Fuzzy Warps 2 : planning and warping

 This is part of a series of three posts on weaving with a fuzzy warp. I'm putting this out there in the hopes that you might find some of it useful. I am in no way saying my way of approaching this is the Right Way. It's just my way. You should use it as a springboard to find out what works best for you! Every yarn, loom, and weaver is different. Your mileage will, most certainly, vary!

A seriously fuzzy warp on the loom and ready to weave.

Welcome to the second post in my little "Fuzzy Warps" series. This time I'm going to write a little bit about planning your warp and getting that fuzzy puppy onto your loom.

1. Let it breathe. If you're committed to your fuzzy warp for whatever reason, it's time to start planning. If you look at a fuzzy yarn, think of it as two parts. The core, that part that creates the actual structure of the yarn, and the fuzzy bits that stick out from the core. When you figure out the ends per inch to sett your yarn, you do a wrapping around a ruler and then count how many wraps to an inch or a half inch and base your sett on that number. But if you wrap your fuzzy yarn so that the cores touch, you're not really leaving much space for the fluff to bloom. Open up that sett a little bit. Maybe do a small sample weaving on a little cardboard loom. See how it looks and feels. I'm guessing that you've chosen this yarn because you want to make a soft, light, floaty, fluffy fabric. So give that fluff a little breathing room.

2. Look at your weave structure and figure out how to spread those yarns out through the depth of your harnesses. You may have to re-write your draft to achieve this. Instead of threading your plain weave on 1-2-3-4 you will want to thread it on 1 & 4 only. That's an easy example. Plain weave basically goes over one thread and under the next, so the conversion to two harnesses is simple. If you've chosen a more complex weave structure you will have to do some thinking, and possibly drafting. This will make you a stronger person and a better weaver. Give it a try.

That said, let me go on for a bit about the wonders of plain weave. It's simple. It's easy. It's has endless possibilities for design using color, sett, texture, and beat. If you want a light, floaty, dreamy, mohair shawl please consider plain weave. If they interest you, you should absolutely explore the wonders of other weave structures. But for your first time working with a fuzzy warp chose a delicious yarn in a color you love and let plain weave handle the rest. For your first fuzzy warp you'll want to concentrate on the fuzziness of the thing, what works and doesn't work with your loom, sett, beat, things like that. A more complex weave structure gives you just one more thing to worry about. Save it for your next project.

3. Don't choke your warp (too much). I was taught to weave by someone who had obviously seen some warp disasters in her classroom. As a result, we were taught that before we took our warps off the warping board and over to the loom we had to truss them up tight so they wouldn't get away. Honestly, I still do this unless I'm working with a fuzzy warp. If you do this to a fuzzy warp you are going to have a matted tangle to deal with when what you really want to do is just pull off that choke tie and get on with the warping. So here are two bits of advice:

• use a slick yarn to make your choke ties - perle cotton is ideal
• tie your chokes just enough to hold things together and then trot that warp chain right on over to the loom and at the very least get it set in your raddle (we're warping back to front, see below)

4. Warp back to front. The less rubbing together that fuzz does, the better. You've got to take this principle all the way back to your warping method. You front to back warpers will need to learn a new trick. The advantages to back to front warping are as follows:

• you get all the warp on the loom before you start threading, so it can't tangle or get out of order.
• you avoid having to pull all that lovely fluff through the reed and the harnesses twice. Front to back warping threads the reed, the harnesses, then winds the yarn on the warp beam. Then you wind the yarn back through the harness and reed as you weave. Twice the rubbing, more chance for tangles.
  

The only reason I can think of to not warp from back to front would be if the architecture of your loom makes it super uncomfortable or awkward to do so. I'm really lucky to have two looms that are well suited to this method. With the Glimakra I can take off the breast beam and sit inside the loom to thread. So, if you've never tried the back to front method of warping, read up on it, find a friend who's done it before to give you some help the first time through and go for it.

That's all for now. In the next episode of Fuzzy Warps we'll talk a little bit about weaving your fuzzy fabric.

Fuzzy Warps 1 : think about it

This is part of a series of three posts on weaving with a fuzzy warp. I'm putting this out there in the hopes that you might find some of it useful. I am in no way saying my way of approaching this is the Right Way. It's just my way. You should use it as a springboard to find out what works best for you! Every yarn, loom, and weaver is different. Your mileage will, most certainly, vary!

I recently wrote a post about weaving the Fuzzy Afghan and mentioned in my weaving notes that I had to clear each shed manually as I wove because the mohair warp stuck together. I'd like to revisit that for a little while and hopefully give you some information that will make your next fuzzy warp a breeze.

The problem with very fuzzy warps, like the mohair in my afghan, is that the action of the warp threads going up and down in the harnesses causes those fuzzy bits to rub against each other and tangle. This results in you having to manually reach into the harnesses and clear out the tangles so you don't end up with skips and errors in your fabric, or worse, broken warp ends.

Here are a few things to think about before you wind on a fuzzy warp:

1. Does the fuzzy yarn really need to be in the warp, or could it just as easily be the weft yarn? If you're making a plain-weave fabric, your overall design doesn't require warp stripes, and you're using another non-fuzzy yarn in the project, consider using the fuzzy stuff as weft.

2. Can you mix in some non-fuzzy warps to separate the fuzzy ones even more? Would using a fuzzy yarn for every other, or every third warp end give you enough fluff for your desired effect?

3. Will your desired sett be wide enough (i.e. few enough warp ends per inch) to give all that fuzz some breathing room? If you want a more tightly woven fabric, go back to question 1.  Do you have to have the fuzzy yarn as warp?

