Nearly done

The warp is nearly woven up and I'm happy with the way it looks so far. I did stick to the 2/2 twill as I felt that it was best for this warp. This is the end of the warp in view

Here an earlier part of the 2nd scarf being woven:

And this is where I'm weaving now:

I cannot wait to get the warp cut from the loom. I hope later tonight.

Yesterday I picked up my grandson and he will probably be staying with me Friday morning. Last few days this week his sister will be coming, school starts again Monday week. So my attention will be with the grandchildren this week but I'm hoping to try and get a new warp done too. I went to the first day of a 3 day workshop on Iridescent weaving by Marian Stubenitsky. When you click on Woven iridescence in twills in her link you will see what these weavings look like. It was a very stimulating workshop and I cannot wait to make my new warp with 4 colours, the weft has a 5th colour. I've done several workshops with Marian and really like the way she teaches and she is very generous with her knowledge. She uses the Venne 34/2 cotton yarns in her scarves and that is what I'll be using too as there are so many colours to choose from. The weft yarn will be a cotton/wool yarn also from Venne. This yarn gives a lovely drape.
Venne has started a collection of organic cotton yarns. The beauty of Venne yarns is that they are high quality yarns and all the colours coordinate in the different type of yarns. I'm just an enthusiastic user of Venne yarns ;-)

With this last warp I'm really getting to know my Magic Dobby and really loving it! The glitzes I had in the beginning I can put down do not knowing my loom.
I had some problems with the knife but Jan Louet advised me to lubricate the groove where the knife moves up and down and it seems to have done the trick. A friend gave me some grease that was suitable for this, forgotten now what it was exactly.

First inch or so

Getting the loom ready took more energy than I had thought. But I'm weaving again! Last weaving was done last October. I had to search for starting the dobby again but that was soon found. ;-)
I'm weaving a 2/2 twill, I thought that would balance the colours and black best. After weaving the first inch or so I'm not sure if it will end up to black and mute the colours to much.

I'll continue with this and review halfway weaving this warp for the second scarf, if I'll change to 3/1 twill or stick with 2/2 twill.

 

Update after some more weaving, I'm happy with the result after all. I'll happily continue with the 2/2 twill.

Advantage with 2/2 twill on this warp is that both sides look the same. With 3/1 twill, one side would look really colourful but the other side will be very black with 1/3 twill. So, I'll stay with the 2/2 twill on this warp.

Balloons

It is grandchildren weekend and at the local shopping centre they were handing out balloons in heart shape. They both ended up with 2 each. When we came back home the eldest had decided that he was going to sent one with a message to his granddad. In the end the remaining 3 were sent up to their other grandparents and to my father. It was an initiative that I could not stop them doing, a heart-warming idea.

The warp is still not fully wound on but it is on the loom. I was struggling with the Louet raddle again, the yarn did not stay in the raddle when winding on so I got my own raddle out that my father made for me years ago. May be I'll let them help me tomorrow after breakfast. Than I can start threading in the evening.

We will have to see how the weather goes as they have to go back home tomorrow, ready for school on Monday. The forecast is not so good for travelling and it is over an hours drive each way.
In a weeks time it is holiday time again and they will be back but one after the other. Looking forward to this.

New Project

After the loom has been standing empty for some time, I made a white 8/2 Tencel warp last Friday. My intention was to dye the warp in the weekend. I have some Acid Dyes standing ready for use. But of course Tencel is not like silk and it should be treated as vegetable fibres, and use Reactive Dyes.

What I thought would be a quick job, became a lot of calculations and weighing small amounts of dye. My warp was just over 4 meters, enough for 2 scarves. I want them both different. Yesterday was dyeing day. I was not sure about the colours I saw but of course you only know the real colour after rinsing and I had to wait!
I woke up around 3 this morning, and I just had to rush to my warp and rinse..... (yes, I did go back to bed) I found that one of the colours was to green and not more towards the blue. Not what I had intended. Still not sure what went wrong.
Today I had another thought about it and I've over-dyed the green I was not happy with. End result is still not what I wanted but I'm happier than before. To the left is the complete warp as it is now.

