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....

More on Mazes

I finished the 'answer key' for the large maze that I am going to weave. I wanted to have a small piece that would show the actual route through the maze since the larger one will only show the beginning of the route and perhaps the finish. As you can see, the actual route is not a simple path....it wanders all around the piece before ending up at the exit at the bottom.

Weaving this sample is a good test of the pattern to ensure I don't have any errors and ensure the overall balance is good. I did find a couple of small items that I may modify. But looks like the larger piece will be a go...of course I need to re-design it for size. It will be about 10 times larger when finished than this sample which of course necessitates a number of design changes due to the magnitude.

First though, I am going to weave a smaller piece of some compexity to enter into Small Expressions in Tampa Bay 208. I have the design complete and am vascillating on the colors - in particular the warp. A dark color will make the piece a bit somber but will make the walls of the maze be particularly vvid but the light colors will be a bit muted. On the other hand, a light warp will make the path of the maze pop but wash out the darker colors in the walls of the maze. Ah decisions, decisions...

A Little Blue'll Do Yah

I took a 'quick and dirty' workshop on indigo dyeing last weekend. The instructor was John Pitblado. It only lasted about four hours and was quite fun.

I have only used procion dyes. And never indigo. Everyone always speaks in such hushed tones when it comes to indigo. So I figured I might as well check it out. We used freeze dried indigo which does not require the urine of boys under 13 as does the traditional method. John informed us that the urine of pregnant women, diabetics or alcoholics also works well. This freeze dried stuff is good. It does not smell. Thanks goodness. Mixes up well and seemed to stand up to a lot of messy folks.

It is quite amazing how you put something into the dye pot for a couple of minutes, pull it out and it's green but within a few seconds the piece starts turning blue.

I used some big nuts and rubber bands to create patterns on my blanks. We got to dye two pieces of cotton, a silk scarf. You can see the results. I tried for a very light blue on the scarf so I would indeed wear it sometime. I am not a dark blue person. There is not one piece of dark blue clothing in my closet. And when I was in the corporate world I did not own a blue suit

I also dyed some of my silk yarn to see how it came out. It looked beautiful deep indigo blue while drying. I had to wash it since there was lots of excess dye which came off on my hands when it was dry. I couldn't imagine weaving with it - my hands would be permanently blue. I had to wash it twice in the washing machine to get the excess out.

In the end, it was a mottled blue. Actually two shades of blue, since I put one skein in the dye twice as much to get a deeper shade of blue. I am 'using it up' in a little tapestry right now...an indigo llama. I will stick with procion.

Many Fond Memories

There was a sense of emptiness in the house this morning.

Even the other three dogs felt it.

Pokie normally watches me weave from a small dog bed under the table in the studio. She was the only dog that seemed to enjoy the sound of the constant slamming of the shafts on my table looms while I wove taquete. I kept looking down at the bed expecting to see her looking up at me. But I could only see the memory of her. When I move from room to room I can still imagine her little feet pattering behind me. She would follow me everywhere.

Pokie had a good life with us. She was a dog rescued from a bad situation and was a very sick when we met her. She was a rescue dog of unknown age with heart problems and a hernia. The vet thought she would live perhaps six months or so. Every dog deserves some special time so we adopted her. We used to say she was in 'pre-heaven' while staying with us. And for over two and a half years she brought us great joy.

I, and the rest of the pack will miss her.

The Ikat to Rest

Here is my ikat piece all dyed, washed and ironed. It looks better in the photo than in person. I guess the dye was not well mixed at certain times since it left heavy dye splotches every one in awhile. Part of the piece is salvageable but too many splotches to use the entire piece material. I may experiment with discharging the dye...never done that before....

On this piece, a lot of yellow washed out. I kept rinsing and rinsing and the yellow kept coming out. I finally just put it in the washing machine and that seemed to have removed it all. I am now thinking it may not have been the dye that I painted on the warp that was running but it could have the yellow from the yellow silk weft I used. I never did any color fast test on it.

Well this was an interesting experiment. I have a couple of balls more of the ikat dyed yarn so I need to figure out what I will do with it. It looks like it would make a nice border or lapel for a jacket so I might go for that.

But no hurry....

