Yes October has finally arrived and Halloweave is officially started. I can't wait to see what everyone is working on. Remeber the goal is to weave or other weaverly activity every day. I am shooting for a minimum of 5 minutes a day - don't want to set my goal too high! Cool Post pictures and report on progress! I can't wait until I get home from work to start weaving again!

Comments

Queezle

Hello Active Arachnids, and welcome October. 

My upstairs loom still has a sample that I posted under project back in April or May!  My goal is to finish this sample, test a design for a long table runner, and maybe get that larger project onto my loom!  But my first goal will be to get some adequate lighting into my studio.

SusanBH

I'm currently working on name draft placemats which have to be done within the next week, so I'm thrilled for the added incentive to work on them daily.  They're a wedding gift, and the wedding is Oct. 10.

Name draft placemats

The image is sideways, I'm not sure why or how to change it.

theresasc

count as something weaverly?  Laughing

I am planning to continue to keep working on some shadow weave gamp towels, also I joined Cathie's tapestry group, so I will be back to the large tapestry loom as well.  The tapestry is just exercises in different techniques, not an actual piece.

 

PJS900 (not verified)

I've had the loom warped for dishtowels for several months and have only woven 3 inches.  My goal - finish those towels.

McSnygg

I started threading my heddles yesterday. Should finish today and start weaving. If, that is, If, I can get it to beam. Seems I lost my cross yesterday while talking with my husband. I've got a bit of a mess, but it'll work out, eventually.

Erica J

Weft faced weaving for me today! I even corrected an error, which is weft faced weaving is quite easy and magical!

endorph

I think reading about weaving is weaverly so. . .

BCB

I will start winding my warp today with yarn I got for Christman last year. This will be great motivation. 

[email protected]

This is my first public post on Weavolution after years as a guest and months of membership.  I want to learn how to post pix, pick out software, and get at least 2 of my small looms warped and weaving on the 10 minute a day plan this month.  I downloaded and installed the demo of pixel loom--seemed like a good starting point on Mac for band loom and 8 harness table loom.

endorph

fjacobson - this is a good place to get into the swing of things.

I managed to get 7 inches woven this evening on my tote bag warp. I made a project page for it. I have enough warp to make fabric for a couple of different projects. This is the halfway point so I should be able to get this one done easy peasy.

Queezle

OK.  Lights moved back into weaving room, and I faced a frustration.  Last spring, I prepared a warp to play with spider weaves - from Sharon Alderman's Mastering Weave Structure.  I was able to weave the diamond pattern, but the drafts were wrong - both in the book and in the errata - for the parallel zig-zag.  I kept trying to figure it out on paper, but it never worked on the loom.  Tonight I decided to figure it out ON THE LOOM, not on paper - and I did it!  Spent at least 30 minutes, and it feels great.

Queezle

This is my first Halloweave, too.  I took a long hiatus from weaving, and found the amazingly supportive folks here at weavolution to be indispensible for my return to weaving, and helping me as I struggled to remember how to do things.  Welcome, and enjoy.

SusanBH

I spent enough time at the loom today (while also cooking dinner) to get a plain weave border and hemstitching done for the third (out of four) placement.  Yay for progress!

 

[email protected]

Thank you for the encouragement of your words and your weaving tonight. I see treadles in your picture--outstanding to work out pattern without direct tie up!  

paulz

I am weaving a sleeping mat on my peg loom. This has been contributed to by several members in our guild and for me is a work of love.

Two years ago this month at our AGM Mary Bell was voted as Chairman. Very shortly afterwards she was taken poorly, diagnosed with cancer and died in the following January or February.

Last December we were asked as a guild to make something for a display being put together for Newark Castle. It is to celebrate the night before the wedding of Lady Elizabeth Manners. We decided on a woven sleeping mat for Lady Elizabeth's maid.

I took on the job of organising it. When I was at a knit and natter event in the next village to us, where the guild meets and where Mary used to live between 1980 and 2000 the lady who organised it asked me if I wanted a peg loom. We got talking and Mary's name came up in conversation. The lady was a good friend of Mary's and her husband when they lived in the village because their children were the same age. I realised she did not know Mary had died and had to tell her.

The following weekend was our guild meeting and people started giving me fleece for the sleeping rug. When I got home and looked at it some of it had a label in - Mule fleece 1990 Mary Bell. An hour or so later I had a call from the Knit and Natter group asking if there was anything I could think of that she could do to kind of remember Mary's life. I asked her if she would like to start off this sleeping mat using Mary's wool. She thought that was a perfect way to remember Mary.

That Saturday the lady came to our village Community Market and wove the first rows of the sleeping roll.

Now all I've got to do is to finish it!

(Apologies for length if intro but sometimes I really enjoy hearing about the reasoning behind what was being done not just see the article)

Queezle

  

Thank you for sharing, paulz.  I love the visual impact of seeing other people's projects, but when I also know some of the back story, it really comes alive.

