Yesterday I got to spend the day with an amazing group of women that are working to keep the craft of weaving and spinning alive and well in North Eastern B.C. and Alberta. (We are called the Peace Country Spinners and Weavers) And what an enormous amount of talent and energy there is up here.
Many thanks to the ladies of Hines Creek for their hospitality, taking such good care of us. And to the executive for running such an interesting program
Just a side note, for anyone who has not been up here in the North, the land is remarkable, we saw deer and elk, a couple of foxes, trumpeter swans and hordes of Canada geese flying home for the summer. And the land is covered with beautiful windswept plains, or plowed fields, and deep fissures into the ground dug out by rivers and streams, the hills are covered with deciduous trees which are not yet leafed out, so they look slate gray and the colour is haunting.
It is not a land to be messed with, there are regular land slides, and huge gorges that have amazing bridges over them, and miles and miles of miles. Just sayin' come and see us sometime....its very lovely.
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Marjo's article is one of the many articles of the March Threads Along the Peace Newsletter.
Tell Me About: Sett – Marjo Wheat
Since I am
currently doing an exercise involving sett, I thought I’d write a column about
it. According to Shirley H. Held’s book Weaving: A Handbook of the Fibre Arts, sett
is “the density of a fabric; the number of warp yarns per inch, especially as
sleyed at the reed. The reed determines
the spacing of the yarns of the weft, so if you want a balanced cloth, you have
to weave the cloth at the same number of threads with the same spacing as the
warp. So a sett of 10 warp threads means
weaving 10 weft threads per inch (10 ends per inch or epi).
In the
exercise I am doing, I have to use the same yarns throughout the exercise, but
have to weave a sample of fabric at different setts. As I’m doing the exercise, I can see that
some of the setts make very open fabric that will need a lot of fulling to make
them stable, while other samples make a beautiful, even cloth. My 3 ends per inch sample makes a loose cloth
with lots of holes that could make good curtains, while my 12 ends per inch
sample makes a lovely, stable cloth that could be used to make a jacket. So how can you determine the best sett for a
particular yarn before the weaving process starts?
Take the
yarn you want to use for the warp, and wrap it around a ruler for one
inch. Wrap it so that the threads lie firmly
and evenly without stretching them.
Don’t let the threads overlap and don’t let them leave spaces. Count the number of wraps in your inch.
·
For
a balanced weave, divide the number of wraps by 2 to find the ends per inch
(epi)
·
For
a warp-faced plain weave, times the number of wraps by 2 for the epi
·
For
a weft-faced plain weave, divide the number of wraps by 3 for the epi
·
For
a balanced 2/2 twill, times the wraps per inch by two/thirds for the epi
If the yarns
you will be using are mixed, wrap the yarns around the ruler in the proportion
it will be used in the cloth. Sometimes
it makes more sense to wind two inches and divide by 2 to get an average of the
yarns you will use.
Ideally, you
would have a few reeds so that you can choose one that would match the sett you
want. Too fine a reed for the size of
the warp could abrade the warp too much while you are beating while
weaving. There are tables that show the
sleying with various sizes of reeds for various setts.
A good tip
for weaving a balanced weave is to keep an eye on the spaces or holes as you
weave your cloth. If the holes are
square as you beat the weft in place, you will have a balanced weave.
(Information
for this article was from Held’s book and Handwoven’s The Weaver’s Companion.)
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This is not about spinning or weaving but it is all about stash busting. This spring I rearranged my stash of wool and acrylic yarn in colours and to my surprise I had a large amount of red acrylic and acrylic/wool mixed yarn. So I happily started to knit an Elizabeth Zimmermann surprise sweater, adult size. I have the book The Opinionated Knitter: Elizabeth Zimmermann Newsletters 1958-1968.
The original pattern is included in the book along with variations noted by Elizabeth, and her daughter and I also used some variations gathered from knitters on the Ravelry site. So starting with 294 stitches and using the formula in the book with variations, I started to knit and follow the pattern. It took some courage as I got about half way and wondered if it was all working out and would it really fit? Yes, it fits well. For those who are not familiar with the surprise sweater, it is knit all in one piece and is quite unrecognizable as a sweater as one knits. It is folded a certain way and the only seams are from the shoulder along the top of the sleeve. For long sleeves, stitches are picked up along the sleeve edge and the sleeve and cuff are added. I had several balls of thin red acrylic and 3 balls of thin mohair. I plied these with the regular Sayelle type of acrylic yarn and this has given a more interesting colour effect than if I just knit the plain acrylic yarn. I ran out of the fine yarns and used wool singles from my stash, plied with the acrylic or wool/acrylic. I am very happy with the results. It is a thick heavy sweater but it feels very comfortable to wear. It weighs 2 1/2 lbs. Now I need to find the perfect buttons.
