Heddle Shortage
- By Karen
- March 30, 2018
- 8 Comments
I am well into threading when I realize I neglected to take into account how many heddles I need for this project! I don’t have 2,064 even if I grab all of the heddles from the other loom. This double weave throw project is at a dead end until more heddles appear. I hurriedly place an order for more heddles…
This Glimåkra Standard is one of three looms that share my supply of Texsolv heddles.
Thankfully, the new heddles arrive quickly and the project is alive again.
This is what 1,000 Texsolv heddles looks like! I didn’t want to run out again any time soon.
Heddles come in bundles of 100, held together with twist ties. WARNING: DO NOT undo the twist ties before you put the heddles on the shaft bars. You’ll be sorry…
Before putting the heddles on the shaft bars, and while they are still tied into bundles, clip the loops at each end.
I clip the loops on both ends of the heddles. It is easy to move heddles wherever you want if the loops are cut, including repositioning individual heddles. (It is far easier to clip the loops while the heddles are still tied together.)
There are 100 new heddles on each shaft. The heddles that are not used will be tied up and put away in my heddle box, ready for the next time I need more heddles.
Alive. This is the Easter season when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He died, and was made alive again! What makes it even more fantastic is what that means for us. We all have a goodness shortage. And without a source of true goodness, our lifetime self-improvement project is at a dead end. Yet, through faith in the powerful working of God, we are raised with Christ. We are made alive together with him. His true goodness becomes our living source.
Threading progresses. New bundles of heddles stand ready to be used!
May you be supplied with more than enough.
Happy Easter,
Karen
8 Comments
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Halfway Milestone
- By Karen
- March 27, 2018
- 6 Comments
Halfway is a milestone when you are threading 2,064 ends. This double weave in two blocks has threading such that I can listen to podcasts without losing my place. It’s a long stretch to the halfway point.
Before threading, I find the center of the warp and the group of ends that are just past center. I drape those ends on the back beam to mark the spot.
Sitting in my playhouse to thread the heddles. No hurry.
I’m excited to reach halfway in the threading! It’s a turning point. Now, while they are readily accessible, I position all of the shaft-to-lamm cords to hang down, right at the center of the warp where they belong.
Half of the threading work is done! Only 1,032 ends to go. 🙂
Center of the warp. Good time to align the cords that go from the lower shaft bars to the upper lamms.
Threading for the double weave throw continues, a few minutes here, an hour there, until all the ends are in heddles.
Have you ever reached a turning point in life, and knew it was time to position things? We try to be good and loving. But we’re never as good as we think. And we end up loving only the people we want to love. We have been separated from God. Our misdeeds push us away from him. Easter is resurrection, but before that is the cross of Christ. God so loved us that he closed the separation between us and him with the cross. That’s the turning point he offers to us, to set things right. Our part is to believe.
May you look forward to the second half.
With you,
Karen
6 Comments
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Joyce Lowder says:
Beautiful threads, skill to manage them….all from God. He IS the Master Weaver! Thanks for the connection to the Easter message; loved the words, “God so loved us that He closed the separation between us and Him with the cross.” Happy Easter! 🙂
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Good morning, Joyce,
Letting the Master Weaver have his way in our lives is the best way to celebrate Easter.Happy Easter to you and yours,
Karen
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Beth Mullins says:
Pretty, rich colors. It’s going to be beautiful!
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Hi Beth, I’m hoping these colors will fit the bill for my daughter-in-law’s request for vibrant colors. I’m looking forward to seeing the woven effect!
Happy weaving,
Karen
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Maggie says:
Thank you,Karen, for this Holy Week reminder and have fun with the last half threading.
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Hi Maggie, So much to be thankful for in this Holy Week! I’m looking forward to the relaxing time of completing this threading.
All the best,
Karen
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Quiet Friday: Linen Upholstery Fabric
- By Karen
- March 23, 2018
- 24 Comments
Do you dream of making upholstery fabric? I do. There are four chair seats at our Texas hill country home that I want to re-cover. Now I have custom upholstery fabric!
Cutting off never loses its excitement! I have one long piece of yardage, with no separations or divisions.
Just off the loom, the hefty linen fabric (8/2 linen, warp and weft) is stiff and unyielding. Will this window-screen material make suitable upholstery that’s soft enough to sit on? Yet, even in this state, the linen beckons and intrigues.
First, the edges are serged. I check for weaving errors, finding none. There are spliced warp ends in five places, which are trimmed.
