Blog Posts

Some of my Favorite Tools (and where you can find them)

6/4/2018

Over the years I have gathered many tools that have become indispensable to me in my studio. Here are a few that are easy to find online.

Heddle Bar Clips
Officemate OIC Slide On Plastic Clips, Assorted Translucent Colors, Tub of 60
Amazon $4.29 as of 6/2018

I use these on my heddle bars to keep the extra, unused heddles back away from the weaving - a vast improvement over tying them back with string and MUCH easier to use than those little binder clips

Shoelaces!
These are "DIY White Shoelaces"
Oriental Trading Company $5.99 for 12 pairs as of 6/2018

I use shoelaces for tying off my warp chains, among other things in the studio. These are great because they last forever. I have shoelaces in my studio that are 25 years old!
These are 48” long. I cut them in half, so 12 pairs gives me 48 shoelaces!

Treadle Bands
Goody Girls Ouchless Elastics, 2 mm, No metal
Target or Amazon, various counts and prices

I use these on my treadles so I can treadle without peaking: “Braille” for my feet. I put them on all of my treadles and slide certain ones down so my feet can feel them and others up out of the way so I cannot. I like to put 3 on each treadle so they are "bulkier" and easier to feel with my feet.

Pick Counter
UltraOptix Linen Tester-Loupe Magnifier
Amazon, $9.52 as of 6/2018

This is an inexpensive magnifier that helps you count picks per inch (or examine your cloth for errors). The window is exactly 1” square. You place the window on the cloth and look through the magnifier while you count.

Curved Scissors
Beadalon Squeeze Scissors, Curved
Amazon, $7.79 as of 6/2018

I use these for trimming threads close to the surface of my finished cloth. The curved blades let you get close to the cloth without cutting the cloth.

Fringe Twister
This one is the Lacis Fringe Twister
A newer version is on Amazon, $21.96 as of 6/2018

I use this for twisting all of my fringe (I only use 2 of the prongs). It is battery powered and has been a life saver. There are other versions of this on the market. Shop around.

6 Comments

Out Out Damned Cat: Repairing Yet Another Rug

7/19/2017

4 Comments

Lizzie, the culprit

She looks really innocent, doesn't she?
She is a very sweet cat.
Her name is Lizzie.
She is two now,
Lizzie narrowly escaped death by weaver at age one.

I have (had) a handwoven wool rug at my front doorway. I wove the rug over a decade ago when we lived in Buffalo. So about a year ago I bent over to pick up what I thought was a dead moth on the rug. Much to my horror, I discovered it was a severed knot from one of the fringe bouts. On further inspection I realized that the knots had been chewed off of no fewer than THIRTY FIVE fringe bouts!

1 of 35 severed fringe bouts

There were only three possibilities (all cats):

Pressy who was 21 years old and could hardly walk
Dexter who was 16 years old and literally has no teeth
Lizzie the baby in the family, full of vim and vigor and still teething and about to be murdered by her loving mother

So Lizzie was found guilty by a process of elimination. I pulled the rug up and growled and fumed for a few days while I debated what to do.

Fully a year later, I finally got around to repairing this debacle. Fortunately, I still had some of the linen I used for the warp for the rug. And the structure of the rug was a simple plain weave.

Tools needed:

Heavy duty needle with a sharp point for undoing linen knots
Linen Warp
Tapestry needle for weaving in new fringe
Scissors
Fringe twister

The tools

A photo journal of the steps for replacing the fringe follows. The basic steps are:

I untwisted the fringe of the severed bout (for this rug the fringe bouts consisted of only 2 warp ends)
I untied the knot at the fell of the cloth (using the sharp needle to help pick out the knot)
With the tapestry needle, I wove the loose ends 3/4-1" back up into the rug alongside the warp thread NEXT to the thread I was weaving in
I trimmed the ends close to the surface of the rug
I cut a piece of rug warp that was about 14" long and wove it 1 1/4" - 2" up into the rug along one warp end, turned and wove down along the other warp end back to the fell of the cloth
I knotted the 2 ends together at the fell (like the original 2 warp ends were knotted)
I twisted the fringe (the 2 new warp ends) and knotted at 3" and clipped close to the knot
I repeated this for 23 bouts on one end of the rug and 12 on the other end of the rug, until my fingers were raw and the rug was almost back to new!

