Major Knitter

Weaving a New Hobby Into My Life

My friend Marcia - of The Attic - formerly known as Spinnerella's Attic - has moved on from knitting and spinning to weaving.  So when I posted about my new Schacht Spindle rigid heddle loom - she reached out to me with all sorts of tips and suggestions.  She came over last week and loaned me some books, shuttles, pick-up sticks and a rigid heddle backstrap loom.  These will give me a chance to learn some more and figure out which type of shuttles I like the best.

Plus we shared many lovely stories.  I wish I had taken a picture of all of Marcia's lovely handwoven towels, table runners, classroom projects and more.  They were simply stunning.  Please visit her blog and take a look at her lovely projects.  Don't forget to ooh and ahh over her amazing weaving studio!

These books have some great ideas for me... but Marcia correctly noted that there are some great projects for teaching youth.  These will definitely be put to use in my Textile Merit Badge class.

Finally, I ordered three books online.  (Note to self - do NOT go online looking for items late at night when you can't sleep!)  These are all fantastic reference books and I can hardly wait to put them to use.

In the meantime, I cleaned, oiled and polished my loom.  I let it dry overnight and buffed it again.

It appears to be a Schacht Spindle Rigid Heddle Loom - 20" from the 1970s. 

After looking through all those books, looking at a gazillion YouTube weaving videos, and getting my loom cleaned - I was finally ready to pick a project and warp my loom.  I decided to weave a red oversize mat for this odd little place in my kitchen.  

I picked out some red yarn from my stash that matched the red backsplash in my kitchen.

And because I do everything at top speed, I managed to warp my loom in about 45 minutes.  It was at this point that I realized I had warped my loom BACKWARDS!

Can you just feel the blood pressure rising?  Are you in tears for me?  (You should be!)

I spent the next four hours unthreading my loom and rewarping it very, very, very carefully.  It was an unmitigated disaster.  I was tired.  I was cranky.  My back hurt.  

I really should have cut all this yarn, run to my LYS, purchased new red fingering weight yarn and been done with it.  I would have saved myself the aggravation, heartache and backache.  Some things in life really have to be learned the hard way, though!

But finally, all was done and ready for weaving.  But by dinner time, I was done for the day.  So I folded the loom and set it aside for the weekend.

Otis thinks that next time I will have learned my lesson and will warp this loom lickety-split!

 

One Woman's Trash is Another Woman's Treasure

I think you all know by now how much I enjoy sharing my passion for fiber arts.  This past weekend I taught the Textile Merit Badge to a small group of Boy Scouts.  I think that every time I teach it I have more fun that the time before.  I keep trying to add new items.  So I was thrilled when my friend Mary found a tag sale treasure for my class.  It's a rigid heddle loom on a stand that is much larger than my 10 inch looms.

The instruction booklet implies that it's the Erica loom from the 1970s. 

Upon closer inspection it appears to be a Schacht Spindle loom.  Perhaps Schacht bought the Erica loom's parent company at some point?

At any rate, this came at the right price and with a free tapestry sample for my class.  

I can hardly wait to take this off the loom, knot the ends, clean up the loom and warp it for a new project.

I already know that I need some shuttles and a picking tool.  I can get those easily enough.  But perhaps someone out there can recommend a good reference book for some rigid heddle samplers?  I'm so excited about my new treasure.  I plan to weave in some camping themes into my samples.  I can envision tents, campfires, roasted marshmallows, canoes and more in future weaving projects.  I do enjoy spinning a good yarn.  Let's see if I can weave one, too.

 

 

All Ready for the Textile Merit Badge Class

Tomorrow I'm doing one of my very favorite things - I'm teaching a merit badge class to a group of Boy Scouts.  I'm no longer Scoutmaster, so teaching this merit badge is my favorite contact with the Scouts.  I get to add my enthusiasm for all things textile - while instilling a passion for it in the next generation of young men.  I always wonder if any of them will go on to pursue a career in textiles.

Each time I teach the class, I add at least one new item.  I already updated a few things for this class - but tonight I couldn't resist and added yet another.

This is a cute little loom. It's a peg loom by Harrisville Designs.  It's basically the same as the simple loom I have the Scouts make out of a piece of cardboard.  There are some great instructions for making vertical stripes and tricks for tucking in the loose ends in the back.  So it was worth the price... even though mine broke before I even used it.  

But it's time to call it a night as the class starts bright and early in the morning.  I can hardly wait.  
 

