Sun has gone into Libra, and now it is the Autumn equinox. This photo has become my tradition for years now, capturing the most magical time of day on the most magical day of the year, when the sinking sun throws light up against the rafters, and the beams reflect a glow, yet each year it is a little different. A time of transition into soothing cooler days with rain on its way, it marks a happy time of excitement. Wishing a happy equinox to all!
Hi, its me Abelene.
The news around here is that Jen finished scarf no. 8, and not only that, but also she says she is finished the 20/2 ulltra fine cotton series, at least for a while. Time to move on. This project is unique from the others because she used direct warping method on the 8 shaft table loom — do read Jen’s note down in the Weaving Notes explaining things, and see all the photos. We, the crew of inanimate objects; a chatty mannequin, all of the looms, Señor Mirando (mirror), ladder, chairs, old wooden ironing board, little antique folding ruler, et al — we ALL respect that this double threading thing is a big deal to Jen, but she’s losing her mind a bit, attempting to avoid convention. We, the crew, are happy to be able to work together photographing beneath the rafters, with beautiful draping hand weavings, in the afternoon light, but we aren’t sure what Jen intends to do now being finished with “the series”. She has been spending time making dye concoctions with powdered extracts of indigo, madder, and pomegranate rinds, and so we think her next thing might have something to do with that, which no doubt in my mind will result in another beautiful drapey thing!
Ta ta, Abelene & The Crew
♣ Weaving Notes ♣
Note from Jen: For this piece I tried the easy direct warping double threaded through the heddles on the table loom, so was inventing a method for myself, as so far I have only have done this on the rigid heddle loom with Scarf no.7. Take a look at the photos in the weaving notes below and you’ll see that this is not conventional, and I’m only grateful there are no weaving police around. For the weavers who are reading, I’m sharing my weaving notes and detailed warping photos below . . .
Today is the 1st of Step-tember, and a daily walking routine, so Juno and I walked to the top of the mountain, she running in circles around me. Phone photos don’t do justice to the scenery (so lazy these days, I didn’t bring my camera) but they document the event, so it’s all good. Steptember and Walktober are the months about walking-into-autumn, making up for the lazy days of summer I spent indoors out of the heat. Now, counting down the days to the Autumnal Equinox, three weeks from today!
I’ve been trying out some natural dyes from my new natural dye kit, and decided to start a dye diary — a DYERY — on my blog, to keep track of successes, failures need not be mentioned. On the summer solstice I bought myself the Earthhues Color Collection Kit which promises to be completely safe and I love the motto on the instruction booklet “What comes from the earth shall not harm the earth” ~~ I’m on board! The kit includes everything needed for one or two indigo vats as well as a dozen other color dye extracts, and mordants, plus color shifters, for both protein fibers as well as cellulose fibers, really quite a value when you open the box and it is packed with pouches and jars and a booklet too. I want to have my basic primary natural colors which is indigo, madder, and weld, but wanted to explore with some neutral and golden tones too, so these were my first two experiments all using 10/2 mercerized cotton for weaving …
Indigo: The dye used indigo extract powder, lye powder to make the vat alkaline and thiourea dioxide to reduce the oxygen in the bath — very fast — but the chemicals did not smell at all pleasant. I think next indigo dye vat I will try the well-known “1-2-3 fructose vat” which uses powdered food-grade lime (calcium hydroxide) to make the vat alkaline and fructose powder to reduce the oxygen. The color striations are from when I tied some warps for ikat that I posted in Knotty after being very inspired by the Japanese ikat video. I hope to try my first ikat weaving very soon, but that will be a different post. As I tied off the ikat warps 5 inches center-to-center, I figured I could go ahead and wind into a ball and align the ikat patterning on the loom when I weave.
Madder, Weld, Pomegranite, and mix of Wattle & Quebracho: Four at once, after scouring and then mordanting the cotton fiber with aluminum acetate solution. The four dyes simmered in separate pint jars in a huge electric 12 quart instant pot that I got just for dying, scouring, and mordanting with, and can set different sized jars inside of the heating water, which makes a very clean and flexible heat source. I don’t know which dye jars were the pomegranite and waddle/quebracho as I didn’t label the dye jars, a bad oversight out of inexperience to run up to the house and get pen to mark the jars with writing on rubberbands ~ next time for sure!
