Fun with Tags* on Tag Galaxy

Tag Galaxy is a very cool image searching web site that you can use whenever you need a dose of fiber fun. This is what you see first:



I typed weaving in the search box.

Next you'll see a cool visualization of tag clouds (except rendered as the universe). Clicking on a planet or two will narrow down your search. I've got "weaving" + "loom" + "yarn".



The primary search words are the sun and other tag "planets" orbit around.

Click on the sun to see photos pulled in from Flickr to form a globe (and use the control at the top to keep pulling in new images).



You can turn the globe by clicking on it, and you can click on a photo on the globe to see a larger version with some identification. And (woohoo!!!), wouldn't you know, here is my soysilk scarf on the loom:




* FYI - The term "tag" is another word for "keyword" or "label".

Happy Friday!

New Shuttle Up-Date

Here is my new "slim" shuttle for the soysilk scarfs on my table loom. It doesn't seem much slimmer (that is, top to bottom as you view it now) than what I am already using, but the front and back ends are definitely narrower at the ends. We'll see. I'm sure it will be very nice. And it is the first new shuttle I've purchased in about 25 years (!).

I was in Iowa City over the weekend and dropped in to the Home Ec Workshop to hang out and knit and buy yummy Malabrigo worsted. I highly recommend a visit if you are in or near Iowa City.

A New Crop of Chenille

Over the course of each year I weave a stash of chenille scarfs for holiday sales at a wonderful gallery in Iowa City, the Iowa Artisans Gallery. I weave maybe a couple of scarfs per month from my supply of hand dyed and handpainted yarns (all done by moi). Except black. I use commercially dyed black. But that's all.

Anyway, about this time of year I take my pile, wash them gently, wring out the excess water in my washer, and then take the pile to the laundromat to fluff dry. (I have never owned a clothes dryer for economic and environmental reasons, and I figure it's silly to own one just so I can fluff up my chenille.) They come back all warm and soft and then they are ready to get their fringes finished.

I finish the fringes first by tying the ends in groups of 6 with an overhand knot at the top. Then I divide each group of six in half and twist with my handy dandy fringe twister. Tie another overhand knot at the bottom, and one by one the fringes eventually get done. This is a good television watching job.

I don't have a group photo yet, although I plan to get some before they get shipped off. However, for a change of pace, how about a picture of my cute kitties for a Friday afternoon:



That's Millie on the right, and Tippy on the left. Tippy's tail looks like it was dipped in bleach, thus her name.

Cheers!

The Opposite of Production Weaving

I wound the warp, and dressed the loom.



The loom, a 12 harness Leclerc Dorothy, is probably meant to be a sample loom. Otherwise, why would anyone want to push three sets of four levers, throw the shuttle, release and then push down three more sets of four levers, beat the weft down, throw the shuttle, repeat? I've got enough warp for two scarfs about 60" long. I'm going to be at it for a while, and, whatever I do I must... not... lose my place in the levering (not treadling) order.

When I use my floor loom, clearly, there is no breaking the rhythm to put down the shuttle to raise and lower harnesses. I pass the shuttle back and forth from hand to hand. I beat the weft down first with my left hand, then with my right. It's an easy relaxed rhythm, by no means fast. I weave in the evenings, because, you know, I have a day job. My total output is maybe 2 to 3 chenille scarfs per month for holiday sales at a wonderful gallery in Iowa City.

So, why am I torturing myself with this impossibly slow process?

First of all, I wanted to break out of 8 harnesses. I have 12 harnesses in this little loom, but I hardly ever take advantage of them. And that was just plain silly. I need to break into the possibilities of more complex patterns, even if it means slowing me up physically .

The part of this project I'm finding truly fascinating is that when I am pushing levers in groups of four, I am getting into the structure of the weave in a way that never quite happens with the floor loom. The floor loom allows tie-ups, and those are a great time saver. Yet, at the stage my knees are in (glucosamine-infused and really not that flexible), it's not so much fun to get down on the ground and crawl around attaching cords to lamms. And, to tell the truth, once the tie-up is complete, all I really think about is the treadling order and making sure that goes correctly.

