Sampling

A wee bit of silk!

The sample has tons of mistakes, but I put on 2 yards so that I would have plenty of warp left for a couple of projects I have in mind.  I made many, many rookie mistakes warping with these tiny threads so I took longer than it should have.  You would think I would know all that by now!

The white plain weave background is silk sewing thread and the 13  red pattern threads are 20/2 silk yarn.  I have some ideas rolling around in my head for the shows, but I am going to have to get better at this first!

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina

The Buzz

  There was a sight buzz going on in the studio today.

  Eight of our weavers went to The Woolery yesterday, and we got to hear all about the trip.  But, would you believe that they did not take any pictures?????

  Not even ONE????

  There was a bunch of weaving, too.

Anna had her little Structo with her today--and she has found little spools to fit on the warp beam!!!
  Anna was also kept busy giving pin loom instruction to Sharon.  
  So many ways to weave!!!!

  We are pleased that Ray is able to join us again.  He has a lot of weaving experience to share with the group.

  I'm sure that Carl and Lanny will appreciate having another man around the studio, too!!!













  Betsy is working on a new rug using a black cloth weft for one of the stripes.  And, Linda is back to work on her black placemat warp....this time with a new color combo for the weft.





    The Pups were kept humming along, too.  Joan and Harriet  had plenty to keep them busy.












  Frieda  loves working on this loom.

We are happy to hear that Cathy and Paula will be joining the weavers again.  Pat took some time to catch up on all the news!

  We had a surprise visit from Linda and Mark during lunch.  Linda is out of the hospital, and Mark had taken her out for some lunch at the Museum.  It will still be awhile before she can get back to weaving, though.  (Sorry....I didn't get that picture!)

  Polly was able to attend the Annual Meeting, which was held Sunday at the Center.  We are all being called on to step up and offer classes for the Center.  Polly brought her "Twig Chairs" that she made.  This will be the class that she will be teaching this spring at the Center. 
 
  Lots to think about......

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Third Warp

There are two sets of curtains that I weave for the lodge. The set I've been working on first is the shorter set. I weave 68 inches. The finished panel, after washing and sewing casings and hems is 45 inches. I first weave plain weave for awhile then 2 sets of patterns for the main accent.

then, after weaving a bunch of plain weave again, I do another accent row. They do look nice when done.

When I wind the warps on for curtains, I get DH to help me. I want the warps to be on extra well. Saturday we were putting on this third warp. We had help.

Belle was determined to stay right in front of me and sleep on the coiled warp. She was not impressed when DH removed her. She would come right back and stay there. It was the funniest time!!

Hopefully this will be the last warp for curtains. We'll see when I finish these and take the warp off. I have been known to make mistakes and have to weave more panels...

As I type this, we're in cars heading to Kentucky. The Tuesday Weavers are going to be Woolery!! With the rainy weather, we're just two cars full this time, but we're a rowdy bunch and looking forward to seeing the folks up there. We'll stop at the welcome center in Berea first, grab a bite when we get to Frankfort   and then head for the yarn!!

Until next week, keep weaving!!

Carol

In the Loop

I texted LouAnn yesterday and told her that I had not gotten started on the 2.2 pounds of Bombyx silk fiber in Brick form, that I purchased last month for my Birthday, and that I am using it as a carrot to get some things done before I start.  She wanted to know if I was crazy or something, but I know that once I get started spinning silk, I may not want to stop!

One of the biggest things I had to get done, before I start spinning that lovely silk was the bags of loopers that had not been de-linted needed to be.   Several days last week I worked on them and all day Wednesday I worked steadily until I got to the lint in the bottom of the last bag.

This stringy stuff, and it's accompanying lint gets everywhere when you are working on the loopers, that I think is kind of why I hadn't tackled it yet.

As LouAnn mentioned yesterday, I am getting John her ORCO rug loom.  I had recently sold a project Cambridge loom when I realized that while I enjoy tinkering with looms  and wheels, I am not very good at full blown restoration.  It was just about that same time when LouAnn decided that John might need to find a new home.

Anyway, that is what has fueled this push to get the looper mess in hand.  I already mentioned last week that I am dyeing the loopers with some Rit Dye that Carol had given me ages ago.   As I sorted thru loopers and grouped and washed them a couple of times in the washer, I dyed them in batches of 300 to 400 loopers .

I had to take a break from dyeing cause I ran out of washed loopers,  I think I only have 3 more bottles of dye left.  So this dyeing bonanza will soon be over.  I did a rough estimate on just how many loopers we are talking about. ( I zip tied them in groups of 100 so it wasn't terrible difficult to do.)  I have over 100,000 loopers on hand.

Here are the colors I have so far, when I dyed the first batches I did 300 loopers per pot, but I soon realized that I could easily fit another 100 in the pot and still get good color.

The black ones were already black, but they had to be washed too.  Among the colors I have left  to use is a bottle of black, and I think I am going to go ahead and use it on 400 of them, it will probably end up a different shade of black than what I already have.

There are still 4 bags of loopers that are de-linted and zip-tied together that still need to be washed and I am really tempted to take them to the laundromat and give my washing machine a break!  Once they are clean I can finish dyeing those last 3 batches and be done with it!!!!  YAY!

