Knoontime Knitting

It’s All About the Fabric

I am weaving on a Schact table loom that’s been converted to a floor loom. It is an eight-harness loom, but I’m only using four of the harnesses. Unlike my previous project, which I wove on a four harness table loom, this loom uses floor pedals to control the raising and lowering of the heddles. If you remember, the heddles are what control which warp threads are up or down for each pass of the shuttle; this is what creates the weave structure (like, for example, a houndstooth pattern or herringbone).

For my Quesquemitl, which is a type of shawl and poncho, I am weaving a 2-2 twill: this means that 2 harnesses are up and 2 harnesses are down for each pass of the shuttle. Twills are characterized by movement, meaning that the patterns are created by something called a “twill circle.” This is in contrast to a balanced weave, like plain weave or basketweave. (If you made potholders as a child, that is plain weave: an equal amount of threads on the warp and the weft, and an equal weight to both.)

Here are some pictures that will illustrate what I’m talking about.

Here is a view of the fabric. The bottom two-thirds of the image is the actual fabric, and you can see the diagonal striping leading from the bottom right to the top left. This is the characteristic of the twill family of weave structures. Beyond the fabric, at the top of the image, are the warp threads waiting to be woven. The warp is a darker tonal family than the weft (the warp are the vertical threads, the weft are the horizontal ones); the combination of the two is surprisingly pleasing.

Here is a closeup of the same fabric, showing the apparent ‘movement’ of the fabric. This fabric is a 2-2 twill, which means two warp threads are up, and two are down, for each pass of the shuttle. For the weavers among you, I’m using a floating selvage for this project, which is a first for me; I like the edges very much. They’re a lot cleaner than my last project, where I didn’t use them.

Here is a view of the fabric unwound from the front beam; I included my hand in the shot so you can get perspective on the sizing. I’m holding this fairly taut; in the next image, you can see more of the drape.

It feels a little bit like denim, but much softer. It’s a rayon blend and I love it. As I weave, it creates a lot of fuzz; I hope that isn’t a property of the finished fabric after blocking.

As I mentioned earlier, the heddles are controlled on this loom by foot pedals. The cool thing is that the foot pedals are variable: you select which heddles correspond with which pedal. For my project, you can see there is an A, a B, and 1 through 4. A and B are set up for plain weave, and the 1 through 4 are set up as a 2-2 twill. That means that for each pedal, two heddles are controlled – this way, I just have to press 1 through 4 in succession and I have my pattern.

I’ll admit that was very difficult for me to grasp when I first sat down to weave on this loom; my instructor set up the heddles. The geometry of it just refused to penetrate my brain (I think it’s that old 2-D/3-D problem). But now that I’ve woven this project on it, and am nearing completion, it makes a lot more sense.

Here is a view of the back beam, for those of you curious to see where the warp goes. The left foreground shows the warp threads traveling over the back beam and down onto the roller. The gray paper is there to keep successive rolls of the threads from knotting across each other; each layer is protected by paper (or one could use clear plastic or even newsprint, whatever is handy).

This final image is the boat shuttle, so named because the bobbin of thread sits inside the shuttle on a peg. This allows the weaver to load multiple bobbins and not have to get up each time the end of the thread is reached. It’s taken a little bit to get used to how wide this loom is; my last project wasn’t this wide. But once I got the hang of it, it’s rather fun to whiz back and forth.

News from the World of Weave

I continue to attend weaving classes at the Chicago Weaving School, which in turn continues to grow and prosper. Founder and Instructor Natalie Boyett conceived yet another excellent idea called WeaveSpa – single weaving classes with a pre-dressed loom or packages of lessons for very reasonable prices. It’s a great way for people to dip a toe into the weaving world without having to take an expensive and time-consuming plunge. (It’s also a great way to get hooked on the weaving addiction, but that’s beside the point…)

The first WeaveSpa is February 2, 2011. Check it out on Facebook.

As for what the heck I’m weaving, I’m weaving a Quesquemitl!

Say huh?

A Quesquemitl!

