Worry over the width issue and school closing

Weaver's log, Earthdate 16032020
I wove 80cm today. With the power of math, I could do 120cm so I have set 100 as a goal for per day.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 17032020
The thought of the cloth be to thin for the garment I want it for is hunting me. So I brought out the tuille and sewed in a gusset so it is now closed at the bottom.

Wove another 50 today only, most probably to me being disheartened as I didn't see the sewing teacher until the end of the day so she could take a look on my tuille and the width issue. She thought it would be fin so I feel good about that. But she also told me that the school is now closed for all students due to the coronavirus which didn't feel too good. I will talk with the principle tough as I don't meet anyone then I sit mostly alone weaving.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 19032020
Had a meeting with the principal today and as long as I or my friend that some times weave at school don't have any symptoms we can weave. Wove another 47cm before I hade to leave for the day.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 20032020
Woke up this morning with an itchy throat so I have decided to stay at home for 14 days. Don't know what it is but better safe than sorrow.

Finish the analyse weave and start the broken twill after some problems

Weaver's log, Earthdate 09032020

Monday and work week again even though it doesn't feel like it as the sewing class is on internships this week. I plan to finish the 16 shaft first before I continue with the diamonds even though I am hyped about that at the moment. But the 16 shaft is needed for an exhibition at the beginning of April. As I wove I notice that the weave was crooked, you might be able to see it on this photo,

at some point the beater had jumped a peg forward on one side. To counter this I flipped so the one that hade jumped was in the right place and the one that was in the right place got in the wrong space. This helped me get it even again.

 
Ther are some fairly large windows in the classroom am in right now and it's not that big. So At the end of the day, I hade to move down to the larger weaving classroom and started sleying the broken diamond. I tried to use this little lamp I got for Christmas some years back from my dad to help me see the individual dents better so I didn't skip one, the only problem with it I didn't have too many places to put the magnet on so it only helped the first December or so.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 10032020
Now then I look at the pictures I have taken I realise that the tap says 68 and not 86 as it did from the perspective that I saw it from if you totally ignore the 70 above, I feel so stupid. With that said, I will now continue the entry of today. My goal for the pillow was 90 cm so I could do a Squier of 45 cm. I was so happy that the green ran out with only 4 centimetres left from my goal so I finished it with only blue, you can really see the difference mixing the colours did compare if I hade only done one.

Then I was done with the pillow I thought should experiment with different inlays. I started with using the same 8/2 cotton I have in the warp. I liked how it turned out a lot and I have a lot of warp left so I decided I will do another evolution from the original and do a towel. The warp was getting a bit to lose at points so I pushed in a stick under it but it slipped out so I tide it down.

The last few hours of the day I went down to the broken diamond for some more sleying. The warp started to go at un angel from the heddle and I realised I hade past the middle point of the reed but not the middle of my threads. Then it hit me that 7,5x2=15 so I clearly should have hade 2 threads per dent and not one. I can not to this day understand why I wrote down 1-1 on my draft as its so obviously wrong. So I hade to start over. Luckily it went a lot faster then you do to threads per dent, one could almost say it is twice as fast. At the end of the day I was back there I started and some more.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 11032020
It was quite easy to weave with the cotton, the biggest issue was to beat loser then I hade done up to this point as I want a soft towel and not a bord as my teacher should have said. It went so smooth that I finished it today right after lunch. It is always a special feeling to unwind a weave and its a good one.

Here are some images of all three cloths from both sides.

The rest of the day I Finished the sleying and did the front tie. I went with the knot on the top, one I did on the 16 shaft again. The biggest issue I have is that after some knots there are so many threads all over.

I know am a tad bias but this is just gorgeous

Weaver's log, Earthdate 12032020
Then I went to release the shafts this morning I noticed I hade done wee bobo, but I just loosened the rope on the shaft holder so it was not to bad. Then I started the test weaving I notest that some threads where loser then others. This is how that looks if you wounder.

So I started to retie them as I saw them. But in the end, I decided to redo them all and tighten them thread by thread, this took almost two hours and was a killer to my shoulders and fingers as I hade to hold everything super tight.