Now I just have to chain them and weave them into rugs!

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina

Once Upon A Time

  On a hot, humid August day, way back in 2009, this handsome gentleman came to live with me.  I named him after the weaver who wove on him until he died....so, John has been with me awhile.

  The mystery warp that was on him when he arrived was soon identified as the Hollywood Rug, which used to be pre-warped on ORCO looms way back when.  We have spent many hours together just weaving away....mostly rugs and totebags. 

I love him.....he never asks me what's for dinner.  He never points out my poor housekeeping skills.  He doesn't complain when I leave him for long periods of time.  And, when we weave together, he just gets it done.

I love him!

  Thanks to Tina, we have wound a couple of warps on that lovely sectional beam.  Because of John, I have come to appreciate the beauty of a sectional warping beam.  Just load that beam up, and you can weave and weave and weave.  You always have the option of re-threading for a different pattern, if you decide that's your thing.  But, I kept a straight draw threaded after that Hollywood warp came off the loom.  Sometimes I would switch to a twill treadling, which was lots of fun.  John just kept on doing his job.
  Blue jean rugs were easy-peasy for him....that beater bar really packs the weft!

  So, now, it's time for John to go to a new home...with someone who will make better use of his talents. 
  I've been moving looms around the house, and I realized that John was not getting the amount of love he deserved. 
  No loom can replace him....I'll just make do with the other looms that are here.  This is my last rug to weave on John....one more blue jean rug.....our last one together.
  John will be going to Tina's house where he will weave lots of rugs.  (I bet she'll even load him up with a Hollywood warp!!!) 
  But, best of all, he will be loved.

Happy Weaving,
LouAnn

Excitement In The Air

They're here!!!

Aren't they lovely????

We have added to our Wolf pack:  one Baby and one Mighty....both are 8 shaft looms!

Of course, that means that heddles have to be counted out and put on the bars.  The strollers were attached to the feet of the looms.
 
  Ms. Ila finished her shawl on the 4H Mighty Wolf so she could be ready for the new 8H loom.  I think she has a pattern in mind already!!!






  All the treadle cords had to be attached, also.
YOU do the math......

But, as usual, the Tuesday Weavers jumped right into action!  Done and Done!!!







  Jocelyn has her shawl warp threaded, and she's ready to sley the reed.












  Yes...that's Molly peeking through the castle.  The re-thread is going well....right?

Polly was kept hopping between one project and another most of the day.  The brake on the Leclerc needed her attention, and we had trouble changing the cutter blades on the rag cutter!  Polly to the rescue!!!!

  Alyce got the warp back in order, and it's time to  tie on to the front bar. 














 

  Meanwhile in the kitchen, Anna had a pin loom lesson going!  Those sure are handy little looms!

Carl got more blue jean strips cut, and got to work after lunch on his rug warp.  He's ready to start his third rug next week.

  The Tuesday Weavers are going to the Woolery on Monday....I hope they are ready for some fun!!!

So much weaving .......

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Good to be Cautious!

As I mentioned the last time I posted, I am weaving curtains. Using carpet warp works best for this because these curtains are for the lodge on top of Mt LeConte in the Smokey Mountains. I can see the mountain from my home and it's kind of cool to know that for about the last 35 years the curtains up there were woven by me. Now for the last few January's I've been replacing them. This will be the last year. I will be done with it according to the manager that I deal with.  It will be nice to be done.

Carpet warp is good because the whole place is rustic. The only way to get up there is to hike the trails. The quickest way is 3 miles straight up via Alum Cave. The longest is about 9 miles. The way we usually went was about 6 miles. These curtains will be air lifted via helicopter early in March with the rest of the annual supplies. Carpet warp fits in with the primitive construction of the cabins. Carpet warp is also almost indestructible!

When I started to weave almost 40 years ago, the color on yarns was color fast. Then about 20 plus years ago some yarns weren't color fast the way they had been. Laws had changed. So if you were weaving white or natural pieces and added, say, a band or color, when you washed it, the color would bleed to the natural fabric. That's a real disaster for a production weaver and some people didn't prewash the items because of that, before they sold them. However, that's just not right. So, when I was weaving the curtains, I would skein the red carpet warp and rinse out excess dye before letting it dry, reball it and then use it to add color to the natural curtains. It took extra time to get this done.

Then a year ago I realized that the red skeins were not running red water at all! What a relief! I should be able to just weave with the red and not have to prewash the red. This year I almost didn't. I'd prewashed 3 cones when I started to weave this year and all clear there. Then yesterday I prewashed 2 more half pound skeins. The first was great, water clear.

The second skein....not so clear!! I don't know if this is just a cone that's been around for a long time or what the deal is, but I am so glad that I decided to rinse the red again!!

Lesson learned!! I will still use color catchers when I wash the curtains later on, but hopefully they will just be as white as before!

I have a good third of them woven and I just started another warp of them. By the end of the week I hope to be well over half done. It'll all depend on life!

I hope to have pictures of the  designs next week. I haven't changed the patterns or placement of the designs from the originals I did. They seem to like what I did so I continue to do them this way.

The next few weeks I'll continue to focus on these curtains. It's keeping me busy.

Until next week, keep weaving!

Carol