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days have been dark, with heavy clouds drifting by... in the meantime some painting has been done (just the first coat!) and some sampling too. this is going to be a light curtain for a small window - but the sett is clearly too wide. I was afraid that after washing it it would become too dense. I re-sleyed the reed with a closer sett, another sample on its way! I like this collection

Floor Loom Weaving and knitting socks is what this blog is all about.

In my blog post, “Weaving Huck Lace!” I wrote about my experience with weaving patterns designed with clear cut blocks of plain weave and Huck Lace. I later wrote another post, …

Yesterday was the first meeting in 2009 of the New Hampshire Weavers Guild. Patricia Morton taught an excellent morning workshop on Bead Leno. I attended the workshop mainly because a weaving buddy of mine has been weaving bead leno lately, and Dust Bunnies Under My Loom has some recent posts about it too. Try as I might, I could not picture how it worked without seeing it in action. The workshop was great! Patricia started at the beginning, explained the basics and then built on the basics to cover ways various weavers have used bead leno. I felt like I really understood it by the end of the workshop (which is no small feat with me!!) Plus she had many samples and finished objects by several talented weavers for us to look at and pass around the class. She also thoroughly reviewed the literature and provided a great bibliography. Bead Leno and Basketweave As if that weren't enough, she had two looms set up, one with 4 shafts and one with 8, where we could try weaving bead leno. It's a really weird feeling to weave it - because as the yarns twist around the weft it feels really strange to try to pack it in with the beater. Beads between reed and heddles (top view) Shed with beads down and floating selvedges Constricted shed with beads in action I left the class totally fired up to weave a summer project with bead leno. I even managed to buy yarn at the yarn table that I hope will work well for what I have in mind. (Note that I'm not promising to weave it this summer.....although it will be nice if I do!) 8H Bead Leno with Blocks so bead leno and half basketweave can weave independently There were lots of books and even some weaving equipment for sale on the yarn table. I didn't photograph the library, but I love libraries, and the guild library is no exception!! We meet at the beautiful Kimball-Jenkins Estate in Concord, NH. I was surprised at my first guild meeting a few years ago to see close to 100 people in attendance. I was picturing something much smaller! Fun stuff!!

