this and that

A whole month has gone by since my last posting.
In that time I've been to London and seen the poppies before they were taken down again.

Overwhelmed to see the poppies but also all the people visiting!

Back home I prepared to receive Jette Vandermeiden who was coming to give 2 workshops All Tied Up.

Here Jette with part of the result of the 2nd workshop.
Both groups were enthousiastic and I myself took part in the 2nd workshop with this result:

 

There are so many possibilities, I only scratched the surface. More playtime later. I have more warp left. :-)
We hope to have Jette back at a later date. Great tutor!

The house has had a new garage door, so everything is now done on that front. Next job will be inside.

new home for one of my looms

My Glimakra loom will be travelling soon. All the way to Hungary. It will soon go to a good home and be loved and used again.
Happy about this.

around the house

Busy making improvements.
Before photos

and now it looks like this

the front before I started all this

and today

garage door is the last to be done
hopefully sometime this month,
than I'll be ready for winter :-)

post

Post from Frank Herring, England today!
A replacement bobbin winder that works.
Hooray. I'm a happy bunny :-)
Back to weaving.

Not sure if I'll meet the guild deadline for next week, as I still have to weave 2/3 of the scarf.

#*#*#*#

Since my last post I have not been weaving. Other things to do like painting. I'll show in another post.
But I wanted to finish my double weave scarf before the end of the month so started last night and wove 2 blocks but tonight I had to use the bobbin winder to wind another bobbin. And low and behold, it gave up the ghost again after only a few seconds. grrrrrrrrrrrr
Sent out a frustrating email and hope that Leclerc will come up with a solution that will work once and for all.

hurray, problem solved

I now know what the cause was for the bobbin winder to fail.

this:

Somehow the plug does not fit perfect at some point and that is when it just stops working. By squeezing the plug to make the wholes round again (they looked slightly oval) the contact is back to normal.
Problem solved!
A sewing machine repair man solved this problem yesterday, apparently this sometimes happens with sewing machines too.

So, at last able to go back to my double weave project that has been waiting patiently. Have to feel a bit better before I do that; some flu symptoms :(

frustrations

Finished 2 scarves on Minerva and very pleased with the result.

The same warp, a fluffy felting wool, but a different colour weft alpaca yarn used.
They shrunk quite a bit, as I was expecting them to do. They feel lovely and soft!

Yesterday I picked up my Leclerc bobbin winder that had been looked at and was working again. Hurray! So, very much looking forward to getting back to my double weave project. After winding almost 1 full bobbin, the winder stopped again, like before. So frustrating!! I'm waiting to hear from my sewing machine man who got it to work again, to find out what he thinks might be the matter.
When it works it's a wonderful piece of equipment. It's only about 1,5 years old and the first year I hardly used it. So, I'm very disappointed with it braking down so quickly. You do not expect that when you make such an investment.
I need to be able to wind a few bobbins before I'm able to continue with my double weave project. I've trebled the warp yarn and am also trebling the weft yarn. By using the endfeed shuttle I can load plenty weft yarn on the pirns. These pirns however do not fit onto my hand winder.

Looks like I have to go back to Minerva to continue weaving:

and finished a 3rd scarf :-)

Leclerc Minerva

As I'm waiting for my bobbin winder to be returned to me I have taken out the Leclerc Minerva loom and made a very short warp for just 1 scarf.

The warp is a thick felting wool and the weft a thin soft alpaca. It's been ages since I used this little loom and I had forgotten what a lovely loom it really is.

Just a bit noisy with all the metal...

Workshop 2 All Tied Up

Wow, er zijn zoveel aanmeldingen voor de workshop All Tied Up door Jette Vandermeiden in november dat er een 2e workshop komt om iedereen een kans te geven daadwerkelijk mee te kunnen doen.
Heel blij dat beide workshops door kunnen gaan.
De 2e zal direct na de 1e worden gehouden.
Data voor de 2e workshop zijn 24-25-26 november, echter niet in Nieuwegein maar Randwijk met een maximum van 8.
Voor meer informatie zie mijn eerdere blog bericht
Heb je belangstelling om mee te doen, stuur mij een berichtje.

