RE A LITTLE TENSION PROBLEM

The lovely scarf that I was so proud of crashed and burned off the loom last Thursday when I took it off and realised it had gaps in amongst the weft, sob sob.  I have thrown this problem into the UK Weavers group forum on Ravelry and received some very good advice.  It would seem that the problem was poor tension.  This occurred during warping.  Warping alone can be very complicated in that it is difficult to maintain correct tension when winding on and trying to hold the warp in one hand and wind on with the other.

Now I have been advised that to maintain good tension when warping alone I can tie some weights onto the warp and that will maintain the tension whilst I am winding on.  Now collecting milk bottles for the next project. 

If you are stuck on tips for weaving, the books are good but there is nothing like receiving help from people who have been there and made the same mistakes.  Weaving lessons are not an option for me as I dont have the money to spare to pay for them at this time in my life.  But free advice is brilliant on this group.

TUESDAY 22ND MARCH 2011

Feeling rather ashamed here of not having posted for ages.  No excuses other than life taking over as usual.  I cant believe its nearly a year since I started this blog.  The days seem to merge one into another. 

I am glad to see Spring is coming to Berrow again, the lovely flowers throughout the village are testimony to that and my beautiful Magnolia tree is out in blossom once again.

I am currently weaving a scarf on the Julia loom, using a four shaft, straight twill threading, with a hand dyed tencel warp and a hand dyed tencel  and merino weft.  The merino yarn is laceweight and was produced at Coldharbour Mill in Devon although I understand that they no longer have their mill shop on site due to flooding, it is being moved to Lynton on Exmoor, which is a shame as that is rather far for me to drive so hopefully they will post yarn if I wish to purchase any.

The hand dyed tencel came from Yarnstopia on Etsy and is gorgeous.  I have to admit that the tencel yarn does tend to wear as a warp yarn, perhaps rayon or silk would have been better.  I am using four picks of hand dyed tencel, and four picks of hand dyed merino.  It seems to be working quite well and I am fairly pleased with the results so far. Once its off the loom and washed then I can see how successful it has been.

I warped this up at 12 epi using a 12 dent reed. 

On the Minstrel wheel is some fairly coarse wool fleece that is a Border Leicester/Suffolk cross and was purchased locally.  I do seem to have quite a bit of this lurking in the garage, but I'm not confessing to anyone else about this.

This will be spun up for warp yarn and I am putting some extra twist into this to give it the strength it will need for warp.  I shall thread this up at 8epi using an 8 dent reed.

Here is one of the completed hanks.

 Then I will spin up some more with less twist for the weft.  I hope to hand dye some of the yarn to make cushion covers.  I am going to experiment with some drafts found on Handweaving.net and see how these come out.  If the wool is successful for warp yarn then I may spin up some more and have another go at doublewidth weaving. 

A little while ago I purchased Jennifer Moore's book on doubleweave.  Its a fascinating read and I did have one attempt at weaving a doublewidth throw in aran weight yarns.  It was amazing to watch the cloth grow and to see it bind together at one side but unfortunatley I did have quite a few skipped threads which meant that it didnt turn out to be very attractive.  I think a finer yarn may work better next time.

So thats all for today, and a final thought there are some great groups on Ravelry and some of the members of the UK weavers group have been amazingly patient with some odd questions I have put to them lately so dont be downhearted if your weaving goes astray or even if you just want to ask questions about it, free to join and good company, who could ask for more.

TUESDAY 15TH FEBRUARY

Its been a hectic time since my last posting.  After getting over the 'flu and nursing sick children I decided to re-enter the world of craft fairs.

The girls are getting older now and are much better at staying with a sitter for the weekend whilst Mum takes her shop on the road.

I have just spent the weekend at a local garden centre taking part in a craft fair in aid of  FreeWheelers motorbike charity.  Free Wheelers carry blood, x rays, breast milk etc for the NHS, free of charge between hospitals in emergency situations.  Obviously this takes a lot of money to run and so much fundraising has to be undertaken. 

