Weave a V-Shawl (13 of them)

Posted on April 28, 2024 by Robin

I taught a 2-1/2 day workshop this weekend for CNCH (Conference of Northern California Handweavers). It went very well, mainly because the attendees were all very enthusiastic and patient. That is a lot of people to have in a hands-on workshop when learning a brand new idea. I came home inspired and I hope they did too.

Here is a view of the classroom after I unloaded my trailer. I brought 6 looms for people to use as well as all the gadgets that go with them and the yarn for the projects.

I brought several shawls to as examples and we figured out a way to hang them, clothesline style.

This is how the classroom looked after I had all my things arranged. This was before 7 more looms showed up and we had to find room for warping boards.

I knew that we wouldn’t be able to hang warping frames on the walls and I suggested using metal grid wall to provide “walls”. The room got more and more cluttered looking as we set up work stations around warping boards and looms. It was already cluttered looking because of the dramatic design of the carpet and the stripy walls.

This is the classroom next door. There is still a distracting rug, but overall the classroom looked much more organized with the looms all arranged in rows like a desks in a classroom. These looms were brought to the show already warped, so they didn’t need to start with warping stations like we did.

Our classroom looked a little more chaotic, but there was a lot of work going on here. In this photo some people are still warping and others are threading their looms.

At this point everyone was weaving. It is hard to tell that there were 13 weavers in this room (some just out of the photo).

It was fun to see the variety of warp designs.

This photo shows one of the shawls partially through the Weave a V part. Warp threads are cut in pairs at the back of the loom and then those warp threads become weft, creating a plaid design.

On Saturday night teachers were asked to stay in their classrooms so that other attendees could wander through and see what was going on in each class. Some of the students stayed as well and were glad to demonstrate the technique (while making progress on their projects).

This seems to be a random photo. I left the hotel early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to take a brisk walk around the golf coarse.

Sunday noon. Some of the students didn’t finish the shawls in class and will finish at home, but some did finish in time to open up the shawls and take photos. These shawls all need finishing touches–tie or twist fringe and wet finish. Then they will have an ore finished look. It is fun to see so many color ideas!

The unique design of the V-Shawl is evident when you see the backs!

Thanks to all these students for making this a great weekend!

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.

Weaving in 2023 – 1

Posted on February 23, 2024 by Robin

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.

More Product Photography

Posted on August 17, 2023 by Robin

I shared a lot of photos in one of the latest blog posts of my trial and error to get good product photos with consistent backgrounds. I got some suggestions from a few of you and I welcome comments again. I worked on this again today.

I bought a roll of sturdy Manila paper. Do you know why it’s called Manila? I looked it up. Merriam-Webster: “a strong and durable paper of a brownish or buff color and smooth finish made originally from Manila hemp”. Wikipedia: “Manila paper was originally made out of old Manila hemp ropes which were extensively used on ships, having replaced true hemp. The ropes were made from abaca or Musa textilis, which is grown in the Phillipines; hence the association with Manila, its capital city. Abacá is an exceptionally strong fibre, nowadays used for special papers like tea bag tissue. It is also very expensive, being several times more expensive than woodpulp, hence the change to that fiber for what is still called Manilla—usually with two L’s. More recently new woodpulp has often been replaced with a high proportion of recycled fibers. True Manila hemp folders would have been much tougher and longer lasting than modern folders.” See what you learn by reading this blog?

I also have a piece of linen that is a nice color with an interesting texture. I thought I’d try both of those as background. The linen fabric is too small, but I can get more if it works. I just made a curtain for my office and that’s why I still have a piece here.

So I experimented with my phone and my camera with these different backgrounds. My goal is to take photos that don’t need much editing to make the products look like they do in real life.

This is the linen on top of the manila taken with my camera. I am not sure if the yellow/rose cast of the manila comes through the linen. Also, light is so important. I took all photos in the shade, but not all shade is the same. The place where I’m hanging the roll of paper is a different shade than if I drag the table over to the middle of the deck area and the roll of manila may affect the outcome as well.

