A Happy Mistake

As you can see from my past posts, I'm a huge fan of Kauni Yarn. I had a beautiful Fall colorway I wanted to weave, so I wound the warp. I was so excited to get this project onto my loom that I made a mistake I've never made before. I began chaining my warp and then realized that I didn't tie the cross! 

I was devastated. The gorgeous ombré that I was going for was now a jumble of color. After a minute or two, I realized that it might still work. Instead of trying to figure out where each thread should go, in color order, I just began sleying & threading. 

I had planned on weaving plain weave & then experimenting with 6 shaft M's & W's. I decided to go ahead with that plan however the warp came out. As I had hoped, the colors blended together seamlessly. Here are my happy results...

Plain weave on the loom....

M's & W's on the loom....

Just off the loom....

The finished product 😀

Happy Weaving!

8 Shaft Pinwheels

One of the 1st drafts I saw when I started weaving was a pinwheel draft. I've always wanted to try this weave and I had a bunch of 6/2 cotton to go through, so pinwheels it was. 

This was a bit tricky for me because I have a 10 dent reed. The closest I could get to 16 epi with a 10 dent reed was 17epi. Sleying the reed was quite interesting since I had to count out the sleying and keep track of the 8 thread stripes at the same time. That being said, the threading was easy because it was a straight draw 1-8 with an 8 thread stripe.

My next challenge quickly presented itself as I tried to decide how to handle the color change. I wanted to maintain a mostly purple selvedge so I decided to cut and tuck the grey weft while carrying the purple. 

 The sett was open just enough that the excess grey weft did not cause a buildup on the left selvedge. Once I got into a rhythm, the cutting and tucking went fast.

I decided to change the tie up for the 2nd scarf .....

Finally, I had some extra warp and decided to play around a bit.....

Now for the wet finishing!

Happy Weaving!

A Few More Rugs

Ok, so now that I'm off pillows, for a very long time, rugs seem to be my favorite "mode of medium" at the moment 😉

I had previously woven a rug that I called the "Heavenly Handwoven Rug". It has been at the top of my Etsy site from day 1. Revisiting the rug this many months later, I felt the design needed to be augmented a bit. 

Where I used 2 ends of 8/4 rug warp per dent in a 5 dent reed before, I decided to sley 2 ends per dent in a 10 dent reed. I then realized that I didn't have enough 8/4 in natural. I did, however, have a massive cone of 8/2 in natural. I wound two threads together and treated them as 1 end. I hope it will add texture to the fringe as well as the rug itself.

When I last wove this rug it was weft faced with no warp showing and was woven in plain weave. I'm trying to make this warp multi-purpose. I'd like to make 2 of the weft faced puffy rugs and one rug, all in cotton, woven as overshot. To accomplish this, I am threading my 4 shaft loom in a design called "Tile" by Josephine Estes. 

I tried overshot with the fuzzy yarn & it wasn't working so I just wove plain weave. I love it!

Light as a cloud!!!!

For the next rug I used grey rug wool & 16/8 mop cotton to weave the overshot. I think it's looking pretty good. 

I've got 1 more rug to finish before vacation. Looks like I'll have a lot of fringe knotting & twisting in my future 😀

Happy Weaving!

Converting Overshot Patterns To Summer & Winter

The I love to weave overshot and I also love summer & winter. I thought I'd combine the two. The John Landes collection of patterns by Mary Atwater, gives threading a for both overshot and summer & winter for most of the patterns. Those patterns were the inspiration for my latest experiment.

I decided to make a few wraps. I used "Periwinkle", a miniature overshot pattern by Josephine Estes, as my profile draft. It is a great little overshot pattern and it's fun to weave. Here is the threading...

To convert the design to summer and winter, you will thread each square in the overshot design as a 4 thread summer & winter block. For example, the twill border, threaded for overshot, would be 4,3,2,1. For summer & winter it would be 1,6,2,6; 1,5,2,5; 1,4,2,4; 1,3,2,3. Here is the draft....

I threaded 5/2 cotton in natural for the warp, sett 15epi. I used various colors of 5/2 as tabby weft and alpaca from Galler Yarns as pattern weft.

Here is the result....

The overshot version of Periwinkle as compared to the summer & winter version.

Same warp, but using a different treadling and color scheme; "winter" side

A view of the "summer" side 

I can not wait to get these wraps off the loom!!!! 

Happy Weaving!

John Landes #2 In Linen; the weaving

So I managed to somehow thread 467 ends on 6 shafts with no threading errors and only one broken warp! Can I get an Amen?! 

Once I wove an inch or two, I realized that I was in for a challenge. The linen was sooooo stiff!!! I made an impromptu bobbin humidor with an air tight container and a jar of warm water. I left the pre-wound bobbins in the container overnight and in the morning the linen was much more workable. I also misted the warp with water as I was weaving. 

