Amount woven yesterday: 7.5"
Amount woven to date: 1 yard+8.5"
Dorothy asked the following question in her comment on my recent post about temples.
"When the weaving requires so much patience, do you listen to music / radio to help time pass? Or is your time at the loom a time for meditation?"
No, I do not listen to music to pass the time. I have learned that if I have music on, I will "come to consciousness" after an hour or so of weaving only to realize that I haven't heard one bit of the music. So I just do not bother with it. Besides, with the possible exception of waiting in lines or at doctor's offices, I'd prefer to slow down time rather than to pass it.
Nor is my time at the loom a time for meditation, at least meditation in the sense that I think most people would think about it. After each throw of the shuttle, I put that shuttle down and pick up a new one. Though I have an order here, I still have to be aware of what I am doing so that I do not make a mistake and pick up the wrong shuttle. I have floating selvedges and these need my attention with each shot. With each shot I need to pay attention to the shafts to make sure I am pressing the right treadles. And with each shot I have to check both mirrors for any possible warp floaters. I also have to be aware of the firmness of my beat. I move the temple after 16-24 weft shots. At the end of a repeat I mark it with sewing thread in the weft. I scan the weaving to spot errors. With all this going on, there is no room left for meditation!
This description makes me sound quite frantic when I weave. At the beginning of a weaving project I am a bit frantic. But once I get going and feel secure, I become very calm--alert and calm. I also find myself counting each shot---1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. That is how many shots I throw before I click my knitting counter. After five of those, I shift the colors and keep going. But the counting has an interesting side effect. It keeps me alert, focussed, and calm. Perhaps that is part of being meditative.
Sometimes when I am driving I find myself counting. I'm not really counting any objects. I am just saying the numbers. Perhaps counting is a kind of weaver's mantra?
Friday, August 31, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Dye Sampling for Next Project
I've finally worked out the information I need to get started on the dyeing for the next crackle project, which will be silk. Here is my first post on the project.
Back then I was talking about working with pale neutrals. I have changed my mind about the pale and am going for moderately intense. Or the neutrals may or may not be paler than the more brilliant colors. However, I do want the neutrals to take up proportionately more space the the colors. Much is yet to be decided.
Meanwhile I have worked out some of the details for the initial experiments. I am still using the same formulas I discussed. I will dye the base colors themselves at 2% depth of shade. A 2% depth of shade (abbreviated by dyers as DOS) should yield a moderately rich color.
After I have dyed these colors, I will dye the various combinations of two, using 50% of each color so that the total in each case will result in a 2% depth of shade. Then I will move on to proportions of 45% to 55% and 40% to 60%. Out of these combinations I hope some usable neutrals show themselves. Those that I like I will then try dyeing less intense versions to very pale versions.
For the colors I want to use in the piece, I will try subduing each possible color with a bit of its relative opposite color. I don't think I will want to subdue them very much. I just don't want anything resembling an electric kind of color.
All of these exeriments will be done using lengths of silk yarn, each length weighing 1 gram. This makes it very easy to calculate percentages. It took me a long time to come over the metric system in dyeing, but it was definitely worth the trip.
As I continue to weave the cotton crackle yardage, I am beginning to warm up to what will be the next project.
Back then I was talking about working with pale neutrals. I have changed my mind about the pale and am going for moderately intense. Or the neutrals may or may not be paler than the more brilliant colors. However, I do want the neutrals to take up proportionately more space the the colors. Much is yet to be decided.
Meanwhile I have worked out some of the details for the initial experiments. I am still using the same formulas I discussed. I will dye the base colors themselves at 2% depth of shade. A 2% depth of shade (abbreviated by dyers as DOS) should yield a moderately rich color.
After I have dyed these colors, I will dye the various combinations of two, using 50% of each color so that the total in each case will result in a 2% depth of shade. Then I will move on to proportions of 45% to 55% and 40% to 60%. Out of these combinations I hope some usable neutrals show themselves. Those that I like I will then try dyeing less intense versions to very pale versions.
For the colors I want to use in the piece, I will try subduing each possible color with a bit of its relative opposite color. I don't think I will want to subdue them very much. I just don't want anything resembling an electric kind of color.
All of these exeriments will be done using lengths of silk yarn, each length weighing 1 gram. This makes it very easy to calculate percentages. It took me a long time to come over the metric system in dyeing, but it was definitely worth the trip.
As I continue to weave the cotton crackle yardage, I am beginning to warm up to what will be the next project.
Temples
Amount woven yesterday: 10.0"
Amount woven to date: 37" (otherwise known as 1 yard+1")
Sometimes when I come back to weaving the yardage, after having taken a break, I forget to put
the temple on. And then I get this whishing sound. This is the sound of the reed rubbing against the warp ends on the edge of the warp. These warp ends are not going through the center of the reed's openings. This is not good because it results in broken selvedges threads. Putting on the temple pulls out the warp back to its width at the reed and so straightens those ends. No more rubbing.
In the photo at the left, you can see how the temple stretches out the warp at the point of weaving so that the warp ends run parallel and do not bend inward. The red yarns you see will be removed. I put a short piece of red sewing thread in to indicate the end of one repeat and the beginning of the next. This way should I totally lose my mind and have no idea where I am, I can use the red thread to figure it all out.
Yesterday I noticed that, while the first half of the left side of the warp is nice and tight, the same as most of the rest of the warp, the next inch is decidedly looser than the rest of the warp. I checked it because I noticed an occasional warp end there that didn't always like to go down when it was supposed to. The interesting thing, however, is that putting on the temple and so stretching out the warp to its full width results in that inch being really very close in tension to the rest of the warp. This is even truer when the sheds are open.
Temples can definitely be a good thing!
Related Posts: Selvedges and Temples
Baby Blanket
Amount woven to date: 37" (otherwise known as 1 yard+1")
Sometimes when I come back to weaving the yardage, after having taken a break, I forget to put
the temple on. And then I get this whishing sound. This is the sound of the reed rubbing against the warp ends on the edge of the warp. These warp ends are not going through the center of the reed's openings. This is not good because it results in broken selvedges threads. Putting on the temple pulls out the warp back to its width at the reed and so straightens those ends. No more rubbing.In the photo at the left, you can see how the temple stretches out the warp at the point of weaving so that the warp ends run parallel and do not bend inward. The red yarns you see will be removed. I put a short piece of red sewing thread in to indicate the end of one repeat and the beginning of the next. This way should I totally lose my mind and have no idea where I am, I can use the red thread to figure it all out.
Yesterday I noticed that, while the first half of the left side of the warp is nice and tight, the same as most of the rest of the warp, the next inch is decidedly looser than the rest of the warp. I checked it because I noticed an occasional warp end there that didn't always like to go down when it was supposed to. The interesting thing, however, is that putting on the temple and so stretching out the warp to its full width results in that inch being really very close in tension to the rest of the warp. This is even truer when the sheds are open.
Temples can definitely be a good thing!
Related Posts: Selvedges and Temples
Baby Blanket
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Surprise: Picks Per Inch
Amount woven yesterday: 2.5"
Amount woven to date: 27"
I decided to figure out how many picks per inch I was getting on a warp that was 20 ends per inch. When I checked, was I surprised! I am getting about 65 shots (or weft throws, or picks) per inch. No wonder the weaving proceeds at snail-like pace.
How on earth can I get so many picks to an inch on this warp?
In the first shed, warps 1 and 2 go up, 3 and 4 go down
In the second shed, warp 1 goes down, 2 and 3 go up and 4 (like warp 1) goes down.
In the third shed warps 1 and 2 go down, 3 and 4 go up.
And in the fourth shed warp 1 goes up, 2 and 3 go down, and 4 (like 1) goes up.
As a result, there are places in each shed were the thread will lie in the same shed as it did in the previous shed, and so will lie neatly next to the thread from the previous shed; and then there are places where it will lie in a different shed, and so will lie neatly on top of the previous thrown thread in those places. And with each of the four sheds, these positions shift by one warp end. Because there are always places where 2 warp ends sit on top of one another and so take the space of only one warp end. i 4 warp ends will take less space along the warp than they would have if they had been woven as plain weave.
Something similar happens in twill. Is this what happens with twill? Is this the real reason that twill is woven at a closer sett than plain weave and is treadled with more picks per inch than its plain weave equivalent?
My analysis of what is going on here has finally led me to realize why some people say to weave
crackle at a twill sett! 30 epi is a tight plain weave sett for 20/2 but the twill sett would have been more like 40 epi. At left is a closeup of the fabric and you can see the kind of open cell effect that appears while it is on the loom. It almost a very very slight waffle-weave effect. There is a sense of texture or depth to the cloth.
I do not know what will happen when I wash and press the fabric when I remove it from the loom.. Nor do I know what would happen to this effect if I were to sett the warp closer. But I can see that I might explore different setts in weaving polychrome crackle such as this, though I am not sure about other kinds of crackle. On my next warp I have made a note to think about trying 30/2 silk at a twill sett just to see what happens. I cannot bear the thought of threading 60/2 silk at a twill sett...........
By the way, near the bottom of the photo there is a whitish streak across the warp And, if you look carefully you might see two more streaks as you move your eyes up. though these are less clear in the picture. These streaks are evenly spaces and are not treadling errors. This is what happens when I begin treadling the next block. I haven't yet figure out what to do to prevent this from happening it, so I am thinking of it as a design element! At least for now!
Amount woven to date: 27"
I decided to figure out how many picks per inch I was getting on a warp that was 20 ends per inch. When I checked, was I surprised! I am getting about 65 shots (or weft throws, or picks) per inch. No wonder the weaving proceeds at snail-like pace.
How on earth can I get so many picks to an inch on this warp?
In the first shed, warps 1 and 2 go up, 3 and 4 go down
In the second shed, warp 1 goes down, 2 and 3 go up and 4 (like warp 1) goes down.
In the third shed warps 1 and 2 go down, 3 and 4 go up.
And in the fourth shed warp 1 goes up, 2 and 3 go down, and 4 (like 1) goes up.
As a result, there are places in each shed were the thread will lie in the same shed as it did in the previous shed, and so will lie neatly next to the thread from the previous shed; and then there are places where it will lie in a different shed, and so will lie neatly on top of the previous thrown thread in those places. And with each of the four sheds, these positions shift by one warp end. Because there are always places where 2 warp ends sit on top of one another and so take the space of only one warp end. i 4 warp ends will take less space along the warp than they would have if they had been woven as plain weave.
Something similar happens in twill. Is this what happens with twill? Is this the real reason that twill is woven at a closer sett than plain weave and is treadled with more picks per inch than its plain weave equivalent?
My analysis of what is going on here has finally led me to realize why some people say to weave
crackle at a twill sett! 30 epi is a tight plain weave sett for 20/2 but the twill sett would have been more like 40 epi. At left is a closeup of the fabric and you can see the kind of open cell effect that appears while it is on the loom. It almost a very very slight waffle-weave effect. There is a sense of texture or depth to the cloth. I do not know what will happen when I wash and press the fabric when I remove it from the loom.. Nor do I know what would happen to this effect if I were to sett the warp closer. But I can see that I might explore different setts in weaving polychrome crackle such as this, though I am not sure about other kinds of crackle. On my next warp I have made a note to think about trying 30/2 silk at a twill sett just to see what happens. I cannot bear the thought of threading 60/2 silk at a twill sett...........
