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My daily morning sketch, designed in Repper and Photoshop. Here's a draft for a 24-shaft loom. I've rotated it 90° to make it fit on the page better, but you can rotate it back to use as a liftplan. Click to enlarge. It's a reverse twill, straight draw, and would be a nice opportunity to use many colors in the weft.
Here's the wif file, if you'd like to use it in your own work. I've named it Ziggy. Please give appropriate credit if you use it. If you do weave a sample, please send me a picture!
Another crepe sample washed & dried. First the draft, face and reverse:
Now the face of the cloth before washing:
The face and reverse of the cloth after wash & dry:
I used to think lace weaves showed the greatest transformation after wet finishing, but now it's the crepes that get my vote!
I tried to pen a verse for Halloween, Macbeth witchy style:
Crinkle, wrinkle, crepe and shrinkle…
…but I couldn't think of a second line. Sorry. Suggestions welcome.
While the loom issues are being resolved, I've taken time to wash and rescan some crepe samples woven during the past few weeks.
Here's one of my favorites. First the draft, for straight threading on 40 shafts. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that the face and reverse of this draft are essentially the same.
Now here's the sample (front only) before washing:
Here it is again, after washing & tumble dry. What a transformation!
The bold patterning has pretty much disappeared (although it would reappear if we were to use strongly contrasting warp & weft. What has happened, however, is what we expect with crepe weaves: a highly textured random-looking surface.
This cloth (soy and tencel) is so cushy that I just feel like burying my face in it.
For starters, there is the weather: grey and rainy.
Then there is the loom. I was about to weave some broken twill dobby samples designed in Repper, got about 50 picks into the project, and suffered equipment failure. Yes, again. Don't ask.
These would have been nice. Here are the drafts. You can use your imagination.
No floats longer than 3.
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doldrums \dol"drums\ (d[o^]l"dr[u^]mz), n. pl. [Cf. Gael. doltrum grief, vexation?] A part of the ocean near the equator, abounding in calms, squalls, and light, baffling winds, which sometimes prevent all progress for weeks; -- so called by sailors. [1913 Webster]
Last night the one and only Carl Blair, renowned artist and genial raconteur, did a live painting demonstration as a fundraiser for Trillium Arts Centre. Carl used a single brush (he said it was from the hardware store) and a limited palette, and in less than an hour a luminous landscape emerged out of the dark underpainting. At the end of his demo the painting was auctioned off to a lucky bidder.
Yesterday was a rest day. The weather was ho-hum. Perfect for a quick trip downtown to see the Reedy River Falls from Liberty Bridge:
But mostly a good day to do some ply-split braiding (Barb) and some weaving (me).
Today, however, the sun shone and we drove up to North Carolina to see the foliage display on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
We were not disappointed! It was fabulous. This tree was outside the Folk Art Center (where we saw a wonderful exhibition of the work of weaver Kathy Roig - don't miss this one).
Seems like absolutely everyone was on the Blue Ridge today.
Our ultimate destination was Craggy Gardens to do a little hiking…
but the winds were so fierce that we quickly froze and decided to eat our lunch in the car.
Our guests wanted to see some autumn foliage, and yesterday was the perfect day for it: high in the low 70's and sunny. We chose Connemara, the Carl Sandburg home in Flat Rock, North Carolina as our mountain destination. Sandburg spent the last 20 years of his life here with his wife, Lilian, who maintained a goat dairy while Carl wrote. The descendants of the original herd are still here at the farm, and the dairy is a favorite place for visitors. Here's Barb being greeted by a few of the ladies.
Instead of visiting the house we decided to do some hiking on the beautifully maintained trails on the Connemara property. We made it all the way to the top of Big Glassy Mountain, where the view of surrounding western North Carolina is splendid.
I'll just show you the rest of my pictures without comment—it was really a perfect day for seeing autumn at its near peak color. Even the poison ivy was beautiful.
The following three drafts are 8-shaft crepe weaves. I wove them as simulations on my 40-shaft dobby loom, but they could have been woven on 8, 16, or 24 shafts. Just copy the 8-shaft liftplan and paste as many times as necessary to fill up the space for the desired number of shafts. Straight threadings for all of them.
And here are the woven samples, in order:
These would all be great as is, or in combination with other weaves (plain? twill?) in blocks on more than 8 shafts. Table linens, dishtowels, wearables…
After soaking these beans all night I drained them in a colander, and they cried out for a photograph with the sheen of the water still on them.
At the time of this writing (Sunday), they are in a big pot, cooking slowly for chili. But in my mind they are like this (click to enlarge):
And lest you think I spend all my day playing with Repper, I assure you that is not the case. I have just returned to some long overdue work on my crepe sampling. The following two 40-shaft crepes are the result. I find that the crepes are most successful in monochrome. The play of light on the the yarns is the source of the drama. As with all woven samples, the true effect will not be seen until they are wet finished, but for the time being, enjoy these with me. For each one, I show first the draft and then the woven sample.
Having out of town guests is always a wonderful excuse to shut down the computers and head for the mountains. Friend and fellow weaver Barb Walker and her husband Steve are with us this week, and we all drove to Asheville to visit Sutherland Handweaving. Owners Barb Butler and Karen Donde were there to greet us and chat about weaving classes and their brand new studio space in Asheville's River Arts District.
We took note of Barb Butler's sophisticated linen towels in progress on one of her looms:
The shop is housed in an old cotton mill, along with other craftsmen's studios, and there is an eye-popping trompe l'oeil mural on the outside of the building (photo credit Barb Walker).
We took a little time to visit some of the other craftsmen in the building; first was The Potter's Mark, where Eileen was finishing up a fluted bowl at the wheel:
We also peeked in at the workshop of Barbara Zaretsky to see some dyed and block printed textiles in progress.
The autumn foliage was splendid on the ride home, in spite of the drizzle. Back at the ranch, we swapped stories over crackers & cheese…
…and then Barb got out her ply split braiding while I went off to do a quick blog post. If you've never seen any of Barb's ply-split braiding, you don't know what you are missing! Take a look here.
