HANDSPUN & COMPUTING SETT: PART IV

I decided to look at the page in Osterkamp that Leigh used for her formula.  Going there I discovered three formulas.  One of these is the one that Leigh used. 

I did the arithmetic with all three formulas.  And I multiplied each of those figures by 60% to 65% -- the percentage of maximum sett when weaving clothing or with woolen yarns. 

The final sett turns out to be somewhere between 5.58 and 6.04.  6 it will be, the same as my original calculations, as I said in Part I.

WASHED VERSUS UNWASHED HANDSPUN

I thought of something, then, that made a difference in my feelings about using 6 as a sett for this yarn. Before I washed the plied yarn, it was really quite thin.  But when I washed it, the magic happens:  it blooms!   And when it blooms, it takes up space. The wpi of the unwashed plied yarn was 19.  Contrast this with the 13-14 wpi of the washed yarn.

I am not quite so worried anymore...........

Related Post:  Handspun & Computing Sett: Part III

© 2008

LINKS TO POSTS FROM OTHER BLOGS

Is it my imagination or are the posts on weaving blogs really getting better and better?  For example, I try not to include more than one post per blogger, but I am finding it increasingly difficult to do that. 

Thoughts on this, anyone?

WEAVING

Top Ten Reasons You Need Another Loom Right Now -- The Straight of the Goods
Straight Draw Scarves -- The Open Shed
Marketing My Art -- Constance Rose Textile Designs
Raddling Again -- Curiousweaver
Wonderful Weaving Weekend --Pleasant & Delightful
Finishing -- Sharing the Fiber Fever
The Blue-green Rayon and Silk Scarves -- Geo's Textile Journal
Summer Challenge -- Cherri Hankins
Some Countermarche Nitty Gritty; Size, Sheds and Texsolv -- The Straight of the Goods
Fire Scarves Progressing -- Sandra's Loom Blog
My Method of Warping -- Thrums
Scrolls -- Weaverly
On the Other Hand -- Weaving Spirit
Back to Weaving -- Tien's blog
MTW Weaving Update (at Last) -- Leigh's Fiber Journal
One Job Down... -- Charleen's Fiberblog
Joy Weave -- Unravelling
Mama's Got a Brand New Bag -- Deep End of the Loom.

Fun for weavers (and dyers) from a knitting blog. Thanks to The Twisted Warp for the link.
I Love Kid Art -- JanKnit

This next post has a couple of excellent tips for anyone interested in weaving either warp or weft ikat:
Out of Alignment -- Magic of Light, Mystery of Shadows 

DYEING

I couldn't resist giving a link to this gorgeous dyeing post.  Read at your own peril (you might be converted.......)
Silk Hankie Dyeing Day -- Constance Rose Textile Designs

CREATIVITY

Can we apply Nancy's ideas for inducing creativity to our weaving?
Turn Up the Volume on the Inner Voice -- Painting Blog

© 2008

CHALLENGE FROM MEG

Meg recently asked us weavers to share with her what we ask ourselves about our art practice.  Go here to read her challenge. Here are the nuts and bolts of the challenge:

What do you ask yourself, about your art practice? What do I ask me, about my art practice?

On the top of my loom I keep a framed piece which contains directive statements. Most of these are really indirect questions about my art/weaving practice.  So in this post, I have turned some of them into questions.

• Am I pushing beyond my limits, both artistically and technically?
  
• Is what I am doing at the present moment helpful to me or to my work or is it merely a distraction? If it is a distraction, can I eliminate it? Are there any habitual distractions I can eliminate?
  
• Is what I am now doing another step along the path I have chosen or is it a detour? If a detour, is it, at this point, a worthwhile detour?
  
• Am I putting everything I have into what I am doing?

The first question, about pushing beyond limits, is for me the most important question.  Recently I read a computer-related blog post which discusses how to grow in one's profession.   The following statement reflects the thrust of his entire post  

Effortful study means constantly tackling problems at the very edge of your ability. Stuff you may have a high probability of failing at. Unless you're failing some of the time, you're probably not growing professionally. You have to seek out those challenges and push yourself beyond your comfort limit. 

