Tag Archives: weaving

Weaving to Finish

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I should catch my blog up on the weaving side of life. I am always trying to squeeze weaving into the day. There are a lot of ongoing projects and many that are off the loom but not finished. There is a saying “It’s not finished until it’s wet finished.” Wet finishing is an important part of the process, but there are often other steps between taking the piece off the loom and wet finishing. Here’s a round-up of all the projects that are waiting around to be finished.

Three handwoven wool blankets folded. These need to be finished.

These three wool blankets have been off the loom awhile. The one in the middle is ready for wet finishing. So is the one on the right…or maybe not. I am going to sew a hem. I have to decide if I’ll finish the hem before or after wet finishing this time. I usually do it after. The blanket on the left has a warp error the whole length of the blanket that needs to be fixed. I didn’t see that until the blanket was cut off the loom.

Four handwoven purple chenille scarves that need to have fringe twisted.

These chenille scarves have been off the loom a long time. They need fringes twisted before washing.

Handwoven cotton shawls in bright gold, orange, and yellow. These are folded and the fringe isn't twisted yet.

Two cotton shawls that need twisted fringe and then washing.

Three black and white handwoven shawls folded. Shawls are woven with a pinwheel design.

Jacob shawls woven in black and white pinwheels. I think that the pinwheels will square up with wet finishing. They are a bit elongated now. I have twisted the fringe on one of these but need to do that on the upper left. Bottom left doesn’t have fringe and the ends will be sewn together. to create a mobs wrap.

Handwoven cotton shawls woven with space dyed warp.

These are just off the loom. I wove the piece on the right first. I dyed the warp last week. This piece has twisted fringe and needs to be washed. I’ll wait until the fringe is finished on the other and run them through the washing machine together. These were on the same warp. The scarf on the right was sett at 10 epi, the sett that I usually use for this Ashford “caterpillar cotton” . Weft is 3/2 cotton. The scarf on the left is sett at 15 epi and weft will be 5/2 cotton.

Now for projects that are on the loom:

I dyed this yarn last week, along with the warp above. This one is hemp and will be dishtowels. I had to fix a threading error today and will have this ready to weaving tomorrow.

Baby blankets underway.

Wool blankets underway. I really want to finish these blankets this week.

A warp ofj mixed yarns, sourced from Art Fiber Frenzy.

Now I’m getting too tired to do more.

CNCH 2025 – Asilomar

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I spent many days (weeks, months?) working towards going to CNCH (Conference of Northern California Handweavers) as one of the teachers at this retreat-style conference held at Asilomar on the California coast. I have taught Learn to Weave many times and can do it without thinking, but the prep is different when I am not teaching at home and when there will be so many people in the class. This is a class presented to people who may have some weaving experience but not enough to warp a loom themselves, people who may have woven long ago but need a refresher, and those who have never woven anything. Many don’t have looms or at least not looms that are portable.

Fifteen people signed up for this workshop. Five of them were bringing looms, five looms were borrowed from local guild members, and I provided five. That’s not just the looms–five warping boards, benches, and all the equipment that goes along with winding warp and weaving. I also supplied yarn, and not being someone who wants to tell people they have to choose only one or two colors, I brought plenty of choices…and in wool or cotton–their choice. This is where I staged what I was to put in the trailer. It doesn’t include the grid wall that was already in the trailer. You’ll see that in use in some of the photos.

I got the classroom set up by Thursday evening. Many thanks go to the person who organized the conference and made sure that I would have two helpers. My two requests for teaching the class were space (this room was great!) and another person (I had two!). With a beginning level class there are a lot of questions along the way one person can’t provide all the answers in a timely manner. There was also the issues of unfamiliar looms getting them set up to work with the class.

Samplers in wool on the left and cotton in the center. On the right are some of my shawls.

One of the perks of teaching this class was staying at Asilomar. My room was at the end of this building.

We set up grid wall to hold warping frames on this side of the room.

The looms were near windows on the other side.

Close up of weaving in purple, blue and gold.
Close up of weaving showing purple and white stripes woven with pink.

These are only portions of the samplers people could weave.

The workshop was Friday and Saturday with finishing up on Sunday morning.

This is a photo of most of us. Thanks to all of the participants and the helper weavers! I hope to do this again. When I teach this class here at the farm I take three to five people. The class is described here.

