Lace Workshop - Part 2

While the rest of the household was barely waking up, I was up packing my lunch and setting off early, of once, to the lace workshop. My workshop experiences have been very limited and I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

About a month earlier I had received a call from Judie, a member of the SLC guild, asking what loom I would be bringing and what lace pattern I would be interested in warping on my loom. We finally settled on a huck lace pattern on 4 shafts that she later sent me the draft to use to warp my loom.

I ended up using a #5 crochet cotton, Cable 5 by Karabella, for both the warp and weft threads. For some wacky reason I just didn’t want to warp the pattern in just one color, so I did three: purple on the edges, medium green on either side and a lighter lime green in the center. Definitely eye catching.

The pattern was on 4 shafts using 123 threads and a 15 dent reed with one thread in each dent. My Leclerc Voyageur loom had a 12 dent reed so I had to sley the warp threads with this pattern 1-1-1-2 to compensate. We were to warp our looms with four yards of warp for the workshop. Below is my warping pattern for the loom, the arrows show where the color changes would occur.

One the way back to SLC from the Guild meeting in Provo Thursday night in Kathleen’s carpool van, I found out from Deanna and Litza that the workshop was a round robin. We would weave the pattern given to us on our own loom and then move to someone else’s loom and weave their pattern, thereby getting a variety of pattern samples.

It then dawned on me that I had only brought stick shuttle to weave with, thinking that I would be the only one using my loom and I was comfortable using stick shuttles since I weave on small rigid heddle looms so much. But I know other weavers prefer boat shuttles, and I did a small internal panic. Finally I decided if people wanted to weave with a boat shuttle they could use one of their own since I didn’t have any, and just wind the bobbins with my warp thread. I did learn a lesson for future workshops, bring boat shuttles even if I’m using stick shuttles, just in case.


Suzie Liles was an enjoyable teacher, kind, down-to-earth, very practical, and had a good sense of humor. Besides the basic lace weaving material, I learned to use up less warp in spreading the warp before beginning to weave, an easier, quicker hem stitch, and how to tie an additional warp onto the loom using the same threading pattern. The hem stitch was almost worth the cost of the workshop.

I also learned that I must be the world’s slowest weaver. I’m the kind of student I never really wanted to have in class, the last one done. I guess now that I was on the student end and much older, and it’s not for a grade, I’d rather do it right. I can remember a time when I would never redo a section, now I will take the time to tear it out, if it’s weaving or knitting and redo it. Maybe I’m more critical or maybe I know I can do better, anyway I now don’t rush through projects.


It took me all of the first day of the workshop to weave my huck lace pattern with it’s variations as given to us by the instructor. I even took the loom home and after Jack and Katie Jane went to bed I did my homework. After the bowling birthday party the parents and grandfather were wiped out so by nine o’clock everyone was in bed but me. I finally finished weaving the huck pattern and doing the hem stitch to separate the pieces so I would be ready to start weaving on someone else’s loom tomorrow. I stuck a piece of painter’s blue masking tape with my name on it to the weaving, put the loom and stand in the back of the car, and went to bed about midnight.

Weaving and Spinning at Spring Mt. Ranch State Park

Yesterday five members of the LV Fiber Arts Guild demonstrated weaving and spinning at Spring Mount Ranch State Park, west of Las Vegas near Red Rock Canyon. They were celebrating Pioneer Days and showcasing several pioneer crafts and sports on the ranch.

The Black Powder group were periodically shooting their guns, while chili and cornbread were being cooked elsewhere. I never did get away from my loom to take a tour of the grounds, but did see several people eating the chili and cornbread. (I did hear that Bob, whoever that might have been, burned the biscuits, but don’t know if that was a rumor or not.) Next door to our weaving and spinning room, the ladies were making candles, and down the hill they were demonstrating washing clothes with a wash board and ringer. I’m sure an eye opener to the cub scouts touring the exhibits. Around the corner from the candle makers some mountain men were demonstrating throwing hatchets at targets. That reminded me of the old Johnny Carson Late Show episode with Ed Ames and the tomahawk toss.

Down in the corral there were some saddled horses, I don’t know if they were giving some rides or not, and nearby was a tent with rag rugs for sale. Very cheap, but we had to chuckle as they were made in India. Kind of ironic we thought.


We were demonstrating in one of the old stone buildings that had been used as a home on the ranch, perhaps for one of the ranch hand families. Of the five of us Holli had the cutest costume complete with white hat. She was weaving pieces of fabric on her rigid heddle loom making a tote and then switched to weaving the handle for the tote on her inkle loom. I tried for more of a Mexican rather colonial theme for my costume, so I could get away with dangly earrings and no hat. As you can see I’m still plugging away on my bookmarks on my Voyageur loom.



