Wrapping Tutorial To Finish a Table Runner

Now that I’m back on track after my head cold and feeling like myself again, I decided to finish the Drall runners. The taupe gold and white runner came out exactly as I’d hoped and here it is….perfect! This photo is of the front and back together before final pressing.

The problem showed up immediately when I had a good look at the amethyst runner…..I made the mistake of treadling the end sequence exactly the same as the beginning sequence but in reverse and consequently I ended up with one extra block! I love this runner and wanted to salvage it, so I decided to pull out the hems to get to the problem. I had to pull out  the 3 inch hems on each end to get to the mistake and then pull out the extra 4 picks that made the mistake. I then hemstitched the ends and thought I’d twist the fringe to finish the runner. Well, it turns out the fringe is too far short to be twisted and I didn’t want to leave the fringe as it was so I decided to do some wrapping. Here’s a short tutorial on what I did to find the solution!

I cut a piece of the linen yarn about 10 inches long and folded it over about a third of the way down.

Holding the group of fringe that I wanted to bind together I put the looped yarn along side the fringe bout and held it in my left hand. I held the long tail of the linen yarn in my right hand.

Holding the loop to the fringe bout I tightly wrapped the yarn around my fringe group four times.

I made sure that the loop of yarn remained above my wrapping.

Holding the wrapped bout firmly in place, I threaded the long tail of the linen yarn through a large eye needle.

I put the needle under the wrapped yarn and came out behind the loop.

Then I picked up the short yarn tail and the long yarn tail and I pulled them tightly until the loop disappeared.

This makes a knot under the wrapped yarn and tightens the wrapping securely in place.

Using the needle again I pulled the long tail from the top of the wrapping back underneath the wraps to secure it and left it to hang in the fringe.

I wanted the wraps to sit about one third of the way down; my goal was to add both a decorative element and a stabilizing element.

Here it is ~ job done!

I feel I came up with a really interesting solution to my miss-weaving and too short fringe and I’m really happy with the finished product. This view is the front and back together ~ again before final pressing....gotta get onto that!

Lemon Tea and Honey

I had the second installment of my dental implant surgery and frankly it put me on the couch and on my keester for days! I still don’t have the replacement tooth but I’m sporting a nice yellow bruise on my puffy cheek and what I’m told is a rather lovely screw in my jaw! It's been 6 days since my surgery I still have no feeling at the implant site or the teeth nearby...frankly I see this as a blessing! All of this has been followed by a post surgery cold that kept me looking at the warp on my loom and living on lemon tea and honey!

My newest linen runner warp has been a brain teaser from the start. I had 64 ends leftover from my first runner warp and I wanted to use them, but no amount of counting threads made the numbers work into this project. I had also pre-pulled two other linen warps, one with 138 ends and the other with 164 but that was too many ends, so now I’m left with the original 64 ends from the first warp and another 68 ends from this one….ahhh yet another puzzle warp to figure out!

I wanted to add colour stripes to this warp but because the linen in the colour stripes is different from the white Normandy linen, I used the coloured threads doubled and placed them alternately with the white linen to make sure that the runner doesn’t end up with waves. I did thread each of the doubled coloured ends in its own heddle to try and minimize the bridging I expect with linen. I put the white linen on the loom first and then put the coloured linen over top vaguely in the positions I needed it and lashed it to the back beam bar. I put each warp though a different set of lease sticks and tied it all together to pull onto the loom. It really looks like jury rigged job, but it worked very well.

I was able to then thread alternately from the two different lease sticks to get the stripes in place on the loom. I love the blond, bronze and brown stripes which are going to fall into one of the three blocks (hopefully)!

My plan is to weave runner number 1 with the same 5/2 soft gold mercerized cotton that I used last time and runner number 2 in blocks of the blond, bronze and brown linen.

Planning Problems!

Today I saw my first bunch of blooming Snowdrops in someone’s garden, and this afternoon we started digging a new garden bed, so I’m thinking that winter may be on its way out here on Vancouver Island! The sun is shining and the tips of the magnolia are swelling a little bit more every day and I’m feeling hopeful!

For my newest project I put on a 4-1/2 yard warp for 2 table runners; each would have a 4 inch hem and be woven 60 inches long. I used 2 ply bleached Normandy wet spun linen for the warp that had been in my stash for about 5 years. I love to see a warp beautifully loaded on the loom and know that there is a whole world of possibilities in front of me. I had this yarn stored in hanks, so since I had to unwind the hanks to pull the warp, I decided to make all of it into warp chains for runners, so more runners are in my future!

I wasn’t very far along in the threading process before I knew that I had made the warp too wide, so I dropped 68 ends….34 from each end. To conserve the warp threads I’ve just chained them and let them hang….I’ll add them to the other warp threads and make another set of runners!

