Ornaments – Daryl's Blog

No rest for the weary…

First, let me say that at this point in my life, everything I agree to, everything I participate in, and how much I participate, is completely my choice. I’ve spent my life overbooking myself, because it is what I do, and my twilight “retirement years” are no exception. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m absolutely not the kind of person who sits on the couch watching TV, I got rid of the TV after the flood.

And in my twilight years, especially now that I’m widowed, it is super important to be with a community, or multiple communities, as is the case. I will always have my textile community, my friends, my guild mates, my former students, I love them all and try to gather with them as often as I can. Now there is the early music community, and my beginner cello opportunities, plus the native plant people who are even more generous than the handweaving community, if that’s possible.

And of course there are lots of volunteer opportunities, like at the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, where I get to hang with the most amazing and talented people. Who knew with 60 years of sewing experience behind me, I could still learn so much.

So yes, my life is crazy busy, and right now way overbooked, but I have a reason to get out of bed each morning and deal with the most critical things, and learn, and celebrate, and create, and I’d say, there is nothing I’d change about my life.

Where to begin…

When I posted last month, I was just beginning to figure out what I wanted to make for my guild sale. My plan, which worked spectacularly well, was to gather all the leftover fabrics, swatches, samples, etc, from the last couple of years, and create stacks of kits so I would know what I had for inventory. The inventory sheets were due ahead of the sale, so the committee could generate bar coded tags. Then I could sew like the wind…

So I cut out tote bags… with just a dusting of scrap left…

And I took a pile of sushi containers and made tons of ornaments…

And I cut out something like 18 zippered project bags, and five ginger jars.

I took advantage of the timing of the Weaving History Conference, sponsored by the Thousand Island Arts Center in Clayton, NY. It was held the end of October, and it was three days of Zoom lectures, which were fantastic. I highly recommend it. I was so very impressed at the passion of the speakers, to devote their lives to the research on some pretty obscure topics, much to the delight of the audience who listened to them. This is the same art center that houses the handweaving museum, which is in the process of building a larger space to house/exhibit their vast textile archives and holdings. They are the ones that if all goes well, sometime in 2026, they will take much of my work from my retrospective exhibit last year at County College of Morris. Anyway, I sat for three days watching Zoom sessions and hand stitching my little heart out… By the end of the conference, all the handwork was done.

I had bunches of ornaments… (many of which sold at the guild sale, the remaining few are now at the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ lobby shop at the Kirby Theatre)

I had 5 ginger jars, all of which sold within the first hour of the guild sale, to the same person. She would have bought more if I’d had them…

I made three stuffed bears, in addition to the two remaining rabbits I had from last year. I sold one of the rabbits and the bears and remaining rabbit are at the Shakespeare Theatre shop. The bears are so freaking cute…

I made a pile of new tote bags, one is missing from the photo as it sold within hours of my making it, to one of my musician friends. I think there are only two left, they are at the Shakespeare Theatre.

I added more greeting cards, many of which sold…

I put two of my woven scarves in the sale, and two of the scarves I wove on the remaining deflected double weave warp from the Natalie Drummond class my guild sponsored in the spring, along with four botanically printed scarves, and all of the scarves sold.

And I created, like I said, something like 18 zippered project bags, in addition to what was left from last year, many of them from Botanically printed silk scraps. This was one of my favorites, with a base of kimono silk from my trip to Japan a couple years ago.

I think there were only about five left when I packed up Sunday night of the sale, they are at the theatre lobby shop.

As you can probably surmise, I did really really well at the sale. It helped that I was there, working the floor the entire three days, and it helped that my friends from the plant communities and the music communities, and my weaving friends from afar all came to buy my work. It is fun to go to a musical gig and see one of my totes carrying someone’s music.

Just before Halloween, I volunteered to work the Shakespeare Theatre costume and prop sale, an annual fund raising event for them. Of course one can’t help but look at what’s on the rack, and I came home with this amazing vest, which was custom made for one of the actors in Romeo and Juliet, but came out the wrong size. It was tiny. I could technically fit in it, but I needed more arm movement for playing the cello, so I thought, “What would we have done in the costume shop?” I ended up creating extensions in black microsuede, which encased loops, and stitched them to the zipper tape, to camouflage the zipper, and give me a couple more inches across the chest. And with a shoelace, I had an instant closure. I was so freaking proud of my solution.

