finished lego

In pink!

New colors

I ran out of the bright 8/4 pink, but I wanted to try 2 strands of 12/2, which is the size of the warp.

 You can see that I chose 2 different shades of pinks for the pattern weft.

These are also more square with 4 repeats, and that confirms my prediction that it would be.

I haven't talked much about my book lately, but it's coming along really well.  As soon as I can weave this project off my 4-shaft loom, I can start with some of the samples.  I have 24 drafts that I created in the Bertha-style.  They are all unique and cool looking, so it's really hard for me not to share them right this very second!  I'm looking forward to weaving them up and seeing how they turn out.  I am also enjoying being able to express myself in a book.  It feels good to get this stuff out of my head and down onto paper.  Hopefully the book will be ready soon!!

Squared

 I took out one repeat from the repeat section and reduced it down to 3 instead of 4.

 

It is definitely weaving up more square, like it should be!

I'm not sure if I have enough pink to do anything more than a perfect square piece, but I know that there will be enough warp left for possibly one or two more longer runners (it IS only a 4 yard warp...) so I think I have enough time to experiment a little bit more.  If I feel like I want more, I can always tie on another warp.

PS.  The bending and U-shape in the above photo is not the weaving, it's the wide-angle camera this time!

Pink!!

 Same design and warp, but now a pink weft!

 

And the results from the one that has been through the washer and dryer:

First, it doesn't look as U shaped!  This is a good thing!  However, it is very stretched out compared to the sample piece I did.  Therefore, I am going to wrap up this top pink one and begin a new one that has only 3 repeats in each section instead of 4.  And hopefully there will be enough warp leftover to try one more experiment: 2 strands of 12/2 cotton together with 4 repeats.  I still think this blue one is cute and I like its new home by the chair!  It's like it was made for this table!  (And yes, this table was made by my dad!  And the quilt on the chair was made by my mom.  And the quilt in the background on the wall was made by me!)

Preliminary

This is pretty fresh off the loom, with exception to taking care of the edges.  It's kind of an experiment.  Usually I wash a piece first before finishing the edges but I have decided to finish the edges and then wash the piece.  We shall see how it does!

Now for some notes about the piece... First thing I noticed was the left hand edge and how U shaped it turned out.  I'm sorry to admit any faults, but most of my weaving has this U shape and usually I can hide it with the sewing in the end!  It's definitely more apparent without washing first.  Hopefully it will go away, but I have a ton of warp left so there really isn't a need to worry too much about this first piece.

Second, the shapes are very elongated, but I am hoping they will end up more square after a good trip through the washer and dryer.  The sample was sett at 20 epi, but it was a lot smaller, so perhaps I was able to pack it in more and therefore it was able to come out more square in design.  I hope this one shrinks closer to square!

Otherwise, I think it's a very awesome piece and I'm very happy with it!  I'm also very excited that I designed it myself!  I always wondered what Bertha Gray Hayes might have been thinking when she wove through her own pieces and now I almost feel as though I have gotten a small glimpse into her life.

Now I'm off to the washer and dryer!

Fest your eyes upon this!

Look at this beauty!!!

   

Look closer!

  And closer!!

 I love overshot!

Getting started!

 I have two rows done!

It's so cool to weave my own design!!!

I love it!

Samples

After washing and drying, I like the first sample (on the left) the best.  The other samples look too stretched out.  The sample on the left was done with a sett of 20 epi.

Here are some notes for the bigger LEGO overshot project:

Project Stats

Warp: 12/2 cotton in plum

Tabby weft: 12/2 cotton in plum

Pattern weft: 8/4 cotton in aqua

4 yards at warp board

Sett is 20 epi on #10 reed

52 threads per repeat, planning for 6.5 repeats plus 24 threads each side for borders = 385 threads total

19.25" at reed, or about 15.5" across after a possible 20% shrinkage.

22.5

 Here is one last sample, woven at a sett of 22.5 epi.

We'll see what these do when we wash them up, but I think I am leaning towards the 20 epi, which is the far left.  

PS.  Don't get confused with this picture.  Two of the samples are flipped the other way!  Oops!

