Back at it!

Gee, it felt good to sit down at the loom and weave again! I finished my latest saori scarf - a ruffled one. I'm pleased... I have another one on this warp to finish. It's been a fun way to use up some of my old and very old bits of handspun... and so much fun to explore different weave structures with a direct tied up 4 shaft warp. I hope to finish the 2nd one this week.

AND... I sat and spun up a delicious thick and thin yarn of merino and bamboo blended fibers in turquoise, blues and pale greens on my new Kromski wheel while I watched tv last night. The roving was one I'd gotten from Beth of Whorling Tides at the Fiber Frolic in February. Lovely... and such a delight to spin!

I'm back!!!

Introducing.... FIONA !!!

Fiona arrived last Monday, right on schedule. I quickly took all her pieces out of the box and arranged them at my breakfast table where I had lots of light... ready to assemble. Well... first I had to rub a couple coats of tung oil finish on her... and THEN Friday night my dear hubby and I assembled her. It was a fairly easy process... but an extra 2 hands were very helpful... and within the hour I was spinning!!!

She's a beautiful wheel and is just perfect for me! I love the contemporary style and the double treadle castle wheel construction. It was so easy to spin on her! As of last night 2 nights after her assembly. I've spun an entire bobbin of the beautiful wool that Beth Dinoff of Whorling Tides created especially for the Carolina FIber Frolic by coordinator, Jan Smiley. It seemed appropriate to spin this fiber first... as that is where I ordered the wheel.

Saturday our Fiber Guild of the Savannahs was demonstrating at the Oatland Island Sheep to Shawl and I plied a blue silk and wool handspun singles with a commercial 5/2 variegated cotton thread using Ellen's "bobble"? technique. I love it... soft and yummy color. I need to think of just the right project for it!

I do love this wheel, however I have to make a few adjustments:

* First, the spring on the Scotch tension has to be adjusted so that it is stretched to its full length and ticks the flier assembly when it spins. I need the tension to be this tight so that the handspun will draw onto the bobbin. I may try small coated elastic hair bands to see if this might be a solution.

* Second, I noticed that after spinning quite a bit... it already needs to be oiled. This may be because it is new... or it may just be a quirk of the wheel. It DID come with a thin needled oil "can" -- so I should have expected a need for oil --- and it was in the instructions.

* The third concern is my fault! I tung oiled the MDF wheel and it came out far too dark. I can't see the contrast between the wheel and the walnut swosh as much as I'd like. I may have to paint the wheel a contrasting color... which was something I'd thought of earlier. I just don't want to paint the light wood on the treadles, flier assembly, bobbins and upright. DARN! I'm not rushing into anything... but percolating on it.

RUFFLES!!!

Inspired by Terri of Weaving the Saori Way (Ravelry group)... I took my 2nd Saori scarf a bit further. Because I had some shiny perle cotton in the warp with the different wools (worsted, boucle and singles) I was able to pull the black yarns and gather the fabric about 2 inches in from both selvedges. This left the center 1/2 inch ungathered. Terri had woven hers in an open weave structure, but I wanted to try it using more of my "vintage" handspun (done over 35 years of spinning) only this time - in natural color only.

my scarf with the black warp pulled on half of it... (truer color)

gathered on one side only...

For weft I used several different small balls I had of natural white as well as some tussah silk, a plied wool and mohair, a plied angora with white thread and some alpaca handspun and in roving. I love the texture and the way the various yarns and weave structures play with each other. I used the same 4 shaft direct tie-up on my 8 shaft Mighty Wolf. What fun!

detail showing the roving and ruffled scarf

Saori !!!

I've found it... Wabi Sabi weaving!!!

As the new year approaches I've been reacquainting myself with something I learned when I was researching Wabi Sabi for my Japanese Fulbright Scholarship proposal. I've been bumping into it for the past 5 years... and finally I'm embracing it! The above scarf is my first Saori project -- woven with pure joy and freedom -- and not worrying about planning and complex weave structures. SAORI was developed by Misao Jo about 30 years ago when she was 57 year old. SA is from the Zen idea of everything having its own dignity and ORI is the Japanese word for weaving. Misao says, "It is this individuality that makes everything meaningful and the uniqueness of each thread that creates the tapestry of life."

