Colour & Texture Workshop

Hi there - the first thing to show you in this post is one of the finished turned bronson scarves.

I am really pleased with this and will certainly make some more before too long. The Tencel is draping nicely and the colour is very summery.

This last weekend I attended a two day workshop led by Jan Shelley in her studio called The Weft in Pittenweem, a fishing village on the coast of Fife. Those of you who visit my blog regularly will know that I am a pretty structured person who happily weaves from some fairly prescriptive instructions. I often weave in self colours or neutral shades as I am 'colour challenged' ! I am also a bit of a perfectionist and like a very professional finish to the things I make. I am not naturally creative and have no artistic flair ! This workshop was to be all about colour and texture with an emphasis on the use of twill structures to create woven items. I knew from the start that this was going to take me out of my comfort zone but that it would be 'good for me' !!

There were only two other students on the course meaning that there was a lot of personal time with Jan, the tutor. From the introductions it was clear that I had probably the most weaving experience but the least artistic and creative ability ! We were introduced to our looms, and the first problem was that they were table looms. Now, I have never used a table loom and it took me a while to work out how the levers worked and that you could use more than one lever at a time !! Jan had warped the looms up and we were all set to start weaving some twill structures. My loom was set up for a goose-eye twill and I used the lever sequence for 2/2 twill. Here is a picture of one of the Harris table looms...................

My first learning point was about to happen !! Jan came to see how I was doing and immediately noticed several things. Firstly, I had the warp wound very tight and secondly and very significantly I had quite marked 'draw in'. Far more than on the sample she had already woven so it was very obvious. I was also beating the weft very firmly. Although the selvedges were looking good I could see that the edge threads were fraying. Where have you heard all this before !!

Jan watched while I wove a bit more and spotted that as I collect the shuttle as it comes out of the fabric I actually add some tension to it which neatens the selvedge but doesn't leave enough yarn to lie in the shed without drawing in the sides.  A loom had been set up especially for me to work on with eight shafts and plain weave edges on shafts nine and ten to see if this would help my edge problems.

It was actually a sixteen shaft table loom and it had a frightening set of levers on both sides............

It was set up for an undulating twill with what I thought was quite a loose warp sett and very loose weaving ! That didn't last long ! Of course once I got going with my tight warp and firm beating the pattern had tightened up far too much. Once I had mastered the levers for the plain weave edge and then the levers for the weaving my brain was a bit frazzled but I did try to stop pulling the weft thread and beating more gently. Gradually it improved and the draw in reduced. I did like the plain weave idea for the selvedges and this could be used on my loom if I have spare shafts.

Well, that was enough learning for Saturday, I was exhausted but had a great insight to my weaving style and associated problems.

On Sunday, I didn't do any weaving. Jan was very kind and suggested that I was already very competent but that I might want to concentrate on colour and texture that day. Her studio was full of colour in the vast array of yarns on the shelves..........................

She started off by showing me a series of photographs on her computer. To start with they were photos from nature, interesting colours from her garden, sea side pictures and the like. This was to get me thinking about the colours I can see all around me and how to focus in on the various shades you can pick out from familiar scenes. Zooming in on plants or stones or trees can highlight amazing colour combinations. The next step was to look at pictures she had taken of things like drain covers, fences, railings and other strange objects ! She began to point out the twill patterns we can see all around us and how you can use these ideas to create designs. Now of course, I just thought the rusty railings needed to be painted ! The opportunity to look at colour and shapes and texture had completely passed me by ! So all of this was quite a revelation and when we went out to get sandwiches for lunch I found myself studying the gratings and fences !!

In the studio there was a set of enlarged, close up prints of things like fishing nets, tree bark, floats on fishing boats, stones, mosses etc. I was to choose one and then work out a suitable warp to represent the colours. That meant winding the colours on a long narrow piece of card to design the order for the colours. Of course I could only think  of stripes and worked out a Fibonacci code sequence for my colours ! No Dorothy, this was much too structured, relax and just let the colours flow !!! That was really hard for me ! Next, how would I introduce texture ? From a pile of yarn samples I found some quite fine boucle and that seemed to be OK. Then I had to decide which twill would bring this design to life on the loom ! Should it be warp or weft faced ? 

To further work on texture I had to look at Jan's display of scarves and work out what structures had been used.....................

Another tiring day for me ! However, I have learnt a lot and I will try to slow down a bit and do a bit of colour planning before I rush to wind the next warp ! I have since bought graph paper and coloured pencils to get me started !! When I am weaving my samples at the beginning I will try out different weft threads to try and improve my sense of textures and colours. Hopefully, I can loosen up a bit and learn to 'play' with things and become a little more creative.

So my thanks to Jan for a very interesting workshop which challenged me in a number of areas. The studio was very nice to work in, with the sun shining in the windows and the view out to the harbour with its fishing boats. Hopefully I can return for another workshop during her summer school in July and August.

