Honouring Erica

Sadly, I have only recently learned that the Dutch weaver Erica De Ruiter died in March; Erica specialized in weaves that use 4 or fewer shafts.

Although I did not know Erica, I was always excited when I found one of her articles in Handwoven Magazine and I thoroughly enjoyed her book ‘Weaving on Three Shafts’.

It seems that Erica’s goal was to reduce weaving to the simplest number of shafts and still get the most beautiful result.  If you can get your hands on a copy of this book I would encourage it.

In an effort to honor Erica I thought that I would share two of my very favourite articles by Erica, one in Handwoven Magazine and one online at WeaveZine.

In the November/December 2007 Issue Erica’s article entitled Three Towels ~ or One Wall Hanging ~ or Both; is such an exciting idea.

The premise is that you can weave three tea towels (3 yards of cloth) and then with clever folding and a dowel you can hang it on the wall of your kitchen displayed as a Kimono. Then when you feel need for a change, you can cut it apart, hem the ends and use the tea towels for many years.  This is mind blowing for me, and I think shows just how inventive Erica De Ruiter was.  Due to copyright  I cannot show you any photos, but luckily, you can purchase this magazine from Interweave Press as a download.

The second really special and completely inventive article can still be found on WeaveZine and it was written by Erica in September 2008.  This is a recipe for making a Spiral Zipper Bag using a long zipper and a length of inkle band.  I found this so interesting and I have had it on my Want To Make list since I first found it.  I am inspired by Erica’s ability to think in a non-linear way and to create beautiful and functional items in ways that I had never considered.  I have included the link to WeaveZine here.

Our weaving community is much poorer since March and I will miss the joy of opening up Handwoven Magazine and finding one of Erica’s gems inside.

Rosepath and Twill Runner

After my cottolin test gamp was off the loom and it had past inspection, the gamp was neatly labled and pressed and put away in my Test Box. What to do with the remaining 3 or so yards of warp? At first I did some sampling on the loom, fooling around with treadlings, but I soon came to the conclusion that I was going to have to pull the threading and rethread.

After a bout on PCW Fiberworks I decided that I liked the look of both the Rosepath and the M's &W’s, so I created this draft. Very busy looking in the draft, but since the runner will be around 50" long it won't be quite as busy as the draft shows.

I put a M&W’s threading block on each selvedge and a double Rosepath block in the centre. I decided to weave a deep border of 10” of M&W as drawn in and then follow with about 48” of Rosepath as drawn in. The overall effect is a bit busy, but I like it. There are a lot of long floats, but they give the Rosepath the rounded look, so they will stay. Since my warp is set at 24 epi, they aren’t too long for a piece destined to be table ware. The first thing I did though was drop the lilac separating stripes, there was no way I could work them into the design and like it. This made narrowing the draft from 17-1/2” to 16-1/2”, but that still worked for me. I decided to keep the lilac threads on the selvedges and added a floating selvedge to make the edges neater. Here is a closer look at the M&W’s border. And of the Rosepath center block.

Book Review
Rep Weave and Beyond by Joanne Tallarovic is a beautifully crafted book clearly documenting how the author modifies traditional Swedish ripsmatta to create her own contemporary patterns. There are 29 well documented design projects including table linens, rugs and wall hangings. The projects are accompanied by step-by-step instructions and great colour photography. There is a nice section on finishing and care of your rep weave creations. I really recommend this book as it is lovely for any weaver to browse through and a great inspiration source.

Anatomy of a Test Piece

These socks are addictive! Once I learned to knit them from the toe up, using a short row toe and heel, I was away. So much fun!

This is the other thing keeping me occupied during the long Canadian winter nights. I purchased a bag of Louet fibre 50% merino and 50% soy silk in June. The colour way was called Karioke and it's big and bright and bold to say the least.

I'm now at the plying stage and I didn't want to get the barber pole effect, or to bland all the bright colours out, so I'm plying it with 2/120 cashmere. I've gone for a spiral ply effect, and at this point have no idea what the heck I'll do with it!

My Shadow Weave piece came off the loom last week. To be an acceptable GCW test piece it had to meet a few criteria.

the piece must be woven 50/50 unless stated otherwise
the piece must be a minimum of 12”x18” finished
the piece must be squared

I put on only 2 yards for this project and I sett my Shadow Weave at 24 ends per inch, so to achieve a 50/50 woven piece after wet finishing it must have between 23-24 picks per inch .
To ensure that my piece is 12” wide, I put on 17.6” of warp. As I was weaving I measured the piece on the loom and it was 16”wide with take up and it remained 16” after the piece was off the loom.
I need the piece to be 18” long after finishing, so I planned on 3” for the hem; half for turn under and half to frame the pattern. To make sure that the turn under wasn’t too heavy I wove an extra 1 inch with sewing thread. I wove two full pattern repeats and measured the piece and found it was only 14”, so I wove a third pattern repeat. With the 3” hem allowances at each end my piece was 28” on the loom when I cut it off. After it was off the loom and had a few minutes to sit, it measured 25-1/2”.