Part of the prep for this workshop was planning for farm chores. My husband had a knee replacement only a few weeks before and there were limits to what he was supposed to do. Thanks to a good friend and my brother who handled a lot of that.

When I got home Sunday there was a new lamb which was not a complete surprise, but that’s another story.

Weaving Retrospective 2024

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I number all my warps (except for the ones I forget to put in my notebook like some of the rigid heddle projects). Someday I’ll have to look for the notebook with #1, although that wouldn’t be truly #1–it would be the first one I recorded. I think that notebook is here somewhere.

The first one this year was #1351. The notebook page says 12-26-2023, but that would be when I started winding warp. I wove most of the ten blankets in 2024. This photo is two Year to Remember blankets. The one on the left was a custom blanket, commemorating the recipient’s wedding anniversary.

This Year to Remember blanket (Vacaville, 2023) is woven with yarn I dyed using plant material growing here. It is still available on the website.

One of my favorite patterns, also woven on this warp using gray Jacob yarn for weft.

I wove several v-shawls in 2024. The one on the left is still for sale here.

Warp #1387 went on the loom in July, but I didn’t finish the last blanket until December. I get distracted by weaving on other looms and the rest of life going on around me. This photo shows how each weft yarn may behave differently. Some yarns have more elasticity than others, either due to the type of wool or whether or not they have been naturally dyed. The warp and all the naturally dyed yarns are Timm Ranch wool from various years.

Here is that warp off the loom. The blue weft yarn was naturally dyed with my home-grown indigo. The brown yarns are mostly dyed with walnut hulls. Yarns on the left are Ashford DK.

Finished indigo and walnut hull blankets.

The last warp of the year was #1404, a warp for three chenille shawls. This is the first piece off the loom in the process of twisting fringe. This warp is still on the loom with two more shawls to weave. I had wanted to get at least one off to get it to the Artery before the last couple of shopping days before Christmas.

Warp # 1403 went on the loom before the chenille warp, and I finished it just in time for our family Christmas on the 27th. There are ten hemp towels.

There are two colors in the warp and a different weft color in most of the towels.

Another favorite this year was a chenille warp. I wove two rectangular shawls and this piece that is sewn to leave a neck hole and be worn over the shoulders sort of like a poncho. I will put this on the website soon.

Weave Like a Viking

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Lambing is over as of two days ago. I will talk some more about lambs, but right now I want to share today’s class, Weave Like a Viking, taught by Farm Club member Siobhan…with a little about lambs.

Siobhan started figured out how to weave Vararfeldur, a pile weave using wool locks interspersed in plain weave or twill. Siobhan previously presented a class here in felting that results in a piece with a similar appearance at first glance, but is much different.

This is an example of the “sheepskin” from Create a Vegetarian Sheepskin.

These are the pieces of Vararfeldur that Siobhan brought to share. The pillow in the center is an example of the piece the students would weave today.

Siobhan started with a demonstration of the technique.

Six students brought rigid heddle or table looms already warped and ready to weave.

They weren’t expected to finish the weaving in this half day class but got well underway in the pile weaving.

The intent is to weave a pillow front with the wool locks and then finish the weaving in plain weave or twill to complete a pillow cover.

Half way through the weaving the class took a break to feed the bottle lambs.

We will offer this class again in May. You’ll be able to visit the lambs but by then none will need a bottle.

Weaving in 2023 – 2

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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.

Weaving in 2023 – 1

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I saw a blog post the other day in which the writer had recorded everything she wove within that year. That gave me this idea. I’m taking photos and keeping notes all the time. I may as well use them. I won’t try to fit the whole year into one post however. Maybe I’ll post weaving, then I’ll post lambs, then weaving, then lambs. How’s that?

My warps are all numbered so I can find the info in my binder. This one is 1299 from January 2023, blankets on the AVL loom. My notebook shows that I wove 11 blankets on this warp, some of which were Year to Remember blankets. These three use temperature data from 2022 so the stripes are all the same, but the colors are very different. I weave custom Year to Remember blankets and use a sparkly yarn to distinguish the special date. I think I have enough warp still on the loom for one more of these this winter, so contact me if you want to know more.

