A year and a day..

Since my last post. Oh. Dear. That’s rather a long time! However I’ve been busy, promise. Just not on anything terribly crafty, or at least not very much. The little boy is now a big boy and has just celebrated his very first birthday. He is a wonder and a delight.

Here he is enjoying his first train ride on the Bluebell Railway in East Sussex last weekend. So he’s pretty much been keeping me on my toes and the only bit of weaving I have to show for my year is a little bit of inkle weaving. Yes, dear husband gave me an inkle loom for my birthday (I rather like the pattern of birthday looms, feel free to keep it up darling..) and here is the result of my tinkering:

Rather nice and so easy to start with. If I was learning to weave again I would start with one of these – it really is stripped back weaving and you get results in no time at all. Albeit narrow results.

BTW the spots on that surface have now gone – hurrah! Replaced with slick mosaics in a lovely grey. I managed to reign in my plans for a wild worktop based on it not being everyone’s cup of tea, including mine.

Same time next year?…

The rug that turned into I don’t know what

In my last post, many moons ago, I mentioned that I was weaving a rug. Well that’s all finished now except that it morphed from the rug that I had in my mind to something else – as it often the case. I put this down to being very much an amateur weaver and I haven’t yet reached the stage where I can produce what I have in mind. That, and I just have a change of heart and the project ends up being quite different. I don’t see this as a problem but it can be a little frustrating when the change is caused by a technical issue that highlights my incompetence rather than being design-led.

Anyway I thought I would document the weaving process a little as I’d like to remind myself of these things, basically so I can beat myself up about it in the future. The rug warp was ecru Axminster carpet wool (which has some nylon in it too). It’s very sticky and is intent on making huge knots whenever possible.

The weft was the same but, and this is where the changes start, it was originally going to be a variety of colours – sand, burgundy, turquoise, sky blue and some pale forest green. All lined up together the colours looked very nice indeed. The idea was to used a clasped weft (as in my previous project) but making triangles rather than individual lines.

 

I came up against a few issues:

1. The ecru colour batches were way out, despite coming from the same order, meaning that I couldn’t really do a 600 end warp as I had wanted. This of course meant that the rug would be no way near wide enough – it was touch and go anyway – for the floor I had in mind. So I had to use what matching ecru I had to make a narrower warp.

2. A little way into weaving I realised I had made 3 heddle errors – 3! So I fixed those and at the same time realised that the warp could really have done with being thinner yarn as the weft colour was being lost. Either that or I should have changed from tabby to a weft-faced weave, but by this time I was pretty livid with the whole thing so I corrected the errors and carried on with the sky blue and a royal blue clasped weft instead. It really wasn’t what I intended but I really wanted to get some colour in there!

3. The warp ends broke on a couple of occasions as they are actually very easy to snap individually.

Now it’s finished, I don’t really know what to do with it. It could be a tiny little rug or it could be a little wall hanging – maybe for the nursery, more on that later – or I could just stash it away. Of course I still need a rug for the floor but I might not tackle that again just yet. On the upside, I was pleased with my hemstitch!

Little forgotten blog

Hello readers, it’s been some time! Yes I’ve been busy over the last month and rather neglected my little loom and blog, but the loom is used to that now. Hopefully I can put it all right…

I finished my wall hanging – I actually finished it the day after I wrote about it which was the end of May, I think. It has turned out quite nicely but I can’t help thinking that it works better as a rug which is probably why it’s called rug wool!

(Oops just spotted some wrong threads in that photo!)  

It’s predominantly dark navy so when I held it up to the white wall (they’re all white) it appears even darker. It needs a very strong directional light on it to highlight the colours because it contains really bright colours in the weft but the dark warp makes them hard to see under daylight. What it really needs is a nice strong halogen bulb on it but our house, conforming to Building Regs, only has feeble low energy ones. Anyway I rather like the injections of colour, you suddenly see a flash of shrimp or red or olive but then you move your head and it’s gone again. As cool as this is, it also has the effect of making it pretty difficult to photograph!

