Full On - Adventures In Wet Finishing Wool

Well, I got done one scarf. I'm not sure how with my 3 year old son leaving me little presents like this.....

I wanted to try a two stick header, so I advanced enough warp for fringe. Then I wove a 1 inch header in scrap yarn, changed the shed & inserted one stick. I changed the shed, inserted the second stick, them wove another inch in scrap yarn. After advancing the warp a bit, I got out the scissors. 

Here is the scarf fresh off the loom. 

It measured 12"x 82" on the loom under tension. 

I folded one stick under the other and lashed the sticks to the apron bar. 

After I adjust the tension, I'll be ready to weave scarf # 2. Now for the wet finishing. 

I have hard water so I used a bit of detergent ( use dish soap with soft water) mixed with warm water to scour the wool. 

I tried fulling the scarf by hand in hot water, but it hasn't fulled enough for my taste. 

I'm going to cross my fingers and throw it into the dryer. I realize now that my sett was a bit to close for the wool to full a lot. The next scarf will be in plain weave so we'll see if there is a big difference in the final dimensions. Stay tuned.

Happy Weaving!

I've Got The Woolies!

I'm scared of wool. Well, not so much scared as apprehensive about the finished product after fulling. I see nightmarish images of my carefully woven fabric shrinking away to nothingness. Also, as someone who suffers from Psoriasis, I've tended to work with bamboo and cotton and have steered clear of notoriously itchy wool . In my experience, bamboo and cotton fabrics can be soothing to sensitive skin. They are also easy to work with and easy care. That being said, I've always looked longingly at the beautiful skeins of wool throughout my local yarn shop and thought that I'd be brave enough to work with them one day. 

Sooooo, I bought 2 cones of Brown Sheep Nature Spun Fingering wool in White and a vibrant teal-ish blue. I wound 240 ends as flollows: (20w,40b,40w,40b,40w,40b,20w). I sleyed 2 ends per dent in a 10 dent reed for 20 epi. I hope the fabric is not too dense after fulling. Maybe I should've used a looser sett. We will see. I planned on two scarves; one tabby & one 2/2 twill, so I threaded 1,2,3,4 across.

I had 3 broken warps to tend with while winding onto the back beam. The wool threads don't slide through the heddles as easily as with cotton and a few of the warps became stuck to one another as I wound them through. To accommodate the twill I plan on doing, I began my threading on shaft 2 and ended with a shaft 3. This threading ensures that the selvedges thread is caught on each pick. This is one of my favorite new tricks. Goodbye floating selvedges!

Here is the 1st few inches of weaving. 

So far so good. Hopefully I'll have the 1st scarf off the loom tomorrow. 

Happy Weaving!

Baby Blanket in Cotton - Finished!!!!!

It's done!!!!! Here's the blanket being hem stitched on the loom.

This was the 1st time I used a temple and I can't imagine doing an extra wide project without one. I was nervous about jabbing the teeth into my weaving and also about having to move the temple every two inches, but I got the hang of it in no time. 

I nearly ran out of warp at the end of the blanket. I had to finish the last 5 or 6 inches of weaving while standing so I could get enough force to produce a shed. 

On the loom, the blanket measured 36"x50". Off the loom, before wet finishing, it measured 34"x44". 

Next, it was into a sink of hot water with a little bit of dish soap to soak for about 15 minutes, then onto the dryer. 

Though the blanket was woven in plain weave, I threaded the heddles in a straight draw (1,2,3,4). Since I was threading that many heddles, I planned on tying on my next warp. As the heddles are already threaded for twill, all I have to do is wind a warp and start tying. 

I tied the rear apron bar to the frame of the loom so the threads don't pull out of the heddles. 

And here is the finished blanket!!!!

I'm very happy with it and I hope it keeps Baby Donovan cozy this winter. Congratulations Mike & Amanda!!!!!

Happy Weaving!

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!