No fooling, it is time for a new check in thread. Everyone is being so productive, keep up the good work. Weave on! Tina

Comments

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 14:43

sally orgren

This is an oldie but goodie!

http://www.weavezine.com/projects/extruded-string-weaving

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 14:57

loomyladi (not verified)

Sally if you are coming to Maryland???? Bring a towel with you! Would love to see this up close and personal! Of course you will find me in the auction tent on Sat. Also, my Inky cousin needs you to give it a weave. Bruce & I made some tension adjustments and I want to see what you think.

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 14:59

endorph

love the "new" project! Started theading heddles last night - discovered a mistake - unthreaded - strated rethreading - too close to bed time - will continue to rethread this evening when I am a bit fresher! So hoping to finish threading and tart sleying the reed.
Mon, 04/01/2013 - 15:13

loomyladi (not verified)

I had a visit from a friend this weekend and we got so much weaving "stuff" accomplished! We spent some time on my barn loom restoration project. He's having to take the cog home with him to repair teeth. I think we've figured out the length for heddles so I can start tying in my free time (LOL). We made some tought decisions about what finish to alter and what not to. We decided that I want this to be fully functional and user friendly without damaging the integrity. I'm going to do some additional sanding on the breast beam, beater bar, and heddle sticks. I'll experiment with some Howard's Feed & Wax on a spare heddle bar and see what that does to the finish before I sally forth with that treatment. The exciting part of the visit was watching him finish assembling my inkle looms for a class that starts today. We've modified and redesigned a couple of times and finally came up with a design we are happy with, for now. I suspect we will be making some changes for the next batch. These are out of pine which is OK for a workshop loom. I'm really please with one very special loom, which was made from recycled old growth pine. We saved this pile of wood from Greenbrier Co WV last summer. These boards were originally part of door framing in the Grand Caverns in Virginia. They've been sitting for YEARS and now have new life. I was so tickled to get this special loom! I'm curious to see how the pine holds up and if there is any give in the dowel holes. Only weaving will tell.

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 15:15

loomyladi (not verified)

This loom was handcrafted in WV using recycled old growth pine that was once doorway supports in the Grand Caverns in Virginia. It is beautiful to look at, wonderful to touch, and I can only imagine the stories the wood could tell.

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 19:33

sally orgren

My early May plans underwent a huge change two weeks ago, so I need to make sure the dust settles before I commit. We have a few late season photo sessions that came up on the calendar this particular spring, and that is throwing a wrench in my carefully laid weekend plans for May (Sigh.)

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 19:54

Matt (not verified)

I've been spending the bits of procrastination time from my dissertation adding the second four shafts to my Lilla countermarch loom, which involves some significant dissassembly. I kept having new ideas for making the tie-up as simple as possible to change in the future, so I've been cutting lots of Texsolv cord (which is now finished, right when I've completely run out of the roll that I bought).  Now I'm under the front of the loom pegging the treadles to the lamms. I finally found the right combination of my loom bench, a pillow, a sheep skin, and a few 2x4's to get my butt and arms in the right position to reach everything without killing my back. I actually enjoy fiddling with mechanical things like this, and its a labor of love. I know that reading this saga would make a jack loom weaver want to avoid a countermarch like the plague, but I'll only have to do this once, and the results are divine. The loom operation will be whisper quiet, the shed will be perfect and treadling requires almost no effort. Even my little baby wolf was much more effort to treadle, and made the heavy shafts and metal heddles made a harsh "ker-chunk!" each time I changed the shed! 

Mon, 04/01/2013 - 21:12

ReedGuy

Been warpinging a little bit on the tablecloth project. I could have did it all today, but I'm in no hurry.

Sounds like everyone has lots on the go.

Tue, 04/02/2013 - 12:18

endorph

at work and a work out at the dog park with the puppies, I was in no mood to weave but after a nice dinner and relaxing for a bit I managed to get half the heddles threaded for the dish towels. No mistakes this time!
Wed, 04/03/2013 - 03:06

endorph

tomorrow I will sley the reed and tie on the warp - woohoo -
Wed, 04/03/2013 - 05:04

Weavejoyforall

Hopefully , now that my Dr.s appointments for March ( oy, so many !) are over I hope to warp and weave again ... lol   We shall see what weaving fun April has to offer... soon , oh please soon.

