Doubleweave Blanket

Happy New Years! And Happy Anniversary to us! DH and I just celebrated our
30th anniversary. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday, but then I look at
our four kids, 27, 26, 24, 20 and I can easily see where the time went :-)

This is what I'm working on now.I
finished threading it and tieing up and gave it a good spray of starch. Someone
at spinning recommended spray starch for sticky doubleweave warps. She said
that all the starch will wash out, and that it really slicks up the yarn and
allows it to gide past each other.

I was a little worried about the fold, but I really didn't want to use a fishing
line floating selvedge as I was afraid I would mess up the over/under thing.
One of the hints in the Handwoven Doubleweave Issue (J/F 2002) was to thread
the last two ends on the fold with 25# fishing line and tie it to a 2# weight.
I just happened to have the foam covered weights that you can strap over your
hands (haven't used them for working out in ages) so I put them right to work.
Then I suppose I just slip the line out when I'm finished. I'm hoping that will
keep the fold even.

After some help from the Weaving List, I've got my Idiots Twill doubleweave
worked out, so with any luck I'll get to that next week. Pretty high goals considering
I'm back to school on Thursday, huh?

December 26, 2002

We had the first White Christmas since my freshman year in college. It was
beautiful, even if it was messy driving into Mom's. We had a wonderful morning
- grown children mean that you can open presents at 11:00! I made baked French
toast and a breakfast casserole the night before so when everyone woke/arrived
I popped them in the oven and they were ready for brunch when we were finished.

SPINNING

I love the BEAST!! I ordered 3 pounds from John
and I'm having so much fun spinning it up. I was thinking of a blanket with
Lambs Pride as a warp, but both of my sons have fallen in love with it. They
want a big bulky sweater. It is incredibly soft, despite looking like it would
be coarse and scratchy. (close up picture)

I
spun a bobbin on Christmas Eve and another one last night. I spent less than
2 hours spinning and about an hour to ply it all. I think they call it Tiger
Cat too. It has streaks of brown and black, along with gray and white wool and
mohair. It's great for immediate gratification!

WEAVING

I've brough down bins of yarn from the attic and I'm sorting through them today.
I know I have enough for a few blankets, so I'll get them divided and in bags
according to projects. Tomorrow I'll start winding the warps so they will be
ready to go.

I've done one doubleweave, but
I didn't use a floating selvedge on the fold. It was a little tight, so I pulled
out two warp threads and it looked pretty good. (I also forgot that I needed
to put another stripe right on the fold so it looks a little funny spread out
- however, it is usually bunched up on the sofa so that's not a problem) This
time I think I'll try fishing line, but I'm worried that I will have to pay
too much attention to going over and under it. I guess it's worth a try.

This afternoon we do another Christmas celebration at my sister's. If I eat
much more I won't be able to get in my loom to thread!

December 26, 2002

We had the first White Christmas since my freshman year in college. It was
beautiful, even if it was messy driving into Mom's. We had a wonderful morning
- grown children mean that you can open presents at 11:00! I made baked French
toast and a breakfast casserole the night before so when everyone woke/arrived
I popped them in the oven and they were ready for brunch when we were finished.

SPINNING

I love the BEAST!! I ordered 3 pounds from John
and I'm having so much fun spinning it up. I was thinking of a blanket with
Lambs Pride as a warp, but both of my sons have fallen in love with it. They
want a big bulky sweater. It is incredibly soft, despite looking like it would
be coarse and scratchy. (close up picture)

I
spun a bobbin on Christmas Eve and another one last night. I spent less than
2 hours spinning and about an hour to ply it all. I think they call it Tiger
Cat too. It has streaks of brown and black, along with gray and white wool and
mohair. It's great for immediate gratification!

WEAVING

I've brough down bins of yarn from the attic and I'm sorting through them today.
I know I have enough for a few blankets, so I'll get them divided and in bags
according to projects. Tomorrow I'll start winding the warps so they will be
ready to go.

I've done one doubleweave, but
I didn't use a floating selvedge on the fold. It was a little tight, so I pulled
out two warp threads and it looked pretty good. (I also forgot that I needed
to put another stripe right on the fold so it looks a little funny spread out
- however, it is usually bunched up on the sofa so that's not a problem) This
time I think I'll try fishing line, but I'm worried that I will have to pay
too much attention to going over and under it. I guess it's worth a try.

This afternoon we do another Christmas celebration at my sister's. If I eat
much more I won't be able to get in my loom to thread!

