Category Archives: Weaving

Weaving

Guat’s up?!

Posted on by Jean
A new weaver in San Antonio Palopó

We are back from an AMAZING trip to Guatemala.  We’ve been back a week tomorrow and already miss it so much.  If you’re looking for a fairly inexpensive vacation and are adventurous, GO!   We are actually talking about moving there at least six months out of the year, we loved it that much.  Let me say it’s not for everyone.  It’s a developing country, so there is a lot of poverty, it’s dirty and noisy.  The countryside is SO beautiful and the people, well… they are the kindest most agreeable people.  We loved the people of Guatemala.  We didn’t come across one angry person.

We stayed six nights in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan.  We went during the beginning of rainy season and I guess it there was more rain that usual.  We were also there for the 7.0 earthquake.  That woke us up quickly in the middle of the night.  The epicenter was only 100 miles northwest of us, but there was little damage (none where we were) and I think there was a few injuries, but no deaths.  Miracles.

We loved San Juan la Laguna.  This is where they have several weaving cooperatives.  The weavers there grow, spin and dye (with natural dyes) all their own cotton.  I brought some back and it is lovely stuff.

Anniversary lunch at Cafe El Artesano in San Juan La Laguna

I took a backstrap weaving workshop with Maya Traditions.  My teacher, Zenaida, was very pleasant.   With my minimal Spanish, we made it through the morning just fine until my husband (who’s fluent) got there.  She reported to him that my Spanish wasn’t bad.  lol  She’s from the village of San Antonio Palopó.  It’s about a 25 minute pick up truck (Guatemalan taxi) ride from Panajachel.  We went to visit her the next day.  They are wonderful weavers and all wear the same blue woven fabric.  I was dressed up in it and put at a loom to weave a bit.  So much fun.   They also make some gorgeous pottery in that village.  We just brought back a few pieces as we were afraid of weight and breakage in our luggage.  Probably a good thing for our bank account that Guatemala doesn’t have a postal system.

I’d like to add in here, if you are interested in learning backstrap weaving, it couldn’t be cheaper or easier and it’s awesome for travel.  I’ve been following Laverne Waddington for years. She now has a great DVD out and a couple of books.  

To be closer to Guatemala City for our return flight home we splurged and stayed at The El Convento Hotel in Antigua.  Oh. My. Word.  The most beautiful hotel we’ve ever stayed in.  It’s built in an old Convent and just gorgeous. It was a splurge, but we would never have been able to afford this place in the States.  We paid about $350 for the night and that was with roses, dinner and breakfast.  It was our 25th Anniversary celebration so we did the package deal and the meals were out of this world.  

Weaving

Band on the Run

Posted on by Jean

I love to take band weaving with me when we travel.  I have several inkle looms of various sizes, but I also weave them backstrap style.  It never ceases to amaze me all that you can do with some string and a little free time.   Here are some pictures of bands I’ve woven over time.There are more in my projects on Ravelry and there are MANY more in a basket just waiting for something to be done with them.  Thinking about adding them to the shop.

In other news, my youngest, Joseph, graduated from High School on Sunday.  Bittersweet.  I’m excited for what the future holds for him, but it’s really gonna be tough seeing him in the rear view mirror when we leave him at college in August.

Weaving, Weaving Tips

Finish Line

Posted on by Jean

Edited to add on Nov 2019 – Funny how we evolve. I don’t hem like this anymore. I wrote a new post on how I do it now. You can find that here: https://jeanelizabethstudio.com/finish-line-2/ Try them all and see what works for you.

Oddly enough, I used the same title even though I didn’t remember I’d written a post on hemming already. Who knows, I may find another way and do a Finish Line 3 in a couple of years. I thought I’d leave this one up because someone might prefer it to the new way I do it.

Thought I’d share a trick that is new to my weaving arsenal.  Fusible thread (FT) is my new best friend.  On these towels, I threw three shots of FT at the beginning and end of each towel with two shots of a contrasting thread to give me a cutting line.  This is the first time I’ve tried this and I love it.  I took the whole length of toweling to the ironing board and ironed each of the FT areas.  Make sure to use a pressing sheet on top of and under the FT or you’ll get it all over your iron or ironing surface.  I threw caution to the wind, cut between the lines and threw the towels in the wash.  A couple of them lost a few picks of weaving where I hadn’t ironed quite enough, but it worked out really well. 

