Handwoven Shawl Day 10

Well, I finished my Handwoven Somemore Australian Bond Shawl today. I washed it and hung it outside to dry. I think I made it a little too long and probably could have made it a little wider. Oh well, I didn't really have a pattern to go by, other then the pattern that I wove into the shawl.

I wove on this shawl today for 3 hours and 18 minutes before I finished weaving and started taking it off the loom. Whenever, I weave another shawl, I will know how wide to make it and how long too. I still have some yarn left over from the 5th skein. I need to rewind that yarn and then figure out, just how much yarn I did use in this shawl. I will have to post that tomorrow though when I will take another picture of the shawl. The different shades of the fleece really give this shawl a nice shadow pattern IMO.

Handwoven Shawl Day 9

This skein is actually my sixth skein of 2 ply lace weight yarn. This skein has 358 yards, and is 2 1/2 oz or 72 grams and has 17 wpi. I had washed this skein a while back, but got involved in weaving on this shawl that I forgot about it. Then after I started weaving and was getting close to finishing up the 4 skeins I started with for this shawl, I knew I needed to get busy and figure out the yardage, ounces, grams and wpi, for this skein. So today I did just that, then made up a label for it (mainly for my purpose), so I wouldn't forget this information and would have it for later, when I needed to total my yardage for this shawl.

Once I did all this, I began weaving and got into my weaving zone (LOL). I did have to back track a couple of times, but this was because I was switching shuttles and had to make sure that I had the pattern going right. After 2 hours and 37 minutes of weaving, I had my 4th skein completely finished and skein you see above wound on the shuttle and 4 rows wove with the new skein. The apron rod is now showing on the back roller, which means that it won't be long now before it starts to move over the back beam.

Handwoven Shawl Day 8

Yeah, I fixed loose weft thread, and got busy weaving and playing catch up. I wove for 3 hours and 16 minutes today and I'm now half way through skein #4.

The shawl is really moving along quite well and my front roller has quite bit of the shawl wrapped around it.
The remaining warp that is still on the back beam is slowly being moved off the roller as I weave. I don't know yet if I'll have to wind up yet another skein for this shawl. I do have the skein for it if needed, I just haven't figured out the yardage and grams yet.

Handwoven Shawl Day 7

Today was an Oooopsy day. I started my day with cleaning my house, doing laundry (in other words being a good girl). LOL Then I dyed some polwarth roving and had to hang it to dry in guest bathroom shower. Once I did that I went to my spinning/weaving room to weave and everything was going okay;.............until I saw a loose weft thread 72 rows back (this was back almost to where I had started weaving today). So I began the process of taking each of these rows out 1 row at a time. I had to stop because it was starting to drive me nuts. So tomorrow I'll go back to it with a better frame of mind and finish taking out the remaining rows, and then begin the process of reweaving those rows and move forward.

Handwoven Shawl Day 6

Yes, I know its Sunday and I really shouldn't be weaving today, but I just had to come upstairs do a little weaving. I started out winding up skein #4 into a center pull ball and then weaving with the remaining yarn from skein #3. Once I had skein #3 all used up, I began winding yarn onto my shuttle from skein #4 and started weaving again. All in all I spent 1 hour 16 minutes weaving today.

Handwoven Shawl Day 5

It was another hot one today and I had all the windows open in my spinning/weaving room and my ceiling fan going as well. That helped to keep me cool during the 2 hours and 3 minutes, I spent weaving on my shawl today and even then I didn't quite finish using up skein #3. You can see in the picture I still have a little bit on my shuttle. I have skein #4 laying out to be wound into a skein tomorrow. I have the treadle pattern pretty much memorized now, but still forget sometimes as to which row I just finished. So I have the treadle pattern written down on a piece of paper and taped to my loom. I always try to end the treadle pattern at the end of a pattern repeat. This helps so that when I come back to my weaving after taking a break or the next day, I know where to start weaving.

Handwoven Shawl Day 4

Today after I finished dying some roving, I headed upstairs to my spinning/weaving room and started weaving on my shawl. I only spent 1 hour and 37 minutes weaving, as it was just too darn hot to weave today (92 F outside). I have almost gone through my third skein of yarn on this shawl. This first skein was used as the first half of the warp (121 threads), and the second skein started out as the remaining warp threads ( 71 threads), and the rest of the second skein went into the weft, which I finished using yesterday. Yesterday, I started using the third skein in the weft. I will probably finish up the third skein tomorrow and start using a fourth skein.

This picture here shows the shawl now has wound around the front roller. I think its has only wound around the roller once. I still have quite a bit of warp on the back roller, so I'll be weaving for a while. I love weaving on this shawl and look forward to going upstairs to weave, even in the heat. LOL

Handwoven Shawl Day 3

I went up to my spinning/weaving room this morning and started in weaving on my shawl. I spent 4 hours and 52 minutes weaving today. There were times though that I forgot where I was at on the pattern and I'd have to take a few rows out and then redo it. I think I did this about 4 or 5 times. It was really hot here today (91F), so I had problem's with the threads sticking together, when I'd raise different shafts. I'd have to separate the threads before I could throw my shuttle. This picture doesn't really show the pattern on the shawl, so I took another picture from a different angle.

