A day in the life of looms 2015

Every New Year's day, Meg has been posting photos of what is on her looms. She also has links to other people who are sharing their 'day in the life of looms 2015' at the end of her post. Join us if you are interested. She has also put up guidelines to the next Weaver to Weaver.

I been neglecting my blog last year as I got a bit hooked on Instagram. However, there are limitations as to how  much I can share on that platform and I am hoping to spend more time back here in 2015.

For the last couple of weeks I have been giving my big loom some very thorough maintenance:

2500 heddles: washed and re-installed

160 lamm to treadles cords: washed and re-installed

80 new connecting cords from treadles connecting to lamm cords: installed. (I don't know if this is the best way but it will have to do for the moment)

I only have 3 more treadles to tie up.......

Hopefully, before the day ends, it will have a new warp on it.

KaTe: Thorp 8 shaft countermarche

New treadle connecting cords

The Saori loom is folded up and without warp. I am also hoping to rectify that is the next few days.

Chibi: Saori SX60 2 shaft folding loom

Primo, my Ashford table loom is folded up and packed away to I can't even take a photo. However, I do have plans for it this year........

A day in the life of looms

On the first day of the new year, Meg had been posting what's on your loom. This is my second time to participate in this. Once every few years, I have the opportunity to spend Christmas and New Year at home and get to weave in the new year.
So here are my looms:

KaTe has a 2/20 silk warp with weft Kasuri being woven. I have finished the first piece and am contemplating the second design. The wefts are being wound, then binding and dyeing to follow.

KaTe: Thorp 8 shaft countermarche

Chibi has a 150-thread black cotton pre-wound warp ready for Amy to come over on Friday to do some weaving. She had woven her own fabric before for her mum to make into an Arrietty bag.

Chibi: Saori SX60 2 shaft folding loom

Primo also has a 150-thread black cotton pre-wound warp ready for Ellen to have a go at weaving. I have set the loom on its stand so that it works with the peddles, like a floor loom.

Primo: Ashford 8 shaft table loom with stand

I will have to catch up on some blog posts but I have also been spending time here.
In the meantime, happy new year and happy weaving.

Rebirth - Hilda

I was at an Ink and Spindle Open Day a couple of months ago and Teegs mentioned that she was given a table loom but she did not know how to use it. I said sure, come over and we can figure it out.

We had an initial inspection and decided on the parts that needed replacing. Teegs went to work, ordering new parts and refurbishing the loom.

Both of us are so excited that we needed to tell the world about the re-birth of Hilda and that Teegs is weaving! So this is a shared blog post:

Hilda is a portable 2 shaft/harness table loom, with a weaving width of just under 40cm. The 2 shafts/harnesses work by moving the handle on the top roller back and forth to create the shed. It was interesting to see that all the heddles were connected together, top and bottom. They were made of string with a metal eyelet in the middle. Unfortunately, they were very rusted and on the way to disintegration. The reed was 15 dent and also very rusted.

Teegs: Original, wonky, sad.

Teegs: The restoration & dismantling begins

Teegs replaced all the screws, the tying rods at the back and front beams, and the top and bottom timber bars supporting the heddles. She ordered a new 10 dent reed and Texslov heddles. The reed had to be cut down a fraction to fit within the frame of the beater.

Teegs: In pieces, hoping I'm as good
at puzzles as I'd like to think!

Teegs: Reconstructed, with a thick, fresh
coat of homemade beeswax & olive oil
timber conditioner for her very dry, thirsty wood.

Hilda was put back together again, in a much better condition! We just had to put the heddles back on with some adjustable Texslov loom cords.

Teegan: Hilda! Weaving!

The loom was made in Melbourne by Dyer and Phillips Pty Ltd. I did a brief search on the internet but there was not much information on the company. The address was in Flinders Lane, previously the centre of Melbourne's rag trade for the middle decades of the 20th century.

Teegs made a 7.2m long warp, 10 inches wide at 10epi, of Bendigo Classic 2 ply wool in black. We put the warp on front to back - sleyed the reed first, clamped to the table and then threaded the heddles. (Yes, I do work with a mix of metric and imperial measurements!)

The loom in action!

I had previously shown some of my Saori weaving to Teegs and she was quite interested in that. It has more of a focus on colours and textures, and is quite suited to a plain weave structure.

Weaving with a shuttle stick.

It took us from 11am to just before 6pm with a very short lunch in between to get to this stage. Teegs worked really hard all day and I just did a lot of talking.