So I finished it but haven’t yet got it hung up. Basically I don’t know now where to hang it so I’m going to leave it a while and mull it over. It seems to have settled on the floor in front of a sliding door, so maybe that’s where it will stay!

I have to say, I do like the Axminster wool which I used on both the warp and weft. You may remember that I had a panic that it wouldn’t be strong enough on the warp because you can break it…and it turned out fine, no broken threads. So thank you to Charlotte, Benita and Dorothy for your reassurance.

In fact, I liked using it so much that I ordered a great big cone of it in ecru – you can probably see my thinking there! I have decided to see if I can use the full width of the loom which I have never done before and see if I can’t make a rug using clasped weft again but this time in more distinct diagonals. So don’t be surprised if you soon see a photo of the dog sitting on the navy one and the ecru one hanging on the wall!

Bank holiday

As today is a Bank Holiday it meant I didn't have to work! Yay! I'm not good at Mondays except when the banks are shut.

I spent a lovely afternoon weaving, ah the bliss! I haven't done any weaving for what feels like ages. Remember I said I wanted to make a wall hanging? Well today I finished getting the warp on the loom and started.

I made up a 400 end warp in black, navy and plum Axminster carpet wool. It's a lot more slubby than I expected but it has a fabulous texture. This is the perfect project to try out the technique whose name I can't for the life of me remember! It begins with a 'C' and you can see it below..



I'm rather pleased with how it's going so far. More pics soon.

I hope you're having a great day, whether it's a holiday for you or not.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Spring scarf complete

Last night I finished my spring scarf. Weaving can be such a roller coaster!

The scarf turned out completely different to how I planned – but for good reason! 

Originally this project was intended as a quick scarf to make using some lovely French-grey and white alpaca that I have left over. I am waiting for new wool to arrive for a wall hanging I’m getting very excited about – more on that later – so I just wanted to fill in some time.

I decided on a narrow 84 end warp with white stripes which you can see in the previous post. I threaded it onto the loom using a straight 2/2 twill draft on just 4 shafts and then planned the rest on my new weaving software, to try it out.

All good so far except when I started weaving I realised how many weft colours there were – it was going to take a lot longer than I anticipated not to mention all those ends!

I wove three samples:

(You can see larger pics by clicking on them.)

The pattern that stood out for me as the strongest was the plain one where the weft is the same colour as the warp – it just looks very classic and it maintains the lovely stripes.

So I decided to weave the scarf with that. All was going well until my nemesis, the free-styling gremlin, popped out from under my loom and told me to go off course!

I started adding a few colours – a salmon pink, a dusty pink, a pale lime green and a pale rose pink.

I got to the point that I really disliked it but I’d gone too far to turn back, I had to commit. I resigned myself to the scarf being a sample instead and all that lovely wool wasted.

So I got a bit bolder with it all and when I cut it off the loom, I surprised myself because I actually really like it!

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Benita and Theresa commented that the alpaca would make very soft cloth – but in fact it’s quite stiff! I wouldn’t say it’s coarse but it’s much stiffer than the alpaca scarf I made before with the same yarn. The weave is much tighter this time but it feels nice nonetheless.

Spring alpaca scarf warp wound

That’s a bit of a tongue twister!

 

This scarf is only a tiddler – 84 ends so should be a quick project, more progress over the weekend – can’t wait!

Weaving fun with Monty Don

The only time there has ever, to my knowledge, been a whole program on TV about weaving – and I missed it!!

There is a series currently on BBC2 called ‘Mastercrafts’ hosted by Monty Don. Each week Monty has been focussing on a different ‘dying craft’ – their words not mine - and on Friday they featured weaving. Fantastic, except that because I was out in London that night, I recorded it on Sky but I selected the wrong program by mistake and it duly recorded some drivel instead.

