Finished going in circles

I've finished weaving around the whole midriff. All the warps that extended from the bottom of the sleeves are now covered. All the rest of the weaving will be back and forth on the front or back instead of round and round.

I've released the sleeves from where I had stuffed them into the cavity of the weaving form. The next thing to do will be to take the rest of the warps that extend from the sleeves and incorporate them into the weaving. I have mapped where each of these belongs and where I need to add extra threads between them to fill in the rest of the body of the jacket.

Over pocket section finished

As I worked my way down towards the hem I discovered a problem. Some of the holding threads had slipped, especially on the over pocket section where I used the same cardboard slits for the second layer of warp. A number of warps had pulled up and were too short by up to 3/4 centimeter. My solution was to skip these warps and weave all the other threads, marking the problem warps as I went. 

After I finished the final row, I went back and darned in additional lengths of warp where I had skipped over. Once the cloth is off the form, I'll decide if I need to remove some of the extra bulk of the original warp threads, or, if the mend isn't visible, just leave it.

Once the mending job was done, I could move on to the last section of the over pockets at the front. 

Now that I am finished to the level of the top of the pockets, I can remove the temporary hem stitching from the top of the weaving and begin to weave around the midriff of the jacket towards the underarm.

Weaving the over-pocket

With the under-pockets woven, I placed the separate pocket patterns over the top and stuck in pins along the pocket openings and the the neck edge. Then I laid the final warp threads. You can see both pocket patterns laid in place: one with the warp already applied over top of it.

weaving the over-pocket section on the front

Then I placed the paper strip level with the bottom of the pocket opening and began to weave down from there towards the hem.

weaving the over-pocket section on the back

Under-pocket finished

Once both under-pockets were woven up to the pocket opening, I placed a paper strip at this level around the whole jacket body. I used this as a marker along which to position a temporary woven band to stabilize the warps. 

Then I placed the paper strip on top of this band to give me an accurate edge from which to measure. From here I wove the rest of the under-pockets and the part that extends from them around the whole jacket. 

Under-pocket section on the jacket front

I stopped weaving at the pins at the top of the pocket and hemstitched the top edge around the whole jacket to hold it in place until the over-pocket is finished. 

Under-pocket section on the jacket back

Starting to weave the under-pocket

At last the body warp is ready. The sleeves are attached and are tucked out of the way inside the weaving form.

I've begun to weave the under-pockets. The left one has its first section done up to the pocket opening. The right one is just begun. 

Setting in the sleeves

To prepare the sleeves to be taken off their forms I removed the pins a section at a time and stabilized the edge by hemstitching it to a strip of bias fabric. Then I unpicked the holding stitches along the bottom of the sleeve, pulled out all the pins holding the shaping wedges, and slid the sleeve off its form.

It was exciting to handle the fabric. Here is the bottom of the sleeve showing the tapered shape. At the moment it feels coarse and looks like a very open weave, so I need to keep reminding myself that it will soften and draw up when it is fulled. 

I lined up the marked points on the sleeve with the correct parts of the armhole. The picture shows the buttons and pins I use to anchor the woven edge of the sleeve in place on the jacket body. Pins along the armhole edge hold the pairs of warps in their positions. 

I fastened the other ends in place along the hem, gradually filling in the missing side section of the of the jacket warp.

At the shoulder, I wove some of the warp threads which extend from the top of the sleeve in a strip on either side of the top of the shoulder. I hemstitched the edges to hold this small section of weaving in place while I do the main weaving from the hem upwards.

First sleeve finished

I found a better way to align the weft rows. I pinned a strip of paper below the working area and used my transparent ruler regularly. I only had to move the paper when I exceeded the length of my ruler (15 cm).

When the weaving was finished it was time to mark the vital features of the armhole edge. There are matching points: the centre of the shoulder and underarm and two predetermined side points. There are four distinct groups of warp threads: a set under the arm that will become warps down the side of the body, ones that go across the top of the shoulder, a few interspersed among those at the top of the shoulder that end at the shoulder (creating "gathering") and all the others which will be weft threads in the front or back of the jacket body.

Now I have all the pairs of warps tied around their pins with the groups tied loosely. I'll leave them like that while I repeat the whole process on the left sleeve.

Starting to weave at last!

The first step was to tension the sleeve warps. I untied the pairs, tied them more firmly around the pins at the armhole and anchored them in groups of four pairs. Then I began weaving at the cuff. After numerous mistakes in the first two rows of weaving I discovered that I needed to be able to see the threads better, so I slipped a sheet of black paper behind the warps. After that I made great headway (a couple of inches per hour!) with hardly any unpicking at all. 

In order to try to keep the weaving even, I regularly measured to keep the frequency at four threads per centimeter.

But even though I was doing that, as I wove around and around and up the sleeve, the weft subtly formed waves of higher and lower points. I felt it was essential that the weave be as perfect as possible to avoid distortions in the final garment. So I went back a bit and gradually straightened the lines of weft. 

I realized I can use the two rows of contrasting yarn I already had in place as measured markers to help keep the weft straight.

Then I finally met the armhole section where I stopped going around the sleeve and began to go back and forth across the top of the sleeve. 

The main weaving form

Front and back joined at shoulder

Building the weaving form for the body of the jacket was a bit tricky because I didn't do it all in the right order. But I got there with a bit of figuring out.

