Baby Blanket in Cotton

Biggest project I've undertaken so far! With 540 ends, this baby blanket is the entire width of my 36" loom. 

After sleying and threading all day yesterday and most of this morning, I'm ready to weave!

I'm pleasantly surprised that my only threading issue was 4 pairs of twisted threads. No broken warps. 

I hope the blanket comes out as good as the draft. 

(This is a close up of one corner of the draft)

Well, wish me luck. I'll post pictures of the finished blanket in a few days. Baby shower is on Saturday so my shuttle needs to fly!

Happy Weaving!

8/2 Bamboo, tabby & twill, on a 4 shaft jack loom

I love bamboo yarn almost as much as I love cotton yarn. After years knitting and crocheting with bamboo, weaving with bamboo was the natural progression. A few months back, I wove with 8/2 bamboo on my rigid heddle loom(see previous post). I used two 10 dent heddles to get a sett of 20 epi. I was having problems with broken selvedge threads, so I cut the fabric off the loom and it has since been my favorite sample. The bamboo is light and luxurious with a fabulous drape and shine. 

Fast forward to the floor loom. After finishing a backlog of projects with different weights of cotton, it was time to revisit the bamboo. I warped the floor loom with the same colors as the rigid heddle sample, just in a different configuration. 

 Yes, I'm still warping on my dining room chairs ;)

Threading the heddles 

I wound a warp long enough for two scarves. For the stripe pattern I used 24 ends for the wide stripe, 8 ends for the thin stripe and the center stripe was 28 ends for a total of 224 ends. My 1st scarf was plain weave. 

After trying out a few inches of twill, I hem stitched the bottom of the scarf. Surprisingly, the hem stitching on this finer fabric went much faster than most of my other pieces. 

The bamboo has a tendency to slip, but for the most part, the plain weave scarf was smooth sailing. 

Onto the 2nd scarf. Since I had threaded the loom in a 1,2,3,4 straight twill, I thought I'd see how a 2/2 twill looked. I added a floating selvedge at each edge and began weaving. 

I noticed a few things right away. Because I did not change my sett of 20 epi from the tabby weaving, my ppi was way off. I tried to count it and it's somewhere near 34 or 36 ppi. I also noticed that I had to beat the weft harder for the twill. With the tabby, I sharply angled the weft and on an open shed, didn't beat, but squeezed the weft into place with the beater. With the twill I had to use more force to keep the fell straight. I also realized, that in weaving almost 6 yards of fabric, I had only broken 2 warp threads 😀

Here is a side by side picture showing the rigid heddle cloth on the right and the 4 shaft floor loom cloth on the left.

Now for some wet finishing experiments. I'll post the results soon. 

Happy Weaving!

 

What the Huck - Huck Lace in 8/4 cotton - from warping to wet finishing

For the last few months, I've been weaving on my 36" Nilus Leclerc loom with a 25" 5 dent reed. Wanting to weave finer cloth, I ordered a 36" 10 dent reed. While anxiously awaiting my new reed, I tried to decide what to weave.  I had purchased blue and grey yarns for a baby blanket but wanted to test them out all together so I chose to weave Huck Lace. 

I wound a warp of 8/4 cotton in 3 colors. The blue sections are 32 ends each and the 3 grey sections are 50 ends each for a total of 214 ends. I sleyed the 10 dent reed at 15 epi, threading 1-2-1-2 per dent across. 

Here is a copy of the draft....

Here is the fabric on the loom.....

Size on loom- 14 inches at reed, 12.75 inches on beam. 

I LOVE this fabric!!!! I am so happy with the results. 

In addition to the beautiful, textured simplicity of the lace weave, another amazing feature of Huck Lace, is that it can be invaluable as a color study tool. 

The weave structure of the Huck Lace combined with tabby has the ability to show you how different colors play off each other; as well as the different weaves, in interesting ways. Change the weft color as you go, and the possibilities are endless!!! I am now of the belief that every weaver needs a Huck Lace gamp in their favorite yarns. 

Here are the 3 fabrics I wove including a small sampler with all the different color variations for the 3 colors I chose...

This is before wet finishing. I decided to let the two larger pieces rest overnight before wet finishing. As you can see from the selvedges, there is some serious rippling. I need to twist all the fringe on the larger two pieces before they can be wet finished. 

The small sampler went right into the washer on a gentle cycle, low spin. Then it was onto the dryer for about 15 minutes, removed while still damp, then let it dry flat.

Here is the finished sampler or gamp. 

As you can see by the unfinished edges, the cotton doesn't only fray when washed, it fluffs. You can also see the tracking - the marks made in the cloth by the spin cycle. The measurements of the sampler before and after wet finishing are as follows:

Before - 15.5" x 12.75"

After - 14.25" x 11.75"

Based on how well the sampler turned out, I see some 8/4 cotton kitchen towels in my loom's future ;)

Happy Weaving!