♣ Dye Notes ♣
It was a long labor of love, and after a year, it returned to the source. My golden fields sweater project is finished, astonishingly on the anniversary of starting it, brought back to the inspiration, the golden landscape of summer … Continue reading
I have been doing experiments in chocolate, because I’m so in love with the taste of hazelnuts and chocolate, as the Italian invention gianduja, but this is my own rustic variation of it. I will tell you quite personally and revealing, the tastes that belong together, cioccolato con nocciole e caffè (chocolate with hazelnuts and coffee) , in the afternoon satisfies a deep and intimate craving from within me, so I strive on to perfect it. The real gianduja is made quite differently, with but I aspire to first find a balance of milk chocolate that is barely sweet, and by adding finely ground hazelnut paste gives it another dimension, soft and velvety, so mild, so meant to be accompanied by a little cup of rich coffee ~~ really, the finest pleasure of a moment!
♣ Cooking Notes ♣
Thought I’d post this one too , just the milk chocolate mix without hazelnut paste mixed in, poured over the toasted hazelnuts, mixed in the dish a little before cooling and breaking up . . .
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Ikat is on my mind in recent days. I bought the book, watched the videos, and naturally soon thereafter I would want to go down to the tiny (dye) house where my indigo and madder are waiting patiently for me, and start tying knots!
A lovely artful video on one family’s kasuri making . . .
Another artful video from the same dye house, more extensive footage with no vocal. . .
Hi, its me Abelene
I am happy to introduce to you the very latest in Jen’s ultra fine weaving series, and also my new photo shoot companion, Señor Mirando the mirror, who arrived here weeks ago along with a lovely old dresser, the set being a gift from another weaver (thank you Bea!) Handsome and talented at revealing to you the intricate and complex angles of a drape which I simply can not, Mirando promises to show up for the photo shoots along with our hard working crew the ladder and chairs.
The weaving is remarkable, for it is two threads in warp against one thread in weft. Yesterday Jen washed it and hung it out to dry on the line, flapping in the 100F summer heat, and only took less than ten minutes, and barely more than five, because it is so hot outside.
I think it is very beautiful and interesting how the unique weave structure looks, I wonder if there is a name for this, does anybody know? Anyway, Jen is on to something here, and wants to develop this style of quick and easy warping she says, so she’s going to warp another of this kind of weave on my buddy in the closet, the table loom, but with a finer weave, just because it’s worth exploring. I for one am looking forward to having another photo shoot with Señor Mirando & His Dresser, as we’ve all hit it off fabulously.
Ta ta, Abelene
The note from Jen: I’ve been exploring weaving in a series of ultra light 20/2 cotton, this being the fifth in the series, woven on my 20″ Knitters Loom, and even though the weave structure doubles the warp against the weft, it appears to be balanced. I have been wanting to try the easiest method I can think of, which is double threading one reed, with 2 in the heddle/hole, and 2 in the dent/slot, then single weft. This way no rethreading has to be done. I did this kind of warping before (tablecloth) and I really thought it worked out great, less fuss warping meant more time to enjoy the weaving. And just as Abelene reports, I have another one of these I want to weave next, and it will be warped direct on the table loom, a multiple harness loom with heddles, with the same weave structure, but 32 ends per inch warp, 2 through each heddle and 2 through the dent, completely going against tradition. Thankfully there are no weaving police around here, for surely I would be arrested for attempting this. Be sure to click through the photo slideshow below, and now for the weaving notes…
♣ Weaving Notes ♣
Hi, its me Abelene.
Here is Jens latest weaving in her ultra fine series! She thinks the attention to drape is really emphasized when the weaving is wrapped around something body-shaped, and not necessarily ladder-shaped, as she had been doing earlier, and so I am the designated weaver’s model, and giddy for the thoughtful attention. Besides, Jen says I’m the new It Girl!