My 1st sample used blue wool as pattern weft. I wanted to be able to throw the finished pieces into the washer & dryer, so I switched to a dark purple 5/2 cotton for the pattern weft and a lilac colored 16/2 linen for the tabby weft. The color combination of the natural colored warp with the dark & light purple weft is very interesting. On the "winter" side of the fabric, the mixing of the lilac & natural threads is very subtle, while on the "summer" side it seems much bolder. I'm so enthralled by summer and winter, especially now that I have the eight shaft loom. I may be wrong, but to me, the definition of the weave is more complex with more blocks. 

The last piece was woven all in linen with the Bockens 16/2 warp yarn used as tabby weft and  Euroflax by Louet in navy blue as pattern weft. For the 1st piece, I followed the draft exactly as written. Because of the difference in the epi and ppi the piece and the motifs are rectangular. For the second piece, I tried to square the design a bit by eliminating an entire star motif at the beginning and end and also reducing the number of picks in the center motif. The fabric itself is still a bit rectangular but the motifs are more balanced. 

My warp was WAY too short. I was lucky to get two pieces out of it. 

I'll share some pictures of the finished two pieces soon. For now, here is what I'm weaving at present.....

...4 shaft overshot converted to 6 shaft (3 color) summer & winter. I can't wait to share the finished product!!!!

Happy Weaving!!!!! 

An Overshot Workshop With The Incomparable Norma Smayda!!!!

A fore note: this is a long post! I learned an insane amount in 3 days so please, bear with me 😉

5/11/16

Today is the start of my overshot workshop with Norma Smayda!!!! I'm nervous about a few things. 1st being, 10/2 cotton is the finest yarn I've ever worked with. I managed to get the loom sleyed & threaded and wove a few inches. I'm also having tension issues with string aprons. The Dorset loom that I borrowed for this workshop, as well as my 8 shaft Macomber, use string aprons. Another thing I'm nervous about is that I've never woven with anyone before. I wonder if self teaching will prove to be a help or a hindrance. Yikes!!!!!!

Lastly I'm worried about only having 4 treadles. This is going to be interesting!!!!!

After our monthly guild meeting, which yielded several beauties for show & tell,...

.....we were introduced to Norma Smayda. She gave us a fascinating presentation on Bertha Gray Hayes & then we dove right into weaving. 

I spent the 1st part of our workshop trying to understand how I've been wrong about overshot in Rose fashion. I was under the impression that if you inverted a star treadling that you would get rose fashion. Apparently you do not reverse the treadling but you switch shafts 1+2 for 2+3 and you switch shafts 3+4 for 4+1. Based on the drafts I made when I got home, if you invert the treadling, as I've been doing, and then you treadle with the shaft switching, you can get two different rose motifs in one piece. Pretty cool. Here are my results from day 1.....

5/12/16

Today was the 2nd day of the workshop. Norma Smayda is just wonderful!! She has SO much knowledge yet she gently guides you through your mistakes and misconceptions and encourages you to see, not only the beauty of a pattern, but the beauty that each individual weaver brings to that pattern. She is warm and funny and awesome!!!!!

Thankfully I didn't have any more issues with the warp tension on the Dorset loom.

Here are some of the samples Norma brought with her. They were all so stunning and all soooooo tiny. Most of them were done at a sett of 30 epi and completely out of my comfort range. I was very intimidated!

Today I wove Shifted Rose, On Opposites, Variation on Opposites (Windeknecht), Shadow Weave, Twill, Twill & Reverse on Opposites, Feather Stitch, Inlay and Polychrome. Whew!

5/13

One day 3 of the workshop I wove Sunburst, A Bronson Lace Variation, Honeycomb, Swivel  & Flame Point. Some of  these weaves were quite a challenge because I had to treadle 3 treadles with two feet. Following a new pattern and treadling like that for the 1st time was interesting to say the least. Throw in the challenge of 5 shuttles at once, and my head almost exploded 😉

I was so sad to see our workshop end. Norma Smayda is a weaving treasure!! She was warm & caring & funny and a walking encyclopedia of weaving & fiber. She opened my eyes to so many different things that I feel it would take a lifetime to master them. If you ever have the chance, you must go to her weaving school, Saunderstown Weaving School in Rhode Island. Thank You, Norma, you are the best!!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️

I also can not say Thank You enough to the wonderful women & men of the Hand Weavers of Bucks County. They have been so warm and receptive. I feel so lucky to have found such a wonderfully creative group of people to learn from and share with. To have had my first actual weaving lesson from a person like Norma is something I am so grateful for. It is thanks to people like Sue and Elizabeth and Debbie and all the people in our weaving guild that I was afforded this opportunity so Thank You, Thank You Thank You!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

When I got home, I began to apply what I learned to my current warp. This is Polychrome woven on an Orange Peel overshot threading.

Polychrome 

Shadow Weave

On Opposites

I'll post much more about the workshop & the different techniques I learned in the next few weeks. I can't wait to see what the other guild members do with this new found information. I'll bet next month's show & share will be amazing!!!!

