Posted by Peg in South Carolina
Check it out and let me know what you think. Of course, I should be weaving instead of fiddling with my blog………
"New Year Look for my Blog” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 30, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
"Handspun Scarf Modelled” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 27, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
I had intended taking the photo of the scarf on me. Time, however, prevented me from learning how to use the delay timer on my camera.
Merry Christmas!
"Finished Handspun Scarf” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 22, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
After discussing it with my husband, I had decided to sign up for the Complex Weavers’ Summer workshop being held in Albuquerque this summer. Then I learned that it had filled up within something like five days of registration having opened. My husband wanted me to get on the waiting list. But I figured that the waiting list was already pretty long.
Undaunted, I checked summer workshops in the area where I live. Not only did I find one. I found one that I would rather enroll in than Complex Weavers!
It is being held at the J.C. Campbell Folk School. Here is the description of the workshop:
Warp It! Paint It! Weave It!
June 6-12, 2010
Instructor: Kathie Roig
Want the beauty of a hand-painted warp but don't have the space, time, or equipment? Explore different methods of painting your warp (and perhaps the weft) using fabric paints, spontaneously adding color to yarn for functional or art pieces. Be ready to experiment with color, texture, and weave structure. Students must know how to dress a floor loom. Limited instruction will be given on warping, specific to the warp-painting process.
Does this sound heretical for someone who dyes her yarns? Actually, I have no intention of stopping dyeing or substituting painting for dyeing. What I do want to be able to do is to add painting to the dyeing. There are fabric paints that can do things that dyes cannot do.
I have been thinking about trying this for a long time. In fact, sitting on my loom right now is a small jar of gold Setacolor by Pebeo that I purchased recently in Asheville, NC. It is on top of my loom because I am thinking of trying to use it on my upcoming silk crackle piece.
I am now registered for the workshop.
"Summer Workshop” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 21, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
I followed the same procedure as I did for the sample. I fulled it a tiny bit more so it was both a tiny bit narrower and shorter than predicted.
Final Width: 6”
Final Length: 65”
I let it dry and then steamed it with lots and lots of hot steam. Never touched the iron to the fabric. I simply used my hand to gently press at the just steamed areas. It is lovely.
Will trim the fringes and get a picture up next week. I want to learn how to use the delay timer on my camera.
"Wet Finishing the Handspun Scarf” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 14, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
WET FINISHED BY HAND
In the first set of images, the sample has been soaked for one hour in hot soapy (Johnson’s Baby Shampoo) for one hour, then massaged or otherwise tortured by hand for about three minutes. The second image is a detail view.
The width has stayed the same: 7”
The length has shrunk from 15” to 12”
The sample has lost some of the fragility it had when it first came off the loom. But it is still quite delicate and soft. Very feminine in its delicacy. It needs to be washed again since this is to be a present for a man.
WET FINISHED IN THE WASHING MACHINE
The next set of images shows the sample after it has been washed by machine in hot water with Johnson’s Baby Shampoo for four minutes. I put it in a nylon lingerie bag.
The width has now drawn in to 6.25”
The length has shrunk down to 10.75”
The sample is still a bit delicate, but not at all fragile. The fulling process has thickened it up just as bit, as well as softened the fabric. I would be tempted to try fulling it just a bit more, but then I think it might start getting thicker than I want. Plus it would be getting way too narrow.
Based on the on loom measurements (7” x 15”), this represents a widthwise loss of roughly 10% and a lengthwise loss of approximately 22%. This means that, should I wash the scarf itself for the same amount of time, its length would shrink from from 88” (measurement on the loom) to roughly 68.5”.
The lengthwise shrinkage is in reality not that much. The drop of 3” in length of the warp represents simply that the yarn was stretchy and stretched quite a bit as I beamed it on. Likewise the length of the scarf off the loom went from 88” to 78”.
I had anticipated this kind of shrinkage from the beginning. Even when I wound the yarn on the warping board, it snapped back probably about 5” after I removed each bout.
Related Post: Winding the Handspun Warp
"Sample Wet Finished” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 13, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
Mended but not washed.
Actually, there was no real mending to be done. Simply trimming off the ends left from changing bobbins. I will trim the fringe after wet finishing.
Measurements:
Width: 7.25” (same as on loom)
Length: 78” (on loom, 88” = approximately 11% loss)
Dave Daniels commented on my last post:
FOURTEEN? Wow, good for you for getting that much extra out of it. Amazing!
