Cnn you believe that another month has sped past? Here in Central Texas, March came in like a lion but is certainly leaving like a lamb. I am reminded of the lyrics to June is bustin out all over " March roared in like a lion, a whippin' up the water in the bay. Then April sighed and stepped aside and along came prety little May. . . ." The trees are in bloom, the wild flowers are starting to sprout up along all the highways, the brief Texas Spring will be over all too soon. I hope Spring finds all of you well and waverly (especially those of you who have been suffering from an extremely long winter this year.) I am looking forward to seeing more wonderful projects from all of you. Weave on!

Tina

Comments

Fri, 04/11/2014 - 18:32

Erica J

Oh yeah I forgot to mention with the taqueytewarp, I am trying pre-sleying the reed rather than using one of my raddles. I'd love to hear what other folks prefer and why.

Cathie, I think all my sources so far debate if damask waa first developed by the Persians or the Chinese or both at the same time. Agnes Geijer makes a compelling argument for the development of verticsl or horizpntal looms being influenced by climate. Basically she argues if the weather makes it such that tge weaving needs to be completely indoors (Northern Europe) then you need the loom to go up to minimize the amount of space it is takubg up! :)

Fri, 04/11/2014 - 18:32

Erica J

I just got in from adding 4 more drawcords to my drawbridge for my next warp, taquete on the drawloom! I have a 10" 4 yard wsrp beamed and will be threading up tomorrow. I will be sampling with both historical taquete designs and some designs on my own. Then I'll be moving on to samitum on the drawloom

Finally, I got Ebay fever and bought a 39" Glimakra Ideal last night! Poor Oliver will be drivibg 6 hours round trip to pick it up Tuesday! I can't find anywhere in the UK that sells them new, so I'm not sure how good a deal I got. But I did get it for less than a new Julia would cost! So I'll count it as reasonable. I have mostly cleared space for it in the "sun room", which is mostly in the shade.

Fri, 04/11/2014 - 22:49

sally orgren

Franquemont's speciality is spinning.

Fri, 04/11/2014 - 22:56

sally orgren

I am planning a quick trip to Silk City tomorrow morning, and then I hope to finish the Crimp Cloth warp this weekend. 4 yards left of 6. I just finished sampling the second yard tonight. I will need to steam and wash to test the pleating results. (It weaves quite fast once you KNOW what you want to do! ;-)

After that, next up is to finish off the Tied Weaves warp, and I have been planning an 8 yard S&W for a June guild exchange (and dishtowels for the remainder.)

Sunday afternoon I plan to help someone pack up a floor loom, Monday is guild day, and Tuesday afternoon holds an adventure.

Gee, it's nice to get some looms cleared off and consider some new projects!

Fri, 04/11/2014 - 23:31

Artistry

Thanks Sally about Abby Franquemont and the spinning. I was thinking of Chris and Ed Franquemont who started the weaving center in Chinchero, Peru. I heard him speak at our guild about Andes textiles many moons ago. I spent sometime today refreshing on doubleweave. It's the first chosen structure I'm going to try with the Chagall painting. I 'm going to try a painted silk warp for 1 layer and probably linen for the other? I know I'll use two back beams and probably different ends per inch. I don't know if that will work, but sampling is fun :) There is whimsy and structure in this painting. Russian Village Under the Moon. My first step is to do some block designs in watercolor( representing painted warp) and colored pencil. Tomorrow is Macy's Fine Art Sampler Day in Cincinnati. We will have the Guild House open with people demonstrating all sorts of things, I'll be doing a demo of tapestry, fun!
Sat, 04/12/2014 - 03:10

tien (not verified)

Abby is the daughter of Chris and Ed Franquemont; she grew up in Peru and learned to spin there. Now she teaches spinning. Carrying on the family fiber tradition!

I have done no weaving the last few weeks, as I've been mulling over what to do with the remainder of the color study warp. I've been dyeing in the interim - did eleven shirts (for work wear) and seven pairs of socks last weekend, plus a bunch of samples of different discharge methods. But I plan to get back to weaving this weekend. I want to get the color study off the loom so I can weave up some fine-thread sea turtles!

The other thing I've been doing is helping my husband Mike try to fix a local weaver's loom. It's a VERY old computer-driven loom - the computer driving it is running DOS! We spent three hours troubleshooting on Thursday, but it's not fixed yet - we may take another stab at it this weekend or next week.

