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!