Visit to Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam

So far I have no more weaving to show but yesterday I went to Amsterdam for a visit with my Weaving Guild to Tassenmuseum Hendrikje. This is a very interesting museum. It was started by Hendrikje Ivo finding an antique bag more than 20 years ago. That was the start of this collection. She was hooked after buying that first bag. The collection grew and was first shown in her own house in Amstelveen for about 10 years but it became to big a collection to continue there. A very generous sponsor has bought this fantastic house on the Herengracht in Amsterdam, so the museum was able to move about 18 months ago. I can highly recommend this museum for a visit if you ever happen to be in Amsterdam as it gives a good impression of the development of the bag from the 16th century to present day. The building is renovated to a very high standard and the collection presented in a very tasteful way. The collection is spread out over several floors (good access with lift too) and one room is reserved for temporary exhibitions. We found the tail end of "Evening Bags" (today the last day). We had a guided tour and that is well worth it to learn not only the interesting history of the collection but history in general through the bags. We finished the visit with a lunch which is also highly recommend.

I also made a visit to Shirdak with some of the group, which is another interesting place to visit in Amsterdam.

Last of the Double Weave course

Tomorrow is my last workshop day and I have finished the 16/2 cotton warp that was on my loom.

I wanted to make the panama sample so I made some extra warp threads for the top layer and put them on the 2nd warp beam.

I re-threaded the warp completely from 1:2:1:8 to 1:1:1:4. In the photo on the left you can see where these extra threads have gone.

Here is the third swatch of this warp, a panama sample. In this sample the weft yarn is like the warp. I had thought that I would weave another sequence on this threading but this did not look good at all so I abandoned that idea. Instead I wove the fourth sample the same sequence but adding another weft colour in the top layer. This one is more blue.
I had a small warp left to weave a fifth sample. Here I used cottolin for the top layer and in the bottom layer I used the 16/2 cotton but changed the colour halfway as you can see clearly in the right photo.

The binding of these panama samples is done between the panama threads keeping these threads well in place. I can see that if you used a fancy yarn for the top layer it could make an interesting cloth.

I will continue with experimenting with double weaving as there are so many possibilities in bindings, yarns and colours. I feel I have only touched the subject but I'm enjoying the journey.

This workshop has been a way for me to get weaving again after a difficult period. This blog is adding to this, making me really think about the weaving. Not "just" weaving.
Tomorrow is my last workshop day of this double weave course. I may take on another course to continue with my process of really getting back into weaving.

Another Double Weave Warp

Here is my 4th warp that I'm weaving for the Double Weave course.
This time I'm using stash yarn 16/2 cotton weaving 10 threads/cm.
This first swatch is woven proportionately as threaded giving square blocks in the top layer. The binding is done by warp threads from top layer into the bottom layer just before and after weaving a weft thread in the top layer. When you look at the right photo you can hardly see the binding.The second swatch is woven like the first one, but I have altered the sequence of the top layer, not getting the blocks like in the first swatch. Also switching the colours from top to bottom and reverse again. You hardly see the colour difference in the top layer in the photo, the back shows the changes where they have become stripes.
This would be a good binding for a special yarn in the top layer. May be a way of using handspun yarns for something special.

I have now rethreaded again, this time weaving panama in the top layer. Enough warp left for 1 or 2 swatches. I quite like these short warps for this course.

Other swatches of my red and white warp

My red and white warp is finished. It was only 1,5 meter long. Advantage of a short warp is that I can experiment with different yarns in a short period. With this binding both sides make interesting cloth, I will definitely come back to this using other yarns.Here is my second swatch of this warp. The difference with the first swatch is in the binding. Here the red weft yarns are binding with the under layer. You can see that there is a mistake in the white weaving, something you do not see until it comes from the loom.
In this 3rd swatch the weft top yarn is yellow (same type yarn as the red, just a different colour). Here the binding is from both warp and weft yarn from the top layer into the bottom layer. With the yellow as weft yarn in the top layer, you are able to see the difference in the binding.I only made a warp for 3 swatches but was able to add an extra using another yarn completely in the top layer, again binding the warp and weft yarn from the top layer into the bottom layer like in the 3rd swatch.
I will now make another warp with different proportions and panama in the top layer for the double weave course, as I will have my last lesson next week.

New warp: red and white

I have finished the first swatch of my next warp. This time I'm using a white cotton and a red fancy yarn. So much better to weave with another warp!
The warp is 4:1 proportional on 4 shafts.The photo does not do justice to the red crepe type yarn. The binding here is every 4th white weft binding with red warp threads from the top layer. Both sides make an interesting cloth. (left side is topside again)

I'm now re threading on 6 shafts so that I can make a few more combinations of binding the 2 layers.
It really is fun to go on this double weave journey.

I'm also exited as I have discovered that my big Glimakra loom can be converted to a 16 shaft dobby loom with a Toika unit. I will have to learn more about this option before going ahead with it. But for the moment it is an exiting idea just to think about it.

More Double Weaving

Hurray! The warp is finished.
I rethreaded for the 3rd time. We were shown a way to either use an extra shaft or using no shaft at all for some threads. I opted for the last option. I had to use all my 8 shafts because of the number of heddles on this loom. (I will have to add some more heddles if I'm to make full use of this loom, a Leclerc Minerva.)
My threading was 4231 and 8675 and some of the threads on shaft 4 and 8 were not threaded through the shaft.
The 7 threads that were without a shaft I threaded through a cord, see photo. This was done between the reed and the shafts. Now you can weave as normal (just making sure how you go over or under these loose threads) but you can also make use of these thread as an extra binding by either going over or under these loose warp threads differently.

