A Mouse in the Loom?

A mouse in the loom? Well, not really, but I was beginning to wonder. I was quietly weaving the blanket but every few shots, a shaft would not drop. I couldn't even push it down. Rarely the same shaft. I tried to look through the threads and heddles and shafts to see what was keeping a shaft from going down. I couldn't see anything. When I would push on the shaft in an attempt to get it down there was a weird kind of soft resistance, look it was actually pushing against the warp. But it wasn't. A mouse? Well...........one last look revealed that this little rubber bumper, one of two which rests on the bottom to soften the blow on the shafts when they drop and make the whole operation a little less noisy, had flipped off its resting place and was getting caught in the shafts and getting in the way. Problem solved.

Of course, with the loom warped, the front and cloth beams in the way, I cannot easily replace that bumper, so there is only one bumper on right now. But I will put it back on when I am done with this blanket. With masking tape.

Masking tape? When I was putting the loom together when I first got it, I couldn't figure out what these rubber things were. When I finally figured it out, I had dislodged the staples that were meant to hold them onto the loom. So.......masking tape it was. I am definitely not a carpenter.

Crackle Jacket Continued

A while back Iwas talking about the Spring 2007 crackle exchange (Crackle: the Incidental Threads) and this brings me back to the first rumblings of designing the crackle jacket. The yardage idea I had talked about (Crackle Jacket: First Rumblings) had faded from my conscious mind. But late in the spring I realized that I had only one month to weave samples for the spring crackle exchange. I had just begun weaving some baby blankets, and I am not a fast weaver, so I was pushed for time. In fact, I thought seriously about not weaving samples for this exchange. In any case, I knew it couldn't be fine silk sett at 60 epi. I had to use a heavier yarn for faster warping and weaving. And I certainly didn't have time to dye anything.

Inspired by Leigh's use of her stash to weave some really lovely Summer and Winter stuff, I decided to look at my 20/2 pearl cotton stash. I have never much cared for weaving with this fiber, though at one time I had thought it might be a good way at exploring colors in crackle using a less expensive yarn. I never did anything with that idea because I dye my own yarns. Dyeing silk greatly reduces cost, though that is not my reason for dyeing them. And the dyeing, which includes lots of sampling, the planning and the weaving all take so much time that the cost of silk really becomes negligible. So all my crackle sampling and weaving has been pretty much with silk yarns.

When I checked my stash I discovered that I had some of the colors I had originally planned on using. They were not identical to the original color scheme, but close enough. So I threw together an 8-shaft crackle draft using different using different size blocks in an asymmetrical design and with no threading repeats. I had wanted to explore this kind of threading for awhile. And I decided to use 3 colors in the warp. I wanted, however, to have the colors change, not according to block changes, but according to a mathematical sequence based on Fibonacci.

Here is a part of the drawdown, in black and white (black warp, white weft). The drawdown does show the complete treadling sequence but only a small part of the threading.




For treadling, I decided to try a kind of improvised version of an advancing twill treadling. No tabbies. A one-shuttle weave. Aha, very fast to weave. Well, yes, I did weave with more than one color, so it was really a two shuttle weave. But this is still faster than a 3-shuttle weave. Once the warp was on the loom, I played around with this idea until I got what I kind of liked, both in terms of treadling sequence and in terms of weft colors. And here is a picture of part of the weaving:


The warp colors are blue, gold, and a very grayed brown. The weft uses these same colors with the addition of a pinkish violet.

And here is a closer view of one of the samples:


I rather like the pink-violet as a kind of a punch. But it stands out a bit too much, especially in the closeup. So, if I do use it in the final piece, I shall have to do some careful thinking.

When I finished the crackle exchange samples, I still had warp on the loom for some explorations. But that story is for a another day. The day may not be too far away as it is now off the loom and has been washed and is drying and awaiting a hard press.

Temples: A Correction, an Addition and a Warning

In my last post I talked about using fishing line under special circumstances. When I said that it prevented draw-in, I was incorrect. What the fishing line does is more effectively to keep the warp ends at the selvedge so spread out during the actual weaving that the draw-in is equalized across the entire warp enough to result in selvedges that look (hopefully!) the same as the rest of the fabric.

