Math Class 2 - the basics - planning a rug

So - yesterday Maggie wrote about higher math - the calculus of weaving - lace patterns, fine thread, a kazillion ends. Today I am tackling a much simpler question - do I have enough fabric to make one last good sized rug?


Here is the fabric. It is light weight cotton. It came from the never ending stash at the center. Using the finger to nose method I think I have 7 yards of it. It is 46" wide. If I cut it in 3" strips (which is what I was planning) I will have 15 strips or about 105 yards of fabric. If I cut it in 4" strips which the cheat sheet on the wall at the center tells me to do I will have about 77 yards of fabric strips. Of course the 4" strips would make a little fatter weft and my number of picks per foot would be less. "Picks per foot" sounds funny but that is a better way to look at rugs.

Here is my loom. The warp has already produced 8 rugs. I think I have about 60 inches of usable warp left. The woven width of my rugs on the loom is 28". To be safe I am going to assume I need 30" for every pick. At 105 yards of fabric that would be 126 picks - assuming that each pick would be a little less than a half an inch wide (I guessed .4). That would give me maybe 50 inches of rug. At 77 yards of wider fabric strips I would get only 92 pick but they would each be bigger - probably more than 1/2 inch (maybe .54) - so I might get oh - about 50 inches. I guess it should be no surprise that the same fabric - cut differently it still is the same amount of fabric therefore a rug about the same size. So if I want a 60" rug I need to find some contrasting or complementary fabric to add about 10 inches. Maybe some white stripes at the beginning and the end.

Here is the last rug that I wove on this warp. It is a combination of a pale silvery blue and white nylon. Yes - just like that stuff I shlepped on Tuesday from one part of the annex to the other. I have woven 5 nylon rugs on this warp. The others have been solid. All of the rugs have been variations of baby pink, baby blue and white. Anyone need a rug for a baby gift? How about a rug for a bathroom at a beach house?

I best get a few more things done this afternoon so that I can get my strips cut and my rug woven. Then the warp gets cut and it is time for more math - how long should that next warp be? how many ends? Yes, weaving is a lot more than throwing the shuttle.

Be well,
Ann

Math Class

 Day four of Staycation 2012, and it's way too cold to do my outside projects!  I've been inside, plotting new weaving projects, or trying to.  Jenny is bare naked, needing a project, and I want to make lace curtains for the living room.  To the right is Davison, open to page 96, Lace Stripes, treadling number one.  I believe it will be 519 ends, including 4 floating selvedge threads for edge stability.  That's 34.5 inches wide, not counting shrinkage, but I think that will be wide enough.  The windows are 28 inches wide, and I'd like the lace to show.  I'll need enough for two windows and two doors.  For the two little windows on either side of the fireplace, I'm crazy enough to attempt the pattern on the next page that has 72 threads per repeat!  It's Johann D's No.32.  I've done another pattern by Johann D.  He must have been insane.  Or had lots of time on his hands.

And then there's the other brain teaser I've  been working on today.  I'd like to do an eight shaft huck lace next, once I get the shag rug warp done.  But I've been going through Carol Strickler's book, and I just don't get Profile Drafts!  I finally figured out the threading--Thanks, LouAnn!--but I simply cannot understand the treadling.  I've read it about 327 times today, and it just isn't sinking in.  I downloaded an essay on the subject from that great website from the University of Arizona, but I cannot grasp what it's saying.
  In the fine print at the bottom of the page in the Strickler book, she says that each square in the treadling sequence represents "one five pick half unit."  I beg your pardon?  I hope LouAnn is right, that as I start to weave, it will make sense!
 
