New Techniques - Shuttle Surfing

The idea behind Shuttle Surfing is to use the shuttle as a beater instead of the beater bar.  You lay in a thread with peaks and valleys like a "sin" curve. Then you change treadles and pack the threads together using the shuttle.  The result looks like waves.  

Empire State Building

Pictured above is a portion of the cloth.  I added white and blue weft in short sections to the pink cloth, floated them diagonally, and continued to add them until I got what looks like a building - in my mind it is the Empire State Building.

New Techniques - Supplemental Threads

I've wound a supplemental warp before to make a ruffled skirt.  Today instead of winding a second warp I added threads directly from cones.  I threaded them through the same heddles as the original warp, threaded them through the reed, and then secured them into the cloth by using the ends as weft.  I used "Super Clips" to add tension, but I've seen other weaver just using the cone for tension.

The vertical "stripes" are individual threads added (supplemented) to the warp.

Pictured above is the back of the loom with the cones and super clips.

New Techniques - X weaving

Pictured below is my attempt at X weaving.  It looks a lot like weaving fringe (see Worcester post).  I used four bobbins and wove them in an out of different sections of the cloth.  Each bobbin was wound with the same four color combination.  It was fun to weave, but I kept dropping my bobbins on the floor.  The small section of X weaving took about four hours to weave.

New Techniques - Open Top Reed

One of my goals for the Japan leg of the trip was to learn new techniques.  The first technique is to use a reed without a cap at the top.  I used a pre-wound black warp.  You take the existing reed out of the reed race and attach it to the harness beam using Kenzo's specially measured cords.  The top of the reed should be even with the top of the eyes of the heddles.

Then you take the reed without the cap and flip it into position.  I originally invisioned that you would have to re-thread the reed, but nooooooo, Kenzo just flipped it from the horizontal to vertical position.  The reed sits on top of a cord and the top is in front of the reed cap.  Voila. You can move the threads from one reed slit to another.  The tricky part is that you need to make sure you don't cross your threads.  Otherwise, your shuttle won't slide along the race.  

Pictured above is the original reed hanging by cords.

Pictured above is the result of using the open top reed.  You keep moving the threads around to open up "holes" and close them back up.  To me it looks like I have a run in my stockings.  

W Weaving

To W weave you take your weft thread and make a series of W's across the width of your warp.  I beat the W's, but to make a huge wall hanging you would make it very loose and keep advancing your warp.  It takes a long time and uses a huge amount of thread.

After removing it from the loom I left about a foot of extra thread.  I tied knots at the very end of each of group of ten threads.  Then I stretched and stretched.  The result is a very cool looking window treatment.

Condominium Dress Weaving

The condominium is equipped with a loom.  I brought over a black pre-wound warp and have been weaving in the evening.  I weave a little and then stare out the window at the mountains.  

I am winding my own thread on the bobbin winder.  I am mixing a silky looking navy with brown, orange, purple, black, and red.  In one section I placed lengths of purple/silver thread in random positions.  

My hope is to weave enough yardage for a dress.  Only time will tell!!!!