The fringe has been untwisted

The knot at the fell has been untied

Weaving the right warp end up alongside the left warp end

Weaving the left warp end up alongside the right warp end

Both warp ends woven back into the rug

Old warp ends trimmed close to the rug surface

New warp ends woven up 2" into the rug and back down to the fell

New warp ends pulled snuggly into the cloth

New warp ends ready to knot at the fell

Warp ends knotted at the fell, twisted, knotted at 3" and ready to trim

The finished repair

What a relief to finally have this little project done and the rug repaired. I have missed having it at my front door.

But unfortunately now it will probably go back into storage for another two years because....

Piper has arrived.
Piper is 2 months old.
She is a good kitten.
She has teeth.

Piper, the new kitten

Truth be told, the rug would probably have stayed in the closet waiting to be repaired if I had not been inspired and shamed into doing this simple repair after watching this incredible post on Facebook. Watch and be amazed: Oriental Rug Rebuild

4 Comments

Tip of the Month: Braille for the Feet

7/2/2017

2 Comments

I have long used rubber bands on my treadles to mark my path and help me treadle without peeking. It is a great tip. But I go through rubber bands like they are water because they dry rot very quickly. And they are hard to roll up and down the treadles between projects.

Enter my student Jane Hunt. She told me she liked my idea so much, she went to Target and bought a handful of ponytail holders! She found that they slide up and down the treadles easily, and they are bulkier than the rubber bands. Bonus: I am sure they will hold up much longer too! Thank you, Jane! Why didn't I think of that??

As it turns out there are dozens of kinds of ponytail holders. I picked the ones that I could double up and would fit well over my treadles. Hence my unabashed ad for Goody. These are nice because they have no metal joins on them that could scratch the wood.

BEFORE: Rubber bands on the treadles, ready to walk the treadles for a point twill

AFTER: Ponytail holders in place. The blue and green ones have been pulled down where my feet can feel them. I will walk this pattern from the center out, just as I did in the photo to the left.

Walking the treadles:
I tend to walk my treadles from the center out whenever my pattern allows me to do so. When I do that, I will put bands on the two center treadles so I can find my way back to center without peeking. I also place bands on every other treadle going out from the center.

Treadling straight across:
On the rare occasion that I tie up my treadles straight across, I simply put bands on the odd treadles and leave the even numbered treadles naked.

Treadling pattern with tabby
If I have 2 tabby treadles and a group of pattern treadles, my personal preference is to have the tabby treadles on one side and the pattern treadles on the other. If the tabby treadles are on the left, I will put a band on tabby a and leave tabby b naked. I will then put bands on all of the odd numbered pattern treadles and leave the even numbered pattern treadles naked.

2 Comments

New Life for a Little Rug

6/18/2017

10 Comments

This is what the fringe USED to look like.

Years ago I wove a little Rag Rug to use in front of my kitchen sink. I finished the rug with twisted fringe and left the fringe about 4" long - probably too long. Over the years I have had to periodically retie some of the fringe bouts, but slowly but surely more and more of the bouts had become untied, frayed and I could no longer re-twist them and knot them back to their original length. In addition, some of the warp threads in the body of the rug had broken and the rug was really looking shabby and worn.

Remember: You can click on any picture to zoom in!

Step 1:
I first decided to re-twist the fringe bouts that had come undone and to shorten all of the bouts to the shortest common denominator. It seemed that I could get away with shortening them all to about 1 1/2". There are a couple of bouts where the ends were so frayed that I do not have high hopes for them holding up for much longer, but at least they are shorter now..

The newly shortened fringe

This shows a broken warp thread and a row of rag weft floats above it. These need to be repaired.

These are the only tools I need: a tapestry needle and the matching rug warp

Step 2:
I gathered the tools I would need for repairing the broken warp threads The warp used in this rug was 8/4 cotton rug warp used double, and luckily I still had some on hand (this will not surprise anyone who knows me and has seen my yarn stash).

