Orange you glad

The Quest to Not be Shot Continues Apace.

Believe it or not, photographing neon orange in bad interior lighting is difficult. The weaving at least is very easy. The treadling is a simple 121, 343. The new-to-me fly shuttles hold enough doubled thread for ten inches or so. Given that the piece is twice as wide as my scarves, and the thread twice as thick, this means they're holding about four times as much thread as the boat shuttles I have.

The pin marks twenty inches.

Among the many things this orange clashes with is my loom. Makes the poor Standard look positive jaundiced. I did a bit of a red border at the hem. I'm not sure if I like it beyond sartorially - haha, blood red on the hunter's scarf. I'll see how I like it off the loom before deciding to cut it off or not. I'd hate to have doe all that hemstitching just to cut it off though.

Shuttle Launch.

I'm pretty fly.

I got these babies at the MDSW under the assumption that they were end-feed shuttles.  They were in positively awful shape. The wood was dry, the metal was rusted, and the bobbins didn't come out. Why was I so eager to snatch up these dilapidated wrecks? Because size matters. End feed shuttles hold three to four times as much yarn as a boat shuttle. Careful application of Sweet Reason (a hammer) popped out the bobbin. Two afternoons with my Dad, sanding and polishing and varnishing fixed the rest. Had I known they were so easy to fix up, I would have gotten a lot more.

Sweat Reason also helped get the bobbins back in.

Through some extensive research (about five minutes on Google) I discovered that these guys aren't actually end-feed-shuttles. They're fly shuttles, meant to work with a type of mechanized loom. From a practical stand point, all that means is that they're heavier then end-feed-shuttles, and if I become Cyber-converted I'll still be able to weave. If the weight is a problem I'll just drill out some extraneous wood and metal (there really is a vast amount of metal in these guys), but I don't foresee that being a problem.

U.S.S. Make Shit Up.

Fly or End-Feed, either way the bobbins don't spin. Instead the yarn feeds straight off them, and through a tensioner device. If you buy your shuttles from a source other then someone who ransacked a closed down mill while hunting ghosts (I might be making some assumptions here), then they probably come with an instruction manual that will tell you how to tension your yarn by following a specific path through the tensioner. Since I learned to weave with shuttles that didn't tension at all I didn't worry too much about this, I just pulled the thread through a sequence of holes that would allow it to come off cleanly. I've woven a few inches and everything is working fine.

Don't shoot me.

Warping in sections can prevent tangling becoming epic.

I used to make fun of my weaving teacher, Nancy. The studio had a huge stash of yarns to play with, and in the very back of the very top cabinet, there was a giant cone of orange wool. It was about three or four pounds of a very fine cobweb weight that broke if you looked at it funny. If you dusted the cone off enough, you could tell it was high-visibility orange. The don't-shoot-me orange that hunters wear.
No one in their right minds would ever use this. It was fine, delicate, and hideous. Why did she even have it?

So four years later I graduate, and I'm at the Maryladn Sheep and Wool Festival having the time of my life.  Mom comes up to me with a big bag, grinning. "Guess what I got for $3!"

You mean they paid you $3, right?

I think this wool was raided from a closing mill. It doesn't have a whole lot to recommend it to a handweaver. The hand is mediocre and it's terribly weak. I double it in the warp and will probably do the same in the weft.

On the plus side, and this is why I didn't make my mother return it, the yarn is wool. Most high-visibility clothing is made out of nasty synthetics that either don't insulate well, or insulate without breathing. It might be weak on the cone, but woven up it'll be a hard, sturdy fabric that can get dirty and be washed clean. Back in the day, wools like this were what endurance sports fabrics were made of.

I'll probably just cut out that mistake.

I warped enough for 2 scarves 72 inches long. I warped until I got bored. I happen to like warping, so even at 15 epi, this will be about 18inches wide. That's wide enough to fold in half to wear. Although I suppose if you really wanted to it could be a stole. Canvas weave will pucker and let lots of air be caught. Air pockets equals insulation! The lofty weave and a half-fold will make this scarf very warm for its weight.

Note: In the picture above you can see how I do my header. Put in three picks without beating, then beat back suddenly. Not only is it as effective as the traditional  toilet paper or scrap rags, on fine yarns it'll even out tension. It's really cool how you slam the beater back and then up pop all the loose threads.

Oh shit

The horror.

