Some Card Weaving

After reading a few chapters of Card Weaving by Candace Crocket, I started warping to do some card weaving. I wanted to make a few strips for my son's bible cover as page markers. Organizing the cards and placing the right thread in each was not as confusing as I thought it would be (that was a relieve). I secured the cards as suggested by the book with a rubber band and shook the warp out, once that happened the yarn took it's place. It's very different warping for this type of weaving than what I'm use to, since with the RH and Structo evenly spread out neat yarn wraps are a necessity, not so much with this. Initially your suppose to tie it all together in a big knot and then thread the cards, I warped directly to the loom with my peg and kept my yarn evenly spaced, now that I've done this I know that it doesn't matter and I can wrap one yarn on top of the other without much damage to the placement of my thread, this point is really interesting and in a small way very liberating. After a few experiments and some failure in the set up of one of the cards (bright me forgot to put the letters on the holes I have since sharpie penned all the cards) I started weaving experimenting with the turns and what it would look like if I made mistakes and so on.

After that it was time to get serious and do some real weaving. I really like the way it looks and understand how it works now not perfectly but the concept is really not that difficult. It's a different weaving experience and the results are really fascinating. I'm finding that the shifting of the cards is very rough on the yarn, the end yarn is linen and the centers are 3 ply cotton, I'm using the same materials as the cover. The yarn is getting really fuzzy although I haven't had any warp thread break. The selvages are the same as when I first attempted inkle weaving, bumpy and uneven, but as with all weaving, practice usually takes care of that bit.

Kinda cool huh?

This will probably be my last post for this week, Mom is having surgery on Tuesday 6/29, and I will be spending the week at her house, without cable or internet connection (yikes) but I don't think I'll have much time for either. Thank you for sending us your prayers and healing vibes our way, we really appreciate it.

Finished Fabric

It's finished and washed, I need to press it with the adhesive backing I plan to use. This is the reverse side of the Soumak I really like the braided look of this

I put the fabric over the book, and I've notice that I don't have much of a seam allowance, my mistake, but I think I can get away with what I have with some creative sewing. I'll play with it all this weekend and come up with some solution.

Comment Questions

PattyAnne said...
I would love to see how you construct the Bible cover! Will you be showing us?

I didn't think anyone was really interested in how I would get the end product but sure
I'll to try to do a tutorial and take photos along the way to post for you to see.

bspinner said...
Your weaving is wonderful. Don't judge what you weave until its off the loom and washed.

Thank you, and your right I should not make any decisions until I wash and press, I always forget that fabric changes as it goes through that process.

Benita said...
That's going to be a lovely Bible cover - I think the twining areas will really add to it. And I think every weaver has a good selvage and a bad one. From what I can tell, if you are right-handed, that will be your good one, and the opposite for lefties. At least that is from my own observations from the classes I have taught. Does this fit you as well?

Yes, your right in your observation, I'm right handed and so always get my selvages on that side the way I want them and have to work harder on the left. Only when I inkle weave does that not make a difference and I think it's because it's weft faced fabric and both sides are always tight.

Theresa said...
Looks great and I bet practice will even up those selvage edges. On the spinners & weavers housecleaning pages someone is selling a lot of shuttles, some boat.

Thanks, your right once I got moving along with the shuttle both sides got really consistent. I also noticed that the twining kept the fabric nicely stretch out across and help with that.

Judy said...
I've struggled with twining myself and I don't know why? From the photos that I've seen, it seems like it should be easy, but, my fingers/brain don't seem to connect on that one! Nice fabric!

I'm glad I'm not the only one! As the lone weaver down here, I'm always second guessing what I do.

Julie said...
It looks wonderful! I have started working on my scarf but its slow going right now with summer here!

I get like that with the knitting I hate to work on heavy items in the summer.

In Between Soumak and Twining

I like this twining better, it's very decorative and for me was easier to do than the first. This is my attempt at Soumak, I think I did it right but by the end of the night I needed a break and was seeing double.

Why blogger posted this sideways I dunno, but these are both techniques within the weaving. I'm in love with the teal yarn. I have to plan some really nice hand towels with it.