So now all I need was a tapestry needle threaded with a doubled strand of the warp thread and a little patience. The weaving should be easy because the rug was woven in plain weave.

Step 3 - Fixing the Broken Threads

I started about 2-3" below the broken warp thread (photo 1)
I wove along the same warp thread with the repair thread for the 2" until I got to the break (photo 2)
At that point I have to weave over and under the rags in the same way the missing warp thread used to. It helped to hold the needle in my right hand and put my left hand underneath the rug for support (photo 3)
When I reached the end of the damaged area, I continued to weave along the same warp thread for another 2-3 inches. When I finished with the weaving I checked the weaving on both sides of the rug.
When I was satisfied, I pulled on the ends of the repair threads where it entered and exited the weaving to "seat it" in the cloth.
Then I trimmed the tails of the repair thread and the broken warp thread from the surface of the rug.

Photo 1: Starting 2-3" below the break. Broken warp thread can be seen at the top of the photo.

Photo 2: Weaving up to and just beyond the break in the warp thread.

Photo 3: Weaving continues above the break - over and under the weft floats.

My supervisor

Weaving is finished. The tails have not been trimmed yet. Lizzie is checking my work.

The finished rug. Hopefully with a few more years of life in it.

All done! And I think the rug looks better with short fringe anyway.

10 Comments

Walking More Than Pink

5/7/2017

0 Comments

May 6, 2017. Triangle Race for the Cure.

8000 walkers, runners, and volunteers converged to support each other and raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Some survivors of breast cancer, some friends and family who have been touched by breast cancer, some who simply wanted to help in any way they could.

I was prepared for the 5K walk.

My husband John and I had actually "trained" for the walk for several weeks by walking regularly and getting our mileage up to close to the 3 miles we would need to do for the walk. As an aside, as a not-so-long-ago long-distance bicyclist, I thought it was pretty sad that I needed to train to be able to walk 3 miles, but walking is harder that I thought it would be.

I was NOT prepared for many things that I saw and felt that day.

The crowd was huge. And we saw people of all possible descriptions, young and old, male and female, big and little. It was a virtual sea of pink. Pink is beautiful! Crazy costumes were everywhere - most notably men and women sporting pink tutus, layers of Hawaiian leis or humorous or inspirational t-shirts. Breast cancer survivors proudly wore pink t-shirts.

I was there with my husband and fellow members of my weaving study group, The Warpsters - Janice Kohl, Charlotte Carroll, and Sharon Grubb. Other Warpsters were there in spirit but could not join us that day. We met Janice's sister, Pam Kohl, for whom we were walking at the Pam's Parade tent. And we were joined there by two more of Janice's friends, Barbara and Alan.

The Warpsters study Group, wearing our handwoven scarves

tutus :-)

Charlotte

Janice and Sharon

John and Oswald

Charlotte, Pattie, and Sharon

I was NOT prepared for how emotional the whole day would be.

Survivor procession

There were tears during the survivor ceremony. The breast cancer survivors walked together in a procession down to the stage, lead by those who had survived for 1-4 years, followed by those who had survived for 5-9 years, followed by the 10-14 year survivors, and so forth. At the end of the parade were the Multiple Survivors, the Forever Fighters and the 25-29 Year survivors. I think every one of them had smiles on their faces. Those of us watching them had a harder time controlling our emotions.

Janice Kohl who walked with us said "My sister Pam Kohl is the woman on the right. It was a very emotional day today to see her walking in the survivor ceremony with the Forever Fighters."

Pam Kohl, on the far right

Pam Kohl says "The second time is so much harder. It shakes you to the core in many ways because now suddenly you know in a whole new way that this maybe was not just one small detour…that maybe it has become a road with unknown minefields and that is very scary. You begin to lose trust in your own body. It sometimes feels like it is fighting me, and I wonder what it is I am supposed to be learning from all of this. One thing is for sure, cancer is very, very smart, and it is very personal in that it works differently in different people. It takes a truckload of strategies to find the ones that will work for you

I was NOT prepared for the walk.

