January 2020 – Jean Elizabeth Studio

Who’s the Dummy Now?

Posted on January 21, 2020October 4, 2021 by Jean

Here’s what’s on the looms.

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.

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.

That’s all folks! Weave On!

Warping, Weaving, Weaving Tips

A Wool Hug

Posted on January 16, 2020March 5, 2022 by Jean

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….

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.

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.

Knitting, Lace, Shetland, Warping, Weaving, Woodworking

Shetland and Back Again…

Posted on January 5, 2020March 5, 2022 by Jean

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season and is ready for the New Year!

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.

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.

You can see lots historical photos of shawls and women dressing them on frames at the Shetland Museum’s website and on Jamieson and Smith’s website.

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.

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.

Until next time….

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Login