Tablet Weaving Links and a Fun Afternoon... Tablet Weaving

There's nothing quite like trying to teach something you haven't done in a long time to find out how much you have forgotten..lol  And that's what happened Saturday afternoon when Carol arrived for a tablet weaving lesson.

But stumble through it we did.  I did so much enjoy Carol's company and I hope she has as much fun with table weaving as I have had.  We may get together again soon for some real weaving fun.. :)

If you are not familiar with tablet weaving, here are a few links for you:

This link is the exact one that I used to learn to card weave (tablet weave) .  The Ancient Craft of Tablet Weaving by Shelagh Lewins was my "go to" page during my quest to learn this wonderful art.

Phiala's String Page    was another great resource that I used in my quest for knowledge.

If you would like to buy cards instead of making them, Halcyon Yarn has them at a reasonable price here.

I must say here that I am in no way affiliated with any of these sites in a business way or a personal way.  I am however very grateful that they have taken the time to share with us their knowledge.  As for Halcyon Yarn, I have ordered many things from them and have always been satisfied with both the product and the customer service.

It's cooling down into the 90's this week.. hopefully into the 80s next week.  Would love to have some rain, but guess that will have to wait.

Have a lovely day and give lots of hugs all the way round.. ;)

Odds N Ends...

I bought these little chatzkies...the bird and the vase... at the reunion auction. I just wish I knew who brought them..! I will have to ask Uncle Bobby if he remembers.





We've been working in the shop. DH bought a router and yesterday made a perfect circle faceplate for a clock. He is thrilled! and me too, of course..lol Today will be the true test... oak. More on that later....

I decided to try my hand at pattern weaving.... just not in too big a way at first. This pocket weaving was just the right size and worked out fine. This kind of weaving is not nearly as hard as I thought. The next one will be on the rigid heddle loom and will probably be a wall hanging.

It's been raining a bit here in North Texas. A little cloudy today and cool. Hope it stays this way for a while.....

Soup's On!

It's been raining all day. We had planned a trip to my aunt and uncle's for tomorrow...but... the car is still in the shop and the rain looks like it will be thunderstorming all week... I will give it a few more hours before I call and change our plans... When it rains and gets cold, I always put on a big pot of soup. Yummmm... I love that smell. It will be long before supper, but I never mind smelling it slow cook through the afternoon.

I finished the blue cotton runner. I had thought that I would make placemats that would fit our trays that we eat on, but I kinda like the long runner.

The Japanese Irises are blooming and they are really lovely this year...

The irises in the meadow have begun to really bloom out. It's hard to see in the background to the left, but the purple ones are out too. What a pretty view from back porch....

Bargain...

I ran out of ink a couple of times while I was printing off the booklets for the Spindle Spinning Class. Of course that meant a trip to Office Depot each time. On the second trip...lo and behold.. right in front as I walked in the front door... there it was. The chair of my dreams.. marked.. ta da.. can you believe it... $15.00! I almost fainted. And then I bought it...

It's perfect for my spinning and weaving. I've been trying it out with my first try at spinning flax. I think I have developed all thumbs. I do pretty well for about this far..as in the pic.. then all of a sudden it just slides apart and that's that. Looks like I am in for a long spell of learning all there is to know about flax...sigh

Breezy, Blustery Day

Fall has arrived... The trees are now that non-descript cross between brown and dirt colors with a little pear yellow here and there. The leaves are piling in the yard in between mowings and the sun is shining. Temps remain in the high 80's most of the time with a few cooler days. While I am looking forward to the cooler weather I am not a fan of the drabness of autumn and winter in this part of the country. Or maybe I'm just in a mood today... ;o)

The breeze today makes it a really good day to wash and dry the woven scarf and the finished yarns of the past few weeks. These yarns have not been dyed and I'm in love with warm natural colors .. the lightest being mixed wool, the darkest warm brown is Merino Lamb and the honey color is a mix of Romney/Merino. I'm in a hurry for these to dry since I can just see them mixed together in a pattern on my loom and making warm scarves.

