textile play

just playing around with textile stuff - again, not sure what I might actually get done or not, but it's a journey and I do like the processes.  I usually find a use for whatever I end up with... sooner or later.

 

 

 

It is about 8 inches across and could perhaps weave something 3 times that in length when it is finished - we'll have to see.  I do like knowing what kind of dimensions I can get out of a setup.  I've saved that somewhere else for the other looms.

Took Esme out to town for breakfast, and library, chicken feed and grab groceries on the way home.  We also stopped in a thrift store and she chose a small sweater with lots of cables on it - and I picked up another picture frame to do more experiments in weaving on, but this one I didn't want to go through all the wrist-breaking action of putting screws in it right now, so I warped it up as it was with a 'pull over' warp that can be woven twice the length of the frame if pulled over the top once the one side is woven.  I've also been playing with the crochet techniques for the thread - although I'm using some 15-20 year old embroidery thread that we had bought on a closeout and I've never gotten to using too much of in the past.

 

I work again tomorrow, and Friday and Saturday and Sunday again after that.  But it was nice to get out for a girl's morning again, to break up the sit at our screens all day that we otherwise end up getting sucked into.

 

Mark is making dinner with the groceries we bought, after installing his new printer parts and getting that working doing what he wanted again.

 right now, the weaving is reminding me of this - a whale shark, but I'll get a little further up in a minute and start working on the red stripes - I really like this look, but I'm worried that the other grey yarn I have is not a perfect match, and I want to break it up a little with other colors so that doesn't matter quite so much

Notes : 7.5 inches wide, 4 inches gray (undetermined length, spare stash ball of yarn), 25 handwraps red to start next color

Mini Pouch for eyeglasses or other small things

Mini Pouch

sewn from woven fabric about 6x9 inches

 

 

I had hoped it would be large enough to fit a pair of eyeglasses, and it just about does perfectly - maybe a bit too snug.  I'm going to put two more screw pegs on the little loom I had finished making yesterday - and that will give it enough width to make an eyeglass case each time.  

 NOTES:

I had been experimenting with using only some of the width of the big frame - which produces about 15 x 18 inch cloth if I go all the way to the very top with a needle for the last few rows.  To make the handbag I warped it only halfway across and also stopped a few inches from the top, making 10 x 15 fabric.  But then I wanted the smaller frame as well to reduce the time to make something smaller, and to not have to support the entire weight of the bigger frame on something every time I wanted to work.

So now I have three sizes I can make something out of 

15 x 18, table mat, pillow, larger bags

10 x 15, small handbag, small pillow

6 x 9, eyeglass case or small pouch, pockets for inside of other bags

If I really wanted to get fancy I could make four panels of the largest and sew them together and make a pillowcase or a rug - but after doing that much work on something I doubt I'd *really* want to use it as a rug - but it might be a nice thing to lay across the top edge or bottom edge of a bed over the top cover sort of thing (is there a name for that?  Coverlet? I guess just a throw? I use some of my thrifted afghans like that, because I find it pretty, and it gives a 'landing zone' for the cat as well, and keeps the dog off my pillows (sometimes) or at least gives me an idea she jumped up there and I can stare at her disapprovingly as she asks 'but how do you KNOW Mom?' //Charlotte) 

for the record : My standard pillowcase sham looks like it is 30 inches by about 20,22 inches.   A coverlet, a throw?  For that use it would have to be 60 (give or take) by 42-48 inches.

 If I somehow managed to put all the screws into my larger frame that I already have marked out (it's a lot of work, just ten into the little loom yesterday hurt my arm - Mark says I should use the drill press) that would make an area about 22 by 16 inches.  And if I put screws on the cross-wise of that frame, it would make an area 16-18 inches by 40 inches.  That's a lot of screws. And that frame needs a stand really to make anything larger on it - it is heavy and hard to make sit still when you're working on anything.  I was using it mainly for making really long thin straps warped continuously around the whole thing - the way I used to use doorframes when I was a teen and in college to make belts - and had worked up only a 2 inch by 22 inch set of pegs on it to make one strap a while back, but hated the way that yarn combined with the warp so I took it off after only about 8 inches and stuck it in a drawer *sigh*.

 

 the small frame, warped for a second piece, complete with electrical tape repair when I busted a little part of it

 

The Bits:

I did too much weaving that yesterday - but I am sending it off as a birthday present.  I have five days on starting tomorrow at the post office, so I need to resist starting another project and make soup, do laundry et al.  I have a book to read I've started but then haven't been stagnant enough to grab back up.  I'm continuing to learn Spanish through the French interface at DuoLingo, and I feel that it is helping to sort out some of the grammar things that seem much more natural for French but when I try to translate them to Spanish I make mistakes by adding too many articles etc.  

Finished woven handbag purse in blues and greens

  This was woven on a picture frame set with evenly spaced screws and it took about two weeks or a little less to weave it up, since I had to take a lot of breaks with my shoulder joint. (not to mention I had the flu for a week in there, and it was tough, no thank you I don't want that again anytime soon).   It is a random pattern of a couple of colors of acrylic yarn, made on a navy acrylic warp.  I know a lot of people prefer to use cotton warp - but I like the way the same yarn weaves up evenly, and the fact that when I wash it (which I've done with a few others) it comes up soft and even then, as well.  

