This is a simple Fair Isle Cowl pattern you can download for free. I designed to knit for The Woolly Thistle‘s 2022 Colorwork Accessory Knit-a-long. Though this chart has a couple of nine-stitch stretches, it’s a good learning project for catching floats without being overwhelming as most of the other rounds have five or less stitches of one color in a round.
A cowl is a great first project for knitters new to stranded colorwork. There is no shaping to worry about and it’s a fairly quick project. They also make a great “swatch” when trying new yarns or if you want to sample an old favorite on a new needle size as I did here. I usually knit Jamieson and Smith on 2.75mm, but wanted to try 3mm needles. I’m glad I did. I like the fabric very much. I may go a step further and try on 3.25 in another cowl.
It’s been a bit. I know. I am getting very excited about my upcoming trip to Fair Isle in a couple of months. I purchased my plane/ferry tickets a couple of weeks ago. That makes it official and all I can think about since is Fair Isle. I was grateful to have had the opportunity to visit that beautiful place for a day back in 2007. We didn’t get to go the first time we went to Shetland, so we made sure to go the second time and the weather graciously worked in our favor. I don’t think I’ll fully believe it until I’ve been there a few days.
Because all I can think about is Fair Isle, I cast on The Fisherman’s Kep Pattern by Anne Sinclair (the group can be found on Facebook), which is sold to support The George Waterston Memorial Center and Museum on Fair Isle. I dug out a bunch of Jamieson and Smith’s wool from my stash from previous visits to Shetland. I did a black/white chart for the patterning and am winging it as I go. It’s coming out nicely, but there was a section I wasn’t crazy about. That pale blue band with all the sand colored patterning looked like a beacon in a dark night to me. It was driving me nuts.
Didn’t like the so much pale sand in the pale blue band
So I replaced the sand colored stitches in the center row with rose.
I thought I would just duplicate stitch over the center row of the sand color with a rose color I’d used in the brim. It was working, but I didn’t like the way the rose was lifted up off the pattern with the sand yarn under it so I snipped it out and followed the tail of it around to replace it in that row. I’ve made a video to show what I did:
I haven’t been at the looms much since the last post, but I have been weaving here and there on the double width blanket. This week I plan to take the focus off of Fair Isle and back on to my weaving. I should get a lot done if I can just stay off the Shetland webcams! You can see the blanket in the background of the video at least… 🙂
Cloth rod marked at points where the apron cords land.
I bought the kit for the Jane Stafford Harrisville Shawl. It’s her sample for Season 3 Ep. 7 – Double Width Weaving. The kit/draft is for a shawl, so I added a cone of the color Woodsmoke and bumped the ends up to 400 for a blanket. I’ve never woven Double Width before and wanted to practice first, so I wound another warp with the same yarn from my stash that I used in my grandfather’s blanket, Elann Highland Wool. In my head, I bought the Elann so long ago, it’s free, right? I think that’s pretty good logic. I got to looking at the size difference between the Elann and the Harrisville. The Elann is a lot thicker. Jane setts the Harrisville at 8epi. I wove my grandfather’s blanket with the Elann at the same sett and it was a nice thick fabric, but now I’m thinking I can go down to 6epi because the Elann is so much thicker and it felts beautifully. The blanket will be a little lighter weight than the one I wove for Gramps and I’ll get a more bang for my buck. The 400 threads will be 33.3 in the reed at 12 epi (6 per layer for the Double Width Weaving) where as in the Harrisville it’ll be 25″ in the reed.
People…. full disclosure…. my mind scares me sometimes. I overthink EVERYTHING! So let me tell you how this is going to go… Hang on to your hats. It sounds like A LOT as I describe it, but when I’m done, I’ll have two totally different blanket warps on the loom ready to weave. In the end, it really does make sense. I think.
I like to tie onto previous warps if I’m going to weave the same thing again. Basically, I’m using the previous warp as a dummy warp. Personally, I think their name should be changed because they are genius. Maybe I’ll start a campaign like Elizabeth Zimmermann did for I-cord (you know it was originally Idiot Cord, right? lol). I’ll start calling it a D-warp. But I digress…
When tying onto a previous warp I know there are no errors. For me, it’s also a time saver. I can tie on a new warp a lot faster than the time it takes me to rough sley, thread and then sley the reed the final time. Even if it took the same amount of time, the insurance of knowing there are no errors is a pretty nice deal and worth it to me.
Elann Wool Blanket Warp Chain
I know that if the end of the warp is not around the warp beam and I try to tie a new warp on, there will be slippage of the ends looped around the warp rod. These blanket warps are 3 yards. By the time I weave to the end of the first blanket, the warp rod won’t be around the beam anymore (the Glimakra Standard is deep) and the threads would slip back and forth as I tried to tie the new warp on. No bueno. I’m fully aware that I could tie on from the back, behind the shafts, but my space doesn’t allow for that and I’ve tied on from the front *a bunch* of times with no problems. If it ain’t broke…
Harrisville Shetland Wool Blanket Beamed.