Nope, doesn’t make sense to me either, other than it’s a Mestizo shawl thingie. It’s pretty cool. Here’s a pic:

The schematic on the left is the drawing of what you weave: it’s a long rectangle with fringe on the ends. I think I might add some clear crystal beads to the ends of fringe and macrame them in some fashion; we’ll see. I don’t have to decide that til next week.

Why next week? BECAUSE I’M NEARLY DONE!!! I’m so excited. Here is a picture of the loom I’m using; you can see the fabric in the front wound around the beam and the threads on the back with the knots sticking out – those knots are the end of the warp! That means I only have a few more inches that I can weave before I’m all finished!

And since a friend of mine asked me about what the school is like, and I realized I haven’t posted any pictures, here are some views of the school.

‘My’ loom is in the back on the left. In the foreground on the left is another floor loom, and the yellow threads are the warp of what will be a blanket. The bookshelves are the weaving library, and the odd shapes on the right are, in the foreground, my jacket over a chair and behind that my classmate’s coat hanging on the corner stantion of a giant floor loom.

The left is the back of that same enormous floor loom, then the back door that leads to the other room of the school, a long hallway and the all-important restroom. What you can’t see is there’s a little bit on the right where there’s a sink and more shelves with looms. In the foreground on the right is the castle of another loom; what you’re looking at are the levers that control the harnesses.

This is looking toward the front of the school. The center table is the main worktable, and looks different each time I come depending which students will be working. When not in use, those table looms go on shelves. On the left is a floor loom with a blue warp; beyond it are three more floor looms and a large wooden contraption for winding lengths of warp threads. It’s got a name but I can’t call it to mind at the moment.

It’s a fun shop, full of electric and creative energy. The students are just as interesting as the instructor; I’ve really enjoyed the time I spend here and look forward to many more days weaving here.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It’s 2011! Wow, amazing. It feels like it should still be October… (don’t ask me what YEAR I mean, either; we’ll just assume for the sake of my dignity that I mean 2010 and leave it at that…)

I hope this year brings you great peace and prosperity, and that your craft aspirations become reality. If you don’t HAVE any craft aspirations, maybe I’ll finally convince you to join the bandwagon and you will decide to pick up a craft or art of some kind and play with it.

I would also like to share with you the recent honor I received. As readers of Knoontime Knitting know, I started weaving school in 2010 at the Chicago Weaving School. I was invited by my instructor, Natalie Boyett, to contribute to an online gallery showing of weavers’ works – a true honor, considering I am a very new weaver and relative novice. My work is featured under my name in the world, as opposed to my pen name, and is reached thusly:

Visit the website Through the Shed. For you non-weavers out there, that’s a pun: the ‘shed’ is the opening between the warp threads that one passes a shuttle through; this is the essential weaving operation that creates a woven fabric. Once there, you click on the ‘through the shed’ graphic. To see my work, and other students’ work, click on “Works.” My name is the first in the list, Amanda Clothier. You’ll be able to see my placemat project that I’ve talked about here on Knoontime Knitting.

I wish all of you a very Happy New Year!

Holiday Knitting: The Bolero of Doom

I decided to tackle a bolero for my friend R…, and figured it would be easy because it’s a Lion Brand free pattern. It stumped me a little at first, because of instructions like “and at the same time” in all caps. But I took it apart, started over again, and am pleased to report that I have now finished the left front.

Read on!

First, we found the pattern at the store, but it’s also available online. Click here.

Since R… has a dress code at work, we decided to use a black tone for the sweater so she could use the bolero there. We settled on 312 Edwardian, Art #790, Lot #10289.

Once I finally got the hang of it, it was easy to do. The instructions “and at the same time” made more sense once I realized there’s a distinct left side and right side to the piece – in this case, when I say “side,” I mean “edge.” See below:

At the bottom of the image is a blue tie, to indicate “center front.” Once I realized that, the schematic helped me to determine that the shaping (note the pronounced slope on the left) of the piece.

After that, finishing the left front piece was a snap. Here it is, using the simple expedient of an extra knitting needle as a stitch holder:

All of a sudden, it begins to look like a sweater!