Vicky went for a western cowgirl look, as she didn’t want to wear a long shirt. I thought that suited her really well with the braids and hat. She was weaving on a rigid heddle frame that’s been converted to a tapestry loom. She was working on her own design in two colors, and had a really relaxed approached to her weaving.
Audrey switched between the drop spindle and the spinning wheel throughout the afternoon. People are always fascinated by the spinning wheel, almost mesmerized by its workings. We spent time explaining the difference between our looms, and showing how we wove our patterns. The adults were as interested at the children, and we gave out information about our guild and weaving instruction available. All in all, an enjoyable experience.

It was a beautiful day, although it didn’t start out that way with lots of wind and clouds as everyone set up. There was a pack of donkeys near the road looking through the fence at the tourists in the car parked in the middle of the road going into the ranch as I was hurrying to get into the ranch area, late as usual. I didn’t think to stop and take a picture of donkeys then, as they were gone when I left in the afternoon. The ranch is close to the Spring Mountains and the view shown here as I was leaving I think is notable.

Minding the Store on Thursdays

I’m minding the store today and tomorrow. So after the shelves are straightened, the books rearranged and the customers waited on I sometime can manage to fit in some knitting or weaving. I brought my Voyageur table loom into the store yesterday for WOW! (Weaving on Wednesday) so I was all ready to fit some weaving in if the time allowed. You can see my loom set up in a corner of the shop.

One of the WOW! members returned early this morning for some more Lamb’s Pride Yarn by Brown Sheep for another weaving project. Hermi brought her weaving bag that she’d just finished. She’s an accomplished spinner and knitter, but she’s just gotten into weaving and is having fun experimenting with different simple looms and types of weaving.

Her bag is a combination of cut pile, done on her Kromski harp rigid heddle loom using her handspun yarn, and card weaving which she used to create the handle for the bag. I think she used Lamb’s Pride yarn for the handle and the rest of the bag. I rather like the bright color combinations she used.



Later in the afternoon I was able to work on the bookmarks for awhile. The pattern yarn that I’m using for the present marker is about as thin as the black rayon thread used for the warp and binder so the progress is really slow. I’m afraid the iridescent quality of the thread doesn’t show up the pattern well in the photo. In the second photo I unwound the cloth beam to show you what the other bookmarks looked like.



The first bookmark uses a peach colored #30 crochet cotton for the pattern weft. The second one is a thicker silvery metallic thread, and the third is a thicker rayon crochet cord in variegated colors. I think the #30 crochet cotton and the metallic thread markers show up the weaving pattern the best. The iridescent marker is nice but a little too subtle. The weaving isn’t very speedy, especially if you’re used to working with a rigid heddle loom with a #8 dent making some shawls. Well, there is tomorrow…

The WOW! Group - Weaving on Wednesdays

Two years ago three or four of our weaving & spinning guild members started getting together a couple of Wednesday mornings a month. At first we met at my house but last year we started meeting at Wooly Wonders, a knitting and weaving shop on the east side of Las Vegas, and we decided to start meeting every week. We call ourselves the WOW! Group - Weaving on Wednesdays Group.

We’ve grown to eight to ten members, some arriving early, some late--that’s always me (have to check my e-mail first). We talk a lot, drink our coffee & tea, knit, crochet, spin and even do some weaving. We often bring in rigid heddle looms or tapestry looms, like Kathy who is working on a sort of fantasy landscape in Noro yarns shown in the photo.

I brought in my 8H Leclerc Voyageur table loom, but didn’t do much weaving. I work at the store tomorrow and Friday and probably will get some weaving time in then. I’m trying to weave off the bookmarks as I’m going to need the loom for a workshop in lace weaving in Salt Lake City in late October. The bookmarks have a black rayon thread warp and a variety of pattern wefts. They are a variation of bookmarks from the March/April 2007 Handwoven article, “Elegant Bookmarks” by Syne Mitchell. Last year our guild challenge was to weave with warp smaller than we usually weave with. Boy, this warp sure fit the bill. I could have gotten by just by using 20/2 as a warp, but I was fascinated by the beautiful pattern of the bookmarks.

I’m not sorry I did the project, once the correct sett was worked out for my rayon warp and the warps stopped breaking. But I’m sure not going to use this tiny a warp thread any time soon. I’m ready for something a bit bigger. When the warp comes off I’ll be able to take some photos of the different pattern wefts, some of the bookmarks actually turned out nicely, and the broken warps were easily hidden.


In the photo, Nancy is spinning with a drop spindle, but often brings her wheel to spin with. She is one of the founding members of our guild, and is an excellent weaver too.

How do your guild members get together between meetings? We find we enjoy the weekly get together to exchange ideas and show what we’ve been doing, and look forward to the next week's gathering.