When You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

option #1


beginning of option #2

The AVL had been sitting nekkid for far too long and for that reason and a bunch of others, I needed to slam a warp onto it pronto.

My first inclination was to have a predominantly black warp with the blue and plum colour accents. Unfortunately I didn't have enough black 2/16 on hand to wind a warp. :( One of the disadvantages when you are trying to use up stash and not buy more yarn - you do start to run low - eventually.

What I did have enough of was a blued grey and since both the blue and plum had blue in them decided that should work just dandy.

Well, I don't know if it's the old 'grey muddies' at work, or my grey mood, but I wasn't really liking the warp as it was being wound on. I think it's also the big contrast in values at work. The black would have been much closer in value to the other colours than the pale blue/grey.

And then I'm crossing the whole thing with natural linen - a grey-beige.

So what happens when you're sitting at the loom with a 20 yard warp and your little heart is not going pit-a-pat?

Well, the first thing you do is get up off the stool (in my case) and look at the cloth from different angles and distances. Sometimes what doesn't look great sitting at the loom takes on more interest when you see it from a different perspective.

(I apologize for the photos - it was really hard to get a picture of this fabric on the loom!)

So I got up and walked around the loom and decided that, while my heart did not have to be coaxed to be still, it would do. Not my best work, by any means.

But since I've worked with this yarn combination before, I know that the resulting fabric will work well as tea towels and just because the colours don't make my heart sing doesn't mean that the project is a disaster.

This isn't the first time I've woven fabric that didn't make my heart sing. Believe me, when you're a production weaver weaving for someone else, you quite often wind up weaving stuff that can be a big ho-hum.

At this point I have to tell my ego to go stand in the corner because it doesn't matter that "I" don't really like the cloth, it's got to be woven off. I have to shut the nag that wants to keep whining "I don't really like this" up and just get on with the weaving. So I focus on getting into the zone - being present with the loom and the yarns (regardless of their colours, as boring or mundane as they may be), feeling the physical satisfaction of treadling, throwing the shuttle and beating. Concentrating on the process, not the colour.

After all, the next warp can be much prettier, right?

Value/Hue

Just cut the red scarves off the loom and it's a perfect example of the principle that value is more important than hue.

Each of these scarves was woven with a different weft colour, but all of them were about the same value.

From left to right the weft colours are:
burgundy, kelp, black and chocolate

Not a totally fair comparison of course because none of the scarves have exactly the same colours in the warp, but interesting nonetheless. I think you can see that the black weft scarf has the purest/brightest colours - the rest are a bit softer in appearance.

When I'm weaving a painted warp like this, I try to match the weft colour (hue) to the dominant look of the warp. Therefore the bit that had the most of a dark olive green got the kelp. The bit that had a dark brownish purple got the chocolate.

Having such a lively red on the loom was very happy making. :)

Fibres West

Yesterday the postcards arrived for Fibres West being held in Abbotsford, BC March 26/27.

This is the show I'm getting ready to do, introducing myself for the first time as an Ashford and Ashland Bay dealer.

http://fibreswest.com

There are classes in various textile media and a nice vendor hall.

Started packaging the merino/silk fibre yesterday and hope to finish that off today along with stripping the AVL down for the next tea towel warp, finishing scarf #3 on the Fanny and maybe even weaving #4. But since I also have a massage booked this afternoon, we'll see how that goes.

Also started spinning a sample of the merino silk last night - it's very nice stuff! :D

I've been plagued with muscle spasms in my lower back and groin for the past 10 days. So far it hasn't interfered with actual weaving, but standing for any length of time is - a problem. I'm grateful Doug will be with me at the show so that I don't have to face setting up, standing for two long days and then tearing down again all by myself. Not to mention the 8 hour drive each way.

The Olympics will be long over by the end of March so I'm hoping to see lots of people at the event. Bring something to show and share when you come and say hello. I'd love to see what you're working on.

Fear of Colour

scarf #2

When I began weaving lo, these many years ago, I was interested in weave structure as the primary element of design. I would joke that my favourite colour was white. White on white, to be precise!

I loved the look of damask, but of course without a drawloom that was a bit of a stretch. Fancy twills, however, were possible and I thoroughly enjoyed playing with them. Still do, in fact.

My forays into using colour were tentative and conservative. I did not feel confident that I could put colours together in a pleasing way. Therefore I pretty much confined myself to things that I knew were 'safe'.

Eventually I decided that I wanted to learn more about colour and one of the things I did was enroll in a workshop with Jack Lenor Larsen. The topic was Irridescence, but really it was just about colour. Colour in all it's glorious combinations.

What really broke through my mental attitude, however, was the fact that I consistently got positive critiques from JLL. Since he didn't really know who had done which samples pinned to the wall of the building I knew that what he was saying was completely unbiased. I mean, why wouldn't it be? :} But I finally got it through my thick head that I did know something about putting colours together!

Shortly after that I found myself in a position where weaving rayon chenille scarves seemed like a really good idea. And so I started winding 5 meter long warps - sufficient for two scarves. What do you do with rayon chenille, after all, but weave plain weave and use lots of colour?

