warp thread – Weave Story

When disaster strikes……

October 26, 2014/6 Comments/in Projects, weaving /by bschutzgruber

Every artist knows there are times when a project just does not want to go as planned and this was one of those projects.

In September I started on a commissioned shawl. The warp was 10/2 cotton in 20 colors.

642 yarns threaded in a point twill over 8 shafts/harnesses.

3″ into the weaving and I realized I had a misthread in the pattern = inappropriate expletive uttered!!! What to do?
Do I (A) keep going with the philosophy that we humans are not perfect and embrace my imperfection or (B) correct the mistake = unweave, untie, unthread, rethread, and retie?

If this was something I was making for myself, I would probably go with option (A) as there was only 1 thread in the wrong place. BUT this shawl is something I am selling and the buyer deserves the highest quality work I can give…. so option (B) is it.

I took out the black 5/2 cotton weft and the red header then dealt with 200+ threads and heddles to get the 1 thread moved to the correct shaft, retie and finally back to where I was…. 24 hours earlier.

Weaving now went fairly smoothly…

…until 5″ from the end when I noticed a lot of black fuzz = uh-oh. I took out several rows to see what was going on and I realized the 5/2 cotton yarn was disintegrating = WHAT is going on here???? This particular cone of yarn had been in my stash for quite a while and though the outer section was OK so the first 2/3 of the shawl was fine, the middle of the cone had rotted and the last third of the shawl was falling apart = REALLY inappropriate expletives uttered!!

At this point I had no idea if the fabric was stable and would hold up during washing so I stopped weaving, hemmed it, cut it off the loom and held my breath as I put it in the washing machine.

Here’s how it came out. A misthread is a pain but this is a disaster that cannot be saved.

I emailed my client and explained the situation. Luckily she was OK with getting the shawl by the end of October so back to square one I go. I decided this time I would use 5/2 bamboo for the weft, ordered the NEW yarn, and as I waited for the delivery, I began to wind out another warp. I kept the ends of the old warp threaded through the reed and heddles so all I had to do is tie the new warp onto the old then pull it through.

The second warp wound on and the new weft in hand, time to start weaving…. AGAIN.

This time there was no added drama as 87″ of this new shawl was woven, hemmed, cut off the loom…

…and the finishing work began = tying knots and twisting fringe.

Holding my breath I put it into the washing machine….. and it came out just fine = whew!!

Because one side of the fabric has the colored warp dominant and the other has the black weft dominant I sewed the shawl into a mobius loop so that you can see both sides = SUCCESS!! And the Rainbow Mobius Wrap has been shipped to her new owner.

Lesson learned from this project:
check ALL yarn prior to using it in a project!!!

The Saga of the Green Man comes to an end

February 4, 2014/0 Comments/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

The weaving completed, I cut the Green Man off the loom on January 13, 2014
…only 1 year later than planned.

Now the finishing work began: all the warp threads knotted and secured, the long gap in the center forehead leaf sewn shut, clean up the back (weave in/sink the weft ends), plus there was a lot of rippling in the tapestry because my warp tension had become very uneven.

Crossing my fingers that blocking would eliminate the rippling, I put him onto the shower floor to wet down then I pinned him facedown onto a piece of foam board to block, squaring up the 4 sides. I stood him up in the bathtub to drain over night then moved the board near the floor register for the next 4 days to dry.

Once he was throughly dry, I unpinned him and turned him over. To my joy…. the blocking had eliminated the rippling = whew!!! Twill tape was sewn to the top and bottom, turned to the back and sewn down. Finished tapestry dimensions: 18″ x 18″. I used velcro to mount him onto black matboard and made a simple black frame. Final dimensions: 25″ x 25″. I packed him up and dropped him off to be juried.

The Green Man was accepted for the AAFG 2014 exhibit at the Power Center for the Performing Arts in Ann Arbor, MI. We hung the exhibit on Tuesday, February 4th and it runs through the month of February.

He is nicely positioned so he can check out everyone as they enter the theater from the lobby…. and is watching to make sure no food or drink is brought inside!

My daughter Andrea, who did the orignal painting, announced the other day, “Hey, Mom…. I’ve got an idea for our next painting/tapestry collaboration….. “

Preparing the loom….

December 8, 2012/0 Comments/in Projects, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

I spent this week getting my loom warped and ready for weaving.

I’m using a simple frame loom with nails to hold the warp.

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1. The nails are set so I will have 8 warp ends per inch (8 epi)

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2. A support devise holds the heddle bars. Since the weaving starts at the bottom and moves upward the heddle bar support is only clamped to the frame this way I can move it higher when needed.

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3. Next I looped string around every other warp thread.
Using as second bar I looped the remain warps.

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4. When the heddle bars are in the neutral position the warp is at rest.

9_heddle rod at rest

When I raise a bar, the heddles lift every other warp thread creating the ‘shed’.
This way I don’t have to lift each warp individually = weaving is much faster!!!

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5. Now let the weaving begin……

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