A dropped stitch. 3 inches back. And while star stitch is a relatively simple pattern, stitches don't travel all the way back up to the needle. No hope of just crocheting it back up. So I cheated. I crocheted the dropped stitch up 3 rows, which as far as it could go. Then I cut off part of my cast on tail, looped it through the offending stitch and a nearby stitch tied a square knot and wove in ends. You can't see it now. But there's a square knot in my lace knitting. An abomination hiding among the population.

Anyway, that was scary. Have a kitty.

He's cute but he keeps me from knitting.

Averages

Shown with my one successful crochet project.

Day glow scarf is off the loom after far more warp breakages then were really neccisary. I could have woven at least another foot, but I'd already hit 70" and the warps were starting to break two at a time.  Next up will be canvas weave in this lovely ochre color. Either two scarves or a shawl, haven't done the math yet. But the ochre is just a prelude for what is to come.

Also capable of stacking like this. Black magic maybe?

So based on the last three scarves, I've worked out some averages. I weave about thirty inches a day. I plan scarves to be roughly 6 feet long. I make a warp 100 inches, and weave until it becomes difficult or I run out of weft. This work out to two days, heavy on the ish, of weaving. Another day for warping and slaying, and if I have to heddle another day for that. So three days if I have a dummy warp, four days if I don't.

Some tools: Skin Winder, Ball Winder, Bobbin Winder.

I wind bobbins using a drill, although when you call this guy a drill, other drills get upset. He has trouble with drywall. But he's great for bobbins, as long as you have a bobbin-adapter. Which is a pencil. The drill was $30, bobbin winders are often over a hundred dollars, so the price was right. And the pencil was free.

Shown on its side since it can't stand up with a bobbin attached.

Each bobbin holds enough weft for about 10 inches. So I weave about 3 bobbins a day. I also weave standing up. Some times I work the treadles like I'm walking, right foot, left foot, right foot, and so on. Most days I stand on my right foot and use my left until that gets sore, and then switch. Ten inches is about as long as I can weave like that before wanting a break.

My loom shelf.

So it's all so clearly itemized and balanced and lovely. Weave a bobbin, take a break, weave a bobbin, take a break, weave a bobbin, take a break. Repeat tomorrow and the scarf is done! So now I'm going to mix it all up and use a different type of bobbin, a different treddeling pattern, and a different yarn!

These will be used. May god have pity on my retina. 

Don't shoot me orange. Super fine mystery wool laceweight. Canvas weave.

Monday Night is Tangled Skein Night

The pig helps.

I spent most of last year working on my senior weaving project. While ultimately this did allow me to graduate, nine months later I'm still weaving with leftovers from that monstrosity. Literally a monstrosity, I made  two nine foot crocodiles. Thus all the variated warps as I use up small balls from dye experiments. 

Ball-winder's broken. Again.

I have tones of this ochre shade. Color's accurate in the photos. It changes in the light a lot but spends most of its time a luminous copper. I think some of it's going to become a canvas weave scarf or shawl, however wide my warp ends up being. And seeing as it's laceweight, prone to felting, been through about 5 dye baths to get that lovely shade, and then sat skeined in various yarn baskets for the yarn tangling gremlins to play with, winding it is a very slow process.

Figure two episodes of Supernatural for each of those balls.

The pink ball was actually the worst, it had felted pretty badly in the pot. It was also a much earlier dye experiment so I didn't know how to handle the fiber as well. Parts of it were too tangled for me to even spin the swift. I tell myself that even had the ball-winder been working, I wouldn't have been able to use it on these wretches, but that doesn't actually console me much. 

This is practically dayglow in life. 

The pink, combined with a sunshine-y warp, makes a shade of peach that is not really my taste. When I weave to my taste though I end up working for months on a single shade (last fall was turquoise) so I try to mix up what I do. This warp might even be my last variegated one for a while. I have a lot of greens left, but I have them in enough quantity I might knit them, or use them solidly. 

Current Projects

Winterfest is coming! So I'm churning out scarves like there's no tomorrow. These guys are just waiting their final pressing, which I'll do the night before.

One more and then some rag rugs. My rag stash is getting out of control!

Bundle on top is all the threads I missed.

I haven't decided on a weft color for this guy yet. I have a pink, and I have an ochre, which I'm leaning towards. Also haven't decided on a structure, but he's loosely set so plan weave may be the better part of valor. I used a dummy warp, which of course meant that I found a few pages on some fantastic canvas weaves that use a different threading pattern the moment I finished tying all those knots.

