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!

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!

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!