I’ve just taken this warp off the loom and haven’t wet finished or pressed it yet, so please ignore the wrinkles! I’ve gone back again and revisited my favourite pattern ‘du jour’, twill blocks or Drall. I reworked my pattern down to 300 ends, sett at a nice firm 20 epi and I’ve used a soft golden tan coloured 2/5 mercerized cotton for the weft. I started weaving my pattern for about 30 inches then reversed the beginning sequence to finish. I love weaving Drall!

The second runner has the same threading but has amethyst 2 ply linen weft and it’s stunning. I had just 2.4 ounces of this weft, so I had to really watch where I was in the pattern so I didn’t run out of weft. I changed up the treadling and did an opening pattern of varying sized blocks that was 19 inches long; then moved into the centre portion where all the blocks were the same size until it measured 38 inches long, then repeated the opening sequence in reverse, so I should have had 57 inches to my way of thinking…well not so, I completely mismeasured and this runner is shorter than I planned!

Well, I’m not one to waste linen warp, so I hunted out a wee ball of soft khaki coloured linen and made this little centerpiece….definitely not what I had planned, but pretty nice all the same.  It will have a fringe on each end rather than a turned hem.

On another note I have hemmed the Rep Weave runner and both of the shadow weave tea clothes that were in my stash box….so I’m moving forward on reducing my unfinished pieces.  As soon as we get a really sunny day and I can keep myself from running outside to play I'll photo the runner for the Etsy Shop.



Completed Projects to be Reworked

For some reason every January I get the urge to reorganize and my weaving stash gets hauled out for a good looking at. You know the stuff, too good to throw away, but too small, too long, wrong colour….that stuff!

It was really reassuring to discover that this year the pile hadn’t grown by much and I can actually see myself putting most of it to use.
The things that are in my stash of unfinished business are in every case but one, things left over from doing the Master Weavers test. There were some problems that I wove repeatedly, like the Rep weave at the bottom of the pile.

I wove this Rep Weave problem at least 12 times! I tried out different weft thickness and colours, I wove it all thin weft and various thick and thin ratios to find the best one to send off to the judges. Now I’m left with 7 pieces that don’t match! My plan for these is to sew them into purses.

This magenta and white overshot in cotton and wool has me stumped though. It’s pretty and perfect, but what the heck do I do with it? Something to ponder!

I’m pretty sure I’m going to try and sell this wool yardage on Etsy just as it is. I wove it from Scottish Tartan wool and its fine and silky feeling and if I wore skirts I’d make myself one….I can sew very well, I just can’t sew anything that fits me!

These two pieces of Shadow Weave are the perfect length for a tea towel and a bread cloth, so they will soon grace my kitchen….ahhhh finally!

There are two pieces of this Shadow Weave, one the size of a placemat (the matching one is in my Master Weavers Test box), and one the length of a table runner. The placemat could be put into my purse stash or made into cards……hmmmmmm. The runner is lovely but I’m not thrilled with the selvedges. In the Canadian Master Weavers Test you can’t use floating selvedges (draconian isn’t it?), so the selvedge turns are not as nice as I’d like. I’ve been toying with the idea of adding a ribbon selvedge…..not sure yet!

This Twill Gamp is really lovely, but too long for a tea towel and too weird looking for a runner….maybe cut up for cards?

What can I possibly say about this Dukkagang piece…..daunting!

This is the only piece that I added to the stash this year. I pulled it off the loom and just couldn’t get interested in finishing it….I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it! There goal set!

We went for a walk two days ago on Miracle Beach and this is what we saw….stunning flat Savary Island on the horizon and in the distance the Coastal Mountains of Mainland British Columbia.

A New Year a New Scarf!

Whew…..the last few weeks have been hectic to say the least. Not only did we celebrate Christmas and New Year, but we had both Michaels and Ngaires birthdays in there too! I feel so sorry for December babies….it’s really hard to make their special days compete with Christmas! Needless to say I’m feeling just a bit ragged around the edges and a bit overfed right now! Ahhh, the fleeting call of the January diet beckons!

I have been weaving quite a bit and have the scarf that I’ve named Cedar Bark off the loom, finished and listed on Etsy ~ I’m really pleased with it!

The pattern is really complex looking and because you only use four shafts it’s very easy to raise all the harnesses on the loom, so it’s a true joy to weave. I’m tucking this one away for future use.

I liked it so much that I put on exactly the same scarf in blue silk, thankfully they look very different so I could list both on Etsy.

I really wanted to showcase the silk so finding the right weft was paramount. I tried silver, lavender, magenta, purple and navy wefts before I gave in and went tone on tone.
The Azure blue is the perfect choice I think and now I’m sorry I chose black for the Cedar silk scarf when I could have been much braver and chosen orange!
The scarf which I’ve named Blue Waterfall has an amazing embossed look and the weft really showcases the variations in the warp.

I had dyed both hanks of yarn a few years ago at the same time and used the Cedar as warp for a ‘freeform’ scarf and the Blue as warp for a Theo Mooreman scarf. Have a look at them.

