May 29, 2013

Transhader - University Weaving Project


A while ago, my friend Marcel, who works at the Technical University Delft and runs the Bucky Lab, asked me whether I could advise two students of his who want to weave some fabric for an assignment.
The general assignment was to create a sun shading device based on textiles.
Lotte and Leonard chose to create 'an up- and downwards movable 6-meter exterior sun screen on spindles with a transition from opaque fabric texture at the top to rather transparent texture at the bottom'.
Of course I was happy to help. When the two came to my house it turned out that they were well prepared - they had already studied the basics of weaving, knew the essential terms, and had put quite some thought into the requirements and possibilities for their particular project.

The goal was to create a piece a fabric that gradually changes from opaque to almost transparent, while keeping in mind that the final result was to be manufacturable industrially. Thus, hand-manipulated weaves were out of the question. We figured that changing the distance between the weft threads was the solution, and Lotte and Leonard plan to have 9 sections of different rates of transparency throughout the piece.
First I gave them my Flip rigid heddle loom to practice. Then we installed my 8-shaft table loom at the university where they started out with a narrow sample strip.

I showed them how to warp the loom and gave them a couple of hints on how to keep the tension homogenous. I am not sure how long the sample turned out to be because shortly thereafter they sent me a picture with the warp threads covering the entire width of the loom. 

They got the tension near perfect - not easy with inelastic cotton warp threads.


I am excited to see the result.

Mar 6, 2013

And the winner is ...

takingaturn! Congratulations - you will get the Field of Dreams 1 skein (no. 2 has been sold).

It took me a while to get my random number generator aka Jakob to chose the winner because the day I picked up the wheel I feel ill with acute bronchitis. Fortunately for me this happened at my sister's house in Germany, where she nursed me while also taking care of my son. Unfortunately it kept me from my new wheel - I still havn't really touched it because it's taking much longer than expected to recharge my batteries.

Nevertheless, here it is:
my almost brand new Schacht Reeves 30" made of ash wood.

The picture includes my still beloved Rose for scale :-)

Field of Dreams 1 is a light fingering weight yarn spun from Shetland fibre hand painted by Spunky Eclectic.


Feb 21, 2013

Take a guess

- and you can win a skein of my handspun yarns!

I am SO excited - as of next Wednesday, a new spinning wheel will come to live with me.
I have been saving for this for some time and even though my piggy bank isn't nearly fat enough I couldn't pass the opportunity when I saw someone offer the wheel I want last week.

Name the brand and model of the wheel you think I will get in the comments section. From the correct entries I will randomly choose a name, and send the winner one skein of my handspun yarns. Please include your favorite colours or the colours you like least and I will try to send you something appropriate.

Just one hint - it's definitely not made for artyarn.



There are only two people who know for sure what wheel it is, the seller and a spinning friend. If my spinning friend comments she well deserves a skein of yarn for enabling me :-) !!

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