Weaverly

Red Sky…

Red sky at night, sailors' delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.

There are many versions of this rhyme, some biblical, some folkloric. I used to hear it from the fishermen in my family. I thought of it this morning when I looked out the front door and saw this astonishing sight.

If I were a sailor, I would definitely take warning, but as I am a weaver, I proceeded directly to my loom and finished winding on the second of the four blanket warps.

Threading was quick at 8 epi. 

And now we're ready to go. Take warning!


Finished reading "The Cadence of Grass" by Thomas McGuane.

Blanket, Phase Two

Wove as close to the heddles as I dared, and cut off strip one of the 4-strip blanket. Here is is lying in a heap on the floor just after cutoff. No one was around at the time, so I didn't bother with the champagne. 

It went straight to the sewing machine to secure the ends, and then into the tub for a nice warm bath. It's now hanging on a rack in the garage to dry.

The next strip has been beamed, and the threading has begun. It's going quickly at 8 epi.

Time for a break. Who can resist an autumn sky?

The End of the Beginning

This blanket project consists of four warps. We are now coming to the end of the first warp.

The finished weaving is winding on the cloth beam. Every time I pass the loom I give the cloth a friendly pat. So does everyone else who passes by. There's something about wool that makes people want to touch it. 

Stashbusting With a Vengeance

I got out pretty early yesterday, and my reward was the especially wonderful morning light. The Muhly grass at the gardens exploded with pink.

A few last coneflowers bobbed their heads.

Stripes, anyone?

Or perhaps these:

Now on the the stashbusting. My accumulation of handspun wools and wool blends has grown to alarming proportions over the past 50 years. I'm embarrassed to even show you a picture. 

So here's what I did. I'm going to weave a blanket in four strips, each one composed of two 4-yard warp chains, all handspun. Here are the eight warps:

The first two chains on the left in the above picture were warped onto my Nilus II loom. 

I plan to weave them off in plain weave, in random shuttles-full of handspun weft.

The weights I was using on my tarp-clip temples were too heavy, so I substituted smaller weights:

And now all is well. The clips are holding the web out to the exact width of the warp in the reed. Selvedge bliss!

So far, I haven't had any warp breakage and the actual weaving is very pleasant.

I hope your weaving is going well today. I'll be thinking of you.

WIP or UFO?

Do you call these WIPs or UFOs? I'm not sure. I started the lavender neck scarf over three years ago as a project to tide me over the rough spots during our move to smaller quarters. I finished knitting it last year and it languished in a box in my closet until this week, when I washed it and blocked it. It's one of those asymmetric thingies. All it needs now is a darning in of the ends, and it will be ready to wear on these nice fall days.

The hat is my go-to project for handspun, a simple watch cap with a roll-up brim. It's great for variegated yarns. I've knit dozens of these. I think I can knit it in the dark.

And speaking of fall days, the Sustainability Center is a fall haven for walkers. Every turn of the path reveals more wonders, especially in the slanting early morning light.

There are a few late Black-eyed Susans.

A new crop of chard - how about those juicy red stems?

And in front of the Student Center, a yarn bomb! My walk is complete.

Back in the studio, I have finished the halvdräll towels in linen and hemp, and they are now hemmed and washed. They softened up beautifully in the washer. 

Here's a closer look. The tabby weft is a different color in each one, otherwise they are identical. 

Bits & Bobs

Doodling around at the computer, I came up with this 16-shaft draft with amalgamation. I'm still tinkering with it, but will probably use something similar as my next warp on the dobby loom. Click to enlarge.

Meanwhile, I've been enjoying hiking. These pictures are from yesterday at the Carrick Creek Trail at Table Rock State Park.

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Just finished reading Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller. Gorgeous.

 

A Garden Visit

With the return of good weather, we had the urge for a road trip yesterday. We drove to the University of Georgia, State Botanical Garden of Georgia, in Athens, GA. What an amazing place! There are miles of trails and multiple themed gardens. The Heritage Garden is the star, with its many regional plantings and displays.

Hanging long-necked gourds. A real show-stopper.

There were masses of this 5-ft. tall perennial in bloom: Tradescantia virginiana. For your information it's otherwise known as Common Spiderwort. I much prefer the scientific name! There is nothing common about this beauty.

Back at home the first towel on the halvdräll, the one with the red tabby, is finished.

For the second towel, I'm using the same hemp pattern weft, but this time with a gold cotton tabby. It's subtly different.

For a long time I've felt the lack of adequate lighting in this room, particularly when it comes to threading heddles. I purchased a strip lighting kit and installed lights under the castle. Here's what it looks like with the strip lights on in an otherwise dark room, kind of Halloweenish.

Dreaming of Red Devil Chocolate Cake

The weather's been a little flippy lately. I try to get out on the trail between the raindrops. Yesterday looked like this, but this morning was way too wet for walking.

So I continued working on this loom:

The warp is a combination of brown cotton and burgundy cottolin, end-and-end, and the effect is just like Red Devil chocolate cake. A warm, gooey brown. I wouldn't mind a piece of it right now. If you've never had it, look it up on the interweb. You'll find a million recipes.

The structure is halvdräll, a 4-shaft weave. I'm taking the opportunity of using up some stash. Tabby weft is red cottolin, and adds to the red devil effect. The pattern weft is 2-ply hemp, which had been languishing on the back of a shelf. 

The denting (3 per dent in a 10-dent reed) creates some strange effects that look like threading errors, but I expect these will come out in the wash. Click to enlarge. After a couple of washings I think this fabric will soften up and become a very nice bath towel.

 

New Linen Table Runners

It has been a pleasure to work with the beautiful Euroflax linens provided by LoftyFiber. I am particularly smitten with the 30/2 size, which weaves up perfectly for table linens and comes in some gorgeous colors. Some of my designs are now available as kits from LoftyFiber, with drafts and instructions, and sufficient linen yarns for completion. 

The following table runner kits are for 8-shaft looms. The first one is called Tabula Rasa.

The structure is double weave.

The following design, called Diamond Dazzle, is also available as a kit in three different colorways. This is doubleweave as well.

This yarn is very easy to work with and I have not experienced a single broken warp end. True love.

 

New Warp, Old Warp

I pass this loom a dozen times a day; it's impossible to ignore it, especially when it is bare. Took care of that issue over the weekend by winding a new linen warp, with lots of red, gold, lavender, and eggplant. Here it is beamed and partially threaded.

And after a lovely walk in the woods, it's now ready to weave. Thank you, Rumpelstiltskin (I wish). 

In the picture below I'm trying out various weft colors and weaves.

I finally settled on this crepe structure. 

And I'm weaving it with a bright blue weft. 

In these glorious early autumn days I try not to neglect the outdoors, even though weaving is pulling me equally hard in the other direction. I tried a different route in my morning walk, and was rewarded with this intriguing little hidden space over a stream. I'd never seen it before.

The seasonal color is just starting to appear hereabouts.  How is it where you are?

Back in the studio I shifted my attention to an old 4-shaft project on the floor loom. It was a longish mixed warp, and I had originally done some pattern weaving on it, but I got bored and then realized that this was a perfect opportunity for stashbusting. I got out a box of partially wound bobbins which needed to be emptied, and just randomly wove then off in plain weave, hit-or-miss fashion. I got to the end of the warp with most of the bobbins emptied, and cut off this 3-yard length of plain weave rainbow cloth. There is enough here for a garment of some sort. The weight is perfect for this climate. So there's a sewing project for some long winter's evening...