 

Draft of the Day - 9/14/15

Here's a draft I'm working on right now. The example shown is 10 epi (2 threads per dent in a 5 dent reed)

Happy Weaving!

Tying One On.....a new warp, that is ;)

After warping my floor loom with 254 threads, I decided I would tie on my next warp. Now I know that to some people, 254 ends is nothing, but when you have 3 kids under 10 running around, 254 might as well be 1000. 

When I got to the end of the 1st warp, I secured the rear apron bar with some scrap thread so it wouldn't pull out all my threading. I chose to cut the warp in front of the reed so I didn't have to re-sley the reed. My loom came with a 5 dent reed so I have been sleying 3 ends per dent to get 15 epi. 

As you can see, the old warp was green and white. The new warp is yellow and white. I divided the old warp into sections then tied the ends in front of the reed to secure them. Then I began knotting. 

In this picture you can see the new warp and it's cross at the left. You can also see how I isolated the 3 threads coming through each dent. This made it easier to see which thread got knotted next and also eliminated any tangles. 

To tie on a new thread, you make a small slip knot in the new warp thread. 

Then you place the old warp thread through the slip knot. 

Pull on both ends of the new warp thread. You may hear and feel a small pop which means that the knot is secure. To check, pull on the old thread and the new thread at the same time. If your knot was successful, the ends will stay tied. If your ends come apart, make a new slip knot and try again. 

Here is the knotting in progress. Since the tails were not too long, I didn't trim the knots. Actually I did trim some in the beginning, but got lazy and didn't want to trim the rest. You should really trim all the knots, especially with finer more "sticky" yarn. 

After tying all the knots, I pulled the knotted threads through the heddles. It was easier than I thought it would be, probably due in part to the fact that I used a slippery 3/2 pearl cotton. 

Finally, I tied the ends to the front apron bar and I was ready to weave. 

After weaving a header with scrap yarn, I found a small threading error. 

I followed the threads back to the heddles and found I had skipped one. I measured out a long length of the warp yarn. I attached one end to the weaving with a pin. I sleyed the other end through the reed and through the empty heddle. I attached a weight to the end of the new warp thread and let it hang off the back of the loom. After weaving a few picks, the new thread was secure and I removed the pin. 

Happy Weaving!

Direct warping a 4 shaft floor loom?!?!?!?

Direct warping a floor loom. Yes, that sounds crazy, but necessity is the mother of invention. Here are my two main issues; no warping board and a huge 5 dent reed. After warping my newly acquired floor loom twice, taking the warp chains to the reed, then sleying the reed then threading the heddles, I thought there must be an easier way. Then I thought I could double my epi to 10 by sleying two threads per slot. Why not combine both steps at once?

I pulled out my cricket loom and put the 25" 5 dent reed in the rear slot. Then I literally warped my dining room, going from the counter, around my son's high chair, around another chair then to the loom. I pulled a loop through and placed it on a wooden dowel at the rear of the reed. 

I know the tension is horrific and this will make some experienced weavers cringe, but I wanted to try this crazy idea.

I took the pre-threaded reed to the loom and secured it. I guess I should have mentioned that I was warping front to back. Sorry ;) Working in small groups, I took loops off the dowel and cut them, then threaded the heddles. For this pattern I threaded 1,2,3,4 across the warp. 

Here is the warp in 3 stages; threaded, cut & ready the thread, uncut loops still on the dowel.

Though quite ridiculous in its execution, this idea did work and I had no threading errors. I will direct warp my reed again, I'll just make sure to watch the tension on the warp more carefully. 

Here is the weaving in progress .......

From Flip to Floor

I am now the proud owner of a Nilus Leclerc 4 shaft floor loom! The loom was part of the collection of a local farming museum, but it did not meet the criteria for the collection; being less than 60 years old. 

Here is a picture of my 15" heddle from my Flip loom laying on top of the shafts for the floor loom. The floor loom is 36" so I should be able to make some HUGE projects with doubleweave. 

I took apart the loom and shined up the wood. I took every wire heddle off the shafts then burnished the metal bars with fine steel wool and then rubbed them a drop of oil. Thanks to Steve at Twist Knitting & Spinning for giving me a few hints about the heddles. He told me to thread a blunt end needle and draw the thread through groups of heddles then tie them into bunches before removing them from the shafts. A lifesaver!

I somehow managed to sley the reed and thread the heddles. The reed that came with the loom is a 5 dent. It is huge! I'll definitely need to get some finer reeds. 

In addition to the loom, I also got all the random parts and pieces that went with it when it was donated; arm loads of stick shuttles, a basket full of bobbins, 5 boat shuttles and several skeins of hand spun linen. 

Here we go..........

Happy Weaving!