Category Archives: Weaving

Backstrap Weaving, Weaving

Backstrap Weaving

Posted on by Jean
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So I came across Laverne Waddington‘s Backstrap Weaving article on Weavezine.  I’d wanted to give this a shot for some years now and she made it seem so simple, I had to try.  Guess what.  After spending bits and pieces of my day yesterday with dowels, cotton yarn and my dremel I produced my own loom!

I couldn’t find a convenient place to anchor the end not attached to me, so I added another dowel to that end, rolled it and put the rope around my feet.  I like this way because I think it’s even more portable and I can sit on my sofa with me feet up on my coffee table.

After only a few minutes I, this is what I accomplished:

I think this would be a great way to teach kids to weave.  Cheap and easy.  I’m going to see if my nieces want to learn.   After I finish this little practice strap, I’m going to weave my backstrap following Laverne’s pattern.

Weaving

Drafted

Posted on by Jean

Remember this from a previous post?

I’ve had a couple of requests to show the draft.  You can download the pdf by clicking here.

Remember that I am a newbie… big time so proceed with caution!  🙂

It’s been a busy few weeks getting ready for the big move next month.  Yikes.  I can’t believe it’s next month.

 A couple of weeks ago Kim and Ken came for a visit.  We had a BLAST.  We went to see Rock of Ages on Broadway.  Hysterical.  Seriously, if you can go, GO!  I had no idea it was going to be funny.  It’s a boy meets girl story told with the songs of the 80’s.  They even handed out little flashlights that looked like lighters so that the audience could sway back and forth to the music.  It was a lot of fun! 

Come rain or shine we’re headed to NH Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend!! YEAH!!!

Weaving

Square Doodles

Posted on by Jean

The draft is here.

I finished the 2nd towel and wanted to try another weave pattern.  I decided on a different tie-up than I’d been using and scribbled in some squares in a pattern on some graph paper.  I imagine in the million or so years that people have been weaving, someone has come up with this pattern so, in the words of Elizabeth Zimmermann, let’s just say I unvented it.  It was fun to take it to the loom and see it form into this:

How much fun is that?!  It looks nothing like the graph.  You can see more of the graph here:

Another interesting thing is how my little threading error is more obvious in some weaves than in others.  Remember when you all said you couldn’t see it?  See it up there going up the middle of the fabric?  Here, have a closer look:

It doesn’t bother me since it’s my very first piece but I will be much more careful in the future.

Stained Glass, Weaving

Finishing Up

Posted on by Jean

With the big move to the Lone Star State only a few months off, I’m trying to finish off the various projects that I have.   This is a “stained” glass (what do you call it when the glass is clear textured?) piece I cut several months ago.  If I work on it a little each day I should have it done in a few days.

I’m not in a hurry to finish the towels on the loom.  I want them to last so that I don’t have too little time to warp another project and not enough time to finish up the towels so that I can get the loom ready to ship.   I’m on the 2nd towel.  I’m going to do a different treadling on each one to vary it up a bit.  This one is a really quick and easy treadling that came with the first towel pattern I did. 
 

Towels, Weaving

Just Go With It

Posted on by Jean

I finally had time to finish threading the loom for the towels.

Before I started weaving I noticed that I’d gotten three threads in one reed slot instead of two.  I thought, “Heck with it.  This is just to get used to the feel and learn.  It won’t make much of a difference.”  See the dark line that runs up the fabric.  And then I noticed that I had a threading mistake.  You can see it in the column of pattern that ends right in the center of the photo.  Dang it all.  That’s okay.  I’ll have something to progress from.  I still have my first handspun skein and I’ll hold on to these towels the same way.

Weaving, Woodworking

Green Warping Board

Posted on by Jean

Thank you all so much for the well wishes for my cousin and the baby.  So far, so good.  Isabelle is growing more each day and Kayla is hanging in there.  I’ll keep you posted.

I did a green thing today.  I used the old parts of my loom after installing the conversion kit.  Look what I made!  The three oak dowels were less than $10.  Not bad, eh?

Dyeing, Family, Weaving

Maybe it should be “Nova Scotian Lamb”

Posted on by Jean

I love history.  Especially family history.  I’ve been working on our family history (mostly my paternal grandmother’s line) on and off for about 20 years.  It all started with Gram’s stories about John Allan (my 7th ggreatfather).

