A Family Affair

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Robin

In the last post I showed photos of dyeing and weaving chenille scarves for a show at The Artery in Davis. This post is about that show. For this month’s show we invited our family members to join us in sharing their art work.My sons and daughter-in-law entered their photos. Sorry that my photos don’t show theirs very well. Chris took photos while on the fire line last summer. Matt and Kaleena’s photos are taken in their “backyard” of the El Dorado National Forest. I wove 7 Fire scarves and 5 Sky scarves so that I could choose the ones I wanted to display with the photos. You can’t tell from this but the Fire scarves have sparkles (and have a lot more color variation than shows up here).I also included two of my mom’s pieces. She was always proud of her teapots because she could create a dripless spout. Mom mostly made functional pieces like plates, bowls, and mugs, but also made tiles for the kitchen, a bathroom sink (the actual sink !), lanterns, birdbaths, and a sundial. This is a rare statement on society……but I’m not really sure what she meant.I took only a few more photos in the gallery because I ran out of time. Artery member Marjan made the 3-D flowers and her mom did the silk paintings.Heidi’s husband and dad collaborated with her making bowls.Sorry, but I don’t remember whose work this is but it is all felt, including the rocks.Here is a wild “Dragon Drawn in Space” above member Chris’ family’s art.My regular work moved out of the gallery and is in the front of the Artery for the next month or two.

A Family Affair will be in the gallery through February 1. I hope that those of you who are local can make it there.

Fire & Sky in Chenille

Posted on January 9, 2016 by Robin

The Artery is having a show called A Family Affair. We invited members’ family to include artwork in the January show and I invited my sons and DIL. They entered photos and I planned to weave chenille scarves to accompany the photos.

The vibrancy of the photos inspired my idea for the scarf colors. I didn’t want to just choose yarns off the shelf. For one thing I didn’t have the right colors, but the main problem was that I didn’t want stripes. I wanted to have colors that flowed in to one another over the length of the scarf. That means starting with white (usually) yarn and dyeing it.

Oops! Not enough white or off-white chenille yarn on the shelf. I had enough of that for two warps of two scarves each. That would be one warp for Chris’ fire photos and one for Matt and Kaleena’s mountain photos. I wanted more than that so that some could be “practice” warps. More about that later.

I also assumed that I had dye in the colors that I wanted because…well just because…just like I assumed that I had white chenille in the shop. I got the box out of the garage and pulled out all the containers that had yellow or orange or red (fire scarves) and blue or (mountain scarves) in their names. I was OK for Fire. I had wound the two white/off-white warps but wanted to start with something else to try out the colors.I still have some warps leftover from my Yarn from the Box project in colors that won’t sell. I used these yarns with the plan that I would eventually dye the warp. Now was the time. I started with yellow but it didn’t cover the colors very well so this warp went to oranges and reds.That was the “practice” warp. Now it was time for the “real” one and I decided to use just these colors.You can see the yarns that I used weren’t all the same because I didn’t have enough of any one shade. Here is where my photo documentary of the process has holes. This was a cold, damp day. I was bundled up in overalls and Carhart jacket and wool layers. I had footwarmers in my boots but I had to keep switching from warm gloves to rubber gloves, neither of which lent themselves to taking lots of photos. And it was getting late in the day and I was starting to lose the light. So no more photos of these warps after dyeing. I wasn’t satisfied with the dye job on the white warp so I wound another but this time used yellow yarns because I didn’t have anymore white. I dyed this in those same colors. IMG_2895_medium Dona was at the shop the day I was trying to get these warps to dry. She took this photo of them hanging near the heater. Back to the dye day. These were the blues. It was getting late so not many more photos.Here is one of the Mountain Sky warps. 948-951 chenille scarf I wove seven Fire scarves (two were finished the night before the show so aren’t photographed here) and five Mountain Sky scarves. 951-2 951-1 949-1 950-2 I will do another post of how the Artery show looks.

Leftover Yarn

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Robin

Never throw anything away. At the risk of being called a Yarn Hoarder I don’t throw any chenille away if there is at least a three yard length. Three yards (or a little less) is the length I need to make a scarf. I dumped out a couple of bags of leftover chenille and organized it by color. This made two warps.The first uses the yarns on the left side of the upper photo, going into the purple range.The color isn’t very good on this photo but this was mostly yarns from the right side. Here are the finished pieces: 946 chenille scarf I used a fine cotton weft for this scarf mainly because I couldn’t figure out which color of chenille would work across all of these stripes. By using a fine weft the color of that disappears and the eye sees just the warp color. 947 chenille scarf This scarf was different. I used a blue chenille weft. The blue dominates but pulls all the other colors together.

These scarves are for sale at the Artery now and on my website.

