GRAY SCALE AND COLOR

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

I have always been interested in, have always loved, color.  But grayscale?  I hate it.  Why?  Because I simply cannot judge the grayscale values of color, except in really extreme cases.  But digital photography has made this a snap.  Thanks to this technology I could take the colored photo and transform it into a grayscale version.

Grayscale version of the photo:

Having transformed the photo, thanks to Paint Shop Pro, I could see that the lime green was definitely lighter on the grayscale than the others.  But, until I converted the image to grayscale, I would have guessed that it was a great deal lighter than either of the two other skeins.  Not so.  It is a great deal lighter than the skein on the right, but not so much lighter than the middle skein.

MUNSELL+DYE STUDY GROUP

I have Karren Brito’s new Weavolution group to thank for this helpful trick.  Karren, an accomplished dyer, especially in using Lanasest/Sabraset dyes on silk, has started a new group there called the Munsell+Dye Study Group.  If you go to the group’s Forum here, you will see the post and photo that inspired me.

By the way, Karren is also a weaver, a craft she has lately returned to.  She has a web page/blog which she calls Entwinements. She also has a Facebook page, for anyone interested in social networking.

I am not, by the way, a member of Karren’s study group.  By the time I learned about it, the group was closed.  However, at Karren’s suggestion, I am now working on collecting names for a second group.  If you are interested, go the Munsell+Dye Study Group on Weavolution and either post your interest on that group’s forum (you will see the appropriate topic there) or send me a PM.

So now I have a new tool to help me judge colors, the placement of colors, and the amount of colors in weaving piece I am designing.

“Gray Scale and Color”  was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 20, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

WHY IS THE BLACK TABLE GREEN?

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

GREEN IS GOOD

Yes, the table in reality is actually black.  Why is it green in the photo?  Because I fiddled with Paint Shop Pro to get the colors right.  This meant ramping up the green and also, a bit, the yellow;  and lessening the red.  Doing this affects the whole photo, so the table got to be green as well. 

How to avoid this?  Yes, it is possible.  Select the skeins out from the background, create a new layer, and work only with that on the color.  I have not mastered the skill of selection and do not feel the need to.  This photo is not for professional publication, after all!

So, what was the problem that led me to doing this?  The green yarn on the left wasn’t quite bright enough.  The yarn in the middle did not have enough of a green cast and the yarn on the right was way to red.

The results are not perfect, though there is definite improvement.  The color of the green yarn is accurate.  The red is still a tiny bit too red.  The brown is quite off the mark. It definitely needs to be more of an avocado, though a dulled avocado.

TOO MUCH REDDISH YARN

But there is another problem, and this one is a bit more serious.  The yarn on the right was to be my main binder yarn so I dyed three skeins of it.  But it turned out way too red for that purpose.  The middle skein turned out exactly right for that purpose.  Clearly, when I moved from dyeing small sample skeins to dyeing 100 gram skeins, something went amiss in my calculations.

MORE DYEING TO DO? 

Based on what I saw, I changed the dye calculations and came up with the middle skein. I am not going to dye any more of this color until I have started the weaving and can get a better estimate of how much more yarn I will need.

I would, however, like to dye a smaller amount of a green that is between the brightest green and the avocado green and also a smaller amount of quite a bright version of the red.

BACK TO SLEYING THAT REED…..

Not to mention winding skeins onto cones………..

“Why is the Black Table Green?”  was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 14, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

NOW IT’S TWO, NOT ONE, EXTRA WARP ENDS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

One loose end on the right half;  now one loose one on the left. The one on the right side (left in the photo) was the result of inadvertently threading two ends in one heddle.  The other one was a thread that was appropriately in the lease sticks but simply had been apparently dropped as I was threading. 

Note how I put that the main part of that last clause in the passive voice:  I absolutely disclaim any responsibility for that error!

I have wrapped each end around a knitting fair isle bobbin.  Who knows, maybe as I weave a will break a nearby warp end and there will be one to neatly replace it!

SLEYING SAME ENDS THREE TIMES

The few remaining warp ends that need to be sleyed are through the lease sticks on the right side of the photo.  I didn’t finish today.  Aside from having spent the last two days dying, I ended up sleying one group of ends THREE times.   Sigh.  I have to be very careful when I near the end of something.  Try as I may, some kind of hopeful energy surges through me and I start making mistakes.  I was so sure I would finish sleying during this session…….

