Bead Leno Workshop

Yesterday was the first meeting in 2009 of the New Hampshire Weavers Guild.

Patricia Morton taught an excellent morning workshop on Bead Leno. I attended the workshop mainly because a weaving buddy of mine has been weaving bead leno lately, and Dust Bunnies Under My Loom has some recent posts about it too. Try as I might, I could not picture how it worked without seeing it in action.

The workshop was great! Patricia started at the beginning, explained the basics and then built on the basics to cover ways various weavers have used bead leno. I felt like I really understood it by the end of the workshop (which is no small feat with me!!)


Plus she had many samples and finished objects by several talented weavers for us to look at and pass around the class. She also thoroughly reviewed the literature and provided a great bibliography.

Bead Leno and Basketweave

As if that weren't enough, she had two looms set up, one with 4 shafts and one with 8, where we could try weaving bead leno. It's a really weird feeling to weave it - because as the yarns twist around the weft it feels really strange to try to pack it in with the beater.

Beads between reed and heddles (top view)

Shed with beads down and floating selvedges


Constricted shed with beads in action

I left the class totally fired up to weave a summer project with bead leno. I even managed to buy yarn at the yarn table that I hope will work well for what I have in mind. (Note that I'm not promising to weave it this summer.....although it will be nice if I do!)

8H Bead Leno with Blocks so bead leno and half basketweave can weave independently

There were lots of books and even some weaving equipment for sale on the yarn table.

I didn't photograph the library, but I love libraries, and the guild library is no exception!!

We meet at the beautiful Kimball-Jenkins Estate in Concord, NH. I was surprised at my first guild meeting a few years ago to see close to 100 people in attendance. I was picturing something much smaller! Fun stuff!!

I am Weak

Heading into today, I wondered if I'd be able to resist the lure of yarn and books at the NHWG meeting.


Apparently not. Now off to my studio to play with some yarn!!!

Weaving Wednesday

The New Hampshire Weavers Guild meets 6 times a year (not during the snowiest months or the all-too-short summer). We pay lots of attention to weather in NH!

I'm off to the guild meeting today....partly because I need to return this giant pile of books I checked out of the guild library in November. (Love those long gaps between meetings - I get to spend all that time with whatever books I borrow!)


I'm signed up for a two-hour workshop on bead leno. A number of weavers, including Dust Bunnies Under My Loom, have sparked my interest in that weave. I look forward to seeing it in action - since I just can't picture how it works.

Bailey plans to sunbathe on the patio. The forecast is for an unseasonably warm 57° F (14° C) . I might have to sneak out of the meeting early to go outside and play!


Will I be able to resist two of my addictions - books from the guild library and yarn from the yarn table? You'll be among the first to know!

A Wee Bit o' Green

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, a little green.

Biking on the Aran Islands

My favorite pictures from our trip to Ireland in June 2006, when it did not rain at all. (Miraculous!)

Roadside Sheep

Some green weaving. My latest little twill sample.


Try not to notice that I was lazy on the warping board - winding the green and white separately....


And that this draft isn't trying to look good.....it's trying to touch on a few different twill techniques so I can see how they look.


The green of Ireland is prettier!!

Ring Fort in the Ring of Kerry

I'm getting spring fever.....these pictures make me want spring to arrive now!! I miss leaves and green grass!! Patience is a virtue I hear......one I must cultivate!

Hot Off the Loom: First Twill Sampler

Things I like about samples.....

• Quick on and off the loom
• No worries about selvedges, treadling errors, uneven beat
• Learn a lot and move on

I'm comparing point twill and straight twill in both threading and treadling. Plus, the exercise in Learning to Weave asks that you use 5 yarns:

• Regular size
• Thick
• Thin
• Bumpy
• Variegated

Thank goodness for the yarn table at the New Hampshire Weavers Guild, where I purchased the warp and three of the wefts for this project.

The green yarn is cotton that has been dyed somewhat unevenly. It doesn't look especially uneven on the cone, but in the sample the slight differences in the green really stand out. And not in a good way I'm thinking.


This blue cotton slub has some very thick bits. To me, using it in this twill looks awkward and bumpy and primitive. There are probably some weave structures where these yarns could look good together....but in this case I think the structure and the yarn are fighting with each other.


