so that when I came to the end of a repeat I didn't have to stop, load the shuttle, then try to remember where I was.

Here is showing the shuttles and it also shows that I am using three strands of wool.

I am at the 9 inch mark. My loom is slipping and I am having to "dork" with it to keep the tension tight. I am used to this on this loom. I suspect it's the operator! Or bad maintenance on the operators part!! Slows me down, but that could be a good thing!!!

More Rug Tails

While getting into the "swing" of weaving with two stick shuttles, I am having an out of body experience. No, really!

I usually make my areas where I join or add in a new yarn very neat. But a better way to do it with this rug will be to use a tool that looks like a "dental looper" and pull the loose ends back into the rug's woven areas once I am done. If this doesn't make sense, I will show it at the end when I get the rug off the loom. So visually this looks sloppy: "too me."

 For now, here is a view of the web with tails! 

Weaving On Opposites - Again

Trying to get into a rhythm with these stick shuttles. I have gone to the wool yarn as three fold. And I have discovered that I am weaving this up side down. I tied up the "O" which usually means it's for a raising shed loom. Oh well. It can be woven up side down. I am going to finish with the Damascus edge so I have put in a few shots of waste yarn that I will pullout once I do the edge.

I will use a temple.

This is a close up of being woven on opposites, without tabby.

I am bubbling the yarn and trying to keep the edges neat!

So far, so good!!

Snug As A Bug In A Rug

Now that the weaving workshop is over and I have caught up with my sleep. It's time to get back to the wool rug. I was able to finish the heddles, and wind on. Now to tie onto the front. I almost always go front to back. Seems everyone has their favorite way to get their warp onto the loom.

Just as a recap, since it has been a while since I started this project.... I am using 8/5 linen sett at 6 epi. The draft is from "The Weaver's Journal" July 1978, Issue 9, pages 20-21. If you have that publication, please follow along with me and make suggestions and help me catch my errors.

The weft is Royal and Silver Collingwood rug wool from Webs. I am going to start with it doubled on the stick shuttle, but am prepared to triple it if needs be.