Weaverly

On Lockdown

My activities while we're on lockdown are the same as usual, only more so. That translates to increased weaving time. Lucky, lucky, lucky.

You may recall that the fabric being woven here will eventually become a bias-cut pullover. I will be using this pattern by Sarah. I've used her patterns before, and find her to be a very dependable guide to sewing garments from narrow handwoven fabrics.

But first I had to make a muslin, to check the fit. I had no muslin on hand and a trip to the fabric store is a no-no right now. I did, however, have an old bedsheet. It's an incredible cotton/linen jacquard, too good to get rid of after its useful life was done. Over the last couple of days I made my dummy garment out of this, and it fits perfectly. In fact, it's so nice that I will be wearing the muslin, even after the handwoven version is done.

I've also been finishing up the teaching warp on my rigid heddle loom. I may want to put another warp on this loom soon, and have to be ready for action when the mood strikes.

Then there is always the daily walk. As you can see, I am maintaining social distancing.

So are they.

Be careful out there, y'all. Be mindful, be kind, and be grateful for the work of your hands.

Done and Done

An end of warp situation. This warp was tied onto four times. It's time to bring it to an end. The following two views are behind the heddles.

After cutting off the red warp, there was fabric for 2 bento bags and six smallish table napkins (I guess they're called luncheon napkins, although what luncheon means any more is up for grabs). I took the napkins immediately to the sewing machine and did up the hems.

Then I washed them and ironed them. I am now ready for my next luncheon.

The bento samplers are a little more interesting, a hodgepodge of weave structures and scraps of yarn from partially emptied bobbins. The were such fun to weave. Here they are after washing & ironing. The sewing will come later.

At OLLI we had our final rigid heddle class. So sorry to see it end! What a congenial group of weavers. At times we were the noisiest group in the building, and at other times you could have heard a pin drop, so focused were we on our work. Weaving does that to you.

Back home in the Weaverly studio, I am preparing for a sewing project. I've thrown away all my old paper tracings, because I'm not the same shape as I used to be (gravity is at fault), so I've starting making new ones. There's not a lot of worktable space, but in a pinch the floor will do.

In the department of fowl, around the lake this morning there was this:

And out in the larger world, Brian Stauffer has really nailed it on the cover of this week's New Yorker:    

More Origami Bags

This morning I sewed up two more origami bags. You can see a previous bag in this post. It's gone to a new home. The sister bags hung out for a while over a living room lamp, and then went outdoors for some more pictures.

They are especially handy as knitting project bags, carryalls for a trip to the library, or the farmer's market.

The warps are all the same. The weft on this one is black...

...and on this one is blue.

The weather this week has been crazy. First there were torrential rain and flooding, lots of mud, then a dusting of snow, and yesterday temps in the 70's. Today is cloudy and warm, and I was able to get out for a walk before the expected rain. My favorite tree was surrounded by ducks and geese, and a light dusting of children covered its branches.

Thoreau's Cabin sat in dignified isolation. 

A Passel of Towels

The idea behind this grouping was to see how many structures & patterns I could weave on a straight threading on 16 shafts. The answer of course is "many." I worked out several huck designs that repeated after eight iterations, and some twills that were simulations of 9-end point threadings. There are also some overshot borders. 

The hanging loops were woven on an inkle loom, using the same yarns in the towel. Here's a huck towel with an overshot border...

...and a closer look.

I was so busy at the loom that I didn't notice it was snowing outside (this was Friday) until Patti called me and told me to look out the window. That's what weaving does to you! But I do take occasional breaks. Here's the lake on my Saturday morning walk.

There was a huge flock of birds circling overhead. They were so high that I couldn't tell what kind they were. But I was glad to see them anyway, and I stood and watched for several minutes. Standing in one place and looking up is quite a balancing trick, I've found. It's especially hazardous if bicyclists are zipping by. But no harm came to any of us.