Back at the Loom

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Robin

It’s been awhile since I talked about weaving. There was Texas and the fair and sheep and dogs. But I have been at work in the shop. After the fair and before the shooting of the video documentary I worked for a couple of days cleaning. This was the kind of cleaning where you Throw Things Away…or at least put them in a different building (in the room of a kid who no longer lives here) with the designation to go to the upcoming Estate Sale. After all I couldn’t have a videographer in that shop where I couldn’t even get to a loom without stepping over mountains of boxes and moving piles of Stuff off the bench. Now that the space is organized I feel like my brain is a little more organized too.

One of the major accomplishments was to finish an order that has been hanging over my head for a really long time. These are one full size and three queen size blankets woven out of the customer’s wool. I am anxious to get them shipped off. (And there is still one more custom order–that person may have given up on me but I will contact her this week.) Looking ahead to Fibershed Grow Your Jeans Event in October (same weekend as Lambtown by the way), I wove 6 shawls using wool I had spun last year from the local Timm Ranch flock. One of these will be in the fashion show and all will be for sale. The colored shawls use weft yarn dyed with osage orange, black walnut, and pomegranates. This are how the shawls look just off the loom. I still need to fringe and full them. This is one of the shawls after fulling.

I am teaching a class this weekend called Color on the Loom. I haven’t taught this one before and I am still working on content. I wanted to weave another sample that also included combining weave structures. This is the kind of thing I rarely take time to do. Instead I have been working to meet deadlines. The creative part of weaving (as in everything else) takes time to think, absorb, mull over ideas. This week I took that time–I think it helped that the space was clean.

This is a warp in which stripes of wool alternates with stripes of cotton. My idea was to purposely create a seersucker like effect. The wool is stretchy and the cotton is not. In addition wool and cotton react differently to wet finishing. I wove several samples of all different combinations of weave structure (plain weave, twill, basket weave) and cotton or wool weft. These are before and after photos of just a couple of the samples:Each of these samples are woven the same (plain weave cotton stripes alternating with basket weave wool stripes and vice versa and the same in squares–to the left of the samples). I wove one sample with wool weft and one with cotton weft. This is how the wool one looks after wet finishing (five minutes in the washing machine). It definitely has a different feel but isn’t all that appealing to me. The most dramatic change and the one that I think I’d most like to repeat in a larger project is this one, the simplest. The photo above is plain weave throughout. One end is woven in wool, the other in cotton, and it’s hard to see, but in the middle wool and cotton alternate in bands–like weaving a plaid but without changing color. Take a look at this one after finishing:

This is felted (the next step past fulling). This sample had a five minute wash and then went into the dryer. I love the puckery look of where the cotton and wool alternate in the middle in both warp and weft. I think I want to weave a blanket like that. So I wove these as a color idea but love the texture most.

As an immediate follow-up to that experiment I used the same cotton yarns as in the samples and wove three scarves using the combination of plain weave and huck. I didn’t like that so much in the wool/cotton samples but I love the look in these scarves. These are also “samples” as they each use a different color weft (subtle difference) and are woven at two different setts (the number of warp threads in an inch). So I’ll use them as samples in the class and then they’ll be at the Artery for sale.

I hosted a field trip of Japanese agriculture students on Monday. They have been in this country for several months staying on different farms but have now come together for some class time at UC Davis. We spent most of the time in the barn but I also wanted to show them how I combine my weaving business with farming. I quickly put a scarf warp on this loom and wove and finished a sample to show what the scarves would look like after fulling. Isn’t that difference amazing? I have now finished the scarves. Wait until you see them!Also this week I asked my husband to help me figure out a “warping trapeze”. No I won’t be swinging from the ceiling but my yarn will. I have been wanting to do this for a long time. The idea is that you hang weights off the warp and wind it on smoothly under even tension. The tricky thing is that I need to get the warp yarns to go through a raddle to help keep them spaced properly. In most of the warping trapeze photos I see on-line the warp goes through the loom from the front. That won’t work here so I’m working on other configurations. I think this will work out OK. This warp is for more shawls using more local wool yarn (Anderson Ranch). I may use the same pattern as those scarves I just wove. Well, this post just keeps going on and on. I also uploaded this photo. Thinking of what weft I’ll use for the shawl warp in the photo above I got out the dye pot and the wolf lichen that I collected while at Lake Tahoe a couple of months ago. I kept thinking that something smelled funny but I was at the computer and forgot that I had something on the stove. Oops. Fortunately the yarn wasn’t in the pot yet.

One last thing. This magazine came a couple of weeks ago. I knew that my contest entry was in the magazine but I didn’t know that I had made the cover!

