Beth Smith's Blog, page 16

Getting Ready to Travel

In September of 2011 I went on a search for a large suitcase that would be large enough to hold my Schacht Sidekick. I also wanted to be able to put a lot of fiber in it and I wanted it to be sturdy so that I could check the bag on airplanes and not worry too much about my wheel being damaged.

Since then, my silver suitcase has traveled far and wide, and also often. Currently it has a crack in one corner and the wheels don’t turn very well. I’ve been worried for a few months if the next trip would be the one where it gives out. And on the last trip the zipper started to open up – not where it was supposed to. That was the last straw, The suitcase search began again.

The good thing was I didn’t have to take my spinning wheel with me this time. I knew what size the bag needed to be to fit. Another good thing is that in the last 5 years hard side suitcases have gotten stronger and lighter. I began the search locally and was lucky to find a couple of matching sutcases in a color that I love. Samsonite. The same band os the last one since it seemed to do pretty well for a lot of trips.

Then came the next issue. Carry on bags. I don’t like to check my samples. I know it sounds weird that I’m willing to check my spinning wheel but not my swatches and yarns. The thing is, I can somewhat easily replace the wheel but those samples took years to make and to replace them would be a ton of work. I have a wheeled bag that is small enough for overhead in a plane and I have several shoulder bags that I’ve been using but none of the shoulder bags have satisfied what I’ve been looking for.

At least 2 years ago I came across a bag that I really wanted. I mean, really. It was on the Tom Bihn website. It was more than I wanted to spend so I chose a different bag from a different maker instead. That one wasn’t my favorite so I bought a different one a few months later. That one wasn’t right so I bought yet another bag. Let me just say that I should have jsut gone with my gut in the first place. I have finally given in and spent the money. When traveling plenty, I have found over the last few years, that investing in good accessories that make me feel comfortable is important.

I believe between the 4 bags I now have, everything will fit comfortably and I will be satisfied for a moment. I’ll get back to you if I change my mind. I leave for Boulder Colorado in a little over a week and so 3 of them will be having their maiden voyage and so that’s going to be the real test.

If you want to know where I’ll be and you want to come and take a class with me I have dates and places on my classes page on this website. If you have questions or want to schedule me to come and see you, let me know!

Grammy

At Christmas I miss my Grandmother a lot. She was bossy and opinionated. But she loved us and she could make anything. Just from seeing a picture of it. As far as I know, she always worked in a dress factory. I do know she worked in a dress factory while I was growing up until she retired. Her last position there was as a pattern maker.

As an aside, during my whole life, my mom was a dressmaker and she worked out of our home. She made a ton of wedding dresses – just from magazine pictures.

Anyway, back to Grammy.

She taught me to crochet and knit and paint ceramics. She always wanted me to learn to quilt but quilting scared me. When you make a dress, everything has a place. The sleeve goes in the armhole and the collar goes at the neck. In quilting, I couldn’t figure out how you would know where to put all of the pieces that looked the same.

After I moved from Pennsylvania to Michigan in 1999 I took some quilting classes. When I came home and showed her the quilts I had made she was very dissappointed I had taken so long to get on the quilt bandwagon. But she was so proud and impressed when I learned to spin and started using my own yarn.

Grammy always told me that when you die the only thing you take with me is what you learn so it’s important to learn all you can. She continued to try things and learn new stuff into her 80’s.

I don’t have very many things that she made but when I was putting away the Christmas decorations I came across this little doll. Of course she didn’t make the doll but she did make the little dress. The dress and bonnet are crocheted right onto the doll. I remember watching her do it with some tiny crochet thread and a tiny crochet hook.

I have no idea how she did it. I was in awe. She gave me the doll and I’ve had her ever since.

This is the other thing I have that she made.

This was a styrofoam egg that she crocheted over. Again, I have no idea how it is done but I’ll keep it forever. Maybe someday I’ll learn how to do it.

My Grammy died 7 years ago on the day before my birthday. She was 85. She was always such a big part of my life and I expect I’ll always miss her and her bossy pants ways. I’m glad I have this tiny doll and Easter Egg from her.