The Rejected Twill

Here's the twill pattern I decided not to use. I was trying to shift the warp threads so the ikat design would be something like the letter 'N'. I shifted the twill direction to make it stand out more. After weaving a bit I realized I wan't trilled about this twill pattern in ikat - a bit old fashion.

Ater I wove about six inches with the white ikat design I decided I didn't like the contrast between the white and the dark purple [which looks brown in the photo] so I decided to dye the white - golden yellow. I dyed both the woven part and the next six inches of the unwoven warp on the loom to see if there would be a big difference in the end product.

Once finished weaving, I painted the entire piece with a 2:1 water:white vinegar mix, wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in my old crock pot.

In the end, the dye took well on both parts and kept most of its color even after washing in the washing machine. There does seem to be a richer golden yellow color on the part that was woven then dyed vs. dyed then woven. Most troubling was the yellow stripe of dark dye in the middle of the piece...

Easy Ikat

Remember that silk that I bought that was not color fast...I over dyed it with some ikat ties. It used to look like this. I shifted the design using the easy ikat method I learned at the ASCH conference in Visalia.

Then as I wove it, I painted the warp while on the loom. At one end I started with yellow orange and gradually moved into emerald green. In the picture, I am close about 80% emerald green. I used liquid Createx dye. I have no idea how the dye will actually take...

I didn't like the initial pattern which was warped in a simple twill so I took it off. At the suggestion of a friend, I tightened the sett and used a finer weft. For the weft in the photo, I am using 60/2 silk in a pale yellow.

I like how it looks. It would make a a nice border or lapel on a jacket.

Sample Three

I finished up my third sample maze. This one is about fourteen inches long and two inches wide. I actually wove the beginning and end of the pathway through the maze to encourage the audience to try to connect the two paths. This photo only shows one end.


I still have some warp left...enough for one more sample. I made some modifications to the pattern of sample three so this upcoming last sample will show the new final maze with the actual pathway throughout. This will be the shakedown to ensure I have no mistakes in the pattern and there is indeed a way through the maze. Then I should be ready to plan the larger piece.

Another Sample

I finished my second maze sample...this one with the walls in blue, the path in yellow and the actual path to go through the maze in orange. The size is about 2 by 8 inches ignoring the fringe.

I kept with the symmetrical look with the entry and exit point on the sides near the bottom of the photo. I used the blue as the locking thread so the fringe is 100% yellow and orange threads. The warp I have on the loom is half pale yellow and half pale sky blue. The yellow warp really makes the yellow weft pop in comparison to where the weft goes over the pale blue warp. Another thing to keep in mind when decided on final colors.

The back side is most interesting too...lovely shades of green, purple and yellow-orange. I may consider doing a reversible piece.

I still have some warp left on the loom so I will try another sample...

Triangles

As promised, here is a sampling of my triangle scarves...there were more...but they were given away as gifts.

I like the ones which are more lacy and light. Of course, this probably has something to do with the weather in Southern California....the fog came in this afternoon for a bit so some of these may still be wearable this season.

I must admit, these scarves did not make a big dent in my yarn stash. I was hoping they would create more room for future additions. But alas they do not take much yarn at all. I could weave some more, but fortunately I have returned the triangle loom so I can now get back to more important things...like weaving mazes...

Back in the Groove

You may wonder what I have been doing...not posting and all. I actually think I have finally gotten back in the groove so to speak. I was in a slump after the weaving conference I had attended and couldn't quite get into doing anything.

Well, that isn't actually true...our Guild had a workshop on harness-less weaving and I learned how to use a triangle loom. I borrowed one from Hilda and proceeded to weave quite a few triangle scarves. I don't think I will actually admit to how many... but really quite a few. I kept wondering...hmmm...how would that yarn work on the loom? Or perhaps this yarn? Since I had just cleaned out and organized my stash...all my yarns were fresh in my memory. I'll take a picture of the results sometime and post.

I did finally start on my group project for our tapestry group...you can see what I am working on here. Anyway, as I started weaving that tapestry I started thinking it might be a fun thing to do on my sixteen harness loom...so I tried it out. Here is the result.




Sorry about the picture quality - its tough to get a good picture while the piece is on the loom.

It's a maze - obviously. One can go in one side and out the other. Pretty intriguing. I am going to play around some more on this concept. But I still like bugs.