I could not say it any better. Go here to read the entire post.

I do have some other statements in that framed piece that I cannot easily convert into questions.  They are important to me.

• Repeat unique methedologies once mastered.
  
• Remain committed to learning by doing.
  
• Do whatever is required of you.

Thank you, Meg, for posing this challenge and so reminding me to look at these statements again. 

© 2008            

ART PIECE 3: WEAVING BEGINS

It doesn't look very much like it in the photo, but I am weaving with (so far) five colors:  blue and blue violet for what I call the background blocks;  and orange, scarlet and cherry for the foreground blocks.  You can get a little better feel for the colors by clicking on the photo.  Also for the complexity of sub-blocks within the blocks.

CHANAGING THE VIEWING ANGLE

As I was weaving this, I was just not quite sure about what was happening.  Then I went to the back of the loom.  Looking at something from a fresh angle usually results in some obvious problems coming to the forefront.  But this time, the fresh angle allowed me to like what I have done so far and so gave me the desire to continue.  But not necessarily the way to continue.......

© 2008

SOMEONE ELSE WAS OVERWHELMED BY POSSIBILITIES

I just ran into a blog post by the painter Nancy Reyner:  So Many Ideas, So Little Time. She has brilliantly captured the feelings of being overwhelmed by too many ideas -- what I was discussing, though not nearly as well, on my post Overwhelmed by Possibilities.

And weirdly enough, her solution to the problem is not unlike mine, except that again she has expressed it brilliantly.

In case you haven't figure it out, I highly recommend reading the piece........

Actually, do explore the whole blog as well.  She has much of interest and value.

© 2008

OVERWHELMED BY POSSIBILITIES

Dorothy and Meg have both suggested I treat the second art piece as a sample.  And that is precisely what I have done.  This morning I sat down and typed up all the ideas prompted by this sample and added to those the ideas I already had.

19+ POSSIBLE IDEAS

Doing that very quickly yielded nineteen possibilities.  But that number is not really accurate.  Some of the numbered ideas have sub-categories/possibilities.  I felt just a bit overwhelmed!

PRACTICING, EXPLORING, SAMPLING

I thought about what I had written earlier on being a practicing artist.  And I thought also about the concept of artist as explorer.  Thinking in these terms releases the burden of feeling that the piece I weave must be perfect.  Each piece is a sample leading to another sample.  Each piece is a practice piece for the next piece.  Each piece is an exploration which is never finished.

THE PIECE BEGINS

I have put in the first shots and have started the hemstitching.

Related Posts:  

Practice
Hemstitching

© 2008

THE LATEST REDS

I have wound the latest dyed reds on bobbins.  Here they are.

 

The first one I wound off was again a mess.  Since there was not a lot of yardage, the mess didn't last very long. So I decided to try some things.

THINGS I TRIED

1. Jerking and Pulling.

I put my hands in the next skein and pulled and jerked it hard.  I kept moving my hands and jerking and pulling.  I always do that but not with this kind of vengeance. Winding off went fairly well.

The next skein went WITHOUT ONE HITCH!  And the next one as well. This is a world record for me. 

2. Fiddling with Loose Yarns.

The fourth skein had loose yarns dangling all over the place, all, however, properly caught in their figure-of-eight ties. So, in addition to pulling and jerking I stopped and played around with the particular area were there were loose ends This area of the skein also contained a lot of rat's nests. When there seemed to be some improvement I put it on the skein winder and continued working with those ends and trying to free up the yarns caught in the rat's nests. 

3. Beginning and End of Skeins

I then focused my attention on the beginning and end of that particular skein. Usually when I tie the two ends of a skein together, I just encircle the whole width of the skein and tie again.  This time, for at least some of them, I decided to do figure-of-eights with them.  This, I began to think, might be where at least some of the trouble is.

