ozweaver – Page 43

A New Direction…

August 2, 2015 | 1 Comment

It’s less than a week until my son’s wedding! I have finished my projects, but I’m still deep in lists– lists for everything we need to bring to the wedding– a list of what I need for myself as well as what I’ve promsied to supply for the ceremony…..lists for meals before the wedding, and a list for what I need to host the wedding brunch at my son’s new house the day after the wedding.

Meanwhile, I can’t help thinking about weaving projects. I’ve gotten precious little weaving done on the small tapestry I started onboard late winter this year. What I have done on it has been quite fun–lots of swirling water and the beginnings of the tentacles of a Portuguese Man of War. Very soon I will have my first attempt at pulling the warp around the loom so I can continue weaving up the warp. I’m more than a little anxious about this, but once I’ve done it I hope it becomes something I can count on doing. It will allow me to have smaller looms on board if I use this kind of warp. Check out my new attempts at holding my cartoon in place–a small, very powerful magnet. These little magnets will jump right out of your hands to fly together they are so strong. And a very large paper clip. Neither is a good solution, but I muddle on.

And I’ve been planning my next floor loom project. It’s so hard to choose what to weave when I have so little time at home and so many ideas. I think I will weave yardage in Plaited Huck (same structure as my recent linen tote bag). This time I will make a warp of tussah silk in natural (sort of a pale oat color–not shown in the photo because the cone is the size of a small loom) with random stripes of several silks from SanJo that are also cool natural colors, but matt–no sheen like the tussah. One is smooth, another is boucle and the third has wonderful dark flecks in it. The weft will be golden tussah, in the center of the photos. It will become yardage for a top I hope to make…

But here’s my NEW DIRECTION–all caps because I am very excited about this! At this time of year for the past 3 years— the threshold of late summer–I have become rather anxious and a bit cranky (might be an understatement) that my weaving time at home is rapidly diminshing. This year I have even less to show for myself than previous years… sigh…

Yesterday morning I was looking at some messages on Ravelry and then clicking on various links to other things. Isn’t that the recipe for suddenly losing half a day? Following various links on Ravelry, a site for knitters, I stumbled on Laverne Waddington’s website about backstrap weaving. Here is the first photo that caught my attention.

Are these not WONDERFUL??? A little voice is saying to me: Are these not exactly what you’ve been wanting to weave??? Book covers and handbags. The little voice again: That’s why you’ve woven and sewn two tote bags in the past year. That’s why you took a class on making paper forms for handmade books…..you can do this….YOU can do this on a boat!

Look how Laverne personalized these book covers with the initials of the lucky friends who will receive them!

There are lots of small bags on Laverne’s site too, and lots of simply beautiful pick up designs. Go take a look!

Oh, be still my heart! I think backstrap weaving might be a wonderful new direction for me. It will fit on the boat. It will satisfy my need to weave somewhat complex cloth. It will allow me to continue my new interest in making book covers and handbags. It is taking all my willpower not to make a loom right now… I must stay focused on the wedding for 8 more days, then I can come home and get started!

Funny how things come to you when you need them. I’ve known of Laverne for a number of years now. She and I are in a number of the same online groups. I see her stuff on these groups now and then and marvel at her beautiful weaving. It just never occurred to me until now that this type of weaving may be the perfect solution to weaving onboard.

It’s summer and I’m thinking about Linen…

July 20, 2015 | Leave a Comment

There was a recent post on Facebook that linked to a May 16th article in the New York Times about the two brothers from Pennsylvania who wrote The Big Book for Flax. Most anyone who attended Maryland Sheep and Wool festival a few years ago saw them there, selling their beautiful coffee table book about linen when it was first published.

The article points out the hardships these two men have faced in trying to build a commune where members would work together to live off the land, including growing flax and spinning and weaving it to make their own clothing. Their lifestyle is modeled off the colonial Moravian communities that settled in this part of Pennsylvania a couple of centuries ago.

I’ve never been certain how well flax grows in the US. I know Sara von Tresckow has good success in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Her website boasts a flaxcam, although I did not see live video of flax growing!–truly like watching grass grow! Instead there is an interesting photo essay of the whole seed to harvest process. Sara spins and weaves with her homegrown flax. I loved her solution to the volatile weather that the midwest gets each summer. She cordons off her fields with baling twine to help keep the plants vertical during a blow or a thunderstorm. Now that’s an attention to detail and a labor of love!

Last year I met a woman from New Hampshire who demonstrated flax preparation at the Bushnell Farm in Old Saybrook as part of an annual historic festival of ‘life on the farm’ in our area of the Connecticut River Valley. Gina Gerhard brought locally grown flax from New Hampshire along with all her tools for demonstrating the whole process from harvest to stricks that are ready to spin. I described the whole process last year in this blog post.