False Damask

I finally got a chance to play with my weaving. I'm still having some warp
problems, but I don't know if it's my loom or me! This is the first time I've
had all 10 treadles tied up, most with 4 harnesses tied to it, and I'm noticing
that when I press the treadle on the far left the heddle doesn't raise evenly.
The right side doesn't raise as much. Since I usually only had the four treadles
tied I didn't notice it. I think I'll also layer up some newspapers and spray
WD-40 on all the moving joints. After my misguided attempt to move heddles,
rsulting in them all landing on the floor, I steel wooled all the metal strips
that hold the heddles on all 8 of the harnesses, so they now just glide across.
Maybe that will help.

I have only a little warp left on the false damask tie up, so I thought I'd
try out some contrasting colors, rather that the white/off-white that was suggested.
Treadling with no repeats, treadling 4 times 1-4, then 4 times 5-8. Then I did
all 1-4 which gives the stripe. I like the look of the colors, although the white/off-white is cool too. If you
have WinWeave,
you can download the file.

Here's another problem that I have been encountering - maybe someone has a
suggestion. I've started using vinyl slats from some old blinds to separate
the towels. I keep getting the thread from the shuttle stuck on it. In the picture
on the right you can see the slats almost reading to wind on. Before that point
both the tie on rods and the slats catch my thread and my smooth rhythm is violently
stopped. There's got to be a way to keep that from happening.

Spin Your Stash

I got LOTS of ideas from the Stash Reduction Weekend I spend at Claudia's.
Claudia is a great teacher/facilitator, and I sat at the feet of some wonderful
fiber people and soaked in even more. It's sort of hard to say exactly what
I learned, but it's safe to say that I have expanded my way of thinking about
blending and color.

Once I saw what everyone else was doing, I really wanted to buy more colorful
fibers to blend. Except for the autumn cardigan
I'm working on now, I've shyed away from the brighter colors, mostly because
I was never successful in spinning into anything but garish or muddy colors.
But the easy way doesn't always teach you as much, so I went with what I had
(mostly).

The first thing I wanted to do was to use the mohair
combed top that I found to be way too slippery for me to handle. I also
had close to a pound of Ashford Bay top that I
wanted to blend with it. Since I have about 8 pounds of a grey roving (I sent
out a bunch of washed romney from various sources to Ohio Valley and had them
blend it all together) I thought it might work with that.

Here are some of the working ideas we came up with:

	The variations in this green Ashland Bay top weren't showing up in the brown, I tried it with the grey and like it better, but now I'm thinking I might try it with white. Yes, I do have POUNDS of white also. I have a small amount of an angora, silk, merino blend in an off white, so I may add that too.
	This is brown roving, mostly romney, that I had blended and carded at Ohio Valley I bought a little of the pumpkin Ashland Bay to spice it up and used a tannish variegated top I had. I also used the mohair top in this blend, but I still think the brown is taking over. I had planned on plying this with a single brown, but unless I change the proportions, I might get a better yarn double plying.
	Here I just finger teased up some romney locks that had been washed, but nothing else done to it. Then I VERY quickly spun it up and plyed it with a some of the grey roving I had previously spun. This was hard for me to do because I wanted to control it more, but I think I like the rustic quality of the yarn. It's little too fuzzy in places, but I think I'll flick the tips and cut end before I finger tease it and that should even it out a bit.

August 14, 2002

After a harrowing ordeal of untangling a seven yard warp, the heddles are threaded.
I'm going into school for a couple of hours this morning, and then back to sleying
and weaving!

I think this blog is allowing for some introspection that I never usually give
myself time for. I delivered the hooded baby sweater to its recipient and the
two grandmothers were ooing and ahhing. They asked me if my mother knit and
talked about their family members who worked with fibers. It got me thinking
about families and how lucky I am.

There is so much hurt and pain suffered as a result of the families that people
are raised in. My family and childhood was so blissful that I don't think I
realized the magnitude of problems that can occur until I had children and began
observing and talking with other parents. The thought of not wanting to see
your parents or siblings was just so foreign to me. As my husband was transfered
and we moved around, I missed not being able to jump in the car after breakfast
and be at my parents before lunch. And here I was talking with women who lived
10 minutes from their family and made it a point to NOT see them. How does this
fit into a fiber blog? Except for one aunt, no one in my family did anything
in the way of fiber playing. Yet, when this bug hit me at the age of 8 or 9,
my family did everything they could to support me.

