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/ 

Norwood 40 inch 4 shaft loom / SOLD

 I have for sale a 4 shaft beauty:  dark  Cherry 40 inch Norwood loom, It was built in Baldwin MI by the McGarr's and is just a gorgeous piece of furniture even  if it isn't warped. It has a bench that goes with it for $700. Located in Midwest Michigan. I used this loom all last summer and it is terrific condition for the age of the loom. The finish is so beautiful on this loom! It has the standard 1 yard round sectional beam. The Bench has tons of room. It has the one reed a 12 dpi. Contact me if you are interested

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Yes, some news. Decided to take the plunge and sold my Baby wolf. Have purchased a used 8 shaft Norwood from a lady in Ann Arbor MI. It is brand new but 30 years old, LOL. Like the car the little old lady only drove to church on Sundays. She had it priced kind of high but when my husband saw the condition he started taking it apart before I even started talking with the Lady. He really knows me well. She threw in,  a box of books mostly tapestry weaving, A box of yarns, a box of Handwoven Magazines most that I haven't got so this was so kewl!  Also an inkle loom and warping board. It was a real pain for Dave and fellow to load into the van so he is taking it to Toledo then NC.

2nd and 3rd lace/ pole dyed scarves

Here are the other two scarves that I've finished using the lace pattern from Weaver's Magazine summer of 1996 (Oh how I miss weaver's)  Issue 32 Found Treasure. Once they were woven separated and zigzagged, I attached them to a pole (with tape) then wrapped carpet warp( it turned out to be kite string lol), Scrunched them down, then poured dye over them. The yellow and green and blue scarves I poured the sabracet dye and batched them over night.  The purple logwood (Natural extract) one was set with heat.  I tried using rubber bands but they didn't really work very well I think due to the bulk of the material. The yellow and green was dyed and pole wrapped twice because the first time it was all yellow. I love how the blue turned into green but left patches of blue on the scarf. With the left over yellow dye I dyed one of my husbands old shirts that had some spots on it. It was made with polyester and cotton, the figures dyed darker than it originally was and my husband really likes it!

These two were dyed using Logwood extract. I didn't leave these in as long as recommended because I like the color where it was!  I also dyed some wool some with the shorter dye bath and some overnight. The overnight turned very dark purple. I've used the same heavy duty blue gloves for four years the logwood became permanent where all the other dyes didn't.  Even when the wool was rinsed till clear it left purple halos on my drying  frames. Really different than I expected.

Lace Pole dyeing project

Oddball one on the loom it is now blue!

Finished weaving the lace project on to dyeing. The first one I dyed using the traditional method with string wrapped around the pole then slid down. Dyed the first one Blue with Fiber Reactive dyes no heat used at all. 2nd one is batching it is very yellow. I may end up over dyeing it with a darker color. Used Rubber bands for the resist for the second one, a lot easier on my hands!

It turned out just the way I had envisioned it! Nice when that happens.