Loom up!

After a year of trying to figure out options that will keep me with two working looms for my shop, I finally decided on an Oxaback Lilla.  I knew I needed something versatile, but I wanted a small footprint so it could go along with us when we RV or settle in a skoolie as the kids get older.  Ultimately the option of a drawloom upgrade later sold me, although the aesthetics didn't hurt!  I was able to stop at the Woolgatherers in Fond du Lac on my way home from Rhinebeck this year, and got to weave on one of the Lillas set up in the store.  They're so traditionally beautiful!

Of course a snowstorm hit right after we got back, and we've had snow basically every day since.  After almost 2 weeks of this nonsense, I emailed them back and asked them to ship the loom.  It arrived Wednesday, and the next 24 hours were utter torture as we let the wood warm up, to prevent any odd expansion or contraction after assembly.

At any rate, Thursday brought us this!

The directions were unfortunately pretty difficult to understand, there are two pages of swedish instructions with a diagram, a page that is meant to be a translation, but only summarizes and refers back to the swedish.  It reminds me a bit of early English Lit classes, having to translate Beowulf and interpret at the same time, different bit of work for my weaving brain.  The slideshow is pictures after a bit is done, rather than how to do each step, but ultimately helped more than either set of written directions.  And we ended the day with the frame together, leaving me to do the pulleys and tie ups. This part is unfortunately more of a struggle, without clear instructions.  But I have a draft chosen, for the first piece, so I can set it up and configure it for my first weave in one step!

A better tablet weaving setup - with improved weights

Tablet weaving was one of my big 2017 goals, and all of the textile research I was looking at for SCA garb just made me need to start a.s.a.p.   Pi was generally horrified that I was willing to sacrifice perfectly good playing cards to learn a new weaving method, but I was determined to give it a shot without sinking a bunch of money into it first.  We were able to put together a simple tablet loom for $14, and had enough in supplies to make 2 little looms.  Hardware store door pulls, 2 boards from the $1 stack at ace, a dowel, and a little scrap wood from the garage.  J clamps, but I ended up not even using them. (Linden liked them though because they made the loom into his personal hoverboard)

My first run was fine, but with no border, the edges were really messy.  Fine for the boy to hold up his hip quiver though, so he quickly snatched it up.  It helped that he adores red.

I quickly learned the value of independent weights though.  I'd seen suggestions for ceramic inserts as weights and figured that might work well, so I ordered some.  It came in a 10 pack so I tied 2 cards per weight.  I picked (rather Carl picked, and I didn't know any better) the "dragon's head" popular pattern for my second attempt and was in over my head pretty fast.

Once I figured out that the pattern threaded backwards from what I'd seen elsewhere, I started plodding along, but the twist became a problem FAST.  Even with only 2 cards per weight, it was messy.  I spent 3 evenings cursing and browsing Amazon while I wove, untangled, wove, cursed, and untangled.

I finally came up with a system, and I like it.  For twist neutral patterns, I probably won't bother with it, I'll backstrap it or tie on a dumbbell and call it good!  For chaotic ones like this one has been, this was a lifesaver.

This is what it looks like.  The weights are 3 oz fishing weights, I got a package of 26 from Amazon.  I love that they're so narrow I can put on quite a lot of them and they stay pretty stable and line up easily without trying to tangle.

The part that took me forever to figure out though, was how to wind up my warp and keep it attached to the weights.  I contemplated and shopped for what felt like ages trying to find something workable.  I stumbled across these keyfobs that swivel and realized that would be perfect for letting out twist!  I got these embroidery floss bobbins and attached them all together. 

The hardest part was getting the fob through the hole in the weight, but it did fit with a little wiggling.

It's not perfect, but for a second tablet weave, I'm really happy with it.  It's definitely improving with each pattern repeat too.

Another branch of the rabbit hole - Viking garb

Historical textiles has been of major interest to me for many years so when we found a local SCA and Carl agreed to actually go to a meeting, I was overjoyed and overwhelmed!  Over the last couple of months we've been getting more involved and I've been slowly chipping away on our garb.

