threaded

New location

2008-11-01T10:03:00.000-04:00

Threaded Letters now updating at wordpress. Click for the new site, hope to see you there.

Threading the Warp and Creating Weft for Ikat

2008-10-28T20:24:00.004-04:00

So I went into major crack down mode this weekend. Over Fall Break, the most I was able to do was get my warp combed out and ready for threading with the help of my darling roommate, Jacqueline. It took us a few hours, but by the end of it my warp was nice and straightened out. The bamboo is so heavenly soft; I couldn't resist running my fingers through it several times.

I felt like I spent a million hours down at the Station Building this weekend sitting at my loom and not weaving. About four or five hours on Saturday getting the threads (500 ends) through the heddles, which was a lot longer than I expected. It was exhausting, so I decided to come back the next day to thread them through the dent reed, which took considerably less time, but still around two or three hours. I photographed the process in various stages below.

This is about three quarters of the way through, all through the heddles and halfway through the dent reed. Luckily my draft was pretty simple and I was able to keep up with it, only losing my place once and it wasn't hard to find where I was again. I found threading the loom from back to front to be a lot easier than front to back (at least, once I remembered I could lower the breast beam and sit closer to the heddles- I don't know how many times I banged my elbow!). I feel like the margin of error is a lot smaller, and it's a lot more difficult to get threads crossed or to miss heddles.

Alas, I am all finished with threading! The feeling of relief that washed over me was so incredible. I did have two warp threads break on me, but it was as I was pulling them through the heddles- I guess a few ends had gotten frayed at some point in the process. Luckily they broke as I was pulling on them, so I easily removed them from the lineup and continued my pattern as normal. The end result is 498 ends then, thanks to the two fallen threads.

Here I have sectioned off the warp and tied it to the apron, adjusting the tension of each section until the tension is good and even. When I got to this point, all I wanted to do was weave, but I was so exhausted by that point (and I had to get dinner and get myself ready for the Great Halloween Lantern Parade!) that I didn't even want to set up the the treadles, even though it's a really simple sequence (see related post: Weave Draft). I left that, as well as filling in the front, for class on Monday.

Monday night I set out to make my skeins, all twenty five of them, sixteen of which I accomplished in class using the dowel method (which I learned in class):

Set up two dowels apart from eachother, clamped down on a table, at a distance that equals the width of your warp. I had intended for my warp to be 25 inches across, but I guess somewhere along the line I lost two inches, so I'm down to 23.
Wrap your yarn around the dowels as many times as you need to fill however many inches you want to cover on your warp. You can find out the ends per inch of your weft by weaving in an inch of plain weave and counting the lines.
Tie off appropriate chokes and label with sharpie on masking tape attached to one of the ends, as necessary.

I didn't want to stay in Station all night, however, so I took the rest of my yarn home intending to set up chairs the same way the dowels were set up, and as it turns out the diagonal distance between the legs of my kitchen chairs was the perfect distance for my skeins, so I flipped one over and made the rest of my skeins by wrapping my yarn around the chair legs.

I still had to bind them for the resist dying, so I stretched each skein back out by looping them around my feet, and, looking at my photographs, bound them with cut up plastic bags according to where objects were placed on the chair.

Lots of inventive negotiating with process.

All my skeins have been made, dyed, and dried. I forgot to take my camera with me when I went to work this morning, so I'll post pictures of the dyed skeins (which came out great!) and the amount of weaving I've done to date (so far seven skeins). The Sweedish Lace Draft is really perfect for the ambiance I'm trying to capture with this project, and I'm really happy with how it's turning out.

The Final Three

2008-10-28T20:19:00.004-04:00

Sunday

Saturday

Friday

A little late on the posting, but these images end with Sunday, October 26th. I have twenty-five images in all, because we were told in class on Monday that we could cease the blogging process. It's weaving time!

Today's Photo

2008-10-23T17:32:00.001-04:00

Friday, October 17th, to Wednesday, October 22

2008-10-23T17:26:00.005-04:00

Fall Break made things a little crazy, but here we go.

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Day Fourteen

2008-10-16T20:45:00.003-04:00

Today there were two computers living on the chair when I arrived to take my photograph. After I took the picture I squeezed in between them and settled myself in the chair, me and two computers getting cozy. Maybe the people who live in this apartment are robots.

Playing Catch-Up

2008-10-16T09:59:00.005-04:00

I had fully intended on updating Monday night, thereby starting a pattern of consistent, day by day posting...and then I was in the fiber department after class till 12:40. By the time I got home, close to one in the morning, I didn't feel like looking at a computer, or anything else for that matter. And I guess the past two days got away from me. But here are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, respectively, with a Thursday post to follow later today.