Hope you have enjoyed sharing this with me, keep watching to see if I can improve !

Double Weave Demise & Turned Bronson

Hi there - time for an update on my weaving ! Confession time I'm afraid.

My double weave project hit the buffers and had to be abandoned ! I had a feeling when I was winding the warp that maybe I was being a bit ambitious using 28/2 merino silk yarn for the warp but I just kept winding ! Then when it was going through the raddle I had a few breakages and that should have been enough to stop me but no I carried on determined to have a success after my plaited twill disaster. I threaded up the 784 ends, sleyed them in my new 15 dent reed and made a start. Very soon I had breaking warp threads at the edges, I tried my new temple but still they broke and not just at the edges and not just the black threads, the red ones began to break also.

This was just the sample ! Decided it just wasn't going to do so took the scissors to it and cut it off !

Disaster number two, things are not going well with my weaving right now ! I did wash the sample and I must say the pattern is very nice, I really like the way the colours alternate. I will certainly return to this draft although will use a more realistic warp thread !

So what now, confidence at an all time low, can I still weave a decent scarf or have I lost it for ever ?

I decided I had to go back to things I knew I could do and had been successful with previously. So 8/2 tencel in one colour and 24 epi, 2 per dent in a 12 dent reed was the starting point. I have had my eye on the turned bronson draft in 'The Best of Huck' book for a while. The basis is plain weave so no floating selvedges required, another good thing ! Surely I could do 8 shaft plain weave, mind you then I discovered 13 treadles in use. Only 253 ends though so I got winding !

All the set up went to plan and the 13 treadles all tied up, ready to go. I started out feeling quite anxious but the sample wove up beautifully and had lovely selvedges. I even played about with the treadling sequence to get a slightly finer result. Hooray, I'm weaving again !!

Here is the first picture to give you an idea of the pattern and the coral coloured tencel..............

Now have a look at my right hand selvedge, the one I have been struggling with for two projects !

This was much more the kind of thing I was used to..................................

I decided to add beads as I did the hem stitching and you can see how that looked here......................

I wove away quite happily for about 18" and then a right hand edge thread broke. Of course I immediately thought that's it, another disaster !! Pause for coffee and calming !!  Thought I should try my temple, but  guess what my temple was too wide for this scarf ! Now I remember reading somewhere on ravelry about a DIY type of temple. kitchen scales came out and I weighed 6 ounces of rice into two zip lock bags, attached a length of cord and an alligator clip to each one. Now I was in business. You can see the cord with the bag on the end hangs over the side of the loom like this......

Then the alligator clip fixes on to the edge of the weaving like this..............

Well, I wasn't very confident but I didn't have another broken thread for the rest of that scarf and the whole of the second one !! I was sure to move the clips about every inch and that was very easy to do. My selvedges are the best they have been for ages so I am converted to this home made temple and will use it forever !!!

The two scarves are off the loom and ready to have fringes twisted and be washed and finished off. I am delighted with them and they will make lovely gifts. Would certainly use this draft again.

Confidence boosted and maybe I can still weave after all !!

I promise I will post pictures of the scarves once there are completed. Now what will I do next ? I haven't decided but I won't go mad just yet, something else quite sensible I think. No warp wound yet which is unusual and there will be a bit of a 'lull' until after Easter.

So many thanks for visiting and sharing my anxieties ! Hopefully 'normal service' has been resumed !

I'll speak to you all again soon. Happy weaving !

Dyeing Workshop

Hi there ! This week I have a story to tell about a workshop I attended.

I met Jan O'Donnell last year when a friend and I visited her studio about twenty five miles away. During that visit, we saw some very striking chenille scarves she had woven and then dyed and had asked how she did them.  Jan contacted us a few weeks ago and asked if we would like to spend two afternoons with her learning to dye. We both agreed and so Tuesday and Thursday afternoons this week were spent with Jan in her studio on the Solway Coast in a village called Auchencairn. Her web site is oddesigns.

When we arrived we found that Jan had woven undyed chenille scarves for us to work on. Plain weave sett at 12 ends per inch. The fringe spaces were woven with scrap yarn. First job was to make up a mixture of soda ash and water and to soak the scarves for twenty minutes. This was to soften the chenille and would make the woven material ready to accept the dye.

While the scarves were soaking we started to sort out the dye colours. The dyes were Procion MX.

On the left in this picture is Jan O'Donnell and on the right my friend Charlotte, Doonhamer on Ravelry.

We made up a solution of urea to mix with the dye powder. This would help to increase the solubility of the dye powder and fix the colour.

Charlotte had chosen pinks, orange and scarlet with some yellow thrown in. I had gone for my usual turquoise, blue, green and yellow.

We had a chance to practise on an extra scarf before we tackled our own. Polythene was laid out on the worktop and the scarf wrung out from the soda ash solution and laid out on top of the polythene. Then we used foam brushes to paint on the dye, varying the colours as we went. Adding water to dilute the bright colours and using mountains of kitchen paper to press and merge the dye into the fabric.