Summer holiday

That time of year again.
First I had friends over from England and we had a great time together. Visiting Rotterdam for a day with a great guided tour by my niece living there. We took a water taxi, exiting!

Going to Palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn, where there is an exhibition about Grace Kelly (well worth seeing), that was shown in V&A a few years ago. The gardens are amazing

 

Also visited Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Is always worth a visit.

I also had the grandchildren staying with me, one after the other.
First granddaughter stayed with me for a week. One day we went to Amsterdam, seeing the Mouse Mansion in the library

and on to Nemo where she enjoyed herself.

After a few days rest my grandson stayed with me too for a week.
We went to Rotterdam where he went climbing with my niece. Very brave as she only remembered, once up high, that she is scared of heights! He is just like an ape, he loves anything like this.

Another activity I had organised was a visit to Rijksmuseum with him. A special 2 hour tour by Vrije Academie for (grand)parents/(grand)children. He stayed interested until the end. The tour was very well done. I'll be looking out for more activities like this in future. In the planning is a tour through Boymans

But he had fun there too after the tour.

They are back to school now.

I should have time for weaving now, but I still have not solved the problem with my bobbin winder. I have someone look at it now, to see if the motor has gone. The weaving needs me winding pirns on the bobbin winder as I need to use the endfeed shuttle with a much larger capacity on the bobbins as I'm tripling the yarn. So, I'm having an extended holiday away from the loom.

Update workshop All Tied Up

3 maanden voordat de workshop plaats vindt, ben ik al bezig mensen te noteren op een reservelijst. Alle plaatsen zijn vergeven. Geweldig!

Workshop All Tied Up

Ik organiseer een driedaagse workshop voor acht schachten.
Unieke kans om hier een workshop te volgen bij Jette Vandermeiden.
Jette Vandermeiden is een enthousiaste weefster uit Canada.
Ze verstaat Nederlands en spreekt het redelijk.
Zie ook artikel in WEVEN nr 3 - 2014 pagina 19.
Weven op een bepaalde inrijg en wat je daar allemaal mee kunt doen door kleine veranderingen in de aanbinding, zoals geïntegreerde kepers, dubbelweefsel, zomer en winter, vlechtkeper, M's en O's, wafelweefsel en nog veel meer.
Je zal verbaasd zijn met wat er allemaal mogelijk is op 1 inrijg.
Neem zelf je getouw mee. Informatie volgt nog over op te zetten ketting.
Data: 21-22-23 november van 10:00 tot 17:00
Plaats: Nieuwegein, makkelijk bereikbaar vanaf de A12
Deelnemers: maximaal 12.
Prijs: €162,00. Voor leden Weefnetwerk is de prijs €99,00 (vermelden lidnummer)
Inschrijven: vóór 1 oktober 2014 bij mij via mward at xs4all.nl

:-(

Today the new foot pedal for my Leclerc Electric Bobbin Winder arrived in the post from Canada.
Could not wait to see if it would work again.
Oh dear, no such luck.
I'm now thinking that the motor has gone after all.
I'm going to take it to a sewing machine specialist and see what he says.
Next week will be little time for weaving as I'm having visitors.
Thinking about what is on next week and what will be interesting to go and visit with them. We'll make a plan Sunday evening after they have arrived.

First, Nijmegen tomorrow. It's the last day of the 4 day marches and my eldest daughter has almost finished her 2nd year. Last year was the first time.
She has blisters, but they have been taken care of by the special team there. Also her knee is giving problems but with medication she is able to continue. So, I'll be at the sideline with her husband and kids to see her come in after finishing the 160km she has walked this week. Very proud of her.
It's quite warm here at the moment! She is lucky to start early at 5 in the morning and should be in by 12.

:-) :-)

Weaving is so much more relaxing now that the printing plate is renewed.
Looking back, I have had problems from the start. The knife came out of its grove quite regularly. That problem looks like being solved too. Only wove just over 100 picks so far, as I had other things going too.

Today I'm heading towards Hoorn where the yearly Weaversmarket is being held. Here an impression showing the market in 2012.

