Meanderings of a Mermaid

 My time is being pulled in every direction right now and I feel like there is insufficient time left for crafting. Even though I do not get too involved in holiday activities, there is still a bunch that goes on and eats up time. So here is the Lithuanian Sash Rug, underway on my Harrisville Rug Loom. I am weaving it with wool weft. I am about two thirds of the way through the first repeat of the charted design. The reverse side of this boundweave rug has the inverted colours.  This is the chart I graphed out with paper and pencil. I worked on this at camp last summer. The traditional sash design is the dense portion bordered by some faint vertical lines. I added a little bit of geometrics along the sides. It should wind up looking like open Vs along the sides. I hope it looks nice when done. I suspect I will do two repeats of this chart. And the rug will likely be around six feet long. E.H. is my 94 year old buddy who just moved into an assisted living centre. There...

As happens all too often there is a large gap between my posts. Things are busy and sometimes there is nothing to share. But I have been busy and am feeling fine.  In fact I am feeling really fine when I drive this new Colorado. We have called it the Bluebonnet Special! BS for short. Mr says he bought it for me, which is a sweet thing to say, but it is a vehicle for both of us. He will be selling our old truck and this will be the only one for use at Home South. I am looking for any excuse to go for a drive now. I adore the colour and the handling is perfect! I am having trouble entering a space after the gas range photo, so here we go ahead of the photo. This purchase was a necessity. The old range was already when I moved into this house many years ago. And a couple of important things were not working anymore. So I found an early holiday sale and this lovely range came to live with us. I just love the variable burners. For someone like me who loves to cook, this was a ...

 This cloth will become a table runner.  It is 2/10 pearl cotton.  The warp is maroon and the weft is medium purple.  So the colours in the last two images are closer to real.   I threaded the loom with a point twill. It was a suggestion and a mighty good one.  It was easy to see which shaft I was in while threading the 16 shafts.  I really love this  draft I found online at handweaving.net.   I apologize for these two dark photos. I had already turned off the generator so no lights were available. This draft is also from the same archive. I need to weave some more length and then I will try to get better shots.  Same warp and weft as above. I have added these two final photos now that I have woven a few more centimetres of this pattern draft.

Here I am with a used Leclerc Weavebird loom. I tidied up and painted a corner of my garage. I have it all ready to go! Well i do need to check on the shaft cable tension, lubricate, and also get some more teksolv heddles.   This image shows the counterweights that help with raising the shafts. It is 16 shafts and has a maximum weaving width of 45 inches.  It is a computer dobby and so the treadling and tie ups are done by computer.  I have room in the corner for a shelving unit and happen to have one available. Finally I have a suitable open wall to display that happy rug with the three girls .  To the left is the position for the bench where I will sit when weaving. This photo is from the dealer's store. We drove down there to pick it up. A 3156 km road trip. And here is what the front half of the loom looked like in the truck. The back half was disassembled and underneath. 

The above three photos are of a hair drying towel I wove from the remainder of the blanket warp.  The brown threads were a bit thicker than the rest, which explains the uneven surface.  I believe that my hair won't care.  The final three photos show the completed catalogne blanket.  It is draped over the loom used to create it.  

Today I sewed hems and darned in any ends.  Above is a towel I will use for my hair drying.   It still needs to be washed and pressed.   Here is a glimpse at the completed catalogne.  It is about 90 inches long by 52 wide.  It still needs wash, dry and press. And this puddles shot is to show that the fabric of the blanket has a lot of drape.  I was hoping it would.  That is why I inserted a lot of sections of thread weft.

This portion of the warp was excess and so I wove off a towel for my hair.  It still needs to be finished.   And here are three pictures of the Catalogne just off the loom.   I had about thirteen warp threads break and so those need to be darned in.   Also if and where there were knots in the rags, they need to be untied and dealt with.  Edges where rag strips startted and ended need doing.  Then a good wash and dry cycle. Stay tuned for the final shots. The weaving took less than eight hours.

Here are a few more random shots of the progress. I am past the halfway point and now trying to reverse the sequence of the striping.  If and when I run out of one type of rag, which is a good thing when you love to recycle, I am switching to something close in colour. This is definitely a fun weave.

Here are two images showing the start of my Catalogne.   This is my interpretation of a traditional Quebec blanket. In the top image there is green waste yarn at the first margin.  Then I even found Phentex a neighbour gave me and that will work as a hem.   Then we move on to the blanket proper. I started with white cotton threads and wove 3 cm. Then I went to some brown rag strips and wove three cm.  There is an alternation every three cm. I was told by a weaver experienced in making these blankets to alternate between rag sections and normal thread sections.  Otherwise the blanket could wind up too heavy and stiff. After the yellow and blue rag I chose a medium blue rag.  I am making this up as I go. But I may try for symmetry after the midpoint. Then I could reverse the stripe sequence.  I hope there is enough of everything for that to work. I am using up stash yarns given to me.  So there is a finite amount on hand. I am ...

Above are three images of the original pattern involved in this translation. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Three catalognes for the bed, pattern with large checks #A-M-4 The second image shows the tie up at top. One treadle is tied of shafts 2 and 4 and another treadle to 1 and 3. The treadling is shown beneath that, as alternating from the 1/3 treadle to the 2/4 treadle. Threading is shown in the third image.  Thread heddles in shafts 1,2, 3 and 4 repeatedly across the desired width. Reed: 12 dents per inch. 2 threads per dent. Warp: cotton 2/16 Weft: rag strips Pattern #1 Warp sequence: 120 threads pale green 24 threads white 120 threads medium rose 24 threads white. Repeat to get the size you want. Weft: rags pale green Rags white Rags pale rose. Weave in a manner to form checks. Pattern #2 Warp sequence: 144 threads yellow 24 threads white. Repeat to get the size you want. Weft: rags yellow Rags white. Weave in a manner to form checks . Pattern #...