This saved me SO much time as I didn’t have to haul the serger out and stitch down each end.  Obviously, it saved serger thread as well.  It also saved the extra bulk that the serger stitching puts in the hems, which already always feel too thick for me.  I’ve tried the trick of weaving with a finer thread in the hems, but I don’t like how it draws in the selvedges.  Speaking of hems…  I usually weave them in the same structure as the rest of the towel.  If you weave a plain weave hem on a twill towel, you are going to get the little flared out ends when you sew up the hem.  When doing twill sometimes I do a different twill pattern for the hem, sometimes I do the same as the rest of the towel.  Just depends on my mood when I sit down to weave.

Back to the FT.  A nice surprise was the fact that when I pressed the hems up to get them prepared for stitching, the FT held the hem!  I didn’t really need the clips, but I like them as a back up.  Next time I’ll use four shots of FT at each end to help facilitate this added little bonus.  

So here are the eight towels I cut off.  I’ve already been weaving on what I retied on and will most likely get five more towels.  One will be short because I was trying out different white wefts and ran out.  Anxious to feel the difference in the hand of the fabric from using the different manufacturer’s 8/2 cotton.

A couple of other things… After washing, I always take the towels out of the dryer before they are fully dry.  The dampness helps in the pressing.  When I finish hemming, I wash them again and it usually is enough to get the creases from the first wash.

Weaving

Tying one on

Posted on by Jean

So when last we left the loom I kind of left you hanging.  After finishing up the towels that I cut off I lashed the warp back on to the apron bar and continued to weave.   The great thing about this method is there are no knots to worry about as the cloth starts to go over the cloth beam.  So, onward with the weaving.  I should get at least five more towels out of this warp, but we’ll see.  The towels I took off were a huge 27″ x 16.5″ after washing, hemming and pressing.  I like a little smaller towel, so I might take a couple of inches off while weaving.

 

Weaving

To Cut Off Or Not To Cut Off…

Posted on by Jean

That is the question.  There have been many times when I’m in the middle of a multiple piece project…. like towels… where I need to cut some off.  I tend to wind very long warps because I hate tying up on my Glimakra Standard.  I have the Baby Wolf for shorter warps and she’s SO much easier to set up, but she doesn’t weave quite like the her Swedish sister.  Give and take.  Pros and cons.

Anyway.  When you put very long warps on, you get a spongy and sometimes too large cloth roll on the front beam as you weave.  I add warping sticks once in a while as go to add firmness to the cloth roll and that gets me a little farther.  There are times though when it just has to be done.  I have a custom order for six towels.  I really messed up my back when I dressed the loom with this project and couldn’t do anything for about three weeks.  It really put me behind.  Some of the towels are for Mother’s Day, so I cut them off this morning.  They are washing now so that I can hem, iron and get them in the mail giving my friend time to send them out.


I weave an inch or two in plain weave, depending on how brave I’m feeling and the thread I’m using.  If I’m using a slippery thread, I’d weave 2″, if it’s, say 8/2 unmercerized cotton or thicker, I’d just do an inch.  Then I insert a firm dowel and then weave another inch or two of plain weave.  If you click on the photos, you can see them larger.  You can see here that I also wove some twill.  That’s because the towels are in twill and nothing will spread out a twill project faster than plain weave.  I wove the twill to draw it back in.  Note the two stings on each side holding the dowel to the beater and to  the front beam.  These are my 3rd, 4th and 5th hands just to hold thing stable when I start cutting.

I will tie that rod to the cloth rod and continue to weave.  It’s nice because there’s no knots, you don’t have to tension things out again and it wastes very little thread.

Another thing I’ll share with you are my homemade temples.  The traditional kind and I do not get along.  I always end up getting poked and bleeding or tearing up my selvedges.  These tarp clips work great.  I was all thumbs when I first started to use them, but once I got used to them I can move them up the selvages in no time flat.  Much faster than the traditional ones and they do the job.  I used scrap handwoven (yes, there is such a thing) and made little pouches that I filled with 2 oz of buckshot.  I used texsolv to tie it all together and command strip hooks to hold them to the sides of my looms.  I did the exact same with my Baby Wolf.

