Palms

Last year I was asked to weave palms for Palm Sunday, our church was having a talent day where members brought thinks they made to the church too be on display for Palm Sunday service. Since I did such a great job last year I was asked to weave the palms again this year. It’s also a special day since it is the start of the churches tenth anniversary.

So this year I did them a little different then I normally would, with a few extra pieces. That will adorn the church.

These are single flowers for a side table. I made a dozen total that can go in one vase or be split between two.

This is a cross with flowers woven to look like they are growing up the cross. There are also some woven pieces interlaced through out the piece.

 

Theses two are alter pieces that will be placed on the alter and a side cabinet.

This piece is for the cemetery, I make up some every year to remember loved ones.

 

Those are this years pieces. After I was working on them I came up with some possible new effects for next year. So we will see if they work out.

Weaving Tip / Trick

A little trick I thought up for table loom weavers is to mark your leavers for difficult or complex treadling projects. What you do is get some Post-It page markers and for every leaver that you are using mark all the treadles that leaver will be pulled.

For example leaver eight is marked 3, 4, 6 and leaver seven is marked 3, 4, 5. You read your ti-up from left to right for each leaver and mark which number in the draw down that leaver is to be pulled. In the examples I'm using, leavers seven and eight are pulled when you get to 3 in the draw down as well as 4. Leaver seven is puled at 6 and leaver eight is pulled at 5. I used these two leavers for the example because you can see what i have written on them from the picture. I also omitted the tabby from the tabs since I know what tabby is I didn't need to add it. When your done you just remove the tabs and add new ones if you need to for the next project.

I will recognise that not every table loom owner will be able to use this system. Since some leavers are on the side of the loom instead of the front or maybe you can stick the tabs so they are visible on the leavers. I really don't know it's just a thought. I hope this helps new and experienced weavers out.

Ribbons

Finally we got a computer. So now I’m able to blog again, so here is a new entry.
Last Labor day weekend I had entered a handwoven doily in the Great Allentown Fair. My thought was I will give it a try and see if I get a ribbon. I also noticed that there were no woven items to speak of in any of the categories. So we have two opportunities one to show that people do still hand weave and the second was to try and get a ribbon.

Last year my intent was to enter about five pieces, that of course never happened so I only entered the doily and it won a blue ribbon. Pretty cool for the first time out he he…
So after that boost of confidence I decided to enter some new pieces this year. I was only able to get three items done. The first was the loom fitted vest that you all saw (it was one of my first blog entries). The second was a table runner or scarf and the final one is a wall hanging.

The vest only got a third place ribbon. Something I really didn’t think about in the category was the sewing part. So my detective mind is saying I got that ribbon because there was very little sewing. Well that and the judge wrote a note saying the piece was very interesting but very little sewing. The table runner got a second place ribbon this year, there wasn’t a not from the judge so I have no clue why I only got second. But I will say it beats anything under that, so I’ll keep the second place ribbon on that one. The final piece was the wall hanging this one I got a fifth place. While I was at the fair checking to see if I received any ribbons. When I got to this section I noticed that all the other entries where quilt’s except for a couple of embroidery pieces and of course my piece. So I think I really screwed that one up. In my defense there was no explanation or definition of what a wall hanging was. So all in all I had three entries and three ribbons, it’s all a learning experience and I now have a first, second, third and fifth place ribbon. So next year I will try again.

PVC Loom the project

Last week got a little busy for me, so I wasn’t able to finish the project I started on the inkle loom until this week. I was able to get the rest of the band woven last night. I tried to do the pattern that was in the magazine but that wasn’t working out right. So I figured it would be best to just weave the band in normal fashion, instead of trying to use a pick up stick for the first time out.

After I warped the loom I did notice a little bow in it. What I did was loosen the tension and that corrected the problem without making it to loose to weave. The other problem I had was attaching the heddles, I didn’t understand the directions but I figured that out too.

After I got it all set up weaving went real easy and quick for me. I was weaving on my bed so the loom wasn’t slipping around on me. If you do you a table or hard wood floor I would take caution that the loom doesn’t scratch the surface. So a recommendation would be just to put a towel under the loom, this should help with slipping and it will protect the surface of the table or floor.

I did loosen the loom to advance the band forward and retightened when I had it in the correct spot. I was amazed how the tension stayed for me throughout the weaving; I had no loose threads or really tight ones. As I’m typing I realized part that is from the continues warp, if not all of it.

I do recommend this project (the making of the PVC loom) if you have never inkle woven before or have a son or daughter that would like to weave. This would be a fun project for them and they get to say they made the loom them selves. I am going to try the loom out with a card weaving project as soon as I get a chance. Perhaps in my free time, wait a minute what free time!!!!!!

