My first complete weave of 2019

Last September our son had a significant birthday and I decided it was a significant event in my life too! Thus I decided to treat myself to Janet Phillip’s (1) book ‘Designing Woven Fabrics’ and that weaving the sample blanket from Part One of the book would be my winter project. 

This would be a good reason to get another warp on my Schadt Might Wolf 8 shaft floor loom. 

The aim being to weave a multi- sectioned sample blanket based on 2/2 Twill with 10 different threadings across the width and then 50 sets of 2” deep different treadling  variations  to give 500 patterns on the side I was looking at and virtually the same number on the reverse. ( I believe one horizontal  pattern is woven and then repeated by weaving  the ‘backside’ so to speak. So I would have 980 patterns). 

The suggested yarn in the book is 2/6 cotton but as I prefer to weave in wool I decided I would do the blanket in wool too. However, as it was suggested that the warp would be at 20 ends per inch I would clearly need finer wool than I would normally weave with. I needed 3 colours that I liked and where the warp and weft would have a good contrast so that I could see the pattern definition well. Fortunately I have a good stash of cones of wool so that was not a problem. My yarns 

I set up a narrow, short warp but used the 20 dent reed, which I had not used before and did a couple of trials to check that that all would work. Chiefly I was checking that  the yarn would not break and that when washed and pressed I could see the patterns well. This was useful but it would have been better with a wider warp. 

Sample

I was nervous about doing this blanket as it seemed complicated, but fortunately I had a friend who had finished her sample blanket and she lent it to me until I had got going with mine, it was a great confidence boost. 

I did seemingly endless calculations to check I had enough heddles on each half of each of the 4 shafts and  this involved adding more, borrowed from the 4 shafts not being used. 

For the weaving I used the following yarns: 

Knoll supersoft Wool 11.5/2 in natural, blue, green

The thinner natural used on the left of the warp -2/16 John Woodhead, Holmfirth- I have had this some time. 

I started making the warp at the end of November, but Christmas got in the way. I decided that I would wind each section (A-J ) separately and label them as this would make getting the warp onto the loom easier as there were a different number of warp threads in each section. On 27th December I was up to threading the reed. With this loom I thread the reed sitting at a table using a wonderful device my DH has made. I then add the reed to the loom  turning the reed 180 degrees and then tie the warp to the front beam. Threading the reed took a day- half before lunch and half after. 

I love this loom for lots of reasons, but one of them is the fact that I can remove the back beam and sit very close to the heddles. So with the warp through the reed, I can thread the heddles in the correct order without the need for a raddle or back cross. I have the loom arranged so I have a large window behind me, as I do this, and the daylight really helped. I had to spread this over a couple of days - I estimate 7 hours in total. 

The next job was relatively easy, it was tying the warp threads onto the back beam and then winding the warp on evenly. I am a big fan of Madelyn van dear Hooghly method given in her ‘Warping your looom’ dvd. I used lots of sticks to separate the long warp (5 m) and we had to stop, visit B and Q and wait for DH to make more. I think we had used some for tying  up plants in the garden. 

Once I was happy with this,  all that was left was to tie on to the front beam and get started with the actual weaving. Tying  on worked well although I did the final knots too soon! 

Janet P has more trial weaving before starting than I would normally do. I thought I had found the 2 or 3 crossed threads I had while doing plain weave but this was not the case and doing a sample of one of the repeats found some more, hence I should have not done the final tightening and knotting  of the warps until after that. I also liked the idea of putting in a different coloured thread across this sampling area,  I choose one of my hand dyed scarlet yarns. 

For the tie up I used  the 4 treadles on the left for the patterning and the 2 most on the right for plain weave. Later during the weaving I used the remaining 4 treadles too for the individual  shafts as this meant I did not have to change any of the  tie ups during the weaving. 

I tried to weave a couple of the horizontal pattern sections each day when I could.... we were trying to do some decorating during January too ! 

It was a lovely project to do as each horizontal pattern section presented me with 10 patterns and some were very unexpected. I kept detailed notes and made each horizontal section at least 2” deep, some were much deeper. If the pattern had a lot of picks then I did at least two repeats. 

