4-SHAFT CRACKLE 01.08.10

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

 

Looking at the top of the page shows that the little Microsoft creature had not totally disappeared when I took this screenshot……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“4-Shaft Crackle 01.08,10” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 8, 2010. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

4-SHAFT CRACKLE 01.07.10

“4-Shaft Crackle 01.07.10” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 7, 2010. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

4-SHAFT CRACKLE 01.06.10

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

If you have trouble reading this, you can enlarge the image by double-clicking on it.

“4-Shaft Crackle 01.06.10” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 6, 2010. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

WINDING COMMERCIAL SILK SKEINS ONTO CONES

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

For a long time I thought that the direction the skein unwound from the skein winder made a difference.  Was I ever wrong!

COMMERCIAL SKEINS VERSUS MY SKEINS

I also assumed that commercial producers wound skeins the same way I did.  I wind skeins one section at a time.  After winding a section of say 200 yards, I loop a contrasting yarn around it.  Then I wind another section and, making a figure-of-eight, I loop the contrast yarn around it. And I continue in this fashion until the skein is complete.  As a result, the beginning of the skein is at one side of the skein;  the end of it is at the other side of the skein.

The commercial producers of silk yarn I deal with* do not wind skeins in this way.  They make skeins by winding the yarn back and forth across the width of the skein.  As a result, the beginning of the skein is at the bottom of the skein;  and the end of the skein is at the top. 

WHICH END TO START WITH?

I am now sure that a main key to smooth unwinding of commercial silk yarns is to make sure I start with the right end.  The right end is the one that unwinds from the top of the skein as it sits on top of the skein winder.  The wrong end is the one that, as I pull on it, comes from the underside of the skein.

So, what I did after I had put the skein on the skein winder was to cut the skein at the knot where the beginning and the end were joined together with a knot, and then to attach a small bit of contrast color yarn to each end.  Then I tried to unwind with one of the ends.  It was difficult to get it started because it kind of interweaved with the rest of the warp ends.  But by the time I had unwound it one whole round, it was clear that this yarn was going to be drawing from the underside.  That was not going to work.

I took the other end and did the same thing.  It too was difficult going for the first round, but then it became clear it was going to unwind from the top of the skein.  So that is the end I chose to use.  And that is the end that worked.

Except……

A YARN BREAKS

As I was winding the first cone, an end very nicely broke.  Thank you.  I could not find it anywhere in the skein.  Thank you again.  Sigh.

If I started with the other end, it was going to unwind from the bottom of the skein.  As I full well knew, doing that would give me nothing but grief.

The solution?  Remove the skein from the winder.  Flip it inside out so that the inside of the skein is now on the outside.  Voila!  the other end unwound from the top.

I would probably advise anyone removing and flipping the skein to make a few figure-of-eights around the skein before removing and flipping.  This will make sure that the skein is as it should be.  Brazen soul that I can be, I did not do this.  It worked.  Thank you.

ONE MORE TRICK

The only other trick that I need to remember when I deal with these skeins is to put the tension block between the skein winder and the cone winder.  Doing that keeps the tension even as it enters the cone winder with less likelihood of incorrect cone winding. Doing that also means I do not have to watch the yarn as it leaves the skein winder.  That leaves me free to focus on the yarn as it goes around the cone, which means that I catch immediately any slipping of the yarn and can easily make the necessary correction.

THE NECESSITY FOR PATIENCE

It is all about patience in getting started.  Patience is not one of my strong suits!

Related Posts: 
Silk Yarns 
Coning the Warp Yarn
Tension Box: Another Good Use
More on Winding Fine Silk onto Cones
Winding the Dyed Silk onto Cones

*My silk yarns come from Treenway Silks.  I cannot speak for skeined silk yarns that come from other sources.

 

“Winding Commercial Silk Skeins onto Cones” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 5, 2010. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

4-SHAFT CRACKLE 01.05.10

Posted by Peg in South Carolina


Observable in this e-sketchbook page are the little black squares surrounding one of the gray text spaces.  They indicate that that particular text space is active and I can type in it.