It's Too Hot to Work!

Summer is finally here and has made it into my work room. The garage, hall and my room run around 92 degrees these days... so to keep the costs of the air conditioner down, I have been gathering stuff up and trashing the kitchen and living room...sigh

At some point in the near future I will turn on the air conditioner out there, but haven't had the nerve to spend that money... saving for gasoline! Can you believe the cost of that stuff?! I agree with Newt Gingrich... the govt. should dump half of our reserve on the market and flood it...causing speculators to think twice about betting against America...

Anyway...won't go there..lol It's too hot to get all worked up... lol

I've not figured out what my next project will be. I've been trying to learn the nalbinding knit/tarim stitch and seem to be finally "getting" it.. I finished the homespun green wool tarim/knit stitch bag that was practicing on... still need to use the lucet and make the cord to use for closure. This work done by Alix at Alix's Nalbinding Page is what I am shooting for... Isn't that amazing work!

My small weaving loom that my wonderful DH made for me has been seeing some action. Using wool yarns that were spun a while back, I put together these two small pieces. They will be made into small bags. I find that I love, love,love the purple that I thought I would have to re-dye.

And one more thing... Hi, Patty. We're doing good. Missing the son that is moving to Phoenix because of a job change. Things will definitely be a little different around here. Not much news... The only doctor's visits these days are for the infinite number of check ups and returns that they all seem to be able to come up with...lol Hugs to Pat and puppies..grin

Pocket Looms Finished

It took a while yesterday, but I put many coats of polyurethane on to really try to protect the painting. It took a while to cure, but now that they are finished I am in love.

This is the fourth and smallest of the 4 looms. I decided to try it out using cotton #10 crochet thread for the warp and my hand spun wool for the weft. The loom is working beautifully. I did find that when the holes are drilled, there needs to be an uneven number. This one has an even number of holes and when I get back to my starting side I find that I have 2 warp threads that must be woven the same.

During the pocket weaving that I did using the cardboard weavers, I found that I had the same problem with both sides. So in the process of trying to figure out how to remedy that, I warped the weaver across and then did a final warp all around the edges, knotting it off at the original starting point. This adds the one warp thread on each side that is needed to keep from having the large gaps on each side. However.... this does not help if the holes are an even number... there is still one side that will have double warps wefted the same. Anyway....

This is how far I have gotten with the weaving. I love the way that after weaving a bit, you can push the weaving down and it covers the bottom.

I wish there was someone around who knows more about these things than me...lol But I will continue on and see what comes up...

Pocket Looms

I found the perfect waste board in the shop the other day. It's not the best, but not the worst either. I drew off the sizes I could get from that one piece of board, cut it into the pieces, put dots every 1/4 inch and then drilled the holes with the drill press... voila! Pocket Looms!

These are supposed to be the real thing... I have done a pocket loom thing before, but using only cardboard..see this post...
With pocket weaving there are no seams. The weaving is done in the round (all around the loom front to back) so there is a finished pouch as soon as you are finished weaving.
Now I don't know if these will work or not...may have to use really small warp since I drilled the holes so small...

I haven't tried them out yet as I am still in the process of applying polyuretane over them to protect the paintings, but as soon as I get everything really dried and cured... you can bet that these babies will be warped up and working! ;0)

Ply on the Fly and Weaving.. Baby Steps

It's been windy for the last couple of days. It's a vivid reminder that I reeaallly do need to return to the barber shop and get my hair cut... hopefully today.

I think I may have finally gotten the Ply on the Fly technique right. I haven't yet decided whether it will turn into a favorite technique or not. Plying on the Fly produces a triple ply yarn that is smaller than I can presently do on my Kromski wheel, but I really feel the difference in time that the plying takes up. The jury is still out on this one.

The orange and green weaving that the spindle is lying on is my latest attempt at weaving. I love the different colored warps giving the stripes. I used the Corriedale handspun that I dyed with Kool Aid for the warps and the dark grey/brown Icelandic handspun for the weft. It surprised me that the weft does not show at all on either side except in a couple of spots where the Icelandic has a small bump.

