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

Use Tabby

Have we talked about the phrase/term "use tabby"? It is not unique overshot. I've seen it elsewhere but for now let's assume it occurs with overshot. It means: between every treadled pattern shot/pick/pass, treadle a row of plain weave to tie down the pattern threads. It gets more complicated than that, though. It means you have to set up two treadles that can be treadled as plain weave. On a four shaft loom with a straight draw threading and six treadles, this is means tying a treadle to shafts 1,3 and another to 2,4, leaving treadles the remaining four treadles handle pattern. All overshot patterns I've ever run across are configured so that they can be treadled in plain weave - or pretty close to plain weave.

pass 1: pattern
pass 2: tabby
pass 3: pattern
pass 4: tabby
etc...

This concept confounded me when I first started weaving. Less so when I understood it intellectually, and the mystery was completely eliminated when I actually did it. Sort of like double weave.

Almost immediately the next question comes up: which treadles should I use for tabby?

Kerry likes using treadles 1 and 6. When her shuttle is on the left, she uses treadle 1; when her shuttle is on the right, she uses treadle 6. For some this is completely intuitive.

I like putting the tabby treadles on the right hand side. I can slide one foot back and forth between the two tabby treadles (left-most when my shuttle is on the left, right-most when my shuttle is on the right) and my left foot operates the other four. If you have any music training, this might feel alot like playing the piano but with the bass line on the right instead of the left. That analogy falls apart pretty quickly if you go much further so let's not. In any case, I'm more comfortable handling the pattern treadles with my left leg.

Still, though, sometimes I miss the correct treadle. They are so close together! This was a constant problem for me with the Minerva. Slightly less of a problem on the new Tools of the Trade loom. Even less so on MayMac (my Macomber) but...sill an issue...until I remembered that I can shift my treadles! Bwahahaha!

Not everyone has this advantage. I do and I am using it. I increased the gap between treadles 4 and 5 from an inch to 5 inches. It's simply a matter of loosening the screw bolts and scooting the treadles (and their connectors) over.

There's no difference in the shed or the integrity of the lift of the shafts. That gap has made ALL the difference for me and I'm loving it for my latest overshot runner.

Not all looms have a long bar for the treadles but if yours does and there is an extra few inches available, give it a try. You could create a gap between treadles 1 and 2, and between 5 and 6.

Happy Weaving!
Erin

Finishing Up Fall?

It seems as if Autumn has barely begun and we're already finishing up our Fall Weaving Session at the Hermitage Museum & Gardens Visual Arts Studio. Our overshot projects have created a frenzy of weaving and imagination and challenge. We're VERY proud of our students for rising to the challenge and tackling it with gusto despite vacations, family challenges, and sleying errors.

After October 28 we have a couple weeks off to catch our breath and then we begin the Holiday Session. We've split Holiday Session into two mini-sessions for beginning weavers, and the project is a warm winter scarf. Students who choose their colors via two or more skeins in wool/wool-blend yarn from the fabulous inventory at Baa Baa Sheep in Ghent receive a 5% discount. We are really excited to partner with Roz and her team at Baa Baa Sheep. To say we are thrilled to have a yarn shop in Ghent would be an understatement. I swear, if she ever goes out of business I'm going to take over!

Meanwhile...

Kerry is wildly weaving  __________s (ahem, no spoilers) and is on the last 10% and wishing someone else would take over. It's a long warp. Almost everyone in class and nearly everyone who has visited has taken a spin on Niles, who is right now living at The Herm. We've decided that we DEFINITELY like having an easy work in progress on a long warp and it's like a loom tasting. We should definitely have a Wine & Weft Tasting this winter. Something to chase away the chilly January blues.

Kerry is VERY good at winding long warps. I need to barter with her to finish winding my 12-yd warp in 20/2 bamboo.

I acquired a third loom. Because I'm a weaver and that's what insane weavers do. It's a Tools of the Trade loom (ToTT for short) whom we are calling Tutti. I'm not very good with names. Anyway, I cut this sample off Tuttie yesterday.

I love this little 4-shaft loom. Well, not little, it is a floor loom after all, and weaves at about 32" I think. I want to find another just like it so I can bolt the castles together and create an instant 8-shaft loom. The price was perfect - cheap even - so I could NOT pass this up. And my pay from the Herm basically paid for it. The only downside was transporting it 90 minutes from Richmond in the rain. With the eight miles of green tarp we have even that wasn't a problem.  