Anyway, being the 21st Century, the BBC has posted it onto their iPlayer site so I’m sharing it with you now. I haven’t actually watched it all yet but I shall later this evening. Here’s the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qvrcj

Hello again, by the way, I realise I’ve been absent for a while. I’ve decided to put the tapestry down for a bit and do some weaving – hope I can remember how to use it. I might be back to square one like Monty’s students!

Loom calling Lottie. Are you receiving?

Having just realised that it has been a week since I last posted, I thought I’d share my latest update on the tapestry.

I’m getting a bit bored of it now, to be honest! I’ve got to keep going with it but it’s just SO slow.

Last night I was prompted to remember that it’s a friend’s birthday on Thursday and I launched into a whirl of activity thinking that I would weave her a nice spring scarf.

However I miscalculated the warp and realised that I didn’t have enough alpaca to finish the warp, and to be honest it was cutting it all a bit fine anyway. So I’ll think of something else instead – maybe a necklace.

This sudden adventure into weaving again has made me think  I’ve neglected it for too long. I get much more of a thrill out of weaving than I do from the tapestry. Uh-oh that doesn’t sound promising!!

On another note we had really lovely weather here yesterday so I thought I’d share this photo with you all. This is Margot the German Shepherd and I while out for a walk yesterday – there was sun and blue sky!!

And now for something completely different…

Now that the recent rush of “gift-weaving” has petered out for now, I am turning my attention on my next project. And I’m thinking of a wall hanging, or several. Ivan and I have been doing up our house for ages now (since we bought it nearly 3 years ago) and we moved in in April 09. Things are by no means finished but they’re well on their way and I need to turn my attention to the fun bit – decorating it.

Here’s how it used to look 3 years ago.It looks a lot happier than that now but I don’t really have any recent photos to share. The house was built in 1963 and is of a Modernist design – we love it, it’s so unusual for Sussex and we love the space and light. Our last house was a terraced Edwardian town house which was equally as beautiful structurally but completely different! I must say I found our last house very easy to decorate – you could basically do whatever you wanted with it. Want to see some pics?

 

(I've become very enthusiastic with my new blog editing client as you can see from the fancy photo effects!)

Anyway, our new house is much more of a challenge to decorate. I’m not sure why exactly because I understand the style but maybe there are so many choices and approaches that it makes it really hard to decide what to do. The last thing I want to do is fall short of the house’s innate style and create a bland interior. It just wouldn’t do it justice, but I do find (she whispers) modern architecture sometimes hard to live with 365 days a year.

I need to soften it, make it unique and personalise it. And what better way to do that than with some wall hangings from my trusty loom!

So I’ve been researching Modernist patterns, prints, colours and shapes. I’ve realised that Amish quilts are very inspiring – just typing ‘Amish quilts’ into Google images brings out masses of  fantastic colours and designs like this one from this web page.

I’ve got lots more reference pics stored away but as I haven’t saved the sources with them I might get into trouble if I show them here.

How all of this is going to manifest itself in a woven wall hanging I don’t yet know but what I do know is that this is probably the biggest weaving challenge I’ve so far assigned myself.

Bookmarks at last

I finally got round to snapping the bookmarks I gave as gifts at Christmas, here’s a selection.

These two are my favourites – particularly the one with the long fringes. The warp was a brown cotton and the weft is cotton of the same type but a variety of colours. You may remember that the pattern I intended to use turned out to be something quite different, more akin with rug weaving. So I kept the same tie-up but started randomly making patterns. Mostly of a basket-weave nature or twill.

The one at the end with all the coloured bands is a bit lop-sided but I quite like it, it’s shorter than the rest but feels thick and bright.

After the initial panic of not understanding the pattern, it turned into a rather fun project. Definitely a quick fix project!

Mum's scarf

-Having trouble with Blogger today so all the images appear at the top and in the wrong order!

Here's the finished scarf as modelled by my mum.

