Lightweight Lace Shawl – Pick

News From The Ewes
July 2010
Wolf Pup LT
Our New Pup with Lamms and Treadles
IN THIS
ISSUE
Wolf Pup LT..........................1
Other Wolf Loom News......1
Flip and Cricket
Improvments.........................1
5-Dent Rigid Heddle
Reeds.......................................1
Flip Trap.................................2
New Flip Bag..........................2
Trestle Stand Update...........2
The Wolf Pup has been appreciated for
its affordability, direct tie-up, and small
size—not to mention that it’s a great
little performer. We’ve now created a
new version of this old favorite: the Wolf
Pup LT. Now, our darling little loom sports
lamms and treadles that make tying up
the treadles a snap. Still lightweight at
45 pounds with built-in Stroller, the Wolf
Pup LT is easy to take along.
Great price as well: $1,185.
Other Wolf Loom News
New quick release back beams are available for all of our new Wolf Looms.
All that you need to do is unscrew the
black knobs on the sides and lift out the
back beam. The brake mechanism is not affected in the least.
Flip and
Cricket Improvements
By popular demand we’ve moved the
ratchet and pawl from the inside of the
loom to the outside on both our Flip
and Cricket Looms. Other changes to
the Cricket Loom are: longer rigid heddle arms and a longer and a re-designed
Cricket Pick-Up Stick. The new stick is flat
at one end and tapered at the other so
that it will fit between the back sides and
offer full weaving-width coverage.
(pictured below: Wolf Pup LT)
Convergence...........................2
Limited Edition
Convergence Shuttles...........2
Tapestry Bobbins
Are Back.................................2
5-Dent Rigid Heddle Reed
New Packaging for the
Mini Loom..............................2
1
Here’s something for all those novelty and
thick yarns you’ve been wanting to use on
your Flip and Cricket Looms. We now have
5-dent rigid heddle reeds for all of our Flip
and Cricket Looms. You can also special order 5-dent reeds for old-style rigid heddle
looms—just ask your local dealer.
News From The Ewes
July 2010
New Flip Bag
Our new Flip Bag will fit all three of our
Flip Rigid Heddle Looms. Sturdy Fabic, long
shoulder strap, generous accessory pocket.
End zipper expands bag length.
Retail price: $50.00
Flip Trap
Tapestry Bobbins Are Back
Our new tapestry bobbins are made out of
rich, dark brown plywood. Same size and
shape as before.
Retail Price: $17.00 for a package of three.
Like the Wolf Traps, our Flip Trap is a handy holder of weaving tools. It sports two posts
which easily insert into the pre-existing holes in the ends of the loom. The Flip Trap is
best used when the loom is on the Trestle Stand. Available in 15”, 20” and 25” widths.
Retail prices: $26.00, $27.00, and $28.00 respectively.
Trestle Stand Update
Boy, do we like the improvements we’ve made to our Trestle Stand. Now, the adjuster
arms attach to the outside of rigid heddle looms to the outside and all of the knobs
have been upgraded to black plastic which are easier to use. Like always, our Trestle
Stand still fits our Flip Folding Loom, our discontinued non-folding rigid heddle loom,
as well as both sizes of our Tapestry Looms.
If you have rigid heddle or tapestry looms made prior to February 2010, then you will
need inserts for the loom sides in order to install it on the new Trestle Stand. Ask for
Retro Fit Kits at your LYS.
2
News From The Ewes
July 2010
PROJECT
Convergence
Lightweight Lace Scarf by Gail Matthews. Note: One side has
warp floats and the other weft floats.
We will not be having a booth
at Convergence this year, but
Barry Schacht and Liz Gipson
will be in the vendor hall FridaySunday and can be found in the
Carolina Homespun and Yarn
Barn booths. Stop by to say hi
and see what’s new.
Limited Edition
Convergence
Shuttles
We’re making a limited run of
special color-ply shuttles which
are available first to all Schacht
dealers who will have booths
at Convergence. We don’t
know yet who’ll have what, but
check our home page the first
of July for a list of Convergence
vendors who’ll be carrying our
special edition shuttles.
3
News From The Ewes
designed and woven by Gail Matthews
With only a week left before the weaving
had to be done, I decided to enter my local
weaving guild’s yearly challenge. Lace was
the theme, and this scarf was my entry. I
looked through my yarn stash and found
this baby alpaca and silk laceweight yarn
that seemed like a good choice. This scarf
is soft and lightweight—and just right to
wear on a cool summer evening.