Still, I can’t help thinking that flax is easier to grow in northern Europe where the weather is more reliable, where the light is gentler for softly bleaching the fibers to that perfect silver.

Linen is such beautiful fabric that I have always wanted to spin it. I have made a few attempts in the past and have enjoyed it. I have a few spools of wetspun linen waiting to be plied and then utilized in some way. I have a lovely image of myself in a simple handwoven jacket–where I also am a perfect size 6. It’s always fun to dream….

Last week at NEWS I saw some beautiful linen stricks at the VavStuga booth and couldn’t resist buying one. It has that beautiful color that I associate with flax from Belgium or Netherlands. Now I wish I’d bought two–or three! I can’t do much with 4 oz!

Then today I stumbled on a link to a beautifully done vimeo video on current European flax processing. After seeing so many demonstrations and videos of traditional techniques for retting, breaking, scutching and combing flax it was very interesting to see the same processes done by machine. It still appears to be a low impact way of using a natural product–far less environmentally challenging than most cotton. Check it out.

And there is a sequel that includes some high tech applications for using linen in the automotive industry, for sports items such as bicycles and surf boards, and even for fishing rods! There is exciting information in this video about quite innovative uses for linen and flax fibers, and yet the mechanics of processing flax are fairly basic compared to other high tech fibers. Fascinating!

There is about 25 minutes of video here, and all my words. I think I’d better stop for now!

Whirlwind Tour of NEWS in a Summer that is Zipping Past

July 19, 2015 | Leave a Comment

This year I decided against registering for NEWS, New England Weavers’ Seminar. Instead, I thought I would make a day visit and include some good friends from my old stomping ground in New York and New Jersey. I would give them a little taste of NEWS just before their own regional conference, MAFA (Mid-Atantic Fiber Association) began.

Here we are at the end of the day….a bit worse for wear, but so happy to be together and to have been so inspired by all the exhibits at the conference.

We had a terrific time at NEWS, although I did feel a twinge of regret when I saw that Margo Selby was offering a class in double weave. Take a look at the work she exhibited in the faculty show. Who wouldn’t want to study with her??

Maybe I should start with the faculty show… This is Barbara Herbster’s work.

This is a repweave table runner by Lucienne Coifman from my own guild in Connecticut. She is a superlative teacher, and someday I hope to study rep with her.

The Gallery Exhibit is always exciting, and I was particularly excited this year! I won 5 awards for my tapestry “Sunset on Wilson Cove.” It is most likely the last time I’ll exhibit this piece so I was pleased that it had quite a swan song. The three awards that blew me away are “1st Place Tapestry and Transparency,” “Judges’ Choice,” and “Peoples’ Choice.” I am thrilled! The other two are “First Time Entrant at NEWS” and “Best in Tapestry from the Textile Arts Center.” Can you tell how happy and surprised I am!

We all loved the upholstered footstool right below my tapestry, woven by Susan Wright. What great use of color. It’s a beauty.

This stunning runner caught all our eyes. Ruth Buchman manged to create a threading that is mirrored but gives such sense of assymetry. Then her color choices were superb–greys and blacks with just the right touch of yellow that also gave a strong impression of assymetry. So the piece has a calm balance in color and weave struture while also giving the impression that it is not symetrical. Brilliantly done!

This is another of Ruth’s pieces in the gallery exhibit. Stunning doubleweave.

This is Sarah Fortin’s double weave fabric. I have no idea how she gets some areas to pleat and rise off the flat surface of the background fabric. Beautiful colors and beautiful weaving.

This piece by Suzi Ballenger is stunning! It has silk cocoons attached to it and the weaving was done with her open top beater tool that allows you to move warps, which creates the warp undulations in the fabric.

This fun–and beautiful– bag, called “Take Me Shopping” is by Karin Borden.

There was also a special exhibit of Mary Merrill’s tapestries woven over the decades from the 1950s when she began weaving until her death in the 1999. Her family generously shares her work at gatherings like NEWS. Look how fresh and lush her colors and her shape making are in these two works. This was when I wished I could be at the conference for the entire weekend, so I could come back and visit more than once!

I’ve only been to NEWS twice now, and both times I have to say that my favorite displays are the guild tables. Unjuried though they may be, the work is excellent, and both times I’ve been so inspired that I simply cannot take it all in.

Each guild chooses a theme for their display. This year one guild did textiles inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, another displayed projects woven by one of their members who has passed away, and another guild woven projects based on personal memories. There was a guild whose inspiration was gardening. I have a photo of a curtain called “Spinach and Blackberry Salad” from that display. Our guild did a display of handbags based on the project that Area 4 did last year of weaving lunch bags and matching napkins to coordinate with a mug that belonged to someone else in the group. It was a grab bag choosing of mugs, and then you designed and wove the lunch bag and napkin to give the member who owned the mug you selected. It was such a wonderful way to weave for someone else, and it honed our design skills along with our weaving skills. My lunch bag was not part of the display since I gave it away last summer, but I have been so intrigued with making bags lately that I submitted my newly finished large tote bag for this display. My photo makes the bags look like a bit of a jumble, and the lighting was harsh. It was actually far more striking than it looks here.