WHY  DOES MY CAMERA SEEK OUT RED?

This warp, by the way, is not red.  Not red at all.  It is brown and a browned yellow-green.  Red, however, was one of the colors in the dye pot.  Every time I take a picture, I am astonished to see how desperate my camera is to bring that red into the foreground.  I have given up fussing with Paint Shop Pro to correct the issue.  I am going to allow my camera to have its own way.  Sometimes one simply must.

Related Post:  Sleying the Reed Half Done

“Now It’s Two, Not One, Extra Warp Ends” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 7, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

BEAMED WARP

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

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COLORS AND PHOTOGRAPHY

I have fussed and fussed, but no matter how many images I snapped, no matter how much playing with the software, nothing captures the “real” colors.  And I think that I now know why.  This is shiny soft silk and so the colors are continually changing according to the light.  I’m not just talking about things like florescent versus daylight.  I’m talking about the time of day and the angle of viewing as well.

In other lights the reds are more brown and the browns are more olive.  Those are what I have regarded as the “real” colors.  But, gosh darn, when I get up and look at that warp, these are the colors that are showing.

Whatever.

I was nevertheless so enraptured with the iridescent complexity of it that I thought for one brief moment about threading to a straight twill and weaving it off as a straight twill.  Well, if the crackle refuses to do what I want it to do, that is a definite possibility.

BREAKING THREADS

I did break some threads in the beaming process.  First time I have ever done this.  It took me awhile to realize what was going on.

On top of the loom I had positioned the 1” grouping raddle. (Go to the post “Using Two Raddles” to see what this was about.) Since I had made the actual warp in slightly less than 1” bouts, the bouts were split most of the time.  What was happening was that at the split, two warp ends, one one either side of the separating wire, would get caught and trapped.  So they tightened up and refused to budge so of course----snap!  

I think basically using that second raddle on the castle of the loom was an excellent idea.  But I have to make bouts that fit between the dividers when I do this again.

I’m not sure that I mended things correctly---there were three different breaks as I recall.  But things should work out anyway.

“Beamed Warp” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 3, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

CONES OF BROWN SILK WARP

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.

 

LAST GREEN SAMPLES

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

When I looked at the first two sets of green samples, I saw some gaps I was interested in filling in.  These are the results.

The orange doubled loop visible at the top of the photo is what I used to loop through a skein (one through each skein) to make it easy to dip the individual skeins in and out of each of its Mason jar dye baths. 

NUMBERING THE SKEINS

The piece of paper with the number 2 written on it is a piece of masking tape. After I removed a skein from the dye and rinsed it I put a piece of masking tape on the doubled loop with an identifying number from 1-7.  These numbers referred to the formulas I used for the dyeing.

Numbering them makes it much easier for me to know which finished skein goes with which formula.  I don’t always have to do this because sometimes it is very clear.  In dye pots of yellow and blue, where I simply varied the amount of blue in the five or seven dye pots, it is very easy to distinguish one from another.  But these recipes were more diverse and complex.  I did not trust my eyes.

STARTING THE NEUTRAL SAMPLINGS

Since there were only five greens I wanted to try, I had room for two more colors, so I started on the set of neutrals.

The two colors I am using in this set to achieve neutrals are yellow-green and red-violet.  The reddish one on the left has 45% red-violet.  The browner one next to it has only 24% red violet.  I had anticipated that it would take less than half of the red-violet to brown the green because red is a very strong color.  I didn’t realize that I would have to drop it down to 1/4 of the total mount.  Red is really a dominating color.

PHOTOGRAPHY NOTE

For those who notice (and care about) such things, I took the two photos on the same table in the same light.  In the top photo, the color of the table is pretty close to what it is in reality.  In the bottom photo, the color is much more yellow. 

This color cast happened because to correct the color balance for the skeins in my software, I had to move the color cast to cyan and to green.  This removed the excess reddish cast but it also removed the reddish cast from the table and so turned it into a yellow-brown.

Playing with lightness and saturation in the two photos also affected the tables differently.

