Satisfying Plain Weave

I finally added 2 blogs to my sidebar, for now, as I’m rather particular about such things.  I enjoy, and learn from, both Peggy’s and Karen’s blogs and I’ll surely add some knitting blogs.  Peggy has great general weaving information and Karen often posts about her rag rug projects, though not in detail!

Many weavers seem to have fallen down the multi-shaft rabbit hole, where I have always been content with 2 shaft or more basic 4 shaft weaves. I love simpler traditional textiles - plain weaves and twills, stripes, plaids, tweeds, and weft-faced and plain weave rugs. They may not provide the wow factor like other weavers’ work, but I find them to be comforting and relatable.  

When it comes to textile gymnastics, I prefer it in knitting, via color patterns or cable patterns.  

Needless to say, any snafus which occur whilst knitting are far more easily dealt with than a complicated weaving draft errantly threaded!  At this point in my life, I don’t need unnecessary stress!  (Although, is *any* stress really necessary?  I wish I could avoid it entirely, and save my heart the distress that ensues, undoing the good work of my heart meds.). Keeping it simple doesn’t mean it will only be boring!

More complex weaving drafts are lovely, but they do not *speak* to me.  Even Overshot, which I used to love, and have several books on, but we no longer own an antique home, at least for now, so I want whatever I weave for this non-fussy circa 1947 Cape Cod house to not look out of place.  And as we live on the Cape, a simpler seaside decor suits it well, although it will take me a while to weave and sew all that I want in the house!

As I may have mentioned, my floor loom (a 45” Hammett CB with sectional beam) is in pieces now, moved upstairs into a room where I will actually have space to weave easily.

Moving it also allows us to use my work table for Thanksgiving dinner, as the rest of my studio supplies and FO’s (handspun yarns and handwovens) need to remain in a room that is constantly heated or cooled.  I’ve BTDT enough, dealing with having to rewash linens that were stored in an unheated and non-cooled room.  I won’t do that to my hard work!

But this does mean it will be a while before hubby and I can get to putting the floor loom back together.  I only had time to weave one weft-faced rug, the warp for the remaining 3 rugs was rewound back onto the beam and taped down.

So, with the floor loom out of commission for a while, my small RH loom has been getting a workout.  It is not an unenjoyable process to direct warp the RH loom, even the more persnickety color and weave designs, although I think I prefer the actual act of weaving on the floor loom!  Passing a stick shuttle isn’t the same as throwing a boat, ski, or rug shuttle.  Floor loom weaving also gives my legs some exercise, like handspinning, which I also spend quite a bit of time doing

I now have 10 wool and alpaca scarves on Etsy thus far, and recently finished 3 more: another Houndstooth Tattersall, an all white Tweed, and a pattern I call “Faux Rib”, aka Log Cabin, as the pattern reminds me of offset panels of knit and purl ribbing.  LOL, I don’t like log cabins, much preferring Federal, Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, or Shingle Style. 

Actually, I was never crazy about most of the Log Cabin threadings and treadlings I’ve seen.  Many appear murky and confusing to me – I prefer clear, crisp, repeating patterns, which are easily readable.  This one, a 9-st rep both in warp and weft, please my sense of order!

Below are some other drafts I plotted and have been weaving.

Although I have a handful or rwo of 4+ shaft weaving books, I’ve only had one RH book, although the only thing that interested me in that book was how to weave a palindrome skein, which I have yet to do.  I'd much rather play around on weaving software to try to create interesting designs.

As you can see from the following 3 drafts, although they are similar, the first draft varies from the last two. Warping the first one is easier, with its solid blocks of color, but weaving it is slower, requiring 2 shuttles.  So, I decided to shift it, by moving the alternating color ends to the warp, making it slower to warp, BUT allowing the weaving to be solid blocks of color – just one shuttle for a # of picks.

Here’s some twists on the Log Cabin, which I’m calling “Peepers”, after the spring peppers we had so many of in the acre-sized pond back in the mid-Hudson.  I would even find them in the evergreen, off the porch.

These are next on my list to weave up.  As you can see, a simple adjustment to the color pattern in the warp and weft creates 3 options - a single set of alternating horizontal and vertical bars with horizontal peepers, a double set of alternating horizontal and vertical bars with vertical peepers, then a double set of alternating horizontal and vertical bars with *both* horizontal and vertical peepers: peepers on the ground, peepers up a tree, and peepers everywhere!

