hey danimal, ben a while since ive chatted with you. if you come up with a design that you want to do but cant quite figure out how to do it for the blanket send me a pic and what dent reed your using and how many hettles/shafts your using and i can map it out for you no prob tim
I have been looking for a matched set of Mexican blankets for my 50/50 seat in my 52 Chevy (one for each side of the seat). I would like them 24"wide and 72" or longer. My point is that no one seems to offer anything with matched patterns and a custom size. There may be a nitch market for such a product. I'm interested
Tim, I've got about 12 looms and dents from 4 to 24 epi. The big thing is if people want them in thick or thin yarn. The one thing I'm looking at that I'm most concerned about is trying to put any patterns like diamonds in some but not all of the stripes. I think I can swing it with making them on 4 or 8 harness looms. I hope to see you next Friday if I can swing it while you are here. Since you'll be in a chair for 12 hours, I can hold your attention!!
Doc., Step 1 is complete. We helped shear 69 sheep today. We kept about 30 fleeces. We'll be skirting them soon to take up to Frankenmuth for processing then the bride can dye until she's dead. Probably by May we'll have 5 or 10 batches for spinning. Each batch is a minimum of 5 pounds.
hey nads, i need you to make 2 sets for me..lol i wish you were coming to da round-up!!! oh and its me, rob ur texas brother... R.F.F.R WORLD FAMOUS ROB'S CHOP SHOP))))))))))))))))))))
hey nads, i need you to make 2 sets for me..lol i wish you were coming to da round-up!!! oh and its me, rob ur texas brother... R.F.F.R WORLD FAMOUS ROB'S CHOP SHOP))))))))))))))))))))
The blanket isn't as thin as linen. I say twice a thick as jeans. Like if you pull on your jeans now and feel two layers that's it. and the weave is tight like jeans. I'm sure it's cotton. Good luck.
Probably an 8 or 6 cotton. 8 is pretty thin but 6 is a bit thicker, think wire gauge here. The blanket I got from the art teacher has a core line (warp) that is probably a 6 cotton (like 14 or 16 electical wire)and then a 1 or 2 (like 10 gauge wire) as the weaving material (weft). That is good to know because I'm setting up a test loom now. Hope to have something to show tomorrow.
AHHH SOOO....so instead of being able to wipe away your *** sweat with your jeans on the way out of your vehicle, your *** sweat becomes a permanent part of your vehicle....musty, might be a new fad....you know kinda like the britney spears freakaziod stunt (or something) Seriously, I've been thinking about turning one of my USN blankets into a seat cover....
Most likely the USN blanket is going to be wool. That will be warm and wear pretty well. Flame retardant as well. I heard yesterday while shearing sheep that the military is changing back to all wool undies for the US soldiers because the man made fibers are actually melting and causing 3rd degree burns on the guys getting hit with the road side bombs in Iraq. Looks like trad isn't so bad after all.
your correct, the problem is that no one can make the ground pounders wear a specific undergarment....thats the one thing thats uniform optional...that said we as flight crew are required to wear 100% cotton under our nomex flight suits....hmmm nomex flight suits...I gotta bunch of old unusable ones laying about....wonder what that would look like...
Get a bunch of old ladies together and have a quilting bee with Nomex! I'm sure they could make something pretty out of it. Being in FL you should have an endless supply of the oldies! Interesting signature line and how it ties in!
Dan - Was thinking about this last nite recovering from arc burn after making a bazllion tack welds... When my brother and I were kids, we grew up inna house with wood heat, a full machine shop, and Mom grew most of her veggies, made hew own bread, and made her own jelly using g****s, berries and crab apples she grew herself. If you've ever canned anything or tried to make jelly - you know this is a damned labor intensive process. It's MUUCH easier to trot down to the local store and buy a jar of Smuckers, but... There was nothing in the world better than one of Mom's warm bread PB&J's with Mom's jelly. So - weave on, dreamweaver!
Thanks, Chuck. Been weaving all day! Had a shock this morning. My brother-in-law raises the hogs and beef we put in our freezer every year. We haven't bought less than 1/2 a steer in 15 years of being married (next week!). We've put our own hogs up a few times and 30 chickens as part of the 4H projects for the fair. The shock I had was the grocery store ad came and stew meat was almost $3 a pound! Holy Cow! I had no idea, that is usually the cheapest part of the whole thing! Boneless or not. But then again, my bill is $500 every year and it fills my freezer and tastes SO good. Got 3 colors done so far. Sorting out what looks good and what doesn't. 10" set is drawing in to about 8" finished width. Got the birds eye and Vs pattern sorted out. Wove about 2 feet so far. Watch for pictures soon!! I've got some strawberry freezer jam, I'll hook you up next time! We make our own spagetti sauce as well. 900 square feet of asparagus coming up soon and the hens are starting to lay again!
