so it's been a while, but I'm still weaving....

It has been almost a year since I wrote here, but I haven't been ignoring the loom too much.  The year was a busy one.  I did some grad school work and have been running my theater's improv group.  I also started a job!

I have been weaving, but have been too lazy to take pictures of my work and post them here.

BUT I WILL..... soon.

The move

I started school again back in September.  I didn't do much weaving after that, although I did do some.  Then, in early November we found out we were moving in six weeks.  So everything except for the essentials stopped as we prepared our cross-country move.  The loom, which still had it's yellow chenille warp on it was carefully wrapped up.

We have moved and are settleing in.  Last night I fixed up my loom from it's move.  Three warp threads had broken.  Not bad.  I did what I could to repair those and I started weaving again.  I broke two more threads.  Repair.

Considering the trama my loom just went through, I have to say it came out well.  I'm looking forward to sitting down to it more often and working on my projects again.  Right now I'm making some simple fabric.  My weaving vocabulary has left my mind and I can't think of the kind of pattern I'm doing.  I have plans for it.  A few months ago, I saw the cutest hat made from hand woven fabric, like I'm doing now.  I'm going to try and make me a hat with it.  I love hats and recently, my daughter has gotten into wearing hats too.  I'll make us matching ones. 

Fall project

Being in school and running my theater, I've been busy and haven't spent much time weaving, but here is what I finished most recently.


It's purdy.

I don't know why my computer is doing this with my pictures.  I rotate them, but they aren't saving properly, I guess.  Still, you can get an idea of what it looks like.  It's a gold and navy blue chenille/rayon yarn.  It's about 6 feet long and almost 3 feet wide.

Blue and Gold Overshot project

A picture update on my latest project.  It's a blue and gold chenille overshot weave.  It's looking so cool!

 I love the way overshot looks.  Those are some amazing patterns!

You have just seen AWESOMENESS!

A new project

It's been three months since I updated this blog.  I didn't do any weaving for about 2 months.  I was busy with other projects.  Last week I finished what was on the loom.  I quickly decided on my next project and decided to go BIG!

The next project will use the full width of the loom - all three feet of it.  It will be 402 (if I counted properly) pieces of yarn.  I don't have any idea how long it will be.  I really should measure that.  My loom can hold 432 strands of yard, but the pattern I'm going to do is in multiples of 67.

This is all the yarn and the four pages of pattern that I'll use to thread the loom.

So, over the last three days I've been putting the thread on the warping board.  My board can only hold about two hundred threads at a time, so I had to do two groups.  This evening I managed to tie the threads to the back of the loom and now is my least favorite part of weaving, winding the thread onto the loom.  It gets tangled so easily.  This is scary:

I've only just started and already it's a tangled mess!  Oh well, there is no rush and each time I do this, I learn a little more.  It's going to look great!  Just you wait.

Preparing the Loom

Getting the loom ready. What a process.
First, I get the warp onto the warping board.
  
Next is the hardest part for me:  Getting the warp off the warping board and onto the loom without making a huge tangled mess.

There is a special kind of braid that can be done to keep the yarn in some sort of order.  Here I've placed the yarn onto the back of the loom with the aid of lease sticks.  I don't know why they are called that.  Then I'll tie the warp onto the dowel that goes over the back beam.

Next I wind the thread onto the back of the loom. Then with the greatest of patience, I thread each individual thread through a heddle (those metal pieces that are vertical).  After I get each thread in, I thread the yarns though the beater.  You can see here in the picture the green threads that have already been put into the beater.

Many slip knots are used to keep the threads separated and to keep them from sliding out of place.  Once I have all the yarn though the beater, I tie it to the front beam.  With that done, I'm are almost ready to weave.  Almost.
 
This picture jumps ahead a bit, but you can see the very beginning of the weave.  I've got toilet paper separating the threads and keeping them nice and even and in place.  Yep, toilet paper.

 
I use floating selvages on my edges.  They are not tied to the back of the loom, only the front, so they hang off the back beam of the loom.  To keep these floating bits of yarn in place, I use weights on the back.  In the past I've used PVC pipes, with the thread wrapped around it.  It didn't work well.  So, this time, I was trying to find something that would work better.  A quick glimpse into my children's room provided me with my answer.
 
Meet my weaving buddies, Gollum and Smeagol.

They hang around and keep my floating yarns in place.  They are perfect for the job!

That's how I get my loom ready to weave.  Now, off to weave.  These colors and this pattern are going to look great!

Pretty, but what is it?

I have some beautiful cotton chenille threads right now to play with.  One of them is a gorgeous lavender color.  I had to do something with it.

I've been having a lot of trouble getting the patterns in my weaving to show up.  One theory was I was using too thin of a warp thread for the larger, thicker chenille weft.  So, this project used the purple and blue chenille for the warp and then I woven entirely with the purple thread.  It is so soft!

