Not a break

It may seem like I took a break. But no, not really. I had a show this past weekend. So travel & set up on Friday, show on Saturday & Sunday, then pack up and travel back home. I like getting feedback from both buyers and lookers. I really like spending time with my sister, which I get to do for many of the shows I do. I don’t like the set up or tear down, but it goes with th territory.

Jack spent the weekend with my daughter and her family. They all did fine.

That took up all of Friday and, along with things like getting groceries, much of Monday. On Tuesday I spent a few hours taking care of my grandson during the day and took Jack to his 3rd puppy class in the evening. I did manage to finish weaving KG’s short wrap with the charcoal weft in the middle.

Today I got the first section of my warp woven. I settled on black rayon chenille. I thought I’d do plain weave, but hated the way looked...you can see a few rows in the picture above. So I went to my computer’s weaving software and played around with various options. I changed the tie up and much prefer the weave pattern, although I had to do a double beat to get that rayon chenille weft packed in enough.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that I didn’t have as much black rayon chenille as I wanted. I ran out after 54′′. I’d wanted to weave another 10-12′′. I’ll make it work. I’m just not sure exactly what or how right now.

Then I switched to navy tencel. I thought I’d continue with the same weave pattern, but I didn’t like it in the tencel. So I went bac to my weaving software, played around some more, and decided on a simple zigzag pattern. I got almost 60′′ of that woven today, too.

My plan is that tomorrow I’ll finish (I hope) my Christmas shopping and get most of the rest of the way through the warp. I need get this warp off the loom, wet finished, and out to KG. Then I need to get a warp on the counterbalance loom for more Christmas presents.

December 9th, 2015 | 

Two terrific days

I have had 2 really terrific days in a row. Life is so good, it’s incredible. Let’s go chronologically.

Yesterday morning I managed to get about half of ZN’s second wrap — a short one for a ring sling — woven. Here’s where I went from a black Egyptian cotton weft in my common hearts weave to a navy tencel weft in what I call my flowers weave.

The tencel is a much lighter ‘hand’ – finer, softer, more drape – but the majority of the difference in look is the weave pattern itself. The structures are much different.

Although changing the tie up for this weave pattern was no fun at all, the weaving went smoothly and proceeded well.

Shortly before noon I left for Rochester and the engineer’s inspection on my new home. Both my son and my daughter joined us providing more eyes, more helpful hands, more listening ears, and more support. I really do have wonderful kids!

Son & I had taken some rough measurements, and while the inspector was doing his thing and we were following him around, my daughter was carefully drawing the layout, including placement of doors & windows. She obviously couldn’t do it to scale, bu it was really helpful. This morning I spent time with graph paper and did my best to translate the combination of her drawing and my rough measurements into a scale drawing. We didn’t measure windows & doors, just room sizes, so some things are approximations, but here’s the layout of my sweet, new house.

I know some bloggers have figured out how to post a relatively small image so that when you click on the picture it gets bigger. One of these days I’ll have to figure that out; you can’t get great info with it at its current size. But you’ve probably guessed that the 2 room I didn’t label are the kitchen & living room. Didn’t notice that till just now.

The inspector was quite happy with what he saw. (And with my kids.) The house has been well taken care of since its 1948 creation. It will need some attention, as does every house, but it’s solid and sound, and he didn’t find anything that I didn’t already know about.

Just one more little house detail. Most of the interior doors, including closet doors — I think 9 all told — have those great old glass door knobs. I think they’re beautiful, and have loved them since I was a kid. My sweet hubby made me a hall tree many years ago with these door knobs as the ‘holders’ for your jackets.

Back to yesterday...I had only been in the house for about 20 minutes the day I saw it and made my offer. I had some real stomach butterflies, I can assure you! Did I make the right decision? Was this the right house for me? Did I act too quickly? Would I really like it?

With the inspector I got to spend about an hour and a half in the house, and the answer to all of those questions is a resounding YES! I am SOOOOO happy with my decision! It’s definitely downsizing from my current space, but that was what I had in mind. And it’s so bright, and cute, and has the best weaving studio ever!