The good news is, regarding my late night stay in the dye kitchen, is that I got my warp fully painted and now I just have to get it through the loom, which is sure to take no less than forever. This weekend is going to be full of work dedicated to this project, stressful but exciting and rewarding.

I think computers live on this chair more than humans do. Around the chair is a sea of wires, and I see the chair as a floating island, a refuge from technology (until technology takes over).

When I sit in the chair, it becomes a home for knitting and balls of yarn and little puffs of fibers. Alas, this apartment is filled with boys and their designing ways, so I usually have to move a computer out of the way to sit down- not only on this chair, on all chairs. Why do computers get precedence over people? It just does not seem fair!

Week One

2008-10-12T17:47:00.006-04:00

Well, technically the first full week. Monday through Sunday, October 6th through October 12th. Apparently I have a hard time posting day to day, but never fear! My camera never leaves me. So enjoy these pictures of the big blue chair, we all know there are many more to come.

Monday

I might have yelled at Anthony when he jumped into the chair mid shot, but now that I've been looking at this picture for awhile it has become my favorite one so far. It really captures the essence of this spot; bodies are constantly moving in and out of this chair, two or three people at a time crammed into its squishy center. It's a living chair.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

A frequent nap spot, for sure.

Saturday

Sunday

Sorry Anthony, this is a pretty awkward picture, and now it's on the internet. Thanks for being a part of my art!

Good news! My yarn arrived from Webs yesterday; it was pretty much the most exciting day of my life. It took me forever to get my box open, probably because I was so excited...and there was a ridiculous amount of tape keeping my yarn from me. I can't wait to start working with it in class tomorrow, creating my warp- and painting on it! I decided I definitely want to get some wool and I'll probably order that tomorrow.

Color Studies

2008-10-06T22:42:00.006-04:00

This is just a general color study pulling colors out of both daytime and night time photographs.

The blues in this study are more comprehensive in terms of daylight/ night time observations, as are the colors below.

This is a overview of how I am going to paint my warp. I decided on a 2x5' finished piece, with plenty of waste calculated into my yardage.

Weave Draft

2008-10-06T22:31:00.004-04:00

I absolutely fell in love with this pattern; seriously, love at the sudden flipping of a page. As mentioned before, I had my heart set on a twill, but I thought that these three patterns were too perfect an echo of the feeling I get from that big, comfy, blue chair. Threading the warp is going to be a breeze, and I can already feel the comfortable rhythm of the treadles. Mixing the three different treadle sequences is going to be my favorite part; I cannot wait to see how they interact with each other, my warp design, and my weft skeins.

Days Two, Three, and Four, Respectively

2008-10-05T22:33:00.006-04:00

Blogging daily is a lot harder than I thought, but I promise to be more prompt in my following posts. I'm enjoying the subtle changes day to day, and the things that stay the same, the things that remain. All three of these photographs were taken at night, without a flash, so the light is noticeably different from day one.
I also ordered my yarn a few days ago! I plan on my warp being composed of a cotton/ linen blend, and I ordered some undyed bamboo- very exciting. I can't wait for class tomorrow, when we get to experiment with this crazy cool contemporary Ikat on a group loom and get ready for preparing our own warps.

Day One, an Introduction

2008-10-02T13:33:00.008-04:00

The assignment:
To keep a woven diary that reflects the nature of a person, place, or thing on a day by day basis. One entry per day, one skein per day, based on one photograph for that day.

Here is the first image in my month-long photo diary. This is a place that I frequent often, though it is not my home. Every day there are new people, more clutter, and subtle shifts of light that give this corner of this small room so much personality. I adore the gigantic-ness of the chair, and the space created by the window and the expanse of wall. I hope that over the next month, these pictures and the skeins that accompany them will help to tell the story of the people who inhabit this space.

In terms of materials, I am interested in working with linen and bamboo in particular. I have yet to settle on a particular weave, though I am very fond of twill, especially the traditional bird's eye. I absolutely cannot wait to begin!

Sample Weaves

2008-10-01T16:46:00.000-04:00

This post is unrelated to the assignment at hand, but I think it serves as a solid introduction to the blog (and makes a pretty colorful test post). Our woven imagery class set out to learn thirteen weaves (there being thirteen students in the class) so each loom housed one weave. We each wove one 8"x8" sample per loom, and here are my results!

Traditional Bird's Eye

Plain Weave

Crepe

Untrimmed Corduroy with spun, recycled Silk

Ms & Os

Interrupted Twill

Rosepath

Straight Twill

Huck Lace

Open Weave (with cashmere!)

Waffle Weave

Summer and Winter (minus tabby, so I guess not really Summer and Winter- my attempt)

Overshot