The pattern still didn't show up like I had hoped, but it worked out better.  So, I played with it.  It's pretty and it is soft, but I'm not sure what I want to do with it.  I'm thinking I might sew it into large bags.
This is weave #1

Hold it up to the window and you can see a bit of the pattern.  It's isn't spectacular, but it's nice.  You can see in the weave there are darker threads, they are random blue threads I threw into the warp to spice it up a bit.

Weave #2

Here it is up to the window.  You can see the pattern so much better with light behind it:

I like this a lot.  It's got a nice stripe thing going on in it.

I like the idea of making some bags out of this, but I don't know what to use for a bag strap.  I thought about using the inkle loom to make nice straps, but you can see in the previous post, that turned into a disaster.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

Inkle Disaster!

A disaster on the inkle loom!

Do you see the very sad attempt at pick-up weaving?  There are patterns in the weaving. I found some wonderful blogs that focus on this kind of weaving.  I wanted to try it. I read the blogs, watched the videos and studied the pictures, but my attempts come no where close to the pictures I saw.  Why can't I get this right?

And another disaster!  This one looked so bad I quite after three inches.

If you want to see really beautiful weavings from an inkle loom, check out this web site called ASpinnerWeaver.

A tale of three scarves

Three difference scarves. 

Scarf #1 - RED

This scarf has two difference threads. The thread that makes up 10 inches on both ends of the scarf is a red cotton.  In the middle, making up about 40 inches, is a beautiful red and black yarn.  I believe it is called Electra, but I'm not 100% on the name.  It's soft and has a wonderful texture.  The two threads together don't make a nice combo.  I don't care for this scarf much.  It was just too expensive to get more of the nice Electra thread to make this any longer.

Scarf #2 - Blue and Red

This is made with a wonderful cotton chenille which is quite soft.  Unfortunately, it didn't turn out very soft at all.  It is extremely stiff and dense.  I was so frustrated with this thing.  I had warpped the loom to have a wonderful pattern in the scarf, but it didn't work out.  It was just extremely dense and showed zero of the pattern.  I think the warp I used was too thin for the cotton chenille weft and that was why it was so dense.

It's about 70 inches long and 8 inches wide.

Scarf #3 - Stripes

I'm sure this has to be some school's colors.

I made this scarf on my good ole Dorothy loom.  I haven't used the table loom in a while and I gave it a try again.  This scarf came out a little shorter than I would have liked.  I rad out of the blue thread.

The blue and white thread are a thin cotton thread.  The red you might recognize from scarf #2, it's that red cotton chenille.  The chenille is quite a bit thicker than the cotton and so it gives this scarf a wonderful texture.  It's quite thin, about 4 inches wide, but I love the way it looks and feels.  The pattern I set up in the warp shows up in the white and blue parts of the scarf.  They are the same kind of thread that was used for the warp.  The red, which is thicker, didn't show the pattern very well.

They were all fun to make, but I'm not producing the kind of product as I would like.  I'll keep working on that, I guess.

Weaving stoppers

It isn't easy to weave with Transformers on the warp and Polly Pockets on the treadles.

Latest shawl

This is a beautiful shawl I just finished on the tri-loom.  It's got fringe, too!

It's made with Lion's Brand Homespun yarn.  The color is blue, obviously, but it has strands of green running through it.  This is the second shawl I've made with this yarn.

This is me, modeling the shawl.  It is so soft and warm.  I love it!

Long Overshot Wrap

I finished!!!  It took me a while, but that's mostly because I'm busy these days and it sat on the loom with only about three inches done for two weeks.  Once I started weaving and had the treadle pattern memorized, it went pretty quickly. 

It's 8 feet long.  At first I thought that was way to long, but once I started playing with it and wearing it, I realized it was a very nice length.  It's 18.5 inches wide.

I used up all the thread - all 1400 yards of it!  The thread is thick, so it makes a wonderful cold weather wrap.  I'm looking forward to winter now!

Weaving away

The huge spool of thread I bought is going quickly.  I hope it lasts this project, but I'm starting to worry that it won't.  What will I do if I run out?  I can't afford more of that kind right now.  Well, I'll just keep going until I run out and that will be the end of this project. 

Pictures to come soon....

Overshot pictures

This neat-o pattern is the overshot pattern I mentioned.

Is it great?!?  I really like it, but I didn't do such a great job at it.  First of all, I've got it off center.  I didn't read the pattern right, so the main butterfly pattern is off to the side rather than in the middle.  Second, my selvages were terrible and I wound the thread very loosely.  I'm still working on getting my warp nice and tight.  Then, I realized I wouldn't have enough thread to finish the six feet I wanted.

So, I cut if off and re-threaded the entire loom.  This time the butterfly is in the center.  I bought the prettiest cotton/rayon thread called Astra.  This particular color combo is called Peacock.  I think it's beautiful.