Since floating selvedges, tape selvedges or doubled selvedges are not allowed on the Shadow Weave question, it was important to maintain a good looking selvedge. To help with this I started by first throwing my dark weft from the right and placing the shuttle on the cloth, I then followed with my light weft again from the right. Now with both shuttles on the left I ensured that I put the light shuttle down on the cloth closest to the fell line and repeated this throughout the piece. This mostly ensured that both wefts were caught at the selvedge to give the feather stitch look that is a characteristic of Shadow Weave. When necessary due to the patterning I would manipulate the wefts to make sure the selvedge threads were caught.

Squaring the piece is partly done on the loom and partly done with pressing. If you have not tied your warp evenly you may get a smile (edge too tight) or a frown (edge too loose), both of these will make your piece appear long in the centre.

The overall look of the piece is important so that’s why I put a border around the pattern. I did the easiest of borders and added several twill repeats at each selvedge and repeated the same twill repeat 14 times to give my hem. After vigorous washing, my piece had only 22 ppi. – not enough picks per inch……so back to the loom. I had a good look at what warp was left on the loom and with only 32 inches left I decided that I had better look at re treadling the piece. The pattern I had originally chosen had a 7” repeat, much too long for the warp that remained, so I shortened the treadling to a 4” repeat. I then resleyed to 20 epi since there wasn't enough warp to do my regular tie on, I lashed the warp to the front beam. I then proceeded to weave a perfectly balance piece – but only just had enough warp to weave it 24”. I haven't even washed the piece and I know it's too short. This bummed me out….I know there will be 20% shrinkage and I need to hem the piece, so 18” just won’t be there. Today I pulled another warp of 3 yards – sett at 20 epi and using the same small pattern, third time lucky!

Book Review

200 Patterns for Multiple Harness Looms, by Russell E. Groff. The layout of this book is excellent going from the least number of shafts needed to the most. Each page has a black and white photo of the pattern, a threading draft, a tie up draft and one or more of the possible treadlings. There are also very good notes about the warp and weft used and about the resulting fabric and often it's eventual use. Sometimes size constraints make finding all the information a bit difficult, but with perserverance you can find all you need to weave the pattern. The patterns are for looms having 5 to 12 shafts and I find this small book a real treasure to own.

Cost of Weaving a Handspun Silk Scarf

In yet another attempt to get everything caught up, so I can start fresh in the New Year; I finally worked on finishing my last Network Twill Scarf. This scarf used my handspun silk as the warp and 2/8 Tencel as the weft. The scarf is beautiful, but as I looked at it and started to figure out the cost, I became weak in the knees and felt somewhat faint…..if I pay myself just $10.00 per hour, this scarf, lovely though it is, came in at around $300.00 to make! Frankly I don't think that the silk shows up at all well, what a mistaka to maka!I thought I’d share my cost breakdown with you…so you can share my pain!

I hand spun the silk warp way back in the spring. The cost of the silk to spin was $25.00
The cost of my time to spin $50.00
I plied the silk using 2/120 silk thread $135.00 per lb $ 9.00
The plying time was another $50.00
Niddy Noddying it off the bobbin added another $10.00
Washing, drying and skeining $10.00
Pulling the warp $10.00
I tied on the warp, so saved money there $20.00
Actual weaving time, with hem stitiching $40.00
Twisting the fringe the first time $15.00
Cableing the fringe $15.00
Beading costs and time $20.00
Washing, drying and pressing $10.00
This is the fringe twisted once on the right - way too much variation and it tended to bridge and clump. On the left it is cabled and now it looks much better, but what a waste of time!
Amazing isn’t it? I’m pretty sure it really cost more than that, but I just lie to myself and stick my fingers in my ears….la..la..la..la Now onto something that makes me happy…..my Singer Steam Press. It’s wonderful! I’m finally getting that lovely hard pressed finish I wanted and McSteamy (his new name) is so easy to use! I must admit to getting all carried away and pressing my guest room pillowcases, and then standing back and feeling very Martha Stewart!

I’ve taken on the job as Guild Librarian for my local guild and the first task I set myself was to catalogue the books and enter them on librarything. I’ve spent a number of hours photographing the covers that were missing and now I want to have short reviews to add to make it perfect. To that end I’ll be reviewing my library on this blog.
The Key To Weaving A Textbook of Hand Weaving for the Beginning Weaver by Mary E. Black. This is the weaving Bible! Here’s a book which provides concise, clear information on virtually every weave structure out there. In most cases Mrs. Black provides you with a draft or step by step instructions so that you too can weave it perfectly. This is the book that I use most to get the basic weave structure information and background. This is also the text book that the Guild of Canadian Weavers uses for the Master Weaver Program. If Mary Black says it, you can take it to the bank! I highly recommend this book.