Slow and Steady…

I’d like to think I’m a patient person. I suppose it depends on what or whom I’m required to be patient with…

I’ve undertaken a couple of major projects in the studios, which completely thrill me, yet create stress, and challenges, and a couple of probably unrealistic deadlines. That’s my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I work best under unrealistic deadlines. Except when my body doesn’t want to cooperate…

Though my fractured shoulder is improving, little bits at a time, I’m impatient. I’ll admit it. I carry on with great fanfare, but secretly cry a little bit each time I am held back from what I want/need/have to do.

The Rainbow Double Weave Jennifer Moore Workshop sampler turned into a completely reversible jacket is nearing completion. This wasn’t so physically challenging, I just had to sit for hours hand sewing. And I mean hours. About 90% of it is sewn by hand. Including the entire interior. All that remains is the collar, and I hope to get that finished up this week. At least get it mounted on the jacket and ready for handwork.

I am just so in love with this jacket; it is how I imagined it in my head. I combined my 800 vest, with added seam allowances on the front, with the armhole and drop shoulder sleeve from the 1700 tunic, patterns from the Daryl Lancaster pattern collection. There are two layers of wool suiting to create the garment, basted together, with windows cut out, where the double weave cloth fits between the layers, and both layers are then sewn to the double weave cloth in reverse appliqué. Once the individual sections are completed, the outer garment layer is sewn together by machine, and the entire inner layer is sewn by hand at all the seams and hems. There are days I think I’m absolutely brilliant, and there are days where… I’ll leave it up to your imagination 🙂

The fabric inspired by the Magic Puzzle Company Busy Bistro Puzzle I fixed with my daughter, has proven one of my most difficult physical challenges. I use a heavy end feed shuttle, which is tough enough on my poor fractured shoulder, but the loom I’m weaving on, new to me, is a monster. 12 shafts and 54″ wide. The beater alone could kill you! Yet it is gorgeous and comfortable in the hand. Assuming the hand isn’t attached to a fractured shoulder. The most difficult part though, is lifting the shafts. Most picks required lifting 6 of the 12 shafts, and each shaft had 225 inserted eye heddles, which I didn’t remove because there was room on the sides to store them, and I spent so much time putting them on to begin with! Trying as hard as I could, I just couldn’t consistently lift 6 shafts and get a consistently clean shed every time. I’m past my mid-60’s and my joints just can’t lift what I could in my 20’s.

I’d lay awake at night, with my fractured shoulder aching, especially when bad weather approaches, and think, how am I going to weave this… If you ever watched the Queen’s Gambit, a Netflix series, you might remember how the main character, I’ve forgotten her name, could see chess moves happening across the ceiling. That’s the way I sometimes think, I can see the mechanics behind a draft, and how things need to move up or down to create what I want. And what I wanted was a clean shed opening. When that happens in any other situation, I revert to using two feet to help lift, break apart the tie-up, and figure out a logical treadling sequence that will get me what I want with a lot less physical effort. I watched the ceiling in the dark and saw how I could do it. I flew out of bed in the morning and went to the software and reconfigured the tie up and crossed my fingers. (An apology to my non-weaving readers, this all makes no sense, just know it worked.)

The original tie-up and treadling
Revised tie-up and treadling using two feet.

It was miraculous, and magical and I just wove like the wind, or maybe a slight breeze because I’m still dealing with a fractured shoulder. I use to be able to weave like the wind. Maybe someday soon. But I’ve got a deadline now, and I’m frantically trying to pace myself to get what I need to get done before April 15th. That’s the deadline to submit the five garments I’m planning to exhibit at the Convergence Fashion Show this summer, sponsored by the Handweavers Guild of America, in Knoxville, TN, as an invited artist. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to send, but I want more choices than I have, from what I’ve made in the last two years, and I’d love for this puzzle inspired fabric to be one of them.

So given my arm limitations, I’ve just resigned myself to only empty one pirn a day, with 2/12 wool, which is about what my shoulder can handle. Still, that’s about 15″ and that adds up. I looked at my warp beam, and was shocked to see the I’m on the last round of paper. This was a seven yard warp. I’m almost there…

What really surprised me, is I’ve had no tension issues at all so far, which I completely expected given the dozens of different yarns I’m combining together in a dozen different structures. It will be interesting to see what happens when the fabric is off the loom and washed…

On a completely different note, spring is here, though we are supposed to get one last frost tonight through Tuesday, but in celebration of my late husband’s 71st birthday last Tuesday, my daughter and I went to the garden center and bought a couple flats of cold weather greens, and some pansies. We got everything planted, started the spring clean up in the yard, which means bags of animal excrement, because, well, if you have dogs, you know what spring means…

The garden center was just a riot of color…

And last Tuesday I was interviewed for the Handweavers Guild of America series Textiles and Tea, which I adore; The Textiles and Tea interviews are the highlight of my week. They are live interviews, over zoom, but also simulcast over Facebook, and of course recorded. You don’t need a Facebook account to watch, it is a public site. The recording will eventually be posted on the Handweavers Guild of America YouTube channel, (it might take a couple of months) but for now, if you missed the interview, you can watch it here. Kathi’s questions were thoughtful, and fun to answer. Apparently there were 600 people watching in the webinar, and another couple hundred watching the live Facebook feed, which they said was a record. I don’t know, I just had fun answering the questions. Everything for me has a story, which is why I still have something to say after almost 14 years of blogging. I know few people blog anymore, and far fewer people read the blog than did a half dozen years ago, but that isn’t why I write it. I used to journal, but it is more fun to type what I’m thinking and be able to add cool pictures, and then be able to go back and search for what I want, because blogs have that built in feature. And it is there forever, or as long as I pay for the hosting fees…