I belong to a couple of weaving groups on Facebook and 'lurk' for the most part. One smart voice there is Margaret Coe who ably stick handles questions from newbie weavers. Some months ago Margaret recommended a neat trick for when you start a new warp off. There it is shown in the picture above and some of my more regular readers will have noticed I have been using it for the past few projects. Its the Two Stick Start. It the best tip I have tried in a long, long time! It just works. The warp above is 9/2 linen, for a 8 shaft huck lace that I have tied an overhand knot every sixteen ends and then laced on. I laid in three shots of a similar sized 'scrap' yarn which in this case is regular 8/2 cotton. I beat to close the gap and then laid in three more weft shots and beat again. It closed it but there is a slight gap. There can also be tension issues until the weaving progresses further. So I placed a short lease stick into one of the plain weave sheds, changed to the other plain weave shed and placed the second stick. I carried the cotton weft up behind the sticks on the right and started weaving plain weave and you can see how quickly it came together! The sticks provide a nice firm, flat base and from the knots to the top of the gold yarn is four inches! You are off to a real good start almost right away. { ...but it didn't spare me from a denting error and I had to redo some sleying two to three inches on the far right side as I had doubled my ends in one slot. Geesh!} When I wound my pirns I ran the weft yarn through a clean damp cloth as I wound them. This tames the wirey linen and you can get a nice tightly wound pirn. The cloth is damp, and not overly wet so the yarn dries quickly. Once you use this on one pirn, all weft for the project must be done the same way or there will be changes in the cloth and the way it weaves up. I wove six inches of plain weave for my hem allowance and then ladder hemstitched every four ends. I used a slippery synthetic cord doubled as my spacer. It slips out quite nicely with a gentle tug. Next was one inch of plain weave to frame the lace, then the lace dance begins! Last time I wove this pattern I used red 9/2 linen and used a sett of 22 epi. It was well balanced when all finished and pressed but I wanted it a smidge tighter so this time I set it 24 epi. Between the coarse linen, the reed marks and the lace five end groupings, the new cloth on the loom has streaks and lines all over the place. You can only hold your breath and hope it all comes out in the wash! (more on this line of thought later...) I wove two runners using the same natural grayed / beige linen as weft. The runners were woven to roughly sixty inches from the end of one hemstitching to the next at the other end. There is a small plain weave border down both selvedges and by the time you get to the end of a runner you begin to see the start of some troubled times to come. The plain weave and the lace areas take up differently as the lace centre is more textured and the plain weave is flat. By the end of the runner you can see the plain weave edges pull down more and then curve upwards to the lace. I didn't experience this effect with the red linen runners. I checked a cone of the red today and it has a much softer touch to it. Perhaps as a result of the dyeing process? This natural grayed beige linen has a much firmer feel to it... more wirey. I decided to cut off the runners after each one was woven and retie back on. So the Two Stick Start got a good work out! The third runner was understandably a bit shorter but I skipped weaving samples this time round and so that twelve inches helped out a lot. I used a snowy white 9/2 linen as my weft and it looked great! There is a nice colour separation on the lace floats so they frame the diamonds. White in one direction and beige in the other. This type of two colour lace where the colours are more subtle appeals to me. Traditionally lace is woven in one solid colour warp and weft and usually the same yarn as warp and weft. {Beige projects are difficult and boring to photograph and if I used a lighting correction in the tweaking of the pictures, it turned all the colours really weird... so please bear up with the darker shots. I did use the camera flash and had lights on everywhere!} I decided against using the serger on the raw edges as the serging line can be a tad bit lumpy. I didn't want that ridged line with a flat hem. I used my sewing machine instead and did a stitched zig zag which I think you can faintly make out on the raw edge in the picture above. I steam pressed and measured the hem allowance. I'm going to turn it over by thirds. The beauty of doing this with linen is that it takes a nice fold with just the fingers pressing. You can double check the measurement. I steam pressed it when I'm happy...then fold up to the hemstitching and press and pin. As you can see by the close up above, a raised ridge line from the serger would have shown through and I wanted it flat, flat, flat! The hand sewing was done by a running blind stitch and the three runners were an evenings work by the television. Things started to get interesting the next morning when I filled the laundry tub to handwash the runners. The first to go in was the shorter white beige blend. I lay the runner on top of the suds and let it absorb the water. I came back a few minutes later and started to squeeze it out. I thought I could see a distinct line warp wise in the wet cloth! Oh crap.... I had used a full cone and part of another to wind the warp, but I had checked the batch numbers and they were both the same! Had someone somewhere made a mistake? I laid it to one side and then 'floated' the next runner on the surface of the water. Look what happened below.... the side of the runner absorbed water at a much faster rate! Even when wet there is still a colour difference between the two areas. I gently squeezed water through the cloth but did not wring it out. That would set creases into the cloth, especially the thicker hem allowance. After rinsing, I let it drain well and rolled into a large towel to absorb the excess water. Once they were all into large towels and resting I sat and did some thinking on the situation. Two cones and two different reactions. I had a theory worked out. Well, there was only one thing left to do and that was to see what happened when they were damp / dry and firmly pressed. Here they are .... and first up is the white beige runner: I could see no sign of any colour change! It looked completely even across the runner. This is a blend of beige and white so perhaps it obscures the issue? This one measures 12.5 inches by 55 inches finished. So here are the all beige runners and both measure 12.5 inches by 61 inches finished. Again, no sign of any variation in colour! Great! So what was it? I think the two cones, while the same batch number, there was a difference in the linen used. It would seem there was almost like a coating on the surface of two thirds of the yarn used.... and not so much on the new cone. It came down to the way the linen was processed. I hope the washing process took care of this detail for the future. If not, there's no sign of it when dry thankfully. All the reed marks disappeared with wet finishing and I would have to say the change in sett also worked very well. I would use this sett of 24 epi with this yarn again next time. So now my Louet Spring is empty and I'm trying to work out what goes on next. Do you ever run out of inspiration from time to time? I know that there is a ton of different weaves out there to try and so I just need to find one that appeals to me. I have to clear off the Woolhouse loom and get a shorter towel sampling warp on there so there's lots of housekeeping details in the studio to take care of. My left knee has been troubling me and so weaving has been considerably slowed.... hence the long time periods between posts. Sorry about that but it can't be helped. I'm just happy to be able to be able to still weave! Hubby Bruce hasn't received a surgery date as yet and as of our last check, they are now booking well into March (which is definitely not the promised January). This may end up placing his surgery and mine on a collision course later this late spring or early summer. Apparently there is a shortage of anesthesiologists. Meanwhile my Dad is still in hospital and the news is he could be there for another week or two before being released. I'm hoping this will all come out in the wash as well!