I started one end on the bobbin and I wrapped the other end around one of the wings of the skein winder on the side of the skein where it came from.  I slowly wound onto the bobbin, watching the yarn on the skein winder carefully.  YES!  It got snagged by its opposite end.  Several times. 

So, smarty that I am, I moved that opposite end to the other side of the skein.  IT STILL GOT SNAGGED!   I tried putting it in the middle.  Still no dice.  So I wound slowly, turn by turn.

CONCLUSION

At least I may have figured out one thing that could be a cause---the way I am tying the ends again.   I will not do figure-of-eights with those ends anymore.

Related Post:  Unskeining to Bobbin Problem

© 2008

TAPESTRY LINKS

More tapestry designing but with a twist.  Nicki (aka Cyber Fiber Scriber) is using Wednesdays to to experiment with tapestry weaving on her counterbalance loom. Usually tapestry weaving needs only two shafts or finger manipulation of warp ends.  But Nicki is going to take advantage of the fact that her loom has four shafts

Bricks 1 and 4

Bricks 2 and 3  -- don't be confused by the fact that she has posted this on her tapestry blog.

Nothing Like Weaving a Brick   

Wedge Weave Bricks  

And she is not done yet...........

Related Post:  One Weaver's Design Process

© 2008

UNSKEINING TO BOBBIN PROBLEM

I had not wound off all the silk organzine skeins I had dyed recently, only the yellows.  Today I started winding off the reds.  I plan to use them in the next art piece.

But I had a problem.

On the skein winder is the red skein of silk yarn.  I am winding this off onto a bobbin which is out of the picture to the right.  You can see the red yarn slanting to the right and disappearing.  The bobbin and winder are there off the photo. At this point, I can't turn the skein winder anymore because the yarn is caught in that V of yarn on the skein winder separated by my index finger.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT THE V

If you look at the V in which the yarn is caught, it looks like the problem is that this part of the yarn is really going the wrong way, that I slipped up somehow in making the skein.  However,  when I follow that V back, I will find sooner or later some kind of snag or mess where one side of that V has gotten caught.  I can unmess and so free the yarn so that now it actually circles around the skein winder instead of doubling back on itself.

FIXING THE PROBLEM WITH BOMBYX SILK

This sort of thing happens with bombyx silk as well, but normally the mess is so minor that the tension of the yarn created by winding onto the bobbin is enough to pull the yarn free of the snag.  All I feel when this happens is a slight catch in the motion of the skein winder.

A TEMPORARY FIX WITH SILK ORGANZINE

But with this silk organzine, the snags seems to be much messier and require stopping a wnd working back.  This time, however, the snag/mess is so far in that I cannot get to it.  Consequently, to fix it up, I remove the bobbin from the winder and insert it through the V to free it up.  That leaves a loose loop hanging off the winder which gets taken back up very soon after I start winding the yarn onto the bobbin.

But doing this proved to be only a temporary fix.

It happened again.  Which was very soon.  And which was very often. 

This, by the way, is what happened with the disastrous skein of bombyx silk I wound off onto a cone a month or two ago.  That was worse because it was a much larger skein.

WHAT WILL BE, WILL BE--SIGH

I grow philosophical.  It's going to happen when it's going to happen and there seems to be little I can do about it.  Yarn just has a will of its on.  So get on with it anyway!

Related Posts:

Yellows Wound on Bobbins & Dyeing Skills
That Badly Snarled Skein of Yarn
Dyeing More Reds

© 2008

ART PIECE 2: DONE

Yes, this is an odd angle.  I rotated the photo.  Doing this gives me an idea of what the piece would look like hung.

The dark blue at the very top is what will be turned under to form a casing. 

What do I think?  It doesn't work.  There are too many different ideas in the piece. 

