Weaving Again! on the Wandering Vine Coverlet

Well -- I did make some definite progress on the set-up this weekend:

• Finished threading nearly 900 heddles
• Sleyed the Reed
• Spread the warp and tested for crossed threads (There were none!)
• Program the treadle beads (Only 76 treadle changes compared to 300 in the Mountain Cucumber coverlet!)
  

Choosing appropriate shuttles - What will work best for this project?   Then I have to wind bobbins ...  So far, I am using the same shuttles I used on the Mountain Cucumber Coverlet on the smaller loom.  The Hockett shuttles work nicely here, too.  A good weight, and they can travel the 1 yard distance when I throw them through the shuttle race to the other side.  Smaller / shorter shuttles seemed to stop mid-way through, and then needed to be rescued.

And there's still the experimentation phase / make adjustments.  Do I use 20/2 (photo 1) or 10/2 (photo 2) for the tabby?  I am still testing this.  So far it's inconclusive ...  I would have expected the 20/2 tabby to take up less space than then 10/2.  However, the 2 test blocks seem to have come out about the same length -- which surprised me.  I know part of it is how hard I beat it too.  So I am leaning towards the 10/2 for a more balanced weave.

I'm almost there -- the active part of weaving again!  Oh how I've missed it!  The clack-clack clack-clack of my beloved looms!

I am still figuring some things out.  There are 7 pattern repeats across the width of the panel.  Each block is about 5 inches.  I am trying to make the blocks square.

How far can I weave on a full bobbin?

Red

Tabby 10/2

Tabby 20/2

The Raspberry Beret Star by Iris -- EAA Raffle Quilt 2024

Here is the gorgeous raffle quilt for the 2024 EAA Quilt Show in July, sponsored by The Lakeside Quilt Guild here in Oshkosh.  The quilt was designed by guild member Iris, a true artist!  It was made by Iris and her team of worker bees from the Guild.

I'll be selling raffle tickets if you want a chance to win this quilt, just let me know.   

The LSQG Facebook Page

The Lakeside Quilt Guild Website

Now We're Getting Somewhere ... Progress on the Endless Warp

 

I had to buy some new heddles, because this pattern requires more than the standard issue that came with my old loom.  They don't make the flat steel heddles anymore, so I purchased some open eye heddles to make up the difference.   I thought the open eyes would be easier to thread, as I'm getting older too.   I got 4 bundles of these heddles from Ability Weavers in Michigan.   That's 400 extra heddles, although I only needed just over 300 more.

 

It didn't take that long to add them to the shafts.  I made sure they were all facing the same way (just in case that makes a difference).

Just look at that nice wide open eye!  Maybe I won't even need a threading hook?

  Here they are next to the old flat steel heddles.  I don't think it will make a difference, having two types of heddles on the shafts.  As long as they do what they are meant to do!

From the project notes in Fiberworks:

• Shaft 4 = 242 heddles
• Shaft 3 = 221 heddles
• Shaft 2 = 200 heddles
• Shaft 1 = 221 heddles

 

Now that the sectional warp is wound onto the back beam, and sufficient heddles added to each shaft, I can finally start threading heddles for the Wandering Vine coverlet.  

I was able to print off a threading table from the Fiberworks software that should make this step easier / smoother.

This is only the first page of the treading charts.  It goes on for another 7 pages, tracking nearly 900 threads over 37 inches.   I've learned to color code the numbers (which correspond to a shaft).  I have to keep everything in order and work methodically.  

 

From the front:  this is about 600 heddles threaded.  300 more to go ...  I'm 2/3 of the way there!

 

From the back:  2/3 of the way to finishing this stage.

 

This stage will likely take a few more weeks since there are a total of about 880 (Say 900) heddles to thread.   I'm still working full time, so it's not like this is my only thing to do ...

After 3 weeks, I have about 2/3 of the heddles threaded.  I'll say it: It's tedious and putsy.  This is not the fun part of weaving.  But if you want to weave, you have to make peace with the set-up stage.

After this, I still have to sley the reed and tie on, then test for threading errors, and hope that the sectional warp works as promised for keeping good tension.  It will be a while before I can start weaving.

Perhaps I will learn that I should save the big loom for rugs and other projects that are not so finely spaced?  Maybe smaller panels are not so bad because I can spend more time weaving.

Fiberworks Weaving Software and Davison's Wandering Vine

Draw down for Davison's Wandering Vine, modified.

For the Wandering Vine Coverlet, I decided I needed some weaving software a bit more robust than iWeaveIt on the iPad, one that would let me design borders, visualize the whole thing, and print out threading and treadle tables for the big loom.  

The screenshot above shows Davison's Wandering Vine draft rendered in Fiberworks software, which I can use on my "big computer."  It offers a bit more functionality than the iPad. Although I manually wrote out threading tables for several different wandering vine patterns, it became overwhelming to do it for a 36-inch panel at 24 epi.  It was too easy to get lost ... I shuddered at the thought of having to re-thread all of that if I made a mistake in my calculations.  The software is a little clunky, but since we lived through the 1990s, there's something familiar about it.

Thank you to my husband who helped to map this out, and adjust the borders at the sides top and bottom so that they finish with a more pleasing vine.   And to figure out a suitable overlap for where the panels will come together in the middle.  This pattern also took a bit more mental gymnastics to figure out how the panels would come together.  We kept it as simple as possible.

The sectional warp is all wound on with 12 yards of 10/2 cotton warp, in 37 1-inch sections.

Doesn't it look nice and tidy?

Yup -- This is what I've spent weeks winding on a 12-yard sectional warp.  And it will be several more weeks before I can start weaving.  Now it's on to threading nearly 900 heddles.

Using the sectional warp is a whole new thing for me because you warp the loom back to front.  It's supposed to be a revelation for keeping even tension.  Up until now, I always warped front to back, using the reed as a comb and raddle to keep the threads in line.  I am more than a little worried about threading the reed last and having crossed threads ...  I will wrestle with that when I get to that step.