Today's weaverly activity started early, with thinking about a new project.  I'm going to try to remember to incorporate the 60/30/10 color proportion principle,  keep the project simple by designing a single shuttle weave, and keep it personal by making something for my own dining room table.

 

endorph

thank you for the story. I love hearing the reasons behind something. What a wonderful remebrance and project.

theresasc

great story, thank you for sharing.

This morning I actually cut a finshed, at least the weaving part, project off a floor loom.  I have been hopping from loom to loom since I got back to morning weaving and this project was so close to being finished that between my loom time yesterday and today, it is woven.  Now to finish it up and post - hopefully this weekend.

Now I have a naked floor loom - oh my!

mokeydokes

well on Oct 1 I finished chaining the warp for my RH shawl project. (I know I could do a direct warp but I kind of like doing chaining no matter which loom I use).  The wool is a wonderful BF Leister I got at the MD Sheep and Wool and the lanolin on my hands was a nice benefit.  I had JUST ENOUGH to finish a 22.5 wide shawl (I was hoping for 24 but....).  I will either use alpaca or harrisville for weft depending on which color looks best.  But that's tonight's decision.  My weekend goal is to work on both the RH shawl and the Wolf taquete towels...

Judyknitnut

I am weaving a tablet band and am making good progress.  Unfortunately, I set up the warp so the pattern is weaving on the underside of the band.  Instead of trying to flip the cards or try to fix this mistake, I am weaving with a large mirror under the warp so I can see if I am making any mistakes as I go.  So far so good!  Sorry - my photo is sideways.

 

EvaHall

For the last 2-3 months, since I got my spinning wheel, I have done very little weaving. I made a decision to concentrate on the spinning for a period in order to learn properly spinning on a spinning wheel. I have been spinning on spindles for some years, but I had to realise that a spinning wheel is another challenge. It was like starting all over again.

But now it is time to get back to weaving. I have one finished and one half finished rag rug on the Oxaback. I want to finish the rag rugs for my  daughter. Yesterday I started a warp for two scarves to be woven on the Glimåkra. Scarves sounds simple enough, I need 562 ends to that warp, but 300 ends are woollen crepe yarn, very thin and very kinky. I have to do one thread at a time, so this is very timeconsuming. This will take several days. Anyway, I have started!

endorph

I am now trying to decide if I want to cut it off the loom or just oncitnue weaving on the next piece of fbric and wait to cut off until everything is done. ny suggestions? I even managed to fix a broken warp thread. Woohoo!

SusanBH

I love seeing these different projects, and am glad to know the background of your piece, Paulz. 

I spend about an hour at the loom today (again while cooking dinner) and made progress on the third placemat.  I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the weekend.

Queezle

Spent about 20 minutes at the loom again, pushing the sample through.  Also spent time thinking about my next project.  Am I the only person who always needs to order more yarn?

Erica J

I wove about a quarter inch yesterday. I'm either off to nap by the fireplace, or to work on warping my overshot work for a texture workshop I'm taking later in the month. :)

Erica J

Along with my regular attempt at daily weaving practice, last week I started daily spinning practice in preperation for Spinzilla. It saved the warp I started this morning. My spiderwomaneyness today was winding the warp for a workshop with Stacey Harvey Brown later this month. I put a short cone on a tall peg and quickly relized that as the yarn popped off the top of the peg additional twist was being put into the yarn. I took the cone off the peg and just had it run up through the o ring on my warping stand and all seems well know! Whew taking an overtwisted warp to a round robin workshop would have been extremely embarassing!

[email protected]

Each day I have downloaded a different trial app--PixeLoom on the first, Fiberworks on the second and now on 10/3 (today), ProWeave.  From reading the thread about software and cruising the web- wevenotes.net and MAC developer sites, I picked these three since AVL WeaveMaker Mi is a significantly bigger investment.

So far I can work in PixeLoom, see ProWeave as more MAC familiar, and ProWeave as a pattern draft book substitute.  The Bronze trial of Fiberworks frustrated me yesterday and has not improved with a fresh look today.

The lion's share of my day today is going to purging accumulated papers and assorted forgotten treasures to make our guest room accessible--have found textile treasures so it surely counts.  When that room is finished I am emptying an antique storage piece that I want to repurpose for my yarns and fiber arts tools.  Having a nice place to weave is becoming more important to me.

The story behind Paulz Peg loom project is heart-warming.  Nakia (signed on to Daily Spells) has a beautiful Peg Loom --that is another story Wink.

Have to go work with the threads for 10 minutes in between rounds of paper sorting. Cheers.

 

 

endorph

I have not gotten to the loom - I had knitting group this morning and so far this afternoon I have not had a chance to sit and weave but this evening I will spend at least a few minutes on the RH loom as well as some time at the spinning wheel.