So, here’s what I’m doing… I beamed and threaded the Harrisville first, but I sleyed it at 12epi (6 per layer) because before weaving the Harrisville, I’m going to tie the Elann on, beam it over the JST and weave it first. When I get to the end of that first Elann blanket, I’ll cut it off in front of the reed and wet finish it. If I like the fabric, I’ll probably tie on another because I have another blanket’s worth of the Elann that I’d like to use up and get out of my stash. If I like the 8epi better, I’ll just resley it to 8epi. I’ll have to resley it when I get to the Harrisville anyway. So, long story longer…. I’m basically using the Harrisville as a D-warp. A technique that has served me well. I learned it four years ago from the amazing Yarn Whisperer, Kathrin Weber of Blazing Shuttles.
So the Harrisville is on the loom and ready for the Elann wool to be tied on. I took some pictures along the way to point out a few tricks I use. When you are at the back of the loom trying to get a warp beamed, you want as much ready to go as possible. I mean, we only have two hands and things can get crazy back there. I don’t use a raddle. I like to rough sley a reed. It takes me about the same amount of time as the raddle, but the reed is there and it’s easy to stick it in the beater when I’m ready to beam. I use the Glimakra Reed Holders to rough sley the reed on my kitchen counter. The first picture at the top of this post shows what that set-up looks like. If you look closely, you’ll see markings on my cloth rod. You can see them better in the close up on the right. That is where the apron cords go. If I put that cloth rod up against my rough sleyed warp, I can see exactly where the warp needs to be split so that the threads will lay where they’re supposed to when I put them over the back apron rod. I put them in groups and hold them with pot holder loops (I use these for a zillion things. The polyester ones are cheap and hold well). When I take the warp to the loom, it’s one less thing I have to juggle while I’m dressing the loom.
It’s obvious where the apron rods go between groups of threads.
In the Summer of 2017 I had the opportunity to go to Vävstuga Weaving School. Becky taught us this easy way to thread a 4-shaft draft on Texsolv Heddles. I put a video up on Youtube that you can find by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sYXS41e44g
Finally. Deep breath. I was able to grab an able body this morning to help me film a quick video singing the praises of Top O’ The Lamm Tie-up again and showing how I sley the reed on my Glimakra.
Last week we flew to New England to see my grandfather. He’s not doing well and I chose to go see him and tell him I love him instead of going to his funeral. His face lit up when he saw us and I knew right then I’d made the right choice. I mentioned in the last post that a few days before we left, I decided I wanted to weave a lap robe for him. I wish I’d done it long before, but time escapes us. He has been the happy recipient of several pairs of knit socks and hats. One very special pair of socks you can read about here. Somehow I managed to go from idea to beautiful blanket in a little over 48 hours. He loved it. It was too warm to stay on him long, but he knew how much love went into it and that’s all it was about. He was quite the hand-crafter himself in his day…. woodworking, lamp making, painting… so he gets it. I left his home sad, but in peace this time. It didn’t hit me until that evening. The sobs came as we began to taxi on the runway for take off as I realized when I returned, he’d be gone, but I know he’s had a full, rich life and he’s ready to join my grandmother.
While weaving the blanket I had to change bobbins every few inches. I learned long ago to spit felt ends together from Elizabeth Zimmermann. When you do it this often, it’s kinda gross, so I came up with this method remembering how I used to do stamps when doing mass mailings. I will add that it’s not necessary to felt the ends together. You could just lay them over each other after reducing some of the plies. This was three ply, so I removed two from one end and one from the other, removing the same length from each, so when they overlap, it’s the same thickness. Felting them together insured they were invisible in the finished blanket.
Inspired by my upcoming trip to Fair Isle, I started a series of towels. I’m calling the first warp Fair Isle Spring. I saw a picture once of the island in Spring. It was green and dotted with little yellow flowers and, of course, surrounded by that gorgeous blue ocean. I had a bunch of odds and ends spools of 8/2 cotton and cottolin in the right colors so I wound the warp randomly. I wound it holding four threads together and when I threaded the loom I just threaded as they came, so it’s symmetrical, but not identical. I kind of wish I’d kept the yellow bits in the fields of green, but whatever. I still love the colors together and it does remind me of that photo which, of course, I can’t find now….
Fair Isle Spring Warp
Beaming Fair Isle Spring with dowels as tensioning device
Lashing Bobbin
As I’ve mentioned in other posts, my preferred method of attaching the warp to the cloth rod is by lashing on. For me, it is not only faster, but it uses up barely any warp at all and my hands aren’t killing me when I’m done. If you tie the bouts in small enough sections, 3/4″ or less, you only have to weave about an inch or so to even out the warp and begin your project. When I’m down to the end bits of spools, I wind three together on a bobbin. That’s what I use to lash on or any time I need something strong. I have one at each loom. They last quite a while because I reuse it. After I’ve taken the finished project off the loom I cut off the knots of the lashing thread, knot the ends together and wind it back on the bobbin. The knots have never bothered my lashing on. If it falls in the knot of the warp bout, I just cut and tie it near the cloth rod so that it can still slide around to even out the warp tension.
