summertime!

Summer vacation began 2weeks ago for us in Washington state. I have been so busy that i have not been making much progress with my 10 yard overshot warp. But my family is eating all home cooked meals our house is clean and my garden is beautifully weed free and flourishing. Its all about striking a balance for me.  My husband always says "a happy wife makes a happy life" he loves that little joke and i swear he navigates a conversation just to set it up to use that little jewel of his. But there is truth in the concept that making others happy will bring happiness back to you :) Truthfully, im in the final stretch of my warp and for once i have no clue what to put on next. Something with one shuttle for sure,or maybe a rag rug,maybe rep weave,maybe some kitchen towels,or Swedish lace! lol the dilemma of weavers through the ages"what should i weave next?" While i ponder this question i will show you what i have accomplished so far:

a beautiful bamboo/merino roving i bought at the Shepard's extravaganza

this is my second bobbin. I would consider buying a woolie winder, but i already have a dozen beautiful kromski bobbins. i just cant bring my self to do it.

there should be just enough left to fill my bobbin

i forgot to snap off a pic of the green overshot,but managed to angle my camera under the breast beam. I love this spring green :)

Then i was inspired by a colonial overshot coverlet i saw online one day. It hit me right between the  eyes,"wow that is the exact draft i have on my loom right now" How awesome was that? So i decided to give it a try and I'm liking it. I really like how the border looks like bunting.  Very patriotic :)
Happy Independence Day!

one done,and other begun

Whig rose is off the loom. I liked it so much i never got a chance to weave it in star fashion. Here it is just off the loom. I always like to spread out and admire the length of woven goods. Don't you? I think its a quirky thing most weavers do. Its just so satisfying to see.

This project was supposed to be for my new house but i already gave the red one away. I do that all the time. But, here are the other two in action. Yellow pattern weft and green tabby. I was inspired by the daffodils that the area i live in is famous for. Plus i personally love yellow and green.

And finally, the green one: just in time for Easter :)

My next project is another overshot project that will be a narrow dresser/piano scarf that will go to my mom for mothers day.(i still give my mom mothers day presents. Its a tradition i have always kept.)

I really liked this pattern on page 181 in "the green book", but for a narrow piano scarf it needed to be simplified. Less border and more middle was what i wanted.

 I kept looking and found this lovely pattern in the Nov/DEC 2010 handwoven. But i still wanted something with smaller borders.

Then i found this one by Gene E Valk in a handwoven ebook for top ten overshot projects. And its just right.

I'm warping up 10 yards in white and plan to play with several different colors. I have 2 house warming gifts to give in the near future so i decided to get a little more mileage out of this warp. I usually don't do warps that long because i tend to get tired of doing the same pattern over and over. I also plan on breaking out of my usual warping habit. I'm a front to backer. Its how i learned and it works well for me. But my Norwood loom has 2 inch sections on the back beam. My plan is to warp 2 inch bouts on my warping board and beam them individually. Lets hope it works and i can get uniform tension! 

love love Whig rose

I finished the rose version of the whig rose table runner in red this weekend. I love this pattern! Overshot has always been satisfying to me,but the treadling on this was pure joy. 

Then i started it in my favorite green(uki scarob).

 Here is the main body of the runner.  Isn't it pretty? I love it! only 18 more inches to go.

Originally i intended to weave this in both rose and star fashion,but rose has been so much fun i think ill just do one more. I might have to warp up again for star :)

whig rose it is

My shoulder strain is much better and i'm back to weaving.  I finished winding all 480 ends and warped my loom over the weekend.