To review, this is the scarf pattern I am working on right now:


It's a 3/1 twil, and written on a straight draw. I opted for the liftplan print out because I think it is more straightforward. To keep my sanity I rewrote the treadling order in easy to keep track of chunks. In this way you really see how the pattern breaks down, how the lifting order plays harnesses off other, and weaving becomes a meditation that is truly engaging.

Here are more pics. I've got close to 10" woven now!

Rollin' On...

So I started rolling the warp on to the back beam on Thursday evening (before Grey's Anatomy!) and finished it up today. It went on very smoothly, and I was pleased that I hadn't forgotten how to use warping sticks. I have a sectional warp beam attachment on my floor loom and I haven't used warping sticks for years. (Highly recommend sectional warp beams.) I also used a Make It Up As You Go method for keeping the warp from spreading out as it wound on the back -- rubber bands. Worked like a charm!




I tied on to the front warp rod, and started weaving in a header. It took me about five inches of header to (uh, oh) catch the threading error (can you see it?). Lucky I only had one, I guess. But, now I've fixed it, and I'll be weaving the soy silk scarves soon.



I was using my regular boat shuttle to weave the header and quickly noticed that this shuttle was way too fat (or tall) for my narrow shed. I switched to a stick shuttle, but now I'm thinking I will invest in a smaller, flatter boat shuttle. So, I'd like to know if anyone has suggestions or favorites in this category of weaving shuttle? I'd love to hear!

Soy Silk Scarf Warp - Threading the Loom!

This is turning into a mini demonstration of how I warp, and that's fine. Over the years I've developed my own idiosyncratic methods, and they seem to work just fine for me. They certainly aren't main stream! I always, always, always warp front to back. From the very beginning of my weaving career I found that warping back to front was just incredibly awkward and fraught with problems. I was learning everything on my own. There weren't any angel wings or other handy aids. I basically had to figure everything out from the photos and drawings in Step by Step Weaving and Mary Black's New Key to Weaving. I never could get the hang of putting the wound warp onto the back warp rod, evenly spaced, and at the same time, hanging the lease sticks in back of the harnesses. After I'd been weaving about 2 or 3 years, I started doing my degree in Art History, and I took a studio course in weaving from a woman who had her graduate degree from Cranbrook. She swore by the front to back method of warping. I adopted her view on the matter and never looked back!

My warping proceeds thusly: I wind the warp, tie it securely every yard or so, secure the lease, and make chains. I hang the lease sticks in front of the reed, then slide the warp onto them. I tie the beater to the lease sticks, and position it so that it is standing away from the harnesses. Then, I thread the warp from the lease sticks, in order, through the reed.

(My floor loom is an 8 harness Schacht and I have a lot more room in which to work on that loom. I use shoelaces to tie stuff on the Schacht. This is a Leclerc Dorothy and I'm not used to the tiny spaces on this table loom, so I'm making it up as I go with bits of string.)

Next I will go through the heddles, tie the warp in groups every inch or so, and then tie on to the warp rod in back. This method helps ensure that the warp will be wound on to the back beam at the correct width and in the correct order. Also, this process ensures enough "drag" on the warp chains for adequate tension going around the back beam. I monitor the winding on very closely, testing for warp ends that are getting caught up or tangled, and straightening them out. Every yard or so I go back to the front and give the chains a good strong tug and snap.

I've gone through half of the heddles now, so I'd better get back to it. I've got a Weavecast podcast to listen to, much better than the debates! ;)

Soy Sik Scarfs - Winding the Warp

Okay, I had to take a a new group portrait of all the soy silk dye experiments.













So having done that, I could start winding warp. I wound half of it last night, and took photos of it late this afternoon after I got home from work:

(If you look closely, you can see Millie the cat in the background.)

This is a view from the inside of the warping reel, trying to avoid strong sunlight.


This is a closeup view of the warp, You can see the gradations of color.



So this is half of the warp. I'll wind the other half and then start winding on the loom over the weekend.