Boulder Colorado

I found out yesterday that there are spots available in my Boulder Colorado classes. You don’t have to be a member of the Handweaver’s Guild to go! The classes are being held at Shuttles Spindles and Skeins. Here’s the link to register.  http://www.handweaversofboulder.org/e...

Please come!

It is the Week Before Christmas

You would think I am feeling calm. I’m done all the shopping. The gifts are wrapped and under the tree. I even have the white elephant gifts for that game my mom always has at the family party.

Yes, I’m ready for Christmas.

What I’m not ready for is to leave my work behind. So I’m scrambling to have everything done in the next 3 days…well, 2 days cause Sunday doesn’t count. There may be a little screaming going on in my head.

Also, the movie theater in town is showing It’s a Wonderful Life and Polar Express tomorrow. So if I want to go to those – and I promised Ryan I’d take him to Polar Express – I need to get my butt in gear.

Do you think I can make it?

I could see It’s a Wonderful Life tonight at 7 and then Polar Express with Ryan tomorrow at 2. That a

ctually might take a little pressure off because, let’s face it, I lose all momentum around 4 PM and never get much work done after dinner.

Here’s my list for today which will probably spill into tomorrow.

Blog Post
Breakfast with a friend
update the fleeces spreadsheet so I can plan what to wash the first week of January
check the loom threading for the next skirt fabric. (Corriedale)
spin all samples (at least 4) for the Ply Bulky Issue article
Sew the skirt and get it in the mail for Amy to dye.

If I can get those 6 things done before the end of Saturday I will feel ok.

Send me good vibes. Because, also, we’re out of Nog!

Anyway, In case you are worried about my Christmas knitting project, I finished this yarn for my first pair ever of handspun socks. We shall see what happens.

Because of some experienced sock knitters I did throw the skein through the wheel again for a tiny bit more twist.

I’ll keep you posted. Send me good vibes.

Also, now I can check the first thing off my list and it’s not even 7AM! woohoo!

 

The Barber Pole – Why I love it.

I’ve been thinking lately about things that spinners hate and try to avoid. Barber poling is one of those things. It’s sort of like the whole pooling thing with many knitters. Spinners will try to avoid the barber pole at all costs.

For those of you who don’t know, barber poling is what happens when you are plying and two different solid colors wrap around each other.

I think it gets a bad wrap though – get it? bad wrap? I crack myself up.

Hers’ the thing, as I said in my Ply post last week, yarn is not a finished object. For this reason I try not to make any final judgements about my yarn until it’s been used in a fabric. Today I have an example for you.

A long time ago I

spun a four ounce bit of Blue Faced Leicester fiber that had been dyed by Amy King. This is a photo of what a progression dye that Amy does looks like. It’s one that I’m thinking of adding to my cart. (Feel free to save me from that.) I made the yarn for an article or a class or something I can’t remember now. Last week I needed a bit of yarn to knit something during a long wait I would have at the hospital. I dug around in my stash and pulled out that skein.

Sadly I don’t have a photo of the original fiber but here’s what the yarn looked like all wound up. 342 yards.

I wanted a two ply yarn that kept the colors in the order they were. I wanted it to be able to be knit into a project that would change color like the fiber did. So, I split the fiber in half down the center as close to even as I could get. Then I made the singles, spinning both halves beginning with the same end. Then I plied it.

Of course when you do that there is no way that the singles will match exactly. That’s when the barber poling happens and it happens between evey color change and sometimes it’s longer than others. Look closely at the picture and you can see it. It makes some spinners crazy!

So I began knitting the Wings on a Cloud shawl/scarf. I had a little less than the pattern calls for but I decided to just go for it. It’s another easy knit that turns out beautifully if you are still looking for one last thing for a gift.

OK, back to the barber poling. Here’s the benefit. Look at this photo. See how there is that lovely transition from color to color? See how the lines aren’t sharp? Let’s look closer.

