They just seem to find me…

A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from someone on the west coast. This happens often believe it or not, or I’ll get an email from someone who Googled Tools of the Trade Looms, which I have a lot of, or Structo Looms, because not only do I have a lot of them, but they get mentioned frequently on my blog, so I’m apparently the “it” girl for looms of those brands.

Anyway, my friend on the west coast, and I say friend, because I recognized the name on the caller ID, she had taken a number of workshops with me in the past, works with a weaving school, with more looms than I can even count, and found a number of small looms and assorted parts, unused and unloved, in a closet, and called me to pick my brain. Again, not unusual.

Turns out, after sending photos back and forth, she had three Leclerc 10″ sample looms, from way back, like the little green ones I love and have two of. They don’t often some up for sale. And she had three little Structos, which I have a lot of, like I said, one was the standard four shaft, perfect condition, no rust, one an eight shaft (woo hoo!) and one was one of the original black ones with the wing nut tensioning devices, which I hate, and usually am not interested in. As a matter of fact, as I recall, there are a couple like that in my attic, which I stripped for parts, and actually, I wondered what’s up there…

Meanwhile, the discussion went back and forth, and after asking her to check out the cost of shipping (USPS was the cheapest by far, with 2 looms in a box for $147 each box), this happened.

They were packed and dropped at the airport last Friday, which is a holiday weekend, and were on my doorstep 9am Tuesday morning, in perfect condition, after a 3000 mile journey. Yeah USPS… The Post Office, go figure…

I paid a good amount with the shipping for these looms. When I posted the whole episode on Facebook, the comments were quite hilarious, including one person who really wanted to know why? Why did I need more? It is a legitimate question, and I thought about my answer for a long time. I don’t really need to explain, we all have our vices. I had 23 small looms already, between the Structos and the two Leclerc Sample Looms. And maybe like some people rescue stray animals, I have this thing about rescuing looms, rehabbing them, and bringing them back to life. A loom has a soul, and an aura, and there is definitely an energy, a really positive one, when it gets loved and used frequently.

But the real reason, sort of dates back to a time before Covid, when I was using my Structo collection as a traveling studio, along with my daughter, teaching for my guild an annual beginning workshop (we got a lot of new members that way) and regularly scheduled beginner classes at Silk City Yarns, part of Lion Brand in their Secaucus outlet. I was constantly asked after a participant had taken the class numerous times, for a Part 2. I kept thinking about when I took Madelyn van der Hoogt’s class on Whidbey Island back in something like 2018, where she had 32 looms, prewarped in a structure each, and participants went loom to loom and explored all kinds of different things, over the five days of classes. That will never happen in my studio, but I did have these Structo’s, just not enough of them and still be able to teach beginners.

Covid changed all that. Lion Brand closed its outlet and moved its warehouse to Georgia. And I swore I would not ever travel to teach again. I’m thinking though, that in service to my guild, I really should do another Learn to Weave class, because that’s how new weavers are born.

Meanwhile, I took about 10 of my Structos and started warping them with various structures, which I talked about earlier in the year. I was looking for gamps that would allow treadling exploration, and though it was for my own purposes, those little Structo spools hold a lot of 20/2 cotton warp, and those warps will probably outlive me…

I think about having a group of students come in for an evening weekly, or whatever, and I can fit a half dozen at my dining room table…

Anyway, as I think about these things, the looms to make that happen are showing up in unexpected ways. I had an alarm system contractor up in my attic upgrading my heat and smoke detectors, and while he was up there, I dragged out all the odd Structo parts I had stuffed up there. And I re-evaluated their status.

It took quite a few days to carefully unpack all 6 looms, which had their castles removed for easier shipping, and I started to assemble. The Leclerc looms were fairly straightforward. As was the four shaft Structo.

I replaced some of the parts on the eight shaft, like the reed mechanism, which was not standard. I’ll still need to upgrade all the rusty heddles, which I’ll do when I decide what to put on each loom, depending how many heddles each structure needs, but the little black original Structo kept haunting me.

I looked at the parts from my attic, and I looked at the one that had been shipped from the west coast, with the wing nut tensioning devices and I started stripping them allowing me to create a perfect 8 shaft FrankenStructo with real cranks. And I can swap out the hex beam from one of the other four shaft ones I have and fit spools on it. I have lots of spools, and no, I’m not sharing.

