Hppy New Year's everyone. I still have a few hours to go until the new years starts but  know some of our members in other parts of the world are already in the new year. I hope everyone has a happy, healthy and weaverly year to come!

Comments

Sun, 01/18/2015 - 01:37

Artistry

We went to Louisville,KY today to see , The New Art Of The Loom ; Comte porary International Tapestry. It's a touring exhibit with 24 artists from 16 countries. It was so amazing! To see the artists take the techniques I labor on and with so much dexterity use those techniques to their advantage, makes the practice seem worthwhile. Plus to see how the artists use the techniques is so interesting . But that's only technique! I couldn't even possibly begin to describe the exacting compositions, and the content, well these artists are the cream of the crop. Go if you can! Inspiring ! The exhibit has been extended to Jan. 25 th. Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft I am so Inspired!
Sun, 01/18/2015 - 02:03

Queezle

That looks like an amazing show!  Snooping around the internet led to lots of link, and some youtube videos i've not yet explored.  You can download a pamphlet about it - I cannot figure out how to upload and link to the pdf, or to provide a hot link, but if you google "the new art of the loom" the top thing that comes up for me is the pdf.  Very impressive.

Sun, 01/18/2015 - 02:23

tien (not verified)

Reedguy, I don't know. I've never had a problem with Ravelry, but we might be using different browsers. What browser are you using?

I drove four hours to get to my writer's retreat cottage today. But it's beautiful! Here's the outside:

outside of my cottage for my writing retreat

And here's the inside:

picture of cottage inside

I've already set myself up for writing, and also went into town and shopped for food. I shouldn't have to leave the cottage at all tomorrow!

Since I can't write for sixteen hours a day, I also brought along an inkle loom, a card weaving loom, a few of my custom tablet weaving decks, and a bunch of yarn. Tomorrow, after I'm done writing, I'll try to figure out card weaving. :-)

Sun, 01/18/2015 - 08:27

Artistry

Oh it's wonderful Tien! thanks Queezle for giving the additional info on how people could see some of the exhibit !
Sun, 01/18/2015 - 09:16

ReedGuy

Tien, I'm on Firefox here.

Your little retreat is nice, and no snow. So it must be warm if you want to go for a walk outside. :)

All you world travelers, must be nice. I'm stuck in snow on a countermarche loom. :D

Sun, 01/18/2015 - 16:06

theresasc

yesterday for MWS study group.  Created a project here.  It was kind of a fail, did not get the results that I thought I would.  The cloth is pretty but it did not behave as I thought it would after wet finishing.

Tien - nice retreat, looks like a great place for all kinds of inspiration.

Cathy - lucky you to go to the exhibit.  I would not think you needed any more inpiration after your fabulous trip!

Queezle - I saw that you sleyed your reed flat.  That has been the only way I have ever done it.  When I bought my first loom it came with reed holders that loop over the castle.  I have used them on all my looms, even the CM, but there I have to loop them over the first set of shafts.  I just cannot imagine sleying a reed upright, it is so fast and easy just to pull the ends down through the reed.  Here is a picture of them:

reed hanger

Sun, 01/18/2015 - 18:08

Artistry

Thereasc, it's inspiration for the " get ready to weave work" I need. And I did get a lot done this morning , yay! I looked at your samples and ,I too, like the stripe sequence and really like your color choices :)
Tue, 01/20/2015 - 14:09

tien (not verified)

Reedguy, I have no idea! I'm using Firefox too. Must be the gremlins...

I'm making good progress on the book - not as fast as I would like, but I've finished two chapters and have two more to go. Hoping to finish one chapter today and another tomorrow. That seems like a positively glacial pace for focused work, but it turns out I can only write new material for three hours a day or so. The rest of the time I'm spending editing or doing prep work, like outlining chapters or setting up to analyze the book's structure. That involves a lot of physical stuff like cutting up printed text, attaching it to sticky notes with a summary of the text, and arranging the ideas on a sheet of foam board. Much less brain-intensive.

