Something new – or maybe very old

When I bought my Toika loom in 2006 in the last year of my weaving certificate course, it was advertised as having a a draw loom attachment.  Sure enough it had 4 levers along the front of the castle and a couple of brackets on either side, just one lever and one bracket shown here.

There were no instructions and despite emailing Toika and looking at various books, magazines and websites I could not find any explanations or anything similar.  All the draw looms were much more complicated and had provision for many more extra shafts.  I think I had been hoping to find someone who had a similar set up and that they would say that they had one the same and this was the way to make it work. 

A couple of years ago there was an article in VÄV (1/2013) about the reproduction of an old Gotland textile.  The author thought that it would have required 32 shafts but looms like that were not available when it was made.  She worked out that it had been made with a double harness loom with 4 ground shafts in front and 4 pattern shafts behind.  After re-reading the article a few times, I realised that this was the set up I had but didn’t get around to doing anything with it.  Then a weaving friend gave me a small bundle of what looked like tangled strings but on closer inspection turned out to be long eyed and long heddles – just what I needed to turn my loom into a double harness loom but still I didn’t feel ready to try it out. 

A few weeks ago there was discussion of double harness weaving on Facebook and just after that Weavolution started their annual Halloweave challenge where weavers are encouraged to do something different with their weaving during October.   It might be to weave every day, try a new technique or just to try something they have been putting off for far too long.  So I joined the Polo House – the Halloweave house just for weavers who, like Marco Polo, wanted to explore something new and I plunged in.  As I was not really sure how it would all turn out, I made a warp narrow enough to use just the heddles I had and used yarn that could be discarded without too much regret if it all turned into an unworkable tangle.

It turned out to be not nearly as difficult as I had expected.  The setting up was complicated especially for the first time but I expect it will become easier with time and the weaving itself was very straightforward with plenty of opportunity for spontaneous exploration.  I’d liken it to setting up a warp with a very complicated stripe pattern – once that’s done, the weaving is easy.  I’ve written about it in much more detail on Weavolution as louiseinoz here and here.

I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to explore double harness weaving further.  A proper draw loom isn’t even on the horizon at the moment but I know that with the set up I have, there are lots of other things I can do.  At the weekend I found a 4 shaft overshot pattern to use as a profile draft, made a couple of jigs to make more of the special heddles, made the heddles and wound a warp, burgundy 8/2 tencel, as I wanted to try something finer and wider, hence the need for more heddles.

The new warp is already wound on to the loom and half threaded - I wonder how it will turn out?

It must be Spring in Melbourne as I've started weaving in the garage again and for even more proof, here's my clematis in full bloom

 

Time to plan and play

The Royal GeelongShow is over for another year and while there are still plenty of projects on foot, there are no pressing deadlines at the moment, so it’s a good time to stop, tidy the studio, take stock(of the stash and the ideas) and think about what might be next.

I finished 2 of the 4 entries I had planned for the Geelong Show, so feeling a recurring theme here.  One was my first attempt at weaving with handspun.  I had a braid of wool, silk and angora bunny from Charley, spun finely and plied with some very fine silk.  The contrast was an 85/15 Merino/silk blend, again plied with the fine silk.

The yarns behaved perfectly, better than some store bought ones I have used.  There were no broken ends, shredded warps or other problems.  I used an advancing twill and there was a bit of a conflict between the stripes in the warp and the advancing twill.  In some lights the twill is hardly visible but when there is less light it just pops out. I'm not sure whether I should have spun the weft thicker, used it double or chosen a braid with less contrast in it - maybe a bit of all three.

The handle is great and the judges gave it a second prize and the E Marion Long Memorial Award for the best exhibit using a variety of colours – thanks Charley!

The other entry was a narrow silk scarf in huck lace.  I had a nice hank of mulberry silk, planned the warp and weft using the measurements on the label but at the last moment, just before I wound the warp decided I should do a rough measure – length of hank x number of ends.  Imagine my surprise when instead of the 1200 metres I thought I had, there were only about 550 metres.  It was back to the calculator, fortunately as the yarn was thicker I didn’t need so many ends to the inch and I ended up with some left over as I had made the warp a little on the short side.  Fortunately with the Toika loom there is only about 12 inches of waste at the end, or 12 inches minus the fringe.  

The judges liked this one too and it was awarded to Marjorie Donnan award for the best article using any natural fibre.  So a successful event all round and nice to see the Geelong Guild celebrating their past members

I’ve been making slow progress on my Weavolution Halloweave tapestry but got the colours selected at the weekend in daylight and I’m now 2 rows into the coloured part, but not showing up very well in this picture

I’m in the process of putting a warp for a cotton scarf on to the Toika loom.  The warp has been maturing in the stash since at least 1999 and cross has been mislaid along the way.  Next after restoring the cross, will be a run of tea towels for the next market, the last for the year and for Christmas presents.

I’ve also finished the backpack from leftover fabric, and got it into the mail today, that’s a good feeling.  I was surprised how much work there was getting all the straps, tags and pockets made but once that was done it went together very quickly.

Here’s a picture of the clematis flowering profusely on the back deck

Helen