Baby Blanket progress

All finished and cleaned up from the party yesterday.  The fridge is full to bursting so we will be on left-overs for a few days.  Everything went smoothly and everyone seemed to have a good time and were certainly well fed.

I was the first up this morning so was able to do a little bit of weaving on the Baby Blanket.  It is pretty fast weaving, with the wide selvedge thread catching the weft and giving enough, eventually, for a twisted fringe.  For the moment though it is just weave a colour stripe or two, cut the side fringes and knot, then advance the cloth.

First sequence of stripes done, 3 to go.

The rest of today will be for spinning alpaca/wool blend.

Baby Blanket and Party prep.

Finished the tie on and addition of fixed selvedges for the side fringes, so was able to space the warp and weave the first inch (to check that I'm matching the 10 ppi called for in the instructions).

First inch woven.

The weaving will have to wait now until we have everything ready for our '1 year in the valley' party on Saturday. With family, friends and some locals coming we are preparing Kiwi flavoured food (with some TN staples though).  I have finished the mini-meat pies and sausage rolls.

Baking from this morning.

Bread, including cheddarmite scrolls next.  I also have to do some gardening chores and luckily it is not too hot out today, but gloriously fine so perfect to mow the lawns and prepare the croquet lawn.

I did manage to finish another skein of the 50/50 alpaca/wool blend that was ordered through KiwiWeave.  It's turning out to be a very pleasant blend to spin and being a little thicker than the 100% alpaca I did in the last order, it is faster.  I have nearly 2 lb of blend to do, so that becomes the next priority after the party.

First two skeins off the production line.

Reed cleaning

As previously mentioned I had to change reeds on the Macomber to be able to sley at the correct epi for this project.  The reed in question is a 48" 8 dent reed that my father had purchased when he first built the counterbalance loom that I inherited and began weaving on.  The hot humid year here in Southern Tennessee had not been kind to it, and in fact it had not been used for close to ten years and while stored wrapped up in plastic there was a lot of surface rust on the metal surfaces.

So I took to it first by wiping on vinegar with cotton buds and let that sit for 10 minutes.  I then used a small wire brush and scrubbed across the whole surface and through the dents.  This took off any rough areas and most of the surface rust.  Once dry I brushed it again and finally mounted it in the loom and took thick cotton string (6 at a time) and 'polished' each dent to remove any remaining rust residue.  The end result is pretty good and hopefully there shouldn't be anything left to come off on this warp.  I'll now have to find something to coat the reed surfaces in during storage - that won't impact future weaving.  Alternatively sealed in plastic with moisture removing sachets maybe.

Cleaned reed on the Macomber

Last night I threaded the heddles and tonight I will sley the reed and tie on.  Should be weaving on the weekend.

288 ends threaded

Sitting inside the front of the Macomber certainly makes it an easy job to dress the loom back to front.  Last couple of projects I dressed front to back.

Dressing the loom

The final work of the day yesterday was to start the baby blanket (a gift for a baby due near the end of June). This is a Yarn Barn of Kansas kit using washable acrylic/wool/nylon blend that features a twisted fringe all the way around - a first attempt at this for me.

Before starting this and included in the chores for the day were bake bread and transfer the conditioned beer to a keg.  Both done and for the bread I did two recipes - my standard loaf incorporating the left over grain from brewing and for the first time an Italian olive bread.

Italian olive bread fresh from the oven.

The warp for the blanket has been done for a month and hanging over the loom, so it was definitely time to start on it.  It's not a long warp so the spreading out through the raddle went pretty smoothly.

Beginning to spread warp.

The raddle is borrowed from the upright loom - my normal one wasn't quite wide enough so will have to look into building one for the full 56" Macomber.

Fully spread, showing the shades of grey.

Eventually finished - and in the little weaving room (the one bedroom in the house without a ceiling fan) the slight haze in the photo, I'm sure, is the fug from me sweating so much! Or perhaps the funny colour from the bright lamp I use at the back of the loom?  Tonight I will lash it on to the back beam and wind it on ready to thread the heddles (easy job - it is just a tabby), and sley the reed. My stainless steel reed is a 12 dent and I don't have a large 10 dent (for the 10 epi).  I will have to clean my 8 dent reed and sley 1-1-1-2.

Back to work

Finished a major tidy up of the weaving room.  The last project remains (scarves and dish towels) were still on the looms and the bags of cleaned wool had become fairly evenly distributed across all the looms as I had dug around for fiber or yarn for numerous other reasons.

Space at last - 4 color wool warp read to go on top of Macomber

I need to begin work on two projects: the baby blanket for a baby due in June and a shawl and scarf for a wedding at the end of July. 

I have mainly been working on spinning as that has created a little bit of income for KiwiWeave LLC with one order for 10 skeins and now a further 15 skeins.  Topic for another blog entry.

Christmas Scarves

Continuing work on the Christmas scarves for Anne's niece and nephews.  3 are finished, one on the loom, and warp ready for the final 3.

The first three completed

The warp is a cotton two ply that holds together fairly well, although weak spots have pulled apart a couple of times, and there were a few knots on the cone - all require fixing as I weave.  The wefts are various cotton/wool/blends - all the yarn is from my stash of yarns from my fathers collection I inherited.

Number 4 underway on the Leclerc Dorothy

The point threading over 10: 2/2 twill pattern is more obvious with a dark weft on the lighter warp.

I also have cotton ready and dyed for the Christmas towels - that should be underway this week some time on the Macomber.

Rambouillet processing

Anne has been working hard on the picking, washing, flicking of the Rambouillet wooland with a little bit of carding we are now starting to see some results.  The original raw wool is reduced by about half through the full process - removal of really dirty/short/matted locks, then when flicking the discarded wool - both add up to quite a bit, but the remaining wool is very nice.  I found that with the Ashford drum carder I can run it through a couple of times to get a smooth batt - keeping it down to small 1oz or less (more starts to come off the card and tangle as it goes under the brush.  I'm sure this is related to the fine nature of the Rambouillet wool - and really I should be using a carder with finer teeth, but don't have that luxury.

Ready for a carding session.

I'll deliver the first batch of carded fiber at the Christmas guild meeting next weekend.