Weaving on the Go

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Robin

I have been gone for a few days but took a rigid heddle loom with me. What an easy way to enjoy weaving away from home. These are scarves in 3/2 cotton (which I have in the shop but isn’t on my website). A pressing when I get home will give them a more finished look.A wool scarf in Jaggerspun Maine Line wool. These three scarves are samples for a couple of classes, the new Color on the Loom (in July) and Learn to Weave on the Rigid Heddle Loom.

The following photos are of recent weaving in the shop.Jacob scarves with detail below.

Another warp of Jacob scarves.

I had the idea of weaving a wool checkerboard to sell through the Fibershed Marketplace and at the Artery. 924 checkerboard But first I used cotton–the same 3/2 cotton as the scarves in the first photo.

Using the the last of the warp I experimented with different weaving order. I think its interesting that at different angles it looks as though I used other colors but all the yarn here is black and white. By the way, I know that checkerboards are traditionally red and black but, oh well…

I don’t have a photo of the wool checkerboards yet but here are the checkers I made from horns. What do you think of the oblong shape?

In this photo the checkers haven’t been finished.In other weaving, this is the latest issue of Handwoven with my Yarn Lab article in which I compared fulling and felting of Imperial Yarn Company’s Columbia and Erin yarns.

Friendship Baby Blankets & Fixing Weaving Errors

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Robin

I finished this project a couple of weeks ago but haven’t had time to share it. My friend, Irene of Cotton Clouds, is involved with The Natural Dye Project sponsored by Mayan Hands. She asked me to create a baby blanket out of the Friendship Towel Kit that she is selling to support the Guatemalan women in this project.The towel kit makes 4 towels using naturally dyed 8/2 cotton.I added Monte Cristo cotton boucle to the kit and came up with… …two baby blankets, each using Monte Cristo and 8/2 cotton in the weft but using different patterns. It is easy weaving but things don’t always go smoothly. I happened to look at the first blanket winding its way onto the cloth beam just before starting the second blanket and saw 7 warp threads that should have been woven into the blanket.Because of the texture of the boucle yarn I hadn’t noticed the error while weaving. Now I can see it but it wasn’t obvious when I wasn’t looking for it. Here is the problem. When threading the heddles I inadvertently used 7 heddles from the Shaft #5 when I should have used Shaft #4. This is a 4-shaft structure so #5 didn’t lift at all. It is an easy fix for the second blanket. Just tie Shaft # 5 up to each treadle in which Shaft #4 is engaged. That works.However, the only way to fix Blanket #1 was to needle weave all 7 threads in after it was off the loom. That should be easy (over-under-over;over-under-under), but it took hours because of the nature of the boucle yarn. Thank goodness it was only 7 threads.

After weaving the blankets aren’t done yet. Wet finishing is an important step of weaving. It allows the yarns to “bloom” and fills in the spaces that are there when the yarns are under tension. It turns a bunch of interlocked threads into cloth. It also results in shrinkage. See the difference in width in the strip that has not been washed and the finished blanket.

Here is a detail.

The final step is a photo session. No baby was available so I used one of my kids’ teddy bears.My old teddy bear (I won’t tell you how old) featured in some of the shots too.

You can purchase this kit from Cotton Clouds at this link.

Weaving Faith

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Robin

When weaving the yarns are under tension on the loom so they look thinner than they will at the end of the process. In addition the yarn looks thinner on the cone than if it is wound in a skein. So there is some faith involved in planning a weaving project. It is important to know how the yarn will look once it is relaxed and after the very important step of wet finishing.This is one dramatic example of the same yarn on a cone and wound in a skein and washed.

Here is a project that I just finished:

.This is Jaggerspun Maine Line 3/8 sett at 10 epi (that’s ends per inch, or the number of threads wound in an inch, for you non-weavers). That photo is off the first blanket I wove as it was going around the cloth beam. The two colors alternate in the pattern blocks.

This is the second blanket on the warp. I didn’t have enough of either of the warp colors so I used a third color and wove the whole blanket in the same color. Notice how much space there is between all the warp and weft threads? It’s harder to weave this way with it so open. And this is where the faith comes in. It sometimes takes awhile for brand new weavers to have that faith that it will all work out in the end.

The photo above shows what the blankets look like off the loom and not under tension and there is a greater difference after washing. (Not the color difference–that is the lighting. I took the photo above in the evening because I wanted to get these washed that night.)

The photo above and below show these blankets after washing and fulling.

Close to Home–Post #16 The End

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Robin

Monday I took down the show. Two dedicated and fabulous friends came to help. They tagged and wrote price labels for all the pieces and sorted sold from unsold. I took out nails, patched holes, got the museum putty that held signs off the walls, and figured out how to condense this whole gallery….into the corner at the end of the room. I didn’t finish until the next day.This is some of the blankets all tagged and ready to show again.

