Nice!

The next chore for Glatt is to build/re-wire a small motor and sensor
to rotate a suet bird feeder so the bird is always visible from Classic's window.

(Somehow Classic didn't seem to be taken by my last suggestion)

:thumb:

I must have missed it... ???

I broke an edge on a used pair of skis I picked up a while back. They look like someone left them behind a stove or over a fire place. I cut, steamed, glued, sanded, tared, flamed, and waxed. As I was corking in the new wax I found a bad crack in the unrepaired ski for next time.

.

That's fantastic! Well done.

Thank you, brother handyman!

Impressive. From the looks of your forecast, you'll have a chance to try them out real soon.

Got on them for almost an hour earlier. It was so nice. :)

Well done, and the gods have bless you with something for next time, too. Luck of the Irish, it is. ;)

If I can get the pics to upload, I thought I'd share my first weaving project since before my diagnosis. I used to weave a fair bit. This is a simple shawl/throw to get me back into the swing of things. It's not my usual, I typically weave either fine, complicated stuff or nice cozy wool and silk blankets. But for a restart, this looked about right. The skein on the left is slubby natural cotton, and will be used as weft. The other materials are mercerized cotton in different colors, and a variegated textured yarn called 'Tempo'.

First thing - winding the warp. The warp consists of the lengthwise threads that are put on the loom under tension. It's measured on a warping board, which has pegs set at different distances so that a warp of a predetermined length can be wound. I'm winding a 3-yard warp. At one end is the 'weaver's cross', which allows me to keep the threads in order when putting the warp on the loom. The last photo shows the warp organized on the front of the loom, ready for 'sleying'. In weaver's terms, the next step is to 'sley the reed', or feed the yarn through a series of slots that hold threads at a given distance from each other. The reed for this project is 12 'dents' per inch. I will have 12 threads per inch of width in the warp.

Oops. Here's the pic of the warp ready for sleying.

After sleying the reed, each thread has to be pulled through a heddle, a wire guide that is attached to one of the eight frames (or harnesses) on my loom. Each frame can be raised or lowered individually. Threads attached to a given frame rise or fall with the frame, and patterns in the warp are created by varying the rise and fall of each thread.

Now the warp ends are tied onto the front apron rod.

The warp has been wound on the back beam. I use heavy paper (in rolls) to separate each layer of thread as it winds, so that the layers stay even and individual threads don't sink through deeper layers. There's satisfaction (to me at least) in arriving at the point of having organized so much beautiful yarn so precisely.

Treadles are next - I have eight, and each can be tied up with any combination of the eight harnesses. For this project, having threaded 'straight draw', I am treadling plain weave but using all eight harnesses.

Spinning bobbins from a skein of cotton held on an umbrella swift. The bobbin winder is held in place with a C-clamp. None of the equipment used so far is powered. I love the elegance of simple machines that people invented thousands of years ago to do a necessary task, that haven't been improved upon in essence - only in details.

Ready to weave!

The first few throws ... at this point any errors in the warp become obvious. I check for crossed threads in front of the reed, behind the reed, and between the heddles. In this case I had two threads crossed between two of the heddles. I had to slip the threads out of the tie-ons, pull them back out of the heddles and re-thread them, pull them forward through the reed, and re-tie them in front. Then it's on to better things.

My weft in this project is a slubby natural cotton yarn ... I've never woven with such a variable width thread before. I'm interested to see how it works out.

The final setup ... heaven! I've put some placemats that I wove several years ago on the bench to soften the impact of sitting there, leaning forward to throw the shuttle. I have a nice Shetland wool color gamp blanket that was one of my first weaving projects and it's usually my bench cushion, but have still to locate it after moving.

One last pic of the pattern and photo beside the developing fabric. It's looking good. Fabrics on the loom tend to look like they have a lot of holes. Once they're taken off, they tighten up. But the real change comes with washing ... the fibers pull together, lock together really, and 'full' (if they're wool) or otherwise fluff and bind. The fabric then becomes much more solid, more what you expect to see.

This throw will end up around 33" by 75", I think. A nice lap throw for cool evenings that isn't too heavy. It could certainly be a shawl, as well. I'm mostly having fun with the different types of yarn and thinking already about other ways I could use slubby yarn in future projects. :)

I'll post a pic when it's done. Future projects include a summer-and-winter blanket and some lovely wool blankets with interesting colorways.

just. .. .. wow.

I love threads like this (I sincerely apologize for the unavoidable pun). Your WIP (work in progress) pictures help me understand what's going on in the *making* of stuff. I *love* learning stuff this way. It goes without saying that the product is lovely, I eagerly anticipate more pictures along the way as well as ones of the finished product, before and after washing.

Textiles are among the most ancient of technologies. Seeing it happen as it's happened for generations upon generations is humbling. Watching how our ancestors made things that have lasted until today. Whoa. orthodoc, well done. Please continue sharing your obvious pleasure with us.

And thanks. :notworthy

Bravo! Fascinating.

I'm really pleased to see this group of posts, and I look forward to seeing more. I've never seen such detailed descriptions of weaving.

So obviously the initial setup of the weaving is very time consuming. For a project like this throw/shawl, what percentage of the total project would you estimate the setup to be? Seems like once you get it all set up, the actual weaving would be pretty straight forward and quick. Is the setup 25% of the time for the total project? 50%?

Those place mats on the bench look fantastic, by the way!

So glad to see you happy at your crafting, Ortho!

