Weaverly

Straight and Narrow

The 16/1 linen is remarkable easy to handle. No tangles and no breakage (yet).

I'm weaving a scarf 9" wide in a crepe weave on 4 shafts. It's somewhere between plain weave and twill in its density, with no floats longer than 2. Click to enlarge.

It's my original draft, although I'm sure somewhere in the world, at some point in history, someone else has invented it.

Rain threatened around midday, but I had an urge to get out into the woods, and we drove to one of the trailheads of the Foothills Trail, where we ate our picnic lunch.

Then home in time for tea.

A Gathering of Friends

Wednesday's monthly meeting of The Weavers' Guild of Boston was a banner event for me. The Guild had invited me to be their featured speaker, and 100 participants showed up on my screen for this Zoom event. I had such fun scrolling through the thumbnails and seeing old friends!

After the business meeting and before the lecture, participants were sent to breakout rooms, randomly assigned, and I got a chance to chat with more old friends. 

The lecture went well and there were none of the technical glitches that sometimes plague Zoom events. Thank you WGB!

It was hard to wind down after all the excitement. I went outside to see the moon before bedtime. After nine o'clock most of the neighbors had gone to sleep. The sky was gorgeous.

The next day was rainy. Here you see evidence of an attempt at multi-tasking: on the way to lunch, holding an umbrella with my left hand while shooting the raindrops with cell phone with right hand. 

It appears that green is still the color of the week. Broccolini for dinner.

And another reminder from the cosmos: find your calm.

I'll tell you where I find my calm:

Winding a new warp with 16/1 linen, just in from LoftyFiber. 

And in the Department of Books, just finished reading The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud. 

 

Some Observations on Pattern and Color

It's never just one thing that influences a design choice. My daily visits to the farm are a rich source of patterns. These new furrows are starkly outlined in the early morning light.

The last few days I've spent a lot of time following the black swans around, and the patterns made by their long curved necks are compelling.

And then there are the colors. Oddly for this time of year, I've been noticing more green.

So I tied on a new warp to the interleaved threading on the 16-shaft loom, and it is half green, half eggplant, and all linen. I love the scary-looking birds' nests that arise during the tying-on. It's like a magic trick when you pull the knots through and wind the whole thing on. 

Here's the loom all tidy and ready to go. 

Laundry Art. Here's the first sample off the loom and just washed, waiting to dry. The wefts in these swatches are all linen of different types and colors. 

I've selected forest green and yellow linen wefts for the first runner. Definitely a green vibe. Amazing to see all the shades of green that emerge.

If you turn around and look at this from a different angle, the color relationships change. 

And if I get tired of monotone, I can always go to the bakery and get more inspiration.