CHICKPEA SEWING STUDIO

 

 

A naked loom rarely stays that way, it gets dressed and then you either weave and weave or let it languish for months or years.

This has happened to me and mine before, and I speak from limited experience. I have also seen looms for sale with ratty old warps that might have been something more.

I am enjoying my 4-shaft table loom lately, I always considered it inferior probably because I rescued it in a very sad state and it was very cheap, but as it turns out it is actually "a good little loom". It is easy to dress, easy to treadle and quite sturdy. What I like most though is that I can weave standing up. I am prone to sitting you see... a global problem.

 

 

After the monk's belt project came off last week I wanted to weave a table runner, but the light grey wool is out of stock, so a scarf it is instead and I am so glad. 

The first time with Jaggerspun Zephyr can be a bit tricky/sticky but I am getting the hang of it I hope. The beat imperfections will somehow disappear during the final soak, won't they? I can't seem to mind when I am looking at that mustard* stripe on the blue.

 

* Shibui Cima Brass, fingering weight.

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Weaving Into Fall

a small length of Monk's Belt

 

 

 

My father has gone back to his home by the sea. We did so much together while he was here: completely re-hauled the garden, enough to fill a city clean-up trailer, improved my table loom, discovered the Las Vegas Strip, attended a Cirque du Soleil show, visited Zion National Park... had a pretty bad car accident (!) and gardened some more. So much in a few weeks, but there is never enough time is there?

 

 

 

 

On the crafting front it is high time I started sewing again, with deadlines looming ever closer but mostly these days I have been weaving, some of which will be sewn to a sheep fleece. The two weave structures are called Monk's Belt (white plain weave with grey, blue and yellow squares) and Krokbragd (in pale blue, white and brown). The wider piece will make a bench cover while the narrower piece is a sampler of sorts. I am learning how color order affects the placement of the motifs before I start a "real piece". 

 

 

 

This rug technique is very slow going and yarn hungry! but I so love the bands... just my style! 

 

 

 

 portrait courtesy of Finn, who is too young to hold a beefy camera with one hand

Isn't  it nice when things work out? I had great hopes that the twill sample would full and fluff well off the loom and it did not disappoint. The piece is so fluffy and soft now, I just want to snuggle under it, too bad it's only a sample... 

I have considerably more confidence now that I can make a throw size blanket spanning the width of my floor loom. It will be the largest item I ever wove and I ordered a temple of epic proportions to stretch that warp and keep it in line!

 

 

Now the time has come to for an alarming amount of math, my brain rebels already but just following a book's or magazine's project was never my speed, hence the headache!

 

 

I love my little photographer! Growing growing... 

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a good little loom

Cashing in my Valentines

 

Remember this little Rasmussen loom I rescued from GoodWill?  It was 20 months ago and I had yet to put a proper warp on to give it a spin! no need to dwell on this now I suppose... but still. I almost loaned it to Miriam in July as she was interested but too busy. She should have taken me up on the offer then because I am never letting that boy go from now on.

 

 

It took about a yard of warp to get acquainted but I have it well in hand now and it is just a pleasure to weave on. Table loom have a very small sweet spot and it can seem very tedious advancing you work every inch and a half but this loom turns out to be very easy to move forward so no big deal...

 

 

Looking back at the pictures of how it came to me, paint splattered and in pieces I can hardly believe that we did not have to buy a single spare part to get it going again. I think I simply laundered the grubby cords and voila! 

For this sample project, I am trying out LB fishermen's wool. It is widely available, affordable and comes in very pleasing natural color. I wanted it see how it wove. So far I am impressed. The yarn is strong and keeps the tension in the warp well. Now to see how it fulls and if it can be brushed.

 

 

 

When you weave sometimes mistakes show up very clearly a couple inches later, oh well!

 

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My new loom, very old indeed

Trying to weave again

Cashing in my Valentines

Thomas took the day off yesterday to spend a belated valentine's day together. We ate a vegan meal at City Cakes downtown and then on our way back picked up flowers from Sara Winward. It's a gorgeous bouquet made with a mix of fragile and robust flowers arranged in a silver cup.  One of the clematis and one of the hellebore's were very sad looking this morning so I cut them off and relocated a ranunculus to the front.

 

 

During the afternoon we took my new old loom apart completely and sanded each and every piece with 150 grit. I had more fine sanding in mind to follow but the energy wasn't to be found to produce any more loud wood dust. I ended up applying Danish oil while Thomas was sanding, working factory style with him handing me the pieces as they came off the sander. We did in one afternoon what would have taken me over a month of unpleasant labor. The loom is now unrecognisable especially if you go back to the pieces I brought home.

 

 

The wood shines now and most of the stains are gone leaving behind faint marks that do not bother me much. Thomas fixed the handle with glue and zip ties and in the process of reassembly we made another crack (cuss-cuss). It will need fixing one day but for now I think it's fine and just want to put a small warp on and get cracking! This loom will live at the cabin and I don't want it to get there naked...

 

Something I had been wishing for an eternity finally came true yesterday: I found a table loom at Goodwill. At first it was kind of a letdown, taking in the tragic state of affairs. I thought: "Really, you have been waiting and hoping and waiting and hoping for that!". But it was cheap, there and almost a proverbial gift horse and his mouth at $19.

The loom is a 4- shaft Rasmussen 24" made in 1977 in Seattle. The pictures (after a thorough soapy cleanup last night) will speak for themselves! Original sad state of the loom.

 

The last picture illustrates my efforts to remove the blue paint. The entire loom should be taken apart and sanded, but it is so very cold outside... I am also considering staining it in a darker shade of danish oil. It would hide some permanent stains well... Much work to come!

For those of you new to the blog, I have done something like this before. My large loom came to me after spending years in a damp barn, it doesn't show anymore.

This isn't the weave structure I had in mind at all, I was thinking much more weft faced (as in the white and beige threads would disappear). The sett is clearly too close at 10, plus it looks more like 5 threads at 12 and a hole but guess what? I love it! complete happy accident really. Since I made the decision a while ago not to agonize anymore about the little things when it comes to sewing or weaving I don't even cringe at the fact that the picture above shows an obvious threading mistake. And I mean it, which is huge, like successfully leaving a 12 step program for hopeless perfectionists huge...

Football Sunday seemed like the perfect opportunity to start working on my hand woven summer floor cushions. Until I hit a snag(S). My cross was too close to the front of the ends and I must have improperly placed it between the sticks, the result being complete disaster disorder where the threads should have behaved. It's getting a bit better now, I have to untangle little groups of thread one at a time but the warp is only 3 yards, a very wise move if you ask me.

A little technical information:

The weft will be a mix of the blue yarn I dyed with Jacquard acid Dyes (sky blue and gunmetal) and the same yarn in its undyed white. For the warp I am using doubled 8/4, the sett is 10, so it's threaded 111110111110 on my 12 sett reed. I plan on beating hard and hope the warp will disappear. I am shooting for stripes in plain weave right now.

The weaving width is marked with scrapbooking fabric tape from Paper Source.