Tag Archives: rigid heddle weaving

Weaving Classes in Camarillo

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I spent the weekend staying with a friend in the hills above Santa Barbara and drove an hour south to Camarillo on Saturday and Sunday to teach weaving classes for the Ventura County Handweavers and Spinners Guild.

After presenting a presentation (which is a blend of three that are listed here) for the monthly guild meeting I led a Clasped Warp workshop.

This was a half day workshop. The goal was to learn to wind this clasped warp, but there wouldn’t be time in class for weaving. Participants took their looms home to finish the project.

The following day I taught another class that explored using hand manipulated techniques to create design using a rigid heddle loom. These are techniques that can be used on any loom to weave designs that you can’t create any other way.

These are the samplers I brought to show the techniques and give participants an idea of how much space they could use for each structure.

Danish Medallions.

Danish Medallions using variegated yarn.

Loops, hemstitching design, Crow’s Feet, which is another version of the Danish Medallion technique.

When I got back to my friend’s house each evening I went for a walk in the hills above Santa Barbara.

This was a fun weekend spent visiting with a long time friend and meeting new weavers.

Woolgathering

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I spent last weekend in the Surprise Valley in far northeastern California. I was hosted by Bonnie, the owner of Warner Mountain Weavers in Cedarville, who had asked me to teach a class.Warner Mtn WeaversYou can’t miss the Warner Mountain Weavers when driving through town…Cedarville…because it’s not a very big town. Warner Mtn Weavers (1)I unloaded my truck with things for the class on Sunday and some items for a mini-booth. The store is downstairs and the classroom is upstairs in this beautiful historic building which was built in 1874 as a schoolhouse (downstairs) and shared with the Masons (upstairs).Warner Mtn Weavers, LIsa, KathleenLook who I found upstairs in a spinning class! Farm Club members, Lisa (who connected me with Bonnie for this adventure) and Kathleen.DSC_0616Downstairs I tried my hand at rug hooking which I greatly admire but won’t have time for, at least in this lifetime.IMG_6304Beverly, who owns Jitterbug Rugs Studio (motto: Life’s Short – Cut a Rug!)  is a pro.DSC_0627Bonnie carries all sorts of yarn but I particularly admired Loni’s Lana, produced by a local rancher who runs four bands (a band is 1000+ sheep) of Rambuoillets in this desert valley and in the nearby mountains. Loni has just begun to have her wool processed into sliver and yarn, natural dye it, and market it in the northern California Fibershed and beyond. Surprise Valley, Hays MountainsI spent two nights at Bonnie’s and Richard’s wonderful house about 7 miles north of Cedarville. This was the view from my window in the morning and I had to quickly get out with my camera.Surprise Valley, Hays Mountains (1)The sun rose over the Hays Mountains that are in Nevada.Surprise Valley, Hays Mountains (2)The major wildfires burning in California have pushed smoke into even this remote area. There was haze and smoke throughout the weekend (and all the way on my 5-hour drive home on Sunday).DSC_0588This is the view west to the Warner Mountains.DSC_0673Just before I snapped this photo there was a cat looking out of that hole. Cool photo, huh? (If the cat had still been there.)ZipperThis is Zipper, the resident burro (from a wild BLM herd)…Hank, Surprise Valley…and his buddy, Hank.loading chuteOld wooden loading chute near the barn, now filled with sagebrush.Surprise Valley, Warner MtnsI have a crazy story that I’ll try to make succinct. I asked Bonnie why they moved to Modoc County from Sonoma and Marin Counties. As she told me of a friend who bought land there I recognized some names. It turns out that their good friend, Bill and his sons, Dennis and Larry, had a dairy in Petaluma where I worked when I was in high school (and had a big crush on one of the sons). As other owners of large dairies have done, they bought land in this area so that they could grow their own alfalfa. (As you drive through all these valleys between Redding and Cedarville you see lots of cattle and alfalfa.) Bill has since died but Dennis happened to be in the area so he came to dinner on Saturday night. We would not have recognized each other (we look only a little different after 40 years) ) but it was fun to catch up on mutual acquaintances and stories.rabbitbrushJust up the road from the house Bonnie and I cut rabbitbrush flowers for use in the dye class the following day.rabbitbrush (1)This is the bag that I brought home. I need to get these cooking.RH weaving classOn Sunday I taught Expanding Your Horizons with Rigid Heddle weaving, a class in which I teach hand manipulated techniques for creating more patterns in weaving (applies to other looms as well). Isn’t this a wonderful space for classes? I’m so jealous. IMG_6317This is not a rigid heddle loom, but an old Hand-Skill Loom that I had never seen before.IMG_6324Turning what looks like a steering wheel lowers and lifts the shafts.RH weaving class (1)One of the techniques is weaving loops. I usually demonstrate this with loops all the way across the weaving. Don’t you love this idea of creating images with the loop placement?

Modoc County is a place that I’d like to return too sometime. Too bad it’s so far away…but I think that’s what keeps it so great!

Learning a new Rigid Heddle Technique

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My friend and business mentor, Irene of Cotton Clouds asked me to weave a scarf as a sample for the Coloring Contest for Weavers that is on her website. Usually I can whip up a scarf in a few hours, but with an “irene project”, as I fondly refer to our endeavors, there is always something that slows me down. This scarf was to be on the rigid heddle loom AND using a pick-up technique. I have been planning to teach myself those techniques, but have never quite got around to it. Well, now was the time.

Irene sent me several colors of Cotton Classic and Cotton Classic Lite yarn and I started to play around with color order.  I chose a warp float pattern out of The Weaver’s Idea Book by Jane Patrick. The pattern unit is six threads so I wanted to make the color changes in 6 thread increments. I arranged the colors randomly with the exception of using the same color at each edge. Here is the sample I wove. I used the heavier Cotton Classic first (bottom of sample) in purple and navy, then the lighter Cotton Classic Lite in navy and then lavender, and then black 5/2 cotton.

This is a detail of the middle part of the sampler. Notice the huge difference there is depending on the value of the yarn you use.  These two sections are the same pattern but the lighter yarn shows the pattern as circles. The darker weft accents the warp floats.

This is the back of the sample. Warp floats on one side mean weft floats on the other.

I like both effects but decided to use the darker yarn for the final scarf. I made other changes as well. When you look at the top photo what does your eye see? I first notice the light value stripes. I decided that was too distracting.  I also decided to vary the size of the stripes.  However I didn’t have enough yarn to wind another warp. So I removed the lightest value yarns from the warp and rearranged the other yarns in the rigid heddle, adding a few more warp ends as needed. Then I wove with purple. The result is below. Unfortunately the color of the photo below shows up differently than the photos above even though these are the same yarns. (But the trials and tribulations of photographing weaving are another story.)

Another bonus of this project–I love this pick-up technique. it’s not hard at all once you get used to the pattern. I can see more of these in my future.