Author Archives: Jen

A very late introduction of a new loom…

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I think it was in June, but may have been early July, a new Ashford Knitters Loom arrived, but just like a too-early guest to a party, I wasn’t quite ready for it; so I made it comfortable, expressed such happiness that it had come, and then promptly left it to attend to other things. July and August flew by and I hadn’t found the right time to warp it up, knowing very little about weaving, and even less about warping! But finally, on September 1st, I managed to warp the small loom, with the help of a very small instruction manual and warping peg that came with the loom. I found this “direct warping” method not at all difficult, quite genius in fact, but now I need to practice . . . lots of practice.

I chose this little 20″ folding rigid heddle loom because I think it is a good starting place to learn basic balanced plain weaving, and I am absolutely loving it, preferring color play to be the main focus rather than multiple shaft patterns. For that I think the rigid heddle loom is utterly perfect. Oh, and if you remember this post you’ll understand my colorway, and I’m using Venne Cottolin, and making a predictable first weaving of an Autumnal table runner… or something.

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣ 

  • After choosing the colors, I adhered to a sequence, starting with gold, then blue, then green, then rust, across the warp, ending with gold which would frame the edges in the same color.
  • In the same sequence I wove the weft upwards. If it were completely balanced weaving, there would be the same number of weft rows as warp threads, and the intersections of color would be square. But as I think it is more important to have squares than the same number of rows as threads, I wove up until the blocks were square, then changed color. 
  • It is not yet finished, when I take it off it is pretty open and draping, so I guess being cotton-linen blend (cottolin) that it will shrink and the fabric will become a little more dense. I will probably just sew a hem on each end.
  • Linen is rather stiff and scratchy until it is washed, and eventually softens, whereas cotton is instantly soft, and only gets softer, but the cottolin is a lovely blend of both, and I really love it! Linen is a very long strong fiber that is part of the “stalk” of the plant and processed from roots in the entire length,  whereas cotton is a very short and downy fiber, as it is the fluff in the seed pod of the plant, so you can understand why they are very different.
  • This size is 22/2 very fine yarn actually, and it was woven with the smallest possible 12 dent reed, and still had airspace between the weft & warp. Once washed and dried I hope it comes together and is less open. Next I will attempt to weave with 8/2 cottolin. 
  • I am learning that weaving yarns are very different from knitting yarns and especially so in the sizing standards, which I don’t know a thing about yet. 

My summer fields: predrafting from rolags.

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Just look at these delicious whipped up light woolly confections! I am learning that big fat rolags off of the drum carder or blending board spin so much better and smoother when I do this pre-drafting technique, basically stretching the rolag (in little jerking motions) out into a longer, much more airy variation that has released the bound up energy so fibers can slip through so much better, not having to tug at the rolag.

From this rolag, firmly pulled-off-the-carding-drum, a woolly larvae of sorts . . .

Metamorphosized into this long limp airy creature . . .

And finally into this lightly wrapped beautiful whipped confection ready for woollen spinning.

(( See all posts in this series My Summer Fields Project ))

My summer fields: carding.

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I’ve been busy since the resident carder came earlier this week, down in the tiny (wool) house, raking through the fleece that, after washing it twice, and putting through the box picker twice, I gave up on it as it still had way too many weedy bits, still smelled bad, and was still greasy. The last thing I need is a moth attracting sweater in my wardrobe, so, after cleaning the greasy grime that was fast accumulating on my brand new Ashford carder, I started over blending color with commercial white corriedale/merino top roving I had on hand, and added still more marigold, honey, and dark caramel hues.

However, I made the mistake of pulling off the rolags from the last carding without test-spinning ~~ I am so out of practice ~~ no recipe, just improvising, honing my instincts, and from this point forward it is going to be what it wants to be. I am planning on this first sweater in my wardrobe, to wrap me in the warm memories of golden summer fields all winter long. As I changed course in the middle of carding, I have no idea how much all these rolags weigh, but I’m guessing well over 600g . . . and now for the spinning!