The charity takes its funds from the prices paid for the stall space by the craft workers. 

It was well attended and I felt very pleased and surprised that many people were so interested in my items.  I took along a selection of my hand dyed fibres, yarns and handwoven and handknitted accessories. 

I also made some useful contacts including a wood turner who is going to be producing drop spindles for me so that they can be handpainted and sold in my shop. 

The next fair is due to be held in August and I am hoping also to do another one in December this year.

I will post dates and locations nearer the time.

Below is a selection of pictures of items from my online shop, there is a link to the right of the blog.

Have fibery fun people, its almost time for small people to return from school.

Sunday 9th January 2011

Firstly I would like to wish all fibre fanatics everywhere a very belated Happy New Year.  The Christmas season overtook me and the bad weather too has meant very limited time for posting.

As I write I am looking forward to trying out some new weaving patterns this year and have been wandering through my pile of Handwoven magazines for inspiration.  I should very much like to add a larger floor loom to my workroom this year, but must first work out the logistics here, especially with number one daughter using the sofa bed when she comes to stay, at present the Julia loom pushes easily aside but another loom may present problems.  I love the Julia loom but would like something with more width, currently being limited to 26 inches is a bit fustrating when wanting to weave larger items. Many visits to the Loom Exchange anticipated here.

My spinning consists of working through my stash of alpaca fibre and then using the yarn in my weaving and knitting.  I find that washing the fibre first works best for me as the dust from the unwashed fibre gets into my throat.

I am about to warp up my loom to weave a frilled scarf.  By using yarns that react differently to fulling, I am using merino and rayon in alternating stripes in the warp and merino and a small amount of rayon in the weft, when washed the scarf will "frill" up as the merino will full or shrink more than the rayon.  I shall try and remember to post photographs here.

I am looking forward to the evenings getting longer and lighter and the days becoming warmer so I can get some fibre dyed up to create some different colourways in my weaving.

Saturday 6th November

Finally the carpet has been laid in the workroom and the long dreaded clearout is finished.  My table, storage unit, sofa and loom have been moved into a better place which gives me more space to work.

I am now able to see, thanks to my new, clear storage boxes, my entire stash of yarns, equipment, books, patterns etc, all those essential items for creating.  I am now a very happy fibre bunny as there is even room for my spinning wheel so I can spin in peace away from the mad dogs.

So much of my time over the last two weeks has been taken up with sorting, and putting away my equipment and yarns.  Am I alone in the fact that I just didnt realise how much yarn I had?

As  Christmas looms ever closer I am spending most of my (limited) spare time in making presents for family and friends but at least it means the stash will go down as I have promised myself that one of my New Year resolutions will be to buy less wool this year - do I hear laughter? How many times do we all say that only to fall in love with the latest addition at the yarn store?

The clock change has meant that those longer, darker evenings are more encouraging to sit by the fire and knit, I dont find the t.v.all that inspiring most of the time.

My latest projects are using up some of my stash in designing some children's knitwear to sell online and as the new Alice Starmore Aran book has just come out I am attempting to knit myself one of the cardigans in there  using 5ply Guernsey yarn.

Frangipangi yarns in Cornwall are a great supplier of this type of yarn and I do believe that Wingham wool used to supply it but am not sure if they still do.

I have just completed knitting the men's fingerless gloves from a recent issue of the Knitter magazine which was a very easy project to complete and will make another present.

Do get in touch with pictures of your projects and comments, its good talk fibre!!

TUESDAY 19TH OCTOBER

The Autumn chill has descended in Berrow and despite the sunny days the wind off the sea has definitely lost its balmy feel.