For my thin yarn, I'm using 20/1 linen singles. At the start of this section I couldn't figure out the beat. I ended up beating it twice with the shed open, and then again with the shed closed to pack it in tight. This piece of the sample is very stiff, but I like how the linen and cotton slub look together - even if it's hard to see in pictures.


This bumpy yarn is Lion Brand Homespun left over from a charity knitting project. It's also variegated. The yarn looks surprisingly good woven. The variegation doesn't totally overshadow the twill.


This last yarn is variegated cotton left over from my days as a Big Sister (in the Big Brothers / Big Sisters program). My little sis and I made Easter eggs by coating this string in some kind of fabric stiffener, then wrapping it around a balloon. After it dried, we popped the balloons. This was years ago! Probably before I had a digital camera - so no pictures, sorry.

Anyway, the variegation in this yarn overshadows the twill design. All I see when I look at this are the Easter egg stripes, not the twill pattern. (Especially looking at it in real life, as opposed to in this close-up photo.)


Project Details:

Project Plan: Twill draft based on drawdown in Deborah Chandler's Learning to Weave pg. 135.

Warp : White Cotton Slub
Weft: Various yarns described above.

Sett: 18 epi (2-1-2-1 threads per dent in a 12 dent reed)
PPI: Green: 22, Blue 16, Linen 38, Lion Brand 12, Easter Egg 25
Total warp ends: Approximately 60

Width on loom: 3.5 inches (9 cm)
Length on loom: 13 inches (33 cm)

Finishing: Cut, tie a quick fringe.


What I learned:

• Bumpy yarn often competes with a twill pattern making it disappear, or look more primitive.
• Variegated yarn sometimes competes with a twill pattern, also causing it to almost disappear.
• Subtle differences in dyeing can be more pronounced when using that yarn as weft.
• It is really hard for me to get into any kind of weaving groove with a table loom.

What I loved about this project:

• Samples: so quick and easy!
• Interesting to see how the yarns interacted!
• I could see that Easter egg yarn becoming something really cute.
• Great having a table loom handy so I didn't have to disrupt my other weaving to do this sample
• My favorite look was the linen with the white cotton warp.
  

Now I'm hoping to get one more sampler on and off this loom before I use it for a workshop in April!!

Related posts:

Start of this project: Learning to Like Twill

Blog Love

Thanks to Fun with Fiber for the Fabulous Blog award!


Two rules:

• List my top 5 addictions
• Pass this award on to 5 fabulous blogs
  

Top Five Addictions:

1. Running
2. Yarn
3. My Computer
4. Chocolate
5. Books

There are fabulous things about all of the blogs I read. And every blog in my blogroll is fabulous. Here are five more, that I always read, but that I haven't blogrolled yet.....

Five Fabulous Blogs:

1. Alette Siri Ane (in Norwegian and English)
   
2. KDes inspirationsblogg (in Swedish, but with great pictures)
   
3. Scarf a Day
4. Doni's Delis
5. Tales of a Junkaholic
   

I love weaving blogs and I can't wait to see what new blogs I learn about from everyone's links!! Blog on!!

Wonderful Wednesday

I had the best day Wednesday. The best.

Remember that huck towel I agonized over? Look at it now!!!!


That's right - it is on a table, at the front of a classroom, rubbing hucks (like rubbing elbows?) with the original towel by Rosalie Neilson. Shocking and so cool!

How did this happen? A weaving buddy told me that the Weavers Guild of Boston was having a course taught by Rosalie Neilson, so I signed up as a guest of the guild.


At the start of the class, I was helping get the classroom set up and saw the original towel. I was excited because I'd tucked my towel in my bag just in case I got the courage to show it to anyone. I just showed it quickly to Rosalie, and she's so nice - she said "Oh, just put it here in front with the others." Wow! Brushed by fame!

Oh - the class.....

Great slides of Rosalie's work. So inspiring to see her designs and learn some about her design process and see so much interesting and beautiful work. She brought a whole suitcase full of fabulous weaving.


Plus, Fibonacci Fudge....weaving, math and chocolate - many of my favorite things - all combined in a fabulous mixture.


Afternoon lecture on blocks....which I still need to digest more. Rosalie gave me some ideas and said I should post about them in my blog. More soon!

Related posts:

Cutting off a single towel: One Stick Trick
Worrying at the start of the warp
More start of warp worrying
The beginning of this project