• At the bottom is a stripe effect. 
• Then there are rectangles. 
• The rectangles are followed by a cluster of yellow stripes on blue. 
• Next comes  the beginning of what looks like it is going to be a repetition of the first group of rectangles, but with some orange added.  I know, it looks red in the photo, but all the reds are really oranges. 
• Finally, at the top,  comes my favorite part---a kind of watercolor effect of blues yellows and oranges. And that is where I really lost the original idea.

The result is a piece which does not have enough unity to be pleasing to the eye.

Improvising at the loom can be very dangerous.  Weaving this piece was lots of fun, but what the weaving of it yielded was something unexpected: a very rich learning experience but also a lesson I shall find difficult to learn.

Related Post:  Art Piece #1 Done

© 2008

HANDSPUN & COMPUTING SETT: PART III

SHAWL FROM HANDSPUN

Two years ago I wove a too-short shawl from my woolen handspun. It turned out to be too short because in planning the warp, I had not allowed for the drastic amount the warp snapped back into a much shorter length when I removed it from the warping board.

That handspun was approximately the same grist as the one I am currently working with.   I sett the warp at 12 epi for a twill.  I had agonized over the sett.

ON THE LOOM: BAD SHEDS

I had a lot of trouble weaving off that warp. The sheds were terrible;  the soft yarn desperately wanted to stick to itself. I was forever clearing sheds by hand.

OFF THE LOOM

When the fabric came off the loom I did an indeterminable amount of mending/reweaving.  I washed and steamed it. It was thick and cuddly. It felt soft and silky to the touch. It was lovely. I thought.  And apparently the judge at the Blue Ridge Handweaving show that year thought so too. I got a second place in accessories.

Still, those terrible sheds were a definite clue that the sett was really too close.

LEIGH'S FORMULA FOR SETT

I think it is time to try the formula Leigh explains in her recent post on calculating sett.  

Related Post: Handspun and Computing Sett: Part II

© 2008

RECIPES

"Recipe gatherers are not always open to the trial-and-error part--I call it 'commit and correct'. These days folks often feel they need to save themselves some time. This can be false economy. Selling everyone on commit and correct is not easy. It's all about creativity, and that's the fun part."

Robert Genn, in his essay Keeping Things Simple, is talking specifically about gathering recipes for creating colors with oil paints. But I hear him speaking to me, a weaver, as well.

I want to weave some towels for our daughter. There are recipes for towels galore. How easy it would be just to pick one I like and weave some, following that person's recipe. This should be pretty fail-safe. And it would save me a lot of time as well. Very tempting. I could get back to my crackle playing so much faster.........

Genn reminds me, however, that "the fun part" is the working out of design and structure issues for myself. Even if the end product should turn out to be a disaster I wouldn't allow my dog to sleep on and chew up, I would have learned much of value, not least of which would be how to suffer disaster wisely.

I have certainly learned this in my crackle weaving. But towels? Why should I spend a lot of time designing some simple towels?

How much time would it take for me to draft a straight twill for a solid color warp for 8/2 unmercerized cotton, measure one of my towels for size, and work out the warping details? Probably no longer than it would take for me to settle on a design created by someone else.

Then for fast weaving I would weave each scarf with one color, a different color for each scarf. And I would weave each scarf with a different treadling.

Not fancy towels, probably. But honest towels.

To read Genn's whole piece, go here.

Related Post:

Color and Weave
Thoughts on Designing

© 2008

A WARP PROBLEM EMERGES

In the last picture I posted of the current art piece (click here to see it), I severely cropped the image. But in cropping it, I cut off the evidence of a warp issue.   Here it is.

 

You might not immediately see the problem.  But if you click on the image to blow it up, the problem will jump out at you!

 

 

 

LOOSENING WARP ENDS

On the third block from each end, the warp threads are consistently loosening up.  This is not a result of faulty beaming. For some reason that I have not been able to work out, the threads on those blocks are not interacting as often with the wefts as are the threads on the other blocks.

This is the kind of thing that can happen with some lace structures.