Reusable Silicone Cable Ties
To lash on, first I tie knots in the end of each 3/4″ or so bout of warp (you can barely see them in this photo – sorry). I’ve been playing with different things to stabilize the cloth rod while I’m tying on. I’ve tried laying it on sticks that span each side of the loom from front to back. They are cumbersome and fall sometimes. I could tie them, but I’m all about faster/easier. I’ve tried using the lash on bobbin to temporarily tie them to the cloth rod. I just threaded it through a couple bouts near the ends and the center and then tied it to the cloth rod. It takes too long and then I have to cut them making it a waste of the threads. I’ve tried these little reusable silicone cable ties (Amazon) a couple of times now and I like them so far. They are easy and they hold as long as you don’t put too much pressure on them. I put one on the left end, one in the center and one just a little to the left of the right side where I start lashing. They are easy to remove with one hand once I get to them. If I pull the tension too tight they do pop, so I just watch that it’s just enough tension and it’s been fine.
Once I get the cloth rod stable, I tie a loop in the end of my lashing thread and pull the bobbin through the loop to attach it to the cloth rod.
Kind of difficult to show one handed, but in this video I explain how I open a shed when I’m lashing on. When you pull the bout and step on a treadle, especially in plain weave, it opens the bout up evenly so you can easily slip the bobbin through it.
I work my way across the warp going through each bout from right to left and then over and around the cloth beam, through the next bout, ect. It doesn’t matter how you do it and I don’t even know for sure if it matters if you’re consistent, but I do it the same way every time. What does matter is that you try to keep the same tension on the lashing on thread all the way across. It doesn’t have to be exact, but close. Tight, but not crazy tight. If you try to do it super tight all the way through, you will hurt your hands. I like to think of it about the same as my warp tension when I’m weaving. Firm, but not a trampoline. Sometimes, after I’ve gone through the first few bouts, I advance the warp just a click or two, but not enough to pop the silicone ties.
After I go through the last bout I wrap the thread a few times around itself on the cloth rod, snip it so that I have enough to tie it off and then tie a knot. Wrapping it around and over itself a few times helps hold it while you tie that final knot. Sort of like wrapping a thread around the last warp peg to hold it while you’re changing threads.
My tension is generally pretty even at this point, but if it isn’t I just push down on the warp where it feels a little tighter with the palm of my hand, push the treadles a few times and that’s all it usually takes. If it still seems a little uneven, I go to the back of the loom and, using the palms of my hands, push down where it feels tighter a few times. I don’t mess with the lashing on string at all. I used to and it used to take me longer to get everything even. I thought I took a video of this process, but it’s not on my phone so here is a picture of everything done and ready to weave. You can’t really see the lashing on, but you can see how little weft it took to close up the warp so that it’s ready to weave. I actually could have stopped sooner, but it was the end of a bobbin, so I kept going. You have to have a header anyway, but there is maybe four inches of waste and my hands don’t hurt at the end. It’s also SO much faster. Once and done. No going back to re-tie. For this warp, I’d say it took me less than ten minutes… probably about five. You can see a photo of a past warp that I lashed on by clicking here.
Hope that helps and answers some questions that were asked of me.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season and is ready for the New Year!
Shetland 1997
Both times we visited Shetland I bought a lot of yarn. The first time we went Daniel was a baby, so we brought a duffle bag full of diapers that went back to Germany stuffed with yarn. The second time we went (posts are here, here and here) there were no pretenses…. I brought an empty duffle bag to be stuffed with yarn and it was…. a lot of yarn and two fleeces from Jamieson’s and Smith in Lerwick.
Flying into Fair Isle 2006
With the trip back to Shetland in a few months I decided I wanted to take some of that yarn back in the form of a Shetland Shawl. I finished knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Stonington Shawl a few weeks ago. I almost had a little glitch. I knew I was going to be playing yarn chicken and this time I lost. By a hair. I crossed my fingers and placed an order from Wool Warehouse in the UK and the yarn I needed was here in about a week. I lucked out. Now that the shawl is finished, I can not tell where the yarn purchased 13 years ago and the new yarn changes over. Crazy.
I used the plans from Kate Davies’s blog to build a stretcher. That was the easy part. I’m glad there’s no video of me trying to get the shawl onto the thing. lol. It was like wrestling with a slick pig. Getting that shawl onto that thing was no easy task, but I won. And then the wind hit, took it down and knocked the shawl off of the frame a couple of minutes later. Grrr. It was dry by now, so I got it back on frame, sprayed it with the hose to get it wet again which allowed me to adjust it because it stretched more. It wasn’t perfect, but it served it’s purpose. The lace points are beautiful and the knitting is blocked and set. The difference between before/after blocking is incredible. And let me tell you, those Shetlanders knew what they were doing. It is so light and airy, but incredibly warm and will be so welcome on chilly evenings when I’m staying at Fair Isle Studio.
