A Visiting Loom - At Woollen Tree Weaving Workshops.

A visiting loom

It's been an exciting time at Hillside, there's plenty going on to keep us busy. Renovations continue on the outside of the cottage with the chimney repointed, rendering repaired and new guttering and facias fitted.

But most exciting of all is that I have been able to start my weaving workshops.

The two workshops this month have been working on 4 shaft looms. It has been great to welcome fellow weavers to my little studio and get stuck into making warps and weaving patterns together.

This dear vintage Dryad loom was warped up with 8/2 organic cotton to weave a set of T towels.

I love to see a loom dressed and ready to weave, it always looks so much happier, its character awakes, I feel it just wants to be used, to be creative and do what it has been designed for- in the same way a yacht looks so happy when it is all rigged ready to sail, waiting for you to take it on the next adventure! 

The next adventure happening here at Hillside is the building of a new studio to use for

Woollen Tree Workshops

I will blog more about this soon 

And of course must just round up this little post to show you the lambs which have arrived in the field next to our orchard. So cute! We love to watch them, very entertaining as they get up to mischief.

Spring is here!

 

New Gadget To Wind The Bobbins

 

I have found this really cute mini screwdriver which is just perfect for winding my bobbins for my weaving shuttles!

There are many bobbin winders on the market for the weaver; either hand winders, such as the one fixed to my Saori loom or electric powered which usually have to be fixed on a bench or shelf and are often an expensive but very useful additional piece of kit allowing speed and ease of winding the bobbins. 

However after borrowing an old cordless drill from Skipper's WrightTurned workshop to wind many bobbins with ease while still sitting at my loom bench, I started looking around for a lightweight tool to do the same. I found this one!

I can store it on my loom bench shelf along with my shuttles already to use.

Skipper made me a simple bobbin grip with some thick wire to hold the bobbin firm while winding

So easy to use!

With a plug to recharge.

The tool bits that came with it are not needed so have been added to WrightTurned workshop tool box.

At just £11 it is a brilliant new a gadget in my Loom Room.

 

A Little Different This Year...

A View of Quarr Abbey Bell Tower and Lovely old Tree Stump

Usually a this time of year I am telling you all about our  Exhibition and Christmas Craft Show at Quarr Abbey, but unfortunately the dates we were due to be at the Gallery coincide with England being in a 2nd Lockdown (due to Covid 19). 

The good news is we are hoping to be there for 2 weeks in January 2021, so all being well we look forward to welcoming you at the beginning of the  New Year and hope you will enjoy viewing and hopefully purchasing 😊 some of our lovely new stock we have been busy making.

Hand Woven Colourful Plant Pot Mats

At the end Of the Day in my Loom Room.

My loom room is only small but I love it! I have set up things in there so as I can pull out a loom and start weaving. The Rigid Heddle looms hang on the wall, the Saori loom folds, my sewing machine  slides out on its small table and the David 2 loom is positioned so as I can work at the back and front easily with the warping frame on the back wall and my "Stash" stock stored in boxes on a shelf that goes all around the room, arranged as one big colour wheel of inspiration.

After a particularly busy day in there I sat in my little sofa chair where I also knit and spin and took this photo before I turned out the lights, yes its messy but its good happy mess from a creative day and it makes me smile.

 

 

Outdoor Studio Space

This Summer I have been able to run some one to one tuition workshops in my Outdoor Studio Space!

With Covid-secure practices in place, it has been really lovely to offer spinning and weaving classes in my garden.  

I love working in the garden anyway, whether its taking my spinning wheel outside to spin to the sounds of the birds in the trees or setting up one of my small table looms to enjoy the afternoon weaving a bag, cushion cover or scarf and of course the knitting needles are so portable, I always have several projects on the go.

This week the outdoor studio became a weaver's wonderland!

A brand new Katie loom (8 shaft from Ashford) came to be warped and woven on for the first time.

And an "Inside set" was put on my Saori loom to dress with a readymade warp to be taken home and be woven.  

So it was a wonderfully busy day, making a warp, threading heddles, sleying reeds. 

All helped greatly with plenty of chat with tea and cake!

Now some of you who have a Saori loom may think the way I'm dressing the loom looks a little strange in the photo above.

