Rug abuse

Rug: Wool w/linen warp
Charlene Marietti

I confess. I abused a rug. It went like this.

I put a linen warp on my Harrisville rug loom, wove about two-thirds of the planned length, then stopped. I didn't mean to stop. Life got in the way. Specifically, a full time job. When I got home at night, I really had little creativity and little to no energy.

The partially woven rug sat on the loom. It sat a long time. Years. 

When personal time opened up and I had cleared the clutter and reclaimed my work space, I uncovered the rug. I wrote it off. It had sat too long. I would cut it off and start a new one. 

But when I sat down, scissors in hand, to cut off the rug, I found that the warp was as good as when it was put on. What? How could that be?

Now if you've ever woven with a linen warp, you know that linen is not very friendly. Try as I might, every linen warp I have ever put on had some slush. It seems inevitable despite dozens of warping sticks. And when the tension is even a little bit off, the warp shows it. Except with this loom.

My loom is a Harrisville rug loom with shaft-switching device is a fantastic loom, but in this case the winner for utility goes to the warp extender. Functioning as a second beam, the warp extender overcomes the tension problem because once the warp is threaded and tied on in the front, there is no need to unwind the warp from the back beam. 

A vertical solution to weaving on a warp that is stationary, that is, not wound on a back beam or equivalent, the warp extender can be raised nearly to the top of the loom, allowing the weaver to put up to seven feet of warp under tension and not worry about changing tension with the advancing warp. 

Does the innovation belong to Peter Collingswood? Maybe. An early 1990's technical preview of the Harrisville Rug Loom notes as a special feature, "The new TENSION EQUALIZER is an innovative mechanism that Peter Collingswood incorporated into his own looms."

Instead of unwinding the back beam, the weaver advances the warp on the warp extender by lowering it. Couldn't be easier. And now I can report that the warp extender saved a rug. 

I wove that rug to the end and finished it with a Taniko edge. What do you think?

Getting ready for MAFA 2017

8-H 4-color double weave parallel ovals

The countdown has begun

The MidAtlantic Fiber Conference's (MAFA) biennial weekend workshop is days away and my mind is full of plans and preparations. 

In large part, that's because I'm one of the volunteers working to make this a memorable event. MAFA is an all-volunteer not-for-profit organization and dozens of people on its Conference Team has been working for two years to make this regional event the best ever. Yes, planning started when the last conference ended. I know there will be unexpected complications, but it won't be for lack of effort.

Have loom, will travel

I'm also preparing for my workshop, Weaving in a Parallel Universe, with Linda Hartshorn. I expected amplified craziness preceding the event, so I warped my loom last month. And then I prepped my loom for travel. 

Reed secured in beater.

I have a vintage 8-harness Schacht table loom with a 24 x 26" footprint. We all know that most table looms--especially the vintage variety--are portable, but portability is not their strong suit. Here's how I have made my table loom ready for transport.

My husband outfitted my table loom for transport by attaching a handle on one side of the castle. That helps with picking it up, but when it's warped and ready for weaving, there are other concerns.

For transporting a warped loom like mine, I see three primary points that need protection: The reed, the warp, and the beater.

Stabilized warp on back beam

Reed

• To secure the reed in the middle of the beater and protect the warp, I use a strip of soft knit fabric. I fold the fabric in half around one side of the beater and twist the fabric several times on each side of the reed before securing it on the other side. 
• I often use such strips of knit fabric for headers, any fabric, rope or even a bungee would work.

Warp 

• I use the soft knit fabric to keep the warp from moving on the back beam--and on the front beam if there is nothing woven to stabilize it. 
• I made a cover for my loom, but the underside is still open. I will stuff some soft plastic dry cleaner bags around the vulnerable beams. No cover? I'd use a blanket or a soft plastic sheet over the front and back beams to protect the warp during travel.

Beater

• I use two small or one medium size bungee to secure the beater against the castle. (I used one in the photo below.)

Beater secured with a bungee

Loom covered and ready to go

I'll also bring my stand, which my husband also made, and a stool that puts me at the right working height. And I'll bring a utility cart to move it from my car to the workshop location. 