For you stitch-a-holics out there, here’s a detail of the pattern stitch:

It’s called a broken rib stitch. All wrong-side rows are knit; all right side are K3, P2. It’s a nice, nubby texture; particularly with the Homespun brand yarn.

Weaving! Harness the Power…

Sorry, weaver’s joke. (Harnesses hold the heddles, which are how the fabric is made… get it? Yeah, it’s not that funny.) (MAN, maybe I need to get out more.)

ANYWAY. So, I’m going to give an update in reverse order of my weaving progress. Why?

Because it’s Friday?

I went to class yesterday and did some more work on my placemats. I am learning to make balanced-weave patterns and twill, which is actually kind of fun once you get the hang of it.

However, THIS was my view on the train. Talk about PACKED – this dude’s butt was in my face, practically. I mean, nice butt, but jeez. I’m sorta married, and anyway, I’m not gonna sample the merchandise on the train without asking first, and it’s sorta public, an’ all…

But riding the train is sometimes like you and four million of your closest, smelly friends all mashed into a sardine tin on metal squealing wheels.

On to the weaving:

This is the breast beam of the loom, which sits toward the weaver. My instructor jokes that is because it’s where you put your breasts. ~smirk~

Mine are a leetle big for that…

The balanced weave is every other strand of the warp (the vertical threads) is lifted, and the weft goes in between them. There are as many threads vertically per inch as there are horizontally, which is why it’s called a balanced weave.

The thing I’m learning about this art, is that it’s very logical. The explanations make a lot of sense and aren’t like trying to figure out calculus. Once you get familiar with the terms (warp, weft, shot, shed, etc.), then it’s much easier to understand.

These are the three yarns that I’m using for this project. The other two, which I used for the warp, (the vertical threads that are tied into the loom itself), are a dark rose and an ivory. These threads are used for the weft, the horizontal threads. Starting at the center and moving clockwise, the dark blue is for the narrow stripe that runs across the width of each single placemat and intersects with the narrow strip I wound into the dark rose warp.

The light blue is a very narrow gauge yarn that is used to make the hem allowance between each placemat. My instructor had me use this narrow thread so that the woven area for the hem won’t be as thick as the main fabric.

The pink is the thread I’m using for the main part of the weft. When it’s woven, as you can see from the other photographs, it’s much less PINK and makes a nice blend with the dark rose and ivory.

Also in this image are several of the tools I used. Again, going clockwise and starting next to the dark blue thread is the “boat” shuttle, since it looks like a little canoe and the bobbin sits inside it, like a canoe. Next is the tape measure, used to check the width of the textures that I’m weaving. I am weaving balanced weave for four inches, then a pattern weave, then balanced, etc.

The book I recently purchased on the recommendation of my teacher, Learning to Weave. I like it. It’s very easy to understand and set up like a class itself, so it adapts well to use in lessons.

This is showing the measurement of the narrow band in between the two mats. As I mentioned above, I used the narrow light blue thread to weave this portion; as you can see, it’s a great deal narrower than the main pink thread.

Here is a view of the twill that I wove. I love the diagonal look of this weave and if I needed to select a pattern to weave all over a design, this would probably be the one I’d select.

My instructor had some leftover yarn, so I’m going to knit her a scarf in a new cable pattern, from my new book by Barbara Walker, A Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I’m going to attempt “Cable #2.”

We shall see how this experiment goes in future articles. For now, have a Happy Labor Day weekend and enjoy your craft!

Mochi Progress

I’ve been working away… well, playing away, really… with my shawl. Here are a couple quick updates.

I’m on row 14 of a 16 stitch sample of rippled rib. I may extend it past this current spot because I like how it’s shaping up and one repeat of the pattern is a little too little to see.
I’m learning to read charts now, which is getting easier the more I play with them. I’m using post-its to track the row I’m on and I numbered the stitches on the post-it, which helped me to keep track of them. I found that to be a lot more helpful than trying to count in the middle of the row. As long as I kept count of what stitch I’m on in the knitting itself, then I know what stitch I’m on in the diagram.

The stitch in the middle is the cross-stitch pattern that I mentioned in my previous article on this project. It has less give than other patterns, and would be good for a jacket or something that needs to hold its shape. I love the look of it, but it’s less loose than I would like for a shawl. I may continue with it for this project anyway, simply for the practice.