The barber poling is not obvious. But look at those beautiful smooth transitions.

This rambling is really to say, before you make a decision about whether or not you like something in your yarn, at least make a swatch and see how it acts or looks.  This same barber poling, if used in an entire fabric, knit or woven, will make a fantastic tweedy look.

Use your yarn. It’s good for your soul.

Casting On

I have had an issue for the last couple of months and it all came clear a couple of weeks ago when I was going to my first University of Michigan Hockey game of the season.

I like to knit at the games. I don’t like to knit things that are too complicated or too big. Before the game I went looking for an in progress project. Well, there’s a shadow knitting thing that I started about 10 years ago. There’s a Fair Isle sweater I started before that and was advised to rip it out and start over by Janine Bajus. There’s a lace shawl by Romi that is newer but not great for knitting in a crowd. And another shawl that I have struggled with for the last 8 years because I’m trying to fix it without ripping it completely out – which I am seeing isn’t a solution that will work.

None of that would do and I was out of time so I went without a project. It was a very sad game. even though Michigan won.

This past Friday was another game and I wanted to knit something with handspun yarn – since I have very little mill spun on hand. Much of what I have is in small amounts but I found a skein with 300 yards! so i went hunting for a pattern on Ravelry and found one. One of the things I love about Ravelry pattern searching is the ability to search by yardage and yarn weight and nothing else.

Anyway, stop worrying, I now have a new knitting project! It’s by Amy King.

It’s pretty and even though it’s simple to knit it will be beautiful and warm to wear. If you aren;t familiar with Amy King’s Designs, check them out on Ravelry.

The fiber thae yarn was made from was dyed by David at Southern Cross Fibre in case you are wondering.

Also, don’t worry, the weaving continues. It’s just not a thing that can go to a hockey game.

Anybody else have a project issue?

 

 

October Travels

Every year October seems to be crazy busy for me. Usually it’s because of Rhinebeck. This year wasn;t much different but I wasn’t teaching at Rhinebeck. I went as a festival goer and did a book signing on both afternoons.

This year’s trip was longer than ever. I was away from home for two full weeks. Some of it was work and some of it was fun. I picked up my mom on the way to New York and she and I did a little sight seeing before the festival.

When I first got to my parents’ house I realized there was a hole in my Jacob sweater. I had no yarn that was the right color to fix it so I used my newly polished embroidery skills.

Hyde Park and Poughkeepsie are great places to visit. I love history and so I love touring historic homes. We saw the Vanderbilt Mansion, the Roosevelt houses and Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential library.

Did you know that Eleanor had a lot of small businesses that helped put Hyde Park people to work? This was before Franklin implemented all of those programs to get the country back to work. It was sort of like a little experiment. There was even a textile branch where cloth was hand woven and made into suits!

Also, in Poughkeepsie is the longest pedestrian walkway in the world. It is 1.28 miles long and is built on an old train trestle over the Hudson River. It’s pretty awesome.

 

Saturday we were off to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival. My mom fell and banged up her face. I won’t post photos. I didn’t buy very much but I checked out the sheep. It’s my favorite part! I also learned that there are a few people upgrading to Herdwick! I love those sheep but I had no idea we would have some here. I was so excited i forgot to take a picture. But I did scritch them a lot. the shepherd I was talking to is on the right track. The head shape and color were right on.

Here’s what I did remember to take photos of.

 

 

 

 

 

After the festival I went back to Penssylvania and I worked on my rigid heddle skirt. If you haven’t been following this particular skirt, you can see it here.

 

And then I was off to Greenbank Mill in Wilmington, Delaware to teach the Fiberguild everything I know about raw fleece and how to work with it. It was 2 days of fleeces and in the end we managed to make lots of samples from 8 different breeds. It was a ton of fun and of course i never took even one photo of the class. It seems that I’m a very focused teacher but not a great blogger. 

But Gerry, my host, took me to a fantastic seafood restaurant for dinner on Saturday in Maryland.

