Bryony Studio

I'm almost to the point where I want to make a series out of troubles with Helen the Loom, but it's more frustrating and less funny. Suffice it to say if I ever incorporate old looms into any books, I will have plenty of first hand experience. After repairing her, she broke the strings again, actually a couple times more. Finally, it was suggested that I use a thicker string to hold up the shafts. When Grandmama had the loom originally, it appeared that she used some sort of twine, but all I had handy was cotton rug warp. Oddly enough, it is only the right side that causes me trouble, the left hand side works fairly well, all things considered. I can't stomp down on the treadles like I would on a jack loom, but as long as I press gently, the loom works ... then the right side snaps. I found thread I needed for binding up a book, and will use it to bind up the side of Helen ... hopefully it will work.

One of the things that I have found important in the last few months is a weaver's journal. Normally, I'm not one for keeping track of any of my projects, but even that is a bit of a misnomer. I keep track of projects, but not the immediate cloth. For the most part, I keep track of the project such as the one below: Black Iris Bag Keeping track of the fabric I wove for the project is a different matter, but that has changed as I developed more and more lengths of fabric. Some of my fabric works for ponchos or shrugs whereas other fabric works better for aprons or purses. It's in this new journal that I keep my information. In here, I keep track of samples, length, measurements before and after washing the fabric, as well as where I purchased the yarn, the type of yarn, and how much I used. All this information is necessary for me to repeat a process later. It also helps me keep notes on projects that didn't work as well as I hoped. Inside, I keep two s

If you look at paintings from the time period, you rarely find clothes with any of these weaving patterns in them. The main reason was then, like now, people purchased their cloth from elsewhere. The people who could afford to hire a portraitist rarely made their clothes. Even the average housewife purchased cloth to make her family's clothing. Most likely, it was women on the frontiers who wove the cloth to make clothes, but even that was fairly rare.  The Average Community It has come down to us, through historical studies, films and books that women spent their time weaving. A more accurate image would have to include few women weaving. As far back as the sixteenth century, the British Isles had areas developing into weaving centers. By the time the late Eighteenth Century arrived, areas such as Ulster, Ireland, Wiltshire and Yorkshire in England were known as weaving centers. In fact, according to one book I read, the inhabitants of Colonial Pennsylvania grew flax

Happy Fourth of July to all my American readers. For everyone else, I hope you have a good day even if you don't have a three-day weekend. Before I go any farther, I will assure you that Helen the loom is recovering nicely after the events in this post which happened in mid-June. She is ornery as ever, but we're making it work. Helen the Loom For those just joining us, Helen the loom, and her sister, Elizabeth the loom, are named after my grandmother, Helen Elizabeth who owned the looms before me. They have been both a cause of joy and frustration to me. In June, I began weaving on Helen the loom again after a several year hiatus. She Breaks I might add that with a few frustrations, it was actually a fairly enjoyable time, until the afternoon of 17 June when one of her string snapped quite unexpectedly. In the photo below, you can see the make-shift sling I have holding the shafts up. In the photograph at the very top, you can see the string which snapped. It&#

Twills are one of my favorite structures to weave. Granted, twill is a foundation for many other weaves including overshot. Today, I'm going to focus a little bit on twill names and patterns while exploring some of the historical weaves used during the Colonial and Early American Republic time period. Return Twill, Bird's Eye pattern Twills are a weave structure that passes the weft over two warp threads and under two warp threads creating a diagonal pattern on the fabric as seen below. In the photograph above, taken from my current project on the loom, you can see what is called a Bird's Eye pattern which is a type of returning twill. 2/2 Twill Pattern All right, for those of you who understand weaving set-ups you can skip a little bit, but for others who don't, continue reading. Weaving Set-ups To create patterns in a fabric, you have two elements to focus upon beyond color: heddle set-up as well as treadling the shafts to which the heddles are attache