yarn- Charlemont

So, with the parcel with the gray runners on their way to California, the loom is now available for a new project. I had something in mind for the 9/2 red linen in my last yarn order from Brassards. Last spring when we were in Vancouver I stopped by my Dad's place and had a nice visit with him. During the time chatting with him, I spotted a small lace cloth on his table that I woven some years ago. It was a fine 20/2 cotton with a huck lace diamond pattern. I had been given the pattern by Linda Heinrich and she in turn got it from Virginia West. It has to be one of the loveliest lace patterns and it went onto my mental list of projects that are up soon. I wanted to weave something Christmasy.... my second ever project with a holiday theme. I had woven some Christmas tree card inserts one year on a table loom that took too long, but did make it out in the mail that year (as opposed to the next!) . I'm not a fan of weaving for Christmas especially for gifts as it can be a recipe for disaster. There is far too much pressure on folks that time of year so why add more? {Weaving for birthdays and other special occasions is far better as you aren't coping with the "Christmas Crunch".} So the yarn arrived and I had found my old draft.... project was duly planned and the warp wound. The 9/2 linen came in at 3700 yds/ lb which is finer than an 8/2 cotton. The cotton is 3360 yds/ lb and recommended setts are 18 epi for lace, 20 epi for plain weave and 24 epi for twills. It gave me a place to start at least. I wrapped a ruler, and I emailed Gudrun for her input as she uses this linen too. So we finally settled on 22 epi and I thought I could up or down from there if need be. When it came time to sley the reed I had to do a pattern of ends that meant I had to use a more open reed to get the desired sett. Now my past experience with linen is that its better to use either single ends through a reed or double ends. If you do groups of three or more, then reed marks can be an issue. I did not want any problems like this so I changed my reed to something finer and got smaller groups. With a 15 dent reed, I sleyed 1, 2, 1, 2 etc. It averages out to 22.5 epi which was darn close! The runner warp was 5.25 yards long, 14.9" in the reed and a total of 328 ends. Winding the warp went well. When I wound my pirns I ran the linen through a damp cloth and it seemed to tame the linen and take off a fair amount of lint. Weaving was pretty darn nice and the sett looked perfect! The weft lay into the pic beautifully, there was very little draw in so I didn't need a temple. Then with plain weave borders, there was no need for floating selvedges either. Very liberating! The treadling was a nice little five treadle dance (plain weave, pattern, plain weave, pattern, plain weave). You very quickly settle into a good rhythm and it wove up at a nice rate. You could also see the pattern clearly already which was very nice. I planned on two runners, both sixty inches long and with six inch hem allowances (which would reduce down to two inches after folding), and some samples. I wove one runner to sixty inches plus hems and I had my samples all done. There seemed to be a lot of warp left so I decided to simply weave a longer runner as the warp held out. The second ended at seventy four inches! Once off the loom I pressed my hems much like in my last post and pinned them. The hand sewing didn't take very long and then they were into the laundry tub for the hand wash and rolled in a towel to absorb water. The ironing was a real workout! I was pressing as hard as I could and the wrinkles were still there. I found myself lusting after a mangle or steam press like Lynnette's. I just kept going back and over them again until they passed muster. Time to take some pictures, which can be tough this time of year. We had cloudy skies and trees all around. the brightest place was my big loom and so I laid a cloth over the loom and tried for some beauty shots. The lace is really defined now after washing and looks stunning.... Photographing all red is almost as bad as all white ! First of all the real colour of the runners is a blue based red and the pictures I see are a bit more orangey. Then its hard to see detail with tone on tone colours. So I tried to show the white cloth in behind... I was arranging and rearranging and trying different placements and shifting the lights around..... and that's when I saw it..... At first it looks like a soft line in the cloth.... ...and when you look closer, particularly at the corner of the four diamonds. Its a treadling error! (this one is for you Linda....) . Its the shorter sixty inch runner and the longer one is just fine. That one will be going up in my Etsy shop. The other? I'm not sure what to do with it now. Keep it for myself or sell as a second? If anyone is interested in buying it, let me know. Sold! It really bums me out as I was watching carefully as I wove but apparently not quite enough... So what's the best cure for this situation? Another project.... basically move on to something new and start fresh! Its under way..... Calli says "cheer up Mum"

SELFSUFFICIENCY * KNITTING * YARN DYEING AND MORE

Floor Loom Weaving and knitting socks is what this blog is all about.

It finally seems like winter...Last week we still had flowers blooming and 60 degrees during the day. This week 2 inches of snow, a high of 20 degrees, and more snow expected. What a difference a week makes. I did get the first Christmas decoration up, my Advent Calendar. I made it when my children were little, about 30 years ago, but I love seeing it every year. Here's a picture of it several years ago. Last year I actually put some nails in the wall to hang up some Christmas pictures. I had not had them hanging for several years and it was fun to see them again. I think I will get them up today. I wanted to put new hanging wires on some other pictures to hang there during the rest of the year, but I did not get that done. Oh well maybe after the holidays this year... The color is a little off, but I did take a photo last year. All of the pictures are stitchery, and all are about 25 years old. The center white on white is done by my Mom using the candlewick technique. The other four were a series that I did. I like the variety of sentiments and the variety of techniques. The Santa "Joy" is embroidery, the family "Tree" is counted cross, the snowman "Frosty" is needlepoint, and the baby Jesus "Nativity" is trapunto. It was fun to put such a variety together. The four 8" x 10" pieces hung for several Christmas seasons in a special place between our bookshelves. When we got rid of those bookshelves, I had no place to put them. It is fun to enjoy them again. And I got the final shipment of my order out, I hope it reaches her in time for her show. I know the first got there and she was very pleased with my work. When I did the shawls this time, I used huck lace instead of Bronson lace. I had just taught Huck lace in my class, so it was on my mind. I have never done these in Huck and I really like them. White on white shawl Beige on white shawl Here's a Bronson lace from the first shipment I like the Huck better, maybe because it is the last warp I did! I would not mind having a huck lace piece, I was thinking of cutting holes in it for my arms and wearing it like the lace "vest" that I saw Anita Meyer wearing. I also did some ruanas, and ponchos for her. The short poncho is a new design. I like the versatility in wearing it. Belted Flipped over the shoulder They really worked out well. I just blended the colors of warp, then used two different wefts for them. This is the 1800 yd/lb alpaca again, but this shipment had some colors to play with. I also got a new loom yesterday, a very old, and needs some work, Schacht table loom. I will probably use it in the classes. It makes a great loom for beginning students and for rental. It travels quite well. But there are a couple of pieces missing and the wood really needs some TLC. I would like to replace the apron cord with Texsolv, I hope I have enough left (I just replaced the apron cords on my Baby Wolf...scissor accident when I was cutting off one of the alpaca pieces. I finally found the pattern and the yarn and the knitting for the socks I have been working on forever. The pattern is slow knitting, cable work every row, and I only carried the part of the pattern I needed at the time. So there was periods where I was looking for the pattern, then found the pattern and could not find where I put the half finished socks...anyway, I have all the components together and I want to get them finished. I am really tired of this pattern. That may be another reason it has taken so long, I knit for a while then put them away to do a less demanding design. First sock at chevron cuff, the second sock is there now! Yeah! And with the Alpaca work done for a while, I can get back to my yardage. I am interested in seeing how far I get with the handspun yarn...I have more than I thought. I may be able to have solid handspun in the whole body of the jacket instead of just stripes in the front and back. I thought I had a picture of how it looks now that it is on the loom, but this is just a picture of the test. The actual fabric is not that "stripey". I think I will like it, even if it is MUCH brighter colors than I usually wear.

Last year we went on a long anticipated holiday to Brasília. I described a few of the wonderful places we saw in a previous blog entry. https://durhamweaver64.blogspot.com/2018/07/brasilia.html We came back inspired. The Itarmarty Palace by Oscar Neimeyer in 1960 was a stunning place to visit. It is the Brazilian Foreign Ministry but, like all their main government buildings, is very accessible to locals and tourists. Itarmarty palace 1960 Oscar Neimeyer Inside the building there was a screen that separated two open plan areas as you can see. Looking through the screen The wooden uprights had a series of painted wooden inserts in four colours but they appeared to be placed randomly. I thought that the pattern could inspire me to design a piece of weaving, but it also caught my husband's imagination. The screen was very dramatic but also allowed views of the adjoining room. The vestibule in our terraced house was rather dark with floor-to-ceiling wooden panels and double doors leading to the the stairs. Although the house is relatively modern it gives a rather Victorian feel to the entrance. View from open front door. We had just commissioned two Steltman chairs - a left and right versions - from a local craftsperson, Jamie Sowden, of Forest Edge Woodcrafts. https://www.forestedgewoodcrafts.co.uk/ They are made of Accoya™ timber and painted white. We love the work of Gerrit Reitveld and these 1962 chairs were his last furniture design, originally for a jewellery shop in Amsterdam. Here is the chair in the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague. I took these photographs last December when we were thinking about these chairs for our house. I love the way the design seems to float in space. Although the furniture of Gerrit Reitveld is under copyright, you are allowed to have one copy made for personal use only. This wonderful book gives all the measurements and instructions for many of his iconic pieces. A word of warning to any one wanting to make a copy of a design. The measurements in the book are not completely accurate. If you are visiting the Netherlands this year there are a series of exhibitions of Reitvelds work around the country. Jamie had previously made us a copy of the Reitveld Buffet of 1919. Our buffet also features on the website for Arbor Timber, a specialist timber firm who did the precision cutting of the pieces. 147 separate pieces had to be cut accurately which was the work of another specialist craftsman. http://www.arbortimber.co.uk/portfolio/machining The Accoya™ wood was chosen because the example of the buffet in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has some warped panels. The central heating in modern houses can affect timber. https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/collection/537-gerrit-rietveld-elling-buffet Jamie explained '"The timber used for the recreation was Accoya™. This could be argued to be the most environmentally friendly and sustainable timber currently available. In total 147 individual pieces of flat, planed and perfectly squared timber. The main reason for choosing Accoya™ was its ability to retain dimensional stability regardless of fluctuations of heat and humidity. Although in its original state it is a softwood it also holds crisp sharp edges very well when machined" Choice of appropriate wood was vital. The buffet in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam On this picture taken of the Reitfeld buffet in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam you can see that the thin sheets on the top of the drawers have warped slightly. This would stop the drawers opening smoothly. We worked with Jamie to redesign our vestibule to provide an fitting setting for these two lovely chairs and to give us a more appropriate entrance to a relatively modern terraced house. The screen is attached to the wall and is a collaborative design effort. It took a lot of thought and design work. Jamie's design work is meticulous and I found it fascinating to listen to a master craftsman talking about the details of his work. He analysed the design in the Itarmarty Palace to see if there were any underlying principles to the placement of the colours. The buildings in Brasília are designed with a symbolic as well as a practical purpose. It is highly likely that the design is not merely random. He worked with us to find an approach that would both reflect the original but also fit the space available in the vestibule. Scale drawings and colour samples were brought and discussed. Colours were tried out until a final design was approved. The one aspect that was random were the colour ends of the coat pegs. The painted pegs were put into a bag and he drew them out when he was ready to fix them to the coat rack. The colour panels, like the screen in the Itarmarty Palace, are attached to the upright maple struts so that they are clear of the wall. This means that the sunlight and lighting will change the shadows and emphasise the three-dimensional aspect of the pattern. Here are some views of the new vestibule. View from the front door when entering the house. Look at the skirting board between the two chairs. This had to be replaced when the wall was re-plastered and Jamie felt that it should be shaped to echo the tapering of the wall panel. A small touch but one that is so fitting. view of the stairs with the rack of coat pegs on the right Side view of the two Steltman chairs Cushions are needed for the chairs. The originals were upholstered for comfort of the customers buying expensive jewellery! I wanted to make two cushions inspired by the painter Kazimir Malevich. I had previously made a colourful cushion which we use in the lounge. Here is the blog entry about the cushion cover. https://durhamweaver64.blogspot.com/2014/11/inspired-by-malevich.html Martin felt that the colours would detract from the wall panel, so we compromised on Malevich's Black Square design from 1915. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Square_(painting) This would be a very quick and easy project. The size of the cushion shows the white surround of the chair surface which echoes Malevich's painting. Making the cushion covers. I used 12/2 black cotton in plain weave sett at 24 ends per inch. There were 396 warp ends and the width of the cushion is approx. 15 inches. I wove a long length. The covers are very simple to make. material on loom Making up the cushion covers. Take one rectangle of cloth so that it fits around the cushion and overlaps. This gives the length of material required. Remove the material, cut to size and hem the ends. Fold it around the cushion again but this time inside out. Pin the top and bottom edges together. This is to check that the cover fits exactly. Take out the cushion. Now sew the top and bottom edges together. The cushion can be removed easily from the flap. It has the advantage that there are no zips or buttons. The left and right hand version of the Steltman chairs with the new cushions. Fortunately, I did not have to weave new curtains as the existing curtains I wove some years ago look fine. Looking back towards the two windows at the entrance of the house View of the top of the curtain close up of the pattern I like the way the square pattern of huck lace gives the impression of a flower at the centre. Curtains for vestibule windows Warp and weft 20/2 cotton epi 36 Allowance of 5 ends on each side for plain weave selvage. Pattern : Huck lace in squares Length - 78 inches Width 17 inches. I wove 12 repeats of the patterned area and then continued to weave leaving just the vertical stripe of huck lace. Of course this meant that I had to readjust the tension of those threads. The huck lace stripe became looser than the rest of the warp. At the back of the loom I inserted a stick wider than the warp which held just the huck lace stripe. This stick was weighted so that it took up the extra length of the warp ends and evened out the tension for the rest of the warp. Here is the drawdown for the pattern on eight shafts. There are six blocks of huck lace. The first part of the pattern is the top of the curtain and is shown in blue. The second part of the pattern is in green and shows the vertical huck lace stripes on one block which go down the length of the curtains. Huck lace pattern for curtain Designing to fit means adapting to the surroundings to find the most apt response. Sometimes simple designs are best. Reflecting on Craft Work. The process of working with a craftsman in a radically different craft has shown me how similar different crafts are in their approach to design and the learning. One architect, Juhani Pallasmaa writes of his collaborations with painters,sculptors and craftsmen through which he has learned 'immensely from their capacity to think through their eyes, hands, skin and body' and that they 'think through the knowledge accumulated in the silent wisdom of the body and the traditions of the art form/craft itself.' In Edinburgh in the National Museum of Scotland I watched a short video of Bernard Leach talking about craft. He said that the 'machine leaves out the heart of labour, feeling, imagination and directness of control. I found that the craftsman is almost the only kind of worker left employing heart, hand and head in balance.' The Potter's World. https://vimeo.com/46967527 This is not a perfect video but it is the one I saw in Edinburgh. In Vav Magasinet this year there was an article called In Praise of Patience by Kerstin Wickman. Slow craft work like weaving is important as a quick fix cheats 'people of all the experiences, skills, lived events and discoveries offered by the slow approach.' Textile work is embedded in touch and the knowledge found through experience. It is fascinating to watch beginners in workshops starting to weave narrow bands for the first time. The silent ( usually!) concentration and the focused gaze - the internal ( and sometimes external) verbalisation of the stages of weaving at the beginning leading to the hands and body beginning to remember what to do. I am not sure that you can ever stop learning in the craft of weaving. I always find that I learn something from my workshop participants. Weaving is the craft that chose me. I could knit, sew, crochet etc but after I had had my first experience of sitting down at a loom, I realised that I should have been weaving all my life. It is a vast, complex, multifaceted, endlessly fascinating craft. Reflecting on the task of setting up the loom, known as dressing the loom, made me realise how pleasure comes through different channels. From winding the warp onto the warping frame - such a simple task but one which comes about through thinking about the design, materials, and sett - seeing the colours, and feeling the texture of the threads as they run through my hands and fingers. Turning the separate cones of yarn into the warp and transferring this warp to the warp beam is often time-consuming but so satisfying. On the back beam the warp ends hang down and often start to twist and curl around each other. With the cross sticks in place and divided through the reed some order is restored. My trusty weavers assistant (Martin) winds the warp onto the back beam whilst I hold the warp taut and check for any snags and twists. This is both visual and tactile. The warp slides through my hands and fingers. I can feel any unusual tension. Martins task is no less difficult as sliding the cross sticks through the singles cross can be tricky. Then he has to add sticks or paper to separate the layers of warp ends on the warp beam which is another skill to be learned through experience. When wound on, there is such pleasure in seeing the warp ends so straight and neat and ready for threading through the heddles. I think that this moving from disorder to order which happens several times during the process of preparing the loom is deeply satisfying. The warp ends are, of course, uneven and still linked together at the weaving end. A bout of warp ends representing a half inch are trimmed and loosely knotted together with a slip knot for the next step. The pattern dictates the number and order of threading through the heddles. I have my own logical system for threading to minimise mistakes at this stage. Once threaded through the heddles, each half inch bout is carefully stretched and tied to the front or cloth beam. All the warp ends should be as near as possible at the same tension. To check tension, I run my fingers over the stretched warp ends to detect any that are loose.This can take some time depending upon the material used. Rug weaving with a thick linen warp used to take me one to two hours to tie on as it is difficult to adjust the tension. The strong linen warp used to cut my hands until I started to wear leather gloves. The whole process is tactile and visual. Knowledge is embodied. Preparing many warps in different yarns to put on a loom is the only way to gain an understanding of the properties of the yarn itself. My friend Nancy, reminded me of two articles in Vav Magasinet earlier in the year. Gunilla Lundahl says that 'Textile making and work are some of the most important means of granting us the freedom to conquer time, to join hands over the millenia.' The skills weavers use have been in operation since weaving was invented. I have a motto on the wall in my weaving room. It is taken from the Aeneid, by Virgil 'As each has set up the loom, so shall follow the labour and the fortune of it.' If any of these preparatory stages is undertaken carelessly then the weaving will not be satisfactory. Weaving itself almost seems an anticlimax after the preparation. However, the weaving process has its own field of satisfaction. This is where the weaver gets into the flow - the rhythmical aspect of weaving involving eyes, hand and sound, in fact, the whole body. I am designing two pieces for the National Exhibition next year. Reflecting on the ongoing process of preparing samples then returning to my design ideas and adapting them has made me realise how complex it is and yet how similar to the way that Jamie approaches his craft and design. This had led me to read more about craftsmanship and the practice of craft. I am reading two books at the moment: The Craftsman by Richard Sennett and On Craftsmanship by Christopher Frayling. The quote by Juhani Pallasmaa comes from his book: The Embodied Image: imagination and imagery in Architecture. Happy weaving. Susan J Foulkes September 2019

Many Lace and Spot Weaves are created by warp floats and weft floats on a plain weave background. Lace has openings or holes and spot weave has closed spots. In my favorite book on weave structur…

「アトリエ・ダーラヘスト」は東京・世田谷にあるスウェーデン織の教室◆◇◆テーブルクロスやランチョンマット、ストールなど一緒に創ってみませんか？◆◇◆

Moving right along with the lace towels, I thought I would try my hand at the brooks bouquet. You don't need a pick up stick for this, you use your shuttle to go under a certain number of threads in the upper shed, usually 3 or 4, then you wrap those threads and pick up the next 3 or 4 threads. I chose to use 4 threads since I thought it would fit well in the space I am using. Here is the lace with 5 plain picks between the lace rows. Looks good, I thought but a little blah, don't you think? At this point I began to have real problems with draw in and thread breakage, so I brought out the ancient temple I got with Kathryn the 8 harness. More on that later. I had only done a couple of inches on the towel, but way more than I wanted to unweave or cut out. So I just did a couple of picks of a contrasting color and started over. At the same time I noticed that the lace was off center just by 2 threads. I puzzled over this for just a minute and I wondered what would happen if I staggered the lace rows. And here it is! In the first couple of rows I only used 1 plain pick with no additional picks before starting the new row. I then began to use 2 more plain pics before the lace row. I have found that I need to use the filler rows as well with this lace. Here is a close up of the wrap. I have found that I get a more even row if I do all the wraps and then beat, then using my fingers and/or a reed hook, going from right to left I tighten up the lace motifs. Here you can see the looser wraps to the left of the hook. Here is the really old temple that I got with my 8 harness. I thought I would never use that old thing. All there was was 2 pieces of wood, so I had to piece something together that would work. Here you can see one of the screws I am using. A little 8/4 to keep it all together. I can slip these off easily when I need to. I went online, to price new temples......... Wow, I guess this one will do just fine! On the rug warp in blues, I had been using 8/4 doubled in black as the hem weft , and I really liked the way it showed off the bright colors in the warp. I thought it might look good to try a mess of 8/4 as weft material. I got up to 16 strands and it still wasn't enough. I then went looking for black material, and found this in my stash, what a relief. Now for the rug shuttle full of 16 strands of black 8/4. I see a black warp in my future. Wally is remembering how hard it was to get that big pile of bermuda grass out of the blackberry patch! Happy Weaving, Tina

Trapunto commented to my last post about how useful a sampler can be – “8-shaft twills, how boring and cluttered a photo from a certain treadling can look in a book … turn out to …

I have had this extra large weaving folded up in a container for years. I am trying to figure out what to do with it. I made it right after my first commission for a church during my sophomore year at KCAI. It was woven double weave on a 45" dobby loom. So, it is around 90" x 90". I was having fun doing a photo shoot this afternoon. If anyone has any suggestions please pass them on. I am thinking I might cut up this piece......or not?