And there it will stay until it's time to go home.

Ahrens & Violette No. 00129

Ahrens & Violette loom, No. 00129

I hit the weaver's lottery!

I've owned four floor looms to date and have experience weaving with jack, counterbalance, and countermarch mechanisms--but I have none--zero, nill, nada, zilch--experience with a dobby loom. Of course, I know of them. I know people who own them. One has just never come across  my path. Until now.

Last month at a guild meeting, an AVL dobby loom was posted as a giveaway. It was free because it was missing key components--namely, the dobby bars. The loom belonged to Sara Henderson, a long-time member and librarian of the Jockey Hollow Weavers. Her family was prepared to put it on the curb and, in the meantime, was offering it free to anyone who would haul it away. 

Ahrens & Violette loom identification

I said yes. Then I went home wondered what I'd gotten myself into. And then I contacted AVL Looms. Bob Kruger responded immediately. Yes, the dobby bars could be purchased and the company sells parts to older looms. I felt a little better about the acquisition. But still, this loom was sight-unseen. I knew about the dobby bars, but what else was missing--or wrong? Still, I was excited at the prospect. 

Before we headed out to pick up the loom, we studied the manual, which is available online from AVL, and I asked members of AVL groups on Weavolution and Ravelry for advice. Following their suggestions, we assembled tools and prepared for a complicated disassembly. 

All round bests for my new-to-me loom

1. Condition. Overall, the Ahrens & Violette loom is in excellent shape. The well-made loom pre-dates the company's name change from Ahrens & Violette Looms Inc. to AVL Looms so is commonly known as a pre-AVL loom. 

AVL Loom's Bob Kruger estimates the loom was made between 1980 and 1982. The number, which is on the brass plate on the castle, identifies it as number 00129. 

2. Provenance. As suggested, the loom came from a school. Specifically, F.I.T. (Fashion Institute of Technology) in NYC. The inventory label from the New York Board of Education is still attached to the castle. There is also a stamped number on the dobby base: 86400H, but I have no idea what that means. 

3. Transport. The Weavolution and Ravelry AVL communities were awesome and provided excellent suggestions for tools and how-to disassemble. Another best: We didn't have to! It fit (just) in the back of our Ford Ranger pickup with cabover.

4. Bench. One wasn't in the original photo so I expected to need one. I don't. The bench was in the bathroom. And it's a beauty!

5. Shuttle. In a box of leftover weaving tools that we left  with was a shuttle--and not just any shuttle. It is the original end-feed tensioned hand shuttle. It still has the Ahrens & Violette label and its inventory number, stamped on the bottom, is the same as that stamped on the loom, '20.'

Dobby bars, extra pegs and pirns

And the best of the best?

In the last 'look' for weaving bits before the estate clearance people came, Maurice found the dobby bars! They were in an Easter basket, along with an extra bag of pegs and two pirns for the shuttle. Up on a shelf, they'd been hiding in plain sight.

The challenging part now is figuring out the mechanism and returning the loom to working order. So far, each day brings at least one new 'Ah-ha' moment. And the clever man who discovered the dobby bars just keeps figuring out things. 

There is definitely more to come.

Extraordinary textiles from simple looms

Beautiful fabrics, magnificent colors--all woven on backstrap looms

Mara woman's mantle, 1983.

As a weaver, I was deeply humbled by the woven fabrics in the exhibition, Art of the Zo: Textiles from Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. All of them woven on simple backstop looms. 

From small beads on the selvedges to tiny decorative stitches that decorate seams, the textiles show not only the technical  expertise of the weavers, but their sophistication in color and design.

Backstrap loom

I was captivated by the tunics, wrap skirts, mantles, loincloths, capes, and blankets and for the range of decorative techniques ranging from unpatterned indigo-dyed cloth to colorful stripes to complex weaves and thought you might enjoy them, too. But this is just a taste. There are many, many more in the exhibition.