We had a blast! And we were thankful that it was very cool. But it was hard work. I was surprised that we actually walked about 10K that day by the time we got to the start of the walk, walked the 5K, and got back to the car after the walk, because well it added up. I wouldn't have had it any other way. Let's just say I had a very nice nap when I got home that afternoon.

At the halfway point in the walk: Alan, Barbara, Pattie, John, Janice, Charlotte, Sharon (and of course flamingos Oswald and Esmerelda)

Barbara, Janice , and Sharon just off screen

The crowd en route

Our team raised a lot of money for Pam's Parade and the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and I think we would all do it again in a second.

It is not too late to make a donation. So far $800,000 of their $1 million goal has been raised. Fundraising will continue through early June, 2017. To donate now, just click on this link http://www.info-komen.org/site/TR?fr_id=6796&pg=team&team_id=376896. Thank you!

-- Pattie Lamb

0 Comments

Weaving More Than Pink

4/28/2017

3 Comments

Janice and Pam

It all began with Pam.
Guild member, Janice Kohl's sister, Pam, is the executive director of Triangle Susan G. Komen and is currently fighting her own battle with metastatic breast cancer. You can see a little of her inspirational story here:
http://www.wral.com/komen-director-learns-new-normal-after-cancer-spreads-/16527083/

So we would walk.
The Warpsters Study Group decided we wanted to take action and be More Than Pink. We would be part of the team "Pam's Parade", and we would be raising money and walking in the Race for the Cure on May 6th in the Research Triangle Park. My husband and our family mascots, Oswald, Jr. and Esmerelda would join us.

Oswald and Esmerelda

But first we wove.
We decided that scarves were in order for a bunch of weavers walking in a More Than Pink event. Some of these scarves would be worn by the walkers. Some would be sold and proceeds donated to the cause.
I put on 3 pink and white warps for 5 scarves each:

A warp of white 40/2 linen and 16/1 flamingo pink linen to be woven in plain weave
A warp of 16/2 cotton in primarily bright pink with white stripes in a point twill threading
A warp of 16/2 cotton in primarily white with bright pink stripes in a point twill threading

The Linen Scarves

Warp: white 40/2 linen and pink 16/1 linen, 200 ends, sett at 24 epi
Threading: 4321
Weft: 16/1 linen (white for 3 scarves, hot pink for 1 scarf, dusty pink for 1 scarf) woven at 22 ppi
Treadling: plain weave

Threading & tieup for the linen scarves

The Pink Scarves with White Stripes

Warp: 16/2 cotton: predominantly pink with white stripes, 253 ends + 2fs, sett at 30 epi
Threading: 12345678765432 (point twill)
Weft: 16/2 cotton (white for 4 scarves, pink for 1 scarf), woven at approx. 28 ppi
Treadling: Differed for each scarf, but all were variations of a block treadling with varying repeats of block A (treadles 1-4) alternating with block B (treadles 5-8)
Warpster Jane Patterson wove her own scarf to wear in the Race for the Cure using a white cotton weft

Threading for the pink scarves with white stripes

The tieup

Pink scarf with white stripes / white weft

Pink scarf with white stripes / pink weft

The White Scarves with Pink Stripes

Warp: 16/2 cotton: predominantly white with pink stripes, 253 ends + 2fs, sett at 30 epi
Threading: 12345678765432 (point twill)
Weft: pink 16/2 cotton for 4 scarves, white 16/2 bamboo for 1 scarf, woven at approx. 28 ppi
Treadling: Differed for each scarf, but all were either a point treadling OR variations of a block treadling with varying repeats of block A (treadles 1-4) alternating with block B (treadles 5-8)
Warpster Janice Kohl wove her own scarf using the first tieup, a pink cotton warp and a point twill treadling

Threading for the white scarves with pink stripes

Tieup #1 used for Janice's scarf

Tieup #2 used for the remaining 4 scarves

Janice's scarf using tieup #1

Another scarf with Tieup #2 and a pink cotton weft

The Walk
We will walk on May 6th, and I will post photos of the event in the next blog post: Walking More Than Pink. Check back after the event!

