Sue Bleiweiss

done!

I wove off the last yard on the loom this morning and got the fabric all washed and pressed so I could sew with it.    I needed to make two coordinating items for the living room for the article so I made up a couple of pillows for resting your head on...

and some coasters for resting drinks on...

The pillows are a little boring I know and I think that when they get returned to me I'll jazz em up a bit.  Since it's a weaving magazine that these are for and not a surface design type magazine I need to leave them fairly simple as far as surface embellishment.  The yarn wove up into some really beautiful fabric though and this color is perfect for the sofas in my living room.

Now that we're finished with this project I can get back to some new class development and some surface and journal making!

and the weaving begins

First thing this morning I pulled the ends through the reed and got the warp tied onto the front beam:

and the weaving has begun:

I managed to get a little over 2 yards woven today and I'll finish up the last yard tomorrow morning. Once the fabric is cut from the loom it will need to be washed and pressed before I can sew with it. 

I managed to start working on a couple new textured tissue paper surfaces today too.  I wanted to make several but ran out of some supplies so I'll have to wait until replenishments arrive before I can work on the other four that I've started.  Meanwhile I've started a surface in blues:

and one in greens:

Both of these are in the earliest stages of development and will need several more layers of color before they're finished.  That will be one of this weeks projects.

Before I sign off with this blog post I wanted to tell you all about a new source for hand dyed cheesecloth.  I met Roni of Sunny Bunny Designs when I was in Houston last year at the Quilt Festival.  Roni creates some gorgeous hand dyed fabrics and cheesecloth and I just got a package of a few things from her this week:

Beautiful colorways in both the cheesecloth and her fabrics.  If you're looking for a source for hand dyed cheesecloth to use in your projects because you don't want to dye or paint your own then you should check out Sunny Bunny Designs.

Hope your all having a great weekend!

Weaving 101

You may remember a blog post or two ago I mentioned that I had gotten an article assignment from Handwoven Magazine.  I've been in their pages a couple of times before, once in the Jan/Feb 07 issue for a black and white bucket bag and most recently in the Sep/Oct 07 issue for a tote bag made from fabric woven with silk sari yarn.   It's always exciting for me to see something that I wove in the pages of this magazine so I was more than thrilled when they asked me to consider weaving something for the upcoming issue on coordinated fabrics for interiors.    I thought it might be interesting for all of you (even though I know a lot of you who visit my blog are not weavers) to see how I turn this pile of yarn:

into a couple of pillow covers and something else.  I'm not sure what the coordinated something else is going to be yet, we'll have to see how much is left over after the pillows are made.  The very generous people at Berocco donated the yarn for this project.  This yarn is gorgeous!  It's a rayon/linen/silk/nylon blend and oh my gosh does it feel so soft and luxurious.  I think it will weave up into some wonderful fabric.    I know that a lot of people thing that weaving is hard and complicated but really it's quite simple and easy.  There are  just a set of steps to follow just like anything else.   

The first step in this process involves figuring out how much fabric to weave which entails calculating how much warp to wind.   So that's the first thing I did:

Then it was time to wind the warp.  This will be a 4 yard warp (those are the yarns that run vertically in the fabric) of 10/2 cotton set at 16 ends per inch.  I want to weave fabric that is 21 inches wide so I've wound 336 ends each of them 4 yards long.  This the warp on the warping board ready to be moved to the loom:

This will be more fabric than I actually need but I always like to weave off more than I need so there's extra to play with.

Here in this next photo I've transfered the warp to the loom and it's now ready to be wound onto the back beam in preparation for threading.  Before I can do the threading though I need to wind it all onto the loom.

You can see in this next photo the warp has been wound onto the back of the loom.  Paper is rolled on with the warp so that each layer of threads as it's being wound around the beam don't rest on top of each other. 

Now that the warp is wound on, it's time to start threading the heddles.   The heddles on my loom are made of texsolv (which is a nylon) and have a little hole in the center that the warp thread is passed through.

Depending on which order you thread the heddles and which combination and order you lift the shafts determines what the fabric you weave will look like. 

All together it only took a couple of  hours to get to this point.  Now that the heddles are all threaded the next step is to thread the ends through the reed, tie onto the front beam and then the weaving can begin.   I'll be back tomorrow with a few more steps and hopefully some photos of the beginnings of the woven fabric.

