Weaverly

More Lampas Sampling and Tomato Heaven

Still tinkering with yarn combinations. 

Still lampas. Click to enlarge any of these.

Now for the nearly opposite side of the color wheel. This week David gave us a whole basket of tomatoes from his garden. Thank you! They were all beautifully perfect and ripe. The flavor was luscious. I had to use them up immediately, as I don't do canning. Yesterday we had tomatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

For breakfast we had sliced tomatoes and Greek yogurt. Lunch was tomatoes on a bed of various lettuces and a side of tuna salad. And dinner featured baked eggplant, tomatoes, and goat cheese en casserole. What heaven.

Course Correction

After leaving the lampas blanket to rest overnight, I realized I wasn't happy with the structure/yarn combination, and changed course. I worked up a new set of weaves: primary (ground) is still broken 4-end twill, but secondary (pattern) is now 3-end or jeans twill instead of 5-end satin. In the middle of this snapshot is a new sample set—just a narrow strip, but it gives me enough information to go on.

Then I tried the new structures in an actual design file, with several different weft combinations. 

I'm a little happier with these experiments. I'll look at them again tomorrow before making a final decision.

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Error Correction

Adding a Second Secondary Weft

A Small Sample Blanket

Before I start a lampas piece on the new warp, I have to test out my new weave structures in the form of a sample blanket. These structures consist of two pattern wefts in 1/4 satin and a ground structure of three 4-end broken twills (1/3, 2/2, 3/1). There are two oddball fancy twills thrown in for good measure. These might be good for hems, casings, etc. The selvedge threading is 1/7 satin.

Click to enlarge. 

OK, there are my raw materials. Now it's design time.

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Making Waves

Beginnings

Out of chaos...

...comes (eventually) order.

Ready to begin.

Deep breath.

Sectional

A new warp is in the works. It's for the TC-1, which as things have been going is warped once a year. This means a new warp is a commitment, and I have to be sure it's a structure I will want to stay with foe a while. Lampas is my choice this time. Two ground to one pattern. Black 20/2 cotton ground warp, peach 60/2 silk pattern warp. 

Using the warping reel for a total of 15 sections, progress is slow but steady. Here I have 13 wound so far.

Plastic tubing on the rakes keep the threads from wandering out of their designated sections as I am winding.

Ta dah! Fifteen sections wound. The little red tapes hold the crosses in the individual sections.

I love the warping process. I get really caught up in it and forget everything else that's going on in the world for a time. Not a bad thing.

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Another Point of View

Evidence

Last week we drove down to Florence for a very special event at the Florence County Museum. The opening of "Evidence: The Work of Terry Jarrard-Dimond 1987-2017" was held in this gorgeous facility, and it celebrated as well the 50th Anniversary of the SC Arts Commission. The stars were in alignment.

Here are a few snapshots of the event.

How lucky I am to have known Terry and enjoyed her work for so many years. Her unique voice comes through during all her explorations in sculpture, fiber, encaustic, and painting. 

Congratulations to my dear friend.

Green and Blue

Remember this post in which I introduced a green warp? I've finished weaving the 8 1/2 yards I needed, and now on what remains of the warp I'm having play time.

I eventually settled on a fine blue silk noil weft. It squares up perfectly with the 20/2 cotton warp. With a new liftplan on the networked twill warp, I have arrived here:

Oddly, the cotton is the shinier of the two yarns and changes color drastically with the changing position of the lens:

A closer look.

 

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A Red (and Green) Warp

Star Baker

You may be wondering what this has to do with weaving, but think block theory and you will be OK. We all respect inspiration, process, determination, attention to detail, etc., right? 

She found the instructions for this checkerboard cake on the web, and we had a free afternoon. She did all the work. I was the sous-chef. We did a double recipe of cake batter and added chocolate to one batch.

A slight contretemps: her iPhone fell into the chocolate batter. Here she is cleaning it off. No harm done.

There was enough better left for a batch of cupcakes. She is measuring one of the layers for precise trimming and splitting into two.

Concentric rings are cut into all four layers and the layers then reassembled.

Utmost precision is the word.

Two white layers and two chocolate, each with three concentric rings...

...reassembled (carefully!) into four layers, iced and stacked up.

 

The first slice: a real checkerboard! A happy chef.

 

Appropriate Technology, Part Two. And Some Books.

Not every piece of equipment that makes its way into my studio requires a computer, contrary to what certain persons have alleged. 

This carton from the liquor store is just perfect as a place to store lease sticks, paper rolls for padding a warp beam, and other assorted sticks and doodads. The price is right, too.

Now turn your attention to the book department. Three books in my life this week:

I just finished reading Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. It is impossible to categorize—a story taking place at the height of the American Civil War, with a recently bereaved Lincoln visiting the remains of his young son. With a few exceptions, all the characters are deceased persons in the window between death and rebirth. The style is a series of brief quotations and deals with questions of what is a good life and how do we connect with each other. It is at times hilariously funny and other times unbearably tragic. I've never read anything like it! Highly recommended.

One of my favorite weaving books is again at the top of my bedside stack. Susan Wilson's 2011 publication Weave Classic Crackle and More is always worth revisiting. I'm paying more attention to 4-shaft weaves these days, and and I find Susan's work well organized, beautifully illustrated, and packed with solid information. Every time I read it I learn another important tidbit.

Just arrived on my doorstep: Elizabeth Doherty's Top Down; reimagining set-in sleeve design. After years of searching, I think I have finally found the perfect explanation of of the geometry of the set-in sleeve. The author claims she developed her design system while grinding up a long hill on her bike. Sheer genius.

Keeping Track

I'm working with a new addition to my Wolf Pup loom. This clever device is called Tempo Treadle and it's a lovely example of appropriate technology. 

It's basically a tiny computer that attaches to the loom. A premade wif file is entered into the device via a micro SD card. Magnets attached to the treadles signal an array of sensors on a strip placed under the treadles; the computer detects when a correct treadle or treadle combination is depressed. Correct treadling results in feedback of a beep, and an incorrect treadle depression invokes a distinct error chime. Sounds can be turned on or off as desired. In addition, current and subsequent picks are displayed on the little screen, and there are other wonderful features that you can read about here.

I've been using computer-aided multi-shaft dobby looms for years. But why on earth would I want to add a treadling aid to this simple 4-shaft direct-tieup loom? The simple answer is that even with 4 shafts, there are situations where very long and complex treadling orders are required. Keeping track of these can be challenging, especially if you are easily distracted (does this sound like someone you know?).

After weaving for a few hours with Tempo Treadle on a point twill warp, I produced two samples which would have been very difficult for me to weave error-free previously. Here's the draft for the second sample:

And here it is woven:

I think this device fills a niche between computer-aided looms and completely manual looms. If complex lifting sequences are part of your table loom or treadle loom weaving practice, you will want to take a look at it. The learning curve is moderate, but if you have ever assembled a new loom or put together a bookcase from Ikea, you will find it a piece of cake.

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