There are ways of dealing with this problem, but they are time-consuming and, quite frankly, I don’t care what the table looks like in the photo!

Some time I might try white paper, but I’m not sure I would like the strong contrast between background and skeins that would happen.  Of course, trying it is the only way to find out!

Related Post:   Two Sets of Greens Done

“Last Green Samples“ was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 2, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

 

FIRST GREEN SKEINS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Here is a photo of the results of the first batch of green dyeing.

This was taken in incandescent light and the colors are quite accurate. I did have to do an unusual amount of fiddling in PaintShopPro to get those colors accurate.  But when I look at these skeins in florescent light, those three green skeins on the right look definitely blue.  Well, teal, but a very blue teal.

So……viewed in incandescent light, those green skeins are quite useful for this project.  But, viewed in florescent light, no.

In any case, it is the five skeins on the left that have been entered into the group of colors I will probably use for the next piece.

Meanwhile, I have drawn up recipes for another seven greens which may or may not support those five greens of choice.

Next step?  I need to make a 1% DOS dye stock solution of SAB black and then, having made that, make a 0.1% DOS solution to use for mixing in with the other 0.1% DOS solutions I have been using.  Then it’s back to another dye batch with the Mason jars and electric frying pan.

Related Posts: 
Green Dye Sampling
Making Stock Solutions

“First Green Skeins” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on September 23 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

YARNS AND COLORS FOR GREEN CRACKLE PROJECT

Also a note at the end on photography for those interested in such matters
Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Taking a break from looking at the computer screen, I checked to see if I needed to order any yarn.  It turns out that I have plenty of 60/2 silk, which is for both the warp and the pattern weft.  But I seem to have no more 120/2 silk, which is for the binder weft.


By the way, for the curious, the piece of yellow at the bottom left corner is the first piece I wove—a yellow wool and mohair afghan which I keep draped over my computer chair.

120/2 silk is very fine, but fortunately Treenway Silks offers it on cones as well as skeins. That means that I will not have to wind cones from skeins before I wind smaller skeins for the dye baths. So my order is in.
 

I do not have enough of the silk tram I ordered from Habu.  I plan on using this for some, but not all, of the pattern wefts.  A phone call will be in order tomorrow.

And I have started work on the dye formulas I want to sample.  They are mostly some different variations of yellow-green.  I will be mixing Lanaset/Sabraset dyes and will use SAB Sun Yellow,  SAB Mustard Yellow, SAB Turquoise and SAB Royal Blue in various proportions. 

After I finish the yellow-green sampling, I will take the colors I like and want to use and add varying degrees of red-violet to them.  Red-violet is the complement of lemon yellow, so I can use a bit of it to tone down the various lemon-yellows.  Using a bit more of the red-violet should give me some possible browns to use.
 
There is no red-violet in SAB dyes so I am using a formula I have used in another sampling and like.  It  uses SAB Scarlet, SAB Violet, and Washfast Acid Magenta in various proportions.

Then I will do the same thing with violet.  There is a SAB Violet but I don’t like it alone.  So I will combine it with SAB Royal Blue an Washfast Acid Magenta, which will give it a more brilliant character.

Also on the sampling to-do list is using black to create varying degrees of grays.  Then I plan to combine one or more of these grays with any browns I find from earlier trials that I like.  I will see what happens.

These formulas are now made up only in terms of percentages, not in terms of actual amount of dye.  I need to wind and weigh the skeins to determine the actual amount of each dye stock solution.

I will be winding small skeins of 20/2 silk.  I use 20/2 silk instead of 60/2 because it is much heavier and so I do not have to make very larger skeins for the dye samplings.

It looks like I will be starting with about 25 skeins.  I will do more if I see some more ideas I want to try as a result of this batch of dyeing.  So my next steps are:

1. Wind 10-yard skeins of 20/2 silk.
2. Weigh the skeins
3. Rewrite the dye stock formulas in terms of actual amounts of dye needed.

So now it is time for some actual physical labor!  At least I have quite a bit of 20/2 already wound on a cone so, at least for now, I do not have to wind another skein of it onto a cone.

