Weaverly

A Cluster of Cairns

More walkers than bikers on the Trail this morning. The county workers are out mowing the grass verges. Scent of onions.

On a trailside bench, a man reading a book. A crutch is propped next to him. How did he get there? A runner alongside his small helmeted son on a bicycle. A mom pushing a stroller with an infant, her young daughter riding ahead on a pink bicycle. A gray-haired woman walker passes me. She's the same one I saw yesterday. Daily routines emerging here. A very tall guy in a beautiful yellow suede-like shirt. I longed to reach out and touch it, but I didn't. 

Some new cairns have sprung up overnight, or perhaps these are modifications to existing cairns. No matter. All messages welcome.

And here is a cluster of cairns! Or concatenation of cairns. Or a convergence of cairns. Or a community of cairns. Take your pick.

Of course there is more green than yesterday. A doubling of green. Every day there will be twice as much green as the day before. A better statistic than some others.

Back in the studio I continue to labor at the amalgamation project. I've had to scrap every word I wrote before my move. It's total c##p. Did a fresh new draft. Somewhat better. Now I have to decide what to do with the woven samples. I no longer have the photography setup with backdrop and lights. I will have to go with Plan B. The scanner perhaps.

And the drafts will have to be organized. Well, that's for another day. Click on this one to enlarge, it will look better.

Virtual wave. Here's lookin' at ya!

Amalgamation, Again

Trying not to watch too much news, by daylight I finished the red & green striped warp with this little sample...

...then cut it off and washed all the little bitty samples, then ironed them and photographed them by artificial light (so yellow!).

Front...

...and back.

Then made a new warp...

...and tied it on to the last one...

...and here it is almost ready to go.

A few inches woven before I turn to my evening reading:

And I leave you with this creature. Enjoy.

Yarn Choices

I am back into the amalgamation study at last. These samples are not so much about color as about yarn weights and sett. 

The red warp is 16/2 cotton, and the pale green is 16/2 cottolin. 

The 36 epi sett makes a very dense cloth. It would be good for placemats and such. For clothing or napkins I would prefer a more open sett.

And if your eye is craving yellow at this point, here is the inevitable daffodil picture. 

Or if you'd prefer a more sedate black and white, here are some swans. They are so ungainly out of the water, but trust me, when these guys go back into the lake they are gorgeous.

Sign of Spring

When you see a kite stuck in a tree where no kite was before, you know Spring is not far behind.

The amazing weavers in the rigid heddle class continue to push the envelope and are very comfortable with their string heddles. Click to enlarge.

In my own studio, I'm giving my fingers a rest and doing some more investigations of amalgamated drafts on the computer. Click to enlarge here too.

The last one reminds me of a game of snakes & ladders.

A Return to Amalgamation

It has been almost a year since I last worked on my amalgamation samples. In the interim I've made a major life change and moved to a new home. My studio has been reorganized, and all my work flow has changed as well. 

It's small wonder that getting back to amalgamation is a puzzle! Many of the concepts I thought were fixed rules have "slipped and slided" alarmingly. New combinations and variations have popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, and I am in a muddle!

But it's a good muddle and I welcome the new possibilities. How amusing that the major hurdle now is that both my multishaft looms already have long warps on them and I will have to finish these warps before I can test the new drafts. I foresee many happy hours of weaving ahead. The days are getting longer, and the added natural light is a bonus.

Click on the image below to "embiggen" it. No two of these amalgamated drafts are exactly alike, although some are similar. Oh, the joy of pixels!

 

A Departure and a New Beginning

The hemp/linen towels were washed, dried, and hemmed. Click to enlarge & see the pattern a little more clearly.

A few days later, the loom they were woven on found a new owner. 

The Octado is carried out to the waiting truck.

This dear loom has served me well over many years, and now is going to a good home with a new weaver. Happy weaving, Linda!

A Puddle of Cloth, and Some Other Pleasures

A cone of hemp yarn was almost—almost—enough to weave off the end of a cotton & linen warp. To eke out the little bit of warp left, I started using up partially filled bobbins of this and that. Cotton, cotton blends:

—and some fine yarns used double in this very useful (but heavy) shuttle:

The entire warp has been cut off, the colored parts separated from the natural parts, all raw ends secured before washing. There is a nice 4-yard length of the part with hemp weft. I threw it on the floor in a puddle to catch some of the shadows. It still has a lot of body and stiffness, which will change after it's washed.If you click to enlarge, you might see the amalgamated weave pattern, subtle but definitely there.

The absolute highlight of the week was the final rigid heddle class at OLLI, with much hilarity and celebration. This intrepid group of new and not-so-new weavers honed their skills and forged new links of friendship. 

In the book department, I have a recommendation for you: The Library Book by Susan Orlean. It is a fascinating read on many levels: part mystery, part social commentary, part bibliophily. I truly couldn't put this one down. About the Los Angeles library fire of 1986 and much more.

Welcome, Sweet Spring

On my walk today. This needs no words.

Now to the annals of the laundry room.  The most recent batch of samples has been washed, dried, and steam pressed. 16/2 cottolin, designed with the technique of amalgamation, a close cousin of network drafting. There's more information about amalgamation in my book Network Drafting: an Introduction (see sidebar).

Click on any of these to enlarge.

I hope Spring is beautiful where you are, or will be soon.

Another Option

I think I"ll be able to eke out another few samples on the turquoise warp before the loom goes in for minor surgery.

This weft is deep wine-colored cottolin, and the lift plan repeat is quite short.

Feathers, maybe?

Just finished a book I'd like to recommend: Rachel Cusk's Outline. A novel in conversations about life, relationships, and the art of writing. 

The Better-Behaved Warp

The turquoise warp is behaving better as it nears the end. Who can figure these things out? Here is an amalgamation sample with a magenta cottolin weft.

Meanwhile, at OLLI, the rigid heddlers are learning a triple zig-zag stitch for joining narrow woven panels. I've never heard the room so quiet!

A nice sunlit patch in a corner for better visibility:

Aha! Success.

And this morning, yet another weft, this time yellow cottolin, on the turquoise warp. Yes, it's still amalgamation, but with a very short repeat in the lift plan.

A closer view.