While I haven't done a lot of tablet weaving (intentionally, since I want to focus on the book), I did set up the loom with a 40-card deck, with the intent of weaving this pattern from Gudrun Polak's pattern library:

Celtic knot pattern tablet weaving

Since I've only done a very little bit of card weaving before (and that was several years ago), I'm still playing with the basics - turning the entire pack forward several turns and then back several turns. It's producing a very nice pattern, though, so I may continue practicing until I have enough length for a bookmark. But maybe not - dunno, I'll just have to see.

Here's a pic of the weaving so far:

card weaving so far

And here is a photo of the entire setup:

Gudrun's card weaving loom

The loom is very ingenious - see Gudrun's page about it for details and to order. (It's also really beautiful, though it's hard to see the turquoise inlay in this photo.)

There are other distractions though. In addition to a beautiful gardens (and yes, ReedGuy, the weather is comfortably warm - highs in the '60s), there's also a hot tub and a sauna on premises - comes with the cottage, and I'm the sole occupant, so I get it all to myself. (Ooh, hurt me!) So far I've only soaked in the hot tub, but today, during a break, I may try the sauna. :-)

Anyway, I'm off to get started on the book. Hoping to finish one more chapter today!

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 14:26

endorph

but I did get some knitting in. On Saturdays some of us drop in unannounced on our LYS and have a mini-knitting group. This Saturday they were also have a rigid heddle class and I ran into a woman I used to work with - hadn't seen her in years so that was fun. She started weaing a couple of weeks ago, liked it so much she bought a rigid heddle loom, and will be down here over the next several weeks taking classes.

I also got some spinning in - I am finally spinning the alpaca roving I picked up in Wyoming last May. I thought about my loom - does that count?

Tue, 01/20/2015 - 16:20

theresasc

I have seen that type of loom on-line before, cool to see one in action.

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 01:14

sally orgren

Err, I guess not.

When I look at this message in "edit" the image is there. When I look at the thread, my message box has no images. (Tried with a different browser-Chrome.) And it is v-e-r-y slow.

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 01:23

sally orgren

Ok, I am not exactly extracting the "pay from the dirt" in the previous photo, rather I am fixing that dang flange that kept popping off the Weaver's Friend gear during a particularly busy demonstration weekend this fall.

To return the bolt and flange into position near the floor, my choice was to point my butt into the center of the room to fix it, or plaster my posterior up against the window. Neither choice was attractive, and my guildmate thought either way - it was pretty funny, so she snapped this photo. (Thanks, Betty.)

Of course, of all the images I was testing, THIS is the one to actually LOAD. After 6 months of no photo loads, there was no way I was hitting delete!

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 01:20

sally orgren

Right in the middle of posting about dyeing these scarves while on vacation in July, I lost the ability to add photos. Here is the second photo that followed all those white scarves hanging on the volleyball net (if you remember that far back!) We had about 18 family members from age 3 to 65+, plus two dogs, dyeing scarves over the whole Hogan.

The directions for this easy tissue-paper dyeing project can be found in Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot, Issue 175, Summer of 2013.

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 04:33

tien (not verified)

Ooo, neat! Do you have photos of the finished pieces? I'm intrigued...

I made only one brief attempt at tablet weaving today, separating the cards into two decks, which promptly tangled horribly on each other. I've separated them out twice already and may actually have to descend into the utter last resort by (gasp!) reading the documentation. There has to be a way to do this "right", or all tablet weavers would have died of frustration.

On the other hand, I successfully wrote 4,189 words today, finishing my second-to-last chapter! (Don't look too impressed; a lot of it was quotes from interviews. While they do need lots of editing, it's not like writing from a blank page.) I also started story boarding the book - rather literally! I printed out all the chapters and am cutting them up into logical blocks of text, then taping the blocks to a sticky note summarizing the section. Then I'm putting the notes on a BIG sheet of white foam core board in sequential order. That lets me stand back and look at the structure of the entire book at once. Which (I'm hoping!) will let me analyze the structure in a way that's impossible to do on a computer monitor.