Needless to say, after the 2 hour drive home, I had a hard time sleeping last night. Too much happy excitement!

This morning the inspector from the County Health Department came to inspect my septic system – a requirement when selling house. Remember I told you what a bear the digging was? Here’s a view of the yard so you can get some concept of what it too to get the tank ready for the inspector.

For the past 18 months I knew this inspection was coming. We installed our system in 1978, so I was prepared having some problems arise and having to spend some real money. Like potentially several thousand dollars if it was real bad news.

But it wasn’t! I have to do a few small things, and I have someone coming tomorrow morning to look at the situation and give me pricing, but I’m sure it will be more like several hundred than several thousand. And part of what I’ll pay him to do is to re-cover that tank so I won’t have to do any more digging! YAY!!

Then I had to take my car to my mechanic this afternoon so he could replace a gasket on the exhaust system of my 2007 Yaris. He got it up on the lift and said, “It won’t take long...if these old bolts don’t break.” With complete confidence I replied, “They won’t.” And they didn’t. I was done in about 1/2 hour with a total bill of $47.

Does a day get any better than these two? I don’t think so!

It did end well. I got several boxes packed, which means more bags of garbage created as I continue to weed out. I also finishe weaving the flower wrap for Z. Here’s a shot of the ‘other side’ as it passes over the cloth beam — navy tencel weft.

Just for kicks, here’s the hearts weave with black cotton weft.

Tomorrow I’ll change the tie up back to hearts and start on NZ’s black tencel wrap.

July 7th, 2015 |

Remembering Mondrian

Sometimes when much of life is completely beyond my control I tend to obsess. One way to combat obsessive thoughts is to occupy my brain with complex tasks that don’t allow much room for other activity. That’s what I did for the past several days.

I’ve long wanted to do a different kind of doubleweave. My first doubleweave, accomplished back in 2009, just 2 years after I ha my first weaving lesson ever, was a double width baby blanket. I did a few more double width things, then got away from doubleweave for a bit. Recently I used doubleweave to weave the tubes that ended up being those little treasure pouches.

Although as a concept doubleweave takes a while to wrap your head around, for me, neither weaving double wide nor tubes is particularly difficult or time consuming. This project was different. I wanted to weave what’s typically called color windows. I can show you much better than I can explain what this means.

So the photo up top is an example of color windows. Each of the colored squares is surrounded by black, on the order of a bloc y stained glass. This is cool enough, but it’s double cool when you look at the other side. The design flips to black windows with colored borders!

I enjoyed watching the patterns build as I wove. What I didn’t enjoy was all of the bobbin-changing required in this piece. It’s a two-shuttle weave — one for the black thread & one for the colored thread — so it’s automatically slower, more than twice as slow for me, than using a single shuttle. But with these ‘perfect’ little squares, every time I got to the next square, approximately every inch, I had to change the thread in my colored bobbin to the next color. This dramatically slowed the process down even more. I used the warp color order forward & reverse for my weft colors. That is, I wove the colors as follows: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, F, E, D, C, B, A.

Then, I’m weaving along, and realize that I have miscalculated. When considering how much yarn I needed for the weft for each scarf, I did the calculations as if I was weaving a single layer. With doubleweave, the scarf is 2 layers thick, so you need twice a much yarn. For the colors, no problem. For the black, though....I ran out after about 66′′. I had more black rayon, but I’ve ‘been there done that’ enough to know that all blacks are not created equal. The other rayon was not just a different dye lot, it was a different manufacturer. Although they looked to same to my eyes on the cone, I wasn’t going to take a chance that the last 10′′ would look different and would therefore ruin the looks of the entire piece I’d already spent so much time on. So I decided that a well-done shorter scarf was better than a longer one that caught your eye with an error.

Ok, on to scarf #2. I didn’t want to change my bobbin every inch or so, so decided to alter the pattern slightly. I’d alternate the lengths of my windows and only change bobbins every 3′′ or so. I was surprised at how much quicker this was! I stuck with my color order though, with the weft colors following the same order as the warp colors, without reversing. I decided I didn’t want th much of the light colors grouped together, so wove with colors A-G, then started again at A.

