learning to weave

Since my Ashford rigid heddle loom came in the mail (and I worked up the courage to put it together :o) I have been really enjoying learning how to weave. Weaving is very different from knitting.

• while knitting is super portable, weaving isn't
• knitting uses a lot more yarn than weaving to make a similarly sized item
• weaving goes faster than knitting
• some yarns seem better for knitting or better for weaving

My current project on the loom is a set of four place-mats, and uses some odds and ends of cotton yarn, in a rainbow of color for the warp and black in the weft.

My last project was a nice long scarf. I decided to use some Darn Good Yarn recycled sari silk yarn for the warp, which was probably a mistake. I had used the yarn before as a weft, which worked fine, but it was not so good on the warp. I used a variegated pink (red, fuchsia, tan) alpaca yarn with the scarf, and that I was very happy with. The scarf is a little too openly woven, but it does have a nice drape, and it is very pretty. The colors go together very well.

The project before that was another scarf, using fingering weight superwash wool that I dyed sapphire blue, silver gray, and chestnut. I dyed on the stovetop, using a dropper to add color. It is not a completely controllable method, but it gives a nice mix of solid and blended color for a really pretty yarn.

ps. I will add photos soon

woolen language

Dyed in the wool: The phrase relates to the medieval method of adding dye to raw wool rather than to spun wool or finished cloth. The final colour was much more long lasting and deeply ingrained than dyeing at later stages of manufacture. If something is dyed-in-the-wool, it's unlikely to change.

Pull the wool over your eyes: may have come from the practice of wearing woolen wigs

Spinster: originally, someone who made her living from spinning wool. So many single women had this profession that it gradually came to mean an unmarried female.

The last one has nothing to do with wool, but it was funny, so I wanted to include it. It is also surprisingly recent. Pull your chain: This North American slang originated in the 1980's. Feisty Charlotte Whitton, the former mayor of Ottowa, was introduced to the mayor of London, England. He was wearing many medals and chains of office, while she only had a flower in her lapel. The mayor of London haughtily asked, "if I smell your rose, will you blush?" and she asked in return, "If I pull your chain, will you flush?"

weaving 101

I recently got a loom for weaving- a small simple one that came in the mail in pieces. Fortunately, it was pretty easy to put together, once I got started. The holes were all predrilled, and the directions were clear.

For my first scarf, I chose a peach cotton crochet thread for the warp, and a vivid red recycled sari yarn for the weft. I thought the colors worked nicely together, and that the texture of the recycled yarn came across better, perhaps, in weaving than in knitting. The red yarn has bits of light patches, which makes a nice overall pattern in the scarf. The weave is pretty open- it might be interesting to try this combination again with a reed with more strands per inch. Still, I was happy with my first efforts, and looking forward to many more projects in the future. :o)

a rhyme explained

I found this interesting explanation of the following children's rhyme online. The explanation follows the verse,

Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes marry, have I,

Three bags full;

One for my master,

One for my dame,

But none for the little boy

Who cries in the lane.

{ The sharing out of wool bales in this rhyme is attributed to the export tax imposed on fleece in 1275. The purpose of the tax was to protect the English textile industry from foreign competition and to increase the value of exports. Woolen cloth commanded a much higher price than fleece, and both were of great importance to England's wealth.

The colour of the sheep in the rhyme must also be of some significance. Black wool is very difficult to dye and would therefore seem to have little application in spinning and weaving. However many shepherds prized black fleece and would keep one coloured sheep in a flock of white ones. When the fibre was prepared for spinning a little of the black was mixed in with the white to produce a light-grey wool. The cloth made from 'grey' wool was believed to be warmer and more weather proof the wool made from white fleece. Unlike the pure black wool it could be dyed without difficulty. Source 2.}

going high-tech?

