Weaverly

Towel Parade

The nine little towels are finished and I arranged them on the ironing board for some high quality photography (just kidding). 

Here's a group shot:

Now here's a tricky one that my iPhone calls "portrait mode" with a theatrical spotlight. Oops, the lighting director didn't aim straight.

Well, enough of that. I'd really like to show you an entire towel so you can see the patterning. 

Amalgamation, 16 shafts. Click to embiggen.

What If…

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.

Variations and a Jacquard Sighting

Here are a few more weft variations. The first one is a cream colored (more a pale café au lait), and the second a bright yellow. Both give good contrast to the dark blues & greens of the warp.

It's getting close to the end of this warp; I think there's enough left for a runner of indeterminate length. I've cooked up a small repeat pattern for a striped effect, which turns out to look like teardrops. The weft is a medium dark gray and the pattern doesn't pop out as strongly, but click to enlarge and you will get a better idea.

I'll close this post with a jacquard sighting from this morning's appointment. It's much more cheerful than most waiting room upholstery.

Two More Wefts

These will be fingertip towels; did I mention that?

Such a quaint word. Who ever dries just their fingertips anyway? Maybe they will wind up as table napkins. Mine are never square, so the family is accustomed to rectangular napkins. Sometimes even trapezoidal napkins. But that's another story.

First the green weft. Here it looks golden yellow, but I assure you it is a moss green.

And then this morning a yarn that has a little more color than natural undyed, but not much. It's a sort of linen color, or maybe coffee with a lot of milk.

And a closeup. This weft doesn't add as much drama as the more brightly colored ones, but I do like the way it shows up the pattern better. I used to think I was a color person, but I think my true nature is coming out. I'm a pattern person. Period.

 

A New Weft, a Vote, a Nap

Each of these little towels will have a different weft. You can see the previous weft underneath, heading for the cloth beam. Today I tried a blueish pale gray.

After a most satisfactory visit from our plumber, we headed off to County Square to vote. Age hath its privileges. 

Then I washed the yarn I spun during the World Series and put it on the deck to dry. Maggie picked a nice sunny spot for her afternoon nap.

My, that looks comfy. I think I'll go take a nap now, too.

Doubling Your Fun

With apologies to the chewing gum ad of xx years ago.

What I love about amalgamation in weaving is that it doubles the apparent number of shafts on your loom. Each one of the motifs in this cloth would have required 16 shafts, and to stack them offset like this would have required an additional 16, total 32. But with amalgamation, I am weaving this on 16 shafts total.

I'll be writing more about this topic in the days to come. Click to enlarge.

Amalgamation––Early Samples

The calming effect of a new warp. Warping is one of my favorite activities. The feeling of the warp slipping through my hands is delightful. 

The start of a study on amalgamation. Close relative of network drafting. 

 

More Interleaving

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.

Interleaved, Again

After I finished the most recent scarf on this warp, I had a computer failure. It was a very old laptop and in the words of my late mother-in-law, "it didn't owe me anything." Fortunately I had another old, but functional laptop waiting in the wings, and after some minor software skirmishes, I was back in business and weaving another scarf.

This warp, as you may remember is end-and-end yellow cotton and bright pink buttonhole silk, with an interleaved threading.

For the weft on this new scarf, I chose bright orange bamboo. The cloth shows incredible iridescence, so I am showing it to you here from several angles. 

Frankly, I was surprised that this particular combination worked so well. I still have a lot to learn about iridescence. 

In other color news, the gardenias at my side door are blooming madly. This New Jersey girl, even though she has lived in the South almost 50 years, still can't get used to bushes that bloom in October.  Bless her heart.

Revisiting Amalgamation

While waiting for the rains of Tropical Storm Michael to wend their way through my part of the state, I've fortunately got power, and have been revisiting an old love of mine, amalgamation. The following studies are all achievable on 16 shafts, although they look like more. That's why I find them so fascinating. 

They have a close family connection to network drafting. More to follow.

Click to enlarge.