ArgoKnot – Page 60 – A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life

Bucket of Gold

September 25, 2013 | Leave a Comment

Summer has ended with such glorious days! Along my daily walk the views seem extra lovely, with dappled light coming through the canopy of tall trees, playing on the thick undergrowth of fern. The light is getting long so it is particularly nice in the morning and late afternoon. The goldenrod is glowing along the roadside…

And goldenrod is just what I need to donate to my guild’s annual natural dye day. Bob came along with me to tote the large shopping bag as we both cut flowers. I was aiming for two pounds, but before we knew it we had four!I sat on the front porch to cut the flowers into smaller bits. The smell of cut goldenrod is delightful!….green and sweet/spicy!

I never get tired of seeing the houses along this walk. I like to imagine how I’d live in each of these houses, where I’d put my looms, how I’d make some gardens!

On the last full weekend in summer we finally had our first sail since returning home to New England. We sailed down the Connecticut River, then spent a night at Fisher’s Island, then four days in Newport. It’s been decades since either of us have toured any of the mansions. We chose The Elms, which is considerably smaller than either The Breakers or Marble House but still quite impressive. You can lunch in the carriage house. The ambience is great, but the food not so much, so we opted to take a picnic to a nearby park.

I found a mansion that is just my size! Unfortunately, it is not for sale… I can just imagine myself weaving on that upper floor…

We walked along the cliffwalk and along the harbor, where we were anchored. We volunteered for few hours at the annual Newport Boat Show which gave us free admittance to all the exhibits. Bob loved that!

Back at home, I am settling in to the first week of autumn. My goldenrod dyebath is ready, my yarns are mordanted. I’ve got a year old indigo vat that I’d like to reconstitute, and I’ve got fresh indigo ready to harvest. That will be a new process for me! I have a couple of tapestry designs swirling around my brain. Bob is gathering firewood, and I am gathering apples. I love the change of seasons!

Our son Rob visited over the weekend and saw his finished portrait for the first time.

Back at my looms, I am weaving a bit text and making good progress on the final painted warp. It’s time to think about painting another warp!

Try This at Home

September 4, 2013 | 4 Comments

Well, I have managed to use synthetic dyes completely unsupervised in my own house. It’s taken me at least 20 years to get up the nerve and confidence to do this. I know…. there has never been a logical reason for this, but it’s been a huge hurdle for me to attempt this at home!

I sectioned off about 1/2″ of warp at both selvedges to paint a solid color with the burnt orange. And then I sectioned off an inch to paint in a pseudo-ikat effect. Each of these sections was wrapped in it’s own bit of cling wrap to prevent any co-mingling of colors. Finally, I painted the main, center section.

After a curing period of about 6 hours wrapped in plastic, I uncovered the warp to let it dry. The far end of the warp is now suspended off the table for better air circulation.

Mixing Colors

September 3, 2013 | Leave a Comment

While mixing colors is fun and often quite a revelation, getting the colors in my mind might take years of practice…..might, actually, never happen. I did make a rather good burnt orange, but my cool deep red was a disappointment. It is more burgundy than I would like…too similar in value to the orange. So I needed a change of plan for the deep violet I’d wanted. All three would have been far too similar. So I’ve made a medium blue/teal. It is not a true teal, but leaning that direction from medium blue.

My mixtures are:
Burnt Orange: 3/8 tsp. sun yellow, ‘spot’ of scarlet, ‘spot’ of new black
Burgundy: 3/8 tsp. fuschia, ‘spot’ of lemon yellow, ‘spot’ of black
Blue: 1/4 tsp. blue 401, 1/8 tsp. lemon yellow
Black: 3/4 tsp. new black

While mixing these colors (and tweaking!) at my kitchen sink, I watched three hummingbirds vie for the feeder….and the nusturiums….and the passion flowers….and the mille fleur petunias. They really do not like to share, and time is short before they head south. Have you ever seen hummingbirds buzz each other? While they are standing off, hovering, they really do look like fairies in the air! Then they buzz by each other at lightening speed, too fast to see, and dart all about before hovering again. It was quite a show!

