Weaverly

Assorted Treasures

I believe a Bunched Arrowhead has been sighted. Very excited to have seen this.

Also on this morning's walk at the Preserve a fine display of tree fungi. Stripes anyone?

This past Wednesday I had the good fortune to accompany friends for a stroll at the garden of Jane and Boris Bauer. These gardeners have in 40+ years started and nurtured the most marvelous display of magnolias, over one hundred varieties, as well as other regional plants.

 

The array of colors and subtle differences in tone & shade among all these plants was inspiring to me. I am very grateful to have seen this wonderful garden.

Also inspiring, although totally unexpected, was an array of "expired" camellias under a bush. You never know when a new color scheme will jump out at you.

Back in the studio I stitched a label onto a recently completed blanket. It's just in time for the 21st birthday of a super terrific person.

In the Department of Books: finished reading Hugo Hamilton's The Speckled People. Recommended!

New Beginnings

"New beginnings" is too many words, or, as Bruce suggests, superfluous, or again, redundant. Just plain "beginnings" would be better. But Typepad doesn't charge me extra for too many words. So I"ll leave it for now.

My favorite story of the week: Fernando Alonso, at age 41, has just signed with Aston Martin in Formula 1 racing, and achieved a podium position in Sunday's race in Bahrain. It's never too late to begin again! 

Bridges can take you somewhere new. Here are two of my favorites.

I saw this fellow from the bridge. Think circles. More to come.

Back at the studio, another beginning. A new warp. A collection of 10/2 cottons from my ever-dwindling stash

My adaptation of "Conestoga," a traditional overshot draft. Four shafts. Tabby weft is brown 16/2 cotton. Pattern weft is handspun 2-ply Icelandic wool from my stash.

Circles. I never get tired of the surprise of being able to produce circles from a 4-shaft loom. Click to enlarge. The Icelandic yarn is poufing out nicely. Click to enlarge,

Complete change of topic. In the Department of Books, I just finished reading The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland.

Another Cutting Off

On a morning walk at Bunched Arrowhead Preserve, we were surprised to see the meadow areas burned off. The burn was recent, as there were barely signs of green shoots emerging from the affected places and the smell of smoke was strong.

We plan to check again in a week or two, and by then the picture will be totally changed. 

Down at the lake the usual complement of strollers was multiplied fourfold. I don't know if it was a special meeting, or if the moms & children were just taking advantage of the good weather. I guess you could call it a Parliament of Strollers.

Back in the studio, the double woven blanket warp is finally approaching its end.

Yup. Time to cut off.

There was enough for two blankets, so I just cut it in half and hemmed both pieces. No fringe. Surprisingly there was only small area that needed mending. No other blips. No broken warps in the entire project. Warp 100% handspun wool and wool blends. Weft is Harrisville shetland yarn, purchased. Here is a back porch snapshot after washing.

Take-up & shrinkage warpwise and weftwise 8%. Finished size of each blanket 58"x50".

I love seeing yarn pictures blown up really big, so here are a couple of pictures from my scanner, at 1200% of actual size.

Don't you just love wool?

And by pure chance, I promise, I have just finished reading Peggy Orenstein's Unraveling: What I learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater.

Cut Off

On the lime green warp, I was able to weave up to the bitter end. Here is a view behind the heddles. Can't make a shed if you get any closer than that!! There is just enough warp left in front to tie onto. More about the new warp later.

I usually warp back to front, which means that the end loops are free to slide around on the warp apron stick when the tension is released, so I add artist's tape around the stick to stabilize the old warp during the tieing on.

Meanwhile, I'm seeing stripes everywhere today, both indoors... 

...and out.

The three scarves were cut off, washed & ironed. The tencel yarns have a beautiful drape. 

I opted for a plain fringe to showcase the yarn, and left it rather short. This had the added advantage of letting me eke out three scarves from the 6-yard warp.

I used floating selvedges.

Interesting to note: the broken twill is less drapey than the straight twill. That figures, as the floats are longer for straight twill (maxfloat3) than for broken twill (maxfloat2). 

In the Department of Books, I have just finished reading Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk. A little bit of sly humor, a lot of political satire, and a compelling evocation of life and death on a fictional Mediterranean island during an outbreak of you know what. Heavy going at times but worth it.

 

 

 

Giraffe Day

There are a few accidental convergences here today. The following two I offer with no additional comment.

And transitioning from blocks to curves, this beauty caught my eye again. The black swans are very tame and they are a treat to watch as I walk around the lake.

The following draft is one I did years ago and posted. It was created according to the principles of network drafting. It has caught the attention of other weavers and I occasionally see it reposted on social media.

