More on the Fabric, a Couple of Cool Tools and Show and Tell

I took the fabric home that Betsy had finished weaving. I thought it was going to take me forever to catch all of the floats and replace a couple of warp threads that had gone completely missing, but I had finished doing the repairs by Friday. I washed the fabric in the bathtub on Sunday fulling just a little, and I hung it to drip overnight on a folding clothes rack in the same bathtub. By morning I was able to hang it outside for 30 minutes or so then when I saw my young cat getting interested I brought it inside and hung it on the upstairs banister to finish drying. I brought the fabric in today to hand it off to Laura. You can see a picture of the folded fabric in one of the Show and Tell photos below. Before I washed it

After I washed it

I came across a couple of cool tools recently. I found these in one of the drawers and I thought that it might be some fodder for the blog. It took until today for us to put them to use, though Rhonda took one home and had her husband do some of that fancy 3D printing, they already sold before I got there this morning but Rhonda will bring more next week!

Since both Jenny and Linda had warps ready to go onto their looms we put our "new" lease stick holders right to work! Jenny wound this warp last week and had it on the loom and was threading through the heddles in no time.

(This photo also has the other cool tool, the tiny clamps that we use to hold the raddles!)

Linda too had her warp ready to thread before she left, but I did not get a picture of her using the lease stick holders!

Several weeks ago during one of the pot lucks I think it was, Laura was looking through one of our rug books and she exclaimed "There it is!" She had been looking for the only pattern that her mother had used for rugs her whole life. Laura had found it. Well today Laura is using this same pattern to weave placemats and yes Laura is one of the back row weavers! You can see the joy on her face!

Oh Hey! It is time for Show and Tell! Cathy has woven blankets for children in her family! Each one is different and so soft and lovely! One family has 2 girls so Cathy made sure that while they are similar the girls will be able to tell them apart.

Patty wove a series of towels to sell and she wants to put one of them in the county fair! She asked several of us to choose our favorite towel then she used that info to make her choice. (the only photo I got of one of the towels was a wee movie!) Then Patty saw the shrug that Liz V brought in last week for show and tell and she decided to give it a try on her loom. She said that she learned many things on this sample and the next time she makes it she will make it at a looser set and also she will make it longer. The take up and shrinkage was more than she had anticipated.

Rhonda brought in the lease stick holders that her Husband had made, this pair is for the thicker set of lease sticks we have. He also made a couple other sizes. Rhonda is going to bring more next week, maybe in different colors. (You can see the finished fabric on the kitchen counter)

Since Mark didn't have any show and tell I get to be last! I made a long runner with weft from a rug that had sat at the front door up in the shop for ages. I also finished another runner with the last of the bluejean strips I had from LouAnn's stash, or so I thought! I found more and will make another runner adding some shocking bright weft as well.

In news for the Tuesday Weavers, we will be having a Dye Day on Thursday September 17th, and a Potluck on the last Tuesday of September which is the 29th. That is all I have for you today, join us next week and see what we get into! Until then this is Tina, for all!

Story of a Warp and most of the Back Row

Late last year Betsy finished a project on one of the regular floor looms. She then thought that she might try weaving some wool fabric for a piece of clothing,the colors were red, white,grey and black. Betsy wound the warp in a couple of sessions at the warping board and by February we were putting the warp on the big ole Barn loom.

As anybody who has woven with wool will agree that wool is sticky and it likes to have a tangle party at any part of the warping process. These yarns are in a variety of sizes and colors which makes it interesting to thread, keeping like colors seperate and spreading the thin yarns evenly throughout the fabric. Betsy did a great job getting the warp ready to weave.

This week the fabric was finished! Betsy had woven as far as the tangles would allow! She cut the warp off and unwound the finished fabric which is 5 2/3 yards! I have taken the fabric home to check for floats and stablize the ends. Once that is done the fabric will go to Laura cause she has the skilz, and she will take the fabric to the finished cape or poncho!

I promised you some pictures from the back row, I managed a couple but not all of them. From left to right along the back wall there is first Linda. Linda finished her towel warp today and cut it off. As I was taking the picture Linda said "You're not getting me in the picture are you?" I said, "of course not!" and had to snap another picture real quick!

Laura's loom is next but I didn't get her photos, that will be next week. Then beside Laura is Angie, she was threading a crammed and spaced warp last week and once we figured out the spacing she was off and running!

We had 2 people winding warps today, Jenny and Sally. We talked about Jenny's warp last week and I had to put it at the top of the blog for awhile cause it is so pretty! Sally is winding a white warp for Christmas mug rugs. I had hoped that we would be able to use a tool that holds lease sticks that I happened to find in one of the drawers early in the day. but that too will have to wait until next week.

Hey! It is time for Show and Tell! First up we have Liz who brought in the knitted linen shawl that she told us about last week, it is beautiful, light and airy. We all were brainstorming about how we could do something similar though woven.

Charlotte came by again today to use our fringe twister and to show off some huck lace towels.

Betsy is on a mission! She is weaving Baby blankets for all of her grandchildren, great nephews and nieces! I believe she is up to 17 blankets woven and each one is different!