Front

The warp is mostly applied. There are two sections left to warp: the sides where the sleeve warps will be inserted; and the top of the front panels which will be warped after the "under pocket" is woven.

Shoulder section warped

Back section warped

Warping the sleeves

As I apply the warps I measure the amount each thread needs to extend according to where in the weaving it will be needed. I've knotted them in groups out of the way at the top of the sleeve. I'll make a final tension adjustment of all the ends before beginning to weave. 

The hem of the sleeve works well with the slits/holding thread method so I'll definitely use this same method for the hem of the body of the jacket.

Crossed threads were a problem while weaving the previous jacket. I often had to correct the order of the threads while weaving by twisting around each other back to the right order. The tweedy surface hid a multitude of errors! This time I have hit upon a simple solution to hold things in the right order. I weave in two strands of a contrasting yarn as I lay the warps. This is the same principle as having a cross when winding a warp. (Why did it take so long for me to think of that?!) 

Now the sleeves are both warped and the next job is building the weaving form for the body of the jacket.

Building the weaving form

It was exciting to see the full sized patterns roll out of the large format printer at Staples. I could hardly wait to unroll them at home. The first thing I did was consult my calculations to confirm the dimensions. The pieces look REALLY BIG but the figures work out right.

The sleeves are the first step, so I built those forms first. I carefully colour coded all the special warps and wefts. These colours will be translated into coloured threads attached to particular warps. Knowing which thread is which will make it possible to insert the extensions of the sleeve warps threads into the correct places in the body of the jacket. Threads from the underarm turn and go down the side of the jacket as warp threads. Warp threads extending from the top of the sleeves will become weft across the shoulders. Threads coming from the front and back of the sleeves will become weft threads across the front and back of the jacket. These will be supplemented with extra threads to get the right number of weft threads per inch as I weave.

Just before I committed myself to making a lot of slits in the cardboard around the cuff to hold the warp threads, I did a little test to check that this method will really work. It is a combination of cardboard slits and holding stitches. A second strong thin yarn loops around the back and catches the warp thread into position before going back through the same slit. The warp threads are held at exactly the right place without having to be looped around the cardboard. Accurate, simple and quick. After the whole hem is warped, I'll tape the slits closed for extra insurance. The advantage over pin weaving is that I don't need a hefty stack of cardboard to hold the pins.

At the top of the sleeve forms I have opted for that hefty stack of cardboard for the pins. That way I can tie the extensions of the warp threads around the pins temporarily. I'll be able to adjust tension as I weave. I'll be able to untie them again when the sleeve in completely woven and insert the threads into the right part of the body of the jacket.

Here is the first sleeve form completed and the next one ready to put together.

First step in making the weaving form

To make the toile I created a paper pattern from a favourite jacket (see previous post). After sewing it, I drew my adjustments onto the pattern. Now I'm starting to make the weaving form. I photographed the paper pattern and imported it into Adobe Illustrator at actual size. 

I traced it as a clean new digital drawing to form the basis for the next phase. 

I enlarged the drawing to make it 25% longer and 20% wider than the finished size (to allow for the shrinkage and take-up) and began to create the warping chart on it. (At critical points around the sleeve and shoulder this chart will also need weft information which I am still calculating.)

Jacket Toile Finished

I took my pattern from a a favourite store-bought jacket. The fabric is pieced-together denim from old blue jeans and the lining is cotton from a men's XL cotton shirt. I like the simplicity of the cut. Length and shaping of body and sleeves, the fit of the neck and shoulder line, and the placement of the pockets were good. I need to change minor aspects of the top of the sleeve and the collar when I make my final pattern.

My next step is to adjust the paper pattern and scale it up for the weaving form. It'll need to be 25% longer and 20% wider than the final garment to allow for stretch, take-up and shrinkage.

 

Spinning almost complete - more samples

I have enough reasonably consistent yarn, so the next step is to finalize the final sett. Assuming a shrinkage after fulling of about 20% and working towards a final 10 cm square, I warped a 12.5 cm square in two different setts: 12 per inch and 10 per inch. After fulling them (by putting them through the washing machine with a load of towels) the weave structure of the 12 sett (sample on left) ended up looking a bit "crowded" whereas the 10 sett looked just right. Shrinkage lengthwise was 25% and across the width was 20%.

I'm still spindle spinning the brown wool which will be used for the tapestry sections. On the spindle is singles. The skeins are some of the finished two-ply.


The next step will be to make up a sewn toile of the jacket to make sure features and fit are what I want. From that I can scale up the pattern for the weaving form.

Spinning log book

I've been keeping track of spinning, plying and yarn management time. Two big batts of carded wool, about 60 grams, make one bobbin of singles and takes me about 6 hours to spin. When I have three bobbins spun, I ply them together making yarn which is 13 wraps per inch. One skein of three-ply is about 225 metres of yarn.

Spinning has begun

Here it all is! I got all the clean, carded ryeland fleece out from under the stairs in its pillowcases. The spinning wheel is oiled and ready and moved into the living room. This week I have begun to spin the yarn needed for the new jacket: three ply of the light grey on the spinning wheel; and two ply of the brown on the drop spindle. I'll try to keep track of the hours and skeins. I have no idea how long it will take me to spin a whole fleece!