Oh, and my dragon inkle loom is due to arrive on Thursday.... :-) :-) :-)! I got a sneak preview from the maker - here it is:

dragon inkle loom

It's African mahogany around a core of American cherry - which you can see in this photo:

"racing stripe" in the wood

The maker (Debbie at To-Ply Fiber Arts on Etsy) had to make the dragon part thicker to stand up to the thicker/longer pegs that I requested, so she sandwiched the cherry wood in between panels of African mahogany. I think it looks neat!

Anyway, it's supposed to arrive Thursday - can't wait! (Although, at the rate I'm weaving, I doubt I'll even get it warped before I leave...)

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 04:34

tien (not verified)

And WELCOME BACK, Sally!!

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 10:21

ReedGuy

I like wood, and also like contrast from lighter to darker woods. I like that loom even if nothing ever gets woven. :D

Here's one of my pieces showing contrast. Ii is a phone table stand, the hole is for the cord out the back. Yup we still use land lines. This was just scrap pieces of walnut, I can't throw away dark wood because our indiginous hardwoods are are light colored where I live. :D Cherry I suppose is semi dark once the air gets to it and darkens the pink tones. Anyway the other wood is ash.

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 15:20

endorph

the dragon is wonderful!

Sally, nice photos - glad you are back!

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 15:37

Artistry

Hello Sally ! Glad you'r back! ReedGuy , that is a very nice phone table you have made there. I like the contrast of light and dark woods too. Clever to haver the hole in the back for the cord, they are always flopping around otherwise.nice symmetry .where did you get the Walnut from? My Uncle Jack made great furniture. Built an addition on the cottage with wood ( birch?) entirely from his property. lake of the Woods.
Wed, 01/21/2015 - 15:40

Artistry

Hello Sally ! Glad you'r back! ReedGuy , that is a very nice phone table you have made there. I like the contrast of light and dark woods too. Clever to haver the hole in the back for the cord, they are always flopping around otherwise.nice symmetry .where did you get the Walnut from? My Uncle Jack made great furniture. Built an addition on the cottage with wood ( birch?) entirely from his property. lake of the Woods. Whoops, maybe it was pine ! I dunno......obviously not a woodworker:)
Wed, 01/21/2015 - 15:45

ReedGuy

Cathy, the walnut was from a local wholesaler, it came in from Ohio. We only have butternut (white walnut) up here.

Wed, 01/21/2015 - 15:56

Artistry

Yeah, we have a lot of walnut around here, got 2 in our front yard. To weaving; I'm trying Queezle's approach of something everyday. Today more work on Beauty. I'm almost there. I'll be soooooo happy to weave:) Another test tonight, see surgeon tomorrow. Ailment is unfortunately wearing me out:(
Thu, 01/22/2015 - 02:50

Queezle

I hope my approach works for you, and that your health issues are straightened out quickly.

I am excited to start learning about Swedish Weaving tomorrow! 

Thu, 01/22/2015 - 11:29

ReedGuy

Heal up soon. Being sick isn't as fun as weaving. ;)

Thu, 01/22/2015 - 14:49

sally orgren

This is the last warp remaining on my looms, and it was from summer of 2013: the tied weaves workshop with Su Butler. It took awhile to figure out what I wanted to do with it, since the warp itself was so pretty. I finally decided to do pick up, because it is soooo easy with the technique she taught. Not *quite* automatic, but nearly!

The first ginko leaf is appearing out of a field of dark green, and as the cartoon (seen below the warp) progresses, the negative and positive areas will reverse. For the body of the piece, most of the warp will show on the top side and the ginko leaves will be dark. I came up with the flat stick and sling idea to suspend the cartoon under the warp, so I could quickly and easily position the illustration at the fell line when I needed it, then move it out of the way.

