Is There or Isn't There?

I have been working on the napkin warp I blogged about awhile ago, and I am almost done, I think, the order was for a dozen napkins.  The first napkin I wove, was too short so I had to make some adjustments.  I wove 3 more, but I was having some problems with the edges, and with some lines in the cloth when I advanced, so I cut those 3 napkins off and went from a really old "ratchet and pawl" system, to a "live weight" system, I also added some weighted tarp clips to use as a temple and those two changes made a big improvement.

(A live weight system consists of a slippery rope wrapped 3 times around the warp beam, a small weight on one end and a heavy weight on the other.  This system keeps an even tension on the warp the whole time, all you have to do is advance the fell line as needed.)

I had been weaving along and making a check mark each time I finished a napkin,  (I think, was that the 4th or 5th?) when I started to have doubts as to whether I had put on enough warp, since I had some trouble in the beginning, and there was more waste than I had anticipated.

I had cut 3 off of the loom, are there 9 napkins on that cloth beam?





(No, there were only 7)

Can I get one more napkin?




( No, I could not,  about half way through the napkin, the shed became too small.  So, I cut off the napkins and I will tie onto this warp and pull the new warp through the reed and heddles.

When it was all said and done, I had 10 out of 12 napkins  for this order.  Time to order some more natural 16/2! (I  ordered enough natural to make another dozen, but I am going to concentrate on getting these last 2 napkins wound and woven right now, the rest will be for another time!)

While I am waiting on the new yarn to get here, I wound the stripe section and I have gotten it tied on, ready to go.

 I have already corrected the mistakes I could find in the 10 napkins that have already come off of the loom, so they are ready to go to Marie who will do the hemming for me.  (I do stuff for her that she doesn't like, and she does stuff for me that I don't like)

I won't take them to her though, until I get those last 2 napkins off the loom, so that she can finish them all at the same time, it works much better that way.

I wish that I had used the live weight system and the temple from the start, but that is how I learn sometimes, the hard way.

Until next time, keep on Weaving, Tina

First of 12 Napkins

Since I last posted about the Napkin project, I have rethreaded the selvedges, because Marie brought to our attention on Tuesday, that one of our blog posts about selvedges had been sighted on Facebook.  Turns out it was one of my posts way back!  Well I followed my own instructions,  and I like it!  It is basically 12 ends in 3 dents, the outside dent gets 4 ends threaded singly in whatever pattern you are doing, say 1234.  the next dent in, if you are going from the right hand side, gets 4 threads threaded double in pattern, in this case, 3344, and the next dent in gets 4 threads again threaded double in pattern, in this case 1122. If you are coming from the left side you follow that threading pattern order. Clear as mud right!  I will link to the original post here when I can find it.

After I had corrected my selvedges I fixed a sleying error, and I began to tie onto the front bar.  For some reason the front apron only had one metal bar to tie onto, and it was in the apron.  Sometimes I can make that work, using the slits in the apron, but this time it was not going to work with the fine 16/2 that I am using and that for the first time.   I glanced over to the tall trash can in the corner, that holds all my sticks and tall straight things and my eyes fell upon a metal rod that was the perfect length for my loom. ( an old, old narrow Leclerc) YAY!  I spent a little time getting the two rods in place, and over the last day or two, I tied the warp onto the front apron bars.

Today was the day, after I ran the morning errands, and treated 3 goat for hoof rot. (I have never had to deal with this problem before, but it has been bad this year!) I finally got upstairs in the Studio, and finished tying on the napkins, and I went looking for a yarn that was enough finer than the 16/2 to use while weaving the hem, I wanted to make the hem section of these napkins a little narrower than the body of the napkin so that they won't have a bulky hem.  I found the perfect yarn, loaded the shuttles and began to weave.

I soon abandoned the hook style temple, because I saw that when I had to unweave to correct a treadling error, I found that the hooks were cutting the weft!  I had not had that happen before, and I will have to pay attention when I inspect this first napkin to make sure that there are no weak places  in the cloth.







This first time through the pattern I am taking many notes so that I can replicate it for each of the 12 napkins in this order.   I should have enough warp to do some extra ones, the best 12 will fulfill the order the ones that are left over I will set aside because I know they will come in handy.

I mentioned before that the dimensions of the breadcloth's were taken from a Handwoven collection booklet.  In this cut down Napkin version, the stripes are again my own design, but I did use the textured pattern found in the booklet for the center of the napkin.  I think it is delicate enough to do the job.

I stopped for lunch at 2pm when I paused to wonder why I was so hungry!  When I am working on a project, and I am able to really get into it, I often lose track of time.

Late lunch is over, my post is done, it is back to work on the napkins for me.

Until next time, keep on going, Tina

Mini Me

One of my best sellers at the few shows that I do with the Tuesday Weavers is my Bread cloths, in fact I sell every one that I bring.  I had taken as inspiration one of the projects from an old Handwoven collection.  I used the ends per inch and the basic size from the project, but I made my own stripe pattern and textured insert in the middle of the cloth.  I have once or twice used a finger manipulated lace pattern, but I found that my hands really did not like all that stress.

Recently, I was asked to come up with a napkin pattern that looked like the bread cloths, only smaller and with finer yarn.  We went over the color cards and chose the colors my client wanted and we also decided that I should order some 16/2 for the project.  I have not used 16/2 yet and I am excited to take the plunge.

The yarn arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I had finished tweaking the pattern and wound, beamed and threaded the warp with very little trouble.  I have woven a little sample to see if my efforts were to be rewarded, and I think that they are.  I found no threading errors and only a sleying error to correct before I can get weaving.

I have put one of the bread cloths on this sample to show how much smaller the pattern really is.  At first I thought I might be able to use the same number of ends, but I found that I had to reduce the stripes from 20 ends to 15 to get the proportions that I wanted in the final napkins.

I am looking forward to weaving these napkins starting next week, I need to get 12 woven for this order, with more to follow if they are admired at the Thanksgiving party.  The first napkin I will have to take good notes so that I can make then all the same.  I have thought about using sewing thread for the turned part of the hem, have any of you found it helpful?

(Incidentally, I love the feel of 16/2 cotton, it is soft and very pleasant to work with, not hard to beam at all, though I did use a back to front approach since the yarn is so fine.)


Until next week, (maybe)  Tina