So on 4 Feb I took the blanket of the loom. When washed and pressed the final piece  was 21 “ by about 9 ft. 

I am VERY pleased with it and have now photographed both sides so I can have all the patterns on my iPad. Janet herself says that she uses this all the time and spends much  time examining individual patterns. I am also doing this and lots of ‘what ifs’ keep filling my head. 

I have quite a bit of warp left and have decided to just play with changing weft colours and pattern combinations, although the book contains instructions for changing warp colours in this ‘spare’ warp. After this I am keen to do another fresh warp sample exploring different colour combinations and am having many ‘ what if’ thoughts along those lines. 

What I learnt that was unexpected:

A wide selvedge works well....I usually cut the cloth that I weave so, although I like neat edges, these are not my priority 

The wool I used made a very nice finished cloth

Spending weave time and warp (about 6 “) at the start before finally tying the front knots and before the weaving starts pays real dividends 

The usefulness of the ‘face mark’ thread

If you are wondering about trying this I would definitely suggest doing it, it has been a great first weaving project for the New Year. 

1. Janet Phillips is a weaver based in Somerset. She has been designing and weaving handwoven fabrics for over 30 years. She tutors a number of weaving courses, unfortunately I have not attended any of these but I do know people who have. They have found them inspirational and transformational for their weaving. www.janetphillips-weaving.co.uk

Revamping a Sixties Suit- Lessons Learnt

The March 2019 meeting of the wonderful Costume and Textile Association in Norwich (1) was advertised as a presentation by Meredith Towne (2), where we would be transported back to 60’s fashion and sewing clothes of the era in ‘Sewing the Sixties’. 

To me that meant Crimplene ! (3) I had several years previously bought a royal blue and a white Crimplene suit from a Vintage Shop for £10 as I loved the texture. It was a size 20 and so needed some adjustment to fit my size 10/12 frame.(4) 

I had previously tweaked a blue faux suede belt and changed the buckle to a vintage white plastic to match the suit. I knew I needed to reduce the width of the white lapels. Then it languished in the drawer for a couple of years until I saw the presentation advertised when I decided I would complete the transformation and  wear this for the afternoon. 

I took the sides of the skirt in, this was not as easy as it sounds as I needed to match the horizontal ‘stripes’. 

The best part of it was the fact that no neatening was needed as it was Crimplene. Once the skirted fitted, rather than fall down, the length was good. 

Then I came to the jacket. The Crimplene is quite thin and so my way of making it fit my top half, was to pleat/ gather round the waist with the belt. This gave a nice profile and a sort of peplum effect. It gave shape where non existed before. 

The lapels were massive, projecting 4.5 inches (using inches as it was the Sixties) more than can be seen  on the finished suit. This area needed some seam unpicking, careful tacking and then stitching. I used  a slight zigzag stitch as this would avoid puckering in the finished seam. 

The jacket looked good when on my body duplicate. I discussed the suit with a friend and she immediately suggested that we swap the navy buttons down the front for white ones. This was a great  idea and we spent about  an hour searching through my button tins (note the ‘s’) and the buttons I liked best were 3 square ones which seemed more suitable than the ones there originally. 

The left buttons are the original ones, the white were their replacement. 

Then we needed to find a matching pair of buttons for the sleeve cuffs. 

The sleeves were designed to turn back and be buttoned, but the overlocking at the base of the cuff showed. I decided that I would have the cuff ‘normal’ and not turned back. I could leave the buttons as navy or use the smaller black ones on the right of the picture above. I liked these as they had more character but were not perfect. 

I decided to be bold and go for red for cuff buttons, I loved the detail of the surface of the button as this complimented the texture of the suit. I would then wear red patent shoes and take a red handbag. 

I thought the jacket was finished before Sue and I met but now this was looking so much better.