Of course I forgot to take photos before over-dyeing....

Here a close-up of the warp. One scarf will have lots of primary colours. The warp will have small black lines  to separate the 3 coloured parts in the warp. The weft will be all black.
Back to loom now and get that warp on!

UFO's???

Not the UnFinished Objects but the kind of Unidentified Flying Objects.........
An extraordinary magical sighting tonight where I live when I cycled back home from the shops around 6:45 my time. Strange orange-yellow lights like a string of lights (about 6 or 8 lights in total) looked like they had been put up in the sky. Next it looked like the saucepan stars (how do you call this) you see but next again it was like a string (I was cycling so was moving as the lights were)
I got home and I saw the light disappear in the distance towards the South. But 2 more came from North very fast flying over me, following after the others. They were lower than planes fly, definitely no planes and also no stars either.
It was an experience that I will not forget quickly as I have never experienced something like this before. I'm only sorry that I was on my own. It was all over to quickly to go to a neighbour to share this experience. So I just share with you all. I did try to make a movie with my mobile but it was all black and than they were gone.

Finished young weavers scarf

He finished the scarf in 2 days. It was a present for his mother for her birthday so I could not show any details before ;-) just in case she was watching the blog........
She was so surprised and happy to receive his self made gift.

He chose the loopy yarn and I tried to find yarns to go with that.
As warp yarn (horizontal yarns in the yarn photo)

I used the Webs yarn that I used here, but in different colours. Strong enough for him to weave with. No good to use a yarn that might break easy. It needs to be fun for him for now.

The loopy yarn has shrunk more than the other yarns but I think the end result is great for a 6 year old. He was so proud of himself.
His mum told me tonight that he took the scarf with him to school today to show what he had made in the holiday.

We have not looked at yarn for his next scarf, as he wants to make a woollen one for himself.
I will have  both grandchildren here again next weekend, so may be we will get around to looking at yarns.
But if the weather is nice we will go out instead.

Young Weavers

Here is the scarf my 4 year old granddaughter started weaving last Summer. About halfway she was when she went home last weekend and I promised to finish it for her. Though she was weaving ok, the concentration was very short. So it would have taken a long time for her to finish.
I finished it together with my grandson. I wanted the loom available again for him. Still have to do the finishing. I was able to show her this result on Skype tonight and she was very pleased. I'll try to finish it for her before Sunday when I'll see her again. She would be able to take it with her to school and show after the holiday. And of course use it with her new purple coat.

My 6 year old grandson is weaving his woollen scarf since this morning. It took me a bit longer to make the warp as I got a cold New Years Eve and did not feel like making a warp.
He is weaving fast, having done just under 90cm today. So, I think he will finish tomorrow as I made a short warp for just one scarf. I made it easy for him to use 2 colours in the warp for plain weave having one colour on shaft 1 and 3 and another on 2 and 4. When he finishes this one he wants to make another one with 3 colours in the warp. That would be a new challenge for him.
He is here until Sunday and will be here again the next weekend. If this scarf is finished before he goes home I'll make him a new warp for his next visit. We will have to go through my stash for him to make a choice of yarns. He's also made it known that he would like my dobby loom when I'm dead. ;-)
Hopefully a long way away but how about this? It pleases me that he likes the weaving for now and may be he'll stay interested. So much for him to learn. Planning a project, warping, threading etc. For the moment I'll do the warping and threading for him though.

I myself am ready for making a warp for my dobby loom. Still have to decide on yarns though. But I feel like weaving again.
I watched the Triple Play Class by Alice Schlein. Weavolution let's you view the workshop for a week after it took place. As I was unable to take part last week, due to a bad connection on my computer it was good to see it after all. Great fun. If you like designing for your dobby loom I would highly recommend the class when she does a repeat class.