Handwoven sweater - the first of many

That sweater I was weaving was quick and easy to make... once I decided on the pattern.  Sampling is the hardest thing and it seems to take more time than the actual weaving.  But it's also nice to take the time to be sure I'm making something I'll enjoy.

And boy oh boy, do I enjoy my new sweater.

I don't think I made any treadling errors for the whole six yards of fabric.  There are a few areas where I beat too hard, but that just adds to the charm of the piece.

The sweater itself is surprisingly light weight, but lovely and warm.

I used Ashford Tekapo 3 ply yarn set at 12epi and beat at 10ppi.  The cloth is quite narrow (14" wide on loom) and is sewn using Japanese Kimono inspiration.  I had the option to leave the centre front open with a button, snap, tie or no closure.  All looked good.  What finally decided it was my desire for another pullover, so I sewed the front shut and I couldn't be happier.

Colourful warp in the new Ashford Weaving 5/2 Mercerised Cotton

I'm still weaving like crazy.  Insomnia helps, but also, it's just so much fun!  I want to find the limits of what I can do on my little Ashford Table Loom.  Well, I say 'little', it's actually a 32" loom (which means I can weave a fabric that is 32" wide - before shrinkage).  Finally, I've found a loom that matches me!  I love it, and I secretly suspect the loom likes me too.

Today's project is sort-of-secret, but I don't think she reads this blog, so I'll give you a hint.  Let's just say it's for a bundle of joy that 'hatched' into this world on the weekend (a few weeks earlier than expected so this project got bumped to the top and quickly) and it's woven in the brand new 5/2, Ashford Weaving Cotton.

Here it is on the raddle, getting ready to wind onto the warp beam.  The raddle is the funny thing with nails in it, one nail every 1/2 inch so that the warp doesn't bunch up and make weaving a nightmare.

The colours I chose for the warp are:
46 Dazzling Blue
44 Scuba Blue
40 Daisy Pink
42 Honey Suckle
56 Radiant Orchid

I've wound enough warp for two blankets top-secret-projects.

I really like this yarn.  The colours pop and the yarn feels a lot like silk but still has that cotton quality.  Actually, I shouldn't be using this yarn as it's not technically mine, but it is an emergency and I'll buy the other person some replacement yarn next week.

In the meantime, what to choose for the weft?
any thoughts?

sample weaving with Ashford Tekapo 3 ply yarn

After such great success with the sweater, I've been weaving samples with the Tekapo 3-ply yarn.  I've been experimenting with colour (not my forte) and treadling, to see if there is anything I like for a second sweater.  This time, I think I'll make a hoodie.

These are all woven at 12epi.  In many ways, I like the green, but it tends to be a little bit too bright.  Maybe I'll tone it down a bit by adding more naturals to the warp.  

This picture is highlighting the plain weave sections I did.  If I choose plain weave, I think 10epi would be better.

First handwoven towels, finally finished.

Here are my first set of handwoven towels.  Woven with a 9/2 linen warp and 4/2 cotton weft (photographed on a background of handwoven sweater - oh, the sweater turned out lovely, lofty, lightweight and excessively warm).

To be completely frank, I don't like these towels at all.  The treadling errors are okay, I guess, one can live with that.  It's just they look so bla!  Individually the colours are lovely, together they look nice, but as towels, they look dull and boring.  Except for the errors, a machine could have made these.  If I'm going to put this effort in, I want it to look better than what a machine can make.

Which means, it's time to take steps and learn about colour.  It was these towels that inspired me to try warping two or more colours together at the same time.  So far, so nice.  But I have a lot to learn about colour and design.

Handwoven sweater fabric off the loom and ready for fulling

The 6 yards of fabric for my jacket are woven and heading for the washing machine.  Although it was quick to weave, I found it difficult to see the pattern as I was weaving.

It's like one of those magic eye pictures, where I have to unfocus my eyes and will the pattern into existence.  Things will be much better when the cloth is fulled.  I just hope it doesn't shrink too much.  But if it does, I have more yarn and can always weave more cloth.

6 yards seemed like a lot of cloth to me.  I was worried that being a table loom, it wouldn't all fit.  But my worry was needless.  Lots of room leftover.  I think I could probably get 24 yards of fabric at this weight.  Maybe more.

I have no idea if this project will work out.  I've been making it up as I go along.  But I did make a similar sweater from an old wool blanket and that's very comfortable.  This one will be the same shape.



The other thing I'm not so sure about is blogging again.  In the last few years, blogging has become a monetary activity.  Advertizing, Pinterest-ready photos, all that fancy stuff that makes blogs more a job than a journal.  Bloggers are celebrities now and I don't know if that sort of thing is for me.  It's just something to think about.  What do I want from my blog?  Do I care enough to modernize and monetize it or keep it as it is, or rebel and make it more my own style.  Then again, I do pay money to keep my blogs online.  So I should try at least to make it pay for itself... or should I?  Maybe my blogs don't add anything useful to the internet and they should just fade away.

Getting ready to weave a sweater

My hoodie is in terrible shape.  Threadbear and sad looking.  I can't find a decent replacement in the shops, so I've decided to make my own sweater with weaving.  I don't know how it's going to go, but it's fun finding out.

To start, I make a plan.

Yep, a weaving draft typed on a typewriter.  Or, actually, several weaving drafts with the same threading.  I wove a sample of what this would look like

I think these patterns are lovely.  I've sort of chosen one, but I can change my mind because all these designs take the same threading on the loom.