And, though I wouldn’t use a loom with the wing nut tensioning system, I did manage to piece together a seventh loom from leftover parts. So, as expensive as this whole escapade was, I got a lot of looms, which will totally do the job should I really want to do both a level 1 Learn to Weave, and a level 2. I suspect the universe has this plan and is not allowing me to say no.

That leaves this poor little rusty 2 shaft Structo from my attic, which is so old that all the movable parts are riveted, so not easily changed out for more contemporary beams, cranks, beater, etc. Every time I walk by it sitting on the counter, it cries out, “Please don’t put me back up there…” I need my daughter, who has mad metal skills to take a look and see what we can do with it. She is in Idaho at the moment at a large animal sanctuary, finishing up her finals for her Vet Tech degree.

Meanwhile, my gardener, whom I can’t live without, brought me outside this morning to discover this.

How we missed this, is beyond us.

The activity in an out of this wasp nest was constant, and after a bit of research, we decided that this is a rarely used area of the property, only the lawn crew use that south side entrance, and that wasps are actually beneficial. They will all die out once winter sets in anyway, but it was remarkable. Then my gardener, who was pruning one of my Kousa Dogwoods found the remnants of a wasp nest, and I brought it in to dry it. What a remarkable piece of nature. The nest is actually chewed up wood pulp, built in layers. Wasp Spit! I don’t have the heart to have this nest removed.

Meanwhile, after sitting on a panel last week for Spinning and Weaving Week, that had to do with getting into juried shows, I thought a lot about my response to the question about one good piece of advice to anyone wanting to get into juried shows. I commented that it is all about having good images, because that’s usually what a juror sees first.

Back in 2006 for the Grand Rapids Michigan Convergence, I actually put together a seminar on Photographing your Work. I know my way around a camera, or rather a film camera, since that was my second concentration in art school. The first was of course fiber…

I gave that seminar to many guilds and conferences over the years, but stopped because technology changed so much in the last 10 years, that I really wasn’t in the mood to rework the whole thing. So I stopped offering the monograph as well. After sitting on that panel, and remembering how important good visuals are, I decided that as a public service, I’d dust off that monograph, because the main content is still very valid, and offer it in my eShop for free. So if you are interested, the link is here.

While I was at it, I’ve spent most of the last couple weeks, along with all my other adventures, updating all of my digital monographs, checking links, adding images when I have something better to show, and eliminating the print versions. Largely I’m tired of printing, shipping is getting ridiculous, and if any of the links or content changes, then the book is outdated. The digital version I can keep fresh, have an index, and include live links you can just click on in the PDF file. I’ve also posted in the description of each of the digital monographs the date of the last update. So if you’ve bought any of my digital monographs, and still have the email with the download information, you can get the updated version anytime. Many of the monographs that have to do with sewing with handwovens, all now have links to my YouTube videos that talk more extensively about that particular topic or technique. I’m always upgrading something…

And finally, one of the questions on my facebook page about the acquisition of 6 little looms was from a couple of different friends who know me and know my space, “Wherever are you going to put them…”

I thought about this as I assembled all the little looms, and wandered around my studio for a couple hours. I decided that one of the shelving units, that had some Ikea bins full of spinning fibers and equipment would be appropriate, if I could find someplace else for the spinning detritus. There was space under the work bench that had looms, a bobbin winder etc., across the studio. those are the square cubes on the floor.

The shelves weren’t high enough for the Green Leclerc Sample looms, so I could put them on top of the book cases, replacing Structos up there.

Then I was able to perfectly fit 8 more looms on the shelving unit in the corner. I still have to replace aprons, and some of the heddles, (fortunately I have a good supply and no, I’m not interested in selling any of the heddles, looms or assorted parts) but that can wait until I know what I’m actually doing with them.

And there are more Structos here… I think I now have 30… 🙂

Life just gets curiouser and curiouser, and I’m not one to question what the universe has in store for me. The last three years have shown me that. I’m busier than ever, and really having fun, and yes, the studio is now bulging at the seams, but I’m a good garment maker and know how to let those seams out…

Stay tuned…

Seems like old times…

What a couple of weeks.  I knew Mid-September through Mid-November would be jammed packed with all kinds of cool events, teaching opportunities, guild meetings, and general calendar must do’s but this is really crazy.  I have vague recollections of just three years ago where the calendar controlled my life, instead of me controlling the calendar.  Back in the spring, and even last winter, it seemed perfectly reasonable to book a couple of weekend workshops, since I’m not leaving the house to teach anymore, how difficult could this be?

