weaving

At long last sorted the problem I had with the Megado and there is a short warp on for a scarf. Getting ready for visitors so not sure when the scarf will be finished. The yarn is merino/silk, lovely and soft

I also had a problem with my Magic Dobby after it had been idle for a long time. The port was not the one that should be in use. It is also sorted now. Whilst sorting out the port problem I must have added a few points in the drawing, so when I started to weave, it did not look right. Pff, I did not spot that in first instance. But all is well now, to get on with that 8m warp :-) once visitors have gone home again in the new year.

6 months on

Problem with Facebook is that the blog gets little attention.
But as I have not been weaving at all, there was not much need in blogging anyway.
Still not weaving but hope to get back to it very soon!
Instead I have been travelling, something new to me.
I spent 7 lovely weeks in the Dordogne this summer and just back from 3 great weeks in New York state with 5 visits to NYC. My first long flight and big time difference.
What a great time I have had. So, I want more of this :)
Hoping to get my Megado to work at long last. Had a chat with Jan Louet & Paul yesterday and with their advice I will get back to the loom..... Still a bit jet-lagged though

this and that

So much happened since my last post
Spent a wonderful 8 days in the Dordogne for a workshop by Marian Stubenitsky with friends

Result of 3 days weaving, with 8 of the 9 weavings showing, mine is 2nd from the right
We worked hard but also had so much fun together. A great week thanks to great hosts.
We are planning a follow up workshop for next year :)

I now have my Interface installed at my Megado after some hiccups in the weekend, the wrong cable was in the box but Louet is going to send the correct one together with another thing missing. I used the cable from Magic Dobby and this is how I found that this was the problem why I could not get the Interface to talk with my computer. Great support received from Louet!

So, inspiring workshop and the Megado all set up ready for weaving. Now to plan a warp to bring the 2 together. But first a friend visiting from London, so the planning will just be in my head for the moment.

Last week was Textile Festival in Leiden, I went there for one day. But so much to see, impossible to see all in one day. I went to the Pieterskerk, the actual festival was there on show for 4 days, very well put together, with beautiful work on show. Other things will still be on view for longer. I went to Sieboldhuis to see this I might go back to see it again, magic. There are films to be found online. Here one of them but there are more to be found. Worth watching. What an artist he was.
I also went to see the interesting Geisha exhibition at Museum Volkenkunde, still to see until May 25th. What I missed was the exhibition there by the Ikat Kring, I think that is no longer there. There was much more to see in Leiden but there is a limit to what you can take in, in a day.

Yesterday I went to the opening of a textile exhibition in Kunsthuis Secretarie te Meppel. A great exhibition with many different artists but I was blow away by 4 large tapestries by Marianne Benkӧ. Also beautiful linen scarves by Helene Loermans. All other textiles beautiful too but not woven but well worth seeing all. Last day of the exhibition is July 12th.

And after I came home there was a draw for a yarn give away on one of the facebook groups. There would be 4 winners for 4kg of silk each!! And low and behold, I'm one of the 4 lucky winners. Looking forward to receiving a box of yarn this week from Belgium by generous gift from Filip Elgers. I will have to see it first, it is lightly coloured grey but I intend to dye some myself. Will see how tight the yarn is spun and if it will take the dye ok. So, a big project coming for the Megado :) I would like to weave some fabric for a jacket with this yarn.

sponsor walk

Very proud of my daughter Fiona Geerts who will walk Nijmegen 4-daagse for the 3rd year. http://www.devierdaagsesponsorloop.nl/
This time she will walk for Kika. First time she walked by being sponsored by her health insurance vgz when she herself had just come through non-Hodgkin treatment. It was a real challenge but she did it and the next year she did it again and made the finish despite troubled feet.
This year she'll walk it as a sponsor walker, how cool is that.
I really hope she'll manage to collect lots for her charity Kika (Children Cancer Free)

1st warp finished on Megado

Megado warp is finished

This is how it looked coming from the loom

And here they are all cut and hemmed, but I still have to wash them.

And a close up of all 7 when still on the loom:

They are all different with weft yarns and most patterns are different too.
Fun to do and very happy with the loom!
I will pick up the Interface this week, so another learning curve coming. I will find out if the laptop that I bought 2nd hand last year, will work ok with the Interface.
It's lovely weather this week, so will be more outside than in and no more weaving this week. Blisters are healing from garden work last week.

what was I thinking?

I'm happy weaving away on my Megado. I put on about 6m long warp of cottoline so that I can get to know the loom by weaving towels.
I want them all to be different so I choose a different pattern and weft yarn for each one.
So far I have woven 4 towels but with the start of number 4 it went wrong. I did not like what I was doing and after 15cm I unpicked all and started again. But I run out of weft yarn (I used the yarn that I cut away from the warp because it was the wrong colour in the warp but ok as weft), so it is smaller than the others. Width of the warp is 50cm and I make them about 70cm long.
For the 5th one I went back to a pattern I have woven already, but I liked it. This time with other weft yarn.
I thought I could use an old black yarn that I used for a warp several years ago, but had to abandon as it was breaking very badly. I thought it would be ok as weft. What a mistake. It was just integrating and for a towel you don't want yarn that is fluffing all the time.... it was so bad it even effected my breathing.

So, I unpicked about 38cm that I had woven already and tomorrow I will start with a different weft and this black will be thrown away, as it should have been done in the first place after I used it unsuccessfully as warp.

