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New Woven Projects

Last two Ikat Samples, now to plan my rug….

 

These are my latest runners. The one to the right is a project from Alice Schlein’s book     “LIftplan Connection” If you tilt your head to the left you can read Linens, Towels and Napkins. I created it with Photoshop. These should be off the loom then I’ll post pictures of the finished items. Now that the AVL is working well it seems to be the one I want to weave on the most! Two naked looms right now! better get busy!

Computer woes and new to me loom

Finally felt up to weaving on the AVL. Bought the correct part so the Fly shuttle should work. Went to flip the old computer dedicated to that loom and Nada. It was unplugged from the end of Nov. until now, so it wasn't a power surge. 

Off center for the fly shuttle

Plan B get it working with my notebook. Right. Computer not talking to my loom, turned out there was something wrong with the cable. Go to set it up again, no luck. Note enough USB ports. Tried everything got it working but then my regular computer was acting weird, probably some fix I tried and failed. Had to put the computer back to the time when it worked correctly. Tried the Weaving Program again nope too many USB connections not talking again. Pulling hair out again!!

Went through the process again and it failed again. Emailed the Weaving program people they had another suggestion. nothing.  Shut it off in disgust. I needed Downtime.

Turned it on this morning and low and behold there is a port available for the loom that wasn't there when I shut it off. Bizarre but ok!  So today I'll try the AVL again and see what happens. Unless the port disappears again. Computers Love them but sometimes I don't want to live with them!!!

40" 8 Shaft Norwood.

Got the new to me Norwood 8 shaft all warped and am weaving a simple scarf in Dimity a structure I have never woven before. Looks good now that I took the blue off the edges! Semi followed a pattern in Handwoven that had a darker edge, ok when you are using that color as weft but I'm not. She is now all oiled up and a real beauty! I love the Cherry on the older Norwoods. It was looked brand new, my husband started taking it apart to get it in the van before I even said anything about buying it. He knew!

This is the Dimity it looks like plain weave but the darker colored stripes are twill. You can see the blue I cut off at the edges. I'll probably use that the hem area. I wanted to do something relatively simple for it's first warp on all 8 shafts. Ha, best laid plans. Had to tie it up about three times. It only uses four treadles so duh they needed to be centered in a bigger loom like this one. 

Busy, warping, planning and de-cluttering

Been busy organizing the studio. Brought back a bin of yarn and had to de-clutter in there. Dh thinks all stuff can go there, lol, Not.

Winding a warp for the new to me 8 shaft Norwood. Dimity, a weave I've never explored.

 Found a beautiful lace hearts draft for the Megado. The Megado is sitting naked in it's lonely room. I took a dog off that loom. The warp just became too frustrating to weave. I used this extremely fine variegated yarn and it seemed to stretch the further I went with it! I'm not sure if I'll dye that one or weave with color. I think it is going to be white and then dyed/ surface designed.

The Blue Ridge Fiber Show is going to open at the beginning of October I have two scarves in it for the first time in four years. With back surgery etc I am surprised I even got that done! I entered these two. The blue  scarf picture isn't hemmed but it is now! It is a lace weave and then Pole dyed. The blue one was woven with a more random treadling but the logwood one is done exactly as drawn in. The lace with honeycomb and  is called Treasure lace.

Finished with wheeling and dealing. now it's Dave's turn

Well. sold the Baby wolf and Norwood all with in a few months. The new to me Norwood 8 shaft is waiting naked in NC. Now I have no loom up here, only bad part of all of this.The # of looms have decreased to a manageable number anyway. I got about a yard and a half of thrums woven so that is good. There is so much more to be woven off.
     It has been such a warm summer here in MI. Air conditioner has run more than I can remember  for Michigan. No bites or even showings of the house. Which is kind of nice cause I don't have to clean like a maniac but the catch up is going to be painful. No motivation to do crafts or anything much. Dh is busy doing funerals and such with the Honor Guard.
     He still has these items to sell:

I use one of his warping mills all the time, love it! I can't stand that long to use a warping board anymore. Plus it stores so easily.

Good bye Norwood loom and Misc.

                                                              Luckily this bluster bay shuttle didn’t  fit when I was taking things down south. It works great for placing too short a weft in while I use up all these scraps. This is sure some old yarns from the thrum bin. Thrums are the left over parts of a warp that can’t be woven at the end of a warp.
  I will miss this Norwood, It is such a beauty. It was made in Baldwin where I learned to weave eons ago. They had week long classes, all day, in the summer. I only learned to put on a warp using the sectional method which this loom loves. But it can be a real pain to do  as 10-20 spools need to be wound then they go through the tensioner and it gets wound on the back beam. I ended up hiring someone from Bowling Green College in Ohio to teach me how to put a warp on using a warping board. Back then I had one lone 20 inch workshop  Norwood as my 50’ had to be sold for space for our son.
That is one of the great things about weaving you can never run out of things to learn or different things to try. Got a great book the other day on Miniature Overshot, Bertha Gray Hayes’ patterns. They mention the first Weaving conferences at Hartland Michigan in 1934. John R Crouse and his uncle H. Tremaine sold their carbon works to start this Hartland project. The company later became Union Carbide which Dave, his Dad and Uncle worked at in Ohio. Cromaine Crafts built looms and had weaving classes at Waldenwoods.( instructor there was Osama Gallinger This is just west of Lansing, I feel the need for a road trip! Love to see their museum.

Weaving Weft (Chenille)

This is one of the strangest projects! I am weaving chenille, weft for a rug. It should use up some of my thrums or waste from old warps. Some of this stuff is really old! When I got my new to me Norwood she gave me a box of old Magazines.   Handwoven's Jan//Feb 1990  was the article on weaving chenille for rugs or pillows. I have a huge  bag here in MI and another in NC. Unfortunately I don't know if this five yard warp will use up as much as I have!

           They suggest dyeing it afterwards, yeah right I have cotton wool and acrylic. Guess I will have to resort to good old union dye or Rit dye.  The warp is spaced and when it is all finished you cut between the warp groups. Plain weave and a real no brainer for summer weaving up here. Also using up some old rug warp. Basically a large recycling project. 

Warping Paddles

      Leclerc warping paddle. I've had this one for years, read every article I could find on using one and could not figure it out. The Norcraft weavers guild got together to learn how with Mary Luluic teaching us how she does it.  I just put a warp on in no time. 8 strands at a time! It can hold more but that was good for a start. Really happy about this it will speed up my warping skills by about 10x!

     The  Norcraft weaving guild  is hopefully starting up again in mid west lower Michigan they have a new website here:     http://norcraftweavers.org/