Sat, 04/12/2014 - 08:58

Artistry

O.K. Now, it all falls into place, mystery solved:)
Sat, 04/12/2014 - 12:34

tommye scanlin

... getting the last "loose ends" tied up for the upcoming class I'll be teaching at John Campbell Folk School--I head up there TOMORROW!  Most everything is done and things packed.  But I have to check my list today and get those pesky loose ends tied -- or snip them off and go!

Sat, 04/12/2014 - 13:29

Artistry

Have fun Tommye at John Campbell Folk School! What aspect of Tapestry will you be teaching?
Sat, 04/12/2014 - 13:35

tommye scanlin

Cathie, multi level class. Will have some folks with experience who will work on sonething they choose. The beginners will have a sampler of a few basic techniques.
Sat, 04/12/2014 - 16:27

Erica J

Loom threaded!!! Virtual Victory Lap (because I'm too tired for a real one).

Sun, 04/13/2014 - 08:01

Erica J

We think little TJ was having a bit of gas last night. Not much sleep occured between 2 and 4:30. After Oliver had been up 6 times with him, I got up and took him out to the sitting room. We snoozed on the couch until 7.

He was still pretty dazed, so we went out to the studio, made porridge, and I sleyed the reed on the Glimakra. TJ just went down for a nap, so after I finish my coffee, I'll head out to transfer the pattern heddles to the proper shafts. 

Feel free to place bets on how many sleighing errors I made on extremely interrupted sleep! :)

 

Sun, 04/13/2014 - 18:17

Queezle

but I did go to a guild event, and took a class on color.  It was great to be reminded about the usefulness of making wraps and the great information in the color wheel.  It was also good mentally to escape the madness of kitchen remodeling for a day. 

Sun, 04/13/2014 - 20:43

Erica J

The colour class sounds fun! I am doing a bit of design study myself, when I can't get to the loom! Do love all the ideas swirling in my head.

Mon, 04/14/2014 - 16:53

Erica J

I have the Standard all wsrped up for taquete. It still needs final adjudtments before I can get weaving,  but that's OK! ;)

Mon, 04/14/2014 - 21:43

tien (not verified)

Congrats, Erica!

I got back to weaving after a nearly two week hiatus. Wove another section (this one turquoise, navy, and orange) of the color study, which you can read about on my blog. I was playing with saturation, and wove this design four times, with the central motif ("HI -" ) in four different shades of orange, keeping everything else the same. I did bright orange (below), light brown, medium brown, and pale peach. It was interesting to see how the different saturation levels and the different values (lightness/darkness) affected the design.

color study example

I'm working on two other things at the moment. One is the book, which I recently restarted - the other is my sea turtles! I am trying to figure out how to turn a tied weave that has six shafts dedicated to ties, and the ties are network drafted (so not a regular weave). Yeah - my head is hurting too!

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 00:29

Artistry

Erica, It looks great, I wish I could peer over your shoulder when you start weaving! Tien, I'm loving your color studies! I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how I'm approaching the Chagall painting. I will get out my water colors and start assimilating a painted warp for blocks A, blocks B are not going to be linen but the same fiber as A, probably silk and dyed by me as well. Block b's will be dyed solid colors, but I hope to get some stripes in them in some areas by weaving in high contrasting color followed by deep color. Doubleweave. The project is a wonderful challenge! I will post the picture and my painted progress in a few days :)
Tue, 04/15/2014 - 03:18

Queezle

That loom looks interesting - will love seeing what comes next.  And Tien, I just love your color study.  I was looking at the pictures on your blog today, the orange with that blue are so great together.

The class on color reminded me about how much I once loved to dye my yarns.  I always feel limited by the yarn colors that I have, and if I just stocked white, and dyed it myself, it could work.  Years ago I invested in some procion dyes, and I remember just loving setting up the dye pot.  I have my own lab now, so I could do it in a super safe way, too.

Oh so many things to dream about, but between kitchen remodel and grant proposal, I need to keep my blinders on a little longer. 

