TIME TO PLAY WITH COLOR

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I found the most fascinating color search engine during my “time away.”  It is called Multicolr Search Lab.  You put in anywhere from one to ten colors (ten is the maximum) and it will bring up pages and pages of images from Flickr with those colors.  Go here to play.

I found it from the blog called Quiltantics.  And I found that blog via a link on dyeing from an email list.

I’m not going to tell you how much time I have wasted…I mean spent….  In truth, playing on this site has led me to some interesting color ideas for my next weaving project.

Related Post: 
   Playing with Color
   Painting a Mock-up – with Paint or Computer Software

“Time to Play with Color” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 15, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

FINISHED

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

But not off the loom, not mended, fringes not twisted, not wet finished, not pressed.  And it’s staying on the loom for a bit.

I have made preparations for doing a bit of sampling on the last of this warp.

After securing the closing shots of the scarf with junk yarn, I inserted a number of sticks into the different sheds until I had enough to do a fringe on the scarf.  These are the same sticks I use to separate warp layers when beaming on. Then I threw a few shots of heavy rug yarn and then a few shots of 10/2 cotton.

Now I am ready to sample.

But I don’t have a whole lot of room left for the sampling.

The back rod is at the bottom of the back beam.  That means it won’t be long before it lifts off the beam and starts rising to the back of the loom.  When that happens, how much I can continue to weave is based on the quality of the warp tied on to that back rod.  It’s not actually tied on to the back rod;  the rod was inserted through loops.  That makes the chances pretty good that it will be fine.  But I never know and don’t count on anything.

Those extra little warp ends going round and round the beam are the extra warp ends I hadn’t needed when I was done threading.  I had just thrown them to the back, cutting them as short as I could.

Also visible is one of the intarsia bobbins I use to wind the selvedge weft on to.  I then attach weights to it with shoe laces.

Related Post:  Beaming On

“Finished” Written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 14, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

PROGRESS ON CRACKLE SCARF/SAMPLE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I’m coming close to the finish line.  I’m trying not to rush.  Trying to take it slow and steady.  This is not easy for me.

Related Post:  Rush to Finish or Slow Down?

“Rush to Finish or Slow Down?” Written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 13, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

TAKING A BREAK

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I have decided to withdraw from blog writing, blog reading, and, to some extent, weaving for the week.  Chuck and I will be away for part of that time,  and I decided that it was a good time just to take personal time for the rest of the week as well. 

I am fine.  Just taking care of myself.

“Taking a Break” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 6, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

REFLECTIONS ON WEAVING TECHNIQUE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

On reflection, I have discovered that I have come a long way technically in my ability to weave 60/2 silk.

First, this has been a wonderful warp.  By far the best I have ever woven on in this silk.  This warp is a big jump over my last warp and I attribute it to gritting my teeth and winding on approximately 1-inch bouts and then gritting my teeth again and lashing on to the front rod in 3/4-inch bouts.

Previously I had made my bouts about 2 inches wide when I made them at the warping board.  And when I lashed on to the front rod, I had tied on in 1 1/2-inch to 1-inch groups. Changing these two things has made a big difference in the overall evenness of tension in the warp. 

The major result of this reduction is size is that so far I have seen on the wrong side only one weft throw where a couple of a couple of warp ends were missed.  And I am almost done!  This is a record for me and will motivate me to continue to beam on this silk in narrow bouts.

Also as a result I have had very few problems with loops of weft yarn getting caught in the warp.  But they are still there, primarily close to the selvedges.  I have figured two things I need to do to solve the last of this problem:

1. WEFT YARN TENSION: I have not tensioned my yarn in the shuttles tightly enough.  I bumped the tension up one notch and doing that had a decided effect.  I need to be able to bump it up just a bit more and I think that will mean using a temple. Otherwise the pull of the weft yarn against the selvedge edge will start to draw the selvedge in too much. When I start the next warp I will test this out.

2. LIGHT: I need better light.  I am getting more precise in what I look at as I weave and I have discovered that often I can actually see the beginnings of what will be a loop after I throw and beat the next shot.  It is an easy thing, before I do that, to pull at the end just enough to straighten it out so it won’t loop.  Better light should make it easier for me to see this sort of thing, so I am looking at miner head lights.

There is, however, something I still need to figure out.  Well, actually, it is probably a matter of practice pure and simple. There is an issue with the pirns themselves.  I talked earlier of the knots.  These definitely interfered with my ability to get even tension on each weft thread.  But there is another issue.  Even without the knots, the weft yarn still gets stuck from time to time.  That means I have not wound the pirn at that point exactly correctly.

The next time I wind pirns I shall have to be observant and careful.

