Weaverly

Coptic Stitching

Over the weekend I took a break from weaving and printed a huge stack of up cycled papers on the gel plate with found objects (odd stamping tools, puzzle pieces, etc.). I used these to cover some boards (also up cycled) and had a fine time sewing up these two coptic bound books. It feels so good to be working with books again. I really missed the practice. I love everything about making books—the tools, the materials, even the smell of glue.

There's always something appropriate in my button stash.

A good time this morning with the bread machine. It's cooling on the rack and still too warm to slice. I invented a new recipe and taste will tell. But I give it good marks so far for not having the dreaded dip in the middle and no ski slope either. Spoiler alert: it includes a tablespoon of cocoa powder.

Department of Books

Just finished reading The Chateau by William Maxwell. Not as wonderful as some of his others, but nevertheless worth reading. I love this author.

I may go to the bell ringing this evening. Or I may stay home and read. 

Find Your Best Cow

I am frequently entertained by the language I hear in yoga class. We in the class understand exactly what Kelly means when she says "Find your best cow." But if a stranger were to walk in off the street, they would find this uproariously funny. 

Another funny yoga expression is "cactus your arms." Sharon and Joy and Herman and I and the others understand this perfectly. But that hypothetical stranger would certainly wonder. For starters, who knew that cactus is a verb?

OK, enough of that. Here is my Thanksgiving loaf. It was gone in about 20 minutes.

And here is my walk in the woods. A tree really did fall in the forest. Right across my path.

On the loom, some samples of Summer & Winter weave. 

 

Signs of hope in the ever-changing  Department of Houseplants. It appears that my Christmas Cactus may actually bloom this year, for the first time since 2019.

Just finished reading The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos. 

Also finished reading They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell.

Tempting Fate

My dear 16 shaft dobby loom, which I am trying to sell to make more room for other pursuits, does not seem to be attracting any buyers. I am now tempting fate by putting a new warp on it, the theory being that as soon as I start a new project, someone will snatch the loom out from under me. It has happened in the past, so why not again?

I'm tying on to an existing straight threading. I've developed a wonky version of huck that can be woven on this threading and I'm eager to try it out. The warp and weft spots are sort of offset from each other vertically and horizontally and separated by a bit of plain weave. If you happen to use a two-color warp and two other colors for weft, there will be four different and distinct float colors. 

Stash reduction is the goal here. I was able to empty seven or eight partial cones of 10/2 cotton on this chain. The color order in the warp is random and I will be using a single shuttle for weft, so my colors will be hit or miss for this adventure.

The warp is 10 yards long, and I was very happy to have the use of these weights to make the beaming go smoothly.

The bitter end.

And now the weaving has begun. My weft is pink cotton thick & thin yarn, and perhaps I have enough of it to weave off the entire warp. I think by assembling multiple panels of stripes in interesting ways, I can get a garment out of this. The fabric should wash up nicely in an interesting bumpy texture. Stay tuned.

In the Department of Books, I have just finished reading Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life by Brigitta Olubas. It's a biography of one of my favorite writers.

A Bit of Stashbusting

I wanted to show you this picture I snapped a week or two ago down at the lake. I've been saving it, and I can't figure out how to incorporate it into a weaving-related narrative, so I'll just show it to you here. Because I like it. So enjoy. 

Now back to the business at hand. The new warp is wound onto my 4-shaft loom, and it's about time. There were many calculation errors, and I still didn't get the count right, but after multiple tweaks to the threading draft, it is now weavable. 

The treadling is very easy to memorize, so I am plowing ahead with this one sans electronics! 

In the Department of books, I have just finished reading Donn Tartt's The Goldfinch. It's a remarkable coincidence that this novel deals with the same subject matter as the previous book I read, Laura Cumming's Thunderclap: A memoir of art and life & sudden death. Both are wonderful in their own way.

Blue. Not The Blues, just blue.

It's funny looking up at the sky. A skyscape, unlike a landscape, has no horizon. 

If you look down instead of up, it's easier to orient yourself. It's also easier to keep your balance.

Going indoors now. Here's the most recent lampas, cut off and roughly hemmed. 

And now by artificial light. But it's all lampas, with handspun wool (and sparkles) pattern weft. 

Now starting another lampas on the same warp. This one with two different pattern wefts in a (more or less) orderly sequence.