By the way, near the bottom of the photo there is a whitish streak across the warp And, if you look carefully you might see two more streaks as you move your eyes up. though these are less clear in the picture. These streaks are evenly spaces and are not treadling errors. This is what happens when I begin treadling the next block. I haven't yet figure out what to do to prevent this from happening it, so I am thinking of it as a design element! At least for now!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Evaluating Art
Yesterday I mentioned what I consider the terrifying temptation to show off my work and why I try to resist it. After I had posted that piece, I found a piece from Robert Genn in my email box. There he wrote about evaluating art. This is what he said:
"As all evaluation systems are suspect, there's another way for creative people to approach the game. Pay no attention to what anybody thinks. Set your own standards. Paddle your own canoe. This includes not putting yourself at the mercy of kangaroo courts. Simply become your own jury and prize-giver. The real prize comes to the artist when the work is made, and if it's truly worthy and anyone wants to vote for it down the line, maybe they'll track you down."
I rather wish he had not put in that last "if" clause.
"As all evaluation systems are suspect, there's another way for creative people to approach the game. Pay no attention to what anybody thinks. Set your own standards. Paddle your own canoe. This includes not putting yourself at the mercy of kangaroo courts. Simply become your own jury and prize-giver. The real prize comes to the artist when the work is made, and if it's truly worthy and anyone wants to vote for it down the line, maybe they'll track you down."
I rather wish he had not put in that last "if" clause.
Shuttle/Pirn Problem
Amount Woven Friday: 10.8"s. No broken warp ends!
Total Amount Woven: 24.5"
I am weaving with 4 shuttles. They are the large Bluster Bay end feed shuttles. One shuttle has been giving me grief, grief, grief. It has been the shuttle with blue thread. That yarn was constantly refusing to come out. It would get stuck and I would have to yank at it. I finally would pull a bunch out (doing some yanking) before I actually threw it so it wouldn't pull against the selvedge. I tried and tried to figure out how I had wound it incorrectly. The other 3 have been fine.
End feed shuttles have a special winding technique. You don't wind the pirns back and forth as you do with bobbins. Rather, you build up half an inch at a time and move on, building up another half inch each time. Also, it must be wound on very tightly. The result is an electric winder is necessary, at least for fine threads. But since they cut my fingere, I started using a tensioning device. In any case, I was getting really nervous about my pirn winding skills and was not looking forward to winding the next set of bobbins.
Every once in awhile I would stare at that shuttle. What on earth is wrong? Sometimes it would look like absolutely nothing was wrong with the winding. And then I saw it. I had not shoved the pirn all the way to the end of the shuttle. I did that. It is now just fine. I love happy endings.
Pirn not fully in shuttle
Pirn correctly set in shuttle
Related Post: Pirn Winding
Total Amount Woven: 24.5"
I am weaving with 4 shuttles. They are the large Bluster Bay end feed shuttles. One shuttle has been giving me grief, grief, grief. It has been the shuttle with blue thread. That yarn was constantly refusing to come out. It would get stuck and I would have to yank at it. I finally would pull a bunch out (doing some yanking) before I actually threw it so it wouldn't pull against the selvedge. I tried and tried to figure out how I had wound it incorrectly. The other 3 have been fine.
End feed shuttles have a special winding technique. You don't wind the pirns back and forth as you do with bobbins. Rather, you build up half an inch at a time and move on, building up another half inch each time. Also, it must be wound on very tightly. The result is an electric winder is necessary, at least for fine threads. But since they cut my fingere, I started using a tensioning device. In any case, I was getting really nervous about my pirn winding skills and was not looking forward to winding the next set of bobbins.
Every once in awhile I would stare at that shuttle. What on earth is wrong? Sometimes it would look like absolutely nothing was wrong with the winding. And then I saw it. I had not shoved the pirn all the way to the end of the shuttle. I did that. It is now just fine. I love happy endings.
Pirn not fully in shuttle
Pirn correctly set in shuttle
Related Post: Pirn Winding
Monday, August 27, 2007
Slow Weaving
I'm pretty sure that I have mentioned that I am a slow weaver. If I haven't said so, it's probably easy to figure out. I weave with fine threads. I weave with multiple shuttles. I dye my own yarns. And the progress on my crackle jacket may seem agonizingly slow to some. Sometimes even to me.
I have discovered that there is actually an entire movement about slow living. It appears to be a small but vibrant movement. Within this movement there are things like slow eating, slow homes and even slow leadership. It was the last which caught my eye as I was reading an essay on slow leadership by The Rev. Ann Fontaine.
The Rev. Fontaine lists 8 principles of slow leadership. I found these principles so applicable to my weaving life that I want to list them here:
1. Right Tempo
2. Right Attention
3. Right Balance
4. Right Perspective
5. Right Direction
6. Right Relationships
7. Right Enjoyment
8. Right Gratitude
I wondered why these principles seemed so applicable to my weaving life. And then I realized this this is one kind of leadership, a leadership of oneself through a maze of possibilities. And I realized as well that when I say I am a slow weaver, I mean much more than throwing the shuttle slowly. I mean that the whole process of weaving, from design inception to finished article is a slow process. When I try to rush any part of it, I become out of kilter, for that is the wrong tempo. When I try to procrastinate, that too is uncomfortable, for it is the wrong tempo.
Right attention for me means focus on what I am doing and not trying to do two (or more!) things at once. Right balance means that my weaving life is balanced with my entire life. I am not only a weaver, something I am sometimes in danger of forgetting. That is when I become out of balance. But if I neglect my weaving for other things in my life, I become out of balance as well. There are times, of course, when I have no real choice but to be out of balance one way or the other. But I try to return to balance as soon as possible.
Right perspective for me is the realization that I will never be "great," whatever "great" may mean , but that I will move quietly at my own pace and do my best work. The desire to be regarded by others as a "great" weaver is a terrible temptation. I resist show-and-tells. I resist sending my work to shows. I have done both. And I do enjoy the praise and the occasional award. But these have a subtle negative effect on me as well. Sometimes they make me want to go out and do more and better in a terrible rush of energy, almost in a sense of desperation. Sometimes, on the other hand, they just somehow kind of sap my energy. In either case, I have to recover my sense of perspective.
Right direction means that the paths I choose, will be of my choosing and come out of my past work. Of course I have been influenced and continue to be influenced in the choice of these paths. But hopefully I have absorbed and internalized these influences so that I have adjusted them to who I am.
Relationships, enjoyment, and gratitude are all important as well. But for now, at least, I think I have said enough.
For an excellent read on the topic check out Karren Brito's blog, Entwinements. You will find it here. Her creative and professional life now focusses on dyeing, but she is also a weaver. And while you are there, check out her most recent post called "Thanks." There she poses some interesting questions as part of a conversation she would like to generate.
Finally, for an interesting piece on the slow living philosophy, check out this essay: "Slow Down, You Move Too Fast."
I have discovered that there is actually an entire movement about slow living. It appears to be a small but vibrant movement. Within this movement there are things like slow eating, slow homes and even slow leadership. It was the last which caught my eye as I was reading an essay on slow leadership by The Rev. Ann Fontaine.
The Rev. Fontaine lists 8 principles of slow leadership. I found these principles so applicable to my weaving life that I want to list them here:
1. Right Tempo
2. Right Attention
3. Right Balance
4. Right Perspective
5. Right Direction
6. Right Relationships
7. Right Enjoyment
8. Right Gratitude
I wondered why these principles seemed so applicable to my weaving life. And then I realized this this is one kind of leadership, a leadership of oneself through a maze of possibilities. And I realized as well that when I say I am a slow weaver, I mean much more than throwing the shuttle slowly. I mean that the whole process of weaving, from design inception to finished article is a slow process. When I try to rush any part of it, I become out of kilter, for that is the wrong tempo. When I try to procrastinate, that too is uncomfortable, for it is the wrong tempo.
Right attention for me means focus on what I am doing and not trying to do two (or more!) things at once. Right balance means that my weaving life is balanced with my entire life. I am not only a weaver, something I am sometimes in danger of forgetting. That is when I become out of balance. But if I neglect my weaving for other things in my life, I become out of balance as well. There are times, of course, when I have no real choice but to be out of balance one way or the other. But I try to return to balance as soon as possible.
Right perspective for me is the realization that I will never be "great," whatever "great" may mean , but that I will move quietly at my own pace and do my best work. The desire to be regarded by others as a "great" weaver is a terrible temptation. I resist show-and-tells. I resist sending my work to shows. I have done both. And I do enjoy the praise and the occasional award. But these have a subtle negative effect on me as well. Sometimes they make me want to go out and do more and better in a terrible rush of energy, almost in a sense of desperation. Sometimes, on the other hand, they just somehow kind of sap my energy. In either case, I have to recover my sense of perspective.
Right direction means that the paths I choose, will be of my choosing and come out of my past work. Of course I have been influenced and continue to be influenced in the choice of these paths. But hopefully I have absorbed and internalized these influences so that I have adjusted them to who I am.
Relationships, enjoyment, and gratitude are all important as well. But for now, at least, I think I have said enough.
For an excellent read on the topic check out Karren Brito's blog, Entwinements. You will find it here. Her creative and professional life now focusses on dyeing, but she is also a weaver. And while you are there, check out her most recent post called "Thanks." There she poses some interesting questions as part of a conversation she would like to generate.
Finally, for an interesting piece on the slow living philosophy, check out this essay: "Slow Down, You Move Too Fast."
Weaving Continues
Amount Woven Friday: 8.95"s. No broken warp ends!
Total Amount Woven: 13.75"
Weaving continues. The big surprise is the quality of my sheds. Only on occasion do I find a sticky warp end that doesn't want to go all the way down. In fact, I am finding myself sometimes neglecting to check the mirror. I am trying to be careful because it will be the time when I forget to check it that there will be that recalcitrant warp end. But of course! I'm sure there is a rule about this somewhere.............
I decided to check the tension of the warp ends at the selvedges. I wanted to compare the relative tensions on the two sides. As I had discovered on the previous warp, the tension was less on the left than on the right. On the previous warp there was a great deal of difference and I discovered it too late to do anything other than add weights to the warp ends at the back of the loom.
This time, there was very little difference, but there was some. I still had access to the lashing-on rod so I pulled the lashing cord tighter and retied it. My suspicion last time was that the knot on the left side tends to loosen up. The cord I use is slippery. This makes it easy to adjust the tension but makes it harder to tie secure knots. I think my suspicion has now been confirmed. I don't understand why this happens. I think I make the same knot at both ends, but maybe not. With the next warp I will try to start the lacing and then wind that beginning end around the rod and knot it.
With this warp, just before I lose the rod on to the front beam, I will double check the tension again. The tighter tension does make a difference on how the left selvedge looks. It is still not quite as good as the right selvedge, but it is significantly better.
Total Amount Woven: 13.75"
Weaving continues. The big surprise is the quality of my sheds. Only on occasion do I find a sticky warp end that doesn't want to go all the way down. In fact, I am finding myself sometimes neglecting to check the mirror. I am trying to be careful because it will be the time when I forget to check it that there will be that recalcitrant warp end. But of course! I'm sure there is a rule about this somewhere.............
I decided to check the tension of the warp ends at the selvedges. I wanted to compare the relative tensions on the two sides. As I had discovered on the previous warp, the tension was less on the left than on the right. On the previous warp there was a great deal of difference and I discovered it too late to do anything other than add weights to the warp ends at the back of the loom.