SOLUTIONS

1. RETYING:  simply cut off each piece as I finish it and retie on.  Not my favorite solution........
2. ADD WEIGHTS: add weights to those warp ends.  That will work.  At least until the weights drop to the floor!  So adding weights is really only a temporary solution.
3. USE A SECOND WARP BEAM: this is the best solution. 
4. WIND AND HANG SEPARATELY: the solution for those (like me!) who have no second warp beam is to wind the threads in those kinds of blocks separately and hang them, weighted, off the back of the loom in the manner of a supplementary warp.

BUT WHY?

Looking at the threading, I still don't understand why this particular group of threads should loosen.  If I don't understand this, I will not be able to anticipate the problem in advance and work out the necessary solution.

THE DRAWDOWN

Here is the drawdown: 

Perhaps someone  can come up with an explanation?

 

© 2008

LINKS TO RECENT POSTS FROM OTHER BLOGS

Here are a few of the recent blog posts I have found especially interesting reading. 

WEAVING BLOGS

All My Eggs in One Basket Again -- Avalanche Looms
Sectional Warping -- Weaver in Paradise
Temples -- Yorksett Arts & Crafts
Who Knew?  --Weaving Spirit
Beaming the Fire Series Warp -- Sandra's Loom Blog
Love That dyeing -- Curioius Weaver
Big Change  -- Weaving Yarnz
Expanding Multiple Tabby  Weaving Blocks -- Leigh's Fiber Journal
Keeping Track -- t'katch - the language of weaving 
Computer Design and a Finished Fabric -- Linda's Weblog
Others Less Known -- Thrums
The Sleying Chair and My New Reed -- The Straight of the Goods

NON-WEAVING BLOGS OF INTEREST TO WEAVERS

For those who weave with fine silk the following blog post might be of interest.  It shows how to make a necktie.

How To Make Men's Ties -- Fashion Incubator

The following is from an artist's and fashion designer's blog on color. In this post she (he?) is focusing on the color red.

Figs -- Kris's Color Stripes

The following is from a blog on blogging. What it has to say about getting through the difficult times is equally valid for weavers.  I recommend reading this.

Leaning into the Blogging Dip -- ProBlogger Blog Tips

© 2008

HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY!

I can hardly believe I have been blogging one full year!  I have been having such a good time and been learning so much. 

I am delighted, as well, that people have been interested in looking over my shoulder to follow this journey/journal. And I am pleased that some of you are even willing to comment!

So here is a totally gratuitous picture of a crackle scarf I wove two years ago, near the beginning of my crackle journey.

The picture was taken before I had a digital camera.  What appears to be black is really dark red.  The scarf colors moved gradually from bright red at one end to very dark red at the other.

© 2008

ART PIECE 2: MORE WEAVING

I have isolated this section because I like it.  I like it because the color play softens the harsh architectural style of this piece.  The grid is still very clear, but attention is diverted a bit by the color play.

I have only one more section to weave.  I would be willing to bet that what I've been doing here is going to lead to art piece #3.

© 2008

ART PIECE 2: WEAVING CONTINUES

EFFECT OF WARP COLORS ON FABRIC

One thing this photo shows really clearly is the effect of the different colors of red in the warp has on the fabric.  Actually, however, this photo intensifies that effect because some of the reds are a bit brighter here than they are in reality.  The effect is more subtle in real life.  Still, the photo is instructive.

DESIGNING AS I GO

I am designing as I go.  Randall Darwall says that color speaks to color as one weaves.  Or at least that is what Valerie  said in her blog upon her return from the recent Penland workshop with Darwall.  But she said it much better than I. Go here to read about her experience and to see a plethora of wonderful photos.

But I think that other design elements as well speak to each other as one weaves.  In the case of this crackle piece, the design elements I am referring to are the various sized and shaped squares and rectangles formed by throwing yellow weft in different sheds for different lengths of weaving.

