Seabreeze Spinners

I love the look of hand-painted yarn but while I’ve begun to experiment with dying, I lack the confidence to risk sacrificing my handspun to the dye pot. So, I’ve come up with faux hand-painted yarn.

I used Louet Lollipops space dyed roving.

I divided the roving by pulling it apart, the length of the roving. I then hand balled the roving being careful to start at the same end for each ball. (That way, the sequence of the color striping is consistent.)

Next I spun one length of roving and then the other. When I plied the two singles, I began with one length at the start of the repeat color sequence and the other at the mid-point of the color sequence.

The resulting yarn is a calliope of color which appears random and doesn’t repeat on itself. If you favor softer colors, you can use the same technique with softer colored roving and achieve more subtle color nuances.

Spinning is joy. I love lots of color and texture. You’ll see I’m not a purist. I mix commercial yarn with handspun, Easter egg dye and cake frosting coloring with natural plant dye. For me, it’s both the journey and the destination but not so much the mode of transport.

Upcoming blog entries will include Two Looks with the Same Yarn. Come back and visit often, SeabreezeSpinners.com.

My first rigid heddle project, created from dollar store yarn; wasn’t going to risk home spun. To get longitudinal stripes, I varied the warp between wide rust chenille and black twisted with rust chenille. I wove the weft with a narrow variegated rust chenille. The weft is all the same yarn.

For a much more detailed run-through of a similar scarf made using a rigid heddle, please view my post Rigid Heddle Irregular Dent Felted Scarf (Lime and Turquoise). Or visit our home page Seabreeze Spinners.

Every two years, the Handweavers Guild of America “converges” on a city for the HGA’s International Fiber Arts Conference. Two years ago (2006), they met in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This year, 2008, they met in Tampa, Florida. To honor convergence, last year the Guild commissioned the creation of special yarn. The space-dyed yarn was dyed in colors of the tropics, brilliant pink, turquoise, green and orange. I plied the space-dyed convergence rayon singles with bright colored cotton for a tri-loom project.

I’m tall and wanted a generous shawl. Not satisfied with the available 7’ looms, I wanted an 8’ loom. Last summer, we were planning a vacation in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, so I had my summer project. I had my husband cut three pieces of wood molding to create the tri-loom and had him bolt the corners together so I could disassemble it to take it to the mountains where I could reassemble it. He devised a transportation device, utilizing a PVC pipe which he capped on each end, the “limbs” of the tri-loom rode to the mountains on the roof rack in style.

Once we got to the mountains, I began to hammer nails. Yes, I’m a fanatic … before the groceries were purchased, before the suitcases were stored, I was nailing. I carefully marked and nailed exactly the same number of nails across the top as were nailed into the other two sides of the triangle. When I started to weave, the threads became more and more angled; they weren’t straight up and down. I soon figured out that the ratio should be two to one; that is, two across the top for each along the adjoining sides. BUT, serendipity, it all worked out. When I first began to weave the shawl, I had found my weave very loose. I discovered that if I looped my yarn twice around the bottom nails for each time I looped the yarn around a top nail, I had a tight weave. (Twice the yarn and twice the work, but a very satisfactory result.)

I wanted the stripes to blend into one another. I recalled reading when I was looking at sock knitting patterns, that stripes are most pleasing to the eye when one uses stripes proportioned in additional adjoining numbers: 1, 1 (1 + 0), 2 (1 + 1), 3 (1+2), 5 (2+3), 8 (3 + 5), 13 (5 + 8), 21 (8 + 13), etc.

By the nature of tri-loom weaving technique, each pass creates both warp and weft. It moves from the bottom left side to the top of the triangle and down again; it then crosses the loom and loops on the next available lower right nail before going up to the top right and then reverses the process, ending on a nail on the lower left. This process creates two warp and two weft threads for each pass. Therefore, my widest stripe was 8 pairs of two. The next stripe of the same color on either side of the mentioned stripe was 5 pairs of two. The next stripe of the same color on either side was 3 pairs of two; then 2 pairs of two; then 1 pair of two and finally 1 pair of two. I overlapped the colors, placing the narrowest strip of one color next to the thickest stripe of another. I love the final results.

This is my Smoky Mountain Convergence Tri-loom Shawl. You’ll notice the leaf color changes in the photos. I worked on the shawl in the summer and had to wait ‘til fall to return to the mountains to finish the project. (P.S. My husband took pity on me and my struggles at nail driving and purchased for me in Ashville a beautiful cherry Hill Creek Fiber Studio 6’ 10” tri-loom. You’ll be seeing more tri-loom projects. Come on back to Seabreezespinners.com.)

This summer, I wore my Shawl as I wandered through Convergence. Yes, Florida in the summer but thanks to the air conditioning, it was freezing (at least to this Florida gal). A Convergence shawl with a tropical twist was just the thing.

The “hound” on the deck who kept me company is Lacy, my mostly border collie. I’ve been spinning “her” and I have a shawl half knitted. I’ll be posting techniques for “harvesting” dog hair and spinning cheingora in future posts.

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OK Spinners, here’s a rigid heddle project for you to try.