I believe it was a famous person who said... " Getting old ain't for Wimps... so so true... I see more doctors then I see results from my loom.  Will let you all know when this weaver gets warped enough to Weave Again !

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 08:12

Erica

I hope this month will be the month I get my Glimakra completely reassmbled and the studio sorted out!

Cheers,

Erica

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 12:48

marmaladefiend

I am excited to start my first rep weave project this weekend. Naturally I got enough yarn to do about 3 different projects! I hope I like this sort of weaving...although if not, I guess I can figure out something else to do with all that yarn. There is ALWAYS something else to do with the yarn :)

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 16:30

sally orgren

I kid you not!

I just realized yesterday that my work travel will bring me to Minneapolis at the end of the month. So I booked a little extra time at the front end of my arrival to visit the The Textile Center and their fabulous library. (I will miss their annual Textile Garage Sale, but if you are going to be in the area Saturday, April 13th, I encourage you to go.)

On the return end of the visit (in early May), I have made arrangements to meet Janet Meany. (Rug weaver, book author, maintains historic loom website and manual directory.)

Now, to get through work and weaving deadlines in the ensuing 20+ days left. Ack!!! ;-)

Thu, 04/04/2013 - 10:56

Artistry

Sally, I commiserate! A few fun things thrown in there but most is deadline driven. Well that's how it is. I have an old faded index card on my design board that says Plan Your Work. Work Your Plan. It's gotten me through many a deadline. Well, Enough of that from me! Back from Michigan where I finished all the backs of the Tapestries! Yay! Now I'm mounting a few for a Guild Exhibit and also for the Presentation on Tapestry Diaries. Will work on that today. One more Tea Towel, but can only weave 8 inches an hour, and last 1 hour because of my wrist, bummer, so they take a while. oh back in the day...right? Will work on that today My tapestry yarns ( as if I need any more!) arrived while I was gone! Wonderful colors! Today I will make my cartoon and hopefully warp my small Mirrix loom. Have a long weekend trip planned I can take the small loom with me:) Full day, fine by me:)
Fri, 04/05/2013 - 02:37

endorph

dish towel warp all tied on and ready to weave and kept having tension issues, wavy fell line, blah blah blah - so out came the hem, out came the header and I will be re-tying on tomorrow - I tried a different tie on method and abviously I was not too successful so I am going back to lashing on - at least for this project. I am getting as good at unweaving as I am at unknitting! So how is everyone else doing?
Fri, 04/05/2013 - 09:28

ReedGuy

Threading along on my tablecloth. That 16/2 cotton sure is fine (small) yarn. :D

Good luck with the towels endorph. Sometimes we need a new beginning. ;)

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 11:46

Artistry

I have tried this post three times, maybe this ones a charm? ReedGuy, are you using the Goldenrod Draft of yours for the Table clothes? Tina, I feel your pain, that used to happen to me all the time, ugh! It is so worth getting it right! Good for you for taking the time to do so! Today, tapestry and Tea towel. Though I'm getting a hankering to pull out the dyepots, must be the speaker we had last night. Mary Zicafoose was at our Guild last night and gave a fantastic lecture! She's giving a 3 day workshop. Can't go but I know it will be dynamite! Can't wait to see what people do!
Fri, 04/05/2013 - 13:41

sally orgren

I took a 1 day color workshop with Mary Zicafoose in Vancouver 2002. Wow! I have seen her work several times over the years in Colorado and Florida, and most recently at a high end shop in Hanover, NH. She partnered with another artist to have their work produced as rugs, providing a business opportunity and revenue stream to weavers in a developing part of the world. She is definitely one of those "successful" weavers that you don't hear much about in our weaving magazines. Lucky YOU!

----

My dishtowel warp is full of woes. (This is the one with the 1/2 floating warp.) I pulled a sample and washed it — looks great. BUT, the weaving is tedious with the reduced shed, and there are occasional skips which drive me crazy. I'll have to make a correction nearly every inch. I can't just throw the shuttle rhythmically, I have to watch it like a hawk, and it is *still* error prone. Because the floating warp is not weighted down by a shaft, that makes it problematic.

In hindsight, I suspect this would work better on a loom other than a jack, AND, on a bigger floor loom with a greater distance back-to-front. (Or on a table loom, with less throw width). I have weighted the "floating" warp off the back separately with a stick (+ 4 pounds of weight) AND, added a separate weighted stick (2 pounds) for the marled brown carried on shaft 4, because I could tell that was getting slack with fewer lockdowns, more floats. Now it's like having 3 back beams. I am calling this project an exercise in loom gymnastics ;-)

As I complete the first yard, I am questioning my options for the other 7.
Thoughts? Ideas?

