Weaverly

Stashbusting With a Vengeance

I got out pretty early yesterday, and my reward was the especially wonderful morning light. The Muhly grass at the gardens exploded with pink.

A few last coneflowers bobbed their heads.

Stripes, anyone?

Or perhaps these:

Now on the the stashbusting. My accumulation of handspun wools and wool blends has grown to alarming proportions over the past 50 years. I'm embarrassed to even show you a picture. 

So here's what I did. I'm going to weave a blanket in four strips, each one composed of two 4-yard warp chains, all handspun. Here are the eight warps:

The first two chains on the left in the above picture were warped onto my Nilus II loom. 

I plan to weave them off in plain weave, in random shuttles-full of handspun weft.

The weights I was using on my tarp-clip temples were too heavy, so I substituted smaller weights:

And now all is well. The clips are holding the web out to the exact width of the warp in the reed. Selvedge bliss!

So far, I haven't had any warp breakage and the actual weaving is very pleasant.

I hope your weaving is going well today. I'll be thinking of you.

A Garden Visit

With the return of good weather, we had the urge for a road trip yesterday. We drove to the University of Georgia, State Botanical Garden of Georgia, in Athens, GA. What an amazing place! There are miles of trails and multiple themed gardens. The Heritage Garden is the star, with its many regional plantings and displays.

Hanging long-necked gourds. A real show-stopper.

There were masses of this 5-ft. tall perennial in bloom: Tradescantia virginiana. For your information it's otherwise known as Common Spiderwort. I much prefer the scientific name! There is nothing common about this beauty.

Back at home the first towel on the halvdräll, the one with the red tabby, is finished.

For the second towel, I'm using the same hemp pattern weft, but this time with a gold cotton tabby. It's subtly different.

For a long time I've felt the lack of adequate lighting in this room, particularly when it comes to threading heddles. I purchased a strip lighting kit and installed lights under the castle. Here's what it looks like with the strip lights on in an otherwise dark room, kind of Halloweenish.

Rolling with the Punches

Saturday early bird. Sunrise. It's a much cooler time to take a walk.

In the studio, the doubleweave on 8 shafts has been cut off and washed.

Now I am tying some 30/2 linen onto the remains of the warp, in three different color areas, to do some color sampling (I first replayed to 28 epi in an 8 dent reed).

I really wanted to use a temple, but the prickly ones do not play nicely with my loom, so I have gone to the homemade variety with tarp clips and weights. It's working great. Here is the left selvedge:

And the right selvedge:

Another walk. This time a surprise! Well, life will throw you some curves. Let's see where this one leads.

Backpack, water bottles, and cell phones left under this tree. No one else is in sight. There must be a story here. 

At the Sustainability Center the zinnias run rampant, even though the wildflower field has been mown down.

Hibiscus buds hoist against the sky.

 

Friday Entertainments

Getting in a walk is a little tricky when it gets hot so early, but I did sneak in a stroll around the lake a couple of days ago. Lucky me--the lilies in the koi pond are magnificent. 

Back in my studio I did some doodling with networked rose path. Do you catch that segue?

Here is the initial.

And here is the resulting draft, treadled as drawn in, with four different 16 shaft twill tieups. Click to enlarge.

Here's a closeup of a single iteration.

Now about that word iteration. What I actually mean is a single repeat, but if it's single, it's not a repeat, right? Any help here, English majors?

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. 

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. 

When It All Goes South

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.

Super Monday

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.

We're There!

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. 

My apologies to all who have asked how to subscribe to my blog. Short answer: I don't know! Typepad has been singularly unhelpful in solving this conundrum. Meanwhile, I ask that you just bookmark me. And please post comments, or send me emails! I love to hear from you, and I usually answer within a day or two. I've been blogging for over ten years, and my stats tell me that you are out there. Keep in touch. And happy weaving. 

 

Slippage

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.