Photography Note:  I have a new camera which lets me take far better pictures, both inside and outside, than my old one.  But this photo reveals the difficulty that still exists of getting colors right.  The major issue was caused, I think, by the brightness of the LED screen versus the comparative dimness of the rest of the room.  The result is that the overall colors are just a tad too dark, except for the computer screen.

Because I was most concerned with the colors on the computer screen, I selected it, moved it to its own layer and played with it.  The result is better, except that now the blue borders that Windows uses for its various toolbars are definitely not blue.

I could have selected the entire computer screen, reversed the selection so that everything else was selected instead and then lightened that a tad.  But I did not think about that because only what was on the computer screen concerned me.

There are other issues as well.

• The round yellow light on my phone to the right of the computer.  The light is really red…………   Sigh……….
• The glare of the blue button at the bottom of the screen.

Finally I just have a ton left to learn on using this camera.  I doubt that I shall learn it all in this lifetime!

Related Posts:  
Dyeing Records
Dye Stock Solutions

“Yarns and Colors for Green Crackle Project” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on September 10, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

HOT OFF THE LOOM AND ON TO MY SHOULDERS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

 

 

This has been sitting on the loom for days waiting to be cut off.  Finally I could procrastinate no longer.  I had to find out.  I had to cut it off.

I was so totally surprised that I simply threw it over my shoulders (sampling and pre-piece weaving are still attached at the bottom), grabbed my camera and started shooting. 

I am one happy camper.

Related Post:  Designing the Scarf

“Hot Off the Loom and On To My Shoulders” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on August 6, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

ALTERNATING TREADLES, DIFFERENT TABBIES

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

 

Here I have juxtaposed the two versions of alternating treadles that I think will be of use in my next project.  Think of the reds and blues as dark grays and browns.  Think of the yellows as a rich lime green.  The lime green at the top would be 120/2 silk.  The lime green at the bottom would be the heavier shiny silk.

This sampling does not represent what will be the ultimate threading block order, nor the order of the treadling blocks, nor the height of the treadling blocks.  It simply gives me a direction of what I can do to accomplish the project I am planning.

All this means that the tabbies will play an important role in the design.  3 shuttles going…….

PHOTOGRAPHY NOTE

And one more thing.  I have my new camera and I’m loving it.  It’s an advanced digital camera but not a digital SLR.  Two of the things I like about it: 

1. I get much better close-ups.

2. I only have to do the tiniest bit of tweaking to color in the software.

Related Posts: 
   Color and Neutrals
   End of Warp Sampling: Treadlings with Tabbies
   Weaving with Multiple Shuttles

 
“Alternating Treadles, Different Tabbies” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 22, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

MISSED DEADLINE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I am so angry with myself.  I  have started taking pictures of the shawl I have planned to submit to the fiber show sponsored by the Atlanta weaving guild.  Today I checked the deadline.  July 1.  I had remembered July 31.  And for some really stupid reason I never put it on my calendar.

Usually I put in this kind of deadline on my calendar and I add a warning for two weeks before the deadline and then I put in a mail-by date on my calendar.  I didn’t do any of that.

Lesson learned.

I had started working on the photography yesterday.  This was the first halfway decent one I came up with but I didn’t like it.  I had then done some more re-arranging and photography and was getting to something I liked better.  Planned to go find paper today that was some kind of light gray.

Here is the direction I was moving toward, but with a change of background, of course……….

 

Related Post: 
   Handspun Shawl Done….Almost
   Spinning for Weaving

“Missed Deadline” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 20, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

 

 

DESIGNING THE MIDDLE SECTION

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I am getting close to the middle section of this sample/scarf that is on my loom.  But I have not yet designed it.  All I know is that I want to use treadlings from both of the previous two design groups, combining them in some way.

To help me design this section, I needed to see together those two motif sections I had woven.  With the scarf still on the loom, that was pretty much impossible.

So I went into Paint Shop Pro and created the following image:

I even managed to label the treadles to make it easier to work with.  I have printed this out.  In black and white since all I have is a laser black-and-white printer.  But the contrasts are clear and that is what matters.

I am so pleased with the results of my efforts that I find myself staring at the photo with cat-like pleasure. I cannot even bring myself to work on the designing---the very reason for going through this work!

