A taste of hand weaving part 4

Kim uses top quality, sturdy card in her framing practice, and she cut the looms to the 6 inch by 9 inch size using this awesome material. Most of her scrap is double layered. My understanding is that custom framing has a lot of art involved. The needlework that Kim specializes in framing, requires careful and very thoughtful matching with particular layers of colour and texture in order to enhance the needlework. Mats are layered using a special acid free double sided tape.

I used contact cement to double layer mine, and happily avoided the card distortion completely. The small size of the cards made joining the layers really a pleasure. The nature of contact cement usage can make the moment of attachment very exciting as you have one chance to get it right.

The risers were cut from foam and cardboard sandwiches into 1by 6 inch strips.

The borders or margins of the cards are marked in pencil, 3/4 of and inch on the long side, 1/2 inch on the top and bottom. 

Ordinary scissors or wire snips are no match for the mat board. Byron kindly notched the top and bottom (kitty corner) with a fine hack saw.

Due to the thickness of the cotton warp  I changed the sett to 6 epi, marking the inches on the back of the card for clarity when warping/threading.  Another coffee/weaving meeting with Kim and Meagan confirmed the design changes as a great improvement.

I clipped 2 bamboo skewers for each loom into 7 inch lengths and wove them alternately through the warp  to help keep order while weaving. 

On a floor loom these are called lease sticks. The sticks sit at the top of the loom, remaining in the warp during weaving.

Byron fashioned colourful "weaving needles". He drilled a stack of 6 at a time, discarding the top and bottom of the pile because the entry and exit of the drill bit caused them to be rough. I understand this is common practice when drilling a stack. The top and bottom sticks were pretty ragged after drilling so it makes perfect sense to protect the inner sticks.

White glue worked well to complete the looms. Both the mat board and the foam sandwiches are made of very high quality paper, and over such a small surface area resisted distortion. However it is important to bond the risers slowly, over about a 20 minute time period.

Specifically:

• put  a ribbon of glue on the back of the riser
• wait 10 minutes
• place the strips on the mat board just covering the quarter inch mark
• wait another 10 minutes 
• clamp the risers in place. I used plastic ruler and binder clip to broaden the pressure
• lay on a flat surface to dry for 24 hours
• I was able to do 3 at a time. (because I have 6 rulers and 6 clips)

on to the next batch...

Loom complete and ready to weave. More detail on actually warping coming in part 5

A taste of hand weaving part 3

What comes first, the chicken or the egg? hmmm.

The first version of our sample loom was made out of the corrugated cardboard

 from nice clean boxes, courtesy of my friend Wendy.

Kim, Meagan and I tested them one frosty Sunday afternoon, each of us accomplished a reasonable sample. We discussed and developed improvements over coffee. Kim is the owner of Kimat Designs, she not only specializing in framing needlework, but is a highly skilled craftsperson in many areas of the art. Her daughter Meagan has taken hand weaving in university.

The loom dimension was good at 6 inches by 9 inches. 

I added a couple of 1 inch strips glued half an inch below the top and bottom edge

 so the vertical strings would be raised up off the base.

Snips were cut 4 per inch across the top and bottom of the cards to help keep the vertical strings in order. I used the classic method of figuring this out by wrapping a 1 inch by 6 inch piece of card for about 3 inches, measuring the number of wraps in the middle part and dividing the result by 2. 

Using DK yarn, the spacing worked out to 8 (doubled) vertical strings to the inch,

 a pair in each notch. We used 2 colours of vertical string to help make

 the over and under structure of simple weaving clearer visually.

Well, white glue softened and distorted the base card, the notches became annoying very quickly and further, the darn card gradually buckled more and more as the weaving progressed. It was lucky for us we were all the persevering type when it comes to craft.

We designed a better version after this experience for you. The next post will feature the new improved loom. We are very pleased with how version 2.1 worked.

In the meantime here are some weaving words for you.

The language of weaving for knitters

Warp: vertical threads

Weft: horizontal threads

Sett: similar to gauge in knitting, number of warp threads to the inch for example 8 ends to the inch is a sett and abbreviated as 8 epi

Shed: the horizontal space where you thread the weft yarn.

Pick: one line of weft yarn,

Picks per inch: The number of weft rows in an inch. Abbreviated as ppi

Tabby: name of the fundamental weave structure - over and under one thread at a time.

Row 1: using the weft thread, go over the (first) warp thread, under the next one - repeat to last warp thread.

Row 2: using the weft thread, go under the edge warp thread and over the next one - repeat to the last warp thread.

Balanced Weave: uniform share of warp and weft  in the fabric - to estimate a balanced weave epi, wind the chosen warp yarn around the shaft of pencil or dowel for a few inches, then measure how many wraps are in only one of the inches and divide that number by half

Weft Faced: Only the weft yarn is visible on the fabric surface.

Warp Faced: Only the warp yarn is visible on the fabric surface.

DK Yarn:22 stitches to 4 inches on a 4 mm needle could have 16 wraps to the inch on the pencil so a sett to try would be 8 epi.

Worsted Weight Yarn: 20 stitches to the inch on a 4.5 mm needle could have 12 wraps to the inch so a sett to try would be 6 epi

Twill: a more complex weave with many variations. Your blue jeans are typically a woven twill because it is a fabric with built in stretch.

Shuttle: carries (throws) an amount of weft yarn through the shed of the warp

Shed stick: a long smooth flat stick that helps create a clear shed for the shuttle

Reed or comb: separates and places the weft after a throw.

Extra tips:

Be sure to keep an eye on the vertical edges of your fabric as you weave, they should be nice and straight.

When you add a row of weft, arc the yarn to allow for take up, and then push (beat)it into place above the previous row (shot).

Some people add an extra thread to either edge (or a floating selvage) for added stability.

A taste of hand weaving part 2

In this post I want to share how the yarn for the workshop has been organized.

Of course there are lots of methods for gaining fresh perspective on colour,
 especially when moving from one craft role to another,
knitter to weaver, organic to linear, and back again.

Yarn is labeled and packed for sale with not only for marketing appeal,
but also to provide important information regarding composition,
weight, and quantity,
however the packaging can so easily distract
 from developing a pleasing colour composition.

Of course, if you have been working with yarn for a while,
you will have an amazing treasure box of colour and texture.
It can be a bit much of a muchness, though,
can anyone have too much yarn?
Never happens to me!

Curate the selection!
Choose colours and move some to a bowl or basket,
 set out for a few days, for a leisurely ponder.
Take a poll with your fibre friends.
There is no rush, just you and the colour, keep occasional company,
off and on for a few days

Additional viewing practices could include looking at the group
 through a clear ended kaleidoscope, or the "wrong" end of binocular
 or be very modern, take a digital photo.
Quilters will know a lot about these practices.

Ordinary brown cardboard makes an easy, neutral,
and efficient tool for sampling colour choices

For this workshop I made lots of cards of yarn.
The cards measure 6 inches by 6 inches
 with slots for holding the yarn ends, 5 on each side

here are Sharon's versions:

and here are some of mine

Coming up in part 3, building a loom and some handy weaving tools.
Meanwhile check out this youtube video from Ikea about the skilled folks in India
 who hand weave rugs for us. Their skill and humility take my breath away.

A taste of hand weaving Part 1

Early on in my fibre journey I learned to hand weave with Mrs Bannister in Queenston, Ontario. Eventually I achieved a paid hand weaver position in Niagara on the Lake. This year, I have been given the opportunity by the Whitby Knitting Guild to share a taste of hand weaving and am so super delighted. Let's start with passion and curiosity. Here are pictures of boxed yarn compositions Sharion Thompson curated for us a few years ago.

If you have visited our studio you will know we hold a vast fabulous yarn collection, both vintage and current. Sharion dedicated time in the company of our yarn and generously devoted her skill to composing 7 boxes of yarn materpieces.

I asked her about making these works of art after a visit to her home where she showed me the river she had created for a friend of hers.

Yes a river, a fabulous mix of colour and texture, all worked into a vibrant, alive blanket.

I was enchanted by Sharions' river, and sure wish I had a photo to share with you.

However, here, very lovely in their won right are the 7 groupings, for your viewing pleasure.

They have been lurking in our lopi room, awaiting their time, their moment to shine! 

It will be great fun to sharing them at the knit club meeting in February with the sample looms I have built and will share on the blog with you soon. In part 2, will be pictures of the yarn cards we made from the boxes as well as some compositions of my own.