Weaver's Words

Yes, two in one day

2012-02-20T18:40:00.000-08:00

The man who designed and commissioned me to weave his tartan came by today and declared himself delighted with the cloth. Just as I thought, cloth beats paper!

I have some nasty bug, a lower respiratory thing so it is an early bedtime for me tonight. I warned my customer as I met him at the door and said I was going to keep my distance; he said not to worry, everyone at his house had it last week. Hmmm.

I had woven enough to cut off and wash a hemstitched piece for him to take. I had washed and pressed it but it was still a little bit damp, but that means no extra trip from Pleasant Grove to pick it up.

I am going to weave about half an inch on the sample piece I am keeping for my records before I hemstitch it so I can take if from the loom and wash and press it.

Next stop, dreamland, and that sounds good!

Towels and the new project

2012-02-20T12:34:00.000-08:00

The towels are woven and completely finished:

I was thinking of spring when I chose the colors, focusing first on that tender yellow green that appears first before the leaves on my cottonwood tree are fully mature. Now that they are woven and finished they do make me think of spring.

I jumped right in to the next project as soon as the box of yarn arrived from JaggerSpun. I was commissioned to weave a tartan by a man in Pleasant Grove, Utah who designed the tartan himself. It is in some ways non-traditional, mainly because it isn't symmetrical. I have never seen an asymmetrical tartan before, have you?

It has been registered in Scotland but never woven until now. Here is a photo of the first piece on the loom:

This piece is the test to be sure that the cloth looks as he wants it to look and if it is OK I can move on to the nine yard length. He needs to send a piece to the registry to complete the file they have on this design. He will see it for the first time this afternoon.

I am undoubtedly prejudiced, but I think that the woven cloth looks so much more vibrant than the computer generated image. Cloth vs paper? Cloth wins!

Back to it!

Progress....someone to watch/listen for

2012-02-11T22:21:00.000-08:00

There is progresss on the towel warp. This is the fourth towel of seven almost completed:

This is just a corner showing the border coming together toward the end of the fourth towel. I am enjoying all the color after the white on white warp.

The name you will want to remember is Simone Lamsma. She is a young violinist (20 or 21) who played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto tonight with the Utah Symphony. I love this concerto and it was played brilliantly by this young woman tonight. The audience leapt to its feet when she had finished. (And this time it wasn't a hold-over from the days before Abravanel Hall when all the concerts were held in the Mormon Tabernacle where the pews were exceedingly uncomfortable so any excuse to stand was welcome! Now those pews have been replaced with ones that fit modern bodies far more comfortably....)

The first piece on the program was Anton Von Webern's "Fuga (Ricercats)" from Musickalischen Opfer by J. S. Bach. Imagine a reading where every word is spoken by a different person so that each person's part makes no sense but when wll the parts are put together you hear the reading properly. This piece is constructed similarly by taking the notes of the Musical Offering and spreading them out over the orchestra. The piece uses only the notes Back wrote but presented this way, they are totally new. Very interesting, indeed.

After the intermission the augmented orchestra (extra players were brought in) played Bruckner's Symphony No. 4. It is a very big piece, rich and melodic. During the second movement the viola section carries the main melody showing off the mellow, golden timbre that only the viola can produce. (Perhaps a little prejudice is showing here since I played the viola for years.)

It was a grand concert. This week the new season was announced (the program for 2012-13) and the fact that Thierry Fischer's contract has been extended through 2015-16. The latter is very good news, indeed!

Moving ahead

2012-02-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

I wove another white scarf on the warp you saw here plus a piece that will become a small bag, once the silk to line it arrives. (Do you know about fashionfabrics.com?)

I have been craving color and have a relatively short time left before the yarn for a commission (you will see later) arrives. I decided it was time to weave more cotton towels. I usually have some on hand but right now have none at all. I measured out the warp today. Can you tell that I am longing for spring?

I took this picture while the warp was still on the warping board. I usually make a warp long enough to make a dozen towels but this one is shorter because I want to start work on the commission as soon as the yarn arrives.

The borders are a slightly grayed yellow green set into a natural white ground. Inside the borders are groups of narrow stripes--five colors--that repeat five times. I like the colors and am eager to see them as the towels are woven. You will see them, too, of course.

