John Landes #2 in Linen

I've been wanting to weave this forever. 

I never really liked the way it looked drafted for overshot. I knew that I needed 6 shafts to do the design in Summer & Winter, they way I wanted; so I waited.

Fast forward to this past March & the addition of my 8 shaft Macomber to my little family of looms. Now, I could weave this. Well, not really. Adjusting to this loom has been more of a learning curve than I had thought. Again the pattern would wait. 

Fast forward again to a few weeks ago when I took the overshot workshop with Norma Smayda. One of the most important things I learned in those few precious days, was to not be scared of a fine warp. Bearing that in mind, I decided to go ahead with my long awaited project. 

I'll be using 16/2 Bockens linen for warp & tabby weft. As I'm still warping, I'm not sure if I'll use cotton or wool or maybe a heavier weight linen as pattern weft. Ah, the possibilities!!!

Here is my profile draft, and as I said, I'll be weaving summer & winter, so each square represents 4 threads. 

Warping using two coffee cans to hold the spools of linen.

467 ends ready to go!

Happy Weaving!

Overshot in Tencel - An Epic Fail :(

As I work my way through my list of things to weave this winter, I've come to Tencel. I've never used it before. When I began warping, I loved the feel. So soft and light and shiny. When threading I was amazed at how easy it was! The Tencel is very smooth and very strong. I thought threading pearl cotton or linen was easy, but Tencel makes it a breeze. 

I used 8/2 Tencel in natural for warp sett at 20 epi, or 2 threads per dent in my 10 dent reed. 

I used the pattern Wreath Rose from Estes' Original Miniature Patterns For Handweaving, Part II. Here is my draft.....

Threading in progress, 1/2 way done...

Fixing a threading error :(........

Here is 16/2 Bockens Linen as pattern weft with the Tencel as tabby....

Nice, but the linen isn't thick enough. 

Next up, 5/2 pearl cotton in purple.

Still not completely happy with the 5/2, I then tried 3/2 in black.....

I like the look better. The 5/2 sample is woven more to square than the 3/2 but I'm hoping that it will even out when off the loom and after wet finishing....if it ever makes it off the loom. 

Fast forward a bit and my warp threads are breaking like crazy. 

I think there is too much draw in at the fell, but I don't have a temple that small so I'll try to make one. 

Fast forward another day, and I've given up on the overshot for now. My homemade temple just didn't work right. I'll re-thread in a straight draw and see if I have better luck with a 2/2 twill. 

Happy Weaving!

Deviating From The Pattern

I've been wanting to try the Fulled Wool Scarf project from Weaving Today for a while now and just never got around to it. The pattern is by Madelyn van der Hoogt.

I didn't have enough wool for warp, so I warped with 3/2 pearl cotton at 10 epi. Here is the initial sampling using various wefts...

I ended up using 3/2 cotton in a silvery grey as weft. 

For the next scarf, I changed the tie up and treadling and got a herringbone type pattern. I used linen for weft.  The pattern was a bit squished so I added a tabby pick after each pattern pick.....

Using the tabby really makes the design pop and gives it an almost 3D look. 

I can't wait to see this one after wet finishing 😀

Happy Weaving!

Weaving Overshot With Tree Bark

Updated 2/21/16

Yes, I said tree bark. To see how I harvest and prepare the fiber for weaving, see my old post on making cordage with tree bark. The fiber I used came from a Tulip Tree sometimes called a Tulip Poplar. I have NEVER cut down a tree for its bark; Mother Nature knocks them down for me. This is how I usually find the bark.....

So, let's get started. 1st, you will need the tree bark. In this case it is the inner tree bark, not the hard outer bark.

 In order to weave with this fiber, it needs to be wet. I soaked mine in water and squeezed out the excess.

Now, to the loom. I used 8/2 linen for the warp and tabby weft. The tree bark was my pattern weft. 

I wove a few inches in plain weave and then began the overshot. I used the same pattern as my previous post; Periwinkle.

I chose a few pieces of bark that were roughly the same size and began laying the weft with the help of a stick shuttle.

I left the selvedge in its natural state to illustrate that I used individual pieces of bark. I made sure to use floating selvedges and took care that the tabby weft locked in the bark pattern weft, as shown above. 

Here is a closeup of the weaving on the loom (still damp at this stage)

Here it is off the loom and dry...

This was my 1st attempt at using bark for  weaving. My brain is spinning from the possibilities. You could use cordage made from the bark as weft for a sturdy rug. I've spun the bark on a drop spindle before so you could go that route as well. I think there may be a handwoven tree bark rug in my future ;)

Happy Weaving!

Weaving With Linen

Cotton, wool, bamboo, even the dreaded acrylic from time to time. It seems I've worked with just about every fiber except linen. I've seen flax grown, harvested, broken, combed & spun. I have just never used it. Not looking to make a huge investment, I bought 3 8 oz spools of 8/2 linen. I know that this is mainly used for tapestry weaving, so we'll see what happens. 

While warping the 1st thing I noticed is that the thread has zero give. None. I asked about linen at the yarn store and the only advice I got is that you need to have perfect tension when weaving with it. Threading was a breeze. I hate threading heddles. Hate it!!! Threading with the stiff linen made it easier to see which thread was next and easier to get through the heddles. 

I wound the warp carefully and tried to tie on as evenly as possible. I am using an overshot pattern called Periwinkle . Here is the draft.....

After weaving one repeat of the pattern I noticed a threading error. I cut the incorrect threads and re-threaded and re-sleyed them. I tied a knot in the warp threads and secured them to the weaving with a T pin. It worked!

The repair is at the lower right side of the fabric. For this 1st sample, I used 3/2 pearle cotton in black for the pattern weft. 

For my 2nd sample, I messed with the treadling a bit and used Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport in a blue as pattern weft.....

The next sample is the same treadling as the wool but with twine as pattern weft. 

Finally I used hemp as patern weft and changed the tie up to weave in Monk's Belt.....

Now, the wet finishing. Since I've never worked with linen before I was at a loss as to how to finish it. I saw a few things online that mentioned cold mangling. When I asked at the yarn store, they said they'd never even heard of that before. I decided to cut off a small piece of weaving (where I had made my repair in the beginning of the warp) and then I threw it into the washer and then the dryer. The transformation was amazing!

The design became more defined and both the linen & cotton softened considerably. 

Though initially scared of working with linen, now I can't wait to use it again :)

Happy Weaving!