This is not my photo although it is very similar to what was going on outside my kitchen window!

Project Hiatus…

September 2, 2013 | Leave a Comment

Life, again. You never know when life is going to take over and make all your plans seem positively ridiculous…..as impermanent as a shadow in fading light.

So Bob and I have been at a standstill for the past few weeks. He’s behind on getting Pandora ready for its next season of long distance sailing, and I’m behind in using my precious land time to fulfill my own projects.

In honor of Labor Day we are having a quiet day at home (it’s raining so there is no pressure to be out at a picnic or parade this year). I am returning to my silk warp from the NEWS conference. I have prepared my folding table and loom with drop cloths to protect everything from dye, and I have been looking at my MX dye charts from decades ago… Unfortunately, today is not serving up the best light for choosing colors. Hence, I’m taking a break here to document this project!

What is left of my warp is not long enough for a scarf. I would have bet money on this being the case, so all along I’ve imagined this last piece being a narrow wall hanging. My design choices are limited by the threading I’ve already established which is an advancing twill. I can weave it in sharp advancing points or in undulating advancing hills. I want to try separating out an inch of warp at each side for an ikat-effect black and white block design to frame the main design in the center.

Now I will begin mixing colors. I am considering several reds, from a cool cherry red to burgundy to a plum type of red/purple and a deep dull orange in the pumpkin range. I also want black, and I’ve got the ‘new’ black….hoping it is deep and true as advertised!

And here is a gift from my not so friendly weaving cohort that greeted me on my morning walk. She also waited out the onslaught of life (in the form of a violent thunderstorm and heavy rains last night) before creating her glorious web sometime early this morning. I hope I will be as successful!

The Height of Summer

August 13, 2013 | Leave a Comment

…and what a summer it has been! The heat of July is long forgotten, along with that stifling dorm room at NEWS. In addition to the best summer weather any New Englander could possibly hope for, I spent two days at my monthly tapestry class with Archie and Susan, and I spent almost five days with two other members of the Wednesday Group.

We looked at and critiqued each other’s works, and I got tremendous input and inspiration from these friends. We ate well and enjoyed amazing views of the Hudson from our host’s house. Tugs and barges floated by, going both north and south, day and night, breaking the bucolic spell of this rural area with such a contradiction of noise and spectacle!

We spent an entire day driving to and from Auburn, to see the exhibit Innovators and Legends: Generations in Textile and Fiber at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center.

This exhibit is traveling around from Michigan to Auburn, New York, then to University of Kansas in Lexington, and finally to Fort Collins, Colorado. It was curated by Geary Jones, with works from well known artists and newcomers…75 works that span several decades of fiber arts and offered a trip down retro lane as well as powerful new ideas. We all loved it!

The one piece that has intrigued me since leaving the exhibit is Piper Shepard’s “Dome.” Although we could not take photos of anything in the exhibit, and I was not impressed with the photos in the catalog (which was sold out anyway and had to be ordered from Muskegan Museum), I have enjoyed reading about Ms. Shepard’s work online. Her piece titled “Dome” was made from a large sheet of muslin fabric that had been treated with gesso and graphite to have a very dark surface. She then cut out tiny shapes in the manner of cut paper, like Scherenschnitte. She displays these works as if they are made of heavy metal, hanging from sturdy steel brakets that hold them out from the wall. Light creates marvelous shadows, and any breath of air gets the large work to undulate, giving the viewer the realization that this is a very light and fragile material. It’s a beautiful blend of bold, fragile, delicate and large all at once!

My drive home took me through wonderful parts of New York state and Connecticut. After dropping off one friend at the Hudson train station…

…my GPS directed me home entirely on back roads! I usually get to this area of New York by taking Rte 90 through the Berkshires, which is quite scenic, but this route of Rte. 23 from Hudson to Sheffield, then Rte 7 down into Canaan, Connecticut, and Rte. 44 through western Connecticut just can’t be equalled!

In Avon, I stopped at a local bead store and got some crystals to add to the hem of one of my recently finished silk scarves. The bead store is on the right of this lovely building.

Back in the studio, I am on the home stretch on my sunset tapestry!