Weaverly

A Few Surprises

I found this surprise in my camera as I was downloading pictures from last week in New York: the moon as seen from W. 51st St.

 

And I found this surprise in my driveway today, after weeks of weather-related delays:

 

 

This bodes well, as does the return of this fellow:

 

I've started weaving Pillows, which you first saw here:

Pillows will have a patterned border, a device I've used a few times in other work. The patterning acts as a frame, but uses the same weave structures included in the body of the piece. The weaving is going well. All heddles behaving nicely.

And what a wondrous and splendiferous item arrived in today's mail! A box of handcrafted chocolates from a weaver/chocolatier. I just noticed that the text on the tablecloth reads "It's an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers." 

  

And, to cap things off, The Book has arrived back from its copyreader extraordinaire (all will be revealed).

 

 

 
 
 

The Secret Life of Double Twill

This morning I cut off the most recent pieces of double twill, and took a good look at them. Canal, which you saw on the loom here, can be seen in more detail in this scan:

  

What is really amazing is the accidental coloration of the reverse side, always a surprise:

Also seen here in its entirety is the sampler of double twill dobby simulations. Reading from left to right, top to bottom, the swatches are for 40, 24, 16, 16, 24, and 40 shafts:

 

…and on the "secret" reverse side: 

 

For any of these pictures, click to enlarge.

And finally, I thought you'd enjoy seeing an approximately 12x enlargement of the 40-shaft sample. Click.

 
  
 
 

 

Trillium Exhibition Opening December 5

Everyone within driving distance of Travelers Rest, SC, is invited! Lecture and demonstrations at the reception. For my virtual friends, I'll post pictures after the event. Click to enlarge.

 
 

One More Project…

One more project, before I head for the airport. Seven colors, seven weaves.

Guests

We have some houseguests this weekend. Yesterday morning they were up at 6:30, and when I arose at 7:30 to make breakfast they had already built this:

 

They love doing paper constructions with scissors and scotch tape:

 

 

…and they also threw a few picks on the Cricket.

New Doghouse (No Dog)

The air compressor, necessary for running my TC-1, has until now lived outside in its own little shelter, dubbed by my family "the doghouse." 

 

But bleeding the tank has always been a chore for me, as I have to drag the tank out, and get down on my hands and knees in any kind of weather, to open the draincock at the bottom. This week, while all the workmen were here, I asked them if they could build me a new doghouse with the compressor mounted higher. Voilà!

Dobby Simulations

I promised Lynn I would try some of the double twills as dobby weaves. On a jacquard, it's possible to simulate various dobby setups without rethreading a single heddle. In this sampler, the bottom row of dobby simulations represents (from left to right) a straight threading on a 16, 24, and 40 shaft loom; the top row, in progress, represents 40, 24, and 16 shafts. Once this sampler is completed, it will be interesting to examine the reverse side for some surprises. Click to enlarge.

 

Tommye asks if a woven sketchbook is in the works. What an interesting idea! That would be a major commitment. I'd have to do some serious work on my drawing skills, for a start. And Time is the great thief. I undertook bookmaking as a lighthearted way of dealing with my fabric stash. Now the books are about to take over. Is this a good thing? I don't know! And the mountain of fabric keeps growing. 

And Janet asks how many zippers I have left from the original 100. I'm not telling! Those pouches are another issue. So far in the race against time, the score is Time 3, Alice 0. On my birthday last spring I said that I felt like a passenger on a runaway train. The simile still holds.

Emergence of the Water Tower

I've finally gotten to the top of the water tower. I'm just tickled that it came out round. Yes, that's a broken warp thread on the left. The only one so far. Much better than the previous warp (AKA The Warp From Hell). Here's a closeup.

 

And just for fun, the journal page I scanned it from:

 

On to the Department of How Much Is Too Much. Tony's holiday displays are the talk of the neighborhood. Actually, people drive here from miles around to see his displays every December. This year he started at Halloween, and after his Halloween displays came down he was ready with Thanksgiving, and this week his Santas & reindeer et al are in place. People, this is such hard work to produce! And I can't imagine what his electric bills are like. Nevertheless, when the sun goes down his yard is a magical place. I'll try to get some good nighttime photos for you. Meanwhile, here it is in mid-afternoon. The Ho Ho Ho on the roof is timed to blink sequentially. Animation aficionados take note.

Canal at Halfway

Canal is at the halfway point. Amazingly, the aspect ratio calculations were pretty accurate, and the sketch is weaving at the original proportions. I am not always so lucky. The weave I chose for the black lines is composed of black plus colors, so it has a lively mix up close, not dead black. I am really liking that. Click to enlarge.

At grave risk, I contorted myself to climb under the loom and photograph the underside of the web. The underside of double weave always has its own surprises.

 

And if you're still following the saga of what's going on outside, here are the new fenceposts.

Calculating the Aspect Ratio

After weaving a one-inch sample of the file "Canal," I found that the actual ends per inch is 63.42 and picks per inch is 104, with the chosen yarns and sett. Therefore, dividing ppi by epi, I find that the aspect ratio is approximately 1.64. I will have to multiply the pixel height of my file by 1.64 to get the adjusted size of the file, in order for it to weave correctly. I will round this new height number to the nearest 4, as the complete weft rotation is four shuttles. Click on the above picture to enlarge.

The weaves are applied to the file layers as layer styles, and the resizing in Photoshop will happen dynamically (the weaves will flow correctly into the resized file). This technique is described in The Woven Pixel (see sidebar).

Meanwhile, just outside the studio door, the old wall (it had been perched at an odd angle for years) has been taken down.

 

Now I wonder...