If I could have one wish, it would be to be able to go back in time and meet my ancestors.  When I was stationed at NSA I used to take weekends and head to D.C. to do research in the Library of Congress and National Archives.  I have to say the help of the internet and sites like Ancestry.com sure make life a lot easier.

You might remember my find that I’m the direct descendant of many of the Mayflower passengers.   That was a shocker.  Even more so when I found out Gram knew it but never told me.  She only ever talked about our Scottish Heritage.  She was very proud of it.  My ancestor of choice for the last year has been Gram’s grandmother, Margaret E. Fraser Campbell.  She came to America in 1882 and was married to Lemuel Saunders Campbell in Boston in 1885.  After the 1920 census I couldn’t find them and it really bothered me.  I looked everywhere.  I knew they both immigrated from Nova Scotia.  I met a 3rd cousin by way of Lemuel once removed through Ancestry.com.  His his ancestor is Lemuel’s brother.  He gave me a bunch of church records including Lemuel’s parent’s marriage record from a church in Bear River, Nova Scotia. 

Anyway, I was talking to my aunt a few months ago and mentioned my obsession with Margaret.  She surprised me by telling me that they had lived in the Ossipee area.  When we went up over Christmas I asked my grandfather about it and he drew me a map.  Dan, the boys and I set off to find it.   This is the beautiful house that my 3xgreatgrandparents lived in:

On the map Gramps also showed me where a couple of Margaret’s relatives lived!  As soon as I got home I went looking through the 1930 census.  Finally.  I found the missing link to connect Margaret to the John and Ellen Fraser in  the 1891 Canadian Census that I thought might be her parents.  One of the relatives Gramps led me to was Margaret’s youngest sister, Marion.  Marion was the key I needed to link everything together.  They were from McLennan Mountain in Pictou, Nova Scotia.

 Here’s the mind blower.  I started researching the area and found out that McLennan   Mountain had only been founded a few years before John Fraser was born.  Three Fraser came to Nova Scotia just a few years before John’s birth and started the Presbyterian Church there.  Now… get this.  The brothers came to Nova Scotia from THE ISLE OF MULL!!  I’ve been there!  Not once but TWICE!!   What are the odds?!  Is it any wonder I teared up every time we had to leave Scotland?  I definintely bleed plaid.  I’d definitely like the weave the tartans of Clans Campbell and Fraser.

Speaking of weaving, I played with the loom last weekend.   Here’s my first sampler.  I still need to finish it but I think I’m ready to move on to towels now.

Knitting, Weaving

Gonna Get My Weave On

Posted on by Jean

I knit two more hats since my last post.  What a great way to use up stash yarns!  There was about 2 inches of red left when I finished the stripes.   Waking up this morning and feeling the cold air when I took the dogs out made me realize that I really should have done this earlier.  Everyone has been really great about emailing and donating prizes, so thank you.  I’ll be posting more prize pics shortly.

Many moons ago (at least seven years ago) I had a Schacht Rigid Heddle Loom.  The big one with the floor stand and everything.  I had all the goodies, too.  Tons of books, Handwoven magazines, even videos (no dvds back then).  I had fun with it, but I quickly got bored doing plain weave so I sold it.  ALL of it.  Like a complete moron.  I knew that one day I’d get a floor loom.  No. Really.  I *knew* it.  And still, I sold it all.

I think I made two things on it.  I bought the kit for this scarf from Hill Country Weavers on a trip to Austin (can’t wait to go there again!  We’ll pass right by it every time we go to Laredo and home again.  Weeee!).  I also wove a two-color sampler and used that to sew holders for my dpn needles and circs.  Forgot to take a picture.

I was beginning to think I’d never get to have my loom.  Well the time has come!  Remember my friend Daryl from Elann that I finally got to meet in person at Rhinebeck?  I’d mentioned wanting a loom and she happened to have a Harrisville 36″ 4H/6T for sale.  Yeah!!  I keep saying there’s no room for it here and I won’t be able to play with it until we move to Texas, but who am I kidding?!   There’s no way I’m going to be able to resist. 

My new handy woodworking skills will help in building a warping board and a bench.  I already have a bobbin winder and I just resubscribed to Handwoven.  How I wish I’d kept all the old magazines and the collections.  So just a few items to purchase for now and then I can get started!