However, there was a potential disaster, I noticed that there were 4 buttons on the front not 3  as I had thought. I only had 3 white ones. We had spent over an hour finding these and there certainly wasn’t another one. In a strange way I like these sort of challenges. The bottom line was I could take  off the three white buttons and replace them with the navy ones again. I was not keen to do this as the white buttons were just right. I decided to make a bold move. I had another related red button, slightly larger, and I would put this on the front of the jacket as the first button, in pride of place and leave the 3 square white ones which I liked a lot. 

However, after a couple of hours reflection this did not look quite right. I had 3 other red buttons so the obvious thing to do was add red buttons down the front, but two of these had been stitched on the cuffs with super strong good stitching! 

I had seen a couple of lovely glass black buttons whilst searching for white ones, now I needed to look for these again as they would work on the cuffs, I hoped. I managed to find them.  (Note to self, sort out all the buttons into colour coded containers, just as my yarn stash is sorted and it is easy to find what I want.) 

Then it was time to remove the cuff buttons, which seemed to take an age; then to stitch on 5 more buttons.  in all another hour did the trick. 

This is the result. 

I found some navy gloves of the period in my glove box and really felt great as I went to the meeting. 

I will definitely wear this outfit again, complete with knitted red wool ear rings! 

I learnt a lot, the main things are:

Be bold

Don’t stop the revamping until you are ‘in love’ with the result

Organise the button collection by colour- it will save time in the future

...and I won’t include the obvious....concentrate on the detail....as this is probably rule one for me in sewing. 

Notes:

1. The Costume and Textile Association (www.ctacostume.org.uk) promotes the unique costumes and textiles of our city, Norwich. It organises a  great programme of talks, workshops and visits and it is a great place to meet fellow textile enthusiasts. 
2. Meredith Towne (www.meredithtowne.co.uk) is a dressmaker and costume historian who does brilliant talks accompanied by costumes and other related items of the period. 
3. Crimplene is a type of bulked polyester fibre, it could look thick but weighs little. It was patented in 1959 by a Cheshire Firm and mainly produced in Leek. The fabric was very popular in the 1960’s as at first it seemed the ideal synthetic fabric - no fraying when sewing, drip dry, no ironing, no creases. It was mainly a knit rather than woven fabric. It was popular for the decade and was replaced by lighter (still polyester) fabrics which had more breathability. Some of us still have Crimplene fabric from that period. 
4. A 1960’s size 20 suit which measured 39” across the bust and 44” across the hips. I am size 10 with hips perhaps a little larger! 

 

Shetland Wool Week 18: Day 26-28 : Aberdeen to Norfolk

Thurs 4 - Sat 6 Oct

We got up, on the ferry, early even for us (5.00) so we could have a relaxed breakfast in the lounge and be ready to go down to the van and drive straight off and on our journey. We were at the front of the car deck and thought we would be first or second off the ferry. We had both slept quite well and were anticipating fairly quiet roads initially. We like to stop at Glendoick which has a large garden centre and nice cafe and is just off the A90.  The aim was to be there for opening time at 9.00 without rushing things. 

True to prediction this worked well and we had a good stop, sitting looking over the garden and noticing how much more autumnal the trees were looking compared to the journey up. I then took over driving and our next stop was to be Cairn Lodge at Harpenden. This used to be rather run down but has been taken over by the Westmorland Group that run the independent motorway services at Tebay on the M6 Northbound. This one is having a makeover and is already a huge improvement. The rest of the journey was uneventful, I tried to do the Times crossword while M drove. We were booked into Hoddam Hall, a campsite we have only just discovered. It is a nice site and is very spacious, with a bar serving food  which is OK. However we decided to cook our own  and enjoyed a nice meal of salmon brought down from Shetland. This was the longest leg of the journey. 

A view from the van at Hoddam Hall

It was a very wet night but there was no wind and it was quite mild. I had not slept well, but we were only driving down to Clumber Park so we could afford to take things slowly. The rain stayed with us all the way down the M74. Today we had our second breakfast at Rheghed and then as always looked forward to the journey over the A66, which rarely disappoints with the spectacular and varied views across. However today it was not at its best due to heavy rain, and at times it was decidedly  unpleasant with the spray from the lorries. We  decided to stop at Bowes Museum towards the east end of the A66, and as we left the rain had stopped. Again it was west side of the country wet, east side dry, something we have been very aware of having lived on the wet side in Cheshire for several years and now returned to the drier east side. 

