Category Archives: Fine Craft

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It’s time for planting garlic, harvesting root vegetables, and brewing up the dyes from summer harvests.  I harvested my weld in June and again in July when we were home briefly, then left it to dry in Bob’s workshop.  This weekend I made the dye solution at a friend’s house.  She mixed up more colors of ProChem acid dyes than I could count!  Three of us had a great time painting skeins of handspun and commercial wool yarns and sock blanks! 

Between gathering in the herbs from the season and making dye, I feel a bit of bewitching power!  Look out!

My skeins drying in the garden

The acid dyed skeins and one sock blank skeined double. Colors used in these skeins are “bright red,”  “cranberry,”      “maple sugar,”
“mustard,”
“saffron,” “moss green.” These are unknown skeins from KnitPicks, possibly “Palette,” and a Knit Picks sock blank of superwash wool/nylon.

Both skeins dyed with weld, with one skein handpainted with “saffron” and “mustard.”  Sadly, you cannot see what a lovely pear green the weld made.  I love it! Both skeins are “Texas” by Henry’s Attic (50% wool, 50% mohair)

Last (and least in my mind), blues, violets and charcoal. This is another unknown Knit Picks skein with a lovely twist.  Merino? It’s fingering weight, about 400 yds per 100 grams.

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I certainly didn’t mean to take a two-month hiatus from blogging, but that’s what happened.  My ancient desktop computer has given up its spirit, and I’ve been using a couple of hand-me-down laptops with software that was not compatible or conducive to posting here.  I’ve missed posting…

Work on the Archie Brennan Project has continued even though I have not been able to post updates over at that website either.  Things are going well, but I’ve had no way to share info!

It’s glorious autumn here in NJ, and I’ve got a busy schedule of weaving.  It’s been great to reconnect with my community of weaving friends after being away so long this summer… seeing the Wednesday Group again, seeing Susan and Archie’s tremendous body of work on display at GAGA in Garnerville, starting a couple of new classes, and reconnecting with my weaving guild and knitting group!  I am taking a bobbin lace class each week, and once a month I travel up to Carmel to learn the techniques of making a Nantucket lightship basket.  All good!

These are tapestry bobbins I ordered from John Moss last June that were shipped to Archie and Susan in NY, so I couldn’t get them until returning from sailing!  Aren’t they beautiful? John does wonderful work.  The two outside bobbins are figured maple.  Can you see the iridescence in the grain?  The second on the left is Osage Orange and the third is Jatoba, also called Brazilian Cherry. It’s wonderful to use beautiful, well made tools!

Rob and Lauren’s placemats.  This is a monk’s belt design from Jean Scorgie’s magazine “Weaver’s Craft” which was a proejct for a small woven handbag.  I did these in 16/2 black cotton with wetspun 8/1 linen for the pattern weft.  The colors are all beachy blues and greens, and there are two of each colorway for a total of eight.  They celebrated their 2nd anniversary in August, which is the traditional ‘cotton’ anniversary.  The warp and tabby weft are cotton, but I couldn’t resist using the lustrous wetspun linen for the pattern!

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I’ve been in some lovely places lately, not weaving! I missed opportunities to weave in the Mystic River, on Cuttyhunk in the chain of Elisabeth Islands, and in Tashmoo Lake on Martha’s Vineyard. I can’t explain why I haven’t been weaving as the days pass. Hopefully I’ll remedy that tomorrow while we sit in Vineyard Haven.

View from the high point on Cuttyhunk.  The church steeple is a United Methodist church, but the list of multi-demoninational services available only mention RC and Episcopal!.. not even a Methodist service!

The 4th of July parade in which everyone decorates their golf carts (the main vehicle on the island) and drives through the island throwing candy at spectators!

In the interim I have been spending some frustrating time fiddling with wifi on our boat with a cell booster a the top of the mast for connection. Nothing is ever as simple as advertised, and as I write I am not connected. I am just making a word document!

And I am attempting to learn to crochet. Actually, I know several crochet stitches and have managed to make trim for my knitted items over the past few decades, but I have never made a crocheted piece. When I visited WEBS in May, I was smitten with the crocheted market bag (made from 8/2 linen), which is finished with a lovely leather handle from Homestead Heirlooms (also now available at WEBS). I chose a dark aubergine leather handle. I am determined to learn this! Thank heaven for the internet because during the brief moments when I had access to it I managed to watch a video on how to do a “Half Double Crochet” as well as how to do a “Back Post Half Double Crochet.” It sure is hard to recognize when I’ve come to the end of a round (would new knitters say this too?), so I’m trying to use a marker to keep me on track. I’m forging ahead….but slowly.  I’m not sure that crochet will ever feel natural…

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The glorious days of summer are here!  I’m spending a quiet week at home enjoying the things I cannot do on a boat!