So many drafts, so little time!

Onward!
Dawn

Floor Loom Warping Tip

It's been a summer of sock knitting (which I'll expound on, in another post), as the dining room, where my floor loom is, gets too warm for weaving in the summer.  This problem will be addressed as soon as I can move all my studio equipment and supplies upstairs to a room that will have AC.

But as the temps are finally cooling a bit, I’m *finally* getting to warp the loom, after a year or more of it sitting producing nothing!  The warp is just doubled 8/4 cotton warp, for a series of t-shirt yarn weft-faced rugs. 

I’m using a tip I’m sure I read about on Warped Weavers, but I cannot remember who posted it, and cannot find it again – my apologies to the original poster.  

It involves using double-sided tape on a bar of some sort held across the loom, behind the harnesses, to hold the warp ends in place, for threading.

I don’t know why I never thought of this, as it works wonderfully with sectional warping!  I used to have to keep jumping up to go to the back of the loom and spread out another couple sections of warp ends, so to pick them up to thread in the correct order.  This made threading take twice as long, and was tiring.  

I had saved several firm cardboard inner tubes from bolts of fabric, as I never throw out anything until I’m quite sure I can’t reuse it somehow.  Some weren’t long enough, but one does easily straddle the 45” loom. 

I couldn't find the roll of double-sided tape, so I just used a length of packing tape folded into thirds and flattened.  I secured the tube’s ends to the side rails with short scrap lengths of stretchy t-shirt yarn, to keep the tube from moving. 

The tube is also long enough to hold the beater’s uprights, instead of letting them lie on the floor, so I could trip over them!

I used to use a wooden chair while threading, but hubby’s bath chair works well, with a spare piece of foam as a cushion.  One day I’ll make myself a proper cushion, as I also use the bath chair for spinning, as it’s the perfect height.

 My floor loom is a Hammett.  The beater rails unscrew easily, and the breast beam pulls right off, so a chair can get into the loom for threading the heddles.  It's a good thing, as otherwise it would be a stretch to reach over the breast beam and beater to do the threading!

Onward!

All Tied Up

My 1978 Hammett floor loom came with thick cotton cords for all its tie-ups.  Try as I might, getting everything to be even and at the correct heights is near impossible.  As soon as I think I've got the cords to be even, I go to tie the knots and the cord slips.

I've been wanting to replace all the cords with Texsolv for quite some time. The last 1 3/4 years has seen the loom sitting unused in the dining room, as I wasn't well enough to weave.  Now that I am, I don't want to put a warp onto it, until I replace all the cords.

These types of projects need to be done slowly and methodically, to keep the Oops at bay!  The first thing I did was to collate tools - a small Phillips head screwdriver and good scissors.  Many of the cotton cords were mostly original to the loom and needed prying loose.  When I couldn’t open the knots, I’d just cut the cord close to the knot and push the small cut end through the screw eyes.  This worked well.

The beater had previously been removed.  I also removed the breast beam and the cloth beam and it's ratchet, as I didn't want to bonk my head on the cloth beam, when it was time to crawl inside the loom.  I then clamped the harnesses in place, then I removed the cords from the lamms to the treadles (to relieve the weight and pull from the treadles), then the cords from the harnesses to the lamms.

I then realized I’d need to prop up the harnesses, so they wouldn’t come crashing down, as I removed the top roller cords.  Luckily my loom bench (this barstool at Target) was the perfect height to put under the harnesses.  

 

I then removed the cotton cord and added the Texsolv cord to the right side upper roller, then the right side of the harnesses to secondary roller.  As I had bought a 22-yd spool of Texsolv cord, I cut the lengths generously for this loom, at  23".  Once the loom is warped and any final adjustments to the cording made, I can trim the excess.

Because the lamms are hinged on the left side, I couldn’t put the stool on the left to hold the harnesses up, so I used some of the freed up cotton cord to tie the harnesses up over the top roller, and replaced the cords on the left side.