Let me explain. Since having my David 2 loom (8 shaft floor loom) from Louet I have learnt a much easier and quicker way of warping up. I thought that I could transfer this method to my Saori.

I use two sticks from front to back to rest the reed and lease sticks on. 

I place the cross of the warp at the back of the loom and load it onto the extension rod, putting the lease sticks through the cross. I use a raddle clipped to the top of the loom shelf to spread out the warp. I wind the warp onto the back roller.

I thread the heddles from back to front.

With the reed laid flat it is so quick to sley.

Then its just a matter of  using the tying rod, hooking the treadles on and start weaving!

When loading a readymade warp as seen in the photo, I rest the warp on the lease sticks for easy access and have no need for a raddle as the warp threads are already on the roller in order ready to select.

It is such a simple way to dress a loom, in fact the Katie loom was done exactly the same way, no need  for double crosses as per instructions!

give it a go, have fun, happy weaving.

 

 

Always Room for an Inkle Loom!

 I have been given a lovely old Inkle Loom.
 It is solid and has good long warp pegs so I will be able to weave bands and straps of fabric up to 6 inches in width. Inkle looms are so useful for weaving webbing, straps for bags, belts etc. There are so many ways to weave on this type of loom to produce wonderful patterns and intricate designs.

 To just get this little loom up and working again, it first got some TLC in Skipper's workshop, a light rub down and some wood polish, a check over to make sure all pegs were firmly set and an addition of a ring to tie on the first warp thread at the base and it was ready to use.

Meanwhile I made some red cotton heddles and picked out  a self patterning yarn from my stash to make a warp.

Inkle looms produce warp faced weaving, so I decided on a plain blue yarn for the weft.

The weather has been so lovely here on the Island, as the Inkle is so small and portable, it was a perfect little weaving to do outside in the garden.

I wove a simple plain weave narrow band.

Always room for a loom in my house, so pleased to add this one to my collection.

Home and Nurture

Being home has had its blessings. I made a decision to use the weeks to nurture home life and do all those projects that have been on my list. Probably like most folk I set to, sorting and cleaning and Skipper got a few DIY and painting chores done. What has been much more fun however has been delving into my weaving, spinning and handknitting for our own home

Also the garden has my full attention, over these past weeks and months the greenhouse is full of seedlings, the raised beds planted up with salad and veg as well as my annual flowers for natural dyeing of my wools. Happy days spent in the garden with the spinning wheel working through my stash of fleeces. While Skipper has been busy in his workshop wood turning I have been in my workroom busy weaving. 

A project that has been waiting for some years! I bought the wool, stored it thinking to make a throw/ blanket on my Saori loom knowing that I would have to weave it in panels and sew together due to the loom's width. Now I have the David loom I was able to weave it in one piece.

Checks and Stripes, simple plain weave. A warm, snuggly blanket with red detailing.

A piece of cloth in a twill pattern, woven free style. I will make cushions and a runner from this piece.

Using the same warp as the previous free style weaving-having dressed the loom with over 8 metres so as I could do both projects from the same warp. I then "opened the sett" which entails re threading the reed for a wider cloth. Then I changed the treadle tie up from twill, back to plain weave and using a different colour palette wove this small throw.

And my loom has got a little top runner to protect and decorate. A Rosepath design on cotton and linen.

It has been such fun to make some items for our home. Giving our home a hug as it takes care of us.

While I will have to wait until I can re start my weaving workshops and there are no craft events or outlets open on the Island to sell our work for some time. I will continue to weave, spin and knit supplying our online shops with new stocks of goodness for you and your home to purchase.

Thank you to our customers for keeping us going.

Keep well and keep safe

A Celebration Of Wool

UPDATE, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Just to let you know of my next Event at Quarr Abbey.
I'm very excited to be taking part in this new event and it will be so nice to be exhibiting at Quarr in early Spring time for a change.
If you are on the Island we hope to see you there.

Meanwhile we will be busy in our home studio making new items to sell through our online shops

Grow Colour, Dye, Spin, Weave, Handknit.

                                                              Our Garden in Summer.