Family, Weaving

Well, hello there….

Posted on by Jean

It’s been ages… six years! …. so long that I don’t even know where to begin… I wonder if anyone even has my blog on their feeds anymore… I guess we’ll see.

My boys are grown now.  The baby is about to graduate High School next month.  That doesn’t even seem possible.  He’s now the tallest in the house.  My oldest is getting married next month and is under contract for a house in the Denver area.  Daniel had one year left of college where he’s studying Software Engineering.  We’re enjoying life since Dan retired from the Army four years ago.  He works from home now to make up for all those years he was gone.  This was us after Easter Vigil Mass on Sunday.   We’ve changed a lot, no?

I’ve been weaving, spinning and dyeing far more than knitting these days.  Not a lot of use for wool sweaters here in Central Texas.  I have knit several cowls and pairs of socks though.  Love the That Nice Stitch Cowl and the Auto Pilot Cowl for mindless knitting.  I go to a knitting group sometimes about an hour North of us at Homestead Heritage near Waco.  It’s a great group and most of us weave or spin as well as knit, so there’s always lots of inspiration and people that get my love of fiber.  Always a good thing.

Like I said, though, mostly I’ve been weaving, spinning and dyeing.   This is my latest weaving project:    Dorothy’s Dozen Dishtowels 

It’s a fun one with lots of color and treadling possibilities.

I put a 14 yard warp on the loom.  I should get around 13-14 towels out of it.  

I’m still very into gardening and nature.  I’ll start sharing what we’ve done with our yard since moving in shortly before I stopped blogging.  I think you’ll be amazed at the transformation.  

Just a little post to see if anyone is still out there….  say hello if you are!

Weaving

I’ll build it myself

Posted on by Jean

So I’ve wanted a warping mill for a while, but I couldn’t spend that much money on something I knew I could make myself for a whole lot less (about $50, including the hacksaw and some blades, and it’s oak).  I had to figure it out as I went and I still haven’t made the stretcher bars that hold the dowels for the cross.  I’ll post that as soon as I’m done.  The wind is blowing like crazy here in Central Texas today, so I can’t work on it since I have to do it outside.

Here’s what I bought from Home Depot (not sure if I’ll use all the nuts and bolts, but it’s what I thought I needed when I was figuring it out in my head and shopping):

2 – 1x2x8 oak

1 – Jr. Hacksaw and blades

1- #10-24 threaded rod (I think it was 36″)

8 – #10 wing nuts

8 – 1/4 x 2″ hex bolts

8 – 1/4″ wing nuts

5 – 1″x36″ oak dowels

2 – 5/8″x36″ oak dowels

I bought a 12×12 cutting board from Ross next door to the Home Depot for the base, but you can easily use any square of wood.

Here are the measurments that I used:

From the 1″ dowel:  Leave one at 36″.  Cut two to 31″ and two to 32 1/2″

From the threaded rod: cut eight 1 3/4″ pieces.

From the 1×2:  cut two pieces at 26″ and two pieces at  22″ (what’s left will make the braces that hold the rods that you wind the cross on – I haven’t gotten that far yet.  I’m not good at explaining things so I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.  With those and the measurements, you should have no trouble.

I drilled a 1 3/4″ hole in each end of the four outside rods (use a piece of tape to mark this measurement on your drill bit).  Make sure it’s enough to go through your “spoke” pieces.  I used gorilla glue to keep them in there.

With a piece of the 1×2 I made the part that the axel will set in.  I screwed one side into the base, but left one side loose so that I can take the whole thing apart for storage.

Doesn’t need the washer in there.  Mine just wasn’t sitting straight so I threw it in there to help.  I will say… that with this set up, the side that isn’t screwed into the base makes the axel sit a bit crooked… So you might want to just keep it as one piece and screw the whole thing down.