I am trying not to take offense to be calling ” it ” but Jen assured me that an “It Girl” is an attractive and engaging young woman, originating from a 1920’s film all about the British upper-class society. Hey, then I am IT for sure! Mostly because I like to be attractive and engaging. Oh, and Jen thought it best to have a format for these weaving posts, where I get to focus on the dazzling visual affect, then afterward she will explain the boring weaverly aspects in a special note about the project below.
Ta ta, Abelene
Note from Jen: I’ve been exploring weaving in a series of ultra light 20/2 cotton, this being the fourth, and the 20 epi woven on the Ashford Table Loom, set up for weaving straight draw (that means using 4 harnesses threaded 1-2-3-4, which in itself, was a completely new and thoroughly difficult experience, with threads doubled through the reed. Gibberish to my knitting colleagues, but to the weavers who might be reading this, they know this is an absolute basic step to learning weaving on multiple shafts. In fact, the weavers who might be reading this will roll their eyes for the fact that I warped it the same direct method as I do rigid heddle looms – direct warp – drawing the warp from the front apron rod through the reed, and around a peg, and then threaded through the heddles as an in-between step before winding it all on to the back warp beam. I improvised with this and subsequently the warp had mistakes, but not willing to get bogged down with them, I wove the piece instead testing gleefully what seemed closest yet to a perfect balanced weave, with just one light tap of the real swinging beater. This project was first in its own series of multiple shaft fine weaving, and so this very exciting!
♣ Weaving Notes ♣
Hi, its me Abelene.
Jen has brought me out of the closet where I was suffocating in debate with my new pals, the Ashford 48″ rigid heddle loom and Ashford 32″ table loom, very existential ideas, like about whether or not as inanimate objects, we really exist, and I have been by far the most optimistic among us! Anyway, Jen seems to have forgotten about me, but finally she brought me out to see the spring . . . I am wearing a very light weave that seems to be sticking to my skin all by itself, perhaps from static electricity, as it has been three days of drying wind here.
Jen wants me to say that she had some difficulty weaving this fluffy light sheer cloth, but eventually she found her way and the weaving became better balanced, eventually only a light tap of the reed to keep the structure even and open. This is the 15epi experiment in her series of weaving ultra fine cotton where she is experimenting with different threads per inch. She is super pleased that very light cloth can be woven on a simple little rigid heddle loom with one 15 dent reed, and is hoping to do more just like it. But first to finish her series she wants to weave 20 epi with this same thread, whether threading two rigid heddle reeds together on my pal the big rigid heddle loom, or to warp it up on my other pal, the table loom. But on the other hand (um, what other hand???) she thinks she might just weave more single reed 15epi samples on the little rigid heddle loom, like this piece was.
So much fun going on here I tell you!
Ta ta, Abelene
ps. Don’t miss out on the technical weaving notes and slideshow below!
♣ Weaving Notes ♣
Walking out in Spring on the fresh mown wild grass with Juno, I took photos with my phone, which look less than great as I’m a lousy phone photographer, but what the heck, it was hard to resist a glimpse of spring on the mountain that is recovering from wildfire for years to come. I have been tremendously busy, for months, out in the landscape working on the fire defensible space project that is all-consuming. On the creative front, I’ve been weaving ultra fine cotton in a series of rigid heddle loom experiments, and on what seems to be an eternal warp, and baking bread a lot, as well as other delicious things, like making chocolate!
Its difficult to believe that I have been weaving — and not knitting — for almost a whole year now, and I think although I don’t ever see slowing down with the weaving, I finally miss knitting. I miss spinning, and dying wools, and blending artful batts on my drum carder, and my Tweed Chronicles experiments too, but where do I find the time to do it all? I am feeling a time crunch and the panic of wildfire season just ahead, thinking to just get past the hard work, only a couple more months. Even though I can feel more at ease this year as the cool temperatures and rain has lasted wonderfully long, lingering and staving off the dry heat, the work presses on . . . and I am older, sore, and tired a lot. Scotty, beam me to late summer when the grass has stopped growing and the bonfires of the next rain season are still off the calendar, when the scorching dry weeks of August through September chase me indoors, desperately needing distraction from it . . . and then, surely there’ll be more time to relax into all of the creative projects!