I am definitely no longer “distracted and out of sorts.”

Related Posts:  
   Motif Stripe 2
   Figure and Ground

“Designing the Middle Section” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on June 11, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

FIRST MOTIF BEGUN

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Here is the beginning of the first motif, gold thrown on treadle 3, preceded by its shadow, blue thrown on treadle 3.

Right now I am intrigued by what is going on. 

• First, looking at the expanse of red.  The warp is all the same color and yet the appearance contradicts that fact.  There appear to be lengths where, instead of very dark red warp, there is a brighter warp.  This is especially true if, counting from left to right, you look at blocks 1, 5 and 6.  I looked at the threading and none of those threading units has anything on shaft 4.  All the other threading units have threads on shaft 4.  But I don’t know what to make of that!  I shall have to look at the tie-up and see if that helps explain.
• I’m also intrigued by the shadowy yellows in (again, counting from left to right) blocks 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7.
• And I am intrigued by how much darker the shadow blues preceding the golds  look.  That seems to be true primarily for the photo, not for the fabric in real life. Nevertheless, the photo alerts me to the need to be watchful and thoughtful as I continue to weave in relation to that blue. Is it telling I might need to make some changes in how I handle the blue in the design units? 

Under all of this lies a sense of disappointment.  At the same time there also likes a sense of challenge. I will ignore the former and live with the latter.

Photography Notes:

1. Looking at the top of the photo shows the fell line sloping just a bit down.  The reality?  Not true.  Had I not cropped the photo, what would have been visible is that this apparent slope gets greater and greater until, where the shuttles were visible at the top, they looked like they were going to slide right off the loom!  And yet the front beam looks perfectly level…..

2. Photographs do not always tell the real truth. I must always look to the cloth first and last and in between.

“First Motif Begun” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on May 18, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

LASHED ON

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I have lashed on to the front rod.  The lashing is visible in the lower right-hand corner of the photo. 

I have adjusted the tension.  And I have started the weaving with waste yarn.

To my delight there are no threading errors.  And to my further delight, there are no crossed warp ends.

On the other hand, I am dealing with sheds that do not want to clear. 

For the first eight shots, I had to manually clear each of the sheds.  Then with each succeeding group of eight shots, sheds began to clear.  I was at that point weaving quite close to the front beam.  So I moved the fell more towards the half-way point between front beam and beater.  And I continued to weave.

Now there are only two or three sheds that have a warp end or two that want to stick. 

When I return to the weaving I will move the fell a bit closer to the beater.  I had learned earlier that doing this forces better shed clearing.  If I feel a bit concerned, I will treadle another group of eight with the waste yarn.  If I feel brave and ready, I will start weaving with the silk.

Here is a close-up photo of the so-called “waste” yarn.  It is a fine tencel which maybe eight years ago I painted with the colors I had used on a tencel warp.  I had not planned on using a variegated yarn on that warp but since I had the dye ready and the yarn ready, thought I would paint it up and try it.  It did not work.

But I have enjoyed trying it on samples occasionally to see if it would work.  And I have enjoyed using it as waste yarn.  I clearly have quite a bit of it!

PHOTOGRAPHY ASIDE

I have acquired a new photography book (no, I am not quite as bad about collecting photography books as I am about collecting weaving books. But I do succumb to temptation a bit too often….).  I was attracted to it because one of the authors is Scott Kelby.  Kelby has written a couple of amazing books about digital photography—books that I can actually understand.  The title is The Photoshop Elements 7 Book for Digital Photographers. 

Now, I do not use Elements;  I use Paint Shop Pro.  But a quick look through at the book store suggested to me that much in there is quite the same as Paint Shop Pro.  Some of the language may be different.  And some of the actual tools may be a little different.  But all in all it seemed useful to me.

And useful it has turned out.  So far I have been working with only two chapters.  First the chapter on sharpening.  Then the chapter on something called levels.  The last has always troubled me and nothing I have read about in PSP has unveiled the mystery.  This book does. 

Thanks to levels, I got the colors in these photos right.  Well, almost right.  The waste yarn, in the second photo, is just a bit too bright.  But the rest of the photo is as close to perfect as I have ever gotten.  In time I will learn how to deal with areas of a photo.  Kelby’s book has the information.  I just need to spend some time with it.

