So now I am feeling better, I am also weaving again. These set of cotton Boucle towels are a gift for my daughter. She picked the colours and I designed them. They are plain weave and very thick and absorbent. I might make a bath mat go with later on.
I have been ill with a tooth infection for some time. It was a molar that had a root canal, so I didn't feel any pain at the tooth. The infection was dribbling down into my throat, giving me a sore throat with blisters. This went on for a year. I had been to several ENT specialists as well as my dentist with no answers. My dentist finally noticed the infected tooth, when the infection was coming out of the roof of my mouth. The tooth was pulled but the infection stayed on. It was determined that the bone had been infected as well and this is now healing after several weeks of antibiotics. So if you have a unilateral sore throat or ear ache and you have root canals and capped molars, get your dentist to check them out.
So now I am feeling better, I am also weaving again. These set of cotton Boucle towels are a gift for my daughter. She picked the colours and I designed them. They are plain weave and very thick and absorbent. I might make a bath mat go with later on.
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After weaving some classic coloured tea towels, with blue, red, natural and grey, I am back to weaving lots of colour. I picked up some colours that were very different to what I usually choose (I love autumn colours). I picked Boucle cotton which is a cotton that gives a lovely texture to your hand woven material. These plain weave tea towels are sett at 12 and they finish up very soft, thick and textured. The colours come from Jane Stafford's tea towel colour way called "Desert Sunset". It was fun to design the tea towel using Jane's colour palette. I would love to see what other weavers have done with the same kit. Send me a picture if you have woven these towels. Design ideas are infinite.
Now speaking of colour, I just attended a craft fair over on Pender Island, and I was placed next to a talented lady who felts. Her display was full of imagination and colour. When the children walked through the doors they were immediately drawn to Debs' table of gnomes and fish and fanciful things. Funny enough I had won her felted Chicken at the Fibrations Fair in the summer. I acquired a gnome who needed a home. He seems very happy in mine. I am going back to some basic 4 shaft patterns from a Swedish Weaving Book. I have decided to use some neutrals with a little red or blue. Now stocking up on some grey, natural and oatmeal cotton fibre for my next projects. The colours red and blue were used early on, as natural dyes such as Madder root, Indigo and Woad were readily accessible. A bit of weaving History: http://www.tikp.co.uk/knowledge/technology/warping-and-weaving/introduction/ I always thought that weaving , began in Sweden. The teaching and many styles of weave structures and their modern equipment such as looms and shuttles as we see them now, did originate in some of the Scandinavian countries. Some information on fabric, such as twill based weaves (Drall) would come from other countries via, prisoners of war (such as the Saxons) around the early 18th century. Just as in the modern days with internet, we glean information from other cultures and countries. But before that in China thousands of years ago, Chinese weavers wove with their tall looms that had long strings going up to the place where the pattern was manually controlled. The pattern was formed by pulling on the strings that raise individual or groups of warp threads. The weaving process was extremely slow, since each weft thread required a new string to be raised in a fabric with 5,000 to 10,000 warp threads. The fabrics were in great demand in Europe, where they were transported on the Silk Highway via Damascus, the city by the Mediterranean Sea for which damask fabric was named. Even before that time, well lets go back to Neolithic times, approximately 12,000 years ago, the basic principle of weaving was applied to interlace branches and twigs to create fences, baskets and shelter for protection. I remember in grade school learning about the Industrial Revolution, in the late 1700's the cottage industry began its decline because of the invention of the "Spinning Jenny". I don't ever remember seeing a picture of it, but I could remember the name of it and James Hargreaves the inventor. It allowed spinning flax, cotton or wool into fibre 8 to 12 times faster than an individual spinner could. More fibre leads to more weaving and a commercial cloth industry came into being. This lovely little loom has been neglected by me for a few years, but previously by 30 years. It sat in a basement, in pieces until the seller had decided to part with her. I had just finished taking my first weaving class with Jean Betts and she offered to come with me to look at the loom and see if it was worthy of buying. When we arrived we sifted through the parts and thought they were all there, so I bought it. I took it home and put it together and started on my weaving journey. In the back of my mind there was a thought to buy an 8 shaft loom. The opportunity arose, I found and bought a 8 shaft Jack loom and started weaving with it. I liked the weaving possibilities but the loom wasn't quite right for me. It was larger and taller and I am short, so there was some stretching. It was a jack loom and I knew with some weave structures, I had to push down hard on the treadle to raise 6 or 7 shafts. My Mira was now in the basement of my house, but I wanted to keep her for when I was older and frailer. Well I recently decided I needed space and the 8 shaft went up for sale. It sold in a few days and now I had the Mira to fix up and bring up from the bowels of my basement. I used some colonial Min wax to clean up the scratches and bought new ties for the treadles and new large eye heddles for the shafts. It is a counterbalance loom, so everything works on a pulley system, making it very easy to treadle. I replaced the wraps for the rollers, (the original wraps are horse hair) with some soft velcro. There were a few missing 0 rings that sit next to a bolt. Fortunately my years of collecting things like nuts, bolts, clips etc. paid off and I found replacements. So off I go again in the 4 shaft world. Fibrations was a great success. We had wonderful weather and a great turn out to Victorias' Fibre Arts Festival. There were over 40 vendors, with fibres, handwovens and gadgets such as a one hundred year old sock knitting machine. They were designed and built in the late 1800's, but more widely put to use during WW1. The women could earn money knitting socks for the soldiers. The women who signed up to do the knitting would receive a machine and some wool. Two weeks later they (not sure who they were) would come and collect the knitted socks. There were weavers, felters and lots of sumptuous yarn to knit and weave. I demonstrated Kumihimo Braiding and promised to post some web sites and some info. http://fene4ki.ru/en/kumihimo-pattern-maker-program.html http://craftdesignonline.com/kumihimo/kongoh-gumi-friendship-bracelets/ http://www.jaelitheruss.com/2014/03/18/great-site-for-kumihimo-designs/ I won this cute chicken in the Toonie Draw.