Of course I had to have crab! Crabby Fries are french fries with a white cheese sauce and a pile of crab on top. Delicious!

On Sunday we toured the old mill that they are working on restoring there and I also got to see the sheep they have (Leicester Longwool)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Monday, I drove home with my bag full of Wawa treats for the family. 

 

 

 

Now I’m home again and it’s about time to get back to work and stop lounging in bed.

Corriedale Skirt

It’s funny how it takes me so long to start a project. It’s also funny how once I begin I can’t seem to think of anything else.

The good thing about this project (or the bad thing) is that Spinzilla came right near the beginning. It was good because then i had an excuse to focus and do almost nothing else for the whole week of spinning. The bad part was that I was supposed to be preparing for a few upcoming classes and travel to Rhinebeck.

Another good thing was that I found out how much spinning I can actually do when I focus.

The current skirt I’m working on is another that is exactly the same as the one I just finished. I know that sounds weird but I’m weaving it on a rigid heddle loom rather than a floor loom. I’m going to compare how the fabrics might be different from each other due to loom differences. You can see the rigid heddle skirt progress on the Schacht Blog. Jillian and I are talking there about spinning for weaving and using the yarn on a rigid heddle.

So the Columbia for the rigid heddle skirt was already spun so it was time to start the yarn for the third skirt. Corriedale. I thought I’d use dyed wool for this one because some people think that perhaps my love afair with white might be boring for the general population. We’ll see. The Corriedale was dyed by Amy at Spunky Eclectic. The semi-solid is Dijon and the multi-color is Squash Blossom.

I started with 2 pounds and in the seven days I was able to spin 24 ounces. 

In the end I had spun 3460 yards of 2 ply. Which means

my total total 7920 yards of singles. That’s not much less than what I’ll need in total yardage for the finished fabric.

All of the yardage was spun on the 30 inch Schacht Reeves on the smallest whorl. I was using short forward draw for this yarn ratheer thna the supported long draw I had used for the Columbia skirts.

So there is the whole of the yarn. None of the skeins have been washed yet. Hopefully in the next week I’ll be able to finish off the last 8 ounces and then I can get the loom warped.

One last thing. I have a new video that is available now on the Interweave website. It’s called Spinning to Get Even. It is one of my most popular classes about how to improve the consistency of your yarn with lots of information about wheel adjudtments and tips and tricks to do with your hands and feet to improve your smooth yarns.

You Can Be a Little Rough

Yesterday i drove from my house to my parents’ house near Valley Forge Pennsylvania. It’s about an 11 hour drive including potty breaks. Today we are going to drive up to Poughkeepsie. We’ll spend the next two days touring Roosevelt houses and seeing the sights and then Saturday and Sunday we will be in Rhinebeck for the new York State Sheep and Wool Festival. I’m not teaching this year but I will be signing books from 3PM to 5PM both days. I think in Building C where all the other signers will be.

After Rhinebeck I’ll be going back to Pennsylvania for a little bit. On Monday the 19th at 7PM I’ll be doing a presentation about working with wool. I’ll be discussing how to get from raw wool all the way to clothing. I have lots of show and tell along with me. This is a free presentation at the Linfield United Church of Christ and everyone is welcome. so come if you can.

And then, the next weekend I’ll be in Wilmington, Delaware teaching three classes. Saturday is all about the Leicesters and then Sunday is a sweet little 3 hour breeds study and then 3 full hours about the magic of Cormo.

All of this is to say that I had a lot of work to do to get ready for this trip. There was lots of wool that needed to be washed and while I was washing that wool I thought about my process and how scary some people think washing wool is. So I thought I’d show as well as I can with still photos how scary it is not!

Many people are very nervous because of the felting properties of most wool. But let’s think this through. Have you ever knitted an item and then purposely threw it in the washer to make it felt? Like a bag or slippers or something? Remember how long it took to actually felt that thing? Remember how the first few minutes barely did anything?

So unless you are constantly pushing and shoving your wool around in the water, a good soak isn’t going to matter.