When I took the screen shot, I simply hadn’t clicked on the page to remove those black squares.















“4-Shaft Crackle Threading Straight Draw” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 5, 2010. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

4-SHAFT CRACKLE THREADING STRAIGHT DRAW

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

This is my first entry.  What is on this page will be the basis for the first sequence of full drafts. 

Note at the bottom right of the page I have indicated where the WIF files for this can be found. 

If I were to print out this page, the light gray boxes would not show.  These are simply the boxes I create to enter the data I want.  I can move these boxes around the page, change their sizes, frame them, change colors.

Also, the gray of the grayed blocks in the diagrams are irrelevant.  I shall try to watch myself in the future to see if I can avoid this when I copy drafts into my E-Sketchbook.

For more information about threading 4-shaft crackle, check out this post I wrote about 2 1/2 years ago.  One thing you will notice is that the block order is reversed.  But it is still a straight draw order.

Related Post:  Threading 4-Shaft Crackle

“4-Shaft Crackle Threading Straight Draw” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 4, 2010. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

SOMETHING-A-DAY PROJECT

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

OTHER BLOGGERS

For a while, now, I have been fascinated by the daily project phenomenon on blogs.  I have seen this in art blogs, with people painting or drawing a picture a day.  I have seen it on photography blogs where people fully finish a photo a day. I have seen it on fiber blogs where people do a small surface design piece each day.  And I have even seen it on weaving blogs.

I have followed Janet Dawson’s Scarf-a-day blog with great interest and admiration.  Though this doesn’t mean that she puts on a warp a day, it still has been a very ambitious (and successful!) project for her.

I have also followed Tommye Scanlin’s tapestry-a-day on her blog Works in Progress. She doesn’t actually weave a whole tapestry each day.  Rather, she put on a long but narrow tapestry warp and then each day wove in a building.  She has been recording her progress in the side bar of her blog. Tommye called her piece a tapestry diary for the year 2009. 

If I had a second loom, I could put on a long crackle warp and weave a sample a day.  But, I don’t have another loom.  So, what could I do?

A friend suggested I already have a project not unlike this since I do something weaving-related every day.  But I want to do something that will notch my growth as a weaver up a bit more.

SOFTWARE TO THE RESCUE

Weaving software, I thought.  At first I kind of cringed since fiddling with weaving software is definitely not weaving.  Then about a week ago I woke up with the brilliant idea (ideas in the middle of the night always seem to be “brilliant”…….!)of exploring crackle drafts.  So, here is what I am going to do.

A NEW E-SKETCHBOOK

I have started called a new E-sketchbook called “A Crackle Draft Project 2010.”  I have put a shortcut to it on my computer desktop.  Each day (for five days a week) I will put in a new crackle draft. 

I will begin with the very simplest of drafts, a straight draw 4-shaft crackle threading with standard twill tie-up.  I will explore each day a new way of developing and altering this very simple draft.  Some explorations will be very simple and take very little time.  Others will be more complex. 

I will move from there to other threading possibilities and then on to six- and eight-shaft threadings of all kinds.  Everything is subject to investigation: threading, tie-up, treadling, color, texture….

WIF FILES

At the same time, I have started a folder on my computer called by the same name and will include in that folder all the drafts as WIF files that I will place in my E-sketchbook. I will try to remember with each entry in my E-sketchbook to include the location of the draft in my computer folder.
If I save these drafts as WIF files, why, then, bother putting them in an E-Sketchbook? 
In the E-Sketchbook I can make comments. 

COMPUTER DRAFTS AND PENCIL SKETCHES

There is, of course, a limit to what can be accomplished in terms of design with weaving software.  But I can think of them as the painter’s equivalent of pencil sketches.  Many artists have kept reams of pencil or pen-and-ink sketches they made, either for fun or as preparations for a final painting.  Weaving software provides the equivalent kind of experience in weaving design.

Related Posts:  
Sketchbooks for Weavers
E-Sketchbook
Printing Out E-Sketchbooks

"Something-A-Day Project” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 1, 2010. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.