So dear readers, spring is upon us, and that means outdoor stuff, and I have a lovely garden with ponds and fish and places to sit and weave, all coming to life, and I’ll have a garden full of salad fixin’s, and I think, each spring, that this season I’m going to spend my time outdoors and do fiber-y things, and by fall I realize that none of that happened. It is an amusing cycle, but still, I am determined each spring and we will see how the year progresses… Deadlines await…

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

15 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Caroline Morris
Caroline Morris
March 27, 2022 3:51 pm

Back in the day when I had a blog (still there but only I can see it) I used to tell it things I knew I would need to remember, simply so I didn’t need to remember them. It knew exactly how I cooked my Christmas turkey and I’d just search for it the following year. I have spent the afternoon on my knees changing the tie up being thankful that I can get down and back up again.

Dayamitra
Dayamitra
March 27, 2022 4:03 pm

Hi Daryl,
I write in my journal too. I love the process of working out thoughts and ideas and problems there in a safe place. I love reading your blog and hope you never stop!
My husband’s favourite flowers are pansies. The nursery pics are gorgeous!
I look forward to having a listen to the interview.

Jackie Gordon
Jackie Gordon
March 27, 2022 10:26 pm

Loved your interview on Textiles and Tea. Never miss reading your blogs!
your weaving is beautiful. Thanks for sharing

Laura Fry
Laura Fry
March 28, 2022 1:06 am

I was so sorry to hear about your shoulder but am heartened that it is healing, as slowly as it feels.

Giuliana Bendandi
Giuliana Bendandi
March 28, 2022 1:24 am

Dear Daryl, I‘m glad to read your blog. Yesterday I did my first all in one facing (I made two dresses so I did it twice!) and am so glad I had watched your video on it. I was wondering how you are and hoping your shoulder will heal soon! All the best, Giuls

Peggy Bowman
Peggy Bowman
March 28, 2022 6:53 am

Daryl, your treadling solution is just brilliant, but no surprise considering your creative mind and persistence!! The fabric and your jacket are stunning. Love it! Hope you continue to heal and return to normal everyday, crazy life without pain, and that you do so quickly. You’ve got things to do, people to see, places to go…and not much time to get there!! Life is short, and you manage to pack in enough for many lifetimes! Hugs and love.

Angela Jurado
Angela Jurado
March 28, 2022 7:21 am

Thank you for posting a link to the interview! The new coat is Lovely!

Judy
Judy
March 28, 2022 9:03 am

So glad you blog and inspire. It’s a great way to stay connected and learn

Pat Sole
Pat Sole
March 28, 2022 9:40 am

Loved your HGA interview!

Rose Sires
Rose Sires
March 28, 2022 11:45 am

Love, love the puzzle cloth!! Hang in there your getting stronger every day! Linda and I watched your HGA interview and learned more about our favorite teacher. Thanks for being you, but do take time to smell the roses so to speak?

Sue Peters
Sue Peters
March 28, 2022 12:16 pm

I now know what I want to do with the squares from a Friendship coverlet exchange that I participated in back in the early ’80’s. To wit, use your idea of reverse applique’ so you can see both sides of the wweaving is brilliant. The results of using the technique for your jacket are stunning. (My solution to seeing both sides of the coverlet squares was to weave strips and some how put it all together with French seams. Glad I have put off the attempt.) My question is, have you published a more detail process for the reverse applique’… Read more »

Nancy H Burkhalter
Nancy H Burkhalter
March 28, 2022 3:18 pm

Daryl – I’ve heard from others that you can have someplace online collect a year’s worth of blog posts and make them into a printed journal, which you then have for life. I have no idea where this happens, but it does/

Meg Wilson
March 28, 2022 8:16 pm

Daryl, I was a bit surprised that you are having no tension problems! Please be sure to let us know how the material comes out once washed. I was counting the number of structures you used on such divergent yarns… Eager to see how it all comes out. It seems silly to use only 4-6 treadle on a 12 shaft loom, but if that is what the body needs, that is what the body should do! We are the masters, not the looms! Eh?

Jody Nankivell Herriott
Jody Nankivell Herriott
March 30, 2022 7:16 pm

I really enjoyed your talk on Textiles and Tea. I retired this year and am getting back into weaving more, and it was inspiring. I loved your saying you make raw materials, rather than specific projects. That felt very freeing. It was also fun to hear your talk of NJ places and your accent, as I grew up there. Now that my parents are gone I don’t get back anymore. Sending you healing for your shoulder!

Barbara Scott
Barbara Scott
April 4, 2022 7:50 am

Thanks for the inspiration. In February, I broke my arm and had not done any weaving until I heard you speak about your shoulder and weaving 15 inches a day. I looked at my 14 inch wide warp on the loom and thought that if you could do it, so could I. That warp is now off the loom, and now I just have to figure out how I am going dress it again using one arm. Creativity and improvisation required. ?

Read previous post:
I worked hard for this one…

To say this has been a challenging couple of weeks would be an understatement. Considering what's happening in the world,...

Close