Nothing here is difficult.  And don’t get me wrong… I chose to participate in everything I put on my calendar.  It’s just that the world opened up all at once, guild meetings started up again, a music group I once played for asked me to come back, Spinning and Weaving week, which is a weeklong series of weaverly events, all online, but like a conference all day long; teaching remotely every weekend, three weekends in a row for the same guild, and of course theater events, because those seasons started up as well.

By mid-November, this should all be quieting down, but for now, I’m tightening up my seat belt and hanging on tight!

Meanwhile, I taught remotely three weekends in a row for the Chattahoochee Guild in GA.  A lot of old friends were there, and we had a great time.  Last weekend we did a remote hands-on workshop and Leigh, a friend and workshop participant took this shot of the classroom, and there I am, larger than life.  I of course couldn’t see what they saw, as I was viewing the classroom from multiple cameras strategically placed around the room.  It was sweet when someone had a question and wanted to show me what they were working on, and they would go up to the screen to talk to me…  We are all still getting used to this technology. 

Meanwhile, I did manage last week, before the start of Spinning and Weaving Week, sponsored by the HGA (Handweavers Guild of America) to actually make a couple of pieces.  I wove a fabric last year, all rayon, and it was sitting on the shelf just calling to me.  There are a lot of competing voices in the studio, and sometimes the cacophony of who wants to be noticed more gets a bit loud!

So I wanted to see if I could draft this swing vest, based on a commercial pattern, using one of my own patterns.  And I’m really happy with the results.  I used my 1000 Swing Dress pattern and created this variation.  I wanted to be able to use the selvedge of the cloth for the center front edge, and have it fall away in lapels.  And fringe the bottom edges, so no hems. Eventually I’ll take my notes and recreate what I did and see if I can document it in a video.

I had extra fabric, and I thought it would lend itself to a bias top, so my 900 Bias Top pattern came in handy.

I still had extra fabric, and so I made this tote bag using my piecing technique, which I documented in a four-part video on my YouTube channel, The Weaver Sews.  And there is still a stack of leftovers…

Meanwhile, while I had some free moments in the studio, I took a leftover section of the towel warp I showed last time and made this zippered bag.

So Spinning and Weaving Week is/was a lot of fun.  Events all day long.  Some really great speakers and studio tours.  They featured me in my studio during Spinning and Weaving week two years ago.  How I wish the re-play was available.  I often meant to film my own version to put on YouTube myself.  It is on the list.  Which is growing exponentially…

I was one of the panelists Tuesday night, for a session about getting into juried shows and the basics.  It was great hearing the other panelists and their perspective on things.  Friday night was really really special.  There was a viewing party of the Convergence 2022 fashion show, where I had five garments as an invited artist, but I did not actually attend the conference, for many reasons, mostly because I was at a wedding in Virginia for the son of someone who has meant a great deal to me over the years.  I had hoped the fashion show would be recorded, and I wasn’t disappointed.  Seeing my five works walk the runway was just the highlight of my week!

And this morning, I set up my messy office, because I have sixty different things going on at once, into a video studio because this afternoon was the Strut your Stuff fashion show, and of course I registered for that.  Meaning I would be modeling one of my garments for it.  I pulled out the video lights and set up the good webcam camera, the one we use for taking videos.

And I was first up for the actual fashion show.  So here I am modeling my double weave jacket I made earlier in the year.  I included the second image because the running transcript was just too hilarious, Artificial intelligence just doesn’t get textile terms.  “Devil Weed” should have been double weave, but Devil Weed works…  I sort of got that vibe when I was trying to weave off the sampler last January with one arm…

And Friday, in between sessions from Spinning and Weaving week, I took an online class through my guild with a weaver from AZ, Deborah Jarchow, on Clasped Weft.  For some reason that technique has never crossed my path.  It was fun, I sort of felt like I was dancing with the shuttles.  I had set the loom up on Tuesday while watching Textiles And Tea, an online weekly interview, also sponsored by HGA.

And remember I mentioned the cacophony of looms and fibers and fabric and yarns calling to me?  I had cleared all of the floor looms I’d been weaving on except for two.  They reached out every time I walked by in the studio, as if to say, “Please won’t you sit down and weave with me?”

