Silken dreams

 Aside from my baby wraps, all of which are custom orders, I sell the overwhelming majority of my hand weaving at juried art & craft shows. So far this year I’ve only had one show, in East Aurora with my fellow Roycroft Artisans. Although I didn’t sell man pieces, those that I did sell were my pricier ones.

I have two shows in August so needed to replenish my stock. Weaving more silks and shawls seemed to be the thing to do.

Way back in early June I wove three silk scarves. When I set up for the June show I got a bit of a jolt when I realized those scarves weren’t with me. Where were they? I pictured my house—they weren’t where my recently-finished pieces usually were. What had I done with them?

Suddenly it struck me – I had put them in a bag and brought them to a Guild meeting to fringe, and then forgot about them. I knew where that bag was so wasn’t worried.

These scarves have a 30/2 silk warp – finer than the 20/2 I usually weave with. I used a gebrochene pattern, giving me the complexity I like. I wove the first one with 4 strands of ruby tram silk.

I wove the second with 4 strands of tram, too, this time in a burnt orange. The orange tram was quite a bit finer than the ruby, so this scarf weighs nothing. To my eye and hand it’s by far the best of the three – the color, the sheen, and the feel.

I wove the last in a 20/2 twilight silk. Usually I love the twilight, but this time, paired with the 30/2 warp, it created a scarf that’s nice to look at but ‘heavy’ compared to that lighter-than-air burnt orange.

After the show I moved to shawls...I’d sold 5 in June & needed to have more in my stash. I stuck with silk and with an 8-shaft pattern, this time in a ‘falling leaves’ weave pattern.

I had 4 complementary colors of silk that I wanted to use in weft. My plan was several inches of color one, then several inches o color 1 alternated with color 2, then solid color 2, then color 2 alternated with color 3....you get the idea.

I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

Then I decided to use those same colors, but instead of the 1-and-1 transition, I’d use the gradation plan I use for my baby wraps.

For the third shawl on the warp I used 3 blues and the gradations. I also changed the treadling, beat a bit harder, and decided to hem instead of fringe. (I often have helpful, or at least helpful-meaning, artists offer suggestions at shows; last year one snarky artist said, “I’d never wear something with fringe.” Initially hurt, I decided to give it a shot. I won’t do it again, at least not on a silk shawl.)

The two darker blues – twilight and pacific – although quite a bit different on the cone, are too similar for the gradation to work. C’est la vie. Also, the harder beating produced a shawl that doesn’t drape as nicely. I definitely prefer the first two.

I wove 2 more silk shawls, too – they just got cut off the loom and still need fringing, wet finishing, and pressing. You’ll see them eventually.

July 27th, 2014 | 

Mac & me

I’ve become friends with my Mac. It took time — time checking out other looms, time buying and then selling what I thought would be my ideal loom, and time weaving on Mac. I believe we’re there now.

I told you about that sample placemat I wove on the Mac. Well, not surprisingly, it wasn’t what my customer had in mind. The barber pole of the warp yarn created unpleasant eyeball effects – reminded me of 1970s doodles.

Instead we’re going to use a solid natural cotton for both warp & weft.

I didn’t want to waste all the warp I’d put on so decided to weave some towels. First I used the same natural weft, figuring someone would like it. Then I used the same barber pole yarn for weft. Interestingly, using this same yarn for both warp & weft had a dramatic effect, and that disturbing waviness of pattern was gone. I liked it well enough that I wove a runner after the towel.

Then I tried a variegated weft in earth tones. I liked this, too, and changed up the treadling to show the variegated yarn more. I liked the treadling enough that I figured I’d try with another variegated weft, this time in muted pastels. It’s okay but too subtle fo me.

Next came a mercerized cotton (everything up to now was unmercerized) in a bold variegation. I modified the treadling to make a bit easier – no counting how many rows of pattern I’d done. I finished out the warp with a solid medium blue. Although I would have chosen more colorful yarns if I’d been planning on making towels, I think someone will like these and they’ll sell, and it was better than wasting warp. Plus I learned some things about color and pattern and got more Mac weaving time, so it’s all good.

Next I wanted to try an effect I’d seen on Weavolution – creating rayon snake skins. Now I’m not a snake lover, although I will admit some are very beautiful. But the concept appealed to me. I spent a looooong time working out the pattern, threaded heddles and reed, and quickly discovered that the 18 ends per inch I’d planned was too loose for this pattern. So I rethreaded th reed to 21 EPI and it was perfect. However now the scarves would be narrower than planned, and I would have modified the sides of the pattern slightly had I known I could add more threads.