7:41 pm and weaving has been accomplished today. Decided not to cut off the bag fabric and continued weaving on that warp. It will probably be a bit more free in style and design as I go. My biggest problem right now is that since i moved and "organized" my yarn and weaving stuff I can't find all of my smaller stick shuttles - arrgh! An annoyance but I will overcome!

Queezle

Movement on the spider weave - another wiggily weft color and weight - rather nice ....

But the bulk of my weaverliness has been to move my sample forward.  I have been a bit fixated on a pinterest image - a twill and rather simple pattern.  I selected yarn (8/2 - because I have the colors I might want to use) and am nearly done measuring.  Unusual for me to spend a day largely in leisure, and quite wonderful.  A bit of running between the loom and the oven, as I roasted pan after pan of heirloom tomatoes (to freeze).

Spider weave moves to blueWarp measuring

Erica J

I broke out my Mcmorman balance yesterday. I need to dye anothdr batch of yarn for yhe second color of my taquete. I am weaving fabric based on this 2nd/3rd C Egyptian taquete, but in purples.

2nd/3rd C Egptian taquete in light and dark green checks.

My light purple isn't purple enough. So I had t o see if I still hqve enough white wool,to try dying the loght purple again.  I do! I have about twice as much as I need. So I'm going to try splitting it in half, so if the dye is too dark, I can do the dark purple and white, which will also look great.

This morning I wound another quarter of my workshop warp. I hope to get that wpund and beamed today.  I need to get yhis on the loom, so I can check my threading at Come and Weave this wèekend.

SusanBH

I was able to spend over an hour at the loom yesterday and get almost to the end of the third placemat.  I was so close to finishing that it was painful to stop, but company arrived so I traded one pleasure for another.

EvaHall

Yesterday I sat down at the loom to get on with the rag rug. Aftner an hour of weaving I realised that I was out of weft, which ,of course, was not quite unexpected. So I found more of the curtains I use and started cutting the seams. On monday I will have to buy black dye, but this is no crisis. I have what I need, apart from the dye.

I continued to work on the warp, which is now more than half finished. It was not as difficult as expected. 

Today I have been spinning, I just have to finish my beautiful batch of green wenesleydale wool. The finished yarn shines like silk. Next I will continue with the warp.

Erica J

Great progress everyone!

I tried dying a paler pruple, that seems to have been a total disaster and in daylight the other weft, which I thought was too dark, seems OK. more information on the origin textile is on my personal website, http://www.thepurplelotus.org/node/233

Photo of my weaving here,

 

Queezle

New sample warp is measured (during coffee and morning NPR show); now I just need to weave off the spider weave. Nice work everyone, and I echo EvaHall's comment - "not as hard as I expected" - this is the beauty of weaving, even if just a little bit, every day! 

endorph

I was emulating Penelope and spent time unweaving what I wove last night. I have now rewoven that section and an inch more. May try and do another inch or two before I quit. I also flogged a shawl I was knitting - I decided I didn't like it but liked the yarn enough to salvage. It is handspu and hand dyed so too precious to me to abandon. I got the yarn skeined and watered down and it is drying now. I also started knitting a pair of fingerless mitts for my niece-in-law. It was a good day.

SusanBH

I finished up the third placemat today, and got a start on the fourth.  I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do each day to finish this project up by Thursday so I'll have time to get it finished and wrapped for the wedding on Saturday, and it looks doable.  I also measured out a guide thread and got it on the warping board so I can start getting ready for the next project.

Erica J

I probably won't be able to share many photos, as my aracnidiness will be focused on my Certificate of Achievement samples. I shoukd be able to finish the current sample by the end of the week, if I get as much done the rest of the week as I did today. So if I can get 1 samlle done a week, I will be done weaviny in January! This is great news, since I hope to submit my portfolio this June!

I did get about an inche of weft faced weave done today! Yeah!

EvaHall

My rag rug

This is the rag rug I am weaving for my daughter. Today I bought Black dye, and I have dyed the material. Tomorrow I can start cutting, and the rug will soon be finished, - just another 50 cms. 

In the afternoon I joined the guild, we meet every monday to weave. As the season has just started I prepared the loom, adding shafts, treadles and lamms. I will be weaving with 8 shafts. I am now ready to beam next monday. The project is a scarf in deflected double weave. I hope it will be fun. 

This evening I have been working a bit on the warp. I have tried for the first time to upload pictures from my iPad. It has turned out a bit messy as I wanted the warp to show up here, but it will have to to for now.

 

 

 

SusanBH

I was able to squeeze out about 45 minutes to spend at the loom today, so I got the amount of weaving done that I had planned.  I'm still on track to get the placemats finished by Thursday. 

Queezle

Go team Arachnids!

