To Beat or to Nudge and What About Wet Finishing?

I taught a short weaving workshop today as part of Sacramento Weavers’ Mini-Workshop meeting. The topic was Clasped Warp and all seven participants finished warping their rigid heddle looms. The time didn’t allow for weaving, but the goal of the workshop was to teach this warping technique, and everyone knew that they’d have to do the weaving later at home.

This blog post is going to serve as a follow-up to the workshop after I fielded a question from one of the participants about why the warp isn’t visible after she started weaving. The point of a clasped warp is that you will see that design in the finished piece. I can tell already that this blog post is going to be too long and I’ll do another with clasped warp photos. This post is about how different cloth looks on the loom and after wet finishing. And it is about Beat.

Blue and white fabric on the loom. Each of the bands of color is 8 threads and you can see that the bands are just under an inch. That means the weft was “beat” at 8 picks per inch (8 ppi).

After washing those bands are closer to 3/4” and the weft picks are more like 10 ppi. That is because the yarns are no longer under the tension that they were on the loom and they have relaxed. Wet finishing (soaking in water) helps the yarns to bloom and also lessons some of the space between yarns.

We talk about “beating” the weft and we use the “beater” that is part of the loom. One of the definitions of beat in Webster's Dictionary is “to strike directly against forcefully and repeatedly”. In terms of weaving that might work well if I was making a saddle blanket or a rug or another dense fabric. But if I want my fabric to have the drape of a scarf or shawl, especially when using a stretchy wool, then maybe I should “nudge” the weft pick. Webster’s definition of “nudge”: “To touch or push gently”.

Its difficult for beginning weavers to realize how lightly one can beat (nudge) the weft yarn and have a successful project. However, each yarn is different and what works for one may not work for another. That’s why sampling is a good thing when you start with an unknown yarn. The lower sample above is woven with the local Timm Ranch wool yarn sett at 8 epi (ends/inch).

This is how it looks after wet finishing. I have worked with this yarn extensively and know to expect this outcome. So I sett the yarn appropriately.

This shows the difference in the yarn before and after wetting. The fiber doesn’t shrink, but the yarn relaxes and “blooms”. This is important to know when planning a project.

This shows the yarn in skeins. The one on the right has been soaked in water and allowed to dry naturally. This is off the topic of “beat” or “nudge” but it all affects the outcome of the project.

This warp is a mix of Jacob yarn and Timm Ranch yarn dyed with black walnut and mushrooms. It is sett at 6 epi. Notice how it looks loosely woven.

The warp was long enough for several shawls. The photo shows an unfinished and a finished piece. I wet finish large pieces in my old top loading washing machine. I put the fabric in hot water and detergent, agitate for usually 2 to 3 minutes, and then spin out the water. I remove the fabric to fill the washing machine with rinse water and then soak the piece briefly without agitating. I use the spin cycle to remove the water.

Here are a few more before and after examples of pieces I recently wove for my Shades of Black and White show at The Artery.

This is Jacob yarn sett at 8 epi. It’s important to nudge those yarns at 8 ppi to maintain the balance of the squares. If I beat harder I’d lose that pattern.

The finished scarf.

Close up of the pinwheel fabric.

This is another shawl using Jacob yarn. It was sett at 8 epi. Beat is 8 ppi.

This is after wet finishing (3 minutes of agitation). The fabric is thicker because the yarns have bloomed. It has a lot of drape and bounce. My notes show that draw-in (widthwise) and take-up (lengthwise) and shrinkage was 22%. So this started out at 25” wide on the loom and finished at 19.5”.

Here is another using Jacob wool. The details are similar to the previous one—8 epi and 25” wide on the loom. This design relies on alternating two dark threads and two light threads in warp and weft.

The shawl is 19” wide after finishing. This pattern behaved differently with 25% change widthwise and 18” lengthwise.

Here is a close-up of the fabric. I love the difference in the two sides of the fabric.

This is the last piece that I wove for the show. It uses the clasped warp technique, but on the floor loom instead of a rigid heddle.

I forgot to get a photo of this one before I set up the show so I took a quick shot at the Artery.

Shades of Black and White

For the last couple of months I’ve been weaving in black and white. For years I have thought about presenting a show at The Artery featuring black and white weaving. The Artery in Davis is an artists’ coop with 60+ members. It is set up like a regular store where we all have a small area for our own pieces. There is pottery, woodworking, art quilts, jewelry, paintings, gourd art, other fiber art, and more. There is one room known as the gallery where one or more artists can fill the room for their own show. With 60 members we obviously have to take turns. My turn came this October. When I found out a year ago that I’d have the show I wondered if I’d have enough to fill the room (although in the past I never had that problem), so I asked Jock Hamilton, one of the photographers at the Artery, if he’d like to share the space with black and white photography. It turns out that we could have both done our own shows with the amount of pieces we brought.

