2004 projects

June 2004 - 8-shafts waffle weave towels













October 2004 - Some coton placemats on my first Glimakra loom! A 20+ years old Ideal 90cm.













December 2004 - My first linen towels.

Apr 2004 - Great Aunt Rita

Great aunt Rita, now in her late 80's wanted me to weave her a little something. Affraid she would keep handwoven tea-towels hidden preciously in a drawer somewhere, I decided to make her a little mat or coaster she could display and look at more often.





I drew a little design with her name on it and explored a technique similar to Finnväv. I did not know at the time if it had a name but here's how the results will compare with Finnväv:

I wanted to achieve clearer pattern borders than what I obtained on my last project.

One drawback though is that it requires twice as many picks than Finnväv. Each pattern block must be picked up twice.







The finished project








Now upside-down.








Some more comparisons, here in Finnväv:








And in ... (haven't found it a name):








One of my helpers ;-)

Mar 2004 - Made it 10 shafts

This homemade loom is starting to fall appart, the glued joints are letting go and need to be reinforced with bolts.

I'll take advantage of the situation where the loom is dismantled to raise the breast and back beams and increase the number of shafts. Raising the beams is necessary to fit two levels of lamms.






I haven't seen the loom like this since the day it arrived home. It is also the perfect timing to move it into another room.










Here we see the replacement front posts (lighter colour). The back beam was also raised. I will need to back it out somehow to lengthen the distance between the beams. This loom is not deep enough...









Lots of shafts!











And also lots of tie-ups awaiting. Texsolv hasn't yet made it into this home.

Jan 2004 - Finnväv

I first read about this pickup double-weaving called Finnväv (or Finnweave) in an old Handicrafter issue article written by Mary M. Atwater (Vol VI, No I, Part II).

I probably had to read it at least 10 times to understand how it works. I won't explain it here but may write about it later.

To operate each shaft independantly, I had to convert my loom once again but this time into a counterbalanced. This picture shows the top roller holders, the roll itself (an old curtain wooden rod) and the horses I made. I recycle whenever I can.





I don't think I could built all of these devices without this old friend found through the local ads ;-)



















Bonnie is our inspector on duty today!











And I now have a place to keep my shuttles.

Dec 2003 - Goose Eye towels rerun

I am making another set of goose eye towels in another colour scheme as a Christmas gift for my best friend.








Here's another printout for the details.








And now real pictures of this project. I find the colours so vibrant.








Someone better appreciate their present!








Notice the hand made shuttle and "temples" from which are hanging weights to prevent drawing-in.

Nov 2003 - Mom's towels

I took this huck pattern from the May/June 2003 Handwoven issue. I think Mom said she wanted pink in her dishtowels but I'm not sure. I wish she had asked for another colour, pink is definitely not my favourite. The taupe stripes seem to attenuate it a bit at least.





Too late for changing my mind, the warp is ready to be put on the loom.











I find threading much easier with string heddles as it doesn't require the use of a hook like with metal heddles, just my fingers.







The idea for the "template" comes from Sara Von Tresckow's web site.








A complete view.










The nice border stitching pattern is made by weaving in a metal rod, which will be removed later.







Once the rod removed, threads are hemstitched in groups making pretty openings. And I still don't like the pink ;-)








No more warp, I'm done with the weaving!







The usual quality inspection. Approved!








The final hemstitching operation.








The final product! Done with my this Christmas gift.

May 2003 - Countermarch transformation

I am converting my loom into a countermach loom but I'm affraid of not having enough room to fit two levels of lamms. Joanne Hall suggested that I try putting both marches and countermarches together on the same pin due to the lowness of the breast beam on this loom.




Instead of getting pre-made string heddles, I decided to tie my own. I bought rolls and rolls of Seine twine from the hardware store and I tied more knots than I ever did in my life.









I made the shaft bars and lamms with regular kiln dried pine wood.







The results are great! Countermarch is such an amazing mechanism in which the whole harness is balanced by the weight of the treadles.






When you step on a treadle, you break this balance: all others treadles raise, some shafts go up and the remaining ones go down according to your tie-up and you obtain a clean shed.






Please remember that I am here voluntarily experimenting and therefore learning the hard way, which is absolutely not necessary to anyone interested in weaving. Do not let yourself get influenced negatively by my sharings. I have always had by nature as much fun fixing up things than using them, if not more ;-)

Mar 2003 - Goose Eye twill towels

I did not plan on my previous Fibonacci towels shrinking so much. I should have cut them longer.

Third weaving project will be a set of large Goose Eye towels!








Isn't this pattern gorgeous? I keep getting lost with the treadling though.








Cocotte could not resist trying out the new "runner"!








I was happy enough with the results that I started giving towels out. People are making Christmas orderings already! I am just starting weaving and I think I love it already.

Feb 2003 - Fibonacci tea towels.

I wanted my first "real" project to be useful. So using a trial version of a weaving software, I designed this tea towell drawdown based on Fibonacci numbers.

I used natural 2/8 cotton and crochet coloured yarn for the stripes.

Here are a few pictures taken during the process...