Weaverly

Going Round the Bend

A snowflake! What more can I say?

Pick by Pick

Like watching paint dry, but relaxing in its own way.

I can do this for a couple of hours in the morning, but after that I lose focus and start making mistakes. 

Unweaving is for the birds, and greatly to be avoided.

Warped Again

Rewarped this little fellow with a 9" warp of 8/4 cotton doubled, at 12 epi (total 24).

Time for some more Tejido Huave samples, from Erica de Ruiter's wonderful Tejido Huave and Beyond. 

This morning's walk pushed me over the 2 mile boundary, at last. Hear me roar.

Handspun Brocade

This warp is almost at an end, but I did manage to eke out another small brocade sample, this time with handspun wool as brocade weft. I really like the 8/4 Brassard cotton as ground warp and weft at this sett, 12 epi, and the 16/2 cotton as tiedown warp, 6 epi. I try as best as I can to weave the ground to square.

And for those of you who are entertained by such whimsies, here is this morning's walk. Very few right angles here. I try to take advantage of all the culs de sac I encounter. They often yield some surprises, such as a stand of interesting weeds or a friendly talking cat.

 

Horizontals and Verticals

I completed this brocade sample while listening to the Mueller hearings. It took me back to the early days in this house when I was weaving a poncho while listening to the Watergate hearings. 

While I mull over the day's events, I'll just say that I was thinking about horizontals and verticals, things on square and off square, and boundaries.

Here are some more rectangles, this time on the walls of my new studio.

The following picture credit goes to Bruce. We check out the new construction every few days.

Connecting the Dots

Another morning of brocade on the rigid heddle loom. String heddles rule!

You can't work with meandering threads without taking in the larger picture. My friend Doug told me about MapMyRide, and of course I couldn't resist mapping my walk this morning. It even tells me how many calories I burned (133)! It would be fun to weave this shape. Maybe each day I could weave the shape of my walk that morning. Hm-m-m.

And while waiting for the day when I can get to my yarns and my dobby loom again, I spend quite a bit of time culling drafts from handweaving.net. As an interesting exercise, I ask for drafts of only 16 shafts, and floats no longer than 5. I then save these on a special page in ProWeave. Click to enlarge.

In the great Someday, I'll put on a long warp with straight draw, 16 shafts, and won't I have a great time!

Oh Hold

When you don't have the loom you love, you love the loom you have.

Fifth brocade sample. I think I've finally got the combination of yarn & sett that works for me. And I've decided I enjoy a single rigid heddle aided by string heddles and pickup stick, much better than two rigid heddles, for this technique, at least. Click to enlarge.

 

A Few Messages From the Universe

It seems there are some messages for me out there. Now to decode them. The first was in the parking lot when I went for groceries.

Then, on my walk, I saw this tidy pile of sod in front of my neighbor's house. It looks a little like a dessert recipe in my file. Then again, maybe the beginning of a fiber project, with bolts of fabric assembled. What exactly is the message here? Requires further study.

Later on my walk. A proto-newspaper. Trying to read the fine print.

Meanwhile, downstairs, a sample of two-heddle weaving, with a ground and tiedowns. Stay tuned.

And finally, a sneak peek at my new studio. 

All in all, I would say that the news is good.

 

Washed & Mended & Washed Again

A sad tale with a happy ending. I washed the shawl, hung it out to dry on a breezy day, and look at what I found--a weaving error! Right smack in the middle. 

But we don't give up around here. I pulled out the offending row, bit by bit, and darned in a new weft. The trouble is, the shawl is washed and the replacement weft is still in its raw state and sticks out a mile. Nothing for it but to wash it again. 

All done. I really love it, and will keep this one to use myself. The face (the side uppermost while I was weaving) is shown on the left, and the reverse is one the right. Both are equally interesting.

Details: warp is a handprinted singles sock yarn I bought a few years ago at a famers' market in Nova Scotia, combined end-and-end with a silk noil knitting yarn from my stash. Weft is my lavender handspun plied wool/bamboo. Woven on a rigid heddle loom. Click to enlarge.

Cut Off

Living in this strange half-world of house showings and keeping everything tidy (a habit that is foreign to me), I do manage to snag a few minutes of weaving here and there. This morning I finished weaving the shawl on my rigid heddle loom, did the final hemstitching, and cut it off (ta-dah!). While I have seen only the face, the so-called right side, I can now see the reverse as well. And guess what? I think I like the reverse better. But it's early days, as the fabric will have to be washed first, and anything can happen. The textured pickup pattern will become more textured, and the yarns will do their thing; the hands-on wool/bamboo weft was not washed & blocked after spinning, so I expect it will move around quite a bit. Here are face and reverse so far. Click to enlarge.

But before washing, I have to deal with the fringe. I'm twisting it in bunches while responding to special requests from upstairs (it takes a village) and guess what, I plied one bunch widdershins. So what. I'm a handweaver, not a machine. Let it be.