It's Tuesday!!!!

And, just what DO we do on Tuesdays????

Tina is doing a quick inventory of carpet warp to see what needs to be ordered.

Ila has taken over supervising duties.

Bonnie has started weaving those beautiful handtowels.

Pat has started a new rug using two shuttles. The fabric strips look great on that warp.

Carl is making progress on the new placemat warp.

Ann is winding a new warp!

LaDonna is threading the warp on the Wolf Pup.

Lanny is cutting new strips for another rug. Just look at that pile!

Not pictured, but overseeing the weaving department, is Carol!!! She brought her laptop today, and we looked at her drawdown program. We also checked the sett of Tina's new project using the formula in Sharon Alderman's book, Mastering Weave Structures. There's always something new to learn!
ME? I took pictures of everyone working! LOL!!!
Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

What is it about weaving?

We had more snow last night.Only one inch but it is clinging to the trees making everything beautiful. We may even get more tonight!

What is it about weaving? It is the most enjoyable craft I have ever learned. Even when I am not weaving I feel compelled just to go to the studio and look at what is on the looms. It is almost like they are calling me!

This is a photo of some placemats that I finished today. They aren't anything fancy but they are just what the customer ordered.

Linda

Loom Basket Upset!

First of all, this was our week to weave at the Knoxville Museum of Art. Carl and Bonnie wove first and then I wove the last few hours. I tried to give you an idea of the bands we're weaving. Down below the breast beam are the bands they wove and coming around to the top are mine.

It really is fascinating to see how the colors progress. I wonder if there's any way that we can find our bands? Even with our pictures, I think it will be difficult. One of the assistant curators was wondering how long it would be before they would have to cut
the fabric off. I told him that it would be awhile yet but the plan is to cut off the fabric with some warp attached, then store it until the next part is too full for the cloth beam, cut it off and then very carefully assemble it into one piece again! I admire anyone that is going to tackle that part of the project!

So here's the part about the loom basket upset. I wrote last week about the loom I bought. I had resigned myself to the fact that I had a production loom, not a rug loom. That would be ok. Then on Tuesday, while we were talking about it, Carl reminded me that he used to weave on a Herald. Someone suggested that we swap looms so that's what we did. Thursday we loaded the Herald into the van and brought it to the center. Unloading was easy and it's shown here waiting to be put in place and re assembled. Carl now has his own loom and he's getting off the small harrisville that's he's been patiently weaving on.

Then we started moving the leclerc. DD got a quick lesson on loom dismantling and, actually, it wasn't that bad. We loaded it into the van. I was concerned about getting it into there because the nilus is taller than the herald.

No problem. Put it on its side. We tied a rope around the harnesses and treadles to keep them in place! You know why when weavers go shop for cars, the first thing they look at is the trunk, right?

We got it home and unloaded without any difficulty. I took a picture of DH holding Molly, our 11 year cat from....... She's a sweetheart, but she is probably from a feral mother. We got her as about a 3 weeks old, bottle fed her and everything. They say cats like that can be weird. She loves us but when DD went away for a semester to college 5 years ago, when she came back Molly treats her like a stranger to be hissed at, even 5 years later. Molly can be very sweet but only to the 2 of us! I forget to get the camera when she's near my loom and thought this was a good time to get a picture of her.

The real problem was in assembling that nilus. We had removed the warp beam entirely. The screws at down at the base of the loom and getting the loom supported up enough for us to work on it last night was something to see. I'm sure if there was a video of it, it'd be used against us! However, it's together. The warp on there now is wool and very old. I think I will remove it and put a different one on. There is another beam sitting on the bench right now. The things they brought us included a second warp beam with sectional parts to attach to it and all the pieces necessary to make it work. Just need to drill holes. I am wondering if there is anyone out there that has a 45" nilus leclerc with a double warp beam. Is it structurally sound? Has anyone got good or bad things to say about it? I'm really curious. Before we drill the holes and do this, I'd like some information.

I'll write an update on any information we get.

Oh, BTW, we're supposed to get snow again tonight and tomorrow. Hopefully it won't stop us from going to the center on Tuesday. We all need that time! Looms to thread and weave on, students to learn more and we're getting a yarn order together! Can't miss that!!

Carol

Got Rags?

When most people hear the word, RAG, it usually evokes a negative reaction. It can be verb, i.e., when I "rag" on you or give you a hard time. (You know I would never do that, right?) Webster says that a rag is a "waste piece of cloth" or "old worn clothes." Images of the old rag man pop into mind, pushing his cart down the street hollering "Rags." (Not in my lifetime, but I've heard my Grandmother tell about such people.) But, as a weaver, rags are a treasure. Or, at least for me, they are a treasure. Weft....glorious weft!!!!


I've been sewing since I was about 10 years old. Even before that, I would ask for the scraps left over after my Mom or Mamaw Martie would cut out a dress. If they gave me a threaded needle, I would fashion some kind of something for my doll. So, I've been using rags for a LONG time! Now that I weave, those scraps, or RAGS, are used up in my weaving. I've been collecting fabric for awhile!!!

Some of my rags are sorted by color, some by size. Some are wound into balls, some are still flat folds of fabric and some are on tubes. They come in all different sizes and lengths.

