Maze is off the Loom

My Regatta Maze came off the loom yesterday afternoon - all 13 feet worth!

Whew! What a relief. Now all I have to do is weave an eight inch by eight inch sample and I am on my way.

Oh there is some finishing and final tweaking. I put the finishing and tweaking into two categories. The first is the grand tweaking - knotting and snipping the edges and ends that abound as well as removing some of the pressure lines plus a hem on the top and the bottom. These are what must be done so I can get a good photo to send the judges. The second category of tweaks are the detailed ones which could go on for weeks. There are for close up viewing.

The entire piece looks fabulous. The colors are good and the small images do not pop out and distract from the maze. The downside is that it is incredibly difficult to work yourself through the maze since it is so long and the route is circuitous. I am sure a few daring souls will attempt it...but I can see it will be necessary to provide a chart showing the route for all the other viewers who get lost.

...and you say...where is the photo?

...well my camera is on vacation - off sailing in the Windward Islands...but fortunately Santa brought me a new camera guaranteed to take fabulous close ups. I took some photos of the two sail boats at the top of the maze as well as the starting line. Taking pictures was a snap! They look great. Unfortunately, I have not yet figured out how to get the pictures out of the camera onto my computer.

I have tried everything on my computer...now I am off to my DH's computer...then to the memory card reader as last resort.

Getting Closer - 74% Complete

I have 68 more rows to weave in this piece...only 43 more in the maze. The rest is the header consisting of two sailboats and the starting line. Oh yes, and a hem. It is almost starting to become exciting.

Change in Course

Ah another photo that looks so similar to those in past postings.

Here I am almost 60% complete after making sure I complete at least ten rows per day. At this rate I could be could be done weaving in a couple of weeks. But finishing ten rows a day will become more difficult with the visitors, house guests, Christmas wrapping as well as the more difficult patterns coming up. But hope springs eternal.

This photo depicts a race flag communicating a change in course. It is a flag composed of horizontal blue, white, red, white and blue stripes. The tough part with this color scheme is that the blues and greens recede while the reds pop out. I tried to get the blue to show up more by making it a combination of two metallic blues. It's real hard to tell if it's a good/right color choice since I am viewing it horizontally...I really should stand on a tall chair and look down on it...I had that same problem on weaving tapestry on a horizontal surface - it's the reason I bought an upright tapestry loom.

Tomorrow I hope to cross the 100 row line...meaning I will only have 100 rows to go. The end...[actually the starting line] may be in sight!

PS Looking at the blow up of the photo above I just noticed an odd turquoise line running the middle of the piece...something to check out in the morning....broken thread? odd tension? stucky threads...hmmm.

Man Overboard

It's the December crunch time...the time where I must focus on weaving at least ten rows a day in order to get this piece done in time for photos, slides, samples and mailing.

Today I did nineteen rows...quite a day. The biggest day yet. I have 139 more rows to do...the earlier ones are easier...the later ones more difficult. I have finished almost 6 feet of material [for context...what you see on the loom there in the photo is about five inches of yardage - the entire piece should be about 13 feet]. I am about 47% done.

The small red and yellow nautical flag is the man overboard flag. I have never understood this flag. Who has enough time when there is someone overboard to hoist a flag? In all the drills I have participated in, everyone had a job to do when someone falls overboard...no one was told to hoist a flag.

I neglected to take a picture of the chart symbol for kelp. It's pretty subtle as is the reddish kelp beds that I am weaving. I have woven with a red and pink metallic thread with all the reddish threads underneath the navy and turquoise blues. By keeping it underneath I am hoping for a reddish sheen like the the kelp beds you see off the coast. I saw some great examples yesterday off of Malibu.

There is a great deal of subtlety in this piece. I am hoping with the right light it will all come through.

Danger

I am about a quarter done having made it up to the Danger sign. I tried to weave the red diamond with a shuttle while picking up the right threads but it just didn't show up enough. I ended up just weaving a white square and adding the red diamond with needle and thread. Looks good now. Tension issues continue here and there but I press forward.

Thanksgiving Visitors

What does one do when a six grade teacher
visits for Thanksgiving?

Make Egyptian canopic jars and royal mummified animals out of plastic bottles and masking tape...of course.

Warning - Fish Haven

Weaving continues on the maze...

I just finished that white section near the top of the photo. It is a warning sign for a Fish Haven. If you see that on your nautical chart - don't go there!