Related Posts: 
   Lashing on to the Front of the Loom: Part One 
   Lashing on to the Front of the Loom: Part Two
   Ready to Weave
   Where is My Fell?
   Learning the Hard Way

“Lashed On” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on May 5, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

LOOSE END

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

The silk tram unwound quite nicely onto cones, thank you. But four of the six silk bombyx skeins gave me nothing but grief. This photo shows what happened with every one of those four skeins.

Yes, I am giving it center stage because I am…….well, I don’t know what I am! At least the long-awaited tripod arrived, and does it ever make a difference. That blankety-blankety-blank loose end shows up so nice and clearly on the photo……..

I have had to unskein these by slowly turning the winder, stopping, when the yarn catches, undoing the catch, turning the winder some more, and so on. The catch sometimes happens with every half turn, sometimes every turn. When enough loose yarn accumulates on the floor I then wind that onto the cone. And begin again. This is slow work.

I have to be very careful to make sure that this loose end, no matter how large it grows, stays properly aligned and doesn't slip over the end of the skein winder. I’ve learned that the hard way. On three of the skeins I ended up with an absolute mess as a result of not paying attention. I had to cut and knot. More than once. Those skeins are going to be miserable to weave with. But weave with them I will.

Related Post:
Silk Tram
Winding the Dyed Silk onto Cones
Silk Organzine Yarn Versus Bombyx Silk Yarn

“Loose End” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 30, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

SKETCHBOOKS FOR WEAVERS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

FIRST

Today is my birthday. When I came to my computer, there was a paper copy of the web page with the camera tripod I asked for. On it was written the note: “if you still want this, please order it.” Hurrah!

BACK TO THE BUSINESS AT HAND

Nigel had mentioned in an email a book by Kay Greenlees called Creating Sketchbooks for Embroiderers and Textile Artists. I purchased this book, perhaps six months ago. I skimmed through the whole thing and then started reading it. I stopped about a third of the way through and put it away.

I loved the book. It was beautiful. But how does a weaver create a sketchbook? The notion of drawing rocks or manhole covers, or leaves, or flowers and working from them to a weaving just didn’t seem to work for me as a weaver.

I had been following Nigel’s blog. He is using sketchbooks in the Bradford course. I knew that was part of the Bradford course. But still, though sketching is nice, I still didn’t see any real sense in it for weaving. Maybe for tapestry weaving. But not regular weaving.

And then Nigel mentioned the Greenlees book. So I got the book back out. I began to read it a bit more carefully.

Greenlees says that a sketchbook can be a written journal. In a sense, that is what I keep on the computer. So if I were doing the Bradford course, or something similar, I would have to transcribe the written sketches on the computer into an actual sketchbook. And of course it would include actual weaving drawdowns.

E-SKETCH BOOKS

This time I noted that Greenlees discusses what she calls E-sketch books. She doesn’t seem overly enthusiastic, though she admits others are. She discusses pros and cons and suggests things to keep in mind as the artist looks for the most appropriate software for her purposes.

One of her concerns is the ease of mark making. So she is still thinking of an E-sketchbook as a computer equivalent of a literal sketchbook. I am not concerned with mark making or making sketches in a journal. I am interested in collecting ideas, both verbal and visual.

Any mark making I might be interested in doing can be done in Paint Shop Pro and I can bring anything I do there into other software.

HUNTING FOR SOFTWARE

I have some journaling software on the computer. I tried it a bit. It is a good way to keep the kind of stuff you would keep in any ordinary Word or Word Perfect document. But it fails miserably as an art journal.

Why? You can’t put objects anywhere you want on the page. You simply cannot design a page. And you can’t look at two pages next to each other.

MICROSOFT PUBLISHER

A number of years ago I did a newsletter for our weaving guild in Atlanta. Always interested in new things, I purchased Microsoft Publisher. Easy to learn. Creates an effective newsletter.

Microsoft Publisher. Why not? You can design pages freely. You can view two pages side-by-side. So I went to work. And here is a page I put together rather quickly, just to see how it might work:

SOME OBSERVATIONS

The blue and pink lines are simply margin guidelines and do not print out. Also, the light squares around the various pieces of writing do not print out. They are simply guidelines.