I've got rags in baskets, rags in cubbies, and rags in bins in the closet. (Can you say, "here a rag, there a rag, everywhere a rag, rag!) I might be "rag poor."

Three of the projects going here at the house are using rags. I've got rugs going on John, placemats on Parker and totebags on Annee. Each of these projects take a different width of rag. My Fraser Rag Cutter and the Olfa Cutter have earned their keep!!! I would be in a world of hurt without them! (When I did my first set of rag placemats, I tore the strips!)











So, three cheers for WEAVERS!!! We were thinking GREEN before it was cool! And, to all my weaving friends: Weave On!!!! We've got rags!
Happy Weaving!
LouAnn
p.s. There's got to be a better way to keep up with my rag collection!

The right tools!

Last week I told you all about my breakthrough with the tension box and switching my back beam. It worked!

I also borrowed an electric spool winder from my friend Lou Ann to speed up the spool winding part of sectional warping.

So spools all wound, spool rack loaded, tension box threaded, off we go!

I found that I could use the card with holes in it like a comb to work any tangles out of the yarn before I wound it on thru the tension box. I hadn't seen anyone do that but it sure worked good.

This is what I do when I have to leave the room for any reason.

Here we are finally wound on. This will bread cloths with stripes that meet at the corners and some lace work in the middle. One of my favorite projects. I need one to replace one that my mother had, a mouse chewed a hole in it.

With 10+yards on this I should be able to get 10 bread cloths.

Now I just have to get a warp on the 8 harness loom that I have had since May. I am working on a scarf/shawl idea and variegated yarn. I may be able to have some pics for next week, not sure yet.

Happy weaving, Tina

Knoxville Museum

Carl at work.
Here is part of what we did today. I startedout with a small strip of yellow and green . I did not like it. Then I went to the yellow/gold. Carl went with me. He did the pretty blue. We had so much fun. I then did a fushia about the same width as the blue. Then Carl dedided to pick it a notch and did a multi color of purple,yellow and a greenish blue. Then I did a small strip of the bluish green. I wanted to do something different, so I tried a black and orange multi color. No, didn't like it. Just made a small stripe. Then started a burnt orange. I liked it. Then Carol and Tina showed up for their shift. I took pictures, I thought but that stupied phone did not have any on there. Not MY fault. So sorry. But we did have so much fune. Maybe if Carol or Tina took some pictures they could put them on here.

Have a great week. Until Next Time.

Bonnie

A Jamming Day

When I got to work this morning, the view from my windows in my kitchen looked like this. Beautiful, but a good day to look at it from the inside! This is the story of what I do when I'm not weaving. I'm a pastry chef at a beautiful resort in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. I make jams, jellies, pickles and preserves from local farms, including our own 3 acre garden. Today, I made blackberry jam from a farm in Kodak, Tennessee. Danny Shelton grows blackberries for us and freezes them as soon as they are picked. I order blackberries all year long from him, and he shows up later the same day, with big black buckets of frozen berries. When they're thawed, about 2 days later, I weigh them. Each bucket holds about 30 pounds of berries, but I have to make sure, to have accurate measurements. I add half their weight in organic cane sugar and some freshly squeezed lemon juice. I bring them to a full rolling boil and put them in clean buckets, cover the surface with parchment paper and put them in the refrigerator. Blackberries have a lot of natural pectin, a jelling agent, but it takes time to make it become active.

Here are the berries after their first cooking. I did that Monday, and then put them in the fridge for my day off. On the table behind the buckets of berries is a HUGE hand blender, about the size of a weed whacker! I use that to break down the berries to make it easier for the next step.

I put the berries through the food mill and get rid of the seeds. The seeds can't go in the compost because they're full of sugar.

Here is the jam in the kettle, seed free and beginning to boil. The kitchen is starting to fill with the smell of summery, sweet blackberries.

Resting on my huge steam kettle is my gigantic wooden paddle that I use to stir the jam. It looks like a canoe paddle, but it really is just for stirring jam! The steam kettle holds about 50 pounds of fruit, as well as 25 pounds of sugar. Any more than that, and it boils over. Not a pleasant site!

This is the gory aftermath, when I'm done putting the jam through the food mill to remove the seeds. It always looks this bad, no matter how careful I try to be. The garbage can fell over when I emptied it, and then turned out to be easier to clean that way.

I fill the jars with the hot molten jam, put the lids on as tightly as I can, using garden gloves to protect my hands from the heat, and give me extra grip, then flip the jars over. The jars' heat combined with the 220 degrees of heat from the jam melt the seal in the lid to close the jar tightly, as well as killing any bacteria.

Here is the jam, finished and cooling. This is actually the inspiration for today's blog. Yesterday, as I sat at the loom at the center, I thought about what I was going to write. I knew I had to make lots of blackberry jam today, and envisioned the lovely rows of finished jam, gleaming in their identical jars, silvery lids reflecting the light from outside. Tomorrow, I'll wash off each jar with hot, soapy water, date them and label them. I might think about jam once in a while when I'm weaving, but I also like to think about weaving while I'm making jam. I listen to WeaveCast, imagine new projects and think about what's waiting on the loom at home.

Happy weaving!

Maggie