Thank you! I wanted to share because I find it fascinating as well, and I love the elegance of the loom. The woman who taught me to weave told me about people she had visited in Thailand who wove gorgeous silk fabric on stick and string looms. When the rains flooded their village, they would dismantle the looms, take them to higher ground, and carry on. It's remarkable that we can literally lash wood together, add string, and produce beauty.

To answer your question, glatt, setting up can take 50% of the project time, if you have to completely reset your loom (as I had to for this project). If you have to add or remove heddles from some of the frames, change the reed, and start with a fresh warp, it's very time-consuming. However, I don't weave to a deadline, so I don't mind. Many people settle on a type of fabric they like to weave and keep the reed, threading, and treadle tie-up the same from project to project. Then you can simply tie your new warp on to the old one (still a bit of time, but much less overall), pull it through the reed and heddles, and beam it onto your back warp beam in a fraction of the time. I did that when I made a series of blankets in the same pattern, with different colorways. If you like to try new things, you just factor in the time to set up the loom. When you're handling beautiful yarns it's a pleasure anyway.

... mind blown.
When you talked about setting up a room earlier, I was thinking a few bundles of thread, yarn whatever and some needles ... Wow, was I wrong.
Outstanding work. I'd love to have a ... something.

Have your people get in touch with my people. ;)

Seriously, I'm glad you liked it.

I lost my ... something on 9/11, you insensitive bastard!

Aaauuugghhh ... weaving lets you know when you're too tired. Or when you've had one glass of wine too many.

I sat down tonight, and even took a photo or two to show the shuttle in the shed and how the weft, in this project, has to be laid at a steep angle to allow proper takeup in the warp. Because the weave pattern is plain weave, simple over-and-under, more weft thread is taken up per throw than if the weft were skipping some warp threads, as it does in twill, basketweave, and many other patterns. So you have to throw the weft across at a steep angle to let more length of thread be pushed down by the beater.

Anyway ... I'd been merrily throwing weft shots for a little while, when I realized my selvedges were going to hell. The selvedges are the lengthwise edges of the fabric. Suddenly I realized that not all the edge threads were being 'caught' as the shuttle turned to head back in the opposite direction. Then I looked closely at the warp and realized I had major floats ... :facepalm:

Floats are good when you want them; they are not good in plain weave.

I have spent the past 20 minutes unweaving everything I did tonight. All because I put my feet on the second and third treadles, rather than the first and second. You'd think I'd've noticed. :smack:

I'll take this as my offering to Athena, so that I don't end up with Ariadne's curse. The end product won't have any errors (thanks to my OCD) but Athena will know about tonight's error. ;)

Could be worse. Your hobby could be woodworking, and after a glass too many while being tired, you made a similar mistake with a power tool and your fingers. ;)

Damn. I hate when that happens.

True, glatt - it's hard to hurt yourself with yarn. :p:

Yep, when your selvedges go to hell, it's time to call it a day.

Excellent, the fact you've got all your weaving tools together and set up, the piece you're making and your set up instructions. Oh, and your head too. ;)

Without your excellent step by step, most people who hadn't witnessed it wouldn't have a clue how much work it involved. My Grandfather used to set up looms in a mill as a young man(circa 1900), and described the process to me several times. But until I witness someone actually do it, I really didn't understand what had to be done, and done right. Damn, you could have a TV show, be the Bob Ross of the loom.

I don't think I'll ever be Bob Ross, but I did finish this project, finally.
Here's a photo of the warp being cut once I'd reached the end (about 72", not quite as long as the instructions said, but still respectable).

A view of the fabric with Zoot, or Sarahna's Columbia as she's formally known, for perspective.

Here is the fabric before washing, when it's wide open, so to speak.

And here it is after washing, ready for pressing.

Final result after pressing ... I laid the fabric over a bed, but now this throw resides in our family room, draped over a chair and used for lightweight coziness on cool days. It drapes beautifully and provides a lovely lightweight cover for transitional weather - we have a woodburning insert/stove in the family room, so this throw is nice as the fire is either starting or dying. Not too heavy.

I have a gorgeous blanket planned - hope to get the loom warped this weekend, so will update soon. Shades of blue from deepest midnight to sky, with variegated blues/teals/raspberry to provide interest.

Very nice! I like it a lot.

Magnificent.
http://cellar.org/2015/clapman.gif

Very pretty.

WHS^^^

Wow.

Congratulations, that's a very fine piece of work, you have reason to be proud of it.

Dr. Made, Kitteh Approved™

:thumb::thumb:

Awesome. So impressed.

I failed to take any pictures, but I replaced the faucets in the lav and the kitchen sinks, which burst due to unusual cold here. I found out the last time I came by and turned on the water, flooding the floors.

Now I have nice, new metal fixtures which are less likely to break than the old, cheap, Chinese ones. Next time I come by, I plan to replumb the shower, installing a nicer showerhead and faucet. And possibly the drain, which I suspect of leaking when I am not looking. That'll teach me to winterize before I leave.

You're lucky the water was turned off when it let go. Even if you'd been home asleep, you might have woken up hanging ten on your way out the door. :haha:

Ortho: very nice!

Pam: good excuse to update all your fixtures. :-)

Yup! More proof that I am really a girl on the inside. :D

Before

After

You missed a spot...

Actually I missed several, the other side looks better. But it is full of dirty dishes.

I'm not sure I've ever seen that part of my sink.

What's it called?