A Rug in Summer & Winter on 6 shafts

I've been wanting to weave a few rugs, but have been so indecisive with a pattern. I ultimately chose Trellis by Bertha Gray Hayes, but opted to weave it as summer & winter, using the overshot draft as a profile draft. 

I used "Overshot for Rugs" by Tom Knisley as a guide and inspiration. For his rug, he used 8/4 cotton, doubled, in a 12 dent reed. I don't have a 12 dent reed, so I sleyed 2 ends per dent in my 10 dent reed. 

I had a few sleying & threading snags along to the way which might explain why I completely forgot to weave the "twill" border to the bottom of the rug. I put twill in quotes because what would've been a 6 thread twill border, when woven in overshot, now becomes 24 threads woven in 6 blocks in a converted draft.

After weaving for a while, I also realized that I had omitted a 4 thread block. I cut the weaving, added 4 string heddles, re-threaded and resleyed. Not fun.

Here I am weaving the rug at the Mercer  Museum in Doylestown, PA as part of their Heritage Artisan Series.....

Thank you to everyone who stopped by. I had a great time and I am so grateful to the museum for this wonderful opportunity. 

My rigid heddle loom is also very happy. It hasn't seen much use since got my floor loom. I warped it so visitors could try their hand at weaving. 

This is the work of about 5 or 6 children. It was really cool to see them weaving and to see how much they liked it! I know the museum got some pictures of me with the kids and I'll post them soon. 

Back to the rug. Always one to try several patterns on one warp, rug #2 was woven with doubled 8/4 cotton in Spanish Blue with a dark heather grey rug wool for pattern weft. I inverted the treadling for the blocks, ie.: 2-1-1-2 becomes 1-2-2-1 and 4-3-3-4 becomes 3-4-4-3 and so on. 

I had a bit of warp left, so I made a sample with dukagang treadling; only using the odd numbered treadles for pattern. This would make a fabulous rug and I'll definitely do this one again. 

I hand knotted all the fringe and, voila!

I love love love this rug!!!! Here is the blue & grey (pay no attention to the treading error 😢)

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!!!!! 

The end of a 10/2 warp

Frankly, I never thought this would be a blog post of mine! I've used so many yards of 3/2 cotton that it has become my standard and I love it. That said, when the drafts for the Bertha Gray Hayes overshot workshop came out, I had some choices to make. I could thread 5/2 cotton at 16 epi or 10/2 cotton at 20 or 24 epi. Since I wove with 5/2 at 20 epi previously,and thought the results a bit stiff, I went with 10/2 with a sett of 20 epi. 

After the workshop was over, I still had quite a bit of my 7 yard warp left so I decided to weave a scarf. One of my favorite variations from the workshop was rose fashion, on opposites. In the picture below, it is the green section...

I liked the feel of the bamboo that I had used for the sampler so I used the same yarn but in a coppery color. 

I ran out of the copper color just shy of 60 inches. I had just enough warp left to try one final technique that Norma Smayda showed us. She called it Allenstand....

I didn't have multiple colors in the 10/2 so I used 5/2 for tabby & pattern which made the design a bit chunky, but I like it. 

I must say I'm sad to be done with the Trellis warp. Though I didn't like it much at all initially, it did grow on me. 

Here is the finished scarf.....

I'm very happy with it. The bamboo is shimmery and the off white compliments the copper perfectly. It has gorgeous drape and a fabulous feel❤️❤️❤️

Happy Weaving!

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!

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!

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mother's Day!!!!! Thanks to my beautiful daughters, I'm weaving with hand picked violets and lilies of the valley.

This is, thankfully, my last warp of pillows. I actually miscounted so I should have about 60 completely individual pillows for the show. A side note; I never used this brand of Pearl cotton before and my hands have been black since warping. I really hope that color bleed will not affect the pillow fronts. I decided to do a few with a white pattern weft and if the black bleeds a bit, maybe it would have a cool ombré effect. 

Happy Weaving

Happy Mother's Day Momma. I miss you every day!!!!!

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!

All Kinds Of Stuff

Wednesday was my 2nd meeting as a member of the Hand Weavers of Bucks County. I'm so happy to find such a wonderfully talented as well as welcoming and receptive group. I must remember to take pictures after "show & share" as there are always amazing goodies to be seen. 

At the meeting, I received my draft for our upcoming workshop with Norma Smayda focusing on the overshot patterns of Bertha Gray Hayes. I received Trelis Pattern #55. 

Frankly, I wish I had gotten a more interesting draft, but I know I have a lot to learn and I hope that the simplicity of the draft will allow me to better understand the weave structure itself. 

I finally got the new parts for my Macomber! I've never had any new parts so I'm dazzled by the shininess of the new heddles. 

I ordered 30 treadle hooks. I had 8, so I figure that will keep me busy for a while. I'm trying to get one piece off my 1st 8 shaft warp that I am happy with.  I keep finding mistakes too late when I've gone too far to unweave. The pattern detail on 8 shaft overshot is amazing, but I probably should have warped the loom for the 1st time in a twill. 

For all of you who have enjoyed the Rigid Heddle tutorials, I am working on some Rigid Heddle Overshot using 2 heddles, a heddle bar and pick up sticks. I've got a TON going on now, but I hope to have some more time to work on this in early summer. 

Finally, I thought I'd introduce my other new acquisition... A 4 harness Dorset loom on loan from the guild for the workshop. 

Ok, so I now have 3 floor looms in one room in my house! Yikes! I am amazed that my husband is still talking to me 😉

Happy Weaving!