The gardens are looking great this year, with little input from me.  It’s been perfect weather to sit outside until the past couple of days when the heat drove me indoors and made me turn on the AC.

Our sailing grounds have moved to Eastern Long Island Sound now, but I did not weave on our last trip.  We had guests on board so there was little room for my loom.  Instead I did some crocheting and drop spindling.  We visited the newly built Ocean House in Watch Hill, RI, which is certainly as spectacular as the original structure must have been 100 years ago.

Now I am home alone for a few days, finally using the Toika that I bought from my friend about two years ago! This project will be a set of placemats for my older son and his wife.  The loom needed a lot of tweaking, at least for this old girl who is only familiar with jack looms!  I might be a bit old for learning new tricks, but with Sr. Bianca’s help, I think I’ve got the loom in great working condition now!  I’m a convert to countermarche!

5/2 merc. cotton warp with 8/1 linen tow weft in lots of beachy blue/green colors.  Each set of two will be slightly different, for a total of 8 placemats. The reverse side is quite nice too.  This pattern is from Jean Scorgie’s “Weaver’s Craft” issue 16, Monk’s Belt.

I’m working on the Archie project too and hope to have a new blog post there soon!

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The first dot on the map may be the most interesting!

Bonnie Tarses will be weaving in western Montana, at Flathead Reservation, in a bucolic spot called “The Garden of 1000 Buddhas.”  Through the internet I found this description from a Montana newspaper:

“Visualize a 10-acre garden with a thousand Buddhas to inspire visitors of all faiths to reflect on peace and find compassion and happiness within themselves.”

And now visualize Big Sky country, a peaceful garden for contemplation, and your loom at your side!  Does it get any better than this? The Dalai Lama plans to visit the completed garden in 2011. 

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Late last week I visited Shelburne Falls, Mass, with a couple of weaving friends.  It was open studio week at Vav Stuga.  We had made our plans too late to participate in weaving on the looms, but we were happy to make the trip to visit the town and check out this weaving studio!

Shelburne Falls is known for its “Bridge of Flowers,” and we learned that the bridge has been turned into a small botanic garden, planted with trees, vines, shrubs and many perennials.  In May there is a lot in bloom!  Azaleas, wisteria vines, iris, Solomon’s seal, columbine, poppies….well, I just cannot name them all!  There were plenty of summer blooming perennials starting to bud! 

The Bridge of Flowers was started in the 1940s by a group of volunteers on an old trolley bridge .  For many years it was known as the “Bridge of Weeds.”  It is now supervised by a professional gardener, but still requires the hard work of many volunteers.  While my friends and I walked across, we saw one volunteer hauling numerous wheel barrow loads of black dirt onto the bridge. 

We stopped at WEBS on the way up and had a fun shopping spree!  Their spring sale was in progress, and we each got some wonderful things!  My most exciting purchase was two cones of tencel in complimentary colors to recreate the two-block twill fabric that was on Bonney’s loom when I got it.  That’s the fabric I wrote about earlier this month!  It will be wonderful to have my own version!

On our first evening in Shelburne Falls, we met the business manager of Vav Stuga who happens to be living at the Dancing Bear, where we stayed.  She mentioned that there was one cancelation for Friday, and after a little discussion, my friends agreed that I could take the spot!  Lucky me! So while my friends toured the town on Friday morning, I wove at one of the looms!  It was a rep weave project in colors that were just perfect for both my kitchen and my family room!  I loved the studio (sorry, no photos…but you can check out the website! I was too busy at the loom!), and I enjoyed weaving in this setting!  Now I hope to visit again for one of the week long classes.  Becky (owner), Susan (business manager) and Celeste (apprentice) do a wonderful job of creating a calm setting with lots of good weaving energy.  The studio and living spaces make you feel like you’ve just entered a Karl Larsson painting!  It’s lovely.

Here’s my runner!

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It’s full spring now, and I have just treated myself to two weaving trips!  I feel decadent, and it is wonderful!

First was a two day workshop and evening lecture at Jockey Hollow Weaving Guild, which is in a beautiful part of New Jersey, just west of Morristown.  This is horse country with lots of historical, colonial sites…not that I visited any of them since I was busy weaving!

