Shag in the making

napkin in 16/2

The napkins are almost ready to deliver, all that is left to do is make some labels and I may tie them in a couple of bundles with a handwoven band. (Oops, I just saw a skipped thread, I need to tend to!)

1 dozen

My daughter that is a graphic designer was in town last week and while she was here she went to Joanne's with me and helped me pick out the poly fleece I needed for the Shag rug I am making.  Joanne's was having a 1/2 off sale on fleece, so it was really good timing on our part!   My granddaughter said that she wanted the rug to be colors of the rainbow.

stuffed shopping cart 

I thought that I was going to need 7 colors, but it turns out that all I will need is 6 colors. So I needed to decide which color to leave out.  I consulted Dear One (good with color) and he suggested I leave out the eggplant color, so that is what I am going with.

cutting, cutting, cutting

Yesterday and today set up my trusty fabric cutter and set to work.  I need to cut all of this fleece into 1/2 inch strips.  I am not sure if I will weave them in strip form or go ahead and cut the strips in 4 inch lengths, but I am sure leaning that way.  I think I will do a little bit of sampling to make sure.

small pile of strips

       

three bags full?

I had to do some work with colored pencils to get the new color order to work, (the colors intermesh a lot in this rug) but once again consulting Dear One we made the necessary changes  in the color order and I really think that these colors will all play together nicely.


I finished cutting the pink and the red into strips today, and I expect to finish the other 4 colors by the end of next week.  Then I will check to see that I have enough heddles on the first 4 shafts of the 60inch Leclerc, Big Bertha. I need 120 heddles for each of the 4 shafts.
 I will hopefully be able to thread and tie on to the front apron before I go see my Mom November 9th, so that once I get home on the 18th,  I will be ready to weave.



There is no due date on this rug, and I am glad because for the last few months weaving time has been hard to come by.  I expect though that I will be more than a little bit excited to finally get started throwing the shuttle, and as fiddly as this type of weaving is, it is very satisfying.

Until next week, Happy Weaving, Tina

My First Full Width Project on Bertha

The napkins I posted about last recently are now with Marie and are thankfully out of my hands!!!!  It is nice to have my mind free to take on the next project, this time it is a shag rug for my granddaughter.  I wove a sample a couple of months ago using t-shirt material for the shag, and one thing I learned as I cut off that sample, is that t-shirts would be entirely too heavy to use on a  60x90inch shag rug!  I decided that I would use the polyester fleece that is used in the Weavers Craft magazine article that I am relying on heavily for my inspiration.

My granddaughter will pick the colors that she wants me to use, and I am making the rug twice as long and over twice as wide as this Rainbow rug that is in the magazine.  I will also be precutting the shag before I weave so that I won't have to spend time fishing for those loops that were so hard to find when I wove the sample.

Since I was changing so many things, I had to do some math, not my strong point, but I had to know how much 8/4 I needed so that I could choose what color to use.  The warp will not show in the rug so I was able to use a color that I had gotten for a different project that never got off of the ground.

Yep, put on your sunglasses because it is this bright!  I started with 5 cones and  ended with 1 cone and 4 partials.


















I held 4 strands together and carefully wound 15 inch bouts of 5 yards, 4 times, to make the 60 inch warp width.  I did something a little different to hold the cross this time.  I took a drinking straw or 2 that I had on hand, and I cut a couple of lengths.  I placed them at the cross and used blue painters tape to hold them together.

So easy to handle!

Warp Chains in a box. (Do you still have those sunglasses?)

Up and over the castle, ready for the lease sticks on the other side.

Getting the lease stick in place.

I removed the straws once the lease sticks were in place and tied in place on the back beam.  Then it was just a matter of spreading the warp through the raddle that I had in place on top of the castle.








The warp was spread and then lashed onto the apron irons before I could wind the warp.  This warp is only 5 yards so it was on the warp beam in record time.

3 out of 5 of my looms have sectional warp beams, so this is an unusual warping sequence for me, and having the raddle on top of the castle was a first for me, but since the warp was so wide, I felt that the heddles were going to get in the way if I tried to go through the castle.  I have to say that I really liked warping this way, and I am going to see if I can implement some of the things I learned today on my other non sectional looms.

I was soon tying off the warp at the lease sticks and I will soon be threading.  The only thing left to do is choose the colors I want to use for shag and then make strips and cut them to size.  Before long I will be immersed in springy shag!

Until next time, keep Weaving, Tina