Here are my last 2 samples. Again the left photo is the top side of the sample. 12. You can see the 7 binding points clearly in the brown and orange rows.
In the brown row you see as binder thread one of the loose threads = a warp thread from the bottom layer in the top layer.
In the orange row the binding thread is a weft thread from the bottom layer in the top layer.
I had threaded different blocks again. When I was weaving the blocks I was also playing with these loose threads. But this does not add any value to having the extra binding threads as the blocks are binding the layers together anyway.
13. This sample I have gone back to weaving rows but using different colours (I have a boxes with yarns on bobbins from previous weaving sorted by type of yarn, wool or cotton/linen, they came in handy!) and filling up the space with fleece before changing to the next row. The idea of filling up came after finishing the first row. Here I had kept the selvedges loose from one and other so I was unable to fill up the 2 side blocks in the first red row. This you cannot really see in the photo.
I like this last sample a lot. It would make a nice padded cloth for a jacket or so. The filling went much easier than in sample 5. But I would like to try the option of threading through a different shaft. If I had enough heddles I would thread 4231 and some of the threads of shaft 4 threaded on shaft 5.

This warp was woven on my 8 shaft Leclerc Minerva. It was easy to weave but I had to change the tie-up to the treadles quite a bit.

The first warp for this double weave course was woven on my 16 shaft Thumm loom (using 8 shafts). As this has push leavers for each shaft (almost like a piano), it was easy to weave all the different samples.



I might go back to that loom for my next warp but the Leclerc is in the lounge and at the moment a nicer (warmer) place to weave than upstairs where the Thumm loom is standing. The loom is at an awkward hight, I found a solution by using an ironing stool to sit on.

My next job is to get a new warp made, this time I will be using different yarn sizes.

Today I have also added text to the different sample photos in my previous post.

Double Weaving

Not much writing done this first month, I have been busy with my double weaving homework.
I had planned to use lovely Venne cotton for my second warp, but decided to use stash yarn instead going for brown and orange cottolin.

First I made the mistake again (I did so with the previous double weaving warp too) not doubling the amount of threads. I knew the warp was double the amount, I just did not count correctly! I made another batch for the warp and started to dress the loom, only finding out that one half of the warp was upside down, so I had to add an extra warp thread in the middle and discard one at the end, to keep the correct colour sequence for each layer.

That sorted out the warp in the end.

But when I started weaving I did not like weaving with these colours. With the dark weather, they were not uplifting at all. It really was an effort to get on with this warp.
But I did get on and also introduced some other colours as weft, changing the weaving mood completely.

Here are my samples, in each photo, the left side was the front. The photos do not really show the subtle differences what is happening in the weave structures.

1. Above sample is what we call "Finish Double" weaving in Holland.
Lifting the colour from the under layer and pick up the threads for that row (making a design beforehand). Marian showed us using a knitting needle without knobs for this. Lower the under layer and you just have the pattern threads on your knitting needle. Next weave your top layer with the pattern threads raised. Take out the knitting needle and raise the top colour and take up the threads that are not the pattern on the knitting needle. Weave the under layer next and take out the knitting needle. So, it involves a lot of concentration to read out the correct pattern for the whole sample.
2. Here I wove the different blocks that I had threaded on the 8 shafts and in between I did some pick up Finish Double. It could make interesting possibilities with bigger blocks.
3. This sample is difficult to see in the photo what is happening. The lower part of the photo is a woven binding with a thread from the under layer in the top layer once every 4th woven thread. Also using another colour to see what is happening. From the 1st mark at the selvedge there is a binding in every 8th thread woven. First woven in the different colours and next woven with the warp colours.
4. In this sample, the bottom part of the photo shows a binding from a thread out of the top layer in the bottom layer every 4th woven thread. The top part of the photo is a binding by weaving an extra thin thread woven after every 4th woven thread. This makes an interesting strong cloth. Something you just cannot see in the photo.
5. Here again binding the top layer with threads from the bottom layer but making a design before hand and using the knitting needle again for pick up of the threads. Every time I finished a complete pattern I filled the space with fibrefill. I did not like the way it showed through. So for the last few rows I used brown fleece. I had never done any weaving like this before (filling up in between). You can also make a pattern without filling up in between. I now know this possibility.
6. Here I woven the blocks again making a design pattern. Here you can play endlessly using the threading and the size of the woven blocks.
7. More blocks but also weaving a thread from the other layer. This will have to be explored more with different colours.

Halfway through I cut the warp so that I could rethread for plain weave & panama.
8. In this sample the top layer is panama and the bottom layer plain weave. Again a binding thread from the bottom layer in the top layer every 4th woven thread.
9. In this sample the binding thread from the bottom layer in the top layer is every 8th woven thread.10. In this photo you can just see at the bottom a bit of weaving with an extra (very thin) thread again binding the layers together (like in sample 4).
All these different bindings between the top and bottom layer make interesting weaving that needs more exploring.
The blocks in this sample are showing the panama and plain weave.
11. In this sample are the panama and plain weave blocks again using different colours. About halfway in the photo there is the extra binding thread from the bottom layer in the top layer. The top block is using an extra thread as a binder again (like sample 4).

This week I had to cut of the warp again so that I was able to take the last woven samples to the course, but I still have some yarn left to do a few more samples.

This has been a learning curve for me: for weaving enjoyment I must go for colours that appeal to me at that moment. May be these colours would have been ok in the Autumn when the trees are changing into lovely yellow/red/brown colours.

For this course we get weaving instructions for the different possibilities and I just work my way through them. With the first warp I did not write enough information about how I had woven my samples resulting in not really knowing what I have done. Not so good when you look back at the samples so with this warp I have really made an effort to write my notes. And also marking them at the selvedge helps to see what I have done afterwards.