Weaverly

Black & White & Color

Suddenly it's the season of bare branches. Instant pen and ink drawing.

In the studio, the warp separator paper has arrived, and I was able to beam the mixed handspun warp and begin weaving. For weft, I'm alternating some dark gray 2-ply handspun wool and grayish red commercially spun wool. It's going well.

Slow cloth. No deadlines. No stress.

A Bit of History

I pass it every day on my walk. This morning the light was perfect, and I bring you this:

A replica of Thoreau's cabin on Walden Pond. According to Furman's website:

Built by students during May Experience 2009, the Thoreau Cabin is a replica of the cabin Henry David Thoreau lived in at Walden Pond. Students in the MayX read Walden while building the cabin by hand and gaining a deeper appreciation for the experiences Thoreau had. The cabin will now be used for classes and research.

I hope you all have a good holiday, and meet some new people. Be kind to one another.

If you have time, throw a few picks. Don't beat too hard.

Blending

A puddle of warps. Now there's a new collective noun for you!

I don't usually warp from the front (hardly ever, in fact), but I wanted to mix up all the colors in these five warp chains, so I sleyed them randomly in the reed, from the front, then threaded the heddles. I will drag the whole mess through the reed and heddles on its way to the warp beam. 

First I had to relocate the warp beam so that it would accommodate a nice fat warp, but now it is ready to roll on. 

This is the view from the back of the loom. 

Trouble is, I don't have the proper size of warp separator paper. That will arrive in a few days. Two steps forward, one step backward. Such is life.

Curves

It's curves today. This morning the pair of black swans was gliding lazily across the lake, pausing occasionally to snare some food. 

A quintet of warp chains I am readying for a mixed striped warp. Connect the dots.

Making a slow reduction in my stash of handspun. 

Happy Camper

First warp in the new house. Here's the beaming...

...and threading...

...seen from the front...

...and finally the weaving. This makes me so happy! Blessings on the movers, who took such good care of my loom and all my tools.

Not a single threading or denting error. That's a very good omen, I'm thinking.

Once Begun, Half Done

I started a new warp today. This is exactly half. The second half will be all orange, so the stripes will fall out asymmetrically. 

Straight draw on 16 shafts. I think I will weave it in various crepe weaves (see sidebar) & other goodies from handweaving.net.

It feels so good to be back at work!

 

 

We're There!

Whoopee! Patience rewarded. In the new house at last. After a week, we have Internet service. The unpacking proceeds at a snail's pace, but it does proceed. Here is my new studio, in part:

I assembled all the metal shelves without tying myself into knots. Pat, you were right, the cones tend to tumble over, but after putting down bamboo mats, everything's more stable (must order more bamboo mats).

Took a break this morning and did a long walk on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Very cold & windy, but the camellias are in full bloom. The camellias of South Carolina continue to amaze this New Jersey girl, even after all these years. 

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