Last Saturday there was a Utah Symphony concert. The first half of the program consisted mainly of Faure--never a mistake in my opinion with a brand new piece (world premiere) co-commissioned by the Utah Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre de la Suise Romande and Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg. The composer, Michael Jarrell, wrote this piece for solo cello and orchestra. I liked it a lot and would like to hear it again. I have never heard a cello make those sounds before; it was very interesting. Our solosit, Jean-Guihen Queyas, to whom along with Thierry Fischer, our conductor, the piece is dedicated did an amazing job. Then he played Faure's Elegie for Cello and Orchestra in which the cello sang. I am partial to Faure whose work always seems to elegant and lovely to me, and I loved it.

After the intermission the orchestra played Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. I have to confess that at first I was dreading hearing this old warhorse again. When I was in high school we played this in orchestra and I felt I knew every single note--and I think I do!--so I wondered what Fischer could bring to it. I needn't have been concerned. It was played briskly and cleanly with a wonderful transparency that made the piece new to me. The second movement, the andante, was lyrical and romantic and quite lovely. Maestro Fischer continues to impress and delight me. And, next week we hear the Mendelssohn violin concerto which I love followed by Bruckner's Symphony #4.

Life is good.

At last!

2012-01-31T11:55:00.000-08:00

My computer died on Dec. 1, 2011 just when I was going to post to this blog again. Now, after a lot of struggling with this new computer, I am back again.

In the meantime, the new knee has settled in and I have had cataracts removed from both eyes--what a miracle! Folks who long for the "good old days" don't take into account that in those days I would have become more and more immobile and eventually blind, to boot. I, for one, am very glad to be living now!

I have been weaving, at first just a little and now almost back to "normal". (I am starting to think that "normal" is just a setting on my dryer....) I wove four washable rugs (three warps), to order, (not photographed) that were mostly brown. I spent weeks dyeing the loops left over when athletic socks are made. They are now delivered and in use.

Yesterday I cut off three white, silk scarves. They looked like this on the loom:

The main yarn is a 140/2 silk plied three strands together and the larger yarn is 20/2. The silk is strong and well-mannered causing no difficulty in weaving. I found I am having to de-gum it when washing it because otherwise it is overly crisp when ironed.

I have been attending the Utah Symphony enjoying the concerts very much. Last week I went to see the Utah Opera's performance of Rigoletto. The sets and costumes were excellent and the singers, particularly the soprano were better than that. The story is very dark and tragic and one I don't like much at all.

As you can see, because it is winter, Bob (copper and white) and Lola (black and white) cuddle together to share body heat. They are good friends a fact for which I am very grateful!

Ooops!

2011-11-13T11:54:00.000-08:00

One of the things I wanted to tell you about was last night's concert. Last week we had Beethoven's 7th Symphony on the program, one of my favorites. What I hadn't taken into account beforehand was that William Walton's Violin Concerto (James Ehnes, soloist) was on the program, too. It isn't performed very often because it is devilishly difficult, but Ehnes made it sound easy. The tone he got from the Stradivarius (the Marsik of 1715, according to the program) was unfailingly sweet and lovely. This piece was last played here 25 years ago when it was the first time I had heard it. The memory of it hadn't stayed with me, but I think this time it will! Wonderful concert!

Last night Beethoven's 6th was on the program. We are working through a count down this season, having begun with the 9th. The interesting thing is that while what I think of as Beethoven's trademark graceful changes of key in his music, all of the symphonies are very different from each other and all are good. Last night I heard the best performance of the sixth (the Pastoral) that I have ever heard. If you have been reading here for a while, you may recall that last year I said I thought we were in for wonderful music with the leadership of Thierry Fischer our then-brand new conductor. I am happy to say that my prediction was more than correct!

The second half of the concert was a sandwich (with a theme) of short pieces by Wagner (Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin and ending with Ride of the Valkyries) with a new piece in between The composer is someone I didn't know, Christopher Rouse. which featured a solo percussionist, Colin Currie. The title is Der Gerettete Alberich (Albrerich Saved) a piece about the dwarf Alberich from Wagner's Ring Cycle. The piece was dazzling.

What an evening!

Moving on

2011-11-13T11:38:00.000-08:00

The linen warp is off the loom and now the process of finishing begins. First, I need to inspect the entire length (on both sides) and mend any flaws. These can be places where there are skips in the cloth, knots that I need to undo and needle weave in or anything else that I find. As you can see, I need extra magnification to be sure that I catch it all and can mend it properly:

What you can't see is that I have my CD player on the same table so that I can listen to a recorded book while I work.

