What Are Different Types Of Cotton And How To Weave On The Cricket Loom

Hey there, everyone we are here for a special treat today, I'm Vicky Howell here with Liz Gibson from yarn worker and also courtesy of cotton clouds. Calm. Thank you for coming here to Austin Texas, I'm so happy to pop in got a fabulous. I think I've been a part of your projects like in the yarn in world for years, but I think the last time I saw you here in Austin was at a Kelly deals, show at Hill Country Weaver's, maybe six years ago, yeah so love having you back And thrilled to have you here to talk about all that it is cotton, we're about to get a little bit warmer hair already starting here in Austin East Coasters. I know you've got a little bit of time, but it's a great time to really think about cotton and there's a lot of preconceptions about cotton that there's kind of one kind that you crochet dishcloths out of. But your passion, one of your passions, is weaving. So you're going to talk a little bit about that you're also going to talk about different types of Cotton's and then maybe give us a little weaving tutorial, mm-hmm all right awesome. So why don't you start, first of all, let's say hi to everyone: Rhonda, hello, Cindy, Theresa. If you've ever worked with a cotton, if you've got a favorite type of cotton, please share it with us. We love links. Remember the comments. Section is a community if you've ever woken before hello, Theresa and New Zealand, so good to see you Nancy, love, cotton, but tough on your hands. I have a feeling we're gon na address that so some great comments please share. If you've made anything with cotton, either woven or knitting or crochet or whatever else you could do with that, please share. We love the inspiration. So if you're, oh, and also I want to say, if you're watching later on YouTube, we will post when the demonstration starts. So you know where to fast forward to because you won't be seeing all these scrolling comments. We will also put the website and a discount code we're going to be talking about later in both the comment, sections and description Liz tell us about cotton. Well, I am so happy to talk about this subject, so I live in the southwest. So cotton is a year-round fiber for me, but it is a miraculous fiber in that it's it's the everyday cashmere, it's a short stapled fiber. It'S really strong! It comes from these little miraculous plants and if you hold them up closer yeah natural colors, so people look at this coming yeah just and you know it kind of mocks the colors of some wool. Yes, it does look like roofing a little bit. You get this fluffy and it's tiny short stapled fiber, which is why it tends to want to be spun fine and because of a good order. Okay, so for our gal, who asked about it being hard on your hands, it's it's often spun very tight to keep that integrity together. So yarn is made up of a bunch of plies. So when you for the crochets knitters, if I can see if they're only yeah here we go um that you'll look at something that has a nice soft spin to it, and these really yummy novelty, Cotton's, hey, let's show them that so you've got this thin pick And a thick pick that makes up a cotton, so, if you're looking for something, that's soft on your hands, this is an awesome choice and you've worked with this. I love this. I actually designed a blanket out of this. This is a seedling right yeah. I think it was either seedling or sprout in my week under stitch baby book because great for babies washable, but this is also this is really soft. This isn't going to be like the the go-to cotton that you would make a washcloth that needs to be durable because you're, scrubbing yeah and cotton is incredibly durable and it'll absorb up to three times its weight in water and it wicks away moisture. Naturally. So, like merino wood, exactly I mean it really is the merino of our cellulose world and that's what you know I teamed up with I read many years ago because she realized the same thing that I did that finding great quality cotton yarns isn't as easy as You and Irene is the owner of cotton clouds. You can go to cotton clouds, calm to see any of the things that we're talking yet correct. Absolutely alright! So though this is one kind we talked about, we've seen the the og source of cotton talked about the other types of cotton that you brought us today well and as a weaver, you know I because I'm using a loom, I'm not handling the yarns in same Way that a knit or crochet might and I'm looking for some good tight twist, that gives my fabrics stitch definition right. It'S the same thing is in knitting that tighter the twist the firmer the yarn. So if we look at cone yarns, we think of ubiquitous cone. Yarns as what is a weavers yarn, you can also do lace with this. It is an unmerciful is either mercerized or unmerciful eyes, so it's either shiny or matte, and the Mercer ization is where they bathe. The yarn in a caustic soda that swells plumps up those fibers makes them take dye better, gives it shininess, but it can also decrease the absorb bility its absorption power. Oh so washcloths, that's not ideal! That'S not ideal! That'S why you would want something like this. That'S an unmerciful and to it lots of plies but it'll still absorb you know, you've made woven something or did it a dish and you push the water away instead of absorbing it yeah. So look for a yarn, that's matte and not shiny! Well, that's when you want the absorption yeah, okay, yeah, that's not shiny! When you want to absorb well