PattyAnne's Place

I wove 16 towels using the directions in Handwoven magazine – Nov/Dec 2009 issue. The instructions in the magazine are for 3 variations: ‘huck’ towels, ‘huck lace’ towels and ‘huck boxes’ towels. I had the easiest time weaving both the ‘huck lace’ and the ‘huck boxes’. For some reason I had more errors in the ‘huck’ towel variation.

To weave the 16 towels, I purchased three 1# cones of Natural 3/2 Valley Cotton from Webs. Each cone was 12.59 (plus shipping)
My warp length was 11.5 yards (for the 4 sets of 4 towels).
The towels were set at 12 epi (1/dent in a 12dent reed) in my 4 shaft loom

Any weavers out there?? I have a question. Here goes:

I was quite pleased with the yarn that I purchased, but, there were several “hunks” of yarn that I had to cut out and discard because it was over spun and coiled. Have you ever had this show up in the middle of a cone of yarn? Is it to be expected? Below is a photo showing what I’m talking about. Also below are pictures of the towels in progress and my ‘helpers’ (Libby and Abby) who appear to be dog tired!!

NOTE: The folks at Webs just contacted me saying that the yarn was not ‘normal’ and they offered to send replacement cones!! Since I was able to ‘work around’ the ‘funny yarn’ I didn’t feel they needed to send me replacement cones BUT, wasn’t that fantastic of them to offer!! LOVE. Webs. www.yarn.com

If you live anywhere near Pendleton, SC, I recommend a beginning weaving class held at End of the Warp Studio @ Hunter’s Warehouse where I’m currently taking a class. We are working on 4 harness looms. Jacque (our teacher) also teaches inkle weaving and tri-loom weaving.

Last week Jacque taught us about drafts. She had us using ‘manipulatives’ to help us understand draft draw-ins, treadling, tie-ups and draw-downs. We also learned the parts of a loom and various other weaving terms.

This week we learned how to calculate the yardage of yarn needed for both the warp and weft of our projects. Jacque suggested we choose to actually weave something we can USE or WEAR rather than weaving a sampler. I’m going to weave Summer and Winter towels from a Best of Handwoven e-book. Another student is going to weave some pretty placemats from a recent Handwoven magazine.

(I’m also gonna take my new PupLT to the studio to weave on a separate night (not class night). I plan to work on a chenille shawl from a Best of Handwoven series. I am sooooo loving having Jacque in the ‘hood’.

Let’s see… tonight we ALSO learned about:
Various yarns – wool, silk, cotton, linen…. and sizing of the yarns
How to figure epi (ends per inch)
How to use a McMorran Balance
How to figure out how much yarn we need to make 4 placemats that are 20″ long not including fringe. We were reminded about loom waste, shrinkage, and allowance for fringe.
We learned to DRAW the draw-down.. rather than using the colored strips of paper that we had used last week
We were introduced to a computer program called, “Fiberworks”. There are many cool things that I like about this program including using the Davison Pattern Book (data in .dtx format) which can be imported directly into the program. So cool. I mean I can test colors etc. etc. etc… right on my computer. I also like the note area of the program. I can keep track of sooo much here! Hmmmm…maybe this will help me to organize my samples!!!

Well, I can hardly wait until Monday. I have my yarns picked out and I’m ready to Rumba! ???

In case you haven’t seen this video and would like to try Clasp Weft Weaving…

I would LOVE to have looms to use for this… Hey, I do… My Cricket looms and Flips (assuming the folks are able to hold the shuttles)!!
Hmm… I wonder how I could get started offering FREE classes for mentally and/or physically handicapped kids and adults?? Anyone know???

Here’s what I’m talking about:
In Japan in the late 1960s, a woman named Misao Jo, then in her mid 50s, decided she wanted to weave a sash (obi) for her kimono by hand. Her husband and sons built her a handloom, and her 84-year-old mother taught her how to weave! However, Ms. Jo soon felt that her weaving in the conventional style was imitating the regularity and predictability of a machine. She said, “I have a brain and emotion. I’m a human being. I will weave an obi that is full of humanity.” She allowed herself to skip threads in an unforced, rhythmic way, introducing unusual stripes and fringes that resulted in original work of striking expressiveness. She kept experimenting, enjoying herself to a degree that she hadn’t believed possible, but wondering whether others would perceive her work as “really good.” Finally, she brought her work to the owner of a fashionable kimono shop. To her surprise and delight, he bought all the work she showed him, sold it quickly, and asked for more. When she tried to fill his orders for a specific pattern she had made previously, however, she found that her joy in weaving was gone. Realizing that spontaneity was the secret of her success, she determined to teach this wonderful way to others. At age 92, she is still active in this movement today. (From http://www.saoriworcester.com/what.htm )

[The following text is excerpted by permission from the SAORI Japan Headquarters' invitation to a SAORI workshop following the 2004 Very Special Arts International Conference in Washington, DC. The focus below is on people with physical and developmental disabilities. However, SAORI's goals of self-discovery, healing, self-reliance, and simplicity have value for ALL people, and can indeed build common ground between people with and without disabilities of various kinds:]

SAORI is a contemporary hand-weaving program founded in Japan through which everyone can express herself or himself freely regardless of age, gender, disability or intellectual aptitude. It was first introduced overseas in 1986 at the first International VSA arts Festival in Washington D.C. It has since been welcomed in more than 40 countries. In Japan alone, there are more than 30,000 SAORI weavers, including many people with disabilities enjoying SAORI at more than 2,000 facilities. SAORI contributes to disabled people as a rehabilitation method and also as an art form.