And my name at the bottom is for the purpose of this post and is not on the actual page. Also, since this is the first page, only that page can be viewed. But when I work on the inside pages, then I can view the two pages side by side, as if I were looking at the real thing.

And of course, when I have filled a volume (I can add as many pages to this volume as I want), I can always print it out and have it bound. If I want to.

I can’t attach actual samples, actual yarns, actual leaves…….. But otherwise I do believe this offers exactly the flexibility I need to create a sketch book.

I checked the latest version of Publisher. Mine is 2000 and the latest is 2007. But the latest version has no advantages for me over my version to warrant spending the money.

USING IT?

Now what I need to do is to figure out a system for using it. Ideally, putting in something once a day would be great. But I do not have that kind of time. So I am going to have to do it like one day a week or some such thing. Maybe Greenlees has some ideas.

Or I could just keep it open on the computer. Right now that is a bit dangerous for the novelty of it keeps me at it to the point that it becomes a time waster. But the novelty surely will wear off (though the novelty of blogging hasn’t worn off yet……….).

Related Posts:
Playing with Color
PixeLoom, Paint Shop Pro and Gradated Warps
Painting a Mock-up – with Paint or Computer Software
Crackle Jacket: First Rumblings

“Sketchbooks for Weavers” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 13, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

HANDSPUN SHAWL DONE…ALMOST

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I haven’t trimmed the fringes yet………

I soaked the shawl in hot soapy water for almost two hours.  I changed the water once and kneaded the fabric from time to time until my hands came out.  Then I hung it to dry.

When the fabric was dry I looked at it. It certainly had not fulled and definitely needed a trip in the washing machine.  It certainly looked nothing like the earlier sample I had woven of commercial wool.  Go here to see that sample.

But then I looked again. I felt the fabric.  Yes, the weave was still open, but the fabric was no longer fragile.  And canvas weave is a lace structure.  This is lace!

My intention had not been to weave lace.  My intention had been to create a fabric with floats in both weft and warp to show off the handspun.  And that is what had happened in my earlier trial.  But lace I wove and lace it shall be. Far be it from me to turn it into something it does not want to be.

I then pressed it with lots of steam.  My first round of pressing is always rather gentle.  And then I realize that pressing hard does not damage the cloth at all. Instead, pressing smoothes it out and creates a very thin, draping cloth.  So after that initial round, I did two more rounds pressing hard on the iron with both hands.

My iron is a Rowenta steam generator, so I get lots of steam before I have to add water.   It’s old but still works fine, though I do like some things about the new version.  But I shall wait till this breaks first.

Even though the fringes still needed to be trimmed, I just had to try it on.  It is light, airy, and warm and long enough so that I can swoop one end around my should to the back—the perfect wrap for late fall and mild winter days in the South.

FINAL MEASUREMENTS

Width: at reed: 27.5”; off loom and after washing:  20.5”.   This is 3.5” narrower than I had planned the finished shawl to be.

Length: on loom: 97.5”;  off loom and after washing: 79”.  This is 7” longer than I had originally planned.

PHOTOGRAPHY POSTSCRIPT

For my birthday I am thinking of asking for a tripod.  I have a monopod which works pretty well but sometimes even with that I am shaky.  And taking a clear picture with one hand is impossible!  You should see all the attempts I culled out.

Related Post:   Handspun Shawl off the Loom

“Handspun Shawl Done…Almost” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 1, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

BLOG POSTS TO VISIT

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

The first post, called Feeling Blue by Robert Genn is on color, specifically the colors blue and red. Robert Genn of Painters Keys has found himself using a lot of blue lately in his paintings and here he talks about the significance of his focus on that color. But he also talks a bit about red, which makes me happy, since red seems to be my focus right now. But I’m not particularly happy with what he says: “with red you are more inclined to be vigilant and careful.” His piece is tempting me to begin to work with blues. Which works best for you, blue or red?