Then I was done I rolled the warp forward to do some more test weaving and instantly the middle sacked down. This broke my moral.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 13032020
During last night I remembered that the tie-on bar at the front has a bend to it and that might be the reason why it sacks in the middle. So Today I will start removing all the inlay I have put in and the sticks so I can have a clean start. I will also look for a stick that is straight this part was harder than I thought but I found a mostly straight one. I also didn't use all the strings from the beam this time leaving the outer once off. The first picture shows how much looser the middle was.

Then I went back to square one I started to pull out the warp from the middle knot by a knot from ether other side and about 3 threads at a time. I started from the middle to keep some rigidity in the weave.

I brushed the fuss to the middle to keep the inlay close to the threads I wanted to remove as loos as possible.

Then I hade this much left on each side I started to pull out the inlays instead.

This way I could bobbin it up a lot easier and it just didn't turn into a mess. This time everything looked good then I test wove. I hade problem to keep the width though and then I realised I Hade done one more miss on this weave. I hade counted the thread count on the finished width and not on the width I wanted in the reed. So The finished weave will be thinner then what I have calculated on the tuille I made earlier. One could fix this by warping some more and roll it up and then weigh it down to get the tension. But at this point, I was just sick of all the problems I hade the last few days that I just went with it. I also hade mist a dent apparently but as this is a weave that would have been done on a warp-weighted loom I don't care too much about it, my mom couldn't even spot it in the weave after I pointed it out to her.

The cloth looks amazing though.

Dressing the loom with the indigo warp

Weaver's log, Earthdate 02032020
Spring break week and am in school to get ahead of my work. Today I and my mom put what I needed to warp on the big kind of bobbins I used back on my tent, and mom made small yarn balls of the worst hanks of blue yarn for inlay. Mom got a bit hart broken then I said I was to unwind all of the yarn on the large bobbins tomorrow after spooling it up during a day. She has for a long time now wanted to get into weaving, so now she will see and not just hear what I do all day.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 03032020
One of the last things my teacher told me was that I should warp with four threads to get the uneven colour evenly spaced over the warp and make the weave flow real nice.

The warping went a lot faster then I expected, both of the tails were done to lunch. So I got the pre slaying done today as well as fitting it the loom and prep to put it in tomorrow morning.

I also made a big bunch of bobbin papers as we are running low and I want to have a lot at a time then I weave things this long, the warp is 9,85 meters.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 04032020
So I quickly realised that I would not be able to hold the two tails by my self so I drafted a friend for the other one and my mom were to do the sticks and turning the back beam. I was an interesting experience teaching two people that have almost no ide what whey did and should over a warp that is this long, but in the end, we got it all in. All in all, I think it took only a bit over 2 hours so not to bad.

I like to tie my warp threads in groups that are the same number as the repetition in the heddle order before I start to heddle. In this case, it was 12 and as I warped with 4 treads this would be super easy to group up. But I was to have two floating selvedge threads on each side so I hade to split some of the natural gropes and this made it take a bit longer.

But I got to the point that I could put back the shafts and add a lot of heddles. But then I hade to put on everything and tied the look strings I notice I hade to put on both the old fashioned style and the once with ladders and open hols,

at this point, I just felt screw it and I went home to start heddeling tomorrow.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 05032020
As I sat in the loom heddeling along drifting into thought. I sighed over that I will have to do the extremely tedious tredel pattern of broken diamond twill for over 8 meters. Then I looked down and thought hey I got a lot of treadles in this loom, counted them and the number of treadles in each repetition on the draft, and by chance or fate both equalled to 10. So super excited as I where I jumped out of the loom and altered my old draft to 10 treadles in weave point. It wasn't as easy as I thought so I

hade to fix some stuff but weave point does help with some stuff luckily.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 06032020
Today I didn't have to be alone in the weaving classroom as my friend that some time is here came by today, she was going to pre slay a weave, but for some time now we have only hade one hook to do it with, she thought I should have it as I was heddeling and she was pre slaying in a 30/3 reed or so so didn't need something that thin. But I kinda felt bad for holding on to it so I made her on using a paper clip and some tap to make it comfier.

The red string is to mark the middle so I can position the strings that go from the shafts to the lamms in the middle of the weave.