And I took a denim split pant I picked up at the costume sale, remade it and wore it, with the vest, to my performance Sunday at a local Viking Festival, Gormanudur. I played cello and bass recorder. Someone grabbed a photo of me and my friend Ken, who plays all of the recorders, and bass clarinet. In addition to early music, we played some wonderful series and video game music, from Lord of the Rings, Skyrim, Valhalla, etc. And I was delighted to see in the audience one of my weaving guild friends. Her husband is a professional musician. My world overlaps in the best ways!

And though at first glance, my gardens have gone to sleep, my son came and helped me bring in the hoses, put away the mowers, and cut back some of the more prolific Joe Pye Weed and Rudbeckia, to keep the pathways clear for winter walking. It poured rain the day he came, but we persevered and took care of my list anyway, getting completely soaked, but ultimately triumphing and accomplishing my agenda.

I had to pick all the tomatoes left on the vines, we had a hard frost that night. My window sills were full, and I’ve made a lot more sauce and froze it, and oven dried a lot more cherry tomatoes to add to my bags in the freezer.

There are so many berries out there on the bushes, some are native, and some are not, but my gardens are still a work in progress, and I’ll probably remove more invasives next year as the native plants fill in.

And on my walk around the yard this morning, I couldn’t believe how many things were still blooming… I especially loved the rose bud way up in the air against a brilliant blue sky.

And so, now that the guild sale is behind me, and remaining inventory delivered to the Shakespeare Theatre (I let them keep all the money from anything they sell), I can concentrate on all the upcoming performances, and the more than 100 pieces of music I need to learn for them. Yes, it is really hard work, and yes it is probably way too much. But I am learning so fast, and practicing really hard, and making such wonderful supportive friends, and having a blast playing dress up, that saying “no” isn’t going to be part of my vocabulary for the foreseeable future. And I just ordered a 3D carbon fiber cello, because I’m a handweaver with about 30 looms, (down from 64), why would I only have one cello… (The real reason is apparently I’m a klutz, and I’ve had three accidents with my wood cello, all from things falling on it while I was playing another instrument… I still have to send it in for repair from the previous accident).

And so, I probably won’t post again until after Thanksgiving; for all of you that use the time for quiet recharging, or spend the time with family and friends, for better or for worse, I hope that the holiday brings you a chance to give thanks, for what we have, community that supports us, and in spite of the curious world we are living in at the moment, with whiplash at every turn, there are always trees and bushes to tell us that spring will come again, and that life is renewable…

Stay tuned…

Ducks in a Row…

This has been a wild week in the studio. First, a little back story…

If you have been following this blog over the past year or so, you know that I set out on a quest to warp all of the 64 looms in the studio, many of them table looms, Structos, or inkle looms. I blogged about them all over a few blog posts.

I’ve set out on a different quest to clear those looms, and rethink my life as to what I want to really hold on to moving forward… The floor looms, at least those that are mine and not my daughter’s, are all cleared. I am a yardage weaver and like nothing better than to sit and weave like a galloping horse. 10 yards, not really a problem. Though I can’t clear off the amount of yardage in one sitting like I could in my 20’s.

So now, I have a bunch of table looms to clear. And if I were really truthful, I hate weaving on a table loom. It is slow and tedious. Especially if there is a complex structure. Like a Bateman Blend, which I set up for a sample for an article I wrote for Heddlecraft Magazine. (Issue #38)

There is nothing like a table loom to explain structure, because you have to hand manipulate each shaft (and in this one there are 8), and though you can achieve a rhythm, it isn’t the same as when your hands and feet are all working together. I found myself bored and distracted. Constantly jumping up to do anything but… At one point I even redid the shaft tie-up system, as this was a used loom, and though I have six others like it, the previous owner did something odd that I thought prevented me from getting the shed I needed. So a trip to the hardware store, and some fine tuning, I was happy with the shed and struggled to get back to weaving.

Meanwhile, at the end of my last post, I talked about this cat appliqué quilt block I inherited from my mom, and I found that I was getting quite obsessed, almost addicted. It was all I wanted to do…

I’d set timers, ok, I’ll work on this section and then weave a few repeats, and then work on the appliqué some more as a treat. It worked for a while since I now have the knots over the back beam, there is only about 6 inches more to weave.

Mostly I would just sit and let my mind wander while I was stitching, and my mind wandered to the calendar. I looked ahead at the next couple months, and there is a lot coming up, private students, some teaching remotely, garden tours and lectures, interesting things, but what made me sit up and stop stitching, was realizing that my guild show and sale is only 2 months away.

