Weaverly

Adding a Second Secondary Weft

A tongue-twister. Adding a second secondary weft to lampas means there are now three wefts: a primary and two secondaries. I designed in the liftplan in Photoshop with pattern presets, then copied & pasted the liftplan into my weave program with loom driver. For more information about this process, consult The Liftplan Connection in sidebar.

 

Primary weft is black 20/2 cotton, secondary wefts are grey 8/2 bamboo and blue 8/2 bamboo.

 

Another 3-weft lampas variation. In this sample primary weft is orange 20/2 cotton, and secondary wefts are grey alpaca knitting yarn and lime green 8/2 bamboo.

Warp in this series is red 20/2 cotton primary and pale green 60/2 silk secondary. Warp ratio 4:1, 5 per dent in a 100-dent reed.

Oops! Of course you know I meant a 10-dent reed.
 

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Up and Down the Mountain

In spite of yesterday's wide band of messy thunderstorms, we drove up the mountain to Penland for a visit with Bhakti. She's teaching a two-week weaving class and graciously invited me to do a short presentation to her students. It was great to see her and reconnect after several years of internet-only communication. Her eleven beginning weavers are having a very rich and intense couple of weeks and are doing very interesting work. No surprise; she's a great teacher. Bruce was persuaded to photograph us with my iPhone at lunchtime.

Between the raindrops we hiked up to the woodworking studio to see the bamboo canoes in progress. 

Bamboo: what a wonderful material. We weave with it and build boats with it. It's the shmoo of the vegetable world.

On the way home, we saw evidence that at least some South Carolinians continue to fly the Confederate battle flag. As Velma said the other day: words fail me.

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The primary cloth (red) is 5-end satin, the secondary is 3-end twill.

Another Point of View

This lampas sample looked rather boring when viewed straight on as woven last night, but it surprised me when it proceeded around the breast beam. For one thing, the pairing up with the grain of the maple in this beautiful loom was a happy accident. And the distant, out-of-focus yarn stash added some spice. Always good to take another look.

This morning's sample also has a few surprises. the networked satin, with its spiky elements, pairs oddly with the blocky design I have chosen. Those things that look like long warp floats are actually tacked down securely with the satin structure of the primary cloth. Take a look:

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A Red (and Green) Warp

This final warp in the lampas series features red 20/2 cotton for the primary cloth and pale green 60/2 silk for secondary. The ratio of primary to secondary is 4/1. I've been wanting to explore fabrics with 5-end satin for primary and 3-end twill for secondary, and this is it. The design strategy features network drafting, and with sleight of hand I'm able to use all 16 shafts. For clues as to how this works, check out "turtle" type drafts in the chart on page 22, Network Drafting: an Introduction (see sidebar).

Primary weft in this first sample is orange 16/2 bamboo; secondary weft is white 5/2 perle cotton. Here's a detail. Click to enlarge.

The second sample features lime green 8/2 bamboo for secondary weft. Loom shot and closeup follow.

For the next sample I've swapped the positions of the positive & negative areas of the design; background now becomes pattern and vice versa. Primary weft red 16/2 cotton; secondary weft is gray 8/2 bamboo.

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Live broadcast from Columbia, South Carolina, where the Confederate flag has just been taken down from its place in front of the State House. Long time coming.

 

A Nest of Notebooks

The collection of lampas samples, begun in March, is growing, but it's not complete yet. There is one more warp to go:

Endless options, endless possibilities. My nesting self takes comfort in seeing the notebooks organized this way, hence my choice of collective noun. When the new warp is completed and cataloged, it will have its own notebook: Lampas H. 

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Warp VI Cut Off

Here's the final sample on lampas warp VI. I've woven this particular file four times, each iteration with different weft yarns. This final sample features a candy pink 60/2 silk primary weft and heavy dusty pink silk noil secondary weft. The tactile quality of deep dimples is quite pronounced on this piece. 

Here's a quick selfie of the underside. None of these colors are true to life—lighting conditions were poor.

And finally, after the warp was cut off, a glamour shot in the back yard. Click to enlarge.

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This one just got out of book hospital. Feeling better, and ready to join his brothers & sisters. Added a little sex appeal in the spine, as he is otherwise very somber. 

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I was searching for a collective noun for a group of books, preferably one beginning with the letter b. The best I could come up with was bevy. If you can suggest a better one, I'd be grateful.

Anyway, here is the current bevy, just completed. There were actually eight, but #8 is down for repairs. Stuff happens. Now, perhaps you'd like to see the spines.

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