The reason I could weave so close is that I have a big loom. It is a Nilus II LeClerc with rear-hinged treadles and from front beam to back beam measures 47”.
The longer warp length also reduces stress on the warp ends. That is why I can weave under high tension with little or no warp breakage.
Small looms are wonderful for little spaces and for travelling. But nothing beats weaving on a larger loom.
"Handspun Scarf Off Loom” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 12, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
Waste at back: 17" x 98 ends = 1,666" ÷36" = 46 yards
Is this too much? In this case, no, because I had more than enough handspun. Still 46 yards of plied handspun seems like a lot to me. But the fact that I could weave as far as I could on the warp will cause me to think carefully next time as to whether or not I will use a dummy warp.
And here is a close up that shows just how close the rod came to the heddles.
The amazing thing was that this last bit of weaving created a great deal of tension on the warp because the warp ends, when sheds were created created terribly great angles when a shed was made. But not a broken thread in the bunch.
And no floating shafts! Why do I have trouble with floating shafts in my complex crackles and no floating shafts in plain twill? It does not happen because of unequal distribution of warp ends on the shafts. Give or take one end, there are always the same number on each shaft.
Related Posts:
Floating Shafts
Handspun and Dummy Warps
"Handspun Scarf: End of the Line” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 11, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Here is the scarf, still on the loom. On the loom, it is 88” long and the width is 7.25 inches (the width at the reed is 8.0 inches.
I wonder how long I will be able to make the end-of-the warp sample I would like to have for testing wet-finishing?Posted by Peg in South Carolina
I have woven 80 inches so far. I plan on weaving only six more inches. That may (or may not) give me space to weave a short piece that I could use for sampling the finishing.
I have decided, by the way, that I like the sheds I get better with the raddle off the back beam. So for the next warp, I will remove the raddle after I am done threading. Then, of course, I will leave the lease sticks in.
Related Post: Finished
"Almost Done Weaving the Handspun” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 9, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
I am working at getting 12 picks per inch. What I had intended to do was to use my right angle rectangle to place against the fabric to check the angle of the twill. But this fabric is so busy with all its nubs that I cannot see the angle. At least not when I am looking straight down at the fabric. For all anyone might care, this reads simply as plain weave.
But I wanted to weave twill, because the twill structure, even though the fabric does not read as twill, will allow the fabric to hang nicely around the neck.
I discovered quite by accident that if I looked at the woven fabric on the loom from a certain angle, I could clearly see the twill line. So I tried to get it on a photograph. After many failed attempts, I finally got this one. If you look at the left side of the fabric, the twill line is visible.
"Twill Line” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 8, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
When I beat, I am used to slamming the beater into the fell. Indeed, I have equipped this beater with a weight to take some of the work off my arms. Adding the weight really goes back to my early years of weaving rugs. I keep the weight on because it helps very much in beating my fine silk pieces.
But this is neither a rug nor a 60/2 silk piece. Instead of using the beater to beat the weft into the fell, I use it to gently place the weft where it needs to be. This is a two-step process for me:
1. I raise the shed, throw the weft, and bring the beater a couple of inches away from the fell.
2. I change to the next shed and carefully bring the beater towards me to place the weft where my eye tells me it needs to be.
Actually, “bringing the beater towards me” is usually not quite accurate. Because the beater is generally tipping more or less towards me (and remember that the beater is weighted), I am actually holding the beater away from the fell and then allowing it to go to the place I want it to go by resisting the force its weight is trying to exert.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
I have decided to weave this piece with a temple. I think the selvedges will look better. I think the whole piece will look better. Despite the fact that I move the temple after 8 shots……. I’m getting used to it, though.
If you go to the related post on temples, you will see that when I wrote that—in July of 2007—I said that I had never used a temple on my handspun, only on silk warps or wide warps that needed to be beaten very tightly. A girl can change her mind…….
Related Post: Temples
"Weaving Finally Begun on Handspun Warp” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 4, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
After I had spun the yarn, I soaked it in hot soapy water for 30 minutes, rinsed it well and let it dry. The yarn did not “bloom” though the textured bits did. So I think I need to treat this as a worsted rather than a woolen spun yarn. But I still need to account for the texture.
