Weaverly

A Journey

Friday's woven entry says it all. A journey, and a couple of lazy heddles to deal with when I return.

And here it is standing on our heads. I don't know if that's an improvement or not. It makes me feel a little giddy.

Lala

Visiting Erik. Dinner of ceviche at a Peruvian restaurant on Biscayne Blvd. Afterwards listening to Kronos Quartet on the stereo with Lala. Good doggie!

Play Day

Yesterday Catalina and I spent some time in the studio together. She made good use of all the paper odds & ends lying on the worktable.

Meanwhile, I wove another journal entry. This section has two little stick figures to commemorate the day's companionship. You can see them all the way on the left, upside down of course.

It was still early enough to take a walk, before the day heated up. Catalina directed us to her favorite woodland trail.

Found some good tree bark.

Closer to home a set of rather ambiguous directions:

Kinda like those roundabouts in the Tour de France. On second thought, better go to the left.

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Good news in today's paper: The South Carolina State Senate rejected Governor Nikki Haley's budget vetoes for the Arts Commission, the Rape Crisis Center, and teachers' pay raises (the House of Representatives did the same the day before). 

Wednesday's Tree

Yesterday's entry in the daily journal was based on a drawing of a tree I saw on my morning walk. In this lampas strip, one of the two pattern wefts has become green; the other wefts remained the same: one pattern white, ground dark blue. This was a tall skinny tree, perfect for the narrow strip of the daily journal—except that I had to lay it on its side. 

Everybody's Doin' It

The only downside of keeping this woven journal is that it ties up the loom. I won't be able to maintain the commitment beyond a few weeks, when this warp will come to an end. But it's really very instructive while it's going on. Techniques and ideas can be refined. Problems solved. Working methods streamlined. Here's today's entry:

That's 120 picks. It took 12 minutes to prepare on the computer, 3 minutes to wind a couple of new bobbins, and 20 minutes to weave. Some of my other entries were longer, but I think 120 picks is a good sized entry—an investment of 35 minutes.

One of my favorite artist/bloggers is also doing the daily practice thing. Danny Gregory and his Everyday Matters (EDM) challenge encourages others to do a little bit of drawing every day. He suggests the subject matter. He shares his own drawings, even when they do not go well. Today's EDM was a case in point—his pen misbehaved. Danny on a bad day is better than most folks' good days. In case you haven't guessed, I think he's a star. Watch his video about glasses. You will love it.

A Journal Entry

The interrupted project of a daily weaving journal seems a long way off. I had woven one entry when the loom failed, and over the weekend I was finally able to weave the second entry. The concept of a daily woven record is Tommye's. She does it in tapestry, and I'm trying to do it in jacquard. I did one of these a couple of years ago, and thought it would be a good way to wind up the tag end of this lampas warp. Little did I know of the drama in store! Well, here it is so far:

I'm weaving it upside down, so that the entries, when properly viewed, will be in sequence right side up. Somehow, during the month of inactivity, three heddles decided to misbehave. This loom doesn't like periods of inactivity; it like to be used every day (doesn't every loom?). So I am not surprised about the miscreants. One of the heddles settled down after an inch or so of weaving, but the other two are still wonky, one more so than the other.

I'll get that sorted out, but not today! 

Here's a closer look at the good part. I love this lampas structure.

On the other side of the studio, the dobby loom is getting its warp. I find that I am not able to comfortably "treadle the threading," and must thread this loom the old fashioned way. It has to do with my eyes. But I am muddling through. First I got a heddle count, and made sure there were sufficient heddles on each shaft for this very eccentric threading:

This will be a combination of two networked 16-shaft drafts and an 8-shaft section for selvedges and dividers. Click to enlarge and see clearer.

Now lest you think nobody's having any fun around here, look whom I spied on my walk yesterday!

Heel: Traveling Knitting

A road trip yesterday. This was the sky over Atlanta. Brought my knitting along.

I haven't picked up this sock in months. I had forgotten how to turn a heel. Had to read the directions.

Lunch on the road.

A Very Good Saturday

It's hard to predict how a day will turn out. Yesterday morning, on the drive to the recycling center, the sky looked this this:

Is that a good sign or a bad sign? Never mind, I had work to do. After the arrival of the new carbon plates for the vacuum pump, it was time to give a final cleaning out to the disassembled pump, install the new plates, and put everything back together. This project has been going on for over a month. I had some very welcome help from Bruce and Gary (thanks, guys!), and long-distance coaching from Egil. I now know much more than I did before about the innards of a vacuum pump. I hooked the computer up to the loom, turned everything on, and abacadabra, my TC-1 is back in business! We celebrated with chocolate.

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More or less simultaneously, on the other side of the studio, I was finishing the beaming of the new dobby warp. Here's a quick snapshot from my phone. There's actually some green in the warp, which isn't showing up here:

And this time I followed my own advice and kept journal notes about the warp length. Here's the journal entry for Friday the 13th. 

Being Careful

Yesterday was one of those crazy days when everything seems to happen at once. To back up bit…these rotary temples arrived a few weeks ago from Fireside, but couldn't be installed on my dobby loom until I'd finished the Endless Warp. Warp finished. Temples installed. Check.

Those teeth look nasty, and I was very careful! I saved the thrums from the old warp, and they are just the right length and grist for sashiko stitching. Someday.

But I couldn't test drive the rotary temples until I'd put a new warp on the loom. Warping begun. A dark warp this time, four colors of cotton, mixed grist 10/2 and 20/2, four per dent in a 12-dent reed.

Warping wheel engaged.

Meanwhile, the other loom has been sitting idle for way too long. I was waiting for parts from Norway, and they arrived yesterday. I unwrapped the box, and nestled in a cocoon of bubblewrap was this:

I opened it up, and inside found another bundle, wrapped like this:

…which I opened gingerly and inside I found this:

…and so on and so on. Yes, I am being very, very careful!

I'm going to finish winding and beaming the dark warp before I tackle the forsiktig project. It will be a busy weekend.

This is REALLY the End

The one pound cone of pink 20/2 mercerized cotton I was using for weft finally ran out. A sensible person would have cut the cloth off the loom at that point, but there was still a little good warp left. I had a few bobbins of dark blue marl cotton already wound, and continued weaving with that. The crepe interlacement really popped out with the contrasty combination.

It's the same 16-shaft crepe I've been weaving for eons. Only a crepe nut could get excited about a pattern that indistinct, but such is I.

And now the knots are getting extremely close to the heddles, and interfering with a clean shed. Dear readers, this is really the end.

With little fanfare (no one else was home), no pictures, and no champagne, I cut the cloth off. Into the washing machine it went.

Now here it is, all twelve plus yards of pink and an extra yard with the blue weft. A quick snapshot with my phone.

With the dobby loom temporarily empty, I will be making some loom modifications. You will be the first to hear.