A Wool Hug

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.