So I did sit down, whenever I had a few minutes.  This is the ice dyed fabric I started earlier in the year, and I have no idea how much there is still to weave, because I started with 10 yards and it doesn’t look like anywhere near that on the cloth beam.

And my favorite loom (don’t say that too loudly, there will be a revolt) has a fabric I spent a long time working out last year, and I think I put on 8 yards of 10/2 cotton warp.  So I’m probably over half-finished this very cool pattern called “Drunken Squares”.  It has been that kind of a week.

Don’t cry for me dear readers, I’m having a blast.  I just wish the blast was a little more like a pop, and less like an explosion!  This will all calm down as the winter draws near.  I have someone working on my yard clean up, nice to have people for that, and I was finally able to get my alarm system company to come and upgrade/replace and add additional smoke detectors, especially in the garage weaving studio.  They had rate of rise detectors, appropriate for a garage, but not appropriate for a weaving studio with yarns stacked to the ceiling.  So those finally got upgraded, but there have been workers in and out for the last week, and they will be returning yet again on Tuesday.  We all just step around each other…

I teach next weekend for two days in Canada, again remotely, I’m still so amazed that this technology even exists. So it will be a busy week prepping for that hand’s on workshop. Wednesday night I have two different fun events happening simultaneously, which is unfortunate, but I can still do both, because one will be recorded…

Stay tuned…

A productive week in limbo…

So far, I have not been called in for petit jury duty, I call every couple days to see my status, and I will call again tonight, but because I blocked out this time just in case, I created an almost mini get away to my sewing room, in the basement, to just play. I did little else, which was sort of a treat. (I even slept in the guest room to pretend I was on vacation, which really confused the animals.) So it has been a really productive week, if you measure productivity by how much stuff you made. Which I tend to do, and always feel accomplished with a nice stack of my efforts.

I did spend a stupid amount of time trouble shooting a Back-up Service for my 900+ blog posts. There were suddenly a number of errors, which caused the service to not be able to back things up, but going back and forth doing screen shots and copies of logs, between my tech support, the back up service tech support and my hosting company caused me untold grief, have I ever mentioned I hate technology, and lost studio time. Yet, when things finally work, and I had something to do with the resolution, I’m inordinately proud of myself. I still hate technology, but I wouldn’t be able to leave a digital legacy without it, and so I carry on as best I can.

Meanwhile. My garden was odd this year. Lack of rain, and intense heat, I have a good deal of leafy greens to eat, but almost no peppers, beans, basil, and almost no large tomatoes, which is odd because this time last year I was making quarts of tomato sauce and pesto for the freezer. But for the first time in years, the cherry tomato plants took over the garden. I almost never get cherry tomatoes. So I dutifully dried a couple of trays in the oven, and popped them in the freezer for bursts of flavor throughout the winter.

And remember those Water Iris Leaf Mats I wove a couple blog posts ago? So there are a few left from last season’s batch, and I’ve been wrestling with whether or not to harvest this year’s. Meanwhile, my daughter Brianna has been fooling around with what to do with the prolific amount of Smart Water bottles she has saved, because all sorts of trash is treasure to a creative person. She made this adorable basket, actually a whole series from sea grass and a stripped Smart Water Bottle (she has a tool for that) last year. I immediately bought one.

She came to me the other night, after asking how to reconstitute the Water Iris leaves, and popped this on the table.

I’m blown away by what she comes up with. So that adorable basket was what prompted my handyman to harvest all the Water Iris Leaves in the yard and lay them on the patio table. I gathered them into bundles with zip ties and hung them under the gazebo for temporary storage, and they will ultimately move to a shed to dry over the winter.

Meanwhile, on vacation in the basement, I hemmed the dishtowels I cut from the loom the week before.

And I washed and cut apart the five scarves from the warp I made last winter with a broken shoulder. That felt really good. These are called “A Winter’s Tale”.

I cut out and sewed the little summer shirt from the Turned Overshot warp. Originally I had front waist darts, but I didn’t like how they competed with the overshot stripe. So I took them out.

And I started rooting through leftovers and scraps and played around. First I took some of the test samples from my Eco Printing experiments last year, and cut some into a zippered bag.

I was so happy with it, I did three more, using a suede microfiber skirt, which no longer fit me, as the base, and a cut up lavender silk skirt from a weaver’s estate sale as the lining.

