On the looms

I thought I would bring you up to date on a couple of things. First, Carl used to have a Herald Loom. So, he said that his back beam was like mine but that the spokes for the sectional were inside so that he could warp is the way he normally did, winding a warp and then putting it on. I checked my back beam and yes, you can unscrew the sections, flip them over and then put your warp on without having to do it sectionally. I think I will see how it goes Tuesday, when we get a tutorial, again, on sectional warping and decide if I want to learn a new way. It might work for some projects, especially if I have a variety of different yarns across the warp.

I have two of my looms warped right now.
My workhorse, nilus leclerc, is warped in green. That's the one I'm doing my production work on. I like the accent yarn that's across the center of it. The pieces will have just a bit of interest in them. The yarn is actually for knitting but I've found that an accent knitting yarn gives my pieces a bit of a distinctive look. There will be a couple of jackets, tops and vests made from this warp. Of course, I'll wash this fabric before I assemble it.

The other picture is my wolf pup. She's got an 8/2 cotton warp on her. I enjoy the soft colors and the handtowels will be so soft and make great gifts. This is the warp I'll work on when I'm tired, just need something soothing to tackle. You have to count rows to keep the pattern looking about as square as you can, but that's easy and simple. Not sure how long it'll take me to weave because I work on my nilus much more often. I've got a couple more looms that are empty right now but my goal is that in the next few weeks I'll have a warp on each of them.

Carol

In the beginning.....

When I was a little girl, I spent a lot of time with my Grandmother, Ola Schultz. She loved to tell me stories of when she was a little girl. She also passed along family stories from her side of the family, as well as my Grandfather's family. She had two coverlets that she said came from the Schultz family. She loved to tell me that the wool came from the sheep on the farm, and were sheared, spun and woven at the homeplace. I didn't ask any questions...but I wish I had! She asked me which coverlet I wanted, and of course I wanted the blue and tan one! (Now I realize that the secondary color is a rust.)







Fast forward to the mid 1970's. My great-aunt had died, and her brother asked my Dad to come up to the homeplace and get some things that the family wanted him to have. While we were there, Uncle George asked me if I'd like to have his Mother's loom. I didn't recall ever having seen a loom at the house....where was it??? His mother, my Great-Grandmother, Ester Kidwell Schultz, had the loom taken apart in the early '40's and stored in the attic. And, there it came down the steep steps, all the pieces of what had once been a "barn loom". Uncle George was really proud of the warp beam...he knew that it had been carved from a tree trunk. It took two men to carry it down the steps and load it on Dad's truck. The side pieces were still together, and they were almost 6 ft. tall. And, there was a lot of other STUFF that I had no clue what they could be!
This loom remained apart until 2002, when my new husband, Bruce, decided that it needed to be put back together again. I found some pictures of what I thought it should look like, and he had her back together in less than 20 minutes...just like she had never been apart. There are no bolts, just wooden pegs that hold the joints together. I have called her Ester since that day. It took until 2005 for me to learn to weave!


In all that stuff, I found REEDS....real reeds. And, there were shuttles: one has the initials JN and 1860 carved on it. (I have no clue who JN could be. That's research for another day!) And, there are two carved stick shuttles that I imagine might have been used to weave the pattern on my coverlet.

There was thread that was still wound on corncobs, and spools of crochet thread. I suspect that the X shaped items were some kind of skein winder, but I haven't figured out exactly how it goes back together.

It took me forever to find out that the object with the teeth was called a "temple." And, one of my prized finds in all the STUFF was a handmade raddle (not pictured) that had tiny handcarved pegs. I used that raddle until I bought my Mighty Wolf and raddle.
So, I guess the stars finally aligned, and now I, too, am a weaver. I wonder if Ester put that loom in the attic in hopes that one of her granddaughters in the future would love her? I do, Ester, I do. I just wish she could talk......
LouAnn

The elephant in the room, aka an empty loom

Here she is, the lone section wound on my sectional warp.

Let me tell you why! Every time I tried to use the tension box, it would flip off the front if I didn't have a death grip on it. NO FUN! I tried several things, but to no avail. So there we were at an impasse.

Here, my friends is the culprit, a rounded back beam, that while beautiful to look at and easy on the warp threads as they make their way to the heddles, absolutely not made for my tension box.

I had even begun winding a section at a time on my warping board and then using the box to wind it on. Thinking, I suppose that if I didn't have to handle the spools at the same time it might be easier. NOT! I then had the bright idea of finding a 2x4 to use as a back beam when I would warp. Great! That should do it!

Then as I was drifting off to sleep last night I thought, well duh! What about the floor beam it is square isn't it!

Sure enough it is. I took both beams off and low and behold they are interchangeable!

Here, we have the tension box correctly seated on the new back beam.

I am trying to decide if I am going to leave it there or switch back to the rounded one for weaving. Your input most welcome.

So today I am winding a curious assortment of spools to finish getting those bread cloths onto Lillian. She will be so happy!

Wally decided that his main job for today was to hold the rug down in front of the woodstove. It is cold,wet and soggy outside.

Happy weaving, Tina

A "new" loom

Normally it's not my turn to blog and I will again probably on Sunday about what I was planning to say. However, when Bonnie emailed us that she couldn't this time, I figured I'd jump in.
Just ignore the mess on the right of the picture, altho that little chest of drawers is awfully cute. Got it at an antique shop a couple of years ago. Down here at least, the antique shops are disappearing. The one I got the cabinet in is long gone now. I hate that!