The brown is handspun Corriedale, and the gray is a combination of merino and Qiviut. 

In the Department of Books:

 

I've just finished reading Thunderclap: A memoir of art and life & sudden death by Laura Cumming. 

 

Puzzled

I've been raiding the puzzle cabinet across the street for some orphan jigsaw puzzle pieces that have lost their original boxes. What wonderful shapes! And sizes! I took a baggie of them home and glued them to cardboard, and have been using them as stamps in gel printing.

 

Here are some of the prints drying on my kitchen counter. They are printed on both sides and are the right size for binding into a small book. That will come later.

In the yarn department, some merino has been spun and plied, and will shortly get a warm bath.

 

A Tiny Book

Here's a little landscape oriented book (3"x 6") made from of scraps from a larger book. The cover is several layers of cereal boxes glued together, covered with gel printed paper. 

The pages are trimmings.

The endpapers are gel printed.

And just this morning, I spotted this butterfly perched on some scraps of plastic in a weed-filled lot. As I approached, the creature fly off, which was not surprising. But he/she kept going back to the plastic. Now I assume there was no nutritive value in the plastic, so what was attracting the butterfly? My only guess is that the bright colors were the lure. A creature after my own heart.

 

Just finished reading (for the second time—the first time was as a college freshman, while procrastinating about studying for exams) Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. Not his best, IMHO. I can't remember why I loved it so much as a young person. 

 

Getting My Ducks (and Books and Other Stuff) in a Row

You may have wondered what has taken my so long. Well, I have been getting my ducks in a row.

In addition to trying to enjoy the beautiful fall weather, I have enrolled is a few Zoom classes to sharpen some skills.

One of them is a book making class taught by the always wonderful Ali Manning of Vintage Page Designs. 

My class project took advantage of some crinkled brown wrapping paper rescued from a yarn shipment. I painted the paper with watercolors and tried to iron out the crinkles as best I could.

This was a perfect opportunity to review my coptic spine moves, something I've neglected in recent months. The signature wrappers were also rescued from the scrap pile. I didn't buy a single new thing for this book! Extra points.

I also cut off the Daldråll pieces from my 4-shaft loom and spread them out on the porch floor for some quick snapshots. This is the version with Black Welsh Mountain handspun as the pattern weft.

And here is my variation with some unknown handspun, probably Romney, as pattern weft.

I much prefer the black version.

Back on the porch, my Christmas Cactus (mother plant and daughter just beside her) are enjoying their summer outdoors (thank you, Ruth!). It will be a shame to have to bring them indoors in a month or two.

In the Department of Books, just finished reading Seven For a Secret by Mary Webb. I was quite surprised to learn that there are at least six other authors who have written books with this same title, and probably many others. This one is--to put it politely--a little dated, but I did enjoy it.

The View From Here

Did you ever get so stuck that it's just better to start over?

That's what happened to my beloved Monstera. She was my companion for four years, but it was just time to move on.

I need a weaving break. Today is spinning day. This will eventually be plied.

It's wool and Stellina from Paradise Fibers. Quite a bit of glitter. 

And in the kitchen, a loaf of multigrain bread, just out of the oven. Wheat, rye, oats, millet, & a variety of seeds. Olive oil. Sugar. It's totally vegan. Just sayin'.

Also on the kitchen counter, I'm saving these for the nice person who gave me the flowers. He wants the seeds for next year. 

And in the Department of Books:

Just finished reading I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai.

Local Color and a Taste of Sweden

Some recent colors of the season out our way. Not fall yet, but almost. 

We have an unusually large waterfowl population this year. They are quite tame, and vocal too.

If soft and fluffy is your game, you only have to look up.

In the studio, some spinning activity this week. Wensleydale yarn hanging to dry.

At the loom, I was unhappy with a project on my 4-shaft loom and decided to rethread. Two days later, here is the result. It's a modification of a draft I found in a Swedish weaving book, (Daldräll, Thomasson/Andersson, translated by Becky Ashenden, Vävstuga Press). The original draft goes by the name of Dalkülla. 

Daldräll is what we English-speakers call overshot. My warp is natural cotton, pattern weft handspun Black Welsh Mountain wool, tabby weft is turquoise cottolin. Click to enlarge.