A day in the life of a loom - 2012

A day in the life of a loom is something that Meg has had going for many years. Each year, on New Year's Day, weavers post a picture of their loom. Here's mine, my trusty 8-shaft Glimakra Ideal.

My poor loom has been sadly neglected for much of this year as work was a bit all-consuming and often had me away. After I finished my P2P2 challenge (itself still unfinished and in the condition it came off the loom), the loom spent months undressed with the thrums still on the back beam, while I went off to sea and travelled the world.

When I got back at the end of November, I warped up this warp. It's 2/10 Lunatic Fringe cotton in spectrum colours, making a block twill tea-towel project. Completely in contrast to my normal modus operandi, this is someone else's project, the towels seen on the front cover of Handwoven's Fabrics That Go Bump. I fell in love with them when the book was first published and have finally decided to make them. I bought the cottons back in May and have only just now had the time to weave them. It's true joy-weaving, nice brainless 1-2-3-4.

I'm hoping to finish weaving off this warp today or tomorrow. I'm moving house next week and need to break down my well-travelled loom!

I haven't been neglecting fibres completely. There's been quite a bit of spinning, knitting and warp dyeing going on, the results of which shall be posted soon!

P2P2: FO

I've been a bit quiet on the weaving front lately because I've either been really busy with work, away with work or away on holiday - speaking of which, greetings from Wales where I've spent the day cycling!


Here's what came of my P2P2 response. My initial thoughts on this project can be found here. Here is the completed weaving, straight off the loom.



I didn't aim to make a literal copy of the heron image, but I wanted to try to use an interplay of structure, clasped weft, variegation and colour to capture the essence of the image, and to make a faux-tapestry wallhanging. I feel fairly happy that I've achieved those aims and taken this method as far as it can be taken with this approach.

Warp: 10/1 rayon flake singles, in alternate threads of dark and light green to give an echo weave effect
Weft: hand-dyed, handspun silk cap in a variety of colours, supplemental weft of thickly spun silk cap and some 60/2 commercial silk. These were chosen to give texture to the main part of the weaving and a smoother texture for the 'sky'.

Draft: a network drafted progressive 8-shaft twill, similar to the one I was working on here. Clasped weft used on top of this to add subtlety and intrigue to the pattern.

There's a good image of the picture I was working from here. The things I wanted to capture the most were the horizontal aspects of the main colour blocks, but also the vertical aspects in the image provided by the reeds. This happens within those colour blocks, so I wanted the clasped weft effects to dominate the horizontal, and the weaving draft to dominate the vertical. I'd also wanted to get a third effect inside the weave, of barbs similar to those found in feathers. I think I got that, in the image below.

A supplemental weft of thicker silk cap adds a highlight in the 'grass' section.

In places I've used the change from 3/1 to 1/3 twill to dictate and highlight the change in colour at the point of the clasped weft :
(but in other places I've used it to downplay it as well, such as in the pink section where I was using clasped weft on two pinks of similar but slightly different hue levels). Sometimes the colour blocks in the clasped weft change from one side of the piece to the other.

The 1/3 sections of the twill itself have provided the vertical structure within the colour blocks. It's given weft-faced areas which develop the colour blocks, and the warp-faced areas give vertical structure and an echo-weave like effect to downplay the colour interaction due to the warp.

The end result has been to provide a fabric which has a level of irridescence to it. The weave structure appears and disappears according to the angle you view the piece from.

My initial thoughts on this exercise were:

Emotive: roundness, warmth, growth, abundance, comfort, connections. (Roundness came in with the draft)

Colours: warm colours, especially in the pink-red-purple spectrum (I took these from the image)

Material: silk, but perhaps with some texture (I didn't stray from the silk idea)

Weave: Something involving flight, movement, possibly feathers (I chose the draft to have a feather-like feel to honour the lovely little hummingbird feathers I received, and chose the heron image to play with)

Overall: strong focus on the connection between colour and weave interplay. Possibly a networked draft on a hand-painted warp (I think I'd originally pictured the colour blocks being warp-derived rather than weft-derived, so this is a real departure.)