Connecticut Guild’s display of Area 4 lunch totes and handbags.

The Frank Lloyd Wright display.

I think the next image may have been from a picnic themed project, although if so, I missed reading the details of what this group’s theme was. Lovely weaving!– a basket tote and a handwoven band for your stawhat.

“Spinach Salad with Blackberries” from the gardening inspired display.

Stunning tableware woven by Jo Ann Miner.

None of us supported the vendors as we should have. I hope they fared better with other visitors. I was looking for some fine silk to add to my upcoming project for plaited huck blouse fabric, but no one had what I needed. I have some fine tussah silk from my stash as well as some silk I got last summer at Convergence from a vendor called “SanJo.” I want to get the warp on sometime in August so I can get the fabric woven in time for a workshop in October with Sarah Fortin on sewing with handwoven fabric.

Why am not tackling that warp sooner?– BECAUSE we have our son’s wedding in less than three weeks! I am feeling rather confident about my two wedding projects–the ring pillow is done!

And here is my wedding outfit. The blouse is a vogue pattern for a boatneck tunic sewn by a wonderful seamstress in Amston, CT. I then embellished it with silk ribbon embroidery to coordinate with the brown silk pants.

Want to see a closeup? I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’

And to top off the outfit I am having some ballet slippers embroidered by a woman in Altanta who has an Etsy shop called AJuneBride. My shoes will look something like this.

Well, I let this get absurdly long so I’ll stop for now even though I had lots more to say… next post.

Memories of Lace Weekend….

July 8, 2015 | 3 Comments

It seems like a year ago that I spent a wonderful weekend at the New England Lace Retreat in Wareham, MA–but it was mid-May–just 6 weeks ago.

My photo makes this house look rather imposing! It was actually very inviting, full of lovely antique and vintage furniture. Those two large windows on main floor of the front are two generous ‘parlours’ where our classes were held. To the rear was a large dining room where we had our meals. For three meals each day someone would ring a bell to invite us to gather in the dining room. My bedroom was on the 3rd floor, the window all the way to the left in the photo. Since my room was in the corner it also had a side window with a lovely view of the pond. This house sits right on the the bay side of Cape Cod. It is quite a spot!

There was a wonderful glass enclosed porch at the right side of the house (not visible in my photograph) where we could congregate to work on our projects. Some people chose not to take a class and spent their time on the porch working on projects they brought with them from home.

During the weekend I learned a bit about Idrija lace from Allie Marguccio, who also gave a stunning presentation on her apprenticeship in Slovenia. In this photo our revered teacher, Allie, is the top most person on the right. Can you find me in the topmost left?? My good friend and amazing lace mentor, Mary, has been obscured behind two heads on that top row with me. Mary! She has the patience of Job with me, and she is a very accomplished lace maker. I’m sorry you cannot see her. A number of the women in this photo are in my Ct. lace group, and they have all been very supportive of my lack of knowledge! What a great group of women, and what a great weekend we spent together!

Here are a few photos of Allie’s work in Idrija lace. Be prepared to be stunned!

I’ve never seen a lace covered box before. And how about this lovely heart surrounding a flower and the necklace in progress on Allie’s pillow?

You really need to see a close up of the heart project! This project is a good example of both the wide tapes and narrow tapes used in Idrija lace. The wide tapes are made with whole stitch and the narrow tapes are linen stitch.

What intrigues me most is using this lace to adorn clothing.

With that in mind, I am making a small project that can be used to edge a neckline. I don’t think I’ll ever use this project on a garment, but it has been a good learning exercise.

That is my new bolster pillow for making Idrija lace, and my new bobbins which are bigger than the bobbins used for the types of lace from northern Europe. I am enjoying working on a bolster. And here is a close up, showing why this project will never be used on clothing. It’s not ready for prime time….but I have learned a LOT!

As you can see, Idrija lace is a tape lace, using linen stitch for the narrow tape. The tapes get connected with ‘winkies’– a new term for me–which are loops that get ‘sewn’ together. “Sewing” is the term used when you take one bobbin’s thread and put it through the loop of its partner bobbin. You can see ‘winkies’ where the tapes are coming close together. Not something I can show here, but if you are a lace maker you will know what I mean!

Allie’s husband Tom makes the bolster pillows which are stuffed with sawdust and are quite heavy, and he turns the pretty bobbins. Allie makes the cotton covers. You can find them both here.