I wanted to give Jock most of the wall space since he would exhibit photos. I needed to figure out a way to display my pieces where they could be seen without just making a pile of folded textiles. I gave Dan the task of creating A-frames for me. I also brought home several of the wooden mannequins that needed re-painting.

The show was to be in place by Friday and I brought things in on Wednesday. Jock and I had a plan of sorts—that was to bring all of our things and see how they fit together. Hmmm…maybe not much of a plan. I needed to get things out of boxes and start spreading them out. I had to be home by 2 that day but returned later in the day when Jock could bring his photographs. We spent most of Thursday arranging things and I went back Friday morning to finish with signs and tags. Then I had to go to Lambtown in Dixon to set up my vendor booth for the weekend.

The following photos are how the gallery looks now. This show will be in place through October 24 and I hope many of my followers will be able to see it. Any items that are purchased may be picked up after the 24th or arrangements may be made for shipping. If you can’t get to the Artery but want to see most of the pieces here is a link with Jock’s photos and my woven pieces.

It seems that I turn everything into a learning experience. I added these baskets of wool and the sign to the table at the front. I wanted to somehow make people aware that I didn’t just go to the yarn store for all this yarn. Almost all of it is the wool from my Jacob sheep or the locally grown Timm Ranch wool that I have processed. I have handled every fleece before it ends up in the batch that is spun. Most of this is mill-spun but there are a few pieces woven of handspun yarn as well. There are also a few scarves woven of rayon chenille.

I also wanted to explain the name, Shades of Black and White, so I made this sign.

This is the first view of the show when you walk into this room.

Jock’s photographs are along most of the walls, but I hung a few of my pieces.

These are all v-shawls.

I should say something more about the photographs. They are fabulous views of mostly local landscapes. My photos of the photos can’t really show them, especially with the glare. Make sure you go to the link above to see them properly.

This rack holds shawls and scarves. Two of these are chenille but the rest are all Jacob wool.

Blankets that are woven with Jacob wool weft and Timm Ranch wool warp.

Another view of blankets and shawls. Those pieces on the mannequins are mobius shawls.

You have to touch the textiles to feel how soft they are. I was certainly pleased with the Jacob wool the last couple of years.

I hope that a lot of people will see this show. It was quite an undertaking.

Random Farm Photos

The Random Photos posts mean that I don’t have anything very exciting to report or a story to tell but I don’t want to be so neglectful of my blog. So here it is.

I have been updating the lamb pages and needed new photos. This is one of the five ewe lambs that is still for sale. Her number indicates that she was the first lamb born in 2021.

This is a lamb I am going to keep. This is almost the last lamb to be born in mid-March.

Tamarisk is the sire of most of the lambs this year. All the rams are putting on too much weight. They get alfalfa because in our area alfalfa is cheaper than any of the grass hays. But maybe I need to switch to something else even though it will cost more.

The goats are always so helpful when I’m doing chores.

This is Ellie and her daughter from last year.

How about some weaving pictures? After all, the blog is titled Life on the Farm and at the Loom. I finished a custom weaving job of 44 throws woven with Northern CA grown and spun yarn. The customer ordered 200 throws, but I said that I could do 40 of them. This is how the weaving looks still on the loom.

I wove these in two batches. This is the second batch of 22. Fortunately I don’t have to do the wet finishing. Someone else is taking on that task.

This is another project I’m working on. I will devote a whole blog post to this idea when I have more finished but the short story is that this blanket represents the 2020 weather pattern in our area. The colors indicate the high temps for the whole year of 2020. The grays and blues are 40s, 50s and 60s. Green is 70s. Yellow, orange, and red are 80s through 100+. There are two rows for each day of the year.

That first blanket has the color changes in the weft. In this blanket the warp indicates the temperature. I hope to market this idea as a kit to weavers and/or weave custom blankets for people based on a special year and place. I sell this yarn at the shop and on-line.

These are samplers that are woven in the Learn to Weave class. I have the first in-person class in a year and a half scheduled for the first week of July. Participants range from brand-new-never-touched-a loom to people who have some experience but could benefit from instruction on warping, reading drafts, etc.

I weaned 7 lambs a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been taking Ginny in there to practice her herding skills. It only took a few days for the lambs to figure out that when the dog is there they need to be near me. A Border Collie’s natural moves are to “gather” the sheep to the handler rather than chase them. But Ginny has the tendency to be to close and I’m working on the “get out” command.