I finished up the Tencel warp that I wove the set of twill scarves on. Had I known there was only a cowl’s worth left on it, I’d have finished it sooner. I’m getting the looms ready for more weaving to restock the shop. So thankful for all the support and that the shop is almost empty. I have a special project I’m working on for my grandfather first and then I’ll get back to shop weaving next week.
rough sley
ready to thread
beamed
A last minute wool lap throw for my favorite mountain man, my grandfather.
I tied on a few leftover warps that I dyed a few years ago. These bits were leftover from shawls I wove in 2017. I had to wind another warp to fill in as there weren’t enough ends for the 200 thread dummy warp on my Baby Wolf. I chose a pretty blue solid tencel. More pictures on that later.
I want to leave you with one little tip, but it’s a goodie. While I was tying that hand dyed warp on I remembered this handy trick for holding the cross. I’m almost positive I learned it from Weaver’s Craft in my early weaving years. It’s very handy and all weavers have thread on hand. I especially like this trick when I have multiple threads in each cross group. When I wound these warps before dyeing them, I held six threads. They stick together a lot and that spells irritation when holding the cross in your hand or the other ways I usually do. You can see in the photo here that thread is used to hold the cross. At each loom I have a bobbin full of multiple threads that I use for lashing on or whenever I need something strong. That is what I used here.
I should title this the never-ending post. I guess I’m gabby when I haven’t talked for a while. 🙂
I originally put this warp on in November 2018. It was a linen/cotton warp with textured cotton weft for a table runner and place mats for my brother and SIL. I ordered way too much of the textured cotton, so I tied another warp on to the existing warp again. Then I re-sleyed it and tied on a wool warp using a cone of yarn that has been in my stash for eons. Liked that so much that I tied on another wool warp. This time using yarns I dyed back in 2017. I re-sleyed it again to 18 epi to use up some more stash yarns that are a linen blend. It makes great yardage for pillows or tote bags. I liked that so much, I tied on more cotton/linen warp to just play with stash yarns as warp. Honestly, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve tied onto this warp, but it’s a lot. These are the many lives of this warp:
Don’t get me wrong, Broken Twill is a beautiful, classic weave, but I’m over it. Yesterday I changed the tie up to “plain weave.” Because it’s broken twill, it can’t be a true plain weave. The sett is a little open, but I’ve learned to not judge a fabric until I’ve washed it. I think this will make nice napkins. I’m just weaving it as yardage, with no breaks, until the end of the warp… if there is an end to this warp. With every advance I sigh because I can see there’s a lot left.
A couple of things I wanted to point out… I had my son take some pictures of me changing the tie up so you can see how easy it is to change from the top of the lamms. I posted how I converted my counter march looms to this method here. It literally took about two minutes to change the four shaft twill tie up to a two shaft tie up and my shed was perfect. I didn’t need to tweak it at all after the change. Much easier to sit on my little stool and adjust my tie up. I sit on it with one leg out of the loom and one in and I’m very comfortable while doing so. https://jeanelizabethstudio.com/2019/11/15/top-o-the-lamms-tie-up/
The other thing I wanted to show is the cloth beam. Because I’m weaving with all different sizes of wefts, the width of the cloth changes. Some new weavers may not realize that this can wreak havoc on the tension of your selvedges. If the edge of the “new” cloth is narrower than the “old cloth” on your beam, it’ll be fine because it’s supported. If it’s wider it will cause problems because the extra bit of selvedge has nothing to support it so the edges of your warp will be a different tension. You can remedy this by adding warping stick in so that the whole cloth is supported. I also do this when I have a fat roll of cloth on the cloth beam that feels mushy to me. It just stabilizes everything.
I did a few other odds and end fiber related things lately. We lucked out with weather last weekend while camping at the lake near our house. I always bring an inkle loom with me and enjoy the peace and quiet along with the gorgeous views and wildlife. I’m including the draft for the band I’m weaving here. I don’t usually plan these out. I just wind and if I like it, I draft it so I have it if I ever want to weave it again.
I found out about a weaving shop in Comfort, Texas from a fellow fiber friend on Ravelry. Unfortunately, I found out about the shop because they were closing their doors. I met some Rav friends there and as soon as we walked in the door there was a Kromski Minstrel beaming like a light. In my head I thought, “I do not need four spinning wheels.” Of course I said that about dogs once, too…. My husband talked me into it. He didn’t have to convince me very much, but a little and I caved. I let “him” have “his” way. 🙂 All of my wheels have little baskets on them to hold their oil bottles, so I got to work and wove one for this one as well. I learned this technique in the Weaving Within Reach Book and have now done a couple of bowls in cotton cording and a couple of little baskets like these. I used a pint Ball jar for my shape. You can a watch a video of me weaving the basket on my Instagram.