I decided that it would be good to balance the red and pink with more bands but didn't actually want to incorporate those colours any more, so chose a darker blue instead. Sue asked where the bands of colour sit - they sit towards the ends so they can be visible but by tying the scarf you can choose which colours to expose and which to cover up. That wasn't an original intention - let's face it they all went out the window when I started freestyling! - but I like that outcome. In fact the blue works really quite well in comparison to the pink and red, and is especially pleasing against the black. I wasn't ready for that!

I was also pleased with the hemming which so far I have never got quite right. I decided to leave a 2-3 inch untwisted fringe which is short enough to avoid going straggly.

I think she was pleased with the result and it would definitely suit her as a spring scarf because of the colour but also due to the cotton weft it's quite light.

Charlotte asked me what the pattern was, I'll post the draft shortly so you can see. In truth the pattern was a bit of a let down because it's not that clear, however I think this is partly the choice of a slightly-too-springy warp and the mix of turquoise on white. As I said earlier, it looks better against the black warp and I'd like to try it again. Done properly it would be a great pattern for a throw or even a wall hanging.

"Gambling's for fools but that's the way I like it baby"

That lyric from Motorhead's Ace of Spades seems to sum it up at the moment!

I got an email from the National Lottery a couple of days ago to say that they have news about my lottery ticket from Saturday's draw. Oh.My.God.

As I clicked the link in the email and tried to remember my password one half of my brain was racing, "what if it's be the big one", while the realistic side was thinking, "don't be daft, it's going to be £10". ... And £10 it was and it was worth it for the adrenalin.

I play the lottery and sometimes I bet on the Grand National, or if I go the races I will put a couple of £2 bets on. However I'm not a gambler...SO WHY OH WHY have I started gambling with the scarf that is to be my Mum's birthday present - tomorrow?!!

She asked for a scarf with black in it, not too wide (probably 15 - 20cm max) but nice and long. I struggle with mixing colours with black and I sense she hopes to see some colour in it. I find that colour mixed with black can cheapen the colours somehow unless you're really careful with the tones, so I really wanted to avoid that.

I made a 3m long warp consisting of 2/5ths black merino wool and the rest creamy white alpaca. I just stuck to two plain bands of the colours because she likes bold designs. So far so good, it feels nice and soft and there's a nice contrast between the two bands. I've also been eyeing up a pattern for a while in a very good book called "8 Shafts A Place to Begin" by Shelp and Wostenber and decided that this would be how I would incorporate colour.

Originally I thought of a grey-blue alpaca that I have but when I tried it the effect was a little dull. In fact I used some brightly coloured orange cotton to hold the warp together and the colours really zinged. That got me thinking that I could be bold and she would love it. Maybe not orange though, because she doesn't "do" orange but maybe turquoise.

I started weaving once again and after a while I started to get a little disapppointed. It's wider than I expected for a start. Also the sett is too wide for the pattern so you don't read the roundness of the lozenges, maybe it will spring back when cut off the loom but I'm not convinced. The whole point was that the pattern would do the talking but in fact the pattern isn't terribly distinctive. In fact the photo makes the pattern appear bolder, in reality you have to let your eyes lose focus to see it properly.

Further into the weaving it all started to look a bit "samey" and that's when the gambling started.

First I thought a shot of pink would liven it up...

I thought I'd include a couple of bands of pink and then continue with turquoise. The problem is it started then to look a bit sugary, although I rather like how the pattern is more distinctive against the black. So I went away for a while and when I returned I decided that red would be the best anecdote to the sugary pink and turquoise. So now it looks like this:

One minute I love it and the next I think it's the sort of thing a 16 year old snowboarder would wear which, I should point out, is not an accurate description of my mother.

I've managed to stop myself at two bands of pink and two bands of red, and am now continuing with turquoise. Hopefully when I take it off the loom it will transform into a refined article of colour experimentation. I don't think I'll give it very good odds!

