Weaving in 2023 – 2

Posted on February 28, 2024 by Robin

Before the last couple of lamb posts I started to take a look back at weaving in 2023. Here is the next about weaving

Warp #1308 was baby blankets. I need to get another baby blanket warp on the loom because I’m almost out. Do you know that one of the first things I wove was a baby blanket for my son who is now 43? I have been weaving pretty much the same blankets all this time. If people still like them I guess that’s OK. I have a lot of other ideas though. Just no time.

Warp # 1311 was for samples using the yarn I got back from one of the mills. The samples are Jacob warp with Jacob and Timm Ranch weft at two different setts. The photo on the left is before washing and the right is after washing. That is where differences in take-up and draw-in really show up.

These samples were all from one warp but resleyed to weave at 15 epi, 18 epi, and 24 epi. I used these for a Yarn Lab article for the Jan/Feb 2024 Handwoven magazine.

This is one of several clasped warp scarves and shawls I wove. They will be in an upcoming issue of Handwoven.

Warp 1326 was Timm Ranch yarn and I wove two shawls, one with indigo-dyed weft, and one with 3 supplementary warps to create the design.

The next warp is Jacob wool. I really like how the two sides of this pattern are so different.

This is Warp 1328 with 14 blankets. I weave these on my 60″ wide AVL production loom.

They look a little better when finished. Some of these are on the website now (here is one). Some are Year to Remember blankets that were custom orders.

This is another clasped warp scarf using Timm Ranch wool that I dyed with homegrown indigo.

Warp 1337 on the loom. This is Timm Ranch warp and Jacob weft.

I wove enough for four pieces and made two into mobius shawls.

So many ideas and so little time. Back to the barn to feed lambs now.

Stars and Stripes in Black and White AND New Jacob Yarn

Posted on November 30, 2023 by Robin

Three days in a row with a blog post! I’m on a roll.

I didn’t write about my newest yarn because I wanted to have all the details. Here it is, although not on the website yet.

I shared this photo in a previous post. I just picked up the yarn from Valley Oak Mill a week or two ago. This is the last of the 2023 Jacob fiber.

The first thing I need to do before planning a weaving project and before listing the yarn for sale is evaluate the yarn. Measuring wraps/inch (WPI) is one step.

Look at what I finally figured out–how to put photos side-by-side. It only took 20 minutes of trial and error and I don’t know if I can do it again. Now if I could just figure out how to change the size of the spaces .

The point of this is to show the wpi measurements for the same yarn before and after wetting. The yarn on the left is wound straight from the cone. The sample yarn on the right shows the WPI after the yarn has “bloomed”. I soak the skeins in water for about five minutes and then spin them out and let them dry. It is important to plan a project based on what the yarn will look like when the knitted or woven or crocheted project is wet finished. In the case of all these yarns they measured 17 WPI when wound from the cone and 12 WPI after washing. That’s a big difference.

Here is how the black yarn looks.

Here is this yarn on the loom. I sett it at 8 epi (ends per inch) based on the 12 WPI measurement. It looks very open but remember that the yarn is under tension on the loom and it has not been wet finished. It will bloom as in the photos above.

The stars appear due to alternating 6 dark threads and 6 light threads in warp and weft AND the weave structure. Without the two colors you wouldn’t see stars and without the weave structure (tie-up and treadling) you would see a plaid. There is a trick to weaving this without cutting the yarn every time you change color and keeping the selvedges neat. I put boxes at the right height at each side of the loom and rest the unused shuttle there where I can reach under the yarn when I catch the active shuttle for six picks.

This is how the scarves look off the loom, not yet wet finished. The stars are black on one side of the scarf and white on the other.

Here are the finished scarves. I have two of the stars scarves and one of the stripes. They may be sold this weekend but I can make more before Christmas. I wonder if I should try other colors. I could use the Timm Ranch naturally dyed yarn or Ashford yarn. I’d like to weave some in cotton as well. Too many ideas, too little time. If you’d like one let me know soon.

Woven Goods

Posted on December 8, 2018 by Robin

I’ve been neglecting my blog. All my computer time has been spent at other things–mostly trying to stay caught up with email, working on my website, and trying to organize and edit photos for items listed on the Fibershed Marketplace and on my website (each of which need differently formatted photos). I’m also trying to figure out the best way to keep track of what is listed where and which items go to the Artery. I really don’t want to take the chance on selling something on the website and find out that I already sold it at the Artery.

