Week 12 (Finishing dressing the loom)

Weaver's log, Earthdate 04112013 
Today's mission was to figure out how I should redo yesterday's work, and I felt like Winnie the Pooh As I sat in the weaving basement thinking, but I came up with nothing. So I wrought a message in a weaving group on Facebook that I'm a member of, In hope that someone there knows an answer to my dilemma.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 05112013 
The first thing I did this morning was to see if I have gotten any answers and there where one telling me how I was too processed and then I tested out the numbers they worked so I went straight in and redid it, it only took me two hours to do even. After lunch, my lovely classmates helped me pull the warp on the beam which took four hours. It feels great that the ball is finally rolling and picking up speed. 

Weaver's log, Earthdate 06112013 
Today I have heddeld the loom in a 2/1 twill. 2/1 is the binding that has been the most common during my research about the wool sail. I am among those who believe that the sailcloth has been double used as tent cloth, seeing how much work it is in doing such a big piece of cloth. If this is not the case then I feel that the feel of the fabrics probably was close to each other anyway. 

Weaver's log, Earthdate 07112013 
The things I hade left to do on the warping where to heddle it and tie it to the front beam and the treadles. I hade made a bet with a classmate that I would be weaving after two but then it was then too to two I sent him an SMS that he won. At least I got done with the warping today.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 08112013 
The day where finally here then I put in the first inlay. The fun was soon interrupted by a not so fun part where I had missed a spot in the heddle so I hade to take it all up and fixed that, but it was no biggie. So now the project is really kicking in. I have calculated that I need to weave 316cm a week to get it done till the new year and it feels like that can be done. 

Weaver's log, Earthdate 09112013 
On today's agenda, I hade thought that I was to saw and work on my warp-weighted loom, but it didn't really go as planned as some old students came by so we spent the day together.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 10112013 
I have tried chakra singing today and I think it was really cool. Other than that I have sowed some on my baggy pants and I hope they will be done next week.

Week 11 (Dressing the loom starts)

Weaver's log, Earthdate 28102013 
Went back to school today, I did not bring any skins with me as planned, due to that I don't feel too good. But am sure that I will find work to do. On the way back we stopped at a home depot and I got the 20 and 25-millimeter drills I need to finish my loom, so now I don't have to walk to the one her in Sveg and that feel great as its quite the walk there. I also got a roll of pink ducktape they sold as a thing for the pink ribbon campaign.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 30102013 
Today I did some sewing on my baggy pants and it went great I got most pieces on them now I only have to wrinkle them and saw on the bits that keep them wrinkled at the ankles and waist. I also took a look at a hood that I draw out two years ago but after some thinking, I still couldn't get how I was thinking back then as I clearly have too little fabric left for it, maybe some have fallen out of the bag it was in or something.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 31102013
 I started the next step of the warping today still don't really get how it works but I hope we did the calculations right. 

Weaver's log, Earthdate 02112013 
I promised a friend some weeks ago that I were to bake her a chocolate cake on the break we hade this week and today she is coming back. So that is what I have been doing today baking a cake and I must admit that anything that has with food except eating is not one of the things I do so great at so I was quite nervous over the result of the cake. It turned out great, best one I have had if I can say so myself.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 03112013 
The first step to get the warp in the loom is to spread the threads out to the width you want your weave to be an evenly spread the threads this is also the step you add extra threads to the selvedges. Even thou the math is correct it's narrower then I want it to be. This I should have foreseen and am somewhat mad with my self that I didn't but, I guess we all do mistakes sometimes. So now I have to redo it all after I have found a way to do it.

Week 10 (SO MUCH YARN)

Weaver's log, Earthdate 21102013 
Monday again, I started the day by taking a long walk and got back for lunch. After lunch I carded up the last wool I hade to card. It felt great then I stowed the drum carder back in its box. But am not done yet with processing the wool. Have some to comb left but not much so this chapter of the story will soon be done and it feels great.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 22102013 
Today the first snow came but at 2 o'clock the snow turned in to rain and an hour later it was all goon. My yarn came yesterday afternoon but didn't notice until the staff left. So today I finally got to collect my packages from the reception, two big boxes and a package wrapped in paper. I and my teacher had a talk how to approach the next step in the project and I got assigned a loom, the loom that I will be using is called ¨3¨ and am sure you will see lots of pictures of it when I start weaving. The first of two weaves I will do in the floor loom is going to be the smaller of the two and, will be about 22 meters as I put it into the loom but the final product will be around the 19 meters.

 I started the weaving process by doing the first step, which is to put the yarn on huge bobbins so I can put it on a warpmill easier. My initial plan was on using two bobbins but after the first were full after about 700 grams of yarn I felt that I had to do it on three, then the second was filed with the new amount I needed over three I realized that the first one where just badly done and that I could easily have done it on two but I stuck with the new plan to use three. 