I did too much on Friday, gathering all the leaves, mowing the lawn, removing the window a/c units (2) and taking them to the shed where they will spend the winter. Snow was due on Saturday and I didn't want the leaves to be caught under it and the window units were doing me no good. I still need to put up storm windows in a couple of places but will wait until it is drier here and until my new knee stops telling me off. (Who knew it used such unpleasant language?)

If anything, the crimson queen maples are redder than ever. This is their moment of glory and they are certainly all dressed up!

The next project is a series of rugs woven with the loops cut from athletic socks during their manufacture. I need to dye them to get the colors my client wants. But, first, I need to finish the linen towels. I look forward to washing and ironing them once they are mended, cut apart and hemmed. I think they are going to be very handsome!

Life goes on....

2011-11-05T14:36:00.000-07:00

I am faithfully doing the physical therapy assigned and starting last Monday, Halloween, I was able to sleep through the night without being awakened by pain during the night. That delightful trend has continued, I'm glad to report. That, alone, has made a big difference!

I will see the surgeon for the first time next week. I am hoping there will be an X-ray showing that my own bone is growing around and into the prosthetic knee.

Meanwhile there has been a decided change in the weather. We got our first snow several days ago but because it had been warm, nothing stuck. Then yesterday we got cold rain which rapidly turned to snow which continued all night and through this morning. It's pretty cold outside. When I went outside to look for mail I noticed that the Japanese maples in pots by the front door have changed practically overnight to their autumnal finery. They are living up to their name: Crimson Queen.

I had tentatively planned to do more yard clean-up this weekend, but with all the snow and the cold, I decided to weave instead.

I am still weaving the linen towels. I had bought a single cone of a gray natural 20/1 linen (the warp is the same size and also natural but a pale honey color) and decided to weave at least one of the new towels using the contrasting weft. It shows the pattern more clearly:

This towel is being woven in exactly the same way as the previous ones, just using a different colored weft.

I know what I will be doing next so am motivated to push on and finish this warp. It is bothering my knee a bit to weave for more than an hour at a time, but I will be stopping soon for the day because I have a ticket to the Utah Symphony for tonight and I need to prepare my dinner and change from working clothes.
Tonight Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 is on the program, one of my all-time favorites!

At last!

2011-10-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

I last wrote here the day after I got home from the re-hab facility. Getting to sleep in my own sweet, little bed again was almost more than I could bear! I worked hard at all the exercises I had been given doing each to the utmost of my ability and then pushing even harder.

Big mistake!

I crashed a week later in pain and learned that pushing that hard was actually counter productive. I ought to have been able to figure it out myself, but always the achiever, I hadn't. Now I am still doing the work but not pushing so hard and things are going better.

In fact, I began weaving this afternoon. I had measured out a warp of natural 20/1 linen and beamed it before I left for knee replacement. I finished threading it, sleyed the warp and got it all ready to weave where it has rested for several days. Today was the day and here is what the first complete repeat (and the hem) looks like:

It feels good to be weaving again. (What an understatement!) I could tell that my knee/leg was getting tired and having learned my lesson about going the extra two or three miles, I decided to stop and ice it.

The structure is a two block twill (1/3 vs 3/1) which is the same structure that I used last fall. The profile draft for this version is different from what I wove then.

My knee still hurts and I suppose I ought not to be surprised by that. I look forward to the time when it hurts no longer and am certain that the time will come.

It's good to be back!

Home again!

2011-10-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

The deed is done. I have a brand new, prosthetic knee joint in my right leg. I am not going to post a photo of the incision (You're welcome!) even though the nurses at the re-hab facility and the visiting nurse who came to my home today say it's beautiful. That's nurse talk for no draining, no redness, no swelling (other than the expected) and no signs of infection.

My knee still hurts, albeit in a different way from before the surgery. And, after all, how could it not considering what has been done? (Google it.)

All the preparation I did has really paid off. I made space for a walker--which I am no longer using--got grab bars, a shower stool, etc. and I exercised to be strong going in so that I would be strong coming out. I learned a lot through this process including how compassionate the nurses aides I encountered both in the hospital and in re-hab are. I was deeply touched by their kindness. (Here's to Alicia and Rosa and Jenire.)

It turned cold and wet just before I got home and had I not spent four hours with home health people today (the RN and the Occupational Therapist who says I don't need her and won't be back) I was planning to take a walk on the sidewalk along my street. But by the time everyone had come and gone I was pretty tired.

