Finally some color…

At this point, I’m really impressed that anyone is still reading my blog, filled with travelogues and adventures on the road, I don’t know about you, but as the writer of the blog, I really really am tired of writing about my adventures on the road, and really really want to write about some new fun adventure I’m having in the studio.  So I tried to budget in a day or two this week, to actually put a warp on one of my looms, just for old times sake, I’d almost given up thinking I’d ever find time to weave again…  or sew for that matter…

Spurred on by the request by the Santa Fe Weaving Gallery to carry “my scarves”, which don’t actually exist yet, (except for the two loom mates I shipped once one came back from the exhibit in Albuquerque), I decided not to spend too much time over thinking anything, which is largely my favorite past time, and focus on just getting a warp on to my 8 shaft 25″ floor loom.  That would be the loom I would weave the scarves on.  I leafed through my binder of all the palettes I ever did for Handwoven magazine’s Color and Fabric Forecast, and selected the last one I did, Theatrical Fantasy (maybe from Jan/Feb 2008, I can’t be sure since my binder/portfolio of articles is packed).  It is vibrant, and fun, and something I was in the mood to work with.  So I ran around the studio and gathered everything that could possibly work with the palette, focusing on rayons, tencel, silks and bamboo, things that would really drape well.

Just looking at the pile of yarn on the table made me giddy with delight, it has been so long since I made anything in this room, my hands on creativity reduced to whatever I could manage on an airplane.  God knows I’ve been on enough of them lately…

I started with the draft, and printed it just larger than life size.  I glued it to a piece of heavy cardboard so I could do warp wraps directly on the draft, knowing when to put in the supplemental threads.  This worked really well, and I added and subtracted, tweaked and adjusted until I got something I thought would work.

Because almost every one of the 264 ends is different from its neighbor, the method of warping that made the most sense was the AVL warping wheel, which would produce two inch bundles of warp which could be beamed sectionally as I wound them.  I love this pricey piece of equipment, and would probably never have bought it had I not been at the right place at the right time, when AVL first introduced it in 2000 at Convergence Cincinnati.  I paid a whole $250.  It costs almost $600. now.  I am so glad I own it, it is perfect for this kind of multiple thread warp.

I warped and beamed, warped and beamed, until late last night, after a wonderful sushi dinner with an old friend, I finished the 10″ wide warp.  I put on 9 yards, I’m hoping to get four scarves out of it, we’ll see.  I’m thrilled because I’ll come home to a loom calling to me, instead of a bunch of dirty toilets and dog hair on the carpets dense enough to be raked…  I’m doubting I’ll have time tonight to start the threading, I’m mostly packed for my trip to Siever’s Fiber School tomorrow, but I don’t want to cut myself short and leave anything for Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, Part 2 of my The Weaver Sews: What to Weave column on Weavezine is live, just posted about an hour ago.  I’m really having fun with this column, there is so much to say, and I love having an archive of photos and work to pick from to illustrate my points.

Stay tuned for a field report from Sievers Fiber School, Washington Island Wisconsin, provided I get any form of internet connection while I’m there.  I haven’t in the past, so don’t hold your breath!