Fast Weaving

I've begun weaving the wedding present scarf after tying it on to the previous warp (cut off on the beater side of the heddles.  I only had to re-thread the 24 'edge' threads which form a simple diagonal twill line and on the shawl were several inches further out.  Otherwise the pattern is the same, just not the stripes.

Scarf progress

The weaving is a lot faster for two reasons. The scarf is only 13 inches wide (vice 23), and the yarn is a lot thicker. It shouldn't take too many sessions to finish the weaving.  I was able to do quite a bit yesterday in between other things in and out of the house.  I baked French bread sticks and a loaf of beer bread and some banana muffins which we had with coffee for breakfast.  Then later in the day I made up a half jar of harissa from the many chillies that we now have coming from the garden.  Finally I made some pizzas for the freezer, and one for a snack for when Anne came home from work at 9:00 pm.

Pizza baking results

Should find more weaving time today as we don't have to water the top garden.  A convenient thunderstorm passed through yesterday afternoon and dropped a nice amount of rain on us.

Finishing and Starting

I've been busy with produce from the garden recently with the first lot of blackberry jam, barbeque sauce, and tomato sauce done, plus some quick re-potting and weeding.  We have pounds more tomatoes, plenty of blackberry in the freezer, and lots of hot chillies coming from the garden ready for use.

Tomato sauce cooling, blackberry jam done

So in between those efforts I have been sewing in the ends on the shawl and knotting the warp threads prior to fringe twisting. 

Shawl ready for fringe twisting

This morning I warped the yarn for the scaft - matching colors but a different stripe pattern given that it is only 13 inches wide. 

Warp ready to be tied up.

I have been warping on this warping board for some years, but only in the last year attaching it to hooks on the wardrobe doors.  The hooks normally hang on the inside with various robes on them, but work well to keep the board at shoulder height which reduces the back strain considerably.  I leave the center pull balls of wool of the floor and in this case, join at the color changes when appropriate.

Warping board hung on wardrobe doors.

When I cut the shawl off the loom the heddles are still threaded so I should only have to tie this warp to the appropriate number of threads (EPI is the same despite the slightly thicker yarn on the scarf) and pull it through. Hopefully that should happen today, in between other jobs (brew day at the Oak & Fern is number one on the list, then more jam).

Shawl weaving progress

Progress to date

Dressing the loom went fairly smoothly - I had Anne keep the tension on the warp as I wound it on and then dressed back to front without any major errors (one discovered in plenty of time to go back and do that section again.  Because I was so tight on the dyed warp wool there are less warp threads on two of the blue stripes, but only really noticeable by the slight pattern change it causes.

I also discovered during the tie-up that I did not have enough hooks for this pattern, so had spend a bit of time bending new ones (from heavy wire coat hangers - I can get three from each hanger).  I needed 6 more so should be right now for designs such as this undulating twill.

Suffered my first broken thread (at right in photo), hopefully won't have too many more, but as I have woven about a quarter of the length I guess it's not too bad.

Using hand spun yarn throughout is evident in the photo with a slight striping in the weft threads as the yarn variations kick in,  I'm beating very softly - really just placing the yarn - so it will have to be a 'character' feature in the finished shawl.

I'm due to run out of weft yarn soon, so have been spinning singles ready to ply and will have to make a few more to complete this project.  The scarf (similar colours and same undulating twill, just a lot narrower) project won't require any more spun yarn as I have a lot more of the slightly heavier two ply.

The only real problem I am running into is I have a blackberry thorn in the tip of my right index finger (we pick blackberries most days currently), at exactly the point I throw the shuttle from.  A constant reminder to be more careful while picking...

Warping

Today between a couple of brief visits to gardens I managed to re-wind the skeins of dyed wool for the Wedding gift shawl into balls, and then wind the warp.  I knew I was going to be close with the amounts of wool - trying to ensure I had enough to dye the colours and also have enough to weave with, but knowing I might have to spin just a bit more.

