About Time too!

Well, it's such a very long time since I posted and I must try harder. It's not because I've not done anything but between computer problems and family events there has been no time to get down to it.
The above photo shows woollen skeins dyed in preparation for a workshop I am leading with two Weaving and Spinning groups next year. I started with the 3 primary colours, red, blue and yellow, and mixed them in set proportions to create secondary colours. In the workshops we will be mixing several colours, in pairs, to create a colour chart for Kemtex acid dyes. Hopefully in the future we will be able to choose the exact shades we want to use, rather than mixing in a hit and miss fashion, thought sometimes this is creative and gives combinations you may not have thought to combine. It surprised me just how many skeins are needed to do this with only an handful of dyes, so it will be great to get others to help each other create a useful shade card in a day.

First Weaving

Last month I led a weaving workshop for Bedfordshire Guild of Weavers, Spinner and Dyers and wasn't sure how the participants would receive it because non of them had woven before.
We used rigid heddle table looms, many of which were over 30 years old, and this meant that my hubby and I spent many hours checking them and making sure they were all in good working order. The last thing I wanted was for the equipment to let us down or make the weaving more laborious than it needed to be. The aim was that everyone could produce a wearable wild silk scarf. The yarn used had been hand dyed the month before.
The photograph above is the result of one members weaving started at the workshop.
If no-one else finishes their piece I consider the workshop a success, because Carol, the weaver of the above scarf, wants to weave more and is looking to buy a loom of her own. Carol dyed the silk at home using natural madder and still has some left to begin her second project. Very well done Carol!
I hope that, at next Tuesday's meeting, I shall see more from the workshop.

Feeling proud

Several months ago I agreed to write an item for the Journal of Weaver's Spinners and Dyers about Fibre Reactive Dyeing. (www.thejournalforwsd.org.uk. www.wsd.org.uk)
I have been dyeing silk and other fibre and yarn with these dyes for several years and thought I'd like to share my experience.

When the Summer 2010 issue had been published I was very pleasantly surprised to see a photo of my weaving on the cover. I had sent photos of the process and finished spun and woven items but never dreamed of my work being shown on the cover. My photos were obviously of a better quality than I realised. I often get things out of focus but maybe so do professionals!!! There are also several photos of my finished work inside the magazine.


Most of my clothes are cotton or linen and I don't enjoy wearing synthetic fabrics, woollens irritate my skin, so I only work with wool for someone else.
Yesterday, I decided to dye some woollen fibre with acid dyes, some of which I have had for years. For this I used the microwave as it's too hot to stand over a heat source at the moment and the time taken to fix the dye is shorter.
Next I am searching for some new colour combinations as I so often realise that I have returned to old favourite combinations like purple, blue and green.



Some time ago I posted about a shawl that I was weaving for our younger son's girlfriend to wear to her sister's wedding. I have a photo of them at the wedding but must get a close up of the shawl.
They have bought a lovely thatched cottage and begin moving in this weekend. What an exciting time for them. Perhaps in the not too distant future a shawl for another wedding day will be needed!!!

In the Mean Time

A new warp for the loom, along with it's weft, can take several days in the planning, preparation, dyeing and spinning. So
I am keeping busy with another project.
Rainbows are loved by everyone it seems and scarves with rainbow coloured warps are no exception. I have trouble keeping one for myself! It's also a great way to use up small amounts of dyed yarn.
Is it BRIGHT or is it bright?

The weft colour I have chosen, for the first of three scarves on this warp, is bright red and it does look a little bright but I do quite like it - cheery.
The next will be woven with a navy and the third.... still to be decided.

Once the loom was threaded I remembered a tip given me by my orriginal weaving tutor, Mike Halsey.
Tension of the warp threads is important to the weaving process. Slack threads can be caught by the shuttle and cause faults in the woven pattern but with 24 or 32 threads in each inch it can be a trial to get them all the same tension.
When the warp is tied to the front apron, there are gaps in the groups of threads and these need to be closed before weaving the 'real' cloth begins. It can take inches of weaving to achieve this unless..... you weave 4 or 5 rows tabby with a thicker thread, without beating them in place.

Once these rows are pushed into place the gaps close and any slack warp threads are shown up. Small discrepencies may need no more attention, especially on a woollen warp, but larger areas can be seen easily and dealt with, as can be seen at the selvedges of this warp.

