From among the snowdrifts

(for my Swedish readers)

or, a more , er, "generalized" message:

Every year I think I should weave them - but they have such limited usage (ok, maybe not the second).
Generally I have less exact messages in my shawls.
Currently in stock are: FESTINA LENTE ("hurry slowly"), ARS LONGA ("art is long"), CURA TE IPSUM ("take care of yourself"), UTRAQUE UNUM ("two become one") and TWO INTO ONE and a few others. (Granted, it is a bit too late for x-mas delivery...)

Can't you read Morse code? - no problem, check here, and all will be clear.

The pictures also illustrate that you have to think about (and write out) the messages before you try to weave them, or the scarf can become very short (perhaps there is something that can be added, as en enquiry mark (..--..) or an exclamation mark (..--.)?). If the scarf will be too long - can it be worded differently? "Save the world" is considerably longer than "save the earth", for instance. Or, as above, could it be written "seasons" instead of "season's"?

Over time, I have accumulated a list of "suitable" messages in three versions, with different widths (and lengths) of the code marks. "Save the world" can be done on 14 ends/picks per ".", while "ars longa" does better on 20 ends/picks per ".", for instance.

To end - a snow picture from this morning:

She did have legs of normal length!


So... season's greetings!

Auto-what?

Today I had problems with the auto-advance ("new style") of the AVL.
I had woven a little more than 50 cm, with (almost) no hint of a problem.
It looked like this (all pics get bigger if clicked):

As you can see, there is the occasional streak, but I'm sure that can be blamed on me. (I have found that it is important to keep the rythm, or slight irregularities easily happen.)

Anyway, I was weaving on, and on, and on... when suddenly, this happened:

I tried to remedy it the first times it happened, to no avail. Irregularities continued - the auto-advance really advanced, and advanced...

Something had to be done (and the scarf was ruined anyway). So I put a brown marking thread, and lowered the a-a arm some.
And then some more, and some more... Almost no change between adjustments to the arm.

What to do? Knowing it would be too much, but being almost desperate to "get a reaction", I put the arm at the very lowest point.
Wove on for almost 15 cm, when (again) suddenly I was getting almost double the pick count.
(I did not change anything at all between the two horizontal marks below)

Now I had to get the pick count lower, again... Again several tries:

After almost 50 cm fiddling around I had got the pick count back to where it was to begin with.

I started with approx 7 picks per cm, at the worst point I had about 3, came up to 12 and then back to nearly 7 (did not manage to get it below 7,3 - average over 10 cm).

What, why?!?

- I have never been able to understand why I can have the a-a give me (say) 10 picks per cm when weaving a cotton warp, put on another cotton warp (same grist, different colour) and have to adjust it to get 10 picks per cm.
I can accept (but not quite understand) that I will have to adjust it if I out on a wool warp - different materials have different properties - but, after all, the auto-advance device is purely mechanical?

Holiday special

So, now we have opened the doors of this little house:

As it has functioned as a summer-only tourist information for the last 15 years (or so), it isn't exactly full of lamps... "cosy", perhaps?
(And, to say the truth, the electric system has some... quirks, too)

Some of my things for sale are neckwarmers

and the ruffled scarves

 

The "leaves" are also there, and some fringe twisters, and...

A few more pictures at our joint website, which also has links to the other members.

As it happens, I would be happy to ship even these things all over the world ;-)

Done (for now)

Today winter arrived for real (well - maybe...) - it has snowed all day. I suppose it can be said that it will give a more x-massy feeling when we open our christmas shop on Saturday...

Meanwhile I got the third scarf done, but not without problems.
First, this thingy fell off:

It is the stopper for the flyshuttle cord, and is essential for weaving. See how snall space there is between its end and the wooden piece behind it? I did invent a few words while trying to get it back...

Then I had suddenly lost the knack of flicking the fly-cord out of the way of the shuttle, which resulted in many over-shot shuttles that then had to be retrieved from down-under-and-behind.

When half the scarf was woven, one shaft suddenly started to misbehave, which resulted in 11 faulty picks, that then had to be mended. (How do the rest of you determine when a piece should be scrapped rather than mended? Halfway done, I started to have doubts - but, by then I had done half of it... so I went on.)

