Weaverly

Change of Diet

I feel like I've had too much dessert lately, weaverly-wise, and need to switch to healthy salads for a while. In plainspeak that means eliminate color and simplify structure. Fortunately there's a loom already warped with black & white, and a cloth in double plain weave all ready and waiting on the computer.

The warp is black & white cotton and the weft is natural silk and black cotton. I've calculated that there are ten possible black & white plain weaves in a 2-color warp and 2-color weft. Several of them are very close visually, and could be considered duplicates. I've used five of the ten in this jacquard piece. Click to enlarge.

Birds and Other Matters

Yesterday morning the birds were more joyful than usual. Here's some birdsong to brighten your day. It certainly brightened mine!

Back in the studio, I'm shuffling the colors around in the 3-weft rotation in double twill. You saw the first version in this post; now here's the second version. Instead of red/gold/purple, I'm weaving gold/red/purple. It makes a huge difference. This is so much fun!

 

Rethreading

Totally bored with the current warp, I embarked on a rethreading, with a different block arrangement. I had to stay within the 40 heddles per shaft limitation of this loom (changing out heddles is NOT a job I take on lightly), which meant going to a narrower warp. I was willing to sacrifice a few inches on each side of the warp to achieve this. I just let the unused warps dangle out the back on each side of the warp beam. They don't interfere with anything. Those pill bottles hold assorted nuts & bolts and serve as the weights on the floating selvedges.

And here is the new threading, still alternating navy/white arrangement, but with a different block plan.

The 3-weft rotation is peach, gray, and forest green. Double twill. Click to enlarge.

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A Strange Architecture

Pajamas

Subtitle: What We Did on President's Day

A school holiday was the perfect opportunity for a sewing lesson. Here Catalina is making friends with the Singer Featherweight. She cut out a pair of flannel p.j. bottoms, then sewed them up, just in time for lunch.

Oldies But Goodies

Today I introduce you to two of my favorite tools. First is my Singer Featherweight, manufactured in 1941. I took it out of its case and gave it a thorough oiling, in preparation for a sewing lesson with Catalina tomorrow. Here is a bottom view. This little machine just purrs along and makes the most beautiful seam. Just forward & reverse, no zigzags, but the nicest straight stitch you have ever seen.

Another favorite old tool is my garlic press. I though it was lost, but it just turned up again a few days ago. So happy to see it! Hooray! There will be fresh garlic in tonight's chili, and my hands won't stink for a week, either.

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Organizing

Another Colorway

I liked the outcome of the bidirectional sample so well that I decided to repeat it in another colorway. This is double twill with an orange/yellow/green rotation in the weft. Click to enlarge.

It was time to change the block arrangement. I kept the same color rotation and started a little dots-and-dashes action.

 

 

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The "Borrowers"

First, some background. A few years ago I attended one of the prestigious national juried craft fairs, and at a weaver's booth saw a woven scarf; this scarf was an exact knockoff of one of my published designs. I took a closer look at the scarf, and while I was examining it, the weaver informed me proudly that this was network drafting, a very special technique. "I know," I replied, the draft is my original work, and I published it in xxx periodical."  No comment from the weaver, who turned away to talk to other customers.

Now I should say that I have always been sharing of my work and I always invite others to use my drafts for their own personal work; all I ask is that they not republish the drafts, that they not use my drafts for items for resale, and that when they do use my drafts they give credit for my contribution. Except for this one event, I have found other weavers to be very thoughtful and respectful of my work.

Fast forward to today, when I read this astonishing account of "borrowing," by artist Brenda Swenson. It is not the callousness of the borrower that caught my attention, but Brenda's very creative reaction to the event. Read it and rejoice.

Bidirectional

A few days ago I experimented with changing the directions of the twill lines in certain blocks of double twill, and now I've started to weave samples of these drafts.

In addition to changing the drafts, I've also altered the colors of the three wefts I use in a constant rotation. In this version, they are now terra-cotta, pale brown, and teal blue (instead of the previous red, yellow, & green). The three new wefts are used with the original blue/natural warp rotation.

Results shown above. Click to enlarge.

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Spin!

The spinning class (now we are eleven) is now in its fourth week. It's so lively that until now I haven't had a chance to take pictures, but yesterday I got the phone out for a few candid moments.

Debbie got a late start, but is now up to full speed. She's caught on to drafting, and has filled several spindlesful.

Here's Patti making a skein, with Mary winding on and Barry doing some park-and-draft in the background.

Barry is making admirable progress with Andean plying.

Here are Tina's first skeins. Aren't they gorgeous?

Meanwhile, in other news, I watch the videos of New York in the snow, and I marvel at this sight next to my mailbox:

A Simulation

One final piece is planned in the double twill series. This one will flip some of the blocks so that the twill line runs in the opposite direction. It is a simple matter to flip a block horizontally in the liftplan, but doing so changes the dark/light order in the warp. Solution? After flipping the block, wrap it one pixel horizontally, and the correct dark/light relationship appears.

The 3-color weft rotation is constant throughout. It's magic! Tweaking those 3 colors to get the most pleasing effect will be interesting. Red/yellow/green? Orange/pale blue/purple? Terracotta/mustard/forest green? Hm-m-m. Decisions, decisions.

Click to enlarge for best effect.