rigid heddle weaving

November and Crafting Slump

by CZeitler

I’m sorry about not posting for a few weeks, November came on like a storm bringing with it quite a bit of uncertainty regarding college/university closings in New York. Between the stress of figuring out plans and back up plans the month simply slipped away from me.

I Hope that, if you celebrate, you had an amazing Thanksgiving or Indigenous Peoples Day or Friendsgiving (even if you could only see your family/friends through zoom). I had a great weekend, which means I was able to finally get back into the groove of crafting.

I did manage to finish weaving my four handspun panels a few weeks ago, now I am debating if they are going to be scarves for my cousins kids, panels for a piece of clothing, or pieces of a bag. I am leaning toward the idea of a bag, maybe bags, since the yarn is a bit rough for next to the skin.

Four multi-colored pieces of woven cloth lying next to each other, the loose threads still need clipped.

I have started another weaving project with yarn from HipStrings out of Pittsburgh, PA. When I ordered some mini’s they were kind enough to send whole skeins, which left me with more than enough to weave the scarf I was thinking of. The colors are supposed to be Steeler’s colors, I think they come close.

On the right is an Ashford Sample-It loom warped with Hipstrings yarn at 7.5 epi. ON the left is a section of woven cloth showing the tartan like motif of yellow intersecting with grey.

Weaving is not all that I have been doing. I recently found out about an event on Ravelry called the Independent Designers Gift Along, or GAL2020. For this you simply have to knit or crochet a single gift. They do have categories and if you do one project in each category then you have achieved a special level that they call Oopadoo (or something like that). To start this off I have cast on a “Dumpster Fire Ornament”; a Headband; as well as a Skirt.

Far Left; Dumpster Fire 2020 Ornament, 3 flames finished and the next orange on the needles. Center; the Winding Paths Headband in Knitpicks Worsted a purple/pink yarn knitted using an undulating cable pattern; Far Right; The Stepped Skirt, a very small piece of orange knitting on a needle curled around itself.

Before I started these projects, which I am supposed to have finished by December 31 to take a photo of all of them….if I were to give one as a present then I would not have it for the group photo…I’m not sure what I am supposed to do about that. Sorry for the digression, as I was saying: Before I started these projects I managed to unearth what I was working on prior to my wrist surgery, I am healing well and still gaining strength in my wrist. I decided to do some work on a slipper that I had gotten almost half way through before my surgery, there is a lot of progress. I am past the heel portion and working my way up the left side, once that is finished I do have a second sole so I can begin the second slipper right away.

Orange and blue slipper-ish thing.

Regarding another craft altogether, I have decided that I am going to spin for colorwork socks. I spun up the bumps of fiber left over from the month when Paradise Fibers sent us Scottish themed items, as well as a bump of the sari/tweed fibers we received. Unfortunately I did not take any photos of the colorful portions, so here is a bobbin of mostly white singles from one of the bags of fiber I purchased specifically for socks. Once I have the singles spun up I plan on transferring them to weaving bobbins so that I can mix them up and create 3 ply yarns of each color.

Yellow bobbin on a Schacht Ladybug with a Woolee Winder. The bobbin is filled with white singles, some pink is peeking through.

Those are my crafting adventures for November. With COVID Still going strong, and let’s be realistic it is going to get worse before it gets better, I plan on doing plenty of crafting over the course of December. Without any immediate family in the area I will send presents to my extended family and lose myself in the rhythms of creation.

Happy Crafting, stay healthy, and remember to live life A Little More Abstract.

Unfortunately Correct

by CZeitler

I was unfortunately correct in saying that I was being overly optimistic thinking that I would get my wheel varnished on Thursday.

Unfortuntaely, that seems to be theme here, I do not have any photos of my current projects, though I do have a photo of the Chenille Stem (Pipe Cleaner) holiday tree I made for a December Project at my public library.

Pipe Cleaner Christimas Tree, tiny. The branches stick out in all directions, with two round pieces as a base and a paperclip attached to make sure it actually stays upright.