I'm using these brass paper holders to secure the Texsolv ties.  Thanks to Lucille on the Warped Weavers Ravelry group for the idea!  They work well and cost much less than Texsolv pegs. Once I was happy with how things were hanging, I folded the paper clip ends around and over the button end.

Then I replaced the harness to lamm cords, then finally the lamm to treadle cords.  A small empty box held the treadles up at a good height – it's hard enough on the body being squished into a small space on the floor, without having to also  hold up heavy treadles, while trying to insert cords!  And to hasten this process, I used extra long cords for the harnesses to lamms and lamms to treadles, so that I only needed one clip on each cord, instead of 2.

It wasn’t a quick project, but quicker than putting a warp on!  And you may have noticed, I replaced the original metal heddles with Texsolv – no more clanking and banging – I don’t like unnecessary noise.

Now that the loom is done, I can begin to warp for afghan and rag rug samples.
Onward,
Dawn

Looms, Looms Everywhere!

(Originally posted on WP 7/27/20.)

This detour into weaving (although, more accurately, it is a u-turn!) is borne by both necessity and the fact that I love to weave, and have long missed it.  Just as I love to spin, so I *had to* find the style wheel I had decades ago, and did.  Life is way too short not to do the things we love.  

Desire doesn’t necessarily translate into having the wherewithal to purchase new equipment.  And anyone interested in these particular crafts will know exactly how large an investment one can make!  Knit design just required good needles, which, for me, meant Addi Turbos and dpns.  

But I was, and still am, intent on acquiring and hacking all the necessary equipment, without needing to sell off my children and maybe even my grandchildren.  All it takes is Patience and Persistence.  I’m really good at the latter, but am not known for the former.  Amazing how a bit of monetary crimp can allow us to develop a faltering virtue.

My all-time favorite loom is the Glimakra counterbalance. 

I just find it to be near heart-stoppingly beautiful.  If ever one makes its way into my life, hubby will need to peel me off the thing every night.  One won’t be coming any time soon, however, which I am fine with.  I need to earn it, and that will make it all the sweeter.  

What I do have is a circa 1978 Hammett 45” counterbalance rug loom.  

And it’s a fine loom, works well, maintains tight tension, has a nice deep shed, and deep weaving area.  It also came with a sectional warp beam.  I only had a jack loom with plain beam once.  Once was more than enough.  When I sold it, it would only be counterbalance and sectional beams thereafter, for me.

And it was Patience and Perseverance which allowed this loom into my studio, the room formerly known as the Dining Room!  It required 6 months of daily searching all the used fiber equipment sites, the Ravelry weaving forums, Craigslist, and Ebay.  Like a bloodhound that got a whiff of something he likes, or one of those truffle dogs!

But no loom does everything equally well.  There can be a reed size glitch.  There can be a heddle opening size glitch.  Then there can be a floor loom yarn waste glitch.  And  a tension/shed glitch.

Once the glitches start to pile up, sometimes the best solution can be to get another loom – one more suited to the yarn planned for the project.  To this end, a small RH (rigid heddle) loom will shortly be making its way to me.  They’re easier on certain yarns than floor looms, and the heddle sizes drop down further than a floor loom’s reed.  Been thinking about getting a RH loom for so many months, talking myself into it, then talking myself out of it, until I was getting dizzy!

Finally, I had it with this internal argument.  I don’t like to spend $, as I’m SO used to making do, but I have ideas to flesh out, and ultimately, oddly enough, I can be more productive with 2 looms.  I know, sounds counter-intuitive, but I can’t be at the floor loom all day.  My health requires more time with my feet up, than when I was younger,   where the RH loom can still allow me to weave, and weave certain ideas more easily than on the floor loom.  So, that was the winning argument.  Case closed!  

Hubby says I should have been a lawyer, to which I respond, as Jo in Little Women did, that I could have been a great many things.  But, as I tend to see both sides of issues equally well, I think I’d just end up arguing with myself!  And that is worse than arguing with another person, as it tends not to clarify things, but, fosters self-doubt, beating that horse until it cries Uncle.

This doing something because I want to is new for me, haven’t been able to live that way in decades.  But, new work = new life, and I’ve been desperate for a new life for far too long!  Or, as hubby is known to say, Think Big or Go Home!  Thinking big I can do.

Onward,
Dawn