Meanwhile, if you're really interested in learning how to weave I recommend the book "Learning to Weave" by Deborah Chandler.  It's really well written and if you're a new weaver starting out you'll find it very helpful.  If you are a weaver and you'd like a copy of my weaving project calculation form shown in the above photo, just drop me an email at suebleiweiss@yahoo.com.  I'm happy to share a copy.  The second page has space for finishing notes, project cost notes and some other things that are helpful to keep track of.

Weaving and a wrapfolio

The latest issue of Handwoven arrived in my mailbox yesterday:

I've got two articles in this issue.  A yoga mat carrier:

A a tote bag made from silk sari yarn along with a padfolio:

They did a wonderful job photographing the projects and laying out the articles.  It's a real priviledge for me to be in this magazine.

And here we have a new wrapfolio:

I'm going to be teaching how to make a mini version of one of these in Houston in a Make and Take class along with how to make the layered surface as well.  As soon as I have the class times confirmed I'll post them.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Finished fabric & a give away!

And here is the finished woven fabric.  I ended up weaving about 3 yards of fabric 22" wide:

I've cut off what I need to use for a tote bag and a few other projects and I have this piece left:

It measures about 22" x 11" and if you'd like it then just leave me a comment on this post and next wednesday I'll draw a name from all the posts and I'll send it to the winner!  This is a good sized piece of fabric, plenty for a small bag, several postcards, atc's or even a padfolio...

How I turn yarn into fabric

I decided to take some pictures as I was going through the process of setting up the loom yesterday so I could share the process with you.

First I measure out the warp threads on the warping board.  I decided to weave the fabric 24" wide with a sett of 12 ends per inch so I needed to wind 288 threads 4 yards long. 

Then this is taken off the warping board and brought to the loom where it's spread over the back beam and wound onto the loom.

Then the heddles are threaded.  The heddles are the little strings (on some looms they're metal) with holes in them that each thread passes through.  The heddles are attached to the shafts that lift the threads to allow the weft threads to be woven through.

Once that's done, the ends are threaded through the reed which separates the ends into the appropriate number of ends per inch, in this case 12 ends per inch.  Then the warp is tied onto the front beam, it's spread so that it lays flat and 6 shots of waste yarn are thrown. 

And the weaving begins!

Because I have set the warp threads at 12 ends per inch they are completely covered by the weft threads which is what I wanted.  Because the Sari yarn is so color rich I want it to be the focal element of the fabric without having to compete with the color of the warp threads.

I'll be back in a day or two with some completed fabric ready for sewing!

weaving and knitting

I've been doing a lot of knitting and weaving over the last few days.

A new hat and mittens for those cold winter hikes.  These are knit using Malabrigo worsted merino kettle dyed yarn.  I love this yarn, it's my new favorite yarn to knit with.  It comes in the most yummy colorways.  The mittens are stuffed with some really soft fluffy merino roving that is knit right into the mitten as I knit it.   It's like putting your hand into a cloud.

And while I was at the yarn store I saw this skein of very shiny and glimmery fun yarn that's on the right in this picture that I knew would go perfectly with the cone of teal chenille yarn that's been in my stash forever.

So I bought a couple of skeins and warped up the loom and wove myself a new scarf...

Here's a tip for all my readers who are weavers who want to preserve the nice fluffy fringe on their chenille scarves throughout the washing and drying process.  Once you have tied the fringe knots trim the fringe to about 2" longer than you want it to be.  Lay the fringe between two pieces of muslin that are a little longer and wider than the fringe alinging the top edge of the muslin just below the knots.  Use a sewing machine set on a wide basting stitch and sew across the muslin trapping the fringe inside.  sew just below the knots, along the middle and then across the bottom.  Toss the scarf into the washer and the dryer (with a towel) and when it's done remove the muslin, comb out the fringe a bit to remove any tangles and trim to the desired length.

Not sure if I'll get to post again before Christmas so if I don't let me take a moment now to wish all my readers a  safe and happy holiday filled with laughter and love!

Handwoven Magazine

Well my issue of Handwoven came today and boy what an absolute thrill it is for me to open it up and see myself in it! 

The article is 4 pages and I think they did a great job with photographing the bag.