Orange Trees - Doc Report - I WON I WON - Restoring Union Loom

For Christmas last winter, my parents sent us a box full of fresh oranges picked out of their backyard on Lyle's land. The oranges were absolutely wonderful in flavor and taste. Nothing like you can buy in the stores around here.

Lyle said to save the seeds and plant them and they might grow real trees. Because they were not some hybrid or GMO created type orange strain, the seeds may very well sprout into trees.

I did just that! I saved 12 seeds and planted them. They were very slow to sprout, took about 2 months.  I tended them all the way through the spring and summer. I got these wonderful little sprouts but they are very slow growing. I was told it takes a long time to grow an orange tree.

Mom and Lyle visited this summer

and I took these pics of him 

with the orange seedlings:

Now that these sprouts are about 4 or 5 in tall, what am I going to do with them?

I really have no interest in growing a full size orange tree in my house. Of course, an orange tree outdoors would never last in Wisconsin winter. What to do?

I called our local high school and asked for the name of their science teacher that handles any type of horticulture class. They passed me on to Amy Theilman who said she would very gladly accept the orange tree seedlings. We arranged a time to meet over at the high school and drop off the plants so she could transplant them into larger containers and grow them in the school's greenhouse

She let us tour around the science lab and see some of the other projects they were working on. They are training white rats to do some tricks by conditioning with positive reinforcement. They had a great big bunny rabbit there. She explained some of the other programs that the students are taking part of, including a plant sale every year for Mother's Day. They grow the plants and the Art Department decorates the pots. How cool is that?

She will now try to grow the seedlings into full grown orange trees and hopefully the students will learn something along the way. It would be wonderful to get a call years from now and say that the trees are bearing fruit and come eat an orange???

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Yesterday, I did a little trek up to Green Bay to my wonderful gastrologist doctor at Aurora BayCare Hospital,  Dr. Peter Stanko. I've been seeing him for fifteen years now. Ever since my accident at work that resulted in three major surgeries to my stomach (from chemical burns to my esophagus and lungs).  We went over a bunch of records and tests and he is delighted with progress of my slowly weaning off a lot of the gastric medications. I am down to now only taking pain medications if I have a severe attack .... Things are going quite well. He is pleased with the healing progress of the Barrett's Disease in the esophagus and said things are healing up nicely. Now, as long as my gallbladder behaves and does not flare up, perhaps no more surgeries, scopings or gastric biopsies are necessary. He said it would be a real mess to get in there and cut if a surgery were needed. Of course, in an emergency we would do it. If you're curious, Google "Nissan Fundoplication Complications" and you will see what a mess I am inside.  Ewwwww

Nuff said on that.

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I WON I WON!!!  A Facebook drawing was held for a quilt store, It's called Twin Turtle Quilts located near my friend Juanita, in Clinton, WI.  I won a gift certificate for $25.  Happy Birthday to me, I have to use it by Oct. 31st (my birthday)

http://www.twinturtlequilts.com/

Twin Turtle Quilts

Teresa Popanz, owner

Post Office Box 335

244 Allen Street

Clinton, WI 53525

(608) 676-6196

I looked around her website and ordered a couple panels of some of her coffee themed prints, and some coordinating fabrics to blend with them....

It was sooo much fun to pick out the fabrics by messenger and have Teresa coordinate them for me and cut them and now she will ship them out to me.

 I already have a pattern in mind.  I think it would be a cute cuddly quilt on a rainy day, sipping coffee and feeling warm inside and out.

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Earlier this spring, I picked up a Union Custom 42 inch wide two harness rug loom. I'm finally getting around to it's restoration. It originally came in the blue color, and it's between 80 and 100 years ago.

http://www.weaversfriend.com/page1/page8/page8.html

The 2 grandsons helped Steve assemble it last month. 

 Then they helped me scrub it all down good!

I was debating if I should repaint it all with the original blue. It would look fresh and crisp, but then I decided to keep it as original as possible. If someone wants to buy it and repaint it themselves, they are welcome to do it.