Dye 21 hanks in indigo and some madder as a bonus

Weaver's log, Earthdate 25022020
Weaving is going fast, so fast that yesterday I ran out of green which we have more of as its a common quality yarn, but today I ran out of the black and I don't know if we have more, as we ordered it from the Netherlands. Luckily I only hade to be stressed about it for about an hour until my teacher went to her office and I could ask her if we had more, and luckily we did. Son after I hade gotten my new spool of 28/2 something happened that surprised me. Out of nowhere as I released a tredel I herd a ka klonk, pushed it down again as I was confused and I got the same sound. What had happened was that the pin that holds the rod that holds the treadles had slipped out and the rod had wondered and fallen on the floor. Don't know how I accomplish this weird thing but somehow they seem to fallow me.

Then I attached the treadles again I realised that I never showed you how to fix if the treadles get caught on the strings, you simply tie them over like a bandage. I use rags for this as we have un abundance and they have some width to them.

Lastly today I started to prep hanks of Kampes Redgarn for dying as tomorrow I will dye a lot of yarn in indigo.

I will also do some in Krapp tomorrow as I figure I can have that on the hotplate and don't take to much care of it. Krap should soak for at least 12 hours then you have them in bits like this.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 26022020
After sitting in on the sewing class weekly meeting so I know whats going on, I went down to the basement. There was so much to be done that I didn't know where to start I felt quite overwhelmed by the task at hand. But after I hade been all over the place cleaning buckets getting hotplates, weigh ingredients. I stopped took a deep breath and calmed down focusing on one thing at a time. Once I gained my focus It all went a lot more smooth. I went with two buckets with the solution so I could do 6 hanks at a time, as my receipt said I could do 3 at a time and up to 10 total. One bucket got going a lot faster but sone the other one was going to.

The fumes of chlorine and the other stuff made me real dizzy so then I hade done one bath of all my hanks I finally went to lunch for my first brake of the day.

After lunch and some breathing as I almost fainted then I sat down in the break room. I went down and got all the ingredients again and put them in the old bath with the hot plate that I felt worked the best. My second dip for my yarn I started with the once I did last as they were the lightest in colour and ending with the once that went in first, this, in theory, would make them come out pretty close at the end. 3 of them got a third bath as they were a bit light. I also did two hanks of Möbel 8 that am planning to use in picture weaving they also got a third bath together with one a friend wanted me to do. Went it all was rinsed and hade some time in some acid water. This is a very important step as wool don't like basic solutions wich the indigo baths are, you need to neutralize it. Then all that was done it was 17.30, and I hadn't even cleaned most things.

Thought I would do that tomorrow as I didn't do the madder today, I was way busier then I thought I would be. Then I was done I sat down with my teacher and talked some, as she is going away for some week some and my classmate that weaves at school some time needed to talk throw some things so we know everything we need to know before that. Like what looms we should use for our next projects and such. I also talked about my evolved product from the fabric I analysed eg. The fabric I have woven in the 16 shaft loom. My initial thought was to do a clothing fabric for a coat. But as time is getting short I will not have time with that, so a compromise is in order. My teacher's idea was to do the pillow I were to do in the fabric you have seen in a different thicker quality of yarn, like the yarn brage from borgs vävgarner. So I said that Id brings my plant dyed stuff tomorrow.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 27022020
We both liked dark green and dark blue I hade, and we went over to the loom to see them with the warp. As they went in the same tone I thought to make it stripy with maybe 3 medallions then switch. But my teacher didn't like that ide, after some more thinking she lighted up and say this might be crazy but what if you do two green and one blue inlay. By now I have learned that what she says usually is a good idea so I just nodded to that ide. The rest of the day I spent in the basement doing the madder and cleaning everything from the indigo. At one point I forgot the madder for a bit too long and the temperature went over 70C which it shouldn't if you want the reddest of reds, my quick fix was to take a pitcher with cold water and put it in the bath.

This worked well. At the end of the day, I meet my teacher in the basement stairs with a sense of confusion in her voice about the red yarn. I then realised that I hadn't told her about me dyeing with madder, so I told her with a laugh what I hade done and she smiled.

Weaver's log, Earthdate 28022020
I am not sold on the ide of 2 green and one blue, but I'm sticking with it, again for the reason stated in yesterdays log my teacher usually is right and everyone else loves it so far.

Thes are the two reds I did and my friends one from the 3ed bath, they turned out beautifully and I can't wait to start telling a story with them.