Baby wraps are done, and I'm packing for vacation

Done and mailed off! The "Lotus" baby wraps are on their way to their new home, and I am packing packing packing for leaving for vacation tomorrow.

I've got my fishing hat and everything. Is it time yet??? Oh yes. Got to shut down the Etsy shop, and do a few more last minute things. I've got someone here watching the place (or I wouldn't be blogging about it), but they won't be shipping for me.

Another one of those last minute things will be visiting the foot doctor tomorrow. I tripped coming out of my front door two weeks ago. Turns out, my foot is broken in two places. Oops. Ah well, luckily the wraps were plain weave. I re-set the treadles under the loom to be both done by the right foot. No problem. A complicated twill might have been more of an issue, but I had this one covered.
Except, no swimming on my vacation on Lake of the Woods. Ah well, I can still get in and out of the fishing boat, so I'll be fine.

Is it time yet???

Yes, that is me. I've been going to these waters a long, long time.

Time to go to my heart home.

You all be good to each other while I'm gone, ok?

Warping the loom for a baby wrap

I'm making progress on getting the loom all warped up for the next batch of baby wraps. I'm working a bit each day, so I make sure I can get these completed and out to their new owners before I take off for vacation/family reunion in July. As I'm working, I'm remembering how much I like working with this yarn. It is 10/2 mercerized Valley cotton from Webs, and is just lovely and shiny slipping through my hands.

So, first up is the calculation part. I remember back in high school deciding that I'd never use math again, so I didn't have to worry about it. Boy was I wrong. Weaving is really just visible math. You've got to figure out how many threads, of what colors, at what length to get the effect you want. So each project sees me with pencil, paper, and a calculator in hand.

Then it is time to measure out the threads. I create the gradation of color as I go along, by changing colors every 2-4 threads. That makes for a lot of cutting and tying knots. I've tried other methods, but ended up with nasty tangles when I tried to get the warp onto the loom. This takes me a bit of extra time, but I like the results better.

I'm putting on 21 yards of warp this time around. That gives me enough for 3 five meter baby wraps. One for my mama client, one for the new testing regulations, and one more sister wrap. My client gets first dibs on the sister, so we'll see whether or not it ends up on the open market or not.

There! The warp is all measured out, and the color changes 'programmed' in.

Next up, I work on getting the warp onto the loom. I'm warping front to back, so my first step is to sley the reed. Or, in other words, I hook the threads through the slotted piece of metal at the front of the loom. That spreads the threads to a nice even width. Also? I learned that sley and slay are from the same Old English root word slea, meaning 'to strike'. I'll use the reed, which used to be called the sley, to beat or strike the weft threads into place in the weaving process. Words are neat.

From there, the threads each get their own heddle, which will control when it raises and lowers in the weaving process. 760 threads, hooked one by one by one...

Once they're all through, the end of the warp gets tied onto the back apron rod of the loom.

There! Through the reed, through the heddles, and tied on. I love this part. This is where I get my first real glimpse to see how well the color blending worked out. I'm rather pleased by this one.

My client chose pretty colors, didn't she?

Today's job will be to wind all 21 yards back onto the back warp beam of the loom, to store it until it is ready to be woven. This is a fiddly bit, because it needs to be under perfectly even tension. More later, after I get that part done. But I'm making progress!

Finished purple ruanas, and the start of the next baby wrap

I know. I said I wasn't going to do baby wraps for awhile. But, I have a mother who has one of my wraps, and asked me so nicely to make another for her brand new baby. And well.... Here I go again! The yarn got in today, and I'm excited to get working. I'll put three wraps on this warp. One for my mama client, one to be sacrificed to the new testing regulations, and one more to be available to the public. She made some lovely color choices on this one, don't you think?

And in the meanwhile, the two purple ruanas that were spoken for are complete and ready to go to their new homes! The one on the left has the dark purple weft, and the one on the right has the light silver grey weft. It is amazing how much difference that makes to the overall look of the piece!

I have one more purple ruana to finish up today, and get listed for the Etsy shop. And then, it is baby wrap time! I want to get that project done start to finish in three weeks time, so I can get it shipped off before I take off for my vacation/family reunion on Lake of the Woods, Ontario. (Is it time yet??)

I've been going to this particular lake for vacations since I was a teething babe in arms. It is where I went on my honeymoon with my husband Eric. It has been the one constant in my life. And I want to go home...

Blessing Threads, and new yarn to weave with

Tonight's new thing in weaving: Blessing Threads. (No, I didn't coin the term.) These are threads of a contrasting color that are inlaid into the weaving to mark the midpoint of a baby wrap. I'll trim those ends off after I wash the finished fabric, so everything has a chance to shrink and shift into its final position first. Evidently this is a pretty popular design touch. Ok, I'm game!

This yarn is the new-to-me 8/2 Valley unmercerized cotton from Webs. So far, I'm really pleased with it. It is strong enough that I've warped and woven without a single broken thread, but still soft to the touch. There were a few knots and slubs in the yarn, but I was able to eliminate most of them while I was measuring out the warp. It will be interesting to see how well it turns out after I get it through that first wash after weaving. 

Sunrise inspired baby wrap

I was given a commission for a woven baby wrap recently. My client's color choices were inspired by a picture of a sunrise from her front yard. I had fun picking colors to try to match the feel of the picture. Here's a shot of the yarn after I got it all measured out. You can see how I'm planning on blending from one color into the next one.

