Weaving tips: making tassels.

I thought that it might be useful to describe how I make tassels for my hand woven scarves.

The hair braider

I use a hair braider which I bought many years ago.  It has never been used to braid hair but it makes tassel making easier.

The waste threads at the end of the woven scarf.

At the begining and end of handweaving a scarf, I weave several picks using a waste yarn.  This helps to keep the weft in place when the material is taken off the loom.

I undo this thread at each side of the scarf leaving some of the threads in the cnetre area. You can see that they are fine pink threads.  When making tassels, start at each side of the scarf and work towards the centre.

Three groups of warp ends for the next tassel.

You need to decide how thick you want your tassels to be.  Then divide the ends into three equal groups.

Clip the three groups into the braider

Clip the three groups into the braider.  Hold the scarf fimly with your other hand or place a heavy book on top of the material.

Start to twist

Start to twist the three groups.  The braider does all the work.

Once there is sufficient twist, press the switch on the braider to twist the three groups into one. 

Carefully tie a knot at the end of the newly made tassel.  I try to adjust the length of each tassel as I work along the end of the scarf.

When all the tassels are made, I wash the scarf and then make any final adjustments before trimming the ends.

From July 2nd to 30th July there is an exhibition by the Durham Guild of Spinners Weavers and Dyers to celebrate 35 years.  The exhibition is called 'Looking Back Going Forward'. This exhibition is in the Galilee Chapel of Durham Cathedral,  a prestigious venue. This scarf will be one of my exhibits. 

Susan J Foulkes June 2015

What is on my loom: silk scarves

This post should really be entitled What was on my loom as this was my project for January.  I am a member of the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.  Each month there is a workshop. For January the workshop was UFO's - unfinished objects.  It is the New Year so it is time to take stock and look at your projects and yarn and decide to finish items that have been left to languish.

My unfinished project was a dyed warp and weft which I had neglected.  I had made the warp in sections and dyed it in a gutter.  Yes, I do mean a gutter.  I bought a 6 ft length of guttering from a DIY store.  The warp was folded into the gutter which enabled me to drip different dye colours along its length.

The inspiration and the woven material.

My inspiration was a set of pretty coloured shells, but when the warp and weft was dyed I was unhappy with the green shade so it was left as a UFO.

Dyed weft yarn 

The weft was wound as skeins and dyed green.  I had to wind the weft onto bobbins which  proved a little more difficult that I had imagined. The dyed silk was sometimes a bit 'sticky'.

My next step was to try to remember what weave pattern I had intended to use as I did not leave myself any notes.  I decided on a densely patterned look to echo the textured nature of the shells.

The pattern is for eight shafts but I also used two extra shafts for a plain weave edging. When I looked at the pattern I realised that I needed to make two additional warp ends for each dyed stripe so that the pattern fitted to the coloured warp. The silk wove beautifully.

The weave drawdown

I managed to complete my UFO by the end of the workshop.  I made two scarves and have decided to keep one for myself.  The colours when woven blended together  and I liked the combination very much.

Here is the completed scarf. It is difficult to photograph as the colours and texture shimmer in the light.

The completed scarf.

From July 2nd to 30th July there will be an exhibition by the Durham Guild of Spinners Weavers and Dyers to celebrate 35 years.  The exhibition is called 'Looking Back Going Forward'. This exhibition is in the Galilee Chapel of Durham Cathedral -  a prestigious venue.

I have decided to enter this scarf and also the very first piece I wove.  This is a blue and grey wool scarf in 2/2 twill.  I can still remember the thrill of weaving and then taking my piece off the loom.  I realised that weaving was the pastime that I had been looking for - something so involving and creative that there seems to be no end to the learning.

Susan J Foulkes June 2015

Travels around the Baltic: Latvian woven bands.

Woven Bands from Latvia

A friendship bracelet in fine cotton and wool.

This lovely woven band is a friendship bracelet.  The pattern is of two joined hearts and a diamond which is particularly appropriate for a friendship bracelet.

It is woven in very fine cotton - perhaps sewing cotton and the pattern threads are wool. I was so pleased that the label gave the name of the weaver.  It is 1.1cm in width.  There are seven pattern threads.