Sampling Lego mini overshot design

I noticed with my first sample that the squares didn't look completely square, so I decided to tighten up the sett as an experiment.  I'm glad that I did this, because I think I like the look of the original sett of 20 epi the best.  But this did give me a chance to fix the left edge and make it look better.  I ended up going with a 1-2-3-4 threading on both sides to get this look.  In fact, I like the zigzag so much, I wonder if there is a place for it in the design??

By the way, here is the other side of the weaving, which I think is even better than the other side!  I think this matches the original plan very well.

Technically if you measure the squares on this side, they are exactly 1.25"x1.25", but I am expecting some shrinkage.  I might wash it first.  If it shrinks too much, I might add an extra thread to the repeat, so have 5 threads in each repeat.  I guess we'll have to see what these samples do in the washer and dryer!

My book is coming right along.  I have a long list of other samples I need to weave also, so once I get the sett on this, I can get started on all those other little samples.  I have about 20 I need to weave up.  The book is looking really good, but I'm not sure when it will "officially" be done!  I have quite a few things I still want to add to it, but trust me, it will be worth the wait!

Love my overshot!

This is the very first sample, and there are just a few mistakes I see!  However, so far I really love it!  I can't believe that I made this draft and I get to weave it up!  It's a pretty awesome feeling! 

My whole book idea is going to be on how you can do this yourself.  It's probably half way done, and I can't wait for you to see it and try it!!  Inside the book is also some of my other profile drafts from this year, about 20 of them in fact.  And I teach you how to design your own profile drafts and how to convert them to overshot with lots and lots and lots of pictures and examples!!!  It's written for those who get confused easily. 

Anyway, back to the Lego pattern!

This sample has one mistake in it, but otherwise looks so good!!

I also love these two colors together!   This is just a sample, but for the final project I have a slightly darker shade of aqua to use.  I wish I had enough of this shade because I like it! 

But knowing me, I will like the other one, too!

Leggo my lego

Bertha Gray Hayes is my hero!  She was an amazing weaver!  On Warped Weavers, we have been trying to figure how which weaver she was in the picture in her book.  We have guessed many different ones, and someone wrote to someone else who wrote back and said it was one lady and then others think it's someone else... so I guess it doesn't really matter what she looked like, but her work was phenomenal!  (But please share and correct this picture if you know for sure!!!)
 



I like her work so much that 18 months ago I decided to use it to study overshot drafts and make my own profile drafts that are in her style of weaving overshot.  I have some here.  I kind of forgot about them, but lately I have seen them over and over and over on Pinterest.  Do you know how weird it is to see your own stuff on that site and find it inspiring??  I've been hoping to see my work all woven up by someone else, but all I see are the drafts rotating around and around!!

The other day I decided to revisit my profile drafts and actually weave one up instead of waiting to see it done!  I made these over a year and a half ago, so it's time I did this!  My most favorite was called "like" as in the facebook button, but originally it reminded me of one of my most beloved childhood toys: Legos.  I wanted to name it Lego to begin with, but Brian didn't think that name was all that great, so I changed it to something else. Well, I have since changed my mind about the name, so it's going back to the original name of LEGO!  The original name also reminds me of the commercials for the 1980's frozen waffles: LEGGO MY EGGO, which was also something I loved, and these kind of look like waffles!  I love this draft!!!!  It's so me!!!

Here is the draft I made in Oct 2011, renamed to MY LEGO:

I was having so much fun playing with profile drafts at the time!  I love them so much.  I love how you can see a condensed version of it all, but you can weave all different kinds of weave structures from it.  I think I might go and make some more!  In fact, the main focus of my book will be about profile drafting, how to do it, how to make them, how to convert them, how to draw your own, and about 20 new drafts of my own with conversions to overshot, samples, and variations.  Yes, it's way intense!!

This draft is the actual draft that sparked me to write a book.  Yes, this draft will be in my book and a tutorial on how to convert it to overshot, summer and winter, and even how to make your own profile drafts that look Bertha-like.  It's going to be a really neat book!  Of course, it's not all about overshot and profile drafts, there are some other random weaving things in it as well!

I can't wait to get started weaving this!

2012 Year in Review

It's always fun to take this day to look back on the weaving from this year!

January

 

February

March

April

May

June

 

 July

August

September

October

November

 

December

 

 

 

Whew!!  What a year!!

Happy New Year 2013!

Can't wait to see what my loom inspires me to do this year!