See all posts in this series My Summer Fields Project

The resident drum carder . . .

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. . . has arrived!

I am busy down at the tiny (wool) house, figuring out methods, weighing carefully, taking notes and taking a leap of faith in color, learning how to use the hand-cranked carder (feeding with left hand, cranking with right) and calculating percentages of mixes.

Back down in the charcoal forest, away from the internet, I am hunkering down . . . with a return to Tweed Chronicles, engaging my creativity with a bit of hard work, and making the effort for the yarn.

(( See all posts in this series My Summer Fields ))

High summer.

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This morning I went for a walk with Juno, in the hot . . . dry . . . toasted-in-the-sun wild grass of high summer. I so very much want to capture it and knit it into a sweater! These are moments of this afternoon, as my ideas begin stirring, testing all gold tones together, trying to grasp the emotion I feel about the summer landscape that is elemental to my life on the mountain, and translate it into yarn.

See all posts in this series My Summer Fields Project

Tiny (wool) house.

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Those of you who have been following my blog since at least four years ago do not need to be reminded about what the tiny house is.

But for those who don’t know; after the wildfire Jeff, me, and our dog Emma lived in it while our house was being rebuilt, then Jeff’s daughter stayed in it during the pandemic. It has been vacant now for a couple of years, spiders having it all to themselves, and having become weathered from the elements, I cleaned it up and decided to inhabit it for the purpose of wool processing, and carding!

While fresh air blows through all the open windows through the entire summer, the place is feeling wonderfully clean, neutral, and cozy, and so I am making plans as I await the arrival of the Ashford drum carder, due in a few weeks from New Zealand. I have pulled out the box picker and decided to get a head start picking the fleece mentioned in last post.

I was rather surprised in myself to purchase the drum carder, as I really just didn’t think about how it would create dirt and dust in the house from carder fly-off, especially with home-grown wools, so it became evident a shed would be needed, then I remembered about the tiny house, it just called to me!

Such a sweet place to ponder in the afternoon, a short walk from the house, down in the charcoal forest, and having spent some hours in it today, mostly cleaning and then bringing down the wool picker … I made a cup of coffee, wrote down ideas, and picked wool. I very much enjoyed the warm and inviting personality of this space, remembering its womb-like feel. Anyway, I am hopeful that I can do something special with the tiny (wool) house, things happen for a reason, and well, here I am.

A fiber mill.

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I bought an Ashford drum carder, because I really need one, and it should be here soon. After moving back home I began collecting fiber to spin; interesting roving by the mile, a palette of solid wool colors for blending, artful hand-dyed braids too, and novelty fibers to explore, as I was very anxious to get back into Tweed Chronicles, to blend and spin till the cows come home.

To add, earlier this year a friend gave me a raw fleece. I let it soak outside for the month of April, before rinsing it and letting it dry, not wanting to bring it into the house until it was completely clean and odorless, which it was not, it needs still further washing. Since May it has sat in that tub outside, a dry fluff of wool that the birds have enjoyed for nest lining. I realized that my work space and creative flow had become “fiber bottlenecked”, and can not allow it inside. I really hope this new addition to my loft studio will inspire me to get things flowing again with blending and spinning, and making.

Juno, who hangs out with me in the loft, agrees that it is about time I joined in on the fur fun !

first backstrap weaving

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I am humbled all over again, after rants of frustration, breaking warp threads, redoing the string heddles a few times, inserting a new section of warp after I was fooled by the “false cross”, tired shoulders, and to add, a bit of defiant arrogance. I was all ready to give up, but then remembering Laverne’s words in her tutorial video about backstrap weaving being such a special thing (which it very much is!) and to get frustrated and give up would be a shame. Those words hovered in my brain and made me take another look at the situation and yesterday late afternoon I put it back on the lasso and gave it another try. Well, things started to miraculously come together, finally!