1) Stick it out and finish this project in December 2015

2) Rethread, eliminating the floating warp, and the marled accents will now be buried by lockdowns. (I really don't like the way this looks on my sample)

3) Finish the first towel, and "transfer" the warp to my other floor loom, that has 12 shafts. (This basically means starting over and that loom requires more loom waste, so I may lose one towel.)

?

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 13:52

endorph

sorry to hear your dish towel woes - mine seem minor compared to yours. While part of me says stick to it and finish as is - another part says transfer to another loom and see if the weaving goes better. That said - wht kind of dangers lie in store for you in transferring the warp to another loom? Is the potential benefit worth the risk of the move? I'm not sure I would be brave enough to attempt it! Good luck Cathie - I was sorely tempted to ignore the slightly wavy fell line and just go ahead and weave the towels but i just couldn't bring myself to do it - I know the unevenness would have bugged me through the whole process. I should get everything tied-on this evening and get started weaving on the first towel. They Re plain weave and simple twill so it should go fast once I get up and running. I am also going to try and get a warp would for some fabric.
Fri, 04/05/2013 - 15:42

Grethe

I will prefer to lose one towel and move the warp. Remember to secure the cross and make some tight ties around the warp as it "unbeam". 

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 18:33

ReedGuy

Cathie, yes my Goldenrod draft. I've begun a project page. I have not decided on the set yet. I was going to tie on some ends in the middle of the warp and weave a few shots before I sley the whole reed.

 

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 18:59

Monica Bellas (not verified)

Wow, y'all have been so busy this week - I'm jealous.  However, no grading or test writing this weekend, so I'll have plenty of time to get the warp threaded and tied on for a rug.  (My mother couldn't figure out why I was so excited to get a cone of rug weft.)  Onward and upward!

Fri, 04/05/2013 - 19:27

Artistry

Sally, I wonder if you put some sizing on the floating ends then they might be less likely to hang down because they would be stiffer? Is that crazy?
Sat, 04/06/2013 - 03:20

endorph

got the warp tied-on and a wonderfully straight fell line! So now on to weaving! ETA: Well I spoke too soon - wove my header and sarted on the hem and found a mistake - two threads were twisted. So Unweave some more, untie the affected warp bundle , fix the problem, retie, re-establish tension, now I am weaving. Have woven hem and first accent stripe - no problems - yippee!

Sat, 04/06/2013 - 11:28

Artistry

Lovely Tina! Towels? Gonna be nice! So glad you're weaving!
Sat, 04/06/2013 - 13:11

endorph

they will be towels - simle plain weave with twill accent stripes - or twill with plain weave stripes. Shuld be a quick weave - need to get a warp wound for some fabric.
Sat, 04/06/2013 - 14:03

ReedGuy

Don't let it bother ya none. Sometimes you have to back up a little to get a good run for it. :)

Sat, 04/06/2013 - 18:30

Weavejoyforall

Nice stripes..

Only wish I had the width of your loom on mine.  My little brio loom only weaves 5 and 1/2 inch width..  :)  Somday maybe I will be able to save the money for a larger width RH loom. My appartment space is small so a floor loom is out of the question.  Anyway, I am enjoying my little loom and learning so much.

Sat, 04/06/2013 - 18:44

endorph

in addition to the mighty wolf I also have a 25" Flip RH that I love. It is the loom I learned to weave on. What I like about it is that it folds up and be stored in small places!
Sun, 04/07/2013 - 02:18

Monica Bellas (not verified)

Arrgh!  I got the warp beamed for my warp rep rug, and discovered that I was "missing" about 20 ends.  Bah!  So I "un-beamed" (is there such a word?) the whole thing, added the missing warp, and re-beamed.  Now it's tied on and I've got the hem done.  No more weaving tonight, though, as my back is very unhappy with all the bending and twisting I had to do.  Lesson learned -- always mark the width in the reed from both ends!

Sun, 04/07/2013 - 21:00

sally orgren

and warp errors? Ack! I empathize, Monica.

I put out the call to borrow a small, 8 shaft floor loom to transfer my problematic dishtowel warp. We'll see what happens...

