Weaverly

Here We Go Again

Time to wind on another one.

Just finished reading Ben Macintyre's Agent Sonya. Great read! Recommended. 

Processing

A few process pictures of the current warp. You may spot a picture of Peter Collingwood on the wall behind my warping reel. That's for good luck.

Tied and ready to be chained.

Skipping ahead a few steps. The warp chains have been beamed and I'm threading heddles. This is a shared living space. The other occupant watches football while I thread heddles.

The following day, after breakfast. The reed is sleyed.

And here's a start. The draft is an odd experiment. Is it possible to amalgamate a four-shaft draft? Apparently it is.

But the result is a surprise. It's something of a cross between M's & O's and crepe weave. 

Never mind, I'll take it.

In the library dept., I just finished reading "The Paper Palace" by Miranda Cowley Heller. Did you know she's the granddaughter of Malcolm Cowley? Fact. She was also senior VP at HBO and head of drama series such as The Sopranos. 

Fast Driving and Slow Cloth

Last Sunday was the final Formula 1 race of the season, and all other work came to a halt. 

I tell myself that I can knit without watching my needles, but this is not always the case. While the drivers were circling the track in Abu Dhabi, I was doing more frogging than knitting, and finally quit knitting.

OK, Formula 1 is over for the year. Back to the great outdoors. Progress is slower than 200 mph, but every step counts. 

Rhododendron everywhere.

Here's where you must pay attention. If you don't turn right at this gate, you have to go through a swampy area where Carolyn has seen copperheads.

And the final turn to the homeward stretch is just after this birdhouse. It's easy to miss because it blends in with all the grays and browns of the woods in winter.

Back in the studio, I am still working on the 16-shaft amalgamation warp. At this point I am close to the end, and trying to use up some of the full bobbins.

Here's a monochrome version, a different way of combining tonal values: light with light, dark with dark. 

And in desperation, I wove each repeat in a different color weft. 

At the bitter end, I tried just treadled a point twill until I ran out of warp, using the same yarn as in the warp. The texture is nice, if you look at it with sidelighting.

And then I could finally cut the darn thing off. 

After hemming, washing & ironing, we have this, in part:

Now for my 4-shaft loom, I'm looking at another stash-busting project. I've got several pounds of bleached and natural white 10/2 cotton, which I'm combining randomly in a dishtowel warp. 

In this view you can get an idea of the very subtle stripe effect.

Ready to raddle & beam. Maybe tomorrow.

But wait! There's more!

The infamous ski slope profile, but a very tasty loaf. It's an experiment. Molasses & cocoa, with rye and six other grains. 

Color Trials

The weather is very gray and foggy today, not a good day for walking. I took the opportunity to do some faux walking on the treadmill while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan. 

Then on to the weaving life. I'm still working through the second warp of the current amalgamated draft, enjoying exploring color options. Here are a few more.

Those were all on the 16-shaft dobby loom. But I also sometimes try to doodle on the computer with 8-shaft drafts as a warmup exercise. Here's today's result. I rather like this one and think it will be a good candidate for a monotone project. It's kind of a left-handed way of arriving at a crepe weave. 

Catalina brought us some flowers last week and I took this very wide-angle picture from behind the kitchen counter. It looks like my loom is miles away, but it's just a few steps. Nothing is far away in this house. 

Just finished reading Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club. A fun read, and a good example of the retirement home mystery genre, if that's your cuppa. I actually have a little list, if you're interested. Barb, thanks for the tip.

In the Night Studio

The lights in my studio gave out last night. I had just finished beaming this warp, which was tied onto the previous warp. The picture is taken with flash. Unfortunately I can't weave by flashlight, so will have to wait until daylight to weave. 

What do you think about when you can't sleep at 4 a.m.? This is what I think about. It has a few float issues, but I think they are fixable. It's a combination of 11-shaft amalgamated twill and 5-shaft satin. 

There are some things you just can't untangle.

Snapshots

In odd moments between food preparation and general merrymaking, I did get a little bit of weaving in this week. It's amazing what you can accomplish in stolen moments.

The current crop of amalgamation samples is off the loom, hemmed, & washed. A couple of quick snapshots:

The same draft for all, but the weft colors varied widely. This one in aubergine is my favorite.

Just finished reading The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King. Not my usual read, but I did enjoy it. A special surprise: Rogers's early music mentor at Dartmouth was Kunrad Kvam, later my beloved choir director for the Voorhees Chapel Choir at Douglas College in the late 1950's. 

 

Color Me Crazy

Since we last spoke, I wove two more samples on the amalgamated warp. This time I went for weft in what I thought were really unharmonious colors—at least unharmonious on this particular warp. First green and gold: 

It turned out to be well balanced, and I quite like it.

Next was purple and gold, and I expected an especially jarring result. Kinda like football team colors. Much to my surprise, this is the best one of the lot. Of course the jury is not in for real until these are washed & dried.

Now that the end of the warp is near, I'm collecting the usual crop of warping paper. 

This next picture courtesy of Bruce, who had a front row seat at my presentation "My Weaving Life So Far" last Thursday at The Woodlands. The talk got good reviews, and my friends and neighbors asked some good questions at the Q&A afterwards. Now I'm officially credentialed as "that weaving lady."

Plaid and a Small Spiral

Just a few more peeks at the striped amalgamation warp, before the holiday craziness begins. Here I'm experimenting with weft colors. I'm going for shocking, not mellow. 

The espresso machine in the Café is now operational. The barista is showing off.

Multitasking Lite

There was actually a sneak peek at my most recent warp in the last post -- it was a coiled-up warp chain. Said warp has now made it onto the dobby loom. A view yesterday from behind the heddles:

...and here it is in front, ready for action.

And as of this afternoon, some progress is being made. Amalgamation on 16 shafts. I'm sampling various colorways, and so far this is one I like:

Did I tell you about Friday's hike at Raven Cliff Falls? It was a winner. We didn't get close enough to the falls for a fancy picture, but trust me, it was a beautiful hike and a gorgeous day in the woods.

At this time of the year I feel especially lucky to be living in South Carolina. 

Back in the studio, taking a break from weaving, I spent some time on the computer, messing about with non-parallel interleaved threadings. This one needs work, as it has several overly long floats, but I think it has promise. 16 shafts.

Now for the Department of Books. Recently finished reading Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff; All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days, by Rebecca Donner; and The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan. 

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.