Here is another bands by the same weaver. It is also  1.1 cm in width. This  band has a similar structure to the Latvian bands and the Sami bands where there are groups of pattern threads lifted up together.

Latvian band for a friendship bracelet

Latvian Weavers.

There are many talented weavers in Latvia.  I bought a Leilvardes belt from Inara and Ziedonis Abolini whose company is SIA Audeju Darbnica   See their web page by clicking HERE

Do take a look at their wonderful web page which shows some of the beautiful traditional Latvian belts that they weave.  I am very proud to own one of their creations.

I have become fascinated by the Leilvardes belt and have researched its origin.  When I return to Latvia, I want to see the collection in the National Museum.

Bookmarks.

I bought a lovely hand woven bookmark in Riga.

Front of bookmark

Reverse side of bookmark

This is a lovely reminder of a pleasant stay.

At home, I decided to try to weave a complex Latvian pattern as a bookmark.  There are 33 pattern threads in red wool.  The background threads are white linen.

Front of bookmark I wove.

Reverse side of bookmark.

Book Search.

There is an out of print book about Latvian woven belts.  I would love to have a copy but I have searched everywhere and it does not seem to be available. 

Out of print but I would love a copy.

Latviešu Jostas (in English Latvian Sashes, Belts and Bands) by Aleksandra Dzērvītis and Lilija Treimanis in Latvian and English (English text by Vila Abele Wurstner). Published in 1982

It is such a pity that it has not been republished. Lithuania and Estonia all have beautiful books about their band weaving heritage but there is nothing in print about Latvian band weaving suitable for weavers.

However, in Latvia band patterns are everywhere.  Here is a wrapper for some delicious bread that we bought.

bread wrapper

This pattern has 23 pattern threads.  I will have to try it sometime.

Susan J Foulkes May 2015

Travels around the Baltic: Latvia

Riga

Riga is a large city and we only had three days in which to explore its sights.  The city is well known for its Art Nouveau architecture which is very different from that seen in other European cities. One of the major architects was Mikhail Eisenstein, who was the father of the famous Russian film director, Sergei Eisenstein.

Art Nouveau architecture with a difference!

We had booked tickets for the opera in advance and had a wonderful evening.  The Opera House overlooks a lovely park which was particularly pretty at this time of year.

The Opera House

Unfortunately the main museum in the city was closed for renovation after a fire, so I could not see their wonderful collection of woven bands.  The Tourist Office was very helpful and gave us directions to a lovely craft shop which had many examples.  However, there did not seem to be as many craft shops as there were in Tallin in Estonia.

The other disappointment was the lack of books.  I had hoped that there would be information about woven bands but nothing has been published in Latvia about this craft for many years.  I bought one book which was more in the nature of a coffee table book.  Lots of small overlapping pictures but very little of substance unless you are interested in embroidery.  I did find a few sheets of band patterns.  I am unsure where they are from, but there are copies on the internet.

Woven bands for sale.

However, the bands for sale were lovely and I bought a couple.  The band on the right is a Leilvardes belt. My article about this woven masterpiece will be published in the October 2015 edition of Strands, the Journal for the Braid Society. 

We took the local bus out to the Ethnographic Open Air Museum of Latvia.  (Go to info EN for an English translation)

Open air museum with women in local costume.

There were a number of crafts on display.  The weaver was hard at work in her cottage.

Weaver at work

Another area had a number of stalls.  One of them sold traditional straw items.  These were beautifully made and we bought quite a few examples.

straw items for sale

One of the most interesting displays was near the entrance of the museum.  There was an exhibition of items from The Russian North from the Russian Museum of Ethnography. I had visited this museum in St Petersburg earlier in the year and it is one of the best Ethnographic museums I have seen.

 This delightful exhibition hall had a fascinating array of Russian costumes and other items.  There were many traditional textiles and woven bands.  This exhibition was particularly well organised and informative.

Exhibition of Russian textiles and artefacts. 

Traditional Russian textiles

The shop in the museum also had a number of woven bands for sale along with other craft items. 

The tempting display at the shop in the Open Air Museum

Riga is a city which deserves more time to explore than we had at our disposal.  Fortunately, there are good connections by air from the UK so a return visit once the museum is reopened is a must!.