One thing leads to another

Last weekend I was asked by our son's girlfriend if I could shorten the dress she had bought to wear at her sister's wedding which is about three weeks away. I replied in the affirmative.
When the dress appeared I became rather nervous. Satin, more expensive than I could afford, beautifully made and required all of my dressmaking skills to alter well. Would my sewing machine tension behave? Had I got a fine needle? I have been making clothes since the age of 13. Why was I so worried? could I have forgotten/lost all my dressmaking skills while I have concentrated on weaving?
The photo of the dress on a hanger doesn't do it justice. There is a slit in the back seam and the hem and facing are mitred. Our son thought I'd just fold, turn and stitch but I explained calmly that a good job required more time and they would not be taking away the dress that evening.
After three days I used all my courage, marked the hemline on dress and lining, zigzagged at the cutting line, machined up the lining and created the mitred corner to turn up the dress. The worst thing was cutting away the corner of fabric. What if I'd sewn it wrongly?? I don't like pressing satin because it could watermark, but I was saved this disaster. The last task was to hand sew the hem... what a relief. The job was done.
As I was working at this task, and considered the event it was to worn at and the fact that our weather is not too kind at this time of year, my thoughts turned to the beautiful colour of the satin and the colours I liked to see with this purple, cerise, plum, raspberry and lilac.
Today, I have dyed some silk fibre and yarn in those colours.


There is a breeze and the silk lookes a mess but is drying reasonably quickly. Maybe, I will be able to spin some of it tonight!
The result of these endeavours may be ready sometime next week, along, I hope, with a photo of the dress owner modelling.

Winding bobbins for weaving

The number of wooden bobbins needed when weaving has been discussed on online groups that I belong to. I wonder why people use them at all.
When weaving with a boat shuttle I use paper to create the core of a bobbin. This way you can wind more yarn on each bobbin because you do not have a thickness of wood and so need to wind fewer bobbins for each project. You can also afford to leave any left over yarn on your paper bobbin and store it until it may be needed again.
To create the core, cut an oval/egg shape from a sheet of paper. I usually use waste from my printer or unwanted leaflets if the paper is not very shiny.
The shape must not be wider than the width of the aperture in your boat shuttle and should be wide enough to wind round the spindle of your bobbin winder several times. I find A5 paper just the job.

When I am ready to wind I, first of all, curl the paper around the winder spindle as tightly as possible and hold it in place while introducing the end of the yarn to be wound under the spindle and wound paper.

The way the yarn is wound is very important. Otherwise the yarn may not run off smoothly and cause problems when weaving.
First wind the paper core and then the yarn across the tightly wound core to keep it in shape.

Next, wind a small but smooth bead of yarn at one end of the bobbin, without winding too near the end, and then another bead near the other end of the paper bobbin.

Wind smoothly and keep an even tension on the yarn as you wind.
Fill the space between the two 'beads', but do not wind higher than them. Build up at each end and fill in the centre without any yarn 'falling' over the edges, as this can cause problems when it unwinds during weaving.


Th important thing to remember is that the wound bobbin should be firm and slim enough to rotate freely in the shuttle. The wound yarn should not protrude below the bobbin when in place on the spindle. It's so easy to wind on just that little bit too much yarn!

Heavens to Burco

It's such a long time since I last posted and so many things have happened but I'm going to start with the last project!!
A friend from our Beds Weavers, Spinners and Dyers brought her Baby Burco to me a couple of weeks ago and we dyed some of the Shetland Fleece that members of the guild had been given.
I can't wear wool but decided recently that I really should weave a project in my own handspun. The Shetland fleece presented a great opportunity.
First I washed and rinsed the fleece, having picked off any dirty areas and short fibres (second cuts), then put some of it into the Burco with sufficient water to wet the fibre. Having decided on reds, oranges and yellow for the colour scheme, we mixed the acid dyes and poured them randomly on top of the fleece, put on the lid and 'cooked'. The above fibre was the result.
We think the sheep had been shorn a little late because there are short fibres at the cut end. These had to be flick carded out of each lock, before the colours could be blended on the carders, other wise the yarn would have more 'texture' than I wanted.
In the centre of the picture you can see a batt which is made up 2/3fibres from the right and 1/3 of the wine colour on the left. Below are the three skeins of yarn I have spun.

(I have only outlined the dyeing method used. This is not full instructions)

Get Weaving - Colours Affect

If I'm to have some stock for this year I should start to think about getting some weaving done. Perhaps some research in the retail trade is needed first, to see what colours the stores are selling.
The pictures are of my most recent projects. Slightly longer silk scarves than I have produced before so they can be worn in that 'loop through' style that is popular now. I love rainbows, a sign of hope I am told, one is woven with a dark navy weft. The other,is the same warp colours but with a green weft, just to show how colours affect one another.

Keeping busy

I've not been unproductive for the last few days but I have found inspiration difficult to come by. The consequence being I've not been too satisfied with my 'art work'. It took me nearly all afternoon to create one valentines card. Roses seem to be a theme at the moment but it is Valentines day soon! Yesterday I made some cards, perhaps to sell, using clip art from the internet which I enhanced with glitter, embossing and decoupage - but is that cheating?
Today I have finished spinning some silk that I started some time ago. Sometimes there are weeks between me dying the fibre to spinning it into a yarn. I'm happy with the result and when more undyed yarn comes form my supplier I shall be combining them both in a weaving project.
If the pictures look flat it's because I scanned both the card and the yarn. The silver heart and the rose are layed with pads but the weight of the scanner top has flattened them.