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.

Sharing the fiber fun

"Emilia" necklace

Braiding and felting marked the week

Making something out of fiber is self-satisfying, but nothing is more rewarding than sharing knowledge and skills. This was a bonanza week.

A kumihimo workshop at Woolbearers in Mt. Holly, NJ. kicked off the week. I was particularly delighted that everyone could work on marudais. Disks may be fine to try out braiding, but if beautiful braids are the goal, a marudai is a basic tool. 

Traditional braids, contemporary uses

For those of us compelled to manipulate threads, the craft of kumihimo, aka Japanese braiding, provides a versatile tool in the artisan's arsenal. Although its resulting braids may be best known related to Japanese warfare and kimonos, their uses are highly versatile, limited only to the imagination. An added plus is the size of the marudais, which take little space, making them an ideal tool for apartment dwellers. 

Marsha Atkinson at her marudai

Chris Jochem, focusing
on hand placement

And threads! Again, limited only by imagination. Although silk is the traditional thread for kumihimo, all types and sizes of threads and yarn are suitable. If it can be wound onto a bobbin, it can be used to make a braid. 

This kumihimo workshop focused on making a basic eight-bobbin braid as a basis for "Emilia" necklace using DMC No. 8 cotton.

Susie VanEmburgh with her
needle-felted ornament

Needle felting 101

A couple days later, it was on to needle-felting. A friend wanted to learn to needle felt and although I had advised her that she really didn't need someone to teach her, she thought she did. I happily agreed to help her get started.

A starter needle felting kit from Winter's Past Farm provided the basic tools and a colorful selection of wool. She wanted to make a Christmas tree ornament. And just look at the candy cane she finished.

And not only that, I had a grand time catching up with her and her family and just generally having a good, old-fashioned gab session.

Idea reservoirs

Days and workshops like this provide far more than learning skills. They serve as a forum for the creative interchange of ideas. And these afternoons had the creative juices flowing...What if? How about? Did you know?

It was a fun week for sharing projects and ideas with like-minded people. May there be many more.

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.