So I read and take breaks.  Once to go to the Three Rivers Coop, which is amazing in their new location.  If you haven't been, you must go!  It's at 1100 N. Central, and they're open 9 am to 10 pm, so no excuses!  It's so much nicer than their old place!
  Next, I wove on the shag rug, which you can see has made some progress.  The edge has rolled under the apron beam, and the anchor is nearing completion.  The beige is an anchor.  It's for Matt's and Dana's nautical themed bathroom.  It is crazy soft and fluffy!  Unfortunately, the strips of fleece are making me sneeze like crazy!  I can only weave on it a little at a time.
  I've also worked on the mittens, which are showing progress.  One more bunch of bobbles and they're ready for decreases.  And then I can start some crazy socks I've been dying to try, joining Noro sock yarn with solid sock yarn, in a faux-Fair Isle kind of pattern.  Can't wait!
  Gotta get back to it!  If you have any brilliant insights into Profile Drafts and their treadlings, please let me know!
Happy Weaving!
Maggie

Moving Day!

Today was the day - a promise to move all of the weaving materials from the old portion of the Annex at the Craft Center to the newly constructed weaving storage space that you have been hearing all about.

Today was the day but when I woke up I heard rain - not misty rain but heavy, pounding rain. I checked weather.com before getting dressed and saw that the rain was supposed to be moving through. I decided to be optimistic and put on my work clothes. It rained most of the way there - but let up just as I was getting off the interstate. Obviously others were optimistic too - so we got to work.

Tina packing up nasty insulation

Not only did we need to move our yarn, loopers, freece, rovings, fabric and loom parts - we needed to remove the wet nasty insulation, and ceiling. Yuck!

New to us weavers - Cindy and Christy - ask when do we get to weave?

Cindy vacuumed the cones and boxes as they came in. Christy moved boxes away from the door so that more could come in.

My lovely pant legs - yes they went right into the laundry

I schlepped bags, boxes and cones between the old and the new storage areas. Actually we all did part of the schlepping job - it was sloppy as you can see from my legs. But miraculously the rain stopped while we were moving things - came down hard while we had lunch - let up again and then when we were done it poured again.

All our stash in the new storage space

Now we need to get the shelving up - so that we can get things put away in an orderly fashion. then we will know what we have. Oh and we need to move back all of the materials being stored at weavers homes. I do hope the new space is big enough!

Empty wall in the new space - it won't be empty long

We saved space along one wall so that Allen can get the first set of shelves in and we can begin the organizing. One it is all up on shelves it will be much better.

Allen in the old space - after we removed all the weaving supplies

 Now the rest of the crafters can find things they haven't seen in years. It is their time to clean and organize. Allen is doing a little final ceiling repair and will re-mount that dangling light fixture. Once he gets his tools and equipment out of there we will be done on that side.

Meanwhile.....

Ila works on more mug rugs

I think Trudy is supervising - she was just glad to be out of the house

Bonnie works on her new warp

Aren't these going to be beautiful

Our newest weaver (Judy) threads her heddles - I promise I will slow down and introduce myself next time

And speaking of moving.... there were some heavy negotiations going on about moving from one loom to another. Linda is going to pick up on Allen's place-mats. And Allen is going to start weaving Tina's bread cloths.

Allen is sharing some of the looms idiosyncrasies

Tina is showing Allen the pattern for the bread cloths

It was a very busy day. Lots accomplished. And I think it is time to turn in  - after I take my Aleve.

Be well,
Ann

More Rugs

I did hope to have the rug warp off by today but there are still 2 rugs left to be woven on there. I cut off what I'd done yesterday and serged the edges this morning so I could take some pictures to show what I'd done this past week. I guess I wove 6 rugs. Friday I worked at the Art Market Gallery again so didn't get a chance to weave. Whether I'd have gotten the warp completely done was probably not possible. I ended up with a bit of a head cold toward the end of the week. I hate when that happens!!

So this first rug was a joy to weave. I'd cut another small piece of flannel plaid I'd gotten at Walmart and love the way it wove and the way the rug feels. I do have some balls of it left but not enough for a whole rug. I'll mix it in with some other leftover plaid down the road for a rug.

 When Linda and I were at Great Northern I spent alot of time looking at their spools of fabric. I got a nice big spool of black plus 4 of a teal combination. The ends were sealed so you couldn't see the other side of the fabric and I didn't look. I liked the soft look of it. Well, when I took the paper off to see it now, it was a nice deeper teal that this picture doesn't really do justice to. I put 3 rows of black every 5 inches across the whole rug. I guess it's about 55 inches long. That was another fun rug to weave.