So, with the parcel with the gray runners on their way to California, the loom is now available for a new project. I had something in mind for the 9/2 red linen in my last yarn order from Brassards. Last spring when we were in Vancouver I stopped by my Dad's place and had a nice visit with him. During the time chatting with him, I spotted a small lace cloth on his table that I woven some years ago. It was a fine 20/2 cotton with a huck lace diamond pattern. I had been given the pattern by Linda Heinrich and she in turn got it from Virginia West. It has to be one of the loveliest lace patterns and it went onto my mental list of projects that are up soon. I wanted to weave something Christmasy.... my second ever project with a holiday theme. I had woven some Christmas tree card inserts one year on a table loom that took too long, but did make it out in the mail that year (as opposed to the next!) . I'm not a fan of weaving for Christmas especially for gifts as it can be a recipe for disaster. There is far too much pressure on folks that time of year so why add more? {Weaving for birthdays and other special occasions is far better as you aren't coping with the "Christmas Crunch".} So the yarn arrived and I had found my old draft.... project was duly planned and the warp wound. The 9/2 linen came in at 3700 yds/ lb which is finer than an 8/2 cotton. The cotton is 3360 yds/ lb and recommended setts are 18 epi for lace, 20 epi for plain weave and 24 epi for twills. It gave me a place to start at least. I wrapped a ruler, and I emailed Gudrun for her input as she uses this linen too. So we finally settled on 22 epi and I thought I could up or down from there if need be. When it came time to sley the reed I had to do a pattern of ends that meant I had to use a more open reed to get the desired sett. Now my past experience with linen is that its better to use either single ends through a reed or double ends. If you do groups of three or more, then reed marks can be an issue. I did not want any problems like this so I changed my reed to something finer and got smaller groups. With a 15 dent reed, I sleyed 1, 2, 1, 2 etc. It averages out to 22.5 epi which was darn close! The runner warp was 5.25 yards long, 14.9" in the reed and a total of 328 ends. Winding the warp went well. When I wound my pirns I ran the linen through a damp cloth and it seemed to tame the linen and take off a fair amount of lint. Weaving was pretty darn nice and the sett looked perfect! The weft lay into the pic beautifully, there was very little draw in so I didn't need a temple. Then with plain weave borders, there was no need for floating selvedges either. Very liberating! The treadling was a nice little five treadle dance (plain weave, pattern, plain weave, pattern, plain weave). You very quickly settle into a good rhythm and it wove up at a nice rate. You could also see the pattern clearly already which was very nice. I planned on two runners, both sixty inches long and with six inch hem allowances (which would reduce down to two inches after folding), and some samples. I wove one runner to sixty inches plus hems and I had my samples all done. There seemed to be a lot of warp left so I decided to simply weave a longer runner as the warp held out. The second ended at seventy four inches! Once off the loom I pressed my hems much like in my last post and pinned them. The hand sewing didn't take very long and then they were into the laundry tub for the hand wash and rolled in a towel to absorb water. The ironing was a real workout! I was pressing as hard as I could and the wrinkles were still there. I found myself lusting after a mangle or steam press like Lynnette's. I just kept going back and over them again until they passed muster. Time to take some pictures, which can be tough this time of year. We had cloudy skies and trees all around. the brightest place was my big loom and so I laid a cloth over the loom and tried for some beauty shots. The lace is really defined now after washing and looks stunning.... Photographing all red is almost as bad as all white ! First of all the real colour of the runners is a blue based red and the pictures I see are a bit more orangey. Then its hard to see detail with tone on tone colours. So I tried to show the white cloth in behind... I was arranging and rearranging and trying different placements and shifting the lights around..... and that's when I saw it..... At first it looks like a soft line in the cloth.... ...and when you look closer, particularly at the corner of the four diamonds. Its a treadling error! (this one is for you Linda....) . Its the shorter sixty inch runner and the longer one is just fine. That one will be going up in my Etsy shop. The other? I'm not sure what to do with it now. Keep it for myself or sell as a second? If anyone is interested in buying it, let me know. Sold! It really bums me out as I was watching carefully as I wove but apparently not quite enough... So what's the best cure for this situation? Another project.... basically move on to something new and start fresh! Its under way..... Calli says "cheer up Mum"

「アトリエ・ダーラヘスト」は東京・世田谷にあるスウェーデン織の教室◆◇◆テーブルクロスやランチョンマット、ストールなど一緒に創ってみませんか？◆◇◆

Spot Bronson in a point progression. The weave structure will 'pivot' so do not repeat the final block when repeating the threading or treadling. Bronson Lace. Half of one repeat shown. Again, do not repeat the 'pivot' blocks at the centre and end of the repeat. I usually don't like lifting a whole lot of shafts so I tend to weave lace or spot weaves so that fewer shafts would be lifted. Compare the above draft to this: By weaving the cloth as mostly lace with just some plain weave, you lift a lot fewer shafts. But that much lace might be too much for the cloth desired. What differentiates Spot Bronson from Bronson Lace (or sometimes Atwater-Bronson) is that in order to get lace you have to have two units of the weave structure side by side both vertically and horizontally. The lace 'hole' happens at the intersection of the four units. If there is only one unit of Bronson surrounded on all sides by plain weave that is considered a 'spot'. Currently reading Elemental - a collection of short stores written by a number of different authors building on Mercedes Lackey's Elemental series