One of the joys of just doing, is the brain has a chance to wander, while weeding, watering, weaving, cooking, cleaning, spinning yarn, knitting, not so much playing music. That requires intense concentration. I do a lot of things that just allow my noisy brain to just wander…
One of the things that has been routinely popping up, as I spend time in my studio, is how much I would love to go back to my original three looms I started with, back in the late 70’s, and bring the sewing room up from the basement, consolidating all of my fiber work into one space again. The more I think about it, the more excited I get. A lot has to happen first, a lot more stuff has to find a home other than here. And my daughter has to be on board, as some of the looms are hers. But I have a plan, and it is formulating into a goal. I’m thinking maybe by the end of the year…
One can only dream…
Meanwhile, there are still more than 25 looms in the studio, of all sizes and types, and many of them still have warps on them. I’ve made a huge dent, my all time high was 64 looms, but when the last big one left in the spring, the 12-shaft 54″ Tools of the Trade, Duchess we called her, to live at Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, a huge amount of space opened up and I saw possibilities.
So I’m on a mission to clear off more looms. The really challenging ones are the remaining Structos, the little looms I used for teaching. I put long warps of fine thread on them, never thinking they’d ever get woven off. Silly me…
Last blog, I was working on clearing a Frankenstructo, made from odd loom parts, of a warp set up to do the Rosepath borders from the Carol Strickler book of 8-shaft patterns. I finished all of the 40+ borders, and the five swatches using the same threading.
This was serious fun. There is a little bit of warp left on the spools, and I’m taking the loom with me tomorrow to the convent to let my new student, a young nun, have a go at learning some new skills, two shuttles, following a draft, 8-shaft, floating selvedges, etc.
Meanwhile, one of my weaving friends is offering a summer boot camp in fiber for adults in Maryland, and needed additional inkle looms. Those I have. My stash is dwindling, but I had a couple to spare once I cleared the warps from them. This one was the sampler I used when I taught complementary warp design. I finished that one off.
And this one, I remember setting up for The Gathering, which was an annual or semi annual event at Sievers Fiber School in Wisconsin, where I believe I was giving the Keynote address that year. It was a weekend long event, and there were demos, and I remember setting up an Inklette loom, which easily fit in my suitcase. I looked at my resume and realized I set this loom up in 2014. 12 years. It was time. The pattern is free form, Ann Dixon in her book of Inkle Loom Patterns calls it Runic. I had to look at my Advanced Inkle Weaving Monograph to remember how to do this technique.
And then there is the Quigley sampler, moved to a floor loom from a Structo, a while back. I chug along, doing a new technique every few days, following my handout generously sent by Diane Click, who taught this as a workshop back in 2015. She graciously allowed me to reproduce the part I used, some 16 samples, and it is available for free from my eStore. I cut the warp off this morning, having finished all the swatches.
There was still a bit of warp left, so I looked at what I had woven carefully, and one of the motifs was exactly the size of the template I use for making my ginger jars. If I weave 6 of these motifs, I’ll have six sides for a ginger jar for the guild sale in November.
This is what the ginger jars look like…
Meanwhile, the gardens are lush and buzzing with activity. This time of year seems to be the peak of everything flowering at once, milkweed, Joe Pye, Purple Coneflower, Black Eyed Susans, Monarda, and a few other very cool plants thrown in because there are SOOOOO MANY BEES!
I sit at my window every morning and have breakfast and have immense gratitude for nature doing its thing, and for my ability to witness just a small part of it.
Lots of butterfly activity too, my lovely monarch just drifts in beautiful movements from flower to flower…
And I had never seen this one before, Google Lens says it is a Great Spangled Fritillary Butterfly. If anyone knows better, put it in the comments.
I grabbed this photo of my Astilbe, which isn’t native, and though I’ve pulled most of it out, there is one patch, and it is gorgeous when it blooms, and it too is covered in bees.
My neighbor, the one who comes out every so often to have a smoke, came to get me the other day, had to show me something. I was out watering in the back yard. So I followed him around to the front, and he pointed to the top of a telephone pole along the street, and there in all its magnificence was a Red-Tailed hawk. We stared at it for probably half an hour. It was gorgeous.
And of course, the produce is starting to come in, in spite of the ridiculous heat, followed by severe storms. What a summer…
Enjoy the photos, it is a jungle out there…
And of course there is lots of music, three of the groups I play with will be performing the end of August at the annual Medieval Fest in Montclair, but more immediately, NJ Early Music will be performing at the close of the Morris County 4-H fair Saturday night.
I feel like I’ve come full circle, when my kids were young, we were heavily involved in 4-H, my kids raised hamsters/guinea pigs, and had a couple of snakes. There is a wonderful photo from 2003 of my late husband holding our Mexican Rosy Boa, (I think its name was Al), at one of the fairs. And one with my son Eric, which made the local paper.
I would set up a fiber demonstration area every year at the fair, demoing weaving, spinning, and lacemaking. Both of my kids grew up demoing weaving at the fair. Everyone entered things, from animals to artwork, to photography, to weaving, and we all won many ribbons. I even had a 4-H prep group that met in my home every week.
So I feel like I’ve come full circle, now I’ll be performing at the closing ceremonies, Saturday night, I haven’t been to the fair in more than 20 years. I’ll have my cello and my bass recorder. And of course in costume.
Stay tuned…