My first real fiber present (potholder kits not included) was a Barbie knitting
kit. I got a pair of red plastic needles, yarn, and instructions to make a coat
and pillbox hat (ala Jackie Kennedy). Can you imagine a first time project making
a coat, in pieces, for a skinny (well, not everywhere) doll? I was supposed
to make a tapered set-in sleeve for a first project. After many attempts I was
discouraged, but my mother came home with the green Coats & Clark How to
book, and I was rolling. I never made the coat, but I knitted things, ripped
it apart and knitted more, just to knit. After the yarn was shredded beyond
hope, I found out you could just go to the local 5 and 10 cent store and BUY
MORE!!! That little green book was my only source for a long time. I made hats,
mittens, and learned to crochet from it.

Aroung 10 or 11, I decided I wanted to sew. Dad went out a bought a Singer
treadle machine. He sold and repaired Hoover vacuums, and his salesman told
him to start me on a treadle (can you imagine a 25 year army veteran, turned
vacuum repairman, discussing his daughter's fiber interests?). Then he had it
converted into an electric, ( I know, but didn't know THEN) then upgraded to
a new machine, complete with cams that could do "fancy" stitches.

When my youngest sister married in 1983, my two daughters were flower girls.
I made them dresses to match the bridesmaids and my father was so impressed
with my talent that when he saw the new computerized Viking on the Today show
a week or two after the wedding he called me. Now my father HATED the phone.
When I called from college he

would say, "How are you? Here's your mother". So a phone call from
PA to Michigan was unusual to say the least. He told me to find that machine
and buy it, he would pay for it. Maybe that doesn't sound so extraordinary to
you, but he died a week after I picked up that machine. I never finish anything
early (you know, hemming in the car and the way to the event), but that year
I had a new machine, and all the Halloween costumes (for 4 kids) were done a
week before they were needed. That machine is will be 19 years old this fall,
and I still feel so close to him when I set it up.

This reminiscing started with a comment on ST about different machines, but
really got me on a roll. I was going through old pictures and found a picture
of my father, with one of my first crochet projects. I was very impatient,
and never bothered with gauge. I thought I was going to have a hat for my little
sister and stayed up all night working on it. He got up around 5:30 and we decided
it may be a little TOO big for her. Sort of like the sweater I knitted for my
husband (to-be) which was too big for my 275 pound cousin! As I look back, I
realize that some things stay the same, as others change. I am much more patient
with the sampling, gauging, etc. in fact, that is sometimes as far as I get,
because it's the most fun!! BUT, I'll still stay up to the wee hours if I'm
really into a project. And I'm still the happy recipient of fiber support, only
now it's usually in the form of gift certificates and magazine subscriptions.

First Towels

I cut my losses (literally) on the towel project and took it off. The warp
was twisting more and more as I went on, leading into tension problems. The
right fourth of the warp was loose and spongey, while the left fourth was extremely
tight, and the middle was good. I have the Peggy Osterkamp's books and I'm going
to try a shorter warp, and use the kite stick like she suggests.

I lost 3.5" in width which puts them a little too narrow for the exchange,
which really isn't a problem, since I want to keep these first three. I made
two green (8/2)with one treadling and one rust(8/2) with another. The warp was
natural(6/2). I folded them over partially so that you could see the two patterns.

There were a couple of problems (but I'm still pretty proud of them). One side
of the rust towel is about 1.5" longer than the other. But I figure it's
because the warp was so loose on that side by the time I got to the rust. Another
problem was the hem. I've read that people use sewing thread for the plain weave
part. That seemed so drastically thinner that I just used the same 8/2 cotton
for the plain weave - but even before I hemmed it you could see how the plain
weave portion was wider (by about .5"). I tried to make sure the was very
little pressure on the foot so that it wouldn't increase the width any more.
I guess the next time I'll try the sewing thread.

Now for the next warp. This time I'm doing broken twill. I'd love to put a
four thread plain weave on each side, but can't figure out how to do that so,
looks like I'll be trying floating selvedges.

Rosepath Towels

By Jove, I think I've got it
I got the warp sleyed and tied on and began sampling. I didn't notice any mistakes
at first. Then after a few rows of patterning it began to look wierd. I realized
that I hadn't hooked the heddle bars back up and two harnesses got hooked together.
Fixed that, and then saw that I made a threading mistake. I thought I was going
to have to tie a string heddle, but Chandler said to snip the side of the top
and bottom heddle opening, take it off, and put it where it belongs. I couldn't
seem to get in there to snip it but I unthreaded 5 threads, took an extra heddle
and snipped that and popped it on the correct harness and rethreaded. Everything
is looking good (so far)

click to see a full size image

I am a little worried about the amount that it is drawing in. It went from
21" in the reed, to 19". Oh well, if it shrinks too much for the dishtowel
exchange they can be, what was that Claudia
said? Oh yeah, "fraternal sextuplet" placemats!