This picture shows the underneath of the shawl, as it comes around the front beam to wind around the front roller. You can see some of the pattern on the top, but really see the pattern (which is the reverse of the pattern), from the underneath.

Handwoven Shawl Day 2

Today started off with warping up 4 more threads, to give me a total of 192 warp threads for weaving this shawl. Then I once I had all 192 warp threads threaded threw my reed, it was on to threading my heddles using a 12 stitch "A German Bird's Eye" weaving pattern and then tying off both the back and the front of the loom. This shawl measures 19 inches wide on the loom. The picture to the right shows everything tied off and ready for the weaving to begin.

Once I had the warp tied off, I picked up my shuttle and started winding on enough yarn to start the weaving process. I then tied up my treadles in a 1 & 4, 1 & 2, 2 & 3, 3 & 4 pattern. The treadling is what helps to make the pattern. I'm not exactly sure just how much I wove today, as I didn't measure it. This was 7 hours and 15 minutes of warping, and weaving today.

First Dish Towel Finished

First Dish Towel Finished
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

I finished the first Dish Towel yesterday. Now I'm ready to do a hem stitch on the end of this towel, like I did at the beginning of the towel. Then I'll weave 4 rows using one of the colors in the towel for a cutting line between the next towel. Then I'll weave 18 rows of white for the hem on the second towel and do another hem stitch. The 18 rows at the beginning and end of each towel will be where I fold it up for the hem to be sewing after washing.

I have 2 more towels to weave in this pattern. I don't exactly know if I'll get more or not out of this warp. We'll see after I finish the next 2 towels. I can't wait to finish all 3 towels and take them off my loom, wash them and hem them up.

First Stripe Finished

First Stripe Finished
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

On July 30th I posted a picture showing that I had the front of the loom tied off and ready for weaving. Since then I've been weaving on this first Dish Towel and have finished the first stripe. Now I just need to weave the second and third stripe. The weaving is going really fast now, so I should soon have the first Dish Towel done, then start on the second Dish Towel.

I'm loving how the colors are looking so far in this Dish Towel. Even the stripe is making it look nice. I can't wait to see how the other 2 Dish Towels will look when they are finished.

Front of Loom finally tied off

Front of Loom
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Yesterday I finally got the front of my loom tied off for the Dish Towels I'm going to weave. I wove a header to start with drawing the threads together before I started the actual weaving process. Then after I wove the header I started weaving on the Dish Towels. I wove 8 rows out of 18 rows of white. I need to weave 18 rows of white as this will become the hem.

Once the 18 rows of white for the hem is finished, I will weave 7 inches in white. Then I will work on the first stripe with 6 rows of Rust, 4 rows of White, 12 rows of Rust, 4 rows of White, and 6 rows of Rust. Then I will separate this stripe with 8 rows of White and begin the second stripe with 6 rows of Blue, 4 rows of White, 12 rows of Blue, 4 rows of White, and 6 rows of Blue. Then I will separate this stripe with 8 rows or White and begin the third stripe with 6 rows of Green, 4 rows of White, 12 rows of Green, 4 rows of White, and 6 rows of Green. Once these three stripes are wove I will weave another 7 inces of White and then an extra 18 rows for the hem. This will finish Towel #1.

As for Towel # 2 and # 3 I haven't quited decided on the striping pattern just yet. When I get there I'll decide. I'll post more pictures as the towels show more progress.

Threading the Heddles

Threading the Heddles
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Yesterday I finished threading the reed with half my warp. Then I started threading the heddles. I only got about 1/4 of the warp threaded though and then this morning finished threading up the rest. I still need to finish warping the last remaining threads before I can finish threading the reed and heddles.

However, in this picture you can see more of what the colors in the dish towels will look like. You can see the strips of White, Rust, Blue, and Green much better now. Hopefully soon you'll be able to see more then just this part of the progress.

Warping the Loom

Warping the Loom
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Well, I'm now starting to warp my loom for the Dish Towels that I want to weave. The part on the left of the picture is what I have threaded through the reed right now. The other half still needs to be threaded. I also still need to warp up the rest of the warp on my warping board. However, the warping process has begun.

These dish towels will be woven from a kit I bought from Halcyon Yarn Company. The colors in the Towels will be White, Rust, Blue and Green. They will be woven in a plain weave with no fancy design except for the color pattern. Each towel will have the same striping in the vertical but the horizontal pattern will change up a bit from the first towel.

I hope to have my loom warped up all the way soon with some weaving started. I'll post more pictures as I get further along on the weaving. I can't wait to start the weaving process.