Dizzy

So, where was I? Oh, yeah. I was running around in circles.
I finished weaving the loom bench pad.



This is a very heavy, two ply spun from the Beast, carder waste from Brown Sheep. It's about 11" x 18" and feels great under foot, although it's final destination will be my bench. The edges are loose, I'll need to figure out how to remedy that before I make a larger rug for the floor. I'm sure it will pack in more when I use my Macomber, but the Dorothy did a surprisingly good job.



As you can see at the top, where I wove 1-3, 2-4 the doubled cotton rug warp was not completely covered. The fabric is also rather thin. After an inch of plainweave I changed to 1-2, 3-4 for 16" and then finished up with plainweave. This covered the warp very well and the resulting fabric was quite thick. I was happy to find that my huge stash of worsted to bulky handspun will have a home in rugs throughout the house.

Now I was ready to start sampling with some rags. I cut lengthwise strips out of leftovers from a blouse I made last fall. I sewed the seams in one continuous length, cutting them only as I wound the shuttle, as suggested by Meany and Pfaff in the Rag Rug Handbook.

This fabric had a little more body than the dyed muslin I used for first rag rug I made, so I used 3/4" strips.





I have enough warp left for one more mat. I'll probably use some more of the handdyed cotton squares I did a few years ago.

So back to the circling. Things are going along just fine. I'm thinking I'll get a warp on the loom and finish a few projects before I my last class. I also had plans for a quick trip to Ontario to have my wheel adjusted. Right. The storms hit and we were out of power for more about 28 hours. So what do you do when you need to have some clean clothes and you forgot to move your car out of the driveway and the street is torn up for repairs (nothing to do with the storms)?



Two big tubs and you get a little production line going on the deck! Finally, the power comes back and the next thing you know Laura and I are heading up 81. By the time we near Watertown it's dark and there's driving rains, heavy winds, thunder and lightening. My hands are in a death grip on the wheel but I keep going. Finally the rains stop and the lane changes due to construction come up. Now what do you think this would look like in the pitch dark?

I honestly thought there was a guy standing on the cement divider. I didn't say anything, but then my daughter gasped. After a second or two we saw another, then another. The storms didn't stop me, but I almost had to pull over because we were laughing so hard.



Wow! What a difference a little sun makes!

Wandering Around in Circles

I do not even know where to start. I've had so many ideas bouncing around my head, with very little time to do anything about them. The trip back from Worcester took over EIGHT hours, so I had lots of time to think about future projects. Then I had to lock myself in my office and write four papers.

So, I guess I'll just pick up where I left off.

Angi asked about weaving the ends separately. Usually the knots in a carpet are not woven right up to the ends. You can use an argatch edge or even just plain weave to fill in that space and protect the knots. Look at the Specialized Kurdish Selvage about half way down this page. While you're there make sure you see the Asian looms. Actually take a good look around. Marla Mallett's Woven Structures and her website are just treasure troves of information and images.

I put in an order for some Davidson Navajo and Indian warp. No specific plans yet, but I think I want to use handspun and maybe make a small rug that I'll hang.



Then, as I was watching Nancy Hoskins' Boundweave video again and planning some little bags, I noticed that she mentions Tuna Wool as one of the weft choices. I wonder if there's a North American source or a substitute for this wool?



Here's the first loom I made from Sara Swett's Kids Weaving. How cool is that? I have the connectors to make another one. The gold line shows where the warp goes. I just picked up some straps that will tension the loom where the red line is.

I think I have a plan for Jacket 001.



I'm planning on dyeing these three yarns for the warp. There's a 10/2 mercerized and two cotton/rayon textured yarns. Here's a close up. I'll probably use a 20/2 for the weft. No just to come up with a colorway.

Finally, while blog hopping I found a tutorial on the length of color segments in handpainted yarns. Good stuff since I have all that white yarn waiting to be dyed!


**If you tried to comment earlier and couldn't, I realized that I started this post soooo long ago that the script I run to close old entries to comments had already taken effect. Oops! It's fixed now.

Here I Am!

On the third floor of a dorm with NO AIR CONDITIONING!!! But it's a great conference and well worth the 6 hour drive to get here. Let's hope the traffic isn't as bad Wednesday on the way home. (Despite what the webpage says the teachers are from all over the US.)

I had a slew of pictures I was going to post right before I left, but I ended up with a killer sinus headache which completely sidelined me over the weekend. So here's a link to really cool Iranian Felting video that I found on Claudia's blog. It a big file, you might not want to try it with dial up, but it's well worth the wait.