Since the piece will be only 14" long, the more I weave the more limited my choices become.  This is an interesting way to go.

DESIGNING OFF AND ON THE LOOM

I suppose that if I understood this crackle structure truly intimately I could do the designing off the loom.  But then weaving would be nothing but painting by numbers.  For me, that would be not much fun. Besides, for me at least, a computer drawdown just does not reveal the subtleties that real yarn crossing real yarn on the loom does.

Still, I will grow more competent in careful roughing out on paper and on the computer of what I would like to see happen as I continue to work.

© 2008

HANDSPUN & COMPUTING SETT: PART II

Here is another picture to give you an idea of the thickness of the yarn.

As I explained earlier, the wpi of this yarn are 13-14.  With that in mind, I moved on to work out what the sett would be for a twill weave. 

CALCULATING MAXIMUM SETT

Turning to Volume 1 of Osterkamp's Winding a Warp & Using a Paddle, page 90 (a very coffee-stained page, I might mention in passing.........), I learn that the first thing I need to do is to calculate maximum sett.  To do this, I multiply the wpi by 2/3, or, using a calculator, by the equivalent 0.67.  This equals 9.38. 

BALANCED WEAVE NOT POSSIBLE

Now, I cannot weave a balanced weave if I use the maximum sett.  That is true of tabby, where the maximum sett would be half of the wpi.  That is true of twill.  The physics of the interlacing simply would not allow for it. If I were to weave a piece at maximum sett I would end up with a warp-dominant piece, not a piece with a balanced sett.  Since I do want to weave a balanced weave, I need to adjust this sett of 9.38.

ALLOWING FOR USAGE

In this case, the item is for clothing, but the yarn is also more woolen than it is worsted. That means, according to Osterkamp, that I need to multiply the maximum sett by 65% to 70%. These calculations result in a sett between 6.09 and 6.56. 

SETT TO USE

It looks like I am going to sett this handspun at 6 epi. That seems to me a dreadfully wide sett!  So I checked Osterkamp's charts in her appendix.  There I found  a  3-ply wool with a wpi of 15 and a sett of 6 for the kind of item I am going to weave.

Still I am worried.  Still this seems wide.

Related Post:  Handspun & Computing Sett: Part I

© 2008

ONE TAPESTRY WEAVER'S DESIGN PROCESS

Tommye Scanlon is a tapestry weaver. I have always been interested in tapestry.  Interested enough to try my hand occasionally.  I like Tommye's tapestries but what is really intriguing me in her current blogging is following her design process.  If you are interested in watching over the shoulder of someone in the process of designing, go read these posts from her blog, Works in Process:

More Fiddleheads - and some Flame Azaleas   
More Fiddleheads     
And Still More       
And Yet More    

And now the weaving begins:

New Tapestry Has Begun   
Progress   

Related Posts:

Small Pieces 
Tapestry
Weaving as Exploration

© 2008

ART PIECE TWO BEGUN

Finally!

But not without some false starts.

FALSE STARTS

There were a couple of false starts.  One false start involved trying to weave yellow on the outside blocks to create a side border.  This turned out to be clearly not worth it.  If I want to incorporate borders in a different color better to do it in the warp.

DESIGNING BORDERS

If I wanted the same color for borders for the entire warp, I would just wind those colors on as part of the regular warp. 

However, if I wanted different colors, I could use the last block on either side for supplemental warps.  In other words, I would wind the warp as usual, but it would be only for the main body of the warp;  it would not include the blocks on either side (or the parts of blocks, for that matter).  Once the loom was beamed on and tied on, I would then thread, sley and tie on the supplementary warps.  From these I would hang weights at the back of the loom and off I would go!

© 2008

TAGGED BY CHERRI

Cherri has tagged me, so here goes.

What were you doing five years ago?

I'm really really bad with dates so the answers here are really guesses.

1. Weaving, probably working on CHG's learning program.
2. Editing CHG's monthly newsletter.
3. Working on my spinning.
4. Singing in the church choir.
5. Visiting Atlanta frequently for concerts

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?