 Two other rugs were woven using the leftovers of the bright stripes and also the pink and black stripes. Those stripes are all gone now!
Then I started in on the fringe bags. Boy, it takes a long time to weave these!! First of all, it's all dumped into a bag and is a real mess. Well, the strips of striped fabrics were a mess too, but this was a bit dustier! Since it comes from the floor or wherever they wove the fabric, makes sense!
Not really knowing how much a bag of the stuff would weave, I spent quite a time finding the half and cutting it in 2 pieces so half could be at one end and the other half at the other.

 Also found that not all selvages are the same. Some have a core warp that's very fine and beats in like crazy. Other ones, like the black white and red below had a nice wide core warp and wove much faster. Sad to say, I used it all up. I did have to throw some of it away because almost half of it didn't have that core warp and could not be woven easily. It wasn't worth it to try either!

 Kind of cool how it all blends together as you change the colors. This one was about 60 inches long. It'll be interesting to see how it prices when I get to that.

I need to hem these rugs plus the ones from last week. That should take about a day!
I am also prepping weft for a rug for my Mom using her old tops and skirts. I'm about half finished sewing the strips together. Should have a picture of that next week. Then my sister's old tops are next to be sewn. I cut those strips before Christmas.

Once I get the last rug or two off this warp I'm changing back to production weaving. I think after I do a couple of warps for that I'll slip in a warp for rugs. It takes time to get the weft ready for rugs and I don't want to have to wait to figure out what to weave next. If I have all my wefts ready, I can get them done quicker than if I don't, I hope!!  That next rug warp is going to be cheerful colors, too!!
We are ordering more carpet warp for the Tuesday Weavers in the next week or two so I'll pick up some more black but also may get some cheerful colors to put together for some nice rugs, maybe some more with loopers!

We dodged the bullet last week as far as snow goes. School was an hour late on Friday but that's it. We were ok and I could get off my hill. No telling when the next one will hit but for the forseeable future we're ok down here!! Saskatoon got blasted with a pile of snow over the weekend and Moose Jaw got a bit as well. But, we're ok down south here! ha!!
Until next week, stay warm and keep on weaving!!
Carol

Rag Cutting machine in action!

A couple of months ago, I ran across a Rag Cutting Machine on a weavers marketplace on Ravelry.  I mentioned it to the Weavers and they all agreed that it might be a good addition to our tool belt.  We purchased the machine and it came in a very short time.  We were really busy at that time with the Fall Craft Show, and though I played around with it a little bit, I was having trouble making it work properly.

Today, I set it up with a small roll of cloth so that only 2 cuts were going to be made.

The problem arises when the fabric begins to roll on itself very slightly, and before you know it it has folded itself in half and then the tension goes all wonky!  With the spacers in there it is a little tricky because they add more space between the fabric strips than there was origionally.

I got the bright idea to put those nails between the strips as it comes off the cutters and that did the trick.  I was very careful to go slowly and watch the new spools of cloth closely, but I had no further problems.  

These rolls of cloth are ready to be used in the place-mats I am finishing up today.  They are neat and tidy and I really am impressed with our new tool. ( They are so cool that they can even defy gravity!)

P. S. I still love my new cart!

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina

weaving & painting.....painting & weaving....and all that jazz!

.....and a BIG win for the Crimson Tide!

  Can you tell who was a very happy camper today???

  (They weren't playing the Big Orange, so it's OK to cheer!!!!)

 


  Welcome to the Tuesday Weavers, Judy!!!  Even with all the hub-bub going on today, she got her warp wound and on the loom. 

And, welcome back, Pat!!!!!  We missed you! 


  Pat found some quiet time to thread her loom for the Guild workshop.

And, through it all, Ms. Ila is getting those mug rugs woven off the warp she put on for Foothills.

  Pretty Maids All In A Row!
 