Here is the draft i picked for my table runners. you can find this on page 176 of  the Davison pattern handbook. I really like how there are the  rose and star versions of this. I wanted to do this in 2 colors but the yarn i chose is back ordered. So i decided i would just make one all in red while i wait for my order to arrive. Red is very traditional for overshot, but from a practical standpoint i needed a runner for my hall table and red will be nice from Christmas to Valentines day.(and i had a whole cone of red in the size i needed)

I usually sample a new pattern,but this is weaving up so nicely that i just kept going.so now i need to back up a few inches and do a hem stitch so it finishes just as nicely.(not my usual way, but why not give it a go) There were a few minor set up issues. One thread had a pesky factory knot in it that i somehow missed in the winding process that had to be pulled and replaced, and i managed to skip a dent around the mid point which i did not see until i had tied on and started to weave. Un-weave,untie,re-sley from the skipped dent. It happens...truth be told i enjoy threading. Overshot is especially nice because the rules make it fool proof. Here is a closer view.

I'm using 10/2 cotton for the warp,5/2 cotton for the pattern weft and 20/2 for the tabby weft.

after a delay im ready to sley

I strained my right shoulder. Its an old injury that acts up now and then,but it really put a hitch in winding my warp. I would get started winding and have to stop almost immediately. I have to use my shoulder for my day job (school bus driver) so even though i wanted to keep going i knew better than to over use it. Weaving is my hobby so i rarely put time limitations on myself. Its a journey that progresses at its own pace for me. If i want to sit and dawdle, i do. Also, part of my yarn order was back ordered. So it seemed like the universe was saying "relax and heal". My weaving brain is never idle however. Thanks to all my favorite blogs and the internet,my weaving connection is never broken. I prowled Amazon and  added to my weaving library. So all in all it was only a physical weaving break. Weaving seems to wind its way into my everyday life no matter what i'm doing or not doing.

Two new additions are the Tina Ignell book that is pure eye candy. I find these types of  books to be inspirational but lacking the in depth instruction that i want. Another point is that most of these projects call for 16/2 cotton or linen that i do not have in my stash. Reproducing one of these beauties will require either some major math adjustments or another yarn order. I'm not opposed to either,but i usually just look and drool at these kind of books. 

The other new book is something i ran across on amazon and decided to pick up. Its called The weaving book of Peace and Patience by Isadora Safner. (She wrote the weaving roses of rhode island book that i would love to look at, but just cant spend 70 bucks on.) There are 6 pages of biography about Peace and Patience (mother and daughter) and 29 weaving drafts that have been carefully interpreted for modern weavers. 21 of the drafts are overshot and the rest are assorted summer winter and bronson. All in all it is a nice booklet of colonial weaving that i enjoyed. all are Tromp as writ.

And finally, i have wound all 480 ends for a little bit of overshot. Next up sleying. Winding an all white warp was a bit boring after the colorful towels I just finished. Maybe I should try a colorful overshot warp next time with a light weft just to spice things up a bit.

throwing in the towels

Here are the turned taquete towels off the loom. The texture is stiff and the cotton is quite shiny. I wasn't sure how i liked them. The warp and weft colors just weren't jiving well for me.

And here they are cut, serged  and washed.(still need to hem them) Wow what a difference!!

They are so soft. The colors blended and shifted in the wash like magic! I am so pleased with how the colors have turned out. It always amazes me how much things change after tossing them into the washer and dryer. I will definitely be exploring  this draft again. Big thanks to Sharon of In Stitches for sharing this draft!

Next up? Another overshot sampling project. I've already started to wind a warp of 10/2 cotton but i haven't quite settled on a pattern.This one maybe?

or maybe this one?

Both of these drafts are from the Handweaver's pattern book. Tomorrow im going to place an order at Webs for some spring colors in 5/2 and 10/2 cotton so i have plenty of time to decide on a pattern and warp my loom. I like Webs prices but their shipping and processing sure takes time. I guess its because they are on the east coast and i'm on the west, but my order always takes 2 to 3 weeks to arrive. They say good things come to those who wait,but i don't think they ever had to wait for yarn .

a twisted end

                                                    Does this ever happen to any one?

This never happens on my Murphy counter balance loom because it has an apron. It always happens to my warp ends on the Norwood.