This weaving taught me two new things. One is that I further explored color, using a different variation than I have yet; with two colors in the warp, and four in the weft. The color affect of the check is still lively and interesting, but without warping with the two lightest shades (beige and natural) the result gave a more muted and softened color variation, less dramatic with no light blocks. I would like to explore this idea even more!
I think the most challenging thing about this piece, and anything I’ve woven to date, is that I did a double heddle threading with two different size reeds. It was definitely another long and arduous threading process, and after discovering I miscalculated the spacing the first time, I resolved there really was no way of going around it, that it had to be done right, and be done over. Of course, in doing it over I discovered a formula for myself, where I was only guessing at first, and so I have written my formula in my weaving notes.
This is going to be the last of the double reed threading for a while, for not only is it a very intensive warping process, but also if a mistake is made in the warp (as there was one, if you’ll notice the long run throughout the whole weaving) it is just not something I know how to fix and it tests my patience. Such was the case again, some threads misaligned and right off the start, the flaw was blaringly obvious, but this was merely a sample to test the process. The reed sizes I wanted to thread together in this project were 15 dent and 12.5 dent (per inch), but easier calculated in the metric sizes 60/10(cm) and 50/10(cm) , to get a sett of 25 epi. Its all there in the weaving notes, with technical threading photo gallery.
♣ Weaving Notes ♣
My formula for threading two graduating sized heddles together: All of the reed sizes for the Ashford rigid heddle looms, which many rigid heddle weavers have a size graduation of reeds:
2.5 dpi (10/10cm)
5 dpi (20/10cm)
7.5 dpi (30/10cm)
10 dpi (40/10cm)
12.5 dpi (50/10cm)
15 dpi (60/10cm)
I have most of the reed sizes for my Knitters Loom, but for the sake of very fine cloth weaving with my rigid heddle looms, I am writing down my formula for threading two reeds of graduating larger sizes together so that I can achieve epi’s greater than the finest single reed available for this loom, which is a 15 dent (60/10). I’ll add that It is far easier to use a single reed than to thread two together, so in the case of coupling the lower-dent reeds — I recommend just buying the single 15 dent reed, instead of double threading 40/10 with 30/10 (or two 30/10) reeds to get 15 epi, but for the sake of example I listed all the rigid heddle reed pairings in sequence, in the situation that it applies.
The reed that has fewer dents should be in front of the other, facing forward toward the weaving, where every slot and hole is threaded. The reed with more dents should be behind it, and when threading, skip 1 slot/hole as needed to align to the front reed. Off of the warp beam there will be spaces in the threading, but the reed facing the weaving is even with no empty slots/holes. Here are my calculations for a balanced threading across the warp . . .
Click 1st photo to go to slideshow…
Sakiori was developed long ago by the peasants of Japan, who when faced with a shortage of cloth, made their own by cutting and tearing strips of old used cloth items, and wove them into new cloth for their clothing … Continue reading
This ultra fine cloth finished has 32 threads per inch in the warp, and was woven on my 20″ Ashford Knitters (rigid heddle) Loom, which is a fabulous sample loom for all the fine weight threads I have been so curious to try. This particular project is extremely fine cotton, was threaded through two 15 dent reeds, and I have no desire to go finer, this is the limit. Famous last words, eh?
One must look and wonder how all these gazillion threads in the warp can be kept track of, and I for one, can not. I thought all the threads were there, but as I begin to weave, there’s empty slots where warp threads are suppose to be, maybe one or two were mis-threaded, or broke, and I missed them, but as I weave further, more threads have disappeared, likely in not catching them when I was threading the reeds. I just can’t pull my hair out over it, these are sample weavings, total leaps of faith and hoping for the best, I can’t take it too seriously.