hey danimal, look forward to meeting you next friday if you get the chance to come by. you should be able to do do damn near anything you want on 8 harness's if you lay it out right. suppose id be alot a reversing twills and what not, shouldnt be to hard to figure out. hell i just wove one full of patterns, maybe 4 different kinds?, though i deicded to insert pine needles and prarie gr*** instead of more cotton products worst comes to worst grab a 6 dollar mexi blanket and some graph paper and coppy it that way peace tim
That's funny, Tim. I did just that on a more expensive blanket at my kids' art cl*** the other night. I have graphed it out and am now ready to send it back. I'm doing it on a 4 harness table loom to set it up just to get that bird's eye look in the center of the blanket. Haven't decided if I want to make it a set of eyes all the way across or if I'll do it like <<<o>>> or <o><o><o> or a blend. I wove about a yard today with different patterns to see how it goes. Looks good, now I've got to set it up on a big loom and spend the coin on the wool warp to be really traditional!
cool cool, i think the only thing youd need to be paying attention to when maping out how to do your blankets is how its going to translate to the reverse side IE giant floats or something equaly un desirable in something like a blanket
If it is a seat cover, I'm not worried about floats in the back. I won't do any crazy overshot runs either, no more than 3 warps will ever get skipped. Mostly plain weave and basket weave styles. Good things to think about. I plan to wash it and full it so it gets felted together anyway.
All these great memories of the US military makes me wish I'd have been there. My granddad said "I didn't march from Normandy to Austria to have some grandson of MINE do that." Pretty much ended the discussion. He finally spent time talking to me about it about a week before they found out he had inoperable brain cancer. I've got his 'yearbook' and some other stuff from '46 when he ended up staying for occupation forces. My grandma still has his uniform and all of the rest of his stash. We used to go camping in one of his tents as kids. He'd be pissed if he saw me working on old cars. He was from the depression and everything was old and worn out until he could afford new then he swore he'd never have anything that wasn't new. Funny, I want NOTHING that is new other than a new pair of wing tips and some Levi's.
That is mean. I'd never eat the one we sheer. She's old and tough. Now the babies...mmmmmmmmmmmm shishkabob!
Those are pretty cool. Too bad 'mexican blanket' = cheap. Are yours made with your own wool? If so, you're aiming too low. I've bought some old Chimayo rugs and am fortunate enough to have been gifted some gorgeous Navajo rugs. If you're raising your own mohair, spinning your own yarn, and weaving your own rugs, that's where you should be looking for inspiration. Check out the Crownpoint Navajo Rug Auction.
OK, first I have to applaude Danimal for tackling a home grown project. But I would like to suggest that instead of copying an overdone, "cheap" way of doing things. like a mexican blanket, instead of "real" upholstery, why not come up with something unique? You obviously have the time, equipment, and skills to do something that would be an outstanding addition to a custom car ( or hotrod). I think a little thought, and some imagination, and you could do something significant. I like the use of cloth inserts in a mostly vinyl interior, for comfort reasons, and that pic of the interior with Mexican blanket inserts is great. Why not come up with some sort of unique pattern or colors to do something like that? What you have already done looks good, but improve on it! Or offer insert material in custom colors to match the paint jobs, or the rest of the interior. For a Fifties flair, what about weaving metallic threads into the cloth. like so many fifties upholstery materials, and carpets, just put your own spin on it. I think you have come up with a novel idea, and need to develop it a bit more!
Thanks for those that read this far. The "flower" that I did was based on a pattern I wanted to try. I probably have a week of work into those two 6' panels. I can easily get mylar spun into the yarn to make inserts like chopolds suggests and I think it would be tons easier than 6' panels. The repeat is a pain in the ***. I printed it out and it was 2 pages long for the repeat so somewhere around 50 or 60 steps to make 1 bloom. The "Mexican Blanket" term is considered cheap but it is what people know. This was just a trial run with acrylic because I used about 4 pounds in it. At $2.50 per ounce for the stuff that gets spun into the yarn (roving) that's not a cheap investment to jump right to the handspun stuff if you screw it up (and I did, I skipped a step in the repeat so they don't line up by 6" AND I ran out of warp on the loom in the end). I will definitely check out the Navajo Rug Auction as well. I've got piles of books with pattern suggestions and a house full of yarn, mohair, wool, alpaca, angora, and other fibers to think of some ideas.
I have a stack of them that I bought years ago, seems that everytime we went to Ensenada we bought one or two. No these weren't made in ****stan...but I wouldn't spend much time making upholstery out of them either. The older blankets are heavier than the ones you buy now but they are still rather cheaply constructed and would not last long on a car seat. But that was the beauty of them, they were so cheap and easy to come by that you could replace them frequently. Were someone to weave some material using quality thread/yarn then there may be a market for those who still like the "blanket look".
The Jalopy Journal
