ArgoKnot

ArgoKnot
A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life
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Author name: ozweaver

Precious Materials

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Last week a friend of mine asked if I wanted to join her for the monthly meeting of the Westchester (NY) weaving guild.  They were having a guest speaker; she couldn’t remember whom.  She thought he was a tapestry weaver and a member of the “New York study group.”  I wracked my brain!  I should who this man is!…..but I didn’t!

So I went.  And of course I knew him when he arrived to speak.  It was Stanley Bulbach, who also happens to be a member of the Textile Study Group of New York. I’m so glad I took advantage of the opportunity to hear Stanley speak and to see a few of his rugs in person.

Stanley Bulbach

As many people may know, Stanley spins his own yarn.  I did not know that he does this on a homemade spinning wheel that is based on a bicycle wheel he upcycled for the purpose!  He spins yarn from Lincoln fleece, which is long and lustrous, and when he wants something other than the natural colors of this fleece he turns to natural dyes for additional color.  His rugs really glow, something you cannot imagine from a photograph  They are beautiful!

I know you can’t see his rugs well in these photos, and I’m sorry about that.  Trust me that my photographic ability wouldn’t do them justice anyway.

What I want to say about his rugs is that they have a presence.  Even if I didn’t know that he’d done all the fiber preparation by hand, that he’d created the yarns by hand, that he’d woven the rug entirely by hand…. I know I would still feel the presence of something extraordinary about them. …which leads me to the title I gave this post: there is something precious in the quality of work done by hand with precious materials.
 It shows.

He also spent a good deal of his presentation on the need for textile artists to better advocate for our chosen field.  Of course we do!  I am a perfect example of someone who has not recognized this facet of working in textiles, and since I am so ill equipped to cover this subject I’ll just pass you along to Stanley’s website.

(His photographs don’t do justice to his rugs either)…

Alchemy

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Natural dyeing is still gathering steam throughout the US.  
When we leave here I hope to take some weld and madder with me to start a new dye garden in Essex.

Photo from NYTimes of Sasha Duerr's dye liquors

At the end of summer,  I hope to find some local plums to make Damson gin! (Can you guess I’ve been watching Masterpiece Theatre’s “Marple” while knitting?…the one with Geraldine McEwan!)

And a visit to the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx yielded a day of intense color and a rise in my own creative sap by seeing the glories of spring!

 

I have an armillary sphere in my garden, and now I want to display it like this, on a pedestal, and grow a vine through it!  This was my ‘take away’ gem of the day!


Change

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We are stumbling closer and closer to our move to Connecticut.  We have a buyer for our house in New Jersey, and we’ve committed to a house in Connecticut…..but getting everything to fall into place so everyone involved can move on has been a bit difficult.  It looks like we will be en route to our new home by the middle of next week!  We have been rattling around in our empty, echoing house for a few weeks now.  It doesn’t feel like our home anymore, so it’s time to move on….

We packed my last loom over the weekend.  I probably should have taken some photographs!…but it was too stressful.  I had the strong impression that one of us was going to end up in the ER, so grabbing the camera just didn’t happen.  This last loom is my big Toika, and it had a warp of cotton seine twine on it for a boundweave project.  My dear friend and experienced Toika weaver, Sister Bianca recommended leaving the warp on the loom.

Sr. Bianca advised me to take the beater, the harnesses, and the jacks from the top of the loom, and wrap them all together around the warp beam.  It was a brilliant suggestion!….

….executing it was not so brilliant….. imagine cutting the warp from the front apron and taking the reed out of the beater.  While trying to keep that from flopping about, I then tried to hold all the jacks in place while my husband tried to disconnect the jack-holding frame from the large side frames of the loom.  Where was our 3rd set of hands for this job???  Certainly no extra hands for photos…  At one point I thought the jack frame would surely hit one of us on the head, necessitating a hospital visit, and possibly necessitating a long recovery from head injuries (if not worse).  My husband was not amused at my conjectures.  I wanted to take a ‘time out’ to plan a strategy; he just wanted to get it over with!  Typical male/female disagreement, I believe!

I’m happy to report that there was no loss of life…..or even loss of consciousness!  But I don’t want to do that again any time soon.  If there is to be a next time, I must remember to get more detailed information on how to accomplish this! Advise welcome!

With my looms packed, I have turned to more portable projects.  (Hey, who am I kidding?….I haven’t actually woven in several months, just knowing that I was going to have to pack up those looms.)  Have you seen the swing knitting projects on Ravelry? Amazing!  I’m intrigued…

I did buy the workshop download for learning this technique, but I didn’t want wristlets, or a hat, or socks.  I wanted a jacket!  So I jumped in the deep end of the pool, and really, this technique is not difficult to understand.  There is no reason to do a little project if you really want the big one!  This jacket, designed by Heidrun Leigmann, requires four sections just like this one which I finished a few days ago:

Swing Knitted Jacket by Heidrun Leigmann

As you can see, it is a mitered square with short rows to create the curving elements.  The yarn called for is Noro’s “Flower Bed,” which I cannot find here in the US.  Since it is roughly sock weight yarn, and since I love the weight and bounce of Shetland, I have chosen to use a Shetland-like yarn by  Kauni in a long colorway that runs through the entire spectrum.  Is it too colorful??  Probably.  Do I have the guts to wear something this blinding?  …not sure… but I am enjoying knitting it!  Can I really knit four of these sections without losing motivation?  …not sure of that either!

