Here we are at August. Here in Texas the heat shows no sign of leaving anytime soon, so indoor activity is a good and welcome thing. I am finally able to walk and stand and get up and down following several months of "recovery" from dual knee injuries. That also means I can slowly get back to weaving on the floor loom  although dressing the loom is still a bit tricky. With my Mighty Wolf I have to get down a bit low to thread heddles, and I am not sure if I got down to the floor to mess with the treadles that I could get up again! LOL As a treat to myself the twin terrors that are my dogs are being treated to a spa weekend and I am hoping to at least get the RH loom warped and start on some towels. I know it's late (very late) in the game, but I may actually get started on my color challenge this weekend! The yarn has been mocking me from the shelves since beofre the beginning of the year.  I have enjoyed seeing pics from everyone's adventurs at the various shows and conferences. Keep the photos coming.  What does everyone have planned for the waning weeks of summer (or winter if you are in the Southern Hemisphere)? Please share your weaverliness with the group. Remember, you can also complain, ask questions, and just hang out here.

Weave on!

Comments

Erica J

Summer happened here in the UK in May. It lasted a few weeks and then was over. Don't get me wrong, we've had lots of sunshine. We have fall temps already, which suits me just fine! As for weaving, I've been weaving on Oli's diamond twill again and am weaving o my samitum cuffs again. The first pair I wove were different enough in size that i'm weaving a third to make a pair that are the same size. I learned that packing the weft in with a stick shuttle is the best way to go.

sally orgren

off the loom and hemming. Only a month after the baby arrived! Planning the alpaca blanket next...and a coverlet after that. Maybe. But first, my annual weekend demo gig at the State Fair. I am bringing the Nadeau, Structo 600, and Structo 240 for visitors to try. I thought August was gonna be quiet, but apparently not so much, at least for the first three weeks.

Erica J

The photo is from yesterday. We leave for 9 days of camping at a medieval event. So of course I calculated how much I need to weave each day to finish my samite cuff before we go! I will finish weaving tomorrow!

sally orgren

and I had a GREAT two days interacting with visitors while letting them weave on looms. I will post photos as soon as I extract them from my phone, or I will post direct later tonight.

Nanefire

At the beginning of the year, I made a commitment to put serious effort into weaving and learning and extending myself and to at least "touch" one of my looms once a day, somehow. I've been doing well with this. I'm limited to 4H for now but have picked up the inkle again and am beginning to teach myself pick-up on everything! Currently I'm having a lot of excitement with Summer & Winter pick up and wove through half of the second knot design on a runner. I see possibilities that excite me with that and am not finding that it takes that long to do, really. I don't get to a lot of events and the guild I've been attending is teetering since our local weaving shop is also, sadly, in jeopardy. But I'm very interested in what everyone else is doing and how they are applying their craft to their lives and where their explorations take them. So my explorations have led me to seek online interaction. May I check in daily, too? 

Nanefire

I keep looking at this photo...are you working on a backstrap? I recently picked up the Tabby to Taquete book and am hoping to get started, now I see that this technique is one of the chapters. Sometimes I feel like such a novice even though I've been weaving for 15 years or more! I need to get started on those lessons. Will you be posting the cuffs when done? I'm assuming for a medieval fair (aren't you lucky!) costume? Please forgive my curiosity; this is the sort of thing I've come to Weavolution searching for. I'm sick of towels and scarves!

Missus T.

Hello fellow weavers!

Happy August.  I've been weaving on the patio in and among the busy family activities.  Here is a lanyard for my son being cardwoven out of No. 8 perle cotton following Linda Hendrickson's graphs in Please Weave a Message.  Lots of fun!  It's our family motto and means "have determination"  which is a good reminder for learning a new skill like double-weave!  The rain will drive me inside tomorrow, so I'm hoping to finish tonight!

Tenax Propositi, tablet weaving, card weaving

endorph

Welcome to our group. You are more than welcome to check in and comment whenever you like. We hae many who come in to read posts and others who post on a fairly regular basis. Feel free to share projects, weaving related travels, or ask questions. Also feel free to just come in and read!

Nanefire

I always cut off a project from the loom with a combination of excitement and dread: what mistakes will I uncover?! There's always something. I removed my runner yesterday and finally figured out how to post photos on "My Projects" today; that seems a feable achievement but was embarrassingly difficult for me. There are design flaws but this thing started off as just sampling and when I finally got the sett close enough to square, I couldn't resist making it into something useful. I love the possibilities of Summer & Winter pick up and will follow-on but using the Leclerc next time as I think a more solid beater will vastly improve how it all packs in. I have another lace project on the bench, ready to warp but the weather is so sticky today I don't know how far I'll get with that. I'm ready for fall! Can't believe we're wistfully thinking of central air in NH this year! But it's a relief to visit those who have it. And yet the nights have been cooler than I remember from past years so that the mornings are often a good time to work. I'm trying always to have at least one of my three floor looms warped and active this year and am tracking well so far. Does anyone have tips for how they keep themselves moving from project to project? I often get bogged down in indecision between projects.

Missus T.

