From roving to sweater, part 3

I had put the sweater project down for a while, distracted mostly by camping and weaving. But the recent chilly fall weather reminded me that I needed to work on this. Here is my mom wearing the first part of the sweater. I had to see how much more to knit before I join the underarms and start the sleeves. I need at least 2 more inches and the next time will have mom take off her cardigan so I can get a more accurate assessment.

I really feel good about the fact that it's neither way too big or way too small. It's a good boost for my knitting ego.

Back to weaving

I didn't realize it had been so long since my last blog post. I've been busy helping with Weavolution and camping this summer. I have made progress on the stole that I talked about in my last post. I realized it would be nice to get other church members involved in this project, so I found someone to do the sewing and another to add embroidery. The other two ladies (Jackie and Sandy) like the weight of the fabric in 10/2 mercerized cotton, the pattern will have a point twill in the cross (the second set of crosses in my previous blog), and the colors will be white and golden yellow.

I also weave towels to be given to the parents when their babies are baptized. Sandy (mentioned above) uses her embroidery skills to add the name of our church, the babies name, and the date of the baptism. I changed the pattern this time to utilize all 16 shafts on my AVL, and I really like how it turned out. It's hearts in lace, alternating weft and warp floats.



Last weekend I attended a workshop taught by Bonnie Inouye. It was wonderful. The title of the workshop is Advance! and we all learned so much about advancing patterns and how to design them. We all wove samplers too. My draft was an advancing network twill. My treadlings included tromp as writ, advancing twill, advancing point twill, and many others.



I need to get the yarn on the AVL for the stole, but I also want to weave some hand towels to sell. I have one warp I wound months ago, but it's not too long. I want to weave up that warp, though, before it gets tangled up, and I could just tie on the another longer warp afterwards and keep the threading. And I need to get more rugs woven for the guild program I'm doing in November.

There's never enough time!

Fabric for a stole

I offered to weave fabric and make a stole for a member of my church who is getting ordained in December. I've been trying and trying to come up with a design. Originally I was leaning towards the Theo Moorman technique, but after getting my 16 shaft AVL and seeing all the pretty patterns I can weave on it, decided to do my designing in the pattern. That's more my style anyway. While I still want to try the Theo Moorman technique, I feel more confident letting my loom do the work in the actual weaving for now.

I have Bonnie Inouye's book Exploring Multishaft Design, but haven't haven't studied it enough yet to do much designing on my own. When I was a programmer, I would use a similar program to create a new one rather than writing it from scratch. So that's what I did this time. I found a twill block pattern and altered it to make a couple of nice crosses.

The warp and weft is 10/2 mercerized cotton. The warp is a dark blue and I will try weaving it with a light blue and a golden yellow weft. The pictures below are from my weaving software (WeavePoint) and is what the fabric should look like. When I look at it on my computer, the warp still looks blue but when I saved the picture I see it looks really different.

The two pictures below show my first pattern, with opposing twills for the cross and the background.



This pattern uses a reversing twill. I think it looks more striking, but I know from experience that seeing the real cloth can change my mind.



Here's hoping I'll like the pattern when it's woven. I also want to get my pastor's opinion since she'll know what would be both appropriate and of most use. I hope the 10/2 won't make the cloth too heavy. I can easily alter the pattern for 20/2 cotton, but would have to buy some from my local yarn store.

From roving to sweater, part 2

From roving ...

to yarn ...

to swatches ...

Now comes the hard part: knitting the sweater. Here is a link to the pattern I've chosen. I wanted something knit top down and seamless, and I think this will fit the bill nicely. I'll make the sleeves full length so my mom's wrists won't get cold, but otherwise I believe I can use the pattern as it.

And I still have to figure out the gauge. I knit three samples, using sizes 4, 5, and 6 needles. The size 6 is definitely too loose, so the choice is going to be between #4 and #5. I'm still pondering that and will likely ask my family for their opinion when I see them on Sunday.

I hope to have another update soon!

Towels

Is there anything better to weave than towels for testing changes to your loom? The yarn's not too expensive and they don't have to be perfect to be functional. These are the towels I wove while testing my rotary temple. I got to play with more point twill patterns too. I've had this picture for a while, but just never got around to adding it to my blog because I've been having so much fun on Weavolution. If you haven't been to that wonderful new site for weavers, please check it out. It's getting more and more enhancements all the time.

V shaped shawl in doubleweave

Back in 2007, I needed inspiration in my weaving. I found it by weaving something other than rectangles. In searching the internet, I read about the V-shaped shawl, which uses a doubleweave technique described in Kerstin Froeberg's book, Weave a V. This book is available from Laura Fry. This is a great book and was a huge help in completing this project.

V-shaped shawls were discussed again recently on a weaving list, so I thought I would copy my notes into my blog so it's easier to reference them. And this has made me want to weave another one soon. I think I'll do that when my current project on the AVL is finished.

I used 6/2 organic cotton in mint green and natural in this shawl, in a straight twill pattern. The cotton was purchased from Chamomile Connection. The shawl is woven doubleweave as separate layers, then the layers are joined together on the right by cutting warp ends one by one and using them as weft. Warp ends from the top layer become weft on the bottom and vice versa.

I wove 41 inches on the separate layers, so it's time to join the 2 pieces together for the part of the shawl that's on the wearer's back. Cut the first warp end (belongs to the top layer) and use as weft on the lower layer.

Here's the first joining weft pick in the shed. I looped the thread over a stick shuttle to place it in the shed.

The layers are still separate on the left side. These ends will become fringe.

Here's a picture of the right side after a few more ends have been cut and woven in. You can clearly see that the right side is joined together and is forming a 45 degree angle (approximately).

Now we're a little further along and the angle is more obvious.

See all the nice ends on the left that will later be used as fringe? The left selvedge ends will probably start getting loose since the weft never wraps around them. I tied groups of the fringe in loose slip knots to keep the left edge from spreading out.

It's recommended to have a helper at the back of the loom to cut the warp ends so you don't have to run between the front and back of the loom. I don't know if this helper will last, though.

As I thought, he got tuckered out right away and I had to fire him for sleeping on the job.

Now you can see the nice plaid patterns that are created as the weaving progresses.

More than halfway done! At this point there is little to no tension on the right. A suggestion in the book was to tie a string from the warp rod and wrap around a pin on the shawl to help keep things at more of an even keel. That is a good idea.

It's off the loom and the fringes have been cut and twisted.

I hope you'll consider trying this technique. It's fun, it's educational, and you end up with a very nice shawl!

Macomber loom for sale

I've decided to sell my 40" 4 shaft/harness (but room for 6 more!), 4 treadle Macomber B5 Ad-A-Harness in order to free up some space at my house. This loom was built in the 60's, but has been lovingly used and is still in good shape. I'm only the second owner and have woven on it for 4 years. The warp beam is plain (not sectional) with a friction brake, which I replaced when I bought it. The dimensions are 52" wide x 36" deep by 49-1/2" tall. When folded, it's only 23-1/2" deep. I added the castors, which allows you to move the loom for easy cleaning of the floor. Included is a homemade raddle and 6 reeds: 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 20 dpi. Some of the reeds need to be cleaned a bit but I believe all are usable. I've used this loom for all types of weaving and it's a real dream to warp since both the front and back beam will fold up or lay down on the floor for easy access to the heddles.

All this for only $600. The loom is very heavy and needs to be picked up. It's located in Indianapolis, Indiana.