It's green, blue, purple and a tiny bit of black.  The thing is with this thread, you don't see the overshot pattern very well.  Still, I think I'm going to finish this warp with this yarn.  I have a lot of this thread, so it should last me.  What slows me down the most is my bobbin.  It's four inches long and doesn't hold much thread at a time.  So, I don't make it far in the pattern before I run out of thread on the bobbin.   

Then there is the issue with my kids.  They don't let me work very long.

I want to have this ready for this fall.  That means I'll have to put a lot more time into it than I'm giving now.

It's going to look great!

new camera, no weaving

I've got a camera again, but no projects to work on.  I'm too busy with my school stuff.  I made a beautiful shawl with my tri-loom, but I had to give it away before I had a camera to take a picture of it.

It's was a thick, soft dark blue with a strand of green running through it.
So pretty

Overshot attempts

I'm trying a new pattern.  It's an Overshot pattern called "Maple Leaf".  It's so different from anything I've tried, but I'm loving the way it is turning out.

I can not get my selvages to look good. It's frustrating.  With the overshot pattern, it requires me to use floating selvages.  I've never done that before.  I'll keep working on getting the selvage even, but if you don't look at the edges, it's super NEAT!  I didn't read the pattern quite right and the maple leaf is on the side of the pattern rather than the middle.  Oh well, I'll know better next time. I'll be doing this one again because it is so much fun and the results look so amazing.

Where are the pictures?  My sweet two year old broke the digital camera.  UGGG!  I'm so upset.  I hope that by the time I finish this, I'll have a new camera.  Then I'll be able to take a photo of this incredible project.

I'm using an all black cotton warp and a deep royal purple for the weft.  The look is very dramatic.  I have plans for this too.  It's going to be a wrap for a dress I have that is dark purple.  It isn't as wide as I would like.  I should have added another hundred threads to the warp.  Right now it just has 250.

Well, I had better get working on it again, buy a camera, and get a good picture so I can wear my beautiful dress and wrap.

Another Hudson Bay Scarf

I have quite a few family members who like this pattern, but I think this will be the last time I do it for a while.  I want to try something new with some new colors.  It's about 5 1/2 inches wide and 65 inches long.

I had the hardest time getting this scarf to work out.  I started it over three times and I still don't like it a whole lot.  I couldn't get the pattern I wanted right.  I don't know why.  It turned out looking very nice, but it's not what I wanted.

Well, time for bigger and better things!

Tri-loom success!

The finished shawl freshly off the tri-loom.

Here is a better look at the shawl and it's colors.

The top has issues.  I guess I'm going to have to work on making the top of the shawl look better.  To finish the top, I crocheted a stitch along the top.  It gave the top a nice edge, but the threads along the top row really separated from the edge and so there are huge gaps.  It's just going to take some practice.

I love it though!  I can't wait to do more.  I have plans for these shawls.

Pictures of latest projects

More weaving projects!  This purple scarf I made during my weaving class I just finished.  While I only meant for it to be 5-6 feet long, it's 8 feet.  It's pretty, though.

I

This shows the ends.  I twisted them into the cords again, but this time I also added some beads to the ends.  I only had a few that matched this color yarn, so each end has three beads.  I love the extra touch it adds to the look.

My tri-loom!  This is a new loom for me to use.  It's has been lots of fun.  It's six feet long along the top.

  I took this picture several days ago and since then, I've finished weaving on the loom and now I'm adding some fringe.  It will be finished this afternoon and I'll take a new picture of it completed.  This kind of weaving doesn't take too long, but you have to stand up the entire time and I get tired of that.  Also, because of it's shape, it either needs a special easel or a place to hang.  The only place I could find to hang mine that wouldn't put massive holes in the wall was the garage.  That's all the junk behind the loom.  It is also super hot in the garage.  It is August, after all, so I don't spend much time out there at any one time.

A closer look at the loom and thread.  I picked a very soft yarn that is used mostly for baby blankets.  Because this will be a shawl, I wanted something soft, fuzzy and warm. 

I'm excited to see this one off the loom.

Tri-loom

I've been thinking about this for months (since February) and decided I wanted to get a tri-loom.  As a weaver, I must be well versed in the craft.

My kids think I'm crazy because now I have a ridged heddle loom, a table loom, an inkle loom, a floor loom and now a tri-loom.  That's 5, count them, five looms.  I love them all!  (My warping board could double as an inkle, so I could say I've got six.)

Because the tri-loom is triangle shaped, it needs a special stand or a place to hang on a wall.  I didn't want to put holes in the wall to hang this, but I didn't want to buy a stand either.  The stand it more expensive than the loom!  So, I found a place in the garage.  I've been working slowly on it for a couple of days.  The first three rows were the hardest to do and after that, I've got it figured out.  I'm enjoying it, but I have to stand to weave and I get tired of that after a while.

I'll have pictures of the tri-loom up soon.  Wait for them.....