In addition, a lot of people will say that the water temperature needs to remain the same from one soak to the next or the wool will felt. Well, again, let’s think this through.

If you soak the wool in water that starts out HOT and you let it sit for 15 or 20 minutes, the water will have cooled a bit. Actually, all you have to worry about is that the water you are moving the wool into is hotter than the water it’s coming out of. Hot water opens up the scales of the wool. Cold water closes them. So if you go from warm or cool water to HOT water, everything is going to be ok.

And finally, let’s think again about how long ot takes to actually felt something. I put the wool into the water to saok.  I push it down into the water with whatever is handy, like a bottle or a paint stirrer. After I soak the wool for about 15 or 20 minutes I dump it out into my utility sink and I squeeze the water out with my hands. I turn it and roll it a bit and then press the water out again. I’m only doing this for less than a minute before I put it into the fresh water to soak again. There is not enough agitation there to felt anything and I do that at least 4 times during the washing process.

And then, at the end, I put the wool into lingerie bags and spin out the water in my washing machine. I use the spin cycle that doesn’t spray any water.

After that I take it and lay it out on my sweater drying rack and all is well.

This whole process takes about an 60 to 90 minutes total and each of my buckets holds around 2 pounds and I have 4 of them. So I am scouring about 8 pounds in an hour and a half. My limit to how much I can wash in a week is my drying space.

One last thing about washing. Notice I didn;t wash until the tips were absolutely clean. usually this is impossible to do but that last little bit of dirt will go away in the processing and spinning. So don;t stress about it!

The wool that I often have the most problems with felting is Icelandic. None of the felting of that wool happens during the washing for me though. It is usually during the transit from my house to wherever I’m teaching.

So I blame plastic bags for that.

All I’m saying is, it’s not scary and I’m pretty rough when I wash the wool and it’s all good!

The Great Skirt Project – Pt3

So now the fabric is made and all is well. It’s time to make the skirt. AAAAHHHHH!!!!!

I couldn’t find a simple six gor skirt pattern anywhere! Believe me, I searched. Most had some triangular pieces added about halfway down the thigh and others had a bit of a flare at the bottom and since I was very limited in how wide I could make the bottom of the skirt, it couldn’t have that flare.

I did some Google-ing and Pinterest searching and thought I could figure out how to do it. All it really needed to fit were my waist and hips. And off I went to the craft store to get some cheap fabric and other supplies that were in short supply. The princess fabric wasn’t cheap but I couldn’t leave without it. (I’m teaching that Princess Breeds Study at the Ply Retreat so I probably need a new outfit to go with it.)

So I did some measuring and some ciphering and figured out how wide each piece should be at the top and made sure it would fit my hips and I drew it onto a piece of heavyweight interfacing. I figured I would be using this pattern several times and if all went well, I would use it even more than that. Heavy weight interfacing lasts for a long time and so I thought it was a better choice than paper.

 

I cut out the green fabric and sewed it up, leaving an opening in the seam for a zipper. And, like magic, it fit!

I do this thing where I am always skeptical and then surprised when things work out. I’m trying not to be so cynical. I do it sometimes when I cook dinner too. Like when I try a new recipe. Lou always laughs at me because I always sound so surprised when everythign turns out the way it was planned.

Now I need to find a lining for the green skirt and finish it! I like it a lot.

Now that I felt confident that I could do this I could move on to actually making the skirt that had been in the works for months in my hands and years in my head.

I started with chalk and traced the pattern pieces onto the fabric before cutting so I could make sure, one more time, that I had enough yardage. Wouldn’t that have been the worst to be short?! Well, there wasn’t much extra! My loom calculations were a bit off. And i know that’s because I calculated based on a pattern that i hadn’t seen or made yet. The next one will be different…

Next I was deciding on whether to just go ahead and cut or to do something to help the fabric stay together. Having never sewn with any handwoven fabric before I wasn’t sure what to expect. I decided to trust Sara Lamb. And I cut.