I expect a full recovery and much sooner than anyone--other than me!--expected.

In short, all is well.

Tonight's concert

2011-09-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

This year the programming for the Utah Symphony concerts is focused on Beethoven. The first concert of the year featured the Ninth Symphony and tonight we got the 8th. They are being performed in reverse order and will end with the 1st.

Thierry Fischer, our conductor, was in very good form tonight. I am happy to say that I was right when I predicted that good things were in store for us as a community!

Tonight's concert began with two short pieces by Stravinsky Suites No. 1 and No. 2. I don't recall ever having heard the first suite before but I know I have heard the second one. The second made me think of a sort of off-center circus, for the Marche, Valse, and Polka movements and the Galop made me think of a big, busy city. There were comic moments in the Valse and Polka movements that at their conclusion brought a ripple of laughter throughout the audience.

These pieces were followed by a wonderful performance of Symphony No. 8. It was crisply played, never dragging, and quite lovely. The Utah Symphony has uniformly strong sections and the woodwinds shone, as did the horns and of course the strings. I enjoyed it very much.

Probably the highlight of the evening, though, was Garrick Ohlsson's performance of the Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven's last one). Ohlsson's playing was masterful: delicate and with great restraint at times and powerful at others. The romantic character of this concerto was very much in evidence but there was no sloppy sentimentalism. He struck exactly the right balance for me.

I wondered how anything could follow that but Ohlsson returned to the stage and gave us an encore. (Everyone was standing and applauding heartily!) It was Chopin's Waltz in E Flat (Opus 18), a piece it seems everyone knows.

I enjoyed myself very, very much. My knee is shouting at me these days and anything that can distract me so completely from the pain has to be pretty amazing. It certainly was!

The bagpiper is back. I was trying to keep the melodies I heard in Abravanel Hall going in my head as I waited for the train to take me to my car and it's not easy.

Tomorrow I have a couple of social things and then Sunday I need to hunker down, pack my bag for the re-hab facility and do the last minute things before my departure Monday morning for the Orthopaedic Center.

I probably will be out of touch here until I get home again. That will be about ten days, possibly longer, although I am hoping not.

I actually CAN count....

2011-09-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

In the last post I counted off the days until I get my new knee and put down the wrong number. I can count. Really. After today there are only three days.

I mis-named the second hand store, too. It's name is Our Store, and now they have a lot more good things than they did. Someone from the shop came to transport the drafting table that I wasn't using and wanted to give to them. I'm was grateful for the help. And now, grateful for the room.

Onward.....

Getting closer....

2011-09-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

Only four more days until I get the new knee..... I am feeling the lack of anti-inflammatory medication, in my case ibuprofen, so it is clear that it was doing some good.

I am re-organizing my house to accommodate crutches and or a walker when I get back from re-hab. While doing so I realized that some of the things I have haven't been used in a while and really are just in the way. So I have been taking things to Our Place, a second-hand shop run for the benefit of the People With Aids Coalition. It's hard to think of any group of people who need and deserve help more than they do. There are some nice things going there. Another big load goes there tomorrow. A woman who works there is coming by in her boy friend's pick up to take the drafting table which doesn't fit into a Prius!

I am still going to my exercise group although everything is more painful, still I want to be as strong as possible going into the knee replacement.

I am looking forward to a Utah Symphony Concert on Friday evening. I am going to a potluck on Saturday so I traded for the earlier performance. I am planning to transfer some music to my iPod so I can listen during the surgery. Unless I am given a convincing reason not to, I am opting for a spinal block so that I don't have to wait a couple of days for my brain to return. That should be interesting...

Photo and news

2011-09-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

As I expected, I finished the new towels yesterday, but before I could photograph them (there were 15 plus one square napkin) I got a call from a friend who works at the gallery that represents me and frames my work there. She was leaving for a family reunion and wondered if I had any towels because she would like to buy a couple to give as gifts.

Did I have towels? Oh, my, yes! So I gathered all of them up and took them to show. Other folks there got into the act and by the time I left, there were fewer than before. That was such good news and such a well-timed call.

The towels that I have from this series are shown in this photo:

They are very cheery, I think.

I went on from there to cross eight errands off my to-do list. I love it when I can run several errands in one, choreographed trip! Eight is a new personal record.