you when you want absorption or don't want to absorption or don't care as much and you want softer shinier, yep shinier, then look for yeah, a nice placemats, blankets! All of those kinds of things pillows they make great because pillows, you know we have them next door. Surely we want something? That'S not so hot yeah, it's a great yarn for that. Does the Mersenne ization? Does that change the drape at all? Does it change the way it well? You know drape is so it makes it a little crisper and clean okay, so but drape is so affected by your stitch and your shell fabric less. So in this case than the yarn itself, okay - and for me I love the organic naturally colored Cotton's yeah. It is one of the places where organic really informs. I mean we love organic, particularly for baby. The naturally colored colors are gorgeous, but they because they're less processed, it actually has a huge impact on the fiber itself. So we're not sort of scouring it with an inch of its lives and when cotton is harvested, they'll often use treatments that make it easier to harvest but can affect the fiber yeah. So this not only gives you an organic treatment, that's good for your skin! Anyone with sensitivity, it also creates, in my mind, a superior fiber yeah in it. You know you can't set this. I always say I wish we had feel vision, but you can tell that this is gon na drape beautifully. So if you were doing a spring scarf, you don't always think of cotton first first, but this would be great. There was a couple of points that I saw scrolling by that I wanted to address. Joyce said that not being Merson eyes is why her wash cloths fade so fast. I thought that was a great point. Yes, so that was one somebody else mentioned not getting the show the show which cotton clouds was a backer for is the knit show she said that she doesn't get it in Michigan. It'S actually streams on YouTube, so you can be in Michigan or you can be in Melbourne, Australia and still see it so go to the knit show, calm or YouTube to check it out. Alright, keep going yeah, so um you've got your organic and then you know just talking a little bit about cohn yarns because for the weavers we love, we have our yarns on cones or spools sure, because there is, there can be a difference, but it's easier for Us to put up so I get that question a lot from knitters and crochet errs who are interested in weaving and they say, oh well, I have to go out and buy coned yarn right like this is what I have to get the good news, particularly the That all of these yarns you can weave with and essentially whether it's a cone or a skein, it's not off limit for one craft or the other. Okay, perfect, perfect! Um! Do you want to talk about this? One that you brought? Yes, I love all. That is chunky. Yes, yes, so this is your classic mock cotton. So it's unmerged, but you you look. You know when you look at Cotton's that are big and chunky yeah. They are made up of lots of ply okay, so I'm going to be going so you can see it has a tweed look and also you can see. Well, it looks like it's a you apply that they're sick. Oh no, it is so it's already single yeah yeah, it's a bunch slide together and that is heavy great for a bag. Yes great for you with it. Oh absolutely! Yes, there's this fabulous technique of thick and thin mm-hmm. So I would take a pass of this and a pass of a thinner yarn and you get this really lovely textured and it works up. So quick yeah, I have to say weaving, is way faster than knitting when we're done, I'm gon na show you. I actually bought some yarn. That looks like this. It is not it's actually wool, it's cotton, but very similar looking and I bought it in New Mexico. Oh at a Santa Fe artisan shop she's from New Mexico - so am I gon na show you that stomping ground yeah, yeah? Okay, so did you show all the yarns? Is the other product? Okay, yep all right, so what we thought would be fun is some of us. Knitters and crochet errs, have already dabbled a little bit in weaving and some really want to. We'Ve worked on flat panels, but there's also this great machine called the Cricut and I think it's kind of the gateway. I really do it's portable. I heard those of you that have followed me for a long time. We actually did a demonstration on knitting daily on PBS years ago with them really fun, and we thought that we would just do a quick demo just so you can check it out and - and these looms are available in cotton clouds calm if you're interested in delving Into it, alright, so what I'm gon na do is I'm gon na flip the camera around. You all have been with me long enough to know that this process is never pretty so just wait, and then we will watch her go alright, alright. So this is the loom. This is a rigid Hetal loom and the cricket, in my mind, is a great place to start, and I have been teaching knitters to weave for gosh 15 years now, and the thing that weaving does so well, if you love weaving for the home, if you love Home items like we're getting like, if I do, that they get my dirty studies here, yeah so um, you know shaping knitting is so good at shaping. But when you're doing big pieces, blankets, towels placemats the like cotton right - this something like this, which incorporates two of the yarns we're talking about. These are a thick pic with just a thin pic that we saw on that comb woven so the stripes just pop out. This project takes me, you know once you get, you got your chops down to set up the Loom, takes about 30 minutes and then to weave them off takes a couple of