What to do with Rusty Reeds

There's still some work to be done.  The new loom came with several old reeds, many of which look pretty rusty, so I'll want to clean those up before I try to use them. Or I may decide to just get some new ones, and not mess around with the rust and abrasion.  Some of the yarn for weaving is too expensive to have it shredded by a rusty reed. 

The one in front is in the best shape.  That's the one installed on the loom now.

For now, I have them contained in a cardboard construction tube in the corner.  It keeps them standing upright, and contains the rust, and keeps dust from settling on them.

Once I decided on a project, I had to do a little rehab on the 8-dent reed.

 

A little elbow grease and a wire brush went a long way towards cleaning up this reed. 

I did NOT use vinegar or naval jelly or any other additive. It wasn't bad enough to require that treatment.

 

This is the reed after I pulled off the ancient and dried out tape covering the rails.  

Look at those razor back ridges!

 

Here it is after some "light work" with the wire brush.

It also worked on the dried out adhesive.

 

Ready for re-taping. 

 

 

I used some new duct tape on the edges.  It was just a little wider than I needed, so I took a razor and trimmed off the excess.

 

Here is the re-furbished reed. 

 

There is still some rust on it, but I'm hoping the first project will floss the remaining rust out of the in-between spaces.

 

The next step is to set the reed up as a ruler.

I learned this trick from The Curmudgeon Weaves. 

Mark off:

* the center point (red)

* 1-inch points (white)

*5 inch marks (green)

 

Here's the center point.

Here is the newly re-furbished reed installed in the loom.

You can see the colored yarn marking the center, 1-inch, and 5-inch points all along the ruler.

 

This is very helpful when sleying the reed to stay on track ...

 

... which is what I did next.

That's a still from a Tom Kniesley video on the iPad. 

He is my guide-at-the-side when I need to warp my looms.

A Little Rosey Pink Coverlet: Morningstar Pattern

 The price was too good to pass this one up on eBay!

I thought this was the pine cone pattern, but it's not quite spikey enough for that.   The seller identified it as Morning Star -- not that  morningstar.  

 

 

There are some moth holes in it -- although they don't go all the way through, they are visible when I help it up to a sunny window.

 

Good enough for the back of the couch! 

 

I am intrigued by the pattern.  In this one, you can see circles, like ripples from water droplets on a pond.  It's mesmerizing!

eBay item number:204320527957

Price: $25

Item specifics

Condition: Pre-owned: An item that has been used or worn previously. 

Pattern: Geometric

Shape: Rectangular

Size: Small Single

Color: Pink

Material: Wool

Item Length: 55 in

Brand: Rosemont

Type: Blanket

Theme: Periods & Styles, Romantic, Seasonal

Style: Traditional

Country/Region of Manufacture: United States

Room: Bedroom, living room, den

Item Width: 42 in

 

Item Description from the Seller:

Vintage wool blanket/throw made by Rosemont in Marion, Virginia. Pattern style is Morning Star Design in colorway Rose. Faint yellowish stain in a couple of areas and one small area where the rose color is minimal/faded. No holes that I can see and edges are intact. The dating of this blanket could be anywhere from 1920s-1950s. 

Measures approximately 55" x 42", photographs were shot on uneven grass so the blanket might be slightly larger. 

Silver Acorn Cap Ink

  

Acorn Caps from an Oak Tree

Foraging in my own neighborhood, I was able to get silver acorn caps this week.  They were so many, falling around us like rain last week!  The lady who owns that house and giant oak, sweep them off the sidewalk daily, and bag them for anyone who wants them.  I told her I'd be attempting Silver Acorn Cap Ink.

I used this recipe from The Make Ink: A Forager's Guide to Making Natural Ink book.

I made adjustments to the proportions in the recipe according to the amount of plant material I had to work with.  I had about 5 cups of acorns, so I added 7 cups of water to the simmering pot, along with a canning jar lid that was beginning to rust, and a smallish ball of steel wool for the iron mordant.

This simmering post also smelled quite nice!  I'm not sure how to describe it -- Earthy, but not heavy.  Nutty.

It quickly turned the water to a lovely reddish tea (Do people drink oak caps for tea?)

After 45 minutes, it was a dark brown, and I could not see through to the bottom of the pot.  That looks quite promising for ink!

 

 

Failed Mordant

From what I know of iron mordants, it should react with the tannin and turn the ink gray or black.  I'm not seeing that here, which makes me think that I didn't have enough available iron in the pot.  The steel wool may have had a coating on it that prevents it from rusting.  And the canning lid was beginning to rust, but it may not have had enough.