Weaver's log, Earthdate 23102013 
As I did not Finnish the bobbin yesterday I finished it today but did not start putting it on the warpmill as ones I start with that I can not stop for a longer time as the threads will lose their tension.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 24102013 
Today were the day that I took on the beast that is warping, starting after breakfast with only one 25min lunch break, I was done at 14:00. It went pretty smooth with only some problems and those problems were more frustrating than anything, counting wrong and thread running out on the bobbins things like that. I also went home to my mom today and it was great seeing The family agene.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 25102013 
Today I had a doctors appointment, and to not go into too many details I am happy with the result. The rest of the day I spent looking at couches with my mom and learned there is much more to it then I imagined.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 26102013 
I woke up today with a severe headache so my plans on working in the garden and going to the woods collecting heather went down the drain sadly as I could beryl move.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 27102013 
I feel better in the head today and that is good as I am to help bring in the sheep from there pasture today and give the ewes worm medicine. I love working with them, I love sheep and doing hard work that gets your pulse up.

Week 9 (Spinning, sickness and baggy pants)

Weaver's log, Earthdate 14102013 
Yet another Monday and what seems to an eternal task continuous e.g.. Carding and spinning. But I see the end or rather the bottom of the bag of wool now.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 15102013 
Nothing exciting to say about today's work. After dinner, I started to feel bad though, hope I will get better until tomorrow.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 16102013 
I am not better so am going to stay in bed and rest today.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 17102013 
Yet another day that has been confined to my room, think it's going in the right direction though.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 18102013
 I am not totally rid of my sickness but I have managed to card and be up all day today. I started to grow really sick of just lying in bed so am really happy that I could work today.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 19102013 
I woke up this morning with a smile on my face and the spirit of someone that's going to do great deeds, so today I cut out the pieces of my baggy pants. 

Weaver's log, Earthdate 20102013 Today I got a great deal of sewing done on the pants, so in a not too far future, they will be done.

Week 8 (Test hank from the spinnery)

Weaver's log, Earthdate 07102013 
The weeks feel like they fly by as I once again have spent the day in my tower room carding wool. At least that is what it's starting to feel like, a dark room in a tower and am the traped princes. Right before the writing of this entry, I read a mail from the spinnery, that said ¨we have started some test spinning and are ready to start production tomorrow, if you send us your address we can send you a test so you can say what you think¨. So now I just have to wait until she reads my replay tomorrow.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 08102013 
Today I got a real surprise as I walked into the cafeteria for my afternoon coffee and gleaned on the information whiteboard, it said that I had a package. Apparently, my contact sent the yarn to my teacher on Friday so I would get it fast. My Teacher and I had a meeting discussing the sample and came to the agreement that it was too loosely spun and to thin, and mailed the spinnery to tell them to do the adjustment.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 09102013 
The mail I got on Monday also told me that I needed to replace 20kg of wool. So today's thoughts have surrounded the Issue of where ever I should buy the warp from a retailer or let the spinnery spin it for me, this issue has eluded me ever sins I got the mail but now I feel I really need to get to a final decision. I couldn't decide on my own so I managed to get a meeting after school with my teacher. After a long and thought-full discussion, I came to the conclusion. That I should buy it from the retailer as even if I ordered the spinnery to spin it, it wouldn't get as sturdy as the sail sample I have been working after, as its warp is spun off the cover hairs and Gotlands sheep don't have the same cover hairs as the old Scandinavian sheep do.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 10102013 
The mission for the day was to call the retailer called Hedängens ull och garn. As I hate phones I were a little scared but the call went fine, the owner was really easy to talk to and she said she would ship it today.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 11102013 
Today am going home to my mom and brother over the weekend so not much work. Spun three bobbins, hang them up to even the twist and hade a class meeting.

Week 7 (Carding-machine and more on the pants)

Weaver's log, Earthdate 30092013 
Monday again and I got the usual stuff on my agenda, updating my blog, combing and spinning. I still haven't got any reply from the spinnery.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 01102013 
Can't believe its already October. Today I had one of those days when you don't want to do anything, So I stayed in bed almost all day researching about anything that came to my minded really. I almost forgot that my fabrics from eBay arrived with the mail but remembered just before dinner, so after it I walked into town and collected those. The first one I am really satisfied with, the other one had some plastic fibres in it so it sparkles but to get 3m of fabric for about 100sek is not bad. Hopefully, the sparkles will disappear with wear.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 02102013 
I have now capitulated, the combing is numbing my mind I talked to my mentor, and she will let me use the schools cardmachine. Its harder to operate then I thought but I am getting better at it and it's so much faster. 

                                                                   

Weaver's log, Earthed 03102013 
Today I took a break from the tent as the MNT class hade a ¨do what you want and finish stuff day¨ and one of they were sawing a dress in the building I have my workspace in, so I sowed my touille on her sewing machine when she was cutting her fabric. You have to fiddle some then putting them together. And its note-getting easier with so much fabric in each leg, about 180cm in each.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 04102013 
After some research on youtube on a card machine, I pre carded some wool as they did not seem to use raw wool, as I hade earlier. I also learned that the speed I operate the drum carder on is crucial for a good resulted so I now turn the crank a lot slower then I did previous. On the afternoon I went out on a hunt for roots from Galium boreale. This brought me even closer to the understanding of why the red fabric was so expensive. Walking along the railroad we found about one hand full of roots in the two hours we were out collecting.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 05102013 
I woke up today with plans to be in the woodshop all day, but as plans often do they changed. Instead, I and a friend went on a walk that lasted almost the whole day.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 06102013 
Today I did the work I were to do yesterday, I almost finished one beam holder in a day.