The wavy ribs that I’m working now are at the top of the photograph and in the detail below; I like them in the book but less so on this project so far because it’s only one pattern repeat. That’s why I think I might continue the pattern through several more repeats in order for it to establish itself on the piece.

This shows the lace in the pattern, but it’s hard to see the rows of wavy ribs that go up vertically along it. I’d love to try it with a worsted-weight or heavy yarn in a scarf with a couple of repeats width will allow the pattern to really shine. (This yarn is a lace weight, maybe a DK, but very light. Worsted-weight is more traditional, what Americans think of when they think ‘skein of yarn’ in the store.)

Final Day of First Session, June 24th

My final day of class, and I’m hooked. I will definitely sign up for the four-harness class, and even have purchased my first instructional book: Learning to Weave, by Deborah Chandler. It only just arrived today, so I don’t have an update, but I’m excited to feel like a ‘real’ student.

So, on to the last day of my first set of class:
These images show the fabric all the way up to near completion; I also have some images of the fabric off the loom but I’ll save those for another post.

This shows the rest of the greens and the aquas that I used. At this point, I’m starting to actually run out of warp, which I didn’t think would happen. I’m disappointed to not have more to test the colors on, actually.

Here is a close-up of the light green. The little string sticking up is actually woven into the fabric at the sides when you change colors, then clipped at the end of the process. I started clipping once they wove in, so I didn’t have as much to do when I pulled the fabric off the loom, which is something I’ll continue to do.

Here is the finished product, with the exception of actually coming off the loom. It shows all the way through the indigo; I didn’t have enough room to work through the purple/violet tones of the spectrum. You can see how different each of the stripes looks as it progresses through the spectrum on the warp; this is a good exercise in seeing how colors interact in fabric. They do so quite differently than when knitting.

Here is another view of the same segment of fabric. In this view, it seems much more plaid-like. There are some interactions that I didn’t expect to like but really do, including the red and green and the center sections.

You can see a couple things in this image. One is how many threads there are when you don’t clip as you go – which is why I decided to do so. The other is how really bright that one band of orange is. Part of that is because the acrylic fiber is much brighter in tone than the wool, and the strand was a lot looser so when I packed it, it packed very tightly and ended up letting the weft dominate in that segment.

This is the final piece, all wound back on, ready to go back to class to take the fabric off the loom. I ended with a clear royal blue, since I couldn’t get all the way into the violets. Not a bad day’s work – well, really, four days’ work!

Weaving, June 17th

Back to the workshop! June 17th was my third session at the Chicago Weaving School. I made some good headway with my weaving, though I had some trouble getting the beating consistent. Stress really made a difference in how I interacted with the fabric, which I found interesting.

In this view, you can see in the bottom left corner of the image how the same color in the weft as in the warp comes out in the fabric. Remember that the warp are the threads that are tied onto the loom, and the warp are the threads the weaver passes back and forth. (Warp = vertical, weft = horizontal.)

For the detail-oriented, there is a stripe in the bottom third where I forgot to more the heddle and there are two weft rows right next to each other, making a wider stripe of color than usual.

Here is a close-up of the heddle with the warp passing through. The purple paper wrapping around the back beam keeps the threads from tangling up with each other. As you can see, the last red thread is falling off the edge of it; we found that with this loom, it’s better to not go all the way to the horizontal edge when weaving because that seems to happen.

Here is a front view of the loom with the fabric; there’s quite a bit finished already. The two clamps hold the loom to the table – which, having forgotten them the next lesson, I have decided are very necessary. It keeps the loom from jumping back and forth.

Here is the weaving with thread already on the spool for the weft; we’ve progressed up to green tones at this point.

Same view, but from the back of the loom instead. There is a cone of thread in the extreme left of the image, along with my notebook tracking which colors I used in the piece.

More of the green, this time with the heddle in neutral position for traveling. When the heddle is in the neutral position, it lays the threads on top of each other. If you set the spool inside the shed before you do that, then it closes over it to allow it to stay in place.