The small swatch is not that much to look at, the selvedges are poor, and I have had to weave in through the back a lot of broken warp threads, but here it is at last, just what it is, my very first weaving, and an excellent test sample from the yarn that I made myself (see this post). What is the best that came out of this is overcoming frustration, seeing the finished piece, and an eagerness to warp for another weaving project. Another weaving on a backstrap loom may need to come around after I get a bit of perspective.

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣ 

  • First and foremost, credit where credit is due; I have been following Laverne’s blog on Backstrap Weaving for some time, and I believe it is her work which has given this style weaving a very deserved mark of excellence. Do see her most artful blog here:  https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/
  • This piece was a very stressful, and I have a new deep reverence for backstrap weavers!
  • I wanted to try my best at the Andean style, I used my hand re-spun wool, and wove very tightly, but still am learning about how the two-color-warp and false cross works, and I did end up having to warp over and insert some warp threads after bad mistakes in set up. 
  • Several times getting up and wriggling out of my backstrap, the whole weaving would flip sideways and I did not secure the shed rod or sword and so they fell out then I lost my shed, had to go back to the default cross and get it set up again. A lot of explanation for the ways I was clumsy need not be written, but I think I would like to take a break from warp-face weaving, as I really crave balanced plain weave, and not to mention, a loom that is secure in place as I like to get up and walk away for breaks a lot. 
  • This 12″ backstrap loom is the smaller of two (the other is 20″) and was the loom I ended up sending to Ro in Mexico shortly after my rigid heddle loom arrived.

Inkle band no.2 , and Notes For Ro

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Band #2 , plain weave, and 100% cotton. I’m not sure I really love working with pure cotton. I think I would in pure linen, as it is crisp and alive, but cotton’s worst enemy it seems, if woven without a lot of muscle and confidence, appears slack and lacking resilience. Next project will be pure wool, which I have a lot of. Anyway, learning something new can be more fun when shared with someone else, and fortunately for me Jeff’s daughter Rosanna and I are learning to weave together ! We’re both absolute rank beginners, starting on our Ashford Inklette looms and graduating soon to backstrap looms made in Guatemala. I’ve had a head start by a couple of weeks, while she is waiting until she gets back to Mexico. I thought I might take notes as I weave and post here so she can benefit from my experiments, therefore I will be including Notes To Ro as footnotes at the bottom of my weaving experiments . . .

♣   Notes For Ro  ♣ 

  • Ro, you’ll want to read the basic instructions that come with our Ashford Inklettes, about how to warp the loom, and to make the leashes (I’ve done these in the lichen green color, so you can see) and starting with the little pieces of cardboard, which I cut out of the box that our looms came in. From there I go to Laverne Waddington’s Backstrap Weaving Blog for instruction.
  • For this band I wove the same plain weave as my first band using color separation for upper & lower shed –held together, side by side without crossing — see Laverne’s video on warping this way, on a narrow warp, what she calls her Plain Weave 2nd Method, shown: Basic Warping for Backstrap Looms. Instead of using warping pegs to separate upper & lower sheds, your inkle loom IS the warping pegs, and you separate the upper/lower (dark/light) as shown on my last project ) On my second band here I am working a variation, what I’m doing different is this: 4 warp threads of dark (rust) on the upper shed/4 light (rose) on the lower, I turn my hand, twisting the threads at the starting peg, thereby switching the colors to be 4 light on the upper/4 dark on the lower, then twist back again for 4 more dark on upper/4 on lower — the edges are the same as the weft thread, 4 upper/4 lower of blue on each side.
  • The yarn I am using is Curio#3 (which I sent to you) is 100% cotton, sturdier than the Dishie and has a sheen, so every detail shows off my lackadaisical inconsistent warp & weft tension, beating, and especially my sloppy selvedges. Cotton behaves differently than on my last band which was woven with a wool/cotton blend. Cotton really takes muscle, I should have pulled the weft more, and beat with more force.
  • I have been getting in the habit of lifting and lowering the lower shed with my fingers of one hand, then slipping the shuttle in to secure the clear shed, then beat, it is terrific feel-good hand work with minimal fussy tools. I tried using too many tools on my first band, and confused myself !