I have been experimenting with different metallic and shimmering threads. I have holoshimmer, sliver and metallic threads from Sulky - all in a variety of colors. I also bought some shimmering thread by Nomis at Nettie's during their recent liquidation sale. [Nettie's is an embroidery store in Beverly Hills which is going out of business this month. Most everything is 70% off. If you are near by, its worth a drop by - great tapestry wool yarn, knitting yarns and tons of other stuff.]

The holoshimmer thread is quite visible due to its intense mirror like qualities. Others are more subtle and only reflect a bit when the light is in the right spot. So far I have only been using the light emerald green colors and the white. I still get to experiment with the many blue metallics that I have. I also have some lavenders which might be a nice touch here and there.

This is one of the ways I keep interested while weaving so many yards of material in such fine threads.

It's Starting to be a Maze

Well, after one day of weaving I am now over 20% done. Things are moving nicely along. And yes, it finally looks like a maze. From now on, the photos should look fairly similar to this one...just with slightly different nautical signs here and there.

The path of water through the maze is in slowly changing shades of emerald green and turquoise. The dark blue stays dark blue except for the underlying changes in metallic and foam which floats underneath the two colors on top. These underlying colors peek out here and there giving the piece depth and subtle color changes. The warp also changes colors across adding another dimension to the piece. I look forward to seeing how it all works out.

The material is eighteen inches wide and with the fringe it measures out to nineteen inches. I need to make seven passes back and forth for a row to match a column in size. I am now on row 203 and have a total of 259 ignoring the hem on the top.

I have yet to project a finishing time...the time I sail by the Starting Line. Maybe I'll do the calculations tomorrow just to make sure I can finish in time. Once finished I will need to weave a sampler that goes in with the entry form. It needs to be perfect. Fortunately it is only eight inches by eight inches. I should have enough warp already on the loom to pull it off...fingers crossed.

ps here's my tapestry Harvest Moon which I just finished...

Ready for the Maze

It took awhile but I am finally at the point that I get to start weaving the maze. I am a bit over 10% complete...

The sail is done. The shimmery white I selected looks good. I am a bit disappointed by the blue flag - I did it in a shiny metallic blue. I thought it would pop more from the piece. It does shimmer...you just need the right light. I may embellish it later depending upon how the entire piece looks.

Each of the flags or symbols I incorporate into the piece will represent something from our nautical navigation days. Here the blue flag represents the Finish Line flag that the race officials would normally fly at the end of a race. The next symbol will be 'shallow water' markings you would see on a nautical chart.

I am looking foward to starting the maze. With the wind at my back, I should sail quickly through the piece.

I have finished the FINISH

Despite what the word spells out this is only the beginning of my latest project. The is the beginning...or the end so to speak of the maze I am weaving for the yardage exhibit of Convergence 2009.

What you see here is a minimal part of a 259 block-row piece. Each block has 7 back and forth of the shuttle...I did the calculation as to what percentage is finished and it is way too small to admit.

The maze here is going to have a regatta theme. Near the top of the photo you can see the beginning of a sail...there will be more. I am trying to remember that the focus of the piece is not the bottom...but the maze itself. I keep wanting to enhance and embellish this bottom part.

I have tried many things to remove those nasty worms that form due to the inconsistent tension in the warp threads. The turquoise warp seems to have the worst problems while the lite blue has the least. They are both 100% polyester but obviously there is some difference. I won't go through all the things I have adjusted, tinkered with, pulled, tied, lashed etc.

I am now trying what I call the 'squirrel' approach...using nuts to weigh down the various threads. You can see I have attached key rings to bunches of warp and used a nut to weigh them down. I didn't have enough key rings for each of the 25 blocks so I have combined those that are similar in looseness. By using the same size nut, all the thread should have a similar tension. Time will tell.

Although I still seem to be having a bit of a tension issue with the warps on shaft 7. I am nevertheless plowing ahead. I will attempt a special massage once off the loom with a needle and a bit of spritz. Hopefully, that will remove the tension worms at the bottom of the piece...or I will embellish them to made them part of the piece....Time will tell.

Another Beginning

A beginning is the time

for taking the most delicate care

that the balances are correct.

- from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

I began weaving my Regatta piece for the Convergence yardage exhibit today. I need to have it done by the end of the year so I can get slides made and sent off in mid-January. It's designed to be a 12 feet long maze woven with sewing thread so it is time I get started.

I had played around with colors, fixing my tension and tweaking my design for a week or so and today was the day to start. While working the hem, I determined I will need nine passes to make the rows and columns in the maze design to be approximately equal. Fortunately this is not a 3-D piece so approximately is all I will need.

There will be 2-3 inches of solid color at the bottom of the piece before the design appears. I have about one inch woven. Everything below the light blue stripes is the hem. As you can see in the photo, I got a weird wavy pattern in the weaving.