When I got home, I had barely come in the door when I got a call from the scheduler for my knee surgeon who told me that my doctor will be otherwise occupied on October 10th. I had a choice, he told me, of a later date in October or the single opening in September, the 26th. I chose the 26th. The pain in my knee grows every day; it could be that there were residual effects from the last series of injections into the knee capsule that are now wearing off. On Monday I must stop taking anti-inflammatory medications so it will be a trying week.

I am very relieved that I can get this new knee sooner but it does mean that the generous two weeks I thought I had have turned into one. I have several pre-op tests to go through and a couple of them are scheduled for tomorrow morning, first thing. Then I will pick up a prescription at Costco and the handicapped sign that I will use for closer parking after the surgery at the Dept. of Motor Vehicles. And so another day drains away and it hasn't begun yet.

By the way I am reading a book that is written in an interesting way as a first person narrative called The Reluctant Fundamentalist. It was recommended by my friend, Teri Jo. From here on out, I will solicit recommendations from Teri because this one is a winner. I suspect it will be getting painful in a few pages though....

The season has begun and other things

2011-09-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening was the first Utah Symphony concert of the season--actually the first was the night before, but I go on Saturdays--and it was exciting. I'm always glad when these concerts begin again.

Because it was the night before the tenth anniversary of the attacks on this country, the concert began with a piece written by John Adams "On the Transmigration of Souls". You may recall that I loved "Nixon in China" which was part of the live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera so I was prepared to love this piece. And I did. There is a chorus (adults), the Utah Symphony Chorus, a children's chorus, the Madeleine Choir School, the orchestra, of course, and spoken and sound effect recordings. The piece begins with street sounds of a big city and later in the piece footsteps hurrying down a staircase, and spoken text as well.

The piece is contemplative, mostly quiet, sometimes dissonant, sometimes eerie and for me profoundly moving. We were asked not to applaud during the first half of the concert, neither when Fischer appeared nor at the conclusion of the piece. That quiet added to the mood.

The second half was Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. I have heard this piece so many times, both on recordings and live, that I wasn't expecting to be knocked out by it as I was. I heard things I had not heard before although I am sure they have been there. For me, that is one of the signs of a good performance: the discovery of more than I knew was there. The soloists were uniformly excellent and the chorus was excellent, too.

It was a great evening. When I got home I got to work making a cake I planned to take to a pot luck the next day. I knew that it would not cool enough to frost if I made it in the morning.

The neighborhood potluck was very pleasant, attended by interesting people. I never know who will come to these monthly gatherings and that is part of the fun of it.

In the meantime I have finished weaving the towels you saw underway in the last post. I have finished, hemmed and washed all of them and ironed about half of them. When I have ironed them all I will photograph the lot so you can see them, too. I like them.

I am also working on clearing out some things I don't use to create more space to maneuver. I will need it because I am going bionic! On October 10th I am getting a new right knee. As things are now, the injections that were miraculous for a while have stopped working so that knee hurts all of the time: sitting, standing, lying down, walking, etc. I am looking forward to being free of that pain.

New towels underway!

2011-09-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

Now you can see the color details I referred to in the last post. The towels are now underway. When these are finished, they will be for sale like all the others. I like this one very much.

I am including two photos so you can see the entire towel. Do you see why I like it?

Laboring on Labor Day weekend

2011-09-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

The naturally pigmented cotton cloth is finished, washed and ironed:

I have a favorite, loose-fitting summer top that I will use as a pattern to make a top from this cloth. I have a sun hat the same color so I should look pretty spiffy.

I have chosen the colors and measured out the warp for the next set of towels. I have beamed the warp (enough for 13 of them) and threaded more than half the warp. It's a bit over 20 inches wide ( ~50 cm). I always look forward to threading my loom because I can sit inside it on a stool that is just the right size (another Jim Hokett creation), listen to a recording of a book (Laura Lippman at the moment) and thread away. To be honest, I am always a little bit sorry when I get to the end, although then I get to draw the threads through the reed, tie them on and get started making cloth....so there are compensations!

Here is where things are:

What you can't see in this photo are the orange borders of the rose/coral stripes and the blue violet bordered with gray/white marl in the turquoise borders. You'll see those details later.

I like them already.

Back to work

2011-09-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

My duaghter just left. She lives in Massachusetts and will be flying there in a few days. She was here for nearly a week during which time I did almost no weaving--as you might imagine. I don't see her often so we must make the most of time we have, when we have it.