Family, Knitting, Shetland, Travel, Weaving

Wooly Paradise

Posted on by Jean

One of my favorite things from both of our trips to Shetland was the Jamieson’s Spinning Mill in Sandness on the West side of the main island.  You can just walk around and watch the tons and tons of wool become yarn,

sweaters:

and woven fabric:

I love how cleverly they can weave several different color ways on one warp.  This is only three of the several color ways of scarves that were on this particular loom.  They just slightly felt the fabric and then cut along the yellow lines in strips and then cut the strips into scarves.  Amazing how the weft works through all the warp colors.  They had bolts of warps ready to go onto the looms.  I was sad that the weaver(s) weren’t there when we visited.  I did get to watch the women doing the joining on the knitwear though.  Very cool.

The staff are very kind and don’t seem to mind visitors.  Even small, curious boys who make the knitting machines stop by accident.  :-O 

When we went there in ’97 Daniel was only three but he loved it and cried when it was time to go.  On this visit we gave the boys their choice of where to go on the last day.  Even though we’d spent about three hours at the mill the day before, that’s where they chose to go back to.  The staff greeted us with smiles and ran the boys around showing them different things that we’d missed… somehow… the day before.

Well, tonight’s the big night.   First school night of the year.  Good thing next weekend is already a long one.   I think we’ll need it.  Both boys are really excited.  I’m actually not ready yet.  The last month has been a blur so it kind of snuck up on me.   

Weaving

Grrr…

Posted on by Jean

When… oh… when will I learn?!  Gauge, gauge, gauge.  I’ve knit with Elann’s Highland Wool quite a bit, and I love the stuff, but for some reason I’m not getting gauge with this color (Forest Glade Heather).  Actually, I’m liking the gauge I’m getting which is 21 sts to the inch.  I’ve always gotten 19 or 20 before with other colors.  At any rate, I’m going to have to rip and pull it out because 40″ is just not going to cut it for my man.  But take a look at that ribbing, eh???  I made the right choice in knitting with the same needle size and same number of sts for the ribbing as I am in the body.  I can’t imagine adding 43 sts to that!  So… onward.

I will be anxiously waiting for my order to arrive from Elann next week (hopefully).  Yesterday’s deal was too tempting for me to resist.  They offered up 1/2 pound bags of color coordinated samples for $24.  I bought a bag of the naturals/whites and a bag of the browns/beige’s or was it tans… dunno, but the plan is to use it to make a knock-off Ab Fab throw.  My living room colors are sagey browns and tans so it’ll be perfect.   I can not wait to see my goodies!!

I heard from Jeremy yesterday.  He got back to his post outside of Mosul only to be put back on a helicopter.  He’s moving to the center of the city now.  The vet and Army wife parts of me are telling me it’ll be okay.  He’ll be fine.   The mother in me is telling me I should have locked him up in a room and kept him while I had him.  I’m really struggling with this. 

On top of that we had a parent/teacher conference at the school yesterday for Daniel.  We’ve noticed him having a harder time of it the past couple of months and he has an appointment up in Würzburg next Wednesday.   Unfortunately, we don’t know if the new doctor has any experience with Asperger’s Syndrome.  He can’t continue on the Concerta because he’s stopped growing. He’s already anorexic skinny, but now he’s not growing in height either.  There’s also been a lot of problems with bullying at the school.  Daniel is a magnet for this already and he’s starting to realize he’s different and he’s being left out of things.  He’s rebelling and I’m really starting to worry.  We have some excellent social stories workbooks for him.  I had him do a chapter on friends yesterday just to see where he is.  It’s not like you can just sit him down and talk to him about it because he won’t share his feelings.  These workbooks are perfect because he writes much more easily than he can speak.  At any rate, the results broke my heart.  Before where he was completely unaware of being singled out, now he’s totally aware of it and it’s hard for him.  He turns 11 in July, so I know part of it is just normal pre-teen stuff, but the Asperger’s puts a whole other twist on it.  I’m really anxious to get to NY.  We’ve been told that the support there is outstanding and there’s a lot of knowledge in the area we’ll be.  Thank God because we’ve always been pretty much alone and I’m so tired of trying to make people understand.  With something like Down’s Syndrome, people know by sight something is wrong. With Autism kids look “normal” and people just don’t get it.  Hell, sometimes Dan and I don’t get it and it takes us a while to catch on to something going on in Daniel’s mind.   

Anyway, sorry about the venting.  I think I need to go knit….  See you on Monday.