The day after Christmas I decided that it was the perfect time to begin a new project, but for this one I didn't want to spend a lot of time planning. I wanted to weave something JUST FOR THE PURE JOY OF WEAVING!!! So I took out my trusty warping board and gathered yarns from my stash for warp -- some grey worsted weight wool, some charcoal boucle wool, some thin singles white wool and some black fine 5/2 cotton. I didn't want to measure... so I guess-timated about 6 yards picked up the grey wool and started winding... when I felt like it I stopped and changed to one of the others until I thought I'd probably have enough for a narrow scarf. It chained it off and sat down with a 10 dent reed and my threading hook and the newly wound warp and started thread in about the center - again not measuring - guess-timating! (LIBERATING!) I doubled the thinner yarns in the dents... and voila... it was 5 inches. Perfect! (But then it would have been perfect had it been 6 or 7 inches! - I didn't care - I was letting chance take care of it. It felt right - that was what was important!)

Once the reed was threaded I carried it to my 8 shaft Mighty Wolf and proceeded to thread the heddles on a straight twill on the front 4 shafts only. I dropped the cords from the threadles on either side of the center 4 treadles and threaded these four with a direct tie-up - 1st treadle to lift harness 1, 2nd treadle to lift harness 2, etc. It cleared my way to dance and play with the treadles in different combinations using both feet.

I have been spinning for about 35 years and weaving for over 32 years and I have quite a stash of handspun -- some 35 years old. When you spin your own yarn - each yarn has a story... you remember where you got the fibers, where you were when you spun it, etc., etc., etc. So I gathered together some of these really, really old - almost antique - handspuns to use as weft for my first SAORI scarf. I also included some luscious bright white alpaca roving that my oldest and dearest friend, Cathy has sent me as a surprise (with paisley fabric and some delicious rusty brown alpaca, too!)

I tied the warp to the front beam and was ready to start playing! I randomly broke of pieces of the handspun yarns that I knew who "go together(wool, alpaca, wool & mohair and the alpaca roving) ... and started to play and dance and have a blast! No stress or worries that I was treadling correctly or that the threading was correct. It didn't matter. FREEDOM! Sometimes I used plain weave treadling... sometimes twill... sometimes combinations... sometimes I started one color from one side, another from the other side, clasped them and returned... sometimes I would turn the yarn at the selvedge and return it in the same shed two or three times... sometimes I placed the roving in the shed. I did whatever I felt like doing in the moment with the amount of yarn I had broken off the ball. HOW LIBERATING!

When I had woven about 2.5 yard I cut it off the loom and tied the fringes. I washed the scarf with Pantene shampoo and cream rinse to soften it and hung it to dry. I'm really pleased with his piece and look forward to weavin the 2nd scarf on this warp of tones of whites in different handspun fibers.

I just ordered this book from the Worcester Massachusetts SAORI Center and have enjoyed reading Misao's philosophy as well as seeing the many patterns for handwoven Saori clothes that are incorporated in the back. You can order it

here

(scroll down the page to find it...)

Finding Balance

I can't believe that it's February all ready! The weather has been cold (for the South) and wet here in Savannah since I think... Thanksgiving! We're ready for steady days of sunshine and 60s or 70s again!

I've been working part-time at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) since early November as a docent (part greeter, educator, school ambassador) in their galleries. Most weeks I've worked 2 full days and 2 half days. Though I love it... I'm hoping to cut back a bit -- to 2 full and maybe an occasional half day, as needed. I'm finding that though I am surrounded by world-class, inspiring artwork, I'm not finding the time to weave as much as I'd like. So... hopefully February will bring fewer hours of outside work... and more hours of weaving. Of course, when the weather changes... I'll want some beach time, too! Alas.. so many wants... it's just finding the right balance...

I'm in the process of warping my loom for a short kimono (haori) jacket for my former art teaching colleague, Peter. I'm using some Condon dark brown wool warp that my dear friend Cindy gave me many, many years ago. I have been using Fiberworks PCW version 4 - Bronze to create my draft. It's been very addictive playing around with the multitude of possibilities... and I think I've settled on a variation of point twills for 8 shafts. The CrossOver program that Syne suggested on Weavezine has allowed me to use this PC program on my Mac very successfully. I am just trying it out now... but think I'll have to purchase it as it's far too much fun! Anyway, I've wound the yarn from 8 skeins to balls and wound the 32" wide x 4 yards of warp sett at 10EPI and threaded it through my 10 dent reed and am ready to begin threading the pattern through the heddles. I'm hoping to get it done to take to him the end of February -- and yes, I know... February is the shortest month!