I did take her photo but she was adamant that I not post it and I bow to her wishes.

The cotton cloth is in the end stage at the moment. I have a special shuttle, made by Jim Hokett, (Hokett Would Working), that is long but made with a very shallow profile especially for weaving the last few inches of the warp. I think I can squeeze another inch out of this warp which will leave only about 8" unwoven (the depth of the castle, essentially). I know I will find this shuttle endlessly useful. You can see it here:

It came with a bobbin, which was fortunate because I use a Shacht double-ended bobbin winder and don't think I could make a quill using it.

Once I have woven this off, I will make some more cotton towels. I have the colors all picked out. They will contrast with this almost no-color warp. (But, remember that once I have washed this cloth there will be a lot of green.)

I'm feeling a bit let down having my daughter go again. She lives so far away that we don't get to see each other often.

By the way, as it turned out the appointment I made in June for a colonoscopy fell during Susan's visit. While the prep was miserable (you need to be squeaky clean inside!) the whole procedure was the best experience I have had with any colonoscopy I have ever had (6th). I grow polyps and need to get them cleared out at intervals and I am good to go for now! Have you had yours?

Nearly two yards in....

2011-08-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

I have woven nearly two yards of the new cotton fabric. The warp consists of half 12/2 naturally pigmented cotton, here shown in a better picture, washed and unwashed:

The yarn as it comes from the tube is shown on the left. On the right, you see it after it was simmered in water with washing soda and a little Dawn dishwashing liquid and dried. The change in color is dramatic.

Magical, isn't it?

The cloth underway on the loom consists of one end of the yarn above and one of a pretty fine but highly refined cotton, a 36/2. They alternate across the warp and the weft is solely the very fine cotton. The cloth on the loom looks like this:

I plunked down the little reelings I photographed above so you can see them and get a little sense of the scale of the cloth. It is fairly open plain weave which when washed will come together to be a little less transparent.

Sad to say, the 36/2 breaks very easily. If a couple of threads cling to each other and are struck by the shuttle, that's that and I need to do some mending. I have done a lot of mending but once the fabric is off the loom and washed thoroughly, none of the mends should show. I watch ALL the time so that I can catch broken ends and do the mending promptly.

Meanwhile, I am having trouble with my camera. I can only get one image at a time and then have to fiddle and fiddle. I think something is wrong with its innards and since it is under warranty, it will be shipped back for factory repairs. I have a less capable camera I will use in the mean time. I am grateful that it still works!

Silk washed and ironed and the next thing....

2011-08-08T19:32:00.000-07:00

I finished weaving the samples last night and washed and ironed (yes, ironed because I wanted to show off the luster of this lovely silk) the samples today. Here is how the experiment turned out:

The colors are vibrant and I think you can see the luster of this beautiful silk. This piece is going off to Redfish Dyeworks as soon as I can get it packed up and addressed. I promised Elf and Sandra a sample and I keep my promises

When I taught at MAFA in 2009 (Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association conference) I stopped in the A Touch of Twist booth. While I was looking around I found some naturally pigmented cotton for sale. They had a 10/2 green and a 12/2 olive (a darker green once washed). I know that the cotton fiber in the boll is covered with a sort of waxy covering. Unless you are spinning cotton yourself, that coating is usually removed before the cotton comes to handweavers as yarns. In the case of the naturally pigmented cottons, no bleaching or dyeing is performed so the yarns come to us with that waxy covering intact. The color of the yarn once that coating has been removed is very different for these naturally colored cottons. I particularly like the olive green and decided that I would like a simple cotton top for summer wear.

The cotton, 12/2, woven across itself, even plain weave (which produces the lightest fabric for a given yarn) would be heavier than what I wanted. I bought a very fine, very refined, cotton (~36/2) some years back. It is what I would call oyster-colored, a very light, neutral gray and I decided it would be good with the olive color. The plan is to alternate them in the warp and perhaps use just the fine cotton in the weft or perhaps use two shuttles, on pick of each, alternating.

The little winding on the right is the color on the cone. The darker color on the left is what the yarn looks like when it has been scoured. What I did was put some hot water in a little pan along with washing soda and just a little dishwashing liquid. I simmered the yarn briefly and presto! the color was revealed. Yes, you can wash the resulting fabric several times to develop the color, but using washing soda isn't harmful to cotton and is the quick way.

