Warp Speed…

I of course, hit the ground running, did you expect anything less?

The challenge this week, was prepping for a conference that isn’t for another week, but I have jury duty on Monday, and though I’m fairly confident that with a signed contract I can’t really be put on a jury, you never know, they could have one for three days, and I’d be screwed if I have any additional prep for this conference.  And prep I have to do.

I’m teaching a beginning weaving class at the Fiber Fallout in Western NJ, a biennial conference sponsored by the North Country Spinners.  Yes, this is a spinning conference, but they asked if I would be willing to teach a beginning weaving class over 12 hours, using rigid heddle looms, and I flat out refused.  There is enough written and available online to help anyone who wants to start weaving on a rigid heddle loom, but that doesn’t teach anything about a shaft loom and what it is capable of…

I did however offer to teach beginning weaving in 12 hours using a shaft loom.  I’ve done this before obviously, when I taught as an adjunct in a couple of colleges, where I had to provide the equipment, though I didn’t have enough looms for ten students.  I have since over the past year, managed to procure nine little Structos, actually eight and a Leclerc Wannabee, a ten inch wide wooden frame loom that works the same way (except has an interchangeable reed…)  Since there are eight with a possible nine signed up for the class, I should be OK (though I have managed to locate an additional Leclerc Wannabee (my nickname for a Leclerc that really is trying to be a Structo but with more class).

So, to be prepared for the conference next weekend, I need to be completely ready before Monday, well not completely, I can use my evenings if I get stuck during the week in jury duty, and there is a lot of prep.  Since I procured an additional 4-5 looms, they all needed some sort of work.

First, I had to clear one of the little Structos of the project I was using for demoing my Weave a Memory class.  With fine linen and 36 ends per inch, I didn’t want to have to pull the warp, which was wound onto spools, so I used an eight shaft frame, and threaded one of the four shaft castles with the linen from the spools, and only have to pull the castle with the spools when I want to change over to a workshop loom, replacing the four shaft castle with the second one, and reverting to an apron on the hex beam.  ( I realize that if you are not a weaver, this entire paragraph made no sense , it might not have made sense if you are a weaver, just enjoy the pictures… )

The Weave a Memory is the class where I print an image onto silk and cut it into strips and weave it back together to recreate the image.  I teach this online through Weavolution.

I pulled the castle, along with the warp spools, and replaced it with the second castle.

I added aprons and rods to all of the cloth and warp beams, no matter if they were hex beams or wooden beams.  I nailed the aprons smoothly onto the wooden beams using flat headed upholstery tacks.  I made rod pockets for the hex beams, and for the bars at the front ends of the aprons where I lashed a second tie on rod.  All this lays a lot smoother on such a tiny loom and better resembles a full size loom that helps beginners see the relationship from what they are learning on, to what they can purchase.

I had to carefully check that each loom had 60 heddles on each of the four shafts.  Some of the looms I procured had groups of heddles inverted.  You don’t want to know what threading a loom is like, especially one this small, with heddles going in different directions.

I added small zip ties to each back beam to guide the warp when beaming.  These little plastic wonders are on all of my 18 shaft looms, and they just move into position to help guide the warp perfectly onto the warp beam.

And I secured all the rods to the beams so they don’t fall off in transit by wrapping each beam with a velcro tie, the kind you use to bundle computer cables.

This little project has taken the better part of the week, and now, I have to go into warp speed literally while I pre-wind 9 warps for the class (I will demonstrate #10, but I only have 12 hours to get the students on and off these looms, so anything I can do to help speed things up is necessary.  Besides, I don’t have 10 warping boards.  I only have four.

Meanwhile…

To relieve the tediousness of reconditioning looms (not my favorite task) I have been sewing.  I sort of vowed in one of my previous posts this month, to always have a sewing project going, because really, I have too much fabric and really miss sewing.  I finished the batik top (Vogue 1100)  I started earlier in the month.

I dove into the wool pencil skirt (Vogue 1324)with extreme seam detailing…

And I finished up the machine work today on a really cute knit top (Vogue 1128) (the knit feels like butter), I only have the hand work left.

I apologize for the unflattering photos of the garments flat on the table.  Taking a photo on me required me to get out of my pajamas, do hair and make up, and actually look presentable. I opted for flat on the table so I could finish up the other stuff.  I’m happy on the fit of all of the garments, and I wore the batik top into NYC earlier in the month to drop off my work for the gallery exhibit 9x9x3.

Stay tuned while I furiously wind warps and hopefully avoid jury duty…

ps…  know that I really don’t want to avoid jury duty, I think it is an important part of my civic duty, but since there isn’t an option to actually plan when you might be available, and with the schedule I have, it isn’t realistic to think the courts can just send me a notice and I’m going to be able to drop everything and be available.  I book 1-2 years in advance, and a contract is a contract for the self employed.  So I’m hoping for the best, and planning on teaching beginning weaving at a spinning conference using shaft looms, starting next Friday the 28th.