Mon, 04/08/2013 - 04:26

loomyladi (not verified)

Had the chance to demo spinning yesterday.  It was a fun time and it is always such a delight to see the smiles on the faces of children.  A very experienced woodworker stopped by and we had a great conversation about the Great Wheel I had on display.  He was admiring the craftsmanship.  It was the first (and probably only) time I will take that loom on the road.  It was only a 3 mile journey (round trip), the wheel belonged to my Gr Gr Grandfather who was born about 1870.  The wheel is probably pre-CW, but I only know the history from him to me.  It was tempermentally and would not spin well so I demo'd on my Lendrum.  I had my first delivery of shuttles arrive from Purrington Looms yesterday.  They are nice little 4" inkle shuttle (to go along with the looms which arrived a week ago) and I'm looking forward to taking them to my students tomorrow night and have them give them a try.  A new arrival for the bookshelf was Anne Dixon's  Handweaver's Pattern Directory.  It's so great to see the samples in color and the binding is great!  I have another 5 weeks of school and then I get a month off so major weaving projects will have to wait a little longer.  I LOVE hearing what you all are up to - it helps to keep me dreaming of someday having the time...
Mon, 04/08/2013 - 04:30

loomyladi (not verified)

Since space is an issue for you and you want to have a little more to work with I would suggest looking for a 20" Purrington Loom.  They are compact and fold to about 24" wide and fit nicely behind a sofa or recliner.  At only about 45# they are easy to move about by hand or with a small luggage cart.  They're not easy to find, but as they were originally made in MA you might have some luck up in your area.  I do happen to know where there are a couple of used ones for sale here in WV if you are interested.
Mon, 04/08/2013 - 08:30

ReedGuy

We moved two spinning wheels from my uncle's, I have a 3.5 foot tall one with an oak wheel, maple everything else, has a makers mark stamped. My brother took the 6 foot high one yesterday. These were 19th C wheels of my great grandmother. I also have a butter bowl made of local butternut from my great great grand mother. Has the ladle as well. She and husband (whom is mom's blood line) were the first settlers of that area that was settled. The house was destroyed when a hydro dam was built on the site and their boy and 12 kids evicted. The government grant'th and then take'th.  I have a photo of the place as they were blasting for the dam site. My grandmothers both made butter in their younger years. That was pretty much the only way they had it, was to make it. No supermarkets. ;)  I have another as well. In the south they make these for dough bowls. We have treadle Singers from 1902 and 1908. My grandmother used the 1908 treadle Single. We only had power here since the 40's. But the local village was about the first place with power way before that. These things are not rare by any means, the museums say there is warehouses full of it.

Have a productive day all. I'll just be threading heddles. :)

Mon, 04/08/2013 - 09:27

Nassajah (not verified)

I warped with mixed fiber weight, but now have discovered that one of the yarns is unsuitable for the warp, so now I''m going to have to substitute them for another fiber while on the loom.  It not many, since it's strips, but what a disappointment.  I need to get these woven by a due date, but now am discouraged.  

Also, everytime I warp, the side of the warp is always looser, no matter how tight I tie it an causes a bowing in the weft.  Any sggestions?

 

Mon, 04/08/2013 - 09:36

ReedGuy

Do you use warp sticks or paper when winding the warp. What happens is the warp on the outter edges slip off the build up winding of the warp if it is not controlled with packing material/sticks. Also, you often times need to retie some ends on the edges and the middle when tying on. The first few ends become slack as more ends are tied. I always have to retie some areas no matter how careful the initial ends are tied. Also watch your tie-on rods, so see if they aren't bowed from tension. You may have to adjust the way the rods are held. If there are cords the full width, but your tying a narrow piece in the middle, you will get bowing because there are no warp end on either side of that narrow piece to work against the tie-on cords.

Mon, 04/08/2013 - 12:27

Nassajah (not verified)

so much for the reply.  Yes, some of the warp hs slipped off the ends of the paper and I'm using a metal rod, so it may be bowing.  I'll have to try to get a wooden rod.

As for the tie on, I always have to go back and readjust the ties to tighten them. 

I'm looking forward to seeing your table cloth.

