Black and White

Last week I had gotten as far as this on Carl Junior.  Between last week and this week, I  switched out the reed that was too big, and threaded the warp through the reed, but I was not happy with the sett, it made the warp too wide for the Jr.

I checked with Lou Ann about the proper sett for this pattern, and it was 12epi instead of the 10 I was using.  So once I resleyed at the proper sett it was a perfect fit!

This is the beginnings of the first rug.  I am using t shirts cut in strips.  I am using a frazer rag cutter to do the job.  The blue and white will be the dominant colors, so I am stripping those shirts as I go along, but I only need one shuttle full of the red, black and a green.














On a side note, we found a small swarm of bees on one of the small crabapple trees we planted this spring, it was really cool!  But before we could capture them they swarmed again and flew away.  That was really cool to watch, though I am a bit disappointed to not have a hive, I had even picked out the perfect place to put it!

I also found 2 dead moles in the house this week, whew something so small could make such a stench, it did not go unnoticed!

Back up in the Studio, it is time for one of the 100 yard warps to go on the 8 harness. (These warps are only 8 inches wide in the reed and for hand towels I have doubled one of the warps over on itself to make it 16 inches in the reed, so now 50yds.)  I had tried a weighted system  with this warp sometime last year, and I never could get the weights just right.  Either the weights were not enough, and the warp gave as I wove or they were too much and the whole loom groaned as I tried to advance the warp.


So I am back to conventional weaving on this loom.  I am using my trapeze to load the warp and I have 2 weights of 3lbs on it as well, I am going to try and see how much of this warp I can get on the warp beam, I will have to get some more wooden slats for that today.




When I had taken down the weighted warp last year, I rough tied a new warp onto the old warp and of course inserted lease sticks.   As I wound on, I came across the join, and spent a day tying the two together, I think it would have been quicker to start with the fresh warp from the beginning! ( I have several of these 100 yd warps in 12/3 cotton, in the  4 tubs you see below the trapeze.)

I wiggled the little knots through the rough sleyed reed that I use as a raddle, and I wiggled them through the lease sticks, with only 2 broken threads.

I am going to experiment with this warp, if I succeed in getting all 50 yards on the loom it is going to be a long standing project.   I am considering Monks cloth to start with.  I figure I can always rethread when I want to.  With 8 harnesses, I have a lot of design options.




So that was it for this last week, I am glad to be back to work in the Studio, but I am feeling cramped and scattered and I am slowly working on a Studio clean out and reorganization.  Stay tuned!

Until next time, Happy Crafting