In addition to my holiday crafting I have been working on weaving up the yarn I spun for the Spin Together 2020 contest. I am using my rigid heddle loom, which is 10″ across and weaving 2 yard increments. So far I am on my second panel, I hope to have enough yarn to weave off 4 panels for a 40″ across piece. That should be sufficient to make a nice looking poncho, admittedly I would prefer about 60″. I love how the colors are working together to create something bright and cheerful with a bit of sparkle here and there. I hope to be able to sew the panels together before winter break.

The second project, that I am kicking myself for forgetting in the car, is a knitted shawl from the 716 batt I managed to spin up. I love how the knitting is going, however I can see where I plied loosely and the yarn is splitting with my maneuvering. I believe that this will wind up being a very colorful shawl, it is also a great platform for my experimenting with yarnovers and double decreases. The results are neat, though not what I thought.

I do have a third project in mind. Once I have the red that I am spinning fairly fine finished I hope to spin up another wild batt (maybe I can do this on my new wheel instead of waiting for the ladybug to be free), to create a match to my Blue Moon Halloween 2020 skein. Once I have them both spun I hope to use some wool yarn to weave up a shawl collar/cowl to wear as a decorative piece. I might even hold off on seaming up my panels to see if I can turn them into some sort of shirt…the possibilities are endless!

Okay, so I also have a fourth project I’m actively working on..I know it is a bit much. The Discover Color event is ongoing and I still have not threaded my heddles. I found the perfect excuse to delay until Thursday, the Winter Weavealong will start pretty soon. This is run by Two Ewes Fiber Adventures podcast, and I hope to participate this year.

I was reminded that we only have about 4 more paychecks until Christmas, so that is frightening. I’d better get my presents purchased and shipped before it is too late!

Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Progress with my Scar(ves)

by CZeitler

leftovers-scarf-with-leno-2scarf-with-leno-1

The top scarf is what happens when I run out of the right color of weft yarn to finish the first scarf and decide to try a totally different effect to create a small second scarf.  This is all made from handspun yarn, which is why I am a little worried that the stripe of green will full in a different way than the rest of the scarf.  If there is more twist or less give to that section it will pucker everything around it, in which case it is a ruffle scarf and I meant to do that, LOL.  This is all made from handspun yarn, which is why I am a little worried that the stripe of green will full in a different way than the rest of the scarf.  If there is more twist or less give to that section it will pucker everything around it, in which case it is a ruffle scarf and I meant to do that, LOLInstead of a one-over leno like I did on the bottom scarf, I decided to do a 2 over leno on this scarf.  The effect is much more dramatic and I am excited to see what it looks like washed as well.  I finished the ends off slightly differently to see if the methods I was taught would work to keep the ends from fraying, if not I will hem the edges.  I tried, and succeeded, to put a slit into the fabric that was woven intentionally.  The effect is neat, but I do need to plan a bit better since the slit is no where near either end but instead somewhere in the middle, lol.

Okay so the bottom image is the scarf that I intended to weave, pre washing.  It is neat, though I believe next time I will leave more room for fringe, and I like how the leno turned out.  The little holes are supposed to be there, if you have seen my last post about the scarf you can see what they looked like while I was weaving them, and I cannot wait to see how they will turn out when I am done.

My selvedges need a lot of work, I know this so this is something I can work on in the future.  I am very pleased with how everything turned out!

Happy Crafting!

Weaving to Distraction

by CZeitler

I love crafting.  With the school year already underway I have decided to take my crafting to the next level, alright so I already did that by purchasing a spinning wheel earlier this year.  While preparing for Spinzilla (yes, I am that excited about this) I went through my stash, as I mentioned in an earlier post, and discovered that I have spun up a lot more than I thought I did.  With this in mind, I decided to take the plunge and try to weave up some of my handspun yarn.  The pictures above are of my efforts.  This is my handspun in a 7.5 dent reed on a 10″ ashford sample-it rigid heddle loom.  It is a plain weave with Leno Lace in between.  I can tell you that the warp and weft are all wool, I believe that it is primarily Merino wool.  While this started out as a bag, it might turn into a scarf depending on how it washes up!