  Maggie, Bonnie and Andy kept the production going on the back row.

 

And, now to the Annex!
  Supplies were moved out....walls were primed......

.....window facings were cut and nailed.....and the floor got a coat of porch paint.

......and on it goes!!!!  What a whirlwind day!
  The weather held for us to get the painting finished and inside it was always sunny and bright!  Gotta love it!!!





All of that busy in one place!

Happy Weaving!
LouAnn

Check it off!!

I love to be able to check something off my virtual list. That happened this week when I "checked off" the centerpiece mat from my list. Ok, it's a kit, but what a cool picture!! It's all wool and came with the pattern and this stack of wool pieces. Deciding what to use for what was fun, then figuring out how to attach it to the base was another thing. I bought some tiny pins to do that since the heat n bond wouldn't stick, wool was too thick. It worked out nicely with the pins and I got into the rhythm of pinning and sewing the pieces onto the background.

 This was my project the last few weeks in the evenings with the Christmas tree lights on and watching something on TV.

 I enjoyed it so much that the next time I head down to Greenback to the quilt shop, I may just pick up another kit or a pattern and pick out wool from their huge selection there and make another piece.

I have been weaving as much as I could this past week. Having to work at the Art Market Gallery on Thursday and then helping to paint on Friday, made for a very short week of weaving. However, I did get that black warp off the loom.
The last one I wove was with those fuzzy selvages. I picked up a bunch in summer and this was my first try. Linda'd told me to pick up a comb to help bring the threads forward and up before I beat each row in, and that's what I did.

The black is actually a much truer black than this picture shows.   I kept thinking, this takes forever. Is it worth it? Well, I think it's worth it. It may take forever, but chaining loopers does too, especially after dyeing them ourselves. I've dyed some more but forgot to take a picture of them. Also, have to quit dyeing til we get that septic tank fixed so I'll keep weaving with the loopers I got a year or so ago. I do want to use them up too.

The rest of the rugs on the warp were the bags of already cut strips of stripes from Great Northern. I got 3 rugs from this black, grey, white, turquoise combination. It's now finished.

 The hot pink and black striped strips wove up nicely and I got 2 of them done. There's some left. I've got a bag of solid black strips that I'll combine with what's left of this to make one more rug on the next warp.

 There are 3 of this combination, I think. I do have some left and I'll use the black again, to stretch it if need be. A bit of solid black for a band at each end will look good.

 Yesterday I wound another solid black warp. I had to scrounge to find enough black carpet warp to do it, but it worked! Guess I'll be ordering more black when the Tuesday Weavers makes their next carpet warp order. That's got to be soon since we're kind of low at the center!!

Saturday I got a new book in the mail from amazon. It's the Weft-Faced Pattern Weaves by Nancy Arthur Hoskins. Wow, what a book. This is a very detailed book with lots of sample projects to weave to figure out the different weave structures. When I took a class with Robyn Spady a few years ago at Midwest, we did a couple of these weaves. I enjoyed them then, but this is a very detailed look at what happens if......

Today is our daughter's birthday. Where did the last 25 years ago??? Now, if I can find that birthday card I bought for her......a year ago.........I'll be in fine shape! Her birth mom's bringing her a cookie cake and I suspect we'll go out tonight for a special dinner with her. So, happy birthday, BG or KP, or whatever your name is right now! ha!! Oh, actually, Thursday it'll be exactly 25 years since we got her. I remember that day sooooo well!!! Thursday's also my sister's birthday.
It's all good.

We woke to rain again this morning, but it's supposed to quit raining and by tomorrow be in the low 60s and dry. Guess I'll be packing my paint clothes (now that I have some) and be ready to paint some more. We are hoping to get the inside of our annex space painted as well. Just getting a coat of paint on there to lighten the wood inside as well as protect the floor, will help preserve the space.  This may be our last opportunity to paint til spring when it warms up again. Once it's painted, Allan'll be building shelves for us and we'll begin the massive move of our weaving stash into there. Then we'll finally know how much we really have and see who wants to weave what!!
Til next week.
Carol