Spent the morning at school again. Rearranging, filing, etc. I think I'm going
to paint my filing cabinets tomorrow. I have six, yes a little packrat - but
an organized one - and they are pretty beat up and all different colors. As
much as I don't want to give up all my fiber time, I'm always excited at the
start of a new year. Clean slate, fresh pencils... I even have my assignments
and schedules posted for the kids.

Now on to grafting the wallaby hood and back to the loom.

Guatamalan Backstrap Weavers

Here's one of the instruction pages, and
a close up of the diagram. It's very simple,
a smaller scale of the Guatamalan backstrap weavers I
saw at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. (close
up) If we wait for me to actually make something on it, rather than just
TALK about it, you would never see pictures.

Okay, I didn't start any NEW socks, but I have been working on my socks-in-progress.
You know, I have some really nice socks I've made, but for some reason I haven't
completed a pair in the last couple of years. Maybe dream analysis will bring
out my latent sock fears.

I dragged out this loom I bought in the late 70s.
I guess it's a backstrap loom. It came in a long cotton drawstring bag that
you are supposed to put around your back (see where I got that idea?) and then
attach to a door knob. It has a plastic 4 dent reed, about 10" wide. Anyone
ever use one before? Back then I had three kids under four years old. The thought
of closing a door and strapping on a loom sounded pretty good. Of course, that's
probably also why I never got to use it! Can you imagine three kids in diapers
and I'm strapped to a door knob trying to weave? Elaine's
musings about inkle weaves has got me thinking about trying it again.

I finally found a ladder the right length to finish painting my shed. Our backyard
slopes down and there's about a six by four area on one side that I couldn't
reach. I felt like Goldilocks - this ladder is too short, this ladder is too
long. My friend had one the right size, but I've spent the last two mornings
in an Excel class and the afternoon's have been TOO HOT to get up on a ladder.
Well, he call's tonight and needs the ladder back, so I guess I'll be getting
up early while it's still cool (ya know, under 90), and finish painting. If
this is my last blog entry, you'll know why.....(and no you can't have my stash,
I'm taking it with me - at least I'll have the time)

Backstrap Loom

Okay, I didn't start any NEW socks, but I have been working on my socks-in-progress.
You know, I have some really nice socks I've made, but for some reason I haven't
completed a pair in the last couple of years. Maybe dream analysis will bring
out my latent sock fears.

I dragged out this loom I bought in the late 70s.
I guess it's a backstrap loom. It came in a long cotton drawstring bag that
you are supposed to put around your back (see where I got that idea?) and then
attach to a door knob. It has a plastic 4 dent reed, about 10" wide. Anyone
ever use one before? Back then I had three kids under four years old. The thought
of closing a door and strapping on a loom sounded pretty good. Of course, that's
probably also why I never got to use it! Can you imagine three kids in diapers
and I'm strapped to a door knob trying to weave? Elaine's
musings about inkle weaves has got me thinking about trying it again.

I finally found a ladder the right length to finish painting my shed. Our
backyard slopes down and there's about a six by four area on one side that I
couldn't reach. I felt like Goldilocks - this ladder is too short, this ladder
is too long. My friend had one the right size, but I've spent the last two mornings
in an Excel class and the afternoon's have been TOO HOT to get up on a ladder.
Well, he's going to need the ladder back, so I guess I'll be getting up early
while it's still cool (ya know, under 90), and finish painting. If this is my
last blog entry, you'll know why.....(and no you can't have my stash, I'm taking
it with me - at least I'll have the time)

Not a very productive day, in terms of finishing projects, but I got a start on organizing my weaving stash. How could I have THAT many cones when I just started weaving? I tagged each cone with type of yarn, ypp, wpi, and remaining weight. They take up so much room, I may have to build some shelves downstairs to keep them.

Cotton socks - I just visited Claudia's blog and I want to start cotton socks now. That's my problem, I love starting socks, just never finish them :-) Oh well, I probably don't have any #1 DPNs free anyway. And I should be getting those baby sweaters done before the kids are too big for them - guess I'll work on one them while I watch Sex and the City.

I finished about 1400 yards of romney for my barn jacket. I was whining about how all of my yarn looks the same - here's an example. It always turns out about 8-9 wpi. There will be no need for me to post any more pictures of my spinning. I'll just let you know what color and you will be able to picture it!

