Wednesday night my guild had their first meeting of the new year, and sadly it was remote. Still. We won’t be back at our regular meeting place for while. But a healthy amount of members tuned in and we got through the business meeting in short order. The program was actually put together by our program chair, because it was discovered that our guild was celebrating its 40th anniversary and she had requested last spring for older members and those with early archives to come forth and share stories. She did a wonderful job on the PowerPoint and shared her screen, and there were lots of good remembrances…
So I got to thinking and doing some remembering of my own…
About 10 years ago, I was asked to be the keynote speaker for the Syracuse, NY weaving guild as they celebrated their 50th anniversary. I put together a short slide show of the weaving world in 1960, which is when the guild got its start. I knew it was somewhere in the archives, and it was a pretty cool presentation even though I’m not sure it had the effect I wanted since most of the members in attendance were students in the weaving program at the University. They wouldn’t appreciate the ad for a Peacock Loom. They wouldn’t appreciate the gossip columns and who was who.
I started to think, well damn, I have the means to make this public, and so I started searching and found the presentation and posted it on my site. It is a short PDF, but if you’ve been weaving awhile, you’ll enjoy it. The link is here.
On Tuesday I was the guest on The Shi Show, which is a daily live broadcast on the Lion Brand Facebook site. It was huge fun, and I copied the link to also post on my site. (You probably need a facebook account to watch it, I come in about 6:50). Trying to figure out the best place to post stuff like this, I started actually looking through my website. Hmmmmmm……..
Whenever I have special events happen, articles, exhibits I’m a part of, major teaching venues, etc, I try to enter them into my resume when they happen so I remember things like who the juror was, where the gallery was, where the conference was held, etc. I wanted to enter the link for the Shi Show into my resume and to my complete horror, I haven’t updated it since last fall. I know I haven’t gone out much, but still…
And the Published Work section of my About Me, on my website hasn’t been updated since 2017. My bad… And the Exhibition section, same thing. So I spent a number of hours trying to update pages that haven’t seen the light of day in awhile.
It was then that I discovered that I hadn’t entered all the videos that I did for Threads Magazine Insider. It is a subscription service, modest yearly cost, and totally worth it if you make clothing, of any kind. I kind of lost track because they were shot in October of 2018, and slowly over the next year they were released. I know we shot 9 segments over the two days I was there for filming, but I really did lose track. I have a vague recollection that the bound buttonhole segment was broken into 6 parts. So I started doing a search and found all kinds of things I was missing in my resume, and to my complete surprise, the last of the 9 segments, featuring crocheted edge finishes, was released February of this year, and I completely missed it.
Video: Threads Insider PRO TECHNIQUES FOR APPLYING BIAS BINDING February 2019
Video: TIPS FOR CUTTING BIAS STRIPS March 2019
Video: Threads Insider BIND SEAM ALLOWANCES WITH BIAS CUT NYLON TRICOT May 2019
Video: Threads Insider COVER AND INSTALL SHOULDER PADS July 2019
Video: Threads Insider UNDERLINING TECHNIQUES June 2019
Video: Threads Basics Video STAYSTITCHING BASICS August 2019
Video: Threads Insider FITTING A FULL BUST October 2019
Video: Threads Insider BOUND BUTTONHOLES: INTRODUCTION (Pt. 1) January 2020
Video: Threads Insider BOUND BUTTONHOLES: MARKING THE BUTTONHOLE PLACEMENT (Pt. 2) January 2020
Video: Threads Insider BOUND BUTTONHOLES: CREATING THE BUTTONHOLE LIPS (Pt. 3) January 2020
Video: Threads Insider BOUND BUTTONHOLES: ATTACHING THE LIPS TO THE GARMENT (Pt. 4) January 2020
Video: Threads Insider BOUND BUTTONHOLES: COMPLETING THE BUTTONHOLE (Pt. 5) January 2020
Video: Threads Insider BOUND BUTTONHOLES: FINISHING THE BUTTONHOLE’S WRONG SIDE (Pt. 6) January 2020
Video: Threads Insider CROCHETED EDGE FINISH February 2020
Hopefully that’s all up to date, it all started because of my guild meeting Wednesday night…
Meanwhile, Silk City Fibers is looking at a new yarn, and they had samples in two different weights. The yarn is a tencel, one an 8/2 and one a 6/2. I was asked to run a quick test to see what they could do. Well, actually weavers can’t really run a quick test on anything. Because you have to set up a loom, weave it off, and wash it before you can make a judgement.