For a "Low Warp Weaver", this is the closest I'll probably ever get to tapestry ;-)

Thu, 01/22/2015 - 16:20

Artistry

Oh Sally, I was getting my hopes up " here she comes to Tapestry" until the last sentence, it's o.k. You're such a wonderful and proficient structure junkie:) the ginkgo leaf piece is very nice. Thanks ReedGuy and Queezle, neurosurgeon this pm. This will all be behind me soon:)
Thu, 01/22/2015 - 18:22

ainz

Good luck this afternoon, Cathie. If I lived anywhere near you, I would go by Tien's, get a box of home made chocolates and make sure you had them when all was over! 

Thu, 01/22/2015 - 20:16

sally orgren

Cathie, 

So sorry to disappoint! From my vantage point, good tapestry weavers know their moves several steps ahead, like good chess players. To get to that point, I know it takes a lot of ripping out, and it also takes being very mindful during the weaving process. 

The appeal of low-warp weaving for me is getting into the physical rhythm with the equipment. I already do enough "unweaving" with a shaft loom, I cannot imagine doing it with discontinuous weft!

What makes a tapestry piece neat to look at for me is that you can "read" every decision the weaver made from the overall composition to the weft choice, warp by warp. It's like a reading a good story, with little surprises buried in the fine print.

I'll do my part to promote tapestry all I can, because I have a great appreciation of what it takes to weave each piece, and wish I had another lifetime to pursue it!

Gosh, good luck with the surgery today. 

Fri, 01/23/2015 - 00:04

Artistry

Sally, I love what you wrote about tapestry! The surgeon was today, not surgery., but thank you. Tomorrow is completely free, I'm going to work on Beauty:) Cathie
Fri, 01/23/2015 - 17:01

theresasc

Maybe that is why I sometimes have issues at my tapestry loomSmile

Sally - great warp and that is a really neat process you are using.  It almost brings you to the dark side of tapestry!

Take care Cathie and I hope all goes well for you.  First week of radiation is behind me - whoo hoo!

Some weaving friends of mine are putting together a small mid-west group to invade MAFA in July.  It seems to be coming together.  It has been a couple of conferences since I have been able to go so I am really looking forward to it.  I love the weekend format, that was why a friend and I started going to MAFA vs. Midwest Weavers, even if we tend to have to drive farther.

Fri, 01/23/2015 - 19:50

sally orgren

I am originally from the Midwest (born in WI, lived in IA) so I'd love to have a Midwest contingent come! I'll have my avatar on my nametag, so you can look for me in the dining hall, at the informal fashion show (don't forget to bring something to "model" - even if it is a dishtowel or lawn chair, as was seen at past shows!), or during the "studio tour" night. (The studio tour is a great opportunity to gather information about workshop leaders to take back to your own guilds if they do programming.)

As if the workshop line up wasn't enough, this year they are doing a guild exhibit and one of my guilds is planning to show, so that should be fun! And in past years, there has always been some kind of surprise; one year there was a Virginia West retrospective with Virginia in person, narrating her garments as they were modeled by others. (Everyone got to go up on stage and examine the racks of her garments afterward.)

I know there are a lot of great conferences coming this summer, and many offer some of the same features as MAFA. (So if there are "lurkers" to this thread who haven't tried a regional conference before, I say make this the year!)

Sat, 01/24/2015 - 10:53

ReedGuy

Wow, I looked at some used books on weaving at Amazon. These were mostly from other sellers. I was on the CA site and they listed many books that sellers don't ship here. I think Amazon needs to clean that up and just list sellers who ship to CA on the CA site I think. For $98 for 4 books these places want $100 in total shipping, no thanks to that. :)

Sat, 01/24/2015 - 11:31

tien (not verified)

ReedGuy, your phone stand is GORGEOUS!! I love the contrast between dark and light woods. And so beautifully made! I just love it. If I still had a landline, I'd tell you where to ship it. :-)

I have made very little progress on the card weaving - or rather, I figured out that I had threaded the cards wrong, fixed that, and then promptly realized that I didn't know how to read the draft. I've been experimenting on my own with mixed results - I think I'm actually going to have to read the documentation for this one! But I have not exactly been laboring over it, either - just a few minutes here and there.

