Franco's Fiber Adventure: February 2012

Monday, February 20, 2012

Experimental Sprang Frame Finish

This is the sprang I started last month (see here) and finished a couple of weeks ago. I made it on the experimental frame as continuous warp. Then I sewed up the sides and cut the strings to open the top. I was trying to tie off the ends when the thing started unlinking. Highly annoying. I was really mad at it for a while. But I came to appreciate the good parts. It proved I can sprang on cardboard frames. I can do pattern changes. And I also have a different idea for the design. More to come in the future.

Have a good day!

EDITED TO ADD: Musing on an adjustable sprang frame. Someone suggested using long screws for sides of a frame. That might be workable. I think two 12 inch long pieces of all thread screw rod, two wooden dowels drilled to accept the screws, and eight hex nuts to adjust the position of the dowels.

Or two wooden dowels drilled to accept two other dowel and maybe another screw to hold it in place?

All of which is more work than using more cardboard but being adjustable could make the difference.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Saturday Group Feb 18 2012

Here is the Sacramento Weavers and Spinners Saturday Group. This is our first meeting after the Open House. We had a total of 20 people at the meeting, with 8 of them coming because of the Open House! At the front left is Janelle with her Fricke wheel. At the rear middle is Cathy with her Nagy wheel.

Here are some more people. Peggy is holding up one of Linda S woven shawls that we passed around. In the middle of the picture is Debra with her Ashford Traditional.

On right is Linda S showing a shawl woven on her rigid heddle loom as Linda Y and Stephanie look on. Behind them on a table Anne is weaving on a Cricket rigid heddle loom.

Our topic was Weaving For Beginners. We worked on little cardboard looms to show what warp and weft is. Did not get any pictures of the little looms, but they were fun. We had a couple of rigid heddle looms to demonstrate. We had a Louet Klik and Structo multiharness looms as well.

We had a couple of challenges as well. This is a Lily two harness loom Annette brought and Stephanie is looking to see what might be done to adjust the harnesses. We didn't figure it out during the meeting, but I have since found some pictures on line that show what we were missing

This is the last minute success story. About 4 pm while many people had already left, Melisa showed up with her Ashford Traditional that had been in storage for 10 years. She said she just needed a drive band. I told her bring it to the meeting. She bought a Ashford Maintenance kit which has a drive band and other parts. Which was good because beside a drive band, she needed a brake band and spring replacement, which was in the kit. I wasn't sure how to hook up the brake band but Linda Y looked up the Ashford Manual on the internet thanks to the library wireless access. After we got the parts on it was time to fiddle with it to get it spinning right. With Betsy, Linda Y, Linda S, we were able get the tension set for spinning again. In above picture Melisa is thrilled that her wheel is working again as Betsy looks on. This was the first Ashford Maintenance Pit Stop we have ever done.

That was our meeting.

Next meeting will be a dye party at Cathy's studio on March 10.
Visit the Guild website to see future meetings
http://www.sacweavespin.org/saturday

It was a good day!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Sacramento Weavers Spinners Open House

Here is a few pictures from the Sacramento Weavers & Spinners Guild Open House. Here are some of the Saturday Group members during a short break in the day. We had a lot of visitors to our table.

Here is Wil Taylor spinning flax on a wheel. We rarely see anyone spinning flax on a distaff. The little cup is for water he uses to wet his fingers then wets the flax to soften it for spinning into linen.