Weaverly

Nature Abhors a Naked Loom

I guess you can figure out what's going on here. Two warp chains, incorporating colors from my cotton stash.

Spread in the saddle, ready for beaming.

Lease sticks behind the shafts, ready for threading.

Threading is finished.

A new warp holds such promise.

First picks. This is halvdräll, something I've never woven before.

Four shafts, very pleasant weaving.

In the books department: I have just finished reading Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light, the third and final volume in her Wolf Hall trilogy. Really wonderful, for so many reasons. Writing style, character development, philosophical insights. Fiber artists should love it especially for the many detailed textile descriptions. 

Finlandia

This is one of the very first books in my weaving library. Publication date is 1960, and I bought it for $1.00 at a used book store in New York! It's absolutely lovely and would probably fetch a fair sum today on the used market. My copy is now well used.

This draft, on page 8, for drapery material, is one I've admired for a long time, but I have finally gotten around to weaving it. 

First I modified the original slightly, to eliminate the doubled long floats. The following picture shows the sample on the loom, in 10/2 mercerized cotton at 24 epi and ppi. The mercerized yarn does a good job of reflecting light from the weft floats. 

I thought the original version, in the book, was actually better, so I rethreaded and wove it with the doubled threads.

I thought it was still too open, and resleyed it closer, and liked this third version the best. The plain weave sections are 2/dent in a 12 dent reed, and the doubled floats are now 4/dent.

Here are all three samples off the loom, before washing (click any of these to enlarge):

And here they are after washing and a light steam pressing:

...and a close-up of the most closely sett version:


Draw-in and shrinkage is about 15%, not surprising. It's a really nice fabric, and would be good drapery material, as suggested by the authors. I think it would also make fine place mats or runners.

The next step is to weave it with a heavier, contrasting colored thread as substitute for the doubled ends. 

Back to Swan Lake

After 14 months of lockdown, we're finally permitted access to the Furman campus again. Hallelujah! I have really missed my almost-daily walks around Swan Lake. This morning I savored every step.

In the studio, I've been taking a hard look at this draft from Pyysalo & Merisalo. I wish there were a way to achieve a plain weave selvedge without additional shafts, but I think it's not possible. If I weave this, I'll have to use the dreaded floating selvedge. 

Local Color

Yesterday was Dye Day at Pat's studio. Here are Patti, Pat, and Ruth about to begin work. Pat is reviewing some basics. Just in case.

A few hours later, the colorful result. Skeins, skeins, and more skeins, and a few warps. We all went home happy. Thanks, Pat, for sharing your studio and your knowledge with us.

Back in the home studio, a couple of finished scarves from one cotton crackle warp, both with the same treadling. On the left, a rayon weft. On the right, handspun cotton. The character and drape are totally different.

I enjoyed this warp so much that I tied on another to the end of it, this one purple rayon and pale green cotton. Same treadling, too. The weft this time is light gray silk.

Bruce and I had planned to go riding out in the country today, to see what we could see, and we were not lucky with the weather. Constant rain. We went anyway. Here is a picture of the iconic Union County (SC) Courthouse, as seen through the front windshield of the car from the parking lot across the street. 

Department of Books:

Recently finished Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, and All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage.

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.

 

A Day for Quiet

The changeable weather is imparting a closed-in feeling and I don't have the energy for a very long walk today. Second best is to check on my houseplants. This one does stripes, and she is very good at it. She doesn't ask very much of me, either. 

A surprisingly pleasant indoor activity is mending. I never used to do much of that, except on sheets and pillowcases, and those I tended to mend with the sewing machine. But my favorite linen blouse, many years old and survivor of numerous washings, developed a hole and I thought, this is the time to learn proper mending. You know, the kind that's like weaving. The trick is to anchor your warp and weft on the margins of the hole, and do your weaving in the middle. I don't think this mend would get any prizes at the county fair, but I plan to improve.

Designing amalgamated drafts is a little like doodling. I may get around to weaving this one. Or maybe not.

In the book department, I read two really good ones this week, very different from each other but both about strong women: The Sheep Stell, by Janet White, and Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons. 

Afternoon at Connemara

Yesterday afternoon we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and drove up to Connemara, the home of Carl Sandburg in Flat Rock, North Carolina.

We circled the lower lake.

I took a detour and walked up to the house to enjoy the view. I was rewarded by this magnificent magnolia just coming into blossom.

Back at the lakeside trail, I spied this I spied this blue thing nestled in a bed of moss. What on earth? A lost jewel? Turns out it was a glass button someone had left in that perfect setting. When I got up closer, I saw that it reflected the trees and sky in perfect miniature. Click to enlarge. 

Home at teatime. Warning: Monstera report follows. The new leaves are now fully unfurled, and are a much lighter green than the older leaves. I don't know if they will stay that way, but the contrast is pleasing. I love this plant.

 

In the studio, bookmaking is top dog this week. I have just completed an online class with the inimitable Ali Manning. What a wonderful teacher! I've done coptic bindings before, but not in this twin-needle fashion. Very helpful. Her cover structure is particularly interesting - just laminated paper, no boards to cut. 

Change, Changes, Changeable, Changing

We are among the 25% of people in the US without terrible winter weather. Nevertheless, it has been very changeable here lately, the skies recomposing minute by minute. 

Even a bit of sunshine breaking through.

Indoors, my Monstera continues to surprise me. I've discovered that the toothed leaves emerge in a very special way: tightly furled, like cigars, not like the plain ones.  It's so much fun to watch them. It takes about five days for one of these to emerge fully. 

When I'm not watching my Monstera, I'm doing wardrobe building. Here's the finished pullover, assembled from narrow strips from the narrow loom. The asymmetry is perhaps not pronounced enough, leading one to think the arrangement is accidentally lopsided. I think the next time I will be more aggressively asymmetrical, so there will be no doubt about my intentions.

I have enjoyed wearing it, however. It's as comfortable as an old sweatshirt.

In the Department of Books, I just finished reading Nell Painter's Old in Art School. Noted historian retires from Princeton in her sixties and goes to art school to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. What a story!

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!