It only appears on one side of the piece. The other half of the yardage is straight, uniformly blue and clean. I must admit I played a bit in my photo editor so the photo would really highlight the worm like structure. It's not quite as bad as it looks in the photo. I figure it must have something to do with the tension since once I tightened up the pattern warps, it largely disappeared.

It always seems so difficult at the beginning of these pieces to get everything in balance... to get the warp tension right, the shuttles working properly, the right shades of color selected...but once six to eight inches are done...the piece really flies.

I should be flying later this week...

Let's Fly a Kite

Molokai has the greatest winds...perfect kite flying weather. This was a great opportunity to see if my Crackl'in Kite would fly.

I had designed it earlier for an exhibit at the Association of Southern California Handweavers conference in Visalia . I wrote about it earlier on my blog.

I folded up the box kite in a box so I could take it on the plane as a carry on. Once in Molokai I put it all back together and bought some kite string at the Big Wind Kite Shop in Maunaloa. It's a cool store with lots of kites and stuff from Thailand and similar spots. [It is actually one of the handful of stores on this island. One does not go to Molokai to shop. You will have much better luck at the Honolulu Airport!]

We forgot to bring the instructions as to how and where to tie on the string to the box kite. We tried a number of ways. It was fun[ny] trying to get the kite to fly. It was a bit lopsided and we had broken one of the side pieces of wood. We repaired it a bit with a bamboo skewer and yes it did fly.

The kite had a life of its own and would not fly like we wanted it to fly. Sometimes it flew in circles and sometimes it just hovered above the ground. But once it did get a nice lift and head into the sky. Here is the picture on the way up.

After some time, thought and lots of laughter we decided to put it away and try again the next day. We wanted to move the string from one side to the side where the fringe was to see if having the heaviest part of the kite nearer the ground would be a better way to get loft.

But...the next day...guess what...the winds died. It was the first time we have ever been in Molokai when there were no winds. Boy it was hot.

Knitting in Molokai

Just got back from a week in Molokai...one of the most laid back of the Hawaiian Islands.

No glitz, no shopping, no big tours...its as far from the Southern California experience as you can get within six hours. We used to like Maui but it has changed over the years into something resembling Southern California. We don't normally go on vacation to be somewhere like home.

But Molokai is definitely no Maui. We just love the place...have been there at least three times and are ready to plan another trip there. The first photo is a beach...at least two miles long...we were the only two people on the entire beach. My DH did his ten mile 'long day' for his marathon training in this area of the island. I got to read and do 'my' stuff.

I discovered that the 5+ hour plane ride was a great time to knit. I had thrown into my bag a zip lock bag with a few skeins of yarn and a WIP - made great progress - got through an entire ball of yarn...mostly on the plane but a few rows by the ocean. It was a nice pattern to knit - stripes of knit and garter- September 22nd from the Knitting Pattern Calendar. Great practice for perling [or is it pearling?] since it only has two knitted rows and 8 rows of perl in each pattern unit. KPKPPPPPPP

It is quite embarrassing to admit this is a WIP which started in November of last year. It is almost done...at which point I can finish up that other WIP which started even earlier than my Molokai scarf. I guess I just am a weaving diva and not a knitting knut

This second picture is by our 'camp' on the beach. It's lovely camping experience...a wooden tentalo with solar fans and lights. A private outdoor bathroom and shower. A chef to cook you breakfast and dinner. Wooden lawn chairs that you can sit on and star at the stars at night. Couldn't imagine a better place...except perhaps Anegada in BVI...but Molokai is so much closer.

Warping Day 2 & 3

Things are moving real fast today...yesterday I finished getting the entire 900 ends of polyester thread through the reed and heddles. I also was able to roll on the entire 5-6 yards in less than two hours. Far far better than the last time I put on such a thin and long warp.

Most interestingly, the majority of the tangles in the threads were on the first section of warp. That was the section where I wound on two threads at a time with my finger separating them. All the other warp bundles used my handy dandy straw warping utensil. Clearly, I will be using my straw warping tool in the future and not my fingers.

I couldn't quite get the right angle while winding on the warp around the back beam using the trapeze. So, I ended up lowering the trapeze until the warp was level, as in the photo, and it just started to roll on nicely. It took about twenty minutes to move all the weaving stuff out of the dining room, den and living room. The house returned to normal.

This morning I looked for and fixed some errors, smoothed out the tangles at the end of each warp bundle and tied on the ends to the front beam.. The loom is all ready to weave...all in about 2 1/2 days!