This time, there was very little difference, but there was some. I still had access to the lashing-on rod so I pulled the lashing cord tighter and retied it. My suspicion last time was that the knot on the left side tends to loosen up. The cord I use is slippery. This makes it easy to adjust the tension but makes it harder to tie secure knots. I think my suspicion has now been confirmed. I don't understand why this happens. I think I make the same knot at both ends, but maybe not. With the next warp I will try to start the lacing and then wind that beginning end around the rod and knot it.
With this warp, just before I lose the rod on to the front beam, I will double check the tension again. The tighter tension does make a difference on how the left selvedge looks. It is still not quite as good as the right selvedge, but it is significantly better.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Improving Skills
Leigh made what for me is a really important point in one of her comments:
"You've got me thinking that the next time I lash a warp, I'll go back, review, and see if I can't improve my technique"
This kind of review is an important way of learning for me. It is amazing how I can go back to something I may have read many times before, but that particular time something important leaps out at me that I had not paid any attention to before. Perhaps this is an indication a growing refinement of our skills, and a refinement in our ability to see and appreciate more detailed points of technique (and design and color as well).
A couple of years ago I almost did not take a workshop in twill. Twill is simple, after all. Translate: I know it all. Wrong, wrong, wrong! I took that workshop and did I ever learn. And I hope that I learned a bit of humility as well...
"You've got me thinking that the next time I lash a warp, I'll go back, review, and see if I can't improve my technique"
This kind of review is an important way of learning for me. It is amazing how I can go back to something I may have read many times before, but that particular time something important leaps out at me that I had not paid any attention to before. Perhaps this is an indication a growing refinement of our skills, and a refinement in our ability to see and appreciate more detailed points of technique (and design and color as well).
A couple of years ago I almost did not take a workshop in twill. Twill is simple, after all. Translate: I know it all. Wrong, wrong, wrong! I took that workshop and did I ever learn. And I hope that I learned a bit of humility as well...
Moving Right Along
Amount woven yesterday: 4.3". Well, doing a little better than yesterday........
Total woven to date: 4.8". Not sure if this is really "moving right along"......
Actually, the weaving is beginning to pick up speed. Probably I should not dignify my rate of throwing the shuttle with a word like "speed." But the sheds are all now good. There is the occasional sticking end, but looking my mirror catches that quickly. My body is quite a bit more relaxed during the weaving process. I even find myself smiling!
Though I have now broken three warp ends.......... Repairing them is where I have gotten pretty speedy, however. I no longer wail and gnash my teeth; I just fix them.
One of the first things I realized as I started weaving was that the floating selvedges were not working as I had intended. It was not their fault, of course. The fault was entirely mine. I am starting all four shuttles from the same side of the loom. They go over the first floating selvedge and under the last.
I could have fixed this all up by alternating the sides on which I started the shuttles. That would have given me perfect plain weave there. But I knew I would have one terrible time keeping track of the shuttles and where I was in throwing them if I did that.
The selvedges look fine. A little different, but just fine. And they are consistent. And the left selvedge is also consistently not as good as the right selvedge, even with a temple. And that is no different from most of what I have woven. So I will live with it.
Total woven to date: 4.8". Not sure if this is really "moving right along"......
Actually, the weaving is beginning to pick up speed. Probably I should not dignify my rate of throwing the shuttle with a word like "speed." But the sheds are all now good. There is the occasional sticking end, but looking my mirror catches that quickly. My body is quite a bit more relaxed during the weaving process. I even find myself smiling!
Though I have now broken three warp ends.......... Repairing them is where I have gotten pretty speedy, however. I no longer wail and gnash my teeth; I just fix them.
One of the first things I realized as I started weaving was that the floating selvedges were not working as I had intended. It was not their fault, of course. The fault was entirely mine. I am starting all four shuttles from the same side of the loom. They go over the first floating selvedge and under the last.
I could have fixed this all up by alternating the sides on which I started the shuttles. That would have given me perfect plain weave there. But I knew I would have one terrible time keeping track of the shuttles and where I was in throwing them if I did that.
The selvedges look fine. A little different, but just fine. And they are consistent. And the left selvedge is also consistently not as good as the right selvedge, even with a temple. And that is no different from most of what I have woven. So I will live with it.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Lashing On To the Front Rod
Some weavers call this lacing on instead of lashing on. Same thing. I have lashed my warps onto the front beam for several years now. I learned about it at a workshop I took in Atlanta on rep weave. However, when I did so, I always lashed the warp ends close to the rod.
Before I lashed the current warp on, however, I decided to take a look again at Peggy Osterkamp to see what she had to say. On page 65 of her Warping Your Loom and Tying On New Warps, Osterkamp says to leave about 2 1/2 inches between the warp ends and the front apron rod. I interpreted that to mean between the knots at the warp ends and the front apron rod because the picture she draws would lead me to believe that is what she meant. So I decided to try this.
The first thing I learned was that a lashing cord ten times the width of the weaving (which is what Olterkamp recommends) is too short, at least when you are lashing on half-inch bundles. So I had to tighten everything a bit. As a result I ended up with about 1 1/2 inches between knots and rod. But that didn't seem to make any difference, and, as she promised, the warp was much easier to adjust than those warps where I had little to no distance between knots and rods.
I also tried something else new. In the past, I have had a lot of trouble keeping the apron rod and the warping rod parallel. This time, instead of using loops of a long nylon rope to lace the apron rod to the warp rod, I decided to try using the heavy polyester loop cord. I cut small pieces and inserted them in the spaces in the apron openings. If you look closely at the picture, you can see four of them joining the apron rod to the warping rod. Doing this made it easy to keep the two rods parallel.
Before I lashed the current warp on, however, I decided to take a look again at Peggy Osterkamp to see what she had to say. On page 65 of her Warping Your Loom and Tying On New Warps, Osterkamp says to leave about 2 1/2 inches between the warp ends and the front apron rod. I interpreted that to mean between the knots at the warp ends and the front apron rod because the picture she draws would lead me to believe that is what she meant. So I decided to try this.
The first thing I learned was that a lashing cord ten times the width of the weaving (which is what Olterkamp recommends) is too short, at least when you are lashing on half-inch bundles. So I had to tighten everything a bit. As a result I ended up with about 1 1/2 inches between knots and rod. But that didn't seem to make any difference, and, as she promised, the warp was much easier to adjust than those warps where I had little to no distance between knots and rods.I also tried something else new. In the past, I have had a lot of trouble keeping the apron rod and the warping rod parallel. This time, instead of using loops of a long nylon rope to lace the apron rod to the warp rod, I decided to try using the heavy polyester loop cord. I cut small pieces and inserted them in the spaces in the apron openings. If you look closely at the picture, you can see four of them joining the apron rod to the warping rod. Doing this made it easy to keep the two rods parallel.
The Weaving Begins?
Amount woven yesterday: 0.5" Sigh........
It's true, I was very busy getting prepared. And when I actually started, I discovered two more mis-threaded heddles. I had put a warping stick into a shed in order to get through some early
knots without having to throw a bunch of shots of yarn. Oh, did those errors ever show! I have used the last of my repair heddles. Or at least the last repair heddle that I can find. I do re-use them. I think I best order some more.
So I started weaving again. And then a warp end broke. I was really taken by surprise as that is very unusual for me. However, to get clear sheds, I am weaving on a very very tight warp.
Above you can see at the very top that first 0.5 inches. I am using four shuttles, each with a different color yarn. And I change sheds and shuttles with each throw. That is the beginning of the first block. The woven section just below is tabby weave with gold weft. This is in to get the threads aligned, double check the threading and provide a security base for the woven yardage.
In it, by the way, you can see the pin which is holding the blue warp thread replacing, temporarily, the broken warp end I talked about above.
Just below that you see the warping stick. I inserted it into one of the tabby sheds. It really does show up all the ends! And beneath that are the original tabby spreading shots. This time I used a red weft. And there you can see the pin holding the re-threaded ends from the first threading error I had discovered.
I am a lot calmer than I used to be when things like this happen. I used to go virtually hysterical and the air around the loom would get blue. But I seem to be learning to take minor setbacks in stride, or at least more in stride than I used to. Perhaps I am beginning to grow up a bit?
It's true, I was very busy getting prepared. And when I actually started, I discovered two more mis-threaded heddles. I had put a warping stick into a shed in order to get through some early
knots without having to throw a bunch of shots of yarn. Oh, did those errors ever show! I have used the last of my repair heddles. Or at least the last repair heddle that I can find. I do re-use them. I think I best order some more.So I started weaving again. And then a warp end broke. I was really taken by surprise as that is very unusual for me. However, to get clear sheds, I am weaving on a very very tight warp.
Above you can see at the very top that first 0.5 inches. I am using four shuttles, each with a different color yarn. And I change sheds and shuttles with each throw. That is the beginning of the first block. The woven section just below is tabby weave with gold weft. This is in to get the threads aligned, double check the threading and provide a security base for the woven yardage.
In it, by the way, you can see the pin which is holding the blue warp thread replacing, temporarily, the broken warp end I talked about above.
Just below that you see the warping stick. I inserted it into one of the tabby sheds. It really does show up all the ends! And beneath that are the original tabby spreading shots. This time I used a red weft. And there you can see the pin holding the re-threaded ends from the first threading error I had discovered.
I am a lot calmer than I used to be when things like this happen. I used to go virtually hysterical and the air around the loom would get blue. But I seem to be learning to take minor setbacks in stride, or at least more in stride than I used to. Perhaps I am beginning to grow up a bit?
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Preparing for Weaving
One thing I do find tiresome in throwing these first shots: the need to clear sheds with my fingers. The sheds are just awful for maybe 10 shots and then they start clearing a little better. Sometimes an occasional thread will create a problem because it is too loose. That, miraculously, doesn't seem to be happening on this warp. The initial three tabby shots seemed to pull up tight all the loose warp yarns. But I know I shall have to check my mirrors on either side as I weave to see if there are any errant and willful threads.
I suspect that I have trouble with these initial shots and then with the occasional errant warp end because I sett my warps a bit too close. This warp is sett at 30 epi, the sett for my sampling. My sampling was 12" wide. This yardage is close to 40" wide. That means I really should have used a slightly wider sett. The trouble here is that I don't have a reed that will work. A 9-dent reed would have been perfect, but so far as I can tell, this size is not made. I suppose I could special order it.
I could have sleyed the 10-dent reed so that it would have come out to 27 epi. But I have had problems with irregular sleyings. They usually show up in the cloth even after vigorous washings. So 30 epi it is; and slow weaving. The next time I want a 9-dent reed, I may research costs of having one made. Actually, though, as I analyze this a bit more, a 13-dent reed would be more valuable for me than a 9-dent reed. That would give me 26 epi for this yarn, which I think would be fine. But it would also give me 52 epi which would be useful for my finer yarns. Oor maybe a 14-dent reed which would give me 28 epi for this but also capabilities for 42 epi and 56 epi. Thinking continues.
I suspect that I have trouble with these initial shots and then with the occasional errant warp end because I sett my warps a bit too close. This warp is sett at 30 epi, the sett for my sampling. My sampling was 12" wide. This yardage is close to 40" wide. That means I really should have used a slightly wider sett. The trouble here is that I don't have a reed that will work. A 9-dent reed would have been perfect, but so far as I can tell, this size is not made. I suppose I could special order it.