I wanted to use a gold warp but didn’t have enough gold yarn for 4 scarves, so decided on black instead. First I used a relatively bright orange weft. Does it look a bit snakey to you?

I liked it, but it was brighter than I had in mind so went with that gold I’d wanted to use for warp. I think this one best displayed th effect I had in mind.

Next I chose a deep red weft – a bit shiny in this photo, and there’s not enough contrast in the black & red yarns to show the pattern well.

I rounded the set out with a white warp. Although I didn’t expect it, I think this one is my favorite of the four.

Now I’m playing grandma for a week, caring for my sweet, little grandson while mama & papa take a mid-winter vacation. We’ve finished day 2 just fine. Five more to go — I’m sure we’ll be good. And closer than ever – YAY!!!

January 21st, 2013 | 

July Already?

July already?

Clearly my actions don’t match my intentions. On a regular basis at the end of the day I am clueless about what I actually did, about how things like balancing the checkbook and mowing the lawn could suddenly fill so much time. Somehow things do get crossed of my to-do list, although they’re not very exciting, and certainly not photo-worthy.

Someone in my BuyNothing group announced that her sour cherry tree was in fruit and offered anyone who was interested to pick. Isn’t it beautiful?! Last year the tree had much more fruit, but I did pick 3 scant quarts and made some jam.

I managed to get just one batch of towels woven in June.

Too much outdoor work to do, which called to me much more than the loom did. Like this...

This is an area of my front lawn...much of which is a hill. You’ve seen images of the corner garden before, sometimes just individual plants but I THINK occasionally the whole thing. When I started it, my plan was to expand it each year, to continually minimize the amount of hillside mowing I had to do.

This year I really dug into that goal (pun intended). This area is roughly 7′ x 7′. That’s a lot of grass that had to be dug up, the dir shaken off to the extent possible, amendments added, plants put in the ground, and the area mulched heavily. I added several more plants and a drip hose after I took this picture. It’ll still take a few years to fill up nicely, but it’s on its way.

Meanwhile, out back a calla lily I planted last year and chose not to dig and bring in, decided to return. Probably because it’s rig next to my foundation. Although that part of the foundation is just a crawl space, it surely is still better than being out in the open

Around the corner from the calla, I’ve had these 2 mallows for years. Often they get eaten by bunnies or otherwise barely survived and don’t bloom at all. This year I’m happy to see their beautiful flowers.

I find this light colored one particularly beautiful.

And here’s a lovely fragrant honeysuckle I put in a few years ago. I do love flowers with fragrance.

I also decided to try some new things with my sourdough starter. I made two batches each of bagels (no pix) and ciabatta rolls with 100% sourdough – no commercial yeast. I was happy with them both, despite their...rustic...appearance. Their taste and chewy-ness were right, at least in my opinion.

In May I showed you my embroidery for submission into an exhibit. The opening of that exhibit, in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY, was Friday night. I was very impressed with the entries and tried to get pix of them all. Some just couldn’t be appreciated in the images I took, so I’m only sharing a few here.

A friend of mine knit a ballot box and created 3 little felted and embroidered issues going into the box.

I was really moved by this piece. I’ve heard this poem before, always powerful, and it stitched into the back of a very wearable denim jacket...wow.

Being a weaver, I was of course impressed by the work in this long vest, woven in rayon chenille.

This seemingly ‘simple’ piece spoke well to the fact that women still hold such as small percentage of seats in the U.S. House o Representatives (29%) and Senate (25%). So much lower than many other countries, so woeful, so in need of change.

Women’s health is in so much danger. I am fortunate that I live in NYS, but so many women, especially women in poverty, do no have access to comprehensive health care. Both maternal and infant mortality are rising as women are forced to carry pregnancies that are not viable and that threaten their lives.

Meanwhile, I continue to write postcards to get out the vote. The exact message varies from week to week, and is of course dependent on where those postcards are going. Although it’s certainly not everything, writing these cards is something. It’s something I can do. And who knows – maybe it’ll inspire me to do even more.

When I picked up my postcards on Friday there was a woman there selling necklaces she’d made. I made a spur of the momen decision to buy one, and I’ve since committed to wearing it constantly until November 5, election day.

I’ve seen a meme that I hesitate to post here, given my prior experience posting images that I do not own. But the sentiment is too good to not include. RBG is in the center of the frame, wearing her robe and one of her signature crocheted collars. The words are, “I want you to pivot your sadness and worry into numbers and strength.” Indeed, Justice Ginsberg. Indeed.

July 14th, 2024 | Tags: cotton, towels & linens | Category: Gardening, Life - As I See It, Weaving |