Sunday, February 17, 2013

When things don't feel right....

they're usually not right. This morning, I finished the tea towel I had started last night, and it just kept fretting at me. I had carefully written down the treadling sequence and made a little cheat sheet, which I tape so I can see it easily when weaving, and I checked it 4 or 5 times with the treadling indicated in the pattern, but it just didn't feel right.

For one thing, there were an uneven number of shots in a full repeat. The threading pattern is for a 70 end repeat, but the treadling showed a 69 end repeat. Hmmmm. What that means, to my small brain, is it takes two full repeats of the treadling to end up on the side I started on. Seriously, that's how I see things. Very basic. This is a muscle memory problem. As I learn the treadling, it sinks into my subconsious which side I am supposed to end up on at certain points in the pattern, and if I get off, things start feeling hinky. This was not lending itself to learning that muscle memory at all.

Overshot patterns start out, work to a mid point, and work backwards to the finish. The first part of the pattern mirrors the second part. So I started looking, and found a treadling error. Here's the treadling from the book, with the offending area marked:




It may be difficult to see, but the right leg of the bracket shows three shots on what we'll call Treadle 1. The bottom leg shows only two shots on Treadle 1. The entire part bracketed is actually the very center of the pattern. So these shots on Treadle 1 should be exactly the same: 3 shots in each place.

Here's the first tea towel, with the offending area marked. The arrow is actually pointing exactly at the problem. You can see there are two shots. Scan down the pattern and you'll see the three shots on the other side of that center-piece-looking-thingy.



And here's the towel I wove with the treadling error fixed.


Interestingly enough, the incorrect sequence didn't really make a difference on the diagonal, since it was not a single shot. There were two shots there instead of three, but still enough to drag that diagonal along.

With the fix, the treadling sequence mirrors itself perfectly, my shuttles are on the correct sides at the right times, and it feels so. nicely. balanced.

I started another tea towel, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. I worked out in the yard this afternoon, pruning for a couple hours, and I be tired. And tomorrow is a long day at work. Maybe I'll get to weave a bit in the evening.



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Saturday, February 16, 2013

Curiosity becomes a search

I threaded my new overshot pattern "Flowers of Cromaine" (BGH) yesterday and beamed the warp today, which means I was able to weave a couple repeats:




It's a pretty pattern, and I'm looking forward to making some progress on the warp.

But I started thinking about the origin of the name of the pattern. Ms. Hayes put some interesting names on her patterns, like "Gastric Ulcer" and "Bomber Flight" to name a couple, and I was pretty sure "Cromaine" meant something.

This is where I love the internet. What would have taken days at a city library took me a few minutes on the internet.

It turns out that Cromaine Crafts was a part of the Hartland Area Project in Hartland, Michigan. It was one of those social experiment communities popular in the first part of the 1900s. Handcrafts was a big part of their "project" and they built a loom named the Cromaine Crafts Loom.

Here's a link to what Janet Meany has to say about it:

http://www.oocities.org/rugtalk/CromaineCraftsLoom.html

which is quite interesting. I had no idea when I chose this pattern that it was connected to what is The Mannings today! Wow! History is so cool! No telling what the connection was between Bertha Gray Hayes and the Cromaine Craft Project, but I'm pretty sure there was a connection.

I'm very glad I have this warp on the loom and ready to go. Sanity is a warped loom.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Know your weaknesses

I'll just say at the beginning here (at the risk of sounding like I'm at an AA meeting), that I have had a difficult relationship with knitting patterns all my life. To me, a perfectly fine and obtainable pattern is knit 2, pearl 2. I'm good at socks, as long as the patterns is k2, p2.

I knew when I made the cowl at Christmas that the pattern said I should get 5 repeats, minimum, out of a 100 g ball of sock yarn, and I got three, barely. What I didn't know until my sister pointed it out was that I did the yarn overs completely wrong, using twice as much yarn, and causing them to not really look like yo's. They look okay, and I wear the cowl, but still.

So, a friend gave me another pattern for a cowl that has yo's that makes a wave pattern. I repeated the pattern 3 times before I cottoned on to the fact that I was increasing by a lot of stitches when I shouldn't be - like ending up with 401 stitches when I should have 234. (You say seems like I would have noticed it sooner? Shut. Up. ) So, rip out time. I'm back to the first inch of knitting and am forging ahead, but.........I did find my error! And that's really huge for me.

On weaving, at which I'm much more competent, I wound 516 ends this week and have them through the reed. I'm hoping to get this warp through the heddles and beamed before the end of the weekend. I'm getting ready to head into a couple weeks of work hell and having something "shuttle ready" when I come home.....that's important.

I'm warping Flowers of Cromaine. Flowers! Valentine's Day! Spring! Flowers!


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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Second opinion

I'm about 2/3 through the Foursquare warp. I've been weaving with either 10/2 pattern weft and 20/2 tabby, or 10/2 pattern weft and 10/2 tabby. Both are okay. These are all cotton wefts, and I don't mind a little more heft when I'm making tea towels.

However, I have some 18/2 wool (I'm guessing here, but think I'm pretty close) and I've been wanting to sample it on an overshot warp. So, today I wove about 30 inches using the 18/2 wool as pattern weft and 20/2 cotton for tabby. Wow! What a difference! It's made me look at the pattern in a more likeable light, for one thing. I really wasn't liking this pattern much, but it blossoms with the finer pattern weft. Can't wait to see how this wet finishes.





And here's a close-up:




The tabby I'm using is a very light beige and the wool is a nice muted green. You can see the beige in this close-up. And look how the little center motif looks so dainty and, dare I say it, flower-like? The finer weft reduces the repeat length about 10%, which means more shuttle throws, but that's always the case when you go finer with weft.

It will be really interesting to see what kind of weight the finished fabric has. And I think I'll try a similar weight in cotton for the pattern weft on the last couple towels. Always fun to explore.

But I'm still warping flowers next.

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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Little side trip

I've been keeping my sister's dog for the last month while she and her husband lolled on the beach in Florida. Bonnie is the dog's name and she's half border collie/half collie. My dog is Maggie, and she's 3/4 border collie/1/4 beagle.




Bonnie, as you can see, is twice as big as Maggie, but that makes no difference. These girls have become such good friends this past month. Maggie is going to be one lonely puppy when Bonnie goes home.

And Bonnie goes home this morning. I'm driving to Cape Girardeau with the two dogs, and Maggie and I will return tomorrow.

I'm making progress on the Foursquare warp. I've made a couple towels crossed in maroon and am working on the second crossed in the dual-toned blue - don't have much left after Ray's blanket, so will use that for tea towels.

Verdict on the Foursquare, at this point, anyhow, is ......... it's okay. I'm not just in love with it, and since overshot and I have this fickle love relationship wherein I ditch the last true love of my heart design and go right into the arms of the next pattern - me saying Foursquare is "okay" is significant. It's the first pattern from Bertha Gray Hayes' book that I'm feeling "meh" about.

Well, I put 12 yards on, and I'll weave that off. It doesn't take that long and people always want tea towels. Besides, I found out years ago - NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!! Other people like different colors/patterns than I do. Things I was sure would never sell in a million years would go to someone who'd been looking for those colors. So, I'll weave it off.

But it does make me wonder. Why don't I like it much? And I think the answer has to do with gardening and flowers.This is very much a block/squares pattern. And I think I just like the ones that look like I'm creating a bouquet of flowers as I weave. Oh well. Good to know. And it doesn't mean I'll never weave another pattern of squares. But I think I'll do flower-y next.




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