Tag: Spinning and Weaving Week

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…

Everyday feels like a year…

This is the weirdest year I’ve ever experienced, and there have been a lot of them.  You’d think by 65, especially having lived through the 60’s and 70’s that you’ve seen it all.  Hahahah!

I’m not going to comment on any of the current world situation.  You don’t need one more voice in the cacophony of voices and events and situations screaming at you for attention.  Because you all know or should know that the world is imploding like some sci-fi novel and that we just all have to buckle our proverbial seatbelts and hold on for the ride.  A bottle of wine or something more powerful would help for fuel.

That said, my last couple of weeks have been wild and crazy, and that has nothing to do with all the drama and sturm und drang happening in the world.  

In case you missed it, I did finish my Confetti vest, lined with a vintage leopard coat.  It makes me smile in so many ways when I look at it.  I’m ready for winter, this will be warm as s**t!  

So this week is Spinning and Weaving week.  It is a big deal in the fiber community, usually full of events, and gatherings and all sorts of fibery happenings.  The Handweavers Guild of America is giving it the valiant try of doing a bunch of fiber related events virtually.  While not ideal, in essence it allows participation by anyone, anywhere, in the comfort of your own home.  I know our homes are getting too comfortable and we are looking to get out and go anywhere, but inspiration comes in odd packages, and basically all this is free and all you have to do is register for a specific event.( I think it helps if you are a member, because everything is free, but there are modest fees if you aren’t a member.)  All this coming week, the HGA is sponsoring studio tours of various fiber artists they have selected, whose studios they think might be of interest to the fiber community at large.

And guess who is featured Thursday at 4pm EDT.  Yeah, so there is that hanging over me.  In preparation for a virtual studio tour, I mistakenly said, when they inquired if I would be willing to be a part of this, that sure, I’ll even have something on every loom that I can talk about and explain, and fill up space for an hour.  I need to learn restraint!

So, in anticipation of Thursday’s live virtual studio tour, filmed by my daughter who will be tethered to the laptop, camera and sound system, we will walk through my wonderful new garage space, and then on to the basement where I have my cozy sewing room.  But all the looms had to be warped…

So, my 8 shaft 36″ loom was unwarped and very lonely.  I still had a couple of cones of Silk City Fibers yarns to test out, one was a Cotton Bambu, in Silver, and the other was a Chenille Tapestry variegated called Japanese Red Maple.  I envisioned a light dark shadow weave, something sett well enough to keep the chenille from doing silly things like worming out of the structure.  Some day I’ll recount my early experiences with chenille, but with a lot of experience behind me, I thought I’d give it another go.

I used the Powell book for inspiration, but since I’m aiming to publish the draft and specs for this fabric, I needed something that was mine.  I started out with this 8 shaft version, and wasn’t completely happy.  (Actually I started out with 24 epi, alternating the CottonBambu and the Chenille.  Resleyed to 20 epi, and then resleyed again to 16epi.  Don’t ever be afraid of changing course mid stream.)

The change might not be obvious, but I redesigned it to reverse in a more pronounced way, and to better square up with the sett.  I’m pretty happy with this.  Now I just have to weave it off, but not before Thursday…

And my big loom, the 45″ 8 shaft Tools of the Trade, my first loom and first love, still with me after all these years, purchased in 1977, delivered in 1978 was also naked and really not happy.  Since every fall I put on a run of dishtowels for holiday gifts, I decided that that would be an appropriate thing to put on the loom, and then at the end of October into November, I could weave it off and have my holiday gifts.

Social media can be really challenging and full of untruths and misinformation and a lot of passionate people on both sides of the fence no matter what the subject.  But the social media sites dedicated to fiber and specifically weaving has some very dedicated moderators and some very talented contributors and every morning when I wake up I feel like I have just been to a fantastic inspirational gallery opening.  

The Facebook site Strickler in Color has been a tremendous source of inspiration.  Carol Strickler wrote a lovely book, now considered essential for every weaver with 8 shafts on their loom, full of patterns, all black and white, and you could spend a lifetime with this book and not make a dent.  So this Facebook site has talented contributors who post what they’ve woven, but in color, with a nod to the draft.  Strickler 728 keeps coming up, and if you looked at it in the book, you would have just turned the page.  It really is rather boring and not very inspiring.  But I’ve seen so many people use this draft in eye catching ways that it was on my list to try.

In keeping with the need to stash bust, because I’ve acquired a lot of 8/2 cotton in the last year or two, I pulled a length from all of my cones and sat with weaving software until I was happy.  I decided to put 15 yards on the loom because turns out, I can never have enough dishtowels.  I’m always needing one as a gift, and I’m tired of running out in July. (I still have two left from last year because I haven’t been anywhere since March, but hey…)

My table top warping mill technically holds 10 yards.  I’ve successfully pushed it to 14, but I decided that my AVL warping mill, now 20 years old, would probably serve for this purpose.  I rigged up way to make a cross, and I wound 15 yard bundles in 2.5″ widths.

I threaded the loom.  My ott-lite magnifier has changed my life!  

I beamed the 15 yards.

And I started weaving.  I am completely in love.  This is why we do this.  I am so thrilled to have been forced to fill up my looms, because now, after Thursday, I can walk in my studio and just weave.  A lot.  I have a whole fall’s worth of looms to clear.  Which will mean, except for the dishtowels, a lot of sewing this winter.  I can’t wait when we reemerge from this protective cocoon to wear half the stuff I’ve made this year.

Speaking of…

In addition to studio tours and virtual vendor halls, the Handweavers Guild of America is also sponsoring a virtual fashion show next Sunday.  Not the same as sitting in an auditorium at a conference and watching cool handwoven garments strut across the stage, but they are trying to put together a virtual fashion show.  That would be next Sunday at 2pm EDT.  Of course I’ll have a piece in the show, but I hear they could use more participants.  WHERE ARE ALL MY STUDENTS, AND WHY ARE THEY NOT SHOWING OFF THEIR WONDERFUL GARMENTS!  This isn’t like where you have to be juried.  Just sign up!  You need the ability to Zoom, log in and they will tell you what to do.  The rehearsal was today, but I think they still want more participants!  Come on guys, you have some great work!  The link to enter is here.  I know the deadline has passed, but I believe they are still looking for participants.  The link to view the virtual fashion show next Sunday is here…

And finally, there is my new Youtube site.  We now have four episodes of The Weaver Sews.  Every Friday we film a new episode on something related to sewing handwoven fabric.  Four are launched with Closed Captioning, which my daughter writes, so it is accurate and synced.  Two more are shot and I’m planning the topic for next Friday as I write.  I will create a script, which makes it easier for my daughter to write the Closed Captioning, and then I work all week on creating the samples and supplies I need for the video shoot.  We are having fun with this and I hope it is helpful and informative.  Sales of my patterns are certainly picking up!

So my head is spinning with all that is on my plate.  I’m old enough to remember The Ed Sullivan Show, and the guy from some Baltic country that did plate spinning.  He would keep 10 or 20 plates spinning all at the same time.  I remember watching with fascination and thinking, “How does he keep them all going at once?”  Well now I know.  Somehow that skill managed to rub off on me and I’m doing that every day.  And I wouldn’t wish for anything different.  My days are full, I have plenty to keep me busy.  I am lecturing virtually almost every other day, somewhere in the country.  It is so great to log in and see familiar faces.  I can do this… (though sometimes I wish I could redesign the plates).

Stay tuned…