Weaverly

Skies, a Tapestry, a Featherweight

For the past few days I've been photographing skies—they have been so dramatic! No surprise. Tornado warnings today. These are my favorite exposures:

No, that one's not turned wrong. That's the way I saw it, looking up. Out in the middle of the street, too. Lucky no one came driving by.

Raindrops started to fall.

And what should arrive at my doorstep this afternoon? A tapestry from Tommye! Is this a coincidence? I don't think so.

Isn't it beautiful?

Now I'm inside waiting for more rain, which appears imminent (tapestry safely inside, too). I'm oiling my Featherweight, preparing for a fabric workshop tomorrow. I bought this machine 17 years ago; it was lovingly restored by a collector in Oklahoma. I've used it occasionally when traveling. It's a treasure— sews a better stitch than any machine I've ever used. Calling this machine Featherweight is kind of funny—it's almost too heavy for me to lift.

Look at the beautiful metalwork on the faceplate:

It's a Model 221 and was manufactured in 1946. They don't make 'em like this any more. Nosirree. 

Shirts, Shoes, Flags, Crepe

Just because I like them. And really, they're all connected. A day in the life.

Hands

My winter-roughened hands. And I can never seem to get them warm, either. Here I am clutching my favorite coffee mug with my first cup of coffee for the day. It's like a tiny private furnace. Photo courtesy of Bruce.

Pattern Central

More pattern material from the archives. These are from five years ago. And another 16-shaft crepe, for good measure.

If you'd like to download the WIF for the above draft, here it is:

Download 1601 Max float 4!

Nano

Reblogged from N. Miami:

An animation of "nanoscale planetary gear." I don't pretend to understand what's going on here, but it's beautiful! If you'd like to read more about it and see some pix that look remarkably like textiles, check this out.

Along the same lines, but bigger (much bigger), here's a picture of a staircase I took at Winterthur a few years ago. 

Over the next few days I'll be retrieving some more of these photos from my archives, as I await more loom parts. Maybe before the equinox I'll be dobby weaving again! Keeping my fingers crossed.

Zig Zag

The set of building logs in our spare room gets dragged out whenever the kids come over. Even though the children are a bit old for this toy, they still enjoy constructing things, and I must admit that I like putting together a cabin or two even though getting up and down from the floor is not as easy as it used to be. Karl builds forts and towers and other guy stuff, but when Catalina is here by herself, as she was yesterday, it's all about horses. 

I love the zig zag fence and the perfect horse barn, complete with stalls and aisle. I did notice that the gate is open…

This all got me thinking about networked fancy twills. Here's one based on a 6x4 rosepath-type initial. Plenty of zigs and zags here. And doesn't it look like a corral? Couple of horses thrown in for good luck. 24 shafts. Maximum float 5.

The WIF file if you'd care to try it:  Download Horses24  Please give appropriate credit. And send me a picture!

A Pattern Mish Mash

Now where I came from, we pronounced the mash part of "mish mash" to rhyme with wash. That's my position and I'm sticking to it.

The following photo surfaced yesterday while I was working on a project. It's a sample of an 8-shaft crepe combined with a 2/2 twill. Click to enlarge.

Around noonish I went out to lunch with my mother, and while we were waiting for our table, I took the following picture of the upholstery in the restaurant lobby. It's hand-held in very low light, but I think you can still see the plain weave ground and supplementary warp & weft.

After lunch, we went to our favorite shopping spot, Fresh Market. 

Shedding More Light on Lampas

I've been trying to force more weaves out of the lampas warp, and want to establish a really good set of weaves that works with yarns of different textures, before I commit to another major piece. I've done several sample blankets, and you can see that some of the structures have way too much takeup when paired with others. But I think I have a good set in this latest strip. Some of the structures are just the same old structure in reverse (i.e., inverted in the pattern preset), but it's nice to have them on the face of the blanket where I can see all of them together.

Warp is black 20/2 cotton and peach silk, weft is turquoise cotton, white tencel, and beige cotton pigtail. 

Maids, Cooks, and Housekeepers—and Crepe

Last night I finished watching video recordings of the very last of the Inspector Frost series ("A Touch of Frost"), which ran on the BBC through 2010. That's fifteen seasons, folks. A lot of TV. And most of it was first rate: the very high quality of the videography, the well-rounded interesting characters, the humor, the great writing, and the gorgeous soundtrack. I think the reason it holds up so well over so many seasons is that more than one writer wrote the episodes; that kept it fresh. David Jason is compelling as the irascible inspector, and the rest of the cast is also wonderful. 

A really funny thing happened toward the end of the broadcasts—I started seeing Downton Abbey characters in the Frost episodes. A little younger, and in modern dress, but the same actors. There may have been more, but here are the three I recognized: Joanne Froggatt (Anna, the housemaid and ladies' maid in Downton); Lesley Nicol, (Mrs. Patmore, the cook in Downton); and Phyllis Logan (Mrs. Hughes, the housekeeper in Downton). Ms. Logan was Frost's love interest in the final episode of A Touch of Frost; it was quite a shock to see the prim and proper Mrs. Hughes as an attractive fortyish lady in a long black wig.

On the weaving front, here is a crepe draft with color added. I think this particular draft for 32 shafts would be a great one for featuring special yarns at certain points in the threading. I had fun playing around with it. This is my favorite version (click to embiggen):

Crepe for 16 Shafts

We'll be doing virtual weaving at Weaverly for the forseeable future, as the dobby loom is still not operational. 

In today's computer session, the following 16-shaft crepe popped up. I like it because:

(1) it has a lot of movement and

(2) there are no floats longer than 3.

If you'd like to weave it, let me know and I'll send you a WIF file.

And for good luck, I'll post this little bird. Who knows? Maybe it will help.