I still have to hang the harnesses back on and attach the treadles.  Then put the beater back on with the reed. It will be ready to weave!  (there is some old warp on there that is pretty, but I would rewarp with new warp if I was going to keep it.  It is just too wide for my loom room and would take the space of both of my Newcomb looms that only weave 32 inches wide.

My friend Hilary from New York sent me a crank handle, and my friend Tina from Indiana sent me some new heddles for the harnesses. Steve has helped grind the rust off of the handle and the reed and I will soon put it all back together.

 I will post it for sale once it is in operating condition. 

Stay tuned if you are looking for a good solid rug loom.

I will deliver it for the cost of gas, a reasonable distance around Wisconsin. I will probably be selling it for $300 and post it on Craigslist and the Facebook Buy Sell Trade pages. I have found some of the same model online for $500-700.  If you come to my house to get it, I will include a free weaving lesson on my own looms that are set up inside. Also included will be two DVDs, one which is a beginning weaving DVD. The other, is my own DVD that I self-produce and market called "How To Warp a Sectional Loom". I also sell those on Etsy and Ebay and on my own website, in case you are interested:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/KarenInTheWoods

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300817626591

https://kareninthewoods.com/

Here it is already Friday, and the weekend promises to be some pretty nice warm weather here in Wisconsin ... above-normal temperatures in the 70s.  I want to get this loom finished up.

Steve is going to do some work at the Calumet County Historical Museum and we picked up some lumber this week so he can jump on it right away tomorrow morning. Got to get it done before the temperatures turn cold in the snow starts to fly he said.

In a way, I'm kind of looking forward to Winter.

We don't know if we're going south this winter 

or out to the desert this winter 

or staying home???

Finally - a Fiber Post! Weaving a Peacock Throw, and some rugs

Oh, my poor blog readers who love my fiber posts.  I have been sorely ignoring you!   Filling you up with posts of packing, moving, motorhome stuff and grandkids.  FINALLY I will do a post on a fiber project!

YAYYYYYYYY

I didn't post this one before because it was a gift, and the couple who received it read my blog (nephew Chris and his new wife Lyndsay).    So I saved the pics of the project until now.

They were married 2 weeks ago, and I finished up the throw in advance and mailed it to them in Pennsylvania.  They got married up in Michigan and would have had to haul it all the way back to Pennsylvania in the car.  I knew they would have more than enough to haul, so shipping it ahead of time to their home seemed to make the most sense.

This woven throw I named Peacock Throw because the theme for their wedding was peacock feathers and all the rich colors were part of their wedding.

I wove this up as the LAST item I wove on my big 60" wide LeClerc loom.  The warp yarns came from Chris's mom, my sister, Linda.  The weft was a thick bumpy boucle yarn from Lion Brand yarns.

It wove up very easy and once it was done, 

I washed it first gently in the machine 

and hung it out to dry.... 

Then I twisted the fringes with my small LeClerc fringe twister, so they all came out like little ropes.   I beefed up each knotted fringe first with extra boucle yarns so the "ropes" would be thicker than just from the warp yarns.

and soon it was done!!

Also, I recently wove off a few rugs from the Union loom before we tore it down for storage.   I really like these burgundy and grey wool rugs.  They are woven with thick wool blankets that were cut up and woven in plain 2 harness weave.  For the borders, I twist 2 half width pieces into "arrows".  What fun, but a little tricky to make the arrows come out evenly and pointing the right ways.  I liked doing them opposite, going one way and then the other. 

Here are some solid colored faded denim rugs I wove up for a customer, but she decided she wanted stripes instead?  So they are thin denim colored cotton fabric, not as thick as I normally do my rugs.  Great for fitting under opening door thresholds, or where a thin rug is desired.

This rug was woven in my Granny Patches technique,

using clasped wefts to make blocks of colors in the rug.