Weaving for profit

Please don't take what I'm about to write the wrong way. I feel very privileged particularly during the current economic time to have a profitable business with low overheads and I don't underestimate the value of that for a minute.

Yet when my tasks are so mind-numbingly boring and unchallenging I often start to think the grass is greener on the other side. By that I mean friends and family who do something they really enjoy and want to get out of bed for, that pays their way too. I'd be quite happy to take home less money for something I really enjoy because I'd be happier and have a richer life.

If I worked very hard at weaving and got much better at it... is there any way to make money from weaving?

Take jewellery for example, you could open a shop and sell fabulous things like one of the jewellery shops called Westwood Rocks I keep gazing at.

However how does it work with weaving?

I resolve to...

So far this year I've not given much thought to resolutions for 2010, really because I find the ones made in a drunken stupor on NYE tend to have little grounding and it remains too easy to drift back to my old ways. However I've given the issue a bit of thought and if I write them down in my blog they might stay around for longer.

My main resolution for this year is...

CARRY NO GUILT

Does anyone else tend to have a sense of guilt about things in life? I do. Things like feeling guilty for not taking the dog for a second walk before it goes dark. Small I know but she relies on me.

Or feeling guilty for not packing everything that I've planned into my day.

Or feeling guilty for staying in bed longer than I should. There are plenty of hours in the day, I've just got to get on with it.

So what does 'no guilt' mean? It doesn't mean that I'm going to bumble along with numbed senses. It means that I'm going to do my best to resolve whatever it is that's gnawing away at me and if I can't do much about it, I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

A second one is...

MAKE THE EFFORT TO LOOK AND LEARN

Maybe there's something about turning 30 that made me tired of the commercial, money-grabbing world we live in. Maybe it's the result of taking up a 'craft' and happily spending days weaving scarves that could easily be bought for a pittance in Primark (not that I've ever shopped in Primark). Whatever the reason I hope to take more of an interest in what is overlooked and undervalued in our world.

Most probably I hope to learn more about things I don't know much about and have so far taken little interest in and I hope to become a more interesting person with greater integrity because of it. Not sure I've quite figured this one out yet but there's an intention to make myself a better person in there somewhere.

Also resolutions in terms of my creative life...

WEAVE MORE

Quite simple really! And open-ended so I can allow myself to pursue new areas and enjoy it. Specifically I want to use the basics that I have learnt in pattern and colour to make fabrics that are original that I can be really proud of, that expresses something unique and worthwhile. I hope to follow my instincts, build my confidence and believe in myself. That way I believe I can achieve a good result.

Finally to relieve the monotony of text and general rambling, here is a picture of Margot watching the outside world from the nice warm living room. She takes this pastime very seriously.

Happy new year

Yes I know it's a bit belated but we've been away for a week... without internet access - good heavens!

We visited Ivan's family in the North East and a good time was had by all. We ate, drank, played in the snow, walked dogs, visited family and friends, went skiing, took photographs and even talked weaving with his aunt who I have to blame for getting me into weaving in the first place. Happily, I might add.

Very early on new year's eve we took Ivan's sister who is studying photography at college to Hartlepool where there is a disused cement works by the beach. It's a very strange and eerie setting but great for photography and she got lots of great shots. I don't have a camera, I just use my mobile so my pics are very amateurish in comparison but here are a select few.

The scale is vast and everything is falling down and decaying, the atmosphere is so surreal with an eerie sense of danger but it's peaceful at the same time.

Anyway, back to there here and now. Ivan's aunt gave me some spare cottolin to weave with and old copies of Handwoven, Selvedge and the Journal so I've been leafing through those at any spare moment.

Plus we brought home my warping board - yipee! Looking forward to getting that on the go again especially as my mum asked for a scarf for her birthday next week. The challenge is that she has asked for me to incorporate black into it and I'm slightly struggling with colours at the moment. Hopefully the new magazines will present me with some inspiration!

Um... I'm stuck!