On to measure out the warp!

An experiment

2011-08-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

It has taken me some time to get my feet under me after IWC. It isn't clear why it has taken so long but things are under control here and the lawn is freshly cut so I can get back to weaving. I am rarely away from a loom for more than a day or two on either side of a teaching trip, but not this time.

I got some 20/2 silk from Redfish Dyeworks at IWC and have converted the skeins to cones--tedious job--and finally have the loom dressed and have begun weaving. I am experimenting with the colors I brought home with me and am not sure yet whether I am sold on what I have begun to weave. I don't make decisions about the cloth until it is off the loom, washed and pressed.

Here is what I am seeing:

I am weaving it in a two block twill and have almost made it through one complete color repeat.

We'll see what I think when I have woven all of it and then finished the cloth. The yarn is very easy to use: it's strong, smooth and lovely to touch. A couple of the skeins are a little striated, not completely level dyeing. I don't mind that at all; it simply points out that it was hand-dyed. And of course, it was. Elf is good at that!

What do you think?

It occurs to me....

2011-07-31T20:53:00.000-07:00

It occurs to me that not everyone who reads this blog would have seen Anasazi beans. These are beans that were grown by the people who lived in cliff dwellings in the Four Corners area. The corners of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico meet at a spot indicated by a brass marker. (Yes, I have been there and you can play a sort of hopscotch with feet in Utah and New Mexico and then Arizona and Colorado. And, yes, I have done it.)

I cooked some for dinner last night and had enough for lunch today and dinner again tomorrow. They are very simple to cook: I picked them over to remove tiny stones and pieces of dirt, rinsed them and then soaked them over night. The next morning I dumped them, water and all, into a sieve and rinsed them. Then I covered them with fresh water, put a lid on the pot and simmered them until they were tender. It is important not to salt them or put in anything acidic (like tomatoes) if you want them to become tender; those things can be added later.

Yum!

This is what they look like:

They are creamy white with dark purple markings. No two beans seem to have exactly the same markings and the color changes when they are soaked, but aren't they pretty?

Re-entry

2011-07-29T12:28:00.000-07:00

I am home from the Intermountain Weavers' Conference. And what a wonderful conference it was! I have some idea of what goes into a conference that runs smoothly, so smoothly that it seems to be effortless. But to do that requires a LOT of effort, mainly beforehand but also during the conference itself.

First, the site, Durango, Colorado, is beautiful. It was warmer than usual while we were there but the humidity was very low which always makes it more comfortable. Sweating works when it is dry!

I had a full class, fifteen participants. They had widely different levels of experience, which is common for me, but all of them worked hard and did well. It was interesting to watch them create stripe designs using black construction paper on Bristol board (about the same as poster board). Right away it was easy to spot who liked simple designs and those who created more elaborate ones. Neither is better--just different. If I could hire a sky-writer I would commission the phrase "Different is good!"

I threw in a lot of information that wasn't advertised, as usual, and they stayed with me the entire way, even those who had been weaving for only about a year. What brave souls! I honor courage and know that to take a new class requires courage, so I feel very tender toward my students. They were so good!

I drove to this conference as I mentioned. I was 1 for 2. There were no horned larks at the Crescent Junction rest stop. It was very hot at about 1 or 2 when I got there, so that might have had something to do with it. I'd have checked on the way back but it was starting to get dark and the cataracts that are developing make driving after dark unpleasant and unsettling for me.

I delayed my departure from Monticello the next morning so that I wouldn't get to Dove Creek too early to buy beans. The place where I stop is on the far side (coming from the west) of Dove Creek. I missed seeing the "Pinto Bean Capitol of the World" sign and asked about it at the store. I was told that the governor told them it had to be taken down because apparently one of the Dakotas now grows more pinto beans than Dove Creek. In case you go, it's the Adobe Milling Company (on the left as you drive towards Durango) and doesn't seem to have changed in the decades I have been stopping there. Great beans.

Here is a picture I took along the road to Crescent Junction. I hadn't gotten to the part of Utah with red rocks but this mesa off the road with the gorgeous cumulus clouds growing behind it caught my eye.

Sad to say, the rest of the pictures were taken in B/W mode which made them unmemorable. With sunglasses on I didn't see what I had done!

I have been working on re-entry tasks: laundry, reassuring Bob and Lola, grocery shopping, banking, bill paying, correspondence, mowing the lawn, watering the garden, etc. There is always a lot to do before leaving and at least as much once I return.