I once again used Asenhurst’s formula to figure out the maximum sett for twill and I got 10.72. Well, I’m throwing Asenhurst out. What I see on my loom does not support this sett at all. So I am going to go for 12 epi.
And here is what it looks like sleyed at 12 epi.
The blue mohair is woven in plain weave and I have made no attempt to get the picks per inch correct. I wanted only to get the selvedges pulled in the right amount and to see how the warp spacing looked. This looks like a twill treadling is going to work very well.
Related Posts:
Handspun Sett Still Too Open
Interlude
"Resleying the Handspun” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 3, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
Looking at what was happening, namely how easily this was going to become a weft-faced piece, I began having second thoughts about the sett. Then I looked, really looked, at the warp. Clearly, clearly, these ends were still too far apart from each other. Even taking into consideration the textured bumps in the warp.
So, time to pull out all those blue threads and get to work on resleying.
Related Posts:
Determining Sett for Handspun Scarf
Handspun Sett Change
"Handspun Sett Still Too Open” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 2, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
Sitting on my triple balance scale in the kitchen are the three latest skeins of 60/2 silk I have wound for dyeing. Each skein consists of 1200 yards. Together, They weigh 109 grams. Divided by three, that means each skein weighs 36.3 grams, which, for practical purposes I will round off to 36 grams.
Why not weigh each skein individually? I think I might get more accurate results this way. At any rate, it is just simpler.
"Weighing the Skeins” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 1, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
I have not really been comfortable with a twill sett of 8 epi for this handspun warp. And after I had beamed it on I saw why. Here is a photo of the warp from the back after beaming, threading, sleying and removing of lease sticks.
The two warp ends visible on either side at the top of the shafts are the two floating selvedge warp ends. Right now, they are sleyed and the ends that will hang over the back beam I have simply thrown up onto the top of the loom to keep them out of the way for now.
This next photo shows more clearly why I was uncomfortable with 8 epi for a twill sett for this yarn.
Here in the raddle, the warp is sett at 8 epi. Looking at it, I see warp ends that are not close enough together. This would work for plain weave, but not for twill. So I decided to sett the warp at 10 epi using a 5-dent reed set two ends per dent.
This means that the sides of the warp will not go straight from front to back but will angle a bit. But the angle is very slight. Once I start weaving, the angle will be a little greater because the woven fabric will pull in.
The first photo, by the way, gives a good view of the LeClerc raddle. It is attached to the back of the loom so that the tines point directly back. I have removed the lease sticks but I am going to keep the raddle in while I weave the scarf. The raddle should keep the ends sorted at the back as much as they need be for this particular warp.
Related Post: Determining Sett for Handspun Scarf
"Handspun Sett Change” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 24, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
Here are the first of the green 60/2 silk weft yarns I have dyed. As I had hoped, the colors are just fine. One surprise, however, is the relatively little difference between the two darker yarns. The lighter (greener one) at the top of the photo used 1.4% red violet to tone the yellow green; the darker one in the middle used 18% red violet. My sampling shows that there should have been very little difference between the skein at the top and the skein at the bottom (which is pure yellow-green with no red-violet toner at all in it).
Was this a result of mistakes in the stock solutions? I have to assume so. Is it a problem for the green crackle project? No. I am simply revising the formulas for my next group of greens.
I think also that I will make another liter of this yellow-green. This liter will have in it none of the SAB Sun Yellow stock solution that I suspect was 2% instead of 1% DOS.
Related Post: Dye Stock Solutions
"Some Green Weft Yarns” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 23, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
NOTE TO MYSELF: write out dyeing instructions so that there is not a grain of ambiguity in them.
This morning I made preparations to dye three skeins of 60/2 silk for weft. They are to be three variations of yellow-green dulled with red-violet. I did not have enough mixed yellow-green leftover from the warp dyeing. And I did not have enough stock solution of the SAB Sun Yellow to mix the yellow green. So I made another liter of the Sun Yellow.
The new liter looked a lot lighter and brighter than the earlier Sun Yellow. Ageing of the stock solution?
I went ahead and mixed the blue and yellow for the yellow-green. Then I looked more carefully at my notes for the warp dyeing.
I saw some directions for using 2% stock solutions. And I remember that I had wanted to make 2% stock solution because of the large amount of Sun Yellow I was going to need. I wrote out my instructions are for using 1% solutions. But in parentheses I included the amount I would need for 2% solutions.
