Highland Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers

Category: weaving reports

  • Krokbragd Weaving 15 March 2020

    Another excellent workshop tutored by Kathryn Kusa. Eleven Guild members took part, and there was a lot of bustle early on as everyone arrived and started to set up their looms – quite a variety of these, including 2 rigid heddle looms. We had warping instructions beforehand. Krokbragd uses just uses 3 shafts and is threaded 1, 2, 3, 2. It is a weft faced technique, so the warp, made of strong cotton, does not show. Kathryn began by showing us the lifting sequence on the 4-shaft loom: 12, 23, 13, then how the patterns are produced. She then demonstrated the set up for the rigid heddle, which we were all interested to see. The loom is warped in the usual way, with threads alternately through slots and holes, then supplementary heddles (Kathryn had used inkle loom heddles, which she said were just the right length) are attached to the threads in the slots. These are slipped alternately onto two dowels so that half are on each. The sheds are formed as follows: 1. rigid heddle in the up position, first lot of supplementary heddles raised; 2. rigid heddle still in the up position, second lot of supplementary heddles raised; 3. rigid heddle in the down position. Kathryn then handed us instruction sheets, with patterns to try. As ever the results were amazingly varied, with differences in colour and scale producing very different results from the same pattern suggestions. Later in the day Kathryn showed us how to draw out pattern ideas and convert them to weaving instructions. A brilliant day, just fitted in before the self isolation instructions from the government.

    Kathryn demonstrates the techniques:

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    Our weaving:

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    People:

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  • Spinning workshops 11 & 12 January 2020

    The Spinning for Beginners workshop, run by Michelle Stirling on 11 January seems to have gone very well – here is a write up from Inga:

    As is very common at guild events the air at the beginning of the session seemed full of anticipation for a day of crafting fun, and Michelle did not disappoint! The day was full of information, experimentation and general woolly fun. We were shown how to set up our wheels and take care of them, with special attention given to the importance of getting the tension on our wheels correct and oiling them periodically. Michelle had brought and laid out a wonderful array of different fleeces for us to look at, work with and try out using different preparation techniques. We felt like children in a sweetie shop! She demonstrated hand carding to make rolags, drum carding to make a batt and using a dog comb to prep the wool, whilst leaving plenty of time for us to experiment throughout the day.

    When the spinning began it was obvious that there were different levels of beginner: some complete beginners and some who had spinning experience. Michelle catered for all abilities and participants were happy to share knowledge and swap wheels so that people could experience spinning on different wheels. This meant that naturally the seed was planted for possible wheel purchases!

    To sum up the day, it was enjoyed by all, designed by Michelle to give the perfect mix of learning and experimentation in a relaxed and fun fashion and yet a very productive day was had by all too!
    Inga Ballantyne

    Here are some photos showing the processes Michelle demonstrated:

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    Christina Chisholm ran a repeat of her Spin to Weave workshop on 12 January. This was again well attended and was an excellent workshop. In the morning we practiced producing a consistent worsted yarn suitable for warp or weft. Christina demonstrated short draw, showed us how to work out the ratio of our wheels, then had us each attach a tape measure between wheel and waistband so that we could draft a consistent amount for each turn of the wheel. This required a fair amount of concentration! Christina also demonstrated an extended draw (American long draw), which works well for some fibres and blends, and also produces a yarn suitable for weaving. After lunch Christina talked us through her excellent handouts on how to calculate the amount of yarn required for warp and weft. She showed us some of her woven pieces and impressed on us the importance of sampling. We then moved to the loom, where she showed us how to use a dummy warp to save wasting precious handspun – the handspun warp is tied on to the dummy warp, and lashed to the front bar, so there is very little waste.

    The following photos show some of the processes demonstrated: short draw; extended draw; putting the handspun warp on the cross sticks; starting to tie on; lashing; testing the tension; weaving a header; starting to weave; hemstitching.

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    Here are some more general photos:

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  • Spin to Weave Workshop October 2019

    I was too late to book for this workshop, run by Christina Chisholm, but visited it to take photos. When I arrived Christina was demonstrating how to avoid wasting precious handspun when using it as warp. She had a strong, commercially spun yarn, wound onto the back beam of her loom, and threaded through heddles and reed. A handspun warp, tied onto this could then be woven with very little waste. At the front a cord threaded through groups of warp ends and lashed to the front beam would likewise save waste. Christina had also brought samples from her Certificate of Achievement for the group to look at. When I left the group were starting to spin silk.

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  • Colour from a different angle – weaving with Cally Booker

    Saturday September 10th 2016

    Ten eager weavers gathered at Strathpeffer for the HGWSD workshop with Dundee based weaver Cally Booker. Cally works from her studio in a converted jute mill and is passionate about hand weaving, colour and the exploration of multi layered weaves. She specialises in weaving beautiful home textiles, scarves and fabrics.

    Several participants had brought along their looms already warped up with warps sent in advance by Cally. Others were able to use good quality table looms brought along by Cally , ready warped. This enabled the whole group to weave straightaway.

    Cally started by showing us a selection of woven samples, also known as gamps ,which illustrated five different colour and mood groupings based on the Goethe*/ Albers* colour triangle.( lucid, serene, mighty, serious and melancholic) Our own warps were designed in one of the colour groups with either a white or black contrast within the warp dividing the colours.

    Our first task was to create our own colour mood designs based on any of the colour triangle groups , using coloured paper, scissors,card and glue sticks. We were encouraged to play with the width, order and position of colour blocks . Cally suggested that we tried to express mood through colour using a starting point such as music or film titles rather than a visual image. We all found this exercise helpful and more flexible than directly yarn wrapping onto card. The vibrant results amazed us all. We found ourselves using colours ” outside our usual comfort zone” .

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    Everyone started to weave towards the end of the morning. The room became a hive of activity. Cally provided excellent handouts to guide the day and her confident enthusiastic manner encouraged all to try out the different colour sequences as the weft on our warps. Looms were set up for either basic plain weave ( tabby) ,which uses alternating paired shaft lifts, or balanced 2/2 twill, which uses a sequence of four different shaft lifts on the loom.

    A number of different options for exploring shaded twill, other twill patterns or weave sequences were offered by Cally, which ensured suitable challenge for more experienced weavers in the group. Some weavers decided to try out each other’s loom and warp, but most of us chose to remain on the same loom to explore the possibilities outlined.

    By the end of the day, lovely colourful gamps had been made and we had all learned more about colour and mood in weaving. Those using Cally’s looms were able to cut off their gamps to take home at the end of the workshop and the rest of us have sufficient warp left on our looms to continue experimenting.

    We all agreed that the day had encouraged us to weave with colours which we might not have previously selected . We also noted the different effects made upon colours in weaving by the use of either black, white or grey yarns in warp or weft. It was a very well planned workshop and the day passed all too fast. Many thanks to Cally Booker for her excellent tutoring and to Catherine Freeland for arranging the event on behalf of the committee.

    by Hilma Rask

    * Albers, Josef (1963) Interaction of Colour . Yale University Press
    * Goethe , Johan,Wolfgang von (1810) Theory of Colours