Weaverly

From the Fabric Store - II

Dobby/Jacquard Connection

Thursday morning I gave my seminar on the dobby/jacquard connection. I think it went well, there were no computer crashes (my usual fate during presentations), and the class was enthusiastic and asked some good questions. I was very pleased. There were some old friends, some people I'd never met before, and a number of folks who will be going on the the Complex Weavers conference, so we'll have plenty of time to chat. After class I was still pretty revved up, so to relax I went back to the vendors' area and bought some more yarn. Here are a couple of pictures of my students before the seminar began.

From the Fabric Store - I

Here's Looking at You

As I prepare for my trip to Tampa for Convergence, I'm considering what to do about my blog over the next few weeks. In most of the places I'll be staying, while on the road and in Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota, Internet access will be readily accessible. What is not entirely clear is how much time and energy I'll have left for blogging. My friend Cecilia asked how much time I spend on my blog. The answer is that I try to limit blogging to 20 minutes a day, but that's a bit misleading, because I recycle material in my files that I have spent hours, days, and years developing. It's like when someone asks, "How much time did it take you to weave that dishtowel?" and the answer is "All my life." But really, I do try to keep online time to a minimum so that I can put in quality Yarn Time.

I don't know how all of you feel about your blogging software. I like TypePad pretty well, although I find myself gnashing my teeth over their recent "improvements." One of the things I do like (and this feature may be present on other platforms, too) is that I can prepare several posts in advance in one monster session, and they will be published on whatever schedule I choose. I'm thinking of doing that next week so that I don't have to post news from Tampa in a hurry, and can take the time to report on my experiences at my leisure, Wordsworthian style. But in the meantime, the blog will continue to bump along on its own, like a small frog, and the wonderful chain of friends, readers, and commenters will also go on unbroken. I love looking at that little Feedjit map on the sidebar and seeing evidence of all my virtual friends, who check in every day, or every few days, and on occasion take the time to contact me. I want to be there when you are.

So what I will do is prepare a bunch of posts to fire off every morning on their own, and if something exceptionally blogworthy occurs while I'm in Florida I'll post it on the spot, but otherwise I'll report on my experiences upon my return. Meanwhile, the blog will go on. I hope you enjoy my choices. I have a collection of beautiful jacquard fabric samples from the remnant shop I'd like to scan for you, and I'll be posting some more of Uncle Potch's drawings, which so many of you have commented on.

Au revoir.

 

Scrolls Completed

It's amazing how well the weaving goes when the equipment is working properly and the weaver is paying attention! I was able to complete the Scrolls shawl in one afternoon, washed and dried it, and last night I started twisting the fringes while babysitting my 3-year old granddaughter. She strung buttons from my buttonbox on a cord with a blunt-tipped needle while I twisted away. It was a lovely evening.

Here's a scan of the fabric at lifesize and then at 6x. The structure is shaded satin; warp, cotton and bamboo; weft, silk noil singles. Balanced weave at 40 epi and ppi.

Now just a note to Convergence attendees and Florida residents - please check out my weaving exhibition at the Selby Gallery, Ringling College of Art & Design, in Sarasota. It's about 60 miles from Tampa. I'll be showing 24 lampas works executed on the TC-1 (jacquard) loom, with imagery based on plant and animal subjects. The opening is June 20 from 5 to 7 p., Gallery information, directions, etc., can be found here.

Scrolls

Shawl #2 on the blue warp is underway. This weft is a little finer than the one in the previous posting - it's a cobwebby silk noil singles, navy blue. I'm getter closer to 40 ppi, so this one has an aspect ratio of 1/1. The lift plan was designed in Photoshop and features scroll shapes drawn on a graphics tablet and overlaid multiple times with various levels of transparency, then flattened and reduced to three colors, which are in turn interpreted in three variations of 8-end satin: 1/7, 4/4, and 7/1. I'm weaving it wrong side up, but in this picture you can see the right side of the cloth below the breast beam, on its way to the cloth storage roller.

Bamboo Up Close

Yesterday's shawl is off the loom, washed & dried. Twisting the fringes will probably happen while on the way to Convergence. Meanwhile here's a 12x view of the finished cloth. The Bambu 12 yarn is actually two yarns loosely twisted together, as you can plainly see in the green weft. Click to enlarge.

More Lampas

This lampas yardage, suitable for upholstery, features plain weave in both the ground cloth and pattern cloth. Ground warp and weft are 10/2 cotton. Pattern warp is polyester machine embroidery thread. Pattern weft is handspun wool singles. Warp ratio of pattern to ground is 1:2. The design and the weave file were created entirely in Photoshop.

The first scan is roughly lifesize, and the second is 12x.

The Endless Variations of Lampas

The lampas structure continues to amaze me. It is basically simple: a double cloth, two warps and two wefts, pattern and ground; where the pattern weaves on top, the cloths are connected, and where ground weaves on top they may be connected or not. In the warp, there is an alternation of a fine pattern warp and heavier ground warp, alternated 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, or any other ratio, but usually 1/2. The weft rotation is usually pattern, ground, 1/1. The ground may be one structure and the pattern another. The optional connectivity when ground weaves on top may be any reasonable scheme.

Within that framework are other possibilities: there may be more than one pattern warp, and the ground cloth may be an array of several structures, perhaps shaded.

Here are a couple of scans from a lampas weaving I have just completed. There are two pattern wefts, one rose-colored handspun wool and the other teal 10/2 tencel. The pattern warp is peach colored fine silk. The ground warp is black 20/2 tencel, and the ground weft is olive 20/2 cotton. The warp rotation is 1 silk to 2 tencel, repeat. Weft rotation pattern 1, pattern 2, ground. Here is where it gets interesting: The structure of the pattern layer is 5-end satin, and the three structures in the ground are 1/3, 2/2, and 3/1 broken twill. You can plainly see the three different tonal areas in the ground cloth, where the olive and black interact in three different ways.

If you click on the picture, you will see the cloth lifesize. Now for a 12x view.

For more information about lampas, including a brief bibliography, see my article High Touch & High Tech, in issue 154 of Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot. 

Leaf: A Transformation

More raw material from Brattonsville. This is a section of a macro photo of a leaf, backlit in late afternoon. 

After some editing and indexing to 3 colors, I think I'll add it to the queue for weaving. There is enough left on my lampas warp for at least one or two pieces.