Part of my musings are around the amount of equipment and stash that exists in my life. No one is complaining, but there comes a point when is it fair to me to keep holding stuff that is 40 years old? I’m not talking about usable yarn or fabric, I’m talking about scraps in my attic from my 1980 production years. I’ve worked over the last couple of decades to reduce the 18 bankers boxes filled to capacity. But there is still a lot up there. And a lot of it is mohair. Which isn’t so easy to use up in small pieces.

I took a stroll in my attic and started opening drawers, and pulled out one that had some mohair scraps, rather large ones, in a couple color ways, and brought them down to the studio. I got the idea of creating a sweater jacket using the same pattern as my beloved Noro jacket I wove a couple years ago.

I found the pattern and started playing around with what I had on the table. At first, I thought I’d just do a vest, but it was clear I could add a couple of sleeves with some careful piecing.

A couple of small balls of mohair blend in my knitting stash would work well for the crocheted trim around the perimeter of the jacket and the pockets. I’m about half way around.

Which left me with this pile of small scraps.

I reached out to some of my weaving buddies, and asked for ideas for what to do with small scraps of mohair. One of them suggested stuffed animals. I really haven’t made any stuffed animals, I always joke that I don’t do crafts, but the idea was intriguing. I have a data base of all my patterns, including the 20 years of Burda Style Magazine. I quickly found patterns for a squirrel and a rabbit.

There weren’t large enough pieces left in this pile of mohair to do either one, but I had also pulled out some other mohair scraps, thinking I could get a vest or jacket out of those, and they ended up perfect to cut this adorable squirrel. The issue of Burda Style was May 2014.

Meanwhile, I started to think about ornaments I used to make as teacher gifts when my kids were little. I dug out the box I had in my closet, along with an article in Handwoven magazine November/December 2003 (which I wrote, duh…) and thought, wow, some of these like the little bear would be great in mohair.

So I cut out a few bears, and a couple of birds, using a pattern I found along with the box of ornaments.

And I started playing around with a stocking. I didn’t like the first iteration, the one on the right, and my daughter helped me refine the pattern to the one on the left. I thought the body of the stocking was just a little to high, so I’ve cut out probably a half dozen just a little bit shorter.

Meanwhile, I grabbed some non mohair scraps, including a bag labeled, scraps for coiled mats. Most of the work was already done. I made a coiled mat out of one of the piles.

And then made a second one, using up a ball of filler cord. I have a huge spool in the attic, so there is plenty more mats in my future.

Meanwhile, I pulled this bag of non mohair scraps, it is a color way I always loved, and there wasn’t a lot left. One of my private students told me about a base fabric she uses for bags and totes, she is from the quilting world, called In-R-Form foam from Bosal. She actually sent me a few yards to play with. It is a foam with great stability, yet more flexibility than the Peltex I have been using. So, much easier to work on. I laid out a tote.

And finished it off yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, I took the scraps left from the tote, and cut more ornaments. I can’t tell you what a mess I made of my studio, pulling ribbons and floss and Ultrasuede scraps and most important, buttons. The cat parked himself right in the middle of it all to supervise.

So here are a bunch of ducks… All in a row!

And I have little project bags for each of the couple dozen ornaments I’ve cut out. I can grab one and start assembling.

And yesterday afternoon, I made a rabbit from another colorway of mohair I had up in the attic. This one is from a Burda Style Magazine April 2014. I’m completely in love with this rabbit, and would love to keep him, but I’d have to keep him in the closet because my dog likes things with stuffing. It would be destroyed in 10 minutes. And I would be heartbroken. So it will find someone else to live with at my guild sale in November. It needs a ribbon around its neck, perhaps an inkle band, and I might redo the mouth with a full six strands of floss.

I haven’t been this intense in the studio in years. I just want to be down there, working until midnight, forgetting to eat, pissed when I have an appointment to interrupt me. It feels like falling in love all over again. That Bateman Structure on the loom, I still have about 6″ to go, and I still have to finish the last 3 letters of the name of the cat in the quilt block. (And there are 8 more cat quilt blocks in the set). They will get done, but I’m just having way too much fun thinking of things to make with this bonanza of leftovers from the 1980’s.

There is a monograph showing all of the techniques I used, available on my website as a download. And I have 3 or 4 videos on my YouTube channel, The Weaver Sews, on the piecing technique I used for the tote bag. They were some of the last ones we shot.

My favorite month since I was a little kid was September. The change in weather, fresh pencils and notebooks, the chance to learn new things; September is always a shot in the arm for me. I’d say I dove in to this month head first…

Stay tuned…