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 10:10

Artistry

Queezle, I have a love of dyeing too but don't get to do it as much as I used too. I will over the next month. I was trained by Karren Brito plus I must of been a scientist in another life because I love my beakers and pipettes! It is also tiring work, lifting all those heavy pots, stirring, but all in all I think it's magic! I dye outside under a covered porch, with has outside electricity, and a hose for water. I use hot plates. I can dye every month except DEC.,JAN.,FEB., most years :) I keep all my dyes and aux.'s in a locked closet in the basement. Pots and buckets are in the laundry room. Where do other people do there dyeing?
Tue, 04/15/2014 - 10:46

ReedGuy

I'm still about on the forum. Not weaving much, moving is priority right now. I have to wait for the snow to go away to clean up my barn and shop for storage. I still enjoy everyone's posts, lots of busy folks and nice work. :)

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 15:01

theresasc

had me looking closer at my tapestry.  Something had been bothering me and so I pulled out a section of color I had introduced, rewove that area with some original weft bundles and things are better on the tapestry front.  Amazing how that one small area made such a sour note.  

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 15:03

ReedGuy

It's about 30 miles Cathie to the new place. It's the only town in the whole county. Most places are hamlets and villages here.

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 15:33

ReedGuy

One post will probably make do. ;) :)

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 18:45

theresasc

Sorry about that - how does that happen??

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 19:32

ReedGuy

Some connections are slow I suspect. Mine always is because of dialup. But 'save' gets hit more than once because folks think the first hit didn't go through when the forum appears to stall. If you refresh after the first hit, the post is probably there.

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 22:26

tien (not verified)

Queezle, that's just what I do! My entire stash is white yarns, and I just dye them before using. I spent one entire summer dyeing samples and now I have a wonderful palette of colors to use. I also studied with Karren Brito, who showed me how to mix colors so they are precisely reproducible. One of the best classes I've ever taken!

I hate to even think how big my stash would be if I had to stock lots of colors! It's 182 pounds as it stands, which is Way Too Much. Especially since it averages 14,000 ypp.

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 22:35

tien (not verified)

I do all my dyeing on the back patio - I have a small 2x4 plastic folding table there, and a pair of sawhorses that I use with a 2'x6' board when I want to print on fabrics. I even have an outdoor sink for washing out dyes! It is a real timesaver, and has probably saved our hardwood floors more than once. Since I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I can dye outside pretty much year-round. The one problem is that in the winter, it can be too cold for fiber-reactive dyes to set outdoors, and it can be tricky to bring them indoors because of two very inquisitive kittens!

I also have two cabinets outside on the patio where I store dye equipment. I have lots of plastic buckets of varying sizes (5 gallon, 5 quart, 3 quart, 1 quart, 1 pint), syringes, foam brushes, spoons, etc. - all out on the patio.

The dyes themselves are stored in the garage. I have an embarrassingly large collection of them - Lanaset acid dyes, a few Washfast acid dyes, Cibacron F fiber-reactive dyes, Procion MX fiber-reactive dyes, and a set of vat dyes (which work kind of like indigo but in more colors). I also have various paints, including some mix-your-own paints from medium and pigment color concentrates. And stuff for screen printing, and a Thermofax machine for making Thermofax screens, and, uh...stuff. Lots of stuff. It's really an embarrassingly well-equipped surface design studio. I should get out and use it more!

Tue, 04/15/2014 - 22:54

Artistry

Tien, I took the same 3 month class from Karren. It was awesome and I agree the best I've ever taken! Theresac, Good for you about the Tapestry!
Tue, 04/15/2014 - 23:24

ReedGuy

Lots to keep you busy Tien. Wow, all that yarn to. You'll soon be another Webbs. ;)

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 07:29

Erica J

Yesterday's weaverliness was bringing in my new to me Ideal and setting it up! Here's my sweet little loom.

That's probably better, I edited the size so it's more visible in the browser! :)

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 09:22

ReedGuy

Nice loom. :) Only way to see it all in Firefox is 'View Image' or 'View Image Info' from the popup menu (right click). ;)

Yesterday I finished up the linen chair webbing. Next is to clean up the fuzzies from that linen. I think it's 'dirtier' than wool. :)

Still packing and moving, going with another load of loot today.

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 20:40

Joanne Hall

Hi Erica,

It looks really nice.  It was born after l982. 

Joanne

 

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 23:29

dtjacobson

Cut nearly 24 yards of cloth off "Mongo the Mac" last night, so today has been a day of washing, ironing, cutting, and hemming, along with washing and blocking a large lace shawl (because sometimes I don't weave).