Susan J Foulkes May 2015

Stripes

I love stripes and I enjoy designing new stripes.  After finishing my last blog I thought about the lovely book about Estonian skirt stripes  Virumaa Seelikud. Taking inspiration from the book I decided to design two stripes to share with you. For details of the book look at the previous blog entry in March or the  book list on the blog.

Here is a sample page so that you can see the high quality of this book.

Virumaa Seelikud  by Kersti Loite

Making yarn wraps.

Making a yarn wrap is a good way of looking at colour and proportion before you start weaving. Here is yarn wrap taken from the skirt material which dates from 1909. The yarn wrap is a guide.

Yarn wrap

If you look at the yarn wrap you can see 2 white yarns 4 pale pink 4 dark pink then 4 black.  In the centre there are 4 pale blue.

If you wanted to weave a narrow band so that this is what appears on the surface you need to double the warp ends for each colour. There are 90 warp ends.  I wove the band using 16/2 cotton and it is 2.4 cm in width.

band woven with 16/2 cotton

drawdown for weaving a narrow band

On page 89 there is a lovely stripe design for woven material for a skirt.  I looked at one element of the stripe pattern and made a yarn wrap using 16/2 cotton. For a narrower band you can alter the width of each strip.  Here I have halved the number for each stripe.  Using different yarn will also affect the width of the band.

Yarn wrap for narrow band

For this band I used 55 warp ends.  I used the number of yarns that can be seen on the surface of the yarn wrap.

Band woven with 16/2 cotton.

drawdown for narrow band

The woven bands

Do look at the page on Plain Weave Warp Faced Bands on my blog for another example.

Stripe Inspiration.

Here are two more books which I bought several years ago which are a good source of inspiration for stripes.

Stripe Design Textile Patterns in Japan
2005  ISBN 4-89444-422-4















The second book is small but contains 650 examples of patterns from Japan

Japanese Textiles II Stripes and Lattices
ISBN 4-86152-024-X

Tea Towels

I have just finished weaving a set of small tea towels for our motor home.
Warp: cottolin in four shades: pale grey dark grey burgundy and pale burgundy.
Weft: One towel -  burgundy; one towel - pale burgundy and the final towel is woven as drawn in.
Sett: 20 ends per inch

Woven on 8 shafts 

Weave structure: plain weave.  I used 8 shafts but plain weave can be woven using any even number of shafts.

Stripes can be turned into checks very easily but take longer to weave as more shuttles have to be used.

Three tea towels

Check pattern on loom

Susan J Foulkes  April 2015

A Tartan Question

Northumbrian Pipes

My friend Richard plays the Northumbrian pipes and also makes them. Recently he was given a set of old pipes which are Border or Lowland pipes.  They are over 100 years old.  Richard is going to make a copy of them and donate the originals to a museum.  However, he is trying to find out as much as he can about them. The pipes were carefully packaged with the fragments of a tartan cover.

As a weaver I was particularly interested in the fragment of tartan which came with the pipes.

First of all I need to describe the Northumbrian Pipes. Here is a picture of a set of pipes that Richard is restoring at the moment. He supplied the descriptions of the different types of pipes.

The Burleigh set of Northumbrian Pipes made by David Burleigh of Longframlington c. 1976

This shows a set of "standard" Northumbrian small-pipes which is currently undergoing restoration by Richard.  These are typical of what most people would understand by Northunbrian pipes.  This layout has the chanter coming out of one stock (the socket that is tied into the airbag), and three drones all coming out of another different stock.  They are bellows-blown so they have a third stock that takes the blowpipe.  They are played with the drones across the chest rather than over the shoulder.  The leather air bag is usually covered in fabric - in this case blue velvet - and it is this bag cover that gives us the fragments of tartan in the sample. 

They have the same general layout as "large Northumbrian Pipes" which have an uncertain pedigree and several names but are most commonly known as "Border pipes".

The Border or Lowland Pipes

This engraving is of a painting c.1822 by Thomas Sword Good (1789 - 1872) of Berwick.

This engraving shows exactly the type of Border pipes that the tartan came from, with two short tenor drones about the same length and a longer baritone drone. The engraving shows the piper as left-handed which may possibly be due to the reversal of the engraving process, although left-handed pipers were not unknown. This is a good representation of Border pipes. 