The most impressive thing to me about this piece is that it was threaded through two rigid heddle reeds; double threading is a mind bend at first, but then after my first try using these instructions the process gelled and suddenly I felt like I was born knowing how to do it. So I’m weaving on in spite of the mysteriously thinning warp, it is a thrill to be weaving such ultra fine fabric on a simple, nearly primitive loom, even though weaving 30 epi on the rigid heddle loom means I am having to do the extra work of using a stick shuttle for both passing the weft and beating down to try for a balanced weave, and still it is not. Weaving on the rigid heddle in this way slows weaving down a great deal, and there is a lot to pay attention to.
Once I am finished with this piece I may try another similar double threading sample with a different reed combination, coupling a 15 and a 12 dent together, achieving a 24 epi, and maybe then I can beat with only a tap of the rigid heddle reed instead of having to beat it down with the stick shuttle. I strive to find the sweet spot where weaving is truly balanced, not forced, and ultimately what I want to achieve with plain weave.
A bit about the design; I crave bold block design in a subtle contrast, so developing my elongated big check blocks with or without a stripe, and selecting the two very low contrast neutral colors for the background check, for this piece was an attempt to get a “barely there” colorway, yet it is still bold enough, and I really love it!
♣ Weaving Notes ♣
(( click 1st image to go to slideshow ))
I have to confess mild disappointment, as I thought I could do better on my first twill project than I have. I planned it to be full width of 32″ and at least 72″ long. I planned it to be soft and fluffy and light, a lap blanket or shawl, whichever it wanted to be. But there was a double learning curve within this piece as not only have I not yet woven alpaca, which I realize now this particular superfine two ply worsted weight is quite slippery, but neither have I woven twill, or anything on multiple shaft loom. This was to be the first piece on the new table loom, a test run, using alpaca yarn that I happened to have the exact amount of in my yarn drawers, and meticulously planned to use up every yard of my light grey and cream that I had.
I set off with things going nearly right, having been lucky with the warping and keeping it organized, I had to improvise a front-to-back method. The work of sleying the reed and threading heddles entailed so much fussing I bore down under the yoke of determination and eventually, miraculously, got it done. Threading through the texsolv heddles in a straight draw, and finally with Jeff’s help I got it wound on to the warp beam nicely and firmly, with a lot of cardboard warp separators. Then there was testing the shed and fixing crossed threads for quite some time, not knowing what I was doing really, I really was at my limit. Presently, my first impression is that I don’t really love texsolv heddles, oh, yes, they’re quiet, and ultimately lightweight, just that threading them is a chore! I don’t know what wire heddles are like either, but they must be easier to thread.
After I started my first few inches of weft, just about everything went wrong that could go wrong; warp threads started to break within the first 12 inches of weaving, as well as the floating selvedge, and I noticed how uneven the twill angle was, all over the place, beating so inconsistently as I am not use to a beater at all, it seemed I was barely pressing the weft into place. In retrospect I suspect that it is because the warp was too spread out, and I should have used at least one size smaller reed, if not two, and being so spread out, the weft just sunk heavily into place practically covering the warp, in some places almost like tapestry weaving. I did not and could not predict this weft-heavy twill because of my complete lack of experience. So now I know, especially for this alpaca that is slick, pack the warp in double that I have, and then I will have some choice about how the weft beats down.
I should be laughing, I knew so well that I’d make hash of the twill thing, but I also knew I’d learn a lot, and I most certainly did. The good news is that it was a lovely cold snowy morning yesterday when I brought this hand-made gift of goodwill over to my dearest friend (who agreed ahead of time to accept it as the learning curve it is), that I had finished it in time before it became hot as it does often in mid March, and who wants a heavy alpaca thing then? I am hopeful the alpaca will most certainly bloom and soften and become a perfect accessory in her rustic mountain cabin where it will now live, strewn over the back of some truly antique leather chair next to an old stone fireplace hearth, and even though it is lumpy, bumpy, and unintentionally striped with uneven twill angle, it will bloom out and fit in wonderfully.
Anyway, the list of Next Times are long and detailed and for documenting purposes, I have included them in my weaving notes below, and I shall find them useful in the future.
Special thanks to Ruth, the chat help at The Woolery, who has taught me more than any books or class!
♣ Weaving Notes ♣