I still don't get it! Here is a picture of page 237 of The Handweaver's Pattern Directory by Anne Dixon.

It's a weft-faced pattern and as you can see it uses 4 shafts and 3 treadles with a straight draw but when I weave or draft it, it doesn't even appear to be very weft-faced let alone the pattern pictured.

Maybe someone can tell me where I'm going wrong?

You might need to click the image to see it in detail.

Confused of West Chiltington

Ok, at the weekend I decided to do a short weaving project and I decided on bookmarks - namely because they're narrow and it's warping the loom that seems to take me a while, plus I need some. I also found a pattern in the Handweaver's Pattern Directory that I had had my eye on for a while.

The bonus of this pattern, time-wise, was also that it's only using 4 shafts and three treadles. So in no time at all I got it set up and started weaving. I thought I would just vary the colours for each bookmark but stick to the same pattern.

Anyway, I started weaving and what's coming out on the loom isn't anything like the picture in the book!!

I checked the tie up and I don't think I've missed anything and the draft was straight so I can't have gone wildly wrong there. I keep looking at the book thinking have I missed something? Am I on the wrong page? Have I got the book upside down?!

The best thing is to draw the draft myself and find out what went wrong - I might then learn something new. I'll try to post some pics and maybe the findings of my draft a bit later on.

In the meantime however I started playing and made a little sample. Unless I manage to get back on track I will stick to elaborating on my samples and make a bookmark for each one. Watch this space for pics.

This is Lottie's Loom Room

Woohoo - the delivery man brings nice new furniture for my loom room! I've got a nice open bookcase type of thing for all my weaving, jewellery and fabric bits and bobs.

I also went to Ikea yesterday and picked up a little light which I can bolt onto the side of the loom - these dark nights play havoc and although my eyesight may be already bad, I'd like to not make it worse by threading heddles in poor light!

The excitement seems to have infiltrated everyone else, here is Ivan fighting with Margot - it's no wonder she knocks over my makeshift lamp-based warp board!

Baby blanket

On Sunday I finished off the baby blanket which I made for a relative's Christening as an alternative to the usual white bible approach. It uses blue and cream cashmere / merino wool mix - it's lovely and soft.

Following the scarf I made for Ivan which I was quite pleased with, I wanted to continue to push myself rather than playing it safe as scary as it is when it's a gift! So I wrote a draft which I've done before but never actually seen into fruition! The draft isn't as sophisticated as it sounds - it's a diamond shape using 4 shafts with a tabby weave border. The challenge here was to combine the two and trust myself to get the draft right. As basic as it sounds, I haven't done this before!

I took my usual approach to making the warp - improvisation in light of my warping board being about 250 miles away. Here is a photo of that taking shape - my main worry was that the dog would knock over the top-heavy green lamp which she duly did!

It turns out that I hadn't taken into account the reed width. There weren't enough dents in my reed to handle the width of the blanket despite the warp being capable of a wider piece. So that meant I had to cut chunks of warp out while it was partially threaded. That was scary!

Anyway, no real harm done. The blanket is just a bit narrower than I had anticipated. The upside is that I have some leftover wool :)

Once on the loom I struggled a bit to get the tension right and you can see that in the next photo. It's all a bit wobbly!

Also you can just make out a mistake running through the warp. I accidentally missed one of the reed dents when threading so it left a gap. It looks worse on the loom though - when I took it off it just about disappeared.

Where's Margot? Hiding in the corner from the storm outside.

I like the diamond pattern and I'm pleased that the scale turned out well - I was a bit concerned that the shapes would be too small but they seem quite bold. The tabby border helps a lot too because it means I can get straight edges for once!

Finally I wasn't sure how to handle the ends. I opted eventually to tie knots and have a really short fringe, although I originally anticipated hemming the ends. However I rather like having the bold solid blue at either end because it highlights the blue throughout. So the fringe won.

Overall I'm quite pleased, hope baby likes it!