I make a large tube by basting the two ends of the yardage together, to reduce twisting in the wash. The washing machine (top loader) works as a soaking tub first. The linen slowly soaks up water in the tub, relaxing there for an hour or two. Then it’s time to wash and dry. The first time, I omit the spin cycle and remove it from the dryer while still damp, to prevent permanent creasing.
And then, I wash and dry the yardage again.
Talk about softening up! Oh, I wish you could be here to handle it with me! This is dreamy linen fabric, perfect for sitting.
May your fabric dreams come true.
Happy weaving,
Karen
24 Comments
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Betsy says:
What a great project! What sett did you use and how much shrinkage did you get with washing and drying. I have some dining room chairs that I want to recover. Your project may be the “kick” that I need to go from dreaming to doing.
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Hi Betsy, So I’m not the only one who thinks of weaving fabric to recover chairs…
The sett is 15 epi. I haven’t done the final measuring yet. I’ll report back later today with the shrinkage after I’ve done that.Happy weaving,
Karen -
Betsy, I have the shrinkage figures for you.
I had 12% shrinkage in width and about 15% shrinkage in length. The fabric was washed in warm water and dried on a medium setting.
Karen
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Karen
Thank you for the info. That will help in my planning. I was just looking at a book by Ann Sutton called Color and Weave Design that has handreds of designs. They are all in black and white yarn and the book is arranged like pages of gamps.Betsy
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Betsy, Sounds like a fascinating book. I’ll have to look that up.
Send me a picture (Karen @ warpedforgood . com) when you get something going. I’d enjoy seeing what you come up with.
Karen
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Karen
My current project is to make a jacket to through on on summer evenings. I’ve just wound a warp with 3/2 cotton for sampling. I’ll move on to upholstery fabric after I finish the jacket.
Betsy
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Shari says:
Absolutely lovely! It looks like two colors. What colors did you use. Looks like grey or brown. What’s the weave structure? 4 or 8? Absolutely lovely!
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Hi Shari, This is 8/2 line linen, unbleached and golden bleached. The look of natural linen is pleasing! Four shaft plain weave, with color and weave effect. Only two treadles! This was relatively fast and easy weaving.
Happy weaving,
Karen
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Love linen (having learned to spin on it decades ago) I really need to get my looms going. Thanks to your examples and encouragement.
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Hi Bev, I admire anyone who can spin, especially linen! I’m happy to hear that you’re feeling prompted to get weaving looms going. That makes me smile!
Happy weaving,
Karen
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This is so beautiful Karen! I have a padded piano bench that was my mothers that I have been wanting to recover and this is the inspiration that I needed to get going.
I’ll take any opportunity to work with linen and I just love the combination of unbleached and golden. I’m wondering if a shadow and weave pattern would also work with this color combination of linen. The pattern might be more subtle, but could be interesting!
Kathryn
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Kathryn, How lovely to weave fabric for your piano bench! I think this weight linen will work well for seat and piano bench covers.
The unbleached and golden linen give only a subtle pattern, so if you want the pattern to be more noticeable, you’d want higher contrast in the colors. I don’t have experience with shadow weave, so I’m probably not the best one to ask about that.I’d love to see what you come up with!
And, yay!, another weaving upholstery dreamer…
All the best,
Karen
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Janet H says:
Karen,
Your fabric came out beautifully (LOVE it)–I do so want to touch it! Do you have to do any special handling while weaving with linen (I have no experience with linen)? And how do you handle the fabric from the washer without using the spin cycle? Isn’t it heavy and dripping with water?-
Janet, Linen works best with a little extra care, but I find it a special pleasure to weave with linen. I have a sidebar with tips for linen in my Dice Weave Pillows project in Jan/Feb 2016 Handwoven.
Generally, you want good, even tension across the warp as you beam the warp. Avoid abrasion as much as possible, for which a temple is helpful. And, sometimes a little moisture will help if you have warp ends breaking.
Near the end of the rinse cycle I stand at the washing machine and listen for the water to drain out. When it sounds like the last little bit has drained and the spin has started, I stop the machine. If there is still too much water in the fabric at that point, I even out the yardage, untwisting and unfolding it as much as possible and then turn it on and let it just barely spin. That gets enough water out so it’s not dripping wet, and I can to move it to the dryer.
For smaller pieces, like towels, I don’t mind if they are wet and dripping. I roll them in dry towels to remove moisture before putting them in the dryer, or laying them flat to dry.
By the way, this piece of linen yardage is heavy even when dry. When I first pulled it out of the washer it was really heavy!