The Border (or Lowland Pipes) being researched

Lowland pipes in Museum

Played in the North of England and the Lowlands of Scotland from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, Border Pipes are quiet enough to play alongside other acoustic instruments but maintain the characteristic skirl of the Great Highland Bagpipe. Like Northumbrian small-pipes, Border pipes are bellows-blown, have three drones set in a common stock which lie across the chest. They have a nine note scale, and usually employ GHB fingering and gracing.  Their repertoire is drawn from Scottish and Northumbrian sources, not least the 1733 William Dixon manuscript which is the earliest surviving collection of bagpipe tunes in the UK.

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The Tartan Cover

Fragment of tartan which originally covered the leather bag.

This is the tartan from the set of Border pipes probably dating from 1800 - 1850.  Originally, it

would have covered the leather airbag. As you can see by the picture the tartan is in a poor state.  Some of the holes are for the stock and drones but the material itself is extremely fragile. The scale is indicated by the ruler. 

Unfortunately the photograph that I took did not reproduce the subtlety of the colours.  The colours are: natural( beige/white), light olive and dark olive and a soft red.  (four colours in all). I counted the threads to find the pattern repeat.  The ruler gives an idea of the size of the tartan pattern. 

Pattern repeat:

red              24     24    24                         28

light olive         8     8      60               18       18            60

dark olive                             8       26                26     8  

natural                                      8                            8

Pattern repeat is 356 warp ends.   Selvedge is 8 threads natural which is in a tighter weave

In the book The Tartan Weaver’s Guide by James D. Scarlett  it is noted that 'As late as the 1840 a setting of 52 per inch was normal.' The sett for the tartan fragment appears to be 48 per inch square. 

Identifying the tartan.

We are trying to identify the tartan.  If you can identify the pattern, do let us know.  It would be lovely to present the pipes to a museum with as much information as possible. 

Just a note about tartans in general.  Clan tartans are an invention of the early 18th century.  Walter Scott wanted the Highlanders to pay homage to George IV on his first visit to Scotland in 1822.  One firm of weavers, William Wilson and Son of Bannockburn immediately saw the economic possibilities of selling more of their tartan patterns. They put together a Key Pattern Book so that Highland Chiefs could buy what they required.  Thus tartans became associated with Highland Clans. 

Susan J Foulkes
Richard
April 2015

Update August 2016

Richard has developed a web page of his findings about piping in North Shields.

Here is the link: http://northshieldsnsp.co.uk/

He will be following up the information about the likely origin of the tartan kindly supplied by Peter. He identified the tartan as probably one of Wilsons' numbered patterns c1820-40; specifically, a variation of the No 43, Kidd or Caledonia, of which there there were several.

He pointed out that my draft is faulty in the methodology used for recording tartans and the shades and he supplied the correct version.
Here it is: The correct method for the setting (per Wilsons') method is R/12 LB8 G50 K8 W8 LB16 R/34 - half pivot counts.
R = red
LB = light blue
G = green
W = white
K = black

Susan J Foulkes August 2016

Travels around the Baltic: Estonia

Whilst planning our trip, I read many books and articles about the countries we were to visit.  Sigrid Rausing had just published an account of her stay in Estonia in 1993-4 whilst completing her anthropological fieldwork. She describes the lives of the minority Swedes who lived on the peninsula of Noarootsi.  Estonia had become an independent country once more and the world changed for the people of this small country. It is a very moving account.

Tallin

Our first stop was Tallin, the capital of Estonia. It is a striving modern city but it has a charming old town centre with a delightful old quarter full of craft shops.  I found this shop which sells the best of Estonian craft. It is in the centre of town and very near the oldest coffee shop which is definitely a place to visit after shopping.

The Estonian Handcraft House

Many craft shops had woven bands and the lovely striped material typical of the country but this shop had the best selection. I bought a number of examples of the woven bands.

Map showing different striped patterns from around Estonia.

We went to the Estonian Open Air Museum outside the town.  Fortunately on a Saturday, a local folk dance group performs.  Here they are dressed in a variety of costumes from around Estonia.