1. Weave more on my art piece
2. Work out the details of my next post on handspun.
3. Go to the grocery store.
4. Cook dinner
5. Fold laundry

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1. Mozzarella cheese
2. Whole wheat chips
3. Popcorn
4. Apples
5. Cottage cheese, with walnuts and seasonal berries

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?

1. Give St. John's enough money to buy a new pipe organ.
2. Establish an endowment for the music program at St. John's
3. Seriously increasing charitable giving. 
4. Minor renovating of our house including, but not limited to, lighting improvements, better storage facilities for fiber and fiber equipment, more book shelves.
5. Hire a gardener to help me cope with my growing landscape and all the new plants (shrubs, trees, perennials) I cannot resist as well as with all the moving around of plants I continually do.

What are five of your bad habits?

1. Using the computer as a procrastinating tool
2. Not going to bed when I should
3. Interrupting my husband when he talks (he really hates this!)
4. Putting off making phone calls
5. Snacking before bed

What are five places where you have lived?

1. Brooklyn, NY
2. Milwaukee, WI
3. Champaign-Urbana, IL
4. State College, PA
5. Oxford, OH

What are five jobs you’ve had?

1. Public library aide
2. Office worker in department store
3. Graduate assistant in English
4. Professor of English
5. Housewife and mother

Which five people do you want to tag?

Any five people who would like to share.

© 2008

YELLOWS WOUND ON BOBBINS & DYEING SKILLS

No need to use pirns for end-feed shuttles since I am not using shuttles. 

These were only 50-yard skeins and the winding off onto the bobbins went very easily with my manual bobbin winder.  However, more and more I am thinking that what has caused my winding-off problems has been my dyeing techniques.

SANDRA RUDE DYES 60/2 BOMBYX SILK

Sandra Rude of Sandra's Loom Blog routinely winds and dyes very large skeins of 60/2 silk.  Moreover, though she does make her figure-of-eight crosses in four places on the skein, she divides the skein only in half.  She kindly gave me these details in response to my questions.  You can read her post on this here.

MOVING THE SKEINS EVERY WHICH WAY

When I first started dyeing skeins of 60/2 silk I wanted the dye to penetrate evenly and I did not want the ties to leave any white spots.  To achieve these ends, I moved the skeins around a lot in the dye pot.  And I turned and turned them. 

UP AND DOWN ONLY

Lately I have been gingerly experimenting with moving them only up and down in the dye pot.  Basically, I lift the skein up by a polyester cord.  I lift it out of the dye liquor and then let it drop gently back into the dye pot. 

With each succeeding dye job I have moved closer and closer to this procedure;  and with each succeeding dye job the winding off has been easier.  And the dying has been level.  And there have been no dreaded white spots from the ties.

NUMBER OF SECTIONS IN A FIGURE-OF-8 TIE

Nevertheless, even with 60/2 bombyx silk rather than this difficult silk organzine, I will not have the courage to wind a 1,000 yarn skein and divide it only in half.  Why?  If there is a problem in winding from the skein to a cone, I have found the problem can be isolated to the particular group of threads that is encased in one section of the figure-of-eight tie.  If those sections are small, say 150 yards each,the problem is limited to those 150 yards.  If the section is 500 yards, the problem can last for a great deal longer!

Related Posts: 

Dyeing Yellows
Winding Cones: Have I Found the Secret?

© 2008

POLYCHROME TREADLING WRIT LARGE

After I had hemstitched the first piece, I threw a few shots of yellow 20/2 pearl cotton to beat down the hemstitching. Then I placed filler to separate this piece from the next.

RUG FILLER

The filler I used is an off white heavy rug weft.  I had thrown the three shots of 20/2 pearl cotton on treadles 3, 4, and 5 of the polychrome treadling.  Then with the rug filler I laid in the next three sheds and beat in very gently.