We were glad that it was dry driving down the A1 to Clumber Park. We noticed that Fish and Chips was an option for dinner and we decided that would be good. The day had turned out to be more tiring than anticipated due to the poor weather conditions. We did well with the crossword that day doing all but two clues. 

A view from the van at Clumber Park (actually taken in April! ) 

And so onto the last leg of our journey home. We had covered about 2000 miles in all over the 28 days. We were keen to get off early, it was wet again and not at all pleasant. We had a stop at Cambridge services, a nice croissant and coffee but a silly high price. It did the job though and we then carried on in the rain and got in by 12.00. We emptied the van straight away as even heavier rain was forecast. It had been a wonderful holiday but it was nice to be home. 

As might be  predicted we slept well that night. 

It is now under a year until we hope to undertake the wonderfully memorable experience again. 

 

Shetland Wool Week Day 24 and 25: An Extra Day

Tues 2 Oct and Wed 3 Oct 

We were to leave on the Tuesday evening ferry however as it was forecast to be gale conditions we swapped to the Wednesday. We were surprised, the lovely lady at the ferry  terminal was so sure it would be calmer then.  It didn’t take any persuading to have an extra day in such a wonderful place. So my last minute ‘Textile’ shopping could be spread over two days.

Tuesday was windy and we decided to use the morning as part of the shopping day and for the rest of the day I read and enjoyed myself doing more fine lace knitting of the Dunella Scarf. I had hardly touched this since Wool Week proper had started and after so many days with so many activities a rest day before the drive back to Norfolk was good. 

We did manage lunch in Hay’s Dock, such a beautiful place to sit and look out to sea. This turned out to be our last lunch ever there as it was closed later in the year as unfortunately it was not making a profit. A sad loss for Lerwick and Wool Week. However, I do understand and there are now many more lovely places to eat in town than there used to be. 

It was a windy night as we went to bed and we parked the van in the lee of the building. After midnight the wind dropped considerably, so perhaps Wed  night would be much calmer. 

We do get fantastic views from our mainland ‘home’, this is a couple  of them on the day we were leaving 

 Wonderful Reflections

The skies are pretty spectacular too

On Wednesday we treated ourselves to our last second breakfast at Mackenzie’s for the year. I wondered how I would break myself of this habit once home! I completed the textile shopping in Lerwick, buying some coned machine yarn form Jamieson and Smiths and had a lovely coffee in the Dowry.

I just love this ‘knitting’ Tote from Jamieson’s shop which I also visited: 

To stop us feeling too sad we decided to go somewhere ‘new to us’. Chris Dyer had pointed out some places on mainland to M when he was on the Croft trip. We decided to investigate the Lerwick one and drove down sea road until it looked interesting.

So close to town and so different. We had lunch there and it was  a lovely way to end the holiday. The only problem was I took no photos. Once at the ferry terminal we were through to the holding yard and on the ferry fairly soon- we are often nearly the last on. We knew nobody in the lounge, which was unusual but rather nice. The crossing was calm and neither of us even heard the clanking that accompanies the stop in Kirkwall. 3 days of travelling through Scotland and England and we would be home. 

Shetland Wool Week 18: Day 23: Machine Knitting and the Scalloway Hotel

Mon 1 Oct 

When I was in Shetland in the summer, I visited Anne Eunson so that we could have a ‘play day with knitting machines’. I have had one of my knitting machines, a Brother 830,  24 stitch  punchcard with 850 ribber, for many years. It was bought new  in, I think 1974, and has been used ever since. (It has also been joined by many accessories and some other machines but that is a long story for another time). Anne is currently using 2 electronic Brother machines, but has at least one other and also first used knitting machines some time ago! I believe she did have a period of knitting as a  paid job. 

So we have a love of machine knitting in common and we both have Brother knitting machines. We had a great day together in the summer learning from each other but a day went too quickly and so the Monday after wool week was to be another ‘play day’. However, I was quite tired from the week and Anne must have been more tired as she had run several workshops, I had only attended workshops. 