Arlene and I have been weaving up a storm for the next Fibrations. The large Fibre Arts Festival will be held in Victoria, at the Fairfield Community Centre and park, on August 16th 2015.,
Arlene tells me she has 40 towels woven up and ready to sell. Well, I am behind the 8 ball and must get a move on and weave up some more towels. I was glad to have kept the draft and math involved with a previous project, as this will save me time. The 'Keep it Simple' towels will be the next on the loom. I have volunteered to demonstrate Kumihimo at the festival. Kumihimo means braid & cord in Japanese. There are so many websites that have information on the many different kinds of braids, I am going to keep to 7 or 8 strand braiding with several different patterns. I have a commercial foam disk, but have also bought some foam at the dollar store and have made some other types of braiding disks. The last time I did this (2 years ago), I posted the pattern instructions on my blog for a few weeks and will do so again. I just came back from Jane Staffords' Studio on Salt Spring Island yesterday. It’s like going to a “Candy Store” except no calories, but lots of inspiration. I had painted a 2/16 cotton warp with Procyon dye and I planned on using the plum 2/16 cotton for a weft to tone down the bright colours, but I wanted to Jazz it up a bit. Is that not an oxymoron. I bought some Sequin thread for the first scarf and some Colcolastic thread for the second scarf. My first scarf is off and I am gobsmacked (it is a word). I used 20 EPI and I hand washed in hot water and into the dryer for a few minutes to air dry. The scarf was 80 inches pre and 74 inches felled. I can’t wait to see what the colcolastic will look like, so back to the loom!
Carly and I rose to the Victoria Handweaver Guilds' challenge to weave a project together. We had 1 month. We had both picked up some 3/10 mercerized cones of cotton from Dress Sew a few years ago and thought that would be a durable fibre for a purse. We both like indigo, so I put on a vat of indigo and we dyed some skeins of a peach cone. I asked Carly to pick out a pattern and she chose an 8 shaft variation of a Bronson Lace from Carol Stricklers' " 8 Shaft Pattern Book". My loom was empty, so on went the grey warp and we used the indigo dyed fibre for the weft. I chose to use some other colours and Carly just used the indigo. Carlys' purse is a big bag with a long strap to throw over the shoulders and she lined it with a natural linen. My purse was a little hand held purse with a green commercial cotton insert. The handles were woven on a rigid heddle loom and we used some interfacing to give the purses some shape. The little purple bag was some left over warp and I made a small makeup bag. Carly has some left over too, but she is pondering what to make with it.
I just returned from a wonderful week over on Salt Spring Island. Jane Stafford Weaving Workshop "Lacey Places" has inspired me to weave up some light airy cotton shawls. I wanted to try cotton and then I will look for improvements and weave them in silk. I used 2/16 cotton for the warp and the EPI was 18, as I used 2/8 cotton for the weft and the PPI was 15. This is close but not quite a balanced weave (one that has same number of EPI as PPI). It worked out well though. I found when weaving I did not beat, but gently placed the weft fibre.
The lace weave I used is Bronson Lace. My next projects will be in Huck Lace. I have some Peacock blue and Black 2/16 cotton and I will use the 2/16 in the warp and weft, so will use EPI of 20. I am going to give some of my projects away to friends. They will be a nice cover for a hot sunny day. You know when you get to a certain age, you really need to protect your skin from those solar rays! I thought I would regress back to the beginnings. After my initial weaving class with Jean Betts, I delved into weaving tea towels. The 2/8 cotton cones of fibre were reasonably priced and there were so many colours to choose from. At that time I had a 4 shaft counterbalance loom and I played with colour and pattern. I realized quickly that I must have an 8 shaft loom, as there was so much more I could do. Checking Craig's List I came upon an 8 shaft jack loom that was wider as well. Now I could weave a blanket. I signed up for a workshop at the Weavers' School in Coupville with Madelyn van der Hoogt. It was a week of weaving with different fibres on different looms. It was so much fun. Coupville is a small town in Washington state with many Bed and Breakfast Inns and a quaint town centre along the water front. I have also been to several of Jane Staffords' workshops and have enjoyed those as well. She has a very large studio on Salt Spring Island with shelves full of fibre. It's like going to a candy store, except more expensive. So now I am weaving up a storm with my 8 shaft loom, tea towels are coming off the back beam in a furry like mass production. I have enough tea towels to now sell. I signed up to be a vendor at Fibrations and with my friend Arlene we had a good number of items to sell and so they did. I think it is catching on that the handwoven tea towels are much more absorbent, durable and colourful. This is when I thought about having a Blog. I took a course at Camosun College to learn the basics and then I started to blog. It was fun to share information with other weavers and friends. Weaving is a way for me to ground myself, take my mind off other things going on. (Right now it is my furnace on the fritz and the guy just left mumbling "I think it's the board we have to order a new one and it's good that it's not too cold out"). I would have to say it is almost meditative. Eckhart Tolle writes about the Power of Now. I have to be in the present ever mindful that one wrong move could be a mistake. Fibrations will be taking place August 16th 2015 on the lawns of the Fairfield Gonzales Community Centre at 1330 Fairfield Rd. August 16th 10 am to 4pm. Come by and visit us. |
Love to weave.
Love to go walking,esp. at the beach. Love my kids and dog. Love music. Love retirement. Archives
June 2019
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