I tried an experiment on this project: tying directly from the old warp on the loom onto the new one. That way, I don't have to sley the reed or thread the heddles again. It did shave about an hour off of the total project, but I had several snapped threads when I was beaming on the warp. I suspect they twisted around each other in ways that I didn't expect. I'll do more reading on the process, but as it stands I don't think the time savings was worth the extra hassle. That might be different if the pattern threading was challenging to get right, but I'm just using plain weave here, so it isn't an issue.

My next step was to choose which color weft yarn I wanted to use. I sampled these colors, plus black. I do love playing in the colors!

Here's the sample bit at the beginning, showing the effects of the different weft colors. In addition to giving me a sampler to see color interactions, this also has the benefit of evening out the weaving tension and draw in before I start on the actual fabric.

I put enough yarn on my loom for three different baby wraps. They each have a different weft color, so everyone gets a unique piece of wearable art.

Here's all three finished wraps. Yes, I'm standing on my weaving bench, looking down to take this picture. Evidently I really should crop my toes out of the shot. Oops.







 And here is one of the wraps in use! This one had the maroon weft color, which warmed up the feel of the whole piece. I really love seeing the mothers and children using my handiwork. I always get this goofy smile on my face, and it tempts me right back to my loom again. Are they not both gorgeous??

 

  

 

The difference a weft color makes, and a big decision

Isn't it fascinating, the difference the weft color can make in a weaving project? I've been weaving baby wraps. I can fit more than one wrap on the same warp on the loom, but I like to make each finished product a bit unique. So, unless requested otherwise, I will change weft colors from one wrap to the next. (The weft is the thread that goes crosswise. The warp threads go longways.) In this case, I used a black weft for the fabric in the top part of this picture, and a teal blue for the fabric in the bottom. When I got the fabric off of the loom, I washed it and then cut the two projects apart. The finished wraps are obviously related, but still different from each other. I'm just not sure which one I like better!

Speaking of weaving baby wraps...I've been getting custom orders for wraps in the last few weeks. Lots of orders. Which is awesomely exciting, and still rather overwhelming. At the rate I'm going, I have custom requests backed up through the end of November of next year! That won't do at all. I have to find a way to speed up my process. Which means I need to squeeze more hours of studio time into my week. Which means...

...Which means I'm putting my best foot forward, and going full time in the studio. Yes, I put notice in today at the local community college that I won't be back next semester to model for their life drawing classes. I just don't have time to do that, and to still make the deadlines I've set at the loom.

Yikes!!!

I'm scared. I'm excited. I'm overwhelmed. I'm nervous. I'm thrilled. I'm.....I'm behind on my current weaving project because I modeled this week. Back to work!!!

(Drawing by Jan Trisler, of TriPal Studios.)

Baby wraps, and unexpected gifts from the dye pot

Here's how the prototype baby wrap turned out, modeled by the lovely lady that was the inspiration for the project. Is that not just the most adorable baby ever??

Now that word has gotten around that I can do custom wraps, my project list has rather exploded. Given an estimated time to complete a project of two weeks, I'm booked until...lets see...some time in April currently. Time to get to weaving!! Next up on my to-do list is to figure out how to squeeze in more time in the studio, around family, day job, other projects, and my historical recreation activities.
"Just keep weaving...just keep weaving...."

This is the wrap that is currently on the loom. The client picked out 4 colors of grey fiber reactive Procion dye, and requested warp painted stripes that alternated the grey and white, set off by thin stripes of black. When you dye your own yarn however, you're never quite sure what you're going to end up with. In the hand painting process, the greys diluted down a bit and their undertones really came through. Also, the dye wicked down the way unexpectedly in some places, and didn't take up in others. So we have green, blue, teal, etc versions of grey, with sparkles of the original white left to shine through. I not sure it was what exactly she had in mind, but I love it! (I'll be writing her in just a bit here to get her opinion.) I'm crossing this wrap with black weft, to leave the colors intact. I should have enough yarn on the loom for a second wrap. I'm thinking of a teal weft for that one, to pop out the unexpected gift of color. 

And now, back to the loom.

Baby Wrap: color design

I've had a request to weave a baby wrap, so it is time to work on a new project! I had the recipient choose four colors of 10/2 cotton yarn from Webs. (http://www.yarn.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/categoryID/3D03DC12-64EF-4CFA-BA1E-65F9D62C685D/productID/CD455D1D-4394-4515-B549-064F2A93BEA9/) She chose Lizard Green, Mosstone, Nautical Blue, and Burnt Sienna. The yarn got here today.

And now, time to decide on the color order. She'd like the colors to gradually fade one into the other as they go across the warp, with none of the colors repeating. The two sides of the warp will end up different colors, which evidently makes it easier to use the baby wrap without twisting the fabric as you put it on.

So, I took pictures of the cones of yarn in different orders:

Here are the two greens separated, one with the Burnt Sienna on the end, and one with the Nautical Blue on the end.

Here are the two greens separated, appearing on the ends with the other two colors in the middle.

Here are the two greens in the middle of the wrap.

And here are the two greens to one side, one with blue on the other end, and one with burnt sienna on the other end.

Now, the two greens are much closer in tone than I expected, given the picture on the yarn company's web site. So I rummaged around my stash of matching yarn, and came up with a couple of other options to offer.

I have a lighter blue to swap out for one of the greens. There should be enough left on there from the previous project for a good warp stripe.

Another option is a light brown.

And, just to make it interesting, here's what happens if I swap out one of the greens and the nautical blue.

I actually think that last one is my favorite of the bunch, with the colors in just that order.


So, what do you think?

EDIT: Oooh...I had limited myself to 4 colors, for cost purposes. But, I do have these other colors available. So, what do you think about all 6 thrown in there, like this?