It would seem I made my mind up early and it stayed made up! Despite that, this piece looks nothing like the kinds of fabrics that were playing in my mind when I first started working and sampling. I managed to achieve my goal of opening my mind, experimenting and letting the piece take me where it would. I enjoyed the process, but it has brought surprises: when I first started playing with this draft it was in an attempt to create a pleated fabric, and that hasn't happened.

Now I just need to finish this, perhaps this weekend. The top part will be sewn around a dowel. I'm unsure whether I'll dowel or fringe the bottom.

P2P2: dyeing to move on

I spent last week in Adelaide on a training course for work. I was lucky, I flew over there just before the ash cloud descended and travelled nack 24 hours after Tasmanian airports were re-opened. I spent part of the weekend before I went weaving, and took my second sample off the loom just hours before I was due to leave for the airport. I took it with me, unfinished, to have a look at and think about while I was away. More on that another time.

I also thought more about the photos. I realised that no matter how often I looked at the set, the picture of the heron was the central point of focus for my mind. So I started digging through my stash of handpun silk cap to see what I had that worked with it. I have a lot of handspun silk cap. I bought a kilogram of silk caps a few years ago and have been enjoying playing with dyeing them ever since. The problem was, I was now down to precisely one undyed silk cap - and now there are none!

If you click on the image above to biggify it, you can see that I've been matching colours to the photo. Those on bobbins I already had. The skein of silk and the silk cap have been dyed over the last couple of days.

The skein started out cornflower blue, before I started to fiddle with overdyeing. I tried to match the colours and in a way also textures in the grass. The silk cap, below, was dyed randomly to match not only the salmon-lavender colours in the reeds but also the purplishness of the tree in the background.

I plan to split out the darker and lighter portions as I spin and spin them seperately.

One striking thing about this photo is that the elements pull in towards the centre from either side. That screams clasped weft to me. But having the colour elements in the weft - particularly varigated ones - will give a fabric with the predominant elements horizontal, whereas this photo has a strong vertical element with all the tall grasses and reeds - not to forget the upright heron!

I have a plan for that, but more on that later.

Spinning

In some ways, this has been inspired by yarninmypocket of Yarnscape. She started talking some time ago about spinning a suitable yarn for the lovely Shipwreck shawl. This reminded me that I'd had that pattern saved to my favourites on Ravelry for some time - the only shawl pattern I've ever considered making.

Some time later, I was browsing through the yarn shop of our guild and found a bag of "winter" dyed tussah silk roving. I don't often buy dyed roving to spin but fell in love with the colours and enjoyed an evening of joy spinning. In a search for things to do with it, I plied it with some pastel blue spun silk cap. Then I thought of the shipwreck shawl - but the yarn was too fine for the pattern, which calls for a light fingering weight.


Enter The Thylacine yarns. Browsing her lovely hand-dyed rovings at a recent open day, I spotted a lovely blues-and-greys silk/merino that would go perfectly with the silk I already had. I'd already plied the silk, but it's passive enough that it would ply with the wool fine.

A couple of pleasant evenings later, and I have about 650 m of a lovely marled fingering weight yarn, in blues and greys with just the odd hint of peach. It would make a lovely shawl...only the shawl calls for 1320 yards of yarn.

At this stage, may I say bugger?

I'm off to the weaving evening at the guild tonight. I may have to stick my head in the shop to see whether I can pick up any more of that silk.

First sample

Not a success. This was 3/2 silk warp with a 10/1 silk noil weft. The plan had been to use a fine weft to see whether the fabric would pleat, but I think that the warp wasn't set tightly enough and the weft is too passive and fine. Never mind, the alternate motive was to use up a few more cone ends in my stash, and that was achieved. I hadn't intended weaving a full piece but I was having too much fun with the colour progression.

