Summer Placemats

Cheryl turned her placemats with the wavy selvages into summer bags. Here's her next attempt at placemats. Not bad on the the loom. We'll see what happens when washed. She took Jane Campbell's advice and washed and dried the Peaches n Cream before using it in the weft. Let's hope that helps it not to shrink so much in this project. This is 100% cotton. Using rug warp, 3/2 perle cotton, cotton boucle and an 8/2 unmercerized. The colors are sage green and natural. The structure is based on a rep weave pattern but spaced at 12 epi, from The Handweavers Pattern Directory, p. 235, bottom treadling. Let's hear it for Robyn Spady's idea of a pattern abacus! (Those numbered beads across the top of the beater.) It really keeps you sane with 2 shuttles...thick, thin, thick, thin, thick, repeat...and various treadlings.

May 17 at White Bluffs Center

About 15 of us gathered for our last meeting before the summer break. Everyone shared where they are in the workbook. From Just Warped On to Finished My Placemats, we had a little of everything. As usual our mentors were very encouraging.

Please post photos of any projects you weave this summer...from the workbook or others. Simply resize your photo with your photo editor so that your longest side is around 600 pixels and keep it in proportion. For these I simply asked my Microsoft Picture to shrink my large file to 25%. I saved that new size as a new title so I haven't lost old large photo. Then follow the Blogger directions to post to the web. Or ask your neighborhood teen for help.

Some of us are weaving color gamps as part of the color theory study in Volume One, pp. 128-136. Next official meeting is September 13.

April 4 Meeting, Projects 1-3.

With 13 present, we all shared what we have woven so far. With so many different colors and textures, it was quite a show. Many are tweaking the designs a bit to make them better suit a specific need. Most of us seem captivated by the emerging patterns. Dianna has the most examples of various textures of yarns. Dorothy showed us the lovely Berga rug yarn, a smooth single-ply, so different than the coarser rug yarns that are common here. Cheryl changed the weft of the mats to a thinner Shetland wool, dented the 8/4 and 5/2 cottons at 15 dents, and produced a fabric with surprising drape. It would make a lovely spring garment fabric.

Dianna and Lois coached us on warping with the paddle. Dianna showed how to change out some warp threads part-way through the weaving. She replaced some frustrating wool boucle with a sturdier cotton boucle. The photos include a view of the lease stick holders.

Next meeting on May 17, hopefully at the new White Bluffs Center.

Design software

I just signed into the weaving group and it didn't pop up with a way to do my new post, so here is what I did: Click on the little blogger symbol in the far left upper corner of your screen and it takes you to the "dashboard" and then you can create a new post. Remember to sign your name when you post or we won't know who you are.

My SCA weaving group is talking about design software so I thought I would share these two free sites with you.

http://www.weavenotes.net/winweave.htm

http://www.pikespeakweavers.org/html/ppwg_weavedsn.htm

I haven't used these but they both are used by weavers in my other group and they are free! Both of them have instructions on how to use them. Maybe some of you already use them?
Jane Campbell

More Mat Musings

This is the last of Project 3's small mats, Mat #6. It's the thickest of the 6. It's small, thicker, but not at all difficult. I was amazed at how much THICKER it is than the other 5 mats. My overshot tabby yarn was also wool, not the cotton called for in our instructions. I'll get a little braver later this week and wash one of these mats...right now I'm just petting and admiring them.

Dianna

Small Mat Musings

Project 3 is so much FUN!!

Here is the table runner, hot off the loom, so to speak.

A BIGGGG hint in choosing which colors to use was given by Zina Mae....take the 5-7 yarns you think you'd like to use, then twist them together, like you see in this photo. the colors should flow together without 'fighting' with one another.

I would recommend finding your WEFT yarns first...then find your cotton warp. I did NOT use any cotton in my weft. I found wool weft yarn which matched the cotton warp. My whole Project was woven using wool weft.

Other small hints:

Use the hem stitch on each end of your mats and runner. This way, when you take it off the loom, it's FINISHED...just cut them apart!

If you use a 4 inch divider between mats, you'll get a little longer fringe, in case you'd like to tie knots.

Remember: you don't need any great amount of any one yarn.

Don't forget to consider a floating selvage....or just be prepared to fuss a little with those selvages when patterning.

Bookmarks GALLORE!!

Well, I have BOOKMARKS!!! and lots of them. Actually, I have two very long and colorful BANDS. I had enough warp left from finishing Project 2, I just played with the 8/4 cotton. I have learned alot about making the WARP look interesting by using different colors in the WEFT. It's been fun. Dianna

I'm concerned about the edges also..the manual states..."cut off the filler about 1" beyond the selvage and begin the next color from the opposite side". OK , but how do we deal with all these 1" tails on the edge? Generally these can be doubled back, but not on this narrow warp. Any ideas?

Meet Half of the Ayottes

Bob titles this Boo (Roberta) at the loom.

So here is half of the authors of our Handweaving with Robert and Roberta. Roberta, please tell us what you are weaving that is so colorful! And is this still your origianl LeClerc loom?

