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.
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.
Yes, we weavers are all glad to have our weaving during these unusual times, but for goodness' sake, if we don't pay attention, it all goes south. The warp described in my previous post had to be abandoned (yes, trashed!) because at the last minute I lost the cross. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. It's a newbie's mistake, and after 50+ years of weaving, I ought to be over that, but I wasn't paying attention. :-( and so on.
So what did I do? I put on my big girl's pants and made a new warp. Similar color. Yarns on hand. And I rattled & beamed it, and paying close attention, inserted the lease sticks in the cross, and threaded the heddles. Here's a view from the back of the loom.
Then I sleyed the reed (my spell-checker doesn't like that word!), lashed the whole mess to the cloth apron, and got the show on the road.
A little testing of various weft colors...
...and of course making sure the floating selvedges are properly weighted (very high tech operation).
Finally some cloth! It's a jeans twill, with 20/2 cotton sett at 40 epi, weft the same. I wanted something close to plain weave for the lightest possible fabric, but with a little networked patterning thrown in, and I think I've got it.
Those are not stripes you see—they are reed marks from the 3/3/4 sleying in a 12-dent reed. I expect them to come out in the wash. Mostly.
Checking the twill angle with a 45º triangle. Pretty close! Almost a balanced weave.
Deep breath. After lunch I will be going for a walk.
This morning I noticed that preparations for Spring are advancing. In the rose garden most of the bushes have been pruned way back.
In the experimental garden the rows of kale and other greens are being readied for a new planting.
Here's a hedge recently pruned. I couldn't resist some Photoshop shenanigans
The forsythia hedge has sprung into bloom, seemingly overnight.
In the studio, steady progress on the slow warp. A few inches each day. It is very calming, especially if I don't turn on the radio.
Whoopee! Patience rewarded. In the new house at last. After a week, we have Internet service. The unpacking proceeds at a snail's pace, but it does proceed. Here is my new studio, in part:
I assembled all the metal shelves without tying myself into knots. Pat, you were right, the cones tend to tumble over, but after putting down bamboo mats, everything's more stable (must order more bamboo mats).
Took a break this morning and did a long walk on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Very cold & windy, but the camellias are in full bloom. The camellias of South Carolina continue to amaze this New Jersey girl, even after all these years.
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There has been some slippage of the schedule. Our house is not complete, and stands in a sea of mud. Moving day was to be tomorrow, but has been forwarded to Halloween Day. Very funny.
Fortunately I have my spinning tools with me, and of course my trusty little rigid heddle loom. One more warp. This is another trial of Berroco Mykonos. Still pretty stiff at 10 epi, but I love it nevertheless.
I finished spinning the roving I started at National Spinning & Weaving Week, and washed the skeins & hung them to dry.
Done. They started out as Malabrigo Nube.
Next I tackled the pound or so of CVM I bought from a farmer in Maine a couple of years ago. This might keep me going until Halloween. Perfect. It will certainly be good spinning during the World Series.
Yesterday the spinners celebrated National Spinning & Weaving Week at the Gazebo in Travelers Rest. What a great time we had! The weather was perfect, and lots of folks stopped by to see what we were up to. The Gazebo is just adjacent to the Swamp Rabbit Trail, so there was plenty of bicycle traffic.
New week, new warp. I wanted to weave more samples of the Tejido Huave technique described in this post. A little more spontaneous, this time. First a diamond.
What's better than a diamond? Three diamonds!
Then I tried something asymmetric, but graphed it out first. The challenge was to avoid any floats longer than 3. Done.
Winding onto the cloth beam.
A closeup. This might be the last warp I put on the rigid heddle loom before moving day. Maybe.
Jacquard sighting! This was while I waited for the elevator. Click to enlarge.
Meanwhile, the outdoors beckons. On this morning's walk I spent a little extra time in the rose garden.
And the waterfowl are always composing and recomposing themselves into elegant compositions. I thought this one looked better in black & white.
I love my daily walk around the lake. Now that it's a little cooler, I don't have to start out quite so early.
Now may I change the subject? Here's a bumper sticker I saw this morning: "Elect a clown, expect a circus." Yup.
How lucky I am to have this beautiful lake to encircle every day on my walk. It's almost two miles according to MapMyRide.
The scenery is ever changing, and there is plenty of wildlife.
Meanwhile, back at the loom, we now have mosquitos. Yes, that's what they're called. You can complete a mosquito in three picks (well, six picks including the ground weave). Click to enlarge.
And more than one mosquito equals a scourge. Other collective nouns I have found for mosquitoes are swarm and cloud. I believe I prefer scourge, actually.
An outdoor weekend, for a change. Sunrift was having a big sale, so we checked it out. This display looked like Tent City, except it had no residents.
All paddles on sale! No excuse to be up the creek without one now.
An evening trip to the gardens to find a new walking trail. Done.
And back home, waiting for the elevator, a jacquard sighting.