When I was drilling the holes in the center of the “spoke” pieces… I screwed up.  On the top one (one of the long ones) you only have to drill your hole about half way through.  I didn’t think about it enough and drilled all the way through.  Easy enough to fix my adding this little scrap on top. If the axel comes all the way through, the bottom sets on the base pieces and doesn’t turn as freely.  Having a stop for the axel holds the whole thing up a bit so that it spins without a drag.

See… because I added that part on the top (or if you don’t drill all the way through the top piece) it hold the bottom of the winding unit off the base… 

And here it is so far…  the shorter dowels go with the shorter 1×2 pieces and the longer dowels go with the longer 1×2 pieces.  This allows you to fold the spinning portion to flatten for storage.

Animals and Nature, Family, Gardening, Weaving

Nobody here but us chickens….

Posted on by Jean

It’s been almost nine months since I last posted.  Wow.  It’s been so long that not only are the hens in the last post all grown up, one (the Silver Wyandotte) is no longer with us and one (the Plymouth Barred Rock) is molting.  I went outside one morning in September and knew instantly that something was wrong with one of the dark birds.  Sylvie died sometime in the very early morning, probably from a blocked egg.  What a way to go.  She was perfectly fine the night before, but she’d been passing weird eggs since she started laying.  Anyway, I know she’s “just” a chicken, but I was sad.  I had to make a decision.  If I kept only the two birds and something happened over the winter to one of them… you can’t have just one hen.  So I called the hatchery and ordered another Silver Wyandotte (and you can’t have just one chick) and a Gold Wyandotte.  I went and picked them up the day they were hatched (Sep 29th).  About a month ago I was able to start putting them in with the older girls, but only at night.  As of the last couple of weeks they are finally together full time.  Shelly (the Buff Orpington) is still a little mean to them, but they’re just working out the pecking order.

I haven’t been doing a lot of knitting, but I am weaving again.  I found a Schacht Mighty Wolf for sale in Austin and I’m loving it.  Here is my first project still on the loom:

It’s the pinwheel towel kit from Yarn Barn in Kansas.

The biggest thing that’s happened since the last post is that Jeremy graduated from college!

He’s living the dream this winter as Snow Patrol in Breckenridge.  He gets paid to do what he loves most, snowboard and ski.  Not sure what he’ll be doing once this little break is over, but he deserves it after five long years in the Army and then college.

I’ve been woodworking a lot.  Dan and I built two pergolas last summer.  The city changed the power lines last month and they now go RIGHT over one of our pergolas.  Argh!  Thankfully we have shade cloth over the top of it, but the bird poop is going to have to be cleaned off occasionally now.  Very annoying.

I also built a new coop and run for the girls.  Pictures below.  I wanted something cuter and I wanted something that was easier to move around.  We have a good routine, the girls and I.  In the morning I let them out and they follow me to the run for their morning treat (scratch or spinach leaves or whatever…)  about an hour before sundown I go out and let them run around the yard for a while.  I sweep out the coop and dump the poo into the compost bin (takes all of two minutes).  Just before the sun disappears they all meander to the coop, up the ramp and put themselves to bed.  I pull up the ramp, say goodnight and that’s it until the next morning.  Every couple of days I roll the run to another part of the yard for them to scratch and fertilize.  When I move it I take a couple of minutes to hose down where they were and you’d never know they were there, but we’re going to have some beautiful grass this year.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to….

It’s winter (even here in Central Texas) so the pics aren’t so pretty, but…

I have plastic over the window because I still have to build shutters.  When the girls are in the coop, they try to fly out the window.  Ding bats.  The slanted roof lifts.  The ramp is right under it and so is an nest box they’ll probably never use.  They use the one in the run.  I say they, when I mean Shelly.  Priscilla has been molting for months now and the young ones haven’t started laying yet.

Under the eaves is a three inch gap for ventilation.  Right now they are stuffed with newspaper because it’s getting in the 20s at night.  There’s also two vents on the backside and one on the other side where the double doors are (you’ll see below).  You can’t see it from this angle, but just under the window is a little door that I can open in the summer for more ventilation.  I’ll probably leave the ramp down as well, but it makes me nervous because that fence is up against a large drainage ditch where all kinds of snakes and such live….