Now, why wouldn't one always want to do this? Isn't this a desirable effect? Well, it certainly was in my case, where I wanted to made virtually invisible joins between panels of fabric. But otherwise I don't think it is usually desirable. The closer draw-in at the selvedges serves a very important purpose: to protect the edges of the fabric. The edges of a fabric are the most vulnerable to wear. The cuffs on men's long-sleeved shirts are a good illustration. So having the warp on the edges of a fabric a bit closer than the rest is really a good thing. I have read of weavers who actually sett those edges closer for just that reason.

A warning about my posts. I am always learning. What I say here today may well be different next year. I may have learned, for example, that my current skills (or lack of them) at winding on warps may have been leading me to use a temple as a crutch. I don't think so, but it's always possible.

An example of always learning. I "know," and have "known" for a long time that one is supposed to move the warp frequently while weaving. Every 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" are the general guidelines I have read. Sometimes I kind of abide by that; sometimes I don't. The temptation to weave and weave before I finally am forced to move the warp forward is very great.

Today as I watched the weaving of the blanket progress, I noticed something I had not noticed before. As I wove, the angle of the weft thread kept getting smaller and smaller. The left selvedge also started getting pretty bad. Now I "know" that the angle of the weft thread affects the amount of weft pushed into the fabric. And I "know" that the less weft pushed in, the more draw-in there will be. But this morning, knowing started turning into understanding.

So I moved the warp and after about 1" of weaving, I noticed the selvedge beginning to tighten up. So each time after I threw the shuttle, I used my free hand to pull up the weft thread closer to the reed. This made the angle of the weft about what it had been in the previous inch. It worked!

Now that I finally understand a bit more, moving the warp frequently will not bother me, at least wide warps. My suspicion is that a narrow warp can be woven a bit longer before having to move it. But I will have to test that out.

Temples

Leigh asked if I always use a temple in my weaving. The answer is no, I do not. When I am weaving fairly narrow (10-14") and fine (60/2 silk) silk warps, there seems to be no need for a temple. I think that may be due to the fact that I ratchet up the tension on the warp to maximum. Silk is very strong and seems to have had no tendency to break at such high tension. And it is also fairly easy to get the number of picks per inch at those widths.

Also I have not used a temple weaving my own handspun, though again the warps were relatively narrow (15" to 20"). Also, I found I could keep the warp tension quite high. This surprised me as my handspun is quite soft and very stretchy. The first time I made a warp with some, I was amazed at how it snapped back to a much smaller size when I took it off the warping board. Needless to say I made a mental note to calculate for that in planning the next handspun warp! Also, I did not need a temple because I was not packing in the weft tightly, as I do with the fine silk.

When I do use temples should become fairly clear now! I use them on wide warps. The temple keeps the whole warp stretched widthwise so that it is easier to get the number of picks into an inch that I need/want.

One thing a temple does not do is to prevent draw-in. When you remove the temple that fabric is going to draw in. Draw-in is just the nature of the beast. What it does do is to keep the warp stretched at the point of weaving so that you can pack the weft in more easily and to distribute the draw-in a little more evenly across the entire width of the fabric.

The top left picture shows a very small temple from the top side. The top right picture shows its business side. You can see the prongs on the side that is lighted (I do have to work on my photography skills!). The bottom picture shows the temple with the two pieces separated. One part of the temple has a little upright piece that fiats into the holes you see on the other piece. The white band you see in the top two photos then slides across both pieces to hold them in place. A wicked, wicked piece of equipment.

Draw-in is just the nature of the beast. You can, however, weave with virtually no draw-in if you use something like fine fishing line for the selvedge edges and then remove it when you are done. I have done this when weave a blanket in 3 pieces. I put the fishing line on those edges that were going to be joined. I wanted those edges to look just like the rest of the blanket after seaming. And, thanks to fulling, you have to look for those seams to find them.

Baby Blanket

I have finally started weaving the baby blanket. An easy straight twill. I weave slowly. I don't mind weaving slowly. I use a temple. The temple is the red piece which stretches across the width of the cloth. There are metal teeth on each end which grab into the cloth and keep the cloth tightly stretched out. The result is a more even fabric.


Temples are adjustable, within certain limits, perhaps 5 inches. Consequently I have several temples in different lengths.


Using a temple does slow down the weaving a bit. I move it approximately every 1/2 inch. Again, I don't mind that especially since it does give me better cloth.