I gave a lecture to a couple of guilds, one in Austin, TX, and one in GA, on what to do with leftovers. Every time I give this lecture I get inspired to go make something.

So I dove into my bin of thrums, leftover warp waste, of which I have a lot, mostly hand dyed yarns and ribbons, and grabbed a piece of micro-suede that I bought from a friend, fused onto fusible fleece, and started to assemble those thrums as a collage. I tossed them on, and covered each panel with Sulky Solvy.

Then I used a twin needle and a quilt bar and started to create a window pane effect to keep the thrums controlled.

Once I had all four panels completed, and washed to dissolve the Sulky Solvy, I started to assemble the bag.

Add this one to my collection, this is really fun.

And remember awhile back I played around with tying those same warp thrums together into what’s called Zanshi, a Japanese technique of wasting nothing. I wove those balls of tied together warp thrums into a fabric, which I hadn’t done anything with up until now.

So I cut out bag panels and made a tote out of those as well.

It has been a really productive week, but I fear that will come to an end. I really don’t like having my life a giant question mark, but ask anyone who goes through a tragedy, health issue, natural disaster, whatever, this is what being an adult is, and trying to stay focused and in the moment. I work best when I’m busy, and it keeps my mind from going into overdrive. Of course I fear that I’ll get called in the last day of my two weeks of jury duty, and be put on a case that could last weeks, because it is federal, but I can’t think that far ahead, and just do whatever I need to do today. I think another zip bag from the leftover scarp warp from the Winter’s Tale scarves…

Stay tuned.

Moving Forward but Looking Back…

I almost missed today. It has been 21 years, and I almost forgot. I saw references in this morning’s paper to 9/11 and I picked up my phone and looked at the date and realized that I almost forgot. There is so much happening in the world, that we aren’t remembering the really important stuff, the stuff that keeps life in perspective.

I looked back over my blog posts of the last 14 years. I referenced this day a few times, but the one I’d like to re-share was from 2009, less than a year into my new blog, where I talked about a letter I wrote to the editor of Handwoven magazine, actually the editor requested that I write it, on September 12th, 2001. She had offered me the position of features editor and I said, though I was honored, I lived 20 miles from ground zero and we weren’t even sure yet who in the town had died. Could I get back to her? She encouraged me to write how I felt, and what it meant to be an artist in uncertain times. September 11th was supposed to be my first day of the new semester where I was a substitute adjunct at Montclair State University in their Fiber Department. So here is the link to that long ago blog post with the letter I wrote for Handwoven Magazine. Thank you Madelyn van der Hoogt for the privilege of being able to write about grief, the unknown, and the pain of living through that time.

Moving forward I have spent an exhausting last couple of weeks doing the impossible. I cleared four looms and am working through a fifth. Turns out I don’t have to report for jury duty the next three days, I call again Wednesday evening, so I get an extra three days, but still, I needed to tie up loose ends and have things ready in case I am put on a case.

So, the first one I cleared was the last of the 7 mohair throws on 18 yards, I wove from all the mohair I had accumulated over the years. That loom is empty and waiting…

The next loom I cleared was the run of towels I had done to specifically explore a structure for an article I was writing. Those towels are washed and just waiting to be cut apart and hemmed.

Then I cleared the warp from hell, actually the warp was fine, the way I threaded it, with the plain weave all on two shafts made each shaft stick and I had to manually push each shaft down for every row. 30 picks per inch. It was painful. But the fabric is beautiful. Simple, elegant, and washed. With a couple of unexpected free days, I’m hoping to maybe make up a summer top so I can wear it before the season comes to an end? This is a turned overshot on 8 shafts with a 20/2 cotton ground.

And then I went to the Macomber I had set up early in the year, with the broken shoulder. Brianna helped me with that one, beaming 15 yards with a broken shoulder was challenging. I only had two scarves left to weave, so I hunkered down and polished off that warp. They still need to be washed. I called this run A Winter’s Tale (with apologies to Shakespeare), because really, this past winter was quite the tale…

And now, I’m happily weaving off the ten yards of a rayon ice dyed warp woven in a crackle structure. It is really pretty, and with a 5/2 cotton weft, it weaves so much faster than the turned overshot!

