Weaving A Gem Of A Life

Four more attempts

I am nothing if not persistent. After 4 attempts with the RALA logo I was not about to give up.

First I tried the same method as for attempt #4 – using my rigid heddle – this time paying very close attention to the width of the weaving and pulling each pick very tight. I don’t think attempt #5 is any better than #4.

So I had to try a different method. I got rid of my rigid heddle and made continuous string heddles, because then I could make the threads be closer together. Never having done it before, I fumbled several times before I got this right.

Finally in place I set about weaving with the continuous string heddles. It was not easy, and it was not good. WAY too close together. The spaces were basically invisible.

The new weaving was about 1″ wide, the old weaving about 2″ wide. So clearly I needed to aim for 1.5″ wide. I spread my string heddles farther apart and tried again. Still not acceptable.

More thinking, more exploration, more decision making. Finally decided I’d make a rigid heddle with strings. I got an old 3×5″ picture frame, made myself a jig with some wood and wire brads, and tied 50 string heddles around the frame. Here they are all shoved together.

I marked the frame for about 3.5″ wide and threaded the heddles, spreading them apart to that width, tied onto the front apron and started again.

Although I made a few errors in the pickup, I am FINALLY happy with the design!

So now I have to measure out my ‘real’ threads and start again. They are not exactly the same size as the trial strings, so I may have to make more adjustments. Stay tuned!

In addition to all this obsessive-compulsive behavior, I’ve spent a lot of time at the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center helping to move from one storefront to another in the same strip mall. The new space is bigger and newer and looks great.

Lots of work, little weaving

The forecast was for lots of rain from Wednesday evening to Friday morning, so I wanted to get the lion’s share of gardening done in advance. I didn’t take many photos, but here are a few.

Half of my front garden. Weeding done, annuals planted, mulch laid.

And the side garden. You can’t see much, but the same work was done all the way down the line…weeding, annuals, mulching. I think about 60 feet of it.

I also did the same work on about 30 feet of bed behind and next to the house.

I also improved the bed for and subsequently planted tomatoes with their companion marigolds and Carmen sweet peppers. Before the planting, Jack thought the mulch was the best thing ever. I must say I’ve never seen him do anything like this before…his back feet were pretty much straight up, and he was motionless for well over a minute.

I re-worked the RALA logo and tried it out. The design is better still, but I didn’t pull the weaving nearly tight enough. It’s too wide, especially on the right half of the logo. I’m going to try again, and see how long it takes to complete one logo.

Today, in addition to groceries, pet food store, and other errands, I’m continuing to work on re-labeling all my previously woven work and labeling the new work. I’ve spent at least 3 hours already, and probably that much more to go. The good news is that this is a good opportunity for me to see just what I have in my inventory for the show season.

Rigid inkle pickup

I need to do some demonstrations at 2 shows this summer. I always use my rigid heddle loom and weave functional scarves. In typical Peg fashion, I decided that this year I wanted to shake things up a bit. Ergo that attempt with the triangle loom. So I figured I’d try some inkle-type pickup weaving using my rigid heddle loom. I thought I’d do some lettering. So I warped the loom and set about trying.

Here’s attempt #1. In the garbage can where it belongs.

And my 2nd try. Much better but not yet acceptable.

This is where my OCD/stubbornness/persistence kicks in. Attempt #3, while not perfect, is much better.

It’s good enough for me to know that it isn’t what I want to do for the demos. So I go through the Anne Dixon Inkle Pattern Book looking for some other inspiration. And I got it. I wound more warp and set up the loom again.

My first attempt was a short celtic knot. It was ok, but too wide. And would take far too long for a one-hour demo, which is the time I had at the RALA show. Before trying that again I tried another design – a heart. Easier to see it taking shape before your eyes.

Unlike the lettering, this type of pickup looks cool on the back, too.

I’m happy enough. But wouldn’t it be great to do the RALA logo? (Look up my header and you’ll see it.) So I graphed it out and tried it. 1st attempt needed work. Re-worked the design and tried again.

Second attempt not perfect, but much better. With a little tweaking, and plenty of practice, this is what I’ll do.

TerraNOTTA woven

I’ve been weaving like mad, but getting everything fringed, wet finished, and photographed takes time. So you’ll see one warp of scarves per post.

First up is that TerraNOTTA warp. That’s the tencel that I hand painted in colors that were decidedly NOT what I wanted, and decided to overdye in blue. I thought it made sense to weave that warp off before I did the others, figuring that if I couldn’t make it work for me I’d have more time to dye and/or weave other things. Since I’d dyed it in two separate bouts, I decided to offset and lighten the warp with a gold rayon. Although I had dreaded the beaming, afraid that I’d have a real mess of knots, it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected as long as I took my time.

The colors in the warp reminded me of a peacock, so I decided to use a threading that has served me well several times before and that was reminiscent of leaves or feathers. Then I decided to weave the first scarf with a peacock blue weft to accentuate those thoughts even more. Wow, was it bright. Brighter than I would have liked.

I ran out of the blue weft so ended up making it a long cowl, which was fine with me. Fortunately once the cowl was wrapped around the neck a few times it seemed toned down.

Then I auditioned a few more possible wefts. From the bottom they are yellow, burgundy, periwinkle, silver, pink, and pale blue.

I went with the pale blue, which was a 16/2 cotton, for the next weft. On one side of the scarf that pale blue really predominates. And I was surprised at how different the scarf felt with the cotton weft. Although it drapes well enough, it sure doesn’t have the hand of a tencel or rayon weft.

That pale blue made the scarf so light that I opted for black weft for the third scarf, and changed the treadling from leaves to a more geometric pattern.

It was a real challenge photographing all three of these scarves. Being on Dolly didn’t do any of them any favors.

I got these 3 scarves up in my Etsy shop on Monday morning. Everything takes so much time……

How nice was that?!

On Tuesday I was mowing my front lawn when a woman with infant twins came by in a stroller. She hurried past me so as to not interrupt my row, a nicety that was unnecessary. Then my daughter stopped by with her baby in a stroller, so I stopped mowing for a while.

When they left I returned to my mowing, and only then saw a baby bottle in the unmown part of the lawn. It was most assuredly not the type my daughter uses, so I figured it had to be from the woman with the twins. But I had no idea who she was to return it. So I set the bottle up on my steps so that it could be easily seen by someone walking or even driving by.

When I went to walk Jack that evening I noticed that the bottle was gone. Good, I thought, she came back and got it.

A few minutes ago I was sitting here in front of the computer when my doorbell rang. I was amazed when I answered it and there was the woman with the twins, holding a bouquet of iris. For me! As a thank you for ‘saving’ the baby bottle!

How incredibly nice, and how unnecessary. I will have to remember this kindness, and offer a simple unexpected thank you to someone.

Kindness. It’s what we can all offer, in our own fashion.

Weaving A Gem Of A Life

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Four more attempts

Lots of work, little weaving

Rigid inkle pickup

TerraNOTTA woven

How nice was that?!

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