hours. I mean it's, it really can be like a setup. It'S a life commitment and weaving, and that's not something that I knew going in its loom. You can warp it in 20 minutes or less once you know. So, let's show let's show how to do the basic passes. So there's there's two steps. Once you're all loaded up, there's two steps to weaving: you got to be warp to weave. Okay, we are warped. We have the looms, tell them tell everyone what that means. In case we don't know yeah. So warping is the process. The yarn held taut on the loom is called warp mm-hmm, and so that's how we remember it. You have to be work to weave and that's also the direction that it's going correct: okay, yeah, so they are the yarns help taunt and then we weave this is a stick shuttle and so I've wounded up with this thing pick and in this loom it does A lot of the work for you once you have it set up and it is relatively straightforward to set up so we can make our plain weave passes by putting this is called the heddle, and you can see. I just want you to see. You can see how that's separated the yarns and which will make what she's about to do easier yeah. So this lot and whole construction is extremely clever and we will pass the shuttle through. So the shuttle the weft, which is what this is called and weaving vernacular yarns that go from left to right nice. I do love a good pun, okay, so this is the weft glass weight warp weft and then you can slide it into place here. I want to just show to them too, because this is something I learned later. Can you just scoot back just a little bit yeah if you'll notice, she did not take this yarn. Take the piece of yarn and put it completely horizontally. You can see that she has it at an angle. We explained the reasoning, I absolutely so. When the yarn travels, it's not traveling in a straight line it's going over under over under over under and if you don't allow room for it to travel. That'S where you get the ubiquitous draw in and jigging it'll be it'll, be uneven on the side. Yep you'll start having your yarns pull in or you'll have too much and you'll have loops on the side. So we play with a left angle, press it into place, and then we can easily change the shed here and pass it down, and then you push the shell through. This is the mesmerizing. This is like the garter stitch of weaving just back and forth. Yep back and forth plain weave: you can infinitely play around with color and texture and yarn and a lot of those yarns that you have in your stash. Maybe you have some cotton, you know. Maybe you have some pieces that you want to mix. This is a great way to use it, so we're gon na press our yarns into place here and down. We go so this also. This also acts as like the comb that some of the flatland weavers, yes see. You know see it has all these little slots. You can see when she bumps it down she's, really using that to make to create this really tightly woven fabric. So if you've been experimenting, you know we know the wall. Hangings are popular frame. Loom. Weaving is, is amazing, like there's amazing things going on this loom to me: breaks the balance between all handwork and all loom controlled work, okay, so it's still work of the hand, but it does a lot of the work for me right. So I'm not having to do this this thing every time and this one's I mean pretty portable. You could take this and go work at you, know, craft nights or whatever it comes with clamps. We don't have them here so that it won't move on the table. So if you wanted to sit down, it could be fun. Okay, I'm gon na flip the camera around again, and I want to talk about some of the people, some of the things that you've brought that people can actually make if they're interested as soon as they order it. Okay, so cotton clouds has put together a series of kits correct. Yes, all right talk about them looks okay, wait on me. I teamed up with Irene early on because she was doing some really smart things to help support weaving, so she puts together cuz. You know when you're learning something new you don't wan na make any decisions. You know you already got to learn this card. You got ta, learn being busy yeah last decision and she's really good at picking colors see it's not a kit in one color, you get a variety of options and she'll show you those pieces. So that's really great. For me. I want warm tones. I want. You know, greens and she'll have already put them together for you, so, for instance, this is a project. That'S on the cover of my first book, leaving made easy, so she has kit this up for you with just the yarns that you need and she always has a little extra yep. Well, it's called the honors choice because you can do placemat or towel. So it's good both ways now and look. It even has look at that detailing. It even has a nice little hem yeah, which I love, and I mean you would never guess that this was hand made, which I know there's a minuses to this. But it looks so professional that hem no hand hemming is is the key to a finished work and you can't buy hims like that really yeah, because they'll machine hem them, which is okay. You can machine him they're good, but you get that kind of work with hand. Are you doing this on the loom? Are you hit? Are you hey? Is that sewing so often when I go to knit night I'm there with my my I mean for the yarn workers out there. They know how passionate I am about handwork. So what does this kit come? Come with, so you get the so it comes with the yarns that you need, which are these and these little