For our basic starter sets, I ordered 10 yards of essex linen blend from Dharma Trading Co. not really knowing what to expect.  It came and it's really lovely!  Sturdier than I expected and not scratchy, but nice drape.  I started with my under dress and Carl's tunic, since they're pieced pretty much identically, just changed the measurements.

I pulled heavily for starting measurements from this website which has a pretty good calculator, with a few things that didn't make a lot of sense for us.  I definitely felt like I needed to widen the neckhole a little, to avoid choking or having a split down to my belly button, and would have liked a tiny bit more ease in the sleeves (I think a product of narrow but long arms.

But ultimately I was able to lay out the pieces and it all made sense!

For the gores, I used a string and treated it like a compass in childhood, to make a curve.

I made 2 in this way and cut them in half to have to in the sides, one front, one back.

So far, so good!  The underarm gussets were the most confusing to place, I think actually laying it out flat and pinning so I could envision everything before I got near the machine REALLY helped.  So it's not 100% complete but my underdress/chemise or "serk" is basically ready, on to the overdress or smokkr.

Tour de Fleece and finally flax

Initially, because of travel, I hadn't planned to do a whole lot for TdF this year, aside from just spindle spin "whatever" in the car.  But when the Sweeties announced a flax challenge, I decided that whatever else, this was something I NEEDED to do.

Flax has held my interest for a slew of reasons.  Historically, it's a commonly used fiber dating at least back to Vikings.  Geographically, it should be able to grow here, and I'd love to be able to have a renewable fiber at my disposal (and sheep unfortunately aren't going to happen on our little plot of homestead).

So a group of friends all doing this together was just the push I needed!  I saw a lot of them ordering online, but hoped I'd be able to find something at Black Sheep, because at the time, I thought it might be something I could try spindling in the car.  I'm SO glad I didn't need to, but I did luck out and on the last day at BSG, found flax strick for sale over by the Eugene Textile booth.  Win!

You can see it in the middle of the goodies I brought home, along with buttons and a shawl pin/hairstick from Wooly Moss Roots, a KCL shuttle for the next tartans, egyptian cotton from Homestead Hobbyist, and some lovely "plum" rambouillet I can't wait to dive in to.

It took me about a week into the tour to actually sit at the Symphony with it, and it is SUCH a different feel from wool!  It feels like learning to spin all over again, except I know how to keep the wheel actually moving in the proper direction.  I do have a water dish nearby, and find it helps the fibers both flex and get sticky, great for joining, awful for when drafting backwards, because it makes a rat's nest!

It has gotten a little easier though.  I divided it in half and am almost done with the first half, I can't wait to see what the final yarn is like.  Next challenge, egyptian cotton! 

May-hem

Normally May would bring beach trips and sunshine, but this year it's started with snow and autoimmune flareups.  Beltane and still no plants in the ground.  It's been rough!

When I lived in Arizona, I followed the wheel of the year, but it all felt out of sync for me, very passive.  The celebratory signs of life seemed absent.  I didn't celebrate the return of the Sun when it meant heading toward 120 degrees.

Since we came here, I feel that same sensation.  I'd celebrate early spring on the west coast with blossoms, buds, muddy backyard planting days, breathing in the waking woods.  Here it's May, we're rushing toward Midsummer, and snow.  Still.  Very little sign of life, a few buds.  Nothing is blossoming, nothing is growing.  Nothing has been planted.  The feeling of life that would shake off my seasonal depression in Oregon, usually around mid-February, has yet to show here.  And the holidays slip by with a cursory glance and a heavy dose of melancholy.

But May brings the celebration of my May flower's birth.  Elowyn Rose turned 4 this morning.  So very bittersweet.  We didn't do much, she's happy without much, truly she thrives on simplicity and is happy with everything.  She got a few dollars and was so excited to have her own real money, so I made her an impromptu coin pouch/wallet from handwoven scrap.  Big sis was jealous and she was so proud.

It has a linen lining which I think is really too fragile for a toddler, but it went together in under 10 minutes and she was thrilled.