After wet finishing and pressing, I decided that the fabric probably would benefit from mangling. (I have never mangled shawls, as I had doubts about the flattened fringes that would result from it.)
But - some time has to be the first time, and why not now?

I have a smaller electric mangle indoors (the Big Monster lives in an outhouse). What with knots and all, it could not be used "as usual" (letting the scarf get rolled up with the protector sheet). I managed to get the first fringe in between the rollers, and out it came in the back:

And boy, did it change the hand of the scarf!!! (and the fringes looked ok, too) So, up I went to get the second - and the electric mangle refused to cope! Sigh. Until - I remembered that I do have a manual  indoors mangle!
And even better: it was a lot easier to get the fringes trough in a controlled fashion!
(As the whole contruction is open, I could let the fringes get taken trough with the help of the protector sheet, stop cranking when the end of the sheet had cone trough, lift out the fringes and let the scarf lie flat again)

So, here they are, all three, showing a bit of all sides:

The colours... well, in the darkness of November...

First of the "leaves"

I was thinking raindrops, but changed my mind and settled for leaf shapes.

I don't know if it qualifies as a "networked" design, so perhaps I should instead describe it as an "irregular dräll"?

For the first one I chose a green (with some blue in it) weft, which I thought would have enough contrast - but...:

 

The result can be called "subtle", I suppose. It is hopeless to try to photograph things in (what feels to be) total darkness of November, but the leaf-shapes show up better on the striped side than on the green - interesting, or perhaps strange? After all, the colours are exactly the same om both sides...

Even though I was confident about sett (10 ends per cm, cotton 16/2), I decided to cut off and finish the first before I wove on.
Then, of course, I wasn't patient enough to wait for the washing machine - . 


When done and pressed it had a nice hand, so that was ok - especially as I had woven almost half of the next by then..
Blue weft:

...perhaps I should use the blindning orange weft for the third...

sometimes I wish...

...that the AVL was not quite as, er, "sturdy".
The Other Loom has perhaps 4 bolts, and they have to be taken out on only one occasion - when it is to be completely dissasembled.
I have woven on this loom for close to 30 years now, and have never had a problem with the reed falling out, for example. The breast and knee beams lift out easily, the beater lifts off... and no tools required. But it hasn't got a fly shuttle...

Today I shifted from the double fly shuttle box to the single - at least 6 bolts to take out, plus several other small screws and things that require tools. Then, of course, the bolts and screws have to go back in.
The beater top has two bolts, and to change the reed there are many more (9? 10?). To be able to thread at a reasonable rate, the breast beam had to come out - more bolts.

Don't get me wrong. Once "done", the AVL does nearly everything I ask of it - and with the fly shuttle and the auto-advance she is fast, too.

As I could not (easily) adapt this pattern to full inches, I spread the warp with empty sections between the stripes. By mistake, I started sleying "straight", which means the left side of the warp is about one inch wider on the beam. Had I started the sleying just half an inch to the left... but I decided it will not be a problem. Time will tell...

After having got the auto-advance set and the pattern/threading checked, I stopped for the day.

(no, I will use a somewhat less orange yarn tomorrow)

(I've better confess: it helps to have a club when taking out/putting in the wedges of The Other Loom. But a clog will do, in a pinch)

Making more of the fringe twisters

Yesternight (is that a word?) I assembled the first five of a new batch of fringe twisters.
As usual, they have cutlery for handles and chessmen for the turning knobs.

The next five are now drying, being ready to assemble tomorrow:

Of the ten, three have rather un-romantic stainless steel spoons, two have slighly smaller "silver" spoons.

Then, there are the specials - two have old steel knives, and three have rather fancy fish knives:

The steel knives are perfectly safe (dull-edged to the point of having been completely useless to eat something with...), but the fish knives have a slight point. But when I found them, I could not resist to use them!

They are all for sale - SEK 180 plus postage.   (This means a total of 225 inside Sweden.) A good x-mas present for a weaving friend?
Contact me at kerstin (at) bergdalaspinnhus (dot) com - I take PayPal, and ship to everywhere!

How to use them? Here is a description in English, here is the same in Swedish.  (Will be included in the shipment)