Because this is a gift I want it to be well done without any really obvious threading goofs. Except that I treadled my sample incorrectly. However, I know that the pattern weft is a good color, and i know that I missed an 8-thread repeat on the right border. So I'll remove eight from the left side to bring it symmetrical and treadle the next sample correctly. I like how it finished, too. I'll actually press the hem before I sew it next time, too. The warp is 8/2 Tencel in Mountain Stream colorway, the tabby is 14/2 unmercerized cotton in dark hunter green and the pattern weft is 8/2 Tencel in a golden peachy color (referred to as Straw) combined with some leftover .Bambu 12 in Golden Wheat. These are all colors I already had on hand, and I obtained the 14/2 from a source on eBay and I don't know where it originally came from. The pattern is based on BGH #40, Peggy's Choice, and adding 2" borders along the length, and an inch on the ends for the hem.

Share your projects with us!!

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 New Kids on the Block!

Its been a crazy-busy few weeks for us in the Loom Lounge - but at this point, that seems to be the State of the Union for Erin and I in 2013.  I'm loving it and being this busy has me sleeping really well at night.


As Erin mentioned, we spent Memorial day weekend on a whirlwind road trip all the way up to PA and then back in 24 hours.

On the way up, we got to visit the Mannings Studio  where in my nerdy way, I felt compelled to hug a giant antique barn loom.

The loom was from between 1800 and 1830 and had about 99% of its original pieces still intact and functional. The reed had been replaced as well as a few of the joining pegs. But considering our modern looms lose parts like kids lose teeth, I think that this loom's condition continues to impress upon me the value of antiques and quality craftsmanship.

Obviously if a 180 year old loom is still going strong, those guys knew what they were doing.

My new loom (currently dubbed "Niles") is a 4 harness 6 treadle Nilus by LeClerc with a 36inch weaving width.

(That's Erin in the corner. She's reading the instructions for her new loom, a giant Macomber Loom --currently dubbed "Mac" or "May" depending on how cheeky we're being.)

On the floor in front of my loom you see several cones of cotton. I ordered cotton directly from Supreme down in NC - great customer service and phenomenal pricing and shipping times.

These aren't quite the colors I expected so - lesson learned: Buy a color card. Its worth the $10. :-/ However that did not stop me from winding a warp and beaming some towels.  I'm using a draft which is similar to a honeycomb. Its from the 7th or 8th Century and was found by historians/archaeologists near York England. Historically, these would have been made from linen instead of the cotton I'm using. I love the tie to history in these towels. This is a 4 yard warp. Some of these towels will be gifted as a wedding gift to a childhood friend. The rest I will sell.


Erin's new loom is pretty bad-ass.

She currently has 4 harnesses on the loom, but it is expandable up to 12 harnesses. The thing is massive and heavy. By the time we rolled up to the driveway at 2 am, I barely was able to haul MYSELF up the stairs to her house, so carrying her loom up was nearly impossible.

I'm still not sure how we would have gotten it into Erin's house had her hubby not been home and kind enough to help us. YEAH for Kent!

I am sad to say, however, that I failed in my friend-duties and didn't get a photo of  Mac. I did, however, get a great photo of her sleying her new loom with it's first project :)

And here's Erin's rescued and rehabbed older loom, BamBam. She's currently beamed with an overshot warp we're using as samples for our Fall teaching course. Erin's beamed with 5/2 cotton and using sock-yarn as weft. This was a really cool test weave for her as she had an "Ah Ha!" moment when the overshot just didn't look right to her. After some reading, she found out that the pattern weft (sock yarn) was just not the right weight. She ended up doing a little stash-busting to double-up her threads and the problem was solved.

We're going to wind a second of these warps to test the 8/2 cotton with sock yarn as pattern weft and see if that's a better fit for our class. :) Here's hoping!

And since I'd like to prove that I DO, In Fact, Spin:

This is a photo of the bobbin on my Canadian Production Wheel, Millie. I'm spinning white Shetland (with grey tips) from the lock. The locks are scoured, but I'm not even flick carding them open. I'm getting a semi woolen spin and its just sooo pretty. :)  I've since plied this into a 2 ply - hopefully photos to come. This yarn is not yet destined for anything in particular.