The morning started off a bit of a mess though.  Sweets off the Wheel on Ravelry is doing their Mayhem spinalong, and so I set up the symphony (Josephine) to start the spin.  The kids have been VERY rough with her, especially Linden since learning to walk, and the front maiden leather is totally worn out, and won't support the flyer anymore.  (He pulls off the poly band and yanks off the flyer, and the memory in the leathers has just started to allow for the flyer to pop right off).  Ugh!  Many tears.  Kromski north america would only help me if I felt like a free replacement was justified - a warranty replacement - otherwise to go through a dealer.  There are no dealers local.  Double ugh!  I did have my jumbo flyer still, but the orifice is so huge that it caused MAJOR chatter - consistent drafting was near impossible.  Carl took the measurements and in just a few minutes whipped up a custom orifice reducer on the lathe!  Mayhem spin is back underway.  It's Juliespins targhee, I'm going for a true 3 ply for Linden woolies, and going for maximum barberpoling to see how it ends up.  It was dyed almost gradient so we'll see!

Mayhem is happening!

orifice reducer from Carl

Juliespins "cliffs"

Fangorn Forest

Have you ever done something that is so incredibly representative of YOU, that it just kind of falls together?

I made Fangorn Forest up years ago, as a colorway to be on fiber, and I mostly pulled from areas of Champoeg State park near my house in Oregon, and a little bit just from my head.  I had 2 variations of it, maybe even 3, but ultimately they were all very similar.  Dark, rich greens, deep browns, and pops of golden leaves, as the trees waned.

I've made clothes for my babies with it, I even dyed it for a hap blanket for Linden (THE neverending hap blanket from 100% handspun).

I knew, just knew, that I had to do a Fangorn Forest baby wrap for us.  My first ring sling was "Betula" by girasol, which was greens and browns, and I loved it to pieces, but ultimately I wanted darker greens, richer shades.

Every step just kind of fell into place.

As far as the yarn went, the only problem came up when I was dyeing the browns.  For some reason the water at our short term rental was really reacting with the brown dyes, even trying to filter the water first.  I dyed the fiber at our Oregon house, and had spun it before moving, but the cotton for warp I didn't dye until after the move.  Our water was rusty and silty hard well water, and left an orange gold tint on everything we tried to clean.  Yuck.  The problem with the brown though, was that after rinsing, the color was more of an olive green, which was fine, but I still needed to achieve brown!   I ended up overdyeing parts of it in orange and it was perfect.  Mixing orange with the dye at the beginning didn't seem to work, but overdye did.  Since moving to our big house, brown sets fine by manufacturer instructions, thank goodness!

I had a vision of stripes in semisolid browns, for tree trunks, with more speckled greens (leaves, with light peeking through) in between.  I had a feeling the targhee would overpower that look a bit, and it has, but it's so unique and deep and interesting.  I can't wait to see how the rest of the project unfolds!

Little by little, we settle

It's been a hectic month or so.  Weaving, just trying to move in and find places and spaces and TIME for everything.  The time is the hardest part.  I started back in my fitness routines, I've been doing p90x3 again since the beginning of January, and that is physically *exhausting*.  I'm really glad I'm doing it though.  7 weeks in now and the strength is starting to be noticeable.


I've made it a goal for the year to branch out my weaving.  The regulations passed on slings and wraps and whether I will continue remains to be seen - I'd love to, but can I make enough to justify testing?  It's hard to know yet.  If not, I'm not going to "quit" weaving though, I'll just continue on doing other things, and that's ok.  My first goal was to learn about band weaving.  I bought an inkle loom and am starting to bond with it.


The biggest thing though will be ramping up my production, basically to test as many structures and yarns as possible before the actual lab testing, and to see if my production can sustain enough income to be worth testing.  Year of testing, 2017.  It's a bit nervewracking to think of that way.

Currently, I'm testing this hand dyed (not by me) in 10/2 unmercerized georgia ringspun.  It's lovely and soft but it has given me FITS!  It's fuzzy, which is causing the small shed to be even more unstable, threads want to stick, and it breaks easily.  So slow going.  I'm sending this out as a tester for feedback, but I might have ruled this one out of my arsenal just by sheer annoyance of working with it.