Inside the coop.  They all go up the ramp, jump on the roost bar and stay put for the night til I go let them out in the morning.  See the vent over the door?  There are two more on the back.  It’s important, even in cold weather, to provide ventilation:


Looking down through the run from the nest door on the end.  I have a plastic tarp over one side because this was a very cold, windy day.  In nasty weather I leave the run against the coop so they can go up inside the warmer coop if they want to.  Usually though, it’s somewhere else in the yard.  You can just make out the chicks in the very back.  This was when they were still staying clear of big bad Shelly.

The first pergola we built after we had the side deck put in.  Much prettier in nicer weather when the tarps are gone and the cushions are on the furniture….

The second pergola… almost cost us our marriage.  Oy vey… this one was tough for some reason… but we made it through and are still happily married! lol.  Lesson number one.  Don’t build in Central Texas in August.  Period.  Oh yea… I built the table one afternoon too!

Weaving

Remember Those Towels?

Posted on by Jean

I finally finished up my first floor loom project.  They’ve been off the loom since before we moved last Summer, but I finally finished the ends and washed them.  The reason I held on so long is because, for some weird reason, I didn’t weave the ends in while I wove.  I haven’t gotten any idea why I did this because I know better.  I blame it on the stress of the move we were about to make and the high I was on from buying our house.  I asked for some help on the Warped Weavers forum on Ravelry and a few people said to just wash them. They’d full enough that when I just snipped off the ends, they’d be fine.  They were right.  I guess time will tell, but they really look melded together.  Yeah.

I blogged all about them here and here, but finally finished them up.   A little wrinkled but the feel is fabulous!  I LOVE these towels.  After washing they have softened up incredibly.  LOVE it!

8/2 Cotton/Linen 4-Shaft Twill Towels.  The towel on the far right is my own pattern you can find here.

Draft can be found on the Webs website.  The pattern is free when you buy the yarn.

Weaving

Success

Posted on by Jean

Okay… so my selvedges need a little work, but not bad for my first attempt, eh?  I used Peaches & Cream for this.  I wouldn’t recommend it.  It started pilling really early and made it difficult to get a good shed after a while because all the threads wanted to stick together.  That’s why the piece is so short.  I got tired of fighting it.

I wove the above piece with the backstrap loom anchored around me feet.  I had a hard time with that. It’s like a juggling act keeping things just right being “tied” to the loom at the waist and feet.  Felt a little like a contortionist at times. 

Here’s what I love about backstrap weaving.   It’s eaaasy.  It’s cheap.  It’s portable.  It’s easy.  Did I mention that it’s easy? Also, did I mention that it’s cheap?  This would be a fabulous way to introduce kids to weaving.  I think I spent mmaaaybe five bucks on it.

So after I took the little sample piece off, I warped the loom for the backstrap pattern that Laverne Waddington showed in the videos and Weavezine Episodes which I believe are gone of the net now.  If you give this a try, be sure to watch all the videos.  I didn’t and couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t get the shed open on a wider project.  Then I watched the videos again and saw the way to open a wider warp.  No problems after that.

Here’s everything ready to go.  I used a pillowcase for my temporary backstrap. See how portable it is?  It would all easily fit into a bag (which I think is my next project).  I may try the feet thing again after I get better.  I like it better that way because you can sit anywhere and do it and don’t need to anchor it on anything else.  I think it’ll be easier when I’m used to the movements and all.

This time I used Sinfonia that I bought at Hobby Lobby (Varigated Blues and Royal Blue) with a 40% coupon.  Dan bought a skein and I bought a skein so we could use two coupons.  Hey.  Every little bit helps. lol.  This yarn was easier to work with than the Peaches & Cream.  It is a little thinner than what Laverne uses I think, so my backstrap ended up not being as wide, but it beats the pillowcase out of the ball park.

This time I decided to try anchoring to my dining room chair as suggested by a member of the  Backstrap Forum at Weavolution.

Not an attractive picture, but I wanted you to see the full set up and how easy it is:

Once I got all set up and comfy, I finished the weaving of the backstrap in about an hour and a half.  I had a hard time with the end warp threads loosening up so I’ll be more careful in the future.  I’m really pleased though and I can see really getting addicted to this.