Alaa

Mon, 04/08/2013 - 13:15

endorph

all my plans to get lots of weaving done this weekend did not pan out but I did get two dish towels finished - will work on number three this evening and firmed up my plans for the apron warp so it was not a totally wasted weekend - got other stuff done but not weaving related! Hope everyone has a productive week - weave on!
Mon, 04/08/2013 - 21:31

Weavejoyforall

Hi again Reedguy,

I started using warping sticks on my last project here I have much better luck with tention now. got the Idea from a photo of a floor loom I saw at one of the other weaving sites and they work really well...since my loom is so small I could have my warping sticks cut by Home depot..at 7and a half inches..or so...    glad you brought them up.

Tue, 04/09/2013 - 07:11

kerstinfroberg

Actually, if the outer warps have slipped off the built-up warp, making the beam cigar-shaped, would mean the outer edges get successively *tighter*. The cigar-shape means the warp is shorter on the edges.

Tue, 04/09/2013 - 08:20

ReedGuy

Yes, it would. That's seems intuitive doesn't it? ;)

Tue, 04/09/2013 - 11:37

Artistry

Tea towels are done, except for hemming, tapestry backs are done, April presentation well under my belt. Now seriously behind on the Tapestry Diary, I've been working everyday but not putting in the hours, that changes today! Also the drafting class, so behind, but that will be fun to catch up ! Big loom is empty, horrors! I want to design some baby blankets to weave in the fall. What are good sizes for Baby Blankets? I'm thinking cotton, baby allergies, you know. Although I would prefer organic cotton, it doesn't seem to come in a big range of colors. I suppose I could use natural dyes. Does anyone have experience with Earthues or another Natural dye company on cotton?
Wed, 04/10/2013 - 23:39

ReedGuy

I'm still threading away, things are going along smoothly as far as that is concerned. But, I am only spending a couple times a day at it, and not a lot of time. I have around 800 threaded now. I'll get there eventually. :)

Thu, 04/11/2013 - 19:04

sally orgren

A loaner loom has emerged from one of my guild mates while I have been traveling. (Thank you, Joan!)

I am going to pick it up Saturday. So, I have cut off towel #1, and tied the warp into twenty one 1" bouts. I am thinking to slide a rod through them, lash that rod onto the borrowed loom's back beam (through the castle and parted heddles), release the tension on my loom, and beam the warp onto the new loom. (Assume the looms are lined up like cars at a stop sign.)

I am thinking the reed and heddles of my loom will act like a raddle and tensioning device. I left the lease sticks in back, and could easily add a set in front too, between the old and the new loom. (I think I will, just in case.) Once the seven yards are beamed on the new loom, then it is just a matter of rethreading the heddles and reed.

Anyone see any flaws with this plan, or have an idea of a more efficient way to do it?

FYI, I originally thought about front to back for the transfer, but with the two looms lined up, I couldn't imagine a convenient way for my body to fit in between them for theading at the front of the new loom. If I let my reed be the "rough sley", and consider sitting at the back of the new loom for threading, the warps are coming out of my reed @ 2 per dent. So I have a 50% chance of picking the correct thread from the reed in the right sley order to thread on the new loom's heddle (and in reverse, since I am sitting at the back - and not front - to thread). As I started to envision this method, it seemed like a frustrating task to me and more prone to threading errors due to the distance I will be from the first loom's reed and castle to see which heddle the thread came from.

Were we all spiders in a previous life?

Thu, 04/11/2013 - 19:24

endorph

my eyes started to cross as I read your description Sally - its sounds feasible - I also like the idea of a cross in front of the reed as well as behind - better safe than sorry. In my mind I think I see how you are proposing to do this task - just glad its you and not me! :)
Thu, 04/11/2013 - 21:52

Artistry

Sounds good to me. Aren't guild mates Fantastic!
Sat, 04/13/2013 - 00:10

endorph

my dish towels - have one and a half left to do - then I really need to get some hemmed! I am also getting ready to start winding a warp for some apron fabric.

Mon, 04/15/2013 - 00:17

sally orgren

I am preparing to try and figure out this warp transfer efficiently. (Things that make you go hmmmmm...)

Endorph, LOVE the colors posted above for the apron—make more than one, if possible!

Mon, 04/15/2013 - 00:59

endorph

I'd help you if I could. I am really loving the colors for the apron. The big coned colors I have lots of the others are in limited supply - I pretty well bought all they had in those particular colors in my LYS - I did pick up some turquoise and lime green cottolin to throw in the mix. Was going to start winding the warp today but that did not happen. I did finish up the dush towle warp this morning. Got it cut off the MW before I lfet for church. Other than that not much happening here - I am catching up on my magazines - right now reading piecework!
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