I was able to keep a lot of pieces there. I hope a lot sell because in January it will be someone else’s turn for a show in the gallery and my things will go back out to a smaller space in the main part of the store. Here is what I did. The chenille scarves came back to the display, although baby blankets are still in the other room of the store. One wall. The other wall.Remember this?Now it’s full of wonderful comments. I like Breanna from Fair Oaks mindset, don’t you?

Thanks to everyone who came, who commented, and who bought, and supported the local sheep industry and your local weaver/farmer!!!!

Close to Home…Post #6 – Anderson Ranch wool

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Robin

Last March I watched some of the shearing on a large sheep ranch in southern Solano County and I brought home fleeces. Here is the blog post from that day. Rio Vista shearing In September I got the yarn back from the mill and used it for pieces in my show at the Artery.

Story that is part of the show: Margaret and Ian Anderson farm land that Ian’s great grandfather settled in the late 19th century. While Ian’s great grandfather raised only sheep and grain the modern ranch is a diversified farming operation growing hay, grain, and cattle as well as sheep. The original sheep on the ranch were mostly Corriedale but today’s 3000 breeding ewes are a blend of Corriedale, Polypay, and Rambouillet breeding. The ewes are bred to Suffolk and Rambouillet rams to produce each year’s lambs. The lambs are raised in adherence to the strict animal handling and environmental sustainability protocols of Niman Ranch, where most of the lambs are marketed. Local sources of Anderson Ranch Lambs are Nature’s Bounty near Vacaville and Chuck’s Custom Slaughter in Dixon.

As in many U.S. sheep operations the Anderson Ranch wool is handled as a by-product and is usually baled and sold in bulk. Last spring I watched some of the shearing and brought home about a dozen fleeces. I sorted and pre-washed the wool and shipped 90 pounds to Zeilinger Wool Company in Michigan, one of the few mills in the U.S. that can adequately process fine wools in small quantities. The wool was spun into 54 pounds of 2-ply-sport weight yarn. The fiber averages 20.4 microns. Feel how soft it is for yourself!

This yarn, like the yarn from the Timm Ranch and processed at Zeilinger’s, changes dramatically from it’s coned form to skeined yarn or finished piece. I will do another blog post about that because it’s so cool to see the changes. This would make a great knitting yarn as well (although I’d skein and wash it first) and it is on my website for sale now. This blanket and the one above it are woven with the same weave structure, but they look different because one has dyed weft. The browns are dyed with black walnut. This blanket has weft dyed with osage orange that grows across the road.I also wove some scarves. This is beautiful yarn, very soft and would make great knitted scarves or caps. I look forward to weaving more projects with it. Maybe I’ll even be enticed to get out the knitting needles.

Close to Home…Post #5 – Mom’s Yarn

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Robin

I’ve been writing posts about my show at The Artery in Davis. Here is a link to the first post that explains the concept.I used this photo in the show but had a hard time deciding between it and the one below both taken probably in the 1970’s at our place in Cotati, CA where I grew up. Here is the story:

Everyone I know who is a weaver has a yarn stash and I am no exception. My stash includes what I like to think of as “archival” yarns that were spun by my mom years ago. Over the years the odd ball of my own handspun yarn has ended up in the stash that I have accumulated.

Most of the yarn mom spun was from sheep that were the descendants of my brother’s 4-H project (I raised dairy cows and didn’t do anything with sheep back then) and many years later from my flock of sheep. Mom took up the hobby of spinning in the 1970’s as an adjunct to her expert knitting passion. These yarns reflect the lumpy, bumpy style of that era as that was the type of yarn she liked to use in her knitting and later in weaving.

The blankets in this show that are labeled with yarn from “My Mom” are woven by me using these yarns for warp and one of my current yarns for the weft. Pillows and organizers labeled “My Mom” use her handwoven fabric scraps left over from constructing jackets, vests, or blankets.

Two throws, above and below. All of these blankets have Mom’s yarn as the warp. The challenge with weaving something like this is that all the yarns are of different grist, amount of twist, and elasticity. That can cause waviness (or seersucker effect) in the woven piece. By using small amounts in each place instead of big bands I can minimize the effect, but it doesn’t all go away. There wasn’t enough of any one for weft so I used other yarn for the weft yarns–either my Jacob yarn or other yarn featured in the show.

Mom's yarn The next two blankets, above and below. This is the batch of yarns from which I worked. Not that Mom didn’t spin in color, but for most of the pieces of the show I was trying to stick true to the “local” aspect of source of yarn and dye. This is a pillow in the show with Mom’s yarn in the warp. This fabric was leftover from a blanket I wove for Katie when she lived in VT. See this post for a photo of that blanket.Mom also did some weaving. This is fabric that Mom wove of her handspun yarn and I think she used some for a vest for my brother or maybe my uncle.

There will be more blankets to come using more of this yarn.

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

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