I’ve been knitting a bit as well. I finished the Bousta Beanie and the Shetland Shawl I was working on. I’ll share a picture of the shawl once I build my stretcher and get it washed, but you can see Chico enjoying it’s warmth while I knit it. That silly little dog comes running as soon as I pick up my needles. That’s all fine and well when I’m knitting a shawl or sweater, but when he doesn’t realize the difference in size and tries to climb under a hat I’m knitting…. well… Right now I’m knitting the Symphony Shawl Kit from Sweet Georgia. The colors are stunning!
As a side note before I even get started, lol. I found a video of Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) saying that famous line and, as a weaver, my eyes zeroed in on his brother’s scarf. Look at that checked twill! And look at that buffalo plaid jacket… Seriously… hysterical. But I digress… already… Here’s the video so you can see for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBiewQrpBBA
Anyway… every now and then I have a brilliant idea, usually at about 3am, and I think I’m a genius. Genius, I tell you! And then I find out someone else thought of it before me…. Reminds me of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s un-venting instead of inventing. But still… someone might find these useful:
When working on scarves, I sometimes like to use a Saori Clipping Rod that I bought from Handmade Saori Weaving Studio in Belton, TX, a registered SAORI weaving studio (and Sarah is a joy). It allows me to easily cut off a scarf that I’ve woven and preserve the rest of the warp for future weaving. This is a 10/2 cotton warp on my Baby Wolf and it worked like a charm. If it worked on slippery 10/2, I think it would be even better with 8/2. I had just taken a Saori workshop with Sarah and fell in love with the clipping rod for cutting off woven cloth from the warp, and quickly using the clipping rod instead of tying or lashing on again. I saved the last scarf on the loom to try it out and it worked like a charm. I just had to put some new Texsolv cords in from the cloth beam to hold the clipping rod with the tubing that comes with it and it worked great. I love this thing.
On my Baby Wolf, I just threaded the free end of the Texsolv (not included, but the tubing is. It’s just like fish tank tubing) into the hole on the cloth beam and threaded the dowel through it. I kept my original cords on so I can go back to the traditional rod when I want to. I’m adding this edit to say that after a while of playing with this, I actually prefer the Vavstuga method that Becky shows in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anH8SNCLg4s.
Glimakra beater holds reed for easy sleying.
When sleying the reed after threading the Glimakra, you can use the beater to hold the reed. I’ve also hung it from the shafts with loops of Texsolv. I find it much easier to sley with the reed flat and pulling the threads through from the bottom. I can see what’s going on much more clearly this way and I’m less apt to miss a dent.
When you unwind a wool blanket from the cloth beam only to realize you forgot to hemstitch the beginning. 🤦♀️ I fixed it by pinching one end under the reed and sandwiched the other end between the front beam and cloth rod, holding it all together with clamps. Worked pretty well!
These coat pegs work great for floating selvedges, broken threads or wherever you need some added weight on a warp thread. I wrap the thread around the main part, a couple of wraps around the bottom hook and then the top hook and good to go. I bought the pegs at Hobby Lobby in the wood section.
Clamps make a great cross holder. I put the rubber band around the clamp and around the end of the warp so it can’t slip out if I have to get up.
These large twist ties from the big box stores make great cross holders for my Glimakra where the clamps won’t fit. They are easy to just squeeze the tops together to lock in the cross when I’m going to leave the loom.
I use hand weights when beaming. Besides giving even tension while beaming, it helps spread out the “V” that is always at the end of beaming because you’re so close to the reed which can cause uneven tension in your warp. This is at the end of the winding when I’ve taken the trapeze off. Before I release the weights and tie onto the front, I step on my treadles to check my shed for obvious errors like crossed threads. Much easier to fix at this point than after you’ve tied everything on. I would imagine that I could even throw a few shots of weft to check threading errors. The tension wouldn’t be great, but it would give an idea at least.
One pound of buckshot in each bag
Command hooks work great
I’m gonna be honest…. I hate using a temple and rarely do. When I go to Homestead Heritage Fiber Crafts I use them because… well… that’s what they do there and when in Rome…. I really despise the wood or metal ones with the pins. I always poke myself and tear up my selvedges. This is one of those places in weaving that you’re either a believer or you aren’t. I’m not and I’ve done miles and miles of cloth that has beautiful selvedges and I haven’t had a broken selvedge thread in years (I’m sure I just jinxed myself). When I do have to use one, this is what I use. Tarp clips available from any place you buy tarps or camping gear, some Texsolv, and little weights I made with scraps of handwoven fabric and a pound of buckshot in each. I put command strip hooks on the sides of my looms and it works great without blood-stained shredded selvedges.