The fabric stayed together! and I was happy. Also,because of how everything was layed out there was very little waste which is nice. You know how you hate to throw away too much of your hand work. I’ve gotten used to throwing away yarn I’ve made but the woven fabric is still a big deal to me. (I still have the scraps, I look at them, I can’t bring myself to toss them yet.)

The inistial sewing took no time at all and I was trying the thing on. As soon as I was sure it fit I cut the lining and sewed that together. I decided to not have an attached waist band. I just sewed the lining along with a bit of interfacing around the waist. After that, I added a bit of understitching to help everything stay in place.

After that I hemmed the skirt and the lining and put in the zipper. And! I had a break through. I’ve never been good at machine sewing zippers so I usually hand pick them. I decided to try again and I was successful!

So many exciting things during this project!

Next came the embellishment. I don’t usually wear white skirts but I want to wear this to Rhinebeck and since I won’t have time to send it to Amy for dyeing I decided to leave it white and do a bit of embroidery on it. I don’t like to dye and so i’ve never really practiced and so on a project as labor intensive as this it would be better to have it done by a proffessional. I promise the next one will be in color when it is finished.

The embroidery is done in Targhee singles. The fiber was dyed by Amy King at Spunky Eclectic.

And now, it’s Finished and I am happy! (please ignore the filthy morror.)

I will begin spinning for the next one during Spinzilla I think. Romney is probably the next one…or Cheviot…or Wensleydale…or Suffolk…or Corriedale.

I guess I’d better decide.

 

The Great Skirt Project – Pt2

So we left off with the spinning of the yarn. Today I want to talk a bit about the weaving of the fabric.

Let me first talk a little more in detail about how my weaving plans evolved.

I have been weaving for many years but more off than on. When i started spinning I was determined that I would never weave. it just wasn’t something that was interesting to me. But then I needed to learn to weave a bit since I was going to be selling a range of looms from Inkle to Rigid heddle to Floor looms. I took classes on all of those looms. The floor looms were attractive to me. But still I wasn;t going to do it as a serious pursuit.

Heh.

Some years went by and I took a week long weaving class on Vashon Island at The Weaver’s Palette. During that class I started to see what might be possible for me with weaving. I wasn’t interested in scarves and table linens and dish towels – even though I love using them. I wanted to make clothing. I had been a dressmaker. I made wedding gowns and bridesmade dresses mostly. I got away from that when I moved to Michigan in 1999. I was still sewing after I moved but I was learning to quilt at that point.

But what if I could make fabric for clothing I wanted to wear? And how would I go about it. There is a bit of information available for this but not a ton and much of it is in books that are out of print with plans for clothing I would not like to wear. I rolled it around and around.

I also, as you know, love wool. i love the differences in the sheep breeds. I love how different they are and how there is really a wool for anything you want to make from the softest of underwear to the most hard wearing of rugs. The Spinner’s Book of Fleece was finished but I hadn’t really done any deep thinking about how these differences in the wool would act in woven fabric that I would wear.

I am a skirt person. I love skirts. They are comfortable for me and I feel like they are more flattering on my body than pants. So the most obvious choice for my experiment would be a series of skirts. Six skirts to be exact. One or two from several different wool categories. This would give me a garment made from the finest wools to something that many people consider only for rugs and not for wearing.

The Loom

Remember that I decided to weave the fabric at 30 inches wide so I could place 2 pattern pieces next to each other. I have a Schacht Mighty Wolf that has a weaving width of 36 inches so that was the best chice since the Baby Wolf has only a 26 inch weaving width. I’ve actually only done one other project on the Mighty Wolf since I got it. those were waffle weave dish towels as Christmas presents.

That big hairy thing in front of it is my weaving bench. I have 2 sheep skins on it to make my behind more comfortable while I’m weaving.

I moved the loom into the living room so I could watch tv while I was working. It obviously was blocking the tv for everyone else in this position so I moved those spinning wheels to the spot where the loom was and moved the loom to the wall. So don’t worry, everybody else could watch tv too.