Time to get it woven! Here is a brand new tencel warp on 16 shafts. The structure is 1/3 and 3/1 opposing twills. I call it Giraffe.

In the Department of Books: I have just finished reading The Magic Kingdom by Russell Banks.

Round & Round She Goes

Still working on making a dent in the stash. These are all handspun yarns. Four chains, six yards long.

At one end is a raddle cross and at the other end is a threading cross.

Round & round she goes.

Somewhere in the middle are a few choke ties.

And then the fun begins. At the top of the following picture, where you can't see it, is a raddle, clamped to the back beam. After the warp is all wound onto the warp beam, the warp will be flipped over the back beam in the proper direction. The following view is from the inside of the loom, looking toward the back.

This is still the back of the loom, now seen from the outside. Rear-hinged treadles. The lease sticks are in place behind the shafts, ready for threading. The plan is for two doublewoven blankets. We'll see what happens. I am always open to course correction. :-)

After a few errors I am too embarrassed to tell you about, here is the front of the loom, finally threaded, sleyed, and ready for weaving. Whew! Time for a cup of tea.

In the Department of Books, I have just finished reading The Pages by Hugo Hamilton.

Warm Fuzzies

The three scarves are finished, cut off, washed, and steam pressed.

I got lucky with the center stripe, which was so tight on the loom, but after washing turned out to be the loosest part of the warp.

In fact, it has a sort of seersucker effect, which I rather like.

All handspun warp & weft, mostly wool. Broken twill blocks, eight shafts.

_______

In the Department of Books, I have just finished reading Paula Byrne's wonderful biography of one of my favorite writers, Barbara Pym, The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym. Now I must go back and re-read the Pym novels!

 

Third Scarf and Some Observations

Raining again! This makes it hard to focus when what I really want is to be outside on the Trail. Time to close the blinds and get to work. No whining.

The third and final scarf on the handspun warp is nearly finished. The inequity of tension in the center stripe is very apparent here. It is because a different breed of sheep was used in the lighter striped section of the warp. I am hoping everything will even out in the wash. It was a great leap of faith to use these all together and I may reap the rewards of my impetuousness pretty soon. We shall see. When you have this many birthdays (as an optometrist used to tell me) you are bound to encounter these problems. 

The weft in this scarf is three very fine handspun strands plied together. Two are silk and one is camel. It's about laceweight. I love this yarn. Click to enlarge.

If you peer underneath, as all three scarves are now rolled up on the cloth beam, the tension inequity is obvious. Am I going over Niagara Falls in a barrel?

While all that drama is playing out on the loom, I continue to doodle on the computer. Following is a page of recent explorations for 8 shafts. 

And in the Department of Books -- 

I recently started a booklist with two sections: books I have read in 2023, and books I want to read in 2023. Then I lost the list! Not off to a very good start. My hope is that when the sun eventually comes out the list will reappear.

 

Reset

After a major sorting and unskeining & ball-making week, fully intending to get started on a double width handspun blanket, I switched gears. I found that I had more lightweight (approximately sock-weight) yarn than I had thought, and not as much blanket-weight yarn. A reset was in order. I warped up my 8-shaft loom with handspun odds & ends at 12 epi. There's enough here for perhaps 3 scarves. The first two photos were taken by artificial light.

The weft for the first scarf is a mixture of wool and Angelina. You can't quite see the sparkles, but believe me, they are there!

The next photo is by window light. For some reason it shows the texture better. The structure is blocks of broken 1/2 and 3/1 twill.

When all the sock-wight yarn is finished, then I'll see how I feel about the blanket project. Change is my middle name.

Seeing Red

These pictures are all the same red. Funny how the ambient light conditions make such a difference.

Well, here we are at the end of the red warp. It's been on the loom for many months, but I just got around to weaving off the last few inches. It is four different yarns: three red-family cottons of various grists, and one tencel. They were warped together four strands at a time but threaded in random order. The threading is rosepath:1,2,3,4,3,2,1,4. The tie-up a straight 2/2 twill order. The treadling is point twill: 2,1,2,3,4,3. The weft is pink slub cotton.

I cut it off New Year's Eve morning. 

I washed & dried it New Year's Day. The front & reverse are very different. I prefer the side with the little cats' paws. Click to enlarge. There's about 2 1/2 yards, enough for a short summer pullover blouse. When I get around to it.

In the Department of Books:

I just finished reading  Dennis Duncan's Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age. Fascinating. Bibliophiles will love it.

Also read: Alan Furst's Kingdom of Shadows. I don't know how to categorize this book. Spy novel? Historical Fiction? Crime Noir? Or maybe just a damn good read.