Weaverly

More Origami Bags

This morning I sewed up two more origami bags. You can see a previous bag in this post. It's gone to a new home. The sister bags hung out for a while over a living room lamp, and then went outdoors for some more pictures.

They are especially handy as knitting project bags, carryalls for a trip to the library, or the farmer's market.

The warps are all the same. The weft on this one is black...

...and on this one is blue.

The weather this week has been crazy. First there were torrential rain and flooding, lots of mud, then a dusting of snow, and yesterday temps in the 70's. Today is cloudy and warm, and I was able to get out for a walk before the expected rain. My favorite tree was surrounded by ducks and geese, and a light dusting of children covered its branches.

Thoreau's Cabin sat in dignified isolation. 

Spots

Apologies. This one was in the queue for posting on Feb. 5, but never got published. A little bit of huck, and some more spots. Enjoy.

Fourth Tied-On Warp and a Selfie

The fourth, and I think the last, warp has been tied on to this old friend, a straight threading on 16 shafts. I've had a lot of fun with it. 

After the winding on, I can enjoy the color gradations, here seen behind the heddles. The darker warp gradations are only along one selvedge.

Ready to weave.

The first few inches of the weaving. This is a simple dobby design from handweaving.net. I think it will showcase the ombré warp nicely.

A closer view.

And here's a funny picture. I put my smart phone underneath the weaving, to catch the reverse side, as it's much more interesting than the right side. I didn't realize that I'd taken a selfie in the process. 

Catching Up, And a Weather Report

In our OLLI class, the weavers have completed their first brocade samplers. Here are just a few of them just after cutting off.

The weather was dreadful––torrential rains on Thursday––but most of the weavers made it to class. 

And then on Friday, a bit of a surprise. Snow.

In spite of the weather, Patti & I drove up to Asheville to see the Downton Abbey show at Biltmore House. The kitchen was especially endearing.

The costumes stole the show, as you might imagine. The wedding gowns were luscious, but my fave was this woolen fabric in a suit worn by Lady Edith. It was described as a herringbone, but to my eye it was definitely a double weave, a plain layer ad a twill layer, interchanged. Click to enlarge.

Can't resist a sewing machine, any time, anywhere.

Dinner, anyone? Check out the damask tablecloth. 

Back home, in the studio, I have finished hemming the most recent batch of towels. Some of them are Huck, some are various other weaves, all highly textured.

The striped borders are a little funky, but I am enjoying their randomness.

Make America Read Again

Spotted in a campus parking lot. I really can't say it any better:

Still working on the straight threading, 16 shafts. More huck. This one has warp floats & weft floats, so let's call it huck lace.

And here are weft floats only.

In rigid heddle territory, I've been working hard on perfecting a brocade spider. Not there yet, but improving.

A Passel of Towels

The idea behind this grouping was to see how many structures & patterns I could weave on a straight threading on 16 shafts. The answer of course is "many." I worked out several huck designs that repeated after eight iterations, and some twills that were simulations of 9-end point threadings. There are also some overshot borders. 

The hanging loops were woven on an inkle loom, using the same yarns in the towel. Here's a huck towel with an overshot border...

...and a closer look.

I was so busy at the loom that I didn't notice it was snowing outside (this was Friday) until Patti called me and told me to look out the window. That's what weaving does to you! But I do take occasional breaks. Here's the lake on my Saturday morning walk.

There was a huge flock of birds circling overhead. They were so high that I couldn't tell what kind they were. But I was glad to see them anyway, and I stood and watched for several minutes. Standing in one place and looking up is quite a balancing trick, I've found. It's especially hazardous if bicyclists are zipping by. But no harm came to any of us.

OLLI Class Weaving Brocade

Here are a few snapshots of my wonderful students in our OLLI class on weaving brocades.

We are following the techniques described by Erica DeRuiter in her book "Tejido Huave and Beyond", except that we are using rigid heddle looms. The students quickly branched out into designing their own motifs.

We have geometric designs...

...and creatures great and small.

It's a multiple weft technique. A pick of tabby is followed by a pick of pattern, in the same shed. The pattern is picked down in an open shed.