Some of the rams were aggressive toward her at first but now they respect her a bit more.

Ginny is always ready for a dip after working the lambs.

Kirby's Blanket

This is Belle, a 2 year old lilac ewe. Lilac is this color in Jacob sheep that is kind of a gray-brown instead of black. She is pregnant and due to lamb in a about a week. What is special about Belle—at least any more special than any of the other sheep? She is owned by my granddaughter, Kirby.

Way back in 2019 when we all had normal lives, Kirby’s family came from their home in Texas to spend a couple of weeks in the summer. I had selected a lamb to register in Kirby’s name and I got her gentled down before the family got here. This is the story and photos of Kirby coming to the State Fair and showing her lamb.

This is one of my all time favorite photos. Kirby was thrilled to win a pink ribbon! What color is better than pink when you are a 5-year old girl?

I wish I had photos of Belle being shorn and of her fleece. Instead the story will fast forward to fall, 2020. I spun Belle’s fleece, shorn in February 2020, during our weekly Farm Club spinners meeting on Zoom.

I had decided that I would weave a blanket for Kirby to send her for Christmas.

I gave up the idea of spinning all the yarn for the blanket because I just didn’t have time and I knew that the Timm Ranch yarn I use for many of my other blankets would be just fine for warp. I wanted a generously sized blanket so I warped for a double width piece.

I wove random stripes of the handspun brown and the mixed white yarn.

I shipped this blanket on December 14 with plenty of time to arrive before Christmas. However, I made an error in one digit of the zip code. There is a long story to follow, most of which I have forgotten now, and that’s a good thing. I got a message from FedEx that the package could not be delivered. I think it had ended up in a small town in Texas not that far from where it was supposed to go. I corrected the zip code and supposedly all was well. But it wasn’t. I spent countless hours on-line and on the phone trying to track down this blanket and get it sent to the right address. Katie offered to pick it up at a FedEx office, but I was told that wasn’t going to work. The blanket was eventually shipped to Tenessee (FedEx center of some kind) and then to Mississippi to what is called “Overgoods”. It turns out that is a depository for packages they don’t know how to handle or that are lost. The tracking information kept saying that it had been delivered and signed for. I had to insist that it was not delivered to the intended recipient. I eventually worked my way up the management ladder and found that the only way to get the package out of Overgoods was for me to set up an account and request the package.

I did that and eventually got the package back here in California on January 12. This is how it looked. I shipped it back to Texas via good old U.S. Mail.

Kirby has been using the blanket on her bed, but I asked Katie to get some photos so they went outside.

We have all heard about the extreme weather in Texas last week so I think the wool blanket came in handy. Kirby is looking forward to Belle’s lambs and has asked me if she can name them.

What's Keeping Me Busy

This is a post with no theme other than the snippets (is that a word?) of all the stuff I’ve been doing.

I got my second batch of the 2020 Jacob fiber back as yarn. The first batch of 2020 wool was spun at Valley Oak Mill and is listed here. This batch is from Mendocino Wool Mill and is listed here. It always take me a little while to figure out how to best present it for sale. I had some put on cones and some in skeins. The yarn on the cones appears to be so much finer than the skeined yarn but it’s the same yarn—it is just under more tension when wound on a cone. I wondered how much the skeined yarn would bloom when washed. That information is important to know when you are planning a project. Whether you are going to knit, crochet, or weave with the yarn you need to know what will happen to the piece when it is washed.

I washed a white and a black skein to see what would happen. In this case washing just means soaking in hot water and then hanging to dry. This is four skeins of yarn. Can you tell the difference in the yarns on the outside and in the middle? The middle ones have not had any treatment. The outside skeins have been washed and the character is very different.

One way to measure the change is by looking at wraps per inch (wpi) before and after. In this case the black yarn measured 14 wpi before washing and 10 wpi after. If you don’t allow for this post-washing change then you may be surprised at how the finished piece looks and behaves. I will wash all the skeins before labeling them.

Another test before selling the yarn is how it actually works in use. I wove scarves of each batch of yarn to compare them and to determine the best sett (spacing of the yarns on the loom). I tried each at 8 epi (ends per inch) and 10 epi.

I photographed these so that the light was behind and you can kind of see the spaces between the yarns. Those spaces are nothing like when the scarves were still on the loom with the yarn under tension. When you cut the piece off the loom the yarns relax and they further relax and “bloom” when fulled in hot water. This photo shows 2 scarves from each batch of yarn at 2 setts each. All four turned out great and even though the yarns appear different, it’s hard to tell the difference in these finished pieces. I look forward to using these yarns in some much larger projects next.