The scarf was woven on a rigid heddle loom (Ashford), I used a 7.5 dpi (30/10) reed [the blue one that comes with the knitter’s loom]. (That means 7.5 threads per inch.)

I selected Louet mohair for warp and weft. I warped six threads color A (turquoise), skipped 6 spaces (about 1 inch), warped six threads color B (lime), etc. across, ending and beginning with the same color (turquoise). Remember the scarf will shrink during when it comes off the loom and even more after felting so be sure to make it plenty wide. (This scarf was warped at about 13 inches and finished width varies between 5 and 5 ½ inches.)

After the loom was warped, I began weaving in simple tabby weave (over one, under one, over one …) by lifting the reed up and then down. On the first pass, I left a tail of three to four inches. Before the second pass, I looped the end over the last warp thread and then hand wove the tail end following the pattern of the first pass. I then proceeded with the second pass. When I gently beat in the second pass, I locked in the tail between the first and second pass. After completing 10 rows of color A, turquoise (about 1 inch), but before beating the last pass of yarn, I cut a yarn tail three to four inches in length. I looped the tail over the last warp thread and brought it back inside the last pass of yarn following the same pattern as the last pass. I then beat the last pass of yarn gently into place. [Looping and locking the tails eliminated the necessity of later weaving ends in. I did this at the beginning and at the end of each band of color.] Having completed the first color band, I slid in a warp stick to create a gap.

Next, I began weaving with color B, lime. Again when I’d completed 10 rows (about 1 inch), I slid in a second warp stick to create a gap.

I continued by again weaving with color A, turquoise. As I proceeded, I’d slip out the warp stick nearest the front roller and then roll the warp forward.

I had left several inches at the beginning and at the end of my weaving for fringe. I tied a weavers knot, picking up three threads at a time to finish the scarf and secure the weaving from unraveling.

The completed scarf is quite lovely and could easily be simply fulled by carefully immersing it in a bath of cold water and very gently agitating it by hand which will cause the fibers to bond together and create fabric. But …

I laid the woven scarf out carefully in a white towel, making sure no part of the scarf extended beyond the edges of the towel. I rolled the scarf and towel together carefully making sure not to fold the scarf on itself. I then tied the bundle tightly. I placed the bundle in a net laundry bag, the kind used for lingerie and/or sweaters. I threw the bundle in the washer filled with very hot water and allowed it to agitate. It will felt very quickly, you need to check it during the process.

A picture of the finished scarf is on the right. The outcome of felting is unpredictable and that’s the fun of it. No two pieces are ever alike and there may be variations within the same piece. You’ll notice that after felting, the voided areas pulled together creating the lovely scalloped edge.

A scarf created by Jane Patrick, Schacht Spindle Co., was the inspiration for this project. It’s a quick to complete in an afternoon project.

Smooth yarns don’t tend to lend themselves to irregular dent projects because when fulled the definition of individual strands of yarn tend to disappear. It works in this project because it was to be felted and that was the look I was seeking. HOWEVER, handspun singles are perfect for creating fabric utilizing this technique. Even after fabric is fulled (not felted) the individual strands stand out and tend to be well defined. We’ll continue to explore irregular denting in future projects.

The Schacht Spindle Co. 25” rigid heddle loom is being discontinued. As a distributor, I am able to get them at a major discount while they last. They usually sell for $199 but I’m now able to offer them at a GREAT closeout deal until they’re all gone. Schacht Spindle Co. is not going to be manufacturing them anymore but they will continue to support the looms with reeds and other accessories. Click here to CONTACT ME or leave a comment here if you’re interested in buying one at this great price before they disappear. 

UPDATE 8/5/08 The rigid heddle looms are sold out.  Schacht Spindle Co. has none available and they will no longer be manufacturing their rigid heddle loom due to the popularity of their new flip folding rigid heddle loom.  The flip folding loom is a rigid heddle loom BUT it can be folded for easy storeage and easy toting.  It can be folded with the warp in place so you can easily transport your project to and from guild meetings, workshops or when you are on the go. Again, as a distributor I’m able to get these for you. So, if you’re interested, click here to CONTACT ME and I’ll help you get one.

For more projects, tips, products, and advice, check our home page by clicking on Seabreeze Spinners.

Seabreeze Spinners is a new site dedicated to taking a fresh look at spinning, knitting and weaving with a tropical twist. We’ll be exploring exotic and classic fibers which lend themselves to southern climes. . . bamboo, silk, llama, linen, and cotton. Our focus is hand spinning and hand knitting and weaving on small looms.  (You need to do something with all that yarn.)  We’ll be lavishing the site with information, advice and links to assist novice and experienced spinner alike whether buying a wheel or looking for ideas for your next project. We’ll provide product reviews, answer your questions, and hold open discussion forums to tap the wisdom of experienced spinners, knitters and weavers.

The primary author of Seabreeze Spinners lives just a seabreeze from Florida’s Gulf Coast. She looks forward to sharing her joy in all things fiber with you and hopefully, helping you get as much enjoyment and fulfillment out of it as she does.

Stay tuned to SeabreezeSpinners.com for more!