A foray into fleece preparation and spinning

washing a drying the fleece in the house on a rainy day

Over the last few months I have dived headlong into the world of spinning. I've filled a book with samples of spun yarns from many different breeds of sheep and am currently working on processing a whole Ryeland fleece.

I've acquired hand carders and a spindle. Here is the wool as it is being processed (clockwise from top left): the hand carders, washed fleece, rolags carded and rolled by my daughter, the spindle with some spun yarn, and a tiny skein of two ply.

Making a rigid heddle

A rigid heddle needs to be threaded as you warp the loom, right? What if there were one that you could attach to the warp AFTER the warp is wrapped on the loom?* 

I came up with an idea for a rigid frame with wire heddles that opens at the top. The eye in the heddle is a coil instead of a closed loop. I can slip the thread into it with a special twist. Then the frame closes for weaving. The prototype is made with cardboard but I plan to make a wooden frame for the next one and am learning to bend the wires much more precisely. To test the prototype I wrapped a continuous warp around a biscuit box. I anchor the box between my knees to weave.

My first two tests were warp faced bands, one of heavy yarn and one of shiny finer thread. The heddles performed better with the heavy yarn, I had lots of trouble with the finer thread getting caught when it tried to slide past the eye, especially on the outside edges of the band. 

The current test is heavy yarn in even weave. This test works more easily than the warp faced bands, perhaps because the outside threads don't have to pull in so much. I will go ahead and refine the design for the wooden frame version. I picture it being useful for weaving bands on an inkle loom or wider fabric on a backstrap loom.

*Note: There is an open-topped heddle for the Brinkley loom. It has a heavy rod heddle with slits in which you lay the warp threads. Turning the heddle over changes the shed which is very ingenious. (I've seen this in use at a demonstration at Wool Fest from this company http://plantdyedwool.co.uk/)

Pebble coasters

Here is one of the final sets of coasters.

Pebble theme continued

To continue the pebble theme and explore more meandering weft, I started a set of coasters. They are done with wool so they can be felted in the washing machine after weaving. I had a lot of fun making some pebble-shaped "sketches" with two methods: shapes cut out of a sheet of stripes in crayon and ink; and photographs of yarn against dark paper cropped with a pebble-shaped frame.

The weaving is done on a "pin board" (stack of cardboard). 

I'm experimenting as I decide what method I want to use for the contrasting stripes and as I sort out how to make the edges beautiful. The coaster on the right is one of the first and shows how much shrinkage happens in the felting process. The ones on the left haven't been felted yet.

Pebble Bag Weaving Complete

back of bag and flap

By the end of the weaving I had found my way in meandering weft, how to switch colours and how to keep control of the shapes. To full and slightly felt the bag, I put it into the washing machine. It tightened up and has a really lovely feel. I'll make the lining next.

front of bag with flap closed

Pebble bag continued

Flap and back of bag with sketch beside

I finished weaving the flap and now am weaving around the body of the bag. After I created the design on the flap based on the pebble, I needed to design the rest of the bag to belong with it. I made a shaped sketch to follow. I've just woven a line to establish the main line of the white design around the bag and next will I fill in on both sides of it.

Front of bag with the main line of white just finished
and reverse of sketch beside

Beginning to weave the "pebble" bag

I've finally begun to weave the bag. I keep the inspirational pebble close at hand while weaving freeform meandering weft in a variety of greys and a bright white. Every weft is made up of three strands to keep the texture and colours rich.The greys are all done in even weave, but the white has a combination of even weave and rows of "over two, back under one" stitch to increase the intensity.