The Mara woman's mantle, at top right, is described as a cotton warp-faced plain weave with discontinuous two-faced complementary weft patterning and countered weft twining. Woven by a Christian woman in India, Mizoram, Zawngling Village in 1983, it was worn to a christening.

Tashon man's ceremonial mantle

The mantle at right is a Tashon man's ceremonial mantle woven about 1960 in Myanmar. It is cotton warp-faced plain weave with discontinuous one-faced supplementary weft patterning. Look carefully at the small decorative horizontal stripe mid-way down. It seams together the long sides of the rectangular mantle and complements the design.

Below, the Mizo woman's ceremonial jacket, c. 1970-80, and ceremonial wrapped skirt, c. 1950-70, are typical of celebratory and funerary dress for married women in Myanmar, Northern Chin State or India. 

Mizo woman's ceremonial
jacket and skirt

Both the jacket and the skirt are woven of cotton woven in a warp-faced plain weave, but they differ in technique and patterning. The jacket woven structures include continuous one-face supplementary weft patterning and and discontinuous one-faced supplementary weft patterning. 

The skirt features discontinuous two-faced supplementary patterning, tapestry, weft-faced plain weave and red weft. Comprised of three lengths of cloth,it can also be worn as a mantle.

Khamau woman's tunic, c. 1900.

The Khamau woman's tunic, c. 1900, at right was a particular favorite. According to the signage, the Khama (Myanmar) are the only Zo people known to decorate their textiles with resist dyeing. Unfortunately, there have been few garments made in this tradition in the last 80 years. 

This exhibit, which includes items from the Museum’s collection of Zo textiles as well as loans from Barbara and David Fraser, authors of Mantles of Merit: Chin Textiles from Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh (2005), is well worth a visit for anyone interested in textiles.

The exhibit is in the Perelman Building of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and runs to March 20, 2016.

Gamp camp

A workshop with no relationship to Sarah Gamp's brolly.

8-Harness Schacht with twill gamp begun

Odd word, gamp. According to oxforddictionaries.com and every other online resource I found, 'gamp' is a British colloquialism for an umbrella that derives from Charles Dickens' character Sarah Gamp, a nurse with a large unwieldy umbrella in Martin Chuzzlewit. I found not one reference related to weaving.

Yet gamp is a real word used by weavers to describe a sampler--and samples are as essential to weavers as gauge swatches are to knitters. (If you know the origin, please share!)

On the loom, fibers, colors and patterns don't always behave as expected. And the time to find that out is before the project is warped, the loom dressed and the weaving begun.

Gamp camp in Medford

Last weekend, the South Jersey Guild of Spinners and Handweavers hosted a weekend workshop with Karen Donde to explore the possiblities of color-and-weave effects in twill patterns. Seven of us arrived on Saturday morning, each with a loom dressed with 5/2 cotton in two contrasting colors. There were four- and eight-harness looms, each threaded with three different patterns across the 12 inch width and ready to weave.

Ashford table loom

This was a round robin event, meaning that each person wove a sample on each of the seven looms. For those who didn't own a portable/sample loom, it was an ideal opportunity to try out different maker's equipment. I particularly liked the Louet, which had its own stand, and the Ashford table loom (at right). I have an eight-harness Schacht table loom and stand that M. built for it. (Works a charm, but confused some people because the levers are right to left. Are they still made that way? I don't know.)

Each loom was matched to a treadling pattern with directions for three different treadlings, which resulted in nine different variations for each twill gamp. 

At the end of the second day, the fabric was cut from the looms and cut apart so that each participant several twill gamps. After I secure the ends and wet finish mine, I'll share photos here.

Vintage table loom

Why do this? To find patterns suitable for upcoming projects, of course. Among the nine options, there is likely to be one--or more--that look promising. Gamp are not end projects. Rather, they are resources for future projects. It's a beginning. Most (all?) projects will call for changes--fine-tuning, if you will. Different colors, yarns, beat, etc. 

Weaving a twill gamp is a good exercise. Handweavers Guild of America provides directions for threading and treadling a twill gamp here.