Plam Weaving

Something that I have been doing for the past several years is palm weaving. That is when you take a palm crown and weave it in to a display. (see picture to the right, of the palm crown not the very hammy kitty cat) I am told that this weaving is an Italian tradition that is only done for Palm Sunday. The different weaves have meaning to them, such as nails, the crown of thorns and the beating that Jesus received before he was crucified.

This year I got to make a display to place on the altar at my church. Which is a cool honor so what I did was I got three palm crowns. Just in case I didn’t like the first one I could make a second or if need be third piece. It turned out that I made two pieces for the church and I had enough left to make some pieces for the cemetery.

During the Pastors sermon she was pointing out all the gifts that were displayed in the church and giving credit to the person or persons that made them. The point of doing this was to show how much God given talent we all have and not to let anyone stop us from using those talents especially our selves. So she finally got to the palm pieces, [which I had hoped she was going to forget (I’m to humble to take credit) alas she did not forget about the palm pieces].

She begins by holding up a palm cross that she had made and is telling everyone how taken a back she was when she saw the palm pieces. At how elaborate and beautiful they were. Then she proceeds to say (to embarrass me of course) “Who needs the little old Italian women of south Philly when we have Chuck.” The sanctuary was in roar with clapping and whistling and praises of thanks.

So I sure hope the little old Italian women of south Philly don’t find out.

Inkle Loom

As I was reading the latest issue of Handwoven one of the articles tells you how to make an inkle woven hat band. Pretty cool I thought, you know what’s even cooler. The article also tells you how to make an inkle loom. This loom is made out of PVC pipe. So the strength of a wooden loom may be missing. The only way to find out is to make one.

Since I don’t have an inkle loom I decided to do just that make one of these looms. Also since I do card weaving I was looking for a loom to use for that as well. I think I may have found it. So we shall see if this works out the way I’m hoping it will.

The first thing I did was cut all the pieces to length and marked them. Since you can take the loom apart for storage I wanted to mark all the pieces so I knew who went where when I put it back together.

Next I got the threaded rods step up with the nuts and washers to the correct places on the rod.

Then all I did was assemble the loom and it’s ready to go. The final thing for me to do is to warp the loom and try it out. I will be doing that later this week, or at least that is my goal.

This project cost me less then $20.00 for all the parts. I do remember reading on one of the Yahoo groups about a PVC warping board that was in a previous issue of Handwoven. There was some concern that it might not hold up to the high tension that it would receive. That may be true with this loom also, but since I don’t have an Inkle loom and I really can’t afford a pre made one. I figured I would try this out. Since the cost is minimal and it takes no time to make I don’t see the harm in experimenting with it.

Lanyard

I finished my latest project which is a lanyard. I haven’t card woven in a while so I had a lot of fun with it. As I said this project is card woven so I had to figure out how to weave it so the cards would be threaded correctly. After weaving the neck I wanted it to come together so it would be one piece that slipped over your neck. Then I would attach a lanyard hook so you could attach your id or anything you wish to it.

So the first thing was to get the cards set up so I could weave 34” of the band. This part was a little tricky, since I had to thread two cards on the same warp in ex. 1-20, 2-19, 3-18, 4-17 and so forth. That way when I put the card together they would all be facing the same way in the correct order.

I achieved that except I twisted the one pack of cards so the wrong side is showing for half the band. This is actually ok because it gives it some interest and it’s also a learning curve. Next I had to bring both packs of cards together and mach up the fell lines. That was really easy I held the fell lines together with pins.

Next all I had to do was weave a couple of inches with the cards together to close the loop and give me enough band to attach the hook. Since I was using two shuttles to weave with when I bought the cards together I made sure the shuttles were to the outside of the bands. The left shuttle on the outer left, and the right shuttle on the outer right, so when I started to weave this part I used both shuttles. One for some extra strength at the stress point and two that way I was able to hide one of the wefts in the weaving. That way I wouldn’t have it unraveling on me.

The last step was to attach the hook, I machine sewed this on. But first I had to figure out how to attach the hook. If you have ever seen a lanyard hook it’s just the hook there is nothing else to it. So I did find a bag of fasteners as they were called. They where lanyard hooks and key rings all in different sizes and colors, I got them at Wal*Mart, so I just attached the hook to the ring, which I then sewed to the lanyard. Project complete please check out the picture and let me know what you think.

Table ware final

I finally got the table runner finished. Ok I confess I got it finished over a week ago and just got a chance to blog it. Life gets busy you know then you don’t get to do the things you enjoy, I digress.

