ArgoKnot – Page 91 – A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life

Weaving and Spinning at Skylands Manor

November 28, 2010 | 2 Comments

My local weaving guild, the Palisades Guild of Spinners and Weavers, will be setting up a weaving/spinning/dye-ing studio at the New Jersey State Botanical Gardens that has a Tudor Revival Mansion on the property called Skylands Manor. This opulent building was built in the 1920s out of stone that was quarried right on the property. It is completely out of character with the image of a weaver’s studio, but that’s what we are going to create!

Here is the room that will become a fiber studio! Like no studio any of us will ever see in real life!In any event, I will enjoy sitting in the room to weave all day on Thursday! The open house will take place from Thursday, December 2, through Sunday, December 5, from 10am until 4pm each day. Then there will be evening wine and cheese events as well. Someone will be weaving at my loom each day, and others from my guild will be spinning, knitting and doing some bobbin lace! So if you are anywhere nearby, drop by!

And here is the entrance to our studio. I’ll have the loom set up at the window near the fireplace to take advantage of natural light during the day. We are setting up tomorrow!

This is what I’ll be weaving: kitchen towels in Monk’s Belt, which I hope to use as presents later in the month!

New Projects

November 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment

Don’t most of us return from summer travels full of ideas for new projects? It’s hard to implement all the new ideas that crop up from even the shortest weekend away from home. There is something about a change of scenery that always makes me start brewing up ideas for what to do when I return.

On top of spinning, weaving, and knitting projects that I’ve dreamed up, I am also currently taking two new classes. Once a week I take a bobbin lace class from a group of women who are expert lacers. I’m so lucky to live in an area with an active guild of lace makers. They are a gold mine of experience and help. I’m on my third lace exercise now, and terribly smitten by the process.

This weekend, at the annual Lace Day (with classes!) I learned how to move my lace up in order to keep weaving beyond the length of the pricking card. What you see in the photo is my re-attached weaving. Now I can continue down the length of the card to make the little lace edging longer.

Once a month I drive up into the hills of Putnam County to a basket maker’s house where we work on Nantucket Lightship baskets. I’m making a medium size oval, and I’m quickly discovering how much more effort it takes to place the staves in an oval than in a circle! I may never get the staves ready, so I truly may never weave this basket. The camaraderie is wonderful so as long as they can put with my inexperience I will be going back!

The top photo is my basket in progress. I have more staves to shape, and you can see that the staves change shape as they get into the sharper curves of the ends of the oval. The basket in the lower photo is what I’m striving to achieve and was made by one of the women in the group!

Beading and sewing are two other areas I’m dabbling in this fall. These small projects are destined to be Christmas presents. I haven’t focused on making the the majority of my presents in at least a decade. Right now it feels good. I might not be so chipper when the deadlines get closer!

I pruned back my bay tree in order to bring it in the house since we have dismantled our greenhouse this year, in preparation for possibly selling our house. I’ve saved all the cuttings and am drying small sprigs as well as individual leaves. These will be gifts also, to all my cooking friends. Look out, Martha!

The leaves are mostly down here, the clocks have turned back, we had a killing frost recently. It’s time to cozy up in the nest and keep the fires burning, both in the furnace and in the creative process. I’m ready…

>Fall Brewing

November 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment

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.

>Hiatus

October 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment

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!

>Scrapbook of Maine

August 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment

The weeks are passing, in some ways quickly, in others rather slowly, and I’ve now been on board our boat Pandora for a full month as of yesterday! This is the longest I’ve ever been on a boat. Here are some images from my month in Maine.

Day schooner that sails out of Camden

Along the Fox Island Thoroughfare, between North Haven and Vinalhaven.

Herreschoff 12 1/2 (means the water line is 12.5 feet), well known wooden gaff rigged sloop from the early 20th c. designed by Nathaniel Herreshoff, “the wizard of Bristol” (RI).

Bass Island lighthouse, southern most tip of Mt. Desert Island. This is the most photographed lighthouse in Maine!

Our boat, Pandora, is in the center of this photo, taken from the lookout on the way up to Thuya Gardens in Northeast Harbor, on Mt. Desert Island.

Thuya Gardens, designed by Charles K. Savage.

Thuya Gardens

The reflecting pond at Thuya Gardens

Bee house at Thuya Gardens. Bob took this photo for me so I could remind him to make one for our garden!

The fog bank rolling into Southwest Harbor on Mt. Desert Island.

The fog bank coming into the harbor and boats rapidly disappearing!

The rapidly ebbing tide near Blue Hill. This type of rushing tidal current is called a reversing waterfall. This is supposedly the biggest reversing falls in Maine.

Reversing falls near Blue Hill.

Morning mist on our friend’s 100 yr. old lobster boat in Oven’s Mouth on the Sheepscot River.

Osprey nest.