 

Getting Prepared for Next Week's Textile Merit Badge Class

I love teaching the Textile Merit Badge.  Every time I do so, I add a little something new.  I get a new video.  I learn something from someone in the class.  It's always great.  Today I was busy making sure my demos were ready to go.  I received two tabletop weaving looms as donations for my class, in addition to my own, so I wanted to make sure they were ready to go.  Plus I had to make a new weaving sample from a forked tree branch.  It made for a very fun-filled fiber day.

Here's my Cricket loom with a sample scarf I created out of some random leftover fingering weight sock yarn. I thought it was a good way to show what you can do with leftovers.

Mary found this treasure - an Easy Weaver loom - at a tag sale and snatched it up for me.  Isn't it perfect?

Carletta found this Brio table top loom at a tag sale.  I just need to read the instructions on how to warp this loom as it's slightly different than the other two.  But I'll definitely figure it out this week.

The Scouts will make the simplest loom of all - a cardboard loom - and use an oversized darning needle as a shuttle.

You can still make something pretty with a very simple loom.

My final item today was a new tapestry on a forked branch loom.  This is only slightly more complicated than the cardboard loom, but it's fun and a creative way to use something natural.  The forked branch becomes part of the artwork.  I added some interesting details to make it a little more visually appealing.  I had a great time weaving this sample.

So there you have it.  Even the instructors know how important it is to Be Prepared!

 

I'm Proud to Be an American

I am having so much fun putting together samples for my Textile Merit Badge class for Boy Scouts. Two of the boys in my last class asked if they could make a second weaving project during the class when they finished their first project so quickly. I said yes, of course. They each made an American flag.

In honor of the 4th of July - I decided to weave an American flag sample, too. Fun!

Happy 4th of July everyone.

 

More Things to Dye For

While my pink shirt was simmering in its red cochineal bath, I kept looking around for more things to dye red today with the leftover natural dye we made for the Textile Merit Badge class on Saturday. I know that natural fibers dye best with natural dyes (having learned this from experience), so I looked through my yarn stash only to discover that I had pretty much already dyed all the natural un-dyed yarn I owned.  I was already dyeing one shirt and I thought that was probably enough for one day.  As I opened my pot holder drawer to grab a pot holder for the dye pot -- I found two hand-knit felted pot holders I had made several years ago.  One was off white and the other was an off-white and yellow striped pot holder.  Into the dye bath they went.  

The old, dirty, burnt pot holders look almost new again.  Red doesn't photograph very well, but you can almost see the stripes on the pot holder on the left.

Hehehe - it's a good thing the dogs weren't nearby today.  I may have been tempted to create a few Clifford the Big Red Dogs!

I'm Dyeing Over Here!

Waste not, want not.  I'm not entirely frugal, but I do try to reuse things that I can.  So after Saturday's Textile merit badge class, I had a full pot of vibrant cochineal dye in that dark rich red.  It's one of my favorite colors so I started to look around for household items that might need a new lease on life.

Here's my favorite video about the dye.  Please share it with your kids.  It's a hoot!

 

I decided to turn a pink t-shirt into a red one.

Here's my BEFORE picture.

I soaked the shirt in soda ash in the sink in lukewarm water for about 20 minutes.

OK - the color is off in this picture.  It's just soaking in the water and it already looks red.  Trust me - it's still pink.

My special pot (used EXCLUSIVELY for dyeing) was filled with water and 3 heaping spoons full of the cochineal dye.

I placed the wet shirt in the pot with the leftover cochineal dye and simmered it for about 40 minutes.

The cochineal dye is so rich - it looks like a bloodbath.

After I was done cooking my shirt in the dye, I very carefully removed the shirt and placed it in the sink under cold running water.  I kneaded the shirt under the running water for about 5-10 minutes until the water ran clear.  Then I wrung out the excess water and placed the shirt in the dryer.

Voila!  I love my new shirt so much better.  I'm not really a pink person.  But red is definitely one of my favorite colors.  This new shirt will definitely get more wear.  And I get to tell everyone it was dyed with bug juice. 

I'm Dyeing Over Here!

In about three weeks, I'll be participating in the Mini Maker Faire in Westport, CT with all the Cub Scout, Boy Scout and Venturing units in town.  Each unit is going to have some sort of booth activity with a Scouting theme.  I'm going to host a booth with the Textile Merit Badge theme.  But since the overall theme of the Mini Maker Faire is "Things that Roll" I'm going to add a twist by having the kids make small felted balls out of wool and then dye them.  So after I was done dyeing the Easter Eggs yesterday, I saved the homemade natural dye for six different types of fabric.  Here are my results:

Match the photo with the following homemade dyes

1. Beets
2. Cochineal Beetles
3. Red Onion
4. Yellow Onion
5. Coffee
6. Red Cabbage

Red cabbage will dye your fabric different shades of violet, lavender or even blue!