I'll try again with some finer steel wool.  After I bottled the ink, I added a pinch of a finer steel wool.  After a week, that dissolved, and turned the ink gray -- as expected.  I had smaller bottle that I left as a control.  That jar stayed brown. The power of iron mordants!

 

The spent acorn caps.

Practical notes on using this ink:  The author says that it get darker as it oxidizes, meaning that if you apply it to paper in the evening, it will be darker by the morning.  It's quite a magical effect if you have the patience to wait it out!

 

Silver Oak Cap Ink (no iron mordant)

This would be the control batch.  It's a perfectly serviceable brown ink. 

 

Here it is with iron mordant -- It's getting a little darker. This one may have dried before it oxidized, but it's definitely darker than the batch above.

Although I filtered this ink, it still looks like there are lots of particulates floating around.

 

Here's a texture on an old library catalog card.  This is more the color I expected. 

 

Lots of interesting nuances with this one!

 

I think this was a combination of Silver Oak Cap and Sumac ink.  The color shifted again to have a slight green tint to it. 

 

Another Sumac and Silver Oak Cap Ink Texture. 

 Ode to Fall!

Sumac Ink: Take 2

 Sumac Berries.

The kitchen smells divine this am with sumac berries and oak caps simmering away on the stove for foraged inks! 

Background: Last Feb./early March, I found a gorgeous head of sumac berries at my feet on a walk in my Dad's woods.  So I lovingly and carefully brought it home with the intention of making ink with it at a later date ...  Unfortunately, mice (or some other critter in my basement carried every last sumac berry away from my own stash.  I had to wait for the new season ...  As luck would have it, my workplace has an edge of greenery that includes Staghorn Sumac, with some heads at an easy level to reach.  (They are all very tall in my Dad's woods, so I was glad to find one at my feet last March.)

I used Melissa Mary Jenkins recipe for Sumac Ink.   I made some adjustments to the proportions due to the fact that I didn't have as much plant material as her recipe called for.

From 4 medium-sized seed heads, I got about 3/4 cup of sumac berries.  Be careful breaking the berries away from the branches as there are sharp and picky barbs that hold the berries to the stalk.

I added an equal amount of vinegar to the simmering pot, along with 3/4 tsp. alum and let it bubble for 30 min.  

It smelled light and citrus-y.  Not quite lemon, but in that vein of sunlight and brightness.  

I had to add a bit more vinegar after 20 minutes, because most of the liquid had simmered away by then.  And then again ...  No problem.

I did not let it sit overnight in the hopes of extracting even more color from the berries.

 

It came out with a nice red-brown color.

I did add some gum arabic to help it flow better as an ink, and a clove as preservative.

Now to play a bit with this ink:

 

Sumac Ink on Watercolor paper. 

Sumac Ink - coffee filter paper and on a library catalog card.

 

 

 

Sumac Berries.

Making Ink: Sumac (Or Things Don't Always Go as Planned)

Image from here. 

[In the interest of sharing some experiments that have not gone as planned, I offer this post on my attempt to make sumac ink. 

When I was at my Dad's place up north in March, I found a bunch of sumac berries on the snow at my feet when I took a walk through the woods.  I carefully and lovingly brought them home with the idea of making ink from this foraged item.  And here was the universe telling me to start here!

I let them sit a few weeks while I gathered the needed supplies -- and the berries sat in my basement workshop, along with bits of charcoal and other items until I could revisit them later.  In the meantime, a critter seems to have absconded with my stash of sumac berries.  They made off with the entire seed head except for a few telltale seeds left behind to prove it wasn't all in my head.

So we stopped at the local Mediterranean grocery store where I knew they sold sumac as a spice.  I was able to get a 1-pound bag of it for $4 -- a lifetime supply for ink purposes!  I will keep it in a glass jar so the critter can't get to it.  It smells citrus-y and light. I think we might even adopt it ourselves as a spice!

 

I am using the general purpose spice ink recipe in Jason Logan [The Make Ink Guy]'s workshop handout.

[Sumac] Spice Ink (such as tumeric or paprika). 

This also works well with crushed charcoal.

Put 2 Tablespoons of your chosen spice in a jam jar and cover with boiling water.  Replace the lid and shake regularly over the next day.  Strain the liquid through a cheesecloth or old t-shirt (You may need to repeat this step several times).

Add a pinch of salt, a tsp of vinegar, and a tsp. of gum Arabic.  Shake to mix and leave overnight so the gum Arabic can dissolve.  The salt and vinegar act as preservatives.

