E-newes - coming to you monthly! Get connected: Visit schachtspindle.com for helpful Each issue includes a project, hints, project ideas, product manuals and informa- tion. Follow our blog, like us on Facebook, pin us on helpful tips & Schacht news. Pinterest, visit Schacht groups on Ravelry, follow us TM on Twitter. News from the Ewes DECEMBER 2014 Blanket Weaving in the Southwest. We What is a countermarche loom liked Loie Stenzel’s suggestion for us- and why do we love it for rugs? Project ing patterned as well as solid fabrics, Double Corduroy Rag Rug Before I tell you why we love our countermarche so I spent some time by Chase Ford Cranbrook loom for rug weaving, I want to give you familiarizing myself After weaving off the mohair blanket a very brief overview of three systems for creating with the color pal- sheds. on the Cranbrook Loom (see pictures ettes that appeared On jack looms, on our Facebook), Jane and I decided in the blankets in when the treadle is that a double corduroy rug would be Wheat’s book. I depressed, some shafts fun to try. Corduroy is a pile weave that found several colors raise and the others is created by weaving floats along with and prints of a light- remain stationary. Jack a ground weave. The floats are cut after weight 100% cotton looms are the most weaving to form the pile. Corduroy can fabric to sample Rug sample popular style of looms be either single or double. Generally, with. in the U.S. and is the system we use for our Wolf and Standard Floor Looms. Weavers love jack looms double corduroy is used by handweav- Sampling can seem like a hassle because they are easy to tie up and very flexible, ers because it is the denser of the two but it really is worth all the extra with each shaft working independently. weaves. Many variations are possible. work. I learned which colors worked For counterbalance looms, when a treadle is de- Peter Collingwood's Techniques of Rug well next to one another and which didn’t offer Weaving explores corduroy in detail and is an excel- pressed, some shafts lower (called a sinking shed) enough contrast, how long and are balanced by other shafts which automati- lent resource. the floats should be in cally go up. On a counterbalance loom, there are Sampling order to make the right rollers or pulleys that balance each other, so if for I began with a sample. For inspiration, I looked length pile, how best to cut example, shaft 1 and 2 lower, 3 and 4 automatically at Loie Stenzel’s “Madras Double Corduroy Rug” my weft strips to minimize go up. While counterbalance looms have a light trea- featured on page 16 of Handwoven’s Design Collection fraying. These are the dling action, they are not as flexible because shafts 8 (Interweave Press) as well as Joe Ben Wheat’s book things I learned just having must be balanced against each other. to do with the weaving! Chase threading the Cranbrook On countermarche looms, shafts are both raised 6x and lowered. The Cranbrook Loom has a set of over- Designing head jacks, which when the treadle is depressed, After finishing the sampler for this project, I the center lowers and the outside raises. There are decided which colors I liked together and set out Draft for rug two sets of lamms: the lower lamms connected to EPI: 4 designing the final rug. During my sampling, I found the overhead jacks and the upper lamms attached to PPI: 6 that by alternating colors on the odd and even pattern the bottom of the shafts. On a countermarche, you picks and alternating again every few repeats of my • tie both what goes up and what goes down (rising • Find out more at schachtspindle.com ©2014 Schacht Spindle Co., Inc. Schacht Spindle Co., Inc. 6101 Ben Place Boulder, CO 80301 303.442.3212 E-newes - coming to you monthly! What is a countermarche loom, continued Each issue includes a project, shafts are tied to the lower lamms; sinking shafts helpful tips & Schacht news. are tied to the upper lamms). For more on loom

TM systems, see the excellent discussion in Warp- ing Your Loom & Tying on New Warps by Peggy

