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A new warp in preparation. This one will be a classical network drafting project on a 4-end network.
Threading of heddles is going quickly; using my weaving software to treadle the threading is the ticket!
I told you it was quick.
Here's a closer look.
Double plain weave. It will have to be the last piece on this warp. After nearly a year, the end knots are in sight. Here's a closer view:
At the other end of the studio, on a little bitty loom, have just cut off a new batch of plain weave with handspun weft. This has been washed & steamed, and it will sit on the shelf a while until inspiration strikes. It's fun to stroke it once in a while.
Continuing with double plain weave on my black & white warp...
The wefts this time are yellow & blue. Click to enlarge.
The Complex Weavers Southeast Gathering, the brainchild of Leslie Killeen and Leslie Fesperman, was held this past weekend at the Yadkin Valley Fiber Room in Yadkinville, North Carolina. Complex Weavers members from North & South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia attended. It was a resounding success, and I hope it will spark the genesis of many more such gatherings. It included a Friday visit to Indera Knitting Mills, dinner at Herrera Vineyards, Saturday morning lecture on double twill by yours truly, informal Show & Tell and some serious loom time Saturday afternoon, and a Sunday morning lecture by Leslie Killeen on creativity and Leslie's vest creation process. The seventeen attendees, including volunteer assistants, combined and recombined in many informal discussion sessions, and the ideas flew back and forth at warp speed. Here are just a few quick snapshots from the event.
Thanks to the two Leslies for their vision and hard work, and also to the volunteers who made this event such a joy to attend.
Now the circles are almost round. I think when I cut this piece off the loom and the tension is relaxed, they will be perfectly round.
Still double plain weave. This is another one of those endless warps.
A very strange fiber preparation caught my eye last year, and I finally tried some of it. You can see it in this Etsy listing.
I recarded the llama pencil roving into poufy rolags and spun it all up into singles, skeined it, and washed the skeins.
I then wound it all onto bobbins...
...and used it as weft on a warp of 2/18 wool.
It was quite stiff and scratchy. Here is is dumped in a pile after cutting it off.
I washed the fabric, fulled it slightly, hung it outside to dry, and then gave it a hard steam press. It softened considerably.
Now I will "age" it for a while until it tells me what it wants to be. I do have some ideas, but none of them are next-to-the-skin.
This has been my first plain weave project in many years. A very humbling experience!