This is 1301 a scarf using all these crazy yarns. I teach a class in weaving a scarf using a mixed warp wound with a paddle, “Mix it Up”. I haven’t taught that class in awhile and I probably need to change it from a 1-day class to maybe 1-1/2 days. I don’t know if people want to pay for an extra day, but I always forget that it takes longer in a class setting than I take if I’m just warping and weaving my own scarf.

Two more mixed warps on the loom. The one on the right is a shawl, now at the Artery I think. I wove 5 or 6 of these in different colors.

In February I demonstrated weaving at the Sacramento Weavers Open House. I missed it this year because lambs were coming earlier than the previous year. I wove a chenille warp on Saturday and a wool warp on Sunday.

This is the warp after I took it off the loom.

Warp 1317 was a handspun Jacob wool scarf. Two Farm Club members spun yarn from wool that was accumulated from years of samples sent in when registering rams. Each ram application requires a few locks of wool. We have been digitizing the papers and that means those baggies of wool are discarded. I decided to do a project like this and then donate the scarf to the Jacob Sheep Breeders raffle. I wove two scarves using wool two different people had spun.

Clasped Warp is a technique that I wrote about for Little Looms a few years ago. It has been used with rigid heddle looms to design warps that change color midway through the length. I decided to do the same thing on a floor loom, adding the woven in pattern to the elements of interest. This is a shawl woven on a 4-shaft loom using handspun yarn. I will have an article coming out in the next Handwoven on this technique.

I wove fabric for 4 bags to use in an article that was published in Little Looms last year. These are hemp and woven on a rigid heddle loom. The bag uses a length of fabric that is 8″ wide and 4 yards long. Folding it strategically gives a shoulder bag with and inside and outside pocket.

This was part of that last blanket warp. It used up odds and ends of the Ashford DK yarn that I use for the Year to Remember blankets. The shape isn’t exactly right because that warp is designed to weave throws that end up about 45-50″ wide. I wove random stripes and sewed two together for a bed-sized blanket. I should have woven them longer and then they’d fit the bed correctly, but I didn’t have a plan at the time.

More to come if I’m going to finish out the year.

Today on the Farm – February 16

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Sunrise while I was in the pasture.

This is the opposite view. It looks as though there is a lot of grass but we have to be strategic about grazing right now. The ground is wet and I don’t want to cause compaction. And much of the pasture is not fresh grass, but still-dormant dallisgrass with only a little annual grass growing through. The bulk of the green grass right now is annual, not perennial. There are clovers in here too and we want to maximize their vigor by not overgrazing them.

We first set the net fence up along the lane so the sheep could graze that down before it became so tall all they would do is trample it. The grazed part is where I had the sheep yesterday using a short bit of net fence. This morning I switched to a longer section of net fence and gave them a bit more of the grass.

Ginny came to the barn eventually with a ball. Whose ball is this? Chicken or dog?

Trista was in last night because I thought she was next to lamb. I was right, but she sure took her time with it. It was a long time before this labor became anything that was visible.

Back at the Weaving House, one of the things on the list was to photograph the latest v-shawls to promote the class that I will teach at CNCH in April. There is still room!

On my many trips back and forth between the barn and the house I always admire my daffodils.

It was about 1 p.m. that Trista finally lambed. It took another hour before she had the seccond lamb. Look at the horns on this ram!

Back at the Weaving House. Jacob shawls are on the loom now. I hope to finish these tomorrow.

We have seen a skunk twice in the last week around the shop. It seems to be living under the shop. Ginny has confronted it. I There is a distinct “eau de skunk” in the air, even in the shop. There are many reasons why it’s not a good idea to have a skunk around. Fortunately it was not under the shop tonight we we could deal with it.

Back to the barn. This is Coco with the first of twins.

Jade came in tonight because…well, because she is Jade. She doesn’t look particularly ready but she sure looks as though she should be. She was due yesterday I think.

Bright Colors and Lambs

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I taught a rigid heddle weaving class this morning and the one participant chose these brilliant colors for her scarf. I think it turned out great!

Dan and I went to the barn to put up a new barn camera and saw this out back. I had put these ewe in last night because she didn’t follow the others in to eat. But I put her back out this morning because nothing had happened and she wasn’t due for another five days. This is Rose, Kirby’s ewe. She is in the photo below just before shearing.

When they are in full fleece, looks are deceiving.