The website is up now and, although I haven’t listed a lot of products yet, I’m happy with it. I hope you’ll explore it a bit. I’ve worked most at getting some weaving classes scheduled for January-March and in getting handwoven items listed.

Here are some of the items that I have listed. Don’t judge my photos. I struggle with trying to get decent product shots.

Blanket 921-2-2

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Shawl 1065-1 I didn’t list this one because right now I can’t find it. That may mean it is at the Artery. Or did I sell it? This is what I mean be trying to keep track. I’m not doing very well with that.

My niece was nice enough to model for me at Thanksgiving.

V-Shawl 1069-2 Photobombing brother. These are yarns from Lunatic Fringe and all appear in the latest scarf I wove. Hopefully I’ll get to that blog before too long.

Every Weaving Project is an Experiment

Posted on September 10, 2018 by Robin

I always tell students that unless you are using the exact same yarn in the exact same way that you have used it before, then your project is an experiment. Call it a full-size sample if you want to.

I’m OK with that. Who wants to do the same thing over and over?This is my latest warp. I wound 13 yards of mixed Solano County wool yarns. These are yarns that I have had spun in the last few years from the Timm Ranch, Anderson Ranch, and my own flock. Most were dyed with black walnuts–it’s amazing the range of colors you can get when you use a black walnut dye pot over and over…and over. It keeps on giving color. Look at the range of browns in the photo below.The other thing to notice about this photo is that the last piece woven on it is so much narrower than the others. This was the fourth shawl on the warp. The one before this one is a different weave structure (advancing twill treadling), but the first two are the same structure as the fourth one. The only difference is the weft yarn. The first three shawls were woven with 2015 Timm Ranch yarn on cones. The weft for the fourth shawl is 2016 Timm Ranch yarn that has been dyed. This is a perfect example of the difference that “finishing” yarn can make. Shawl 1049-3 This is one of the previous batch of shawls. It is mostly Jacob yarn but the weft is last year’s Timm Ranch/Jacob blend used from a cone without washing. In this case the width of the warp in the reed was 30″ with a sett of 6 epi. That is very open but when wet finished the shawl is lightweight and has great drape. However, the finished width is only about 20″ (33% draw-in and shrinkage). So I sett the brown warp the same at 6 epi but started with a 39″ wide warp.

Here are the shawls from the brown warp after wet finishing. That one that was so much narrower on the cloth beam? That is the one that is a little wider here. It is now 27″ wide (30% draw-in and shrinkage). The shawl in the same pattern but woven with the white weft is 26″ wide (33% draw-in and shrinkage). The difference between width in the reed and the finished piece isn’t much, but the photos show the dramatic difference in how the yarn behaves while it is woven. Here is a before and after photo. The bottom shawl has been wet finished. The top one is the same weft yarn and same pattern, but has not been washed. Look at the very first photo in this post. You can see how wide open the yarns are. Off the loom they are a little closer, but that looks nothing like it will when finished. An example of trying to take product photos with the help of a Border Collie. Shawl 1059-1-1 Here is one of the final product photos. I noticed a surprise. I started to see a purple cast to one of the warp yarns. At first I thought that I just hadn’t noticed that shade inside while I was weaving. I tried to convince myself that it was still brown.Do you see it here? Another photo of one not washed (no purple) and one washed. I lined up the same warp threads in these two pieces. Depending on the light setting in the photo (and maybe your monitor) you may see it more clearly in one of these other photos. In person it is clearly visible, although it doesn’t stand out.

The answer…that was a yarn dyed with mushrooms from a friend. It must have been rhe soap that caused the shift in color. I love it. Lisa, what is the name of that?

Loom With A View – More Set Up

Posted on October 29, 2017 by Robin

I just wrote a blog post using Dona’s photos of “The Creative Process” at the Artery setting up my show. Here are my photos.

It was sometime in 2016 (maybe the spring?) that I found out I could have the gallery space for a show in November, 2017. That is perfect timing for any show because of the holiday buying season and even more perfect when your focus is wool. I thought for a long time about what I wanted to do. I knew that it should be different from the show in 2014, “Close to Home–Yarn with a Story”. There are sixteen posts about that show, starting with this one.