As it turns out, for some odd reason I had plenty of yellow but ran out of both the dark blue and turquoise - only a couple of warp ends short, so I've made a slightly compromised version of the pattern which will mean it is not quite symetrical, but at least close. I figured the chances of making an exact match for the dyed colours I have with a second batch were probably zero so went with the compromise instead.

The warp all ready to head to the loom

Will be starting the loom dressing on Tuesday as tomorrow Anne and I head out to Decatur to drop off the finished wool/alpaca skeins.  I was also able to sell 5 Clun Forest batts at the lesson on Saturday and have an order for more to deliver in September, plus an invitation to head to Townsend (petrol paid for) to look at and try and re-assemble an old loom.  As Anne and I were keen to head back up that way for a weekend - sounds like a good deal...

Spinning Class

Today I attended a guild sponsored spinning class in Knoxville.  They were able to get Martha Owen from the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina (https://www.folkschool.org/ ) to come over and teach an advanced class entitled: "How to make the yarn you want to make in one day."

That title says it all;  Martha admitted that this was a whole heap of material from both week and weekend long courses at the Folk School, ied together along the theme of achieving consistency in yarn production when going for a desired outcome.

Martha is a storyteller and fiber instructor at the Folk School - this was obvious from the start, she managed to keep us all entertained through the whole 8:30 through 3:30 course while running through a ton of material and managing to spend some personal time with everyone in the 20 person group.

We mainly stuck with spinning woolen style, something I don't do much of myself (while spinning yarn for weaving), but luckily have done, so didn't find it as difficult as some of the folk on the course.  Martha took us through spindle, great wheel and our own various small wheels.  She had a whole heap of fiber samples for everyone, and there was much hilarity as the various 'divide by 20' solutions were found.

We progressed from spinning to plying and the day flew by - any spare time was taken up with viewing the 5+ tables of examples and photo's that Martha had set up.

With one goal (for me) to see how someone at Martha's level approached classes such as these so that I might look at my own teaching in the future more closely, I think this was highly successful.  When someone at Martha's level who interacts with and follows the 'elite' of US fiber - who I have paid particular attention to (online and via DVD purchases) - speaks she speaks with authority. 

I came away with a John C Campbell Folk School catalogue - maybe one day...

Shawl wool

I finished the last color for the shawl and scarf (wedding presents) today.  I've been dyeing one color a day so that I can also get other chores done.  Today was typical:

Get up at 4:15 and make breakfast for Anne and I before Anne heads off to work - today is an early shift.  The put the wool skeins in to soak for an hour and prepare the dye bath (Dharma Acid Dyes).  Once the hour is up transfer the wool to the dye pot - on the barbeque on the porch as it's a lot cooler out there than running the stove inside.  Bring the dye up to temperature and add the citric acid.  Hold the temperature for 30 minutes and turn off burner.  Head up to water our top garden - it has been 14 days since we had any decent rain here in SE Tennessee.  The two rain events combined didn't even fill up our first rain barrel.  Once finished that (about an hour, it's a large garden!!) wash (Dharma Professional Textile Detergent)and rinse the wool then hang to dry.  Then it was time to water the house garden and pick some blackberries.  Now with a coffee it's time for the blog.

4 colors for the Shawl and Scarf.

The color is all in the warp with a plain white weft and an advancing twill pattern.  Designed on my WeaveDesign software to ensure I had the right balance and yarn amounts for the warp stripes it won't be until I start weaving that I will see if the colours actually work as planned.  Dharma documentation suggest the colours will be darker on wool I don't think they could be more vibrant.

It will be a final check tonight to make sure I have everything packed up for the class tomorrow and an early start to be there by 8:30.  More to follow on that.

Finished Baby Blanket

Finished blanket after washing

We posted the blanket off today and it will be in Knoxville tomorrow by lunchtime.  The baby should be home the day after if all goes well.  We will be visiting in about a week and a half, hopefully by then it will be in regular use.

Once all the fringes were twisted I put it in a gently cold wash and laid it out to dry.  The mix of acrylic/wool/nylon makes for quick drying as it only seemed to take a couple of hours.

I've also finished the other bobbin of wool ready for the class next Saturday.  Time now to start dyeing wool for the shawl and scarf.