Folk dance display at the Open Air Museum

The typical Estonian inn, the Kolu Hall served traditional food which was simple but very tasty and very popular.The adjoining hall, which originally had been the stables, had a display of old textiles.

display of old textiles at the Kolu Hall

Here is a close up on one of the wall hangings.

My impression of Estonia is that education and knowledge are considered very important.  There are an impressive number of lovely books on various craft topics which are superbly presented.  There is a realisation that if crafts are to survive then providing the detailed information in an attractive and comprehensive way is essential.  There are books giving knitting patterns for patterned mittens, books on weaving and embroidery.  These are not coffee table picture books but have clear instructions for anyone who wishes to learn and practice the crafts.

Virumaa Seelikud by Kersti Loite.

Here is the lovely book about weaving striped cloth.  The stripes are photographed in sufficient detail to make your own warp plans.  The stripes are also useful as a source of design for narrow bands.

The book is in Estonian but the illustrations are very clear.


The book is Virumaa Seelikud by Kersti Loite. published in 2013  ISBN 978-9949-33-310-3






Too often information about patterns is not available or hidden away in museums.  The Estonian Government seems to have taken the decision to provide funds to enable a range of  publications.
This spreads to all media.  Estonia is well known for its impressive internet access.  The internet is also used to disseminate useful information about Estonia, its history and people.  The Estonian Institute has a useful web page and runs Estonica:  the Estonian Encyclopedia.  I have given the link to the page about Folk costume.

Tartu

From Tallin we drove down to Tartu, the university town.  The university is the oldest in the region. It was founded in 1632 by Sweden.

Town Square, Tartu

The town square is very pretty but it was raining hard so we spent a lot of time in a coffee shop.

Atlantis by the river in Tartu

This is Alantis where we met Gunnar and Kristiina for coffee.  Unfortunately the weather was dull and rainy but in the summer the river is busy with tourists. Gunnar lovingly makes beautiful wooden weaving tools and it was a real pleasure to meet him. See the equipment stockists on the blog page for details.



I had arranged to go to the museum in Tartu to view some woven belts behind the scenes.  The staff were helpful but unfortunately I was not allowed to take any photographs. It is the only time that I have visited a museum and not been allowed to take photographs. In order to analyse a band pattern, I need photographs to see the pattern and the construction more clearly. I enlarge the photographs on my computer to make the graph of the pattern. My photographs are private but I send any analysis to the Museums concerned. Band analysis is very time consuming.  The greater number of pattern threads, the longer it takes to graph the pattern. Some very complex patterns can take over a week to analyse. I came away very disappointed.  I wrote some notes about the bands I was allowed to see but it is simply not possible to do any detailed pattern analysis on the spot.

It was a very long way to travel but the few bands that I was given to look at were interesting for two reasons.  All were woven on a circular warp and had never been used as belts.  They were still uncut. Although I had to wear gloves to examine the bands, they were made of a rather coarse wool, in fact, very similar to the modern woven belts that I had purchased.  The museum is putting its band collection online, but I have been unable to trace the bands I saw, even when I used the accession numbers for the bands. However, the museum had a very good shop and the staff there were very helpful.

Parnu

On our way back to Tallin we stopped in Parnu.  Unfortunately for us it was Sunday and we could only stay for one night.  It is a lovely seaside town with an old centre that is being restored.  There is a striking collection of 1930's buildings at the coast and a lovely Art Nouveau house in the town.

Parnu - the seaside hotel. 

The Tourist Information Office was excellent - as indeed they all are in Estonia.   They have an impressive selection of information booklets in English that are both quirky and informative.
Her is a selection.

Estonian Tourist information booklets in English.

Woven Treasures

I bought a number of  lovely woven belts in Estonia. Here is one of them.  It is a similar structure as the Sámi bands in the workshop I have been giving for the Braid Society. Here the pattern threads work in groups against a plain weave background. It is not warp faced.

The wool is rather coarse to the touch but the colours are lovely and bright. There are three groups of patterns threads in black, blue and black and two groups with three threads of green. It is 4cm in width and 263 cm in length excluding the fringes.

The book about this type of Estonian band pattern, Lapilised Vööd by Merike Freienthal and Veinika Västrik  is listed on my blog. It is in Estonian, but the graphs and pictures are so clear that any weaver can understand the process of weaving and the patterns.


Susan J Foulkes March 2015