A VISUAL IMAGE OF THE STRUCTURE

I realized that this thick off-white weft gave me a very good visual image of what is going on in warp and weft as I treadle. So I continued to treadle 3 through 8.

Reading from front to back, I treadled 6, 7, and 8, then returned to 3 and treadled in sequence through 8. 

This gives me a much better picture of what is happening than does a computer drawdown.  What, in fact, I want to remember to do is to treadle all this with rug weft at the end when I am ready to take the warp off the loom.  Then I can use this as a reference for further planning.  And it should be fairly easy to line these blocks up with the threading.

WARP THREADS NOT TIED DOWN IN EVERY SHED

Looking more closely, one can see that warp threads continue without being tied down for several shots.  With fine threads, this is perfectly fine.  The cloth is not compromised in any way.

Related Post:  8 Crackle Blocks on 4 Shafts Continued

© 2008

HANDSPUN & COMPUTING SETT: PART I

Perhaps Leigh somehow knows the agonies I have been going through trying to determine the sett to use for my next handspun shawl?

Here is a photo of the multi-orange yarn I spun and plied for that shawl.  

I spun this yarn from Rhiannon’s Fire (orange) from Crosspatch Creations’ Triple Play rovings,  I purchased this from The Bellwether.

So far I have plied two skeins.  Each skein works out to be 260 yards.  There seems to be enough of the singles left to ply another skein of about the same length.  The total plied yarn will represent about 8 ounces of fiber.

I had been nervous about the yarn, however.  I had spun it on my electric Babe and plied it on my Ashford Traveller with high speed Woolee Winder.  Then I dunked it into the water to soak.  No twist at all.  What a relief!

The wraps per inch are 13-14.  This is a little difficult to judge because the yarn is a textured yarn so there are (relatively) thinner and thicker parts.  This is not the result of incompetent spinning.  It is the result of a fiber that is deliberately processed to result in a textured yarn.

Related Posts:  

Spinning for Weaving
Spinning Weaving Yarn with an Electric Spinner

© 2008

LINKS TO RECENT POSTS FROM OTHER BLOGS

Aside from separating weaving from non-weaving blogs, I don't normally put these links in any order.  They usually just come where they come.  Today, however, the first two, I think, are the most interesting of all the reads.  So I would suggest, if you haven't already read them, do read them first.

This is a long essay deserving a careful read.  Every once in a while Sara comes up with a real gem, and this is one of them.
The Maze on the Way to Ping - Woven Thoughts

And this post  is a not-to-be missed photographic record of looms from around the world By sewing presses he really means looms.  The Portuguese to English translation can't handle weaving terms.
Atellier and Sewing Presses - Tecelagem Artesanal / Rodrigo Tecelão

MORE INTERSTING WEAVING BLOG POSTS

Famous Last Words -  t'katch - the language of weaving
Deflected Warps, Four Shafts - Weaverly 
That Funny Raddle and a Bunch of Fives -     t'katch - the language of weaving
Calculating Sett - Leigh's Fiber Journal
Something Old, Something New, Something Indigo - Shuttlepilot
Parting Thoughts - TIF - A Moveable Feast
Studio Afternoon with Kobe Students -Weaving a Life
Passing It On - Thrums

Even if you might think you are "beyond" a regid heddle loom, read this post anyway!
Weaving Samples - Woven Flame

TAPESTRY

The following is from a tapestry blog.  Tommye Scanlin has put together her version of Archie Brennan's pipe loom.  If you are curious, take a look.
I'm Weaving Again......... - Works in Progress

More tapestry, but fascinating, especially since Niki plans on bringing in the possibilities a 4-shaft loom has to offer tapestry. Brick Wednesday - Week 1 - Cyber Fiber Scriber

IDEAS

The following is by an observer about the fine arts. Much in this essay is relevant to us weavers. Read both post and comments.  There are interesting things about our dark sides and art. 
Art and Happiness - The Painter's Keys

© 2008