The important thing is that I have FINISHED THE ROUGH DRAFT OF MY BOOK!!! That happened on Wednesday. I spent all day Thursday scrutinizing and rearranging the structure of the book. Friday I made all the requisite changes and also completely rewrote Chapter 1. Today (last day of the retreat) I'm planning on editing a bunch more chapters. I've decided that the retreat officially ends at 6pm, when the massage therapist arrives. :-) But I may do a little more work before packing up and driving home on Sunday...

Anyway, I've made enormous progress on the book in just one focused week - and the place I'm staying is gorgeous. I'm considering reserving it again for the week of July 4 - I figure that either I'll be done with the book (yeah, right) and can go celebrate, or I'll need another week to hole up and work frantically to get done by the deadline (August 1).

Sat, 01/24/2015 - 12:13

ainz

I'm glad you had a good retreat, Tien. Finishing the draft for the whole book is really an  accomplishment. 

Because of your projects (and that great dragon loom!) and because I will be traveling around a bit these next months, I just might try for an inkle loom. Would be getting a mini-inkle loom be a good idea, or would I out grow it very quickly? 

Everybody, have a good productive weekend.

Sat, 01/24/2015 - 16:36

theresasc

and I have not outgrown it.  I have used it mostly for making bookmarks, I can get around 4 off of it.  It has been my learning tool for inkle pickup.  Just realize, smaller loom means smaller shed and shorter length.  Mine is very easy to carry around vs. my full sized Schacht or my floor loom.

Inkle family

Above is my inkle family, as you can see the mini is quite a bit smaller than the Schacht loom.  My mini was made by Good Wood Looms but I am not sure if they are still in business anymore.

Sat, 01/24/2015 - 16:49

theresasc

on finishing your rough draft - that must feel very good.  From the pictures of the retreat, you picked a wonderful place to finish it up at. 

The first card weaving band I wove I ended up threading half the pack wrong and it took me the longest time to figure out why the design would not work out.  I have found weaving card bands on inkle looms, balanced turning patterns are best or too much twist builds up.  There is a way to thread using a fishing tackle swivel but I have never tried that.

My other weavers have confirmed - there will be at least 3 Wisconsin weavers trekking to MAFA this summer - I am really excited about it.  I have been to MAFA 3 times: 2007, 2009, and 2011 so I am looking forward to returning.  All I need to do now is finalize my class choices.

Sat, 01/24/2015 - 18:05

ainz

Thanks for your feedback, Theresa. I love the family!

I think I will order one. I live in Spain and there is a small company that makes simple looms. I have never heard of anyone anywhere around here that uses one, but from the pictures on their website I guess I can give them a try - P&H from the US, the UK or Sweden adds up. 

It scares me though: that would make 4 looms: floor loom, table loom, tapestry loom and inkle. 

Sat, 01/24/2015 - 20:22

Missus T.

Yay! The waffle weave towels are totally finished.  In the future, I will plan for fringe hems because the dimensional thickness of the weave makes hemming these towels a bit of a pain.  What worked best was to use a stretch stitch on my sewing machine -- set to the longest stitch length possible and about a medium width zigzag -- this was the best I could do with the machine. 

Note to self:  do not run raw, unwashed towels through the machine to lock the edges before washing; weave a few extra picks to stabilize the edge and then wash the towel yardage before putting any machine stitches on the hems. I learned this because I ran one edge through the machine before washing and of course the cloth shrank but the stitching did not!

The best looking hem with the least amount of lettucing was gotten by machine finishing the cut edge after washing but before cutting the towels apart and then hand-turning the hem with a needle as for applique.  In the future I think all-cotton quilting thread would be better than the poly-blend thread that I used b/c it was in my stash.