Osterkamp. Double Corduroy, continued According to Peter Collingwood’s The Techniques For rug weaving, to make a solid and dense of Rug Weaving, it is a good idea to always thread a rug, you need a lot of tension. The Cranbrook treadling I could create a nice checkerboard pattern whole number of repeats or a whole number plus a loom serves well for with the floats. I decided to use this pattern as the half in order to avoid unnecessary complications. At this purpose. It is a main section of the rug with contrasting borders on 4 ends per inch, with 20 ends per repeat, the total heavy and sturdy loom either end. number of warp ends fit perfectly into 6 threading with a worm gear that Once I had a rough idea of what I wanted the rug repeats to give my desired weaving width of 30". The allows you to crank up to look like, I sat down with some graph paper and the tension incremen- block threading used in this rug has five warp ends started to play with proportions. I ended up using phi tally, as well as eas- on each shaft. An important thing to remember is (pronounced fee), a mathematical number not unlike ily loosen the tension Cranbrook worm gear that the length of the pile will be half the length of the pi to determine the size when the warp needs advancing. The swinging float because the float will be cut. A way to lengthen of my borders and central overhead beater can be adjusted to meet the fell the floats and make section. Phi, also known as at just the right angle. With the addition of the op- a deeper pile is to the “Golden Ratio”, is often tional beater weight, the beater powerfully packs manually pull up on used to determine propor- the weft without strenuous effort. Another feature each float as you we love about the Cranbrook for rug weaving is tions. It owes its popularity to weave. This will the locking treadles, which enable you to press the fact that many things in require more weft down on the treadle and slide it into a groove to nature, such as the leaves of and will be slower to hold it in place when you need to adjust the wefts plants, grow proportionally weave than simply in the shed. according to phi. I developed Rug on Cranbrook with temple throwing the shuttle In talking to our friend Tom Knisely, teacher a design of 12" long borders and rug weaver at The Mannings and author of and beating. on either end with a central Weaving Rag Rugs and several DVDs including section of 36". Developing the design Calculating Fabric Yardage Weave a Good Rug, he reminded us of the features I decided to make the hem on either side of the rug To determine how much yardage of each color I he loves: the tapered treadles which automatically 5" in order to have plenty to work with as the pile will would need for weft, I calculated the area of my sam- adjust the shed (generally Swedish style counter- determine how much of the hem is seen. I’d rather pler and learned that 2 yards of fabric would roughly marche looms require much knot-tying to adjust have a little extra waste than not enough woven. yield 252 sq. in. of tripled rag weft strips at 3/4" wide. the shed) and the convenient, pre-marked Texsolv Since the warp is all but invisible underneath the I tripled the weft in order to allow colors to blend cords that make tying the treadles to the lamms convenient and easy. rags, the only place it shows is in the hem at the more subtly as well as for added thickness. I then For more information on the Cranbrook loom, beginning and end of the rug. For this reason I chose calculated the area I wanted the final rug to be and now in its 85th year, go to schachtspindle.com/ a deep navy 8/4 poly-cotton rug warp that contrasted got 1800 sq. in. I then took the dimensions of each cranbrook. with the pile borders and matched the darker sec- section of color and calculated the area to know just Visit schachtspindle.com/newsletter for tions of the middle. how much of each color I needed. I added an extra • more project ideas and instructions. Find out more at schachtspindle.com ©2014 Schacht Spindle Co., Inc. Schacht Spindle Co., Inc. 6101 Ben Place Boulder, CO 80301 303.442.3212 E-newes - coming to you monthly! Inspiring Makers Each issue includes a project, One Post at a Time helpful tips & Schacht news. Historically, here at Schacht we haven’t TM blogged much, a few posts every month or

even every month or so. This year, we decided Double Corduroy, continued warp is not caught from time to time. To remedy we wanted to connect more with our readers, this I simply paid attention to what was happening at yard or two to all of my numbers to be sure I’d have to provide content on our blog that was deeper the selvedges and placed my shuttle over or under enough. I found I would need 6.5 yards of the white and richer. the edge thread as necessary. in the borders, 2 yards for the light blue stripes in Over the year, our blog has evolved into a the borders, and 6 yards each of both light and dark Finishing project- and inspiration-rich destination. Each fabrics for the center patterned section of the rug. After cutting the rug off the loom, the first order post is created by one of our passionate office This made the total amount of fabric I needed around of business was to zig-zag stitch at either end to staff and is heartfelt and a pleasure to share 20.5 yards. protect the hem weft from raveling. Before finishing with you. Whether it is one of our “Challenge” the hem, I cut the pile. The floats are not directly on Cutting Strips series, or a post on the trials and tribulations top of one another but are staggered, so it is impor- I found the simplest way to cut my strips was to of a project, or just a great tutorial, every topic tant to be careful to not use a straight edge and a rotary cutter on a self-heal- is chosen to engage, inspire, and encourage. accidentally cut into the ing mat with a measured grid. Connecting the strips sections above or below. We invite you to check out our blog. We was made simple with a washable glue stick. The My final step was to hem doubled our number of posts this year – some glue is invisible when dry, and once the weaving has the rug, making the hem highlights have been the Holiday Wreath, a been washed, the glue will disap- wide enough to just peek stunning and stimulating Zoom Loom project; pear completely. Whenever I out from underneath the Spinning an Ombre noticed two strips that had been Before cutting the pile pile. glued together acting as a float Yarn, an in-depth The first project I wove I tried to center the glue seam tutorial on creating a on the Cranbrook Loom in the middle of the float so that luscious 3-ply gradient was the mohair blanket when the glue dissolved in the yarn; and a helpful, in- mentioned at the begin- wash the consistency of the float depth guide on working ning of this article, and length would not be affected. with your rigid heddle Cutting fabric strips I had never warped a coun- After cutting the pile Weaving loom. We have even termarch loom. Warping The weaving of this rug goes very quickly as greater plans for 2015. Join us for our “vaca- and weaving on the Cranbrook seemed daunting at each treadling repeat yields about 1". It is a simple, tion” series that will be premiering early in the first, but with a little patience, it was a piece of cake. straight treadling. This was my first time using a I can’t wait to do it again! year! temple and while I’m always mindful of my selvedges If you have topics that you’d like us to cover, it really helped keep them nice and straight under all Chase Ford, a student of the Kansas City Art Institute, interned with please send us an e-mail. We look forward to us for 9 months this past year. the tension from the rags. Due to the threading as hearing from you. well as switching between weft colors, the selvedge –Benjamin Krudwig Find out more at schachtspindle.com ©2014 Schacht Spindle Co., Inc. Schacht Spindle Co., Inc. 6101 Ben Place Boulder, CO 80301 303.442.3212