The use of both weft and warp in wool caused some "sticking" together of the threads as the shed was changed. The only way I could open the shed was to use my fingers to open the threads as they would bind together and would not budge when the shed stick was used. As I realized that my fingers did a much better and quicker job of opening the shed things moved along quite nicely. All in all, I am pleased with this tiny step forward...grin

Rain, Rain....

It began to rain yesterday and is continuing today... I love the soft sounds of the rain on the roof. It was pretty to watch this morning on the roof of the shop while listening to songs of the birds. Have I said I love spring???... I tried to get a pic of the splashes that were so vivid on the shop roof...it came out so-so... if you click on the pic you can see a couple of splashes and the bubbles...

This has been a week of some very good ups and some very terrible downs... "Life is what happens when you are making other plans"...ughhh I've always found that John Lennon line somewhat comforting... It always seemed to remind me that there is a randomness of events in a person's life... along with a randomness of whether it is good or bad... Well..today I don't like it...

Remember my first hand weaving that was done with my hand spun Icelandic wool...Well here it is after being made into a small change purse. It was hand sewn with needle & thread. I had to make the pattern myself since I bought the clasp at least a year ago and it didn't have a pattern with it.

I have some cotton thread ... larger than #10, but came from a thrift store, so no info attached with it.. It is a bit more difficult to weave, but is coming along great. Who knew that green thread is self striping???

Waiting, Weaving and Trial & Error

I played with my loom some more yesterday. Didn't make it too wide because I wanted to try some different things with it (in other words...play) ...still have it on the loom so will try some other things today. I want to see if I can put little random sprigs of red in it without the long ends of the red sticking out. I read somewhere that the weave is tight enough to hold small lengths of different colored yarn... will have to look that up again...hmmm

When I look at the fabric on the loom, I can barely see any difference in the fabric..except for where the weft is more heavily beaten. It shows up much better in the photo..

Getting a bit frustrated here... finally called the doctor's office to see what was going on with my MRI testing... It seems it has not been read yet..or at least has not been put into my file on their computers... and our doctor has not received a report... Ahhh.. the wonders of the best medical system in the world.... sigh

Made My First Fabric Yesterday

Saturday was a busy day in the shop. DH put together a lap sized tapestry loom for me. We made it of oak and he used dowels to hold the corners...

It ended with me sanding it down and using the dremel to shape the shuttle and shed stick...will think of the real name for this as soon as I publish..lol Then spent some time using a finer sandpaper to finish it... dampened it with a wet cloth to raise the wood again and re-sanded. Then used boiled linseed oil to seal and finish it.

This tabby weave is my first masterpiece... I am so amazed at making my own fabric from my own handspun Icelandic yarn. Gives me a whole new respect for all those generations that "came before"....

I finished this weave last night and took it off the loom. It feels like "grandpa's old suit"...grin I think I will use this small piece to make a coin purse... we'll see...

W I F #5 & Lucet

It's been a fairly good week...weigh in today...188..ta da...

We spent a little time out in the shop yesterday. These are nalbinding blanks, fingerweaving rods, Lucet and spindle parts. The all need to be completed, but I couldn't wait to see if I could work the Lucet. I only had inch and a half wide piece of oak, so I drew out what I thought would work and DH cut it out for me.

I used the Dremel to sand it down, but let me tell ya... a person needs a little time and practice using the Dremel...lol My poor little lucet has some real ocean waves... But it worked really well. I had to spend some time getting used to the small working area between the forks...about 3/4 inch... but when I did get it figured out it whizzed right along just like a grown up... Today I will finish sanding with some sandpaper. I think I will figure out some way to paint a tiny floral on the hand piece and then finish with something that will show the grain of the wood. May have to ask DSIL and find out what will work. I am trying to stay with whatever would be available around 800 AD... may not make it tho... sure like to use acrylic paints...hmmm