This is that manila paper taken with my phone.

Linen on top of manila taken with phone.

The photos I used here have been minimally edited–mostly to crop to square. This time I shot the photos with my camera on manual and adjusted shutter speed one or two stops. Most of the time the slower shutter speed (more light) gave a better exposure. I don’t think I’m having such an issue with white balance as in the last batch of photos.

Linen on top of manila, taken with Nikon.

The same as above but taken with the phone. Colors are close but not the same.

I moved the table away from the wall so the linen is resting on the table. There will be no influence from the mainla paper underneath or on the wall. This photo is taken with the Nikon.

Same thing, but taken with the phone. I see a blue cast to the background linen.

These photos are also taken on the table, on the linen cloth alone. This one is with the Nikon.

Same thing but with the phone. There is that blue cast again. I could probably adjust that in the phone, but I haven’t done any adjustments on these photos other than exposure on some of the Nikon ones.

Same place, table with linen cloth, taken with Nikon.

Same photo taken with phone.

I moved the table back to the position with the manila paper. So this is linen cloth on the paper, taken with the Nikon.

Same thing but taken with phone.

This is the scarf on manila paper alone using the Nikon.

Cat basket on manila paper. Photo taken with Nikon.

Same thing but no cat.

Same thing taken with the phone.

Here is a blanket on manila paper taken with the Nikon. I think this one could benefit from exposure adjustment.

Same photo taken with the camera. Color of the blanket is more natural.

This is in the same place with the linen over the manila. Nikon photo.

Same photo taken with the phone. There is definitely a difference in the color in these photos.

I liked the photos in the last post that were taken with a wood background but I don’t like the spacing between the planks that creates a dark line. We have some leftover flooring that in the house I think of as gray, but I guess they have a brown cast. These planks were left over after we finished the floors and the “groove” edges of “tongue and groove” have been trimmed off. If I want to use these I will trim that edge so there are no big yellow gaps.

I think the colors of the yarn and products are true, but is the background distracting even if the gaps are gone?

UhOh. Why does the white fringe on the blanket look green? Compare it to the scarf at the bottom. In this last series of photos I didn’t compare Nikon to phone photos, and they are all phone photos. I just added the Nikon photo of the blanket below.

Scarf using phone.

There is a lot to figure out. Tomorrow.

TNNA 2017

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Robin

Every January I meet up with my long-time friend, Irene, who owns Cotton Clouds, a mail-order business based in Arizona, to go to the Winter Show of The National Needlearts Association. Since I’ve been going it’s been in San Diego (2016 and 2014) or Phoenix (2015 and 2012) or Long Beach (2013 and 2011). This year it was in San Jose, only an hour and a half from here (on a weekend without commute traffic), so Irene flew to Sacramento and spent a few days here before we both drove to the show.

TNNA wasn’t the only thing in town on Saturday.

There was plenty of pink visible.

Other colors too. Why does Irene always look more excited in these photos of us together?

Big fat yarns seem to be the new thing this year.

I managed to find a few sheep.

After spending a few hours at the show we checked into our hotel where we had a room on the 5th floor.

This is the view…

…and this is the art work on the wall.

We went back to the convention hall. We had been seeing groups of young (mostly) men (mostly) wearing black (mostly) who were attending something in the convention center but didn’t quite fit the demographics of the yarn buyers and sellers. Irene spoke to one group and we found out that they were competing in the Super Smash Brothers Tournament, a Nintendo gaming event (if I’m using the right terminology). It’s worth looking at this link for a view into an obsession a little different than the fiber one (maybe takes up less space?) A quote from the article: “For video games you don’t need depth perception at all,” he explains, sounding almost Baudrillardian, “there’s no depth: it’s just right there.” Put in perspective, that quote is from a gamer who is blind in on eye. We may bring out fiber swatches and knitting needles. They bring their own controllers.

Back to the Fiber Hall.

I love how this sign was made.

Very clever.

I like the look of this fabric…

…woven on this loom which I have in the shop and eventually on the website.