Some tapestry techniques and fleece insertion.

Well done Teegs and Hilda! and all the best for your new adventure together. (Yes, Hilda is going sailing as well.) I cannot think of a more appropriate thing to do on a Easter Monday!

PS, I do wonder where did Hilda come from and what was woven on her before!?

White and plain

It has been hard to focus this year but craft camp at the end of February restored some faith and inspiration. It has taken nearly another month for me to get my act together and finally got a warp on the loom. It makes me feel restless when my looms are empty, without warps. It makes me feel like I am neglecting them. Do they have feelings? I don't know for sure. I think they feed off my state of mind, as to how they behave when I am weaving.

White cotton, plain weave. A bit of experimentation. Hopefully it will turn out to match what I have in mind, or not.........

Up for air

Thank you for weekends and public holidays, whoever invented them. It gives me time to catch my breath and to create.
A few weeks ago, I had a 5-day weekend and managed to get something on my loom. I have upgraded my 2 shafts (harnesses) Saori loom to 4 shafts. I did a lot of things that were new to me. I put the new hardware onto the loom (it now has 6 treadles). I wove with silk, in both warp and weft. I put my warp on to the loom from front to back. I was very satisfying knowing that I had enough time and did not have to rush! I enjoyed the process.
I used my new toy, the Saori cross box to keep my threads in order while I sleyed the reed.

I turned the reed setup around so that the chain of warp threads was at the front of the loom.

I threaded my heddles from the back of the loom and then wind the warp around the back beam.

I have never woven with a silk warp before and had some tension problems. There is almost no stretch in silk. Wool is a lot more forgiving. 

I started weaving and thought, this pattern does not look like what I had in mind. Maybe the variegated weft made it difficult to see the weave structure. There was a nagging feeling but I could not pin it down. Halfway through, I checked my tie up. I had done it correctly with the treadles but had forgotten to fix it to the same sequence at the shafts. Duh!
I liked the pattern though and decided to run with it........... 

I love the look and feel of the silk. I had enough warp for 2 pieces. The second one has a single solid colour weft and a straight forward twill weave structure. It looks and feel so different.

These are both Christmas presents so I will show images of the finished items next month.

Meltdown - stress inhibits creativity

After weeks of dealing with appliance service people, I was really pleased with myself that I only took my Saori loom with me to craft camp. A piece of equipment that does not require electricity, does not make a lot of noise and is calming and straight forward to use.


Warning, there is a bit of ranting here, so you can skip to the photo at the end if you prefer.


First, my microwave oven stopped. It happened at the same time as the light bulb in the oven blew. The latter was easy. A trip to the supermarket, new bulb, self installed. The microwave, however, took 2 trips to the repairer to get fixed properly.


Second, my fridge stopped. The repair man came, charged A$200 and ordered a new  temperature sensor part. Apparently should take 2 to 5 business days. Two weeks later, there was still no parts, rang them multiple times and I got answering machine each time. I left messages but no one called me back. I complain to the distributor. Hah! Part arrived. Finally, took time off work to wait for repair man. Texted to say estimated 9am arrival, 11:45am was the actual arrival time. Wrong part ordered! Still non functioning fridge after 3 weeks. 
Finally, decided to buy new fridge to avoid dealing with these people. They stressed me out! Do they think that because they are the 'authorised service agents' that I have no choice but to use them!?
Well, maybe but new fridge is the other choice.
I love my new fridge. The service was much better. Delivery was made within the time frame specified and they moved my old fridge out onto the kerb for hard rubbish collection. 
I also have other appliances of the same brand as the new fridge so I know that their service calls can be nominated within a 2-hour window, and they answer their phones.


Third, my telephone stopped working. Needless to say, I learnt my lesson. I bought a new phone and dropped non-functioning phone off for recycling.


In that whole month of electrical appliances meltdown, my level of creativity was zilch. Things that I have woven did not really work to expectation, sewing had to be unpicked and re-sewn.
Now, all that bad energy is gone and the creative mojo is back. I had fun and calm in the last couple of days. My loom enjoyed its first trip out of the house since arriving from Japan. Much happier now.


A glimpse of my creation at craft camp:

Now, if only I can get Blogger formatting to work better, but that will be too much to ask.......

New addition to the family

Her name is Chibi and she came pre-warped, threaded and sleyed! Yes, and built-in bobbin winder, too.

The setting up took half an hour; from box to ready-to-weave......

But first the P2P piece, I am determined to finish that before starting another weaving project.