The thickness of the turned hem leads me to favor fringe in the future.  But these towels are so wonderful I can't stop squeezing them! 

Forget the Charmin, I'm over here squeezing my waffleweaves.

Next project is to finish the last sleeve on husband's sweater!  Meanwhile I dream of the next warp.

Sat, 01/24/2015 - 21:39

endorph

today in a dyeing class - actually the class was called Spinning to Dye - we used skeins we had spun at our last two meet ups to use for dyeing today. As soon as my skeins are dry I will post pictures. I had a skein of Polypay, a skein of Falkland, and skein of white mohair and a skein of mixed BFL. It was a lot of fun and messy and  - fun! It was also interesting to see how the different fibers took the dye.

Sun, 01/25/2015 - 18:21

ReedGuy

Missus try the waffle in a smaller thread some time. Bulky yarn is not best for waffle. Commercial ones use 20/2 cotton with a tight sett, roll the ends and sew and have plain woven selvedges (2 wefts over one warp). It's all in the scale of things. A more airy weave will shrink a lot more, the degree depends on fibre.

Sun, 01/25/2015 - 04:12

tien (not verified)

...here's my full manuscript. Printed out as a single unit, for the first time ever. (I feel like I should have this stack of paper bronzed!)

The manuscript for my book!

I sat down and read through it, too (all 96 pages/32,331 words). You know what? It needs a ton of work, but I think it's going to be really, really good. I think it's going to be the book I wanted to write. (Which is a good thing, since I'm putting so much effort into it!)

Tomorrow morning I'm driving back home. I feel SOOOOO good about the last week's work - I've made more progress on the book in the last seven days than I did in the two MONTHS before that!

Sun, 01/25/2015 - 07:10

Artistry

Tien, that is marvelous to see a dream in your mind's eye come to fruition! You certainly have worked hard on it like everything you do! I can't wait until this new creation of yours gets published and I can get a copy in my hot little hands!
Sun, 01/25/2015 - 11:01

ReedGuy

That is a great an achieve, to write a book, and the steps along the way. Be proud. :)

I finally solved my browser issue with Ravelry, I think anyway. I cleared the cache and everything seems fine so far. Don't know why I had to, but that's for the web gurus. :D

Still weaving upholstery. :)

Sun, 01/25/2015 - 12:29

endorph

Here are my yarns. From left to right we have Falkland, mixed BFL, Polypay and Mohair. The other pic is of the yarn drying in the beautiful day we managed to have. This is about 2/3 of the total.

Sun, 01/25/2015 - 13:57

Missus T.

Thanks for the yarn size suggestion, Reed Guy.  I made these waffles from 22/2 Nialin.  Finer yarns in my future for sure!  Does the number of shafts in the pattern make a difference in terms of hemmability?  I used the 5 shaft pattern from Simple Weaves.

Sun, 01/25/2015 - 14:34

ReedGuy

A couple designted shafts probably, so it will weave waffle at the hems.

Sun, 01/25/2015 - 14:33

Artistry

Wowie, zowie, Tina those skeins are beautiful! What are you going to make? I love dye days! Will work some more on beauty today, I adore this loom, so glad I got it:) ReedGuy, watched your u-tubes on scrim nicely done! Nicely shot, beautiful loom, good weaver:)
Sun, 01/25/2015 - 14:57

Artistry

MisussT I've been thinking about your hems and the thickness of the waffle weave. If you wove plain weave for your hem, it would be much less bulk. To figure out plain weave on a weave write down every other threaded shaft on your threading plan, that makes up one shed of your plain weave. All the other shafts not chosen make up shed two of your plain weave. You may already know this. Cathie
Sun, 01/25/2015 - 14:55

ReedGuy

I thought I solved the Ravelry thing, but I see I have to keep hitting reload when I go in there or I don't see an updated page.

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