We talked with a lot of vendors. This is Francis Chester-Cestari who has sheep and a fiber mill in Virginia and promotes American grown fiber. Irene is looking at some of his U.S. grown cotton. Notice the book on his table. That’s his memoir.

I didn’t come away from this show with all the new products that I usually do, although I do have some lotion bars with sheep on them (see photo in one of the collections above). There weren’t as many vendors and I really don’t need more yarn. What I need is a better way to market what I already have before adding more. So my investment this year is a new modern website! You’ll be hearing more about that in a month or so.

CNCH 2016

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Robin

The Conference of Northern California Handweavers (CNCH for short) is in Modesto this year and I have a booth. I wish I had taken photos of all the “before” but I didn’t think of that until I was facing my booth after getting everything out of the trailer. The “before” would have been of weaving samples to show off the new yarns in projects, making signs, setting up pasture fences so that it’s easy for Other People to take care of sheep, tearing my shop apart to box up the things I’m taking, and even backing the trailer into a loading dock with a curb on one side and a car on the other and blocking 3 lanes of traffic while doing it. The other is a lot of work, but that last one is the most stressful. Thanks, Henry Clemes, for moral support and rights and lefts.This photo doesn’t do justice to the pile of stuff. Most of them are still out in the aisle. A couple of people stopped by and were amazed that I actually fit it all in. What you don’t notice in the photo because of the black drapes are the 16 gridwall panels that create the booth. Those get heavier every year.I got to Modesto about 4:30 p.m., worked until 8:40 on Thursday and then from about 9:30 to 1:30 today. The show opened at 2. Here is a tour of my booth:Rusty’s Yarn faces the aisle.On the 3-grid tower in the middle I have the Meow and Woof yarns……Sprout yarns……and Mountain Meadows, all fingering weight yarns with sample scarves.Around the inside of the booth is the Timm Ranch yarn with blankets I wove and Mary’s beautiful shawl. There are Jacob sheepskins too–only a few left.Moving to the left there is the Jacob yarn and Imperial Yarn Company’s “Anna”, a wool/cotton yarn that weaves up quickly (at 5 epi).Going around the back wall I have rigid heddle looms from Ashford and Schacht and the Ashford “Katie”, which is a wonderful very portable 8-shaft table loom.Purl & Loop Stash Blaster looms and Swatch Maker looms are brand new. Next to them are the Zoom looms with the critter kits that use squares made on the them.Coming around the corner I have photo notecards, buttons, and Meridian Jacobs bags and aprons.I have added to the horn buttons. My son helped finish off another batch.Last there is Cormo Sport yarn dyed by Sincere Sheep. You can see one of the samples that I wove. It is incredibly soft and spongy (not a good wool term, but is it better than squishy? I probably need a different adjective, but it’s late.) I brought Power Scour, etc with me but barely found room for a few bottles.

I left an awful lot home but tried to bring mostly things that I didn’t think other vendors would have. I left home books and most of the equipment and had to gamble on which yarns to bring. I hope that tonight’s TV news coverage of the “yarn bombing” in Modesto (that I haven’t seen but heard about) will bring customers to the show tomorrow and make this all worthwhile.

Fibershed Brainstorming

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Robin

Yesterday I went to a meeting to discuss how to better use our Fibershed Marketplace and to find out what’s going on within our Fibershed. Part of the fun of the meeting was gathering at the Napa ranch of one of our members, Mary Pettis-Sarley.When I asked how many alpacas there are, Mary said between 150 and 200. They roam the hills on the ranch, accompanied by guardian dogs.This is one of the many ranch dogs that include guardian and herding dogs. We were told that this one is only 8 months old.Our meeting was in the greenhouse located near the field where the bucks live.This guy seemed pretty friendly.Before we started the meeting we admired each others fiber products. This is one of the Twirl yarns produced by Mary.This is what I brought to share–sheepskins, buttons, yarn, and shawls from my Jacob sheep. The new Timm Ranch yarn is at the lower left. Colleen's hat This is a felted hat made by Colleen Simon using my Jacob fiber.Here is Jackie showing a newly carded batt… Jackie's felt …and this is a piece she felted from the wool of Vicki, one of my Jacob sheep.We were able to see the recently produced Wool and Fine Fiber Book. Each producer has a spread in which samples of their fiber is attached. These books will be circulated to designers and manufacturers who want to find out what kinds of fiber are available locally, how to contact the producers, and to learn how these fibers might be used in end products. This was an amazing undertaking by Fibershed.