Another shot, this time horizontally across the top of the warp, showing the heddle in neutral position. You can see the unevenness I mentioned in the yellow section right in front of the camera; it’s rather wavy here. The edges also waver in and out from this day’s weaving.

Weaving Update

As I’ve discussed in prior posts on weaving, I’ve been working on learning the Cricket loom, a rigid heddle loom. I have successfully taken the fabric off the loom and it is now a table runner in my dining room! It’s exciting. It turns out that weaving is only part of the tale…
Once one is finished weaving, the finishing process is critical to the success of the fabric. My instructor says that an unfinished weaving is like an unbaked cake. You can finish by pressing or washing (or both); we finished mine by steaming it with an iron but not pressing it flat (in order to not crush the weave).

This is a picture of the front of the loom, with the breast beam. The threads are tied on now, and are prepared for weaving the ‘header.’ This is a part of the weaving that will not be used in the final fabric, and will pull the warp threads into alignment.

The flat plastic grid that the threads are pulled through is called the heddle. In this loom, which is a rigid heddle loom, the heddle is moved by hand up and down. In a four-harness loom, the heddles are controlled by levers and springs (which will make more sense when I get some pictures up on that topic, later).

This view shows the header, which is woven in white, and the beginning of the weaving. If you recall, I wove a color ‘gamp,’ which is a sampler piece that shows the properties of the weaving. A color gamp is to show how the colors interact; a texture gamp shows the various types of stitches. I decided to do this one in the colors of the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet), as well as brown, black and white. This would let me see how each of those colors interact with each other.

My instructor suggested I use shades of each of those tones, which is what I did. It made an interesting effect in the weave.

Here is a top view of the warp with the threads coming through the heddle. You can see that there is a hole in the center of the heddle, as well as gaps in between, and one thread comes through each.

These are the red tones as they’re woven on. I like the plaid effect as they get woven.

This shows the cones of yarn waiting to be used. My gamp is made with wool that’s spun especially for weaving. The weight is a good deal lighter than knitting yarn (about a lace weight), and a lot stronger to withstand the repeated beatings it takes when in the warp.

Another view of the red tones, with the warp extending off to the upper left of the photograph.

Closeup of starting the orange segment. This is what’s called a ‘plain weave,’ which is where every other thread of the warp is lifted and the weft is passed through. Other patterns can be made by moving the warp differently, but those patterns are easier on a harness loom because the heddles can be controlled more precisely.

This is another view of the weaving, where the heddle is brought toward the weaver to ‘beat’ the threads into the warp. It’s a meditative, repetitive action: pass, beat, pass, beat. Depending on how hard the weaver beats the fabric, it will change the density of the weaving (which we’ll see later on when I switched to a different fiber and ended up with a weft-dominated band).

A close-up of the selvege. The goal in weaving is to get a very neat edge, which I found is a lot harder than it sounds. It’s composed of how you beat the fibers in, which can vary based on the mood of the weaver (and it’s interesting to see the differences from class session to session).

As you can see from the very bright orange band, above, the switch in fiber meant that when I beat it into the weaving, it REALLY packed down. That stripe is VERY orange.

Now we are moving into the yellows. I like the rust tones in this section.

Interesting how the whole tone of the piece is changed in just a few stripes. This section is much cooler and softer, because of the change in the color. Again, you can see how much closer the current segment beats into the fabric, resulting in a more weft-dominated band.

Motif Loff!

Sorry, couldn’t help the alliteration. 🙂 But I took a basic crochet class and learned how to make Granny Squares and basic motifs. My motif is sort of the large, Frankenstein type of motif where you use huge yard to crochet something that really should be done on a tiny hook with thread.

But it’s my art, I’ll make it big if I want to!

Came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

This particular motif has, if I recall correctly, seven levels. You start at the bottom and rotate back and forth up to the picots at the top. It was actually much less difficult because I used such large yarn; it would be a lot more fussy with small yarn (though pretty).

One Writer's Journey Into 3D | Bestselling Author A Catherine Noon

Category Archives: Knoontime Knitting – One Writer’s Journey Into 3-D