I wound the first Christmas warp on in mid October. They almost sold out before I even finished weaving, so I wound a 26 yard warp and tied it onto the first warp so I’d have enough to add to the shop. I gave myself a goal of having them completely finished by Thanksgiving so we could have our dining room table (aka the hemming/sewing station) back in time for Thanksgiving dinner. I really can’t believe I did it, but I did! That’s 23 towels and two table runners! Whoop!
For my weaving friends:
hem zig-zagged in with grey thread
I’ve been asked a few times about my hemming process, so I took photos while working on this project. I don’t know why I always feel like I have to say this, but here we are…. this is the way *I* do it. I literally have sewn at least a hundred towels like this and I’ve not had one complaint. I also use my towels in my own kitchen, not just because I like them, but I can learn what works best in hemming, sett, threads by actually using them. I can personally report that not one of my towels has fallen apart.
I’ve tried a lot of other ways. For a long time I used steam a seam tape until I ran out one day and didn’t want to stop and wait until I could buy more. I found out I didn’t need it. I also used to serge the ends of my towels. For a while I serged every one apart and then washed. Then, for a while, I serged the two ends of the long length of fabric into a huge tube, washed and then serged apart. Seriously, I’ve tried a lot of ways. As I’ve stated before I’m either lazy or very efficient and if I can find a short-cut, I will. I’m sure there are other things I tried that I’ve forgotten and who knows, maybe I’ll do it another way a few months from now, but I’ve been finishing my towels like this for at least a year now and I’m happy with it. So here goes….
First big helper… I weave my hems in a different color if I’m weaving plain weave or a different treadling pattern if I’m weaving in twill. If you weave plain weave hems on a twill towel, they’ll splay out and you’ll get those annoying little ears that stick out. If I’m doing an all white towel in plain weave (which is almost never, but that was the case with the Christmas overshot towels last year), I throw two picks in the same shed at the hem line. It just makes it easier.
I weave my hems at 1.5″ and I throw two picks of a different color in between towels. I use leftover bobbins for the hems and the separation picks. When I pull the cloth off of the loom I use a rotary cutter and quilter’s ruler on a mat to carefully cut them apart. I fold them so the cut ends meet in the center and then I fold it over one more time so the cut ends are protected until I’m ready to go to the ironing board.
cutting apart on the two pick line
raw ends folded in
folded over again with raw ends inside
stack ready for ironing board
At the ironing board I get the tabs all ready. I have a basket full of inkle woven bands and can almost always find something that matches, but I had to weave bands for the Christmas towels (darn). I cut the tabs at 4″ and press them into shape so they are ready to tuck into the hems.
Now I’m ready for pressing the hems in. You can see how easy it makes it by doing them in another color. I fold at the change of color line first. I open it back up and fold the end up to the color line I just pressed. To avoid any little ends sticking out, I fold the corners in to the middle pressed line and then press it all down. I tuck in the inkle tab and use clips to hold it in. I repeat on the other end of the towel (minus the tab) and then it’s ready for the sewing machine.
it’s very clear where to fold
pressing in first line
pressing in second line
folding in corner
corner folded in
final pressing
ready for sewing
I forgot to take pictures at the sewing machine, but I’ll explain. I almost always use grey thread if I’m not sewing black or white hems. The grey magically blends in. I use a slight zig zag. It helps with the tension and does away with that harsh line that hems can have sometimes. It always hides when your hand isn’t perfectly steady, which really? Who’s is?
I always test a bit on scraps of the same weight of handwoven fabric. When I’m ready to begin, I start sewing on a small square of fabric and then go on to the towel without cutting the thread. If you do this you won’t get the little nests of thread at the beginning of your hems. Likewise, when I come to the end of the hem, I flip the end of that same towel around, so that I can go right on sewing the other hem. When I’m done with one towel, I go right on to the next one without cutting them apart until they are off the machine. I do go back and forth a few times at the beginning and end of each hem to lock it in place.
After sewing the hems, it’s to the washing machine they go. I have a front loader so I make sure that I have it on low spin or it creases the fabric. I dry just until they are dry. Then it’s back to the ironing board for a good pressing and the addition of my label. My current labels are from Dutch Label Shop and have the iron-on adhesive on them already.
I set my Toika up the same way, but used the pin anchors under the treadles instead of the beads. I will switch the beads out on the Glimakra one of these days as they sometimes break.
I didn’t come up with the idea, but I did come up with the cheery title. 🙂 Fitting because it makes me just as happy as the old Bing Crosby song that stuck in my head as I was setting it up. My Glimakra Standard has been this way for almost two years now and the 1987 Toika Liisa just a few months less. I still love it. More importantly, my back loves it.