While on our road-trip, I convinced Erin to pull over at a local antique mall called Old Sled Works . It was a good place to stretch our legs, but would have been more fun if we weren't on such a time crunch.

Erin picked up a hand woven table runner.

And I saw this lovely tag:

The tag read "Old Loom $400."  I walked away laughing so loudly, Erin came over to inspect my mental health.  *Sigh* Muggles. :-/

The store was cool, though. They did have a corner in the back set up with a neat old fashioned soda fountain which was, sadly, closed.


So that's pretty much the state of the union around here.

Our Spring class is winding down -our students have done wonderfully and we'll say goodbye to them in just 2 days! But we've got some weaving demos and workshops this summer to keep us busy and in the teaching mindset.

I'll be participating in the Tour de Fleece here in just a few weeks. I hope to stash bust some of my embarrassing amount of Fiber.

And, meanwhile, Erin and I have enough projects to keep the looms going non stop. Darned that work and spinning and knitting getting in the way!!

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

Adventures in Teaching

The last few weeks has been incredibly busy for Erin and I. As Erin mentioned, we've been teaching a weaving class at The Hermitage Museum in Norfolk with class meeting several throughout the week. And of course we're also trying to find times to do the silly things in life. Like work full time. And maybe spin. Or knit. Silly us! There's only 24 hours in the day!

*phew* I know that I'm on project overload - but secretly I'm loving every minute of it.

Our students have made real progress on their projects! In this course, students are weaving a tencel twill scarf; they've been able to select their own twill pattern as well as their own colors. The options were seemingly endless for how their projects could turn out.

We have 6 students in class, and experience levels from "What's a loom" to "I wove in college 20 years ago" to "I own a loom but have no idea how to use it."  Keeping everyone on the same timeline has been an interesting task! To me, somedays it feels like herding cats but most days, everything comes together and the class goes very smoothly. Its a joy to watch the students so eager about their work and to watch those weaving 'lightbulb' moments go off!

As Erin mentioned, we've geared up for continuing our weaving courses.

This summer we're very excited to offer a Weekend Rag Rug Workshop. (Say that 3 times fast! Eek!) which is really our secret plan to infect everyone with the Weaving bug.  I am hopeful that we have enough applicants that we can offer this workshop on 2 different weekends this summer.

Here's my first rag rug made from jeans and cotton rug-warp. Its lumpy bumpy and uneven. Why? Well,  because it is a design element, of course!

No?
Don't buy that?
Ok. Fine.
The reality is that its lumpy because I knotted the denim strips together instead of sewing them because I was too lazy to get the sewing machine out.
And its uneven because I just couldn't be bothered to measure out the fabric so that every strip was exactly the same width.

But, being 100% honest, I still love the darned thing. In all its lumpy uneven goodness. Its squishy beneath your feet, nice and thick from the denim, and was an incredibly quick weave. I think once I started weaving, total weave-time was less than an hour. Warping and beaming took maybe an hour in total.

We'll also have a Dye-lab this summer, where participants will be able to dye some sock yarn using food safe dyes (my personal dye-method!)  The neat part is that this custom-dyed sock yarn will be used as weft in the Fall weaving course: an Overshot project.

I've got some yarn in the dye pot now which is some of our sample yarn as we test our lesson plans for the Overshot project. (And might I say Kudos to Erin for her awesome lesson planning. She's got a knack.)

I have no pictures of current weaving for me. My loom is currently being used as a class-loom so it is warped with a student's project.  My most recent weaves are all gifts for other folks - something I love to do. :) 

And Erin's Minerva loom is currently housing some amazing towels that I will let her tell you all about in the next post. (Trust me. They're a story of her incredible passion for doing this whole fiber-addiction as a true art, not just a passing whim which is more my M.O.)

One of the things I'm enjoying most about this teaching experience is learning the different teaching styles of different people. As a riding instructor, most of my teaching work has been in a solitary environment - meaning I was the only instructor in the riding ring. I didn't have to debrief after lessons, or confer on methodology. But in our weaving studio, we are sharing students, space, looms, lesson plans, etc, and really bouncing off of each other's strengths and weaknesses. This is a new and educational experience for me.

I feel incredibly lucky to be working with someone I admire. I'm not only learning from Erin's weaving expertise and passion, I'm also learning about myself - both as an artist and as an instructor.

Its a really enlightening experience and I'm incredibly thankful for the opportunity.