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paper quills: The Good, the bad, and the really, really ugly

9/26/2014

6 Comments

 
I tend to weave with fine yarns, and when I do, I weave with an end-feed shuttle and pirns.  Yet I still find using paper quills invaluable.  

They can be used instead of a bobbin in a boat shuttle, and I do use them that way when I have to fill lots and lots of paper quills for weaving demos, and I simply don't have enough plastic bobbins available.  I use them instead of plastic bobbins for heavier yarns when the end-feed shuttle won't work
Picture
Picture

In my studio, I use them for storing leftover yarn that comes off of bobbins and pirns.  When I am done with a project, I wind yarn off of my pirns onto paper quills and rubber band them to the cones they belong to.  That way a) I free up my pirns and plastic bobbins, and b) I keep the leftovers strapped to the parent cone so I don't get dye lots mixed up.

So how do you make a paper quill?  
First I make a template out of card stock.  This is oval shaped and about as long as my plastic bobbins and about 2/3 as wide.  I trace 2 of them onto a piece of 20-lb or 24-lb copy paper or brown paper bags and cut out the 2 quills.  I can usually stack 3 or 4 pieces of paper and cut several out at a time.
Picture

Winding a paper quill:
I use a Swedish bobbin winder to wind the paper quills, but any winder should do.  First wind the piece of paper tightly around the pirn of the bobbin winder (I start the paper behind the pirn and wind it towards me - see picture).  After you get it wound on about half way, stick the end of the yarn in there and keep winding.  Once the paper is fully wound on, Start cranking and wind with firm tension on the yarn, forming little bumps on each end and then filling in the middle.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
TIP #1: To get that paper started winding on tightly, it sometimes helps to lick (yes, lick) the edge that you are wrapping onto the pirn.

TIP #2:  Use a little piece of thin leather around the yarn to help you get good tension of the yarn without getting "rope burn" on your fingers. 
The Bad and the Really, Really Ugly:
Okay, so it doesn't always work perfectly.  Tip #3 is this: when you wind the paper quill, do NOT wind too close to the ends of the quill.  It might look okay at first, but trust me, it will end up looking like this:

Picture
And that is when you spend 30 minutes with the paper quill on the floor while you try to rewind it onto another paper quill.  NOT fun!

But all in all, paper quills can free you from the money pit of buying endless bobbins and save you the headache of not knowing which leftovers go with which cones of yarn.
Try it!
6 Comments

Homage to Mom

9/20/2014

2 Comments

 
It seems fitting that my first blog post should be about a project that was very challenging for me.  Every year my guild has a Weavers Challenge.  Everyone that participates draws 4 cards that dictate the weave structure, the colors, the fibers, and the finishing techniques that you have to use in a project to be presented to the guild the following year.  Last year I drew:
  • Log Cabin
  • Black and white
  • Use wool only
  • Brush all or some of the finished cloth

These choices did not thrill me.  I don't love log cabin.  I rarely work with wool, and I love color, not black and white!  As the year wore on, I kept looking at a jacket that my mother gave me shortly before she died.  It was a black and white houndstooth wool jacket  that I knew I would never wear but could not quite bring myself to part with.  It had been sitting in my "things-to-repurpose" pile for over 10 years.  So that is where the challenge began: with the jacket.  
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I decided I could cut the jacket up into strips which would be about 1/2" wide and would be primarily black or primarily white.  The strips from the sleeves were not interfaced and would be used for weft.  The strips from the body were interfaced and would be used for warp.  Because I felt the strips were not strong enough to use for the entire warp, I chose to use only the white strips for the white warp, and I used a very bulky black yarn for the black warp ends.

 I wound on the bulky black wool warp onto the first back beam and threaded through the heddles, then I threaded each of the white strips through the heddles and let them hang. 
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I now had a problem.  None of the strips were longer than 15-20" long so I had to improvise to make them long enough to be warp.  First I secured them  with a length of pearl cotton in front of the castle so I could tension them later behind the castle.  In order to wind them onto the second back beam, I had to "extend" each of them with a 2 yard length of pearl cotton which was sewn through the strip, wound around the apron rod and tied to itself to tension the strip.
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Now to the front of the loom.  Same problem.  The strips were too short and too thick to thread through the reed and tie on.  So I measured a 24" length of pearl cotton to sew through each white strip that could then be dented and tied on to the apron rod with the bulky wool.  

I began weaving carefully with black knitting yarn until the ends of all of the white strips had made it through the reed. And FINALLY I could begin weaving in log cabin pattern with the white and black cloth strips from Mom's jacket.   I had to be careful as I wove to make sure the right side of the warp strips faced up because the underside was interfaced.  To help stabilize the cloth, I continued to throw the shuttle of black knitting yarn every time I laid in a black strip of cloth because none of the strips were wider than the warp.  You can see the log cabin pattern in the photo below.  When I ran out of strips, I cut the cloth from the loom (it measured about 15" x 15", and I quickly zigzagged around all 4 sides.  I also ironed on a very lightweight interfacing to the back side to stabilize the cloth.  
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Picture

Not done yet.  Now I had to make a bag.  I am not much of a seamstress, and I fussed with this a lot.  I picked out a red lining that reminded me of a block print that hung on my mother's kitchen wall for many years - it was her favorite.  I made a little flat-bottomed clutch, and I sewed buttons from the jacket.  I put in a magnetic closure and the lining TWICE because I did it wrong and had to do it all over again.  But it is completed, and I think she would be pleased.
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Picture

I did "fail" in my challenge in one regard: I did not brush the fabric on the bag.  I know in my heart it would fall apart if I did, so I will brush the scraps to satisfy Ruth Ann, the challenge queen, and be done with it...
2 Comments

    Pattie Lamb

    I have been happily weaving since my son was born in 1988.

    All pictures on my blog are "zoomable" - just click on them to enlarge.

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