I find it difficult to believe that I used 2% stock solutions with directions for mixing from 1% stock solutions. That would have yielded an 8% depth of shade instead of the 4% I had planned on. Dyeing at 8% DOS would be ridiculous because there is no way the yarn would absorb that much dye. That would have meant that there would have been tons of dye solution left in the dyepot after the dyeing was done. There wasn’t.
Yet the deeper color of the SAB Sun Yellow haunts me.
I am sure the blue stock solution was 1% because I had not needed to make up any new. And I usually always make up my stock solutions at 1%.
I could throw out the yellow-green I just mixed, make up a new batch of yellow and a new batch of blue (I don’t have enough of the blue left to make another liter of yellow-green). Or I could just go with what I have.
I think I will go with what I have. It is not imperative that the colors be identical to my original intent. They frequently are not anyway because I don’t always get right the jump from small batch dyeing to large batch dyeing. And, if some of the yellow that has gone into this yellow-green is 2% instead of 1%, the effect will be a bit of greater brightness in the color. Weighing this together with the extreme weakness of yellow, I can live with that. I might even like it better.
So I am continuing on.
FAST FORWARDING A BIT
The yarn is now “cooking” in the dye pots. And frankly, the colors look just fine. The yarns wet always look darker and richer than when dry. But I think that these colors will be quite wonderful.
Related Post:
Dyeing Calculations Run Amuck
I Really Ought Not to be a Dyer
"I Ought Not to be a Dyer Revisited” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 20, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
Three of them.
I decided to try winding from the other end. Magic.
Perhaps not. This has happened before. So this time, I tried to watch the silk as it came off the skein. Hard to do as I have to keep my eyes glued to the cone to make sure the yarn doesn’t slip off the top or the bottom. What I saw when I grabbed glances of the skein was that the yarn was unwinding back and forth across the top of the skein. This explains the advice I once received to unwind from the top of the skein.
This advice had made no sense to me. When I wind a skein of yarn myself, I wind, say, 100 rounds, then put three or four ties on. I wind another 100 rounds, and twist the ties and encircle them to encompass the next group of yarns. And so on. The result is that when I make balls or cones from my skein, the yarn winds off the skein from one edge to the other……….gradually. Not back and forth across the top. And it makes no difference which end I start with.
Clearly the method of making these silk skeins is quite different. The winder simply goes back and forth and back and forth and then the ties are put on.
With this kind of skein it truly does make a difference which end I start with. If I start with the end that comes from underneath, I am in deep trouble. If I start with the end that comes from the top, all is well.
At least, these are my thoughts right now!
So, why three skeins? Because I plan on using a paddle and winding my warp three ends at a time.
PHOTOGRAPHY NOTE
Yes, the background color of the photo is a putrid gymnasium green. That is because I had to do some serious color manipulating to turn what the camera intrpreted as red, on all 15 photos I took, to the brown it really is. Here is the original image (and this is the least red of the images):
There is, of course, a lot of red in this yarn. Well, the camera lens apparently fell in love with the red and didn’t pay any attention to the other colors in the yarn that turned the color into brown. No matter what settings are tried on the camera itself. Sigh.
Related Post: Coning the Warp Yarn
"Cones of Brown Silk Warp” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 19, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
Is there such a word as “coning?” Spell checker seems to think it’s a word……. Anyway, here is the brown skein being coned. Also visible are some of my other tools.
On the bottom shelf, my electric cone winder and my hand cone winder.
On the middle shelf, my ball winder (in a clear pastic bag) and gloves that I sometimes wear when winding yarn to protect my fingers.
On the top shelf, my tension box, now facing a different direction so that the yarn coming from the skein winder does not pop off the pegs.
The winding is not going without some difficulties. This next photo shows more clearly just what the difficulties are.
And I do now know it is definitely the dyeing process that is the cause of the problems.
Related Post: That Badly Snarled Skein of Yarn
"Coning the Warp Yarn” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 18, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
I have three skeins of 60/2 silk ready for the dye pots.
“Life,” however, seems to be happening.
For the next couple of weeks, it is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to find any three-hour spaces that I need for even one dye session. I won’t mention just yet how many dye sessions I think I am going to need. That is a good way to head myself into a downward spiral!
Still I have enough tasks to do that can be done in smaller chunks of time.