I could have sleyed the 10-dent reed so that it would have come out to 27 epi. But I have had problems with irregular sleyings. They usually show up in the cloth even after vigorous washings. So 30 epi it is; and slow weaving. The next time I want a 9-dent reed, I may research costs of having one made. Actually, though, as I analyze this a bit more, a 13-dent reed would be more valuable for me than a 9-dent reed. That would give me 26 epi for this yarn, which I think would be fine. But it would also give me 52 epi which would be useful for my finer yarns. Oor maybe a 14-dent reed which would give me 28 epi for this but also capabilities for 42 epi and 56 epi. Thinking continues.
A Little Surprise
There was a threading error....... I discovered it as I was throwing the initial plain weave shots to ready the warp ends for weaving. There were three warp ends next to each other and they were working as one. That means that when one of them was up so were the other two. And when one was down, so were the other two. This is not plain weave!
These three warp ends were the first three on the left side of center. I remember when I was threading. I had started at the right side of the loom. When I got to the center I hadn't quite gotten the heddles counted out right. So I had to do some moving around of heddles between the right and left sides of the shafts. And somehow in all this finagling, those first three ends at left of center ended up on shafts 2,4,2. Well, in crackle it doesn't matter what the threading is supposed to be, this was definitely wrong. In crackle, you cannot have threads next to each other on either even shafts or odd shafts or you are not going to get tabby.
When I investigated, it turned out these threads were supposed to be on shafts 1,2,1. If I had mistakenly threaded 2,3,2, that would have been logical. I would have just been off by one shaft. And I'm not sure I would have even caught the error since the tabby sheds would have been just fine. So my head or my eyes must surely have been muddled. Probably I should just be grateful that if there was going to be a threading error, it would be one readily apparent.
Anyway, out came two repair heddles from my supply. I put them on shaft 1, pulled out the three mis-threaded yarns from the heddles and put them in the correct heddles. I then sleyed them through the reed. Since these ends were now short, I tied additional thread on each of the three threads. This made them long enough for me to secure them to the web with a pin. When The knots were right at the fell so they never interfered with my continuing to weave.
These three warp ends were the first three on the left side of center. I remember when I was threading. I had started at the right side of the loom. When I got to the center I hadn't quite gotten the heddles counted out right. So I had to do some moving around of heddles between the right and left sides of the shafts. And somehow in all this finagling, those first three ends at left of center ended up on shafts 2,4,2. Well, in crackle it doesn't matter what the threading is supposed to be, this was definitely wrong. In crackle, you cannot have threads next to each other on either even shafts or odd shafts or you are not going to get tabby.
When I investigated, it turned out these threads were supposed to be on shafts 1,2,1. If I had mistakenly threaded 2,3,2, that would have been logical. I would have just been off by one shaft. And I'm not sure I would have even caught the error since the tabby sheds would have been just fine. So my head or my eyes must surely have been muddled. Probably I should just be grateful that if there was going to be a threading error, it would be one readily apparent.
Anyway, out came two repair heddles from my supply. I put them on shaft 1, pulled out the three mis-threaded yarns from the heddles and put them in the correct heddles. I then sleyed them through the reed. Since these ends were now short, I tied additional thread on each of the three threads. This made them long enough for me to secure them to the web with a pin. When The knots were right at the fell so they never interfered with my continuing to weave.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Style and Originality
In an earlier post on originality I talked about originality as a byproduct and not something to be sought out for its own sake. As a commentator on that post said, there is a great deal of awful art that has resulted from people desperately trying to be "original."
Another way to think about originality is to think in terms of style. Talking about style seems somehow less intimidating than talking about originality. So I was intrigued by the following statement I found in a recent Art Calendar. The following statement is from an article by Milon Townsend in Art Calendar, Sept. 2007 . "Wholesaling, Part III: The Purpose Driven Artist":
"Style is the natural result of excellence. Style, like happiness, is not attained through a headlong, direct pursuit. Style is an automatic, peripheral benefit of the long-term commitment to a higher good, to a desire to achieve the highest standard personally possible. Artistic style not only is what will make our work recognizable as our own, but is the excellence leading to the result of making our work desirable and inherently valuable."
I'm not sure I agree with the "automatic" part of the statement. I suspect that there are many artists who have struggled for excellence who have not found an identifiable style as a byproduct. On the other hand, there are geniuses in whose early work you can doubtless see glimmers of a personal style. Otherwise, I think what he has to say is much to the point. In fact, I do not see how an artist in any medium can continue in this kind of "long-term commitment" without loving the process he is engaged in. It is, at least in part, the love of the process that I believe must create the drive for excellence that Townsend is talking about.
It takes a child many many years to develop his own unique personality, even though the glimmers of what will be are often present as early as birth. So it is only logical that it will take a weaver many years to develop a style.
Milo Townsend works in glass. He has created books and videos on the art of glass and also on art marketing. To find out more, go to his website.
Another way to think about originality is to think in terms of style. Talking about style seems somehow less intimidating than talking about originality. So I was intrigued by the following statement I found in a recent Art Calendar. The following statement is from an article by Milon Townsend in Art Calendar, Sept. 2007 . "Wholesaling, Part III: The Purpose Driven Artist":
"Style is the natural result of excellence. Style, like happiness, is not attained through a headlong, direct pursuit. Style is an automatic, peripheral benefit of the long-term commitment to a higher good, to a desire to achieve the highest standard personally possible. Artistic style not only is what will make our work recognizable as our own, but is the excellence leading to the result of making our work desirable and inherently valuable."
I'm not sure I agree with the "automatic" part of the statement. I suspect that there are many artists who have struggled for excellence who have not found an identifiable style as a byproduct. On the other hand, there are geniuses in whose early work you can doubtless see glimmers of a personal style. Otherwise, I think what he has to say is much to the point. In fact, I do not see how an artist in any medium can continue in this kind of "long-term commitment" without loving the process he is engaged in. It is, at least in part, the love of the process that I believe must create the drive for excellence that Townsend is talking about.
It takes a child many many years to develop his own unique personality, even though the glimmers of what will be are often present as early as birth. So it is only logical that it will take a weaver many years to develop a style.
Milo Townsend works in glass. He has created books and videos on the art of glass and also on art marketing. To find out more, go to his website.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Keeping Records
Dorothy asked the following question:
"What other kind of records do you keep for the samples & items you have woven? "
To put it truthfully, records are the bane of my weaving existence. Given that truth, I do keep records. And the final truth, for the moment at least, is probably that for me it is not the record itself which is important. After all, I do not keep records in order to repeat myself. It is the record-keeping process that is important. It is a process which keeps me focussed. It is a process which helps things get into my memory for future possible use. It is a process from which I learn. The result is quite a complicated answer to a simple question.
First, I keep all my records on the computer. I keep one page in my notebook software just for ideas I might want to explore sometime. Often, my initial sampling explorations come out of one of those ideas.
When I get to the point of making a decision to pursue one particular idea, and sample it, I open up a page in Word Perfect (which I much prefer to Word). This page will likely become close to ten pages in its printed form when I am done with the sampling. It begins as a continuation of my first ideas, whether they come from my notebook page or from some idea I have started to play with in my head but has not made it onto that notebook page.
As these ideas become more concrete, I make notes of them. These could be ideas about yarns, colors, threading, blocks, treadling, whatever comes into my head. At some point I start exploring threading ideas and treadlings in my weaving software. When I finally land on a threading I like and the yarns I intend to use. I make note of all the calculations I need to wind the warp and put it on the loom. This includes, length of the warp, width, sett, all the necessary technical information necessary to get the warp wound, put on the loom, threaded, sleyed and ready to weave.
As I weave the sampler I continue to make notes. I assign a letter or number to each treadling. I put down the treadling information, the yarns used, the colors used and sometimes my immediate reactions to the results, including noting if it would be a difficult treadling to memorize. If I use the same treadling with different yarns and/or colors, I identify these as a subset of the original. Also I make notes if any other treadling ideas come to mind as a result of what I am currently doing. Since I hope to choose one of these treadlings for my final project, it is imperative that I include all the information I can possibly think of.
And so I proceed with each treadling.
I also make a note of the width of the warp at the reed and the width on loom. And I will follow those up with width off the loom and width when washed, as this could be important information for the size of the final project.
The record I make for the final piece is quite similar. It includes all the usual information I need to put on a warp and weave it. If I am weaving yardage things like treadlings, heights of blocks, colors will have to be pretty much decided before hand. I do put on enough warp, however, so that I have enough warp to play with and change my mind about some details before I begin the actual yardage itself. If, on the other hand, I am weaving a scarf, more fluidity is possible and I can do a bit of designing on the fly. That is what I really love to do!
In any case, whatever the project, I continue to make notes as I weave. These notes include problems I encounter and ideas for future projects. By the time I am done, I usually have about 10 pages.
When I am done, I do take a look at the parts of my notes that mention future possibilities. Sometimes I do nothing with them. Sometimes I put one or two in my notebook software.
When I dye my yarns, there is another sheet which contains all the calculations I need in order to dye them.
There is one final piece of record keeping I do when I am finished and the piece is to go to a show, or is to be cut up for some kind of learning exchange. I take the very basics and put them together on one page. This means warp and weft calculations, yarns and their sources, notation of sett and picks per inch, and all the appropriate measurements. In other words, I collect the bare bones data and put it in one spot so it is easy for someone else to follow what I have done in weaving the piece.
Photos might well be a part of these records. So far I have resisted. My husband really wants me to keep a photographic record/scrapbook of my weaving. Well, I have never liked keeping photographic records of our travels and vacations either. The joy for me is in the doing and the watching. And the joy of remembering does not require a photographic record.
When I first began this blog, I faithfully kept copies of each entry in case anything happened to Blogger. And then I asked myself why I was bothering to do this. I have no desire to go back to read past entries. I go back only when I want to link to one of them, but that is an option, not a necessity. And I certainly have no wish to publish them ever! When I realized that, I stopped my investigation into copyrighting blogs. The value for me is in the writing, in the process itself.
"What other kind of records do you keep for the samples & items you have woven? "
To put it truthfully, records are the bane of my weaving existence. Given that truth, I do keep records. And the final truth, for the moment at least, is probably that for me it is not the record itself which is important. After all, I do not keep records in order to repeat myself. It is the record-keeping process that is important. It is a process which keeps me focussed. It is a process which helps things get into my memory for future possible use. It is a process from which I learn. The result is quite a complicated answer to a simple question.
First, I keep all my records on the computer. I keep one page in my notebook software just for ideas I might want to explore sometime. Often, my initial sampling explorations come out of one of those ideas.
When I get to the point of making a decision to pursue one particular idea, and sample it, I open up a page in Word Perfect (which I much prefer to Word). This page will likely become close to ten pages in its printed form when I am done with the sampling. It begins as a continuation of my first ideas, whether they come from my notebook page or from some idea I have started to play with in my head but has not made it onto that notebook page.
As these ideas become more concrete, I make notes of them. These could be ideas about yarns, colors, threading, blocks, treadling, whatever comes into my head. At some point I start exploring threading ideas and treadlings in my weaving software. When I finally land on a threading I like and the yarns I intend to use. I make note of all the calculations I need to wind the warp and put it on the loom. This includes, length of the warp, width, sett, all the necessary technical information necessary to get the warp wound, put on the loom, threaded, sleyed and ready to weave.
As I weave the sampler I continue to make notes. I assign a letter or number to each treadling. I put down the treadling information, the yarns used, the colors used and sometimes my immediate reactions to the results, including noting if it would be a difficult treadling to memorize. If I use the same treadling with different yarns and/or colors, I identify these as a subset of the original. Also I make notes if any other treadling ideas come to mind as a result of what I am currently doing. Since I hope to choose one of these treadlings for my final project, it is imperative that I include all the information I can possibly think of.