Origami Bag

Some recent short woven pieces are becoming origami-style bags, or what are now termed "bento bags". Do a search, and you will find hundreds of examples and instructions galore on the net. These bags are really easy to sew, and quite useful around the studio (and at the grocery).

The requirements are simple: a piece of fabric three times as long as it is wide.

The asymmetric stripes in the warp take on interesting relationships after the folding.

In the book department, I just finished reading a pretty good police procedural, Peter Robinson's "Aftermath." Fair warning: lots of blood and gore, but the characters are well developed and the story cleverly plotted. Take this one to the beach. Summer will be here before you know it.

Observations, and a New Warp

Many of the areas around the lake are left rough to encourage local plants and wildlife. 

Leaves like this always tempt me to apply my old Photoshop techniques, even though my TC-1 is long gone. I'll just have to find other ways to weave them. More about this later.

This morning there was en entire bush covered with butterflies. It took my breath away. Here's a blurry snapshot of one of them with my phone.

I pass this field every morning. Yesterday the men's lacrosse team was practicing. The wildflowers run rampant along the edge of the field.

The past few weeks I have been noticing an interesting yarn at my LYS. It's linen & cotton wrapped tightly around a core. I couldn't resist touching it at every visit. I finally relented and bought a few skeins. My loom was empty at the moment, so I warped up and gave it a try. Surprisingly difficult to work with, has a mind of its own. At 12 epi it's a bit stiff. I'm hoping it softens up after washing. But I do love the look of it. It's intended to be a scarf. But there is always Plan B...

What the Inside of My Head Looks Like at the Moment

Click to enlarge (if you dare). I'm getting ready for a studio sale, which will be held on Saturday, April 27, from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. If you're within driving distance of Upstate SC, please stop by! Lots of fantastic bargains. Yarn, hundreds of knitting & weaving books, small looms, sewing machines, sewing supplies, patterns, finished weaving & yardage, and did I say books? If you'd like location details, please email me (click on link in sidebar).

 

Thread History

In The Big Cleanup, I've now gotten to the sewing part of the studio. There are three large bins of sewing thread, and some decisions must be made. I'm going to put most of the thread in one bin and offer the whole thing for sale as is. If I were to sew eight hours a day, it would take me a hundred years to use up all this thread. What to keep? The newer threads, those on the tall narrow spools, are probably in the best condition (I'm told thread deteriorates with age). So tall narrow spools go in the keeper box.

The majority of spools are the fatter ones, and these fall into two major categories: plastic spools and wooden spools. Remember wooden spools? They used them way back when telephones had cords and milk came in bottles.

Now here's an interesting discovery. Half a dozen of the wooden spools are wound with short sections of various threads in different colors. Can this be? It appears that I've kept not only my mother's thread stash but my grandmother's as well! Granny was very frugal and never threw a usable piece of thread away. If she unpicked a hem, or pulled out a basting thread, she wound it onto a spool like the one pictured above. A wooden spool, of course. 

With each new discovery, I send my love, I say goodbye, and then move on. 

 

Seven Little Pillows and How They Grew

With my rigid heddle students I try to stay one step ahead. I don't have much experience with RH myself, so it's a challenge, of the best kind. This past month has been all about honeycomb weave. I seem to have amassed a lot of samples, which in turn have become pillows. This morning I finished stuffing the last one. Here's a quick group portrait on the ironing board.

Most of these yarns are handspun, so there's a bit of stash-busing happening too.

The Better-Behaved Warp

The turquoise warp is behaving better as it nears the end. Who can figure these things out? Here is an amalgamation sample with a magenta cottolin weft.

Meanwhile, at OLLI, the rigid heddlers are learning a triple zig-zag stitch for joining narrow woven panels. I've never heard the room so quiet!

A nice sunlit patch in a corner for better visibility:

Aha! Success.

And this morning, yet another weft, this time yellow cottolin, on the turquoise warp. Yes, it's still amalgamation, but with a very short repeat in the lift plan.

A closer view.