My thoughts have turned to Christmas this week and the making of gifts for friends and family.  I have constructed a list and last weekend I cast on for two pairs of socks and some fingerless mittens as well as knitting the camouflage type hat for my fishing cousin, using the handspun falkland roving that I was spinning up last week.   It helped that Film 4 were running a Star Trek weekend so I was able to settle in front the t.v. with an endless supply of yarn, my favourite way to spend a Saturday afternoon in Autumn!

Our thoughts also turn to thick, cozy jumpers and accessories as well this time of year and I am pleased to see that cables are making a comeback in fashion at the moment as well as the colour grey.  I do happen to have a large stash of Gotland yarn in double knit thickness and am hoping to use that up with handknits for the online shop. 

If, like me, you enjoy getting something for nothing then take a look at http://www.elann.com/ where you will find a whole pile of free knitting patterns in some pretty amazing designs.  All you have to do is register your email address and details and the patterns are accessible as pdf downloads.  Also this week I came across Patons website, http://www.patonsyarns.com/ where again you can access a whole lot of free knitting patterns and they have some wonderful afghan patterns or throws to knit.  You can save these to your "hive" on the site and download or print them when you are ready, saving on ink of course.  If anyone else has links to free pattern websites then please feel free to list them here so everyone can benefit.  If any of the links above dont work, let me know and I will check the web addresses. 

The loom is silent this week as I am concentrating on knitting items for the shop and spinning up some gorgeous Bluefaced Leicester and Tussah silk roving hand dyed in lemons, blues and pinks and mauves that was a purchase on etsy.

Have a good week whatever you are doing and happy knitting.

TUESDAY 12TH OCTOBER

Forgive the long delay, again, life seems to have overtaken me.  My beautiful grand daughter was born on 5th October and all are well so now I can relax and enjoy being a grandmother.

Obviously a lot of my spare time has been taken up over the last months in making clothes for the new baby.  I am going to make a few more things for Christmas but now in bigger sizes as my daughter has been given so many clothes there will be no need to buy anything new for a long time to come. 

Consequently I have a lot of baby wool left over and began to think how I could use this up and decided to weave up some baby blankets using this.  I dont normally consider using acrylic fibres when weaving, I'm not sure if anyone out there does, do let me know.  However, I have warped up the loom using a four shaft, six treadle tie up which I found on the All Fiber Arts website, http://www.allfiberarts.com/ for a baby blanket.  I am using Sirdar Snuggly baby 4 ply yarn in a soft blue and the weft is a double knit acrylic yarn which graduates in colour throughout the ball.  The weaving is quick to grow and fast to warp up.  See pictures below.

It has made me realise that I have had rather a blinkered view of weaving todate.  I have always used silks, and natural fibres for my items, forgetting the vast range of man made fibres that are available to use.  And what if, like my son in law, you are allergic to wool?  It makes buying handmade items very difficult.  Also there is the question of cost.  In our current climate it is difficult to price up garments made from expensive materials.  One is caught between the two ends of wanting to make a profit out of ones hard work but at the same time wanting to sell items regularly.  So either the profit margin is very narrow or the time spent making the item is not taken into consideration in the final price.  So to use cheaper yarns doesnt necessarily mean that the finished item will not be just as lovely as if you had used the finest and most expensive of the natural yarns available.

This week I am spinning up some hand dyed Falkland wool tops from Mandacrafts called Autumn to make a knitted hat for my cousin who is a keen fisherman and wants something to blend in with the background! 

I purchased a turkish spindle recently from the Etsy site, it is handmade in beautiful woods and the two cross pieces are similar in colour to the Knitpicks wooden needles, those lovely multi coloured ones.  See picture below.  It is a dream to spin with and solves the problem of not being able to take my spinning wheel with me when I travel.  This is small enough to tuck inside my handbag. 

I am also using my Ashford Knitters loom to make some handwoven scarves and bag lengths for Christmas stock in my online shop.  Keep a look out for these as they will be fairly reasonably priced and I am hoping they wont be around for too long.

So lots going on here and I hope you all have a very good week whatever you are doing.