Weaverly

Bread & Books

Finally. A loaf of bread without a sinkhole in the middle. I'm not sure about the science behind sinkholes, but here's my story. For the past ten or fifteen years I've been making bread in a bread machine. It's not that I can't make bread by hand, just that I find it more convenient to throw the ingredients into the machine and push a button. And if it's more convenient, that means I'm more likely to do it often.

I keep track of my bread recipes in a journal, date every entry, and modify as needed. Sometimes I follow the recipes of others, & sometimes I make up my own. My first journal got lost. Very sad. My second journal is filled up, and last year I started my third journal. This is a handmade book. The cover fabric sports a design by my granddaughter (when she was about 8 years old) that I had printed onto linen at Spoonflower. The book itself is case bound. The pages are a paper stash I inherited from my father, who liked to draw.

I love this book and I enjoy writing in it.

The most recent journal entry documents that loaf of bread you saw at the top of this post. As you can see, I declared the experiment a success, and will be repeating the recipe in future bakes. By the way, I get the harvest grains blend and the rye flour from King Arthur.  Click to enlarge image.

Wool, Again

The last time I sat down to spin, after a long hiatus, the motor on this little friend was dead. It went in for repairs and is now back home & working like a dream.

There is a lot of wool here waiting in line. First up is this lovely carded Shetland I bought last year from a local farmer. It will be plied and then go on the loom. That's the plan.

In the department of books, I finished reading Hemingway's first novel, The Sun Also Rises. Apart from a huge dose of misogyny, racial epithets, anti-semitism, and rampant bad behavior in public places, it was an interesting read, especially the passages about fly-fishing in Spain and descriptions of the Spanish countryside. Comments welcome.

A Colorful Life

We're all over the spectrum this week. A visit to the bicycle store for a new flag gave us these zippy stripes. Must try that palette some day: shades of yellow and black and gray. 

Then we visited the rose garden and boat building king, for these spectacular rose experiences:

Willy is doing some more work on the Marsh Tacky. Love that smell of paint.

Back in the studio I've started another towel on the striped warp, this time with a cotton slub in pink as the weft. I'm using the same yarn for pattern and tabby, and it gives a totally different effect.

This tabby, heavier than the usual, is forcing the pattern shots apart slightly, but at an angle, which results in a slight zig-zag effect. 

Now who would have predicted that?

Wednesday Notes

Hello friends. Since we were last together, I've had company:

And I've been to the mountains. It was early spring there.

The old post office is still there, and still in use as a post office. 

I saw some interesting examples of complementary colors on my walks...

And when I got back home I finished another halvdräll towel. This one is hemmed and laundered. Cotton & cottolin. No shrinkage events here.


Up close and personal.

Recently read: Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg, and Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner.

 

Weaving & Unweaving & Weaving

For a while now I've had an urge to use some handspun in a tied weave, & put this project on my 8-shaft table loom. The warp is a purplish wool/lyocell blend and the weft is wool/lyocell in a pastel coloration, which reads as pale green. Every other thread in warp & weft is a super-fine wool/tencel commercially spun yarn.

I didn't like the way the colors looked in person (although they look fine on my screen). I also didn't like the pattern.

So I unwove. Then I went for a walk.

Then I slept on the problem. Then I had breakfast.

I reworked the draft, and wound a new weft on the shuttle. This time it's a gray handspun merino. Although it doesn't look very different on my monitor, in person I like this version much better. 

And I think it will look even better after washing.

Stay tuned.

Stored Energy

For the remaining yard or so of the towel warp, I used an old stash of handspun hemp as weft. This was a singles yarn I had spun years ago and just left it on the bobbin. What I didn't realize was that the stored energy of the singles, not being neutralized by any plying, would create havoc after washing: 

This was a hard wrinkled mess. I was able to iron out the wrinkles with a steam iron, but who needs towels that have to be ironed after every washing? 

Any suggestions short of nuking the towel will be welcome.

On to newer ventures. Another towel warp from the stash.

The structure is halvdräll. 

Revisions

The first scarf from the dobby warp has been cut off and washed, and it has a lovely hand. 

However, I do find the pattern to be way too elongated and the colors too restrained.

Revisions are in order. Here's the current screen in ProWeave.

And I did depart from stash-busting with a purchase of cayenne colored tencel yesterday. I'm using it as weft, and I've changed the design to interlocking circles. What a difference! 

The appearance of the cloth changes dramatically as you change viewing position. 

There's quite a bit of iridescence.

I'm having a good time with this one!

More Spring, a Towel, and a Heddle Vista

Ruth introduced me to a delightful place for a woodland walk just up the road. It's the Bunched Arrowhead Heritage Preserve, and as the name implies it contains a trove of Bunched Arrowhead. The BA's do not appear to be out just yet, but I hugely enjoyed the walk through fields, woods, and swampy parts. Spring!

I cut the first hemp towel off the Nilus warp, gave it a good washing & drying, and took it out on the porch for a photo. The cloth was quite stiff on the loom, but after its bath it feels soft and squishy, a perfect towel!

It's very vain, and wants you to see a few more pictures.

And a close-up, of course.

I usually don't like to cut off the projects one at a time, but I couldn't wait to see the finished towel. There's really not too much loom waste here, just a couple of inches lost to the re-tying. Now it's ready for a second towel, for which I have just enough hemp left in my stash.

On the dobby loom, meanwhile, I just noticed the intriguing arrangement of heddles as seen behind the reed. It's a kind of echo of the threading arrangement, and in certain times of day it looks just like the organ pipes on a large chapel organ. Or so it seems to me.

Moving On. Spring and All That.

First of all a big Thank You to everyone who tuned in to Textiles & Tea. I loved your comments, and I love being part of this great big warm inclusive funny messy community. To those of you who posted comments on my blog requesting publications: Please email me privately (email link is in the sidebar to the left) and include your contact information. I can't process your requests without an email address! 

And now a brief report from the outdoors.

Yes, spring is here, with a vengeance.

The area of the trail that was cleared of fallen trees is slowly being tamed, so that I can get through it without mud up past my ankles. All of this debris will be covered eventually by new growth. 

This pile of old vines and branches gladdens a weaver's heart.

And here's a nod to all you Formula 1 fans out there. I didn't know there were so many of you! 

A new warp is being wound on to the dobby loom. It's wool and tencel, end and end.

What would we ever do without lease sticks?

Beaming on.

Now a few weft samples. 

I finally chose some peach colored soy silk from my stash. This fabric is oddly iridescent. It changes appearance as you walk around it.

I'm seeing people here! That's a surprise.

Textiles & Tea

On Tuesday, March 29, at 4 pm HGA’s Kathi Grupp will be interviewing me via Zoom on Textiles & Tea. The broadcast is free, but registration is required in advance. Here’s how: 

 

Go to https://weavespindye.org, click on Member Programs at the top, then click on Textiles & Tea, then click on March 2022 (pink box), then scroll down to March 29 & you’ll see my picture, then click on Register. You will be sent a link.

 

I hope you can join us. It’s going to be lots of fun, and even I don’t know exactly what Kathi will be asking me. So grab a cup of tea and sign on!