Thoughts about amalgamation this morning. What if…
I'll bump this to the top of the list for my next warp. Sixteen shafts. Click to enlarge.
………………………………………
In the reading department, I've just finished Eli Saslow's "Rising Out of Hatred." Well written, fair-minded, full of surprises, and couldn't be more timely. Highly recommended.
A few more inches on the interleaved warp. The colors are startlingly different depending on the point of view of the photographer and the time of day.
Here is a view from the left, photographed in morning daylight.
And here's a view from the right, in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, I've thrown - almost literally - a new handspun warp onto the rigid heddle loom, and I'm weaving it with a simple pick-up pattern. It's great late afternoon weaving, just at the time of day when my energy level is lowest. In fact, I think I'll go make a cup of tea.
Recently finished reading Simon Winchester's "The Man Who Loved China." Highly recommended! Thanks, Teena, for the tip.
I've been meaning to show you this beautiful item I saw at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe a few weeks ago. It's a 19th century undergarment from People's Republic of China. This finely crafted garment is made of hundreds of tiny bamboo beads and cotton.
The description reads as follows: Male members of the Chinese emperor's court wore these bamboo mesh undershirts to create an absorbent layer between the courtier's skin and his many layers of silk under-robes during long ceremonies, especially during the heat of the summer.
I would have taken the opposite tack: I'd have worn it proudly as an outer garment, over a silk camisole. It's really an incredible piece of craftsmanship. Click to enlarge.
And now let me tell you about the newest piece of equipment in my studio: my electric shears! How did I ever get along without them? They are a boon for arthritic fingers.
We now turn to the book department. Recently read: Canada, by Richard Ford (highly recommended); Lila: A Novel, by Marylynne Robinson (recommended, especially if you like Marylynne Robinson, which I do - it's the third piece of the Gilead trilogy); The Game Player, by Rafael Yglesias (didn't much care for this); and I Remember Nothing, by Nora Ephron (wonderful). It's amazing how much reading you can get done if the Internet and TV are out, as they were here for several days.
It's pure coincidence that I was buying lima beans at the farm stand on Monday, at the same time I was tying fringes on the spooled silk shawl, but the parallel between the colors was hard to miss.
The shawl has been washed and steam pressed. It has a delightfully crinkly hand, probably because of the silk noil weft, and a good drape. There's more than enough warp left for another shawl, but I have to pause a bit and meditate on the color of the next weft. I do have some orange bamboo of the right weight. Hm-m-m.
********************************
In the book department, I've just finished reading River Town by Peter Hessler, a memoir of the author's Peace Corps assignment in rural China. It's a moving account of cross-cultural attempts at communication and a portrait of a country poised on the brink of enormous change. Hessler was assigned to teach English at a teachers' college in Wuhan, a town at the juncture of the Yangtze and Wu rivers. His students came mostly from rural backgrounds, and he witnessed their reactions to momentous events such as the death of Deng Xiaoping, the return of Hong Kong to China, and the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. The narrative is moving and at times hilariously funny. I couldn't put this book down. Highly recommended.
The appearance of Pat Foster's excellent article on Deflected Double Weave in the current issue of Complex Weavers Journal was true serendipity. Pat's work is beautiful and she writes very clearly. Great pictures, too! If you're a member of CW, you can download the Journal here.
Meanwhile I am continuing my explorations in random patterning of DDW. I showed you a sample just started on the loom in my previous post. After weaving off a liftplan of 512 picks, I cut that sample off and sent it through the laundry. Here it is out on the deck for a quick picture before our daily thunderstorm arrives.
First the front. Click to enlarge.
And now the back.
In other news, I just finished reading Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey, a funny, bitter, sad, highly descriptive narrative of life in Bombay in 1971. Fascinating local detail and politics. Mistry, a Canadian born in Bombay (current-day Mumbai), cancelled a United States book tour in 2002 after he and his wife were targeted by security agents at every airport he visited.
After due deliberation, I selected sample number 6, with draft corrections of course, and tied on another warp, this one with peach cotton and burgundy wool/silk, for a longish scarf. It's so loud that I almost have to dim the lights to weave on it!
A closer look:
In the evening, reading short stories of Mavis Gallant.
More about Two Years Before the Mast, which I spoke about in my previous post.
In this book I was particularly struck by the references to textile pursuits. The ship's crew, in rare spare moments, was usually engaged in rope-making and rope-mending activities, the shredding of old rope into oakum (a caulking material composed of shredded fiber and tar), and the making and mending of their own clothing. Yes, by the end of the voyage, our author was actually adept at making his own jackets and trousers! Necessity is the mother of...
I guess this is not a great leap - this morning I decided to tackle the hole in an old hammock with cotton cord and wood glue. I splinted the cut ends with new rope, glued all the knots and joins, and wrapped them with more cord. Then I Introduced a few new cords. It's not pretty, but will give this wonderful old hammock a few more years of life, me hearties!
In the lampas department, I settled on a design with a lot of randomness to it. I think it will be good for clothing. No big dinner plates here.
A thoughtful guest has left an interesting plant on my kitchen table. I love the patterns in this specimen. Does anyone know what it is?
I just finished reading "Two Years Before the Mast" by Richard Henry Dana. It is more than just a glorious adventure story.
Dana, who had just completed his second year as a Harvard student, had been suffering from a weakness of the eyes, and decided to take some time off from his studies. He signed on as a crew member on the merchant brig Pilgrim, "before the mast" (the term "before the mast" refers to the quarters of the common sailors, in the forecastle, in the front of the ship). His memoirs of this trip, based on his daily journal during the voyage, are not just a fascinating description of life on board a sailing vessel, but a passionate call for better working conditions of the crews on such vessels. The Pilgrim set sail from Boston in 1834, sailed around Cape Horn, and did extensive trading in various towns on the California coast. The material on early California history, pre-statehood, is especially revealing.
It's a great read. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down, whether you opt for a physical book or one of the many electronic options. Read this book!!!
I just noticed that the first samples on my new lampas warp look very like little sails. Is it a coincidence or my subconscious at work? Regardless, the primary cloth is a satin-based weave and the secondary is 3-end (jeans) twill.
Credit for the painting of the brig Pilgrim: painter Joe Duncan Gleason 1881-1959.
Today's lampas diary entry is a quotation from Maira Kalman:
Washing dishes is the antidote to confusion. I know that for a fact.
Here's a detail to show the multiple bundled strands of 20/2 cotton used as pattern weft.
And now for something completely diff'rent. I've had these two little pieces on my tapestry loom for weeks. This afternoon was cut-off time, and I finally got to see their right sides for the first time. They've been steam pressed and still have to be mounted. The first one, shown drying on my ironing board, is woven with commercially spun wool weft from various manufacturers.
The second one features handspun dyed Corriedale and gray Welsh wool
From Alice's Journal of Quotations:
Craft and narrative trump concept. Abstraction is a sham.
Quotation attributed to Vivian Swift.
All lampas 24/7.
****************
Just finished reading Thomas Murphy by Roger Rosenblatt. Aging poet confronts life. Moving and hilarious. Read this book.
![Errata for Crepe monograph](<a href="http://weaverly.typepad.com/page16CrepeMonograph.jpg">Download page16CrepeMonograph.jpg (320.5K)</a>){kind=link}