But for now, I have a plan and wound 6 yards of warp.

I'm using the Ashford tekapo 3 ply wool yarn in natural medium and natural dark for the warp.  The sample was done with one strand of each in the warp and random colour threading.  The weft was natural light.  For the sweater, I want something darker, so I'm useing 2 strands of dark for every one of medium.

A bit of weaving - colour gamp

Weaving is a bit different than other yarn crafts because the way the warp and weft interact makes it hard to imagine what the final colour will be.  I'm weaving a sample called a 'gamp' to decide what colour towels would look good in the house.  The great thing about this is that the gamp can also be a towel.

On another note, I got some top secret yarn with the opportunity to organize some group weaving.  Another challenge to decide what colours to combine.  Any suggestions?  This will be done in plain weave on rigid heddle looms.  It's 5/2 mercerized cotton so I'm thinking one loom will be a 15dent reed, and the other loom a 7.5 reed with the yarn doubled.

To help understand colour, I put a black and white filter on the picture of the yarn.  So, apparently, it's supposed to help me see the colour value.  There is so much to learn.

A Joyful Typewriter

Joyful things 9

My first cotton harvest from my very own cotton plants.

Take that people who say you can't grow cotton in Canada!

Joyful things 8

A giant pile of handspun yarn.  Fibre from Beau the rescue alpaca blended with Saltspring Island wool.  1 lb, 6 oz (at least 1500yds) of yarn looking for a new home.

Joyful Things 7

Getting wool ready to spin.  All that potential... what yarn shall I make from you soft little balls of fluffiness?

Joyful things 6

Little Larry use to be a lamb.
All grown up now
But still as loving and gentle as his first day.

Joyful things 5

The affection of geese

Joyful things 4

Beau - the giant alpac who loves to dance, jump, and eat my rosemary bush.

Joyful things 3

Miso Club

White Rabbits - things that inspire

Here's something new, I'm making a New Years resolution.

Lately, I've been thinking about blogging.  Thing is, there is not much to write about.  Nothing exciting going on in my life (to be honest, that's the way I like it).

I'm also seeking a tool to help me focus on positive thoughts.  So I thought, why not create tiny blog posts (almost) every day about things that inspire?  Sounds good.  Let's begin.



Today's post:  Yoga

I put my mat and cloths on the floor of my room the night before, so that when I woke up my very first action of the new year was yoga.  Been at this over a month now - yoga twice a day using dailyyoga app.  Loving how it makes me feel.  Loving more that I don't need to go to a studio to contort my body.

exciting

We just had an earthquake.  Moved some stuff in the house and it felt like the roof wanted to fall off.  But in the end, everyone's fine and nothing's broken.

Spooked the llamas.  Had to reassure the goats.  Sheep took it in stride.

Me, I put the kettle on.  Gonna have a cuppa tea before going back to bed.

cleaning house

I'm cleaning house as part of my New Years tradition.

Posting photos here so I can link to them from somewhere else.

First photos:  Lissajous Socks in need of knitter.

Weaving on the backstrap loom

Weaving this project on the backstrap loom has been a great learning experience.  Following an excellent tutorial, I'm weaving my very own back strap for my backstrap loom.

All that remains is to braid the ends and attach the loops that go on the loom bar.  

Some of the things I learned:

One needs something very sturdy to attach the loom to.  At times it takes more tension than most weaving I`ve tried.  

This is not the right yarn for this project.  I used 8-2 cotton which is suppose to be great for weaving.  The problem is that it clings together and pills as I switch from one shed to another.

It takes practice to get the posture right.  At first, I can only weave for a couple of minutes before my back hurt.  A week of daily weaving, and I can manage about 45 minutes.  

I need to work more on my selvage edges.  

Uneven tension in the warp shows up more than I expected and makes weaving frustrating.

On the whole, I'm very pleased.  I'm looking forward to trying some weft patterns soon.  Or perhaps a bit of tablet weaving.  

Backstrap Weaving

Lately, I've been teaching some of my friends kids to weave.  There are a lot of lovely looms out there that they can learn on.  Kids have a natural talent for weaving and learn the basics at light speed.  What an adult takes weeks to learn, a kid can pick up in an afternoon.  

One of the problems with kids and weaving, is that many of the good looms are adult priced.  Kid priced looms seem to be shoddy things that get one excited, but are difficult to upgrade as the weaver's skill improve.  

So I decided to make my own loom based on one of the most common designs in history - and perhaps one of the best tutorials I've ever seen - A Backstrap Loom

Here are three looms I made.

Actually, I had help.  I don't like the power tools and cutting all these sticks by hand would take me an hour.  Instead, it was all of 2 minutes to cut the sticks.  Another 13 minutes to make the shuttles.  We used a piece of wood for the shuttle that will double as a sword if needed.  It's enough to get started weaving and we can expand on it as the weaver's interests grow.


The only thing that is missing from the loom is the piece of cloth - or strap - that goes around the back of the weaver.  To prove that the student is interested enough in weaving to earn his or her own loom, I set up my loom with the warp, show them how, send them home and tell them to weave their own backstrap.  They do this, they get their own set of sticks.

Here's the loom partway set up.  So simple.  A few sticks, a bit of string.

If you have a moment, google 'backstrap weaving' and have a look at some of the amazingly complex cloth people create using such simple tools.  I'm simply in awe of the inspiration and skill of people who use these looms on a regular basis.