1. The three skeins of warp yarn having been dyed can now be wound onto cones in preparation for winding warps.
2. I can wind the warp
3. I can beam, thread, sley, and tie on the warp.
These three alone I will be unable to finish in the next two weeks, even with more time at my disposal! But because I can do them in bits and pieces of available time, I can make steady progress.
I have already made a start on #1. Just enough of a start that I can tell the first skein is probably going to unwind onto the cone without much trouble.
Then there is the handspun scarf warp. I have made the warp, beamed it on and am ready to thread.
And a 4-dent reed sits against the wall waiting to be put to use.
So, to be realistic, I think I am looking to early January to begin the actual weaving on the green silk crackle project. I mean, Christmas is almost here, my gosh!
Related Posts:
Handspun Warp Question
Interlude
"Not Dyeing the Weft Yarns” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 17, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
Yesterday I learned that a local art gallery is sponsoring a fiber arts show for South Carolina artists in February and March. I have the information, the rules, and contact information. I’m going to do this. And I’m scared to death.
I’m scared because this is a small town and people I know will see something(s) of my stuff. I’m scared because I have to hang my own items and I don’t have the foggiest idea of how to do it. I’ll get over it. Actually, I’m already beginning to get over it.
I’m beginning to think of what I might show and how it might be displayed. I’m beginning to think of how I might volunteer to help—this is a co-operative art gallery so the artists whose work is being shown are expected to help out.
Still I am going to have to talk to the contact person. And that scares me, too!. Yes, even at the tender age of 71 I can still be extraordinarily shy. Despite the fact that I absolutely know that the contact person will be very nice and very helpful. Indeed, it turns out my husband knows and likes her; she works at the university where he teaches.
All will be well…….
"Opportunity” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 12, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
In the past I have always used a dummy warp with my handspun. My dummy warps consisted of about one-and-a-half yards of a similar sized cotton. I warped and beamed this cotton onto the loom. Then I tied the handspun warp to it and continued beaming on. But not this time.
Why not?
First, I had plenty of yarn, so I did not feel the urgent need to conserve it as carefully as I could.
Second, when I have used a dummy warp, I found that I could weave on the handspun warp until the knots got to and even through the heddles. Because I have an apron on the back beam (and on the front beam as well), I am thinking that maybe I can weave until the apron itself gets to the heddles. In that case, there would be no real reason to use a dummy warp.
Related Posts:
Tying the Handspun to the Dummy Warp
Handspun Shawl: The Dummy Warp
"Handspun and Dummy Warps” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 11, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
To wind the handspun warp I converted two skeins of the handspun into balls. Not cones. Balls. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Winding from balls is jerky at best. Winding from cones is smooth and easy. I knew this. So why, why, why did I make balls? With my cone winder it is just as easy to make cones as it is to make balls with my ball winder.
Well, there were not many ends, and I just wanted to see if I had been wrong about the balls. If my experience had changed. Nope. So, to wind bobbins, I will convert the remaining skeins to cones. I may even convert what is left on the second ball to a cone.
Cone/ball issue aside, there is really only one major issue to confront when I make a handspun warp. The stretch factor. Handspun has lovely resilience. That means it stretches and bounces right back. That means that when I removed the warp from the warping board, I immediately lost eight inches. Sigh. And I had tried to be so careful to wind the warp tautly but without stretching it.
I did make allowances for the stretch factor when I worked out the figures. I’m not totally dumb!
Related Post: Spinning for Weaving
"Winding the Handspun Warp” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 11, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
I checked Osterkamp’s extensive discussion of figuring out sett in her book, Winding a Warp and Using a Paddle. Usually I go the yards-per-pound route. This time, however, I decided I wasn’t going to fiddle with that. Instead I decided to work with the wraps per inch*.
My measurements of the wpi came in at 16. I’m never sure of the accuracy of these measurements. The finer the yarn gets, the more problematic it can be. But 16, accurate or inaccurate, is what is is going to be.
YARN WEIGHT PER POUND VERSUS WRAPS PER INCH
Yarn weight per-pound is much more accurate than working with wraps per inch. Working with 60/2 silk forces me into using yards-per-pound. However, that figure is already provided by the manufacturer. For me to work that out on my own, I would have to use the McMorran Balance**. But I’m not so sure of my ability to be accurate with that either.
16 wraps per inch it is.
CALCULATING SETT: STEP ONE
The next step is to multiply 16 by 0.67 (or 2/3) to get the maximum sett for twill. The answer to that calculation is 10.72. That, however, would be the maximum sett for twill. I want a softer fabric than that.