And so I proceed with each treadling.
I also make a note of the width of the warp at the reed and the width on loom. And I will follow those up with width off the loom and width when washed, as this could be important information for the size of the final project.
The record I make for the final piece is quite similar. It includes all the usual information I need to put on a warp and weave it. If I am weaving yardage things like treadlings, heights of blocks, colors will have to be pretty much decided before hand. I do put on enough warp, however, so that I have enough warp to play with and change my mind about some details before I begin the actual yardage itself. If, on the other hand, I am weaving a scarf, more fluidity is possible and I can do a bit of designing on the fly. That is what I really love to do!
In any case, whatever the project, I continue to make notes as I weave. These notes include problems I encounter and ideas for future projects. By the time I am done, I usually have about 10 pages.
When I am done, I do take a look at the parts of my notes that mention future possibilities. Sometimes I do nothing with them. Sometimes I put one or two in my notebook software.
When I dye my yarns, there is another sheet which contains all the calculations I need in order to dye them.
There is one final piece of record keeping I do when I am finished and the piece is to go to a show, or is to be cut up for some kind of learning exchange. I take the very basics and put them together on one page. This means warp and weft calculations, yarns and their sources, notation of sett and picks per inch, and all the appropriate measurements. In other words, I collect the bare bones data and put it in one spot so it is easy for someone else to follow what I have done in weaving the piece.
Photos might well be a part of these records. So far I have resisted. My husband really wants me to keep a photographic record/scrapbook of my weaving. Well, I have never liked keeping photographic records of our travels and vacations either. The joy for me is in the doing and the watching. And the joy of remembering does not require a photographic record.
When I first began this blog, I faithfully kept copies of each entry in case anything happened to Blogger. And then I asked myself why I was bothering to do this. I have no desire to go back to read past entries. I go back only when I want to link to one of them, but that is an option, not a necessity. And I certainly have no wish to publish them ever! When I realized that, I stopped my investigation into copyrighting blogs. The value for me is in the writing, in the process itself.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Sleying the Reed
Back from New York City and all the requisite chores done, well most of them, I am now sleying the reed. Actually, I am about three-fourths of the way through. So far I have found only one threading problem. A heddle, with its yarn, on shaft one was crossed over a group of about eight threads. So I put a repair heddle on shaft one in the place it belonged and pulled the thread through it.
Sleying the reed is something I normally find relatively pleasant and easy work. Certainly it goes more quickly than threading, especially when I am sleying three ends per dent, as I am in this case. I am using a 10-dent reed and the epi will will 30.
But this is crackle threaded on eight shafts. And the order of the blocks shifts and changes. And the number of blocks in any given threading changes. As a result, when I reach in to get the yarns I need to sley, I have to work at it because there is no way to know which shafts they are going to be coming from. What is more, finding the right ends for the last three shafts is in itself difficult for me. Perhaps that reflects my lack of experience with an eight shaft loom. The most difficult is when I have neighboring warp ends on shafts one and eight.
So I take a group of threads in my right hand and I separate them out with my left hand into three groups of three ends. While I am doing this I am scrutinizing the yarn to make sure that each group does have exactly 3 threads. At the same time, I am watching the heddles to make sure that there are only 3 heddles in each group. Counting the heddles is a double-check against counting the yarns. I am also watching the heddles to make sure that there are no crossed ends. This is my weak area for I tend to forget to keep watch for this. Consequently it is not unusual
for me to find anywhere from one to three crossed ends when I throw those first weft shots. So I am trying to be very careful. I lay each group of 3 over the top of the beater, continuing to examine them to make sure they contain exactly 3 ends.
I must admit that I do sometimes put four or even five groups over the beater. Sometimes that's all it takes to finish off a group of threaded ends. But I still use 3 groups as normative.
Because the yarn is relatively fine (20/2 pearl cotton), I have to take extra care. Normally I would work with four groups at a time and hold each group in a space between my fingers. In this case, however, part of the extra care I am taking is to work with only three groups at a time. Also, to help make sure my heddle hook doesn't play tricks as it picks up the yarn groups to pull through the reed, I have elected to put them neatly and separately over the top of the beater. Then I pull each group through the appropriate reed slot. I try even at this point to keep my eyes on the heddles to make sure there is no yarn crossing from one group to another.
When I have five groups pulled through, I double-check once again. I am looking to see that there are no skipped spaces and well as to make sure that there are exactly three threads in
each space. When satisfied, I tie them them together with a slip knot. I then have one-half-inch worth of threads in a group. These are the number of groups I will tie together in a regular knot when I am ready to lace them onto the front rod.
I have new glasses. They are helping the process. When I got them, I had the lenses finished with some kind of glare-free coating. The girl at the shop told me it was much easier for her to watch television with this coating on her glasses. Well, I watch very little television. But it does seem to help quite a bit with all the metal heddles staring me in the face. What she did not tell me, however, is that I had to use a special lens cleaner. So I used my old lens cleaner and didn't have a clue as to why my vision was getting worse and worse. Sure that I was suffering from some terrible visual deterioration, I was ready to call the eye doctor. Meanwhile, in the drug store, I checked the eye glass cleaner, as I was running low. There I saw the special cleaner. Did I mention that I was a bit angry with the girl at the shop?
In any case, sleying is taking a long time, for the warp is close to 40" wide. I know there are people who can sit at their looms and in one sitting get their reeds sleyed. I wish I were one of those. I simply am not. I start making errors if I sit too long. So the first session of the day may last an hour or so. But for the rest of the day, I fit sleying in piecemeal with doing other things. It's not an arduous task. Just time-consuming. And I really really do not want to have to make corrections after I have tied the warp on and am making the first trial shots.
Sleying the reed is something I normally find relatively pleasant and easy work. Certainly it goes more quickly than threading, especially when I am sleying three ends per dent, as I am in this case. I am using a 10-dent reed and the epi will will 30.
But this is crackle threaded on eight shafts. And the order of the blocks shifts and changes. And the number of blocks in any given threading changes. As a result, when I reach in to get the yarns I need to sley, I have to work at it because there is no way to know which shafts they are going to be coming from. What is more, finding the right ends for the last three shafts is in itself difficult for me. Perhaps that reflects my lack of experience with an eight shaft loom. The most difficult is when I have neighboring warp ends on shafts one and eight.
So I take a group of threads in my right hand and I separate them out with my left hand into three groups of three ends. While I am doing this I am scrutinizing the yarn to make sure that each group does have exactly 3 threads. At the same time, I am watching the heddles to make sure that there are only 3 heddles in each group. Counting the heddles is a double-check against counting the yarns. I am also watching the heddles to make sure that there are no crossed ends. This is my weak area for I tend to forget to keep watch for this. Consequently it is not unusual
for me to find anywhere from one to three crossed ends when I throw those first weft shots. So I am trying to be very careful. I lay each group of 3 over the top of the beater, continuing to examine them to make sure they contain exactly 3 ends.I must admit that I do sometimes put four or even five groups over the beater. Sometimes that's all it takes to finish off a group of threaded ends. But I still use 3 groups as normative.
Because the yarn is relatively fine (20/2 pearl cotton), I have to take extra care. Normally I would work with four groups at a time and hold each group in a space between my fingers. In this case, however, part of the extra care I am taking is to work with only three groups at a time. Also, to help make sure my heddle hook doesn't play tricks as it picks up the yarn groups to pull through the reed, I have elected to put them neatly and separately over the top of the beater. Then I pull each group through the appropriate reed slot. I try even at this point to keep my eyes on the heddles to make sure there is no yarn crossing from one group to another.
When I have five groups pulled through, I double-check once again. I am looking to see that there are no skipped spaces and well as to make sure that there are exactly three threads in
each space. When satisfied, I tie them them together with a slip knot. I then have one-half-inch worth of threads in a group. These are the number of groups I will tie together in a regular knot when I am ready to lace them onto the front rod.I have new glasses. They are helping the process. When I got them, I had the lenses finished with some kind of glare-free coating. The girl at the shop told me it was much easier for her to watch television with this coating on her glasses. Well, I watch very little television. But it does seem to help quite a bit with all the metal heddles staring me in the face. What she did not tell me, however, is that I had to use a special lens cleaner. So I used my old lens cleaner and didn't have a clue as to why my vision was getting worse and worse. Sure that I was suffering from some terrible visual deterioration, I was ready to call the eye doctor. Meanwhile, in the drug store, I checked the eye glass cleaner, as I was running low. There I saw the special cleaner. Did I mention that I was a bit angry with the girl at the shop?
In any case, sleying is taking a long time, for the warp is close to 40" wide. I know there are people who can sit at their looms and in one sitting get their reeds sleyed. I wish I were one of those. I simply am not. I start making errors if I sit too long. So the first session of the day may last an hour or so. But for the rest of the day, I fit sleying in piecemeal with doing other things. It's not an arduous task. Just time-consuming. And I really really do not want to have to make corrections after I have tied the warp on and am making the first trial shots.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Inviting Creative Weaving
A couple of years ago I read some inspirational suggestions for doing creative embroidery. I no longer remember which book the suggestions came from, only that the book was English. I thought they were pretty neat. I selected the suggestions I liked and revamped them to fit weaving. I then typed them up and put them in a small frame which I keep on the top of my loom. I called them: Inviting Creative Weaving
1. Plan, warp, weave, in silence.
2. Spend one whole year with one weave structure.
3. Keep a weaving journal.
4. Make goals that move you out of your comfort zone.
5. Change or modify in at least one way any weaving design of someone else that you use.
6. Exercise at least 20 minutes, 5 days a week.
I pretty much have been doing these things. Occasionally I do listen to music when I am weaving. Most of the time, however, the weaving requires too much concentration. So, even if I have music playing, I will realize after an hour or more that I have heard none of it. I am pretty much a person who is happy with no background noise.
I have been spending about two years with crackle. Perhaps I am carrying that suggestion a bit too far?!? My mother wanted me to take Latin in high school. An obedient daughter, I took two years and went on to take two more years. My mother said, I only wanted you to take two years of Latin. Then you needed to move on to a modern language. Ah well. Must be something in my personality.
Nearly every piece I weave takes me in some way or another, out of my comfort zone. Usually it takes me out of my comfort zone in more than one way. And no, crackle is not yet in my comfort zone.
Most of my weaving is my own design. Maybe all of it. I can remember only once having woven someone else's design: a summer and winter yardage for a winter jacket.
Finally, I actually exercise more than 30 minutes a day 6 days a week. At my age that is a necessity. Flexibility, strength (physical and aerobic) no longer are a part of my natural being, unfortunately. They have to be fought for! And as a weaver (not to mention gardener), I need all three. So I walk, I stretch, I lift weights.
The one suggestion that I was not following was the keeping of a weaving journal. I tried several times. I tried with a journal. I tried with a software journal. Nothing seemed to fit. So I decided to blog. My blog has in essence become my journal.
1. Plan, warp, weave, in silence.
2. Spend one whole year with one weave structure.
3. Keep a weaving journal.
4. Make goals that move you out of your comfort zone.
5. Change or modify in at least one way any weaving design of someone else that you use.
6. Exercise at least 20 minutes, 5 days a week.
I pretty much have been doing these things. Occasionally I do listen to music when I am weaving. Most of the time, however, the weaving requires too much concentration. So, even if I have music playing, I will realize after an hour or more that I have heard none of it. I am pretty much a person who is happy with no background noise.