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 02:03

Artistry

Did two simulated painted warps with water colors on paper to show the influence of the Chagall painting on me. Took them to the Structure meeting today. Someone had a Chagall book with the color plate and ( of course) my printed colors were ALL WRONG! Ugh! So I'm off to the Art Museum Library tomorrow and check out a book on Chagall and start my warp paintings over. Getting in the mood to thread twirling girl.
Fri, 04/18/2014 - 05:39

Weavejoyforall

and Cathy I would love to see your watercolor studys for your work...Being a bit of a watercolorist myself I am just panting to see your experiments.  

I have done a few practice studys for some warps back on my older little brio loom but now that I no longer have it I have to rework them for future warps on my Harp.    

I will keep on weaving till I can't weave no  more...

I will keep on Warpin' till I can't find the door (because of the warps in the way ...) LOL  

 

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 07:40

Erica J

Congrats on your finished project ReedGuy! I look forward to seeing it in here and in the Finished Projects thread.

Cathie, Chagall inspired painted warps sound so decadent! I'm sure the one you already painted is gorgeous, so share photos!

Thanks to everyone. It is very exciting to have a new "little" loom for play. Joanne, it's good to know it's at most 30 years old! :) When I was trying to decide on my top price, I researched the retail price. In the process I discovered they stopped making them for the European market last summer! I undersand why, but it makes it a bit more special to me.

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 10:11

Artistry

Erica, Yes, the loom is special! And do I spy a schacht Tapestry loom there on the side? My Chagall warp paintings are still on paper, some are cut up to put in Block B ( Doubleweave) but will post sjomething probably today. I'm having soooooo much fun. I still have to get the book today with the corrected colors:) Weavejoyforall, I love your poem here's some more, added on to yours, I will keep on weaving till I can't weave no more... I will keep on Warpin till I can't find the door I will keep on treadling till my feet are sore I will keep throwing till the shuttles hit the floor! Anyone else have a verse? This is fun!
Fri, 04/18/2014 - 11:41

endorph

new loom Erica - I am sooooo jealous!

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 13:46

sally orgren

My butt will be benched...
while my thirst for weaving is quenched

 

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 13:58

endorph

I'm winding the warp, the beam it is full

Now on to threading the heddles.

The reed it is sleyed, the quills have been wound

My feet are ready to dance on the treadles.

 

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 14:55

Artistry

Creative bunch!

Here is the Chagall painting I'm working with, Russian Village with the Moon.

Chagall painting

 

Here is my first warp painting assimilation with watercolors on paper. Actually I liked it better before I put the dark green stripes in which are block B. This is for Double weave. The second layer will be solid colors. but haven't gotten that far yet:)

painted warp on paper

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 14:58

Artistry

P.S> these colors won't be bunched together like this, but streched out over several yds and probably repeated.

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 15:38

Artistry

Oh what the heck

This warp I paint, 

I show restraint

though unforseen,

there's too much green!

 

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 21:25

ReedGuy

Well, I have the loom all disassembled today for the move. The room looks empty. There's an echo  echo  echo .. in here. :)

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 21:39

endorph

so many poets on here!

After doing a half day at work I went out to my favorite LYS to weave a damask hand towel. And enjoy some good company. Also a great lunch! Then took the dog's to the dog park and now relaxing before doing some spinning!

Fri, 04/18/2014 - 21:40

endorph

so many poets on here!

After doing a half day at work I went out to my favorite LYS to weave a damask hand towel. And enjoy some good company. Also a great lunch! Then took the dog's to the dog park and now relaxing before doing some spinning!

Sat, 04/19/2014 - 03:17

dtjacobson

These bad boys are ready to ship on Monday, but first they're going to "visit" my Guild meeting tomorrow. Twenty-four yards of 29.5" wide fabric. Woven out of 9-10 different colors of 10/2 mercerized cotton.

Red to purple gradient, overlaid with gray pinstripes

Meanwhile, I'm putting a "little" 6-yard warp on my workshop loom for CNCH next weekend.

Sun, 04/20/2014 - 00:29

Missus T.

I've been reading along for a few months and decided to join.  I'm  a new weaver who got bitten by the weaving bug after taking classes at the Weaving Center.  Now I'm on my third warp at home working through a summer and winter towel kit from the Yarn Barn.  What I want to know is, "Who's going to cook supper now that I'm into weaving?!"

Sun, 04/20/2014 - 03:06

endorph

amd welcome to the wonderful world of weaving. Don't worry about supper - it will take care of itself! :)

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