Weaverly

Catching Up - Double the Fun

Things didn't work out as planned on the dobby loom. Instead of tied weaves, I elected to weave some samples of double weave, not tied, with various structures on the separate layers: plain weave, various 4-end twills, 8-end satin & granite, and did I say plain weave? 

So here are the results so far, in no particular order.

 

 

As you can see, I'm having beaucoup fun, and there's no end in sight. All this Photoshop stuff (see Liftplan Connection in sidebar) is making me glad I have this wonderful new desk chair. It's much kinder to my body.

And then there are the evenings away from the computer & loom. That's knitting time. The following photo is courtesy of Bruce. 

The sweater is finally finished. It's this wickedly ingenious pattern from Sarah Swett:

https://www.afieldguidetoneedlework.com/store/p22/A_Sweater_--Somewhat_Slanted.html

And in the books department, I just finished reading William Boyle's Sweet Caress. Enjoyed this! Eight stars out of ten.

 

A Tree Fell in the Forest

...and I didn't hear it...

...because I was in the studio tying on a double warp to a dummy warp. 

I've just woven the first couple of inches, but it seems to be working OK. This is a deflected double weave on 8 shafts. The red is 8.2 unmercerized cotton, and the natural is a wool/silk noil blend from my stash.

The idea here was to create an asymmetrical design in deflected double weave. This will improve a lot after washing, I expect.

The other loom is naked, a sad state of affairs in my life, and so I've been doodling with a new draft. This will be tied double cloth on 16 shafts. The idea is to have warp-effect twills on both sides with opposing diagonals. Here's a screen shot of the face:

And the reverse:

There's still a lot of noodling to do, but it's a start.

And news from the Department of Quarantine: we're finally out of confinement.

Reading Material

Happy to report that I am this issue's cover girl. My article on double twill is the culmination of many years' work with this structure. I began researching double twill as a jacquard weave way back when Bhakti & I were writing The Woven Pixel (see sidebar). My fist major piece resulting from the study was this ice skater in 2006. She still hangs in my studio.

Last year I completed the following commission in double twill, six panels wide (a hexatych?), total 81".

I wrote an article on my research to date on double twill for jacquard for issue 113 of the Complex Weavers Journal (Feb. 2017). After that I changed course and focused on double twill for dobby looms, culminating in a workshop and another article for Complex Weavers Journal, issue 115, pictured at the top of this post. I still love the structure and I hope others will be stimulated to try it.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Other reading material: I just finished reading the most extraordinary novel, Restless by William Boyd. It's a spy novel but so much more. Very topical, too. Read it! And I'm just in the midst of Improvement by Joan Silber. Another winner. Trust me.

Happy Holidays, all. 

Cheer up, the days are getting longer.

 

A Gathering

The Complex Weavers Southeast Gathering, the brainchild of Leslie Killeen and Leslie Fesperman, was held this past weekend at the Yadkin Valley Fiber Room in Yadkinville, North Carolina. Complex Weavers members from North & South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia attended. It was a resounding success, and I hope it will spark the genesis of many more such gatherings. It included a Friday visit to Indera Knitting Mills, dinner at Herrera Vineyards, Saturday morning lecture on double twill by yours truly, informal Show & Tell and some serious loom time Saturday afternoon, and a Sunday morning lecture by Leslie Killeen on creativity and Leslie's vest creation process. The seventeen attendees, including volunteer assistants, combined and recombined in many informal discussion sessions, and the ideas flew back and forth at warp speed. Here are just a few quick snapshots from the event.

Thanks to the two Leslies for their vision and hard work, and also to the volunteers who made this event such a joy to attend.

More Jacquard Photos

You've asked for more photos from Friday's presentation of "Woven" at the Poinsett. Bruce was my best ever date that night, clad in handwoven vest, and carrying his ever-present camera. He graciously provided me with some of his photos. Les voilà!

And here's a favorite of mine: an architectural detail of the Poinsett Hotel. Thanks, Bruce.

 

Save

"Woven"

Last Fall I was approached by representatives of the Northeast Georgia Health System who were planning a 65th anniversary celebration and were looking for a weaver to establish the theme of their conference, held at Greenville's historic Poinsett Hotel. I agreed to participate as a weaving demonstrator at their meeting, and also to create a wall hanging for them, based on one of their core values, stewardship of the environment. The completed work, "Woven," was introduced last night and met with a very warm reception! It will find its eventual home at their Georgia headquarters.

When the weaving first came off the loom last December I laid it out on a bedsheet on my deck to see how it all went together. It's constructed of six jacquard woven panels to be hung side by side, just touching but not actually connected. The image is based on a photograph I took while hiking in the woods and is constructed in double twill. Click to enlarge.

At last night's celebration, it was mounted on a temporary frame with spotlights. Here is a snapshot during cocktail hour, to give an idea of scale. The total piece is 81" wide.

While the conference attendees were gathering, I was posted on the mezzanine giving a weaving demo on my very portable Wolf Pup loom. Here's an interesting view of the loom, with the featured hanging just visible in the upper left corner of the photo.

To emphasize the theme of the conference, the organizers had created this label for the weaving. The label will be included with the piece when it reaches its final home.

A big thank you to the Northeast Georgia Health System for including me in their meeting and honoring me with this commission.

Related articles

Weaverly: From Sheep to Blanket

Coverage

Weaverly: Birds and Other Matters

Save

Birds and Other Matters

Yesterday morning the birds were more joyful than usual. Here's some birdsong to brighten your day. It certainly brightened mine!

Back in the studio, I'm shuffling the colors around in the 3-weft rotation in double twill. You saw the first version in this post; now here's the second version. Instead of red/gold/purple, I'm weaving gold/red/purple. It makes a huge difference. This is so much fun!

 

Rethreading

Totally bored with the current warp, I embarked on a rethreading, with a different block arrangement. I had to stay within the 40 heddles per shaft limitation of this loom (changing out heddles is NOT a job I take on lightly), which meant going to a narrower warp. I was willing to sacrifice a few inches on each side of the warp to achieve this. I just let the unused warps dangle out the back on each side of the warp beam. They don't interfere with anything. Those pill bottles hold assorted nuts & bolts and serve as the weights on the floating selvedges.

And here is the new threading, still alternating navy/white arrangement, but with a different block plan.

The 3-weft rotation is peach, gray, and forest green. Double twill. Click to enlarge.

Related articles

A Strange Architecture

Another Colorway

I liked the outcome of the bidirectional sample so well that I decided to repeat it in another colorway. This is double twill with an orange/yellow/green rotation in the weft. Click to enlarge.

It was time to change the block arrangement. I kept the same color rotation and started a little dots-and-dashes action.

 

 

Related articles

3 Wefts

In Which We Rearrange the Blocks

Save

Bidirectional

A few days ago I experimented with changing the directions of the twill lines in certain blocks of double twill, and now I've started to weave samples of these drafts.

In addition to changing the drafts, I've also altered the colors of the three wefts I use in a constant rotation. In this version, they are now terra-cotta, pale brown, and teal blue (instead of the previous red, yellow, & green). The three new wefts are used with the original blue/natural warp rotation.

Results shown above. Click to enlarge.

Save

Save

Save

Related articles

3 Wefts

Compare and Contrast

A Simulation

An Addition

Weaverly: From Sheep to Blanket