In the meantime, if you would like to make a donation to my fundraising team and the Susan G. Komen Foundation, click here

-- Pattie Lamb

3 Comments

Calm Waters: Birth of 3 Baby Wraps

2/1/2017

3 Comments

My niece (and goddaughter), expecting her first baby, requested that I weave a handwoven baby wrap for her. Favorite color: turquoise. Style request: "grown up". I knew she grew up around the water and teaches yoga so I immediately was thinking of something soft, peaceful, organic with colors flowing from one to another. We discussed using shades of turquoise and grays and samples went on the loom.

I sent her two sets of samples: one woven on a traditional point twill threading and one woven on a modified point twill threading (for the weavers out there, I merged patterns from Strickler # 328 & 330). The warp was a 10/2 pearl cotton warp in 2 shades of turquoise (a deep turq and an aqua) and 2 shades of gray. I wove with several shades of pearl cotton and a fine white cottolin.

She preferred the "feathery look of the modified point twill on the far right, so that is what we went with.

Samples: Plain weave and point twill on the left, zigzag twills and modified point twill on the right.

I would weave 3 sister wraps so I measured the warp: 6 chains, each 20 1/4 yards long. A total of 1000 ends of 10/2 pearl cotton in random stripes of 4 colors: light gray, medium gray, light turquoise/aqua and deep turquoise, to be sett at 30 ends per inch. I "ombred" the transitions from one color to the next so that the colors flowed smoothly from one to the next across the warp - all color changes being made on the warping mill.

6 warp chains weighted and on the loom. Ready to be wound on.

Warp wound onto the back beam

View from the front of the loom

Calm Waters I: woven with white cottolin weft in progress

Middle marker applied (a tiny "LOL" label: Lamb on the Loom, Laugh out Loud, or Love Our Littles: take your pick.

The Sister Wraps

Calm Waters I: white cottolin weft. Given to my goddaughter

Calm Waters II: woven with deep turquoise pearl cotton weft. Given to my eldest niece

Calm Waters III: Woven with a light turquoise/aqua pearl cotton weft.
The wrap is a size 6, 100% cotton, and measures approximately 28 ½” x 186”. Both ends of the wrap are hemmed.
For sale in The SHOP

SHOP

3 Comments

Weaving for a Wedding: A Labor of Love

1/19/2017

4 Comments

My son, Ryan married his darling bride Alex in Boulder, Colorado this past October. I have posted pictures in my Gallery of the weaving I did for the wedding, but I have not yet shared much of the story of how the weaving got done. Nor had I shared pictures of the finished pieces in use.

So now that story begins.

The Bride's Shawl

The bride's shawl was the first project I undertook. I wove samples for her shawl last winter and took them to her in March for her approval. Originally I had intended to surprise her with the shawl but quickly realized that that was a really bad idea: a) she might not want a shawl, b) she might buy her own shawl, and c) the shawl might not look good with her dress. I was very relieved that she loved the idea and that the samples of the Bronson Weave lace in 20/2 natural tencel matched her dress perfectly!

Bronson Lace samples

So the shawl warp was planned: Hoping for shawls of 20" x 95", I put on a warp of 839 ends of 20/2 tencel sett at 36 epi (3/dent in a 12 dent reed), measuring 23.3" wide in the reed, No floating selvedge was needed because the draft had a plain weave edge on each side. I put on enough length to allow for weaving 2 shawls to 104" and allowing for 12" of fringe on each end and loom waste.

The draft was a simple 4 harness Bronson Lace weave with plain weave borders. Click on the draft to zoom in

So the warp for two shawls went on the loom: one for the bride and one for a gift our outgoing guild president, Janice. A dozen of our guild board members took turns in April weaving off the first shawl so that we could present it to her at the May board meeting. I wove the bride's shawl off in May.

Weaving with the 20/2 tencel was surprisingly trouble free
The fact that 12 people could weave on 1 shawl for our guild president and have virtually no problems and a very even beat was the biggest surprise of all!
My sister-in-law embroidered the bride and groom's initials and their wedding date on one end of the bride's shawl as a lovely finishing touch.