Allie share with us a good website for ordering traditional Idrija patterns from Slovenia. So many patterns to look at, you will need a couple of hours to peruse them all. I have ordered a number of patterns for embellishing clothing, and I hope I’ll be ready to tackle one of them when they arrive!

6-Block, 8-Shaft Plaited Huck Tote Bag

July 6, 2015 | 2 Comments

The draft for this pattern is from a workshop Laurie Autio gave our guild in fall of 2014, called “Designing for Block Weaves Using Twills as Profiles.” In the post I wrote I about this I called it a ‘blended draft’ which Laurie says it is NOT! So I’m not certain what to call the procedure of taking a twill circle (1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5…etc) and using that sequence as a profile draft for plugging in a different weave structure, such as huck.

Here is the plaited twill draft that was used for the profile:

Here is the draft. The huck draft of little sections of 5-thread repeats that create either a weft float or warp float are threaded according to the twill pattern above. There has to be a better way to say this, and when I find it I will rewrite!

I wanted a subtle woven huck fabric so for the warp I used three very close colors of 2-ply wet spun linen whose weight is a bit heavier that 16/2 linen. I’m sorry I cannot say exactly what it is. I have a large stash of unlabeled linen cones of linen and silk cones from a dear weaving mentor, and none of them are labeled!

WARP
Laurie recommended that I give the McMorran yarn balance information about the yarns I used. I have never felt confident in trusting this little device. When I perform the procedure on the same yarn multiple times I never get the same number! My three warp yarns gave me a range of yardages from 1325 yards per pound (ypp) to 1750 ypp. They are slightly different grists, so it is conceivable that their yardages would be somewhat different, but a difference of over 400 ypp is a bit untrustworthy to me. And here is another reason that it is hard for me to trust this little gadget! My cones of linen are thicker than 16/2 Bockens linen, yet they also look like they have less twist. That might make them lighter weight in spite of looking thicker. Yardage for 16/2 linen is 2700 ypp, and my ‘thicker’ yarns ranged from 1325 – 1750 ypp.

I made the warp by holding the three yarns together, separated between my fingers. I put the spools on a spool holder and ran the yarns up to a hook in the ceiling and then down to my finger tensioning technique. I made a 1 x 1 cross since the yarns are a little hairy and I didn’t trust having adjacent yarns in the same cross. My warp was sett at 12 epi, and sleyed 2-per-dent in a 6-dent reed. The warp was 25″ wide and I used my Baby Wolf for this project. The pattern repeat for this draft is 30 threads. At 12 epi with 10 repeats I needed 300 warp threads, which was 10 pattern repeats across the warp.

WEFT AND WEAVING
The weft is a single ply linen that is rougher than the warp. It has lots of thick and thin areas, so I think the McMorran yarn balance will be even less accurate. I measured three times and averaged my findings for a result of 1900 ypp. I wove to square the pattern. After weaving the necessary yardage for the front and back of the bag, I wove plain weave to the end of the warp for the handles and the top of my lining.

FINISHED FABRIC
I wanted the front and back of the bag to be roughly square before doing the box corner at the bottom. I have a tote that I made from commercial fabric that I cut 24″ square to begin and I love the proportions of that bag. I knew I would not get a finished fabric 24″ wide on the Baby Wolf, so I thought I would just use whatever width I did end up with for making my size determination. After washing the width of the bag was about 20″. I put in cutting lines (two plain weave picks in a contrasting yarn) after weaving 24″. I thought the shrinkage would be greater lengthwise than in the width, but my cutting lines ended up longer than my fabric was wide. If I had not woven in these cutting lines, I could have changed the proportions of my bag. With the cutting lines I put in, the bag became somewhat taller than it is wide.

This photo was taken after I machine washed the fabric on a normal setting and set outside to dry. You can see the cutting lines and where I switched to plain weave (at the top of the photo) for the handles and part of the lining. I used a commercial linen fabric for the lining; it is brown/tan/black plaid that you can see in the little loop for the button in the next photo.

SEWING THE TOTE BAG
You can use the directions I wrote for the smaller tote bag that I made last summer, changing the size of the pieces you cut to match your fabric, roughly 20″ wide by 22″ long.

For this particular bag I used the directions below. After some thought (and because I did not have enough handwoven fabric!) I decided to omit the zipper that is detailed in the beginning of this video. I am now happy that I decided to omit the zipper since the bag opens wider with only a button and loop closure. The contstuction method for this bag has different order of sewing the pieces than my written instructions from the previous bag, and I just loved having the handwoven fabric at the top of the lining. I think that is more professional looking.

Author name: ozweaver

A New Direction…

It’s summer and I’m thinking about Linen…

Whirlwind Tour of NEWS in a Summer that is Zipping Past

Memories of Lace Weekend….

6-Block, 8-Shaft Plaited Huck Tote Bag

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