Last night I finshed a 16 strand braid on a marudai brainding stand.  This was the first piece of serious yardage I had attempted..... 6 yards... for a specific cord for a sewing project.    Winding the warp proved easy on the mill, but "warping" 16 bobbins was a challenge I hadn't addressed before!  I ended up using an S hook to attach the warp to a bracket on the bottom of the mill and sat on the floor supplying the light tension needed with my hands to separate the strands.  I used 6 strands of No. 8 perle cotton per bobbin.  When I had wound the warp on the mill, I used the technique of making raddle groups of six threads each and then tied off this portee cross as if it were a warp for a floor loom.  Then I had the threads for each bobbin separated and ready to go.  Having the thread groups in order prevented a lot of tangles!  As I wound each bobbin, I stood it on end so that it wouldn't unwind, and at the end had a fanlike spread of wound bobbins on the floor leading off from the warp.  I pulled out about 1 1/2 yard of warp for each "wind" and in about 30 minutes was able to get 6 yards of warp on 16 bobbins safely! 

I had never braided such a complex braid before; it took 1 yard of slavish pattern-following from the book before I was able to memorize the moves.  I discovered something very interesting along the way -- that I have to translate the visual marudai pattern, usually expressed as a circle with little circles representing the bobbins moving along a direction as denoted by an arrow, into a fairly silly short verbal phrase.  My brain is not "visual" or "geographical" in that sense, but is very strong in words.  So, for example, a move which is depicted with circles and arrows, becomes, to me, simply "move to the right" or "come closer" and this sort of verbal simplification worked as long as I could remember which bobbin began the movement sequence.

I imagine that future braids will end up with their verbal reductionism as well!  I finished the braid last night and will make up the bag for it tomorrow... pictures to follow.

Good night, all!

sally orgren

Yikes!

The state fair was great, but I realized I didn't take very many photos. Here's a cute sheep I met:

I am guessing by the dreadlocks, this is a Wensleydale?

And I finally got the baby blanket warp off the loom between the fair and the trip to Iowa. Hopefully it will be on its way to Portland, Oregon, today. (The pattern was 6 shaft Huck, alternating blocks, in softball cotton.)

 

Missus T.

Sally O,

I could just rub my face in that blanket... your picture captures the soft appeal of the baby blanket... that is one lucky kid!  You must be very satisfied!  That is a blanket that will be loved and remembered for a lifetime!

Susan

 

Missus T.

One enduring myth of having stash is that is infallible!  I inherited my mom's sewing haberdashery.... we're talking tubs of zippers, hem tape, thread, trim, even shoulder pads from the 80's..... yet today, when I went to sew a simple bag to showcase my braided cord, I lack a zipper that is not banana yellow or teal!  So, in lieu of sewing came shopping!  I did replenish my staple "stash" a little!!!! 

 

 

Missus T.

The bag, based on a Green Pepper pattern, was completed today.  I used the kumihimo cord for the straps and used the scraps for a handy zipper pull.  This pattern is an easy one to make, but I picked slippery lining fabric which greatly complicated the make-up.  I won't be so fancy next time!  Time to tackle the next WIP on the list!

 kumihimo cord for bag

besting (not verified)

Need help! I had a wonderful article on how to plan a guild (or any other) art exhibit back in 2005. It was the only way I was able to organize my guild's juried show. The article has disappeared.Cry Does anyone have a resource with a detailed timeline that I can pass on to our new chair?  We are just under two years out from the exhibit.  I don't know what magazine the article was published in, but was wonderful.  Many thanks.

NaloMeli

Hello all,
I'm a new RHL weaver (loom should arrive tomorrow, and the Swatch Maker 3-in-1 should come today).  I'm a tablet & inkle weaver and looking forward to the new width a RHL will give me.

My Weaverliness today will be watching vids on how to warp, weave, and wet-finish.

Hope you all have a great day,
NaloMeli

NaloMeli

My goodness that shuttle looks huge!  Just kidding. I do tablet/cart weaving at my Medieval Events.

Peace,
NaloMeli

NaloMeli

Well poo-UPS couldn't find my apartment so won't get the loom till Monday  

 

Woot! Both of my goodies should get here tonight (by end of business day, whatever that means).  I'll post pictures after unboxing.

Peace,
Nalo

endorph

Welcome to our group. I love my RH loom. New goodies are always fun to get!

Erica J

Whew, I am coming up for air and actually getting to post! It has been a while!

The samitum is being woven on a 16 shaft loom. I finished my 2nd attempt at the 2nd cuff. It still does not exactly match the other one. It is close enough for now though! To all the perfectionists out there, I'm not a perfectionist. :)

I will start on the next set of cuffs and will strive to get them closer to matching in number of picks per inch!

I'm currently planning warps for the beginning weaving class I am teaching for my guild. I looked at my matrix for different ways to treadle 4 shaft designs and realized I have 169 different lift plans to put into Fiberworks for my students and myself!

I will do my best to check in hre more often!

I'm also working on some databse clean up on the site. :)

NaloMeli

It came yesterday! Easy Weaver B. I added pics to my First Project. I love weaving - just after an hour or so!

 

laurafry

Has gone by soooo quickly, maybe because I was out of town for most of June?  Now we are getting ready for our holiday over the pond - England and Sweden.  I'm hoping to visit some textile mills in Lancashire and in Sweden attend the Va:v conference.  Starting to pack and wondering what on earth I'm thinking to be away for three weeks when craft fair season begins so soon.  OTOH, once in a lifetime opportunity to attend Va:v!!!

sally orgren

...is on my bucket list!

I am sure they will be excited to see a weaver visiting from across the ocean.

Joanne Hall

You will really enjoy yourself.  This will be my fifth time and I would not miss it.

Joanne

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