Shawls on the loom

Another guild member taking a turn on Janice's shawl

Guild member weaving on Janice's shawl

Guild member fringing Janic'e shawl

Janice opening her shawl

The bride's shawl

The bride's shawl, detail

The bride

Next... Shawls for the Wedding Party

I offered to weave shawls for each of the four bridesmaids and my daughter, the "best sister". I put on a warp for 6 shawls: 5 for the wedding party and an extra:

8/2 warp tencel in silver and light gray stripes sett at 20 epi
22" in the reed, woven to about 95" in length.
Hemstitched on loom and finished with 8" long twisted fringe
Bronson weave threading that allowed for several treadlings: triangles, curves and extended curves
Charcoal gray wefts for all 4 bridesmaids' shawls and the extra shawl which is for sale in the SHOP
Burgundy weft for the "best sister" shawl

Bronson Weave Triangles with charcoal weft

Bronson Weave Curves with charcoal weft

Bronson Weave Curves with burgundy weft

The bride with her bridesmaids & my daughter/ "best sister"

The extra shawl, extended curves
For sale in the SHOP

Next... A Shawl for the Mother of the Bride

This shawl was a little more of a challenge. Or at least it caused me a little more angst. Mostly because I only had a photograph of Jamie's dress. So after exchanging photos and yarn samples, I finally decided on a huck lace shawl in 2 shades of teal, charcoal gray and mauve in the warp.

The huck lace pattern I used was adapted from a Handwoven scarf pattern (March/April 2008, p. 30–32). I widened the draft to 22" and I used 4 colors in the warp. I "ombred" the colors at each color change so there were no harsh stripes in the warp.

Sticks padding the loose warp areas at the back of the loom

Tip!

This draft has huck lace stripes alternating with plain weave stripes. Because the takeup was much less in the lace areas than the plain weave areas, it did not take long for the warp to get loose in the lace areas, and tension was becoming a problem. I solved that by doing 2 things:

After 20-25" I "wove" a stick under the loose area at the back of the loom and tied it to the back beam. Every 20-25" I added another stick.
I cut off after the first shawl and retied for the second shawl.

Again, I wove 2 shawls: the first I wove with the greyed teal for the mother of the bride., and the second with the dark teal to sell.

Mother of the Bride's shawl, woven with a greyed teal weft

The bride and her parents, Jamie and David

Extra Shawl, woven with a dark teal weft

Finally... Pocket Squares for the Groom and the Dads

I really wanted to weave a pocket square for my son, but I wasn't sure if I would have time and I wasn't sure exactly what would work. After sampling quite a bit with 60/2 silk, I settled on a very simple plain weave square with some burgundy stripes on 2 sides and hemmed on 4 sides. I made 4 squares: 1 for Ryan, 1 for each of the Dads and 1 extra.

60/2 silk in natural and burgundy
632 ends, sett at 40 epi , 15.8" wide on loom
woven in plain weave at 40 ppi
After hemming on all 4 sides the squares measured about 13.5" square
Weaving with the silk was a breeze
Hemming and mitering the corners was definitely the hardest part for me

Pocket squares

And What Did I Wear?

My scarf

I don't often wear my own handwovens - other than a couple of beloved, very beat up scarves and shawls. I was dressed in a simple sweater, silk pant and silk top and so I didn't think a shawl would work for me. But I knew I would get cold. So I did wear one of my silk scarves, woven with 60/2 silk in a pretty twill in my favorite color: teal.

4 Comments

A Visit to John C Campbell Folk School

8/27/2016

0 Comments

Earlier this month, my friends Jackie, Sue and I ventured to John C Campbell for our first ever adventure there. We had signed up months ago for a class on Deflected Doubleweave (“Masters of Deflection” with Elisabeth Hill). And a wonderful adventure it was!

We met in Cary so we could drive to the mountains together. Sue came in from Connecticut (she had planned to fly, but had to drive because her flight was cancelled) and Jackie came up from Pinehurst). We packed up the car and headed out on our road trip with no real idea of what to expect.

The drive took us about 6 hours, and the ride up the mountains was beautiful. Finally we arrived in Brasstown, NC (population 46) which is situated in the far west corner of the state right around the corner from Clay’s Corner, home of the infamous New Year’s Eve Possum Drop (you have heard of the Possum Drop, right?)