I have been spending about two years with crackle. Perhaps I am carrying that suggestion a bit too far?!? My mother wanted me to take Latin in high school. An obedient daughter, I took two years and went on to take two more years. My mother said, I only wanted you to take two years of Latin. Then you needed to move on to a modern language. Ah well. Must be something in my personality.
Nearly every piece I weave takes me in some way or another, out of my comfort zone. Usually it takes me out of my comfort zone in more than one way. And no, crackle is not yet in my comfort zone.
Most of my weaving is my own design. Maybe all of it. I can remember only once having woven someone else's design: a summer and winter yardage for a winter jacket.
Finally, I actually exercise more than 30 minutes a day 6 days a week. At my age that is a necessity. Flexibility, strength (physical and aerobic) no longer are a part of my natural being, unfortunately. They have to be fought for! And as a weaver (not to mention gardener), I need all three. So I walk, I stretch, I lift weights.
The one suggestion that I was not following was the keeping of a weaving journal. I tried several times. I tried with a journal. I tried with a software journal. Nothing seemed to fit. So I decided to blog. My blog has in essence become my journal.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Threading Done
The threading is done. The number of threads came out exactly the right number for the number of heddles. Wheww! With my lack of arithmetical skills, even with a calculator, I always worry about that as I am threading a warp. And I worried especially in this case because I had had to make some last-minute changes when I decided to thread on 8 shafts instead of 4.
However, this last day of threading seemed to create all sorts of problems for me. In two different blocks, I insisted on theading heddles on shaft 6 when they needed to be threaded on shaft 7 heddles. Twice I threaded blocks in incorrect directions. But I caught that. And then there were just a couple of plain old mistakes. Why did this happen today? I do tend to rush when I am almost done. But that is precisely why I decided not to try to finish the threading yesterday. And I was very relaxed today and took it very slowly. Perhaps I will just attribute it to the current South Carolina heatwave, cop out though that may be! In any case, it all worked out and I am delighted.
But I will not get the reed sleyed before we leave on Saturday. All that will happen is that I will get everything in place and ready for the sleying to happen. That way, when I return, all I have to do is jump on the bench and get on with
However, this last day of threading seemed to create all sorts of problems for me. In two different blocks, I insisted on theading heddles on shaft 6 when they needed to be threaded on shaft 7 heddles. Twice I threaded blocks in incorrect directions. But I caught that. And then there were just a couple of plain old mistakes. Why did this happen today? I do tend to rush when I am almost done. But that is precisely why I decided not to try to finish the threading yesterday. And I was very relaxed today and took it very slowly. Perhaps I will just attribute it to the current South Carolina heatwave, cop out though that may be! In any case, it all worked out and I am delighted.
But I will not get the reed sleyed before we leave on Saturday. All that will happen is that I will get everything in place and ready for the sleying to happen. That way, when I return, all I have to do is jump on the bench and get on with
Designing with Neutrals
Recently I discussed using the oyster shell image, which was the basis for finding color choices for my current crackle project, as a basis for designing the next warp. That warp, as I have said, which be made of hand dyed silks. I said further:
"I had already thought of it in terms of deep browns and golds and blues, with slashes of black."
Yesterday I was looking at that image again and realized that there are grays! In fact, there is so much gray, I wonder how I could have missed it. What else have I missed? I would never have thought that grays and browns would work in the same image. But there it is.
When I look at the yarns I am using for my current crackle yardage, I see that even here I am using a golden brown and a very very grayed brown. Perhaps my eyes were cooperating but my conscious intelligence had not yet been tapped. Perhaps, once again, this is evidence that I am like the painter who must actually paint the painting he sees to learn from it.
This means that I need to work out my next dye sampling to incorporate grays. For me, grays have been much harder to come up with, but I will try. In general, neutrals are a dyeing challenge for me. That is probably because I have never focussed on dyeing them. My goal is to begin the sample dyeing as I weave off the current crackle warp. Dyeing will be a good alternative activity. Dyeing puts me on my feet for long periods of time, while weaving puts me on my rear end.
I saw a website the other day with an article about creating neutrals from colors that were not opposites on the color wheel, that is, they were not complements. Of course I did not make a note of the url. I have in actuality worked with split complements and I will have to look at the results I got from that work. Split complements, unlike complements, contain all three primaries, and, as I recall, that was the point of using them. That is what, according to the author, made them better than using complements. My thought is that they are not necessarily better, though they may be better for a particular effect. They are just another tool in the dyeing toolbox.
"I had already thought of it in terms of deep browns and golds and blues, with slashes of black."
Yesterday I was looking at that image again and realized that there are grays! In fact, there is so much gray, I wonder how I could have missed it. What else have I missed? I would never have thought that grays and browns would work in the same image. But there it is.
When I look at the yarns I am using for my current crackle yardage, I see that even here I am using a golden brown and a very very grayed brown. Perhaps my eyes were cooperating but my conscious intelligence had not yet been tapped. Perhaps, once again, this is evidence that I am like the painter who must actually paint the painting he sees to learn from it.
This means that I need to work out my next dye sampling to incorporate grays. For me, grays have been much harder to come up with, but I will try. In general, neutrals are a dyeing challenge for me. That is probably because I have never focussed on dyeing them. My goal is to begin the sample dyeing as I weave off the current crackle warp. Dyeing will be a good alternative activity. Dyeing puts me on my feet for long periods of time, while weaving puts me on my rear end.
I saw a website the other day with an article about creating neutrals from colors that were not opposites on the color wheel, that is, they were not complements. Of course I did not make a note of the url. I have in actuality worked with split complements and I will have to look at the results I got from that work. Split complements, unlike complements, contain all three primaries, and, as I recall, that was the point of using them. That is what, according to the author, made them better than using complements. My thought is that they are not necessarily better, though they may be better for a particular effect. They are just another tool in the dyeing toolbox.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Warping Progress
The pearl cotton is now beamed on and I am about two-thirds of the way through the process of threading the heddles. I would love to have the heddles threaded and the reed sleyed before we leave on Saturday to visit our daughter and her new baby. Time will tell what unexpected interruptions will occur.
Now that I am threading, I find that I see things as I thead that I didn't see when I looked at the draft. No, there are no errors. At least there are no technical errors. But I do see that the blocks are not always the size that I had wanted. I also see that there is this occasional single block with 4 threads where none had been in the design. Aside from the purely technical errors that I did catch, has my weaving software done something strange in the designing? And if so, why? It seems that when I have my software generate a threading from a block design, I will have to look much more carefully at the results.
If I were a painter, studying a painting to learn from it would not suffice. I would actually have to copy it to learn. This is a time-honored learning technique for painters. Apparently, doing the actual work of the threading enables me to see what I didn't see by just looking. Perhaps I can figure out how to improve my concentration when just looking. I'm not sure, though. Way way back in college when I wrote essays, I would do the last rough draft which preceded the final good copy, not on the typewriter but in longhand. The physical process of forming the letters and words made my critical abilities much more acute.
I think it would be interesting to take the block design I originally created and then enter in the threading manually. I could compare this hand generated threading with the computer generated threading. On the other hand, I have a suspicion that, once the fabric is woven, I may like what I have now better than what I had actually planned. But I would like to understand enough to plan these accidents! That is why I should enter the threading manually and compare the two. Doing that, I think, will further my understanding. I hope that laziness does not get the upper hand.
In many ways what I am really talking about is mastery. I mentioned mastery in my discussion of originality. I think for me that crackle is not only a marvelous tool for color but is also resistant to my attempts to master the structure in terms of understanding. I do understand the basics. But I do not understand the why's of many things regarding crackle. I am trying to move in that direction. Or, perhaps I might better say, I am trying to follow that path.
Now that I am threading, I find that I see things as I thead that I didn't see when I looked at the draft. No, there are no errors. At least there are no technical errors. But I do see that the blocks are not always the size that I had wanted. I also see that there is this occasional single block with 4 threads where none had been in the design. Aside from the purely technical errors that I did catch, has my weaving software done something strange in the designing? And if so, why? It seems that when I have my software generate a threading from a block design, I will have to look much more carefully at the results.
If I were a painter, studying a painting to learn from it would not suffice. I would actually have to copy it to learn. This is a time-honored learning technique for painters. Apparently, doing the actual work of the threading enables me to see what I didn't see by just looking. Perhaps I can figure out how to improve my concentration when just looking. I'm not sure, though. Way way back in college when I wrote essays, I would do the last rough draft which preceded the final good copy, not on the typewriter but in longhand. The physical process of forming the letters and words made my critical abilities much more acute.
I think it would be interesting to take the block design I originally created and then enter in the threading manually. I could compare this hand generated threading with the computer generated threading. On the other hand, I have a suspicion that, once the fabric is woven, I may like what I have now better than what I had actually planned. But I would like to understand enough to plan these accidents! That is why I should enter the threading manually and compare the two. Doing that, I think, will further my understanding. I hope that laziness does not get the upper hand.
In many ways what I am really talking about is mastery. I mentioned mastery in my discussion of originality. I think for me that crackle is not only a marvelous tool for color but is also resistant to my attempts to master the structure in terms of understanding. I do understand the basics. But I do not understand the why's of many things regarding crackle. I am trying to move in that direction. Or, perhaps I might better say, I am trying to follow that path.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Designing and Mathematics
A member of the Weave Tech list reminded us of the materials on designing with mathematical principles written by Griswold. These materials can be found here. Scroll down the page
to where Griswold is the author. The materials are all short and available as pdf documents.
Griswold has fascinating ideas on using mathematical principles as a basis for designing. These ideas go way beyond the Fibonacci series. That series has been my primary source for ways to order blocks and colors. He does talk quite a bit about Dietz' use of algebraic expressions. I cannot right now locate her monograph, but Griswold gives you the gist of it which he then goes on to expand on. In any case, though I have used algebraic expressions a bit in designing, I have not found them nearly as helpful as the Fibonacci series.
I have now printed out far too many of these little pieces by Griswold. But I do want to read them more carefully. Interesting, considering my difficulties just with basic arithmetic......
to where Griswold is the author. The materials are all short and available as pdf documents.
Griswold has fascinating ideas on using mathematical principles as a basis for designing. These ideas go way beyond the Fibonacci series. That series has been my primary source for ways to order blocks and colors. He does talk quite a bit about Dietz' use of algebraic expressions. I cannot right now locate her monograph, but Griswold gives you the gist of it which he then goes on to expand on. In any case, though I have used algebraic expressions a bit in designing, I have not found them nearly as helpful as the Fibonacci series.
I have now printed out far too many of these little pieces by Griswold. But I do want to read them more carefully. Interesting, considering my difficulties just with basic arithmetic......
Monday, August 6, 2007
A Caveat on Previous Post
I sew some of my clothes. I used to sew most of them. I have always used sewing patterns. I don't think I have ever modified a sewing pattern, aside from alterations.
I did explore pattern design on my own. I even took a class in it. Somehow the concept of pattern designing just never "took."
I did explore pattern design on my own. I even took a class in it. Somehow the concept of pattern designing just never "took."
Originality
A weaver who has decided to start designing her own stuff might well work in something like the following way. She really likes log cabin and she really likes the color combination of blue and green. So she weaves a scarf based on this idea. It is a lovely scarf. She is very proud of it. It is her own design, her own creation. It is original. Whoops. Then she happens to look at pictures of items done by other weavers. In doing that she finds at least one that is almost identical to hers. Actually, it would be amazing if she didn't find a lot, because this really is a favorite structure-color combination of many people. She realizes that her piece is not original. And she may even have sold it, so she might start worrying about copyright issues.