By the way I put these scarves on three different websites—here on my own, on the Fibershed Marketplace and the Artery webstore, all the while carefully keeping track of which one is where so I don’t take a chance on double-selling them.

Another project I’m working on is recording some videos for the Learn to Weave class using the rigid heddle loom. I am going to teach this on Zoom next week and I want videos for students to refer to when we’re not on Zoom. I warped the rigid heddle loom with all four of those new Jacob colors and wove a short scarf while recording most of it. I haven’t wet finished the scarf yet, or edited the videos. (Thanks for reminding me.)

I also finished another v-shawl. This is another thing on my list of things to do. I want to put together a kit for this shawl and give options for the stripe design. I’ve woven several. I just need to get the instructions put together and figure out the best way to present it. I just added this shawl to the Artery web store along with one of the pinwheel scarves.

I still have a barn full of fleeces. I spent some time yesterday working on those. I only have two full fleeces listed on the website so far, but I have listed several 1-pound batches for people who would like to start with raw wool but not start out with a whole fleece. I am skirting, sorting, and photographing. Raw wool is listed here.

Here is another example. In the meantime I want to get my hands in this and start working with it myself. There are some really gorgeous fleeces here.

I said this was a bunch of random photos. So far it is all about wool and weaving and the things I need to do. So let’s get random. Dan saw me weaving and my weaving slippers reminded him of the Bernie mittens that have been popping up all over the internet.

How about springtime flowers? It’s not spring yet, but the daffodils are here.

So are the almond flowers.

I don’t usually have the patience to scour the wool in locks even though it would save a lot of time at the other end of processing. I pulled out some locks that had more VM (vegetable matter) than I would like. I’m going to see how clean I can get them with flicking after washing. That will go much faster if they are already organized.

How about some goats? These are mothers with last year’s daughters. That’s Ellie and her daughter on the left and Amelia with hers on the right. Amelia is pregnant again.

One last random photo. The redbud is going to bloom soon. Hope springs eternal! And we’re getting our Covid vaccines Monday—have to drive an hour for it but I finally tracked it down.

My Version of a Temperature Blanket

Maybe you have never heard of a Temperature Blanket. If you knit or crochet then it’s more likely that you have. They seem to be the rage or maybe it’s just that I have become obsessed now so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it. The idea is that you record the daily temperature using color in a knitted or crocheted piece. Coming at it from another direction, the temps provide a pattern with which to create a unique or personalized piece. Often people use this as an interesting way to create their project over the period of a year.

I don’t know if this is the origin of the idea but there is a Tempestry Project website. They state: “One of the ongoing problems inherent in discussions about climate change is the vast scale of the conversation. The Tempestry Project’s goal is to scale this down into something that is accurate, tangible, relatable, and beautiful. Tempestry Project blends fiber art with temperature data to create a bridge between global climate and our own personal experiences through knitted or crocheted temperature tapestries, or “Tempestries.” Each Tempestry represents the daily high temperature for a given year and location, January at the bottom and December at the top (think bar graphs!)”

My interest in this began when a customer came to buy yarn for her own blanket. I had just started carrying the new Ashford DK yarn and she thought that would be just right. It comes in great colors and is very affordable. Then I remembered that a friend had knitted a pair of Tempestry Banners to be donated to her favorite National Park for an exhibit about climate. My friend, Lisa, provided these photos:

These banners are knitted using colors that represent the high temperatures for each day of 1916 and 2016. Beads along the right side indicate precipitation.

But wait! I’m a weaver. I want to weave a temperature blanket. There are a lot of factors to consider and it starts to get complicated. Here are some of the things I have thought about with ideas explained below.

1. It’s one thing to knit or crochet a row each day for a year and keep the project in a bag. To weave a row each day that means that the loom is tied up on that one project for a whole year.

2. Color range. Assign a color for every 5 degrees? Every 10 degrees?

3. So far everything I’ve seen uses high temperatures. What about the lows? Aren’t they important too, not only for the discussion of climate change, but even if the intent is to lend an overall feel of how we experienced the year.

4. Use temperatures for where you live? If you travel, use temperatures of where you happened to be each day? Or use temperatures of the year of someone’s birth or marriage or?

5. What yarn?

I’ll give you the answers to some of these later. But first let me explain my thought process. I knew it wasn’t practical to tie up a loom for a whole year but I could do a project that covered a whole year. So for the first blanket I’d weave 2020 temperatures. I explored sources of temperature data made a chart.