Amazingly, THIS Is my union loom, on the right pic it is all torn down (and each piece marked)   so I can reassemble it again when I want it up and running.  It's torn down with the warp intact from the back beam through the heddles on each harness, and through the reed. I can just set it up and continue weaving without having to beam on a warp, thread or sley the reed.  It can even be torn down while in the middle of weaving a rug if need be, and just let the front takeup beam be added to the same bundle and tied or taped carefully together.

 It's not too big of a pile... about 12 inches high and spread out a bit in this pic.  

Takes about 20 minutes to put it together.   But before I re-assemble it, I am going to replace the bolts and nuts and washers with new ones.  These were pretty rusty, and some were even bent.

We loaded it all easily into the back trunk of the Saturn car.  Just look at that! 

I am storing it for a while in our son's garage until I get more organized and get some stash depleted in the motorhome compartments.  I have to get a lot of these bins contents knitted up for socks for fall inventory.  Right now the loom pieces would fit on top of all these bins, but I think I would prefer to finish arranging and sorting before I load it up for full-timing.

I will get this figured out yet, I will... I will... I will! 

The Birth of a Birch Tree Rug

Today's blog is about weaving a Birch Tree Rug....

I love making these rugs--- as they are recycling at it's finest!

My weaving friend, Barb Barnett in Plainfield, Iowa, purchases big bales of an item called "Loopers".     They are factory surplus material that consists of knitted loops of cotton fabric, leftover during the process of machine knitting socks.  This loops is what is cut off after the toe seams are sewn on commercially knitted socks, and spaced in between where the next sock is started on the machine.  They come in a variety of colors mixed in with mostly white cotton loopers, from making sport socks that can bought in the stores.  These are normally discarded into the landfills.

She buys the huge bales of these leftover surplus loops from the factory, and they fill an entire bed of their pickup truck!   She drives the pickup truck right into her studio through the double wide barn doors and releases the compacting bands.... PPOOOFFF!  They explode outwards and bury the entire truck!  It takes her and a few helpers a few days to bag up the loopers into large garbage bags and prepare them for sale and shipping.

Weavers buy them in quantities by the pound, about 10 pounds for an average 50x30 inch rug.  I buy many many bags full to stock up.  I store them in tall plastic garbage cans in the garage and storage room in our house.  They take up a lot of space, but what I save on shipping is worth it to stockpile them when they are available.  I try to work in a purchase with her while driving near her Iowa farm or if she is driving near to a festival where we can meet up.   Here are her websites:

http://barnettsheepandwool.com/default.aspx

http://sites.butler-bremer.com/web/bbarn/index.html

Normally, during the weaving the process, the first step is to "chain them" together.   But in this particular rug I am highlighting today, the customer wants more browns and greens interspersed in the rug.  Sooooo I am going to dye the loopers before chaining them together.

I call them Birch Tree Rugs because they look like the textured bark on birch trees of Wisconsin. They are usually cream, white, black and grey.  Unless I dye loopers to different colors.  Which is what this customer wanted--- some greens and browns mixed in.

We have a burner stand with an LP tank that is used for deep frying turkeys.  Nix on the greasy turkeys since Steve started watching his cholesterol.   We use it now for outdoor canning, dyeing, or cooking big pots of Alaskan Snow Crab Legs when the kids come over LOL!    Steve set up the burner for me in the open garage area, as it was a very windy day.   I put the loopers in mesh lingerie bags to simmer them in the water.  I add Rit dye, some vinegar to help set the dye, and some salt because we have very hard well water here from the outside faucet.   I keep three of these marked stainless steel pots for dyeing only, never cooking in them. Steve tended my dyepots while he worked in the garage.

Once they were done and dried on my big rack in the yard.. it was time to start chaining them into a long chain that can be woven on the loom.  This is a slow process that can be done out on the deck to keep the lint to a minimum, or indoors with a good vacuuming process of the entire area once you are done. 

Here are the tubs of dried loopers and the start of the chains in my livingroom

Once the chains are made, they are wound on long stick shuttles, the width of the rug to be woven.  During this process I am wearing a mask as things get quite linty and dusty.  