I carved out about 35 minutes tonight - too much work pushing into my evenings - and time with kids.  Nevertheless, got back to the spider weave warp, pushing to finish it up.  I don't have a lot of wool yarn, and the undulations seem to need something with some stretch. 

undulating weft in blue wool

Mutz

Indian March Tote fabric

i just found Halloweave today, so I'm a few days behind. Since I'm starting late on day 5, I put in a couple of hours on my project. This is just the second project I've done on my loom, so I was pleased to get it off today. I'm making a tote bag from some 3/2 pearl cotton that came with my loom.

When I bought my loom, an inkle loom was also thrown in. There is a project partially woven on the inkle loom, so I might try to finish weaving it for halloweave. I also have a project on my rigid heddle that I would like to complete during halloweave. If there is time, I might clear the projects from my Mirrix looms as well.

of course the project that should take prescedence should be a birthday scarf for my sister. Now that my tote bag is off the loom, I need to start planning and warping the scarf. Her birthday is Oct 17, so I need to get to it!

endorph

got in about 10 minutes yesterday but that is better than nothing! I will try adn remember to take pics of progress tonight to post. I also got some time in knitting on Christmas presents. And cleaned out one yarn closet.

Love those colors EvaHall - looking forward to seeing the rug.

[email protected]

Love your spider weave!  Supplemental warp is very interesting.  I wonder how it will finish off the loom with differential shrinkage.  As much as it is a pain to tie back on, I would think about finishing a sample when the wool runs out --before hunting up more.  The colors you are using remind me of Josephine Tilden, one of the most special weavers I have ever known.

Thank you also for counting the days in the house--you too are becoming special to me!

Mutz

I'll be busy tonight so had to get weaving done early today. I'm going to be camping the next couple of days so it will be interesting to see how I get my daily weaving in. Today all I had time to do toward my sisters scarf is get the pattern into iWeaveit and calculate the warp needs. But I'm sure that took a little longer than ten minutes.

The magic spells being cast in the tapestry group inspired me to dust off a tapestry warp and get started. I repaired my warp last night. Today I wove a bit of solid background up to the point where I'll start what I hope will look like cute cats. I wound tapestry bobbins with the appropriate colors, I'm ready when I have time to sit down at that loom again.

 

i also took the challenge to make myself a piece of equipment so I made a little sampler loom and managed to weave up a bit of 5/2cotton. I've never used 5/2 so now I can see sort of how thick the material will be. I plan to weave some Christmas shopping/gift totes for members of my family. I wasn't sure if I should use 3/2 pearl cotton or 5/2. Now I can compare and make a better decision I hope. 

I managed to get way more work weaving today than I imagined, but I woke up eager to get to halloweave activities. 

Erica J

Welcome Mutz! Beautiful weaving!

I got a few minutes in here and there on the weft faced twill. I'mm half wayto my minimum point on that weaving, it's just a sample, which I plan to have done by the end of the week. I'd really like to get 1 sample in a week for the next few months, on average!

I mostly did spinning when I got home tonight. I'm really proud of this yarn. It's by no means perfectly even, but I think it wants to feature in my repp samples.

Mutz

i love your yarn! The colors are wonderful. Now don't make me want to pull out my spinning wheel too! I've got way too much going on now

[email protected]

My band loom is threaded with the 7 threads that I beamed on the day I learned how to use the AVL warping wheel.  I have no idea why I put it off since the pattern is fine despite the loss of interveaning threads that were not separately clipped.  7 threads is the minimum for a tubular weave so I pulled out sewing weight threads thinking that would be better with the 5/2 perle cotton--did not work out so well so will change to 5/2 perle.

Warping wheel is now in the same room as the table loom.  I hope to get the 3 inch warp beamed and threaded tonight.  I have been playing with software today.  Tomorrow, I go back to work and will be happy to weave for a few minutes each day.  After a few more days, I will have something worth trying to photograph.  Halloweave provides an almost religious opportunity for return to weaving in a supportive community.Smile

Queezle

I'm so happy to be back to thinking about weaving (much to the detriment of the grant proposal I'm trying to write).  I am really impressed at how many people are participating in multiple teams (FJacobson, I'm glancing at you...).  Now I'm thinking about making something (I do need several simple weaving tools) and starting an off-loom weaving that I might be able to pass off as tapestry.  Yes, don't make me think I should spin, too - but beautiful yarn, Erika!

endorph

of all of you lovely, active arachnids. Such a variety of projects going on, I get tired just reading about it all. I have moved the RH to the living room and everything is ready for me to start weaving once I log off of here. I want to get started on my hemp towels as well but I can't find my quill winder. I am quite sure I remember where I put it but. . . I never should have "organized" the craft room!

SusanBH

I got the planned weaving done for today; the end of this project is getting closer.  I am loving the excuse to spend some time everyday weaving.  It's way too easy to let less enjoyable things use up the day and never get to the loom.

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