The Folk School was founded in 1925. It offers year-round 5-day and weekend classes on a large variety of topics including music, arts, crafts, and some unexpected subjects. During the week that we were there, 140 people attended classes in weaving, nuno felting, enameling, jewelry making, Italian cooking, writing, mandolin playing, wood turning, wooden mantle carving, blacksmithing, watercolors, chair caning, woodworking, and book arts.

Keith House, the administrative building

View off the back porch of Keith House

No explanation needed

Classes actually began on Friday evening after registration and dinner in the dining room. After that we had daily class for four days each morning and afternoon with optional sessions in the evening after dinner. We were treated to stories and music at Morning Song each day before breakfast. All meals were served in the dining room. There were many optional activities at all times of the day including morning walks, tours of the campus and studios, chair massages, clogging demonstrations, contra dances, and the list goes on.

The classes were held in separate buildings scattered around the campus. The weaving building was very large and very well equipped. We had a class of 12, all weaving on 8 harness looms, and there were many looms that were not used. The yarn “closet” was the size of a small apartment and their weaving library is quite enviable. I don’t think anyone wanted for a piece of equipment that they did not have, and I did not hear any complaints about the looms – Baby Wolfs, Mighty Wolfs, Glimakras, Louets, all in good condition.

The Weaving Building

The best part, however, was the class itself. None of us knew anything about deflected doubleweave. Lisa (Elisabeth) Hill was a wonderful, generous instructor. She came with 2 tables full of yarn for us to use, pre-wound warps for anyone that chose to use them. We used gorgeous tencel, silk and wool, alpaca and silk, and merino yarns to warp our looms with beautiful 6-yard long warps that were 10” wide.

The classroom

Jackie, hard at work

Sue, warping her loom

We had a 2 part mission: weave a sampler and weave a scarf! Our first assignment was to weave a nice long sampler using 2 different treadlings and a total of about 16 different treadlings. We cut the samplers from the loom and washed and dried them so we could which decide which treadlings to use for a scarf.

Decisions made, we tied back on and wove our scarves. We had time to twist our fringe, wash and dry (or almost dry) our scarves so they would be ready for the big presentation on Friday before everyone went home. Thirteen scarves, thirteen completely different threadings and colorways. (Number thirteen was woven by Lisa’s pretty wonderful assistant, Lillian). Pretty amazing results!

That is not the end of the story. We spent a lot of time pouring over the many, many examples of deflected doubleweave Lisa brought with her, which included her beautiful shawls, scarves, runners, placemats, towels, clothing, bags, and samples. They showed us so many ways to finish our pieces and how many different fibers would look woven in this technique. She scattered short lectures throughout the weaving days so it gave us a break from the weaving without overwhelming us with technicalities. For those of us who finished our scarves early, Lisa helped us plan additional warps, and we spent the time measuring warps for those projects.

Meanwhile, Lisa's trusty assistant, Lillian was at our beck and call, helping us with any problems we had and keeping us all on schedule.

Lisa (on the left) and her assistant Lillian

Jackie, Pattie and Sue

In a few short days, Lisa showed us just how magical this structure can be, and all three of us came away itching to try more.

For more information on John C Campbell or to see their online catalog, go to their website, www.folkschool.org

To visit Elisabeth Hill’s website,
click here --> www.plainweave.net

0 Comments

Treadling for Dummies: Walking the Treadles

8/8/2016

11 Comments

When we first learn to weave we usually are taught to tie up our treadles from left to right just as they are written in a typical draft.

In a simple example, to weave straight twill you would need to set up 4 treadles as indicated below:

Treadle 1 lifts harnesses 1 & 2
Treadle 2 lifts harnesses 2 & 3
Treadle 3 lifts harnesses 3 & 4
Treadle 4 lifts harnesses 4 & 1

Traditionally, you would set up the treadles from left to right as they are written in the tieup:

           Treadle           1        2     Center      3       4
            Lifting           12      23 34 41
            Foot                --Left-- --Right--

To weave this pattern, you would use your left foot to weave treadle 1 followed by treadle 2, then switch to your right foot to weave treadles 3 followed by treadle 4.