Shortly after buying my Glimakra, I was down for about six weeks after hurting my back while reaching under the treadles to do a tie up. Around that time I read an article by Katie Meeks in the Oct 2017 Complex Weavers Journal about a tie up system that you do on top of the lamms instead of under the treadles. That got my attention! She gives credit to Kay Faulkner, Sara von Tresckow and Paula Williams. I knew I had to try it. I get for some people under the treadles is easy for them, but I’m 5′ 7″ and tried all kinds of advised positions and tricks and none of them worked for me. Before you read further, please note! This is what I did for my Glimakra Standard and then my Toika. You will have to figure out your own measurements. Please do not just use mine without checking first because your loom may be different and I went on the long side, so if you’re being thrifty with your Texsolv, keep that in mind. It also depends on whether you use beads or anchor pins and don’t forget to take the knot into account. You’d be surprised how much Texsolv a little overhand knot takes up. All that said, I hope this helps because it’s changed my weaving life. For real. I did add photos of all my measurements at the bottom of the post, but please just use them as a starting point.
Template for cutting the Texsolv.
The photos were difficult to see in my hard copy issue, so I went looking and found Kay’s blog post on the subject.
I kind of morphed a few ideas together and this is what I came up with. I made a board with nails 25″apart, but realized I had several pieces that were a little more than double that, so my pieces are 25″ plus 5 “button holes” as noted in picture.
I didn’t want to use as many buttons as Kati did and I had all the pony beads from doing the Vavstuga method, so I used those to secure the ends of the Texsolv under the treadles on my Glimakra. On top of the treadles I inserted a 1/4″ dowel so the loose Texsolv would remain tight to the bottom of the treadle and not be dragging around in the dust bunnies under the loom. I had a problem with the dowels sliding back while weaving, so I stuck an anchor peg behind it. You’ll see later that I did it differently on my Toika. I haven’t changed the Glimakra because it works so why mess with it.
A dowel on top of the treadle keeps the Texsolv from dangling beneath so cleaning is easier. The anchor peg at the end of it is to keep the peg from sliding back.With the treadle on the floor, I have five inches extra for my Standard. Don’t forget to take knot and looping bead into account!
I fed the Texsolv up through the treadle, up through the corresponding hole in the lower lamm and then the upper lamm. I tied a knot at the top of the cord so it can’t fall back through. The knot holds well and it’s easy to take out if you need to. It also doesn’t scratch or get caught up in the lamms as another bead or arrow pin might.
Kati Meek suggested a low stool in her article. I happened to see one on sale the same day at Hobby Lobby. It’s perfect when I need to tweak in the back under the warp. It’s also a great little shelf to hold things while I’m doing the tie up. Luckily, one of my kitchen chairs is perfect for sitting on to do the tie up from the front. NO BACK ACHE or leg cramps from trying to reach under the treadles. Heaven.
Easy to do tie up from the front without crouching to get under treadles.Reed sleyed and I’m ready to do tie-up.
Even if you do the Vavstuga Method, try doing it upside down. You just can’t leave the texsolv cords for the ones you’re not using because the Texsolv will be too short. You’ll have to re-do for each project, but you’re doing that now anyway, so give it a try on your next project. I chose to buy more Texsolv and cut longer cords that I can just leave in my loom. All I have to do from now on is move the anchor pin to the correct position/lamm and I’m done. I do all of this after threading or sleying the reed, but before tying onto the cloth rod. I can sit right at the front of the loom in my kitchen chair and reach everything perfectly. If I need to tweak the shed after I get started weaving, I have the little stool that I put in the back by the treadles and it’s SO MUCH EASIER than trying to reach under the treadles for me. I keep a card on my loom cart that helps me when I do need to tweak the tie up to get a clean shed. It’s at the bottom of this post. Feel free to download and print it. I will note, I worry more about the bottom of the shed than the top of it. As long as my shuttle has room and a flat bottom of the shed to glide along, I’m happy.
A note on the markings: When I set it up, I used the markings on my Vavstuga cords to the new, longer cords by lining up the bead end and then marking the corresponding marks. If I were to do it over again, I wouldn’t put the markings on yet. I don’t even use the marks on the Texsolv anymore. When you do your first tie up, set your first treadle so that the top of the treadle is even with the bottom of the foot beam. Pin that in place at the furthest back lamm. I do the next one forward at the same and then the next two I go one hole looser and so on. The Texsolv should gradually get looser as you go from the back to the front. Once you’ve woven a few warps and know where you like your treadles, you can mark them if you want. I honestly pay no attention to the markings anymore. I have had a perfect shed first time almost every time, but when I do have to tweak the tie up, it’s so much easier to get to it on top of the lamms instead of under the treadles. I wouldn’t worry about marking the Texsolv at first.
Texsolv looped around unused shafts and up around counter march to keep them from fallingtop view of extra shafts being held up by Texsolv
One thing that concerned me is what would happen with the shafts that I wasn’t using. Say I’m only using 4 of the 8 shafts currently on my loom. To balance them I attached them to the two plain weave treadles as if they were part of the pattern. It doesn’t affect my shed at all. I just wanted to see if I could truly leave the cords on “permanently” without having to worry about it when I switched between 4 and 8 shaft drafts and I’m happy to report I do it all the time.