I enjoyed weaving this scarf so much more that I figured I’d get a bit looser still for scarf #3, and change the size of the windows and the colors as my weaving muse saw fit at the moment. Sometimes there’s only 3′′ of color, sometimes more than 5′′. As I wa weaving this scarf it reminded me of Mondrian, a painter many of us became familiar with in the 60s. Although Mondrian had already been dead for 80 years, that was when Yves St. Laurent used his color block style in dresses. I couldn’t change the wid of my blocks, only their lengths.

I’ve now fringed and washed these 3 scarves. I’ve put them outside to dry, but may end up having to toss them in the dryer if the sun and/or breeze doesn’t appear. I’ve hung them on this rack so you can see part of both front and back of each.

I wove these scarves in 8/2 rayon, sett at 18 ends per inch per layer, so 36 ends per inch total. We’ll see how they feel and drap when they’re dry and pressed. I may need to use finer yarn next time. The woman who now, after seeing the time commitment, blows my mind even more with her work uses 60/2 silk – almost 15,000 yards of silk in one pound, compared to about 3,300 yards per pound in my 8/2 rayon. I think I showed an image of one of her shawls before, but here’s a treat for your eyes again.

Some day, when I’m not weaving baby wraps..........

June 25th, 2015 |

Silk waves

I used a nice, soft celery color for the first of those waves & corkscrews scarves I wove. Although I didn’t start it with the treadlin pattern I’d intended, I just LOVE the color. And the sheen of the silk. Even though green is not my color, this scarf knocks my socks off.

Next up I wove with a dark berry wine color. Thought I’d love it, but not so much. Ditto with the intended treadling pattern at both ends of the scarf. Huh. Once again, what I think I’ll like and what I do like aren’t always the same.

So for the third scarf I wanted another soft color, and chose a slate blue. This yarn is a 70/30 silk/linen blend, so it’s a bit stiffer than the 100% silk and doesn’t have the same sheen as 100% silk. I opted no alternate treadling at the ends, instead treadling for the waves throughout the length.

I’ll be amazed if I don’t sell the green and blue scarves at my first show, just about 10 days away. Then again, I almost never accurately predict with will sell.

June 17th, 2015 | 

Sunset Shawls

 Like most people (I think), I get my creative inspiration from a variety of places – from seeing what other weavers have made, from books, from looking at my stash, from seeing the world around me. The first and last in that list are what led to me weaving two shawls.

These shawls are quite different for me in two important ways: color and fiber content. The color is most significant. I am very used to working with hand painted fibers to create color interest. I’m very comfortable working with solid colors and using weaving pattern to create the interest. I’m gaining comfort with using stripes of different solid colors in a variety of ways to infuse a different appeal.

In these shawls, however, I used many different colors – I think 10 – in semi-random stripes in an attempt to create the impression I want. I wanted to bring a summer sunset to mind, with all the colors it can include, from orange to pink to blue to green to purple to red and an amazing blending at the intersections of them. I think I was pretty successful for my first attempt.

For the fiber, I used 5/2 cotton for the warp & rayon for the weft – I don’t remember ever mixing these fibers like this before. I was a bit concerned that the fibers wouldn’t play nicely together, that they’d cause unpleasant differential shrinkage or crinkling. I trie it because I knew I wanted to soften the cotton, provide more drape than a cotton this heavy could provide. I also set the thread relatively far apart – at 15 ends per inch – and threaded for a huck lace. I treadled only half of the typical huck pattern – I call it huckish. For all you weavers, here’s part of my draft – repeat as needed for width.

So here’s the first shawl, woven with an orange weft.

It’s my fav, for sure. Doesn’t it look nice on Dolly with all that lovely spring green in the background?

For the second shawl I used a spice weft. It’s much darker – probably 20 minutes later into that sunset.

At the show I was twisting fringe and got a lot of positive comments. I think they’ll be attractive to my customers at my next show Of course, I never really know. I just have to weave things that make me happy, that I like, and trust to the process.