A new adventure and humble beginnings.

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It was inevitable, and I gave into it. For years I have longed to be weaving. I have visualized the varied movements, pondering the most ergonomic way my arms and body would move almost mechanically to work warp and weft, and I have craved to move to this rhythm of weaving. There was just no point in waiting, or putting it out of my mind any longer, but one thing was for sure, I needed to start small. So, these are my first weavings, on a tiny little little loom, the Ashford Inklette.

This thing is addictive, and I think this little loom is a good first step to take to understand how warp sheds work, how to manage tidiness in the selvedges, learn warp-faced weave — how to manipulate the threads and yarns, before I move on to the backstrap loom & beyond.

I’m all about the little baby steps now, I am taking one small step and getting a bang out of it! I managed to finish this in a few hours, and now enjoying a celebratory cup of kahve . . .

Backstrap Loom

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I had to seriously ask myself; do I want to just dream about one day weaving, or do I want to just weave? I suppose I was held back by fear of being a rank beginner, and for years now I have enviously read weaving blogs and watched weaving videos, and still I wasn’t ready to begin, to wheeze and strain against the learning curve, new frustrations and aches. So here is my hand-made backstrap loom, from Guatemala, one of two I bought from a charitable organization on Etsy, one for myself and one for Jeff’s daughter. I am going to sand it a little bit and condition the wood too, and then I’ll be ready to warp. I am eager to share my experience here as a rank beginner, un-confident, but like a wobbly kneed colt, I am putting one stride before me, my first step in what will hopefully become a journey.

Patamanta Sleeves

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The most recent addition to Patamanta, a pair of super soft thumbhole “sleeves”, knit in 100% superfine Simply Alpaca. As I had got quite a stash of it last Autumn I can explore my ideas unhindered with actual knitting, and I am enjoying it all, every minute. Particularly these, part of the eventual Patamanta pattern collection. The pattern will also include legwarmers, and shorter mitts, although as yet I haven’t knit up those, and being nearly the same idea as the sleeves, I may not need to. Leg warmers, sleeves, and mitts all have the same charts, just a matter of how many repeats in the round and in length. I still have a few more things to knit up from this small little collection, so I’m just enjoying the calm knitting pace, and letting inspiration come in little waves, and also staying very busy outside this Springtime.

A little felted pouch…

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A felted phone pouch I’ve just finished, made from the new augmented Patamanta charts, and in a cheerful bright Peruvian colorway. The new charts are not quite available yet, not until I finish the other things from the little collection I am putting together under the Patamanta name, then I’ll round it all up and update the pattern, I promise! But really, I’m just taking my time, enjoying the knitting, and in no rush. I took the opportunity to add this little pouch to the pattern because I badly need a phone pouch as I have a new phone that I need to start keeping with me when I go for hikes up here in the wild as I never know when I’m going to trip over another fallen tree and injure my foot again, or if I will need to scare away preying wildlife with the funky ringtones, or ? Now that I think about it, before I take it out on the trail, I am considering giving it a bath of onion skins or tea to tone it down a bit and make it more earthy!

Patamanta Minis

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I have taken a pause from new design project, to put together a gift for a friend’s grand-child who is turning three soon, and taking this opportunity to augment my recent Patamanta pattern into a small collection. Not sure, probably will just add some thumbhole “sleeves” or long fingerless mitts & legwarmers, as well as more variations of the original chullo, with augmented charts and sizes. I managed to sample these mini sizes just by using the smallest of the sizes and odd bits of sock-weight yarn. Thus far at least I have the present ready on time, but as yet I still must knit some adult sized samples in heavier weight un-dyed alpaca, before it is complete. Who knows what else I will knit from it, because I am unable to stop as these little colorwork pieces are so fun to knit, and completely addictive!