My Norwood loom has a 2" sectional beam and every time the warp ends travel over the back beam the twists surface. It is total operator error i know. I have paid close attention and tried to prevent this, but these pesky knots and leaders always twist on me. I slide the lease sticks in to keep the cross and it allows me to weave to the end of the warp.Some how, this narrow sample warp twisted particularly bad.

The overshot sample is cut off the loom and being finished. no pictures just yet. The loom is sitting naked amongst boxes at the moment.

why???? 

Because we are buying a new house! we have long grown out of our little 900 square foot starter. The new house closes just before thanksgiving and is over double the space! Most importantly, it has a formal dinning room that will hold both my looms and all of my weaving equipment :) Dear hubby has started calling it Heathers loomy bin lol. i have plans to install an 8 shaft loom in the next year...shhhh i haven't broken that particular news to the hubby yet. lol baby steps.

so no weaving going on at the moment, just packing and more packing.

my overshot samples have been washed and are waiting to be pressed and sewn into little pincushions. I packed all my yarn shuttles and books first because i know a new warp would have snuck its way on the Norwood. Thats all for now.I have to get packing. So much to do in the next few weeks.

laundry day = weaving

Sunday is laundry day at my house. Which means...weaving in between loads :) i wonder if anybody else has found a new appreciation for laundry because of weaving/laundry breaks.

The wine color is ruby glint and it went nicely with the champagne warp,but i love the blue :) The blue is valley yarns 5/2 cotton and the color is called nautical  .

 

If anyone was wondering about the book reference in the previous post,this is it. It is a fabulous book and i highly recommend purchasing it. The printer used high quality materials and it as a pleasure to sift through.

I am finding overshot to be a rewarding weave structure. It is fun to see how quickly the pattern builds.While i'm not ready to go out and design my own overshot patterns yet, with a little more experience  i can see how it would be quite tempting. I'm learning quite a lot with my little samples. Next time i will choose a looser sett. My weaving is not as square as i would like. I am also interested to see what a dark warp and light weft produce.

playing around with overshot

Here is the Juliet 2 draft woven as written. i'm just playing around with this draft. i wanted to use up some of this 5/2 uki cotton from another project. The green is called "evergreen" and the golden yellow is "champaign". Isn't this overshot pattern pretty? I like it! it's fairly easy, but the treadling pattern is long enough that i'm not bored. Next i plan to use up some wine colored cotton. i also need to work on the selvages. The green thread is leaving little bumps. I'll be sewing this fabric into little pincushions,so the edges really won't matter.  On the other hand, i want to produce the best quality my skill level is capable of. Thanks for stopping by!

summer weaving

summer vacation is over and school started back up last week. i was able to get two warps on my loom and woven off this summer.

the first warp you might recognize as the turned monks belt project in issue 26 of weavers craft. i love plain weave and this draft turned out lovely. thank you Jean Scorgie for inspiring so many weavers with your fabulous publication!

the second warp was also inspired from the weavers craft publication vol 1 issue 2, however i played around with the treadling and tie up so they are not a complete match.

i actually wove 4 towels on the turned monks belt warp and 6 towels on the point twill warp,but i gave some away before i remembered to take pictures. here is a picture of the ones i have left and took for show and share at my local guild meeting last night.

currently i have an overshot sample on my Norwood loom. i just bought the book: Weaving Designs by Bertha Gray Hayes Miniature Overshot Patterns. this is design 76 Juliet 2, but im not treadling as written. im just playing around with the pattern.  i might turn this sample into pincushions or gift bags.

next in line is a draft that Sharon from "in stitches" sent me. here is my small warping board with the beginnings of a 4 1/2 yard warp.you can see her beautiful weaving at In Stitches. thank you Sharon for sharing this weaving draft with me :)

yummy bowl of warp chains waiting their turn on the loom.

this vintage casserole my dad gave to me was the color inspiration. thanks dad!