A flat iron and a shuttle

Having the right tool is a wonderful thing. I broke down a couple of weeks ago and bought a flat iron for my hair that my stylist has been urging me to spring for a—ahem—a couple of years. “You just can’t get ‘the look’ without it,” she’d say. After looking more and more like a helmet head, I decided it was time for a purchase. And you know, she was right. The flat iron just tames the hair down, and does it quickly and painlessly. It’s just the right tool and it DOES make a difference.
Anyway, this got me thinking about tools the other day when I was weaving a fine fabric, about 20 e.p.i., with my boat shuttle. My selvedges really didn’t look that great and I was having to pay more attention to them than I wanted to. I thought if I switched to my end delivery shuttle, I’d have better results. Wow-O-wow, what a difference.
Then I started thinking about all the other tools in my studio that make things easier, and perhaps better, if not more efficient. Here are a few:
1. My Schacht (of course)double ended electric bobbin winder (good for spools, too—which I use a lot if I’m doubling yarns or winding yarn from a skein). Remember, time is money, and winding bobbins the electric way is the only way as far as I’m concerned.
2. My Matchless Lazy Kate—which I rarely use for spinning bobbins. This is THE BEST for holding yarns on spools to wind bobbins on my electric bobbin winder.
3. Light Duty Swift—takes no space, can be used upright or sideways. Easy to store.
4. Tables: a tall sewing table that I can fold up all of the way, part of the way, or all of the way, depending on what I’m doing. I like the high surface for winding or cutting with my rotary cutter…lots of storage underneath, too. I’ve got two card tables, also. One is a work table that I use for rigid heddle weaving and the other I’ve got my photo studio set up on. I keep plastic storage bins with ongoing projects stored underneath.
5. My studio. I’m ever so blessed to have my very own work space. If you can wrangle some space and call it your own—one that you don’t have to clean up before you can eat dinner—is the best. I’m sure you’ll find you’re much more productive.

A visit with Abby Franquemont

Ater lunch at the brew pub--we were celebrating Valentine's Day a little early. From left to right: Stephanie Flynn-Sokolov, Maggie Casey, and Abby Franquemont.

Abby chatting with our Production Manager, Cindy Lair

If you stopped in at Schacht last Friday, it would appear that we don’t do much except sit around and talk… But let me just say that talking is a good thing, AND talking with other textile enthusiasts is exhilarating, AND talking with Abby was ubber wonderful indeed.

In case you don’t know, Abby Franquemont started spinning as a child, in Peru, where she spent extended periods of her childhood. She did what other kids in Peru did: spin on a drop spindle. Like kids who grow up playing kick ball in the street, you don’t necessarily consider it a career path. Neither did Abby, until a few years ago when, well past her kick ball years, she decided her childhood spinning roots ran deep, and found there latent passion just waiting to spring forth. And spring it has.

Shortly after this epiphany, she “retired” from computer geeking, moved from California with her husband and son to the middle of affordable rural Ohio, determined to not just pursue the craft of hand spinning, but make a livelihood of it, too. In a short three years she’s started a business: Abby's Yarns (the most luscious fiber blending imaginable—available from The Spinning Loft, Spunky Eclectic, Yarn Expressions, and Ball and Skein), engaged in seemingly nonstop blogging, written articles for Spin-Off magazine, taught classes at SOAR as well as other venues, and written a book (Respect the Spindle), due out from Interweave in Fall of 2009.

Here is some of what we were buzzing about in the showroom:

Textile Legacy
Abby comes from a wonderful pedigree. Both her parents were anthropologists—which explains the time in Peru. Her father, Ed Franquemont, was a textile scholar who made many contributions to the field. Abby grew up with textile enthusiasts in the 70’s when so much exploration and study of textiles was being done by the likes of Virginia Harvey, Lillian Ellliott, Martha Stanley, Peter Collingwood, Mary Frame, Anne Blinks, Bette Hochberg, Harry and Olive Linder, and on and on. It was uplifting to meet someone of the “next generation” who actually admires these individuals. We both questioned this: Where ARE all the people doing research in textiles and textile traditions? Are people not involved in the same curious way? Is it just that their research is not getting published so we don’t know about it? Or, is the world of the craft do-ers and the craft studiers just more separate than in the 70’s and early 80’s?