Equipment
Flip rigid heddle loom with a 12-dent reed
1 stick shuttle
2 16” pick-up sticks
Optional
Extra apron rod or lease stick, 16” or
longer
String for making heddles
Masking tape
Materials
Knitpicks Shimmer (70% baby alpaca and
30% silk), 440 yards/skein, 2 skeins of
Eucalyptus
Warping
Warp length: 84” long (includes 18” loom
waste)
Warp width: 12”
Number of ends: 144
Warp ends per inch (e.p.i.): 12
Weft picks per inch (p.p.i.): 12
Weaving
Weave a header with scrap yarn, making
sure to leave about 6” of warp for fringe.
Leave a tail of weft about 4 times the width
of the warp. Start with the down shed and
weave 12 picks of plain weave. Hemstitch
the end of the scarf (you can find hemstitching discussed in Yearning to Weave
Lesson 2, (http://www.schachtspindle.
com/yearning%20to%20weave/les son_02.php). I hemstitched bundles of
four warp ends.
Pick-Up Pattern
With the heddle in the down position, pick
up pattern A following the pattern instructions below. Pattern stick A will remain in
place throughout the weaving. You will
need to pick up pattern B each time it is
needed. Alternately, you can save pattern
B on a heddle bar using string heddles (see
“Making String Heddles”)
Pick-up Pattern A
Skip 6, (pick up 3, skip 3) 10 times, pick up
3, skip 6 at the end
Pick-up Pattern B
Skip 9, (pick up 3, skip 3) 9 times, pick up
3, skip 9 at the end
Weaving Sequence;
1.
Down
2.
Up & pattern stick A
3.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 four times
4.
Down
5.
Up
6.
Down
7.
Up & pattern stick B)
8.
Repeat steps 6 and 7 four times
9.
Down
10.
Up
4
Repeat the above pattern for the length
of the scarf. End with 12 picks of plain
weave. Hemstitch the end of the scarf,
and remove it from the loom. Make a
twisted fringe on both ends, using a total of 8 warp ends for each fringe (4 for
each group). See the Schacht Newsletter
Spring 2005 http://schachtspindle.com/
newsletter/PDF/Newsletter2005Spring.
pdf for directions on how to make a twisted fringe. Wash by hand in lukewarm water, roll in a towel to press out the water
and lay flat to dry.
Resources
Interweave’s Compendium of Finishing
Techniques by Naomi McEneely.
Finishing Touches: A Study of Finishing
Details for Handwoven Articles by Virginia
M. West.
Making String
Heddles
When you’re using two pick-up sticks
that don’t slide past each other, you
need to remove one after each pick
and replace it when it’s needed again.
If you need to do this only occasionally, it feels doable, but if you need
to re-pick every third or fourth row,
this becomes tedious and slow. Making string heddles and attaching them
to a heddle rod to lift the needed
threads is a wonderful solution.
(continued on next page)
PROJECT
Light Weight Lace Scarf
Woven on Flip Rigid
Heddle Loom
July 2010
News From The Ewes
I like to make reusable heddles. To
do this, I use my rigid heddle as a
template. First I measure about 18”
length of cotton carpet warp (any
strong smooth cotton string will do).
For efficiency sake, I measure all of
these ends at once. After I’ve measured as many heddle lengths as
I need for my project, I start making them on my heddle template.
Just wrap the string around and tie
a good, hard, square knot along the
edge. It is important to try to tie all
the heddles tightly and of consistent
length. You don’t want your heddles
to break during weaving, and heddles of different lengths are not as
easy to lift up for inserting the pickup stick. After you’ve tied all of the
heddles and before removing them
from your template, cut off all of the
tails to about ¼” or shorter (long tails
get in the way). For this project you
need only 9 Heddles.
top of the heddle rod with masking
tape. (I like to use painter’s masking
tape because it isn’t very sticky and
can be easily removed at the end of
the project.)
Excerpted from Jane Patrick’s “The
Weaver’s Idea Book: Creative Cloth on
a Rigid-Heddle Loom”, which will be
released this fall by Interweave Press.
To install the heddles on the loom,
insert the pick-up stick in the pattern
that the heddles will be lifting. Leave
the pick-up stick in place so you can
easily see which warp threads need
heddles. Then, slip the heddle under
the desired warp thread, fold it in half
and insert the loops over the heddle
rod. Continue across the warp until
all threads on the pick-up stick are installed on the heddle rod. To prevent
your heddles from sliding off the rod
and to hold them in place, I cover the
5
PROJECT
Making String Heddles Continued
July 2010