Friday, December 31, 2010

Peppermint Stick

Whew!  I finally had the time to quit just putzing at the weaving, and finish up the Peppermint Stick woven piece.  I'm mostly happy with it--edges are a little wavy, but I know why it did that, and I should be able to avoid that in the future.

I am happy with the warping--it kept tension evenly, and well, much better than previous woven pieces.   All in all, given that it's just my second piece woven on the Baby Wolf, it turned out pretty well.


Sunday, December 19, 2010

Cany Cane weaving

The warping for my candy cane weaving is finished.  This is actually the second warping, having used the fuzzy yarn for the white in the warp and then cutting it all off because it wasn't going to work-the fuzziness gets tangled with the fuzziness next door, and I would have had to physically work with each end to open the shed on every pick.  I also tried tying the new warp onto the old, and found that I didn't like that--I still rather like doing the warp from the start.

Anyway, the new warping, with all cotton, went well and seems to be working--the fell is as straight as any of my weaving so far.  I had to correct a threading error but, thanks to having learned with the last weaving to check the shed BEFORE starting to weave.  I think--fingers crossed--that all is well.

I'm not sure yet that I like the fuzzy yarn for the weft.  When I finish this weaving I think I'll try a smaller sample, using the cotton for the weft, too.





























Wednesday, December 15, 2010

New warp...on the old

I'm tying a new warp onto the old; the width and heddle threading pattern is the same, so it should work--fingers crossed!

In my head I'm making a scarf or table runner that looks like--or at least brings to mind--a candy cane.  I used a great online plaid design program to try out different warp and weft combinations.  I want to use a twill pattern for part of the weaving because I think it will give the winding effect of a candy cane, and the design program won't show me that.   But it was a wonderful help in planning the basic warp and weft.  We'll see. (If you want to check out the design site:  http://plaidmaker.org )

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Finally weaving!

Finished warping the loom, and finally got started weaving.  I'm learning many things: double-check for crossed warp threads before weaving,  etc.

Tied to back apron rod:














Back beam warped...














And finally weaving!  ( Notice that I'm not showing you the beginning of the weaving!)   I practiced several inches of tabby (plain) weave and dealing with things like the selvedges (managing them is, for me, different than on the rigid heddle--or, at least different enough that I'm having to play with it), and crossed warp thread (note to self:  double-check for crossed threads BEFORE you start weaving---oh, did I mention that before???)  Then I tried twill weave.   I like it.


The yarn I'm using is a little stretchy but it's working OK--probably good for me to learn how to do it.  I do like the rhythm of treadle-shuttle-beat-treadle-shuttle-beat, which you can't do with a rigid heddle.  And having 4 shafts make it easy to do patterns that look complicated.

Warping the loom

I understand that many weavers don't like warping, but I confess that I rather like it.  I need to work on the ergonomics of it, but I enjoy it.  I'm glad that I've had experience warping a rigid heddle loom because warping the Baby Wolf makes more sense--even if it is done a bit differently.

Measured warp on warping board.














Chained (sort of ) warp, ready to move to the loom.















Ready to sley the reed















Sleying the reed















Threading the heddles.  (This project has 120 ends.)















Heddles are threaded; time to call it a night!




Friday, December 3, 2010

Today's project...

...is putting together the warping board, and then reviewing warping process for the loom.  I haven't decided whether to first try front-to-back, or back-to-front.  (Deborah Chandler's "Learning to weave" has an interesting hybrid method, but I think I should try the two more traditional methods first.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Baby Wolf is here!

My Schacht Baby Wolf loom arrived today!


After unpacking, unfolding and putting on the strollers, I moved it into its "home" place.

I've spent a few hours putting it together, and the heddles are now in the shafts, nuts and bolts in the right places..... It's ready for the next step--learning how to warp and thread it.  I think I'll start with just a few ends to practice warping, threading, and tying up the shafts.  I can't wait!