Walking the treadles is a much more comfortable, ergonomic alternative to this. The treadles still lift the same harnesses in the same order in order to get the same pattern. The difference is that the treadles under the loom are not tied up from left to right. They are tied up so that you can “walk” the treadles left-right-left-right from the center out. Your odd numbered treadles will be on the left, even on the right.

For the straight twill shown above the treadles would be tied up as indicated in the draft above, but they would be in a different order under the loom as follows:

           Treadle           3        1     Center     2       4
            Lifting           34      12 23 41
            Foot                --Left-- --Right--

This allows you to comfortably rock from left to right as you throw the shuttle from left to right.

Note the rubber bands on the center treadles.

My personal preference is to throw the shuttle towards the foot that is treadling, so I treadle 1(left foot is down) and throw to the left, treadle 2 (right foot is down) and throw to the right, treadle 3 and throw to the left, treadle 4 and throw to the right. Then I move both feet back to the center (where I have rubber bands to help me find the center without peeking).

Tip!

Advantages to walking the treadles:

You develop a nice rocking motion that is very comfortable,
It allows you to improve your rhythm and speed up your weaving
The fact that your shuttle is always heading towards the depressed foot helps “cue you in” if you accidentally get off pattern. If suddenly your shuttle is going left and your right foot is down, it means you have made a treadling error.

Tips for not losing your place and other notes:

After pressing a treadle, I keep my foot there (lightly) until ready to use that foot again. In other words I never move my foot completely off a treadle so I always know what I did last.
If I am doing a sequence that starts over at treadles 1&2 (center treadles), I move my feet back to center together.
I use heavy rubber bands to mark my center treadles and other significant treadles to help my feet find the correct treadles without peeking.

Tips!

For example, if I am doing a straight twill with 4 treadles, I would put rubber bands on just the center treadles (1&2).
If I have a twill pattern that I am walking with 6 treadles like the point twill pattern below, I would put rubber bands on the center treadles and the outer treadles (5&6). This helps me easily find the center treadles when I am returning to center but also helps me distinguish between 3 vs 5 and 4 vs 6 so that I don’t accidently press a treadle in error (because 3&4 are “naked” and 5&6 have bands).

Note: I do NOT recommend leaving “space” (untied) treadles between your treadles. I think it disturbs the rhythm of weaving and the farther from center your treadle is, the more tiring the weaving will be. SO keep them as close to the center of your body as possible.

A harder example:

Suppose you have a simple point twill treadling. Normally the tieup would be presented as shown with 4 treadles. One full repeat consists of the six shots or picks shown above the red line in the draft to the right:

Treadle 1 lifts harnesses 1 & 2
Treadle 2 lifts harnesses 2 & 3
Treadle 3 lifts harnesses 3 & 4
Treadle 4 lifts harnesses 1 & 4
Treadle 3 lifts harnesses 3 & 4
Treadle 2 lifts harnesses 2 & 3

You could set those 4 treadles up in the traditional left to right configuration or walking style. The problem with this is that anytime you are treadling 2 or 3, you need to remember whether you were going toward treadle 4 or returning from treadle 4. The possibility of confusion is high.

Everything above the red line is one repeat

6 treadle walking option:

But we can take it one step farther (assuming you have 6 treadles) and assign each of the 6 picks in the repeat their own treadle. Set those 6 treadles up walking style and you will find this treadling pattern easier to weave with no confusion.

Treadle 1 lifts harnesses 1 & 2
Treadle 2 lifts harnesses 2 & 3
Treadle 3 lifts harnesses 3 & 4
Treadle 4 lifts harnesses 4 & 1
Treadle 5 lifts harnesses 3 & 4
Treadle 6 lifts harnesses 2 & 3

Everything above the red line is one repeat and weaves the same cloth as the repeat in the draft above.

Set the treadles up for walking as follows:

Treadle 5 3 1 Center 2 4 6
Lifting 34 34 12 23 41 23
Foot -----Left----- -----Right-----

Rubber bands on the center treadles help your feet find the center at the end of the sequence. Bands on 5 & 6 also help your feet with the "no peek" treadling.