The Internet
Blogging and communicating online is a boon and a bane. The wonderful thing about the internet is that it expands the textile community. People in far flung places are able to communicate and share information. Find each other; learn from each other. We discussed the downside: how do you correct bad or wrong information? How do you jump into a conversation to give accurate information? How do you handle negative threads that aren’t factual or include the involved parties?

How do you deal with “instant experts”? Such as….the person who’s been spinning for 2 months and posts a how-to spinning video on YouTube full of incorrect information that could really truly cause harm to someone trying to learn the craft? Does enthusiasm excuse bad information?

On Teaching
Teaching is the lifeblood of the craft, because through teaching new weavers and spinners are created. The good news: there are increasingly more new weavers and spinners. The bad news: there’s some not-so-great teaching out there.. Idea: a symposium for teachers focused on best-practice techniques.

Besides the seriousness of the above, we had fun too. How can you not with Abby? After yakking our heads off all morning, we headed to our LYS, Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins and lunched with Maggie Casey and my Schacht colleague Stephanie Flynn-Sokolov. Returning home I was inspired by being with my craft community and feeling lucky indeed to have this wonderful, shared passion.

Twill on the rigid heddle loom

Within the year, a weaver called me at Schacht to ask if it was possible to weave twill on the rigid heddle loom. My reply to her was, yes, it is possible, but not practical.

Now, I must retract my statement and hope that whoever she is might stumble across this entry to discover a new answer. You see, more experience has brought new insight. I feel a little bad about my first response. At the time it was an honest reply, but not a good one. But isn’t this the reason we move forward? Isn’t this the way science or medicine or philosophy work? You practice, you repeat, you evolve. You know more today than yesterday. Or hope to anyway.

I’ve been weaving a lot, every day, usually early in the morning before work, sometimes in the evening after dinner, and many hours over the week end. I’m working on a new rigid heddle book and the more I push this clever, yet simple little wonder-of-a-loom, I make new discoveries almost every time I’m at the loom. My mind is full of, What if…”

I started thinking about twills when I was working on the double weave chapter. If it takes two heddles and two pick-up sticks to weave double weave, which is four different sheds, then certainly I could weave a twill which requires the same number of sheds to complete a pattern. That seemed easy enough.

I worked out this problem by lifting the two heddles one at a time, and then I saw that if I picked up every other warp thread (heddle in down position) with my pick-up stick I created the third shed. The fourth shed presented a problem, as I needed to pick up every other raised thread not picked up before. I had two choices; either re-pick this shed every fourth shot (that seemed like a drag), or use string heddles on a heddle rod. I chose the later.

To do this I made reusable string heddles, picked my shed and installed the heddles by looping my string heddle under each desired warp thread and placing it over the heddle rod. To keep the heddles in place and prevent the rod from sliding out, I placed a strip of masking tape over the top of the rod. Not elegant, but a practical solution.

Weaving proceeds like this:
1. Heddle I (front) up
2. Pick-up Stick A (turned on edge, heddles neutral)
3. Heddle II (rear) up
4. Pick-up Stick B (turned on edge, heddles neutral).

A few more things: thread your two heddles as you would for doubling your sett. To insert your second pick-up stick, just lift up on the heddle bar and slide the stick into place. It is important to make your heddles long enough that they don’t interfere with the shed made by pick-up stick A. I used my rigid heddle reed as my template.

This weaving pattern will yield a 3/1 twill. I’m not sure a 2/2 twill is practical. At least, I’m not sure at this point in time. Should I make new discoveries as I weave merrily along, I’ll let you know. Just as it’s never, never, never a good thing to say “never”, in weaving it’s never, never, never prudent to say “can’t”.