Unfurl the Cloth Beam! Wandering Vine Edition

Unfurling the Wandering Vine Cloth

Unreeling 12 yards of warp in a wandering vine overshot pattern on the 8-shaft loom, though I only used 4 shafts for this particular pattern.  I am still getting used to using this bigger loom.

It's always so satisfying to see fabric that I wove line-by-line come off the cloth beam:  

I made this cloth! 

 

This is my sturdy 8-shaft Kessenich Floor Loom, built sometime in the 1960s.  

The weaving width of this cloth was 37 inches wide.

 

End of the warp.  End of the line. 

 

12 yards of cloth wound onto the cloth beam. 

 

I use the tape measures to help me keep track of how far I've come.  This helps to keep panels that need to be the same size roughly matchable when it comes time to piece them together. 

 

The last bit of weaving as seen through the steel heddles from the back of the loom.

I got this far, and just could not get a clean shed anymore, so I gave up the ghost.

This is as far as I could go on the sectional warp before I couldn't get a good shed anymore.  I  wove as far as I could on the 12-yard wandering vine warp and the rest woven in cotton for towels, plus 2 samples to try out some wool yarn. 

The sectional warp worked very well, and mitigated a lot of tension problems I might have had otherwise.  It worked so well, that we will be outfitting the smaller 4-shaft Kessenich loom with a sectional warp.  I think that is going to become the coverlet-making loom.  I don't mind weaving extra panels if I can make the joy of weaving last a little longer.  ;-)

2 panels of red wool and cotton for a Wandering vine coverlet.

How much loom waste?  about 27 inches total

4 inches on the front (cloth beam)
22 inches on the back end

 

American Maid Cotton is nice to work with -- very strong with few broken threads in the warp.  

That said, it is dusty, even though I think it has some beeswax on it to help it behave during the weaving process.  I vacuumed this haze of fiber dust off the old cloth beam which sits above the new sectional beam, so all the warp flowed over this bundled beam and dropped bits of cotton fiber with every treadling.  That's just how it works!

 

More to come:   Stay tuned for the finished coverlet and towels ...

GrungeTextures from France 2022

A visual meditation, this video showcases some of the grunge textures I collected on a recent trip to France. These abstract images were mostly "as found" in their natural elements and otherwise straight-outta-the-camera.  For the most part, these were framed within the camera, with only minor copping or straightening done as edits.

What are texture photos?  [Or I thought you were going to how me pictures from France ...]   

Texture photos are abstract images.  They typically lack a distinct subject, but can be beautiful all on their own.  No message.  They speak to the wordless side of the brain.  Just visuals.  Eye candy.   The textures can bring up different feelings, though, even without words.  

They can be layered into other photos (with Photoshop or other tools) to add interest, or be used as a background.  I just like looking at them for themselves.  They can be very calming for stressed out nerves, and can have a therapeutic effect.  When I go on trips like the one to France (or anywhere else),  I look for textures.  Many of these came from old stones and stucco, the backs of gravestones, weathered paint on metal, stained concrete, etc.  

Read more at:   For the Love of Textures : Remember the Quiet Evenings

Feel free to click on the YouTube logo in the corner of the video to see it in a wider view.

I used ApplePhoto to create this video slideshow. 

If you want to use any of these textures, I have made them freely available via a Flickr album: French Textures 2022.

Have a look, enjoy and relax ...

Weaving a Peaceful Rhythm in Double Weave

I am so enjoying the process of weaving this Double Weave color gamp, that I decided it would be fun to make a video so you could see the motion, and the yarns changing with the sheds.

Once again, weaving becomes a mindful moving meditation for me. I am truly grateful to have this in my life for mental health and creative reasons.   ;-)



This video is shot from above, as I wove in a lavender color.

I am using the dark brown beads to keep track of how many rows in this set.  1 bead gets pushed over after completing the sequence below.  1 bead equals 2 rows (back and forth; top and bottom layers).  There are 12 beads, which tells me I've woven 24 rows when the sequence is completed.

The Treadles are tied up as follows :
      Treadle 1 : Shaft 1
      Treadle 2 : Shaft 2
      Treadle 3 : Shafts 1+2
      Treadle 4 : Shafts 3+4
      Treadle 5 : Shaft 3
      Treadle 6 : Shaft 4

The treadle pattern is as follows :
      Shot 1 : Treadle 1    Left to Right         (Top Layer)
      Shot 2 :  Treadle 2    Right to Left        (Top Layer)
      Shot 3 :  Treadles 3+5  Left to Right    (Bottom Layer)
      Shot 4 : Treadles 3+6  Right to Left     (Bottom Layer)




This video is shot from the side so you can see the different sheds opening to allow access to either the top of bottom layers of fabric.  This time I am weaving in a burgundy color yarn.

The weaving goes fast.  It doesn't take long to do 24 pics of any one color.

Peaking through to bottom layer
I can't really see how the bottom layer is progressing -- I only get small glimmers of the colors laying down together.

The fold side where the colors change.

Shafts 1+2 weave the top layer of cloth, while shafts 3+4 weave the bottom later with the fold on the right side.

 

I'm also getting pretty good at fixing broken warp strings.  Here are a few of the new strands hanging off the back beam and weighted to hold tension even with the rest of the warp.