I continue to chip away at entering books into LibraryThing.com. I’m working on the sewing books, finding all sorts of treasures and vintage textbooks. I just hit 1,126 and still have lots more to enter. I opened this vintage sewing manual to check on copyright date and publisher info, most of those have to be entered manually and I got the biggest surprise of the year. There, across a two page spread and into the next page, were beautiful sentiments from my students from my first or second class at Sievers School of Fiber Arts, September 2007. This was a year before I started my blog. I have no recollection of being given this book, but what I really don’t think I ever saw, were the beautiful sentiments carefully written inside. I read through them all and because I’m still good friends, after teaching there for 12 years, with many of my former students, I immediately sent them the photo, and we all had a good sharing of memories.

Last weekend, while I was happily weaving away clearing one of the looms, I took a break and came into the living room to find that the cushion in the window seat was, well, a picture is worth a thousand words.

One of the dogs, there is no way to know who, somehow got his nose in the zipper and found the foam stuffing and well, I had a time cleaning the foam out of everything. One of the dogs (probably mine) had already chewed up the cushion and I had repaired it twice. I gave up, drove to Joann’s for new foam and a new zipper, and with some fabric from one of my recent weaver estate sales, I remade the cushion.

It didn’t take them long to adjust to the new cushion.

Crossing my fingers it lasts for at least a few months. It is their favorite place to hang out, letting me know about whoever dares to walk down the street. There are actually dogs who when the walk by my house, stop and sit at the curb to watch the show of these two maniacs barking their fool heads off because they are elk hounds and they are bred to find an elk and hold it at bay by barking annoyingly for up to 8 hours until the hunter can come and claim his prey. Sadly they’ve never seen an elk, so they think that everything that walks by, including baby strollers is potential game and I should be duly informed.

It is raining all day and will into tomorrow I hope. We are having a severe drought, after flooding rains all spring. I welcome the gentle rain. There is lots to do inside. I vacuumed my house and put to bed a 36 page issue I wrote for Heddlecraft magazine. I’ve been working on that for a number of months. I wanted it finalized before I am potentially placed on a jury.

One of the structures I wove to potentially be used in the article was one from Dr. Bateman, mentioned in a number of publications. This is draft 110 and I was able to weave two versions, get it washed and photographed, and get the loom reset. A couple of repeats a day, should get me through what remains of the three yard warp in no time. I have a lot of practice clearing looms, one repeat at a time…

Stay tuned dear readers, hopefully lots more to come… And more looms to clear… And get warped again… Winter is coming…

One Day at a time…

For many many years, in my early adulthood, I spent time in a 12-step program. One of the key slogans in that program is One Day at a Time. It is basically how you get through life, and I am absolutely convinced it is how I got through the pandemic, which sad to say, is still not over.

But One Day at a Time, as important as it is, doesn’t or never did help me to deal with life as an artist/educator/writer, etc. It is in that role that I always always had to look ahead and plan ahead and make sure deadlines were met. There is nothing that I do that I can blow out in a sitting at the last minute. Trust me…

At this point in my life, most of the stress of traveling, planning ahead by applying to conferences, sending proposals, updating content, shipping workshop materials ahead, and meeting deadlines is mostly behind me. And yet, as I approach the fall, I’m kind of shocked at how parts of that former life have reared their ugly head. And I’m sort of OK with that. At this point in my life, any stress I put on myself is my choosing and I can’t tell you how much that makes a difference. Artist’s never really retire. They just change the focus of their creativity. My focus isn’t dependent anymore on earning a living at what I do. That is a huge deal. So, the hours I spend during the day are juggling all the cool things I’m inventing, investigating, and exploring.

It occurred to me though, in the past week, that I have a very busy fall, all doing stuff that I chose, but stuff nonetheless. And I find myself making lists, printing a weekly calendar and making an assigned schedule (which for me is really critical to reduce stress since it is all written down).

I have a couple of remote workshops and lectures to teach in the fall, which will need some tweaking and updating. One is a 260-slide presentation, given over two days. I can’t do that update in one sitting. So 45- 50 slides a day will get me there.

And I’ve been asked to rejoin an early music group. Which means practicing daily to get back up to speed on the recorder.