I am still replaying the memories of IWC, the people there, old friends and new ones.....

Still catching up

2011-07-15T21:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't woven since I left to teach at MAFA. Instead I planted some things my neighbor gave me (coleus plants of various colors and something new to me, dwarf taro bulbs). I think the coleus plants will make it. I am not sure that the taro which would prefer more water than I am willing to spend on it will. They are out in the area between the sidewalk and the street, the parkway. Mine is 18 feet deep and planted with drought-tolerant plants. The question, then, is: can dwarf taro take a joke? We'll see.

I have been doing laundry, cleaning, and picking raspberries! There were a few raspberry canes here when I bought this house late in 1989 and now they are growing in mad abundance. I eat some on my breakfast food each morning. It is too hot to consider making jam but these will bear again in the fall when I need to make more. I eat little of it but like to give it to friends.

Bob and Lola are now settled again after my absence. I need to break the news to them that next week I will be going to teach at the Intermountain Weavers Conference (IWC). It will be held in Durango, Colorado, an eight and a half hour drive from here. I am driving, something I rarely can do because most teaching jobs are too far away. I plan to take two days so that I can do it in a leisurely manner. For example, I know that at the Crescent Junction rest stop (where you turn right to go to Moab) there are almost always horned larks. I never see them anywhere else. The second day I will pass through a tiny town in western Colorado called Dove Creek. It bills itself as "the pinto bean capitol of the world" and it may be. There is a store there where I will stop to buy pinto beans but also black beans and the beautiful anasazi beans. Anasazi beans were found in an anasazi ruin and grown so that now they are a crop. They are about the size and shape of pinto beans but they are creamy white and deep reddish purple! Gorgeous--and delicious, too.

Can you tell that I am looking forward to this trip? And I get to teach, too. I am presenting the workshop on designing and weaving stripes. We start with design principles and practice making several different kinds of stripes with strips of paper (black on white), introduce a color and then a second color. Finally the participants turn to their looms where they can weave the designs they have made. They will weave several different structures to see how different structures affect the stripe sequence. It's fun.

Tonight I widened the brick driveway a bit near the sidewalk so that the folks who deliver my newspaper each morning won't be driving on the grass and making a mud hole there. It's a miserable enough job to have to be up and out before the sun is up delivering papers. This should protect the sprinkling system and keep that area mud-free and looking nice. Sweaty work though! Time to hit the shower.

Home again!

2011-07-11T21:31:00.000-07:00

I got home late last night from Gettysburg, PA and teaching at the Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association Conference. This year, like two years ago, MAFA was held at Gettysburg College. Last time there were just under 150 attendees and this year it was much closer to 200. MAFA is growing!

For a Utahn, used to dry heat, the heavy humidity was shocking even if expected. Sometimes it felt that I was trying to breathe bath water but the dorm was air-conditioned and the classroom, too, although less effectively.

I was teaching Color and Weave Effects, a class about how a color rotation of light and dark threads in the warp direction and also in the weft direction changes the appearance of even the simplest weaves. In fact, my favorite patterns in color and weave effect are woven plain weave. Each participant had prepared a loom on which to weave both plain weave and 2/2 twills--and if more than four shafts were involved, more structures.

I taught the participants to draft the designs so that they could see what a certain color rotation would produce. After they had done some weaving they learned how to work from a design that they want to produce to the draft that will produce it--if it is possible. Then I showed them how to transfer some of the wonderful small patterns of plain weave into large versions of themselves using profile drafting. It was the most complete version of this workshop I have ever been able to present. We had two and a half full days and we made the most of them.

I can't praise the participants enough! They worked hard, stayed with me all the way and seemed to be having a good time as they did it. It was fun for me, even though I was battling a cold, and I think they had fun, too.

Here is a picture of a color and weave effect fabric. This one is made up entirely of plain weave, the simplest of all weave structures. The patterns in it are very cool, I think.

This picture shows more variety. The black and white one is woven in 2/2 twill. All of these made the trip to Gettysburg.

I have done the laundry, gotten the sprinkler system repaired at last, and gone through the mail that arrived in my absence. Today I slept in although I awoke at 5:30 EDT as I had been doing, but because I was in Utah, not Pennsylvania, I went back to sleep, gratefully.

As is always the case, no matter how wonderful the trip is. I was and am very glad to be home!