:-)

Monday the Interface came back with new printing plate.
I re-installed everything, but the computer would not communicate with the Interface. It had found new software and installed that ok by itself.
Anyway, I was directed to info on Louet page and I found the info that I needed to change port com3 to com4. Problem solved and now they communicate again :-)
So, very happy, after the initial stress getting it to work again. Also very happy with the great service from Louet.

outing

Today, spent some time with a friend in Amsterdam and was shown parts I have not seen before. When walking, you do see so much more.

We had lunch at the Hortus and looked around, quite big and enjoyable. Next we walked past the Auschwitz Monument. I had only seen it on photos, so was good to see where it is. We were going to walk to the EYE but passed the Hollandsche Schouwburg, so stopped to have a look before continuing our walk to the EYE, where we ended the day with a glass. We had to take the ferry from behind the Railway Station to get there and back again. All in all we walked a few kilometers. This type of outings are gems, unexpected and  in good company.

problems solved

Hurray, my Interface is coming back on Monday (depending on the traffic if they can be here in time, as I have to be out myself part of the day). Otherwise it might be Wednesday for it to be brought.
The printing plate needed replacing. Hope this is the end of all the problems I have had.

Leclerc are sending me a new foot pedal for the electric bobbin winder. So hopefully that problem will be solved too. Just in time as they will be on holiday until August 4th

What a good feeling to go into the weekend, knowing that next week all might be working 100% again.

Picked up a new pair of glasses yesterday, still getting used to them......
Was about time as I had not had my eyes checked for 6 years! What a shock to find out it was so long ago.

shaft problems

Louet is going to update my interface. Hurray. I'm taking it there on Monday and hopefully they will be able to finish the job before their summer break in 2 weeks time. So glad that at last the problem will be tackled. The weaving should be all about the weaving and not having to watch if all shafts are working ok.
So, no weaving until the interface is back. Unless I put on a warp on my Jane loom....

Waiting to hear from Frank Herring for a solution with my pirn winder. Hope that will be resolved too.

I've had to much sun yesterday. Should have worn my sun hat. :-(

some gardening

I'm to disheartened at the moment to continue with the weaving. I've completely lost the rhythm I had weaving this scarf. I want a solution from Louet to stop the shafts from hanging. No good continue with the weaving until this is resolved. The interfaces are no longer made in Canada but in Holland I learned today. So will get in touch with them in the morning.

So, I put some energy into gardening, away from the loom, this afternoon. First cutting the long grass that was very overdue for a cut and also cutting down part of a tree. Very satisfying work this all was!
I love the tree, but it is just getting to big for my garden. I'm cutting it lower and hoping it will start to grow again, as the birds love it too. I've cut back about 1/4 and will leave it as it is for now, to give the tree time to start growing where I cut.

 

water in the garden

uploaded my first video :-)

technical problems

I thought things were going well. My bobbin winder was working again. But tonight, after winding about 500 meter it stopped again, just like before. So something is not well. I managed to wind enough on the pirn to continue weaving. I had woven almost 8 windows when I discovered that the back was all wrong for the last 2 windows. Shaft 7 is playing up again and I had not noticed. It is unacceptable for me to leave it like it is.

 So, I'm un-weaving about 13cm. I have almost done 1 window and I will un-weave the other window tomorrow and I will have to correct the interface again for shaft 7. Nothing to see on the front:

For the moment, no more weaving forward, but going backwards. :-(

double weave scarf

Finally weaving again, the first 300 picks are done. Had a setback earlier today when my LeClerc bobbin winder gave up the ghost when I was winding the 2nd pirn.
I have enough to start the weaving using my endfeed shuttles. But without the winder I will not be able to wind the pirns, so will have to go back to my boat shuttles.
I will try and find someone who knows about sewing machines, may be they might be able to help solve the problem as I love using my endfeed shuttles. I only have 1 cone of each colour that I'm using in the weft and I have to use 3 strands (as that is what I did in the warp), so, a lot of winding before I can weave.

Happy so far with the result. You can start to see the diagonal pattern emerging.