This did not actually work for the spice version of sumac.  I let it sit in water for about 4 weeks, but no real color transferred to the water.  After so many weeks, the water on top of the sumac bits was white.  It smelled nice enough, though -- citrus-y.  I think it's worth trying again, when I can get the fresh sumac berries.

I might also try to see if other solvents dissolve the sumac -- like rubbing alcohol or vodka.  More to come on this one ... 

Progress Notes on The Mountain Cucumber Coverlet

  This is a bundle of woven yardage (the first 2 panels) of the Mountain Cucumber Coverlet.

 

Treadle Beads (on Steroids) 

There are so many treadle changes with this pattern, that I needed 4 rows of beads to fit them all in.  

The photo above is from last April when I began weaving on this epic coverlet.  It shows the 4 rows of beads on top in "resting position."

 

For smaller patterns, I used a string on top of the beater, but for this, we used metal rods and wooden truck tires for beads.  They are thinner than regular round beads and the hole is larger, and I can get more on the rod.  There are 4 rods for this project. 

I have them labeled A-B-C-D with markers (a red bobbin) signalling the end of each movement / motif change.  

Each bead tells me what treadle to push in the correct sequence, so I don't have to struggle with trying to read it on a piece of paper.  The beads are easy to see, and pushing them over is much more in line with the movement / feeling of weaving.  I did a video a few years ago to explain how it works.  Although, my technique is better now!  These days I know to pull the beater bar in the center for an even beat at the fell line.  [We learn as we go!]

Eureka! It's Working: Weaving the Red and Black Circle Scarf on the Loom

• This video explains how to "program" the beads.

New Video Demonstrating the Bead System for Tracking Pattern Treadles on the Floor Loom

 

[This photo is from the back of the loom, in case things look reversed.] 

I start with row A and move it down to the beater bar.   In the photo above, I'd already moved onto the B-row.  The ends of the rod are attached with hair ties.  If I have to break for any reason, I mark my place in the sequence with a little clip.  So far, this has been working out marvelously!

When I started, my body was sore after weaving so long.  Since then, I have learned to pace myself -- I weave for 90 minutes, then take a break and weave another 90 minutes.  That seems to work out well for me now.   It's good exercise, moving arms and feet.

There are a few "tricks" to help make sure I'm on track, making panels that will match up when it comes time to seam them together into the full-size coverlet.

One is to keep track of what you did on a piece of adding machine tape.  Inch-by-inch I kept track of each movement in all 7 blocks of panel 1.  You don't let the paper tape roll onto the cloth beam, but roll it up by itself so you can use it to make sure you're on track for panels 2, 3, and 4.  So far so good.  I'm within a 1/4 inch of my targets.

The other is to keep track of the length of each panel with a 120-inch measuring tape.  This is pinned to the right side of the cloth, "as the flowers grow."  I know that each block is about 15 inches long.  And I'm keeping track of where that falls in each panel.  So far so good!

PHOTO

I've found that I need to use a temple to keep the width of the woven cloth closer to the width of the warp through the reed.  I don't want it to shrink up too much.  As it is, the only strings that are breaking now are at the edges / selvedges, but that easily fixable.

So far, I have woven 3 practice blocks --mostly to learn the pattern, and develop a steady beat, and consistent 15-inch block.  I have 1 panel of 7 blocks woven, and I just finished 3 blocks into Panel 2. 

Things I'm keeping track of:

How often I change bobbins (blue for pattern weft; white for tabby)

Where each days weaving ends ...  Am I on target for where I expected to be? [So far so good!]

Today's weaving seemed to go exceptionally well.  The time flew by, and it felt good!  I feel good!  Not sore or tired at all.

Braille for your feet!

 A few weavers recommended marking the treadles with rubber bands (I used hair ties because they are more durable) so that you can feel them with your feet.   I know that the hair ties are on Treadles 2 and 4, so I've learned to feel for them if I know I'm supposed to be pressing even-numbered treadles.  I tried it a few weeks ago, and it worked great!  I didn't have to do any un-weaving that day!   And it seemed like I saved a fair amount of time looking down to make sure I had the right treadle.

The photo above shows a similar system on the new 8-shaft loom.  The 4-shaft loom on which I am doing the coverlet project has a lot of cotton lint from the cotton warp and tabby underneath it.  I decided to spare you that untidiness in order to demonstrate the basic idea.  I put a hair tie on each and every treadle.  If I didn't need it, I pushed it up and out of the way.