What to weave next? I have six weeks left before school starts, and want to try as many different techniques as I can. I had thought about dishtowels, but think maybe I'll play around with some little blankets. There was a baby explosion in our department this spring. The younger teachers were having them and the older teachers were becoming grandparents. Any suggestions? I was thinking about honeycomb for one - we did a little Atwater-Bronson in my intro class and that was cool. At least I don't have to worry about my loom while I ponder these questions. Since Catherine posted pictures of Max guarding her stash, I thought it only fair to show you my vicious loom guard, Skids. Nothing gets by him. Just remember, you've been WARNED!!

<i>My</i> Yarn

I finished about 1400 yards of romney for my barn jacket. I was whining about how all of my yarn looks the same - here's an example. It always turns out about 8-9 wpi. There will be no need for me to post any more pictures of my spinning. I'll just let you know what color and you will be able to picture it!

What to weave next? I have six weeks left before school starts, and want to
try as many different techniques as I can. I had thought about dishtowels, but
think maybe I'll play around with some little blankets. There was a baby explosion
in our department this spring. The younger teachers were having them and the
older teachers were becoming grandparents. Any suggestions? I was thinking about
honeycomb for one - we did a little Atwater-Bronson in my intro class and that
was cool. At least I don't have to worry about my loom while I ponder these
questions. Since Catherine posted pictures of Max guarding her stash, I thought
it only fair to show you my vicious loom guard, Skids.
Nothing gets by him. Just remember, you've been WARNED!!

The whole idea of this Fiber Blog has had a ripple effect for me. Yesterday I did absolutely NO fiber activities as I fiddled with this site! I've used Dreamweaver for my school page for the last couple of years, and what little I knew about html coding was hiding in the recesses of my mind. Why I was so obsessed with cell padding, why my archives are showing up three times, etc. is beyond me. But today - back to fiber. This is where it stays. (at least for a little while)

Spinning - I've got one more bobbin to spin for my Mixed Bag Barn Jacket. I sent tons of wool to Ohio Valley last summer when I realized I can't do everything, so I'm going to do the things I love. This particular batch (7#'s) is a mixture of romney from three fleeces. I thought it would be fun to make a couple of really different things from this one huge container. Yeah, right!

I can't wait to go to Claudia's class at Countrywool. I've been spinning the same yarn. I swear no matter what fiber you give me, it comes out looking the same. I guess that's good during the school year, when I might go weeks between spinning, but when you want to spread your wings a little it can be depressing.

Tan and Green Throw, 38x56

My first attempt at doubleweave. Here's what I learned.....When planning vertical stripes, make sure you remember that it will be twice as wide at the fold (duh!). I didn't use floating selvedges, so I had a very dense area. I pulled out 4 ends, and when I washed it, everything looked great. It's still a little wider right down the middle, but you only see it when it's spread out flat. Since my family does NOT believe in folding up throws when they are finished, we aren't going to have any problem there. It was 46 by 72 on the loom. I really lost a lot when I took it off and washed it, but it's still wider than my 40" Macomber would do in one layer. I also measured the length while under tension, so I should have realized that it would relax a bit.

First Doubleweave

Tan and Green Throw, 38x56

My first attempt at doubleweave. Here's what I learned.....When planning vertical stripes, make sure you remember that it will be twice as wide at the fold (duh!). I didn't use floating selvedges, so I had a very dense area. I pulled out 4 ends, and when I washed it, everything looked great. It's still a little wider right down the middle, but you only see it when it's spread out flat. Since my family does NOT believe in folding up throws when they are finished, we aren't going to have any problem there. It was 46 by 72 on the loom. I really lost a lot when I took it off and washed it, but it's still wider than my 40" Macomber would do in one layer. I also measured the length while under tension, so I should have realized that it would relax a bit.

I've caved in too! I had a terrible time with blogger so I found this software. Hopefully it will work, but I haven't figured out how others can add comments.

Here is a picture of my mohair throw close up and on my deck railing. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. This was my first "real" project. Since it went so well, I thought I'd try using other handknitting yarn.


I worked up a plan for double weave, 24" in the reed. The yarn I picked however was not as strong as the Cherry Tree worsted and mohair that I used before. Yarns were popping and pinging all over the place. It began to look like a sad Christmas tree with fishing weights and washers hanging all over the place :-( However, the doubleweave process went really well, so I'll be trying that again. I'm weaving in ends, and repairing broken threads, and hopefully will have a picture up tomorrow. It was really a great learning experience however, and after the repair work, will be a nice throw.


What's next???? I'm thinking of huck lace towels, maybe 8/2 unmercerized cotton.