STEP TWO: CORRECTING FOR KIND OF FABRIC
To get a sett for a softer fabric I multiplied 6.9 by 0.65, the number that Osterkamp suggests for woolen. That calculation gave me a sett of 6.9. So the sett I would then use should be 7 epi.
STEP THREE: MAKE A CONSIDERED JUDGMENT
However, the last handspun I wove, with identical grist, was sett at 8 epi for twill. And this was decided only after enormous amounts of time spent thinking and worrying. I still have the piece so I checked it. That sett was exactly right. I will use 8 epi as my sett for this piece.
There is another reason I prefer a sett of 8 epi over one of 7. At 8-epi I can sley an 8-dent reed with one end per dent, instead of using a 5- or 6-dent reed with varying numbers of 1 and 2 ends in each dent. I worry about possible warp streaks when I have to mix the number of ends in a dent.
*To learn how to measure wraps per inch, go to this illustrated explanation: http://www.heartstringsfiberarts.com/wpi.shtm
**To learn how to use a McMorran Yarn Balance, go to this illustrated explanation: http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/aa00/aa022800.htm
Related Post: Thoughts on Designing
"Determining Sett for Handspun Scarf” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 10, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
This is a scarf. Well, not quite yet. Right now it is just a group of skeins of some of my recent handspun yarn. But it’s going to be a scarf. The white tags on each skein have yardage information.
So, what has happened to the silk crackle?
Well, I’ve dyed the second skein, which turned out nicely. And I’m ready to dye the third skein of warp yarn.
But I really long to weave.
Actually weaving the silk crackle is going to be awhile because of all the preparation steps that need to happen.
So, while I am doing that, I am going to make a dent in some of my handspun and weave a scarf for a Christmas present.
The red and green are really a bit too………too “Christmasy” for my taste. But the green is going to appear only as two very narrow stripes, one on each side of the scarf.
There are 16 wraps per inch. Looking at comparable yarns in the Halcyon yarn catalog, I find the a sett between 10 and 12 epi would be appropriate for twill. I am skeptical, however. I think I need to check with Osterkamp.
Related Post: Handspun and Computing Sett: Part III
"Interlude” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 9, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
I have now dyed two of the three skeins. One is dry. One is dyed, rinsed, and hanging to dry. And the third is for Tuesday.
The one that is dry is very interesting. I dyed it using 65% yellow green and 35% red violet. In some lights the dyed yarn looks a deep khaki green. In other lights it looks reddish brown. I have taken two photos showing the yarn’s appearance in different light, one is incandescent; the other is florescent. The yarn, by the way, is much more evenly dyed than the photos would suggest.
When the yarn was in the dyepot, the water actually looked red. So red that I wondered if the yarn was going to turn out red.
Even the camera lens seems to want to separate out these colors. I wonder if the shine of the silk isn’t contributing to this iridescence.
My guess is that when this warp yarn is crossed by yellow-green weft, the warp will look brown. But when it is crossed by red-violet weft, the warp will look green.
The evenness of the dyeing pleased me. Normally when I dye yarn, especially such large skeins of yarn, I shift the yarn around on the loops holding the yarn from the rod. But I had read doing that this is a no-no. Only lift the yarn in and out of the water. That is what I did with this skein.
"Iridescence?” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 6, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
I discovered that the tension box is useful not only for winding cones, but also for making skeins. Making skeins for dyeing the weft yarns is what I have now started to do.
The yarn comes up from the rack in the lower right hand corner. It is emerging through the metal eye there. It then travels up to the tension box which I have set up on a snack table. It goes through the metal eye and then around the pegs. From there it goes to the yarn counter, which is sitting on the red book. The black box is the counter. The yarn is wound 3 times around the wheel of the counter so that there is enough grip for the counter to be accurate. There is a metal eyelet it goes through first. Then on the other side of the counter is another metal eye. It goes through that and then over to the skein winder on the upper right.
What the tension box does here is to keep the yarn from looping and flapping around before it enters the yarn counter. When the yarn loops around too badly, it will slip off the wheel of the counter and gets caught in the gear mechanism at the back. When it happened this last time, I had to cut the yarn and join a new end to it. That is when I thought of the tension box………..
