Weaving Summer and Winter Sheep

I found some time ago a summer and winter sheep pattern with inlay on weave away's blog. I believe it is from an old handwoven magazine and I don't have any copies so no instructions for me to go by. Handwoven’s magazine is not easy to get your hands on in Australia but you can get digital copies. 


 I have been wanting to try this technique out simply because I hadn't done it before.
I took a look at the draft again that was on her blog and started to plan. It has 12 treadles, nope I didn't have 12 treadles so I used my table loom .
Next step turn it into a lift plan, again something I had done before but it wasn't difficult at all. There is always a solution to a problem.


My table loom is an 8 shaft jack table loom , levers that raise the shafts , and I think it was made by a manual arts school down in N.S.W.
I have since seen one since on Gumtree called a Pagett loom which looks exactly the same as mine, but can't find any information on that.

 The built in removable raddle on the back beam.

 The levers are in the centre
and hanging shafts with springs on the bottom of every shaft 1 either side of each shaft.

It has metal heddle rods and metal heddles.
It has a 12 dent reed.















Okay I have enough shafts and I only have to worry about which shaft has to be lifted. So all is good there.
I put the draft into a weaving app but had trouble making it into a lift plan. I also tried the demo version of fibreworks and still it wasn't what I was after. So out with the pens and did it by hand.
I also drew up the threading plan for 1 whole repeat, counted how many heddles would be needed on each shaft and made sure i had enough and thankfully i did.

Okay onto the warping I used Bendigo 2 ply Classic Wool at a sett of 15 ends per inch. I wanted it to be about 27 inches wide . I used a sett of 1-1-1-2 in the 12 dent reed.

I haven't worked with this wool before but am finding it sheds a lot. I wonder if this is what other people have found. It feels great whilst weaving and I haven't had any snapping at all.

Loom warped, heddles threaded lots of threading errors later, I proceeded to weave.

What the! 

First row of sheep back to front. Second row upside down but now changed to weaving on the right side so I can see them.

Where are the sheep ,oh thats right they are on the back side of my weaving, damn. Okay I want to see what I am weaving so back to the drawing board not only was I weaving them not facing me but those little sheep were upside down. Hence the original pink lift plan numbers changed to green

and finally here they are all in order right side up, on the right side of the fabric. Now they look really good.

A couple of skipped warps I see take more care is the message for me.

This is a fun pattern and rewarding to watch weave on my loom.
What I am going to make out of this fabric I have no idea at this point. Update i still have made nothing out of this fabric yet. I wonder what i could make and for what purpose would it end up being for.

Silkworms and coloured Silk

Here is a link to a new innovation about dyeing silk the most natural eco friendly way. It is fascinating and I really would love to give it a go.


This image is from australian geographic's site from the article I have added a link for.

Here is the video

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2011/03/silkworms-made-to-spin-coloured-silk

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1002%2Fadma.201003860&attachmentId=184340639

Stash Reduction of Crochet Cotton

I wanted to use quite a few crochet cotton 4 ply up as I have so many, so decided to just weave in a rainbow warp . I had some leftover christmas metallic cotton as well so doubled that up with my normal weft and wove away. Here is the result of that crazy weaving just for the sake of it.

I think I will make a tote bag for my sample-it loom or a bid tote bag for me. 

I wove this on my 32 inch Ashford Rigid heddle loom and used 2 x 10 dent heddles to double the sett.  It actually is really soft and has heaps of body.

Pick up weave with long floats on Rigid Heddle Loom.

I started this little sampler on my Ashford Sample-it loom just to try it. I was on Kelly Cassonova's youtube channel and thought that looked really cute and something that I would like to try out.
Here is my attempt at it.

 A few trees, followed by a row snowman's then a snowflake that could have done with a thicker pattern weft then a row of reindeers. I used cross stitch or bead designs as there are plenty of freebies on the net.

The one thing you do have to do is centre the design and the count of that design , count your warp ends and do some math to get it all to fit.

I then followed it up with a window pane design that I have always been interested in.

And the end of the warp is plain weave.

Its not a bad sampler and I am glad that I gave these simple but beautiful weaves a go.

Thankyou to Kelly for the introduction to Branoe weaving.

Hearts baby blanket -Second Project Finished

I finished this at the beginning of the year but have had simply no time to post about it. I also forgot to take photo's myself when it was freshly pressed and ready to give.
My niece kindly sent me photo's of my baby blanket after it had been used and thats great..

I am extremely happy with the end result and once again the 10/2 cotton wove up beautifully and has a great drape to it.

Here it was on the loom and on my god what a bloody mess. I had  tension and  my count was out but only a few but enough to throw everything into chaos for me. I just couldn't stand it and had to rewind so to speak and god what a pain after threading 8 shafts and the tangles. I have never touched my hair and wondered why, why, oh why so much but once I slapped myself a few times and settled down it became quite apparent only you can fix this and I did.  It definitely was operator error and thats as simple as it was, I just wish the fix was as simple as me arriving at that epiphany.  It really was in simple terms are you kidding me.
I can't believe I am soooooooo human as to make such a stupid mistake but anyway.
This is the mess.

 before and after the mess

I also noticed that my beat on a part of it was not as consistent something I will have to keep an eye on and that really bothered me but once again that was noticed once off the loom and washed and I even considered not giving it because it was not good enough to be giving as a present for a new born child to carry on into their adult hood. I mean this is a legacy gift  to my godchild for her child, it really had to be perfect but alas I am not perfect it turns out. Oh what a surprise!!!!!!

The end of the warp just before cutting off

It was worth all the drama

Yes and what a relief.  Actually I really enjoyed weaving this 8 shaft 10 treadle pattern for the first time in my life.  My selvages were even as well as my width throughout. I used my glimakra raddle as I found it was very helpful in maintaining my width , as it was the full width of this loom, as well as using  my form of a measuring tape for the stripes.
I ended up getting enough for 2 baby blankets out of this warp . I really was so happy with the finished result and so was my niece which ultimately was the best feeling in the world . It has been used over and over and I have been told another child didn't want to hand it back stating that it felt so cuddly and she wanted it and cried. Oh the poor sweetie if only i had known????

Done and delivered and now I am stagnating. What to produce next. Thought more tea towels , i really am in need or maybe something I have never done like krokbragd on my table loom or the sheep draft I have so longed to do. I don't know I am having a weaving blank big time with too many life drama's in the background. Centre myself is my motto at the moment.