Weaverly

My Year So Far

Early days, I know, but here is a report. My year so far.

The weather is as depressing as possible. Rain, rain, rain.

On the other hand, in the studio the lights burn brightly. I'm almost finished weaving the second towel on the amalgamated warp. This one has a blue weft.

It's interesting to see two different points of view, according to the focus. Here the camera focuses on the face of the cloth, the one the weaver sees as she sits at the loom. 

And here the camera focuses on the reverse side of the cloth, as the web makes its way to the cloth beam. As it happens, I happen to like the reverse side better, a fact I discovered after I cut the cloth off the loom.

The first two towels have been cut off and I'll hem them as I watch a football game tonight. 

In The Department of Books -- I finished reading "Less" by Andrew Sean Greer. Hilarious, yes, but also quite moving. I'll be reading more by this author.

A Small Book

Finally got something usable from that double weave warp I've been messing with the past few weeks. It's a book cover for a handmade book. The warp (which runs sideways in these pictures) is mercerized 10/2 cotton at 40 epi, The structure is doublecloth, in which the two layers are tied at intervals. The top layer has a weft of coarse hemp in natural, and the structure of the layer is granite weave (a satin derivative). The bottom layer has a weft of blue cotton/linen in 2/2 twill. The hems are tubular double plain weave with the edges turned in and hemmed. The spine area has closely spaced picks of black weft to delineate where the spine stitching will go. The warp has double black stripes every inch or so, also to help with the stitching positions for the spine. This picture shows the top layer, which will be the outside cover of the book:

And here is the bottom layer, which will be the inside front & back covers:

Here you can see both sides of the cover, after the pages have been added:

The finished book, front cover view.

And a closeup of the outiside of the spine, showing the longstitch binding in brown waxed linen thread.

The main challenge of this project was to indicate the location of the spine stitching in the weave structure, and that was accomplished with the black warp & weft stripes. It made the actual binding process very easy!  

Life Around Here, at the Moment

The numbers are not very good this week, and getting worse. I still have a place to walk, however, and for that I am thankful. 

The sun was peeping around a corner this morning. Very coy.

In my kitchen a new tea cozy has appeared. I love hot strong black tea. This cozy was knitted of scraps of handspun. 

And in the studio, weaving is on pause while I finish some sewing projects. Here is a rather nice pocket on a pair of linen pants. It took me several false starts to get the pockets just right, so forgive me for gloating.

Thanksgiving will be quiet. I'm planning to ignore it, really. That's the best thing to do this year. Next year I'll pull out all the stops. 

Dept. of Books: just finished reading Elizabeth Taylor's "The Soul of Kindness." Very fine. She's one of my faves. Also recommended: "The Wedding Group," "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont," and "In a Summer Season."

Another Monday

It seems to be spinning weather. I enjoy sitting on the back porch with a spindle and some wool, and enjoying these beautiful October days.

At some point the wool will be used for deflected double weave, perhaps like this draft.

My aloe plant has taken off and seems to be thriving. 

When I go outside and look up, I am rewarded with pattern (here with the color removed).

And in the Department of Books, I have just finished reading a novel penned by my neighbor, Joe Epley. It's about the Revolutionary war in the mountains of western North and South Carolina, and entitled "A Passel of Hate." A great read!

A Matter of Scale

You've seen this woven pattern before, dear reader. Clockwise from lower left, 16/2 cottolin at 40 epi and ppi, then 8/2 and 6/2 cotton at 20 epi and ppi, and still on the loom and under tension, black 2-ply handspun wool and orange cotton at 16 epi. Deflected double weave. Each warp tied on to the previous one. 

The orange and black cloth will shrink up quite a bit after cutting off and washing. Patience, patience.

Tonight after dinner this is what I saw out the back door. A nice reward for the day's craziness.

This has been a banner week for book arrivals here at the home place. I don't know where to start!

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. 

I See the Moon

I see the moon; the moon sees me
Under the shade of the old oak tree.
Please let the light that shines on me
Shine on the one I love.

That's the version we used to sing around the campfire at Girl Scout camp, and I'm sticking to it.

I look at the sky a lot these days. It's the one vista I have here that is limitless. 

Here is yesterday's morning sky, just before I set out for a walk. It did not rain on me, I'm happy to report.

Also yesterday, for some reason there were more than the usual number of fungi around the trees. This was the most humongous one I saw - it was about two feet across. 

For some reason it was the same colorway as the Covid Diary VIII just finished. That was purely accidental. Or was it?

I'm now up to the eleventh in the diary series. Here is the beginning of Covid Diary XI on the loom. It's more somber in tone than its precedents.

I attended a virtual watercolor workshop this week and brought in some flowers to draw. They lightened the mood. Bruce and I enjoyed photographing them, and then I did a few (unremarkable) watercolors. 

I had much more fun messing with Photoshop. My days of designing for the TC-1 (jacquard) came into play here.



In the department of books, current reading includes John Barry's The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. On the same topic, Katherine Anne Porter's Pale Horse Pale Rider. Also La Peste by Albert Camus in English translation as The Plague. That concludes my pandemic-themed reading for a while. I'm now reading some historical fiction about the American Revolution, which I'll report on later.

Now back to the loom, as soon as we deal with a smoke alarm which went off in the middle of last night. False alarm. But lost some z's. 

Misadventures

Way back in the last millennium I wove some pieces based on the printed word, a nod to my interest in font design and page layouts. I decided to revisit this study last week. The structure was to be double plain weave on the dobby loom and I started by weaving some small samples for determining sett & yarn choices. I wanted to use cottolin for its scrunchy texture, similar to my favorite sketchbook paper. One of the weft yarns was a red cottolin of uncertain provenance. After washing, I had an unpleasant surprise. The red yarn bled badly. Glad I sampled.

The sample on the left is at 24 epi each layer, total 48, and the one on the right is 20 epi each layer, total 40. I liked the looser one best, so that is what I chose. I warped up with pale gold and chocolate brown. I made a number of threading errors and had to redo several times. It was a humbling experience, but it took my mind off the news. I finally prevailed. Here's a view at the back of the loom after warping. 

Fortunately there's plenty of warp for more sampling. I discovered a sleying error (see red arrow) and had to resley the righthand section. Um, that's an error you expect to see in Weaving 101. Bad doggie.

Got that sorted out. Tried some different weft colors & materials. 

Settled on pearl gray and dark green. I was going for the look of old ledger paper, and I think we're there. The turquoise lines are a nod to margin rules.

So far so good.

Just finished reading Camus's The Plague, in English translation. I think I read it before, in college, but I don't remember any of it.

Morning Light

When I go into the studio first thing in the morning, sometimes I see this:

The light is so alluring that it's impossible to leave, and I just have to sit down and start throwing the shuttle.

The weft in this case is a melon-colored cottolin, a shade of yellow very different than the acid yellow in the warp. It's just enough of a difference to show the pattern in the center area, but it's not overpowering.

Sidelighting enables you to see the pattern more clearly. 

In other matters, I've just learned that Janet Phillips's new book, Exploring Woven Fabrics, is now available at a pre-publication price. I love her previous book, Designing Woven Fabrics and I'm looking forward to this new one. Janet has a genius for combining simple weaves into complex-looking fabrics. More info here. 

Corrections

Fans of Amalgamation: you've been generous with your comments and corrections. Please check the sidebar, under Other Stuff, for updated errata files. I hope there won't be too many of them! 

And now moving on to the next warp.

Eight shafts, amalgamation, cotton, 20epi. Stay tuned.