4. Think about your weave structure and your loom. The key to weaving with fuzzy warp yarns is to give the fuzz plenty of room so it's not jammed together in your harnesses or your reed. The further apart you can spread your yarn through the depth of the harnesses the better. For my plain weave fabric on my 4 harness loom I thread on  harnesses 1 and 4. If I had 8 harnesses I might even thread on 1 and 8. For a 2/2 twill, I'd thread every other harness on my 8 shaft loom. Sett matters, of course, but the more space between the threads through the depth of the harnesses, the easier your weaving will be.

So, where does that leave you? I would never discourage anyone from trying something at the loom that they really wanted to do. In fact, the reason I started weaving with fuzzy warps is because someone once emphatically told me that it was impossible to use mohair yarn as warp. Bah! I maintain that if you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your raw materials, and you have a good understanding of your process, you should certainly try out your ideas. You might fail, you might succeed beyond your wildest dreams. You will certainly learn something.

In my next post, I'll write a little bit about planning your warp and how best to get that mess o' fluff on your loom.

Woven : The Fuzzy Afghan

Remember when you were a kid and you used to hide under blankets and try to peer through the cloth at the outside world? And remember getting distracted by the way the yarn in the blanket went over and under and the colors crossed in interesting ways?

You don't? Ok, so maybe it was just me then. Or maybe I had a magic blanket. Or, perhaps, I was just a really strange kid.

Still, I do like to look at things from a different perspective every once in a while. So when I was putting this afghan outside to dry on and absurdly warm day last week I was inspired to snap a few photos. This one's just about my favorite.

Yup. I had the afghan hanging on the fence (over a towel, of course) and just couldn't resist sitting on the ground, making a cozy - if slightly damp - tent and peering at the world through a fuzzy stained glass window of mohair and alpaca. My neighbors already think I'm a bit eccentric. I'm good with that.

It surely was nice to finally finish this project. The weaving was done a (ahem) while ago. I twisted the fringe this past winter. Then all it needed was a nice wash. I'm a firm believer in wet finishing fabric. It gives all those yarns a chance to relax and get cozy in a nice soapy bath. Makes all the difference in the world. (Naturally I forgot to snap "before" photos to illustrate this point.)

The black warp stripes and the weft are alpaca.
The rest is mohair.

This project was designed to use up a large skein of mohair yarn that I had space dyed in some rather odd colors. I decided to put it with some purple mohair that I'd had forever since purple is a neutral and goes with everything. :-) Ditto the black alpaca, which I had hoped would tone down the whole mess a little bit.

I was playing with designing with stripes at the time (more about that in another post) and decided to try a "random stripe" for my warp. Really, if you saw my notes you'd realize I was just making the whole thing up as I went along. The transcript follows. It's short. I'm not that precise about keeping records.

Fuzzy Afghan
8 warp ends per inch
Black alpaca
Plum and space dyed mohair

Originally warped at 40.5" - too wide, removed 4" from each end to be 36.5" in reed.
(I wove this on my Glimakra 4-H Countermarche. The reed was wide enough for 40.5", but the heddle bars weren't cooperating, so I had to remove some warp ends.)

87" warp length
Threaded on Harnesses 1 & 4
*must tie up all harnesses for countermarche to balance
*a b---- to weave. Must clear each shed. Would be better on jack loom.
(I'm planning a future post on using mohair/fuzzy yarns for warp, so more about that last comment later.)

Finished dimensions: 34" wide x 60" long. Not including 4" of twisted fringe at each end.

You can click on the photos if you want a larger view.

Fringe. Twisted.

Random stripes with space-dyed yarn.

 The finished afghan is fuzzy and soft and warm. I'm pleased with the results, and will now go take it for a test drive. Nap time!

Garlic on My Windowsill

The head of garlic started sprouting, so I stuck it in some water on my windowsill to see what would happen. After sprouting like mad it started going brown around the edges, so I put it in the compost pile. The photos were taken with ambient light, eastern exposure, mid morning on a gray day.

Homemade Vegetable Broth

Layers unfolding inside a leek.

When you slice open a leek and see this (above) you stop thinking "soup" and start thinking "photo op." At least I do. :-)

Usually I rely on "Better Than Bouillon" Organic Vegetable Base to make the stock for my soup, but this weekend I thought I'd try a vegetable stock recipe from scratch.

Recipes from the Root Cellar, by Andrea Chesman, is a cookbook that I've been using a lot this winter. It's a great collection of recipes that use seasonal autumn and winter vegetables. Got celery root, rutabagas, and Jerusalem artichokes in your CSA food share? This book has you covered.

Some of my favorites include Maple-Balsamic Root Vegetables, Potato-Carrot Tart, Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Winter Vegetables, Barley-Vegetable Soup, Pasta e Fagioli, and the recipe that inspired my broth-making adventure, Winter Minestrone.

Since I was using Chesman's Minestrone recipe it only seemed sensible to use her recipe for Vegetable Broth. It's super easy, and relatively quick. Unless you decide to stop and photograph produce. Then it takes a little longer.

Once you're done photographing the cabbage, garlic, carrots, onion, leeks, fennel bulb, and dried mushrooms, peel, trim, and quarter the appropriate amounts, throw them in a big pot with dried thyme and water, simmer for about 30 minutes, add white wine and black peppercorns and simmer for another 10 minutes. Strain out the solids and you've got about 4 quarts of vegetable broth. It's pretty tasty even without salt. I'd estimate about an hour from start to finish (without photography), and most of that is just simmering time. Easy-peasy!

That Minestrone is going to be delicious!