Tuesdays are (still supposed to be) for Weaving

As we all know, Tuesdays are for weaving around here.  I failed for a couple of (read: a month of) Tuesdays in a row there, but headed back last week to actually get working on my tweed sampler.  This thing is going to look uber ridiculo by the end because I am testing out different kinds of yarn and patterns and all the yarn is in different, garish colors.

Mom, I'm going to give this to you when it's done to hang up on the wall with the rest of your woman-made art.  You are welcome!!

Miss Maybelle has been out for the month tending to her daughter and brand new granddaughter.  I am relying on the generosity of my more experienced classmates to pull me out of hot water when I mess up.  So far the mess ups have only been twisting my edge warps on the right side (I think that fixed itself) and the fact that my piece doesn't look a thing like the other girls' who is working on a sampler (I think we warped the looms differently...I think I am ok).

In other news, Adam and Sean made me dinner after class.  I heart you two and your amazing cooking!

Squash, sweet potatoes, pork tenderloin, apple sauce, salad, beer bread.  YUM!!

Tuesdays are For Weaving

Tonight I actually got to do some weaving!!!  But first I had to finish warping my loom.  First I tied the warps that I had pulled through the heddles last week onto the leash stick on the back end of my loom.

Warps tied to the back end leash stick

Then I had Ms. Maybelle hold and straighten the warps as I rolled the warps around the spool at the back end, being careful to place paper between each layer of warps so they wouldn't get tangled.

Paper in place to make sure warps don't get tangled.  Ms. Maybelle tells me I have pretty warps.  I agree enthusiastically but tell them I would love them even if they weren't pretty.

Next I adjusted the tension on the front end by tying the warps to the front end.

Warps tied to front end leash stick.

I wound severl bobbins with different kinds/colors of yarn for my weft.

Hand-crank bobbin winder and bobbin the background.

Then you shift the frames to check to make sure that your warp is clear (nothing is out of place when you move the frames).  If it isn't, you have problems.  If it is, you are amazing.

I am amazing.

Then I started out with a little fat yarn to help square up my warp threads.

The green yarn is just filler to square up the warps for where I start to weave for real.  I will take the green out when I am done.  The turquoise is my tabby: the first of my real weaving since I started my weaving class.  Isn't it pretty?

THEN I GOT TO WEAVE FOR REAL!!!  I started with a little basic weaving (over under, over under) that is called tabby.  After I did about an inch of that, I sewed a hem so that it wouldn't come all unravelled when I take it off the loom.

Next week I am not going to class, so in two weeks I will start the real business of weaving my twill patterns (in a variety of yarns and colors).  So. Excited.

The Most Evil of the Crafts

Before you say it, yes, I do have way too many hobbies.  I am a chronically bored person and coming up with new ways to entertain myself is just what I do.  First there was beading, then beading turned into card-making, then knitting, then to wire wrapping, then sewing and now back to knitting.  And with the current project on-hand, I will have to learn to spin and dye (and shear??) as well.  But I was recently introduced to the most evil of the crafts: weaving. 

A space opened up in the weaving class at the Art Space.  Art Space DC is a community, volunteer based art center where anyone can go and take really reasonably priced art classes like photography, cooking, pottery, etc.  Pretty much all of the teachers are volunteers, including my teacher, Ms. Maybelle Bennett (I promise a post on her another time).

Here is why weaving is evil:

The first week, Ms. Maybelle taught me how to wind my warps (warps are like the longitude of your fabric).  You use a warp board like this to make the warps the length you want.  You have to wind the just the right way so that they go on to the loom correctly.  There is a guide string on the board to help you do it right.  It took me two hours to learn the parts of the loom and then wind my warps.

Warp board with guide string.

The second week, I started to set up the hand loom by tying the warps to the leash sticks.  Then one by one I pulled the threads through the leash sticks and through the different parts of the loom.  The first part is the reed.  The reed is a series of metal slots (called dents). The size of the loom is talked about in terms of the number of slots you have per inch.  The table loom I am learning on is a 12 dent loom, meaning it has 12 little slots per inch.  It is twenty inches wide.  You thread each warp into a different dent on the reed.  The reed is in the beater that moves back and forth to smoosh (or beat, I suppose) your weft (also known as woof or filler) threads tightly against the front of the loom so that your weaving stays nice and even and tight.

Front of the loom with the reed completely sleighed.

I only have 70 threads (compared to the hundreds that might be needed for a wide shawl or blanket) for this first sampler project.  It still took me more than two hours to "sleigh" my reed.

The back side of the reed as I pull the threads through towards the heddles.

The third week I pulled the strings that I just put through the dents through each of the heddles located on the harnesses.  The harnesses are the the things you pull up and down (using levers at the top of the tower) to make the patterns on the fabric.

This is the loom from the back but you can see the tower (the tall part), the levers on the side, and the harnesses (the metal frames in the middle).

These are the heddles.  Essentially they are wires attached at to the harnesses at the top and the bottom.  They move from side to side depending on how many warp threads to have and where you need them to be.  They have slots in the middle through which you thread your warps.

The threading of the heddles sucks WAY less than the sleighing of the reed, but took a whole evening nonetheless.  So why do I think that weaving is evil, you ask?  Because it has taken me three nights (that's six hours) so far and I am only half way through the warping process.  I have at least one and maybe two more nights before I can even begin to weave.  Additionally, this is me only learning to warp the loom for twill weaving.  Next I will have to learn overshot warping.  And I am sure there are other techniques as well.

Don't get me wrong; I am going to stick with it because it is an interesting skill to learn (and a good way to use up the yarn stash).  But ohmygosh is this a slow process.

Me, trying to pretend that I know how to weave.