The end of 2019 already, my that was a fast year! Got a lot done, but still have so much more to do. Wintertime is always a bit of a struggle for me, cold, grey days wet, windy not my idea of fun. But I understand that Nature needs to rest and nourish herself to come back strong and fit.
 I love sunny warm days, blue skies and a happy sailing breeze. I look forward to the days getting longer and lighter.

However the winter days mean;
 I can start to plan next year's garden.
 I can get spinning the fleeces into skeins of gorgeous woolliness in preparation for natural dyeing from my garden plants.
I can sit at my looms weaving in colour, texture and joy to my cloth.
I can sit in front of a roaring fire knitting next year's stock of handwarmers, cowl and socks.

So as this year comes to an end and we start a new decade, I hope you will pop in and enjoy reading my blog. I will be updating its look, so please bear with me.

2020 will be exciting, I have plenty of posts to share.

A big thank you to all our customers, thank you for making Woollen Tree grow from strength to strength.
Wishing you all a Happy Healthy New Year!

My New David 2 Loom From Louet

 I'm so thrilled and excited, my brand new loom has arrived and it is absolutely beautiful, superb quality and a dream to weave with.
It is a David 2 Loom from Louet. It is a 90cms 8 shaft loom, if you would like to look up more details on this loom view this link to website of the supplier I chose to purchase mine from or go to Louet's own website.

https://www.georgeweil.com/home

My loom arrived direct from Holland on a pallet and was very well packaged. The Castle of the loom was already assembled as this loom operates a CAM system, also the shafts and heddles were in place which meant it was just a matter of following the instructions to complete the loom's construction.

Skipper was quickly on the case and together we enjoyed an afternoon of building the loom in situ.

 The Texsolv heddles surrounded by packaging all needed cutting apart ready to weave.

 The front legs fitted in place along with the 10 treadles.

 An easy to follow instruction book with photos makes life easy.

 Here we are all ready to weave, the warp beam, cloth beam, brake, beater, reed and so on all awaiting the first warp.

I'm using a linen cotton blend from Rowan for my first weaving. something that is easy to warp up with. I dressed the loom with a 5 metre warp a pattern of 3 wide stripes 120 ends.

I will let you know how the first weaving on my David 2 Loom goes!

Coat Jacket - Hand Woven On My Saori Loom

Making the cloth

Here you can see the warp and weft of the cloth on the loom as I weave the colours and textures together.

Woven cloth rolled on the beam.

Newly woven cloth cut straight from the loom and laid out. Can  you see the small slits in the fabric at intervals through the right hand side of the cloth. These are where I wove the collar shapings as I created the weaving. It means that there is less cutting to do when I sew the jacket together so giving me a neater finish. 

Cutting and Washing the Cloth

I always have to take a deep breathe here. Double check, measure twice, cut once.

Then all the pieces are washed to Full the Fabric and hung out to dry on a lovely sunny day.

SEWING A GARMENT

 A little bit of sewing and the Jacket all comes together!
I hand knitted the drop sleeves, the collar and front trim.

THIS JACKET WAS HAND WOVEN AND INCLUDES HANDPAINTED AND NATURALLY DYED YARN WITH SOME HANDSPUN SLUBS IN THE CLOTH.

IT HAS HAND KNITTED SLEEVES AND FRONT TRIM.

WOVEN IN THE SAORI WAY, BEAUTIFULLY SLOW CLOTH.

Room For A Loom

 Of Course! There is always room for another loom. This Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom needed a new home, it was looking very sorry for itself with an old woolly warp tied on and a gathering of dust and dirt to clean. But as a weaver I saw the potential in this old loom. It is in very good working order and all it needed was a little TLC to get it up and weaving again.

 A good wash and clean with wood soap.

 Then a visit to the WrightTurned work shop, where Skipper got all the working parts running smoothly and  gave it a wax polish treatment and buffed it up to a beautiful sheen.

All warped up and happily weaving once more 

An Ashford Rigid heddle Loom is a perfect loom for the beginner. It is simple to use. Using one is a great introduction to weaving and as I intend to offer "Learn to Weave" sessions in the future this little loom will be very useful. It will certainly find itself busy once more.

Meanwhile I shall use it for small projects when they come up.