Friends (Lisa and Dona?) said “you should use those old windows that are in back”. They were thinking that I could weave using the windows as weaving frames. They like that sort of thing. I like it too, but I haven’t actually done much of it. My weaving is more functional than decorative–like blankets, shawls, and scarves. I admire things to hang on the wall, but my house has hardly any wall space, and in my world things that hang on the wall just get covered with dust and cobwebs. Still, one point of doing a show is to move outside what is your same-old-stuff.

I had to choose a name for the show. Loom With a View came to mind, and the theme was set.

So eventually (this photo was from May, 2017) I dug out the windows. There were probably a couple dozen in various degrees of ~~repair~~ disrepair. These in the photo were the best. I took that photo after I hosed off the windows, trying to not chip off any more of the glazing and paint than was already gone. I remember sending a text of the photo to my friends and asking “Do you mean these windows? The ones with the dry rot and termites?” “Yes!”, they said. I spent the next several months trying to figure out how in the heck I’d use these in a show in an Art Gallery. (There will be more in future posts about this.)

Wednesday, October 25, 2017. That date was stuck in my head. I had to be Ready. My friends showed up when the gallery opened at 9:30 and we unloaded the truck. All those white cubes were in the gallery from the previous show. The first decision to be made was which cubes to leave for my show. The Artery Display Committee needs to know how many they can use for the other store displays, but the person doing the gallery show gets first choice.

I wasn’t really sure but narrowed it down to Not Very Many, keeping some of the larger ones.

Organizing by color.

Half way through the day I needed to get my signs printed for the entry. My friends were going to go get lunch and I asked them to bring back a slice of pizza. They know me well. It was touching that they brought back my favorite beverage, but saved for special stress-invoking occasions like being at the fair all day.

Lunch break.

As Dona and Mary left at 5-ish I think they wondered if I’d spend the night there.

I didn’t but I did come back on the next day and the next.

Keeping track of all the pieces in the show by my inventory number and the show number (not the same), entering pieces into the Artery computer, applying barcodes to the tags, applying bar codes to the sales list at the desk, applying sticky numbers to the wall for each piece. I could have used a chocolate milk. I finished up at about 1:30 on Friday.

This is the display in the front window.

Here is my “Artist’s Statement”. I don’t know if you can read it in the photo. I’ll get it on my website at some point.

More photos to come now that the show is installed.

Sprout Yarn Scarf

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Robin

Friends and customers told me that I should start carrying sock yarns so last winter I chose a few special yarns. One is Sprout, a fingering weight superwash Merino yarn that is dyed and marketed by The Fiber Seed, the business name of a delightful couple who live in Florida.

This colorway is called Quicksilver and is dyed in one of several dye patterns they use.

Chris saw me photographing this and commented that I was going to weave something to match my cell phone.

Here is what it looks like after winding into a ball.

Too many people think that you can’t using “knitting yarns” for weaving and vice-versa. To me, yarn is yarn. This yarn is very stretchy and you need to plan for that from the start. I measured the warp on my warping frame under a light tension, also taking time to match up the color repeat. That way I have a warp where the colors don’t mix, but move from yellow to gray and repeat (which you will see in the finished piece). That may not work with every dye pattern or warp plan, but it worked perfectly for this one.

Notice how open this is. I sett the warp at 12 epi (ends per inch) and wove it with a very light beat. Beginning weavers often BEAT, instead of ~~beat~~ press the weft in. In this case that would completely cover up the warp and not make fabric appropriate for a scarf. This yarn is under tension and when it comes off the loom a lot of those spaces will fill in.

I could have chosen to weave this with a solid color to maximize the effect of the color movement in the warp, but one of my goals is to show what can be done using just one skein. The color repeat in the skein means that when using this yarn for weft the color changes after about every fourth weft pick. Notice also how the color changes over-ride the pattern of the weave structure. This is one of my favorite weave structures, but in this piece I used it for the drape and texture it would give the piece and not because you’d see the design it makes when I use solid yarns.