The ultrasound results showed triplets, but there are only twins here. These are dark lilac lambs. Horatio is the sire.

This is Bessie, the ewe that lambed January 29, too early for the “real” breeding season. These lambs are sired by a random ram lamb. They are sure nice looking ewes. One is black and white and one is lilac.

Searching the Archives 12-25

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I was looking for a photo earlier and got distracted by others that were of memorable events. Then I realized it had been a long time since I searched for a number to see which photos showed up. I chose 1225 and searched my Lightroom catalog for that number. I turned up a group that is not that exciting, but there are some stories attached.

In May 2017 a group of friends and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. We made our trip long enough for some sight seeing. One of our stops was Assateague Island National Seashore where we saw ponies. Here is the story about that.

This is from setting up a show at The Artery in November, 2017. I called the show Loom With a View. In looking back through the photos I have two conclusions. One is that it it looked pretty good. The second is that my style hasn’t changed much. Is that a good thing–in that I weave functional pieces with a recognizable style? Or not so good in that I haven’t evolved? Here is a link to the post about setting up that show.

Maybe this is cheating to keep within the theme of this post (photo # 1225), but here is a photo of how the room looked.

The next #1225 photo is from March 2021. Ahhh, the pandemic years of wearing masks everywhere. I can’t find a blog post from this shearing at the Timm Ranch but here are two from shearing in 2019 and shearing in 2022.

This is not Photo #1225 but Warp #1225. That’s the 1225th warp since I started keeping track. I guess if I run out of ideas for blog posts I could go back in those archives as well. This warp was a sampler that I ended up using to develop the class I just taught last month. Blog post is here. Class description is here.

This piece is from that same warp and seems to be an appropriate end for Christmas Eve.

Week in Review – SF, Sheep, Weaving

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So much for my one blog post every day routine. It’s been a week. I think I had a set back last weekend. I often work on the computer in the late evening. Last Friday I went to bed earlier than normal because I had to get up early for the next day’s event. That backfired. I woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep.

Charlene (Integrity Alpacas, creator of Gardener’s Gold, and my down-the-road neighbor) and I left at 5 a.m. for San Francisco to be part of the Fibershed booth at the Ferry Building Farmers’ Market.

We arrived at dawn and some people were already setting up. It had been raining and continued to rain and drizzle off and on all day.

This is the opposite view from our location.

A few Fibershed producers arrived, and we finished setting up in time for the market to open. There were twelve producers represented at the booth.

Do you recognize any fabric here? Gynna (creator of Soil to Soil Market is using some of my woven pieces to create earrings! (FYI – Soil to Soil Market is open, there are still only two of us listed while there is more behind-the-scenes work.)

This was a cold, wet day. Thankfully we were able to pack up when the market was over at 2. When Charlene went to the parking garage to get her truck she found it, along with six other vehicles, had been broken into. Her rear passenger side window was shattered and the truck had been searched. The next day after, a night of freezing temperature, the front passenger window had shattered and you could tell where it had been hit first but hadn’t yet broken.

I didn’t feel warm until that night in bed (early). I’m ready to stay home.

Back to farm life.

This is SilverSun, one of the March 2023 lambs. I changed coats a couple of weeks ago. Its always a gamble to figure out which coat is big enough to give room for more wool to grow but fits well enough to stay in place. I had bought some new coats last summer and I they fit a little differently. She had probably got a back leg out of the strap and then the front was loose enough to get a front leg through. Eventually the neck opening was around her middle and she was trapped with the coat dragging underneath. The other sheep were harassing her and she couldn’t do anything about it.

Here she is in one of the old style coats that has been patched. That’s a better fit.

Ewes (and a goat) in the small field behind the shop.

I’ve been focused on weaving…all the weaving that I wish I had done earlier in the year to be ready for the holidays. These are three wool shawls now at The Artery in Davis.

I’m also creating other pieces using odd bits of handwoven fabric. These pillows are at The Artery.

At Spinners Day Out on Friday a friend who had harvested our pomegranates brought me a treat of pomegranate soda!

Also at Spinners Day Out, our youngest friend, daughter of one of the original Farm Club members, went to the barn to visit with Jade. (That’s a stuffed kitty snuggled in her clothes.)

Back to normal work–weaving, website, sheep, etc.