May 19th, 2013 | 

Glam shots

I’ve sent in two applications for shows this year. I’m only applying to three this year — between weaving lots of baby wraps and having my house on the market, it seems like about all I can handle, since those 3 applications represent 5 shows. In fact, I worry about producing enough work for these shows – but I have that same worry every year and it always works out. So just one more application to go.

I got something like 48 images from the professional photographer of the four pieces I took to him; I had to narrow it down to manageable — and affordable — six.

I had brought him two props this year: Dolly and a metal stand I call Rod Man. (Prior years he just draped them all over a bar.) Rod Man was a last minute afterthought on my part – I figured Dolly would be the best. He draped Rod Man with a camera drap to eliminate some of the distraction of the stand itself – a good call on his part.

For jurying, I wanted all the backgrounds to be the same so there was no distraction to the eye. But for 2 of the pieces I really didn’t like the way they looked on Dolly, so I chose all 4 from Rod Man for the jury. You’re seeing 2 of each since they’re my favs

We’ll see how the juries respond.

February 26th, 2015 | 

Color me surprised

Yesterday I finished weaving the second piano, hemmed & wet finished the 2 pianos & the cityscape.

I expected I’d prefer the pianos, that’s why I wove 2 of them and 1 cityscape. But no. When I see them side by side I prefer the cityscape. Just goes to show you, what appeals on the loom isn’t always what appeals off the loom.

I’m sure some people will really like the pianos, especially if I get into one of the shows at Chautauqua Institute, so I’m not worried.

If I do the pianos again I’ll actually follow all the calculations I did ahead of time — this time I went by my eye, what looked good at the loom. The final result looks fine, but has 3 extra octaves. It’s not a big deal, I’m sure, but it’s not an accurate piano keyboard. Hey, it’s art, right?

So tell me — which appeals to you: the cityscape or the piano?

February 15th, 2015 | 

Tickling the keys

Y S-B jumped on the opportunity to buy the wrap with the royal, chambray, & navy weft. So I got both wraps hemmed, washed, dried, pressed, & labelled. Today I mailed out Y’s wrap to Germany and HF’s wrap to New Zealand.

Mailing things out of the U.S. costs SOOO much more than mailing within the States.

Before I start the next baby wrap warp I went back to the rayon chenille warp I have on my counterbalance loom. Instead of weaving another cityscape, I decided to weave a piano scarf. I’ve been wanting to do this for a few years.

I’d love to tell you that this was my idea, but it wasn’t. The talented weavers over at Dust Bunnies Under My Loom did it way back in 2011. It took me a few years to have time to figure out the weaving technique, and then I did my cityscape scarves. They were my own design, & I’ve never seen anything like them. But I couldn’t get that piano out of my mind. And since I’m not lookin for this to be a juried piece, I’m not overly concerned that I borrowed (ok, stole) the idea. I did have to figure out all the measurements and layout myself, but still....not my original idea.

I’ll have to decide if I’ll do another cityscape or a piano for the third scarf on this warp.

February 13th, 2015 | 

Pick one

I gave each of the three red-gradient shawls their hard press today, knowing in advance that this would be where I would decide which was best for a hands-on jury.

I think the gold silk weft is my favorite from a distance of 1-3′.

Closer than that I think the beat looks a bit uneven. Worse, in the photo you can see a treadling error. So it’s out. Next up for me is the silver silk weft. I like the contrast with the reds and the beat is nice and even.

Unfortunately there’s some kind of imperfection. I can’t figure out what caused it, but it’s really obvious up close. So it’s out, too.

That leaves the navy rayon weft.

Although I don’t think it’s the most photogenic, it has an even beat and no imperfections. That’s the one I’ll submit for hands-on jurying.

Thought you might like to see how different the two sides of this weaving look...this happens to be the gold weft.

Tobie asked for the draft of this pattern. Here’s a bit of it.

I thought I could upload and link to a wif file, but apparently I can’t. So if you want the full wif download, email me (peg dot cherre at gmail dot com) and I’ll send it to you.

February 3rd, 2015 | 

Transitions

I have one more hands-on jury piece to weave. I had 4 ideas: one I needed to order a cone of rayon to implement, two I thought would require a few tries to get it right, and one that I thought I could implement relatively quickly. So I ordered that cone of yarn and while I was waiting went ahead with the 4th idea.