With this next post, I return to weaving: Finding Your Way in the Dark – The Hawthorne Works. I loved this piece on the limitations of weaving software because I find this software infuriatingly unhelpful in my own weaving. I also appreciated his discussion on overcoming the difficulties of being able to see only parts of the piece one is weaving during the weaving process. The more one weaves on a piece, the more of the piece one cannot see. This is an important problem for a rug weaver who weaves on a regular horizontal loom. But it is also an issue I faced, for example, when I wove my recent art pieces. And I will face it again when I start weaving the next crackle shawl/sample. He has given me a camera trick I will want to try.

Meg, in her post called Mine or Someone Else's? has written an interesting post on what can be a difficult decision: should I stay in my comfort zone or should I leave it to try something that I cannot be sure will work out? I can’t imagine just totally leaving my comfort zone without at least some testing, but perhaps I am too wary. What ways do you have to help you leave your particular comfort zone?

Tien’s post, Heading into the Wilderness, is about leaving the comfort zone and entering the wilderness of the unknown. Why, she asks herself, does she insist on “…striking out on my own rather than following the path that is already laid out.” Her answer resonates with mine.

Related Posts:
Creative Intelligence and Weaving
Aiming for Excellence
Leaving the Comfort Zone

“Blog Posts to Visit” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 10, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

WINDOW SCREENING CONTINUED

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

PLACING, PRESSING AND SQUEEZING

Next I wove with the same treadlings I had on the first set of samples but with a difference: I did not beat the warp to death.  This time, as in the second set, I gently pressed and then carefully squeezed the beater.  So these samples look (and feel) much different from the original first set.

One of the issues was how hard to squeeze those overshot threads which are thrown twice in the same shed.  I decided to barely place the first shot, then throw the second shot and barely place it.  Then I treadled the next treadle and pressed and squeezed the beater until those doubled threads seemed to be where I thought they needed to be.

Beat this way, the bottom sample with blue weft measured 8 picks per inch;  the top sample with gray weft measured 9 picks per inch. In counting the picks I counted the doubled wefts as 2 picks.

These samples seem much more promising.  But again, only removal from the loom and washing will tell the full story.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND COLOR NOTES

Normally when I photograph my weavings I have the bright colors settings on.  But photographing these blue and gray wools have given me trouble. The only way I could get close to the right color was to turn off all the color settings. Even so the colors were still too bright.

So today I decided to play with the software as well.  The result is much closer to the real thing.

But I took another photograph as well.  I had no lights turned on when I took the photo at the left, only the ambient light available from bright sunlight coming through the windows.  So I decided to try a daylight setting and a cloudy daylight setting.  With the cloudy daylight setting, this is what I got.  I almost didn’t take the picture when I saw it on the LCD screen because it seemed so wrong.  Then I looked at the fabric.  I was surprised to see that actually, right then, with the fabric at the distance it was from my eyes, these were pretty close to the colors I actually saw!  Color is definitely magical.

Related Posts:
Window Screening
Discouraged But Not Totally

"Window Screening Continued" was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 13, 2009. © 2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

READY TO SLEY THE REED

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

As the photo shows, I have finished the threading. The groups of threaded ends are tied in slip knots so that the ends stay where they belong.

The next step is to set the loom up for sleying the reed.

I have put back the top of the beater and put in a 12 dent reed. I will put 2 ends in a dent for 24 epi. I have pulled the bench back outside of the loom and have replaced the front top bar. I have removed the books from under the shafts so that the shafts have dropped back in place. And I have used cord to set the beater so that it is almost perpendicular to the floor. I like it leaning back a little because that makes it easier to do the actual sleying.

I have not yet put on the front fabric beam. That would get in the way of my legs a bit as I am still sitting quite close to the loom, even though I have moved the bench outside.

I will begin sleying in the middle. First I sley from the middle to the right; then from the middle to the left. I have marked the center point on my beater, so it is easy to see where to start the sleying.

Photography Note: The small size of the images in my blog posts has been driving me nutty. I use Windows Live Writer to write my posts and publish from it. I have finally discovered that images are automatically being resized to small and that I have other choices: medium, large, full picture, or my own figures that I put in. And I can also resize them manually—why on earth did I not recognize that last?!

Sometimes small is fine, but not always. Perhaps my eyes are just getting old!

"Ready to Sley the Reed" was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 18, 2008. © 2008 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina