The Skirt, Part 1

This story is as much about sewing as it is about weaving. It is possibly even more about project planning. The things I learned, since I am not an expert sewist, were decidedly in the planning and sewing stages. I found the weaving to be easiest with one glaring exception (the beat) and which I didn’t especially appreciate until it was too late.

This project was driven by a long-standing desire to construct my own clothing. I wasn’t interested in making any political statements or return to some mythic “simpler time” but rather more practical reasons: I’m 5’1” with bust, waist, and hips, and finding well-fitted clothing is a challenge from both a height and shape perspective. As every woman who is shaped outside the normal distribution knows, the off-the-rack clothing industry doesn’t design garments for curvy women.

I was first seduced by a sexy deflected doubleweave (DDW) pattern I found in a back edition of Handwoven. I had to try it but it was a few years before the stars aligned and I had enough nerve to potentially waste some of my precious Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk blend fiber. My first attempt went brilliantly right up until I sent it through my front-loading washer, thinking it was gentle enough. The result was beyond disappointing: it shrunk from 7’ x 11” scarf size to 3’ x 6”cravat size. It’s a very warm cravat and I actually do wear it on the very coldest days of the year. Lessons learned! But, I knew what to do – and what not to do – to wet finish this piece of work. I played with color combinations and generally had a lot of fun with discovery.

A year or two before this first experiment with DDW, a very close friend and the woman who played Robin to my Batman -- let’s call her Kerry because that is her real name -- one day tossed four cones of 20/2 cashmere in I my direction and commanded me to weave her something beautiful in dark blue, dark green, burgundy, and ivory. At the time, more than two colors scared me and I promptly parked that beautiful fiber in the stash. The cones followed me on a move to England where they sat in a project box for 18 months.

Back to the future: You get a lot of time to think while you are weaving and I just knew that the DDW pattern would be the right one for her and something she wouldn’t weave for herself. In part because it’s too fiddly and in part because I have more shafts at my disposal and my pattern requires eight. In a moment of inspiration I drew a fifth color from my stash, a BFL/silk blend, hand-dyed by Cheryl at Sonoran Desert Dyed Fiber and I found a way to mix the yarns into a plaid-ish DDW. That first DDW was only three colors. Now I had five!!

Fast forward a few weeks and voila: I was cutting off an beautiful DDW scarf from the loom which I vigorously wet finished by hand. It was fine enough to double over as a scarf without creating bulk. I road tested it around town and took an action picture of it near Tower Bridge.

I was satisfied that as a scarf it was brilliant. I wanted one of my own.  Nonetheless, the scarf went to Kerry, the majority owner of the fiber content; an 18” sample went to Cheryl so she can show off what her fiber could do. We even entered that scarf in competition at Maryland Sheep & Wool and got second prize in the category, and I agreed with the judges comment that it was still a little flimsy. It needed a closer sett and another round of hand-fulling.

Next time: Part 2, Planning the yardage and selecting a skirt pattern

A MDSW adventure 2 years in the making

Erin standing out front of our former weaving studio.

...It only took two years for the blog to be updated.

In that two years, Erin has been having tons of fun exploring London, new weaving projects, new jobs, and new running adventures.

I've been having tons of fun spinning, knitting, rehabbing my horse, and having new riding adventures.

Unfortunately in fall of 2014, not long after Erin left for London, the Museum at which our Weaving Studio was housed underwent some renovations and our weaving space was no longer safe or appropriate for class. The program has been mothballed pending new space.


In the meanwhile, my big 4 shaft loom is in storage I've inherited a tiny table top 2 shaft loom which is the only way my weaving-urge gets satisfied.

A scarf being woven on my tiny tabletop counterbalance loom. Please ignore the threading error.

Erin's got her 8 shaft Leclerc Minerva with her in London and doing AMAZING things with it (more on that later.)

The amazing collapse weave scarf Erin Wove for me as a gift!!

I've started regularly rescuing wayward antique wheels and refurbishing them and then selling them on to new homes.

Until this past weekend, we haven't seen each other since her jaunt across the pond but we speak almost daily thanks to technology.

Somehow or another the Collins family managed to finagle a trip for Erin back to the States last weekend for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!!!

We made it through the entire weekend without any photos of us together (WTH?!) but it did happen!

Friday through Sunday we spent the entire weekend with fiber-friends and sheep and wheels and looms galore.

Sunday afternoon we stood and watched the Sheep-to-Shawl competition for a bit and Erin and I are both convinced we could totally win with the help of her fast weaving skills and my super-speedy antique Canadian Production Wheels (CPWs). She's now trying to devise a plan to rent a truck, locate a loom, and figure out how to get all of said accouterments to 2017 MDSW so our (currently imaginary) team can compete.

I shepherded four wheels back home to Tidewater Virginia. Two reproduction Estonian Saxony wheels- one for our beloved LYS owner  - and two antique wheels - a Super-Slanty and a Lateral Treadle.

Post-MDSW. My car packed with 2 antique wheels, 2 moderns, and our fiber-haul. Still room for suitcases and snacks. If you're thinking about buying a Scion, they have AMAZING storage capacity in the hatch!!
(Please disregard the remnants of hay bales. I didn't have time to vacuum the hatch. FYI you can fit 4 bales into a Scion) 

Sadly the lateral treadle has suffered greatly at the teeth of wood-worm. There are a few usable parts. But the future of this particular old gal will be as a pattern while I try my overly enthusiastic hand at wheel-making. The metal pieces will be reused in whatever wheel I create so they won't go to waste.

*shrug* Worst case scenario, I have really pretty fire-wood. Best case scenario, I end up with something that might actually spin! Either way, it will be a fun project and I'll learn something about myself and about the craft.

Hazel with her coned-yarn score from the
stash in the back of my car.

ITW "Odds and Ends" which I bought but
ended up going to London with Erin. 

I spent almost all of my MDSW fiber budget at the "Into the Whirled" booth. They're my absolute favorite fiber vendor / indie dyer and just all around nice folks.  They're products never fail to amaze me with consistent quality and color.

Almost every project I've made (spun, woven or knit) in the last year has had ITW fiber in it and I have zero regrets.

I also bought a beautiful wooden stick-shuttle to use on my table-top loom. The graining in the wood is delicious and the feel of the shuttle in my hand is perfect!

Erin and Hazel both got sent home with a ton of fiber from my stash so they could each weave something lovely.

This year's MDSW trip also included a visit from our dear friend Cathy who heads our Sister Guild in Nova Scotia. (Notes about All Things Canadian will be saved for another day.) Cathy and her partner in crime, Gillian, were down in the US at the same time as MDSW and after much cajoling, I convinced her to drive down for a day or two and join us in wool-land! I hope they had as much fun as we did.  They were both a delight and such wonderful folks.

Note: If you need a loom, go to Canada. They give them away. (Hopefully Cathy can blog about the resale value of looms in the US vs Nova Scotia.)

And HEY!!! PAY ATTENTION! Our amazing Erin won a pretty Ribbon in the MDSW Skein and Garment Competition!

Erin with her 2nd place ribbon at MDSW 2016. 

The same beautiful Collapse Weave scarf she wove for me as a gift won Second Place at MDSW and the judge said it was the best example of Collapse Weave she had ever seen. AMAZING!! I'm so honored to have learned from this wonderful weaver. 

Erin, can you tell us more about Collapse Weave and the project in general?  

It was absolutely a wonderful weekend though all together too short. Our time with each other is so precious now that we're so far away and I'm thankful for the jet-lag-inducing trip she took just for some fiber time (and friend time!) and to grace US soil again.

Come home soon, Erin! We've missed you!

Fair Winds...

It started with a driveband and the want of a lighter.

July 2011, I was at a fiber meetup at a local yarn store. And the poly drive band on my then-wheel decided to snap. Of course, as a non-smoker, I didn't have a lighter and neither did anyone in the group.

As my disappointment at a spinning-day cut short became evident, a voice from my left piped up with "I can totally fix that."

And this bubbly stranger with beautifully salted hair scooted over, tied cotton string on my wheel for a drive band and then mentally thought through other tactics when the cotton string didn't quite solve the problem.

There was a look on her face that I would grow to know well over the years; the "I'm too stubborn to let this win" face. ((I have my own version which she can easily identify.))

We didn't solve the drive-band issue that day, but we did end up pissing off the owner of the LYS due to a spilled coffee tumbler (a whole different story!)  and as I packed up the car, Erin bravely asked me to join her and a mutual friend on a road trip to a Fiber Festival.  My first fiber festival? Heck yeah!  So plans were made.

Somewhere between that invite and our road trip, Erin ordered a loom and taught herself to weave. I remember her telling us this at the Fiber Festival. She showed us the scarf she bought as an inspiration piece; and I rolled my eyes so hard my brain hurt.

You taught yourself to what? You bought a what???

But damned if she didn't do it. No doubt, she devoured every single book, web article and online video she could.  And she managed to produce some of her most beautiful wovens to-date on that loom.


In May of 2012, a friend asked me to demo spinning and fiber prep at a local teeny tiny Ren Faire.

When I asked Erin, her reply was "I don't do Ren Faires."

But with a little pushiness on my part, her tune changed and our Ren Faire tradition was born.

Pictured above with her rigid heddle loom, weaving the scarf that EVERYONE still drools over. I'm spinning some Cotswold on Erin's Nees wheel, and our friend Stephanie on her Kromski. 

It was one utterly gorgeous orange, red and yellow tartan scarf that made my brain finally scream "I want to do that!" (while simultaneously trying to figure out a way to Bogart the scarf.)

So I started scouring the internet for cheap rigid heddle looms. My budget was beyond tight and somehow I managed to buy not just one, not just two, but three rigid heddle looms which were completely and utterly useless when assembled.  I finally scored a deal; an older loom which was a twin of Erin's, but in dire need of some TLC.

And that's how my weaving journey began. My first project? A pair of mostly-cotton placemats for some friends of mine.  With random cotton yarns from Tuesday morning and some donated silk remnants from our friend Stephanie, my hodge-podge of weaving took shape.

I still remember the "What the hell is wrong with you?" Look Erin gave me when I told her I wanted to do plaid and no, I didn't find multiple colors to be intimidating for my first project.

I got used to that look. ;-) 

And since I always think things are less challenging than they really are, what was my next project which also garnered the "What the hell is wrong with you?" look?

A twelve yard warp.  Yep. You got it. 12 yards.

It was, as Erin says, a challenge.

Lesson 1. We ran out of packing paper. That crap is important. The amount of tension related issues due to this one oversight - I cannot even tell you.

Dec 16, 2012. I MADE FABRIC!

Lesson 2. Twelve yards of warp is a pain in the ass to beam. Period.

Lesson 3. Your 2nd real weaving project should probably not be "Teach yourself and your teacher how to do overshot." Although, to be fair, I kinda did rock at that. 

Lesson 4: (And this one is a repeat-occurrence that neither one of us has yet to master) Count your friggin heddles.  I am now the self-proclaimed master at string heddles. This one project, my second project, is why, folks. Because I'm stupid and didn't count my damned heddles. I think I tied 100 on one shaft alone. No joke.

Between the two of us, we learned overshot. And Erin provided encouragement and support when I got burned out and decided to change my threading half-way through the project and weave waffle-weave towels.

She honed her teaching chops on me that month. And only she will understand the agony and delight that was The Twelve Yard Warp.

We were invited by a mutual friend to sell our fibery wares at the Hermitage Museum's Holiday event. So we set up a little booth. I packed my wheel, Erin her loom, lots of fiber and finished goods, and photos were snapped and published. It was Erin's sunny smile from behind her loom which prompted a donation of looms to the Hermitage and the birth of the Weaving program and our very own "fiber studio."

Another Ren Faire was attended. I spun. Erin wove. (Again: Duh) We camped. I froze. Erin brought her own personal sleeping-bag warmer in the form of Sarah the Vintage Dog. Sarah developed a fan club.

My favorite moment was here:

Get used to it, Collins. You're just awesome
. I have photographic evidence. :-P 

This is Erin standing at her loom providing patient, kind, steady instruction to a severely autistic teen who found peace and success behind Erin's loom.

The pattern and rhythm, the structure and logic, and the instant gratification provided by weaving struck a cord with this young lady that her large family had never witnessed before.

She took instruction, she listened and was not destructive, she sat in one place for extended periods of time, she focused.

Erin, who is a self-proclaimed introvert, who says she's not so great at teaching folks, who is not always confident about her interactions with folks with disabilities... Erin changed this girl's weekend.

In Octobers, Maker Faires were attended. We brought looms, wheels, fibers, hand carders, knitting needles, crochet hooks, nalbinding, and knowledge and caffeine.  No matter how hard we prepared each year, we were utterly exhausted, sporting swollen feet, and barely able to speak due to our raw voices.  

Our most recent maker faire allowed us the opportunity to invite our weaving students to a 'field trip' where they wove at the faire in public. They answered questions and demo'd their skills and made Erin and I so unbelievably proud.

Having a full team of fiber artists was such a different feeling than our very first fiber-demo at that very first Ren Faire. It was amazing to know that we had participated in fueling our student's love of fiber-arts.

In the fall, we started a new adventure, trying to get our 8 week weaving classes down to a 2 week project. We made it work and successfully cranked through several 2-week sessions before the holidays. 

And somewhere around there, Erin dropped the bomb that her family had received an amazing opportunity to move to London for 2 years. 

Being who I am, I got angry. She was leaving me. My friend was abandoning me to go off with some stupid boy (read: her husband) to another COUNTRY!? This was massively uncool.

((Eh. To be perfectly honest, I'm still not entirely over that feeling.))

The opportunity for the Collins clan was too good to pass up and decisions and preparations had been made. This was going to happen. When I saw Erin for the first time after getting the news, I saw the "OMG" on her face and realized my role was to be as supportive as I could muster (which often times was 'not at all!').   No matter how much I tried, my friend was still leaving. LEAVING. This was still very much "Not Ok." I'm positive I didn't hide that well. And I make no apologies for that - it was the way I could show her how she'd be missed since I don't do sappy too well (this post aside.) 

We wrapped up our final joint weaving class just a few weeks ago. It was the perfect weaving class at the perfect time. Our students were all repeat customers and Erin and I were lucky enough to spend the eight week session with students we thoroughly enjoy, projects we loved, and alot of time to relax and chat- which we both sorely needed considering the big changes ahead.

Last Wednesday I had a wonderful dinner with the Collins clan, inherited some goodies from their house due to their down sizing, and got a giant hug from a teary Erin. (I didn't get misty till I was driving down her street. Shh. Don't tell.) 

So, it is with utter sincerity that I offer my deepest thanks to my drive band.

Thank you for breaking that day.

Thank you for giving that woman with the beautifully salted hair the chance to pop out of her seat, spill a coffee tumbler, and try to fix my wheel. Thank you for giving her a reason to help me load stuff in my car and poke at my introvert boundaries by inviting me, a stranger, on a road trip.

A really long friendship was birthed that day. Right there. In the parking lot of that LYS. Thanks for being brave enough to make the first step, Erin. As a strong introvert, I never would have. And it would have been my loss. 

While the Collins clan indicates that their overseas adventure may extend past their original two-year-plan, I refuse to allow that to be a possibility.

She'll be back in two years. And then it will be my turn to go on a big adventure while she holds down the weaving fort.

In the meanwhile, I'll keep the class going as long as I can. I promise to try not to punch students. I promise to try to not trade all the looms for antique wheels; it'll be hard, but I'll make the effort.

The guild is still alive and well, of course. We are just now weaving a bit further away from each other. Though I can happily wind her warps and mail them, we've yet to figure out how she will beam my warp while in the UK.

We should expect to lots of photos and blog updates over the next few weeks as Erin goes on fiber-y adventures in London. She's keeping us abreast of this part of her weaving journey and I can't wait to see what she discovers!!


So, fair winds and following seas to my dear friend(s) as they start their new journey across the pond.

Its been an honor and a pleasure and lots of giggles.

See you in two years. :) 

Winter passes into Spring passes into Summer

Has it been so long? Really? Goodness gracious. Five months. You must think we've abandoned this blog.

We haven't, but it has not been at the top of our list of priorities. For me (Erin), priorities have been around work, work, and work, and moving to the UK. For Kerry, it has been work, work, and work. And for both it's been growing a new crop of weavers, and watering our seedling weavers, at the Hermitage.

Can you tell I've been playing Farm Heroes on my tablet?

I wrote an email the other day to four local weavers and my heart grew ten times bigger as I did so because, a year ago, these four weren't weavers and I knew I had a small hand in introducing them to this wonderful craft.

Kerry went to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival (MDSW), a very large (not THE largest but close) fiber festival on the East Coast. Rhinebeck is larger and someday I'd like to attend. For us here in Hampton Roads, though, MDSW is easy driving distance. I stayed back and managed class. I'll let Kerry talk about her wonderful adventure. She brought back four skeins of Just Our Yarn that I begged for. Equally if not more special, though, was a signed book by Tom Kniseley. Tom is my rag weaving hero. He has a lovely writing voice, and a gentle but firm approach in his videos. We had visited The Mannings in Pennsylvania on our legendary loom road trip to northern Virginia and State College, PA. Mr. Knisely wasn't present that day - he was in the process of writing said book and we saw several of the rugs, in progress, that were to be photographed. It isn't often that the store owner is available to give us a tour around the (massive!!) weaving space and it was an incredibly special treat. THAT book, signed by Tom, in my hands. WOW!

In the introduction of his wonderful book, Weaving Rag Rugs, he provides some history about rag rugs. Now, you have to understand that I love the concept of reusing materials. I don't do nearly enough and rag rugs are my way to evening up the score. He mentions a type of rag weaving called sakiori. Sakiori is a technique of taking worn our kimonos and cutting them into very narrows strips of cloth and then weaving that as weft on a new warp.  Yes, it sounds just like rag weaving, but with very narrow strips - 1/4" to 1/3" or so. So I've been thinking about this ever since, all of a couple of weeks. The fabric made using this narrow cloth weft has interesting possibilities beyond rugs. What I've read implies that finer fabric can be woven, and I can see the possibilities of using something lighter than 8/2 or 8/4 cotton carpet warp. It seems so obvious, doesn't it? Hand to forehead. Repeat as necessary.

Friday I looked at a blue and green and purple (and some white) floral scarf that had belonged to my grandmother. The dogs had managed to rip a great giant hole in it. It was a lighter than air scarf made in India, about 36"x36" square with beads on the corners - probably to keep it from floating away. And I thought, I can honor my grandmother, who passed away a couple of years ago, by cutting it up for sakiori weaving. I couldn't bare to throw it away. Reuse, recycle. That really was the long way 'round to get to this story but it all connects. Loom advendure to The Mannings to MDSW to Sakiori...

I'm not exactly certain the form this will ultimately assume but it will become something woven. The beads will likely be incorporated in some clever way, too. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, currently on Erin's loom...

...a brown and pink fancy twill in wool. Oooh, you know how I love twill and I love this pattern. On the left side is the washed sample that made me rethread an entire section. What a pain but worth it in the end.  The sample also told me that the elongated diamonds would in fact squish down and become more squared.  I used 36" of this for my Complex Weavers Fine Threads Study Group sample this year. The remainder will either be a scarf or a runner. Or a piece of fabric to do something with. It's about 18" wide. The pink warp is 26/2, and the brown weft is undefined but I'm guessing around 18/2. No, they don't match but I loved the colors together. The brown didn't soften up much in the wash but it goes so perfectly with a long brown vintage wool/cashmere coat I have that I don't much care. So it'll probably be an outer shawl of some kind.

Cheers,
Erin

Getting ready for Rags, Dyes, and Overshot

A whole host of classes coming up, all of them at the wonderful Hermitage Museum & Gardens in Norfolk, VA. The Visual Arts Studio is located in the old stable and it is such a treat to use the space for reintroducing  Hampton Roads to the addictive craft of hand weaving on a traditional floor loom.

BUT: to butcher a famous Saturday Night Live line...send us your looms! Seriously, we need more looms. We have five, but we can accommodate more. Know someone with a loom that they haven't used in 20 years? Suggest they donate it to the Hermitage, a 503c designated organization - which means the a tax write-off for the giver. Got your own loom that is up in the attic/gathering dust in the little used parlor/sitting in the garage or basement and waiting for a yard sale? Do you have one too many looms? Does it need a little TLC? A lot of TLC? We'll  take looms in pretty much any condition and we have the means to pick it up (e.g., a pickup truck) and refurbish it for use. PLEASE contact Truly Matthews at the Hermitage at 757-423-2052. Kerry and I can travel up to about 300 +/- miles to pick up looms, and we have done so in the past. Or you can drop it off. Don't hesitate to call Truly, or even contact Kerry or myself, Erin, via the comments on this blog.

So enough with the begging, on with the show.

FALL OVERSHOT

This fall we will be teaching an overshot class at the Visual Arts Center in the old stables at the Hermitage Museum & Gardens. It is an open class, meaning that beginners and non-beginners can register. Experienced weavers will be able to more or less work at their own pace, while beginners will learn how to weave using the overshot technique. It could be argued that that's too complicated for a newbie. We agree that it takes some focus but we think it is achievable.

The key to success for the fall class is to be present. The class is held Monday and Saturday, and both nights are class nights. I point this out strongly because there was some confusion last session. Anyhow, Wednesday nights were Open Studio nights during the spring session.  While Open Studio was entirely optional, we found that the students needed/wanted the additional time. We will make a couple of the Open Studio nights required this fall. The overshot threading is more complex than a straight twill and we'll need the extra time to get it done.

Details: Two sessions per week with optional Open Studio. Saturdays 10:30 am to 12:30 pm and Mondays 6:00 to 8:00pm. Open Studio is Wednesdays from 6 to 9pm. The first THREE Open Studio sessions are required. There are five looms, so the class limit is 5, but if bring your own loom and we can expand the class!

SUMMER RAG RUGS

Fun rugs for new weavers! This class is a day of weaving on workshop looms that have been set up for rag rugs. All you need to do is show up, pick your colors, and we'll show you how to weave. No experience necessary!

Details: Saturday, July 13, 10:30 to 3:30 pm. Bring fabric shears!

SUMMER YARN DYE WORKSHOP

Kerry is a super awesome kettle dyer and is always coming to the party with some new never-to-be-reproduced-again yarn colorway. Hand her a set of ingredients and a skein of wool yarn and she'll come up with something wonderful, no recipe required. Erin is a more deliberate dyer and likes to paint the yarn with sponge brushes and "wrap it and zap it."  We'll both be on hand to walk you through the dye process using food-safe dyes and common kitchen equipment.

A special bonus: the yarn you dye in this class can be used for your overshot project in the fall, should you decide to register for both classes.

Details: Saturday, July 27, 1:30 to 4:30 pm

You can register for all these classes at the Hermitage Museum and Gardens Visual Arts Studio web page. The overshot class isn't listed yet but will be soon - keep watching this and their site for updates.

Happy Weaving
Erin

The Upside of Warping and A Little Side Trip

Is there really a downside? I think not, unless your name is Kerry and you get a sack full of email from me before 7:00 AM.

She gets all those emails because when I'm warping, and there are no distractions, I get a great deal of quality thinking time in. And I'm a morning person. We're deep in the planning phase for our fall Overshot class (8 weeks) and the two summer workshops we'll be doing - Dyeing (1 day) and Rag Rugs (two weekends).

I'm winding warp for the Fall 2013 Overshot class. We want samples of the project students will be doing and we need something to photograph for the catalog. The project is textile-based, in that they will weave two 22" square sections of overshot as pillow covers, or one 44"x 22" as a runner or for any other use they'd like.

It took me a little time to realize that I don't necessarily need to have an immediate purpose for the fabric I'm weaving. It's fabric. I can use it in just about any way I want (a million variables not withstanding). Liberating my design process to encompass the world of FABRIC and TEXTILE instead of limiting it to SCARF or RUNNER can be very exciting.

http://peggyosterkamp.com/gallery/
One of my favorite authors and weaving gurus. Peggy makes ethereal textiles in silk.

http://www.habutextiles.com/RIP-19-1







On the other hand...it's nice to have an end in mind. I have several skeins of sport-weight raw silk, that wonderful textured matte stuff in pretty browns and tans. I haven't quite decided what I want to do with it. I only know that when I saw it, at Tess Designer Yarns booth at the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival in 2012, I knew I had to weave something with it. I don't want a complicated structure but I do want to show off the colors. It isn't fabulously strong so I may need to combine it with something else as a warp.

In the meantime, I have PLENTY of other weaving to do for upcoming Fall art shows so as soon as the overshot sample comes off the loom I'll be onto that.

Later...
As Kerry mentioned in the last post, we're in a little bit of project overload, and we don't entirely hate it. The overshot is on Bam Bam, the Hearthside loom, and I'm almost done with the first sample. There will be two samples for photographing because we need something representative for the fall class and we need it early for the printed catalog. The next project is also overshot, this time for the class sample. Kerry is winding the warp for that tonight and I'll weave it on one of the classroom looms. In the Loom Lounge, Kerry is just started green and white towels, and I am tying on for waffle weave towels.

Last weekend we road-tripped to State College, PA, for a 36" Leclerc Nilus for Kerry, and to Alexandria for a 48" Macomber for me. Our personal projects are being woven on those and we're so excited! It's comforting to have looms with all their pieces-parts. Kerry's Nilus still had it's warp beam crank! Mine doesn't but I can use a wrench. Along the way we stopped at The Mannings (how could we not?) and had a wonderful conversation with Carol, one of the owners, about some of the very vintage looms they have. Kerry got huggy with the barn loom, and who could blame her? I'll let her tell the story of the barn loom. We also made some purchases but not as much as you might think. We pawed through Tom Knisely's pile o' rugs while Carol talked a little about them and that was worth the trip all by itself.

Weave on, dudes!
Erin

Oh my!

Goodness, Kerry and I have gotten waylaid by a very exciting development. Not too long after the last post was written we submitted a proposal to teach a Weaving I (weaving for beginners) course at the Hermitage Museum & Gardens here in Norfolk. They accepted our proposal and we started working on the details of our syllabus, renovating/fixing the looms that were donated to the Hermitage, and readying the weaving room (Kerry: Weaving Lab). We were hoping for, but not really anticipating, enough sign-ups to meet the minimum# of students. In reality, the class filled up and we are into our second full week of classes. We are learning a great deal about teaching weaving to multiples and how different it is than teaching one person at a time. And the students seem motivated and satisfied.

Feedback has been that a Weaving II, something a little more advanced, would be welcomed. For this summer we have proposed a wool dying class, and a Weaving Open House, and a fall Weaving II class where any student who has dyed wool in the summer workshop can use that in exchange for the materials cost. The fall workshop will focus on overshot pillows, where cotton is the warp and tabby, and wool the pattern weft. (oops, another edit where I had to change towels to pillows...more coffee required, obviously)

I would love to do an entire series of classes based on Madelyn's Twill Thrills book when it is finally reprinted. We'll see. For advanced students we might be able to do two 4 week sessions plus open studio. I know it's helpful to have dedicated weaving time where you aren't distracted by the everyday things going on at home. I'll be thinking about that. But I'll keep my day job!

At the Hermitage, Kerry is threading a rag rug project on a donated 40" Macomber 4 shaft B5. At home, I mis-sleyed a red & white cotton towel at 30 epi instead of 20 epi (note to self: read the notes I've jotted in the margin - except I had two sets of notes and only one of them was related to the project at hand) and so I am re-sleying at 20 epi. Yes, it means some wasted warp, probably a couple hundred threads. Or maybe I'll save the remainder for a similar but narrower project.

Edited to add: one of our students came in with an adjustable shower chair to use at her loom. I love her creative solution to finding the right height chair/bench! These are so much less expensive than "loom benches" that I have one in my Amazon cart right this minute. Maybe I'll weave a very dense twill upholstery-type textile and sew a slipcover. They aren't as pretty as a custom wooden but they certainly are functional and the price is right.

In Weaving II, if Kerry let's me, I'll teach back to front warping. Time to construct some raddles!

Cheers,
Erin

What should I do next?

That's a question I ask myself frequently. I'm not just a weaver. I photograph. I play flute. I spin. I knit. I work with silver. And lately I've broken through some personal obstacles and can proudly say that I sew. I always have multiple projects going on. I know I'm not alone in this. Almost everyone I know who engages in multiple hobbies is in the same kind of boat.

Some would disagree, but my problem is not that I have too many hobbies. 

My problem is that there are so many great project ideas that I want to do them all. Right now. Tell me you haven't been there yourself. I dare you. 

This is not a situation of a weaving project competing with a sewing project. Oh no. This is multiple weaving projects competing with one another. 

I have a notebook (Kerry laughs at this point, face-palms, then gives me a mental hug) because I'm a planner. It's basically a project notebook because I really want to be that kind of organized. It contains projects I want to do, and projects completed. I photocopied or printed a project I want to do, made some notes about fiber, maybe even included fiber samples or swatches. Strangely, I also included a sewing project. Why not have a notebook that includes ALL the projects you want to do, not just the weaving ones? At least they are all in one place. I like kind of like that. It also includes some references about sett, reed substitution, weaving calculations, and a master yarn chart from Handwoven. Each project is in a clear page protector because they expand and you can stick samples and patterns in them, though I wish the clear protectors had a flap to prevent stuff from falling out. 

(Note to self: search for clear page protectors with envelope style flaps or something like it)

Bottom line: I have several projects in the notebook. Recently I said on this very blog that I wanted to work through the first chapter of Twill Thrills. But (whine) do I have to? What if this one project over here is just screaming at me to do it? What if I want to rag weave a textile to use for a tote bag? What about the projects I want to do to build inventory for an Etsy storefront or for the upcoming art/craft fairs and demos? I could have projects on multiple looms but I can still only physically weave one thing at a time. And then what if the only time you have to weave is a few hours on a weekend?

I know of people who have chained warps hanging around. The weaving version of a UFO (unfinished object). No, I'm not giving up the other hobbies. 

There's no answer and I don't really expect to find one, but I think I might start chaining some warps for future projects because, as they say, opportunity favors the prepared. That's always been my experience. And suddenly it's the end of January and I'm still threading the project I started right before we traveled for Christmas. 

I've always despised the phrase "promises were meant to be broken" but I think I won't hold myself too strenuously to the chapter 1 goal from Twill Thrills. It's a worthy goal, to be sure. If I only get a few completed, though, I think I can be totally okay with that, let myself off the hook, and just enjoy the weaving experience. 

Maybe that's my answer.

Weave on,

Erin

Oops. No guild on Jan 26

After much soul-searching, our first guild meeting will NOT occur Saturday, January 26. Why? Would it be awful if I admit that I don't really think we have our ducks in a row? Not quite, anyway. The ducks are still a little scattered. We're still wrangling, and they're really quacking up over it.

So please stay tuned. I apologize to those who were looking forward to this.

Erin

p.s. Please drive safely and be watchful. The weather is going to get nasty tonight. Cuddle up with your significant other and/or a live/stuffed animal, something warm to drink, and watch a good movie. That's where you'll find me.

p.p.s Obviously this is specific to the SE Virginia area.

p.p.p.s One of our local stations, WAVY, has been doing a nice job with their weather blog with the details that go into forecasting a snow event such as this, at http://blogs.wavy.com/category/weather/. If you're a bit of a weather geek, check it out. If you're slightly more geeked about meteorology, try http://www.wunderground.com. Fewer ads, and for $5 a year, no ads at all. For the truly snobby, http://www.wunderground.com is still awesome. But the National Weather Service site is also good.

Twill I? Or Twon't I?

GUILD NOTE: Guild will meet at Erin's house Saturday January 26, from 11am until whenever. Bring your loom if it travels or your wheel if it travels. You can bring both, but really? Gonna do both? Bring show and tell - got a project you are particularly happy with? Proud of? Wanna show off? Bring it! Coffee, tea, water available. Not planning snacks but you are welcome to bring something if you are so inclined. Very informal at this point in our guild life, but on that day we will focus on learning to weave. Hopefully more hands on than not, because first things first: measure a warp. You'll be shocked at how much time some of these things take. Don't worry if you don't have yarn, or you don't think you have the right yarn. The guild has plenty and it will share.

---

I was reading a post on Weaving Today about twill and how the writer always imagines she'll do a huck lace or a bronson lace as her next project, but always finds just one more amazing twill pattern that is calling her name.

I can appreciate this.

I sought high and low for this one book of twill patterns. Set aside for a moment that I'm not content to merely search and acquire twill patterns online and that I must have a book. I was searching for this book which it turns out is out of print. I searched eBay. I search Amazon. I searched LibraryThing. For a year I looked for a copy of this book that wasn't more than $75. Because, let's face it, scarcity increases value. I emailed the editor of the book. She had no copies, and hoped the publisher would someday decide to do another printing. Finally Kerry said, well, have you contact the publisher?

Me? Email a publisher? Right, my email is going to go into some generic customer service email box and be lost forever. But a few weeks after she suggested it I thought, well, what have I got to lose?

It didn't get lost. It found a human who hunted through the office and found ONE copy of this book in a box under someone's desk. It's probably the last remaining unsold copy of this book in the world. And it had a bent corner so she charged a discounted rate and threw in free shipping.

That's how much I appreciate the siren song of twill.

I want to do every pattern in the book. All of them right now. Immediately. But dang, I only have three looms. Oh wait. I have three looms. Hehehe. Could this be my personal weaving challenge for 2013? Work my way through Twill Thrills on three looms? Two are eight shaft, one is four shaft, and there are only a couple of projects in the book requiring more than eight shafts. 36 projects. Uh. Maybe just chapter 1 in 2013. That's half the book and I have to time balance with band, flute choir, knitting, and sewing. And work.

Project 1: Blue Tick Hound. 4 Shafts. Adorable. 2/2 Twill. It wants a 16" weaving width, which means either Bam Bam or Minerva. Dot isn't wide enough (she's the 10" table loom). I don't have to make the stuffed toy but it would be fun to sew on my own handmade fabric. And It would make a nice gift for a certain little one in Maine.

The color in the photo SHOULD be blue and white, not blue and pink-ish. Except for that little doggie bed, which is mauve.


Happy New Year and Happy Weaving!
Erin

When I weave...

When I weave, I am focused and everything is clear.

When I weave I feel calm. I know who I am and I know what the world is about. The evils of the world fall away. The politics of friendships, of states, of red and blue, are gone.

It's just me and the threads. 342 navy blue warp threads. Some are a little weak. Some are strong. I shore up the weak ones with a few extra packing sticks on the warp beam. Some are still a little weak, so for a while I will fuss with them and see if I can get them to behave.

When I weave I can feel the rhythm: step, throw, beat, step, throw, beat, step throw beat.

But then I run out of weft. I use a piano bench as my chair because it is the perfect height and I get up and walk over to my little rolling kitchen cart which has the bobbin winder attached to it. It's a great tool, that cart. So is the bobbin winder.

When I weave, my mind empties and I begin to daydream about other projects. I think about projects I want to do and take a mental inventory of my stash - do I have the right yarn? do I have colors that I want to use?  Do I need  to spin hundreds of yards of fiber? Do I need to - gasp - order more yarn??? A friend thinks about what she has and then thinks what she can make with it. Why can't I think like that?

When I weave, I relax, and time disappears. I almost don't need that massage gift certificate given to me by my manager.

When I weave, I don't worry about my day job. There are no statistics or reports or off-shore blame games.

When I weave, I know who I am. I'm me and I make. I weave, I knit, I spin, I flute, I photograph, and (sometimes) I blog. Mostly, lately, I weave and I love it.

When I help someone else weave, I feel joyful. That's better than anything else.

And when it is the holiday season I get a little misty and mushy.

Happy Holidays and Weave On!

Erin

Stubborn? Moi?

A few weeks ago I (Kerry) started to warp out what I am told is a very ambitious project - especially considering it is only my second attempt at weaving.

I decided that I was going to weave towels and hopefully gift a few for the winter holidays. And hopefully sell a few at some craft shows or on Etsy.

I did some mental polling and determined that I am, in fact, too lazy to do multiple warps to achieve a high volume of towels. What does that mean? If I want 10 towels, I'm only doing 1 warp, not 2 different ones. I am truly that lazy about this sort of thing.

So I then did the math and learned that 10 or 11 towels required about 12 yards of warp. So I began winding warp! And Winding. And Winding. And Winding. I managed to wrench my shoulder from so much winding. And got a kink in my neck until I fixed where the warping board was. Lots of winding = lots of learning.

We had a Loom Lounge day earlier this week and I started to sley my reed with all of this natural 8/2 cotton warp. The sley was 2-2-1 pattern which went very quickly and used up almost every dent on the reed, save a few on one side. I had a few bits of warp left over that didn't quite fit and they got set aside.

Yesterday (Saturday) I began to thread the heddles.

Being the lazy and often carefree crafter that I am, I didn't count a single heddle before weaving. So when Erin turned around about 1/3 of the way into my threading and said "Did you count your heddles?" I looked at her, scoffed/snorted, and replied with an amused "No."

I mean, why would I count my heddles? What in the world would prompt me to do such a thing? There were plenty for my LAST project. Why wouldn't there be plenty for THIS project? (For inquiring minds: the answer to follow in a later blog post.)

What a stupid question, Erin! It'll be fine! Thought I.

... yeah.

This post is renamed The Blog Post in Which Kerry Eats Crow. :(

Today please learn one thing. Learn to count your heddles.

For serious.

I got about 2/3 of the way through the threading and promptly ran out of heddles on shaft 1.

Erin was right. (As per usual.)

So with some Googling and YouTubing, I quickly learned the art of making string heddles. My understanding is that these hand tied heddles are traditionally used in an emergency repair situation where perhaps you've made a threading mistake and you do not want to un-thread 30 inches of warp for one string.

A special thank you to this particular video and this particular video which give two methods for creating string heddles.

Being my stubborn self, however, I was determined to not un-thread the warp and lose 2 days worth of work. I was determined to make this work. And if I had to tie on heddles, that's what I'd do.
I cannot afford to buy new heddles right this minute. And I couldn't wait on delivery time anyway. So I tied. And Tied. And Tied.
At the end of the warp, I must have tied 100 string heddles. It felt like I tied one thousand.

But the warp is on. And I tied it onto the back beam without any help. and I began winding without any help.

And then a thread broke.

And I ALMOST had a melt-down.

Erin was lovely enough to pause in her warp-winding to intervene and prevent the Great-Flood-O-Tears. She re-attached my thread, fluffed the warp, let me wind a bit while she found a good pausing point in her warp.

And she sat for all the remaining 11 yards. And she helped me wind that danged 12 yard warp onto my loom. And she laughed while I cussed and offered pointers for next time, and praised my ambition of a 12 yard warp.

The end of the night went a little longer than we both planned, but the end result is the warp is on the loom.

Let the Choir Sing! Hallelujah!

Tomorrow afternoon I will tie onto the front beam and then give a few test passes.

My greatest fear is that the hand-tied string heddles will not function correctly and that all of that work will have to be chalked up to 'practice.' (A four-letter-word in my book.)

Time To Dye, My Sweet

Last night Kerry, my guild/fiber/weaving/spinning partner and crime (and also wonderful friend) and I had an up close and personal encounter with Pro MX Fiber Reactive Dye. This is the view from my side of the Dye Lab island.

Do you remember Bob Costas' "Up Close & Personal" segments from the '96 Olympics? And how we all use the phrase now when we never did before, in that way? And were you totally over it by the 2000 Olympics? Me too. Used it anyway. 

Kerry skeined up hundreds and hundreds of yards of 8/2 cotton that we purchased from WCMercantile on Etsy, and picked up soda ash at a local pool supply store. 

I'm all about learning from experience, regardless of success. 

Lesson #1: As spinners we are accustomed to working in animal fibers - things that FELT when agitated or subjected to weird temps. So when you dye animal fibers, you have to be a little careful. Those finicky rules go right out the window with plant fibers!!!  Weeeeee! I think we had as much fun mushing and twisting the heck out of those hanks as we did playing with colors.

Lesson #2: Some rules are for safety. Don't reuse containers for food unless you are using Wilton or other food dyes. Soda ash stinks and you definitely need to use gloves because it will irritate your skin. 

Lesson #3: Some rules are best practice, but do let your intuition guide you. Have fun! If your gut says "I want purple" then do it. If your gut says it needs more dye powder because the color seems weak, then it probably does. Even for a novice, your gut is smarter than we give it credit. If the color is all goofed up, dye it black and move on.  

Lesson #4: Have more dyeing containers than you need. We were scrounging around the house for containers. I was ready to dump out one of the full containers of spackle just to get another dye bucket. Chopsticks make great pokers/stirrers/lifters.

Lesson #5: Don't be stingy with the dye powder. In the grand scheme of life, it's pretty affordable. 

Lesson #6: Have a rinsing strategy. We used my roomy kitchen, threw a nice think sheet of plastic over the island, and had a blast. But there was NO WAY that dye was gonna hit MY WHITE PORCELAIN SINK. 

Kerry: Where should we dump this batch of dye?  

Erin: Uhm. (looks around dumbly) I dunno. Outside? (I had read that it was safe to dump outside so I felt pretty solid on this)

Kerry: Where should we rinse our hanks?

Erin: Oh crap. Uhm. Bathroom, we're replacing that sink anyway.

As it turns out, the old bathroom sink wasn't stained at all. But have a rinsing strategy, especially if the weather doesn't really permit outdoor dyeing.  This also goes to Lesson #3, because we had to reuse containers until we swiped some from my DH's tool shelf.

Lesson #7: Allow enough time. This stuff wants to sit in soda ash for a a minimum of 30 min (prepares the fiber to accept the dye), and cure in it's dye bath for no less than 3 hours. We wove and warped in between bouts of soaking, dyeing, and rinsing.

Lesson #8: Don't give up. Keep playing with dye. I'm really happy I gave it another shot, and that I did it with someone less constrained by being over-careful than I.

Cheers!
Erin

p.s. - as I write, the hanks are still drying.

Sometimes You Wing It

Anyone who knows me (Erin) knows I actually "read the instructions." I am one of those whose natural tendency is to color inside the lines. When I color outside the lines, I'm likely to make a 1/2" margin and color inside THAT. That is how...uhm...uptight I can be.

So, when someone asks me what I'm weaving, and I say "I'm winging it" what I really mean is that I know enough to set up my threading and treadling for twill, but I don't have a pattern and I'm going to experiment and see what speaks to me.  That is how the project below emerged. I'm coloring outside the lines but I have a framework, my 1/2" margin.

The most common question I was asked at Norfolk Mini Maker Faire, after "How does that work? was "What are you weaving?" 

I had no good answer. Demo cloth was the reality. I had dressed the loom with 40/2 cotton carpet warp (it was free, and like thread thin), one thread per dent in an 8-dent reed, and a 1-2-3-4 twill threading. I knew I wanted to use twill, and I knew I wanted weft faced because that is interesting to see the pattern emerge when someone is trying it out. Beyond that, though, I really didn't know. Demo cloth sounded so lame. Table runner? Shawl? Placemats? Towels?

Cloth. I'm making cloth. I'll figure out what I want to do with it when I'm finished. Maybe it'll be a tote bag.

Update: It wants to be an alpaca shawl in reversed twill.

Update: it's off the loom. It's...interesting. I'm not sure I'd say it was a successful experiment yet, only that it was an experiment. And sometimes that's all it has to be. Not all things work. This will not work as a shawl. It's delightfully heavy, but not wide enough to be a throw. Maybe it'll be wall art. I'll report back.

Tien Chiu is a funny, thoughtful, accomplished weaver. She is blogging a book on creativity at Creating Craft: A Guide to Designing Original Pieces. You can subscribe to her posts (I do!) and be both inspired and relieved that you are not alone and that there are strategies for bringing out the creative. 

And guess what? There's always a time to wing it.

Cheers!

We've been busy!

We've been very busy getting our guild artifacts and visibility going. We started with the Google groups, then as we were coming up on the Norfolk Mini Maker Faire we realized there was an opportunity to do a few more things. Handouts! Business Cards! Lists! More lists!

All that and a blog.

We don't have a physical and regular meeting location so I suppose you could say we are a virtual guild. For now.

Donations
We received two anonymous and one non-anonymous donation today:

• 19" HP LCD flat panel monitor - this will be great for displaying slide shows of finished objects, photos from past events, and pretty much anything related to fiber from source to completed object. Neat!
• "A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns" edited by Carol Strickler. We are very fortunate to have this as the first item in our guild library. It's a seminal work that weavers across the world look to for inspiration and guidance. 
• 9 issues of Handwoven magazine, 1989 and 1994. These were acquired by me (Erin) and I'll post the exact issue dates and contents when I start the library list. These are interesting in that they are prior to Handwoven's editorial change to a more four-shaft weaving focus for less experienced weavers. This was also a time when their articles were longer and incredibly informative. 

If you have any spinning, weaving, or other equipment or books that are gathering dust, please consider donating them to the guild. If you don't know whether we can use it, just ask. Here are a few items we'd like to acquire: carpet remnants or area rugs - clean but used (the objective is to cover a 10'x20' space); weaving/spinning books of any type in reasonable condition; money (yes, it costs money to do the demonstrations, print documents and business cards, etc), folding chairs.  

Members of the guild may borrow from the library free of cost. 

About Events
At the moment there are a core group of folks who are participating in events - me, Kerry, Tara, and Donna.  However, in addition to having people to work in the booth/exhibition area I'd really like to see others take on the role of demonstrator so Kerry and I aren't carrying the full load. Not all events are everyone's cup of tea. The Harvest Faire required that participants where period-appropriate-ish "garb." Isn't it great that we have some folks who can are willing to wear that stuff? Maker Faire was loud and busy. The Hermitage Museum is probably a much more low-key affair where not a lot of teaching will occur, but possibly question answering and definitely spinning and weaving. That might appeal to the less-outgoing members. In other words, someone will find a fit.

Upcoming Events
October 27-28 - Cornerstone Alpaca
We are hoping to participate as an exhibitor at Cornerstone Alpacas next weekend, October 27/28. As soon as I know for sure I'll post it here and the group forum. We may need volunteers to help answer questions, explain spinning and/or weaving. All the better if you are familiar working with alpaca fiber - either as a spinner/weaver or knitter/crocheter.

December 8 - Hermitage Museum
Kerry and I will be at the Hermitage Museum in Norfolk spinning and weaving. Again, more to come on that.

Past Events
Annual Harvest Faire, Endview Plantation, October 13-14
Hands-on demonstration, gorgeous weather, camping, Renaissance-themed. Tara, Kerry, and Erin went, and we wore garb. And we camped out, which was fun for me, but Tara and Kerry found it a little chilly.

Lessons Learned: ask for a more level spot. Bring a large rug. Camping is fun, but it multiplies the amount of equipment by two. Small dogs are a real draw (we brought along Sarah Dog, the dachshund). Come for the dog, stay for the spinning.

Norfolk Mini Maker Faire, October 20
Loud, exciting, and packed. Donna, Tara, Erin, and Kerry manned, and Peg Graham stepped in to help us put kits together. There were more children than I thought we'd see, but Donna had the bright idea for some kind of "make and take" situation. We put together about 105 make-your-own-spindles kit with assembly and use instructions and we gave out 80 of them to children and adults.

Lessons Learned: make more kits; we started hoarding them a little, but with about double the amount we wouldn't have had to. In fact, we might want to triple the amount for next year. It's a great item. The folding screen made a really good display stand. We need to be prepared to have items available for sale. Only Kerry was prepared on that front. Bigger loom would be impressive - next year I'll bring Bam-Bam.

Happy Spinning!