I love my loom though

megado

Oh, such a happy bunny with my new loom!
Last Wednesday we sett it up and on Thursday I added the sectional warping to it and sorted out yarn for my first warp on the loom. I've gone for cottolin as I have a bit of a stash and it would be a good warp to continue with the All Tied Up workshop AND get to know my loom.
So I put on a 6m warp with grey and blue cottolin stripes and made it 50cm wide.

This photo was taken Saturday, after I had changed the first section on the right already. It was like the blue on the left. I did not like it together when it was on. The blue was sticking out to much, will be ok as weft. So the left side blue last 2 sections were also changed to the 1st one on the right.

Today I was ready to start weaving, but before that I also added some lighting to the loom

 

They are led lights that you can stick on with tape. They are only 80cm long and the loom is 130 wide but I think it will be enough.

Not sure if the warp is on correctly, it seems strange that the warp does not follow the flat beam at the back

 

But it works, so not to worried at this stage. But will investigate further.
The weaving goes very well, I really like the loom.

I'm weaving a plaited twill at the moment.

I'm also finding that the space around the loom is enough to move about and beam up a warp. I was worried that it might not be but I can place the warping wheel at an angle and that still works ok.

magic dobby

I have mentioned the problems I have with sticking shafts on my Magic Dobby.
Last week Jan Louët came to see my Magic Dobby and find out why some shafts keep sticking.
First, he oiled the grooves on both sides where the knife goes up and down.

He also oiled the solenoids that kept sticking

and lastly he oiled here. Best would be to use a brush here and oil the inside when they are up

He used sewing machine oil (tiny drops) but I heard later that Teflon oil would be better. Advantage of Teflon oil would be that it does not dry out so quickly and also the dust will not stick to it so much. So, I will get some from the bicycle shop to have on hand as I'm sure it will happen again.

magazines

This week 3 quarterly magazines dropped through the letterbox :) lots to read here!

But I was lucky to receive one of them at all as the envelope had torn and it looks like may be coffee/tea was spilled on it, but the postmen have done their job and delivered the post by sealing the envelope in a plastic cover.

I'm still busy clearing my late husbands study but next Wednesday I will have to be ready! I have arranged for the seller of my new to me Megado to come and help me set up the loom :)
Just hoping that the space available will be enough to have enough space to move around the loom, specially for warping the loom. Time will tell.
Also hoping to have my Magic Dobby sorted soon, waiting for Louet to contact me next week.

Getting used to a house without my cat. Realizing what a support I have had from both cats over the last 4+ years.

Sunny

I had to say goodbye to Sunny this afternoon. She was 17,5 years old and exact 2 years and 2 days after her brother went.
Never had a cat that stayed that long with me. I'm going to miss her. But glad that we are able to make a decision on their behalf. So so glad that the vet came to my house!!! What a difference this makes!!!
In the 1st photo she was at her heaviest, she was only a fraction from this, in this last year.

I had the dolls house in the lounge when granddaughter was staying around New Year and Sunny found it a good place to be herself. ;-)

This last photo was taken by Fried when he was here with Marian in January. That is how I will remember her.

It's going to be very quiet.

London

Back home from a flying visit to London.
I was with Marian who gave a workshop at Handweavers Studio.
There were 12 participants, some travelled far to take part in this workshop: Vancouver Island, Dublin, Aberdeen, Switzerland to name some! Lovely results.
Here some of the samples from several participants:

 

Apart from the 3 workshop days we went to see Museum of London with an exhibition about Sherlock Homes
and on to Tate Modern

where we saw the large Marlene Dumas exhibition. We had both missed this exhibition in Amsterdam.
Most enjoyable stay, thanks to our hosts Wendy and John.
Back home and I will now continue tidying, to create a free workspace for my Megado.....
specially with these new additions :-)

slow process

Still sorting out the study so that it can become my weaving studio. But so many memories are coming my way. It's not a task I can tackle for long each day, so it's a slow process that I will not rush.
My new to me Megado will have to wait a bit longer before it will be used again........

hectic

Life is rather hectic at the moment with bathroom/toilet/utility refurbishment work being done. More like cleaning the dust at the end of the day and not much energy for weaving or anything else just now.
But I have started to weave up the workshop warp from November. There were some samples that I was unable to do at the time, so I have made the ones that I skipped over.

The top two are tricot, I'm quite taken with these. Warp is almost finished now.

Next week hoping to see Louet here to sort out my Magic Dobby for once and for all

Another week of building work. After that I'm hoping to start making space for my Megado. I need to clear the study, to make it into a weaving room again. Lots of sorting to be done first though.

Happy weekend all.

Loomsday

not much blogged in the last months of 2014.
I blame Facebook for that....
hope to post more regularly again here
wishing you all a happy creative weaving year in 2015

new years day, so posting with Meg's day in the life of looms:
(you can see more blogs links about loomsday through Meg's link above)

warp on Jane has been re-tied, still the warp from workshop All Tied Up by Jette Vandermeiden, will play a bit more with this straight threading

Magic Dobby loom, the 1st double weave scarf from this warp is finished at last and needs to be cut from the loom. still thinking about how to finish the scarf. there is enough warp left to make 2 to 3 more scarves
last few blocks the interface was playing up again, missing out lifting shafts. I thought that problem had been solved when the printing plate was renewed several months ago. will get in touch with Louet next week

Minerva is standing idle at the moment, thinking hard about selling her

completely snowed under is my Thumm loom, also thinking about selling this
BECAUSE

 

HURRAY, a wish has come true :-)
My new to me 32 shaft Megado :-) is waiting to be assembled
looking forward to weaving projects on her, but first will have to clear a space to be able to fit her in.
very excited and looking forward to a new weaving year