The first section is done!

I will now have something to show for this, whatever happens. I want to do several more repeats, so I can treat them different ways, and I'd like to keep one just the way it looked when it was woven. It takes about two good mornings and a little more for each 288 shed repeat of the fiber sequence. I should be able to do three more before Dec 9, more if i have the opportunity to quit my part time job, which I swear I will. I WILL!

Nov 22nd

Progress, but not fast enough. I'm weaving! I wish very much that the loom had treadles. I could go so much faster. Or perhaps, given a choice, I should have opted for the computerized loom. But then I wouldn't have had a warping beam for each of my fibers. Speaking of which, I also wish the loom had a better system for bringing the woven cloth forward around the breast beam. I go back and loosen all three warp beams, wind the cloth back until one of them tightens, go back and loosen that one again, wind the cloth back again. go back and tighten the warps, and I'm ready to weave again.

Also because the loom has 16 harnesses operated by levers at each side, it's practically impossible to operate it other than standing up. Sitting down, all the leavers are in a row in your sight and it would be all too easy to make mistakes.

I have come up with a good system to help me get each shed right with the right fiber. I printed the lever lifting plan out over and over and write the fiber sequence beside it. I put a line after each group of 4 sheds and check them off as I do them. The repeats are separated by a space.

All this being said, I now know that I will have the loom, in its present arrangement, which took considerable effort to get to, only until December 9 when the school closes for the Christmas holiday. By that time, I estimate, I may be able to weave about two yards of my warp. They need the loom for classes in the second semester, so I must move on. I also hear that they only need it for three weeks, so if I am really ready to rethread all the heddles again, it may be possible to get some more work done afterwards, IF they don't need to use more than the one warp beam remaining empty.

I have learned a lot, but with me and weaving, it does not matter. I am an addict. The more I weave, the more I want to weave. And I don't have the money to get what I need to activate my home loom and will not have it unless I get a job that pays more. I suppose I should commit myself to working full time for a while and committing the money to getting the home loom up and running, but somehow there's always another more urgent use for such money.

Ah for a patron. Every artist needs one.

And when the loom must be given up, I will move on to the knitting and embroidering machines and see what I can do there. As with each other challenge, I shall try to consider it an opportunity. I just wish that, having considered the lack of treadles as an opportunity and planned to take advantage of it, I had the time at the loom to follow through with that. There is never never enough time at the loom for me.

Speaking of which, I must go and get dressed to go and weave today. Alons.

Nov 13th! Already!

My warp is on the loom. I'm very glad that I planned it the way I did, with the burn-out yarn on the eight harnesses on one side and the non-burn-out yarns on the harnesses of the other side, except where they "invade" as first the cotton takes over nearly half the silk positions, then the silk is replaced by wool, the wool builds to having taken over all the silk positions that had been invaded by the cotton, and then wool takes over all the cotton positions until the other sevage is all wool.

I don't believe I could have chosen my yarns better. I hope that the differences in the textures of the three yarns will be evident in the finished fabric. The silk glistens and is very smooth. It also sticks to itself and other yarns a little. Going through the lease sticks, it formed little roving-like puffs that bound different thread together, requiring some effort to separate. The cotton is very firmly spun. It was a breeze to warp, running through the lease sticks with no problem what-so-ever. The wool has a lot of twist. It tied itself in knots and stuck to itself at every opportunity, but not so as to bind one thread to another. Given the differences in the wool and silk threads, I'm really curious to see what the silk and the wool halves will do when the cotton is burnt out.

I have also figured out that if the burn-out does not work so well, I can do a fabric in which the cotton is left out by simply rolling the cotton back onto it's warping beam, since each fiber has its own. However, since I also designed the cotton to form a particular textured weave of its own, I may want to wind the others back on theirs instead.

There's five yards of the warp, and a good bit of it will be woven as warped in terms of the order of the fibers. Since that in itself will take 12 X 24 careful throws, and since I'll want to do that series at least - I keep changing the number I want to put after "the least" so let's talk it through. Once for the fabric undyed with all the fibers present, another for the fabric undyed with the cotton burned out, once for the fabric cross dyed (perhaps more for different types of dyes and different types of patterning), once for the fabric cross-dyed and the cotton burned out. More come to mind.

And then, since I warped the yarns shadow-wise in a straight draw on each side, there are endless possibilities of shadow weaves that could be done and treated the same way.

I don't want to waste an inch of my warp and am already considering things to be done with the thrums, yet at the same time, I want to cut off with each time I complete a weave sequence to try a dye technique, see the results, and adjust what i do after that.

Five yards is more that I would be able to exhibit as a single piece that would make good viewing. And I hope there will be another 5-yard warp similar to this when the linen comes in. Would four yard sections be workable with a yard left for thrums and tieing on again if I cut off?

What other weaves could i do with that second warp? It seems like this project could go on and on if had more time and a 16-harness loom of my own.

I also have to start thinking about setting up a website with pictures, or should i simply add the pictures to this website. Makes sense to me. How do I get the pieces exhibited? Or sold? Can they have any practical purpose? They are the right width for a table strip, but do they use them in the UK?

Once I start thinking, it's endless. More effort has to be put into doing than thinking. It seems to me that that is what the art students do.

Friday Week 2 to Wednesday Week 3

Only week 3? I feel better then. My yarn is finally here. (Apparently it had been already since last Wednesday but nobody told the workshop manager. Oh well. Gave me time to work on things a little further.

It has been very hard to find time to work in the workshop these few days. I got the silk section of the warp wound out on Monday. That was all. On Tuesday, I got that section apportioned on the raddle. The Norwich School of Art method for putting on a warp is different from the one I learned in school and I don't know whether I will like it better or not, overall, but I figure it probably had something to offer that will be worth incorporating into the way I learned. Already I know that is right. They count off the warp at the cross according to what will be a half inch of warp width. That way, each counted off section just goes into a raddle section. This would have been great since my warp plan has silk going from 4 silks, to 14 of the next 20, to 12 of the next 20, to 30 of the next 60, to 8 of the next 20, to 6 of the next 20 over 6 inches of warp. (The other warps will be cotton.

They also lay out the warp on the support rod that will attach to the warp beam apron with the lease sticks and the raddle all on a table, instead of making this arrangement on the loom. The loom is different from the one I used in school and I was already wondering how I would use the arrangement I used in school, so maybe this will be better. I'm waiting until all this get's transferred to the loom to be convinced.

I've seen several jobs that might work for me, but I have no time to apply for them. I did apply for a retail job in a fashion shop. My thoughts were that as long as I'm getting low pay, perhaps I should be getting it for something that will be relevant experience for running my own business. Especially with the holiday season coming up with a lot of part-time jobs available. if I can get less than 20 hours of that and combine it with more tutoring jobs I am getting, I will have more time in the studio-workshop. I use both words for the same place.

The new AN magazine is out. I got a chance to take a brief look at it and would like to apply for several things. If I can just find the time. I don't mean to whinge. I've just tired myself out a lot.