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Each of these little towels will have a different weft. You can see the previous weft underneath, heading for the cloth beam. Today I tried a blueish pale gray.
After a most satisfactory visit from our plumber, we headed off to County Square to vote. Age hath its privileges.
Then I washed the yarn I spun during the World Series and put it on the deck to dry. Maggie picked a nice sunny spot for her afternoon nap.
My, that looks comfy. I think I'll go take a nap now, too.
With apologies to the chewing gum ad of xx years ago.
What I love about amalgamation in weaving is that it doubles the apparent number of shafts on your loom. Each one of the motifs in this cloth would have required 16 shafts, and to stack them offset like this would have required an additional 16, total 32. But with amalgamation, I am weaving this on 16 shafts total.
I'll be writing more about this topic in the days to come. Click to enlarge.
The calming effect of a new warp. Warping is one of my favorite activities. The feeling of the warp slipping through my hands is delightful.
The start of a study on amalgamation. Close relative of network drafting.
There's not enough of this warp left for a scarf, but I'll just keep on going until it's used up, this time with an adobe-colored weft. It'll go into the basket of odds & ends, maybe to be part of a collaged garment or ?
And here's what I've just finished reading. I bought it on a whim about 15 years ago because I couldn't resist the cover, and it's languished in a stack of books since then. I'm trying to read all my orphan books and then give them away. This one was a real winner. I thought it would be about someone who likes to read (and it is, partly) but more than that it's about book collecting.
I've read a bit of fiction about bibliophily. The ones that come to mind now are the crime novels of John Dunning, and the marvelous Perez-Reverte's The Club Dumas. Also one I read a very long time ago as a serialized novel in my mother's subscription copies of Ladies Home Journal: China Court by Rumer Godden. But A Pound of Paper is is not fiction. It's a memoir about a collector of books. Loved it! And it has so many suggestions of things I want to read, that I'm afraid that I'm not going to make much progress in reducing the size of my library. I know, I know, go digital.
Yesterday we drove out into the country to see if we could find this old house again. Yes, it was just where we'd left it. Seemingly occupied, but barely. Nobody home yesterday. Did some sketching. Are you old enough to remember "Helpless" by Crosby, Stills & Nash? Blue windows behind the stars, Yellow moon on the rise...
The old barn was appealing to a weaver, too.
And then we checked on Uncle Bud. Looks like he hasn't been there in a while.
Back at home I finished weaving the orange scarf. Here's a view of both sides at once.
This morning I cut if off, twisted the fringes, and sent it through the washer & drier. It is modeled here by my studio assistant.
And a closer view, if you like.
A few more inches on the interleaved warp. The colors are startlingly different depending on the point of view of the photographer and the time of day.
Here is a view from the left, photographed in morning daylight.
And here's a view from the right, in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, I've thrown - almost literally - a new handspun warp onto the rigid heddle loom, and I'm weaving it with a simple pick-up pattern. It's great late afternoon weaving, just at the time of day when my energy level is lowest. In fact, I think I'll go make a cup of tea.
Recently finished reading Simon Winchester's "The Man Who Loved China." Highly recommended! Thanks, Teena, for the tip.
After I finished the most recent scarf on this warp, I had a computer failure. It was a very old laptop and in the words of my late mother-in-law, "it didn't owe me anything." Fortunately I had another old, but functional laptop waiting in the wings, and after some minor software skirmishes, I was back in business and weaving another scarf.
This warp, as you may remember is end-and-end yellow cotton and bright pink buttonhole silk, with an interleaved threading.
For the weft on this new scarf, I chose bright orange bamboo. The cloth shows incredible iridescence, so I am showing it to you here from several angles.
Frankly, I was surprised that this particular combination worked so well. I still have a lot to learn about iridescence.
In other color news, the gardenias at my side door are blooming madly. This New Jersey girl, even though she has lived in the South almost 50 years, still can't get used to bushes that bloom in October. Bless her heart.
Completed this morning. A small step in the reduction of my stash of handspun yarn. Woven on a a rigid heddle loom.
At this rate I should have the yarn all used up by 2059, at which time I will be 120 years old.
That is, assuming I don't buy any more fiber or yarn.
Assuming.
Pattern credit: Sarah Howard, with a few modifications.
While waiting for the rains of Tropical Storm Michael to wend their way through my part of the state, I've fortunately got power, and have been revisiting an old love of mine, amalgamation. The following studies are all achievable on 16 shafts, although they look like more. That's why I find them so fascinating.
They have a close family connection to network drafting. More to follow.
Click to enlarge.