I was already December 20 so I’ll have to look up numbers if I want to complete the chart for 2020. I made a similar chart for the lows. A knitted blanket starts at one edge (January 1 temperature) and works forward for 365 rows. With weaving I could use two sets of numbers because I am working with warp and weft. What if the warp was one set of numbers (low temps) and the weft was the highs? There are some issues with number of threads as it relates to the scale of the project and the size of the loom, but I’m still working on that. I wanted to move on to color.

I got out my colored pencils and assigned colors to temperature ranges of 5 degrees. That is 15 colors! Is that realistic? Maybe not for a couple of reasons. But I forged ahead. I photocopied the charts of highs and lows so that I could try out the colors.

This is not how the blanket would look because these months are shown with the days in columns. A woven project would be made with each of those days indicating one thread, either in warp or weft.

This is the chart with the lows for each day. Quite different! Next I thought about yarn. I had already decided that the new Ashford DK yarn would be perfect for this. I know that part of my business is in promoting our own locally grown fiber, and I do love the wool yarn that I am having spun by three U.S. mills (2 in California). But I don’t feel bad promoting this yarn—it is “locally produced” in New Zealand from sustainable New Zealand sheep farms and I think Ashford is a reputable company to support…and the yarn is very affordable and easy to use with a lot of color choices. It compliments my own Timm Ranch yarn very well. Here is the link to this yarn.

This is 12 of the colors that I chose for my initial sampling. I wanted three additional colors but they are backordered and will be here in a few weeks.

I wound a warp for some samples. I didn’t use a particular color order or specific number of threads. I wanted to see how the cloth would look if some of the stripes were as few as 2 threads (one day because it’s easier to wind warp in pairs) and some up to an inch. I used the same color order in the weft for two of the samples and I used two different weave structures.

Here is how the sample looks when woven in broken twill.

This weave structure alternates plain weave and twill picks and looks different on each side.

These samples are based on the assumption that there will be color changes in warp and weft. What about setting up an easier project where one direction uses a solid color?

This is the same warp woven in broken twill with black or white.

This sample uses that plain weave/twill pattern but with the solid black weft.

So there is a lot to think about in planning this woven project.

1. Color changes in warp and weft. Too much going on? Will be more interesting if the lows are one direction and the highs are the other. A fun project to plan and weave.

2. Color changes in warp with solid weft. All the planning and paying attention is for the warp. Easy to weave.

3. Solid warp with color changes in weft. Easy to wind warp. Not as easy to weave with color changes. Stopping and starting yarn. Fulling these samples prevented loose ends from being a problem.

4. Use fewer colors? I tried the same chart using 10 degree increments for color changes. That requires only 8 colors.

The highs in 10 degree color change increments.

The chart of lows in 10 degree color increments is above.

One reason for writing this blog post is to get all my thoughts in one place. Another is to generate some interest in this project (and maybe sell some yarn to be honest). Who wants to work on a color blanket or scarf or wall hanging? You don’t have to weave it. I’ll happily show my yarn to knitters and crocheters too. Here is one more idea for those who might want to do a little each day.

This yarn works great with the Schacht Zoom Loom and you can weave a square in 15 minutes. I am going to weave all the 2020 colors and put the blanket together as an example. Hmmm. 365 days x 15 minutes = 91.25 hours. Don’t hold your breath waiting for me to finish this one.

Look for future posts about the progress of this idea.

Color From the Garden

I started weaving 40 years ago and I think I learned the most about it from trial and error. I am a member of the “full-size-sample club”. I have woven plenty of 4” or 6” or 10” samples to find out how the combination of weaving draft, sett (number of threads/inch), and yarn will work. But I have also woven plenty of blankets or scarves and decided to experiment as I went. That doesn’t mean that every project has been successful, but many have, and it’s certainly way to learn.

I wanted to design a weaving kit using my naturally dyed yarns and I wove several to make sure that the amount of yarn in each skein would work for the pattern. The great thing about these scarves is that they illustrate one of the principles of designing with color—that of value.

I have found that value (referring to the lightness or darkness) of a color may be more important for the success of a piece than the hue. Notice in which of these pieces the weave pattern stands out the most. It is in the scarves in which the dyed yarn has the greatest contrast with the natural (white) yarn.

Notice the two shades of green in this scarf. (Running out of the lighter color of green led to a good example of what I’m talking about.)

This yellow is certainly bright, but it is still a lighter value than some of the colors above and the weave pattern doesn’t show up as much.

This is one more illustration of the importance of value. That weave structure is the same throughout this scarf, but it only shows up where the contrast is great between the light (white) and the dark (purple and blue) colors.

By the way, all of these scarves are for sale either on my website or the Fibershed Marketplace.