We only had 2 possible days left to have our wonderful second breakfast at Mackenzies, so this was our first stop. Anne was coming into Lerwick early so it seemed a good opportunity to meet up at the Dowry for a coffee.  M joined us and was then planning a free day which was to include visiting some of his favourite spots and looking at birds I guessed. We would then all meet up at the Scalloway Hotel for dinner.  

All went to plan and we stretched our minds getting our heads around the different types of double jacquard and investigating the best yarns to use to get the finishes we desired. (1) We did stop for a quick lunch but kept thinking of other things to try. By the end of the day Ann had started experimenting with  yarns for a skirt and I was working out alternative stitch combinations  for another jacket. 

Some of my samples

Anne’s knitting machine

All too soon it was time to pack up and head for Scalloway. It was wet and the wind was getting up. As we met M he wondered why I had not picked up the endless texts and emails he had sent. I had only used my iPad for taking photos of stages in our machine knitting and I had left my phone in the hall. It turned out M had made contact with NorthLink  about  our ferry booking to mainland the following evening as they predicted it was going to be very stormy. Due to lack of any communication with me he had provisionally booked us onto the ferry on Wednesday as they were able to take the van as well. So we were to get an extra day in Shetland again. (We had had 3 extra days last October as the van could not be fitted on when we had also changed the booking due to bad weather). We would need to go to NorthLink in the morning and make a decision about what to do. 

The meal at the Scalloway Hotel was very good indeed. We had not eaten there before but decided this would definitely be a place to add to the 2019 visit. Besides enjoying the food it was good to talk about ‘things Shetland’ in general. It was lovely to have a quick word with the Fruity Knitting team of Andrea and Andrew who were also eating there although none of us got our knitting out. (Well if anyone did I was obviously talking too much to notice! ) 

By the time we left, it was very wet and by the time we got to bed the wind was getting very strong too. 

(1) By some people Fair Isle Knitting is referred to as Jacquard Knitting. In machine knitting there are two types of Jacquard Knititng, neither of which is Fair Isle Knitting. In both cases two rows are knitted in one colour and then two rows in another colour. A colour changer additional fitment  is not essential but is the sensible practical way to do this if knitting more than a sample. There are no floats on the back of the knitting. The pattern is selected by the punchcard  or electronically. 

Single Bed Jacquard is the equivalent of mosaic or maze knitting in hand knitting. It gives a lovely finish.

The pink jacket that I wore at SWW this year was completed with this technique. I will write more about it when this Shetland Journal is complete. 

This is a sample 

Front                                                                  Back 

                         

Double Bed Jacquard uses the ribber  as well as the main bed of the knitting machine. Essentially any floats are trapped between the two layers of knitting. There are a number of choices for the back of the knitting, some depending on the machine used. Choosing the correct, quite fine fibre is a major key to the success of the overall finish. 

It is not surprising that many ‘home knitters’ do not use this technique. Done well it is lovely but there can be a number of pitfalls. It is quite difficult and time consuming but worth the effort, in my opinion. 

This is a sample of embossed jacquard  using any yarns I could find, but I love the design as it is. 

Shetland Wool Week 2018: Day 22: Sunday Teas and Eshaness

Sunday 30 Sept 

The last Sunday of wool week is always one of my favourites, as the Shetland Guild of Weavers, Spinners, Knitters and Dyers put on a Sunday Tea. 

However, I was distracted this morning as I had got something in my eye and was unable to concentrate on thinking about anything other than my eye.

I tried having a shower, washing out my eye and using eye drops but nothing was going to work.  M had told me there was quite a large spike that looked like grass in my eye but he had been unable to remove it. So after breakfast we decided that A and E was the place to go, but wondered what our son (an A and E consultant in England) would say!  

We parked easily at the hospital and noticed there was no ambulance queue, which is normal in England. M took another look at my eye and said the spike was near the corner and he thought he could get it, which he did. Hurrah, no A and E needed and no need to tell my son I had  been to A and E in Lerwick. We then picked up a few provisions in Tesco as we were driving past and went to Mareel  for a congratulatory coffee and croissant. 