Speaking of amazing things, we learned about the “projects” that Fibershed founder, Rebecca Burgess, has underway. I say “projects” in quotation marks because really these are major undertakings and far beyond the scope of anything that I ever attempt. Rebecca is not only writing another book, but is working with the Wendell Berry Farming Center on hemp efforts in Kentucky, an initiative in California to legalize the growing of hemp for fiber use, research that is underway on waterless wool washing, and the carbon research project in which we can all participate by submitting soil samples from our farms. Whew! goat kid While hearing about all this we were also doing what Fibershed producers do best, eating and baby animal snuggling. This is a two-day old kid who needs some TLC. Dog and kid One of the dogs was feeling left out. Rebecca and kid Even Rebecca found some goat snuggling time.

Timm Ranch Yarn

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Robin

I bought 200 pounds of wool at the Timm Ranch shearing last April. There are photos of the sheep and the ranch in this blog post and more photos and shearing action in this video.

Due to health issues at the mill where I sent the wool it took longer than usual to get it back, but it finally came in late December. I hadn’t had a chance to do anything with it until recently. The first step was to gather some information. TR -balance The McMorran yarn balance is one tool to do that. You trim the ends off a strand of yarn until the arm balances.Then you measure that length of yarn and multiply by 100 to get ypp (yards/pound). I repeated that a few times to get an average–1500 ypp. Timm Ranch yarn-15 wpi Another measurement is wpi (wraps/inch). This yarn measure 15 wpi. However, from past experience I know that this isn’t quite accurate. Most yarn is scoured (washed) and skeined before it is sold in yarn stores. That can have a dramatic effect on the yarn. The yarn that I got from the mill on cones has not been scoured yet, so it is not really “finished”. TR yarn measurement 3 Look at the difference a soak in warm water makes. Now this yarn measure 1200 ypp (which is what the specs from the mill were)… Timm Ranch yarn-10 wpi and it is 10 wpi. Based on those measurements I wove some samples.

Here is a brief weaving lesson (and maybe more than you really want to know). If a yarn measures 10 wpi an approximate plain weave sett (that’s the number of warp threads) for a balanced weave structure may be 5 or 6 epi (ends/inch) because you must allow for the weft yarns to go in between each of the warp yarns. In weaving a pattern you would use a denser sett (maybe 8). I wove samples at 8 and 10 epi. TR 8 epi, 8 ppi These samples look pretty open on the loom……and I had to be careful to not beat the weft yarn down too much.This is how the samples look off the loom. The 8 epi samples are in the top row. TR samples after washing And here is how they look after a quick wash. Dramatic difference from the loom to the finished fabric. Timm Ranch yarn Here is how I had them displayed in the shop at the recent Shearing Day. The skein on the left has been washed. But these yarns aren’t just for weaving. My friend, Mary, bought some, washed it, and then used it for a Mystery Knit Along. Here is the shawl she knit. Mary's shawl (1) This was knit over a few weeks with a new direction given out each week. Mary's shawl-detail 1 (1) It is gorgeous in person and has a wonderful hand. I can’t wait to get some of this yarn on the loom and get to work with it.

The yarn is listed here on my website.

TNNA 2016

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Robin

It’s been over a week since I was at The National Needlearts Association Convention in San Diego but I haven’t been working with my photos. (And in my mind, what’s a blog without photos?) This show is where yarn shop owners go to purchase items to bring into their shops. I have to remind myself that my shop is small, I’m not open 7 (or even 4 or 5) days/week so don’t go crazy. As always I found a few things that I’ll be very excited to bring into the shop over the next couple of months.