I was so inspired about finishing the warping process, I actually got the needle and thread out and sewed my backing on my latest tapestry and the tapestry is now being blocked in the backyard. Pictures later.

Warping Day 1 - continued

I wanted to finish up writing about day 1 before I go complete my weaving chores for day 3 of warping. My loom should be ready for weaving by the end of today...plus my tapestry should be ready for blocking. This does give a clue as to how successful my latest techniques were.

In this photo you can see the start of the warping with the mint green polyester thread. I warp front to back. Through the reed and the heddles and tie on the back. By rolling the thread onto the back beam through the heddles it forces me to get rid of all the knots and kinks leaving a lovely tensioned warp. The polyester thread is strong enough to handle it. I rarely have a break...breaks occur usually occur intentionally...when my patience is low and a knot or tangle cannot be untangled.

I have one of my favorite bricks weighing the thread down and keeping the threads from shifting. From the brick the threads go up and over the trapeze and over a chair at the end of the living room with the small copper candle sticks at the bottom. To give you some perspective, that crossbeam in our living room at 11 feet high. And yes, I had to climb up the ladder to throw the warp over the trapeze.

I am also using one of my favorite C clamps to attach the two popsicle sticks onto the loom. [I use these clamps all the time. Since they have the top bar - they are great to warp up a quick scarf between the two clamps. On short scarves I never use a cross - too much trouble. However, here on a 5-6 yard long piece a cross is essential. Between the popsicle sticks is my cross...wound in sets of two. I insert it while on the warping board and tape it closed. The clamp keeps it snug so I do not have to hold it. Remember, I only had three cones of mint green vs. four. If I had had four I would have wound on with all four and had four threads in each cross so they could go easily into the dent then split up into the heddles. What is pictured is 265 ends.

For winding on the color gradations in my warp, I created a warping paddle specifically for my four cones of warp. It consisted of four straws cut down to about four inches long. I taped them together. Each warp thread went from the cone rack through the straw and then onto the warping board. This is the best design of a warping paddle - at least for me. It is small and easily navigates along the rods on the warping board. I can hold it like a piece of chalk and by using what feels like a natural writing motion - the hand remains level and the thread goes on without twisting. Plus, it warps up the stuff real fast...fast and no tangles...great.

By the end of day one, I had about 600 ends onto the loom, all graduations of the color change except for the 100% turquoise. I alternated between winding on warp, threading the heddles and doing some mad cat/stretching dog poses. The back was a bit sore during the work but not too bad afterwards.

Back to work...

ps Bonnie - I will take a picture of my weft...and discuss it later this week.

Warping Day 1

Not much blogging recently...probably because I have been involved in finishing. I don't much care for that last 5% of a project and I have a number of projects in that stage.

On a more inspiring note, I began preparing my loom for the piece I am creating for the yardage exhibit at convergence. I want to put on a warp - about 5-6 yards of sewing thread...actually Maxi-lock serger thread made of polyester. I am using a 12 dent reed sleyed 4 threads per dent for a sett of 48 epi. I am going for 900 ends...just a tad over 18 inches.

I remember the last time I put on a long warp with this type of thread. Quite a nightmare due to the threads clinging to each other, twisting around and making knots. If I recall, I spent four or five days last time slowly...inch by inch...moving the thread through the reed and heddles. There was not an inch without at least one or two knots. Fortunately, I had lots of patience. I am planning on a better result this time.

This will be the first time I have warped up the 16 harness table loom with a long warp. It is not the best loom for front to back warping but that's the way it goes. I need the width...it goes out to 24 inches and I definitely need the 16 heddles. My design uses all 16 although it does look like it is woven on a loom with 27 harnesses.

This time warping I am going to use the theory that the less you touch the warp and the more under tension the better the result. I am going to try using a trapeze which I think Charlene discussed perhaps a year or two ago. I need the trapeze set up real high since the warp is 5-6 yards long and I want it to hang under tension. I set up the trapeze in the dining room/family room. It was stung across the weight bearing rafter which required a huge ladder to reach. The loom rested on the dining room table. Do notice how I have taken over this entire two room space. My DH is very understanding.

I also took over the den where I hung my warping board on the door with wreath hangers. I also put out the spool rack...since I had three cones of each of the two colors I wanted to use. I am using a mint green and a turquoise and all gradations of those two colors in the warp. I want to subtly show a color shift from the mint to the turquoise as your eye goes across the finished piece. Both these two will blend nicely with the various weft colors I have selected. So each spot in the piece will have a slightly different hue and along with a few metallic colors it should resemble the ocean.