Time travel in Kilbarchan

The Weaver's Cottage imparts a proud history of people and their craft

The Weaver's Cottage, Kilbarchan

Glasgow had long been on my bucket list and although we traveled extensively throughout the U.K. during the years we lived in London, we'd never been there. I wanted to see more  of the work of Charles Rennie Macintosh, but I was also interested in the area as it once was a major weaving center.

Call me a fiber art aficionado, a fiber geek, or just plain curious, I love well-crafted textiles. In addition to simply admiring them, I want to understand who made them and how they're made--whether they were made last week or 1,000 years ago. 

I own some wonderful textiles and love to wear them. Many were special gifts. Among them is an antique paisley shawl, which was surely made in Paisley and accompanied a Scot or English woman immigrating to America many years ago.

Paisley, the center of paisley shawl production, is near Glasgow, but that industry is long gone. However, a little further west in Kilbarchan the National Trust for Scotland has preserved a  The Weaver's Cottage much as it was 200 years ago.

There are plenty of period homes of the rich and famous, but few that offer as pure a view  into the lives of ordinary people as the Weaver's Cottage does. No kitsch. No sugar-coating. 

Some of the Cottage's tartan samples

The cottage was built in 1723 and lived in continuously until 1953. The National Trust acquired it the following next year. Some of the furnishings, including samplers, belonged to the family. The steep stairs and hollowed out floors bear witness to many footsteps over many years.

The loom, which is in the lower level, is not original to the house as the last resident had closed off the space allowing the loom to deteriorate beyond repair. In 1957, the loom of one of the last weavers in the village, William Meikle, was moved to the cottage. In the mid-20th century, Meikle wove most of the tartan samples in Cottage's collection, which fill many drawers like the one above.

Industrialization and market forces take a toll

Kilbarchan was the center of weaving for nearly 200 years. According to Weaver's Cottage history, the peak was in the 1830s when there were 800 handlooms in the community. When power looms in nearby towns undercut the Kilbarchan handweavers market, the weavers turned to plaids and tartans. Even so, by the 1930s, only 20 handlooms remained in the village.

The 200-year old loom in the Weaver's Cottage

Note the floor cut away for the treadles

I found the cottage remarkable. I appreciated the yarn-related equipment throughout the house--yarn swifts, skein winders, and spinning wheels, both big and small--but I loved the big, hulking, old four harness fly-shuttle loom. It isn't fancy, nor does it appear to be any more than what it is--a functional workhorse. The loom was made for production weaving and its owners used what was at hand to keep it in working order. I particularly liked the curling stone weights. 

The ceiling is low. To accommodate the loom, a space was dug in the floor to accommodate depressed treadles--a common practice for cellar looms.

I also enjoyed talking to Christine MacLeod, manager of the property, who provided a wealth of information. A Kilbarchan native, her primary interest is historical textiles. In the garden in back grows madder, dyer's greenweed, rhubarb, and woad, among others, for dyeing. And I envied her her job.

The day we visited, Ms. MacLeod had a Black Watch pattern on the loom. She is also is a designer. Her recently designed Battle of Bannockburn tartan commemorates the 700th anniversary of the battle and is a beauty. She uses Gardiner Yarns for her historical weaving. 

Teaching is also a function of the Weaver's Cottage, so a modern Louet loom is set up opposite the old loom for interested visitors to try their hand at weaving. That loom is set up with wool from New Lanark Wool & Textiles mill where the yarn is still spun in one of the historic mills from organic British wool by traditional methods. All proceeds from the sale of their yarns go toward care and development of the New Lanark World Heritage Site.

Unpretentious and personal

From the bedrooms to the garden to the loom room, this cottage does not aspire to greatness. And yet, 'great' is exactly how I would describe it--at least for me. It was a home of people--people with names and faces. In fact, at one time, it was three cottages. And It included a workroom that provided a living for families. It is as close to 'tasting the time' as I can get.

And there is another aspect to the visit that will stay with us. The volunteers at the property are not only informative and committed, they go beyond usual volunteerism. Thank you, David Baillie, for so kindly and graciously helping us get back to Glasgow. 

Warping board & woven items in the loom room