I hope to finish the weaving tonight and get it in the wash, after a good press and backing, I will start designing this cover, hopefully, successfully. I had a few questions in the comments I'll answer for you guys in the next post.

New Weaving

I started on my son's bible cover this Sunday and can I tell you, I'm in love with the shuttle! I love the way it moves through the shed, the fact that I don't need to un-weave to get more yarn out of the stick shuttle and it's ease of use. I am though discovering that my selvages on the left side are really loose while the right has a good tension. This is a close up of the fabric it's really the color of the first pic, but I needed to turn the flash off for this pic or it would washout completely. I love the look of the basket weave, although it's not true basket weave but, it's dense and I think will produce a nice sturdy fabric.

I tried the twining from the book, I can't say I love it, I like it but I'm still not sure. It was very easy for me to go from left to right on the teal strip, but going on the brown from right to left was a challenge, I don't know why it was but it just seemed that my brain didn't get the concept of doing it as easily. It was a very interesting exercise.

I need more bobbins, since I want to work in different colors on this, I ordered some from Harrisville and they should arrive sometime this week, as for temp bobbins I took some card stock cut to size, wrapped it around a dowel and taped the open ends to form a tube, wrapped yarn around those and kept working. Not that it's news to any veteran weavers, but some newbies might not know that's a temporary option.

My New Shuttle!! new to me ;)

I've been hunting on ebay for a boat shuttle for what seems to be evvvvvveeeeeerrrr! And of course I won't pay absurd shipping costs or pay new prices for a used item for that I'll just buy from the supplier direct IMHO (yeah, I'm cheap that way, but I have a budget I can't go over and I'm disciplining myself to be frugal and get a good deal for my money). My persistence and constant checking on line finally paid off. When I came back from lunch this was waiting for me at my desk, ain't she a beauty. It's a Harrisville Design 11" boat shuttle closed bottom with a 4" wooden bobbin. She has a strong odor, but the guys in production said it's not chemical, I'll air her out and see. I'm so excited, she needs a bit of sanding to smooth some wear, some oil and guess what; her maiden voyage will be on my new project hopefully the smell will be gone by then.

A bit of Everything Friday

Good God it's hot down here! No not in hell people, but in South Florida. LOL.. This is the time of year I wish Adam and Eve had not screwed up and clothes were optional. Well of course if you go to South Beach, it actually is optional. What I saw last weekend on the beach is scorched into the memory bank, I need a Clorox wipe to remove, but anyway here is what the beach was like with out the various degrees of lady bits. (this btw is a family, public beach but I guess visitors are not aware, oh and ladies over 55 should not, really not go topless there is nothing sexy about gravity trust me I know).

We had a great time and it was relaxing, I always come back from the ocean feeling calm, if we ever move to the mountains this is what I will miss the most, being able to get to the ocean in 20 mins or less. Mr. Deepend says, I'll appreciate it more because it won't be as available as it is now, we'll see about that.

I also attended WWKIP day at the Broward Library, our small group joined a larger one and we sat, talked and had some good fun. There was one lady with a Schacht Spinning Wheel, with this wonderful yarn she was working on, I was amazed actually stood there with my mouth open like a numb nut, in my defense, I've never actually witness really spinning so I was allowed the stupid expression and idiotic questions. I talked to her about her spinning and told her my spinning is still in it's art yarn stages, she agreed (as everyone has told me) that it takes some time to get good enough to produce anything worth knitting or weaving with, but eventually you get there. I need to practice more.

I made a bag with some extra woven warp and purse hardware I had stashed for my spindle and roving. I need to start carry my spinning to knit club and to work for lunch time spinning (part of the practicing agreement I made to myself). This bag is deep and has lots of pockets, I can also carry some knitting in there if I have to, or as my DD so graciously put it "daaaaamnnnnn woman, you can carry a small tribe of babies in that bag", yeah, she's proof that the apple doesn't fall far from the ol' tree in the odd humor department. I was also thinking I may take my spinning with me for my wait at the hospital with my mom. I wonder if anyone would care if I spun yarn in a waiting room??