What is wrong?
Nothing is wrong. The idea was her own even if the result wasn't original. What matters is that the idea was her own. But she wants to be original. Why didn't she come up with something original? She feels she is just not talented. Whoops.
The easy answer, of course, is to say that there is nothing new under the sun. Ahh, she can breathe easier now. She can give up the effort and just go about weaving what other people have woven. And that really is a choice. But for those of us who are not comfortable with that choice, who actually would hate having to make that choice no matter how tempting, we can continue on.
Painters, sculptors, composers, weavers, for all of these, their first creations are probably all imitative and not truly original. I am forgetting the geniuses, but I suspect that even their first works were imitative. And how many artists burn and destroy their first creations.............. We never see their true beginnings. And we do have to begin somewhere. And imitating, whether conscious or unconscious, is a pretty good place to start.
Artists gradually develop original ideas by continuing day in and day out to weave, paint, draw, sculpt, etc. They work on finding and developing their own voice, they work on finding their own path.
I like expressing it as finding your own path rather than finding your own voice. Finding your own voice tends to suggest to me the need for deep internal soul searching rather than working at your craft. While soul searching may have its value, I think it is much overestimated in its value for the creative artist. Of much more value is, dare I say it, hard work.
One way not to find one's own voice is to try continually all different sorts of things. Flitting from oils to pastels, from structure to structure. This can be useful at the very beginning just to find what appeals most to you. But at some point a weaver who is trying to find her creative way has to settle down to exploring in depth something in particular: a particular structure or a particular fiber, for example. The person from the above example, for instance, might decide she really likes blue and green and wants to explore that combination. So she may try the colors in different fibers, in different weights of yarn, in different structures, in different variations of color, even starting to dye her own yarns. Then she may start exploring the two colors in combination with other colors. This could all be most interesting, if, and only if, this path really intrigues her.
Originality is something hard won. And perhaps it is not even possible to win if that is a person's goal. Perhaps the focus needs to be the joy (and frustration) of the hunt. Perhaps, like happiness, originality comes only as a by-product. Perhaps originality comes in the process of developing mastery of one's materials and instruments.
What is wrong?
Nothing is wrong. The idea was her own even if the result wasn't original. What matters is that the idea was her own. But she wants to be original. Why didn't she come up with something original? She feels she is just not talented. Whoops.
The easy answer, of course, is to say that there is nothing new under the sun. Ahh, she can breathe easier now. She can give up the effort and just go about weaving what other people have woven. And that really is a choice. But for those of us who are not comfortable with that choice, who actually would hate having to make that choice no matter how tempting, we can continue on.
Painters, sculptors, composers, weavers, for all of these, their first creations are probably all imitative and not truly original. I am forgetting the geniuses, but I suspect that even their first works were imitative. And how many artists burn and destroy their first creations.............. We never see their true beginnings. And we do have to begin somewhere. And imitating, whether conscious or unconscious, is a pretty good place to start.
Artists gradually develop original ideas by continuing day in and day out to weave, paint, draw, sculpt, etc. They work on finding and developing their own voice, they work on finding their own path.
I like expressing it as finding your own path rather than finding your own voice. Finding your own voice tends to suggest to me the need for deep internal soul searching rather than working at your craft. While soul searching may have its value, I think it is much overestimated in its value for the creative artist. Of much more value is, dare I say it, hard work.
One way not to find one's own voice is to try continually all different sorts of things. Flitting from oils to pastels, from structure to structure. This can be useful at the very beginning just to find what appeals most to you. But at some point a weaver who is trying to find her creative way has to settle down to exploring in depth something in particular: a particular structure or a particular fiber, for example. The person from the above example, for instance, might decide she really likes blue and green and wants to explore that combination. So she may try the colors in different fibers, in different weights of yarn, in different structures, in different variations of color, even starting to dye her own yarns. Then she may start exploring the two colors in combination with other colors. This could all be most interesting, if, and only if, this path really intrigues her.
Originality is something hard won. And perhaps it is not even possible to win if that is a person's goal. Perhaps the focus needs to be the joy (and frustration) of the hunt. Perhaps, like happiness, originality comes only as a by-product. Perhaps originality comes in the process of developing mastery of one's materials and instruments.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Thoughts on Designing
There has been on-going discussion among members of the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers on copyright. Virtually every fiber email list I have been on has had in the past five years extended discussions of this issue. I usually don't pay too much attention except to be aghast at some of the really illegal things some people do and to wonder how they can live with themselves.
This time around I began to wonder why weavers (and other fiber artists) copy other people's designs at all, even within their legal rights. Would these weavers use paint-by-number kits if they were to take up painting?
The notion that design process ought to be taught with the first baby weaving lessons is a notion that grows stronger for me. Learning to design what you weave is no more arcane or difficult than learning to weave. And I see no reason why designing could not be incorporated in classes from the very beginning.
The first project for many weavers is often a scarf. That's a really good first project because all you have to know is how to warp the loom and weave plain weave. You only need two shafts, in fact. And you can choose your own yarn and colors. Then you have a bit more learning to do, but not really much. Basically, you need to learn how to figure out the sett. What many weavers seem to do is use the wraps per inch and then divide the wraps in half. Wraps per inch is a fine way to start for a beginning weaver. But she does have to learn enough about the interaction of warp and weft to know that she is not done when she has divided those wraps in half.
When the sett has been worked out, then it is just arithmetic to figure out the ends per inch and the length of the warp. And here will be learned how to calculate for shrinkage and take-up as well. And the new weaver will learn to put on an extra yard or so so that she can use the first part of the warp to make sure the sett is to her liking. This means not only weaving that sample but removing it and washing and pressing it. Often what is on the loom looks more like window-screening than cloth. But what magic happens when it is washed and pressed!
OK, this is a lot to expect. After all, the new weaver has just gone through this long struggle of learning how to warp her loom. Finally the warp is on. She wants to get on with it. When I am ready to weave, I want to get on with it too. But it's a lot to expect as well for the new weaver to learn to warp her own loom. There are teachers on think that the first time the loom already should be warped and waiting for the beginner. I happen to disagree.
I do remember the agonies of learning to warp my loom . I think it was not until my 10th warp or so that I could go through the entire process without referring either to my class notes or to my much used Warping Your Loom and Tying on New Warps by Peggy Osterkamp. And it is a long process. That does not change.
Weaving is not about instant results. And now I am moving dangerously close to the question of why weave. I am not ready to go there just yet. Weaving Spirit, however, has posted recently on just this.
There are so many more complex and deep pleasures to be derived from weaving than just the simple pleasure of throwing a shuttle and watching the cloth grow. Still, I do not underestimate that last pleasure, especially when the selvedges are going well.............
This time around I began to wonder why weavers (and other fiber artists) copy other people's designs at all, even within their legal rights. Would these weavers use paint-by-number kits if they were to take up painting?
The notion that design process ought to be taught with the first baby weaving lessons is a notion that grows stronger for me. Learning to design what you weave is no more arcane or difficult than learning to weave. And I see no reason why designing could not be incorporated in classes from the very beginning.
The first project for many weavers is often a scarf. That's a really good first project because all you have to know is how to warp the loom and weave plain weave. You only need two shafts, in fact. And you can choose your own yarn and colors. Then you have a bit more learning to do, but not really much. Basically, you need to learn how to figure out the sett. What many weavers seem to do is use the wraps per inch and then divide the wraps in half. Wraps per inch is a fine way to start for a beginning weaver. But she does have to learn enough about the interaction of warp and weft to know that she is not done when she has divided those wraps in half.
When the sett has been worked out, then it is just arithmetic to figure out the ends per inch and the length of the warp. And here will be learned how to calculate for shrinkage and take-up as well. And the new weaver will learn to put on an extra yard or so so that she can use the first part of the warp to make sure the sett is to her liking. This means not only weaving that sample but removing it and washing and pressing it. Often what is on the loom looks more like window-screening than cloth. But what magic happens when it is washed and pressed!
OK, this is a lot to expect. After all, the new weaver has just gone through this long struggle of learning how to warp her loom. Finally the warp is on. She wants to get on with it. When I am ready to weave, I want to get on with it too. But it's a lot to expect as well for the new weaver to learn to warp her own loom. There are teachers on think that the first time the loom already should be warped and waiting for the beginner. I happen to disagree.
I do remember the agonies of learning to warp my loom . I think it was not until my 10th warp or so that I could go through the entire process without referring either to my class notes or to my much used Warping Your Loom and Tying on New Warps by Peggy Osterkamp. And it is a long process. That does not change.
Weaving is not about instant results. And now I am moving dangerously close to the question of why weave. I am not ready to go there just yet. Weaving Spirit, however, has posted recently on just this.
There are so many more complex and deep pleasures to be derived from weaving than just the simple pleasure of throwing a shuttle and watching the cloth grow. Still, I do not underestimate that last pleasure, especially when the selvedges are going well.............
Friday, August 3, 2007
Another Raddling Tip
I discovered quite accidentally another way to make the raddling process easier. I had put the ends of the bouts in clear plastic baggies. The purpose is to keep the warps clean and the bouts separated. However, in the past I had discovered that they tended to slip out of the baggies and get messed about anyway. This time I used potato chip clips to hold them. When I put the bouts over the top of the loom, I let out enough of the warp from their baggies so they would almost rest on the loom bench, but not quite. I.e., the bouts were weighted by the potato chip clips.
Here the bouts are actually resting on the bench at the front of the loom because I have done with the raddling and am ready to move on to winding the warp onto the back beam. While I was laying the warp ends into the raddle at the back of the loom, however, they were suspended over the front beam but above the bench, with those red potato chip clips serving as weights. Those weights gave the warp just enough tension to make separating the ends with my ever faithful crochet hook much easier.
Once I am ready to start winding the warp on, however, I will add much heavier weights to the bouts. From my experience, it seems that the warps should be wound on with at least as much tension as I will use when I am actually weaving.
Here the bouts are actually resting on the bench at the front of the loom because I have done with the raddling and am ready to move on to winding the warp onto the back beam. While I was laying the warp ends into the raddle at the back of the loom, however, they were suspended over the front beam but above the bench, with those red potato chip clips serving as weights. Those weights gave the warp just enough tension to make separating the ends with my ever faithful crochet hook much easier.
Once I am ready to start winding the warp on, however, I will add much heavier weights to the bouts. From my experience, it seems that the warps should be wound on with at least as much tension as I will use when I am actually weaving.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Raddling Tip for Multi-Colored Warps
When I wind my warps, I wind rather small bouts. Usually these bouts are about 2 inches to 3 inches wide. That is when I am working with 60/2 silk. Small bouts in such fine slippery yarn beam on much more smoothly and easily than wider bouts. With this crackle warp I am making bouts about 5 1/2 inches wide. It is mercerized cotton and 20/2 in size. It will be sett at 30 epi. This is in contrast to the silk which I sett normally around 60 epi.
When I make the bouts I always label them, 1,2,3 etc so that I know in what order they are supposed to go on. Where I would get stymied, however, is in trying to figure out which way each bout supposed to lie when I slip it onto the lease sticks.
One day , for no particular reason, I decided to leave the counting string at the cross in when I took it off the warping board. I usually took it off and reinserted it whole through the cross. I noticed when I was dropping the warp ends into the raddle, that sometimes the string at the counting cross where the lease sticks were, was sometimes tied off at the right, sometimes at the left. This didn't make much difference to me except that it was more awkward for me when the string was tied off at the left. But then I just cut it at the right and continued laying the warp ends in the raddle spaces.