We decided we would drive on to Brae slowly and be there in time to get ourselves some lunch in the van before the Tea and Exhibition opened.

It was a good day for Rainbows as we were driving over to Brae

There were two other events close by so we thought parking might be at a premium. 

We got one of the remaining parking spots at the Hall. I chatted to Eve as she had arrived well before us and at 14.00 we went in. 

It is a lovely that there is a display of members work and the chances are the makers  will be there so you can talk to them, or watch them demonstrating spinning or knitting and even possibly buy one of their items.  

Kathleen Anderson’s lovely fine lace shaped shawl

I think this is a Pearl Johnson’s, just look at that rib.

There is a short video on my Facebook page taken at the Tea,  you can see me wearing my ‘wool week’ jacket and of course talking about knitting.(1)

It was a lovely afternoon and I did lots of close looking, talking to Wool Week friends and to members of the Guild which is very special.   Providing the food for the tea and managing the giving out of the tea is a serious undertaking and both the drinks and food were constantly being refreshed. It is an amazing extra burden on the Guild, many of whom would have been involved in classes during the week. It is a wonderful end to the week. As always we were some of the last to leave - too much talking M would say! 

It was getting very blustery. We decided we would treat ourselves to Frankie's Fish and chips for an early supper. First we thought we would take the opportunity to drive over to Eshaness and see what the sea was looking like there. It is a beautiful drive  over  and as soon as we could see the sea, it was clear it would be a dramatic experience. I took lots of photos, firstly with the iPad and then with my ‘real‘ camera, but all from the comfort of the van. 

Very atmospheric

As we turned to begin the journey back to Frankie's, we were so pleased that we had decided to visit Eshaness and saw one or two more couples from wool week who had decided to ‘take a look’ too. 

What a wonderful end to Wool Week this was.  However, we had two more days left and I had a special day planned for Monday. 

(1) I can’t copy the link due to my lack of technical skills, but I posted it on my Facebook  page on 1 Oct  18 

Shetland Wool Week: Day 21: Maker’s Market and Removing the Weaving from the Warp Weighted Loom

Sat 29 Sept 

Last night had been very wet and windy and we were glad to be snug in our little abode, but did spare some thoughts for those travelling back on the ferry. It was likely to have been a little choppy. 

Mackenzie’s did not open until 9.00 as it was Saturday but we were there and waiting for our second breakfast,  before travelling into Lerwick for some provisions. Then it was on to the High School, which was the venue for the Maker’s Market. This seemed  a good choice as there was ample room for parking and the market was more spacious and thus less crowded than last year, which had felt a bit like a scrum. 

It was nice to meet up and say goodbye to some wool week friends who were returning home tonight. I had not planned on any large purchases this year, but was tempted  by a few items as always. I particularly liked these buttons, which are about an inch in diameter: 

It was great to talk to Bunchy who runs the Natural Dye business Spindrift Crafts. I ‘follow’ her on Facebook and we have fairly frequent chats so it was especially good to put a name to a face and have a real conversation. 

This is some of her blue dyed yarn, indigo plus lady’s mantle and marigold, and such a lovely colour. She dyes Shetland jumper weight yarn and also lace weight yarn so her colours can be used in many projects. 

The parents were serving refreshments and again  it was good to see more of the school. 

Somebody on high was keeping watch! 

It was also impressive to see the list of activities supported by the parents through such fund raising activities as this.

We decided that lunch in Hoswick would be a great idea. Lunch in Hoswick is always a good idea in Wool Week and we guessed today would be our last chance. There were still classes going on and I quietly removed my weaving from the loom and hope I did not disturb Austin’s class too much.(1) 

We were having another quiet night, I still had two more days of activity left  before the journey home began. 

(1) Austin is a great photographer and I have attended one of his workshops in Wool Week. Well worth doing if you are are interested in taking photographs of your work or the landscape. You can see more of his work at http://www.austintaylorphotography.com/