Related Posts:  
   Winding the Silk Warp
   Pirn Winding
 

“Reflections on Weaving Technique” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 3, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

RUSH TO FINISH OR SLOW DOWN?

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I’m beginning to see the end of this.  One more blue section, another gold section, then the final blue section and short gold section.

I have all kinds of mixed feelings right now.

First, I want to rush headlong into the weaving and get it over and done with.  But at the same time I want to slow down and not finish it so quickly.

I want to finish it quickly because I can barely stand the suspense of what it is going to look like off the loom.  Right now I am feeling pretty awful about what it is going to look like so the sooner I get it off the loom the sooner I can find out just how bad it is.

On the other hand, slowing down postpones the reality and also prolongs the agony. 

On May 19th, I posted this tidbit from The Hidden Order of Art.

Today, and recently, that passage really speaks to me.  I am doing my best to drown out the voice that would make me “sweep the whole mess into the wastepaper basket.”

So, should I rush to finish?  Or should I slow down. The answer seems to be to do neither.  Just keep up my usual rhythm. The rhythm will drown out the negative voices.

“Rush to Finish or Slow Down?” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 2, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

TREADLING WITH FLOATS OF 4: 8 CRACKLE BLOCKS ON 4 SHAFTS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Here are some drawdowns for treadlings.

I have kept the images small in order to give a better feel of what the fabric might look like woven.

INTRODUCTION

I have taken the threading drawdown I designed earlier for getting 4-thread floats instead of 3-thread floats. The basic threading I worked with was a threading that allows me to get 8 blocks on 4 shafts.

The warp is all one color, blue. The block on the very left, however, has green warps. This is the same block as the block on the far right. It is there to test the join between first and last block. It is green so that I don’t forget that this block is a repeat.

Using that drawdown, I tried some treadling variations I am particularly fond of. Well, the first one I am not particularly fond of, but I use it because it shows the block structure so clearly.

THE TREADLING VARIATIONS

Treadling #1 is overshot- style treadling. I have used red throughout. *Tabby is required but not indicated in the draft.

Treadling #2 is treadling on opposites. In each block I have used green for the first weft color, and rose pink for the second. I repeated the sequence twice. In the repeat, it is the rose that appears as the first weft color and green for the second. The result is the appearance of more blocks than there actually are. Theoretically this should not require *tabby, but I’m not sure.

Note: there are no such things as genuine opposites on this threading, despite the fact that the tie-up makes it look like there is. One result of this is that there are no genuine tabbies.

Treadling #3 is a kind of pseudo summer&winter treadling. For one block I alternate treadles 1 and 2, then I move on to alternate treadles 2and 3 and so forth. As in #2, I have alternated green and red weft threads. Like #1, the long blue warp floats clearly visible in the draft mean that weaving this requires *tabby.

Treadling #4 is polychrome treadling---i.e., treadling the six treadles and repeating. I used green for the one treadle in a given group and red for the others. Tabby is not required.

MY PERSONAL FAVORITE

My favorite of these, at least on paper, is #3. I had not realized how much interplay of weft and warp there is in this treadling. The interplay is there in my current weaving, but it is not nearly as vibrant and demanding in its attention. The idea of weaving *tabby does not, however, please me, for I would be adding yet another shuttle into the mix, and I would probably use 120/2 silk to make it as little obvious as possible.

On the other hand, I really like what I did here. That is the same treadling as #4. The same treadling as my current piece. Hard to believe! It was just a different way I used the colors as I treadled.

3 FLOATS VERSUS 4 FLOATS

Extending the weft pattern floats from 3 to 4 seems to have no impact on the drawdown. Had I done this with the 3-float drafts I have been using, I am sure no one would have noticed any real difference. This leaves two questions in my mind:

1. Why bother with this?
2. Why not jump to 5- or even 10-float drafts to see what happens?

A NOTE ON TABBY

In this structure there is no true tabby (unlike ordinary 4-shaft crackle). So one has to think in terms of binder threads and get creative. Zielinski is of enormous help here in suggesting some possible solutions.

A NOTE ON THE IMAGES

Those of you who have clicked on the above images to see them larger will have learned that there are not four images but only one. What I did was to copy and paste these images into a page of my E-sketchbook (kept in Microsoft Publisher) and once pasted, to arrange them as I wanted them. Then I locked them into position. I then copied the locked group and pasted it into this blog post. On my E-sketchbook page I can unlock the group any time I want. I assume that any of the publishing programs would allow you to do this.

Related Posts:
Crackle with Floats of Four (or More)
Summer and Winter and…….Crackle (of course)
Crackle Treadled as Overshot

“Treadling with Floats of 4: 8 Crackle Blocks on 4 Shafts” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 1, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.