Weaverly

More Spring, a Towel, and a Heddle Vista

Ruth introduced me to a delightful place for a woodland walk just up the road. It's the Bunched Arrowhead Heritage Preserve, and as the name implies it contains a trove of Bunched Arrowhead. The BA's do not appear to be out just yet, but I hugely enjoyed the walk through fields, woods, and swampy parts. Spring!

I cut the first hemp towel off the Nilus warp, gave it a good washing & drying, and took it out on the porch for a photo. The cloth was quite stiff on the loom, but after its bath it feels soft and squishy, a perfect towel!

It's very vain, and wants you to see a few more pictures.

And a close-up, of course.

I usually don't like to cut off the projects one at a time, but I couldn't wait to see the finished towel. There's really not too much loom waste here, just a couple of inches lost to the re-tying. Now it's ready for a second towel, for which I have just enough hemp left in my stash.

On the dobby loom, meanwhile, I just noticed the intriguing arrangement of heddles as seen behind the reed. It's a kind of echo of the threading arrangement, and in certain times of day it looks just like the organ pipes on a large chapel organ. Or so it seems to me.

A Printing Obsession

For some reason I seem to have caught the gel printing bug. It's been around for years now, and I'm a little late to the party. Never mind.

Perhaps it's the immediacy of the medium. You can be set up in minutes and start pulling prints right away. Very different from weaving, where you can spend days designing, then preparing the loom, winding bobbins, etc., before you throw the first pick. And then you've only just begun.

Or perhaps the wildflowers on my morning walk have stimulated the area of my brain that longs for lots of crazy color.

Well, whatever it is, I'm having fun. Eventually I'll use some of these papers in bookmaking.

And for a change-up, I'm still plugging away at the pink warp. Here's the morning sun throwing it in high relief.

Low Tech

It takes some getting used to a loom without a computer interface of some sort, if your weaving life has been computer-centric for so long. This morning I found myself sitting at the loom and looking for the on/off button. 

Although my very first weaving experience was overshot on a Structo at age eleven or so, I hadn't done much overshot since then. Until now. I chose a draft with wheels and tables, an oldie called "Conestoga". I found it in Davison, page 138.

The warp is striped in yellow and olive green, with a blip of red. The first sample, above, has a light gray tabby weft. I played around with the treadling to alter the proportions of the wheels, and changed the tabby weft to dark red for the second sample.

I love the gentle whooshing sound this loom makes. I leave the doors open and I can hear the birds while I weave.

 

And This Just In

It has finally arrived, and at last I have a loom with rear-hinged treadles, suitable for my particular idiosyncrasies. 

It will also allow me to weave wider pieces than before. I've left the back four shafts unused, and warped it up with a straight draw on four shafts. I'm using up bits of yarn from my stash for warp & weft.

No electronics, no computer. Plain weave only, so far, just to put the loom through its paces. 

Here's a lovely bit of handspun cotton rescued from a dark corner:

And mustn't ignore what's going on outside. Spring is just bursting out.

I was worried that the newly planted Japanese maple in my backyard was a goner, but yesterday it just sprang to life and I think it's going to be fine.

And to round things off, here's a snapshot taken while I was stopped at a traffic light. Those panels of cracked paint on the rear doors caught my attention. 

Here's one of them cropped and turned on its side. There must be something one can do with that.

In Praise of Mittens

This past weekend a lovely gift came our way. Perched in a place of honor, among old family pictures, is a charming replica of you-know-who.

This little fellow is the creation of Liz, who crocheted him, with some of her own modifications, following this pattern. How can you not smile. It's all about the mittens.

 

Sami Shuttle

I just received the most beautiful shuttle from Ampstrike, the Etsy shop of Gunnar Karro in Estonia. Click to enlarge. I've included the glasses to indicate scale. 

I pause now to enjoy it. A bright beacon in a crazy world.

This is a Sami shuttle, used by the nomadic people of Northern Europe. Its curved pointed shape is well suited to pickup patterning in band weaving.

Now approaching the dozen mark of the Covid Diary series. This is #XI on the loom.

And here is #VIII after washing & steam press.

 

There's enough warp left for one more. Then I'll be ready to embark on a new project. I believe I've spent enough time on this topic.

I've branched out into other reading. Just finished Jane Urquhart's The Stone Carvers, historical novel about making a life in art. 

Rays

If I get out really early, I catch the ray effect of the morning sun. In these fraught days it seems as if a message is being sent. 

Maybe that's a little fanciful, but when it's just me and the trees and the birds, I tend to think that way. 

This evening the solstice will be here, and then we'll tilt the other way.

These views are brief, but so joy-inducing when they come.

Back in the studio, I put a new warp on the dobby loom. The amalgamation samples told me what I needed to know regarding sett; I put on a wider piece this time. It meant shuffling around some heddles, not a pleasant task, but necessary. There were a couple of sleying errors, but eventually everything got sorted out. The border leads gradually into the main motif.

I decided to use two strands of 20/2 cotton in this double shuttle as the weft. I wanted a dark weft, but not dead black. This is a bobbin each of dark blue and black. Click to enlarge. In the picture you can't see the blue, but it's there. Well, maybe you can see it.

Managing the double weft is a bit tricky, as it tends to leave little loops at the selvedge. So you have to keep an eagle eye on the web as you weave. Yes, like a bird of prey. And I'm using a temple. It has sharp teeth.

________

Just finished reading The Untouchable, by John Banville (one of my faves). It's a novel loosely based on the true story of an art historian turned spy, and his unraveling. 

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.

A Dilemma and Two Birds

The samples have been washed and ironed, and a dilemma arises. The samples are both from the same threading but the warp yarns are different. The one on the left is more pleasing to my eye and the one on the right feels better in my hand. Must think about this some more. Ground rules: I want to make this decision without buying more yarn. Hm-m-m. What Would Mary Atwater Do?

Heading out on my walk. Wear a jacket? Not? A peep of blue.

Took off the jacket half way. Sun came out. The blue heron is standing on the log usually covered with turtles. Is that a good sentence? You know that the heron is not covered with turtles. 

The black swan came out of the lake and waddled toward me. It makes a sound like a kitten! 

A surprise. I've been hanging some old weavings. I found this one, based on a photo of the Savage River in Alaska, in a storage box. It's dated 2005. I hung it on the wall over my bobbin winder. Surprise! It gets good light from a nearby window, and suddenly I saw it "in a new light." It has a depth I never noticed before. I enjoy seeing it first thing in the morning when I go into the studio.

I wove it on my TC-1. The structure is "warp tapestry." Warp tapestry is a term used in industry to describe a form of double weave jacquard with a many-colored warp. It is not weft-faced tapestry as handweavers use the term. I no longer have the TC-1. Sometimes I miss it.