Yesterday I got a cell phone for my business :o) It is a little tracfone that I picked up at Target. It has voicemail, it can text (not planning on using that feature), and it takes pictures. Pretty cool, but the best part is that this phone can be used without a monthly plan. One buys cards that give a certain number of minutes, and a certain number of days of service. My phone is one that automatically doubles the number of minutes for every card purchased (another nice feature). So I bought a 120 minute, 90 day card, but with the doubling and the coupon that came with the phone, I really have 280 minutes. Well, minus the minutes I used to set up my voicemail :o)

Gift Box Blues

when you've got stuff to package
and it needs to look real nice
then you start researching boxes
and find ridiculous minimum orders
(like a thousand) ouch!
then you find some cool packaging
but it costs five dollars a box
that's when you've got...
the gift box blues

Lol- I don't know how many hours I have put into finding just the right boxes so far. The ideal solution would be boxes that I can use to store finished items in before they sell. That could help keep me organized, and if things are already packaged and ready to go, that would also speed up the shipping process. I have shelves in my workspace where I can stack gift boxes, and I have items ready to be boxed up. The challenge now is to find the boxes.

There are a lot of creative ideas that one could use for packaging. Several sites had these little reusable backpacks (that are often used as giveaways with advertising on them). One had a minimum order of 100- it went up from there. That's kind of a problem for me. And the other problem is the risk of buying 100 of these things without seeing them. Plus, if one were to use something like that for packaging, it wouldn't do anything to protect the item, it would only be like gift wrap. Now, the idea of people wearing little Penguin Feathers backpacks around is pretty cool. I may eventually look into this further. It would be good advertising.

However, I am not to the point of advertising yet. First I need to have items to list, then I need to list them... I have some cool stuff that I haven't listed yet because I don't have the packaging figured out. *sigh* so many elements to figure out!

roses in the litter

The other day I was blankly staring at the floor next to the litter box- which had some litter on it, because my cats feel the need to really dig vigorously in the box. Anyway, for a moment, this sprinkling of litter took the form of a scarf in an overall pattern of gray roses. It was elegant. It was beautiful... Then it was cat litter again :o)

buttons and beads

In making something (like a bag or backpack) that requires buttons, zippers, or decorative trim, the items chosen make a big difference in how the finished item looks. For example, if one were making a bag that has stripes, one could match one color, match the other color, or add another element.

• A black and white bag could have a black button, a white button, a black and white pattern button, or something else entirely: silver, bright red, purple, etc.
• A green and blue bag could feature a wooden button (woodsy theme) or a shell-like button (ocean theme)
• A pink and purple bag could have a butterfly button of many colors, or a flower shape.

Sometimes the choice of a button or adding a little decoration to an item makes the difference between it looking 'home-made' or 'hand-crafted'. Things need to be added simply, with restraint. The addition of a trio of flower shaped buttons may be polished an elegant where adding a dozen (just because that many came in the bag) looks cluttered and over-done.

Another concern with adding trim is to make sure that the finished item is still usable and washable. As tempting as that 99 cent feather boa may be, is it really practical? Will it hold up to actual use? How many people will remove the boa before washing the item so that it isn't ruined? One has to place oneself in the shoes of a harried customer, not a careful crafter. If a customer ruins something, she may very well blame the person who made it, and pass on the word to others. Not good for business!

The fun and challenge of dying scarves

The fun of dying scarves is the fun of playing with colors and design.

A color scheme can be a simple monochromatic- shades and tints of one color. Or one color can be the main color, while others are added as accents. For example, a scarf of light gray with accents of blue and dark gray. One can start with a dark color on one edge of a scarf and gradiate the color across several shades, or several different colors. With a rectangular scarf, this can be done starting with a long edge, working toward the other long edge; or starting with the two short edges, working toward the center.

The dyes (or paints) chosen, make a big difference in how a scarf is put together. For example, acid dyes can be set by boiling or by steaming. It is important to realize after painting a scarf with dye and letting it dry, that it is not done. It must still be steamed. To avoid this, one can use an acid dye for the background (boil it), and then add painted accents, which will need to be set with an iron.

There is a product called alter ego dye which is especially made for devore scarves- scarves in satin or velvet, where in some places the rayon portion of the fabric is removed, leaving behind the silk backing. This dye system involves two different dyes, one that will dye rayon and one that will dye silk. Both dyes are thrown into the pot, along with the scarf. It becomes what looks like a mess of color and fabric, but as it cooks, the dyes are taken up by the fabric and the pattern is revealed! The scarf, if it turns out well, looks very very good.