[ Notice the little copper candle holders - I bought these for five bucks at a recent garage sale. I attached them to the end of the warp as a weight to maintain tension. I decided these would be easier than water jugs. ]

I have learned from previous projects in taquete that you should do everything in sets of four. Hence, four threads per dent... four threads per block... knot every four threads... color combinations in sets of four...you get the idea. Now how does having three cones of each warp color fit into the theory of four? Square peg into the round hole... more later.

To be continued...

Starting the Big One

I am almost finished with my five inch maze cube...just a bit of sewing left...so my sixteen harness loom is ready to for its next project.

Next up: my piece for the exhibit Ebb Tide at Convergence-Tampa 2008. It's a juried international yardage exhibit. I exhibited last year with my beetle piece which received an honorable mention. If I recall, minimum size is nine feet by eighteen inches.

I need to get the piece woven and finished plus an eight by eight inch sample done by January 1 so I can ensure I can get good pictures for the jurors. Since my yardage will be over 10 feet long and woven with sewing thread and three shuttles I need to get going!

The best way I know of to really get going on a giant project is to clean and re-organize the studio. So that is what I did today. I tossed a bunch of stuff. Organized some stuff. Moved some stuff. Touched and decided to deal with some stuff and not deal with other stuff. Then the studio was dusted and cleaned. It has now been re-arranged so I have a huge table which only has the stuff [loom, thread, pattern, notes, shuttles, scissors...] for the new piece and lots of empty space! I am ready.





In the newly arranged studio there is also a new space for the borrowed baby Shannock loom which has the tapestry I am currently working on.

There is also a place for me to sit and write on my computer. The computer in my studio is not connected to the Internet. I only use it to write notes and thoughts about the pieces I am weaving and watch DVDs. It also contains the beginnings of my novel. I occasionally read the prologue and first chapter and marvel how good it is.

THEY say there is a novel in everyone just waiting to come out. Mine is having a tough time coming ...perhaps a laxative is in order.

THEY also say you need to have a special spot to actually sit there and write. I now have one so good bye to that excuse.

THEY also say you should have a designated time where you just sit there and work on it. Now there's a problem. My writing area is right next to my tapestry loom and in close viewing distance of my sixteen harness loom.

Hmmm...write or weave...weave or write...what a dilemma!

Off the Loom

Here is what I have been laboring over for the last several weeks on my sixteen harness table loom. I started with the Tour de France. It seems like so long ago...

The piece laying over the top is my sampling. Turns out the sample is about 20 inches...the finished piece is about 30 inches...essentially six five inch squares.

It was quite a difficult piece to weave. Probably the hardest thing I have done. Tough to get the balance right, tough to choose the right color, tough to get the right pattern and tough to execute the pattern.

I have a lot of wasted thread. It is by far much easier to simply take out the sewing thread and cut it off and start a fresh than weaving it out and then back in. I don't think I went more than three or four rows without making some sort of error or not liking the balance.

The piece is resting...I am resisting the temptation to look and touch it. It needs a bunch of finishing before I can pull it all together into its final form.

More later...

Indigo Friends

Here are three tapestries that I have recently completed. I am exploring different setts with different number of weft strands. No conclusion yet.

One more to go...I think I am visualizing a hippo...

Another Maze

Well here is another project I have been working on for the last month or so. I can't yet say exactly what it is yet...but it is another take on a maze. The cartoon took many weeks to figure out. The warping of the loom was a nightmare. I think the weaving should be quite easy.

Why was the warping so bad? I think I will blame the Tour de France. You see I love to weave and watch the Tour de France on TV. It comes on about 5:30 am on the west coast. Then it is played again around 8:30 and again later. I can weave and weave and weave and never get tired of it. So much better than books on tape. And this time, the pictures of the flat areas looked just like like Van Gogh landscapes.

I had nothing to weave while watching the Tour. So I decided to warp my 16H loom for a piece that I want to enter into Small Expressions next year. There is no table in the den big enough for the loom so I had to move a new one in. The table was round and of a slightly different height and size than I am used to. Plus, it was a bit awkward getting the threads through the reed and the heddles. I have never made as many mistakes as I did on this piece. There were only 310 ends which needed to be sleyed and warped. At 48 epi that only a bit over 6 inches wide. Now I admit I was using serger thread which is thin...but on the positive side it was turquoise blue...a lovely color and a nice contrast with the white plastic heddles. I think I must have touched each end at least twice and some I fixed several times. After three days, I moved the loom back to its assigned work area and finished up the warping in a day or so.

The photo shows the results of my color testing for the weft. I must admit, it looks better on the loom than on that photo...I may go and test a couple more colors having seen that photo....