And finally some warp on the RH loom. I'm going to make the bible cover for my son. It will be loosely based on the Folio Cover from pg. 64 of Woven Treasures by Sara Lamb. I don't have the double heddle and know I'm not going to get the sett she's getting in the project specified, but did double up on the yarn to create a stiff fabric. I also plan on doing the twining and maybe a pick up technique for some texture. I have copper brown linen, 3ply cotton in teal, red and light green that will be the accents. After the weaving of the fabric, I will be doing some card weaving to add page markers to the cover before assembling the whole project. I'm really excited to start weaving on this one.

Thoughtful Thursday

Hear the meaning within the word. - William Shakespeare

I started sewing the latest inkle band into bags. With the length I get from my loom I can produce two bags. I screwed up one entire bag and had only some material left. I made the small bag but could not line it, this is something I need to work out, as the liner is important for keeping thing from piercing the woven fabric and causing damage. The second larger bag is holding my card weaving cards, I would have liked to have my shuttle sticks with the cards and therefore need to design a longer bag. For now it keeps the cards in one place and I stuck the shuttles in there even if they stick out for now.

These are the cards that were made for me. I'm still working on cleaning them up and getting all the plastic bits in the holes smooth. I'm starting to get excited on the possibilities with these. I'm still not sure how it all works but that's not going to stop me from trying.

I'm planning on warping my RH tonight with what will become my son's bible cover. I"m going to use some of the techniques found in Woven Treasures, and hopefully I'll have something that can be sturdy enough to use. If the card weaving turns out well I will use it as a decorative book mark for the cover.

Stuff

Life is full of stuff; material stuff, mind numbing stuff, annoying stuff, paper stuff, clutter stuff... just plain stuff. Well I've been dealing with a lot of stuff and I thought I might share with you all and put it down somewhere to think about.
My youngest son turns 21 today, he's the baby of the family and although I didn't give birth to this one or his brother, I love them dearly, I'm a bit touched by how I feel about this today. This is a pic of my three kids the one on the left is the youngest.

My mother will have a lumpectomy on June 29, I'm planning to stay with her that week and sleep in my old childhood bedroom, which is her now sewing room and very close to the magic closet. I'm a bit worried about this for many reasons, but have prayed upon it and am leaving it in God's capable hands. With this, I'm also thinking about if something happens to my mom, what happens to my incapacitated g-ma that she cares for 24/7, a ton of emotional stuff. Me and mom she's only 68 to my 44.

My looms are nekkid, I haven't the motivation to warp any of them and that's scary stuff. I've been reading my book on card weaving and the guys at work made me some really great 1/16" acrylic cards that were done on a router, they are great looking now I need to put them to some use. I'm planning on making a dog leash as a thank you for one of the guys, the other one is the knitted hat guy.

I guess I need to get myself out of this funk and get going. I'm going to a local WWKIP tomorrow and I hope I snap into myself at one point or another.

PICK 2 PICS

Picks 2 Pic was a great inspiration for this year's virtual exhibition. Lynn was my exchange partner and she sent me some really wonderful creative motivation, Thank You Lynn for your wonderful package it truly got my mind working and opened me to various new experiences.

My first inspiration was her beautiful hand spun, which triggered my spinning adventure. I am still in practicing but seem to be getting a bit better. I still love the art yarn that I'm creating and plan to use it later in the year for another project. I've also been told by experienced spinners that once I create true singles this art yarn will be forever lost as you will not be able to spin it this way again unless it's purposefully done.

My second piece was derived from a piece of dyed cloth that I pulled the colors to create an inkle woven wide band. I then took the band and sewed a small bag. This little piece of art has been to the Florida Keys and several trips to Miami Beach. I've gotten wonderful compliments on it and a few orders for others. It's inspired me to create more of them and a soon to come Etsy shop featuring the bags which are named Baja Bags.

The final piece was taken from the postcard that was a field of flowers, once I turned it on it's side I was struck by how much it resembled clasp weft weaving. Since it was a technique I wanted to try it was the perfect push in that direction. I'm planning to use this fabric to make a bag in for my smaller shuttles and card weaving supplies.

Thank you for stopping by my blog, I hope you enjoy the tour of Pick2Pics Virtual Exhibition 2010.

I have a head cold, am taking some over the counter stuff that's making me groggy and sleepy. Will be back later this week with some content that may be worth reading and pictures that may be worth seeing. :)