I measured out a 3-color gradient rayon warp & set up the little counterbalance loom. I cut a stiff but not too thick piece of cardboard into a few free-form curves. I sat down at the loom, hemmed the edge as always when I’m going to fringe the piece, and started weaving. Awful! Not at all what I had in my mind. Ignoring color for the moment, I tried with a few different weights of yarn to see if that would provide the results. Nope.

Walk away. Think. What else could I do with this warp that might be good enough? How about beaded leno? Give it a shot.

This involves threading tiny beads on my weft thread, winding it by hand onto a shuttle, and slowly, painstakingly, push the beads back when I don’t want them and carefully place them when I do. These are my sample beads. They helped me decide that I needed to use the larger size bead. (Can you even see the tiny beads in the 2 top rows? They are exactly the right color, but not the right size.)

So I left space for a fringe and hemmed again. I didn’t have enough of the color beads I wanted, so went with a silver-lined clea bead. I wove about 15′′ – 8 rows of leno, 4 of them with the beads, 4 without. After all that tedious, time-consuming work, I decided this would not do. It was pretty impossible for me to keep my selvedges nice and straight, so a jury would be decidedly unimpressed.

Crap! Walk away from the loom for the night. The cone of yarn will arrive on Monday. Will I wait for that? The mail won’t get here till late afternoon, so I’d have to ‘waste’ two whole days. The yarn for my next baby wraps isn’t here yet either, and that’ll probab arrive the same day. I’ll feel really pressured to do the jury piece AND to do the baby wraps. I hate being in that position!

Still I spent a few hours in front of my weaving software playing with drafts to get what I thought would be a winning weave pattern. By then it was 11:30. Stop the madness and go to bed! I read for a bit to turn off the brain whirring and got to sleep.

I got up this morning, went for my walk, did my yoga, took a shower, made my Sunday morning phone call to my friend, and suddenly got a flash.

I bet I know why that wave didn’t work the first time! Two reasons: I was treadling in twill when I should treadle tabby, and I mad my curves too deep & too varied. Cut new ones in very gentle lines, went back to the loom and tried out the revised concept.

Yeah – that’ll work!
So I left space for a fringe and did hem #3. I started weaving and was happy with what I was producing.

How do I do this? S...L...O...W...L...Y. Here’s a shot of one of my cardboard ‘reeds’ in place.

The routine is throw the shuttle, leave the shed open, insert one of the handmade reeds, close the shed, beat it in. Every single time. As I go I have to decide when & where to shift the reed or switch to a different reed.

Here’s another shot of several inches.

As I was weaving it became clear that I wasn’t willing to risk the kind of thread shifting that might happen during a wet finishing process, even a gentle one. Or what would happen as a scarf like this was worn. Plus the selvedges were a little wavy because the weft wasn’t a consistent tension near the edges.

So I changed my plans only slightly. Instead of making this a wearable, I’ll frame a section of it. I might be able to use a panoramic frame, or I might have to have it custom framed. I’ll choose the section of weaving that I think looks best.

That assumes, of course, that it will still make me happy when it comes off the loom. I’ve woven about 50′′ so far. I’m going to keep going for at least another foot, then I’ll cut it off & see where I’m at. Keep your fingers crossed.

January 25th, 2015 | 

Scarf bling

Now why would I have these 2 tiny dishes of sequins on the stool next to my loom? Could it be I’m using them to add a little blin to a scarf?

I warped my loom with 6.5 yards of twilight silk, threading & treadling to insert sequins as I went. Hopefully one of these will wor for my jurying this year.

At the beginning and end of each scarf I’ve inserted 5 rows of 7 sequins each, then randomly inserting 2 sequins in each of the interim rows. I had to cut off the first scarf, twist the fringe, and gently wet finish it to see if it was going to work or if I needed to make modifications before I wove the second one.

Here’s how it looks on Dolly.

It worked well! I’m almost done weaving the second scarf. As you can imagine, it’s a s..l..o...w weave.

January 14th, 2015 |