I am so happy, and cannot wait to see it finished.  At the same time I am really enjoying the creative process!

Happy Crafting

Rigid Heddle Weaving

by CZeitler

Rigid Heddle Pickup Sticks Acrylic.JPG

The Enchanted Mountain Weavers Guild has given me the courage to go forth and Weave!  Okay so I joined the guild and they have been teaching me tips and tricks to improve my rigid heddle weaving.  I obtained a 10″ Ashford Sample It Loom, and I was promptly intimidated, I did try a test project but it did not go as smoothly as I would have liked.  With the guild’s help I managed my first scarf and had the courage to go forth and start my second scarf.  This is scarf made with Red Heart Acrylic Yarn, containing a simple pick up pattern.  I am really pleased with the eye scorching results.  The yarn is fluorescent so it looks even neater under a black light!

A Little While

by CZeitler

It has been a while since I have had time to craft and therefor post about crafting.  Life does take funny turns, good and bad often intertwining until you are not certain which way to look.  I have completed my second piece on my rigid heddle loom, but have no pictures yet.  It was an experiment in selvedges, beating, and color.  I have not had an opportunity to wash the piece so once it is finished by washing and drying I will declare it a success or failure, probably a scarf really!

The bad, mom is going to need surgery and they consider her a high risk candidate.  We will do everything we can to keep her as long as she retains a good quality of life.  Prayer is about all that will help.  The good is a student going to the community college I work at had a large metal Jack Floor Loom she was not certain of what she was going to do with.  Upon hearing of my interest in weaving she offered me that loom in addition to a rigid heddle loom.  The rigid heddle loom is beautiful it needed a front apron bar and probably a new heddle.  I am very excited to have received this loom.  I am in awe of my floor loom.  I will confess, I am very dismayed at the state.  It  could be a lot worse and there is a basic frame to work with but it needs a lot of work before I would consider putting my clean yarn on it.  Especially if you consider how long it takes to warp a loom, there is no point in warping on a dirty loom.

It was a physical therapy loom created by the G.E. Miller Inc. company out of Yonkers, NY.  They are still in existence today though I do not think they make looms any longer (I plan on calling or e-mailing to find out).  Here are a few shots of what my loom looks like now, I meant to get some of it assembled but I was so excited to get started I forgot and had disassembled the heddles before I remembered.  You can see the loom, the paint is rustier in person; the heddle frames.  The heddles and their rusted shafts in a bucket with my work gloves, and the identifier sticker on the reed frame.  It looks good in the pictures and fortunately the basic structure is sound.  I look forward to getting it in perfect order again though it will take a ton of work.

Rigid Heddle Loom

by CZeitler

Recently Ashford came out with a 10″ Sample-It Loom.  Previously they had an 8″ Sample-It Loom I was thinking about getting, the 10″ was only $7 more than the 8″ and already comes set up for a double heddle experience, I could not resist.  I have not taken any real classes on the rigid heddle loom and, since there is not as much information available on the Kindle Unlimited plan, I have not read as much as I would like on the subject.  Despite these limitations, I managed to watch a few movies and am in the middle of reading “The Weavers Idea Book” by Jane Patrick, I did weave a piece of fabric that I enjoyed creating.  The warp was my Corriedale in Summer Days along with a bit of a wool mixture I carded up.  The weft started with some crochet cotton then I used a commercial blue yarn.  The picture below is before I washed  the piece to finish it.  Once I washed it the energized yarn that made up the wool mixture activated the twist causing the fabric to ruffle a bit.  I like the effect for a beginning piece and can imagine how it could be used as a weft to finish off the edge of a piece or in the warp of a much larger piece.

My First weaving