So, a couple of weeks ago I got word that a friend of the Tuesday Weavers is now in an apt with the second bedroom just a bit too small for her loom. She wants to get a wolf pup or baby wolf that she will be able to weave on better. Word was that the loom she was selling was a "48" walnut nilus leclerc". Well, that's just up my alley since I have a 45" nilus leclerc. So I agreed to get it. We went today.

It's really a 36" Herald Loom. It's been apart for a few years and hasn't been woven on much in awhile. She had gotten it used years ago so it's a well loved loom. I'm not quite sure how to put it together. There is a part broken on it but it's repairable. It's also a sectional with the tension box there. I've never wound a sectional before. Not sure I want to but it seems like alot of people are doing that these days and I'm not too old to learn things, that's for sure!

So this is my challenge for the next week or so. Getting it cleaned up and together enough to put a warp on. It sure won't weave rugs as I'd hoped, but it will be a good production loom. I can weave my regular warps on it, I think, if I don't put on one that's more than about 10 yards. I'll have to play with it to see how it weaves.

Any advice on the Herald, since I've never seen one up close and personal before, would be greatly appreciated!!!

Isn't it great that we never know what's around the corner? Weaving is such an adventure!

Carol

Shag-a-licious, Baby!

Is there anything as satisfying as a warp tied on and ready to be woven? The sun is shining through the loominaria window, the weft--strips of fuschia, pink and lavender polyester--are sitting by the loom stool, a cup of coffee is on the tool bench. I started out using Jean Scorgie's Weaver's Craft, Issue 25, "How to Weave a Rug," inspired by the cover photo of an incredibly bright fleece shag rug. Inside are patterns for a rag rug, a double weave rag placemat and the "Rainbow Bright Rug," the fleece rug on the cover. In those instructions, she uses Peter Collingwood's technique for Double Corduroy. The warp is threaded in groups of 20: 41414, 34343, 23232, 12121, and the tie up is 1/3, 1, 3, 2/4, 2, 4. The treadling is right down the line, the tabby being a ground weft, the singles being the pattern weft.

I used light pink carpet warp for the warp, and hot pink for the ground weft. For the pattern weft, I used the 1/2" strips I cut from the polyester yardage someone donated to the center over a year ago, and Pat donated to my stash! Thanks, Pat! Here is my first 2 rows of strips, after my warp spacing rags and the 2" hem in plain weave.

Below is Weftie, hiding in the tool bench. Bella saw him in there, and had to call my attention to it.

I had 5 days off, trying to use up my vacation time before it expires, and this was the one bit dedicated to weaving and little else! I found time to have dinner with friends, go to Norris on Tuesday and clean a little--a VERY little--but mostly, I watched the snow from my window and wove the shag rug! It made me so happy, watching the pattern develop and cutting the shag loops, running my fingers through it to find any uncut, and just patting it for no other reason than it felt good! It was good to be able to stay out of the snow and off the streets, and make something so fun. I got bored with the stripes after about 15 inches, and decided to see what would happen if I inlaid a shape. I was going for a heart, but it came out a little too free form to be actually heart shaped!

I had just enough polyester to finish the rug, unrolled on the right to show the whole rug. I still had about 1 1/2 yards of warp to go, so I finally made use of the Harrisville wool I bought from a donation years ago, a lilac wool that was too scratchy to knit into anything. I took all 6 spools and wound each strand together onto the ski shuttle. I was a little nervous about the coverage, whether the thin yarns would bloom enough to cover the base, but they did, and it's going to be a luscious rug! It will need more care than the polyester one, which I bet will wash and wear just fine, but I really like the feel of it. Above, you can see just the beginning of it, with some of the loops not yet cut. I weave 4 repeats of the pattern, then cut the loops.

I would love to teach this technique to the weavers at the center, and then watch them take off with interpretations of their own! We have that HUGE wall of yarn, and I know a lot of it can make some pretty wonderful rugs!

The lace towels are coming along, obviously a lot more slowly than the rugs, but I weave occasionally on them, too. I just finished one I can't post a photo of, in case the recipient reads the blog, but trust me, it's gorgeous! I have enough warp to do 3-4 more, which I'll show next week. Until then, Happy Weaving!

Maggie

It's Tuesday!

The center follows the Anderson County school system snow schedule. The schools were closed and the center was technically closed... but you just can't keep those weavers away!

One of the projects we are working on today is the repair of some rugs that a customer bought some 20 years ago!!!!

The rugs are in pretty good shape, but the fringes are in pretty bad shape. What to do?

The first thing Carol did was use her serger, to cut and bind the edges.

What we think we might do next week is use some denim to bind the hem. We will let you know how it goes.

Wally made his appearance today and slept most of the morning after greeting everyone of course.

I wanted however, to give you an idea what the real Wally is all about!

Happy Weaving, Tina

Snow, remembering and rugs

It is another cold and frosty day here in the south. Our road is frozen over so I may be staying home again today. Good! I wish you could see a picture from our deck. The view is bright and beautiful! When there is snow on the ground I like to look at the lay of the land. It looks so different with snow on it. I like snow! I grew up with it and I always miss it here in the south. Especially on Christmas day. So, for now I am going to enjoy it. I will listen to the crunching of my boots as I walk around in it and remember my childhood.

Looking at what some of the others have blogged I thought I would continue with looper rugs. Here are some I have made in the past.

These aren't as colorful as some but I thought you might like to see how differently rugs can look even when using the same materials. Isn't it wonderful how people can take the same product and make completely different looking items?

Linda