First step of the weaving process on the loom, I weave a 3 inch "header" of thin cotton yarns to be folded over as a hem on each end of the rug.  

This customer wanted hems instead of tied knots and fringes.  This is her fourth rug she has ordered from me, and she knows what she wants.  That is a very nice way to take orders from experienced customers who envision the finished product and can order it easily.  I also wear my mask during this process. 

This is my Union loom, made in the 1930's-40's   It had been converted from a 2 harness to a 4 harness loom by it's previous owner, the late Irene Taufner of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  I obtained five of her looms in a roundabout way from her estate and kept this one.  It's a good workhorse of a loom and I have woven many, many rugs on it.  The weaving process is hard on my body, especially the stomach area due to past surgeries. This part goes slower than I would like.   But at least I am weaving! 

  

The long narrow stick shuttles work well to get the thick chains of loopers through the loom, back and forth, back and forth---creating the rug inch by inch.  I push up the appropriate harness with my foot on a treadle, and push the shuttle through the opening, through to the other side.  

I make sure the chained loopers (called the "weft")  is laid in without pulling or being too slack.  The lengthwise threads (called "the warp")  are then clasped around the chain when I release the foot on the treadle.  I have to grab the beater handle, and pull it backwards firmly to beat the length of looped chain into place on the rug.  Change harnesses with another treadle, repeat. And repeat.  And repeat.  And repeat.   haha... 

That is the mesmerizing process of the weaving that gets the weaver into a Zen mode.  Soft music playing, a loom doggie or two at my feet, birds singing in the open patio door---- I can spend hours doing this.  And I do! 

I keep track of the length of the rug while weaving via a tape measure pinned to the start of the rug.   I have to weave 13 inches of rug for every 12 inches of desired length of the finished rug.  The loom stretches out the rug under tension during weaving.   So for this 69 inch rug, I had to weave 6 extra inches of length while on the loom. Right up to 75 inches on the tape measure before starting the hem for the other end.   

Once the rug is finished, I spread diluted Elmer's washable school glue along the last half inch of the header area to hold the woven cotton threads in place. (I also did this at the beginning too)   Once the hem has dried overnight, I can cut the rug free, folded over triple layers and hemmed securely with heavy quilting thread.  

I carefully cut the rug free from the loom and carry it over to my antique Singer sewing machine.  This machine is from my Grandma Groop, which she gave me to me years ago when she was done with sewing. It is the only machine I have found that can sew through the thick triple hem areas of rugs.  It is a portable machine in a round topped wooden case, so I can take it on the road in the RV.   But while at home in the Loom Room studio, it's easier to have a flat surface with a big table behind to help catch and hold the rugs level while hemming.  My daughter, Erin, had this discarded sewing machine table from the house they bought.  Steveio put two and two together and voila!  It works for me!   

 I add my own personalized tags to the hemmed areas ----  Hey---  it's my Designer Rugs!

Once the rug is hemmed, then I take it outdoors on the deck to photograph it, and trim any stray threads...

 Here it is, a new Birch Tree Rug for my customer, Jan, from Wildomar, California.

After this pic was taken yesterday, it was boxed up, and shipped out to it's happy owner!  It is a very thick and heavy rug.  It weighed 12.5 pounds when finished.  It measures 69x33, exactly the size she had ordered. I like the variety of the browns and greens mixed in with the normal whites, creams, blacks and grays.  I sent the customer the photos of the birth of her rug. 

She wrote:

Karen,

Hi!  Thanks for the pictures of my fantastic rug!  I just LOVE it!  I am so impressed with your artistic skills.  And, the prep work to get it to the loom is so interesting.  Thank you for sharing the process with the "birth" of my rug.  I am even more awed with the beautiful rugs that you create!

  

My rug is perfect and I cannot thank you enough.  It will look so good behind my couch where I can enjoy it every time I walk through the family room.

Take care.

Jan