1. Self-discovery for people with disabilities.

The ultimate goal of SAORI is to release people with or without disabilities from all the restrictions of conventional hand weaving, and to help them find their true selves through weaving. In SAORI, we do put more importance on the free expression and creativity rather than the technical skills or the regularity of the width, pattern or colours of threads. We emphasize that we do not have to imitate machine-made products. The irregular selvage, loose thread and accidental skip of thread add to the beauty of SAORI cloth.

2. Rehabilitation for people with disabilities.

Through SAORI weaving, disabled people become interested in creative activities, and find joy in artistic expression. In SAORI, we do not teach what to weave. Rather, we help develop individual creativity by praising the brilliant works woven with pure inspiration. Weavers with and without disabilities become self-confident by finding that they can do something creative without any restrictions.We have seen many cases in Japan of people with physical and intellectual disabilities such as hemi-paresis, body impairment and communicative disorder undergoing dramatic improvement after starting SAORI.

3. Independence for people with disabilities

SAORI is not only effective as rehabilitation, but also creates opportunities for independence. In Japan , SAORI clothes woven by people with intellectual and other disabilities are highly valued and popular at department stores. For example, small scarves sell about US$30–80 . Teachers and volunteers at each facility sew the SAORI fabric woven by people with disabilities into bags and clothes. 500–800 such items are sold each year. Though we cannot yet assess the sales figures of every facility in Japan, we estimate that SAORI products produced at those facilities in Japan amount to total annual sales of at least US$300,000.

These towels WERE gonna be sooo purty!!

Weaving buddies out there…. can you spot my threading error????

Please humor me and tell me you’ve done something like this!!

Here is the finished bag. I LOVE it. I am going to make the strap this weekend….MAYBE….
I have to decide if I want to weave the bag’s strap on my Cricket loom (using 10 dent reed), my Inkle loom (unfortunately I will have to weave another strap off of it first) , card weave or cardboard disk. Hmmmm… I think I want a flat strap rather than a rounded one so I think I’ll use the Cricket. Now…. do ya think my non fibery friends will mind if I bring it on our camping/ kayaking trip???? LOL

Well, here’s the bag. Gotta go get my gear ready for our kayak adventure!! Have a grand weekend!

Double Weave bag woven on Schacht Wolf Pup

I really wish you could see this bag-to-be in person. I just absolutely love the colors and textures!!

The yarns used are 8/2 pearle cotton, (not sure the color…if I get a chance I’ll look it up), 2 unknown wool yarns (don’t ya hate it when the ball bands go missing?), Lamb’s Pride (Orange Creamsicle), and Moda-Dea Flip (Claret). Oh, I did add a row of sequins (Toledo Wine) and a row or so of metallic braid (Aztec Gold). Again, I just seem to gravitate towards “The bling”.

So anyway, my main intent here was to make another double weave bag. These things are M-A-G-I-C (the way they weave up!). Midway through I also decided to try to add in some clasp weft weaving. I wasn’t sure if it would be difficult since I had to follow a specific treadling pattern (and I’m a newbie at this 4 shaft stuff). Well, the answer is…… doing the clasp weft did NOT present a problem whatsoever!!

Ok, back to my loom…….

I'm gonna really LOVE this bag! I wish you could see the REAL colors and textures!!

Here is the latest on the bag. I still have to make the handle and add the closure.

It’s lookin’ pretty GROOVY…. Yes, I’m from THAT era.

I have been having a bit o’ fun on the new Wolf Pup LT learning to do DOUBLE WEAVE.
In case you’re wondering what the heck double weave is… I’ll show you a glimpse in the following video.

The directions I’m following for the bag are on this website. PRETTY DARN COOL STUFF!!!! I mean… NO sewing up the side seams …. That’s what I’m talkin’ about!!

So I threaded the Pup LT with 4/2 cotton at 12 epi. The warp is a bit over 3 yards long which will make about three bags. For the weft (in my first bag) I used cotton cloth that I cut into strips using a rug hooking wool cutter, roving, handspun and rug yarn.

The bag in this video is being done using handspun, Noro, rug yarn, fun fur and sequins. Seems I’m addicted to a bit of ‘bling’ these days!! I love how the bag is turning out EXCEPT I wish I had made that one strip of fun fur a bit narrower.

Dennis & Peggy Earp of the 96 District Storehouse in Abbeville, SC say, “We strive to offer the best in fabrics and accessories for the Living Historian – Medieval through Victorian, at the very best prices. Please contact us if you have any special needs, and be sure to put your name on our mailing list, so we can contact you with specials and new arrivals.”

Here’s the shop:

And here’s what I bought. (My friend, Nancy, who also is a volunteer at the Hagood Mill is going to sew this beautiful dress for me. The pattern, as you can see, says it is fashioned after dresses worn in 1840s – 1852. Oh, and I will have a petticoat under it…. what fun! I really didn’t think this would be my ‘cup of tea’, but it’s really kinda fun getting all ‘fancied’ up for the demo days!!

If you click on each picture TWICE you will be shown a very large view. Ohhh…one last thing…. I’m having this dress made BECAUSE when we demo weaving and spinning at the mill, we have to dress in authentic period costumes… You know….like they do at Williamsburg etc.

Lastly, here’s a group of folks enjoying the Hagood Mill.