Which brings me to the challenge of dying scarves. The biggest difficulty is in making the dye come out evenly, with no light spots or dark spots. To encourage a good result, I wash scarves with synthrapol before dying. However, this is not necessarily enough. I need to find other tricks to help my scarves dye evenly. And that may be the topic for another post :o)

knitting stripes

It is fun to knit something that has stripes in it- why is that? I think because it breaks the knitting down into chunks, so one has more the feeling of making progress on the item. Plus, there is the motivation to see how the next stripe will look.

Designing with stripes is very interesting, because there are so many possibilities. One that I like is taking three colors, one a neutral (or neutral-ish), one a bold accent, and then one inbetween, a nice pretty color. The colors can be worked in a pattern such as: neutral 6 rows, pretty 4 rows, bold 2 rows, pretty 4 rows, repeat from beginning.

Something else that is interesting is to take two light colored balls of yarn (of the same color) and overdye patches of one for a coordinating look. For example, a ball of light green yarn can be overdyed in patches of blue and yellow, with undyed patches inbetween. Worked with the undyed ball of green, this produces a very subtle stripe.

Sometimes an accent can really change the effect of a stripe. I made a backpack with variegated red and kettle dyed green, and realized after starting that it might end up looking less summery (what I intended) and more wintry (Christmas colors). After finishing the bag, I found two little ladybug buttons, and attached them to the bag. Then I made the shoulder straps in the shape of strawberries. Those two elements together made all the difference.

Silk: painting vs dying

Perhaps the biggest difference between dying and painting silk is in the setting process. Paints are set by dry heat, either an iron or in the dryer. Dyes are set with wet heat. This can be dying a solid or kettle (mottled) scarf in a pot of simmering water to which the dye is added. It can also be a scarf decorated (painted) with dyes, then wrapped carefully and steamed- either in a vegetable steamer or in a specially made steamer.

One can use techniques such as serti with either paints or dyes. Serti involves drawing lines with a resist (called so because it resists the dye or paint, forming a barrier) One first draws the design with the resist, and then fills in between the lines with color. The resist can be black, metallic, colored, or clear (which is removed after adding color, leaving behind lines of white). When coloring in the design, one can blend colors together, shade, and apply salt to alter the appearance of the color. One can find inspiration for designs from stained glass windows, to quilts, to children's coloring books.

For a less structured design, one can also apply random patches of color to the silk, then sprinkle with salt for a lovely effect. The salt really makes the effect, drawing color into intricate patterns as the dye or paint dries. The finished effect can be like a sunrise or a swirl of mist.

I prefer paints over dyes for working more intricate designs (ie serti), just because the steaming process seems a bit intimidating. I have read many warnings about how it must be done just so, with no droplets of water forming on the silk, and no dye seeping through the wrapping. The one thing dye does have over paint is that it does not leave a feel on the silk, while paint does- the transparent paints only slightly, but the opaque paints, noticeably.

Many artists use silk to paint on, and the effect is really spectacular. The artist in the video is using the serti technique.

starting something new

This year, I am starting something new- a new business specializing in hand crafted items (like hand painted yarn, silk scarves, felted bags, etc). I am calling it Penguin Feathers. The name came from a 14 hour flight over the Pacific Ocean. The airline kindly offered some entertainment to keep the passengers from going stir-crazy. One of the movies shown was Happy Feet, an animated film about penguins. At the end of the film, as the credits were showing, there were feathers floating down the screen. Since it was a movie about penguins, they must have been penguin feathers, and the sound of those two words together just tickled my fancy. When I got home, I told my husband that I had the perfect name for a little girl. Imagine my surprise when he said no way. Then my mother said the same thing! But the name was so cool, I had to use it for something. When I decided to start a business, no other name would do.

So now I have my business license (and reseller permit) with the state of Washington, and am working on getting started. It is slow going, but I hope to launch officially in the beginning of August. I have an Etsy account, and will be listing items there in the near future. I also got a tip on a cool site called cafepress, and have set up an account with them too. They do personalized t-shirts, bags, mugs, etc.

I plan to use this blog to write about fun and creative crafting ideas, whether they end up being used in the business or not. It will also be a place to write about the ups and downs of owning a small business.