Discoveries! Making a Weaving Planner.

Weaving Planner: Notes, Calculations, Yarns and Samples

Since I got my own loom, I am in the process of planning--or trying to plan a project for it. My house is stuffed to the gills...well, maybe not quite...with piles of loose papers--recipes, crochet and knitting patterns, books, photos, etc. I didn't want to add more loose papers for yet another craft into the already burgeoning piles. I was looking for a working weaving planner/journal/scrapbook type of thing. So I had googled "weaving planner" and I was looking around online, but not really finding exactly what I wanted or needed.

For a weaving draft, you need to have a grid portion or page, regular lines to make notes, and a place to tape (or post) actual yarns, and a finished sample--or photo/scan of the woven fabric. I could have taken a binder and interspersed graph paper and college ruled, too. I wanted something I could lug around that would stand up to falling off the loom bench onto the floor, scribble ideas on and not have to worry about messing up.Granted, eventually I'll want to make up a scrapbook with nifty papers, and pockets, etc., maybe as something to show (off) to others. But not right now.

Someone had posted photos of a notebook a weaver had used to plan and record his/her projects. I forget what site I was on. It was from the either the teens or twenties in the 1900's. The person who posted the photos had found the notebook in a thrift store...in, um, Scotland, I think. The photos really grabbed my attention because one side had quad rules (a grid) and facing page was ruled (i.e. regular notebook paper). Just what I was (sort of) looking for! 

A closer look at the cover of the notebook revealed "engineering notebook" printed on it from the publishers/printers. So I did another search...this time on Amazon and a couple of other office product websites. I also searched for post its with a grid pattern...since I was sure that those existed, as well. I was right!

 The Mead composition book to the left, has the top half of the page in grid format and the lower half wide-ruled, the way it looks on the cover.

The National Brand notebook to the right, has a full page of each type, facing each other.

I looked for these on several websites, trying to see if they had them in an actual STORE where I could run over and grab it myself. No such luck. They had them available for order online, but not in the brick and mortar location. Or at least, not in the places I'd normally shop for paper products.

I suppose I could have found the post its and one of the two notebooks at a college bookstore or a teacher's supply store, but it would probably also be overpriced. It is possible that the notebooks are in stock in the office supply stores in the late summer and fall when they have back to school sales. But I don't ever recall seeing the grid post its anywhere. I ended up ordering these from Amazon as part of another order so I could get free shipping.

National Brand  Engineering and Science Notebook, interior

Post Its with a grid pattern!

The post its can be used to temporary drafts, and that way, you don't mess up an entire notebook page. They are "super sticky" so you can stick them to the castle of the loom or the front beam. That way you can see what you're supposed to be treadling and keep track of the pattern while you are weaving. Tape messes up the finish on the wood. You can also stick a post it with the draft on any kind of paper to use as a weaving planner/journal if you don't want to bother with an engineering-style notebook.

I couldn't decide which of the two notebooks to get, so I got both. The Mead has a sewn composition-style binding, which I like. I'm concerned about the smaller space for the project development, though. The National Brand one because it has full pages of each type for notes--plenty of space to develop an idea or design, if only to do the math for warp and weft calculations. The spiral binding can be problematic because it can get scrunched.

I will have to try them both and see which works better. I will post updates.

Update: 3/14/15
I am in the process of entering my dishtowels in the white weaving planner. I've made some mistakes, because the squares are very small. So I decided to combine 4 of them to make a size I can see to work with.

Warping the Spear's Size 4 Weaving Loom: First impressions and Planning.

I've been scouring the web, trying different word combinations, trying to find either a video tutorial or just a plain print one for this loom with not a lot of luck. A lot of people post photos of projects completed on this loom, and I've come across blogs that discuss getting one of the Spear's looms in a variety of sizes, but not one that discusses in detail how to go about warping the Size 4 with the rigid heddle.

First of all, I've misplaced my instruction manual. I read it when I first got the loom, of course, but I didn't find it very helpful. Someone posted pictures of the size 4 instruction booklet on Flicker, and I read the instructions again and found my original opinion to be correct. It was difficult to understand. I know why I'm having difficulties, but that doesn't help. The instructions fail to detail how to tie on the warp...at least, I'm having difficulty figuring them out.

I am in the process of warping the loom. I'm using warp from a project that I had abandoned and cut off a different loom. I didn't measure it...I think the strands are around 5 feet long. I don't really care how long it is. The purpose of this project is so to give the fourth graders at a local elementary the experience of weaving during a "pioneer living" day.

The loom itself was originally sold as a toy. The box says that it has a 16 inch weaving width. The front and back beams have "teeth". That is, there are grooves or slits cut into both beams. The beams are identical. They are also not smooth, which is a problem if you have a hairy yarn that snags.

A heddle is a warp lifting device. It lifts a group of threads at one time so you can weave more efficiently. Most simple rigid heddles will have a slot and hole construction. Think of a picket fence as the heddle. There are spaces in between each picket post. Those are the slots. Imagine each picket board with a knot hole in the center and you have the idea.

The wire heddle has twice as many spaces as the beams. This means that you have to put two threads in each of the "teeth" on the beams. One of the two goes through the wire loop and the other goes in the space in between. There will be 168 warp threads then, if you use the original heddle and if you use the teeth on the beams. Since I'm using Paton's Classic Wool, the beam teeth are full. If you had a thinner yarn or thread, it wouldn't be so bad.

So those are my impressions, so far. I will take photos to show what I'm doing and keep you posted.

If you want to ask questions, leave me an e-mail so I can get back with you. Thank you, Jackie and Angela for posting comments on previous blog entries!