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This is not about spinning or weaving but it is all about stash busting. This spring I rearranged my stash of wool and acrylic yarn in colours and to my surprise I had a large amount of red acrylic and acrylic/wool mixed yarn. So I happily started to knit an Elizabeth Zimmermann surprise sweater, adult size. I have the book The Opinionated Knitter: Elizabeth Zimmermann Newsletters 1958-1968.
The original pattern is included in the book along with variations noted by Elizabeth, and her daughter and I also used some variations gathered from knitters on the Ravelry site. So starting with 294 stitches and using the formula in the book with variations, I started to knit and follow the pattern. It took some courage as I got about half way and wondered if it was all working out and would it really fit? Yes, it fits well. For those who are not familiar with the surprise sweater, it is knit all in one piece and is quite unrecognizable as a sweater as one knits. It is folded a certain way and the only seams are from the shoulder along the top of the sleeve. For long sleeves, stitches are picked up along the sleeve edge and the sleeve and cuff are added. I had several balls of thin red acrylic and 3 balls of thin mohair. I plied these with the regular Sayelle type of acrylic yarn and this has given a more interesting colour effect than if I just knit the plain acrylic yarn. I ran out of the fine yarns and used wool singles from my stash, plied with the acrylic or wool/acrylic. I am very happy with the results. It is a thick heavy sweater but it feels very comfortable to wear. It weighs 2 1/2 lbs. Now I need to find the perfect buttons.
back view
- May 15, 2016 9:00-4:00 Fleece to Throw Competition, The Art of the Peace ArtFest Symposium, Camp Tamarack. Fee $25/person. Registration form in Threads Along the Peace March 2016. Lake Saskatoon and Fort St. John have registered as teams. Other areas are encouraged to enter teams. Contact Shannon Nelson. shannon@carlsholm.com
- July 16, 2016 PCSW will be represented at McNaught Farm, Beaverlodge.
- August Dunvegan Annual Fresh Air Market PCSW display and demonstrations.
- We have a PCSW banner in our area and it is requested that if you are attending an event representing the PCSW, that you would take our banner along with some postcards and pamphlets.
- September 10, 11, 12, 2016 Lake Saskatoon, Peace Country Spinners' and Weavers' workshop, Saori Weaving. www.saltspringweaving.com The workshop is full.
- Remember to find Peace Country Spinners and Weavers on Face Book and become a friend.
- For more information contact peacecountrysw@gmail.com.
FibreShare Guidelines–PCSW SAORI FibreShare–September2016
Organizer: Kathy Boyd kboyd@pris.bc.ca 250-827-3037 or Cell:250-263-8190
1. Minimum of 150 g. of fibre in total. There are no pending requirements–yarns/fibres can come from your own stash.
–be sure to include items that there receiver will be excited to receive.
2. All fibre must be labeled/tagged–include a variety of fibre
3. Contents of box must be relevant to the ‘FibreShare Project’ i.e. SAORI FibreShare Sept 2016 – must be relevant to SAORI style weaving: any and all fibres–cotton/silk/wools/bamboo/hemp, thick/thin/texture/handspun/,ribbon yarns, novelty yarn, beads, fabric strips, buttons, unlimited ideas…..
4. Be excited about your decision to be part of the FibreShare and let your creative energy flow as you pick and choose what to put into the box.
5. Add your own personal touches.
6. Include a write-up/card of some sort and share how you chose th efibre mix that you included in your box.
1. Once you have opened your package:–take a picture of the contents and send to Faye (peacecountrysw@gmail.com) to include on our blog and a picture to Rene to include in our newsletter Threads Along the Peace.
2. Be sure to Thank the member that created your FibreShare box.
3. Weave the contents of your box into one project and be prepared to show your project and share your project story at our Spring 2017 Conference. Your FibreShare box will probably not contain enough fibre for a complete project and you will create your project using some of your own material and include your FibreShare contents in your project.
4. Send pictures of your finished project to Faye and Rene to include in the blog and newsletter.
Happy Spinning and Weaving! Happy Spring! Happy Gardening!