Our practise scarf looked a bit like this.................................

We had to be careful to cover the fringe area carefully and I will show you why later. My colours were very similar to these but Charlotte's looked like this..................

The scarves were painted on both sides and wrapped in polythene and left for about an hour. Next step was to rinse each scarf in warm water before putting in the washing machine on wool wash.

That was the end of Tuesday afternoon. the scarves were to be dried slowly and be ready for us when we arrived on Thursday.

First job on Thursday was to unpick the scrap yarn from the fringe areas and knot the ends at the first row of weaving. The fringes were very nicely 'crimped' as a result of the scrap yarn................

Once the fringing was completed the scarves went into the dryer for fifteen minutes. When the scarves came out what a transformation !! They had suddenly become very soft and drapey having felt quite stiff beforehand.

My scarf looked like this when it was finished and stretched out.......................

The colours did seem a bit bright for me but after washing they had calmed down a bit but I wished I had watered them down a bit more ! However, once I had tried it on it didn't seem quite so bright.......

So, both Charlotte and I went home with carefully dyed scarves. I knew nothing about dyeing so I learnt a lot in the two afternoons. Charlotte thought she might now feel confident enough to tackle some of her handspun yarn.  It was very enjoyable having the chance to do something a bit different and all the mess was in someone else's utility room !!

Double Weave and oddments !

Hi there.

I will start todays post with a tidy up from the last project. My ill-fated 12 shaft plaited twill scarves. I did manage to get one more scarf out of the tencel warp before I cut it off and binned it !! What a waste but I was just getting so frustrated with my breaking threads I decided to cut my losses and make a fresh start. The second scarf had a lime green weft and it does shimmer and drape well now that it is finished, washed and pressed. However, you will see from this picture why it will have to stay with me as the selvedges are awful !..........................

My rigid heddle loom as been a bit of a disaster as well ! I tried to do houndstooth check on it using 14/2 alpaca silk in two colours. I should have stopped after a few inches as the weaving looked very loose, but I persuaded myself that when it was washed it would 'full' and the checks would appear by magic. So I completed the 72" of weaving and twisted the fringes then left it to soak for ages. Not a thing changed !!  A 'holey' mess is how I would describe it and it doesn't even warrant a picture. Another item for the bin although I will admit the alpaca silk was very soft after washing, just a pity you could see daylight through the loose weaving !!  Weaving confidence rating is pretty low at this point !!

In a moment of madness sometime ago, I had bought two balls of a sort of ribbon yarn with lovely purples and blues and turquoises in it. Seemed like a good time to use it up on the rigid heddle. I had some turquoise tencel which was an exact match so used the ribbon yarn as warp and planned to use the tencel as weft. Started out that way but didn't like the result so unpicked and did two ribbon yarn and two tencel picks. Probably looks a bit better and might make a fun scarf when it is done..........

Rigid heddle and I are not bonding well !! Have decided it should go to a more appreciative owner and so you will find it for sale under my 'for sale tab' with all its bits and pieces and books.

Last weekend, when we were away in Fife, I discovered a new weaving studio in the fishing village of Pittenweem. I had met the lady who runs it last summer and she did say she hoped to set up classes for interested weavers and she has been true to her word. Her name is Jan Shelley and you can read all about her on her web site. She is very interested in colour and texture, two areas I find particularly difficult. I may take one of her workshops over Easter weekend and see if I can get over some of my anxieties and become a little more creative!  She has other experts who offer workshops in tapestry weaving and lace knitting. I hope they do well with the new venture, the studio is in a wonderful position looking out on the fishing boats in the harbour. The colours around the fishing port provide the inspiration for much of the colour work.

I think those are all of my oddments so now for the 'main event' ! After my tencel disaster am I going to do something easy and fail safe ? That would be the sensible thing to do to build up my confidence again but no ! I am going to tackle something I haven't done before, how stupid is that !! The warp was planned before the disaster set in so no room to 'chicken out'. I am going to do an 8 shaft double weave project with 28/2 fine merino yarn. You will find the project in the Best of Weavers Double Weave book on page 100. Not sure if I am allowed to post a picture of the picture but I will ! Please someone tell me if that is not allowed and I will take it out !!

My yarn is 28/2 fine merino, one colour red and the other black. I have 768 ends threaded 4 per dent in my new 15 dent reed. That will be 30 epi but doubled for the double weave. Winding the warp onto the back beam was a challenge as the black yarn in particular seems very sticky and you can see it looks a bit untidy in the lease sticks ....................

A bit better once I had started threading..........................

This afternoon, I have finished threading and sleying and tying on so tomorrow will be treadle tie up and maybe a sample woven we shall see. Hope the weavings gods will look kindly on me for this project and let me have trouble free selvedges if nothing else !!

I will keep you posted on progress but if all goes quiet you will guess I've bitten off more than I can chew !

Happy weaving and many thanks for visiting !