Happy Weaving!

Weaving in Hyperdrive!!!!!!

Ok, let's see what's on tap for this month....Everything!!!!!!!!! I have my overshot workshop in 10 days. 7 yard warp of 10/2 cotton is wound & chained. Need to sley & thread by tomorrow. Warp #2, 3/2 black cotton, is 1/2 sleyed on the four shaft loom for twill pillows. I probably have about 15 pillows completed, another 30 woven and another 20 or so yet to weave. AAAHHHhhhhh!!!!!!!

Anyway, I wanted to post pictures of the gamp post wet finishing. Of the things I am most grateful for, as far as my weaving journey goes, is having found Laura Fry's "Magic In The Water" very early on. At that point I was still weaving exclusively on the rigid heddle and only had about 8 scarves "finished". I immediately wet finished all of them and was dumbfounded by the transformation of the different fibers. Wet finishing has since been an obsession of mine and I can not recommend Ms. Fry's expertise enough!

The weather here in PA has been dreary for about 2 weeks straight so I can't get a good shot of the gamp in natural light. 

Here are some of the pillows I've been making....

This is my 1st time using rayon chenille.....

Happy Weaving!

Bertha Gray Hayes Overshot Gamp

A correction: I wove this gamp tromp as writ, literally. I treadled exactly like the threading. After attending a workshop, I was corrected because tromp as writ means to weave the overshot blocks as threaded; not the individual threads. I think the sampler looks good as it is, but it is not correct overshot. I'll be correcting the draft and making a new gamp soon. 

It seems that all I've been doing lately is overshot. Well, I guess there could be worse things. 

Since I did not get a draft that I really like for my upcoming Bertha Gray Hayes overshot workshop, I decided to design a gamp. It was somewhat difficult to find patterns for the gamp because a lot of Ms. Hayes' patterns are asymmetrical. I ultimately decided on her patterns: Hazelwood (#63), Parquetry (#69), Blossom (#13), Delight(#29) & Peace (#39). 

My next challenge was choosing the fiber & colors for this project. I pulled out all my 5/2, 3/2 & 8/4 cotton. I stared at the cones and rearranged them a billion times. I chose the 5/2 for warp & tabby weft in blue, green, yellow, red & purple. 

The stripes are separated by black and I will use 3/2 cotton in black as pattern weft. I realized, as I was beaming, that I had wound my warp longer than planned. Hopefully, this will leave me with enough to weave a sample gamp for Ms. Smayda and possibly one for the HWBC archives. 

When I looked at my instructions for the workshop, I saw that Norma Smayda recommends using a set of 16 epi when using 5/2 cotton as warp. No wonder my 1st weavings using 5/2 were so stiff.....

I had used a set of 20 epi. 

For this gamp, I'll sley 2 ends per dent in an 8 dent reed for 16 epi. 

Almost ready to weave....

After resleying 1/2 the warp due to a skipped dent and a fixing a broken thread, let the weaving commence!!!!!

After weaving a few inches, I've noticed several things. Since I threaded the black threads on shafts 5&6, the gamp will have a good side and a bad side. Also, there are some small separations between the black stripes and the pattern squares because the pattern thread does not go from selvedge to selvedge but just across the pattern squares. 

You can see that it skews the design of the squares on the edges. You can also see the floats over the black threads. .

Well that's all for now. Hopefully I'll get this finished in the next day or so.

Happy Weaving!

Blooming Leaf Overshot Variations

I made a sample a few weeks ago of a fabric that I loved!! Until I looked underneath and saw the huge floats. It is overshot but this version is called Petit Point. As the name suggests, the pattern is formed by small "points" of color with no floats on the front of the fabric. The front of the fabric was dense and very stable so I knew immediately that this fabric would not make a good scarf but would be excellent for upholstery or pillows. 

Here is my sample done in black 3/2 cotton with Cascade 220 as pattern weft. The petit point sample in on the bottom.

I wanted to use the Blooming Leaf pattern for pillows but the one that I found, by Madelyn van der Hoogt, had 323 ends which is way too wide. Since I'm using 3/2 cotton as warp sett at 10 epi, I reduced the draft to 159 ends. 

I got 1/2 way through the threading and realized that I made a mistake. Grrrrrr! Well, here is pillow #1 using Tangier by Cascade as pattern weft....

I like the petit point, but the gorgeous color of the yarn got too muted in my opinion. It also weaves a bit more rectangular than square. 

Next up, traditional blooming leaf in star fashion using, of course, Kauni yarn as pattern weft 😉......

I hope this wet finishes well because it is stunning! The floats are very long so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

I couldn't decide what colors to use next. Then I thought of a picture I took early this morning.....

I grabbed a rainbow skein of the Kauni and voila, a blooming leaf inspired by spring.....

Happy Weaving & Happy Spring!

The draft and treadlings that I used were adapted from Madelyn van der Hoogt's e-booklet; Overshot Weaving.