combs. That is and one this one because I love this lay around and you get to make a set of your choice, so you can either make towels or placemats and it so it comes with these. That'S really nice color instructions, yep or I guess right there colors and you do have to get the pattern. So if you already have the book them, you already have the piece. She also sells the patterns. Okay, she supports existing books and things that are out there, and this is something new okay. So that's one do you know before we move on to that? One. Do you happen to know what this retails? For you know I don't okay. I should, but you know, worries, but if you spend $ 60 on cotton clothes you could go all in and get a loom or if you just want to get a kit and some other stuff, she is offering free shipping right now, just right, free ship, free Ship at at checkout, okay - so this one is great - I'm excited about this. This is a new piece from and you know we talked about the benefits of organic cotton, but it's really great for baby, because you really don't want the for skin sensitivities. Baby skins are sure pretty sensitive, so this is a little blanket that uses it's a it's a technique called log, cabin or color and weave. So it's just the nice yeah yeah. So this is just the plain weave we've done with two colors, but you make it look like this seemingly complex, look at the fabric and it's just color work just like in knitting. It'S just color work and then it's got this really cute crochet trim and it seemed together. So it's the little loom. So if we look on this side we'll see so this is not made on the loom that you were just showing yeah. It was so see how it seemed as a little strips okay, so you can see right here, there's a seam and then, if you pull it, the drape is really lovely on this yeah. You know what I love about. Blankets like this is that it doesn't look babyish so that they can use it absolutely carry it with them. I mean, obviously it's not big enough for an adult, but it would be nice just thrown over. No, I use these a lot. You know I teach a lot in Texas Florida, New Mexico and this weight is actually really lovely as a lap blanket for an adult. So it's it's pretty versatile in that sense, or a wrap yeah, so small looms can be really powerful. You know you can do amazing we're doing a weave along right now, what we're doing a double weave fluro, which is, is a more advanced technique, but we take our narrow, loom, we're actually able to weave a fabric twice as wide as the Loom itself. Yeah. It'S kind of a crazy technique, we're having a lot of fun with it. It'S so fun! Well, you know. So what comes in that kit? So you get all the yarns here so yeah these are the yarns. So you get and let's see we don't have the light one: okay, there's the actual kit. Okay, so there's a light one and then yep in this style of yarn. How many Hanks does it take? Do you know you know, I do probably says yeah anyways. It comes with everything that you all the yarn supplies that you need yeah or this yeah, and that's so you don't have to hunt down the quantities and, oh sure, sure, and then this you have a cute baby photo. So here's a really clever design and it's fun and, as I said it's faster once you have that it's it's. It goes really quick. So you can get big pieces because we're working row by row as you can see, instead of stitch by stitch right so and fast. Isn'T I always say, though it isn't always the goal right right I mean we do this so well slow down. It is time. Yeah, so is there any so for people that have been sort of thinking about weaving? What which of these projects would you suggest? First, if this was one of their first projects, are the two kits. I would definitely go with the towels the towel, so the towels are a great place to begin and there's something that you don't always knit right like we do. Knit towels and washcloths but woven pieces. Are a nice complement to what you're doing yeah absolutely yeah. This would be amazing longer as a table runner, it's really great. Well, so I love this. I love all the cotton stuff. It'S definitely the time of the year to really move shift, our focus to cotton and I may have to bust out my Cricut loom again. It'S been it's time, it's been in seclusion, it's been grounded because I well, I do have on at yarn worker calm, which is my website. I have a frequently asked questions yes site about rigid huddle weaving because it's like all, I do sure so rigid how the loom sounds like this crazy, big, complicated name yeah, and it's actually just the thing for the piece. The piece we were weaving with is the rigid head all this sort of breaks down all those questions that might be popping into your head. Okay - and we will put the link in the show notes on Facebook and in the description on YouTube - don't forget to use code free ship at cotton clouds com4 if you spend $ 60 on or more on cotton or looms or anything that you find there. That makes your whole yarny heart smile and I think we're good right. Yeah go cotton spring is coming. I promise you out there in the west coast. It'S coming. I promise all right. Thank you. So much guys goes. If there's anybody that you think would benefit from seeing this video either for weaving or cut or more information on cotton, please share this video algorithms see more if they're shared by people who watch - and we appreciate you - immunity for sharing all right so knit our nation Is so happy to see ya? Alright, bye, everyone have a great weekend: Hey