Fall adventures

For the first fall session, I decided to weave yellow 8/2 Jaegerspun merino into tabby which I would felt  then cut into dagged hoods. Oh, my! Yards of tabby was incredibly boring and also more difficult than expected to achieve an even beat.

When this was done, I wove red and black broken diamond twill to make a pair of medieval hoods for good friends (Jaegerspun 8/2, Garnet and Black--the Garnet is very bright, not muted as here).

This was supposed to be my work of the second session, but my instructor was going to bring in her 8-harness Gilmore loom, so I wove every day that I cold get to the Indianapolis Art Center and completed it just a few days before the second session started.

My first 8-harness floor loom pattern, is fascinating because of the big difference between the right side (red rosettes) and the wrong side (white motifs).

What is particularly fascinating is that when I have enough of this (one or more hoods), I can change the treadle tie up and create a radically different geometric pattern.

Happy weaving!

Medieval Silk Knitting

I've been knitting for more than fifty years, exploring a wide variety of styles and techniques. The first time I saw photos of medieval silk knitting in Richard Rutt's A History of Hand Knitting, I really wanted to reproduce some of the reliquary purses, but I couldn't find the appropriate silk anywhere. At the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Nancy Spies gave a talk on her marvelous book, Ecclesiastical Pomp and Aristocratic Circumstance (on brocaded tabletweaving). She had brought samples of the work done for the book, and they were obviously made with the silk I needed. It turns out she had bought 60/2 silk from The Handweavers Studio in London. The next time I was there, I bought a few colors.

This first purse was close to the fourteenth-century original, although not all the shades are accurate (but they were what I had). As in the originals, two strands of each color were used. I worked with 00000 or 1 mm needles, 18 stitches and 22 rows to the inch. At first, they really hurt my hands, but I became used to them and had no problems with other projects using them. I often needed a magnifier if the colors were close in tone. The drawstrings are fingerloop braids in two colors. I put this in the Indiana State Fair but received no award. (One of the volunteers told me that the judge had said it had to have been machine made because no one could knit that fine!!!)

This next ones uses a design from a thirteenth-century cushion from Spain. When I put it in the State Fair the following year, I displayed it on a board with a sample on needles and information about medieval silk knitting. It won both best in accessories and best of all knitting!

This one uses designs from one of the fourteenth-century purses but in single-colors instead of breaking up the design with a contrasting color in the center row.

The zigzag design is from other medieval motifs. I haven't decided which kind of fringe to use, but I'd like to use a more complex one than the other purses have.

Here is another, again using more modern two-color taste than the broken and multicolor medieval tendency, and only using a single design instead of multiple different bands.

I have more purses I would like to make with the ridiculous number of colors I have collected on my trips to London! Of course, I use them for tabletweaving and other work! And yes, I do wear these when I reenact in fourteenth-century style clothing, so I really am able to enjoy them.

Bobbin Lace Collars

Back in the 80s and 90s, I made several bobbin lace collars. My favorite style is Bedfordshire lace, which is often characterized by plaits (braids) and tallies (leaf-shaped, square, rectangular, etc.).

The first is adapted from a two-piece pattern by Mo Gibbs. At the time, I loathed the few leaf-shaped tallies and usually stopped a few days before attempting each set! The raised and rolled ones on top of the cloth stitch were less hard because I figured the cloth stitch would hide errors .

This is the second collar, with the tallies worked over half-stitch ground. At the time, I disliked half-stitch ground because I didn't like the pairs separating. I still like starting with bobbins in pairs!

This is Christine Springett's Thousand Tally collar. Yes, more than 1,000 tallies, which certainly got me over my tally fear! Of course, the drawback is that there is a difference between the wobbly ones at the start and the more consistent ones at the end! Anyone close enough to spot the difference is invading my space!

Back when Christine Springett still ran the British College of Lace in Rugby, I signed up for a class with Barbara Underwood. I let Barbara know that I was particularly interested in learning more about raised and rolled tallies at the intersection of plaits. She didn't have a collar specifically designed for that, but she said that this redrawn nineteenth-century collar had so many intersecting plaits that I could decide where I wanted them.

I've collected many collar patterns in different lace styles, and I really want to get back to making more of them instead of motifs or trim (however fun or useful).

Green & Yellow handspun, handwoven scarf

I love spinning wildly dyed merino top!

However, when I had this spun and two-plyed, I decided there was no way I would spend the time needed to knit with this extremely bright yarn. Instead, after I cut the red and black fabric off the loom, I decided to try my first handspun warp and weft in a simple twill scarf project.

To my surprise, only one warp thread had a single ply separate. Instead of repairing it, I wove very carefully, moving the split ply where it should be. After wet-finishing, it's impossible to find where this spot is. Other flaws are a result of overspinning so that one weft "caterpillars," but that isn't all that common in the scarf. Note that I hadn't intended this to be weft-faced, but the usual wpi to epi for twill didn't work because hand spun "blooms" more than commercial yarn. 

Done, it's amazingly soft yet thick enough for a record-breaking cold winter. Overall, I am delighted with the results and will think about what I might spin and weave next. For the most part, I prefer ordering yarn and using it, but this is a good option for top I was going to spin anyway.

Next, I need to finish an overshot design I started on my tabletop Louet Combo.

Red and Black

During this hotter than the Dust Bowl summer, I've been spending time at the Art Center weaving as much as I can. Of course, my brain isn't always working well. I pulled the lease sticks out before threading the heddles, so I had to thread extremely carefully to keep everything in order. Don't touch those lease sticks until the threading is done! (Luckily, I had been careful so there were no problems in the weaving.)

My camera hasn't been cooperating about the shades, but these are made with a bright red and deep black. The first picture is the header with the start of the herringbone pattern, and the second shows more of it.

 When I ran out of black, I used the same red and a different treadling for the solid red, which I really enjoyed weaving. The design is subtle but a lovely broken diamond twill.

 This last picture shows that I was determined to use as much of the warp as possible: it reached within two inches of the heddles! This view gives a more accurate shade of the red.

Here it is, draped over another loom! I will probably make two medieval hoods from the red and black, plus purses from the red (and red/black if there's enough left over).

Oh, the thrill of cutting fabric off the loom!

Err, of course, I had to put the lease sticks through new warp (handspun)--but more later.

So many choices!

After trying so many different samples of zig-zags with different wefts, I used the same warp and threading to try lots of different treadlings.

First fabric

I've been taking a weaving course at the Indianapolis Art Center, and here is my first 4 yard piece of fabric, 31 inches wide: diamond twill variation on a 4-harness loom, with Basil Jaegerspun Maine Line 2/8 for warp and Williamsburg for weft. There are many flaws, but I'm still delighted! The first picture is a close up, the second the full length, and the third is a sample with different wefts (Basil and white). To my surprise, the green and blue together are iridescent! I'm not sure if I will use it all for a fourteenth-century gown or for a medieval hood and a modern vest or jacket.

As soon as I cut it off and oo'ed and ah'd, I wound on more warp for a sample. I'd like to weave 6 yards of a blue and a yellow/gold, but I'm not sure which blue, which yellow/gold, or which of 10 patterns from the same draft but different treadling! I definitely want to weave enough for a fourteenth-century gown and hood to wear reenacting.

Happy May Day!