26/10/2012

Tiger update

I am so glad that "my" day in Glimåkra was yesterday, as we got the first snow in the evening... and I haven't changed to winter tyres yet. I hope today's booth-tenders got there safe!

So today I made a pattern for the tiger skin. (I do miss the old broadsheets, now all papers are tabloid - it took 4 sheets and a lot of sticky tape to get a big enough paper)

It was a tight fit, but I think (hope!) the width is enough. But... maybe I should plan the next piece "better", so that the stripes all fall inside the body?


I found this tiger skin photo somewhere on the 'net:


What do you think?
(I will not have the whole assembly done before Halloweave is over, anyway - )

24/10/2012

Tomorrow

is another day... today, here is a sneak peek at what I will be doing:


My guild will represent thge nat'l guild at Glimåkradagarna. Today we were there to set up the booth - watch this space for more pictures!

After all these years, dare I say that I am getting a tiny bit tired with the low interest from the, hm, other involved parties in providing links (or maybe I mean links to the, hm, event in question - ? "Internet is just a passing... thing"?)

22/10/2012

First tiger fabric

The first tiger fabric is woven and cut off. Here it is, in the fading daylight, beside it's intended backing, being inspected by the residential Black Panther:


It is now in the washing machine. With some luck I will have time to mangle it tomorrow.

If it shrinks too much, I have enough warp for another-and-a-half - maybe two...

18/10/2012

Another "animal skin"

I had hoped to wind the tiger warp before I went away for a couple of days, but I did not quite reach the goal:

I think it looks promising...

But, while in Stockholm, I saw another "animal skin" pile rug:



I don't know what animal it is supposed to be, but it might be an antelope of some sort? At least I think it has horns...
(Picture taken through the store window - I didn't dare go in and ask)


08/10/2012

On adding borders

There was a question over at Weavolution about
adding plain weave borders to a waffle weave.

As the asker had 4 empty shafts on her loom, I started doodling about other possible borders.

To take it form the beginning – here is one possible 4-shaft waffle draft:


It uses five treadles, according to most(?) books/practices – which, had the loom been a "standard Swedish", would leave three treadles unused.

Adding 8 ends at each edge, we can easily get plain weave:


This only works because waffle with five treadles is treadled to a point - with straight treadling we would get two picks in the same shed every time we go from treadle 5 to treadle 1:


But... the reason I added the ends to all four empty shafts is that plain weave is not the best companion to waffle weave , because of the difference in draw-in/shrinkage.
So what about adding a twill border instead?


As usual, when treadling to a point, the outermost ends will not get caught when treadling in one direction, but the edge floats will not be very long , so in my opinion this will work in most instances.

So... could I find a nice "hem" (or, rather, "border" – at least in Swedish, a border (bård) goes crosswise, while something that goes along the warp is a "stripe" ("rand"))

This requires four more treadles, which would be a problem for the "standard Swdish" loom. As I understand it, US looms always (?) have two extra treadles.


Note that I changed threading direction at the left edge, to make the twill line match (actually "oppose") the line at the right corner.

As usual, all pictures get bigger when clicked.

07/10/2012

Chicken! Chicken! what a sight...

Yesterday we had to do a "utility outing". As it was sunny (for the first time in ... ages) we extended it with a small pleasure trip. We went to Huseby to see the chicken exhibition, and saw these:

(a golden sebright)

(a silver wyandotte)

Later, at the café, I found a couple of chairs:


Hmmm...




As I don't have more than 16 shafts, I have to settle for less details

(OK, so this only takes 13, but it was just a quick doodle. A chicken can never be an alternative to a tiger...)





04/10/2012

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright...


Over at Weavolution, the annual Halloweave is just starting.

(Last year I was in the rebozo group, weaving the seesucker shawl/sample at the very latest moment.)

This year I decided to finally make that tiger skin I have been thinking of for some years, now.
I bought a lovely light grey sheepskin, to make into a ... well, "object". The general inspiration is the traditional fälltäcke (museum pictures here), but I'm using just one skin, and will not cut it.

The fabric will have to be sturdy, I think, therefore I'm aiming for summer&winter - which also has the advantage to give me all of 14 blocks...

So now I'm trying to get a nice tiger-patterned profile draft - this is where I am right now:


So why a tiger? It seemed the perfect combination...



(Both pictures stolen from Wikipedia, Tyger and Lamb.)

Which team I'm in? Frightful fibres, of course!