I left the 'self edge' from the bottom of the weaving on the side I wanted to put the buttons on - it looks a little decorative and yet it is rough and shows how handmade the item is.  I knitted the strap in a simple alternating stitch (not quite idiot cord) that stretches out nicely and is strong (on two double-pointed needles cast on 3 - knit, purl, knit - turn over, repeat - until length is proper)  I fussed up a way to put the buttons loops on because well, if they come loose, it's no big deal I just put them back on.  The buttons are a nice find out of my vintage sewing box I scrabbled around the bottom of it until I found something I liked.

 

The resulting purse holds my regular wallet, my phone case and a few other little things, which is just big enough.  Any smaller, (the finished cloth was 15 by 10) it would have been too small

 

It took several hours to get all the edge tails woven in and then I did a sort of complicated edge treatment on the dark blue edge there that I got better at the further I went - and will have to try to remember how to do it better next time.  I started out too much fuss, and it got easier and neater as I progressed to the left. 

Then it was just a matter of turning it inside-out and whipstitching evenly up the sides so that I got it looking finished on the outside, attaching the knitted handle and putting on the buttons.

 

I was telling myself that every single time - every time! - I start to make a piece of fabric like this I ask myself 'But, what will I actually do with it when it's made?'  I know there are a lot of things to do with it - but every piece takes so much work I start out from the point of futility sometimes, that if I wanted something, I could probably find it so easily - what do I want - do I want anything - why I am taking up this 'endeavour'?  Do I really need another bag?  I use the ones I have.  I use my socks, shawls, rugs, blankets, hats, gloves, net bags and woven ones, baskets, hampers, pillows, dishrags and potholders all over the house almost every single day.  So, why am I still so 'stingy' with myself thinking of what I must accomplish with the time spent?  The only thing I can figure out, perhaps, is that it is an attachment sort of thing - I am making certain that I am going to proceed, and use the item even before it is made, by investing such thoughts into it, defending it, and continuing to work to the finished item.  And then, when I use it, I reinforce that 'I wondered if I'd ever use this when I started it..' with 'see, here it is, and it is useful'.  I'm an odd duck... but I know I have my ways.

The Bits :

Oh one other little thing - I won a 'spinning tools - learn to spin' basket from a fiber site I started following.  I don't know when or totally what I am getting in the mail but we'll see!  I do know there is a drop spindle in there, and some fiber.  It has been 20 years since I had a real spindle, and I wasn't very good back then.  I did make one out of K'nex and work up some Jacob sheep yarn with Esme during the homeschool years - I might still have that package somewhere around here as well.  

One of my tasks today that I don't know if I'll get to it - is to find a box of screws I've hidden away on myself and put a few more posts into my small picture frame loom I did not finish making.  I scrounged around last night for it but did not find the screws - only the small frame and the screwdriver I had been using.  I'm sure I've hidden it away on myself 'in a safe place'...  I hung up my little painting in the writing nook, as I had taken it down from one place and then put something else up there.  Not much else to do - still getting over the last tiny bit of the cough from that flu, because it got into my sinuses.. and the weather is improving but still not good enough to be outside. Later we have to get some groceries, but I have to wait for the bank to deposit things.

 

my Painting on wall : Johanna's Woods, in acrylic

We lost one chicken yesterday, Esme was sad.  I told her it's Nature sometimes that we don't know what gets them - she was a big fat fairly happy chicken with a little bit of a limp that started three months ago and had not gotten any worse or any better even through that terrible cold snap and freeze she was out with everybody else eating and hopping a little but not singled out and definitely not wanting us to separate her (I thought one day I might try to see what her foot issue was and she had NONE of it).  She was just sitting in a corner, on an egg, and gone - perhaps one of our eldest group which is about seven years old now, but we weren't entirely certain (half of our flock is that same breed, and they are hard to tell apart otherwise)

Dream bag is finished

I started this weaving in February and it is finally done. The old one is now in a box, and it's contents are in this one. I also asked a pottery artist I love on Etsy to make a new ceramic rabbit tile for me. If I decide not to use it as a replacement for my current tile I can save it for our little girl.

Overall I'm really happy with this bag. It was looking very uneven on the loom, and making me wonder how it would work out. It sewed up with just a little bit of strangeness on one side, and that isn't really distracting to me. The two sides have very different looks, while the old one was the same pattern front and back.




Materials: cotton warp, mercerized cotton embroidery thread for the weft in purple, blue and white.

New Loom

I've wanted a 'real' loom since I was a teenager. I tried to build one several times, but it never stood up to the wear, or missed key pieces. I've woven items on picture frames, cardboard, books, doors and most recently, the found frame that used to be part of a table. Yes, that is what the big frame I've been using for the dream bag is - and it has done quite well! However, I still wanted a loom with a heddle, and something portable. A few days before my birthday I ordered this.


It's a Beka loom from Dick Blick catalog.


A few minutes work with their already-warped setup gave this.

How to Warp a Rigid Heddle Loom <-- so I'll remember later.


I'm hittinng the home stretch on the dream bag, as well.
This will be one side, and you've seen the other. I'm still using the finger pick up method to get the shed on this, or it would be going a lot faster. Those long bars with all the slots are called 'heddles.' They allow you to pick up the sheds just by pushing the bar up or down and scooping them all up at once.

Baby Update: We see the doctor again on Thursday. She has been kicking me furiously between eight and ten at night as her chosen 'awake' period - but also at random times during the day. I'm finally starting to feel awkward bending over for things and will be asking the doctor what is the best way to do that - since my book only shows the proper way to 'lift small packages'... How long will it be before a piece of paper on the floor defeats me? *grin*

Thanks for all the well wishes yesterday. In all but the law, I was 'divorced' that morning in January when I made my final decision. I am happy to have the legal part finished though finally.