The workshop instructor was Ruby Leslie from New Hampshire, and her class was titled “50 Ways to Weave Your Color.”  Seventeen students each got a warp from Ruby in the same colors but different color sequences with different weave structures.  We then had a very organized round robin of weaving over the two days.  It was great!

Huck Weave with dark weft on a shaded warp

Advancing twill on a different shaded warp with dark bars between the color changes.  Woven with a dark weft

Bumberet.  Lots of variation here.  Warp stripes in bright colors on muted background and weft, or more subtle colors when the bright colors sections are not raised.

Color and Weave Pinwheels, using multi-colored warp instead of just light/dark. Weft also shades through the various pinks/terracottas and the various greens.

Asymmetric plaid, woven either in straight twill or plain weave.

Double weave, with color striping and dark weft.  There were two versions: one in cotton and one in tencel.

There were 17 looms, with six weave structures to try, so there were three each of 5 structures (bumberet, huck, adv. twill, plaid, color & weave) and two looms with double weave.  Everyone went home with six samples and some of us went home with 7 or 8 eight samples.  It was extremely well organized!  Ruby will be teaching at Convergence this summer, and I’m sure her students will be happy they chose her class!

While Ruby has lived in New Hampshire for many years now, she is originally from Queens.  She made a comment that she likes to receive tiaras from her students as a light hearted reference to her ‘royal’ roots.  One of the students really outdid herself by making Ruby a felted tiara late at night after the first day of class had ended! 

Ruby in her felted tiara!

News of my second weaving trip to follow!

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There is so much stuff going on here that I’m on a roller coaster that vacillates from highs of excitement to lows of panic when I think major things are falling through the cracks and I’m certain I cannot keep up!

The highs:  Archie’s blog is finally up!  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for months.  I have wanted to share some of the many photos and some excerpts from his writings. It just doesn’t feel right to have access to all this incredible stuff and not share it, ‘share the love,’ so to speak, throughout the process.  Meanwhile, others have contacted me that they have things to share as well!  That’s exactly what I was hoping! I installed a counter yesterday (should have done it from the beginning, a week ago) and found that there were 70 visitors in less than 24 hours!  Boy, do I love looking at that counter!

The Lows: none of the lows are bad things.  In fact, they are all wonderful things!  It’s just too much all at one time, and I’m certain I will lose track of some important bit no matter how many ‘notes to self’ I write!

I have tapestry work to do.  At the other end of my medieval lady’s head I’ve started my ‘talking pears,’ or ‘pair of pears,’ which is a Wednesday group project. 

This is the cartoon.

Next week I will participate in a workshop at the Jockey Hollow Weavers’ Guild, which meant I needed to warp a floor loom by the end of today.  The instructor is Ruby Leslie from Vermont, and the class is “50 Ways to Weave Your Color.”  I really enjoyed warping my Baby Wolf. I love to warp floor looms!  It’s very zen to me and feels as good as doing yoga!  On the flip side, I don’t like throwing the shuttle so much.  I’d like to dress looms and have someone else weave the cloth for me.

If you click on this to magnify it, you’ll get an idea of how well Ruby blended colors for this warp! It’s an 8S straight draw with a tie up for weaving lozenge shapes.

Who doesn’t love a freshly dressed loom?  All the potential for beautiful cloth lies ahead, and none of the tedium of throwing the shuttle has dampened the excitement!

Oh, and there was another bonus to taking this workshop.  I needed the reed that is currently on my AVL!  In order to get it I had to weave off the last part of a warp I’d made for a minister’s stole a year and a half ago!  I had added a scarf to the length of that warp, and I just couldn’t throw the shuttle any longer, even with a good book on my ipod.  Needing that reed did the trick.  Photos of the scarf will follow shortly.  I will twist the fringes and wet finish this evening.

With tapestry weaving I have the opposite feeling about warp and weft.  I really don’t care for warping, weaving the header, putting in the soumak.  I only like the weaving.  I’d like to find someone who’d get the loom set up for me so I can just weave.

We leave for a week of sailing tomorrow which is why I had to get both the floor loom and tapestry loom ready by end of today.  When I get back I have three days of classes…a bit too much yinging and yanging for me.  In today’s inbox I got the next version of the ATB8 catalog that must be edited by early next week.  I guess I’ll try to edit while on board. 

Wishing for calm seas and smooth sailing,