Dummy Warps: The Lesser Evil

Dummy warps don't actually save time. Instead of re-slaying and re-heddling, you have to tie a not for every single warp thread. Then you have to carefully wiggle them through the reed and harnesses. But the glory of them is: no heddling. And I hate heddling with a passion. Of course, now I'm stuck with a straight threading when I'd really love a point threading.

Starstitch. Forever.

On the needles I have two shawls. One is a rectangular Laminaria  done in some lovely laceweight I got at the MD Sheep and Wool Festival. I went to the festival instead of graduation, and didn't regret a moment of it.

This isn't pink. This is glory.

I usually prefer pink in eye-searing shades, but this skein won me. It has gold and berries and coral and sherbert and about a million other shades. I'm seriously considering just doing starstich for most of the shawl because it shows off the color so nicely. Then I contemplate just how much starstitch that would be and think better of it.

Stockingette. Forever.

Also on the needles is an Orchid Thief Shawlette. I took out the middle lace pattern in favor of stockingette. I will post the full list of mods as soon as I calculate what my mods are in regards to starting the border lace, and when I start the border lace. I like to keep two different projects going at once that are different enough to keep my interest. Unfortunately both of these are in stages where miles and miles happen of very simple stitches. I might need to start a sock.

I am not making up this color.

Yarn is Hill Farms Border Leicester  dyed by me. It's a delightfully wooly and it has that longwool luminosity that looks so much like silk. That close up picture above is color accurate, I promise you. I'm knitting on 9s and getting a loose stockingette, and I'm fully expecting this wool to bloom.

Blocking: Part II

What is both fun and horrible about blocking is that it offers an opportunity to fix mistakes. Thus we can all avoid ruined pieces and carefully tweak tiny errors. Of course, the downside is that there's really no excuse for doubled or missed picks.

No excuse.

Whether you do this before or after washing is up to you. Generally your fix will need a little blocking to even out. At the same time, some fabrics have so little friction before washing that trying to work with them is maddening. This example had one light washing, but hasn't yet been pressed.

Find the offending thread, and snip in the center.

The first trick is finding what exactly went wrong. The simpler the fabric, the easier this is. Consider it a test of your knowledge of structure: Do you have any clue what paths your warp and weft are following?

Tug from the center to the edge. 

A missed tie-down in huck is relatively easy to parse out, this thread should be following a tabby weave of over one, under one. Since the warp alternates between gray threads and pink/purple threads, this thread should be under grey, over pink/purple. Instead he's following the pattern pick of tabby in Block A, and under one, over one, under five in Block B.

Find the thread on the selvedge edge.

Of course, I have no idea why this particular thread decided to be a pattern pick for half of the width, and a tabby pick for half the width. Maybe I was channeling Harvey Dent when treadling that one.

Pull out offending thread.

The initial tug from the center does double duty. Errors are most apaprent in the center, so tugging from there is usually much easier then trying to follow with your eyes all the way from the center. Since this scarf has already been washed, it also loosens the thread up from it's neighbors, making it much easier to pull out completely.

Needle Weaving.

A pin can be helpful to manipulate threads that want to wiggle away. When you reach the center, try to overlap ends, even if it means adding another piece of thread.

All fixed!

Fixing errors is more then simple perfectionism. Poorly made fabrics are more likely to rip, snag, worm, and simply fall apart. A well woven fabric is one that will serve its function for decades.

This scarf is a slightly randomized huck lace done in Henry's Attic Pony II Laceweight, dyed by me. Pony is 100% merino and a pleasure to work with. Gentle handling is required though, because it felts easily.

Blocking: Part I

Honey Comb Weave, on the Loom

Blocking in weaving is basically the same process as in knitting and done for much the same reason. Blocking evens out tension, removes any dirt acquired during the creation process, and allows the fibers to intermesh. This last is a very poor description of what happens. In essence, your creation isn’t fabric until it’s been blocked. 

Just off the Loom

The main difference between blocking knitting and blocking weaving is the matter of tension. Blocking a knitted piece, especially lace, almost always involves stretching a wet fabric and pinning it in place until it dries. Blocking, in general, will grow a piece of knitting. Weaving however, is made under tension. Blocking, in general, will shrink a piece of weaving.

After a machine wash, still wet.

