Weaverly

Cyber Tuesday

This just in! Lulu is offering a 25% discount on all book orders until midnight tonight (Nov. 30). What a great opportunity to order Network Drafting or The Liftplan Connection (or both) and save 25%. Just enter the code CYBER305 when you place your order. 

Workshops and More Workshops

"Return to the Mountains," the conference of the conference of the Southeastern Fiber Forum Association, Inc., will be held April 7-10, 2011, at Arrowmont, in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. You can download the brochure here. A brief summary of workshop offerings:

• CATHARINE ELLIS - Woven Shibori
• GERI FORKNER - Nuno Felting
• PAM HOWARD -- Woven, Lumpy, Bumpy Scarves
• DARYL LANCASTER - Vested Interest: Making a Vest with Handwoven Samples and Scraps
• IRENE TORUELLA MUNROE - Color Exploration and Dyeing Techniques
• JANE OVERMAN -- It's Addictive: Explore Beading with Peyote and Herringbone
• MARTHA OWEN -- Spinning the Yarn You Want
• ELIZABETH RAVENWOOD -- Jack Sprat and His Wife Knit Lace
• TOMMYE McCLURE SCANLIN - Tapestry & Other Weft-Faced Adventures
• ALICE SCHLEIN -- PhotoShop and the Dobby Loom

The two keynote speakers will be Daryl Lancaster and Catharine Ellis, and there will be a large vendors' marketplace and fashion show. I've heard that my class is filling rapidly, but there are still a few spaces left. Facilities and accommodations at The Arrowmont School are wonderful, and I'm honored to be included in this wonderful lineup of teachers. Y'all come!

And a reminder - it's not too late to register for my workshop on The Liftplan Connection on March 12-13, 2011, in Boulder, Colorado. This workshop is sponsored by The Handweavers Guild of Boulder and a registration form may be downloaded here.

The Invaluable Oelsner

One of the very first books in my weaving library was A Handbook of Weaves, by G. H. Oelsner. It remains the book I go to most often for explanations, clarifications, or just plain inspiration. This treasure is still available at a very reasonable cost, and if you don't yet have a copy, what are you waiting for? It's available new & used at Amazon.

My recent forays into construction of crepe weaves eventually wound up in the crepe chapter of Oelsner. I had been using one method of constructing crepe weaves (drafting a weave in four squares), but Oelsner describes an amazing eleven methods of crepe construction! 

1. Derived from Satin Weaves
2. By Arranging Floats in Satin Order
3. By Transposition of Weaves in Checkerboard Order
4. By Rearranging Other Weaves
5. By Rearrangement of Warp Threads
6. By Rearranging Warp and Filling Threads
7. With Groups of Threads on the Same Shaft
8. By Interlocking a Weave with its Revers
9. By Interlocking Two Weaves
10. By Drafting One Weave over Another
11. By Drafting a Weave in Four Squares

And if this is too much for you to digest at one sitting, here is some lighter fare. I'm always tickled by humorous depictions of help desks, and I came across this delightful interpretation from the NRK. If your Norwegian is a little rusty, don't worry; there are English subtitles. Enjoy.

 

Jocassee

Many people from outside South Carolina don't know of the geographical diversity of this area; they know about Charleston, and the coast, and the Low Country (all beautiful), but are not aware that the western part of this state is wooded and hilly, and in places mountainous. Saturday we packed up the cameras and took to the hills. Our destination was Devil's Fork State Park on the shores of Lake Jocassee, a large reservoir in the Blue Ridge.

The water level was rather low, and we enjoyed walking on the sandy beaches near the public boat launch area. At midday the lake sparkled, and the brisk wind sent ripples over the surface. 

And speaking of ripples, guess what was waiting for me in my mailbox when I got home? Stacey Harvey-Brown's new book, Woven Shibori for Textural Effects. It's a real winner. 

 

A Thanksgiving Dinner For Which I Am Thankful

The weather was gray, but not unpleasant.

Mimi's turkey was gorgeous.

There was another turkey—this one courtesy of Peter. It's a chocolate turkey cake.

Karl is fond of drumsticks. Thomas was awe-struck.

After so much turkey, a quiet retreat was in order.

Cotton, under the table, was remarkably well-mannered.

Julia's beautiful (and tasty) pumpkin cake with creamcheese frosting, garnished with oranges and pomegranate seeds.

The girls played dress-up. Catalina's tooth was about to fall out, which somewhat spoiled the bridal effect.

Catalina's refrigerator art. Check out the eyelashes.

It was a memorable evening. Hard to get down to business today, but I did try. I wove a few more inches on the doubleweave dobby project.

A New Book

It's been so long since I've done a book that I've lost some of the hand memory, particularly with the headbands. A practice book was in order this week. 

Funny—that never happened with knitting! I stopped knitting for ten years, and when I next picked up the needles all the motions came back. They say you never forget how to ride a bicycle, either, but that's a topic for another day.

Thanksgiving

A happy Thanksgiving to all.

Dishtowel credit: Sandra Rude. 

A Pause…November Afternoon

More waiting room upholstery. Where do they find these things?

November's branches are almost—but not quite—bare.

And I blush to admit it; I have won another game of solitaire.

Now I must put the finishing touches on the cranberry fudge pie.

Stitching

A Completion, & Some Klezmer

The triptych has been cut off. First step was to repair the broken warp ends and other anomalies.

Then I cut the yardage into three separate panels and lined them up on the floor.

It needs more work. The next step will be to perform some embroidery to emphasize the lilies. The last time I did this I used chain stitch, but I think this time it will be couching. I have a nice crunchy beige linen-cotton that will work. Then comes the decision about hems, etc. Shall I display the sections as separate adjacent panels, or shall I join them together as one? All in good time.

Yesterday afternoon we went to a Klezmer concert by Bill Averbach and the Carolina Klezmer Project. These guys are great! They are equally skilled in Klezmer and jazz, and they performed a generous amount of New Orleans music. The most moving selection was Bill's vocal and accordion rendition of the Randy Newman song, Louisiana. The lyrics refer to the New Orleans flood of 1927, and the song was adopted as Louisiana's unofficial anthem after the Katrina disaster. I found a nice version of it on YouTube, as sung by Aaron Neville. Check it out here.