When I started winding this current warp, I figured something out. I realized that when I took the warp off the board the tie at the cross would always be knotted on the same side. That meant I had to watch the placement of that knot when I put the lease sticks through the warp ends in preparation for raddling. Once the bouts themselves were in the proper order, all I had to do was make sure that the knots were all on the same side.
Here are two of the bouts on the lease sticks. The red yarn are the marking yarns I put on as I wound the bouts. On the right side are the loops that I made when I tied them on the warping board. On the warping board those ties were always made on the same side of the bout, the side facing me. Here I have arranged them on the lease sticks so that they face to the right. Since I work from right to left during this process, having them face right makes sense. The warp colors here, by the way, are quite accurate, at least on my computer screen.
Why is this so important for me? It is important because often my warps are multicolored and the ordering will often be random enough that I can't tell or remember by looking at an individual bout, just how the colors are supposed to go. If I don't get the warps put on correctly, the arrangement of the colors will not be what I had planned.
Problem solved.
When I make the bouts I always label them, 1,2,3 etc so that I know in what order they are supposed to go on. Where I would get stymied, however, is in trying to figure out which way each bout supposed to lie when I slip it onto the lease sticks.
One day , for no particular reason, I decided to leave the counting string at the cross in when I took it off the warping board. I usually took it off and reinserted it whole through the cross. I noticed when I was dropping the warp ends into the raddle, that sometimes the string at the counting cross where the lease sticks were, was sometimes tied off at the right, sometimes at the left. This didn't make much difference to me except that it was more awkward for me when the string was tied off at the left. But then I just cut it at the right and continued laying the warp ends in the raddle spaces.
When I started winding this current warp, I figured something out. I realized that when I took the warp off the board the tie at the cross would always be knotted on the same side. That meant I had to watch the placement of that knot when I put the lease sticks through the warp ends in preparation for raddling. Once the bouts themselves were in the proper order, all I had to do was make sure that the knots were all on the same side.
Here are two of the bouts on the lease sticks. The red yarn are the marking yarns I put on as I wound the bouts. On the right side are the loops that I made when I tied them on the warping board. On the warping board those ties were always made on the same side of the bout, the side facing me. Here I have arranged them on the lease sticks so that they face to the right. Since I work from right to left during this process, having them face right makes sense. The warp colors here, by the way, are quite accurate, at least on my computer screen.
Why is this so important for me? It is important because often my warps are multicolored and the ordering will often be random enough that I can't tell or remember by looking at an individual bout, just how the colors are supposed to go. If I don't get the warps put on correctly, the arrangement of the colors will not be what I had planned.
Problem solved.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Crackle Jacket Fabric: A Change of Plan
Last night I finished winding the warp. I had made 6 bouts with a total of 1058 ends. As I was winding the last bout I began to realize that I really wanted to have the threads spread out on 8 shafts. The reason for this is that I wanted to be able to use any warp left over at the end for some 8-shaft tie-ups and try some things on them.
I thought this would be simple enough to do. I went to my original 4-block structure and asked my software to convert it to 8-shaft crackle. The resulting threading turned out to be a bit of a mess. Even after I made the necessary corrections manually, I discovered that there no threads called for on shafts 5 and 6. So I decided to start over. But first it was time to go to bed.
I didn't sleep very well for a couple of reasons. One of them was the warp. I had figured out what I needed to do, but it was the middle of the night and I was not going to get up and do it. So I was just quite restless through the night. Morning came. I took my morning walk, had breakfast, went to the computer and opened the software.
This time I redid the original 4 blocks as 8 blocks, keeping the same basic design. Here it is:
Then I asked
my software to convert the block design to 8-shaft crackle. The software made a few errors, but not many, and they were easily corrected. When I filled in the tie-up and the treadling, things seemed to be what I wanted.
There was only one minor hitch. The new block design was wider and so called for more warp ends. Consequently I created 3 instead of 4 repeats. That was fine, especially as I am in general a fan of odd numbers. But 10 more warp ends were needed in addition to the warp ends I had already finished making. So, I went to my color diagram, and using the next colors that came up, I simply made 10 more ends. I will simply call that last bout #6a. And when I wind on, I will wind on bouts 6 and 6a together.
There is one more change I plan on making as well, and that is the treadling. The original plan was just to treadle straight across, left to right, left to right, left to right, and so on. I would change the color order when I decided to start a new block. But then I tried notating a point twill kind of treadling. I had the treadling go left to right 2 times, and then return 10 times. Fortunately I will have plenty of room on the warp to try this out. Of course, something could go terribly wrong with the beaming on and I lose a yard or two of warp. No, not going to happen.....
Here is the drawdown, including a possible treadling:
It's a little hard to see what is going on; I zoomed out a great deal in order to give a better image of what the fabric might actually look like. What I like here is the illusion of direction change. What I do not like what happens at the point of change. Perhaps I can figure a way around that. However, the warp here is all black, which it is not in reality. And I will have to weave it to see what is really happening.
I thought this would be simple enough to do. I went to my original 4-block structure and asked my software to convert it to 8-shaft crackle. The resulting threading turned out to be a bit of a mess. Even after I made the necessary corrections manually, I discovered that there no threads called for on shafts 5 and 6. So I decided to start over. But first it was time to go to bed.
I didn't sleep very well for a couple of reasons. One of them was the warp. I had figured out what I needed to do, but it was the middle of the night and I was not going to get up and do it. So I was just quite restless through the night. Morning came. I took my morning walk, had breakfast, went to the computer and opened the software.
This time I redid the original 4 blocks as 8 blocks, keeping the same basic design. Here it is:
Then I asked
my software to convert the block design to 8-shaft crackle. The software made a few errors, but not many, and they were easily corrected. When I filled in the tie-up and the treadling, things seemed to be what I wanted.There was only one minor hitch. The new block design was wider and so called for more warp ends. Consequently I created 3 instead of 4 repeats. That was fine, especially as I am in general a fan of odd numbers. But 10 more warp ends were needed in addition to the warp ends I had already finished making. So, I went to my color diagram, and using the next colors that came up, I simply made 10 more ends. I will simply call that last bout #6a. And when I wind on, I will wind on bouts 6 and 6a together.
There is one more change I plan on making as well, and that is the treadling. The original plan was just to treadle straight across, left to right, left to right, left to right, and so on. I would change the color order when I decided to start a new block. But then I tried notating a point twill kind of treadling. I had the treadling go left to right 2 times, and then return 10 times. Fortunately I will have plenty of room on the warp to try this out. Of course, something could go terribly wrong with the beaming on and I lose a yard or two of warp. No, not going to happen.....
Here is the drawdown, including a possible treadling:
It's a little hard to see what is going on; I zoomed out a great deal in order to give a better image of what the fabric might actually look like. What I like here is the illusion of direction change. What I do not like what happens at the point of change. Perhaps I can figure a way around that. However, the warp here is all black, which it is not in reality. And I will have to weave it to see what is really happening.
Color and Neutrals
Recently I posted on my moving towards the use of neutrals with color. Yesterday my inbox newsletter from Robert Genn was directed to just this subject. The clickback for this newsletter is not yet available, but should be in a few days. In this particular newsletter, which he titled "Lively Greys." Genn was talking specifically about grays, but, for my purposes, I am thinking of grays as a neutral and browns can just as well be treated as a neutral. Browns can move to golds and oranges and then they become less and less of a neutral.
He believes that the use of grays (neutrals) is very important in painting. And he believes that the best grays are "obtained by using opposites on the colour wheel." In my experience, it is very very hard, though not impossible, to obtain grays in this way; but I have always found it a wonderful way to achieve neutral browns and beiges. The resulting neutrals are, as he says, much more "lively" than a gray achieved by mixing white with black.
He also talks about achieving these "lively" or "vibrating" grays by using "equal-intensity colours that essentially fight one another for attention." Genn is, of course, talking about painting techniques,but it can apply to weaving as well. A kind of iridescent shimmer can be set up just using plain weave, but with the warp one color and the weft another. I have seen this in commercial taffetas, and it is really lovely.
Sandra Rude explored liveliness of color in her fire series scarve. Go here for some lovely pictures of them. I think I will have to explore possibilities exploiting this kind of "liveliness" in crackle. Crackle, in fine yarns, seems almost born for exploring pointillistic effects.
Here is what I am beginning to imagine right now. I would use the same 4-shaft structure I am currently using for the crackle jacket, though not necessarily the same threading. I would also weave it as I plan to weave this crackle fabric. That is, I would not use tabbies. Each block would consist of the 4 treadles in succession. Block A would use colors in this order, a different color for each treadle: a,b,c,d. Block B would use colors in this order: b,c,d,a. Block C would use colors in this order: cdab; and Block D would use colors in this order: b,c,d,a. Each block would be treadled as many times as I would need to for the width I would like. The colors might consist of 3-4 different blues and 3-4 different browns, and perhaps 3-4 different golds.
There could have all kinds of different arrangements here. Indeed, there is no reason when I couldn't repeat a color. Eg, treadle 1, blue a; treadle 2, brown a; treadle 3, blue a; treadle 4, brown b. I could vary the amounts of neutrals and colors in any given block. I could work on creating the overall stripe effect I discussed in the earlier post.
But I also want to bring black into this. In some of the warp ends and/or in some of the weft ends.
But all of this is for some future date. It is back to work on the crackle warp I am preparing for the loom.
He believes that the use of grays (neutrals) is very important in painting. And he believes that the best grays are "obtained by using opposites on the colour wheel." In my experience, it is very very hard, though not impossible, to obtain grays in this way; but I have always found it a wonderful way to achieve neutral browns and beiges. The resulting neutrals are, as he says, much more "lively" than a gray achieved by mixing white with black.
He also talks about achieving these "lively" or "vibrating" grays by using "equal-intensity colours that essentially fight one another for attention." Genn is, of course, talking about painting techniques,but it can apply to weaving as well. A kind of iridescent shimmer can be set up just using plain weave, but with the warp one color and the weft another. I have seen this in commercial taffetas, and it is really lovely.
Sandra Rude explored liveliness of color in her fire series scarve. Go here for some lovely pictures of them. I think I will have to explore possibilities exploiting this kind of "liveliness" in crackle. Crackle, in fine yarns, seems almost born for exploring pointillistic effects.
Here is what I am beginning to imagine right now. I would use the same 4-shaft structure I am currently using for the crackle jacket, though not necessarily the same threading. I would also weave it as I plan to weave this crackle fabric. That is, I would not use tabbies. Each block would consist of the 4 treadles in succession. Block A would use colors in this order, a different color for each treadle: a,b,c,d. Block B would use colors in this order: b,c,d,a. Block C would use colors in this order: cdab; and Block D would use colors in this order: b,c,d,a. Each block would be treadled as many times as I would need to for the width I would like. The colors might consist of 3-4 different blues and 3-4 different browns, and perhaps 3-4 different golds.
There could have all kinds of different arrangements here. Indeed, there is no reason when I couldn't repeat a color. Eg, treadle 1, blue a; treadle 2, brown a; treadle 3, blue a; treadle 4, brown b. I could vary the amounts of neutrals and colors in any given block. I could work on creating the overall stripe effect I discussed in the earlier post.
But I also want to bring black into this. In some of the warp ends and/or in some of the weft ends.
But all of this is for some future date. It is back to work on the crackle warp I am preparing for the loom.
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