I finished my felted handspun slippers! I spun the yarn and skeined it many years ago - so long ago that I've forgotten when I did it (it's all about using the stash, right?) I had one skein of dark almost black and one of a medium multi-shaded gray natural wool plyed yarn. I found an adorable pattern on Ravelry called French Press Slippers and easily knit the bottoms of the dark yarn and the sides from the lighter yarn then stitched them together. But... they were humungous! I had added some rows for my extra large feet, but I think my gauge was off.

As I don't own my own washer, I used the condo's and unfortunately there were not enough controls... so they didn't felt very much. So.. I took to the bathroom sink... and hand felted them with some success. It took about 3 different sessions of about 30 minutes each of wringing and adding hot tap water and soap and scrubbing... but...they were still far too long. I then tried the condo's drier and I was getting closer, but they were still not right. I then came to the realization that the only way to make them fit was to take an inch out of the instep and then lace them back together.

The inspiration for lacing came from an exhbition of Contemporary Aftrican artwork in one of SCAD's galleries where I work. An artist by the name of Nicholas Hlobo does very unusual fiber pieces which combine cutting into paper and then lacing it back together (like in football stitches) with seam binding. He also uses rubber in his work. Here is a slideshow of his work.

Anyway... it worked and I now have comfy, warm felted wool slippers that fit beautifully. I stitched on some silver star-shaped earrings instead of buttons that were my mother's old clip ons... so I keep her memory close! (How wabi sabi!) I know these slippers will get lots of wear as they are just the right size now and keep my tootsies toastie.

Happy New Year!

I have lots of ideas bouncing around my head for projects for 2010! I can't wait to get started!

But first, I'd like to share some of what I have been doing since I last posted:

I completed colorful sweaters for my adorable grand-daughters -- Abby and Chelsea who live in the frozen Northeast! My LYS had a display of yummy colors of wool yarns that caught my eye. I decided to knit striped cardigans - in warm colors for Chelsea

and cool colors for Abby. I used a Lion Brand free pattern I found on-line as a starter and changed the stripes using Fibonacci's number sequences (1,1,2,3,5,8...) to create interesting stripe sequences. The challenge was to make the stripes match at the sleeves. I also decided to make the closure a separating jacket zipper instead of buttons. It was great to see the girls in their sweaters when we visited early in January!

While taking the train from Savannah to New York State I realized that I didn't have a hat to wear when we walked around New York City to the Museum of Modern Art. I had brought along several things to keep me busy including some 2 oz. of handspun singles I had spun at our January Spin In earlier that week. The fiber was delicious -- a combination of alpaca, milk, bamboo, bunny, and sparkle from Roo at Moonwood Farms. So I started my hat... and was pleased to finish it before we arrived in NY. (Of course, I stayed awake most of the night to finish it!) I must admit it came in handy keeping my head warm against the breezy cold air.

MoMA was marvelous! I wanted to see the exhibit of the Bauhaus Workshops that was going to end January 25th. It was all I had hoped for and more. Seeing Gunta Stolzl's African Chair up close, was thrilling as I had seen it in so many books I had researched while writing my book Woven: a Bauhaus Memoir about the Bauhaus weavers. There was a fascinating movie taken in the masters homes in Dessau during the Bauhaus years and Moholy Nagy's Light Space Modulator gracefully moved and cast wonderful reflections on the walls and ceilings as it did when I saw it several years ago at its home at Harvard's Busch Reisinger Museum. (His original film can be seen here.) The exhibit took me back to my trip to the Bauhaus sites in Germany where I had seen some of the pieces. The exhibit had so much MORE... and was displayed so beautifully. I was happy that I had ordered the book on the exhibit so that I could refer back to the experience as photos were not allowed. I spent some time in the hands on workshop where they had lots of texture materials available for participants to create their own tactile artwork based on Johannes Itten's classes from Vorkurs, or Preliminary Studies classes.

While in Albany, I completed a woven bag for my camera on a cardboard loom and have started to felt some handspun French Press slippers I knit from a pattern I bought through Ravelry. I used some of the yarns I'd dyed with Koolaid on beige wool which created muted colors. The tapestry design incorporates geometric designs and 2 shuttle columns.

I realize that I never posted the images of the scarves I created on a charcoal tencel warp that I mentioned in my last blog entry... Here goes:

handspun milk fiber, cotton and handspun silk weft

silk/cotton blend weft

silk/cotton blend weft

handspun white bombyx silk & sparkle novelty black weft

Mobus scarf of milk/cotton blend, silk/cotton blend & handspun bombyx silk weft