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

WINDING THE SILK TRAM

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I put the silk tram on the skein winder. And this is what it looked like. I had snapped the skein and snapped the skein. Look at all those loose and flyaway ends! Do you think I was just a bit nervous? You better believe it!

I had checked and double-checked that the yarn was coming through the ties properly. I did this because one of my thoughts has been that I do not get all the yarns on correctly. And because this yarn is so flyaway, I really had to work at examining carefully the yarn at each tie.

Then I tied the half of the skein tightly with red yarn that was going to come of the skein winder second. The idea was to keep the yarns from the first half tangling with the yarns of the second. As I was doing this I did discover loops at two of the ties. As I checked these out I realized that they needed to be corrected so that those yarns would go on the winder correctly.

So what happened? Here is a photo of both the skeins wound onto cones. The skeins wound off almost perfectly! Doesn’t the yarn look shiny, shiny?! Wouldn’t it be glorious for the weft for an entire piece?!

Indeed, with the second one a slight problem occurred that caused me to remove the ties around the second half. Still, there was only one place that I had to tie a knot and that was because there was a cut end somewhere in the middle of the skein. I had seen that when I was putting the skein on the winder but have no idea how that happened.

For all my worry about this silk tram, it wound on the cones just fine. What a relief.

Related Post:
Silk Tram
Winding the Dyed Silk Onto Cones
Winding Cones: Have I Found the Secret?
Silk Yarns

“Winding the Silk Tram” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 29, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

LATEST ENTRIES IN SKETCHBOOK

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I had not expected to enjoy making entries in this sketchbook as much as I do.  Nor had I expected how much value keeping this sketchbook was going to be.

One thing I find really nice about keeping this on the computer is how easily I can move things around and change things.  I can lift, for example, any or all of the three drafts on the right-hand page and either move it to another page or copy it into another page.

It is also easy to look through the sketch book by reducing it to 75% and “flipping” through the pages.  At 75%, both pages, side-by-side, are visible on the screen and still large enough for the print to be readable. I find that when I do this more thoughts will come that I can enter onto the page I am looking at.

I have been working on the sketchbook some almost daily.  And it is becoming apparent that doing this daily, as opposed to occasionally or when I feel like it, is of value. 

I know there will be dry days when I will feel there is nothing to record.  But I will try to record at least a little something because I can feel that turning the keeping of this sketchbook into a habit is going to be when it really becomes important to my weaving

Related Post: E-Sketchbook

“Latest Entries in Sketchbook” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 28, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

SILK TRAM

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I am now winding skeins of fine silk tram for the gold and lime weft yarns. These yarns will form the motifs in the next crackle piece.

This is the first time I have worked with silk tram. I knew it was shiny and meant for weft. I wanted it to help highlight the motifs in this piece. The photo gives a good idea of just how shiny the yarn is.

Here is what MSN Encarta says about tram silk;

Tram is made by twisting in only one direction two or more raw-silk threads, with 8 to 12 turns/cm (20 to 30 turns/in).

But here is what Habu Textiles says, in part, about it:

This is a "tram" silk, which means it is specially made to be used as weft yarn for weavers. There is virtually no twist in the yarn, so it is very soft and shiny…. Because of the minimal twist in the yarn, the silk filament tends to get caught in rough hands. Dyes very well.

For this particular skein, at least, Habu has got a better hold on the twist issue. That there is virtually no twist is obvious when I handle it for the ends simply untwist into their component threads. My hands are not rough. I have never had trouble with silk in that respect. With this I am going to have be generous with hand cream.

Silk tram comes in various weights. This particular tram is only slightly heavier than the 60/2 bombyx silk.

I am glad that it dyes well because I think I am going to have lots of trouble, so the dyeing needs to be worth it. When I took the white skein meant for dyeing off the skein winder, the yarn just “flew apart.” The photo shows quite vividly just how flyaway the yarn is. I think it is going to be very very prone to snarling and knotting. Oh happy day…………

Related Post: Winding the Silk Tram

“Silk Tram” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 27, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

BACK TO THE DYEPOTS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

As the warp gets close to being ready to weave, I decided it was time to get back to the dyepots.  That is, if I wanted any weft yarn to weave with!

Here are the blues and the reds simmering in glass Mason jars placed in a water bath.  The water bath is provided by an old electric frying pan.

Each of the red polyester cords is looped around a small skein of 60/2 silk.  This makes it easier to lift the skeins up and down in their little jars.  Lifting them up and down instead of stirring is how I get the dye to take evenly.

Those polyester cords also make it much easier to find the center of the skein when I am ready to insert my hands in the rinsed skeins to snap them.

And here are the golds.  I know, the one on the right looks more lime green than gold.  But when dry, and not set right next to the more yellow yarn, it should look gold.  And if it doesn’t, I will use it and love it!

I learned that dyeing with two Mason jars in the electric frying pan is different from dyeing with six.  With only two jars, more of the water in the water bath is exposed.  This means it cools more quickly, or, to put it in reverse, this means that it takes higher temperatures on the skillet to keep the dye bath water the correct temperature. 

Covering the skillet, even partially, would help stabilize the temperature.  But that is impossible with a tall thermometer sticking up out of a jar!

The red and blue yarns are 60/2 bombyx silk.  The gold yarns are the still shinier silk tram only slightly heavier than the 60/2 bombyx.

Related Post:
   Dyeing Books: Some Favorites 
   Dyeing the Skein
   Dyeing More Reds
   Red Wefts Dyed
   Dyeing Yellows

“Back to the Dyepots” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 24, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

CRACKLE EXCHANGE SPRING 2009

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

The samples are in the mail—all ten. Hurrah!

There are eight participants in this exchange, but two of the samples go to Complex Weavers. So ten samples it was.

For the curious, yes, that is a ball of sock yarn in the upper left-hand corner. And yes, I knit socks. Lots of socks. For me.

To see a better photo of the samples, before they were cut up, go to this post.

For the curious, yes, that is a ball of sock yarn in the upper left-hand corner. And yes, I knit socks. Lots of socks. For me.

Knitting socks keeps me sane waiting in doctor’s offices, waiting at the post office, and on long drives (when I am not the driver--grin!). I do like to read, but cannot read in the car, and TV sets on in doctor’s offices also make it impossible for me to read.

Related Post: Crackle Exchange Samples

“Crackle Exchange Spring 2009” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 23, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

SOFTWARE FOR E-SKETCHBOOKS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Leigh mentioned in a comment on an earlier post that she has a desktop publishing tool on her computer called Scribus. This is an Open Source piece of software and works on Linux, Mac and Windows. The program can be downloaded from their website.

Also available on their site is part of their manual. The developers there offer a pdf download of the table of contents and chapter one. I did download these and it seems from a brief read-through that this program might be a bit more complex than Microsoft Publisher. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It means you can probably do more with Scribus than with Publisher.

For those who might be a little shy, here is the last paragraph on their web page:

There is an enthusiastic and friendly community around Scribus that assists beginner and pro alike through our mailing list, IRC channel, wiki, contracted support, and the bugtracker.

For a good review of other desktop publishing software, go here. the price range of the program goes from $15 to $111.

For a review of more software, including Scribus and Adobe (neither of which is reviewed in my first link), go to this web site.

Related Posts:
E-Sketchbook
Sketchbooks for Weavers

“Software for E-Sketchbooks” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 22, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina