Category: weaving

I decided to make a few scarves as gifts for Christmas 2016. You can see them in the Projects page, numbers 005 through 012.

While making them, I got to know the folks at Northwest Wools in Portland very well. I had a good time there, and they helped me to feel welcome in Portland. If you are near Portland and need to do anything with wool, I can say that they are friendly, even with folks like me who know basically nothing.

They helped me with some yarn choices. They also took some pictures of me for their Facebook page. Oh my. Here’s one of them. Do I look as self-conscious as I feel?

There was a point in time just before packing up the car to start the drive to Arizona where all of the recently woven scarves were in one place. I took a few pictures. Here’s one. I kind of like it. Lots of hours went into what’s on that table!

This one was not exactly a request, but almost. It was a gift for my dad, a rabid Steelers fan. During other parts of the year it can also serve for the Penguins and the Pirates, Pittsburgh being economical with pro team colors.

It is the first weaving I did in my new place (the subject of another post), so you’ll see some new views.

This might be my last scarf for a while. When I get back to weaving, I want to experiment a bit. I expect to create a lot of, well, to be polite, waste. But I also expect to learn what I can do and what I like to do with my loom.

So here we go! All I had to do was to find some Steelers colors on several web sites and copy one of them…

Black. Yellow (or Gold, depending on how regal you feel). White trim. Onward!

Measuring a good length.

Winding around the peg. Everything seems so organized at this point.

Finished with threading all yarn into the right spot in the heddle.

Finished with winding up the warp, with even tension applied. Ready for weaving.

Weaving underway. We use the general term “weaving” as an overall description, but the process of weaving is not more important, but only equally important to the processes of measuring, threading the heddle, warping, tying off, and finishing (soaking, drying, trimming).

Finished weaving. What’s next on the loom is to tie all ends.

Off the loom, ready for a bath.

Drying in the bathtub after a hot water soak.

A bit of detail. Go Steelers!

The simple red and blue scarf was well-received, and I had a request for a repeat. One might note that red and blue are University of Arizona colors, and that may have been (ha! was) a factor.

The first one was made with leftover 100% wool and 100% alpaca. This one was made with my usual scarf yarn, 75% acrylic, 25% wool. The colors were slightly different, since the yarn came from different manufacturers. These scarves will likely never be seen together, so I can’t directly comment on the differences. Both ended up looking fine, in my opinion.

All tied up, wound around the peg across the room…

The bungee cord is holding the peg against the tension in the yarn. It is ready to cut, and then comes the warping.

Cut at the far end, and now ready for warping.

Warped, and wound, with all the cardboard in place keeping tension even. Ready to start adding some weft.

Weaving underway. I like these views of a project, all smooth and orderly.

In the heddle. Inadvertent ad placement – this is a Kromski loom, if you didn’t know already. Ha.

Done with the weaving, ready to tie up this end.

All done! By the way, for those of you looking around the apartment, that sculpture on the bookcase is titled “Birth of the Salmon”, and is by Max Metal, a sculptor living on Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada.

 

This one was a little bit special. The recipient is allergic to wool, so my usual 75% wool 25% acrylic yarn from Turkey wasn’t going to cut it, and the 50% wool 50% alpaca wasn’t exactly it either.

I had already made one scarf from 100% acrylic, and that was a possibility. But I didn’t like the feel of it and the washing/drying of it as much as I did the wool blends.

At The Woolery the excellent staff introduced me to some special yarn from Japan. It is 40% cotton, 30% silk, and 30% viscose (a rayon produced from bamboo). I really liked the available colors and the texture felt great.

The Woolery folk warned me that this yarn was not nearly as strong in tensile strength as wool blends. They told me why this was so in technical terms which I immediately forgot. I had to be careful when pulling it while measuring, and when keeping it taut as I wound it onto the warp beam. Sure enough, I broke it a couple of times before I learned, proving that I am only somewhat trainable. Once woven into a scarf, the material is plenty strong enough.

Because the loom was kept relatively loose, this particular project went a little more slowly than others, as I had to re-learn the feel for a good weft, and generally pay more attention on each pass. This is exactly the kind of experience I wanted – to see how differing something changes the way that you weave. My plan is to be able to weave using many different materials, and this is a good introduction to that variety.

Here’s the yarn being draped around the distant peg for measuring. You almost can’t see the lavender stripes along the bottom third.

Here’s a view before pulling every other strand through a heddle hole. If you compare this to some other similar pics for other scarves, you’ll see that this yarn is a little bit thinner than what I’ve been working with up to now.

Here’s a pic of just starting to weave. At night I had several spot lamps trained on the work to see what I was doing.

And now the weaving part is done, and what remains is to take it off the loom and tie it off at each end.

This is another view of the weaving part being done. The take-up beam is full of scarf.

The final product, ready for trimming. It turned out that washing in hot water and drying had a similar effect on this material as it did on the wool blends, so that was good.

Here’s another shot at the final product. With even slightly different lighting the colors look different.

And here is a little shot of my factory floor, tee hee. You wouldn’t know it but those who know me know that this level of clutter would normally be bothersome for me. Somehow, while making scarves, it didn’t bother me at all.

Just to show that red and blue can coexist together… Wait! That’s not the real reason, that’s just a juvenile political nag and I’ll reserve other blog posts for that rot.

Okay, let’s start over. I had some really nice wool/alpaca red and blue yarn left over from my felting experiment, and decided to make a scarf to use up that yarn. I only had enough of each to make half a warp, so that’s what I did. In fact, this scarf is a touch skinnier than the others because I ran out.

The weft is simple 75% wool 25% acrylic black. The effect that I sought was a deepening of both the red and the blue, to have this scarf as rich in the look as possible.

Stretched out across the apartment, measuring the warp. This photo reminds me that my apartment in Portland had a very nice view of the neighborhood, on a tree-lined side street. My condo has a great 12th-floor view of Portland and of some mountains, but there’s something to be said for the smaller view as well.

Measured and cut. The next step is to thread every other piece through the holes in the heddle, so there’s a slot/hole/slot/hole setup.

Midway through weaving, with the black weft. I’m chuckling at this photo – in front of the bicycle wheel is a set of tire chains. In Portland, it was one of those “special” winters.

Done except the trimming, resting on the beige chair.

Another view, this time against a dark brown sofa. By the way, that wool blanket is from New Zealand, and is more than 30 years old now. Time flies.

This one was truly a spontaneous buy. I saw some nice wool at The Woolery in Portland and thought that I hadn’t made a feminine scarf since the one I made for my mom. So I got started on this one.

The color is lavender, with a wide beige stripe. Both colors are from the same manufacturer, same style with some extra details in the yarn.

From the old movie “They Warp at Night”…

All wound up onto the warp beam, tied off at the take-up beam, and ready to start some weaving…

About halfway done with the weaving, making progress…

And, done, except for the trimming…

A closeup, to see the nice detail in the yarn. And also to remind myself that edges look so much better if the warp and weft are the same yarn. That color consistency camouflages minor errors.

I noticed that I had built up a stash of yarn, each bundle with these qualities – not enough for a complete scarf, but too much to discard.

So I decided that it was time for a “leftovers” piece.

I went through many possibilities and settled on a multi-striped warp and a single-color weft. I had one full skein of dark wool and I used that for the weft.

I think the result must mimic the flag of one or several nations. If you are a resident of one of those nations you can take this as a patriotic scarf! Otherwise, you can still take this as a colorful scarf.

I’ve measured the warp, tied on the yarn to the warp beam, cut the other ends, and now am preparing to complete the warping by threading every other strand through a hole in the heddle adjacent to the slot.

I’ve completed the warping, and wound the warp onto the warp beam, with even tension and with the helper pieces of cardboard. Then I’ve tied the ends to the take-up beam.

Here I’ve just started weaving. The light weft is there to get going straight. The dark weft is what I’ll keep.

Making some progress, mid-way:

Here I am finished with the weaving. What’s left to do is to cut or untie the strands from the warp beam, then unroll and do the same thing for the strands on the take-up beam.

Complete, except for trimming.  This is one I kept for myself. It was usefully warm for walking around this winter in Portland!

I liked the results of Weaving 006 – A single green stripe, so I decided to attempt to repeat that effort, with only a couple changes. A light blue stripe, and a little wider, so a little brighter. And, I used the speckled blue yarn from Weaving 005 – A gap, and a restart, but instead of crossing it with another color, I used it for both warp and weft. The speckles added just a little more interest.

By this point my little apartment was starting to look like a factory. I wasn’t necessarily cleaning up between efforts, so my floor was rather littered.

And there were partial skeins of yarn of various colors and textures in bags all over the place.

It was actually a good feeling. Especially when it was snowy outside I felt like an elf.

Here’s the blue stripe scarf being warped. In this picture you can see where the yarn is tied to the warp beam. Also you can see a couple scarves already made, awaiting trimming, draped over the chair.

That red orb is just a Martian spaceship, visiting for a little while. Ignore it. Although it was nice to see them, that visit isn’t a part of the weaving story.

Here’s a view while just getting started with the weaving. Can you see a little red in this picture? That’s throwaway weft, and we use a different color for it so that we can easily find where it begins and ends, when we remove it at the end of the process. Why is it there? When starting the weft, the warp is uneven and we need to do a few rows of weft to stabilize the piece. I am sure there are real weaving terms for this – I am using my own barely adequate words. Once you get going, and are making straight lines, you substitute the real weft yarn.

Now here’s a little test of your detective ability… What sport was I watching while doing the warping? Hint: It has nothing to do with the Martians, they’re not into sports, really.

When planning a piece, you have to account for this waste in the length that you choose for your warp. You also have to account for shrinkage when washing. Luckily, for scarves, being “in the ballpark” for length is good enough.

This one’s a little easier. What sport was I watching while weaving?

Actually, I found that I couldn’t watch sports while weaving. My edges started to suffer. I could listen to radio or podcasts or music, but I couldn’t really watch sports.

Making progress.

… and done. Taking the almost finished piece off of the loom.

Here’s another view of that starter throwaway weft that will need to be removed as a part of finishing the piece. I have not yet found an easy way to do it – it is just grunt work, and you need to be careful not to start unraveling the weft that you want to remain in place.

Here’s the finished piece, untrimmed.

 

This one was similar to the others. The main difference I was aiming for here was to return to a single overall yarn color/style for both the warp and the weft. This is like the first couple of scarves I made. I sought a muted scarf, with one simple green stripe. I think it turned out well.

For this post I include some photos that emphasize the measuring and warping process. For most weaving projects the measuring, and the cutting of the warp to length, is a separate process from warping the loom – putting the yarn onto the loom, through the heddle, and winding it onto the warp beam. There are many methods. I learned a simple method at the Fiber Factory in Mesa that is the only method I’ve used so far.

That method starts with tying the warp to the warp beam to start, threading it through the heddle, then circling it around a peg that is the appropriate distance away from the loom to give the right length for the piece. Advantages: You are doing several steps at once. Disadvantages: You end up using a lot of space in your work area, so generally you need to start and finish the warping in one session. Also, you have to find a surface to which you can anchor that peg. That’s not always easy.

It does look kind of cool while working on it, though, so I took a few pictures along the way.

Here’s a shot of the yarn circling the anchored peg. Once I had to restart this effort because the peg slipped off the table, resulting in a mess. So that’s why you see that the peg is not only clamped to the table, but is also held back with some bungee cords.

The warp traveling all the way across the living room. The loom is being restrained by wedging the loom’s feet under a heavy sofa.

The heddle’s point of view. Part of this effort includes threading the yarn through the slots in the heddle. Later, after cutting the yarn way over at the peg end, half of the yarn strands are pulled through holes in adjacent heddle slots. That’s not a great explanation. It is easy to understand if you see it done one time.

And now we’ve warped, tensed the yarn onto the warp beam, and have starting weaving. The weft yarn is the same as the warp yarn for this piece.

Here’s a closeup of the weaving in progress. I have just used up a shuttle’s worth of yarn, thus you see the break. It generally gets hidden in the finished product, especially with same-color warp and weft. Also, the closeup shows that while weaving, sometimes it looks like you aren’t weaving tight enough. The washing in hot water closes most of those gaps, and helps smooth the selvedges (edges).

Done!

I try to take pictures against different backgrounds so that the “right” colors come through. I’m not sure this pic was successful, but this piece is more subtle than the other pieces I’ve made so far.

(Here in mid-2017 I am catching up with posting about weaving that I did in November and December of 2016.)

The last project was a felting experiment in the fall of 2015. Since then, I’ve seen changes in my life. I went on a long freighter trip. I got separated, and left Phoenix. When this new weaving begins, I find myself in an apartment in Portland, Oregon, with a divorce in progress.

I thought, contrary to thoughts I had earlier, that making a few scarves as gifts might just be a wintertime activity that would be good for me. That notion proved to be good. I had fun weaving Christmas presents, and I think (I hope!) that the recipients enjoyed them. I got better at it. I met some nice people at the wool store.

This is the first of several posts about Christmas present scarves. You’ll see glimpses of my apartment. The last of these posts is a birthday present for my Dad, in June of 2017, and you’ll see glimpses of my condominium. I moved there in April 2017.

Okay, enough preamble.

This scarf used some leftover red yarn from Weaving 002 – First scarf on my own loom. The warp is mostly a speckled blue yarn, 75% acrylic 25% wool. I don’t have a pic of the yarn labels for this one. The weft is mostly a speckled grey yarn, same material as the blue. Since I had a lot of red yarn, in addition to one red stripe I decided to make the tips of the scarf with red weft.

Warping the loom, including a thin red stripe with the overall blue warp:

The loom is now warped, and also loaded onto the warp beam (the roller from which the warp is moved into place). Those cardboard slats folded in with the yarn on the warp beam help to keep the yarn flat and smooth and evenly tensed.

Another view of the loom, with the warp going through the heddle.

Now I’ve started to weave, using a red weft first, to make the red tips. Just starting to wind some completed work onto the take-up beam.

Now we’ve switched from red weft to grey weft for the bulk of the middle of the scarf.

Another view of the work in progress. Note that a lot of yarn is now on the take-up beam.

Done with the weaving! There’s still some trimming to do.

On the floor, laid out after drying, but before trimming.