In other facets of life, when not packing, I have made another “Blooming Gardens” crystal bracelet, along with matching earrings and even a small pendant.  The purple one is for my sister’s very belated birthday.

And lastly, I finished the Nantucket basket that I want to give as a wedding present to a dear friend’s daughter.  It’s only three months late…. that’s actually quite good for me! Now I’d like to make one for each of my own kids!

 

Helena Hernmarck

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A friend of mine invited me to visit Helena Hernmarck’s tapestry studio yesterday.  She had been introduced to Helena through her current tapestry mentor in the mentoring program of ATA (American Tapestry Alliance), and she invited me to join her!  Meeting Helena Hernmarck has been on my ‘list’ for at least a decade.  I have a few acquaintances in common with Helena, and I even used to live in the same town.  But none of these connections had panned out or paid off as the years went by.  Yesterday was pay dirt!

My first exposure to Helena’s work was seeing a photograph of her from what I think was the 19060s, standing in front of her large tapestry of Little Richard.  I was so impressed, but that quickly took a back seat to  the tapestries that came off her looms in later years.  When I bought her book a few years back I saw photographs of her recently completed studio in Ridgefield, CT.  I even knew the man who helped design it, and he promised to make an introduction for me…. Well, everything comes in its own time, doesn’t it?

Helena Hermarck's wall of tapestry wool

What a thrill to see this wall of color in person…. I was mermerized by it almost as much as by some of the tapestries hanging in Helena’s studio.  She has two upcoming exhibitions, one at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC, and one at the the textile museum in Minneapolis.

I have always been fascinated by the weft floats in her tapestries, due to the use of weave structures other than plain weave.  The floats not only give a texture to her work, but also such a saturation of color, making strong highlights and deep shadows.  So effective!  I struggle to convey light and shadow within plain weave…. it boggles my mind to think of also trying to place color with floats as well.  Ever since I’ve seen Helena’s work I have wanted to try this technique of weaving tapestry with structures other than plain weave.

In her current work she is using a double cloth structure that allows her to continue to have floats on the surface of the tapestry, so integral to her way of conveying imagery, along with with the ability to add some structural integrity to the back of her pieces by having a second layer with a weft that can add structural rigidity to the fabric.  By doing this her finished works hang flat against the wall!  Brilliant!

front of back of recent tapestry by Helena Hernmarck

I enjoyed her enthusiasm in telling us about her work, about the connections she’s made over the years.  She is on my very short list of weavers I’d love to study with!  There is a glimmer of hope that this could happen!  She hinted that she might need help winding on a large warp….. I’m there!

 

Not by Bread Alone…

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An odd title for this post, since in fact, I am at a terrible stage in life when bread has been banned.  And I miss it dearly….

…but that title sort of conveys the suggestion that we all do something when we’re not doing what we’re known for doing…. When I’m not weaving, or knitting, or spinning  I cook.  (Cooking has been particularly challenging for me for the past 11 months while I’ve been attempting to eat a low glycemic diet).  Cooking and baking is my default activity when I’m ‘stuck’ in anything in life.  My ultimate cooking guru is Julia Child, whom I was fortunate enough to meet once, along with Jacques Pepin (!!!), for a day of cooking an entire dinner menu and eating the results! I own all her books and have read everyone of them!

Recently I have discovered food blogs!  I know there must be millions of them out there, and many of them must be fairly mundane.  I was lucky to stumble on a brilliant one, Orangette, and I get a real boost whenever there is a new post!  Now I own this blogger’s book A Homemade Life and am enjoying her writing as well as the recipe at the end of each essay.   Each day the temptation to get back to bread (and carbs!) gets stronger and stronger…

Molly Wizenberg's "Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Cake with Glazed Oranges and Creme Fraiche"

This week I succumbed and made Molly’s “Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Cake with Glazed Oranges and Creme Fraiche.”  Oh my.  Luckily I made it for a group so I managed to only eat one piece.  It tasted like sunshine, brilliant and warmly comforting all at once.  Everyone loved it!  Thank you, Molly!

Last night I was reading about Dutch Baby Pancakes. In Molly’s words, “The method for making a Dutch Baby, I thought, is only marginally less awe inspiring than the method for making a human one.” Well, that certainly sparked my interest.  After I saw the recipe I realized it is virtually the same as an old recipe I have from the mother of my childhood friend in Texas, which they’ve always called a “German pancake.”  It is a simple technique that bakes into a magnificently light confection, puffed up like a souffle, that you top with lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar.

Unfortunately, Dutch Baby is not one of the recipes Molly has posted on her blog.  I could give you mine, but this is not a cooking blog.  (Hmmm….my fellow blogger and weaver, Bonnie Claith (aka Cally Booker) has posted recipes on hers….  but I shall refrain.)  I’m certain Molly’s version is better than mine anyway, but I won’t find out any time soon since I’ve already transgressed enough in having the cake! You won’t find the cake on her blog either, but you will find “Bouchon au Thon” (and many other temptations!) which will be my lunch today.  This is a recipe I can make without guilt since the only carb involved is a small bit of tomato paste! Molly says it’s “what France would taste like,” and I look forward to finding out about that!

Molly Wizenberg's "Bouchon au Thon"

Lunch will be served momentarily…..
…okay, so the only connection I can make to weaving is the valentine cloth I made years ago that I’ve placed under the cooling wrack…  Please cut me some slack!  And I didn’t have gruyere so I substituted fresh goat cheese….and I didn’t have fresh parsley so I used dried tarragon instead.  Time to eat!

 

 

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