The runner came out very well I thought. The fabric itself is quite sturdy and will work well. Being disappointed in not being able to do the original fringe the one I came up with is a nice substation.

Check out the closer view you can see all three different types of trim that I mentioned in an earlier post. So all in all I’m happy with the out come. Sorry for the cloudiness.

Tableware 2

I didn’t forget about the table runner, weaving it was a little difficult. So it took a little longer then I wanted. The trim I was going to do was Solomon’s trim I have used it before but my mind was not hem stitching the correct number of warp threads together. So that’s not going to work for this one.

In stead I have decides on something else that is pretty cool too. I’m using three different fringe treatments. Before you all go WHAT. I thought it would be fun to use three different fringe treatments. The first one is the half hitch alternating, five finger braid and the last is the square knot. I’m doing one of each then repeating that order all across the selvage.

I was only able to do a small amount today but will finish it in the next couple of days and blog the finished piece.

Table Ware

I’m sure everyone has those projects that they will eventually get around too. This is one of those projects; I had this really cool idea for a table runner in a rep weave. Well time and other obligations got me sidetracked and it never happened. Until now I have finally made it a point to make the table runner.

The idea was to have a main color with some stripping (Yes I know I’m on this strip kick). Not a lot of strips and more spread out, the picture should explain what I mean.

The rep weave that I’m doing doesn’t have a real thick weft. In reality the warp is 10/2 cotton. The weft is 10/2 and 5/2 cotton. This is how I get the rep effect not dramatic but it does make a nice fabric. The picture shows what I mean.












This is a closer view for you to check out.

The one other reason that I wanted to make this, it’s for a special trim that I would like to use on the loose ends. I’m not going to tell you what that is yet, so you will have to wait and see when I have it all woven and the trim done.

We have a vest people

Yeah!!!! Woo ho!!!!! YES!!!!! Happy dance!!!!!!!!!! I love it when things work out the way they are supposed to. O if you are trying to figure out what is he talking about my vest is done and it fits. Happy, happy, happy.

Front of the vest.



Back of the vest.

My main concern after it was washed that it would shrink too much. The way it did for the first two wool vests. The actual shrinkage for the vest is a little off from what I used by 1 % for length and no difference in the width. Never the less it fits well and looks good and I like it.

Getting Closer

I got the fabric for the vest done. I took off yesterday so I finished weaving it today. For anyone that is unfamiliar with loom fitted garments that means the vest is one piece of fabric. That way you have very little to no cutting and have only side seams to sew. This is how a lot of clothing first got created and in some places in the world still is.

These pictures are of the fabric still on the loom from Saturday when I started weaving it.

This picture is the fabric done and off the loom.

Now I have it soaking in wash water to wet set (shrink) it. Before I did that I draped the fabric over me to see if it was wide enough and long enough and it was. Since this is made of a hundred percent wool I have it in cold water so there should be a normal amount of shrinkage I’m hoping. After I finish washing and drying the fabric I will finish off the vest. So hopefully I will have a wearable and fitting loom fitted vest. I will let everyone know hopefully tomorrow.

Try, Try, Try again

So here I go at trying this project again. Last year I tried my hand at making a loom fitted vest. I wove it, washed and dried it and then I started to sew up the sides. Well guess what it was to short. So I tried it again this time it wasn’t wide enough. The third time I had tension problems and the fourth time I some how miss calculated the warp and didn’t have enough. The picture is of the first four attempts.

So I try and I try with no success and what do I do I try again. That is what you are supposed to do, so I here. In total reality I really thought it would be cool to have a vest that was loom fitted and I won’t let this stop me from achieving that goal.

What am I doing about it? Let me tell you, I have gone a head and warped the loom for the fifth try. Since I have learned from my past mistakes and have rectified them. I do believe that this vest is going to work.

The picture below show the warp of the vest, it’s mainly green with blues, purple, neutrals, black and a little burgundy. I placed these colors randomly throughout the warp so there wouldn’t be any formal striping. Just stripes that are heavy then thin a little and return after a little sea of green. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like that arrangement but I do. So as I get it woven I will post some more.

A New Year

Happy New Year to everyone, for this New Year I decided to become more discipline in my work. So hence the blog, I figure to have a blog you need to blog about some thing. In my case it’s weaving, spinning and natural dyeing (with the occasional gardening, nature and fun stuff). So as simple minded as I’m being I decided the blog will force me or at least won’t hurt me to do more work (put me on a schedule so to speak).

I also hope to make some friends from the blogging world, help anyone that I can through the blog and learn from those that have been at this much longer than myself. So the way I see it it’s a win win situation all the way around. That works.