Without the need for 80,000 pins and a giant cork board, and also given that weavings are by nature flat, blocking most woven pieces is pretty easy. Wash, lay flat to dry. Occasionally wash, and hang up to dry. Hanging things to dry rarely results in something you don't end up having to iron. Linen usually gets rougher treatment then cotton or wool, but linen is the fabric we love to abuse. 

After a Tumble Dry

 Cotton, like this blanket, can go in the dryer. A rough tumble dry has enough agitation and heat to shrink cotton pretty dramatically. In a honeycomb, or any other texture weave, shrinking allows the texture to really blossom. This yarn is Inca Cotton from Henry's Attic, dyed by me, woven in a simple honeycomb weave. 

After and Beflore
Dimensions changed from 28 feet by 14.5 inches to 26 feet by 14 inches.

Pro-Tip: don't put more then a pound of cotton in a dye pot at the same time. The troubles I had dealing with 4 pounds of wet cotton show in the difference between the warp and weft. 

Pro-Tip the Second: Ultraviolet from Dharma's line of Fiber Reactive Dyes is a fantastic hue. However it also tends to stay in the pot, and trying to rinse it out will make you pray for a second Flood. Don't use it for anything you can't machine wash, and wash it twice alone before you try it in a mixed load. 

Clean Start

Some days I wish I could maintain a minimalist workspace. In reality, about half my life happens either on top of my loom or in front of my computer. Since my printer Kahn, so named because of the obvious facility of expressing frustration during paper jams, is being put down today, I cleaned off my desk.

Shit off my desk today:

• 3 balls of yarn (sock scraps, acrylic worsted, churro singles)
• 1 felting needle
• 2 darning needles
• A half felted doll head which is about as creepy as it sound. Needle felted projects generally shouldn’t be released to the public until completion.
• 3 books on knitting. Nordic Knitting 31 patterns in the Scandinavian Tradition by Susanne Pagoldh, Brave New Knits by Julie Turjoman, and The New Knitter’s Template by Barry Klein and Laura Bryant.
• Back up hardrive.. I keep this in a separate room from my computer unless actively backing up like I was last night.  Seeing as how once a tree fell on the house and trashed half of it, I like to hedge my bets.
• Knock off konad stamping plates (24)
• Q tips,
• Nail polish remover,
• Hand quilting thread. I don’t quilt except in cases of emergencies, but it’s much sturdier then regular sewing thread.
• 2 sewing needles,
• Konad nail stamper
• Kroger plus card
• Pink organza ribbon
• 2 crochet hooks (k&h)
• Student loan paperwork ahhhhh!
• Friends International Library brochure, covered in notes.
• 1 pair of earrings
• 1 #7 dpn.
• I page of fine sandpaper that I use on my bamboo needles when they get rough.
• 3 crocs.com coupons
• 1 weavers guild newsletter
• 1 dentist checkup reminder
• 1 Vera Bradley sunglasses case, empty
• 1 giant washer (no clue)
• 1 partial phone charger
• 1 thing of crazy glue
• Some alternate ear buds for my ear buds (department of redundancy department much?)
• 1 sandcastle figurine (free in box of tea)
• 4 stitch markers
• 1 wacom tablet and accessories
• 3 hairpins made from bent dpns.
• 1 #6 needle. I hate straight needles, but this one I use for making sock-size stitch markers.
• 2 bent nails 1 straight nail
• 1 rubber band
• 1 hair tie
• 5 CDs from high school that shall remain nameless.
• Another washer
• A few parts of a water bottle, although curiously not the bottle.
• One big amethyst magnet holding 3 pins and another washer WTF is with the washers?
• More scraps of yarn then I care to count
• 3 gauge swatches, one of which was horribly inaccurate.
• 1 chopstick,
• 1 pencil
• Needle nose pliers
• One water spritzer, an essential blocking tool.
• 2 cables to nowhere. USB to some shapes I haven’t seen before which were inexplicably still labeled USB.
• Another bent nail
• package of snaps
• lens cover (Nikon)
• my thumb drive (FOUND YOU!!!!)
• Another half felted project, although mercifully less creepy.
• 1 Derwent colored pencil 

You know, I get the feeling some day I'm going to make a great archeology exhibit. They find my body a thousand years from now buried in some giant glacial mud slide (those happen in Maryland all the time) and they're going to find evidence of everything I did for the past month lying about around me. 

Left is just the bare essentials. A glow in the dark pig wrist rest, a tape measure, eye drops, blank DVDs, nail clippers, my current lace project, plus my current cup of tea. 

RIP Kahn. You served well.