Thanks for asking,
Karen
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Libby says:
Hi Karen,
This is just beautiful! What a good idea to cover your chairs, I’ve done that many times over the years, but yours will be so nice. I can’t wait to see them done!!
Libby-
Hi Libby, I’m impressed that you have covered chairs many times! I’m a newby in that arena, but I have a book, resources, and friends to help.
Thanks,
Karen-
Oh it’s easy, you can do it!!
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Hi Karen,
In 1991 my mother-in-law was going through her attic and handed me some yardage that her mother wove on a loom made by her father. It was of pearl cotton with one in a birds eye weave of red and cream. I put them away because the fabrics had no purpose in my house hold with young childrenWhen we put together a weekend home I used one of the pieces to cover second hand dining room chairs. The result proves the rule to use beautiful things.
Your beautiful newly covered chairs will give you years of enjoyment.
Nannette-
Hi Nannette, Oh how wonderful! Thanks for sharing your experience. That’s great that you were able to put that special fabric to good use.
I look forward to putting these chair seats together and sharing my enjoyment of them with my family and friends. It’s a great way to be able to see and feel the handwoven fabric in daily living.
Thanks for your sweet encouragement,
Karen
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Hi Karen
You have woven a very wonderful fabric, that certainly gives great chairs
Kind regards
Doris-
Hi Doris, I am excited to have new fabric for chairs. I appreciate your kind compliment.
Happy weaving,
Karen
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Elisabeth says:
This fabric is gorgeous! Such a pleasant weight linen and the beautiful suble texture and pattern really adds to its beauty!
I strongly believe that surrounding ourselves with things made with passion and love, and out of quality materials do something to us. I am convinced that the qualities put into it by the maker follow the item and is sensed by the user. It is so satisfying to touch, use, and take care of things like these. And they age so beautifully 🙂
Thank you for so generously sharing your passion!Sent from my iPhone
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Hi Elisabeth, You have a way with words. I enjoy hearing your thoughts—so rich and insightful. I agree, it is immensely satisfying to surround ourselves with beautiful things that are made by hand, with love mixed in.
Happy weaving, friend,
Karen
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Anticipation in the Final Stretch!
- By Karen
- March 20, 2018
- 16 Comments
I can see the end of the warp! Finishing is in sight. And then, my daughter phones, “Mom! I’m headed to the hospital. This baby is ready!” Weaving suddenly becomes far less important… That was two weeks ago, and little Ari was born. Now, back at the loom, I’ll cross the finish line on this linen upholstery fabric before the day is over.
End of warp is seen on the back tie-on bar as it makes its final round on the warp beam.
Double weave cotton baby blanket covers baby Ari as he peacefully sleeps.
When the back tie-on bar becomes visible, it’s the beginning of the end. And then, the moment the back tie-on bar comes over the back beam I celebrate. It’s the final stretch!
Linen color-and-weave upholstery fabric.
Lease sticks are untied and removed after the back tie-on bar comes over the back beam. Two pairs of lease sticks were used with this striped warp.
We are participants in a great mystery! Christ in us. For those unfamiliar with the tools and methods of handweaving, it’s a mystery how threads can become cloth. But the handweaver knows. The great mystery of God is that Christ may dwell in us. For those who receive him, the peace of Christ rules within. His presence is woven in.
Short distance left to finish weaving this linen fabric.
The anticipation of finished cloth is nothing in relation to the anticipation of a new baby in the family. Imagine the anticipation of our holy Father to see the glorious threads of Christ woven in us.
May you participate in the mystery.
Happy weaving,
Karen
16 Comments
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Linda Cornell says:
Beautiful weaving, beautiful baby, beautiful Savior!
Congratulations!
God bless you and your family.
Linda Cornell
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Hi Linda, Heartfelt thanks! Beautiful Savior gives it all meaning.
Blessings to you,
Karen
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Kay Larson says:
Thank you for your blog. I love reading it each day with my breakfast. What a beautiful baby. Congratulations. You double weave blanket is lovely. What yarn did you use if I may ask? Many blessings to you and your family. God’s peace.
Kay-
Hi Kay, It’s an honor to think of sharing breakfast time with you!
The double weave blanket is 8/2 cotton, warp and weft. The sett was 5 ends per cm (about 12 epi), each layer, which is a loose sett, almost gauzy.All the best blessings,
Karen
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Linda Adamson says:
Congrats on the beautiful grandson! Enjoy your blog.
Linda -
Congratulations to you and your family on Ari’s arrival! Babies bring their own welcome.
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Hi Annie, Ari did bring his own welcome. He has already made his way into our hearts!