Part of the fun though is hanging out with my friend, Irene, who owns Cotton Clouds. She made our hotel reservations. What fun place!This is the beautiful Horton Grand Hotel……and this is Sunshine, a paper-mache horse who stands in the lobby. He came from the saddle shop that was on the ground floor of the neighboring less formal hotel. The hotels were built in the mid 1800’s but the saddle shop originated in 1912. Wickipedia says: “Both hotels were scheduled for demolition in the 1970s when the City of San Diego purchased them to build the Horton Plaza shopping center on the site. The hotels were dismantled brick by brick, with each brick numbered, catalogued, and stored. In 1986 the hotels were rebuilt into an entirely new hotel at the present location at Fourth Street and Island Avenue.”Our room was lovely.What fun to decorate a hotel like this. The furniture was all old so I assume it was found at estate sales and flea markets. We even had a fireplace (gas so no wool hauling).We spent a lot of our time at the San Diego Convention Center.Here is a message to be read on the way there. This quote in context of time and author if quite serious. In my world the last sentence has particular meaning and is serious enough in my life, if not with as profound a meaning. Fun view while going up the escalator in the Convention Center.Leaving the hotel at night. This is the Gas Lamp District, kind of like Old Sac is for Sacramento.We ate one night at The Field, an Irish pub, while listening to Irish music and dancers. This sign caught my notice.

So what did I buy? My customers sent me on a quest for “sock yarn” so that is what I focused on. Purl & Loop sample loom But first I found some new equipment. These are prototypes of cool little sample looms designed by author and teacher, Liz Gipson. The unique thing about these looms is that they will be produced in 8, 10, and 12 epi versions, enabling quick sampling of yarns at those setts (and at 4, 5, and 6 epi). There are a few other gadgets I am purchasing here as well. This is the Meow and Woof collection from Ancient Arts Yarns. Each yarn has a photo of the cat or dog that inspired the color. I strayed from my “buy American” plan because I was so enamored with these. They were spun in Italy and are sold by a Canadian company and a percentage of sales goes to dog and cat rescue groups. I have wove a scarf out of the calico cat yarn–that is another post.
I already carry yarn from Imperial Yarn Company and these are some inexpensive and simple kits some of which use the yarns that I already have. I want to have a knit-along with some of these.The Fiber Seed will be a new yarn for me. They have some wonderful gradient yarns put together in kits. I’ll get those as well as some of the solids and variegated yarns.

Mountain Meadows is a company who has their own mill. I’m getting a sock-weight Merino yarn that is grown in Wyoming. How to choose from all those colors? I’m getting yarn in about a dozen colors.

What will be first in the shop? I can’t wait for the UPS truck to show up.

Black Walnut Dye

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Robin

Here is one dye pot that won’t quit. I guess I didn’t actually take a photo of the dye pot. But here is a post that has a dye pot full of black walnuts.

I had been soaking black walnuts in a 5-gallon bucket for a few weeks in anticipation of getting a shipment of Timm Ranch yarn here. It turns out that due to medical issues at the mill I won’t be seeing this yarn any time soon. But a Fibershed event was coming up and I wanted a naturally dyed cloth to cover my table. I decided to use the black walnut, but I didn’t want to waste any dye so I thought I dye some yarn too.

This is 5 batches of yarn out of the same dye pot. The first four skeins on the top are from the first batch. The next four are from the second and I crammed the tablecloth in that pot too. The rest of that row is from the third batch using the same dye. It looked like there was still plenty of dye in the pot so I did two more batches that are on the bottom row. They are lighter but still colored. Here is another view. It is interesting (at least to me) that the fifth batch appears to have slightly more color than the fourth. It is a different yarn. The first four batches included Anderson Ranch yarn, white Jacob, and gray and white Jacob. The last batch was Columbia yarn that hasn’t been sold and I’ll use in a project now.

This is the white Jacob from the first four batches…

…and this is the gray and white Jacob.

I was photographing the skeins outside and out of the corner of my eye I kept seeing this other brilliant color.

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Life on the farm and at the loom.

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