Woven some more today and now you can see the diagonal pattern clearly. To the right the window frames are the same to the left the windows are the same, when you look diagonally. There are 8 different windows, so I'm halfway before I start repeating the pattern again.
Oh, and just tried my electric bobbin winder, before ringing up about it, and guess what, it was running again! I don't understand it at all, as I tried several times yesterday and it just seemed dead. But now I'm  a very happy bunny again. :-)

more on sampling

Sample cut today and washed. It looked and felt lovely before washing but after wet treatment I do not like it. I'm using a stretchplus yarn as weft (merino wool + 5% lycra). It makes the cloth feel much harder than before wet treatment. I will now change this and use the same yarn as in the warp. The stretchplus yarn will have to wait for another project. Hurray for sampling

sampling first

I have been weaving a sample, so tiny, you can hardly see ;-)
But it did show me that the sett was wrong.
So, thinking I had a 32cm wide warp I now have a 40cm wide one. Much better feel, so, glad that I did the sampling. This next sample will be cut too as I want to see what happens when I wash it. The weft yarn is a fine stretchplus yarn. Hoping it will do something when it's washed.

For the eagle eyed: it's from Marian's book page 159/160

It's for our Guild Challenge. My challenge is to weave with wool, complementary colours and double weave.

These are the 4 colours used in the warp, in this order and the 2 weft yarns.
First time I'm weaving with such thin yarns, but I have trebled the warp yarns (2/64). The weft yarn (2/48) is a little different so doubling that. The balance is just right now I think.

lavender in flower

The lavender in my front garden is at it's best at the moment:

 

You can see all the different colours lavender. I have to see how the plants will be after Summer, as some plants are becoming a bit wooden. Might have to replace those. For the moment I have a sea of colour and the smell is lovely!

waterfun

Pleasant day with the grandchildren. They had fun in the water and the dog wanted to join in too :-)

 

museum visit

Only one more week and this exhibition (link in Dutch, but lots of photos to see) will be finished in Breda Museum.
So glad I went to see it all today, as I visited the artists studio in Brussels earlier this year. A really exceptional exhibition. Well worth viewing work by Isabelle de Borchgrave, so if you ever see an exhibition of her work near you, do go and see it.

My warp is on the loom and I've started weaving a very small sample. I think I may have the sett wrong. I will try some different weft yarn before cutting and rethreading the reed.

planning ahead

The idea has come about to organise a workshop with Marian in the Dordogne.
This year will not happen but a date is set for May 2015

Location will be here
If you feel like joining in, drop a comment. A long wait until May but looking forward to our time there already.
I'll be back in time to go to the Textile Festival Leiden and ETN conference.

Update: one more place left open! May be two if reservation is not taken up. Problem is, we have to wait almost a year for this wonderful group coming together for the workshop.

end of West Weeft

Today was the last day. Not so many people visiting but initially we were going to have Saturday as our last day so that's how it was noted in the leaflet. On the internet page it had been changed, that we were open after all.
But still 15 people turned up today, and in total 144 over 6 days. So we were very pleased with so many visitors. Really enjoyed it all. Thanks for coming to look at our work!
Lenie and Erma's husband each made something to eat and that is how we finished our weaving week, eating together in the garden. We have really enjoyed this joined venture together.
My ondulé reed will stay for a little longer so that Annechien can finish the scarf warp she put on for demonstration.
One of my scarves has gone home with Lenie.
Now time to get on with the warp on my loom.

another day West Weeft

Rain has stopped and the sun came out today.
But the weather has not made any difference, so far we have had lots of visitors each day.

This shows how to find us from the road side.
Two more days to go.

West Weeft continues

The last few days we have had nothing but rain but despite this we have had a steady flow of visitors. Rain has stopped now and the next few days should be more sunny.

West Weeft - Week van het weven

This week we have a big event here: Week van het weven
From tomorrow until Sunday it's open house at 40+ addresses in the West of Holland', weaving studios and guilds.
I'm joining a weaving friend, together with 2 other weavers. Today we set up our exhibition (we are at location 22).

She will stand by the roadside to welcome visitors

Part of the exhibition

My ondulé scarves are on show too

Weaving with the ondulé reed

We are looking forward to receiving visitors during this week. I will not be there myself Tuesday and Thursday as I hope to go to a few places myself.