Thank you!
Karen
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Wow, how can you think about anything else but Ari!!! What a beautiful boy! What a blessing for you and your family!!
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Hi Liberty, I don’t live in the same city as Ari, otherwise I would be cooing over him instead of sitting at the loom. 🙂 He is a good-lookin’ baby boy, that’s for sure. I’m pretty biased, as I should be.
Thanks for sharing your sentiments!
Karen
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Betty A Van Horn says:
WOW too cute Karen, what a joy! Congratulations. Love that God sees each new Christian with the same joy. I love the blanket around Ari.
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Hi Betty, Yes, what a wonderful thought… that God welcomes each trust-er in Jesus as a new family member.
The blanket suits Ari pretty well.Love,
Karen
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I love all your pics including that cute baby. Makes you want to kiss those cheeks off.
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tsw says:
Congratulations to your family on the new arrival!
I noticed the double lease sticks and was wondering why you used them double. I’ve never seen that before. Is there an advantage? Special circumstance that benefits from them? Thanks in advance.Theo
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Hi Theo, Thanks! Good eye to notice the double lease sticks. I mention the subject in this post: Simpler Warp Stripes. Basically, I had two separate warp chains, each with their own lease sticks, in order to put narrow stripes on the loom without having to cut and tie all the color changes while winding the warp.
Happy weaving,
Karen
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Tapestry Portrait Progress
- By Karen
- March 16, 2018
- 10 Comments
Once I get going, it’s not easy to put this Lucia tapestry portrait down. Each new row is another chance to turn it over and see how she’s coming along. A long car drive gives me a good stretch of weaving time. While Steve drives, I weave on my small tapestry frame. As a result, I am making considerable progress on Lucia this week.
Detailed cartoon gives direction for color blending and color changes. Magnets along the side of the frame loom hold the tapestry needle that I use for the weaving.
I am trying to withhold judgment until it is finished. And a close-up view shows details of the yarn, but doesn’t give a good perspective of the portrait overall. I am learning quite a bit through this process, un-weaving when necessary, and moving forward ever so slowly.
Lucia portrait. Three strands of Fårö wool for weft gives good options for color blending.
Beloved. Lucia is one of my beloved granddaughters. No matter what details happen in her life, she has my affection. Your beloved is someone you care for deeply, earnestly desiring their highest good. Spouse, children, friends, blog readers…those you choose to give yourself to. You want them to “be loved,” not only by you but by the Master tapestry weaver. To know the Grand Weaver’s love is to know you are loved in detail. It includes forgiveness, which looks a lot like un-weaving. He knows exactly how to weave the portrait of you, his beloved.
May you be loved.
Love,
Karen
10 Comments
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The tapestry looks amazing and I love the sentiment.
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Hi Beth, this tapestry is one of the most challenging things I’ve done. Thanks for the boost!
We all need to be loved and to have some beloveds in our life, don’t we?
Your friend,
Karen
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Dorothy Gareau says:
Just love the analogy of your beloved grandchild.
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Hi Dotty, There’s much to learn about love, isn’t there? Thanks for taking a moment to comment.
All the best,
Karen
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ellen b santana says:
you are a dear woman. es
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Alisha Mueller says:
Karen,
You teach me so much not only about weaving but also about life and how to live it to the fullest in the complicated world we live in. THANK YOU for your weekly teachings.-
Hi Alisha, We do live in a complicated world. It helps when we can learn from each other. Thank you for your very kind words.
All the best,
Karen
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Angie Roberts says:
Beautiful piece, cool analogy
Thank you
Copyright © 2019
Ugh! I can’t wait to see this once you start weaving.
Hi Beth, It was a little setback, but I’m back on track. I am very eager, too, to see this woven!
All the best,
Karen
Oh!! The hideous heddle shortage. Been there. Good tip not to undo the twist on heddles. Loose heddles have been known to cause insanity. lol
Yes, insanity indeed with loose heddles. It’s one of those mistakes that a person makes only once. 🙂
All the best,
Karen
Easter Blessings to you and your family throughout the year!
Hi Karen, And also to you and yours!
Blessings,
Karen
You are amazing! You are so generous to share with us! Your words and photographs are so helpful! As inconvenient and frustrating we can feel from making mistakes it is the way we learn for next time! Happy Easter! We have our Sedar tonight.
Hi Shari, I’m always delighted to find out that others are interested in the things I get to share. I feel very fortunate to have people like you to connect with!
Thank you! And your Sedar will be rich with meaning. Blessings on your special time.
Love,
Karen