The Warp

I wound the warp on my vertical warping mill which is no longer available from Schacht – they nowonly offer the horizontal version which is also awesome.

Since I needed 600 ends fro this warp I decided to wind 4 chains of 150 ends each. This may have been a mistake. I often like to wind larger warps when I am going to weave. I just like to keep going. Stopping a starting takes more time and I always want to just get on with it. Almost every time I wind more than 100 ends I am disappointed and so You would think I would learn my lesson. More ends, for me, often means more management issuses when I’m beaming the warp. It means more tangles at the reed. And sometimes it means some tension issues. I have a feeling that these larger warp bundles were what gave me issues with this fabric.

Believe me when I say that for the next skirt I am going to make bundles of no more than 50 ends and see if that will help me.

Putting it on the Loom

I’m a giant fan of warping from front to back. It’s howI originally learned and it always feels most comfortable for me. So first through the reed and then through the heddles. Tie onto the back beam and beam the warp.  When it gets wound so there are only about 5 ish inches in front of the reed then it gets tied onto the front beam.

After tieing on then the tension of each bundle is adjusted so it’s all about the same tension all the way across the loom.

After all the tensioning was done for this project I wove a couple of inches with some cotton. I don’t often weave a header with a different yarn but I wanted to with this project since I had spun all the yarn and there was already going to be a lot of waste due to the loom. You lose some in the front and lose some at the back because there is a point where you can no longer get a good enough shed for the shuttle to fit through and you have to stop weaving.

The Weaving

I used my end feed delivery shuttle for this project. It can make your selvedges much more even. Initially I didn’t have the tension on the shuttle adjusted correctly but then I fiddled with it a bit and it was working beautifully.

See that little bit of a smile on the edge there? There’s one of those on each edge. That’s a problem and it’s not supposed to happen.

Here’s a look at my shuttle in case you are wondering.

It took me about 3 days or so to finish weaving the fabric.

After I cut the fabric off I wove in ends, repaired any spots where I missed threads or there something was broken. If I hadn’t done enough of an overlap when I added in a new pirn I wove a bit more with the needle.

I didn’t cut any threads close to the fabric at this point because I knew things would shrink up a bit when the fbric was washed so I wanted to leave some yarn there to allow for that and to avoid any holes. I don;t know if holes would happen but I wasn’t taking any chances.

Now I took the fabric to the laundry room. I was following the instructions of Sara Lamb. I always have her with me in her book Spin to Weave. I filled the washing machine with hot water and a tiny bit of detergent. After the machine had enough water I put the newly woven fabric in and pushed it down. I let it soak for about 15 minutes. After I was convinced it was completely wet I turned on the agitation. I know. Scary.

I let it agitate for about 5 minutes and checked. It wasn’t there yet. I was looking to see if the openings between the threads was closed and if the threads were locking together. I wasn’t looking for felting but I was looking for a cohesive fabric. Another 5 minutes did it. So 10 mnutes total.

I put the washed fabric into clear water to rinse out the detergent and then I put the washer on spin to get out as much water as I could. And then….into the dryer! I KNOW! But I trust Sara Lamb. the faric stayed in the dryer for about 10 minutes. Not until it was completely dry but until it was well on its way.

Next came the iron. A little pressing under a white cloth and then off to lay flat to dry. You want to avoid folds. Sara hangs her cloth over a large dowel. I didn’t have one so i layed it on the floor.

And her’s where I saw my mistakes. This photo is of the damp fabric. At the bottom is just a piece I cut off before I washed it.

See those wrinkly bits down the center? See those wiggly edges? Tension issues. I had a consultation with another weaving guru named Stephanie Flynn Sokolov. (Have you seen her awesome book?) She thinks my tension issues are possibly from when I beem the warp and things I may be messing up there. Hence the desire to try only 50 end warp chains for the next project.

I will say that this fabric behaved and relaxed a bit as it dried so it’s fine but I still would like to have it not do this next time.

If you have any ideas, I’m happy to listen. All help is welcome.

Stay tuned in a couple more days to see the cutting.