And so I did. Lots of them. And the more I designed and wove them, the more adventurous and confident I became.

On the spectrum of structure <----> colour/texture, I found myself shifting from structure all the way over into colour. And now I feel that I'm solidly in the middle of that spectrum. That when I design something, both go hand in hand. That I do not consider one without considering the other.

Many people insist that the only thing to do with a painted warp is to weave it in plain weave. Although at the moment I am weaving them in plain weave, it's not an exclusive thing. It has more to do with which loom I'm using, what quality of cloth I want to wind up with and other factors.

So even though a weaver may start out at one end of the spectrum, there is no reason why they can't shift a little ways toward the other.

Currently reading Backstabber by Tim Cockey

Back to Scarves

back to scarves and plain weave....

Finished the 11 meters (actually 10, I cut the warp off sooner 'cause I ran out of weft!) this afternoon then dressed the loom with a 10 meter painted warp.

The warp is a mixture of soy protein fibre and Tencel about a 5/2 grist, set at 20 and woven in plain weave with Bambu 12. The warp was wound with one strand of each and threaded randomly.

Unfortunately the Bambu 12 doesn't come in all the gorgeous dark colours that are available in the Bambu 7. :( Any guesses as to which colour I'm using for weft on this warp?

The last placemat warp wasn't really to my taste in terms of colour. I'm not a big fan of olive greens and beiges. But that's the thing about weaving for sale - I don't have to absolutely *love* every single warp I put on the loom. I only have to believe that it is attractive and will co-ordinate with someone's dishes or decor. One of the reasons I had so much of these colours on hand is because I had a special order for a table runner last month.

The customer had paint chips of the colours in her dining room, and I matched the cotton to the chips as closely as possible. She was delighted with her runner and I figured if she was happy with those colours, others might be too. And besides, I had this yarn to use up....

The colours are also similar to a fairly popular glaze a local potter uses, so I figure there are likely people with that pottery, possibly looking for placemats to go with them.

Tomorrow I'll start getting the AVL ready with another tea towel warp. Doug is on 'early' shift this week, and I'd much rather watch the rest of the figure skating tonight than work any more today. :)

Once More - Mats

Spent most of the afternoon pressing, but did manage to get another placemat warp on the loom.

Wasn't sure about the choice for hem colour so I wove a header with the hem weft, then an inch with the weft for the mat body. It looked okay, so I've gone ahead and wound bobbins so I can start weaving tomorrow.

Doug is going back to work Monday, still snuffling and sneezing, but feeling much better than he did on Friday. He spent much of the weekend watching the Olympics and loading up the boxes of yarn for Fibres West - coming all too soon. Just over four weeks, in fact. March 26/27 in Abbotsford, BC.

What that means is that we'll have a living room filled with boxes for a month, but at least we've got a good head start on packing! :}

I've about run out of yarn for placemats, so once this warp is done - perhaps by tomorrow evening - I'll start in on the painted scarf warps.

And I've figured out what will go onto the AVL - more tea towels, hopefully to use up the last of the 24 nm linen. That will still leave at least one cone of 12 nm linen, but I'll get to that eventually, too. I know that Lynn has at least a couple more 12 nm cones of linen that she wants me to take away, so the tea towels are not done yet!

One of the things I need to do is get rid of more 'orphan' yarns. Little bits and pieces of yarn left over from other projects. Not enough to do a project with, but too much to throw/give away. So I may put a random stripe warp for tea towels or table runners onto the Fanny at some point to try and use some of that yarn up. Think Joseph and the Amazing Coloured Dream Coat.

We'll see how it goes.

Currently reading Murder in the Hearse Degree by Tim Cockey

Productivity

orange all used up - changed to cream - the beauty of a neutral warp!


After a weaving demo at a workshop, a new weaver came up to thank me for the demonstration. Essentially she said that she'd resigned herself to the fact weaving was going to be slow forever, and after watching me weave now realized that with practice she could eventually get faster.

Time is a precious commodity. Very few people have the luxury of taking a long time to make something. Granted some techniques are a lot slower than others, but no matter what someone is weaving, there are efficencies that can be introduced in order to make things flow more smoothly.

The past 3 days I have woven 3 eleven meter long warps. Including winding the warps and dressing the loom.

(Warps were 2/8 cotton, 20 epi, 300 ends. Eleven meters is approximately 12 yards.)

No, I have not been chained to the loom. In fact I would have been disappointed in myself if I hadn't woven off a warp a day. After all, the placemats are only 12 picks per inch. It takes nearly as long to weave the hems as it does the mat itself.

I am happy to pass on my techniques to others, either in person or through CD Weaver (a book on cd with video clips). When I'm teaching workshops I make a point of offering to show people how I hold and throw a shuttle. I think this is the area where I most often see inefficient technique and where - with a little help - most weavers can benefit. Not just in speeding up their weaving, but improving the quality of their selvedges.

There are video clips posted to this blog showing how I hold and throw the shuttle. Click on the label Video Clip to view the videos.

I have about 20 CD Weavers left. They are available at http://LauraFry.artfire.com