I did a couple of videos that might help. I messed up the placement of the anchor pins in this first video. I forgot it was upside down. The second video corrects it. I’ll state again what I did above… if I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t worry about marking the Texsolv until you’ve woven a bit and know exactly where you want them, but that’s your choice:
In the pictures I’m using arrow pins. You can see in the video I’m now going to use the anchor pins, but I honestly don’t think it matters. Either works just fine.
Here are the measurements I used. PLEASE NOTE! This is on my loom, a 2014 Glimakra Standard with 8 shafts and 10 treadles and set to where I like the treadle height to be. Please just use this as a starting point to figure out your own set up.
Quick sketch of my TexsolvThe markings I used in the beginning.Bead attachedHow I attached the bead
When I did my Toika Liisa a few months after the Glimakra, these measurements wouldn’t work. I didn’t use beads under the treadles. I used anchor pins. I don’t change them, I still change the ones on the tops of the lamms, but I like them holding the Texsolv under the treadle because it stays put without a dowel on top of the treadle and the ends aren’t dangling on the floor when not in use. Just makes it harder to sweep under the loom when all those danglies are there. 😉
Look at that clear view to do the tie up!
Here is the cheat sheet I have by my looms. I step on a treadle, look down the shed from the side. When I see threads that look higher or lower, I wiggle the shafts up and down and watch the threads to see which ones need to be adjusted and then use this chart to make adjustments to that treadle. It’s easier if you have someone to step on the treadle for you, but I’ve done this alone many times:
A handwoven towel wrapped around a bottle of great wine would be an awesome gift to give to a hostess or friend!
The Christmas towels in the last post sold out before I even finished weaving them, so I tied on another warp of them. A very long warp of 26-ish yards this time. Now those are selling fast, so if you’d like to pre-order please reach out. I quickly learned that was going to be a weaving issue, so I changed to just a plaid band on each end of each towel. And then, of course, I had to revert to just playing with Color and Weave because it’s what I love.
Traditional Colors Band
Tropical – Turquoise, Lime Green and Hot Pink
Lime Green with purple
Color and Weave 3 picks green 1 gold
Color and Weave 2 picks each red and white
For my weaving friends… The Christmas Towels started out as an all-over plaid design. Oh, how naive I was. It didn’t take me long to realize that was going to be a problem. You can not make that many color changes, tucking in the ends as you normally would, without your fell line getting all out of whack. An occasional tucked in end, where it doubles the thread at the end of a bobbin or a color change here and there, is not a problem. If you are changing colors as often as you do in a plaid and just tuck in the ends, you are adding a lot of extra doubled threads to your selvedges, but the center of the cloth stays in single threads in each shed. That doesn’t add up and you will quickly start noticing that your fell line is curving up on the selvedges. Of course, if you’re weaving yardage where the selvedges don’t matter, you can just leave the ends at the color changes hanging out to clip off after wet finishing. If you’re working on a plaid in wool, you can do the same because the wool will somewhat felt together.
In a towel though, you have to do something about those ends to keep the integrity of your cloth. Unfortunately, that something is splicing and it takes a great deal of time. It suddenly makes the sale of a towel with an all-over plaid just not worth it. I am working on a custom 70″ table cloth. I can’t just have one band of plaid on each end on that much of a length of fabric. It wouldn’t be proportioned right. I need to do several bands of the plaid on each end, so I learned to splice. I’m getting quicker at it, but a band of plaid takes me about twice as long to weave, but I do love the effect. Here’s how I do it (Click on pic to make it larger):
End clipped and pulled back out of about an inch of it’s shed
Untwist the plies with your finger and use a needle or pin to help separate the plies.
Plies separated. They are fragile, so take care.
One ply gets put back into it’s original shed, the other is left out.
The ply is brought around the outer most warp thread and then brought back in on itself into the same shed
Finished splice. Still only two plies in the shed, so it doesn’t add bulk to the selvedges.
Edited to add: I shared my info on the Rav Warped Weavers thread and a kind soul told me about a method for two pick stripes, like the gold stripe in my plaid border. Instead of having two splices on the selvedge (which end up on the same side), you can achieve one splice in the center portion of of the towel (doesn’t have to be dead center). I threw the first pick leaving tails long enough on either side to meet in the middle. I then changed sheds, layed the weft ends in by hand and then pulled them back out to separate the plies and placed them back in the shed on top of each other. Worked like a charm and will keep extra bulk off the selvedge. I think with practice it’ll also be a little quicker. Funnily enough… I learned this once before… It’s in Janet Dawson’s Floor Loom Weaving class on Craftsy (now Blueprint). I purchased it in June 2013. It’s an excellent class for beginners and maybe this experienced weaver needs to go back and rewatch. lol Here’s how I did the 2 pick splice pictured above:
If you are still here and would like the wif file for the towels, send me an email and I’ll send it to you. WordPress won’t allow me to add the file here. If you don’t want to wait for the .wif it’s plain weave, so that’s simple enough. The color order is:
