Once I get a new warp on the loom, I can zoom right along.  It’s just getting that new warp on… the process takes a steady hand and a dedicated attention span - threading all of the heddles, sleying the reed, beaming.  Once I am in that zone, I quite enjoy the process of it.  Especially with a good audiobook* playing.

Silk Stripes Scarf 
Warp: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed in Linen (2 skeins)
Weft: Noro Silk Garden in 249 (1 skein) & 269 (1 skein)

[more photos of the Silk Stripes Scarf here]

Each skein of the Silk Garden yielded three bobbins (to put in the boat shuttle) each, so with six bobbins, I alternated the striping patterns between the earthy colors of the 249 colorway and the cream variegations of the 269.  Each bobbin gave me between 7 and nine inches of woven fabric.  The deep colors of the 249 colorway appear to be three different skeins of yarn - but that is the true beauty of Noro!  Every time I work with Noro, I fall a *little* more in love with it.  (Sad side story:  Remember my Shinano cowl?  Totally loved that thing.  Well, I seem to have lost it somewhere en route to Nova Scotia.  I think it must have been at Dulles Airport somewhere…  I am thinking around the security check when I was hurrying to put my shoes back on… ack.  I loved that thing.  And now I want more Shinano to compensate!)

I am brimming with weaving inspiration right now - so many great ideas and designs out there!  Many thanks to Barbara at The Lumpy Sweater for sending a weaving book she found at a sale.  It is about Finnish weaving techniques.  I look forward to trying some… once I get a little better!

…

I had a nice holiday with the family.  We planned to go down to see the fireworks in DC, but the thunder and lightning kept us at home.  We played a few card games and Scattergories whilst munching on my leftover Friendship bread!  It was a fun night.  My sister Sarah and I made plans to get together the next day to check out the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.  The weather forecast didn’t look particularly pleasant, but it ended up being quite nice once we got to the National Mall.

The themes this year were Bhutan, Texas, and NASA.  Very disparate themes, but a good mix for a day of learning.  The SFF seems to always include a rich textiles display, and that offers some amazing photo opportunities.  So full of color!

[All photos from Festival here]

 We saw several demonstrations, heard a few discussions (a particularly interesting one on the environmental sensibilities of the Bhutanese people and their Gross National Happiness) and in the Texas “Opry” pavillion, I got to dance.  The band was playing some polka music, and this older gentleman came up and held his hand out to me.  I hesitated and pointed at my sister, but he pointed right at me.  So, I polka-ed with this man (who didn’t speak any English… I believe he was actually Polish) in front of a large audience.  Even though we lived in Texas for a short while when I was young, I guess I didn’t realize that polka was so “big” there.  The band was pretty good, and my dance partner was getting quite into it.  He kept on saying things to help lead me in the dance (but I did not understand!) and I just stepped around in a square figure.  He even twirled me around a few times!  what a charmer!  (…but Kris should have no cause for concern…)

*I listened to The Man Who Loved China whilst weaving my scarf.  Fascinating and engaging story!  (Psst - anyone else on Goodreads?)

Once the warp is tied up on the loom, it is possible to have a finished woven garment within a few hours. The longest stretch of time comes from threading the heddles and sleying the reed (not as violent of an act as it sounds, although it does involve a hook!)

I had virtually no problems with this yarn and warp combination - the tension stayed steady throughout, and it gave me a boost of confidence considering some of the other “learning experiences” I have had with the loom of late.

This time, I chose a very textural yarn, Pingouin Minou, that has been in the stash for some time. It is a thick-and-thin cotton/rayon blend with the little slubs of cotton, and the shiny ply of rayon. I picked it up in a trade last year from Sarah - but as to the provenance, I am not sure. The tag says “Made in Brazil”, but a Google search reveals very little, so I am assuming that it is long discontinued. Too bad, because it was definitely a treat to weave with…

Loaded up two episodes of This American Life podcast, set the pedals for a plain weave, and a few hours later, I had a finished shawl. Seven feet long, fifteen inches wide finished shawl. Weaving is meditation, but it is also production - it just goes so quickly compared to knitting!

I have to admit, this was yarn/warp initially slated to be a baby blanket. However, as I worked it up, I realized it was not the right kind of fabric for a baby - too drapey and with uneven textures. So, what kind of garment works well with drape and textures? hmmm… a wrap. A wrap for me. Perfect. (Baby can get booties or a bib, just like all the others!)

(More photos here)

Bonafide love for my new wrap. Not only is the color amazing, but the texture! I am definitely a happy weaver. The yarn definitely looks better in this form than sitting in a bag on my stash shelf!

The denim strips just sat there waiting. I was immersed and for a good three weeks, my fiber-y exploits were all about the knitting. I didn’t even take the time to warp the new weaving cones I got. I kept on telling myself that I would do it… but the linen yarn for the planned rag rug sat there untouched.

…and when I finally did it yesterday, it all came together so quickly…

I wound a three yard warp of the linen I purchased from Webs. I sleyed and threaded. I wound the strips of jeans onto the large rag shuttles. I made a rug for my front door. It was simple and relatively quick to complete.

The rags were quite bulky, and much of the beating was actually done by hand. The unevenness of the strips and the frequent bulk of the seams made it nearly impossible to beat with the loom’s beater. I tugged and beat the strips down with my fingers, and they held up well. I hope that means that the rug will hold up well for all of the feet that will be walking all over it:

Humans

Canines

Felines

I loved making something so functional. I love knowing that it will be right inside my front door when I come home. The ease and simplicity of the process were just what I needed to give me a little boost of weaving confidence. I am hoping that with more practice, the pieces will just get better. The real beauty of working with rags is that it will never look perfect. It has the homemade look: scrappy and asymmetrical. It is supposed to be that way! For a beginner, this is a gift!

After I took up weaving, I began to see some of the items in my yarn stash in a new light. Things that I bought for specific knitterly purposes seemed somehow better suited for weaving. While I haven’t been too hasty and warped and cut my yarns up yet, I know that I will have many decisions to make in coming days… cast on or warp up?

Brooke at The Daily Purl has made some fabulous stoles and scarves with Habu warp and weft yarns, so those are definitely tempting me. But, then so are Olga and Vanessa’s Habu knit creations…

With the help and advice of some weaving friends I met through Ravelry and Flickr, I decided to add a few specific weaving yarns to my stash - just to avoid some of the tension problems I have experienced of late. I am hoping to warp up this linen soon and began work on the denim rag rug!

There is no doubt about the strength of this yarn: 100% linen! It should make a great rug warp, and I liked the natural undyed color to go with the simple indigo of the jean rags. I picked this up from WEBS, along with a few other weaving yarn goodies.

Valley Yarns CotLin 8/2 cones

I really liked the springy combination of these colorways, and the three of them came with a dishtowel drafting pattern for the loom. If I can find the patience and wherewithal, I will attempt the plaid dishcloth! With 3000 yards each, I can afford to experiment a little and play around on the loom.

And as I learn more about my loom and its capabilities, I am also looking at my sock yarn stash in a new way. After seeing some fun store samples woven up at The Mannings, I think it would be a blast to experiment with the colors of sock yarns. After a winter sock “drought” - my last pair being the Autumnal Equinox socks for Socktoberfest - I finally cast on for a pair of socks yesterday after feeling the urge to see how this yarn would knit up. Definitely wanted to knit with this one - there was no thought of using it for weaving.

The feminine companion to the other GGH socks I made for Kris… another thanks to Debi for sending these (now discontinued) yarns in a trade almost two years ago!

After seeing a parade of beautiful socks by Chawne, I felt the time was right to finally cast on for some socks. I was waiting to finish my sister’s sweater, but I thought: why delay happiness? These socks are making me pretty happy! I started them on the train while I was traveling downtown to see Amber, who was in DC for work. We had a yummy Ethiopian dinner. And while we did not knit or take photos of our outing, we had a great time

So, as I look over my stash, I am thinking about all of the possibilities and all of the fabrics - both knit and woven - that can be created. It excites me. It’s like a newfound spirit of adventure: seeing my stash with both weaver and knitter eyes!

Before I learned about the mechanics of the loom and weaving, I had no concept of how different patterns are created in the fabric. Through demonstrations and lots of reading, I have learned little by little. I finally felt comfortable enough with the weaving to try something new… a next step, if you will…

Knitters: this is the equivalent of getting enough courage to move past garter stitch and trying the knit-and-purl action of stockinette!

I am experimenting with twills. On my own. (Yes, I did twills under the supervision of a very capable teacher, but this time it is 100% me - I tied up my treadles, threaded it, knotted it and set it all up!)

The loom is like an organ or a piano. If you think of it that way, you can visualize the mechanics easier. SIX treadles / pedals. Treadles 1 - 4 are tied to two of the harnesses (the frames that move up and down and create the shed, for you to pass your shuttle through to create the fabric - there is a whole new vocabulary that comes with weaving!) to form the twill pattern you see here.  Treadles 5 and 6 are tied up in a plain weave pattern (also called “tabby”) which is your standard over/under woven fabric.

You can see that I did a twill pattern for the top portion, creating a kind of diamond or flame effect. Twills can take a number of different shapes, and this one is a common pattern. After the twill I moved back to a plain weave pattern. I chose to do these twill stripes with little bits of plain weave in between to add some dimension.

The eagle-eyed among you might have caught my “oops” in the first photo: the left side had a broken warp thread. The whole “warp thread breaking” has become a frequent occurrence around my house. I have a theory that it is because of the reed I am using.

My loom came with a 6-dent reed, and I have been using it steadily since I got the loom last month. However, I am realizing that it may not be the best fit for finer threads and smaller fabric widths that I am working with… Each time I bring the beater back to put the weft threads in place, the reed is weakening the threads at each end of the warp. Eventually, they break because the reed is too wide-spaced and slowly wears the thread down to its last fiber. *snap*

So, in case there are any weavers reading today: is my theory correct? is this why my threads are breaking left and right? do I need to make wider projects with more ends per inch? would a second reed - a 10-dent, perhaps? - be the key?

I still have so much to learn!!

…and I want to finish this one up so that I can get that rag rug warped up!

PS–Many thanks for your comments on the last post. I am still smiling, and I sincerely hope that you are too!