Making warps has been a bit of a pain since we moved houses and I’ve been leaning my warping board against the loom, or the couch, or anywhere out of the way while I pull the warp, needless to say not an ideal situation. My yarn spools have been known to completely abandon the room and roll right out of the door! So, my lovely husband seeing my plight built me this mini spool rack. It fits neatly under my Leclerc Holds All and can carry 6 spools of yarn. The really nifty part is that he used a guide for a fly fishing rod as the yarn guide; with the ceramic coating it’s really smooth and won’t catch on the fine yarn! I can definitely see a few more striped warps in my future!

Wrapping Up Loose Ends

In my last post I had warped the 2/20 hand painted silk that was sitting on pirns for yonks, and today I got the new scarf started and half woven. I didn’t use any of the wefts that I thought I would…I went basic and chose black because all of the other wefts hid the wonderful variegations in the silk.

I’ve chosen a pattern called ‘Twill Complication” and even though it’s on 4 shafts it’s a real looker and I wove half of the scarf today! This pattern is a delight to weave and I'm really getting a kick out of it.  I have plans to do it with some other silks because the pattern is very well behaved and allows the variegations to shine through and not be overwhelmed by the pattern.

Here is the draft for those of you that don’t have ‘A Handweavers Pattern Book’.

This last week has been a whirlwind of activity. I’m hoping to start the New Year with a clean slate and so I’ve decided to clean up some of my mistakes!

I pulled the failed shawl with black and brown handspun out of the drawer that I had stashed it in, you know ‘out of sight, out of mind’! I can’t bear to waste the yarn so I decided to deconstruct the shawl.

I started by unlacing the hemstitching on both ends and then pulled out each warp thread one by one.

This proved to be a much easier job than I had anticipated…for some reason the shawl didn’t full as much as I’d expected; this was a bane at the time, but a boon now as the warp threads just slid out. Can you spot the 'French Apple Tart' in the background?  It takes a lot of energy to pull apart a shawl and that is my reward! Although it’s hard to see I left just 2 warp threads in place to keep the weft in some kind of order while I made balls and this really helped hold it in place while I made the balls.

Here it is separated into its basic components just waiting for a better project that will turn the handspun into the show stopper it should be!

It's had to believe but we have been in our new house exactly one year today, so as a celebration I made one of our favourite appetizers to have with a bottle of 1996 Merlot.  This photo is before they have been cooked.

These are called Piedmont Roast Peppers and are amazingly easy to prepare and they are real showstoppers. Just cut as many peppers as you need in half and clear out all the seeds, but keep the stem intact. Then stuff it with a half of a fresh tomato and some garlic. Put a teaspoon of your very best olive oil into each one and then salt and pepper it. Bake at 375 F for about 40 minutes in a parchment paper lined pan and serve with a big hunk of crusty bread to soak up all the delicious juices…..soooooo good!

A Week in the Middle and Nothing Complete

This has been one of those funny weeks, where I’m in the middle of everything and have nothing to show for the past few days.
I’m in the middle of twisting the fringes on my Drall scarves, which after pressing are stellar, if I do say so myself! Then the task of photographing them for the Etsy shop….ahhh never-ending.

I’m in the middle of the sleeves on Ngaires sweater and they seem to be dragging on forever, because I’m only doing about 20 rows in an evening…..sooooo slow!

And I’m in the middle of warping my loom with my next scarf. I’m using 2/20 silk that I hand dyed for another project. I had this silk wound on pirns for two years and thought that now was the time to free them up! I had enough on the pirns to make 173 ends 92 inches long ~ just enough for a 6 inch wide scarf sett at 28 ends per inch.

I’m still waffling about which weft yarn and colour to use….yup, still in the middle of making that decision too. The two balls in the photo are bombyx silk singles that I dyed for another project and the cones are tencel with the variegated silk (all that's left over from the warp) in front….just gonna have to weave a few picks of each before I can make the decision!

In the middle here too, these are the ‘geranium’ urns that we’ve tucked into the entranceway. I’ve anchored the little wire Christmas trees with bags of beach sand to keep them weighted so they don’t fly away in our rather gusty area of Vancouver Island and have just 3 tiny ornaments on each. The greenery was gleaned on our walks and really typifies the rain forest all around us.  We even had a bunch of small bulb white LED lights leftover to outline the door as Michael has switched over to those rather nostalgic multi-coloured big bulbs like we had in the '70s to do the roof line all around the house!  They make the house look so friendly!

I’ve been gearing up for Christmas baking; a rainy day is a good day to stay home and bake I think. Although we’ve only got the Christmas cakes done so far….I just loved the way this Pineapple Upside Down cake looks, it reminds me of 'Black-eyed Susan' flowers, so I thought I’d share a photo although the cake is loooong gone.

The plant of the week in my garden is the Lily of the Valley Shrub (Pieris japonica ‘Valley Rose’). This is an amazing shrub that looks great in every season. When I bought it last March the new leaves were hot pink and creamy white. Then they slowly turned green and now it’s setting the flowers which will bloom pearly white in a few months. There is a good reason why everyone has this in their garden here, it’s a real giver!