This was a structural test for the P2P2 challenge, using the draft in my previous post. I've decided that trying to use an advancing broken twill only really works with a network drafted liftplan if you have more than 8 shafts. A simple 3/1-1/3 twill results in floats that are impractically large. I knew this from the draft but needed to weave it so I could see how the cloth would work.

I'm not sure what I'll do with this piece. The colours are pretty but I'm not in love with the hand of the fabric. It may make and interesting throw or hanging once it's been properly pressed. I still haven't replaced my ironing board after the move, so it will have to wait until I've done so.

Somewhat alarmingly, when I washed the piece, the water immediately turned purple.

In the meantime, sampling continues.

P2P2: thinking...

I've been thinking a great deal about how to make a start on my P2P2 challenge during the week. There are two things at hand here for me: the colours of the images, as a set, and the general feel of texture, movement and flight that they suggest to me. For colour, I've pulled out various yarns in my stash that make me think of the images:

These are silk yarns of varying weights, all with texture. I may make a sample with them. But they're not right for the project I have in mind. The project I have in mind is probably going to require some dyeing to be done, but at least these are stimulating my visual mind.

The other thing I've been thinking about is the fabric itself. I've worked a bit with pleated fabrics in the past, and the concept of movement and flight suggests the floatiness and texture of a pleated fabric to me. Not straight pleats, but something more fluid. And I'm really struggling to get the idea of a comfy floaty skirt out of my head. So I started to play with a draft of a broken twill with a 3/1-1/3 pleat tie-up.

Broken advancing twill threading with a 3/1-1/3 twill tie-up and evenly advancing treadling

One thing I like about this draft is that the broken twill is suggestive of feathers to me, and would create a floaty fabric if the right yarns and sett were used. But this isn't enough, because the images I've been sent are also strong on round shapes, and there's nothing round about this draft. So I started to modify the treadling, to incorporate more of a network-drafted concept. To read more on network drafting, I recommend you read this article by Bonnie Innouye in Weavezine. Bonnie also has a fabulous and very informative book on the subject, Exploring Multishaft Design. Networked drafting takes a bit more thought on 8 shafts than it does for those with more shafts, but within the limitations it can be done.

Broken advancing twill threading with a 3/1-1/3 twill tie-up and networked treadling

That's getting more like it. Is this where I'm going to head? I have absolutely no idea. But for now, I'm going to start samplying dyes and samping this weave structure and see what I think. My next decision is whether to sample using the thick mulberry silk and fine silk noil in the top image, or whether to sample using some rayon and handspun silk cap that's been sitting in the queue waiting to turn into a scarf. They're not colours that fit with the challenge but would work for the structure.


Decision, decisions. I'd better make one soon, because I've had a naked loom for nearly a week.

Summing up the cost vs value post

My thanks to those who commented, it was fascinating to learn the views of others on the matter. There was a real sense of valueing the work of others in the replies.

I must confess that like Sonya, I treat the work of others with more care than my own. My old handwoven teatowels get used every day and tossed in the wash. I received some stunningly beautiful cream cotton towels from Sonya in an exchange a few years ago. I absolutely love them...and I have to confess that they're saved to use to line tea trays and bread baskets on special ocassions.

Meg also hit the spot when she said that her towels are softer and more absorbent than bought towels. That's one reason I make my own. Linking back to the origins of craft hits a spot as well. One of the reasons I weave is because it fits in with my lifestyle of taking responsibility for my consumption. I have one store-bought towel in my kitchen now, and it does tend to be pushed to the bottom of my pile.

Beauty was another good reason. There's love in a handmade item that you don't get from something bought in a shop - great point, Amy.

Laura Sue summed up the point I was trying to form best. In order to be truly beautiful, and item must also be useful.

How many of us have met beginner weavers who think that a handmade teatowel is a waste of effort, and yet give up weaving because there are only so many samples one can make?