Woven!

So yeah... um... sometimes I craft!  But mostly I'm going to grad school.  And mostly the folks who read this blog follow me on facebook, so I'm mostly just posting these pictures so I can share them elsewhere.

But a big warm "Hi" and a hug to anyone who is actually reading this.  I kinda miss blogging and I wish I still had time to do it.  =)

 So this is a scarf that I made from some alpaca I bought at Oregon Flock and Fiber... years ago!  The main color way is called "October" and being an October gal... I just had to have it. I also had some slightly heavier alpaca in a simple brown that I used for a few stripes... just to give the scarf a bit of character.

Once again I think I wove it too loosely.  It's a lace-weight yarn and I'm using a 10 dpi heddle.  I really need to figure that out.  I'm sure there's a chart somewhere. 

But it's drapey and pretty and hopefully I'll find an occasion to wear it soon.

 And here is the scarf I made back when I took that weaving class... I don't think I ever posted pictures of the finished product.

It's wrinkled because I wore it quite a lot over the winter... love the colors, I think it turned out well.

Actual crafty content!

I haven't had a ton of time to craft, but I warped my loom with some dish cloth cotton a while back and whenever I got a few minutes I'd weave a bit.

Little by little.... and there you go - dishtowels!

Ok - not the sexiest of finished objects... but I wanted to make something practical and I've got more than a few scarves in my closet already. ;)   I was also excited to try warping stripes and seeing how they looked when I used different colors for the weft.

Also - I finished the edges by hand sewing the first/last two rows together - just to keep them from unraveling when I took them off the loom.  Then I folded the ends over and machine sewed a zig-zag stitch for a hem.  It's not super neat, but it does look finished, and held up through the wash.

I made a super long warp and then tried to measure out the length for three separate towels.  It was a bit tricky... but I actually got it kind of close.  Two of the towels are almost exactly the same length - the other one is maybe two inches longer.  Not too bad.  And heck - it's dish towels... nobody's going to care. =)

Weaving ABCs

Last Saturday I went to my first weaving class.  There were four of us, so it was a nice cozy class, with ages ranging from 13 to retired.

Since I'd already muddled through my first and second weaving projects the first few things she'd taught us, I'd already figured out.  But I did learn a few useful things - how to do a weaver's knot, how to wind the yarn onto the shuttle to get the maximum amount of yarn with the minimal amount of bulk, how to direct warp onto the loop by tying the yarn directly onto the apron rods, and what the correct tension should be.

Now, the tension - that's one of those things I never would have figured out just by reading books and watching you-tube videos.  After I'd tightened up my loom, the instructor came by and gave it another couple of turns.  I was really shocked at how tight it was supposed to be!

She also showed us a different technique for how the weft yarn should lay between the warps before beating.  The video's I'd seen showed a 30 degree angle, but she had us do a semi-circle.  Both methods essentially just make sure you have enough extra weft yarn to go over and under each warp yarn without having to stretch.  Hmm... hard to describe... but you can kinda see it in this picture.

I also learned that when I'm not weaving, or when I'm transporting my loom, I should stick the shuttle between the yarns, and set the reed in the neutral position.  Seems pretty basic, but it wasn't something I'd thought of.

Overall it was a good class.  No mind-blowing discoveries, but several little tips and tricks I'm not sure I would have picked up on my own.  It was nice to have someone there double checking what I was doing and letting me know I was on the right track.  Now I need to finish the weaving part and bring it back in two weeks for the second part of the class - how to finish the project & remove it from the loom.

Warp Core Breach

Ok, maybe not a full on breach, but I've got some warp problems on my second weaving piece.

I'm not sure what is going on here.... it's not supposed to be all crisscrossed like this behind the reed.

 And it's not supposed to be in three layers in front of the reed like this. I will be reaching out for the collective wisdom of weavers on the web to figure out what's going on.

But the actual weaving is going well.  This yarn is a sport-weight soy silk, so while it's still a bit thin for the reed, it's working fine.

And yeah, purple again.  I'm not sure how I ended up with so much purple in my stash.

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

when first we practice to... uh... weave.


Here's my first woven project.  I learned quite a bit, which is just a nice way to say that I messed up a lot.

There's not a ton that you can do wrong basic weaving, I mean it's just sending the shuttle full of yarn back and forth.  But the edges get wonky if you're not careful, and I tried to get fancy tying off the fringe and it looks a bit sloppy.  I also misjudged how long to make the warp (vertical) yarns because I hadn't factored in how much would be needed to tie the yarn onto the loom but which wouldn't actually become part of the weaving.

The biggest issue I had was that I used the wrong sized yarn for the reed that came with my loom.  The reed is the wood & plastic thing in the middle that the warp yarn goes through.  Reeds are spaced wider for thicker yarns and narrower for thinner yarns.  Since the spaces on my reed were bigger than needed for the lace-weight yarn I used, it ended up being a very loose, drape-y weave.  Which isn't necessarily a problem.  But it's one of those things that is supposed to be a choice and not an accident.  Which it was. ;)

Oh well. I've already got another project on the loom and hopefully it will turn out a bit better.

New Toy!

As if I didn't have enough projects in the works already, I bought myself a new toy - an Ashford 16" Rigid Heddle Loom.

It comes unfinished and un-assembled, so I get a bonus project of getting to pick out a stain, and put it all together.  I say this with all sincerity... I love putting stuff together!

First-up, staining with a "Colonial Maple" color.  It was a bit cold outside, so I skipped the second coat.  But considering it will only be used inside, I think that's sufficient.

Next, assembly.  Easy-peasy.

But then comes the tough part... actually 'warping' the loom - putting the yarn through all the little slots on the reed.

It took about two hours to warp the loom.  I actually gave up before I'd threaded each slot.  I figured it was wide enough for a first scarf.

Once I had warped the loom I was off and weaving.  The actual mechanics are pretty straight forward, and I watched a you-tube video to get a couple hints.  It's still very much a first project... the sides are sloppy and I've discovered that the reed I'm using is too big for the weight of yarn I chose so it's going to be a bit loosely woven when all is said and done.  But that won't necessarily be a bad thing... we'll just have to wait and see.