And so I watch the weaving grow, keep track of the 45-degree twill angle, and basically just relax. A soothing job in between intense crackle designing and weaving. Well, soothing until I spot a knot in the warp. It is there in the blue section. Well, I did say I like weaving slowly. I'm used to knots and broken threads in warps so they no longer hold terror for me, though once they certainly did. A knot I find is really easy to deal with, easier than dealing with a broken warp thread.






I wind off a few yards of new warp onto a knitting bobbin (knitters use them for intarsia) thread the end through the same heddle that the knotted end goes through, sley it through the same reed opening, and attach it to the front of the weaving with a T-pin. I put a small weight at the other end and hang it off the back of the loom.

I then weave, with both warp threads attached for about 1 inch. Then I cut off the warp thread with the knot and hang that thread loosely at the back so that it doesn't interfere with anything. When I have woven long enough so that that warp thread, with its knot cut off, will reach to the front of the loom with enough length to go around another T-pin, I will reverse the procedure. I will pull it back through the heddle and reed, attach it to the cloth, weave for about 1 inch, and then remove the substitute warp yarn. So then the warp will be like new, and I will no longer have to worry about unwinding the substitute thread from the bobbin to get enough length to continue weaving.

Note that the color in the first picture is accurate. Not so in the second two pictures, though I rather like the second of those two!

About Designing

In my last post I mentioned that I had run across an idea for a crackle project to follow hard on this one. It is essentially a spin-off of the current design. This kind of a process is what many artists call working in a series. It is also a way of building a consistent body of work. I think of it as a kind of follow-your-nose thing. Anyway, I put a note of the new idea in my file.

When I work on a project, the act of working frequently inspires ideas for the next project. So, on my computer I keep a spot to collect those ideas. Often, by the time I am starting to weave the current project, I find myself working up the plans for the next project in greater detail, ordering the yarns, and doing the necessary dyeing, including dye sampling, By the time I finish the weaving, I have sometimes found that the next warp is ready to go on, or at least close to ready.

One of the benefits of this approach is the protection of my body. My body simply will no longer let me sit and weave all day. So having other things to do, sample dyeing, for example, keeps me busy doing different things. It may take me a long time to weave something off, as a result, but I am still being productive.

A confession: I am also thinking of starting a file on warp crackle. I am beginning to think that there are interesting possibilities for warp painting if I turn the crackle drawdown so that the threading is the treadling and the treadling the threading. I love weaving on painted warps because I am always wondering what it's going to look like up there where it is not yet woven. And I am always wondering as well when to change weft colors. I love weaving when decisions need to be made during the actual weaving. The result is that it is very hard for me to stop weaving a painted warp, not necessarily a good thing if I want to protect my body!

Crackle: The Incidental Threads

CORRECTION: these extra warp ends are really called accidentals, not incidentals. 9.2.09

I am a member of Complex Weaver's and, as such, belong to their Crackle Exchange group. We have two exchanges, one in the spring and one in the fall. Last week I received the samples from the spring exchange. I found one sample of particular interest. It was produced by Susan Wilson. Her sample consisted of differently sized blocks. The warp threads were silver, but the incidental threads were adobe.

Now, in case you've forgotten what the incidental threads in crackle are, go to Threading 4-Shaft Crackle and you will see that they are the "extra" thread inserted as you move from one block to another. My first thought was, aha, for the crackle project after this one, where I want to incorporate some black threads in the warp, I could use them for those incidental threads. Whether I ultimately will, I do not know, but in the notes I have begun for that project, I have included that idea. It's an idea I don't want to lose.

But then another light went off as I looked at her sample. If I want to make warp blocks different colors and have the colors aligned with the blocks, those incidentals mark the division! I had not been able to understand just exactly where in the threading, one block became the next block. Now I understand why I have hesitated to make the blocks themselves different colors, why I could not figure out exactly where a new block began. And I now finally realize that, should I use two or more color warp blocks, I will have to make a kind of arbitrary decision as to which block each incidental belongs. Yes, I can be very slow. Thank you Susan!

Here are some very simple 4-shaft drawdowns illustrating this. On the left is a one-color warp (orange) with black threads for the incidentals. On the right, is a two-color warp (blue and orange) with no separate color for the incidentals. I have made arbitrary decisions about the colors of the incidentals. However, if and when I do design a warp with different color warp blocks, I will have to work on systematizing the arbitrariness of the decisions!