Sidebar, one of the looms in my studio is a small 12 shaft Leclerc Voyager I purchased last year from one of my guild mates. For some reason she didn’t want it anymore, and I didn’t really have a 12 shaft loom, and the price was fair. It still had a warp on it from her last workshop she took. The warp was a 12 shaft point twill, 10/2 cotton in white, 24epi. It occurred to me that I could wind a one yard warp combining the two tencel yarns, because I’d probably sample them at 24epi, and I could just tie into this existing warp, and make quick work. I sat down at my computer and knocked out a draft.
The yellow is the 8/2, and it is a little meatier than what I’m use to seeing in an 8/2 tencel. And definitely a little meatier than a 10/2 perle. I love the yarn, the finish on it is slightly overtwisted and not as shiny as other 8/2’s, but silky smooth. The red is the 6/2, and it is slightly thinner than many of their standard yarns, like the Nomad and Bambu 7. Both have their place, but I think they are trying to pick one. So I spent Thursday tying in the one yard warp…
And Friday afternoon I started weaving…
I cut the sample off and headed to the washing machine and loaded in a bunch of towels and washed and dried this little sample on high, within an inch of its life. I like to see how far I can push a yarn.
Wow. The point twill threading gave a bit of a waffle effect, but I had about 20% shrinkage. The yarn really bloomed and filled up the spaces. Tencel usually doesn’t do that. The surface is smooth and silky, typical of a tencel, and I’m loving both of the yarns. I’ll let you know what they decide to go with but this was a fun exercise.
Saturday night I blew out an article for my local chapter of the American Sewing Guild. That request came in earlier in the week, so I had actually a couple of days to think through a topic I thought appropriate. Like how to work with digital patterns! I get a lot of emails on the subject, I’m sure you can imagine. And I realized that I have to go back and reformat all the intros to include my new logo, because nowhere does it say, Daryl Lancaster Pattern Collection! Mine is the second one in from the left. Yeah, I need to add the logo… (And before you start sending me letters, each of the patterns here were downloads that I printed and put in a catalogue envelope with the lead page taped to the front. I talk about that in the article. My patterns are only available as downloads.)
And today, I sat down to actually sew the top I cut out last Monday from the Summer Rain yardage I wove using Silk City yarns. I blogged about what went into this yardage here, and the draft is available for free as a PDF download here. The top is a combination of my 1000 Swing Dress and the armhole and sleeve of the 200 (C) jacket. Many of you probably already have the patterns from my classes. The goal will be to do a series of videos that show how to combine patterns. We are working on it!
I’m just coming up for air, and realized that tomorrow is a federal holiday. Somehow I missed that. Can’t go to the post office to ship orders. I live in a world now surrounded by fiber and light and color and assignments and the chance to explore, and yes, I’m still quarantining because it just isn’t worth going out and risking anything unless I have to ship an order. So I forget that there is a big world out there, with a lot of turmoil, and a federal holiday thrown in. Oops…
For my US friends, enjoy the holiday. Fall is coming. My favorite time of the year because I get to break out the cool sweaters and handwoven garments. And I can’t wait to turn on my gas stove in the living room. Stay safe, wear a mask, and stay tuned…
Thankyou again for your blog i was able to se your lion brand interview and i am not on facebook. Now i will always read your blog with a voice to match,couldnt get on to the threads videos but not sewing at present so will wait till i am again then join. Like a lot of people dont need much in the way of clothes now that i have retired and locked down,. got out of sewing when i was working as we had a uniform to wearna and didnt go out a lot so didnt need much,Loved your look… Read more »
Yay fall!!! my favorite too. Here in NE PA the nights are cool already. I am always happy when I see a new blog post from you in my in box. You really have managed to adjust your business to this new environment. Looking forward to watching some of those videos!
Wow! I had to add a second comment. There was so much more to learn about stay stitching than I thought!!!! You are such a great resource. Thank you!
Great blog today/night. Love the idea of combining different patterns to get what you want — right now I’m trying to sew a top and most of them don’t have appropriate shaping — this one might work. Happy Labor Day! Stay well and safe! Hugs,
The Summer Rain top is lovely! Love the colors and the shape works with them so well. I will check out Silk City later this fall when I start thinking about 2021 projects! I got introduced to skinny magic through a tassel making class, but yearn to try weaving with it!