971 Sprout scarf

I knew this wool wouldn’t “full” because the yarn is superwash, but wet finishing will still change the look of the piece. I soaked it in water, agitating as if I was fulling it. I should have taken a photo but it was late at night. After that process the scarf looked pretty awful. The yarn reverted from being lofty and squishy to long and stringy. The fringe looked bad. I laid the scarf out to dry as I usually do and it was very disappointing. Then I remembered–Superwash! I put the scarf in the dryer with a big towel. That was the answer!

This scarf is lofty, bouncy, and very soft.

Here are the stats:

On the loom: 7.25″ x 81″ measured under tension

Off the loom: 6″ x 68″ (Remember, I told you it was stretchy!)

Wet after washing: 6.25″ x 72″ (and not looking very good)

After drying in dryer: 5.25″ x 58″ Perfect!

Another cool thing for you knitters is that each yarn comes with a QR code that links to a knitting pattern using the yarn.

I guess I need to get these yarns on my website, but there are so many color and dye pattern choices that will be difficult. I’ll work on it. In the meantime, if you are interested you can always ask me to send photos or come to the shop.

At the Loom

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Robin

I haven’t posted many weaving projects lately. I’ve been focused elsewhere, but here are some things that I’ve finished.

I wove 16 baby blankets on a mostly blue warp in May.

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This one isn’t weaving but it is a textile project. My friends found out that I planned to sew flower girl dresses for my granddaughter and the other flower girl in my son’s wedding. They offered to help. I am grateful that they did because it took three of us all day to sew two little dresses!

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This view shows the back and the front of the dresses.

Unfortunately I never got a good shot of both the girls in their dresses.

Back to weaving.

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The wedding colors were navy blue and yellow and I wove a chenille throw in those colors as a wedding gift. Another friend suggested some how using wedding details in the weaving. I used the date (5/20/16) to design the stripes. The yellow stripes have 5, 20, and 16 threads (doubled and reversed for symmetry). DSC_9761-2

Next up was a rug for my daughter. My friends always hear me say “I am not a rug weaver.” I think there is a special skill needed to weave a really good rug, but this one turned out OK and it was a fun project. Two years ago we had a baby shower for my daughter and I bought fabric to cover the outside tables instead of using plastic tablecloths. The colors were those that my daughter was using in the new baby’s room (kind of a forest scene with pink). My plan was to make a rug for the baby’s room. That didn’t happen before she was born. It didn’t happen before Christmas, or the second Christmas. I finally wove it and was able to give it to my daughter for her birthday in June.

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The little bits of yellow were leftovers from the flower-girl dresses.

Next project is to weave a vest using handspun yarn that I just finished. That will be another post.

Soft Scarves and a Soft Lamb

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Robin

On Friday I wondered “what was I thinking?” when I set up a class for the middle of lambing time. Some days in the last two weeks I have spent most of the day in the barn but luckily the class went smoothly with only a few barn-check breaks while everyone was working on their looms.This was a class about weaving with rayon chenille, a yarn with a reputation of being difficult to work with. I set up 4 warping frames on temporary structures and the fifth person used the one I have mounted on the wall.After the looms were warped and ready to go I was surprised that it wasn’t all that crowded with five looms. Each person chose a different combination of colors for their scarves:

We did take a barn break or two. One lamb was born during class and two more right afterward.Everyone finished weaving in the class time (although fringes will be finished at home) and all were pleased with their scarves.

The Latest from the Loom

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Robin

In preparation for Fibershed’s Grow Your Jeans event I wove six shawls using locally grown Timm Ranch wool yarn. I showed photos of these before they were washed in this blog post. Quite a dramatic change. With the exception of the second blanket the weft is all the same as the warp, but naturally dyed. From left to right: Osage orange (exhaust), Jacob wool, osage orange, black walnut, pomegranate, not dyed. One shawl will be worn in the fashion show and they will all be for sale at Grow Your Jeans. After that they will be for sale at the Fibershed Marketplace website and at the Artery in Davis.More locally grown wool. These scarves are woven using Solano County Anderson Ranch wool. Not locally gown, but one of my best sellers–chenille scarves. You’ve seen this before but I hadn’t taken a photo with the magazine cover.Here’s is one of my photoshoot locations. Hard to find a smooth surface in the shade.