My apologies that two of the photos in the previous post don't show themselves. I don't know why. I keep playing with options like downloading a web album via Picassa to attach an entire album to the blog but my computer is too old/weak to pull it off. Possibly those two photos got messed up in my attempts. A new computer by April?

Are you bookmarks multiplying?

I'm working on Bookmark H. How about you? Notice my treadling error. A design element?
Some things I've changed:
1. I'm weaving A into B, then placing spacers for the fringe, then C into D, then spacers, etc. The idea is to sew
these 15-inch strips together to make a placemat.
2. I'm hem stitching the ends, since that is a new skill for me and this is good practice.

Some Questions I have for our next meeting:
1. How did you carry the yarns up the sides to the next color change? Or did you cut the yarns and pull them to the back? Or another good idea?
2. How did you do your edges? Exactly as the book suggested? Or with a floating selvege as Dianna showed us last time? Or another way?
3. Did anyone else merely skim the directions? I've reversed the Light and Dark yarns on at least one bookmark. I know better when I'm sewing. So why did I think I could get away with it when weaving?


Tips I've heard:
1. Photocopy your diagrams to mark your own design notes on them.
2. Size 3 crochet yarns might substitute for the 8/4 cotton. Can you tell from these photos? If you are waiting for a yarn order, this might give you something to warp with until your order arrives.

3. Sharon O found a nifty document holder that can attach to your computer. She has hers on her loom to hold her design notes/ pattern.

Tell us your tips. Post your photos!

Children's Garden Full of Weavers

So much to learn and so little time! But some mentors stepped up and we are getting warped! ("You have to be warped to weave." Syne Mitchell, http://www.weavecast.com/ ) Thanks to Dorothy Hill for helping new weavers learn the warping boards; Dianna Chesley, Lois Johnson, Cheryl Reed for helping to sley the reeds; Jane Campbell for tutoring in accessing this blog, and the rest who put the DFA motto of "Each one, Teach one" into practice. Dianna gave us some tips she gleaned from Larry Taylor. Lois shared how she uses the basic plans, even for these bookmarks in Project One, to make other items. Her Handweaving with R & R is a reference book after it was an instructional course.

Share what you plan to weave for Project One in addition to the bookmarks or instead of them.

Watch out on Project One

Some of us have been working ahead. The problems I've heard so far...

1. It's not clear that "plain weave" and "tabby" are the same weave structure = a simple interlacement of over 1-under 1. You get that by alternating the activation of shafts 1 & 3, and 2 & 4. On some of the bookmarks, we need to do a plain weave (tabby) shot between each shot of the thicker yarns. Be sure to ask someone to demo that on Saturday.

2. The diagram on p. 55 makes you assume that you pass 2 yarns through the edge slots of your reed when you first put the yarn through the reed. But Mr. A has you put each yarn in a separate slot until the very end, tying onto the cloth beam. At that point you move the edge yarns inward 1 slot, so there are 2 yarns in the edge slots. Be sure to ask about this Saturday too.

Any more problems you can warn us about?

Eager Weavers

Here's the crew at the first meeting. Ann is the photographer. We'll have to get her in a group shot at the next meeting.

First Meeting: What a Crew!

We found out that we are mostly inexperienced weavers at our first meeting January 18, 2009. But we’re a jolly, risk-taking group. It could be the blind leading the blind except for a handful of mentors who are willing to take our hand and reassure us that we can do this.

Lois J brought her finished projects from a couple decades ago. The colors, textures, hand of the fabrics helped to imagine what yarns and colors we might want for our own projects. Dianna C explained the yarn requirements. With such small amounts of some of the yarns, many of us are hunting up our own yarns. If you want to be part of an order, contact Dianna or Cheryl.

How do you get individual help? We decided that it’s up to each of us to “reply to all” on the emails with a request for a “Warping Party” at your house or with the description of your problem that several could reply to. That’s assuming you can’t wait until the next meeting. Or ask on this blog so the answer will be shared with us all.
Next meeting: Saturday, Jan. 31, 1-3p at the Children’s Garden, Richland, WA.
Bring: Your B&W stripe designs (Assignment 2, p. 39.)
A table loom if you are using one for Project 1, or if you can loan one for the meeting.
Your warp yarns for Project 1.
A couple shuttles if you are warping your own table loom.
Your Handweaving with R& R notebook.

We hope to walk through most of Project 1 before we are on our own. We’ll see the favorite warping methods of our mentors. We will each get to warp part of a table loom. We’ll wind bobbins, and compare how those with experience throw their shuttles and move the beater.

Kathy K has a great way to learn this new vocabulary. She wrote each part of the loom onto a card and taped it to the corresponding part of her loom. Maybe some of us can compose some crossword puzzles using the vocabulary words. (In all your spare time.) It’s elementary school all over again, but we are beginners.

Dorothy's Test Photo

Thanks, Dorothy, for helping to test the blog. Now you need to comment to fill in the details. Where and when were you on this camel? And did you bring home any fiber to spin? Or a woven camel blanket? Just click on comments (in blue underlined letters below this post) and type in your notes.

Photo Test

Let's see if we can download this photo from the Saturday Garden Party. The more distant faces are out of focus...that's my fault, not your computer. This is how your photo of your weaving progress could look.