Related Posts:
More on Winding Fine Silk Onto Cones
Skeining Photos
"Tension Box: Another Good Use” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 5, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
The yarn is in the dyepot on the gas range. At the moment the temperature has reached 160 degrees and I am giving it 20 minutes to reach 180 degrees. I carry the thermometer around with me so that I remember to go back and check. And raise and lower the skein from time to time as well.
The white cord is looped through the skein and tied to the wooden dowel. I use the wooden dowel to lift the skein up and down in the water so that it will dye evenly. The red nylon cord visible on the left handle is attached to a thermometer which is in the water.
On the left is my green heavy duty plastic gloves and my timer. The white basin is where the yarn was soaking overnight and to which the yarn will return when it is dyed and ready to be rinsed and set to dry.
The red-and-white checked fabric is vinyl yardage used to make tablecloths, among other things.
The pot is stainless steel, but Walmart stainless steel. That means I cannot let the water get as high as the rivets on the inside of the pot or they will rust out (the rivets are not stainless steel). Also, the walls and bottom of the pot are thin so I have to watch for scorching. I think I have an idea that will help, but we shall see. In any case, I have read about using marbles to keep the yarn off the bottom, so I think I will buy some.
The beams of light are LED beams from my professional range top hood. The hood is on, getting rid of the heat, humidity, and and any airborne acid from the citric acid I use.
Related Post: Dyeing the Skein
"Let the Dyeing Begin” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 3, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
But I need roughly three hours of relatively uninterrupted time at home to do a batch of immersion dyeing. That’s not going to happen till Tuesday. Sigh……..
Not that there aren’t things to do. I am in the process of examining the threading and threading blocks for where and how I want the warp colors to change. I need to do that before I start winding the warp.
And I can always start winding the skeins for the dyeing of the weft yarns.
But, gosh darn, I want to dye the warp yarn!
"I Want to Dye the Warp, Gosh Darn” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 29, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
After working out the calculations for dyeing the warp skeins, I checked my stock solutions and discovered I needed to make more Sabraset Sun Yellow and Sabraset Violet. That meant moving out to my dyeing station in the garage.
It’s just a small place, the tops of two cabinets, covered with newspaper. Easily set up and taken down.
The scale dominates the scene—my triple beam balance scale. Usually for dye powders I have used my little 10-gram balance scale. My chemist friend assures me this is the same scale that drug dealers use………. Well, it must surely be accurate, then!
But I decided to drag out the big scale, and honestly, it did seem a bit easier to use. That is, it seemed easier to get the right amount of powder in, largely because I’m putting it in a larger container. Ten grams of dye powder usually fills the little scale’s pan to almost overflowing. So I shall probably continue to use the big triple balance.
Directly behind the scale is a very inexpensive (i.e., cheap) electric blender. It does a much better just of mixing the dye powder into solution, especially for those colors that just don’t want to get mixed and insist on clumping. Like Sun Yellow.
The small clear plastic containers on the right in the front are what I use to put the dye powder into for weighing. The white powder mask is also visible on the tray. Invisible are the green disposable plastic gloves.
Just outside the garage to the right is a hose which I can use for anything that needs to be rinsed out in between measuring different colors. In our Georgia house, we added the garage and I had a sink put in at the time. That sink out to be a wonderful investment, both for dyeing and for cleaning up after gardening.
Related Post: Making Stock Solutions
"More Dye Stock Solutions” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 29, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
Posted by Peg in South Carolina
For the first cone I wound, I had the tension box level with the cone. I did the same thing when I started to wind the second cone. But then I decided to try winding with the cone below the tension box. I did this primarily because I was having a bit of trouble with the yarn slipping off the pegs.
Moving the cone winder down worked well except for one problem. When the cone is down on the middle shelf, I am looking at it from above. As a result, I have trouble watching how the yarn is winding on. I especially have trouble seeing what is happening at the bottom. Here is a close-up that showed what actually happened.
The yarn slipped from time to time to the bottom of the cone. I don’t think this will seriously affect my winding off from this cone to make skeins. The real problem is that when this happens, the yarn can actually slip off the cone itself and get caught in the workings of the cone winder. Looking carefully at the bottom right of the cone shows one thread close to doing that.
Next time I might try reversing the positions of the two. But then I would have to change the way the tension box stands so that the yarn does not come off the guide rods.
Related Post: I Might Try the Goko Again
"More on Winding Fine Silk onto Cones” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 28, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.