I only used three beets so my dye was very pale and weak.  It's still a nice color, but had I used a dozen beets, I feel I would have created a more brilliant dye.

The hand knit swatch in the lower lefthand corner is made out of 100% wool.  It really soaks up the coffee dye giving a nice deep rich color.  The large fabric swatch above it is a cotton/polyester blend which is why it barely takes any dye.  The polyester simply doesn't soak up the natural dye.

The red onion provides a broad range of colors from golden eggs to a very light tan to a deep rusty brown.

The yellow onion makes a nice rusty tan.  It's not quite as intense as the red onion.  Both onion dyes are quick and easy to do.  You simply save the onion skins in a dry open container.  Add salt and a bunch of onion skins to a quart of water.  Boil.  The dye fixes very quickly to the eggs and fabric.  It's a surefire way to create a natural dye.

Hello Yellow!  Wow!  Who knew that a simple spice could really brighten things up.  I get a bright yellow to a lovely gold - all with a teaspoon of spice.  This is another very quick and easy spice.  It fixes immediately to the fabric and eggs.

And my favorite of all is the lovely crimson created by the cochineal beetles.  Once again that wool hand knit sample soaked up the dye like a man dying of thirst.  The other items took in varying amounts of dye.  I love this dye so much that I absolutely hate wasting any of it.  I went into my stash and found some cotton skeins and dyed them both.  They didn't take the dye as well, so I got a lovely pink color.  It's drying now.  I'll knit it up into something and will share it soon.

There you have it - six natural dyes from the kitchen.  Here is a great video about dyeing fabrics at home.  My one caveat is that I highly recommend having a dedicated pan that you use exclusively for dyeing.  I bought a pan at Goodwill and marked it FOR DYEING USE ONLY.  NOT FOR FOOD.  Because sometimes I dye with chemical dyes, too.

Now go to it.  Prepare to dye.

 

 

Textile Merit Badge

I had the largest group of Boy Scouts at my house that I've ever had at once for the Textile Merit Badge.  They all had a great time and I promised them that as a mother of two boys, and a former Scoutmaster - I would make this as boy-centric as possible.  

Here are the pictures that Jonathan Glassman took as his son Adam earned his very first merit badge.

 

"Dad - don't take my picture!"

"I said 'Don't take my picture!"

Working steadily on a weaving project.

Prepare to DYE!  Adam adds the ground cochineal beetles to pot of boiling salted water.

Time for a snack and playing with the puppies.

Class photo - 17 students!  It was a very large class, but everyone did it.

Here's the recap of the day from Jonathan: 

Great fun today in Jennifer Jackson's basement! Adam participated in a Textile Merit Badge class and earned the badge (his very first merit badge). What's that? Learning about textile is boring? NO WAY! Jennifer billed the course as being all about bugs and poop! Great way to peak the interest of a 10 year old boy! And, yes, we did learn about bugs, poop, and some other interesting things used in the making of textiles, along with each of the boys learning all about the industry and completing both weaving and dying projects. On the way home Adam told me that he had such a good time that, even though he'd now earned the badge and can't earn it again, he wants to go back when Jennifer next runs the class just for the fun of it.

 

Another Day of the Textile Merit Badge

Last night I taught a small group of boys the Textile Merit Badge.  They had a lot of fun.  So did I, of course.

I bring so much stuff for show & tell that it takes me a full half hour just to set up.

 

Potholders in eight different weaving patterns, my critter hats, a sampler afghan, a Boy Scout quilt and more. 

 

Samples of all the different fibers:  cotton, silk, wool, and three types of fleece.

 

Books, magazines, hand-dyed wools, fabric samples

Being resourceful, we taped a sheet to the wall for our projector screen.  I set the tables up in a U so I can walk in the center and show the students tips and techniques.

Each Scout spends almost the entire class working in their weaving project while listening.  This weaving project constantly gets interrupted for other portions of the class (e.g. the sample fabric board (shown on the table to the right of the weaving project); questions and answers, and dyeing fabric.

My Scouting friend Gari came to help me out, brought her son to earn the merit badge, and these beautiful tapestries from a trip to Peru.

The best part was this stunning loom and tapestry, also from Peru, that she showed made out of repurposed wood and a bone shuttle!  Ingenious.

Most of the boys left before I remembered to get a group pictures of their weaving projects.  Didn't they do a fabulous job?

Thanks Frank for having me teach your Troop my favorite merit badge.  Thanks Gari for coming to help.

We now have NINE more Scouts who learned about textiles.  My favorite part?  At the end of the class, I had two Scouts tell me "This was the funnest merit badge I ever earned."

Well, there you have it.