I’m in the middle of an extensive article, for a weaving publication, which isn’t completely contracted, but I’m writing it anyway, and I’m up to 30 pages. If the article doesn’t happen, I’ll just self publish it. But it is intense, requiring a lot of samples, and I have several looms currently filled with projects/yardage/samples for this particular article. I won’t get the final OK to move forward with all of it until mid-September, which is when I have Petit Jury duty. I will be on call in Newark, a dreadful city to drive into and park, for two weeks, which takes out half of September. And I’m not happy that NJ has just dropped its masking requirement for jury duty. I would really hate to have avoided Covid for 2 1/2 years only to get it while serving on jury duty. Please don’t tell me all the ways I can get out of it. I really don’t have a good reason for an excuse, and if I ever needed a jury of my peers, I’d hope that reasonably intelligent people would step up to the plate and give me an unbiased judgement. But I can’t be editing a 30 page article, with captions and 50 drafts and images while I potentially will be sitting all day in a jury box.

This requires some substantial planning ahead, just in case, and I’m doing my best to look ahead. Best case scenario is I won’t get called or will get excused. (I once was excused because the defense attorney didn’t want an artist in the jury… still laughing over that…)

One of the drafts I wanted to sample, is one from the Dr. Bateman collection, draft 110. It occurs in several publications, and requires some pretty varied yarns, which I searched through my stash to procure. That was a lot of fun.

I put on a short warp, 3 yards, which for me is pretty short, so I decided to use my small warping board. The sample was 16″ wide, but with a sett of 30epi, it was more than 400 ends. Leaning over the table to wind this warp, which changed with every end, was getting old fast. So I wandered around my house to see what I could invent to help make this more efficient.

I am a hobbyist musician, as noted above, and have a lovely wood music stand in my dining room with all my recorders and the piano.

The warping board fit perfectly, and I could put cones on a cone holder, changing them out with each pass, and the whole process was indeed more efficient.

I changed ends using tape, instead of spending the time tying the ends together. Since I warp front to back, I’m cutting the warp at both ends anyway.

Once beamed, I was ready to tie onto the front and dive in.

This is a pretty intense warp combination of varied cottons, from 20/2 to 20 weight pearl to floss, whatever that means. The weft is a merino tabby, and a 2/8 wool, so I’ll cut a sample and see how it looks washed. I still have another treadling sequence to try so I’ll keep working on a couple inches a day.

This is done on one of my 8 shaft table looms, which is slow going, but one of the treadling sequences requires 14 treadles, which my looms don’t have. So a table loom it is, but with two shuttles, there isn’t any place to put those shuttles because the depth of the weaving area in the front is so shallow.

So I wandered around my house trying to be resourceful. I found a rusted planter on the deck which fit perfectly, gave me a bit of a footrest, and held a plastic shoe box which gave me a place for the shuttles. I’m so clever!

Meanwhile, my guild is having its annual show and sale the beginning of November. That’s basically less than two months away, because the inventory sheets have to be in by the third week in October since we are moving into bar code tags. No last-minute entries.

That’s all fine, but I basically have to start thinking about what I have to sell, and what I can make between now and then. This is not the time to embrace One Day at a Time. I have several mohair throws, and some items left from last year’s sale, but I seriously need more zippered pouches from leftovers, tote bags, and greeting cards. I usually do really well with them, and God knows, I do have leftovers!

I pulled the Zanshi fabric I wove last year, made from all my thrums tied together. That will make great bags, and I pulled the samples from the eco print workshop I did last summer. I can do something with that as well.

My goal right now is to start clearing looms. I’m thinking that I can clear a loom a week. And I have a half dozen cuts of handwoven fabric I’m sitting on, and if I plan ahead, I might be able to produce a number of items to sell. The difference between now and back in the 80’s when I did this for a living, was trying to guess the market and having stuff to sell because I needed the income. Now, anything I make, if it doesn’t sell, I will either use myself, (what a concept) or give it as a gift. Or in the case of the really expensive items, donate them to an arts organization’s high-end fund-raising auction.

Meanwhile, I wove off three towels on a draft experiment, and then pulled the warp from the heddles, and rethreaded the entire thing in a new pattern.

This pattern is one from a book on my shelf, A Handbook of Weaves, a Dover reprint, from a weaver named G. Hermann Oelsner. I couldn’t figure out his draft notation, but a friend told me that all the drafts in his book were transcribed into handweaving.net. Which I have a subscription to… Jackpot!

I probably have about 1 1/2 more towels to weave on this warp, so it should be cleared in the next couple days.

I have my work cut out for me. Literally and figuratively. No rest for the creative soul, and that isn’t a complaint, I can assure you.

Stay tuned…